ABSTRACT
The palace of the king is about a mile in circumference. The walls are low, as I have mentioned above, with very beautiful divisions of wood, with devils carved in relief. The floor of the house is all adorned with cow dung.1 The said house is worth two hundred ducats or thereabouts. I
sea during summer such as fall in their way. They possess certain small boats, like brigantines, which they row skilfully, and collecting many of these together, they themselves being armed with bows and arrows, they surround any ship that is becalmed, and after forcing it to surrender by means o f their arrows, they proceed to plunder the crew and the ship, casting the men naked on the ground. The booty they divide with the lord o f the country, who countenances them. This kind o f boat they call Caturi.” ( R a m u s io , vol. i. p. 312.) These piracies appear to have declined in Hamilton’s time. He says : “ Porcat or Porkah is o f small extent, reaching not above four leagues along the seacoast. The prince is poor, having but little trade in his country, though it was a free port for pirates when Evory and Kid robbed along the coast o f India ; but since then the pirates infest the northern coasts, finding the richest prizes amongst the Mocha and Persia traders.” ( P in k e r t o n ’ s Voyages, vol. viii. p. 383.) Baldseus calls the place Percatti, and in Keith John* ston’s superb new atlas it is written Parrakad.
