chap, xiv DIU
29
of which is better than that of Surat and of Suwâlï,1 and the shelter is very commodious for vessels.
The
Portuguese, on their first establishment in India, kept a fleet at Diu
composed of galleys, brigantines, and smaller vessels, with which they
made themselves, for a very long time, masters of all the commerce of
the places about to be enumerated, so that no one was able to trade
without taking out a passport from the Governor of Diu, who franked it
in the name of the Viceroy of Portugal at Goa. The revenue he obtained
from these passports sufficed to support the fleet and garrison, and
the Governor, who was only appointed for three years,2 did not omit to accumulate wealth for himself during that time.
Thus,
according to the force established in this place, great benefit would
result. The Portuguese, feeble as they are at present, do not fail to
profit by not having to pay duty for the money they convey into the
Kingdoms of the Great Mogul and the King of Bïjâpur, nor for the goods
which they take there.
When
the rainy season is over, the wind being nearly always north or
north-east, one can go from Diu to Surat in light boats in three or
four tides, but if large vessels are laden, it is necessary for them to
coast all round. A man on foot going by land to a small borough named
the Gauges,3 and from thence crossing the end of the Gulf,
can go from Diu to Surat in four or five days, but if the season
prevents him from making this passage, he cannot reach Surat from Diu
in less than seven to eight days, because he must then make the circuit
of the Gulf.
The
town does not possess any territory outside the boundaries, but it
would not be difficult to arrange with the Räjä, or Governor of the
Province, and obtain from him as much as may be required for the
convenience of the inhabitants. The soil of the neighbourhood is not
fertile, and the population around is the poorest in all the Empire of
the Mogul. Never-
1 Suwäli or Swälly, see vol. i, p. 5. No important river falls into the sea at Diu.
2 See i. 153 above.
* Gogò or Gogha on the western side of the Gulf of Cambay (Barbosa, ed. Dames, i. 134 f. : Imperial Gazetteer, xii. 301 f.).
