As I have said, my companions and I embarked in a ship of Calecut: we were at sea for three weeks, and at length made land at the port of Moutingué, which is situate between Cananor and Calecut: it is one of the harbours of refuge for the Malabar corsairs and pirates. The country is under the king of Moutingué, who is a Nair king.

I was never more astonished than on my arrival there to see so many men-at-arms: every one there carries arms, as well Mahometans as idolaters, from the age of ten or twelve, –that is, all the Nairs or Malabars, for the villain folk carry none at all. I was received with great courtesy by the Malabars while I sojourned there. I was conducted to the house of a great lord, a Mahometan Malabar. The Malabars have no nobility among them, either in distinction of names or orders, so far as I could discover. I tarried at Moutingué for the space of three days with this lord, my companions being with another, and we were well entreated. The king himself came to see the lord with whom I was, and I was much surprised to see him thus.