Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/131

impossible to make anything of these names, but the river was probably one of the principal mouths of the Mekong, a branch of which river connects with the great lake of Tonle Sap, but in any case the mineral wealth of the interior was greatly exaggerated. Seventeen leagues. north of Pulo Cambim Pinto places a port called Saleyza- can, which also defies identification, beyond which was the river of "Toobasoy." At this place de Faria was attacked by pirates, whom he repulsed and captured, his "bag" including "a Capher slave, one Turk, two Achens, and the captain of the junk, named Similau, a notorious Pyrat, and our mortal Enemy." The variety of nationalities represented is curious, and it serves to il- lustrate how much more general was the intercourse sub- sisting between the natives of different parts of Asia in the sixteenth century than it has since become. It is horrible to add that these prisoners were tortured to death with quite diabolical cruelty by Antonio de Faria, and it is typical of the times that this barbarous act was per- formed just before the feast of Corpus Christi, which re- ligious festival was observed with due form by the Chris- tian souls on board de Faria's piratical fleet!

Sailing on Wednesday from Toobasoy, which was probably one of the mouths of the Mekong, and continu- ing to coast in a northerly direction, de Faria arrived on the following Friday at the mouth of yet another river which, Pinto states, was called Tinacoreu by the natives, but Varella by the Portuguese. The fact that the white men had given a name of their own to the place would lead us to infer that it had been visited by the Portuguese