Marco Polo's Voyage to Indian Seas: 28: Melibar or Malabar

Melibar is a great Kingdom towards the westward with a sovereign and its own languages.  The people are idolaters and subject to no foreigner.

Here is Northstar, [1] at its greatest height appears two cubits above the water. From here and an adjacent province named Gozurat, [2] there issue annually a body of upwards of a hundred vessels who capture other ships and plunder the merchants. Being sea-robbers, they carry with them their wives and children, and remain together all the summer, doing great injury to trade.  These wicked corsairs [3] form what they call a ladder on the sea; twenty of them place themselves five miles from each other, and thus command a hundred miles in extend.  When 

merchants come in view, a light is kindled, which is repeated by one another; so that no vessel sailing here can escape them. The mariners

Knowing well of pirates, come well prepared, and fight a desperate battle, often beating them off with loss, but at other times fall into their hands.  The pirates then take up their ship with all the goods, but do no injury to the men saying to them, "Go and collect another cargo, that we may have a chance of getting it too."

In this country is a vast abundance of pepper, and also ginger, with a good supply of cinnamon, and other spices, also cubebs and cocoa nuts.

Cotton clothes most beautiful and delicate in the world are manufactured here with other valuable articles.  To purchase these goods, the merchants from other quarters bring copper which they use as ballast; cloths of silk and gold, sandal wood and other spices.  Ships come even from the great province of Manji; and the dealers here convey the goods to various quarters in the west, whence the most valuable are forwarded to Alexandria.  Having told you now of Melibar, we shall go to 

Gozurat, but it would be too tedious to inform you of all the cities of these countries, they are so very numerous.

Notes:-

1. Northstar: An AI overview: Also known as Polaris is a bright star that indicate the direction of north.  It is located near the north celestial pole

which is the point in the sky where earth's rotational axis points.

The Northstar appears still in the sky

when the rest of the northern sky rotates around it. It is visible in the northern parts of the world when you look directly towards the north.  You can find the Northstar by locating the Big Dipper, then looking for the star at the end of Little Dippers handle. Other names: polestar, polar star, 

loadstar, lodestar, and guiding star.

The term is used figuratively to express a guiding principle or value

that helps you find direction and clarity in life.

Whether Northstar is visible from 

Kerala?

No. But it can be visible when Kerala goes for a continuous power cut. 

2. Adjacent province Gozurat: From this expression it is clear that according to Marco Polo Malabar is an extensive area stretching along the western coast from Coilon to Gozurat, and for his account he is depending on other story tellers, he himself being a Venetian story-teller. Ely was far away from seashore and its port was a ferry in Chengalayi. Google "Chengalayi findings", to know more about it. Valapattanam river flows through Chengalayi.

3. Corsairs: Pirates who attack ships to steal cargoes.  The term is often used to describe the pirates in the Mediterranean sea.  Corsair comes from the middle French word corsaire. The synonym buccaneer is used specially for the pirates of Caribbean and Pacific coast of Central America.

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