Ceylon (Xilan 錫蘭國, Hsi-lan, present-day Sri Lanka)

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The name 'Ceylon' is a transliteration of 'Silan' by which name the island was known. At the time of Zheng He's maritime expeditions (1405-1433), "the small principalities of the land formed political entities of no consequence, but the island was of economic importance, famed for elephants, gem-stones, and pearls, and it enjoyed renown as the centre of Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism".

- J. V. G. Mills, Ma Huan, p. 124, n. 4

 

Nicolò de' Conti says the following about garnets in Ceylon:

"In the middle of the gulf (the Bay of Bengal) there is a very noble island called Zeilam (Ceylon), which is three thousand miles in circumference, and in which they find, by digging, rubies, sapphires, garnets, and those stones which are called cat's eyes."

- Nicolò de' Conti, translated in R. H. Major, India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India (London: Hakluyt Society, 1857), p. 7.
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