Rubies

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by Caroline Stone

Nicolò de' Conti has the following comments about rubies:

"In the middle of the gulf (1) there is a very noble island called Zeilam,(2) which is three thousand miles in circumference, and in which they find, by digging, rubies, saffires, garnets, and those stones which are called cats’ 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.
(go to traveller's account)

(1) The Bay of Bengal.
(2) Ceylon.