‘Now our road takes us to the magnificent kingdom of Goa.The people of this kingdom are strong, prudent and very hardworking. The kingdom of Goa is the most important in India.It is civilized, having famous orchards and water. It is the coolest place in India and it is the most plentiful in foodstuffs’. ‘The white people make a practice of going to the kingdom of Goa to enjoy the shade and the groves of trees and to savour the sweet betel.’

These revealing remarks on Goa come not from the hippies or ‘flower power’ generation of the sixties and early seventies who thronged the beaches of Anjuna, Vagator and Arambol in search of salvation and ‘peace’. These remarks were made over five centuries ago by the Portuguese Ambassador to China who visited Goa around the year 1511. They serve as a vivid precursor to the generations that followed in our times to the fabled land of Goa.

‘Whoever has been in Goa may say that he has seen the choicest rarities of India, for it is the most famous and celebrated city, on account of its commercial intercourse with people of all nationalities of the East who bring there the products of their respective countries, articles of merchandize, necessaries of life and other commodities in great abundance because every year more than a thousand ships touch there laden with cargo’ ‘as for the multitude of people, it is a marvel to see the number which come and go every day by sea and land on business of every kind.One would say that a fair was being held every day for the sale of all sorts of merchandise.’