Unknown Traveler who visited Vengurla on the 11th of January 1648 who wrote following about his Vengurla Visit                                          

       Returning now to the journey to Goa. When I left Surat for my second visit to Goa I embarked on a Dutch vessel called the Maestricht, which carried me to Vengurla, where I arrived on the 11th of January 1648.

        Vengurla is a large town, situated half a league from the sea, in the kingdom of Bijapur. It has one of the best anchorages in all India, and the Dutch always came there for supplies when they blockaded Goa , and they still supply there the ships which they employ to trade in many parts of India, for excellent water and very good rice can be procured at Vengurla.  This town is also much renowned on account of its cardamoms , which the Orientals esteem as the best of spices, and as they are cultivated only in this country, are very scarce and dear. Coarse cotton cloths for home consumption are made there too, and a sort of matting called tuti , which is only used for wrapping up merchandise.

         Hence it is not so much for commerce as for supplies which can be obtained at Vengurla, that the Dutch Company maintain an establishment there. For, as I have said, not only all the vessels which come from Batavia, Japan, Bengal, Ceylon, and other places, and those which sail for Surat, the Red Sea, Hormuz, Bassora [Basra], etc., both in going and returning, anchor in the roads at Vengurla, but also when the Dutch are at war with the Portuguese, and are blockading the bar at Goa, where they ordinarily keep eight or ten vessels, they send their small boats to Vengurla to obtain provisions. For they hold the mouth of the river during eight months of the year, so that nothing can enter Goa by sea during that time. It should be remarked in connection with this subject that the bar at Goa is closed for a part of the year by sand, cast up by the south and west winds which precede the great rains, and to such an extent that there is only from a foot to a foot and a half of water for the passage of very small boats. But when the great rains begin to fall, the waters, which rise rapidly, soon remove the sands and open the passage to large vessels.

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