of wood only those of the Mandarins are made of hewed stone and also invironed with walls and ditches over which are stone bridges whereon they passe to the gates that have rich and costly arches with divers sorts of inventions upon the towers all which put together make a pleasing object to the eye and represent a certain kind of I know not what Majesty The houses of the Chaems Anchacys Aytaâ—s Tuâ—oâ—s and Chumbims which are all Goveâ—nours of Provinces or Kingdoms have stately towers six or seven stories high and guilt all â—ver wherein they have their magazines for arms their Wardrobes their treasuries and a world of rich housholdstuff as also many other things of great value together with an infinite of delicate and most fine porcelain which amongst them is prised and esteemed as much as precious stone for this sort of porcelain never goes out of the Kingdom it being expresly forbidden by the laws of the Country to be sold upon pain of death to any stranger unlesse to the Xatamaas that is the Sophyes of the Persians who by a particular permission buy of it at a very dear rate The Chineses assured us that in this City there are eight hundred thousand fires fourscore thousand Mandarins houses threescore and two great market placâ—s an hundred and thirty butchers shambles each of them containing fourscore shops and eight thousand streets whereof six hundred that are fairer and larger then the rest are compassed about with bâ—llisters of copper we were further assured that there are likewise two thousand and three hundred Pagodes a thousand of which were Monestaries of religious persons professed in their accursed Sect whose buildings were exceeding rich and sumptuous with very high steeples wherein there were between sixty and seventy such mighty huge bels that it was a dreadful thing to here them rung There are moreover in this City thirty great strong prisons each whereof hath three or four thousand prisoners and a charitable Hospital expresly established to supply the necessities of the poor with Proctors ordained for their defence both in civil and criminal causes as is before related At the entrance into every principal street there are arches and great gates which for each mans security are shut every night and in most of the streets are goodly fountains whose water is excellent to drink Besides at every full â—nd new moon open fayrs are kept in several places whither Merchants resort from all parts and where there is such abundance of all kind of victual as cannot well be exprest especially of flâ—sh and fruit It is not possible to deliver the great store of fish that is taken in this river chiefly Soles and Mullets which are all sold alive besides a world of sea-fish both fresh salted and dried we were told by certain Chineses that in this City there are ten thousand trades for the working of silks which from thence are sent all over the Kingdom The City it self is invironed with a very strong wall made of fair hewed stone The gates of it are an hundred and thirty at each of which there is a Porter and two Halberdiers who are bound to give an account every day of all that pâ—sses in and out There are also twelve Forts or Cittadels like unto ours with bulwarks and very high towers but without any ordinance at all The same Chineses also affirmed unto us that the City yeilded the King daily two thousand Taeis of silver which amount to three thousand duckats as I have delivered heretofore I will not speak of the Pallace royal because I saw it but on the outside howbeit the Chinesâ—s tell such wonders of it as would amaze a man for it is my intent to relate nothing save what we beheld here with our own eyes and that was so much as I am afraid to write it not that it would seem strange to those that have seen and read the marvels of the Kingdom of China but because I doubt that they which would compare those wondrous things that are in the countrys they have not seen with that little they have seen in their own will make some question of it or it may be give no credit at all to these truth because they are not confoâ—mable to their understanding and small experience Continuing our course up this river the first two days we saw not any remarkable town or place but only a great number of Villages and little hamlets of two or three hundred fires a piece which by their buildings seemed to be houses of fisher men and poor people that live by the labour of their hands For the rest all that was within view in the countrey was great woods of Firr Groves Forrests and Orange trees as also plains full of wheat rice beans pease millet panick barley rye flax cotton wool with great inclosures of gardens and goodly houses of pleasure belonging to the Mandarins and Lords of the Kingdom There was likewise all along the river such an infinite number of cattel of all sorts as I can assure you there is not more in Aethiopia nor in all the dominions of Prester Iohn upon the top of the mountains many houses of their Sects of Gentiles were to be seen adorned with high Steeples guilt all over the glistering whereof was such and so great that to behold them a far off was an admirable sight The fourth day of our voyage we arrived at a town called Pocasser twice as big as Cantano compassed about with strong wals of hewed stone and towers and bulwarks almost like ours together with a key on the river side twice as long as the shot of a falconet and inclosed with two rows of iron grates with very strong gates where the Junks and vessels that arrived there were unladen This place abounds with all kinds of merchandise which from thence is transported over all the Kingdom especially with copper sugar and allum whereof there is very great store Here also in the middest of a carrefour that is almost at the end of the town stands a mighty strong castle having three bulwarks and five towers in the highest of which the present Kings Father as the Chineses told us kept a King of Tartaria nine years prisoner at the end whereof he killed himself with poyson that his subjects sent him because they would not be constrained to pay that ransome which the King of China demanded for his deliverance In this town the Chifuu gave three of us leave to go up and down for to crave the alms of good people accompanied with four Hupes that are as Sergeants or Bailiffs amongst us who led us chained together as we were through six or seven streets where we got in alms to the value of above twentâ— duckats as well in clothes as mony besides flesh riceâ— meal fruit and other victuals which was â—â—stowed on us whereof we gave the one half to the Hupes that conducted us it being the custom so to do Afterwards we were
the good I have done you for Gods sake To conclude all the vessels where these things are exposed to sale are seldom less in number then two hundred besides thousands of others which sell such like wares in a far greater quantity We saw likewise many Barcasses full of men and women that played upon divers sorts of instruments and for mony gave them musick that desired it There were other vessels laden with horns which the Priests sold therewith to make feasts in Heaven for they say that those were the horns of several beasts which were offered in sacrifice to the Idols out of devotion and for the performance of vows that men had made in divers kind of misfortunes and sicknesses wherein they had at others times been And that as the flesh of those beasts had been given here below for the honour of God to the poor so the souls of them for whom those horns were offered do in the other world eat the souls of of those beasts to whom those horns belonged and thereunto invite the souls of their friends as men use to invite others here on earth Other vessels we saw covered with blacks and full of tombs torches and great wax lights as also women in them that for money would be hired to weep and lament for the dead others there were called Pitaleus that in great barques kept divers kinds of wild beasts to be shewed for mony most dreadful to behold as Serpents huge Adders monstrous Lizards Tygers and many others such like we saw in like sort a great number of Stationers which sold all manner of books that could be desired as well concerning the creation of the world whereof they tell a thousand lies as touching the States Kingdoms Islands and Provinces of the world together with the Laws and Customs of Nations but especially of the Kings of China their number brave acts and of all things else that happened in each of their reigns Moreover we saw a great many of the light swift Foysts wherein were men very well armed who cried out with a loud voice that if any one had received an affront whereof he desired to be avenged let him come unto them and they would cause satisfaction to be made him In other vessels there were old women that served for midwives and that would bring women speedily and easily a bed as also a many of Nurses ready to be entertained for to give children suck There were barques likewise very well adornâ—d and set â—orth that had in them divers reverend old men and grave matrons whose profession was to make marriages and to comfort widows or such as had lost their children or suffered any other misfortune In others there were a number of young men and maids that lacked Masters and Mistresses which offered themselves to any that would hire them There were other vessels that had in them such as undertook to tell fortunes and to help folks to things lost In a word not to dwell any longer upon every particular that was to be seen in this moving Town for then I should never have done it shall suffice me to say that nothing can be desired on land which was not to be had in their vessels and that in greater abundance then I have delivered wherefore I will passe from it to shew you that one of the principal causes why this Monarchy of China that contains two and thirty Kingdoms is so mighty rich and of so great commerce is because it is exceedingly replenished with rivers and a world of Chanals that have been anciently made by the Kings great Lords and people thereof for to render all the Country navigable and so communicate their labours with one another The narrowest of these Chanals have bridges of hewed stone over them that are very high long and broad whereof some are of one stone eighty ninety nay an hundred spans long and fifteen or twenty broad which doubtlesse is very marvellous for it is almost impossible to comprehend by what means so huge a masse of stone could be drawn out of the Quarry without breaking and how it should be transported to the place where it was to be set All the ways and passages from Cities Towns and Villages have very large causeys made of fair stone at the ends whereof are costly pillars and arches upon which are inscriptions with letters of gold containing the pray sers of them that erected them moreover there are handsome seats placed all along for poor passengers to rest themselves on There are likewise innumerable Aqueducks and fountains every where whose water is most wholesom and excellent to drink And in divers parts there are certain Wenches of love that out of charity prostitute themselves to travellers which have no mony and although amongst us this is held for a great abuse and abomination yet with them it is accounted a work of mercy so that many on their death-beds do by their testaments bequeath great revenues for the maintenance of this wickedness as a thing very meritorious for the salvation of their souls moreover many others have left lands for the erecting and maintaining of houses in deserts and unhabited places where great fires are kept all the night to guide such as have strayed out of their way as also water for men to drink and seats to repose them in and that there may be no default herein there are divers persons entertained with very good means to see these things carefully continued according to the institution of him that founded them for the health of his soul. By these marvels which are found in the particular Towns of this Empire may be concluded what the greatness thereof might be were they joyned all together but for the better satisfaction of the Reader I dare boldly say if my testimony may be worthy of credit that in one and twenty years space during which time with a world of misfortune labour and pain I traversed the greatest part of Asia as may appear by this my discourse I had seen in some countrys a wonderfull abundance of several sorts of victuals and provisions which we have not in our Europe yet without speaking what each of them might have in particular I do not think there is in all Europe so much as there is in China alone And the same may be said of all the rest wherewith Heaven hath favoured this clymate as well for the temperature of the air as for that which concerns the policy and riches the magnificence and greatness of their estate Now that which gives the greatest luster unto it is their exact observation of justice for there is so well ruled a Government in this Country as it may justly be envied of all others in the world And to speak the truth such as want this particular have no gloss be they otherways never so great commendable Verily so often as I represent unto my self those great things which I have seen in this China I am on the one
want of care and imprudence His Commanders presently obeyed him and without longer tarrying there each of them went straight to the place whither his Commission directed him The Chaumigrem by means of this so cunning and well dissembled a sleight rid himself in lesse then three hours of all the hundred and fifty thousand Pegues who he knew if once they came to hear of the Kings death would fall upon the thirty thousand Bramaaes that he had there with him and not leave one of them alive This done as soon as it was night turning back to the City which was not above a league from thence he seized with all speed on the deceased Kings Treasure which amounted according to report unto above thirty millions of gold besides jewells that were not to be estimated and withall he saved all the Bramaaâ—s wives and children and took as many arms and as much ammunition as he could carry away After this he set fire on all that was in the Magazines caused all the lesser Ordnance to be rived asunder and the greater which he could not use so to be cloyed Furthermore he made seven thousand Elephants that were in the country to be killed reserving only two thousand for the carriage of his treasure ammunition and baggage As for all the rest it was consumed with fire so that neither in the Palace where were chambers all seeked with gold nor in the Magazines and Arsenalls nor on the river where were two thousand rowing Vessells remained ought that was not reduced to ashes After this execution he departed in all hast an hour before day and drew directly towards Tanguu which was his own country from whence he came some fourteen years before to the conquest of the Kingdome of Pegu which in the heart of the country was distant from thence about an hundred and threescore leagues Now whereas fear commonly adds wings to the feet it made him march with such speed as he and his arrived in fifteen days at the place whither they were a going In the mean time whereas the Chaumigrem had cunningly sent away the hundred and fifty thousand Pegues as I have declared already it happened that two days after they understood how the King of Bramaa was dead Now in regard they vvere mortall enemies of that Nation sixscore thousand of them in one great body turned back in hast for to go in quest of the thirty thousand Bramaaes but when they arrived at the City they found that they were gone from thence three days before this making them to follow in pursuit of them with all the speed that possibly they could they came to a place called Guinacoutel some forty leagues from the City whence they came there they were informed that it was five days since they passed by so that dispairing of being able to execute the design which they had of cutting them in pieces they returned back to the place from whence they were parted where they consulted amongst themselves about that which they were to do and resolved in the end since they had no lawfull King and that the Land was quite freed of the Bramaaes to go to Xemin de Satan as incontinently they did who received them not only with a great deal of joy and good entertainment but promised them mighty matters and much honor by raising them to the principall commands of the Kingdome as soon as time should serve and that he was more peaceably setled Thereupon he went directly to the City of Pegu where he was received with the magnificence of a King and for such crowned in the Temple of Comquiay which is the chief of all the rest CHAP. LXXII That which arrived in the time of Xenim de Satan and an abominable â—ase that befell to Diego Suarez together with the Xemindoos expedition against Xenim de Satan and that which insued thereupon THree moneths and nine dayes had this Tyrant Xenim de Satan already peaceably possessed the city and kingdome of Pegu whenas without fearing any thing or being contradicted by none he fell to distributing the treasure and revenues of the Crown to whomsoever he pleased whereupon great scandalls insued which were the cause of divers quarrells and divisions amongst many of the Lords who for this cause and the injustice which this tyrant did them retyred into severall foraigne Countries and Kingdoms Some also went and sided with the Xemindoâ— who began at that time to be in reputation again For after he had fled from the battell onely with six horse as I have declared heretofore he got into the Kingdom of Ansedaa where as well by the efficacy of his Sermons as by the authority of his person he won so many to his devotion as assisted by the favour and forces of those Lords as adhered to him he made up an army of threescore thousand men with which he marched to Meidoo where he was very well received by those of the Country Now setting aside what he did in those parts during the space of foure moneths that he abode there I will in the mean time passe to a strange accident which in a few dayes fell out in this city that one may know what end the good fortune of the great Diego Suarez had who had been Governour of this Kingdom of Pegâ— and the recompence which the world is accustomed to make at last unto all such as serve and trust in it under the semblance of a good countenance which she shews them at first The matter past in this sort There was in this city of Pegu a Merchant called Manbagoaa a rich man and that of good reputation in the country This same resolved to marry a daughter of his to a young man the son of a worshipfull and very rich Merchant also named Manicaniandarim about that time that Diego Suarez was in the greatest height of his fortune and termed the Kings brother and in dignity above all the Princes and Lords of the Kingdom So the fathers of these young couple being agreed on this marriage and of the dowry that was to be given which by report was three hundred thousand duckats when as the day was come wherein the nuptialls were celebrated with a great deal of state and magnificence and honoured with the presence of most of the gentlemen of chiefest quality in the city it happened that Diego Suarez being come a little before Sun-set from the royall palace with a great train both of horse and foot as his manner was to be alwayes well accompanied passed by Mambogoaas door where hearing the musick and rejoycing that was in the house asked what the matter was whereunto answer being made him that Mambogoaa had married his daughter and that the wedding was kept there he presently caused the Elephant on which he was mounted to stay and sent one to tell the father of the bride that he congratulated with him for this marriage and wished a long and happy life to the new married couple to these words he
of the said Solyman Draguâ— that had taken us was Governor who with all the Inhabitants waited the coming of his Son-in-law at the entry into the Port to receive and welcome him for his Victory In his Company he had a certain Cacis who was Moulana the chiefest Sacerdotal dignity and because he had been a little before in pilgrimage at the Temple of their Prophet Mahomet in Mecca he was held by all the people for a very holy man This Impostet rode up and down the Town in a triumphant Charret covered all over with Silk Tapestry and with a deal of Ceremony blessed the people as he went along exhorting them to render all possible thanks unto their Prophet for the Victory which Solyman Draguâ— had obtained over us As soon as they arrived at this place we nine that remained alive were set on shore tyed altogether with a great chain and amongst us was the Abissin Bishop so pitifully wounded that he dyed the next day and in his end shewed the repentance of a true Christian which very much encouraged and comforted us In the mean time all the Inhabitants that were assembled about us hearing that we were the Christians which were taken Captives being exceedingly transported with choller fell to beating of us in that cruel manner as for my own part I never thought to have escaped alive out of their hands whereunto they were especially incited by the wicked Cacis who made them believe that they should obtain the more favor and mercy from their Mahomet the worse they intreated us Thus chained all together and persecuted by every one we were led in triumph over all the Town where nothing was heard but acclamations and shouts intermingled with a world of musick as well of instruments as voyces Moreover there was not a woman were she never so retired that came not forth then to see us and to do us some outrage for from the very least children to the oldest men all that beheld us pass by cast out of the windows and balcons upon us pots of piss and other filth in contempt and derision of a name of a Christian wherein every one strived to be most forward in regard their cursed Priest continued still preaching unto them that they should gain remission of their sins by abusing us Having been tormented in this sort until the evening they went and layd us bound as we were in a dark Dungeon where we remained seventeen days exposed to all kind of misery having no other victual all that time but a little oatmeal which was distributed to us every morning to serve us all the day Sometimes they gave us the same measure in dry Peason a little soaked in water and this was all the meat we had CHAP. IV. A Mutiny happening in the Town of Mocaâ— the occasion thereof that which befell thereupon and by what means I was carried to Ormuz as also my sailing from thence to Goa and what success I had in that Voyage THe next day in regard that we had been so miserably moiled and our hurts that were great but ill looked unto of us nine there dyed two whereof one was named Nuno Delgado and the other Andre Borges both of them men of courage and of good families The Jaylor which in their language is called Mocadan repairing in the morning to us and finding our two companions dead goes away in all haste therewith to acquaint the Gauzil which is as the Judg with us who came in person to the prison attended by a great many of Officers and other people Where having caused their irons to be striken off and their feet to be tyed together with a rope he commanded them so to be dragged from thence clean through the Town where the whole multitude to the very children pursued and palted them with staves and stones until such time as being wearied with harrying those poor bodies in such fashion they cast them all battered to pieces into the Sea At last we seven that were left alive were chained all together and brought forth into the publique place of the Town to be sold to them that would give most There all the people being met together I was the first that was put to sale whereupon just as the Cryer was offering to deliver me unto whomsoever would buy me in comes that very Cacis Moulana whom they held for a Saint with ten or eleven other Cacis his Inferiors all Priests like himself of their wicked Sect and addressing his speech to Heredrin Sofo the Governor of the Town who sate as President of the Portsale he required him to send us as an alms unto the Temple of Mecqua saying that he was upon returning thither and having resolved to make that pilgrimage in the name of all the people it were not fit to go thither without carrying some offering to the Prophet Noby so they termed their Mahomet a thing said he that would utterly displease Razaadat Moulana the Chief Priest of Medina Talnab who without that would grant no kind of grace or pardon to the Inhabitants of this Town which by reason of their great offences stood in extream need of the favor of God and of his Prophet The Governor having heard the Cacis speak thus declared unto him that for his particular he had no power to dispose with any part of the booty and that therefore he should apply himself to Solyman Dragut his Son-in-law who had made us slaves so that in right it appertained only unto him to do with us as he pleased and I do not think added he that he will contradict so holy an intention as this is Thou hast reason for it answered the Cacis but withall thou must know that the things of God and the alms that are done in his name lose their value and force when they are sifted through so many hands and turmoiled with such humane opinions for which very cause seldom doth any divine resolution follow thereupon especially in a subject such as this is which thou mayst absolutely dispose of as thou art soveraign Commander of this people Moreover as there is no body can be displeased therewith so I do not see how it can bring thee any discontent For besides that this demand is very just it is also most agreeable to our Prophet Noby who is the absolute Lord of this prize in regard the Victory came solely from his holy hand though with as much falshood as malice thou goest about to attribute the glory of it to the valor of thy Son-in law and the courage of his Soldiers At this instant a Ianizary was present Captain of one of the three Gallies that took us a man that for his exceeding valor was in great esteem amongst them called Copa Geynal who netled with that which he heard the Cacis speak so much in contempt both of himself and the rest of the Soldiers that had carried themselves very valiantly in the fight with us returned him this
pleased God to restore us to our perfect health so that this virtuous Dâ—me seeing us able to travel recommended us to a Merchant her kinsman that was bound for Patana with whom after we had taken our leave of that noble Matron unto whom we were so much obliged we imbarqued our selves in a Cataluz with Oars and sailing on a River called Sumhâ—chitano we arrived seven days after at Patana Now for as much as Antonio de Faria looked every day for our return with a hope of good success in his business as soon as he saw us and understood what had past he remained so sad and discontented that he continued above an hour without speaking a word in the mean time such a number of Portugals came in as the house was scarce able to contain them by reason the greatest part of them had ventuâ—ed goods in the Lanchara whose lading in that regard amounted to seventy thousand duckets and better the most of it being in silver coyn of purpose with it to return gold Antonio de Faria seeing himself stripped of the twelve thousand duckets he had borrowed at Malaca resolved not to return thither because he had no means to pay his Creditors but rather thought it fitter to pursue those that had robbed him of his goods so that he took a solemn Oath upon the holy Evangelists to part incontinently from that place for to go in quest of those Pyrats for to revenge upon them the death of those fourteen Portugals and thirty six Christians Boys and Mariners killed by them as aforesaid Adding withall that if such a course were not taken they should every day be used so â—ay far worse All the Assistants very much commended him valorous resolution and for the execution thereof there were many young Soldiers amongst them that offered to accompany him in that voyage some likewise presented him with mony and others furnished him with divers necessaries Having accepted these offers and presents of his friends he used such diligence that within eighteen days he made all his preparations and got together five and fifty Soldiers amongst whom poor unfortunate I was fain to be one for I saw my self in that case as I had not so much as a single token nor knew any one that would either give or lend me one being indebted besides at Malaca above five hundred duckets that I had borrowed there of some of my friends which with as much more that dog had â—obbed me of amongst others as I have related befoâ—e having been able to save nothing but my miserable carcass wounded in three places with a Javelin and my skull crackt with a stone whereby I was three or four times at the point of death But my companion Christovan Borralho was yet â—ar worse entreated then my self and that with more hurts which he received in satisfaction of five and twenty hundred duckets that he was robbed of as the rest CHAP. XV. Antonio de Faria's setting forth for the Isle of Ainan his arrival at the River of Tinacoren and that which befell us in this Voyage AS soon as Antonio de Faria was ready he departed from Patana on a Saturday the ninth of May 1540. and steered North North-west towards the Kingdom of Champaa with an intent to discover the Ports and Havens thereof as also by the means of some good booty to furnish himself with such things as he wanted for his haste to part from Patana was such as he had not time to furnish himself with that which was necessary for him no not with victual and warlike ammunition enough After we had sailed three days we had sight of an Island called Pullo Condor at the height of eight degrees and three quarters on the North Coast and almost North-west towards the mouth of the River of Camboia so that having rounded all the Coast we discovered a good Haven Eastward where in the Island of Camboia distant some six leagues from the firm Land we met with a Junk of Lequios that was going to the Kingdom of Siam with an Embassador from the Nautauquim of Lindau who was Prince of the Island of Tosa and that had no sooner discovered us but he sent a message by a Chinese Pilot to Antonio de Faria full of complements whereunto was added these words from them all That the time would come when as they should communicate with us in the true love of the Law of God and of his inâ—inite clemency who by his death had given life to all men and a perpetual inheritance in the house of the good and that they beleeved this should be so after the half of the half time was past With this complement they sent him a Courtelas of great value whose handle and scabbard was of gold as also six and twenty Pearls in a little Box likewise of gold made after the fashion of a Salt-seller whereat Antonio de Faria was very much grieved by reason he was not able to render the like unto this Prince as he was obliged to do for whâ—n the Chinese arrived with this message they were distant above a league at Sea from us Hereupon we went ashore where we spent three days in taking in fresh water and fishing Then we put to Sea again laboring to get to the firm Land there to seek out a River named Pullo Cambim which divides the State of Camboia from the Kingdom of Champaa in the height of nine degrees where arriving on a Sunday the last of May we went up three leagues in this River and anchored just against a great Town called Catimparu there we remained twelve days in peace during the which we made our provision of all things necessary Now bâ—bâ—cause Antonio de Faria was naturally curious he endevored to understand from the people of the Country what Nation inhabited beyond them and whence that mighty River took its souâ—ce whereunto he was answered that it was derived from a lake named Pinator dâ—stant from them Eastward two hundred and sixty leagues in the Kingdom of Quitirvan and that it was invironed with high mountains at the foot whereof upon the brink of the water were eight and thirty villages of which thirteen were very great and the rest small and that only in one of the great onâ—s called Xincaleu there was such a huge myne of gold as by the repâ—â—t of those that lived thereabout there was every day a bar and a half drawn out of it which according to the value of our mony makes two and twenty millions in a year and that four Lords had share in it who continually were in war together each one striving to make himself master of it I and that one of them named Raiahitau had in an inner yard of his house in pots under ground that were full to the very brims above six hundred bars of gold in powder like to that of Mexancabo of the Island of Samatra And thâ—â— if three hundred Harquebusiers of our Nation should go and assault it
came two Lanteaas from Land to us which are Vessels like to Foists with great abundance of refreshments and those that were in them having saluted us after their manner went aboard the great Junk wherein Antonio de Faria was but when they beheld men such as we were having never seen the like before they were much amazed and demanded what people we were and wherefore we came into their Country Whereunto we answered by an Interpreter that we were Merchants born in the Kingdom of Siam and were come thither to sell or barter our Commodities with them if so be they would permit us To this an old man much respected of all the rest replyed that here was no Traffique used but in another place â—urther forward called Guamboy where all strangers that came from Cantan Chincheo Lamau Comhay Sumbor Liampau and other Sea-coast Towns did ordinarily trade Wherefore he counselled him to get him suddenly from thence in regard this was a place destined only to the fishing of Pearls for the Treasure of the house of the son of the Sun to the which by the Ordinance of the Tutan of Comhay who was the soveraign Governor of all the Country of Cauchenchina no Vessel was permitted to come but only such as were appointed for that service and that all other ships which were found there were by the Law to be burnt and all that were in them but since he as a stranger and ignorant of the Laws of the Country had transgressed the same not out of contempt but want of knowledg he thought fit to advertise him of it to the end he might be gone from thence before the arrival of the Mandarim of the Army which we call General to whom the Government of that fishing appertained and that would be within three or four days at the most being gone not above six or seven leagues from thence to a Village named Buhaquirim for to take in Victual Antonio de Faria thanking him for his good advice asked him how many Sails and what Forces the Mandarim had with him Whereunto the old man answered that he was accompanied with forty great Junks and twenty five Vancans with oars wherein there were seven thousand men namely five thousand Soldiers and the rest Slaves and Mariners and that he was there every year six Months during the which time was the fishing for Pearls that is to say from the first of March to the last of August Our Captain desiring to know what duties were payd out of this fishing and what revenue it yielded in those six Months the old man told him that of Pearls which weighed above five Carats they gave two thirds of the worser sort hâ—lf less and of seed Pearl the third part and that this Revenue was not always alike because the fishing was sometimes better in one year then in another but that one with another he thought it might yield annually four hundred thousand Taâ—is Antonio de Faria made very much of the old man and gave him two cakes of Wax a bag of Pepper and a tooth of Ivory wherewith both he and the rest were exceedingly well pleased He also demanded of them of what bigness this Isle of Ainan might be whereof so many wonders were spoken Tell us first replyed they who you are and wherefore you are come hither then will we satisfie you in that you desire of us for we vow unto you that in all our lives we never saw so many young fellows together in any Merchants ships as we now see in this of yours nor so spruce and neâ—t and it seems that in their Country China Silks are so cheap as they are of no esteem or else that they have had them at so easie a rate as they have given nothing near the worth for them for we see them play away a piece of Damask at one cast at Dice as those that come lightly by them A speech that made Antonio de Faria secretly to smile for that thereby he well perceived how these fishermen had a shrewd guess that the same were stollen which made him tell them that they did this like young men who were the sons of very rich Merchants and in that regard valued things far under that they were worth and had cost their fathers dissembling then what they thought they answered in this manner It may very well be as you say Whereupon Antonio de Faria gave a sign to the Soldiers to leave off their play and to hide the pieces of Silk that they were playing for to the end they might not be suspected for Robbers by these folks which immediately they did and the better to assure these Chineses that we were honest men and Merchants our Captain commanded the scuttles of the Junk to be opened that we had taken the night before from Captain Sardinha which was laden with Pepper whereby they were somewhat restored to a better opinion then they had of us before saying one to another Since now we find that they are Merchants indeed let us freely answer to their demand so as they may not think though we be rude that we know nothing but how to catch fish and Oysters The old man desiring to satisfie Antonio de Faria's demand Sir said he since now I know what you are and that only out of curiosity you fairly require to learn this particular of me I will clearly tell you all that I know thereof and what I have heard others deliver concerning it that have been elder then my self and which have a long time governed this Archipelague They said then that this Island was an absolute State under a very rich and mighty King who for an higher and more transcendent title then other Monarchs his Contemporaries carried caused himself to be stiled Prechau Gamâ—u He dying without heirs so great a discord arose amongst the people about the succession to the Crown as encreasing by little and little it caused such effusion of blood that the Chronicles of those times affirm how only in four years and an half sixteen Lacazaas of men were slain every Lacazaa containing an hundred thousand by means wheroof the Country remained so deserted of people that unable to defend it self the King of Cauchin conquered it only with seven thousand Mogores which the King of Tartarie sent him from the City of Tuymican that then was Metrapolitan of all his Empires This Island of Ainan being conquered the King of Cauchin returned into his Country and for Governor thereof left behind him a Commander of his named Hoyha Paguarol who revolted from him for certain just causes as he pretended that invited him thereunto Now to have the assistance and support of the King of China he became his Tributary for four hundred thousand Taeis by the year which amount to six hundred thousand duckets in consideration whereof the King of China obliged himself to defend him against all his enemies whensoever he should have need This accord continued beâ—ween them the space
that having been convicted for sundry hainous crimes were also sent to the Parliament of Nanquin whâ—â—e as I have already declared is always residing a Chaem of Justice which is like to the Sovereign Title of the Vice-roy of China There is likewise a Parliament of some five and twenty Gerozemos and Ferucuas which are as those we call Judges with us and that determine all causes as well civil as criminal So as there is no appeal from their sentence unless it be unto another Court which hath power even over the King himself whereunto if one appeals it is as if he appealed to heaven To understand this the better you must know that although this Parliament and others such like which are in the principal Cities of the Realm have an absolute power from the King both over all criminal civil causes without any opposition or appeal whatsoever yet there is another Court of Justice which is called the Court of the Creator of all things whereunto it is permitted to appeal in weighty and iâ—portant matters In this Court are ordinarily assisting four twenty Menigrepos which are certain religious men very austere in their manner of living such as the Capuchins are amongst the Papists verily if they were Christians one might hope for great matters from them in regard of their marvellous abstinence sincerity There are none admitted into this rank of Judges under seventy years of age are elected thereunto by the suffrages of their chiefest Prelates most incorruptible men so just in all the causes whereof there are appeals before them as it is not possible to meet with more upright for were it against the King himself andagainst all the powers that may be imagined in the world no consideration how great soever is able to make them swerve never so little from that they think to be justice Having been imbarqued in the manner I spake of the same day at night we went lay at a great tower called Potinleu in one of the prisons whereof were mained nine days by reason of the much rain that fell then upon the conjunction of the New-moon There we happened to meet with a Russian prisoner that received as very charitably of whom demanding in the Chinese tongue which he understood as well as we what countrey-man he was and what fortune had brought him thither he told us that he was of Moscovy born in a town named Hiquegens and that some five years past being accused for the death of a man he had been condemned to a perpetual prison but as a stranger he appealed from that sentence to the tribunal of the Aytau of Batampina in the City of Pequin who was the highest of the two and thirty Admirals established in this Empire that is for every Kingdom one He added further that this Admiral by a particular Jurisdiction had absolute power over all strangers whereupon he hoped to find some relief from him intending to go and die a Christian among the Christians if he might have the good hap to be set at liberty After we had passed those nine days in this prison being reinbarqued we sayled up a great river seven days together at the end whereof we arrived at Nanquin As this City is the second of all the Empire so is it also the Capital of the three Kingdoms of Liampoo Fanius and Sambor Here we lay six weeks in prison and suffered so much pain and misery as reduced to the last extreamities we died incensibly for want of succour not able to do any thing but look up to heaven with a pitiful eye for it was our ill fortune to have all that we had stoln from us the first night we came thither This prison was so great that there were four thousand prisoners in it at that time as we were credibly informed so that one should hardly â—it down in any place without being robbed and filled â—ull of lice having layn there a month and an half as I said the Anchacy who was one of the Judges before whom our cause was to be pleaded pronounced our sentence at the Suit of the Atturny General the tenor whereof was That having seen and considered our process which the Chumbin of Taypor had sent him it appeared by the accusations laid to outcharge that we were very hainous malâ—factors though we denied many things yet in justice no credit was to be given unto us therefore that we were to be publickly whipped for to teach us to live better in time to come and that withall our two thumbs should be cut off wherewith it was evident by manifest suspicions that we used to commit robberies and other vile crimes furthermore that for the remainder of the punishment we deserved he referred us to the Aytau of Bataupina unto whom it appertained to take cognisance of such causes in regard of the Jurisdiction that he had of life and death This Sentence was pronounced in the prison where it had been better for us to have suffered death then the stripes that we received for all the ground round about us ran with blood upon our whiping so that it was almost a miracle that of the eleven which we were nine escaped alive for two of our company died three days after besides one of our servants After we had been whipped in that manner I have declared we were carried into a great Chamber that was in the prison where were a number of sick and diseased persons lying upon beds and otherways There we had presently our stripes washed and things applyed unto them whereby we were somewhat eased of our pain and that by men much like unto the fraternity of mercy among the Papists which only out of charity and for the honour of God do tend those that are sick and liberally furnish them with all things necessary Hereafter some eleven or twelve days we began to be pretily recovered and as we were lamenting our ill fortune for being so rigorously condemned to lose our thumbs it pleased God one morning when as we little dreamt ofit that we espied two men come into the chamber of a good aspect clothed in long gowns of violet coloured satin carrying white rods in their hands As soon as they arrived all the sick persons in the Chamber cried out Blessed be the Ministers of the works ofGod whereunto they answâ—red holding up their rods May it please God to give you patience in your adversity whereupon having distributed clothes and money to those that were next to them they came unto us and after they had saluted us very courteously with demonstration of being moved at our tears they asked us who we were and of what countrey as also why we were imprisoned there whereunto we answered weeping that we were strangers nativâ—s of the Kingdom of Siam and of a country called Malaca that being Merchants and well to live we had imbarqued our selves with our goods and being bound for Liampoo we had
been cast away just against the Isles of Lamau having lost all that we had and nothing left us but our miserable bodies in the case they now saw us moreover we added that being thus evil intreated by fortune arriving at the City of Taypor the Chumbin of Justice had caused us to be apprehended without any cause laying to our charge that we were thieves and vagabonds who to avoid pains-taking went begging from door to door entertaining our idle laziness with the alms that were given us unjusty whereof the Chumbin having made informations at his pleasure as being both Judg and party he had laid us in irons in the prison where for two and forty days space we had indured incredible pain and hunger and no man would hear us in our justifications as well because we had not wherewithall to give presents for to maintain our right as for that we wanted the language of the Country In conclusiâ—n we told them how in the mean time without any cognisance of the cause we had been condemned to be whipped as also to have our thumbs cut off like thieves so that we had already suffered the first punishment with so much rigour and cruelty that the marks thereof remained but two visibly upon our wretched bodies and therefore we conjured them by the charge they had to serve God in assisting the afflicted that they would not abandon us in this need the rather for that our extream poverty rendred as odious to all the world and exposed us to the induring of all affronts These two men having heard us attentively remained very pensive and amazed at our speech at length lifting up their eyes all bathed with tears to heaven and kneeling down on the ground O almighty Lord said they that governest in the highest places and whose patience is incomprehensible be thou evermore blessed for that thou art pleased to harken unto the complaints of necessitous and miserable men to the end that the great offences committed against thy divine goodness by the Ministers of Iustice may not rest unpunished as we hope that by thy holy Law they will be chastised at one time or other Whereupon they informed themselves more amply by those who were about us of what we had told them and presently sending for the Register in whose hands our sentence was they straitly commanded him that upon pain of grievous punishment he should forthwith bring them all the proceedings which had been used against us as instantly he did now the two Officers seeing there was no remedy for the whipping that we had suffâ—red presented a Petition in our behalf unto the Chaem whereunto this Answer was returned by the Court Mercy hath no place where Iustice looseth her name in regard whereof your request cannot be granted This Answer was subscribed by the Chaem and eight Conchacis that are like criminal Judges This hard proceeding much astonished these two Proctors for the poor so named from their office wheâ—efore carried with an extream desire to draw us out of this misery they presently preferred another Petition to the Soveraign Court of Justice of which I spake in the precedent Chapter where the Menigrâ—pos and Talegrepos were Judges an Assembly which in their language is called The breath of the Creator of all things In this Petition as sinners confessing all that we were accusâ—d of we had recourse to mercy vvhich sorted well for us for as soon as the Petition was presented unto them they read the Processe quite through and finding that our right was overborn for vvant of succour they instantly dispatched away two of their Court vvho with an expresse Mandate undâ—r their hands and Seals went and prohibited the Chaems Court from intermedling with this cause which they commanded away before them In obedience to this Prohibition the Chaems Court made this Decree We that are assembled in this Court of Iustice of the Lyon crowned in the throne of the world having perused the Petition presented to the four and twenty Iudges of the austere life do consent that those nine strangers be sent by way of appeal to the Court of the Aytau of Aytaus in the Citie of Pequin to the end that in mercy the sentence pronounced against them may be favourably moderated Given the seventh day of the fourth Moon in the three and twentieth year of the raign of the Son of the Sun This Decree being signed by the Chaem and the eight Conchacis was presently brought us by the two Proctors for the poor upon the Receit whereof we told them that we could but pray unto God to reward them for the good they had done us for his sake whereunto beholding us with an eye of pitie they answered May his Celestial goodness direct you in the knowledge of his works that thereby you may with patience gather the fruit of your labours as they which fear to offend his holy Name After we had past all the adversities and miseries whereof I have spoken before we were imbarqued in the company of some other thirty or forty Prisoners that were sent as we were from this Court of Justice to that other Soveraign one by way of appeal there to be either acquitted or condemned according to the crimes they had committed and the punishment they had deserved Now a day before our departure being imbarqued in a Lanteaa and chained three and three together the two Proctors for the poor came to us and first of all furnishing us with all things needful as clothes and Victuals they asked us whether we wanted any thing else for our Voyage Whereunto we answered that all we could desire of them was that they would be pleased to convert that further good they intended to us into a Letter of Recommendation unto â—he Officers of that holy Fraternity of the Citie of Pequin thereby to oblige them to maintain the right of our cause in regard as they very well knew they should otherwise be sure to be utterly abandoned of every one by reâ—son they were strangers and altogether unknown The Proctors hearing us speak in this manner Say not so replyed they for though your ignorance discharges you before God yet have you committed a great sin because the more you are abased in the world through poverty the more shall you be exalted before the eyes of his divine Majesty if you patiently bear your crosses whereunto the flesh indeed doth always oppose it self being evermore rebellious against the Spirit but as a Bird cannot fly without her wings no more can the soul meditate without works As for the Letter you require of us we will give it you most willingly knowing it will be very necessary for you to the end that the favour of good people be not wanting to you in your need This said they gâ—ve us a sack ful of Rice together with four Taeis in silver and a Coverlet to lay upon us Then having very much recommended us unto the Chifuu who was the Officer of
weight measure and true account therefore take heed to what thou doest for if thou comest to sin thou shalt suffer for it eternally Upon his head he had a kind of round bonet bordered about with small sprigs of gold all enamelled violet and green and on the top of it was a little crowned Lion of gold upon a round bowl of the same mettal by which Lion crowned as I have delivered heretofore is the King signified and by the bowl the world as if by these devices they would denote that the King is the Lion crowned on the throne of the world In his right hand he held a little rod of ivory some three spans long in manner of a Scepter upon the top of the three first steps of this Tribunal stood eight Ushers with silver maces on their shoulders and below were threescore Mogors on their knees disposed into three ranks carrying halberts in their hands that were neatly damasked with gold In the vantgard of these same stood like as if they had been the Commanders or Captains of this Squadron the Statues of two Giants of a most gallant aspect and very richly attired with their swords hanging in scarfs and mighty great halberts in their hands and these the Chineses in their language call Gigaos on the two sides of this Tribunal below in the room were two very long tables at each of which sat twelve men whereof four were Presidents or Judges two Registers four Solicitors and two Conchalis which are as it were Assistants to the Court one of these Tables was for criminal and the other for civil causes and all the officers of both these Tables were apparelled in gowns of white Satin that were very long and had large slieves thereby demonstrating the latitude and purity of justice the Tables were covered with carpets of violet damask and richly bordered about with gold the Chaems table because it was of silver had no carpet on it nor any thing else but a cushion of cloth of gold and a Standith Now all these things put together as we saw them carried a wonderful shew of State and Majesty But to proceed upon the fourth ringing of a bell one of the Câ—â—chalis stood up and after a low obeysancâ— made to the Chaem with a very loud voice that he might be heard of every one he said Peace there and with all submission hearken on pain of incurring the punishment ordained by the Chaems of the Government for those that interrupt the silence of sacred Iustice. Whereupon this same sitting down again another arose and with the like reverence mounting up to the Tribunal where the Chaem sat he took the Sentences from him that held them in his hand and published them aloud one after another with so many ceremonies and compliments as he employed above an hour therein At length coming to pronounce our judgment they caused us to kneel down with our eyes fixed on the ground and our hands lifted up as if we were praying unto Heaven to the end that in all humility we might hear the publâ—cation thereof which was thus Bitau Dicabor the new Chaem of this sacred Court where justice is rendred to strangers and that by the gracious pleasure of the Son of the Sun the Lion crowned on the throne of the world unto whom are subjected all the Scepters and Crowns of the Kings that govern the earth ye are subjected under his feet by the grace and will of the most High in Heaven having viewed and considered the Appeal made to me by these nine strangers whose cause was commanded hither by the City of Nanquin by the four and twenty of austeer life I say by the oath I have taken upon my entry into the Charge which I exercise for the Aytao of Batampina the chief of two and thirty that govern all the people of this Empire that the ninth day of the seventh Moon in the fifteenth year of the reign of the Son of the Sun I was presented with the accusations which the Cumbim of Taypor sent me against them whereby he chargeth them to be theeves and robbers of other mens goods affirming that they have long practised that trade to the great offence of the Lord above who hath created all things and withall that without any fear of God they used to bathe themselves in the blood of those that with reason resisted them for which they have already been condemned to be whipt and have their thumbs cut off whereof the one hath been put in execution but when they came to have their thumbs cut off the Proctors for the poor opposing it alledged in their behalf that they were wrongfully condemned because there was no proof of that wherewith they were charged in regard whereof they required for them that in stead of judging them upon a bare shew of uncertain suspitions voluable testimonies might be produced and such as were conformable to the divine Laws and the Iustice of Heaven whereunto answer was made by that Court how justice was to give place to mercy whereupon they that undertook their cause made their complaint to the four and twenty of austeer life who both out of very just considerations and the regard they had to the little support they could have for that they were strangers and of a Nation so far distant from us as we never heard of the Country where they say they were born mercifully inclining to their lamentable cries sent them and their cause to be judged by thiâ— Court wherefore omitting the prosecution thereof here by the Kings Proctor being able to prove nothing whereof he accused them affirms only that they are worthy of death for the suspicion and jealousie they have given of themselves but in regard sacred justice that stands upon considerations which are pure and agreeable to God admits of no reasons from an adverse party if they be not made good by evident proofs I thought it not fit to allow of the Kings Proctors accusations since he could not prove what he had alledged whereupon insisting on his demand without shewing either any just causes or sufficient proof concerning that he concluded against those strangers I condemned him in twenty Taeis of silver amends to his adverse parties being altogether according to equity because the reasons alledged by him were grounded upon a bad zeal and such as were neither just nor pleasing to God whose mercy doth always incline to their side that are poor and feeble on the earth when as they invoke him with tears in their eyes â—s is daily and clearly manifested by the pitiful effects of his greatness so that having thereupon expresly commanded the Tanigores of the house of mercy to alledge whatsoever they could say on their behalf they accordâ—ngly did so within the time that was prefixed them for that purpose And so all proceedings having received their due course thâ— cause is now come to a final Iudgment wherefore every thing duly viewed and considered without regard had to any
of light women exempted from the tribute which they of the City pay for that they are Curtisans whereof the most part had quitted their husbands for to follow the wretched trade and if for that cause they come to receive any hurt their husbands are grievously punished for it because they are there as in a place of freedom and under the protection of the Tutan of the Court Lord Steward of the Kings house In this inclosure do likewise remain all the Landresses by them called Maynates which wash the linnen of the City who as we were told are above an hundred thousand and live in this quarter for that there are divers rivers there together with a number of wells and deep pools of water compassed about with good walls Within this same inclosure as the said Aquisendan relates there are thirteen hundred gallant and very sumptuous houses of religioâ—s men and women who make profession of the four principal Laws of those two and thirty which are in the Empire of China and it is thought that in some of these houses there are above a thousand persons besides the servants that from abroad do furnish them with victuals and other necessary provisions We saw also a great many houses which have fair buildings of a large extent with spacious inclosures wherein there are gardens and very thick woods full of any kind of game either for hawking or hunting that may be desired And these houses are as it were Inns whither come continually in great number people of all ages and sexeâ— as to see Comedies Playes Combates Bul-baitings Wrastlings and magnificent Feasts with the Tutons Chaems Conchacys Aytaos Bracalons Chumbims Monteos Lauteas Lords Gentlemen Captains Merchants and other rich men do make for to give content to their kindred and friends These houses are bravely furnished with rich hangings beds chairs and stools as likewise with huge cupbards of plate not only of silver but of gold also and the attendants that wait at the table are maids ready to be married very beautiful and gallantly attired howbeit all this is nothing in comparison of the sumptuousness and other Magnificences that we saw there Now the Chineses assured us there were some feasts that lasted ten days after the Carachina or Chinese manner which in regard of the state pomp and charge thereof as well in the attendance of servants and wayters as in the costly fare of all kind of flesh fowl fish and all delicacies in musick in sports of hunting and hawking in playes comedies tilts turnayes and in shews both of horse and foot fighting and skirmishing together do cost above twenty thousand Taeis These Inns do stand in at least a million of gold and are maintained by certain Companies of very rich Merchants who in way of commerce and traffique employ their mony therein where by it is thought they gain far more then if they should venture it to sea It is said also that there is so good and exact an order observed there that whensoever any one will be at a charge that way he goes to the Xipaton of the house who is the superintendant thereof and declares unto him what his designe is whereupon he shews him a book all divided into chapters which treats of the ordering and sumptuousness of Feasts as also the rates of them and how they shall be served in to the end that he who will be at the charge may chuse which he pleases This book called Pinetoreu I have seen and heard it read so that I remember how in the three first Chapters thereof it speaks of the feasts whereunto God is to be invited and of what price they are and then it descends to the King of China of whom it sayes That by a speciall grace of Heaven and right of Soveraignty he hath the Government of the whole earth and of all the Kings that inhabit it After it hath done with the King of China it speaks of the feasts of the Tutons which are the ten Soveraign dignities that command over the forty Chaems who are as the Vice-royes of the State These Tutons also are termed the beams of the Sun for say they as the King of China is the Son of the Sun so the Tutons who represent him may rightly be termed his beams for that they proceed from him even as the rayes do from the Sun But setting aside the bruitishness of these Gentiles I will only speak of the Feast whereunto God is to be invited which I have seen some to make with much devotion though for want of faith their works can do them little good CHAP. XXXIV The Order which is observed in the Feasts that are made in certain Inns and the State which the Chaem of the two and thirty Vniversities keeps with certain remarkable things in the City of Pequin THe first thing whereof mention is made in the Preface of that Book which treats of Feasts as I have said before is the Feast that is to be made unto God here upon earth of which it is spoken in this manner Every Feast how sumptuous soever it be may be paid for with a price more or less conformable to the bounty of him that makes it who for all his charge bestowed on it reaps no other recompence then the praise of flatterers and idle persons wherefore O my Brother saith the Preface of the said Book I counsel thee to imploy thy goods in feasting of God in his poor that is to say secretly to supply the necessities of good folks so that they may not perish for want of that which thou hast more then thou needest Call to mind also the vile matter wherewith thy father ingendred thee and that too which is far more abject wherewith thy mother conceived thee and so thou wilt see how much inferiour thou art even to the bruit beasts which without distinction of reason apply themselves to that whereunto they are carried by the flesh and seeing that in the quality of a man thou wilt invite thy friends who possibly by to morrow may not be to shew that thou art good and faithful invite the poor creatures of God of whose groans and necessities he like a pitiful Father taketh compassion and promiseth to him that doth them good infinite satisfaction in the house of the Sun where as an Article of faith we hold that his servants shall abide for evermore in eternal happiness After these words and other such like worthy to be observed the Xipaton who as I told you is the chief of them that govern this great Labyrinth shews him all the Chapters of the Book from one end to the other and bids him look what manner of men or Lords he will invite what number of guests and how many days he will have the feast to last for addeth he the Kings and Tutons at the feasts that are made for them have so many Messes of meat so many Attendants such Furniture such Chambers such vessel such plate such sports
Tribunal fourteen steps high that was all overlaid with fine gold Her face was very beautiful and her hands were heaved up towards Heaven at her armpits hung a many of little idols not above half a finger long filed together whereupon demanding of the Chineses what those meant they answered us That after the waters of Heaven had overflowed the earth so that all mankind was drowned by an universal Deluge God seeing that the world would be desolate and no body to inhabit it he sent the goddess Amida the chief Lady of honour to his wife Nacapirau from the Heaven of the Moon that she might repair the loss of drowned mankind and that then the goddess having set her feet on a Land from which the waters were withdrawn called Calemphuy which was the same Island whereof I have spoken heretofore in the streight of Nanquin whereof Antonio de Faria went on land she was changed all into gold and in that manner standing upright with her face looking up unto Heaven she sweat out at her armpits a great number of children namely males out of the right and females out of the left having no other place about her body whence she might bring them forth as other women of the world have who have sinned and that for a chastisement of their sin God by the order of nature hath subjected them to a misery full of corruption and filthiness for to shew how odious unto him the sin was that had been committed against him The goddess Amida having thus brought forth these creatures which they affirm were thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three two parts of them females and the other males for so say they the world was to be repaired she remained so feeble and faint with this delivery having no body to assist her at her need that she fell down dead in the place for which cause the Moon at that time in memory of this death of hers whereat she was infinitely grieved put her self into mourning which mourning they affirm to be those black spots we ordinarily behold in her face occasioned indeed by the shadow of the earth and that when there shall be so many years ran out as the goddess Amida brought forth children which were as I have delivered thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three then the Moon will put off her mourning and afterwards be as clear as the day With these and such like fopperies did the Chineses so turmoil us as we could not chuse but grieve to consider how much those people which otherwise are quick of apprehension and of good understanding are abused in matter of Religion with such evident and manifest untruths After we were come out of this great place where we saw all these things we went unto another Temple of religious Votaries very sumptuous and rich where they told us the Mother of the then reigning King named Nhay Camisama did abide but thereunto we were not permitted to enter because we were strangers From this place through a street arched all along we arrived at a Key called Hichario Topileu where lay a great number of vessels full of pilgrims from divers Kingdoms which came incessantly on pilgrimage to this Temple for to gain as they believe plenary indulgences which the King of China and the Chaems of the Government do grant unto them besides many priviledges and franchises throughout the whole Country where victuals are given them abundantly and for nothing I will not speak of many other Temples or Pagodes which we saw in this City whilest we were at liberty for I should never have done to make report of them all howbeit I may not omit some other particulars that I hold very fit to be related before I break off this discourse whereof the first were certain houses in several parts of this City called Laginampurs that is to say The School of the poor wherein fatherless and motherlesâ— children that are found in the streets are taught to write and read as also some trade whereby they may get their living and of these houses or schools there are about some five hundred in this City Now if it happen that any of them through some defect of nature cannot learn a trade then have they recourse to some means for to make them get their living according to each ones incommodity As for example if they be blind they make them labour in turning of handmils if they be lame of their feet they cause them to make laces riband and such like manufactures if they be lame of their hands then they make them earn their living by carrying of burdens but if they be lame both of feet and hands so that nature hath wholly deprived them of means to get their living then they shut them up in great Convents where there are a number of persons that pray for the dead amongst whom they place them and so they have their share of half the offerings that are made there the Priests having the other half if they be dumb then they are shut up in a great house where they are maintained with the amerciaments that the common sort of women as oyster-wives and such like are condemned in for their scolding and fighting one with another As for old queans that are past the trade and such of the younger sort as by the lewd exercise thereof are becomâ— diseased with the pox or other filthy sickness they are put into other houses where they are very well looked unto and furnished abundantly with all things necessary at the charge of the other women that are of the same trade who thereunto pay a certain sum monthly and that not unwillingly because they know that they shall come to be so provided for themsâ—lves by others and for the collecting of this mony there are Commissioners expresly deputed in several parts of the City There are also other houses much like unto Monasteries where a great many of young maids that are Orpâ—ans are bred up and these houses are maintained at the charge of such women as are convicted of adultery for say they it is most just that if there be one which hath lost her self by her dishonesty there should be another that should be maintained by her vertue Other places there are also where decayed old people are kept at the charge of Lawyers that plead unjust causes where the parties have no right and of Judges that for favoring one more thâ—n another and corrupted with bribes do not execute justice as they ought to do whereby one may see with how much order and policy these people govern all things In the prosecution of my discourse it will not be amiss here to deliver the marvellous order and policy which the Kings of China observe in furnishing their States abundantly with provisions and victuals for the relief of the poor people which may very well serve for an example of charity and good government to Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths Their Chronicles
of a Nation of a Country and of a Kingdom the inhabitants whereof wounded and killed one another most cruelly without any reason or cause and therefore no other judgment could be made of us but that we were the servants of the most gluttenous Serpent of the profound pit of smoak as appeared by our worke since they were no better then such as that accursed Serpent had accustomed to do so that according to the Law of the third Book of the will of the Son of the Sun called Mileterau we were to be condemned to a banishment from all commerce of people as a venemous and contagious plague so that we deserved to be confined to the Mountains of Chabaguay Sumbor or Lamau whither such as we were use to be exiled to the end they might in that place hear the wild beasts howl in the night which were of as vile a breed and nature as we From this prison we were one morning led to a place called by them Pitau Calidan wheâ—e the Anchacy sat in judgment with a majestical and dreadful greatness He was accompanied by divers Chumbims Vppes Lanteas and Cypatons besides a number of other persons there each of us had thirty lashes a piece more given us and then by publique sentence we were removed to another prison where we were in better case yet then in that out of which we came howbeit for all that we did not a little detest amongst our selves both the Fonsecas and the Madureyras but much more the divel that wrought us this mischief In this prison we continued almost two months during which time our stripes were throughly healed howbeit we were exceedingly afflicted with hunger and thirst At length it pleased God that the Chaem took compassion of us for on a certain day wherein they use to do works of charity for the dead coming to review our sentence he ordained That in regard we were strangers and of a Country so far distant from theirs as no man had any knowledge of us nor that there was any book or writing which made mention of our name and that none understood our language as also that we were accustomed and even hardned to misery and poverty which many times puts the best and most peaceable persons into disorder and therefore might well trouble such as made no profession of patience in their adversities whence it followed that our discord proceeded rather from the effects of our misery then from any inclination unto mutiny and tumult wherewith the Kings Atturny charged us and furthermore representing unto himself what great need there was of men for the ordinary service of the State and of the Officers of Iustice for which provision necessarily was to be made he thought fit that the punishment for the crimes we had committed should in the way of an alms bestowed in the Kings name be moderated and reduced to the whipping which we had twice already had upon condition nevertheless that we should be detained there as slaves for ever unless it should please the Tuton otherwise to ordain of us This sentence was pronounced against us and though we shed a many of tears to see our selves reduced unto this miserable condition wherein we were yet this seemed not so bad unto us as the former After the publication of this Decree we were presently drawn out of prison and tied three and three together then led to certain iron Forges where we past six whole months in strange labours and great necessities being in a manner quite naked without any bed to lie on and almost â—amished At last after the enduring of so many evils we fell sick of a Lethargy which was the cause in regard it was a contagious disease that they turned us out of doors for to go and seek our living until we became well again Being thus set at liberty we continued four months sick and begging the alms of good people from door to door which was given us but sparingly by reason of the great dearth that then reigned over all the Country so as we were constrained to agree better together and to promise one another by a solemn oath that we took to live lovingly for the future as good Christians should do and that every month one should be chosen from amongst us to be as it were a kind of Chief whom by the oath we had taken all the rest of us were to obey as their Superior so that none of us was to dispose of himself nor do any thing without his command or appointment and those rules were put into writing by us that they might be the better observed As indeed God gave us the grace to live ever afterward in good peace and concord though it were in great pain and extream necessity of all things We had continued a good while living in peace and tranquility according to our fore-mentioned agreement when as he whose lot it was to be our Chief that month named Christovano Boralho considering how necessary it was to seek out some relief for our miseries by all the ways that possibly we could appointed us to serve weekly two and two together some in begging up and down the Town some in getting water and dressing our meat and others in fetching wood from the Forrest both for our own use to sell. Now one day my self one Gaspar de Meyrelez being enjoyned to go to the Forrest we rose betimes in the morning went forth to perform our charge And because this Gaspar de Meyrelez was a pretty Musician playing well on a Cittern whereunto he accorded his voice which was not bad being parts that are very agreeable to those people in regard they imploy the most part of their times in the delights of the flesh they took great pleasure in hearing of him so as for that purpose they invited him very often to their sports from whence he never returned without some reward wherewith we were not a little assisted As he and I then were going to the wood and before we were out of the Town we met by fortune in one of the streets with a great many of people who full of jollity were carrying a dead corps to the grave with divers banners and other funeral pomp in the midst whereof was a Consort of musick and voices Now he that had the chief ordering of the Funeral knowing Gaspar de Meyrelez made him stay and putting a Cittern into his hands he said unto him Oblige me I pray thee by singing as loud as thou canst so as thou mayst be heard by this dead man whom we are carrying to burial for I swear unto thee that he went away very sad for that he was separated from his wife and children whom he dearly loved all his life time Gaspar de Meyrelez would fain have excused himself alledging many reasons thereupon to that end but so far was the Governour of the Funeral from accepting them that contrarily he answered him very angerly Truly if thou
carried yet was it our good fortune to be advertised of it the day before his coming to us so that we had time enough to arm our selves outwardly with all the apparances of misery and affliction we could possibly devise and counterfeit which expedient next to Gods assistance stood us in more stead then any other we could have thought upon This man then came one morning well accompanied to the prison and after he had viewed us all one after another he called to him the Iurabaca who served to interpret for him Ask these men said he what is the cause that the mighty hand of God hath so abandoned them as to permit their lives through an effect of his Divine Iustice to be subjected to the judgement of men without having so much remorse of conscience as to set before their eyes the tâ—rrour of that dreadful vision which doth use to fright the soul at the last gasp of a mans life for it is to be believed that they who have done that which I observe in them have heaped sin upon sin We answered him thereunto that he had a great deal of reason for what he spake in regard it was very probable that the sins of men were the principal cause of their sufferings howbeit that God as the Soveraign Lord of all did nevertheless in that case accustome to take pity of them with sobs and tears continually called upon him and that it was also his bounty wherein all our hope was placed to the end he would be pleased to inspire the Kings heart with a will to do as justice according to our works for that we were poor strangers destitute of all favour a thing whereof men make most account in this woâ—ld That which you say replyed he is very well provided that your hearts be conformable to your words and then you are not to be found fault with for it is most certain that he which enammels all that our eyes do behold for the beautifying â—f the night and that hath likewise made whatsoever the day doth shâ—w us for the sustenance of man who are but worms of the earth will not refuse you your deliverance seeing you beg of him with so many sighs and tears wherefore I intreat you not to dissemble with me but truly to confess what I desire to understand from you at this present namely what people you are of what Nation in what part of the world you live in and how the Kingdom of your King is named whereunto you shall adde the cause that hath brought you hither and to what place you were going with so much riches which the Sea hath cast up on the shoars of Taydican whereat all the Inhabitants have so wondred as they were perswaded that you were Masters of all the Trade of China To these and other like questions which this Spie asked of us we returned him such answers as was most behoofull for us to give him wherewith he was so contented that making us many offers he promised to move the King for our deliverance In the mean time he spake not a word to us of the occasion for which he was sent but still fained himself to be a stranger and a Merchant like one of us Howbeit when he went away he carefully recommended us to the Jaylour and willed him not to let us want any thing promising to satisfie him for it to his content In acknowledgment whereof we gave him many humble thanks with tears in our eyes whereby he was greatly moved to compassion so that he gave us a Bracelet of gold that weighed thirty Duckats and also six sacks of Rice and withall desired us to excuse hâ—m for the smalness of the present he had given us After this he returned back to the King unto whom he rendred an account of all that had past with us assuring him that we were not such as the Chineses had made him to believe and offered for proof thereof to pawn his life an hundred times if need were which was the cause that the King abated much of the suspicion wherewithall they had inveighed him about our manner of lying But as he was resolving to give order for our enlargement as well upon the report of this man as in regard of the letter which the Broquen had written him there arrived at the Port a Chinese Pyrat with four Juncks unto whom the King gave his Country for a place of Retreat upon condition that he should share with him the moity of the booty which he should take by means whereof he was in great favour with the King and all them of the Country Now forasmuch as our sins would have it that this Pyrate was one of the greatest enemies the Portugals had at that time by reason of a fight that we had had with him a little before in the Port of Lamau where Laâ—cerote Pareyra born at Lyma commanded in chief and in which he had two Juncks burnt and three hundred of his men slain this dog was no sooner advertised of our imprisonment and how the King was resolved to free us but that he imbroyled the business in a strange manner and told him so many lies of us that he lacked but little of perswading him that ere long we would be the cause of the loss of his Kingdom For he assured him that it was our custom to play the Spies in a Countâ—y under pretence of trading and then to make our selves Masters of it like robbers as we were putting all to the sword that we met withall in it which wrought so powerfully with the King that he revoked all that he had resolved to have done and changing his mind he ordained that in regard of what had been told him we should each of us be dismembred into four quarters and the same set up in the publique streets that all the world might know we had deserved to be used so CHAP. XLVIII The King of the Lequios sending a cruel Sentence against us to the Broquen of the Town where we were prisoners to the end he should put it in execution and that which hapened unto us till our arrival at Liampoo AFter that this â—ruel Sentence of death had been pronounced against us the King sent a Peretanda to the Broquen of the City where we were prisoners to the end that within four dayes it should be executed upon our persons This Peretanda departed presently away and upon his arrival at the City he went and lodged himself at a certain widows house that was his sister a very honourable woman and from whom we had received much alms This same man having secretly imparted unto her the cause of his coming how he was not to return but with a good Certificate unto the King of the performance of this exâ—cuâ—ion she went strait-way and acquainted a Niece of hers with it who was daughter to the Broquen of the City in whose house lay a Portugal woman the wife of a Pilot who was a
it in the Kings head that you can be any ways profitable unto him It were fitter for you therefore to shave away your beards that you may not deceive the world as you do and we will have women in your places that shall serve us for our money Whereupon the Bramaas of the Guard being incensed against us drove us away from thence with a great deal of shame and contumely And truly not to lye never was I so sensible of any thing as this in respect of the honour of my Country-men After this the Chaubainhaa went on till he came to the Tent of the King who attended him with a Royal Pomp for he was accompanied with a great number of Lords amongst the which there were fifteen Bainhaas who are as Dukes with us and of six or seven others that were of greater dignity then they As soon as the Chaubainhaa came near him he threw himself at his feet and so prostrated on the ground he lay there a good while as it were in a swoon wiâ—hâ—ut â—peaking a word but the Rolim of Mounay that was close by him supplyed that defect and likâ— a religious man as he was spake for him to the King saying Sir Here is a Spâ—ctacle able to move thy heart to pity though the crime be such as it is Remember then that the thing most pleasing to God in this world and whereunto the effects of his mercy is soonest communicated is such an action and voluntary submission as this is which here thou beholdâ—st It is for thee now to imitate his clemency and so to do thou art most humbly intreated by the hearts of all them that are mollified by so great a misfortune as this is Now if thou grantest them this their request which with so much instance they beg of thee be assured that God will take it in good part and that at the hour of thy death he will stretch forth his mighty hand over thee to the end thou mayst be exempted from all manner of faults Hereunto he added many other speeches whereby he perswaded the King to pardon him at least-wise he promised so to do wherewith the Rolim and all the Lords there present shewed themselves very well contented and commended him exceedingly for it imagining that the effect should be answerable to that which he had ingaged himself for before all Now because it began to be night he commanded the most of them that were about him to retire as for the Chaubainhaa he committed him into the hands of a Bramaa Commander named Xemin Commâ—dau and the Queen his wife with his children and the other Ladies were put into the custody of Xemin Ansedaa as well because he had his wife there as for that he was an honourable old man in whom the King of Bramaa much confided The fear which the King of Bramaa was in left the men of war should enter into the City of Martabano and should pillage it now that it was night before he had done all that which I am hereafter to relate was the cause that he sent to all the gates of the City being four and twenty Bramaa Captains for to guard them with express Commandment that upon pain of death no man should be suffered to enter in at any of them before he had taken order for the performance of the promise which he had made to the strangers to give them the spoil of it howbeit he took not that care and used such diligence for the consideration he spâ—ke of but onely that he might preserve the Chaubainhaas treasure to which effect he spent two whole days in conveighing it away it being so great that a thousand men were for that space altogether imployed therein At the end of these two days the King went very early in the morning to an hill called Beidao distant from his quarters some two or three flight shoot and then caused the Captains that were at the Guard of the gates to leave them and retire away whereupon the miserable City of Martabono was delivered to the mercy of the Souldiers who at the shooting off of a Cannon which was the signal thereof entred presently into it pell-mell and so thronging together that at the entring into the gates it is said above three hundred were stifled for as there was there an infinite company of men of War of different Nations the most of them without King without Law and without the fear and knowledge of God they went all to the Spoile with closed eyes and therein shewed themselves so cruel minded that the thing they made least reckoning of was to kill an hundred men for a crown And truly the disorder was such in the City as the King himself was fain to go thither six or seven times in Person for to appease it The Sack of this City endured three days and an half with so much avarice and cruelty of these barbarous enemies as it was wholly pillaged without any thing left that might give an eye-eye-cause to covet it That done the King with a new ceremony of Proclamations caused the Chaubainhaas Pallaces together with thirty or forty very fair rich Houses of his principal Lords and all the Pagods and Temples of the City to be demolished so that according to the opinion of many it was thought that the loss of those magnificent Edifices amounted to above ten millions of gold wherewith not yet contented he commanded all the buildings of the City that were still a foot to be set on fire which by the violence of the wind kindled in such manner as in that onely night there remained nothing unburnt yea the very Walls Towers and Bulwarks were consumed even to the foundations The number of them that were killed in this Sack was threescore thousand persons nor was that of the prisoners much less There were an hundred and forty thousand houses and seventeen hundred Temples burnt wherein also were consumed threescore thousand Statues or Idols of divers mettals during this Siege they of the City had eaten three thousand Elephants There was found in this City six thousand pieces of Artillery what of brass and iron an hundred thousand Quintals of Pepper and as much of Sanders Benjamin Lacre Lignum Aloes Camphire Silk and many other kinds of rich Merchandise but above all an infinite number of commodities which were come thither from the Indiaes in above an hundred vessels of Cambaya Achem Melinda Ceilam and of all the Streight of Mecqua of the Lequios and of China As for the gold silver precious stones and jewels that were found there one knows not truly what they were for those things are ordinarily concealed wherefore it shall suffice me to say that so much as the King of Bramaa had for certain of the Chaubainhaas Treasure amounted to an hundred Millions of gold whereof as I have said before our King lost the Moitie as well for our sins as through the malice and envy of wicked dispositions The next day after the
his men amongst the which were threescore and two Portugals Now whereas this City was very strong as well in regard of the scituation of it as of the Fortifications which were newly made there it had besides within it twenty thousand Mons who it was said were come thither some five days before from the Mountains of Pondalâ—u where the King of Avaa by the permission of the Siamon Emperor of that Monarchy was levying above fourscore thousand men for to go and regain the City of Prom for as soon as that King had received certain news of the death of his daughter and son-in-law perceiving that he was not strong enough of himself to revenge the wrongs this Tyrant had done him or to secure himself from those which he feared to receive of him in time to come namely the depriving him of his Kingdom as he was threatened he went in person with his wife and children and cast himself at the Siamons feet and acquainting him with the great affronts he had received and what his desire was he made himself his Tributary at threescore thousand Bisses by the year which amount to an hundred thousand Duckets of our mony and a gueta of Rubies being a measure like to our pynt therewith to make a jewel for his wife of which Tribute it was said that he advanced the payment for ten years beforehand besides many other precious stones and very rich Plate which he presented him with estimated in all at two millions in recompence whereof the Siamon obliged himself to take him into his protection yea and to march into the field for him as often as need should require and to re-establish him within a year in the Kingdom of Prom so as for that effect he granted him those thirty thousand men of succor which the Bramaa defeated at Meleytay as also the twenty thousand that were then in the City and the fourscore thousand which were to come to him over whom the said King of Avaa was to be the General The Tyrant having intelligence thereof and apprehending that this above all other things he could fear might be the cause of his ruine he gave present order for the fortifying of Prom with much more care and diligence then formerly howbeit before his departure from this River where he lay at anchor being about some leâ—gue from the City of Avaa he sent his Treasurer named Dioçory with whom we eight Portugals as I have related before remained prisoners Embassador to the Calaminhan a Prince of mighty power who is seated in the midst of this region in a great and spacious extent of Country and of whom I shall say something when I come to speak of him The subject of this Embassage was to make him his Brother in Arms by a League and Contract of new amity offering for that effect to give him a certain quantity of Gold and precious stones as also to render unto him certain Frontier Lands of his Kingdom upon condition that the Spring following he should keep the Siamon in war for to divert him from succoring the King of Avaa and thereby give him means the more easily to take his City from him without fear of that assistance which that King hoped should serve for an obstacle to his design This Embassador departed then after he had imbarqued himself in a Laulea that was attended on by twelve Seroos wherein there were three hundred men of service and his guard besides the Watermen and Mariners whose number was little less The Presents which he carryed to the Calaminhan were very great and consisted in divers rich pieces as well of Gold as of precious stones but above all in the Harness of an Elephant which according to reports was worth above six hundred thousand Duckets and it was thought that all the Presents put together amounted to a Million of Gold At his departure amongst other favors which the King his Master conferred on him this same was not the least for us that he gave us eight unto him for to be his perpetual slaves Having clothed us then very well and furnished us abundantly with all things necessary he seemed to be exceedingly contented with having us along with him in this Voyage and ever after he made more account of us then of all the rest that followed him CHAP. LV. Our going with the King of Bâ—amâ—a's Ambassadour to the Calaminham with the Course which we held until we arrived at the Temple or Pagod of Timagoogoo and a Description thereof IT seems fit unto me and conformable to that which I am relaâ—ing to leave for a while this Tyrant of Bramaa to whom I will return again when time shal serve for to intreat here of the way we held for to go into Timplan the capital City of the Empire of the Calaminham which signifies Lord of the world for in their language Cala is Lord and Minhan the world This Prince also entitles himself The absoluâ—e Lord of the indomptable force of the Elephants of the Earth And indeed I do not think that in all the world there is a greater Lord then he as I shall declare hereafter This Ambassadour then departing from Avaa in the month of October a thousand five hundred forty and five took his course up the râ—ver of Queitor steering West South-East and in many places Eastward by reason of the winding of the water and so in this diversity of â—hombâ—s we continued our voyage seven days together at the end whereof we arrived at a Channâ—l called Guampanoo through which the Rhobamo who was our Pilot took his course that he might decline the Siamons Country being so commanded to do by the express Order of the King A while after we came to a great Town named Gataldy where the Ambassadour stayed three days to make provision of certain things necessary for his voyage Having left this place we wâ—nt on still rowing up through his Channel eleven dayes longer during which time we met not with any place that was remarkable only we saw some small villages the houses whereof were covered with thatch and peopled with very poor folks and yet for all that the fields are full of Cattel which seemed to have no Master for we killed twenty and thirty of them in a day in the sight of those of the Country no man so much as finding fault with it but contrarily they brought them in courtesie to us as if they were glad to see us kill them in that sort At our going out of this Channel of Guampanoo we entred into a very great river called Angegumaa that was above three Leagues broad and in some places six and twenty fathom deep with such impetuous currents as they drove us often-times from our course This river we coasted above seven dayes together and at length arrived at a pretty little walled Town named Gumbim in the Kingdom of Iangromaa invironed on the Lands side for five or six â—â—agues space with Forrests of Bâ—njamin as alâ—o with
there with all to bedashed such as they pleased in the mean time all others that beheld them so drest holding them accursed fell upon them and entreated them in such a strange fashion as the poor wretches knew not which way to turn themselves for there was not a man of the company that drove them not away with blows and that railed not at them saying That they were accursed for having been the cause that this holy man had eaten of that beastly filth which the Devil feeds upon and therefore was become stinking before God so that he could neither go into Paradise nor live amongst men Behold how strange the blindness of this people is who otherwise have judgment and wit enough I will pass by much other beastliness committed by them which is so far esloigned from all reason as they serve for a great motive unto us to render thanks without ceasing unto God for the infinite mercy and goodness that he shews us in giving us the light of true Faith for the saving of our Souls Of the fifteen days that this Feast was to last nine being past all the people which were there assembled feigning that the gâ—uttonous Serpent of the House of Smoke who is their Lucifer as I have said elsewhere was come for to steal away the ashes of them that were dead in these several Sacrifices and so to keep their Souls from going into Heaven there arose among them so great and dreadful a noise as words are not able to express it for to the confused voyces that were heard from every part there was adjoyned such a ringing of Bells and Basins beating of Drums and winding of Horns as it was not possible to hear one another and all this was done to fright away the Devil Now this noise endured from one of the clock in the afternoon till the next morning and it is not to be believed what a world of lights and Torches were spent that night besides the infinite number of fires that were kindled every where the reason hereof was as they said For that Tinagoogoo the God of thousand Gods was gone in quest of the gluttonous Serpent for to kill him with a Sword which had been given him from Heaven After the night had been past thus amidst this infernal noise and tumult as soon as it was day the whole Hill whereon the Temple was built appeared full of white Banners which the people beholding they fell straight to giving thanks unto God and to that end they prostrated themselves on the ground with great demonstrations of joy and then began to send presents one to another for the good news they received from the Priests by the shew of those white Banners an assured sign that the gluttonous Serpent was killed So all the people transported with incredible gladness fell to going up the hill whereon the Temple stood by four and twenty several accesses that there were unto it for to give thanks unto the Idol and chaunt his praises for the victory he had the night past obtained over the gluttonous Serpent and cutting off his head This throng of people continued three days and three nights so that during that time it was not possible to break through the press on the way but with much pain Now we Portugals having little to do resolved to go thither also for to see those abuses wherefore we went to ask leave of the Embassador but he denyed us for the present willing us to stay till the next day and that then we should wait on him thither for in his last sickness he had vowed to visit it hereat we were very glad because we thought that by this means we should the more easily see all that we desired The morrow after which was the third day of this Assembly the greatest croud being over we went along with him to the Temple of Tinagoogoo and at length arrived though with much ado at the Hill whereon it was built There we saw six very fair long streets all full of Scales hanging on great Rods of Brass In these Scales a number of people weighed themselves as well for the accomplishment of the vows they had made in their adversities and sickness as for the remission of all the sins they had committed till that present and the weight which each of them layd in the other Scale was answerable to the quality of the fault they had done So they that found themselves culpable of gluttony and had not all that year used any abstinence weighed themselves with Hony Sugar Eggs and Butter which were things not displeasing to the Priests from whom they were to receive absolution They that were addicted to sensuality weighed themselves with Cotton wool Feathers Cloth Apparel Wine and sweet Odors because say they those things incite a man to that sin They that were uncharitable to the poor weighed themselves with Coyn of Copper Tin and Silver or with pieces of Gold The slothful with Wood Rice Coals Pork and Fruit and the envious because they reap no benefit by their maligning the prosperity of others expiated their sin by confessing it publiquely and suffering a dozen boxes on the ear to be given them in the memory and praise of the twelve Moons of the year As for the sin of pride it was satisfied with dryed fish Brooms and Cow-dung as being the baâ—est of things And touching them that had spoken ill of their Neighbors without asking them forgiveness they put for that a Cow into the Scale or else an Hog a Sheep or a Stag so that infinite was the number of those which weighed themselves in the Scales that were in those six streets from whom the Priests received so much Alms as there were great piles of all sorts of things made up all along Now for the poor that had nothing to give for the remission of their sins they offered their own hair which was presently cut off by above an hundred Priests who for that effect sat in order one by another on low stools with Sizzars in their hands There also we saw great heaps of that hair whereof other Grepos which were a thousand at least and ranked also in order made Wreathes Tresses Rings and Bracelets which one or another bought for to carry home to their houses even as our Pilgrims use to do that come from Santiago de Compostella or other such places Our Embassador being amazed at the sight of these things enquired further of the Priests concerning them who besides other particulars told him that all those alms and other offerings which were given there during the fifteen days of this Assembly amounted to a great Revenue and that even of the hair of the poor alone there was raised every year above an hundred thousand pardanis of Gold which are fourscore and ten thousand Duckets of our Mony whereby one may judg what a world of wealth was made of all the rest After that the Embassador had stay'd sometime in the streets of
these things and how much we are bound to him for the benefit of this Creation Then one of our company named Gaspar de Meyrelez shewing himself therein more curious then the rest after he had thanked the Grepo in the name of us all he prayed him to give him leave to ask him something which he desired to know of him Whereunto the Grepo made answer that he was very well contented For added he it is as well the property of a wise and curious man to enquire for to learn as of an ignorant to hear and not be able to answer whereupon Gaspar de Meyrelez demanded of him whether God after he had created all these things whereof he spake had not done some heroical works upon Earth either by his Justice or by his Mercy To this the Grepo replyed that he had it being evident that as long as man lived in this flesh he could not chuse but commit sins which would render him punishable nor God be without a great desire to pardon him and he added further That the sins of men coming to be multiplyed on Earth God had overwhelmed the whole World by commanding the Clouds of Heaven to rain upon it and to drown all living things except one just man with his Family which God put into a great House of wood from whom issued afterwards all the Inhabitants of the Earth The Portugal again enquired whether God after this chastisement had not sent some other God did not answered he send any which taken in general was like unto that but it is true that in particular he chastiseth Kingdoms and People with Wars and other scourges which he sendeth them as we see that he punisheth men with infinite afflictions labors diseases and above all with extream poverty which is the last and extreamest of all evils The Portugal continuing in his demands desired him to tell him whether he had any hope that God would one day be appeased so as men might have entrance into Heaven Whereunto the Grepo replyed That he knew nothing thereof but that it was an evident thing and to be believed as an Article of Faith that even as God was an infinite good so he would have regard to the good which men did upon Earth for his sake Hereupon he demanded of him whether he had not heard it said or found written That after all those things whereof he spake a man was come into the World who dying on the Cross had satisfied God for all men or whether there was not among them some knowledg thereof Whereunto the Grepo answered None can make satisfaction to God but God himself although there be in the World holy and vertuous men which satisfie for themselves and for some of their friends such as are the Gods of our Temples as the Grepos do assure us But to say that one alone hath satisfied for all is a thing which we have never heard of till now besides on Earth which is so base of it self a Ruby of so high a price cannot be ingendred It is true nevertheless that in times past so much was certified to the Inhabitants of this Country by a man named John who came into this City and was held for an holy man having been the Disciple of another called Tomé Modeliar the Servant of God whom those of the Country put to death because he went publiquely preaching That God was made man and that he had suffered death for mankind which at first wrought such a Division amongst the people of this Nation as many believed it for a very truth and others opposed it and formed a contrary party against it incited thereunto by the Grepoes of the Law of Quiay Figrau God of the Atomes of the Sun so that they reproved all that this stranger said by reason whereof He was banished from this City to the Kingdom of Bramaâ— and from thence for the same cause to the Town of Digan where he was put to death for preaching publiquely as I said before That God became man and was crucified for men Upon these speeches Gaspar de Meyrelez and we said that this man had preached nothing in this Country which was not most true wherewith the Grepo was so taken that he fell down on his knees before all that were present and lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven he said with tears in his eyes Lord of whose beauty and goodness the Heavens and the Stars do give testimony I with all my heart do beseech thee to permit that in our times the hour may come wherein the People of the other end of the World may give thee thanks for so great a Grace After that these matters were past in this manner and many others besides which well deserved to be related if my gross wit were able to describe them the Embassador took his leave of the Grepo with many complements and words of courtesie whereof they are nothing sparing as being much accustomed to practise them one with another CHAP. XLIX An ample relation of this Empire of the Calaminham and of the Kingdomes of Pegu and Bramaa with the continuance of our voyage and what we saw among the same A Moneth after our arrivall at this City of Timphan where the Court then was the Ambassador demanded an answer to his Ambassie and it was immediately granted him by the Calaminham with whom he spake himself and being graciously entertained by him he referred him for his dispatch to the Monuagaruu that was as I have heretofore delivered the chief man in governing the Kingdome who gave him an answer on the behalf of the Calaminham as also a present in exchange of that which the King of Bramaa had sent him withall he wrote him a Letter that contained these words Thou arm of a clear Ruby which God hath newly enchaced into my body and whose flesh is fitly fastned to me as that of my brother by that new league and amity now accorded unto thee by me Prechau Guimiam Lord of the seven and twenty Crownes of the Montaignes of the earth inherited by a lawfull succession from him who these two and twenty moneths hath not set his feet upon my head for so long it is since he left me never to set me again by reason of the sanctification which his soul doth now enjoy in feeling the sweet heat of the beams of the Sun I have seen thy Letter dated the fifth chaâ—eca of the eighth moon of the year whereunto I have given the true credit of a brother and as such a one I accept of the party thou dost present me with obliging my self to render thee the two passages of Savady free that so thou mayest without fear of the Siamon be King of Avaa as thou desirest me by thy Letter And as for the other conditions whereof thy Ambassador hath made some mention unto me I will make answer thereunto by one of mine own whom will send unto thee from hence e're it be long to the end thou mayest
down a pane of the wall and besides those pieces of battery there were above three hundred Falcons that shot incessantly with an intention only to kill those that were in the streets as indeed they made a great havock which was the cause that seeing themselves so ill-intreated and their people slain in that manner they resolved like valiant men as they were to sell their lives as dearly as they could so that one morning having sallied forth by the same breach of the wall which the Canon had made they gave so valiantly upon those of the Camp that in lesse then an hour they almost routed the Bramaas whole Army Now because it began to be day the Savadis thought it fit to re-enter into the Town leaving eight thousand of their enemies dead on the place After this they repaired the breach in a very little time by the means of a rampire of earth which they made up with bavins and other materialls that was strong enough to resist the Canon Hereupon the Chaumigrem seeing the bad successe he had had resolved to make war both upon the places neer about as also upon the frontiers that were furthest off from the Town for which purpose he sent Diosaâ—ay high Treasurer of the Kingdome whose Slaves we Portugals were Colonel of five thousand men to spoil a certain Borough called Valentay which furnished the besieged Town with provisions but this voyage was so infortunate unto him that before his arrivall at the designed place his forces were by two thousand Savadis whom he incountred by the way all cut in pieces in lesse then half an hour not one escaping with life that fell into the enemies hands Neverthelesse it pleased our Lord that amidst this defeat we saved our selves by the favour of the night and without knowing whither we went we took the way of a very craggy mountain where we marched in exceeding great pain three daies and an half at the end whereof we entred into certain Moorish Plains where we could meet with no path or way nor having other company then Tygers Serpents and other savage beasts which put us into a mighty fear But as our God whom incessantly we invoked with tears in our eys is the true guide of travellers he out of his infinite mercy permitted that at length we perceived one evening a certain fire towards the East so that continuing our course towards that place where we saw this light we found our selves the next morning neer to a great Lake where there were some Cottages which in all likelyhood were inhabited by very poor people howbeit not daring to discover our selves as yet we hid us all that day in certain hanging precipices that were very boggy and full of Horsleâ—ches which made us all gore blood As soon as it was night we fell to marching again untill the next morning whenas we arrived neer to a great river all alongst the which we continued going for five daies together At last with much pain we got to another Lake that was far greater then the former upon the bank whereof was a little Temple in the form of an Hermitage and there we found an old Hermite who gave us the best entertainment that possibly he could This old man permitted us to repose our selves two daies with him during which time we demanded many things of him that made for our purpose whereunto he alwaies answered according to the truth and told us that we were still within the Territories of the King of Savady that this Lake was called Oregâ—antâ—r that is to say the opening of the night and the Hermitage the God of succour Whereupon being desirous to know of him the signification of this abuse he laid his hand on an horse of brasse that stood for the Idoll upon the Altar and said that he often read in a book which intreated of the foundation of the Kingdome that some two hundred thirty and seven years before this Lake being a great Town called Oâ—umhaleu a King that was named Avaâ— had taken it in war that in acknowledgement of this victory his Priests by whom he was wholly governed counselled him to sacrifice unto Quiay Guaâ—or the God of war all the young male children which had been made captives and in case he did not so they would when they became men regain the Kingdome from him The King apprehending the event of this threatning caused all these children being fourscore and five thousand in number to be brought all into one place and so upon a day that was kept very solemn amongst them he made them to be put most inhumanely to the edge of the sword with an intent to have them burned the next morning in Sacrifice but the night following there came a great earthquake and such lightning and fire fell from heaven upon the Town as within lesse then half an hour it was quite demolished and all that was in it reduced to nothing so that by this just judgement of God the King together with all his were strucken dead not so much as one escaping and besides them thirty thousand Priests in like manner who ever since during all the New Moons are heard to cry and roar so dreadfully that all the inhabitants thereabouts were ready to go besides themselves with fear by reason whereof the Country was utterly depopulated no other habitation remaining therein save only fourscore and five Hermitages which were erected in memory of the fourscore and five thousand children whom the King had caused to be butchered through the evill counsell of his Priests CHAP. LXIIII. A continuation of the successe which we had in this voyage with my departure from Goa to Zunda and what passed during my abode there WE past two daies in this Hermitage where as I declared before we were very well entertained by the Hermite the third day after betimes in the morning we took our leave of him and departed from thence not a little afflicted with that which we had heard and so all the same day and the night following we continued on our way along by the river the next morning we arrived at a place where were a great many of sugar canes of which we took some for that we had nothing els to nourish us withall In this manner we marched still along by this river which we kept for a guide of our voyage because we judged that how long soever it were yet would it at last ingulfe it self in the Sea where we hoped that our Lord would raise us up some remedy for our miseries The day ensuing we arrived at a village called Pommiseray where we hid our selves in a very thick wood from being descried by passengers and two hours within night we continued our design in following the current of this river being resolved to take our death in good part if it should please God to send it us for to put an end to so many sufferings as we had undergone day and night and without lying
wherewith all the rivers and all the harbors are full The King naturally is no way given to tyranny The customs of all the Kingdome are charitably destinated for the maintenance of certain Pagodes where the duties that are paid are very easie for whereas the religious men are forbidden to trade with money they take no more of Merchants then what they will give them out of almes There are in this Country twelve Sects of Gentiles as in the Kingdome of Pegu and the King for a soveraigne title causeth himself to be called Prechau Saliu which in our tongue signifies A holy member of God He shewes not himself to the people save only twice in the year but then with so much riches and majesty as he hath power and greatnesse and yet for all this that I say he less not to acknowledge himself the vassall and tributarie to the King of China to the end that by means thereof his subjects Juncks may be admitted into the port of Combay where ordinarily they exercise their commerce There is also in this Kingdome a great quantity of Pepper Ginger Cinamon Camphire Allume Cassia Tamarinds and Cardamon so as one may truly affirm that which I have often heard say in those parts namely that this Kingdom is one of the best countries in the world and easier to be subdued then any other Province how little soever I could here report likewise many more particularities of things which I have seen only in the city of Odiaa but I am not minded to make mention of them that I may not beget in them that shall read this the same grief which I have for the losse which we made of it through our sins and the gain we might make in conquering this Kingdom CHAP. LXXI A continuation of that which happened in the Kingdome of Pegu as well during the life as after the death of the King of Bramaa TO return now unto the history which heretofore I have left you must know that after the King of Bramaa had obtained that memorable victory neer to Pegu as I have declared heretofore by means whereof he remained peaceable possessor of the whole Kingdom the first thing he imployed himself in was to punish the offendors which had formerly rebelled for which effect he cut off the heads of a great many of the Nobility and Commanders all whose estates were confiscated to the Crown which according to report amounted unto ten millions of gold besides plate and jewells whereby that common Proverb which was common in the mouths of all was verified namely That one mans offence cost many men very deare Whilest the King continued more and more in his cruelties and injustice which he executed against divers persons during the space of two moneths and a half certain newes came to him that the city of Martabano was revolted with the death of two thousand Bramaas and that the Chalogomin Governour of the same city had declared himself for the Xemindoo But that the cause of this revolt may be the better understood by such as are curious I will before I proceed any further succinctly relate how this Xemindoo had been of a religious order in Pegu a man of noble extraction and as some affirmed neer of kin to the precedent King whom this Bramaa had put to death twelve years before as I have already declared This Xemindoo had formerly to name Xoripam Xay a man of about forty five years of age of a great understanding and held by every one for a Saint he was withall very wel verst in the Laws of their Sects false Religion and had many excellent parts which rendered him so agreeable unto all that heard him preach as he was no sooner in the Pulpit but all the assistants prostrated themselves on the ground saying at every word that he uttered Assuredly God speaks in thee This Xemindoo seeing himself then in such great credit with the people spurred on by the generosity of his nature and the occasion which was then so favourable unto him resolved to try his fortune and see to what degree it might arrive To this end at such time as the King of Bramaa was fallen upon the kingdom of Siam and had laid siege to the city of Odiaa the Xemindoo preaching in the temple of Conquiay at Pegu which is as it were the Cathedrall of all the rest where there was a very great assembly of people he discoursed at large of the losse of this Kingdom of the death of their lawfull King as also of the great extortions cruell punishments and many other mischiefs which the Bramaas had done to their Nation with so many insolencies and with so many offences against God as even the very houses which had been founded by the charity of good people to serve for Temples wherein the Divine Word might be preached were all desolated and demolished or if any were found still standing they were made use of either for stables lay-stalls or other such places accustomed to lay filth or dung in These and many other such like things which the Xâ—mindoo delivered accompanied with many sighs and tears made so great an impression in the minds of the people as from thenceforward they acknowledged him for their lawfull King and swore allegeance unto him so that instead of calling him as they did before Xoripam Xay they named him Xemindoo as a soveraigne title which they gave him above all others Seeing himself raised then to the dignity of King the first thing during the heat and fury of this people was to go to the King of Bramaas palace where having found five thousand Bramaas he cut them all in pieces not sparing the life of one of them the like did he afterwards to all the rest of them that were abiding in the most important places of the State and withall he seized on the Kings treasure which was not small In this manner he slew all the Bramaas that were in the Kingdom which were fifteen thousand besides the women of that Nation of what age soever and seized on the places where they resided which were instantly demolished so that in the space of three and twenty dayes onely he became absolute possessor of the Kingdom and prepared a great Army to fight with the King of Bramaa if he should chance to return upon the bruit of this rebellion as indeed he fought with him to his great damage being defeated by him as I have heretofore declared And thus having methinks said enough for the intelligence of that which I am to recount I will come again to my first discourse This King of Braâ—aa being advertised of the revolt of the Town of Martabano and of the death of those two thousand Bramaaes gave order immediately to all the Lords of the Kingdome for their repair unto him with as many men as they could levy and that within the teâ—m of fifteen daies at the furthest in regard the present necessity would not indure a longer
where the Tanigores spake to them again about us and recommending us unto them more then before the Monteo caused our names to be written down in a book that lay before him and said unto us I do this because I am not so good a man as to give you something of mine own nor so bad as to deprive you of the sweat of your labour whereunto the King hath bound you wherefore even at this instant you shall begin to get your living although you do not serve as yet for the desire I have that this may be accounted to me for an alms so that now you have nothing to do but to be merry in my house where I will give order that you shall be provided of all that is necessary for you Besides this I will not promise you any thing for the fear I am in of the shewing some vanity by my promise and so the Divel may make use thereof as of an advantage to lay hold on me a matter that often arrives through the weakness of our nature wherefore let it suffice you for the present to know that I will be mindful of you for the love of these holy brethren here who have spoken to me for you The four Tanigores thereupon taking their leave gave us four Taeis and said unto us Forget not to render thanks unto God for the good success you have had in your business for it would be a grievous sin in you not to acknowledge so great a grace Thus were we very well entertained in the house of this Captain for the space of two months that we remained there at the end whereof we parted from thence for to go to Quansy where we were to make up our time under the conduct of this Captain who ever after used us very kindly and shewed us many favours untill that the Tartars entred into the Town who did a world of mischief there as I will more amply declare hereafter Before I recount that which happened unto us after we were imbarqued with those Chineses that conducted us and that gave us great hope of setting us at liberty I think it not amiss to make a brief relation here of the City of Pequin which may truly be termed the capital of the Monarchy of the world as also of some particulars I observed there as well for its arches and policy as for that which concerns its extent its government the laws of the Country and the admirable manner of providing for the good of the whole State together in what sort they are paid that serve in the time of war according to the Ordinances of the Kingdom and many other things like unto these though I must needs confess that herein I shall want the best part namely wit and capacity to render a reason in what clymate it is scituated and in the heigth of how many degrees which is a matter the learned and curious most desire to be satisfied in But my designe having never been other as I have said heretofore then to leave this my book unto my children that therein they may see the sufferings I have undergone it little imports me to write otherwise then I do that is in a gross and rude manner for I hold it better to treat of these things in such sort as nature hath taught me then to use Hyperboles and speeches from the purpose whereby the weakness of my poor understanding may be made more evident Howbeit since I am obliged to make mention of this matter by the promise I have made of it heretofore I say that this City which we call Pequin and they of the Country Pequin is scituated in the heighth of forty and one degrees of Northerly latitude the walls of it are in circuit by the report of the Chineses themselves and as I have read in a little book treating of the greatness thereof and intituled Aquisendan which I brought since along with me into Portugal thirty large leagues namely ten long and five broad Some others hold that it is fifty namely seventeen in length and eight in bredth and forasmuch as they that intreat of it are of different opinions in that the one make the extent of it thirty leagues as I have said before and others fifty I will render a reason of this doubt conformable to that which I have seen my self It is true that in the manner it is now built it is thirty leagues in circuit as they say for it is invironed with two rows of strong walls where there are a number of towers and bulwarks after our fashion But without this circuit which is of the City it self there is another far greater both in length and bredth that the Chineses affirm was anciently all inhabited but at this present there are only some Boroughs and Villages as also a many of fair houses or castles about it amongst the which there are sixteen hundred that have great advantages over the rest and are the houses of the Proctors of the sixteen hundred Cities and most remarkable Towns of the two and thirty Kingdoms of this Monarchy who repair unto this City at the general Assembly of the Estates which is held every three years for the publique good Without this great inclosure which as I have said is not comprehended in the City there is in a distance of three leagues broad and seven long fourscore thousand Tombs of the Mandarins which are little Chappels all guilded within and compassed about with Ballisters of iron and latin the entries whereinto are through very rich and sumptuous arches near to these Chappels there are also very great houses with gardens and tufted woods of high trees as also many inventions of ponds fountains and aqueducts whereunto may be added that the walls of the inclosure are on the inside covered with fine porcelain and on the fanes above are many Lions pourtrayed in gold as also in the squares of the steeples which are likewise very high and embellished with pictures It hath also five hundred very great Palaces which are called the houses of the Son of the Sun whither all those retire that have been hurt in the Wars for the service of the King as also many other souldiers who in regard of age or sickness are no longer able to bear arms and to the end that during the rest of their days they may be exempted from incommodity each of them receives monthly a certain pay to find himself withall and to live upon Now all these men of War as we learned of the Chineses are ordinarily an hundred thousand there being in each of those houses two hundred men according to their report We saw also another long street of low houses where there were four and twenty thousand oar-men belonging to the King Panoures and another of the same structure a good league in length where fourteen thousand Taverners that followed the Court dwelt as also a third street like unto the other two where live a great number