that we were poor strangers which had been cast away by a storm at sea wherefore they had committed a great sin to imprison and handle us in that sort The report of this man wrought so effectually with them that we were presently taken out of the cistern being all gore blood with the sucking of the horse-leeches and I verily believe that if we had stayed there but one day longer we had all of us been dead So we departed from this place about evening and bewayling our bad fortune continuing on our voyage After our departure from Xianguulea we arrived at a Village inhabited by very poor people where we met with three men that were pilling Flax who as soon as they saw us forsook their work and fled hastily away into a wood of Firr trees there they cryed out to those that passed by to take heed of us for that we wâ—re thieves whereupon fearing to incur the same danger whence we so lately escaped we got us away presently from that place although it was almost night and continued our journie in the rain and the dark without knowing whither we went till we came to a gate where Cattel were kept and there we lay the rest of the night upon a little heap of dung the next morning as soon as it was day we got again into the way which we had left and not long after we discovered from the top of a little hill a great plain full of trees and in the midst thereof a very fair House hard by a River whither forthwith we went and sate us down by a fountain that was before the outer gate where we remained two or three hours without seeing any body at length a young Gentleman about sixteen or seventeen years of age came riding upon a very good Horse accompanied with four men on foot whereof one carried two Hares and another five Nivatores which are Fowls resembling our Phesants with a Gos-Hawk on his fist and three or four couple of Spaniels at their heels when this Gentleman came at us he staid his Horse to ask us who we were and whether we would have any thing with him Hereunto we answered as well as we could and made him an ample Relation of the whole event of our shipwrack whereat he seemed to be very sorry as we could gather by his countenance so that ere he went Stay there said he unto us for by and by I will send you what you have need of and that for his sake that with a glory of great riches lives raigning in the highest of all the Heavens A little after he sent an old woman for us which was apparelled in a long garment with a Chaplet hanging down on her neck the good Dame coming to us The son of him said she whom me hold for Master in this house and whose Rice we eaâ— hath sent for you follow me then with all humlity to the end you may not seem idle fellows to those that shall see you and such as beg onely to be exempted from getting your living by the labour of your hands This said we entred with her into an outward court all about invironed with Galleries as if it had been some Cloister of Religious persons on the walls whereof were painted divers women on Horseback going on hunting with Hawks on their fists over the gate of this Court was a great arch very richly engraven in the midst whereof hung a Scutcheon of Arms in the fashion of a shield fastned to a silver chaiâ— within it was a man painted almost in the form of a Tortois with the feet up and the head downwards and round about it these words were read for a device Ingualec finguau potim aquarau that is to say So is it with all that appertains to me We learnt afterwards that by this Monster the Figure of the world was represented which the Chineses depaint in this manner to demonstrate that there is nothing in it but falshood and so to dis-abuse all them that make such account of it by making them to see how all things in it are turned upside down Out of this Court we went up a broad pair of stairs made of fair hewed stone and entred into a great Hall where a woman of about fiftie years of age was set upon a Tapestry Carpet having two young Gentlewomen by her side that were exceeding fair and richly apparelled with chains of Pearl about their necks and hard by them was a reverend old man laid upon a little bed whom one of the two Gentlewomen fanned with a Vâ—ntiloe at his Beds head stood the young Gentleman that had sent for us and a little further off upon another Carpet nine young maids clothed in Crimson and white Damask sate sowing as soon as we came before the old man we fell on our knees and asked an almes of him beginning our speech with tears and in the best terms that the time and our necessities could inspire us with whereupon the old Lady beckning to us with her hand Come weep no more said she for it grieves me much to see you shed so many tears it is sufficient that I know you desire an almes of us then the old man that lay in the bed spake unto us and demanded whether any of us knew what was good for a Fever Whereat the young Gentlewoman that fanned him not able to forbear smiling Sir said she they have more need that you would be pleased to give order for the satisfying of their hunger then to be questioned about a matter which it is likely they are ignorant of wherefore me thinks it were better first to give them what they want and afterwards to talk with them about that which concerns them lesse For these words the Mother reprehending her Go to said she you will ever be prating when you should not but surely I shall make you leave this custome whereunto the daughter smiling replied That you shall when you please but in the mean time I beseech you let these poor strangers have something to eat For all this the old man would not give over questioning us for he demanded of us who we were of what country and whither we were going besides many other such like things To which we answered as occasion required and recounted unto him how whâ—n and in what place we had suffered shipwrack as also how many of our company were drowned and that thus wandring we travelled up and down not knowing whither to addresse our selves This answer rendred the old man pensive for a while until at length turning him to his son Well now said he unto him what thinkest thou of that which thou hast heard these strangers deliver It were good for thee to imprint it well in thy memory to the end it may teach thee to know God better and give him thanks for that he hath given thee a Father who to exempt thee from the labours and necessities of this life hath parted with three of
aâ—ter being not able either to go forward or turn aside by reason of the bogs round about us all covered over with rushes In the mean time one of our companions dyed whose name was Bastian Anriques a rich man and that had lost eight thousand crownâ— in the Lanchara in so much that of all the company we were before there remained none but Christovano Borralho and my self that with tears sat lamenting over the poor dead mans body which we had covered with a little earth as well as we could for we were then so weak that we could hardly stir or almost speak so as we had set up our rest to make an end of those few hours we hoped to live in that place The next day being the seventh of our disaster about Sun-set we espyed a great Barque coming rowing up the River whereupon as soon as it was near us we prostrated our selves on the ground beseeching those that were aboard her to take us in They wondering at us presently made a stand seeming much amazed to see us so on our knees and our hands lift up to Heaven as though we were at our prayers nevertheless without speaking at all to us they made as if they would go on which constrained us afresh to cry aloud to them with tears that they would not suffer us for want of succor to dye miserably there Upon thosâ— our cries and lamentations an ancient woman came forth from under the hatches whose grave countenance represented her to be such as afterwards we found her to be she seeing us in so pitiful a plight moved with our misfortune and our wounds that we shewed her she took up a stick and therewith struck three or four of the Mariners because they would not take us in whereupon approaching to the bank five or six of them leapt on shore and by her commandment took us upon their shoulders and carryed us into the Barque This honorable woman much grieved to behold us so hurt and our shirts and linnen drawers all bloody and mired caused them straightway to be washed and having given each of us a linnen cloth to cover us withall she would needs have us to sit down by her where commanding meat to be brought us she her self presenting it to us with her own hand Eat eat said she poor strangers and be not afflicted to see yâ—ur selves reduced unto the estate you are in for I whom now you look upon and that am but a woman not having as yet attained to the age of fifty years have seen my self a slave and despoyled of above an hundred thousand duckets worth of goods Nor is that all for to this misfortune was the death of three of my sons adjoyned and that of my husband whom I held far more dearer then these eyes of mine these eyes alass wherewith I beheld both the father and the sons torn in pieces by the King of Siams Elephants together with two brothers and a son-in-law I had Ever since I have had a languishing life and to all these miseries have many others far greater succeeded for so implacable hath fortune been unto me that I have seen three daughters of mine ready to be marryed as also my father mother and two and thirty of my kinsmen nephews and cousins thrown into burning furnaces where their cries and lamentations could not chuse but reach unto Heaven for God to succor them in the violence of that insupportable torment but alass the enormity of my sins no doubt so stopped the ears of the clemency of the Lord of Lords that he would not heaâ— our request which seemed very just to me nevertheless I deceived my self since nothing is just but what it pleaseth his divine Majesty to ordain Hereunto we answered that the sins which we also had committed against him were the cause of our calamities Seeing it is so replyed she mingling her tears with ours it is always good in your adversities to acknowledg that the touches of the hand of God are evermore righteous for both in that as also in a confession of the mouth in a sorrow for having offended and in a firm resolution to do so no more consisteth all the remedy of your sufferings and mine Having entertained us thus with the discourse of her misfortune she enquired of us the occasion of ours and by what means we came to be in that miserable estate whereupon we recounted unto her all that had past and that we neither knew who it was that had so ill intreated us nor wherefore he did it Her people hearing us said that the great Junk whereof we spake belonged to a Mahometan a Guzarat by Nation named Coia Acem who the same morning went out of the River laden with Brazil and was bound for the Isle of Ainan Hereat the good woman smote her brest and seeming to be much moved Let me not live said she if it be not so for I have heard that Mahometan of whom you speak vaunt publiquely before all that would give ear unto him that he had sâ—ain a great number of the race of those of Malaca and that he hated them in such sort as he had promised to his Mahomet to kill more of them in time Being amazed hereat we desired her to declare unto us who that man was and why he was so much our enemy whereunto she answered that she knew no other reason but for that a great Captain of our Nation named Hector de Sylvâ—ira had killed his father and two of his brothers in a ship which he took from them in the straight of Mâ—cqua that was going from Iudas to Dabul Thus much did this good Matron tell us and many other things afterwards concerning the great hatred this Mahometan bore us as also what lyes he devised to render us infamous This honorable woman departing from the place where she found us went some two leagues up the River till she came to a little Village where she lay that night The next morning parting from thence she made directly to the Town of Lugor which was above five leagues further Arriving there about noon she landed and went to her house whither she carryed us with her and kept us there three and twenty days during which time we were very well looked unto and plentifully accommodated with all that was necessary for us This woman was a widow and of an honorable family as afterwards we learnt and that had been marryed to the Captain General which they call Xabandar of Prevedim whom the Pata of Lasapara King of Quaijuan had put to death in the Isle of Iaoa the year 1538. At the time she met with us as I have related she came from a Junk of hers that lay at the Road laden with Salt and because it was great and could not pass up by reason of the shelves she caused it to be unladen by little and little with thaâ— Barque By that time the three and twenty days I spake of were expired it
requisite for the purging of him from so enormous a crime Hereunto the Hermit answered Pleaseth the Lord who living reigneth above the beauty of the stars that the knowledge which by this discourse thou shewest to have be not prejudiciall unto thee For I be assured that he who knows these things and doth them not runs a far greater danger than he that sins through ignorance Then one of ours named Nuno Coelho who would needs have an oar in our talk told him that he was not to be angry for a matter of so small importance whereunto the Hermit beholding him with so stern a countenance answered Certainly the fear which thou hast of death is yet lesse since thou imployest thy selfe in actions as infamous and black as the soul that is in thy body and for my part I cannot but be perswaded that all thy ambition is wholly placed upon money as but too well appears by the the thirst of thy insatiable avarice whereby thou wilt make an end of heaping up the measure of thine infernal appetite Continue then thy theeveries for seeing then thou must go to hell for that which thou hast already taken out of this holy house thou shalt also go thither for those things which thou shalt steal otherwise so the heavier the burden shall be that thou bearest the sooner shalt thou be precipitated into the bottom of hell where already thy wicked works have prepared thee an everlasting abode Hereupon Nuno de Coelho prayed him to take all things patiently affirming that the Law of God commanded him so to do Then the Hermit lift up his hand by way of admiration and as it were smiling at what the souldier had said Truly answered he I am come to see that I never thought to see or hear namely evil actions disguised with a specious pretext of vertue which makes me believe that thy blindnesse is exceeding great since trusting to good words thou spendest thy life so wickedly wherefore it is not possible thou shouldest ever come to Heaven or give any account to God at the last day as of necessity they must do Saying so he turned him to Antonio de Faria without attending further answer from him and earnestly desired him not to suffer his company to spit upon and prophane the altar which he vowed was more grievous to him then the induring of a thousand deaths whereupon to satisfie him he presently commanded the forbearance of it wherewith the Hermit was somewhat comforted Now because it grew late Antonio de Faria resolved to leave the place but before he departed he held it necessary to inform himself of certain other particulars whereof he stood in some doubt so that he deserved of the Hermit how many persons there might be in all those Hermitages whereunto Hiticon answered that there were about three hundred and threescore Talagrepos besides forty Menigrepos appointed to furnish them with things requisite for their maintenance and to attend them when they were sick moreover he asked him whether the King of China came not somtimes thither he told him No for said he the King cannot be condemned by any body he is the son of the Sun but contrarily he had power to absolve every one Then he enquired of him if there were any arms in their Hermitages O no answered the Hermit for all such as pretend to go to heaven have more need of patience to indure injuries then of arms to revenge themselves Being also desirous to know of him the cause why so much silver was mingled with the bones of the dead This silver replied the Hermit comes of the alms that the deceased carry with them out of this into the other life for to serve them at their need in the heaven of the Moon where they live eternally In conclusion having demanded of him whither they had any women he said That they which would maintain the life of their souls ought not to taste the pleasures of the flesh seeing experience made it apparent that the Bee which nourisheth her self in an hony-comb dâ—th often sting such as offer to meddle with that sweetness After Antonio de Faria had propounded all these questions he took his leave of him and so went directly to his ships with an intention to return again the next day for to set upon the other Hermitages where as he had been told was great abundance of silver and certain Idols of gold but our sins would not permit us to see the effect of a business which we had been two months and an halfe a purchasing with so much labor and danger of our lives as I will deliver hereafter At the clearing up of the day Antonio de Faria and all of us being embarqued we went and anchored on the other side of the Island about a faulcon shot from it with an intent as I have before declared to go a shore again the next morning and set upon the Chappels where the Kings of China were interred that so we might the more commodiously lade our two vessels with such treasures which peradventure might have succeeded according to our desires if the business had been well carried and that Antonio de Faria had followed the counsel was given him which was that since we had not been as yet discovered that he should have carried the Hermit away with him to the end he might not acquaint the House of the Bonzos with what we had done howbeit he would never hearken to it saying that we were to fear nothing that way by reason the Hermit was so old and his legs so swoln with the gout as he was not able to stand much less to go But it fell out clean contrary to his expectation for the Hermit no sooner saw us imbarqued as we understood afterwards but he presently crawled as well as he could to the next Hermitage which was not above a flight shoot from his and giving intelligence of all that had past he bad his companion because himself was not able to go away with all speed to the Bonzoâ—s house to acquaint them with it which the other instantly performed so that about midnight we saw a great many of fires lighted on the top of the wall of the Temple where the Kings were buried being kindled to serve for a signal to the Countrey about of some extraordinary danger towards This made us ask of our Chineses what they might mean who answered that assuredly we were discovered in regard wherof they advised us without any longer stay to set sail immediatly Herewith they acquainted Antonio de Faria who was fast asleep but he straightway arose and leaving his anchor in the sea rowed directly afraid as he was to the Island for to learn what was done there Being arrived near to the Key he heard many bels ringing in each Hermitage together with a noise of men talking whereupon the Chineses that accompanied him said Sir never stand to hear or see more but retire we beseech you as fast as
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
the way were two rows of low houses like unto great Churches with steeples all guilt and divers inventions of painting Of these houses the Chineses assured us there was in that place three thousand all which from the very top to the bottom were full of dead mâ—ns skuls a thing so strange that in every mans judgment a thousand great shops could hardly contain them Behind these houses both on the one side and the other were two great Mounts of dead mens bones reaching far above the ridges of the houses full as long as the street and of a mighty bredth These bones were ordered and disposed one upon another so curiously and aptly that they seemed to grow there Having demanded of the Chineses whether any register was kept of these bones they answered there was for the Talagrepos unto whose charge the administration of these three thousond houses was commited enrolled them all and that none of these houses yieldâ—d less then two thousand Taeis revenue out of such lands as the owners of these bones had bequeathed to them for their souls health and that the rent of all these three thousand houses together amounted unto five millions of gold yearly whereof the King had four and the Talagrepos the other for to defray the expences of this Fabrick and that the four appertained to the King as their Support who dispenced them in the maintenance of the three hundred thousand prisoners of Xinanguibaleu Being amazed at this marvel we began to go along this street in the midst whereof we found a great Piazza compassed about with two huge grates of lattin and within it was an Adder of brass infolded into I know not how many boughts and so big that it contained thirty fathom in circuit being withall so ugly and dreadful as no words are able to describe it Some of us would estimate the weight of it and the least opinions reached to a thousand quintals were it hollow within as I believe it was Now although it was of an unmeasurable greatness yet was it in every part so well proportioned as nothing can be amended whereunto also the workmanship thereof is so correspondent that all the perfection which can be desired from a good workman is observed in it This monstrous Serpent which the Chinese call The gluttonous Serpent of the house of smoak had on the top of his head a bowl of iron two and fifty foot in circumference as if it had been thrown at him from some other place Twenty paces further was the figure of a man of the same brass in the form of a Gyant in like manner very strange and extraordinary as well for the greatness of the body as the hugeness of the limbs This Monster held an iron bowl just as big as the other aloft in both his hands and beholding the Serpent with a frowning and angry countenance he seemed as though he would throw this bowl at him Round about this figure was a number of little idols all guilt on their knees with their hands lifted up to him as if they would adore him All this great edifice was consecrated to the honour of this Idol called Mucluparon whom the Chineses affirmed to be the treasurer of all the dead mens bones and that when the gluttonous Serpent before mentioned came to steal them away he made at him with that bowl which he held in his hands whereupon the Serpent in great fear fled immediately away to the bottom of the profound house of smoak whither God had precipitated him for his great wickedness and further that he had maintained a combate with him three thousand years already and was to continue the same three thousand years more so that from three thousand to three thousand years he was to imploy five bowls wherewith he was to make an end of killing him Hâ—reunto they added that as soon as this Serpent should be dead the bones that were there assembled would return into the bodies to which they appertained formerly and so should go and remain for ever in the house of the Moon To these brutish opinions they joyn many others such like unto which they give so much faith that nothing can be able to remove them from it for it is the doctrine that is preached unto them by their Bonzes who also tell them that the true way to make a soul happy is to gather these bones together into this place by means whereof there is not a day passes but that a thousand or two of these wretches bones are brought thither Now if some for their far distance cannot bring all the bones whole thither they will at leastwise bring a tooth or two and so they say that by way of an alms they make as good satisfaction as if they brought all â—he rest which is the reason that in all these chunel houses there is such an infinite multitude of these teeth that one might lade many ships with them We saw in a great Plain without the walls of this City another building very sumptuous and rich which they call Nacapirau that is to say the Queen of Heaven for it is the opinion of these blinded wretches that our Lord above is married like the Kings here below and that the children which he hath had by the Nacapirau are the Stars we see twinkling in the Firmament by night and that when any exhalation comes to dissolve in the air they say that it is one of his children that is dead whereof his other brothers are so grieved that they shed such abundance of tears as the earth is watered therewith by which means God provides us of our living as it were in manner of alms bestowed for the souls of the deceased But letting pass these and other such like fooleries I will only intreat of such particulars as we observed in this great Edifice whereof the first was one hundred and forty Convents of this accursed Religion both of men and women in each of which there are four hundred persons amounting in all to six and fifty thousand besides an infinite number of religious servants that are not obliged to their vow of profession that are within who for a mark of their Priestly dignity are clothed in violet with green stars on them having their head beard and eye-brows shaven and wearing beads about their necks to pray with but for all that they crave no alms by reason they have revenue enough to live on The next was an inclosure within this huge building a league in circuit the walls whereof were built upon arches vaults of strong hewed stone and underneath them were Galleries invironed all about with ballisters of lattin within this inclosure at a gate through which we past we saw under most deformed figures the two porters of hell at least they believe so calling the one Bacharon and the other Quagifau both of them with iron clubs in their hands and so hideous and horrible to see to that it is impossible to behold them
to the King of Bramaa and the cruel proceeding against the Queen of Martabano and the Ladies her Attendants ABout one of the clock in the afternoon a Cannon was shot off which was the Signal for the instant opening of the gates of the City whereupon first of all issued out the Souldiers whom the King had sent thither for the guard of it being four thousand Siams and Bramaas all Harquebusiers Halberdiers and Pikemen with above three hundred armed Elephants all which were commanded by a Bramaa Uncle to the King named Monpocasser Bainba of the City of Melietay Ten or eleven paces after this Guard of Elephants marched divers Princes and great Lords whom the King had sent to receive the Chaubainhaa all mounted on Elephants richly harnessed with Chairs upon their backs plated over with gold and Collars of precious stones about their necks Then followed at some eight or nine paces distance the Rolim of Monnay Soveraign Talapoy of all the Priests of the Kingdom and held in the reputation of a Saint who went alone with the Chaubainhaa as a Mediatour between the King and him immediately after them came in a close Chair carried upon mens shoulders Nhay Canatoo the daughter of the King of Pegu from whom this Bramaa had taken his Kingdom and wife to the Chaubainhaa having with her four small children namely two boyes and two girls whereof the eldest was not seven years old round about her and them went some thirty or forty young women of noble extraction and wonderful fair with cast down looks and tears in their eyes leaning upon other women After them marched in order certain Talagrepos which are amongst them as the Capuchins with us who bare-foot and bare-headed went along praying holding beads in their hands and ever and anon comforting those Ladies the best they could and casting water in their faces for to bring them to themselves again when as they fainted which they did very often A spectacle so lamentable as it was not possible to behold it without shedding of tears This desolate Company was attended by another Guard of Foot and five hundred Bramaas on Horse-back The Chaubainhaa was mounted on a little Elephant in signe of poverty and contempt of the world conformable to the Religion which he intended to enter into being simply apparelled in a long Cassock of black velvet as a mark of his mourning having his beard head and eye-brows shaven with an old cord about his neck so to render himself to the King In this Equipage he appeared so sad and afflicted that one could not forbear weeping to behold him As for his age he was about some threescore and two yeers old tall of Stature with a grave and severe look and the countenance of a generous Prince As soon as he was arrived at a place which was near to the gate of the City where a great throng of women children and old men waited for him when they saw him in so deplorable an estate they all made seven times one after another so loud and dreadful a cry as if Heaven and earth would have come together Now these lamentations and complaints were presently seconded with such terrible blows that they gave themselves without pity on their faces with stones as they were most of them all of a gore blood In the mean time things so horrible to behold and mournful to hear so much afflicted all the Assistants that the very Bramaas of the Guard though men of war and consequently but little inclined to compassion being also enemies to the Chaubainhaa could not forbear weeping It was likewise in this place where Nhay Cauatoo and all the other Ladies that attended on her fainted twice by reason whereof they were fain to let the Chaubainhaa alight from his Elephant for to go and comfort her whereupon seeing her lying upon the ground in a swoon with her four children in her arms he kneeled down on both his knees and looking up to Heaven with his eyes full of tears O mighty Power of God cryed he who is able to comprehend the righteous judgements of thy divine Iustice in that thou having no regard to the innocency of these little creatures givest way to thy wrath which passeth far beyond the reach of our weak capacities but remember O Lord who thou art and not what I am This said he fell with his face on the ground near to the Queen his wife which caused all the Assembly who were without number to make another such loud and horrible cry as my words are not able to express it The Chaubainhaa then took water in his mouth and spurted it on his wife by which means he brought her to her self again and so taking her up in his arms he fell a comforting her with speeches so full of zeal and devotion as any one that heard him would have taken him rather for a Christian then a Gentile After he had employed about half an hours time therein and that they had remounted him on his Elephant they proceeded on their way in the same orderas they held before and as soon as the Chaubainhaa was out of the City gate and came to the streets which was formed of the several Companies of the strangers ranked in two Files he by chance cast his eye on that side where the seven hundred Portugals were all of them in their best clothes with their buffe-coats great feathers in their Caps and their Haâ—quebuses on their shoulders as also Ioano Cayeyro â—n the middest of them in a Carnation Satin Suit and a guilt Parâ—isan in his hand wherewith he made room the afflicted Prince no sooner knew him but he presently fell down on the Elephant and there standing still without passing on he said with tears in his eyes to those that were about him My brethren and good friends I protest unto you that it is a less grief unto me to make this sacrifice of my self which the divine Iustice of God permits me to make him this day then to look upon men so wicked and ingrateful as these same here are either kill me then or send these away for otherwise I will not stir a foot further Having said so he turned away his face three times that he might not behold us thereby shewing the great spleen that he bore us and indeed all things well considered there was a great deal of reason that he should carry himself in that sort towards us in regard of that which I have related before In the mean time the Captain of the Guard seeing the stay which the Chaubainhaa had made and understanding the cause why he would not go on though he could not imagine wherefore he complained so of the Portugals yet he hastily turned his Elephant towards Cayeyro and giving him a scurvy look Geâ— you gone said he and that instantly for such wicked men as you are do not deserve to stand on any ground that bears fruit and I pray God to pardon him which hath put
and untunably and the Grepo Capizondo set on his head a rich Crown of gold and precious stones of the fashion of a Miter wherewith the King made his entry into the City with a great deal of state and tryumph causing to march before him all the spoile of the elephants and chariots as also the statue of the Xemindoo whom he had vanquished bound with a great yron chain and forty Colours trayled on the ground As for him he was seated on a very mighty elephant harnessed with gold and invironed with forty Serjeants at armes bearing Maces there marched likewise all the great Lords and Commanders on foot with their Scymitars covered with plates of gold which they carried on their shouldiers and three thousand fighting elephants with their Castles of divers inventions besides a world of other people as well foot as horse which followed him without number CHAP. LXXIV The finding of the Xemindoo and bringing of him to the King with the manner of his execution and death and other particularities concerning the same AFter that the King of Bramaa had continued peaceably in this Citie of Pegu for the space of six and twenty daies the first thing he did was to make himself Master of the principal places of this Kingdome which not knowing the defeat of the Xemindoo held still for him To this purpose having given Commission to some Commanders for it hee wrote to the inhabitants of those places divers courteous Letters wherein he called them his dear children and gave them an abolition of all that was past He also promised them by a solemn oath to maintain them in peace for the time to come and alwayes to minister justice to them without any Imposts or other oppression but that hee would contrarily do them new favours as to the very Bramaas which served him in the Warres To these words hee added many others very well accommodated to the time and his desire for the better crediting whereof they that were already reduced under his obedience wrote their Letters also unto them wherein they made an ample relation of the Franchises and Immunities which the King had granted to them All this accompanied with the same which ran thereof in all parts wrought so great an effect as all those places rendred unto him and put themselves under his obedience so that in imitation of them all the other Cities Towns States and Provinces that were in the Kingdom did the like For my part I hold that this Kingdome whereof the King of Bramaa made at this time a new Conquest is the best the most abundant and richest in Gold in Silver and precious Stones that may be found in any part of the world Things being thus accomplished to the great advantage of the Bramaa he dispatches divers Horsemen with all speed into all parts to go in quest of the Xemindoo who as I have already declared had escaped from the past Battel and was so unhappy that he was discovered in a place named Fauleu a league from the Town of Potem which separates the Kingdom from Aracam Presently whereupon he was lead with great joy by a man of base condition to this King of Bramaa who in recompence thereof gave him thirty thousand Duckats of yeerly rent Being brought before him bound as he was with an iron coller and manacles he said unto him in way of derision Thou art welcome King of Pegu and maist well kisse the ground which thou seest for I assure thee I have set my foot on it whereby thou mayest perceive how much I am thy Friend since I do thee an honour which thou couldst never imagine To these words the Xemindoo made no answer so that the King falling to jeer this miserable man anew vvho lay before him with his face on the ground said unto him What means this Art thou amazed to see me or to see thy self in so great honour Or what is the matter that thou dost not answer to that which I demand of thee After this affront the Xemindoo whether it were that he was troubled with his misfortunes or ashamed of his dishonour answered him in this sort If the clouds of Heaven the Sun the Moon and the other creatures which cannot expresse in words that which God hath created for the service of man and for the beautifying of the Firmament which hides from us the rich treasures of his power could naturally with the horrible voice of their dreadfull Thunder explain to them which now look upon me the estate whereunto I see my self reduced before thee and the extreme affliction which my soul doth suffer they would answer for me and declare the cause I have to be mute in the condition wherein my sins have set me and whereas thou canst not be Iudg of that which I say being the party that accusest me and the minister of the execution of thy designe I hold my self for excused if I do not make thee an answer as I would do before that blessed Lord who how faulty soever I could be would have pitie on me moved with the least tear that I should shed This said he fell down with his face on the ground and twice together asked for a little water Whereupon the King of Bramaa the more to afflict him commanded that the Xemindoo should receive this water from the hand of a Daughter of his held by him as a slave whom he exceedingly loved and had at that time of his defeat promised to the Prince of Nautir Son to the King of Avaa The Princesse no sooner saw her Father lying in that manner on the ground but she cast her self at his feet and straitly embracing him after shee had kissed him thrice she said to him with her eyes all bathed in tears O my Father my Lord and my King I intreat you for the extreme affection which I have alwayes born you and for that also which you have at all times shewed to me that you will be pleased to lead me with you thus imbracing you as I do to the end that in this sad passage you may have one to comfort you with a cup of water now that for my sins the world refuses you that respect which is due unto you It is said that the Father would fain have answered to these words yet could not possibly do it so much was he oppressed with grief and anguish of minde to see this Daughter whom he so dearly loved in such a taking but fell as it were in a swoun and so continued a good vvhile vvherewith some Lords that were there present vvere so moved as the tears came into their eyes vvhich observed by the King of Bramaa and that they vvere Pegues vvho had formerly been the Xemindoo's Subjects fearing lest they should betray him in time to come he caused their heads to be presently strucken off saying vvith a disdainfull and fierce countenance Seeing you have so great pitie of the Xemindoo your King get you before and prepare a
with the continuance of our Voyage and what we saw during the same 241 CHAP. LX. Our arrival at Pegu with the death of the Roolim of Mounay 245 CHAP. LXI The Election of the new Roolim of Mounay the grand Talagrepo of these Gentiles of the Kingdom of Pegu. 248 CHAP. LXII In what manner the Roolim of Mounay was conducted to the Isle of Mounay and put into possession of his Dignity 252 CHAP. LXIII A continuation of the success which we had in this Voyage with my departure from Goa to Zunda and what passed during my abode there 255 CHAP. LXIV The expedition of the Pangueyram Emperor of Jaoâ— and King of Demaa against the King of Passervan and all that which passed in this War 258 CHAP. LXV The death of the King of Demaa by a very strange accident and that which arrived thereupon 263 CHAP. LXVI That which befell us until our departure towards the Port of Zunda from whence we set sail for China and what afterwards happened unto us 266 CHAP. LXVII My passing from Zunda to Siam where in the company of Portugals I went to the War of Chyamay and that which the King of Siam did until he returned into his Kingdom where his Queen poysoned him 269 CHAP. LXVIII The lamentable death of the King of Siam with certain illustrious and memorable things done by him during his life and many other accidents which arrived in that Kingdom 273 CHAP. LXIX The King of Bramaa's enterprize against the Kingdom of Siam and that which past until his arrival at the City of Odiâ—â— with his besieging of it and all that insued thereupon 278 CHAP. LXX The King of Bramaa's raising his siege from before the City of Odiaâ— with a description of the Kingdom of Siam and the fertility thereof 283 CHAP. LXXI A continuation of that which happened in the Kingdom of Pegu as well during the life as after the death of the King of Bramaa 286 CHAP. LXXII That which arrived in the time of Xemin de Satan and an abominable case that happened to Diego Suarez together with the Xemindooes expedition against Xemin de Satan and that which insued thereupon 289 CHAP. LXXIII That which the Xemindoo did after he was crowned King of Pegu with the Chaumigreâ—s the King of Bramaa's Foster-brothers marching against him with a great Army and divers other memorable things 295 CHAP. LXXIV The finding of the Xemindoo and bringing him to the King of Bramaa with the manner of his execution and death and other particularities concerning the same 301 CHAP. LXXV My imbarquing in the Kingdom of Pegu to go to Malaca and from thence to Japon with a strange accident which arrived there 305 CHAP. LXXVI Our passing from the Town of Fucheo to the Port of Hiamangoo and â—hat which befell us there together with my departure from Malaca and arrival at Goa 310 CHAP. LXXVII Father Belquiors and my departure from the Indiaes to go to Japon and that which befell us till my arrival at the Island of Champeiloo 312 CHAP. LXXVIII Our departure from the Island of Champeiloo and our arrival at that of Lampacau with a relation of two great disasters which happened in China unto two Portugal Colonies and of a strange accident besides that fell out in the Country 314 CHAP. LXXIX Our arrival in the Kingdom of Bungo and that which past thereupon 318 CHAP. LXXX My reception by the King of Bungo as Embassador from the Vice-Roy of the Indiaes 321 CHAP. LXXXI What past after our departure from Zequa till my arrival in the Indiaes and from thence into the Kingdom of Portugal 323 THE Travels Voyages Adventures OF Ferdinand Mendez Pinto CHAP. I. After what manner I past my Youth in the Kingdom of Portugal until my going to the Indiaes SO often as I represent unto my self the great and continual Travels that have accompanied me from my birth and amidst the which I have spenâ— my first years I find that I have a great deal of reason to complain of Fortune for that she seemeth to have taken a particular care to persecute me and to make me feel that which is most insupportable in her as if her glory had no other foundation then her cruelty For not content to have made me be born and to live miserably in my Country during my youth she conducted me notwithstanding the fear I had of the dangers that menaced me to the East Indiaes where in stead of the relief which I went thither to seek she made me find an increase of my pains according to the increase of my age Since then it hath pleased God to deliver me from so many dangers and to protect me from the fury of that adverse Fortune for to bring me into a Port of safety and assurance I see that I have not so much cauâ—e to complain of my Travels past as I have to render him thanks for the benefits which until now I have received of him seeing that by his divine bounty he hath preserved my life to the end I might have means to leave this rude and unpolished Discourse unto my children for a memorial and an inheritance For my intention is no other but to write it for them that they may behold what strange fortunes I have run for the space of one and twenty years during the which I was thirteen times a captive and seventeen times sold in the Indiaes in Aethiopia in Arabia in China in Tartaria in Madagascar in Sumatra and in divers other Kingdoms and Provinces of that Oriental Archipalage upon the Confines of Asia which the Chineses Siames Guâ—os and Lecquios name and that with reason in their Geography the eye-lids of the World whereof I hope to entreat more particularly and largely hereafter Whereby men for the time to come may take example and a resolution not to be discouraged for any crosses that may arrive unto them in the course of their lives For no disgrace of Fortune ought to esloign us never so little from the duty which we are bound to render unto God because there is no adversity how great soever but the nature of man may well undergo it being favored with the assistance of Heaven Now that others may help me to praise the Lord Almighty for the infinite mercy he hath shewed me without any regard to my sins which I confess were the cause and original of all my mis-fortunes and that from the same divine Power I received strength and courage to resist them escaping out of so many dangers with my life saved I take for the beginning of my Voyage the time which I spent in this Kingdom of Portugal and say That after I had lived there till I was about eleven or twelve years old in the misery and poverty of my fathers house within the Town of Monte-mor Ovelho an Uncle of mine desirous to advance me to a better fortune then that whereunto I was reduced at that time and to take me from the caresses
his Subject with all the purity and affection which a Vassal is obliged to carry unto his Master I Angeessiry Timorraia King of Batas desiring to insinuate my self into thy friendship that thy Subjects may be inriched with the fruits of this my Country I do offer by a new Treaty to replenish the Magazins of thy King who is also mine with Gold Pepper Camfire Benjamon and Aloes upon condition that with an entire confidence thou shalt send me a safe conduct written and assigned with thine own hand by means whereof all my Lanchares and Jurupanges may navigate in safety Furthermore in favor of this new amity I do again beseech thee to succor me with some Powder and great Shot whereof thou hast but too much in thy Store-houses and therefore mayst well spare them for I had never so great need of all kind of warlike munitions as at this present This granted I shall be much indebted to thee if by thy means I may once chastise those perjured Achems the mortal and eminent Enemies of thy Malaca with whom I swear to thee I will never have peace as long as I live until such time as I have had satisfaction for the blood of my three children which call upon me for vengeance and that therewith I may asswage the sorrow of their noble Mother who having given them suck and brought them up hath seen them since miserably butchered by that cruel Tyrant of Achem in the Towns of Jacur and Lingua as thou shalt be more particularly informed by Aquarem Dabolay the Brother of those childrens desolate Mother whom I have sent unto thee for a confirmation of our new amity to the end Signior that he may treat with thee about such things as shall seem good unto thee as well for the service of God as for the good of thy people From Paniau the fifth day of the eighth Moon This Embassador received from Pedro de Faria all the honor that he could do him after their manner and as soon as he had delivered him the Letter it was translated into the Portugal out of the Malayan Tongue wherein it was written Whereupon the Embassador by his Interpreter declared the occasion of the discord which was between the Tyrant of Achem and the King of Batas proceeding from this that the Tyrant had not long before propounded unto this King of Batas who was a Gentile the imbracing of Mahometâ— Law conditionally that he would wed him to a Sister of his for which purpose he should quit his wife that was also a Gentile and married to him six and twenty years Now because the King of Batas would by no means condescend thereunto the Tyrant incited by a Cacis of his immediately denounced War against him So each of them having raised a mighty Army they fought a most bloody Battel that continued three hours and better during the which the Tyrant perceiving the advantage the Bataes had of him after he had lost a great number of his people he made his retreat into a Mountain called Cagerrendan where the Bataes held him besieged by the space of three and twenty days but because in that time many of the Kings men fell sick and that also the Tyrants Camp began to want Victuals they concluded a Peace upon condition that the Tyrant should give the King five bars of Gold which are in value two hundred thousand crowns of our mony for to pay his Soldiers and that the King should marry his eldest son to that sister of the Tyrant who had been the cause of making that War This accord being signed by either part the King returned into his Country where he was no sooner arrived but relying on this Treaty of Peace he dismist his Army and discharged all his Forces The tranquillity of this Peace lasted not above two months and an half in which time there came to the Tyrant three hundred Turks whom he had long expected from the Straight of Mecqua and for them had sent four Vessels laden with Pepper wherein also were brought a great many Cases full of Muskets and Hargebusezes together with divers Pieces both of Brass and Iron Ordnance Whereupon the first thing the Tyrant did was to joyn those three hundred Turks to some Forces he had still afoot then making as though he would go to Pacem for to take in a Captain that was revolted against him he cunningly fell upon two places named Iacur and Lingua that appâ—rtained to the King of Batas which he suddenly surprized when they within thâ—m least thought of it for the Peace newly made between them took away all the mistrust of such an attempt so as by that means it was easie for the Tyrant to render himself Master of those Fortresses Having taken them he put three of the Kings sons to death and seven hundred Ouroballones so are the noblest and the valiantâ—st of the Kingdom called This while the King of Batas much resenting and that with good cause so great a Treachery sware by the head of his god Quiay Hocombinor the principal Idol of the Gentiles sect who hold him for their god of Justice never to eat either fruit salt or any other thing that might bring the least gust to his palate before he had revenged the death of his children and drawn reason from the Tyrant for this loss protesting further that he was resolved to dye in the maintenance of so just a War To which end and the better to bring it to pass the King of Batas straightway assembled an Army of fifteen thousand men as well natives as strangers wherewithall he was assisted by some Princes his friends and to the same effect he emplored the Forces of us Christians which was the reason why he sought to contract that new amity we have spoken of before with Pedro de Faria who was very well contented with it in regard he knew that it greatly imported both the service of the King of Portugal and the conservation of the Fortress besides that by this means he hoped very much to augment the Revenue of the Customs together with his own particular and all the rest of the Portugals profit in regard of the great Trade they had in those Countries of the South After that the King of Batas Embassador had been seventeen days with us Pedro de Faria dismissed him having first granted whatsoever the King his Master had demanded and something over and above as fire-pots darts and murdering Pieces wherewith the Embassador departed from the Fortress so contented that he shed tears for joy nay it was observed that passing by the great door of the Church he turned himself towards it with his hands and eyes lift up to Heaven and then as it were praying to God Almighty Lord said he openly that in rest and great joy livest there above seated on the Treasure of thy Riches which are the spirits formed by thy Will here I promise thee if it may be thy good pleasure to give us
been despoyled Being very glad of this news after we had remained in this Port of Chincheo the space of nine days we departed from thence for Liampoo taking along with us five and thirty Soldiers more out of the five ships we found there to whom Antonio de Faria gave very good pay and after we had sailed five days with a contrary wind coasting from one side to another without advancing any whit at all it happened that one night about the first watch we met with a little Fisher-boat or Paroo wherein there were eight Portugals very sore hurt two of the which were named Mâ—m Taborda and Antonio Aâ—riques men of honor and very much renowned in those quarters the cause why in particular I name them These and the other six were in such a pitiful estate and so hideous to see to as they moved every one to compassion This Paroo coming close to Antonio de Faria he caused them to be taken up into his Junk where they presently cast themselves at his feet from whence he raised them up weeping for pity to behold them so naked and all bathed in their own blood with the wounds they had received and then demanded of them the occasion of their misfortune Whereunto one of the two made answer that about seventeen days before they set sail from Liampoo for Malaca and that being advanced as far as the Isle of Sumbor they had been set upon by a Pyrat a Guzarat by Nation called Coia Acem who had three Junks and four Lanteaas wherein were fifteen hundred men namely an hundred and fifty Mahometans the rest Luzzons Iaoas and Champaas people of the other side of Malaya and that after they had fought with them from one to four in the afternon they had been taken with the death of fourscore and two men whereof eighteen were Portugals and as many made slaves And that in their Junk what of his and of others there was lost in merchandize above an hundred thousand Taeis Antonio de Faria remaining a good while pensive at that which these men related unto him at length said unto them I pray tell me how was it possible for you to escape more then the rest the fight passing as you deliver After we had been fought withall about an hour and an half â—he three great Iunks boarded us five times and with the force of their sâ—ot they so tore the Prow of our Vessel that we were ready to sink wherefore to keep out the water and lighten our ship we were constrained to cast the most part of our goods into the Sea and whil'st our men were laboring to do so our Enemies layd so close at us as every one was fain to leave that he was about for to defend himself on the hatches But whil'st we were thus troubled most of our company being hurt and many slain it pleased God that one of the Enemies Iunks came to be so furiously fired as it caught hold likewise of another that was fastned unto it which made the Pyrats Soldiers leave the fight for to go and save their Vessels yet that they could not do so speedily but that one of them was burnt down even to the very water so that they of the Iunk were compelled to leap into the Sea to save themselves from burning where most of them were drowned In the mâ—an time we made shift to get our Iunk close to a stock of Piles which Fishermen had plantâ—d there against a rock hard by the mouth of the river where at this present is the Temple of the Siams but the dog Coia Acem was instantly with us and having fast grappled us hâ— leapt into our Vessel being followed by a great number of Mahometans all armed with Coats of Mail and Buff Ierkins who straightway killed above an hundred and fifty of ours whereof eighteen were Portugals which we no sooner perceived but all wounded as we were and spoyled with the fire as you see we sought for some way to save our selves and to that end we sped us into a Manchuâ— that was fastened to the stern of our Iunk wherein it pleased God that fifteen of us escaped whereof two dyed yesterday and of the thirteen that remain yet miraculously alive there are eight Portugals and five servants In this sort we got us with all speed between this Pallisade and the land amongst the rocks the better to preserve us from being boarded by their Iunk but they were otherwise employed in seeking to save the men of their burnt Vessel and afterwards they entred all into our Iunk where they were so carryed away with covetousness of the booty as they never thought of pursuing us so that the Sun being almost set and they wonderful glad of their victory over us they retired into the River with great acclamations Antonio de Faria very joyful at this news though he was as sad again on the other side for the bad success of those that had made him this relation rendred thanks unto God for that he had found his Enemy it being a matter so much desired of him and his Certainly said he unto them then by your report they must needs be now in great disorder and much spoiled in the River where they are for I am perswaded that neither your Junk nor that of theirs which was fastned to the burnt one can do them any longer service and that in the great Junk which assaulted you it is not possible but that you have hurt and killed a good many Whereunto they answered that without doubt they had killed and hurt a great number Then Antonio de Faria putting off his cap fell down on his knees and with his hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven he said weeping O Lord Iesus Christ my God and Saviour even as thou art the true hope of those that put their trust in thee I that am the greatest sinner of all men do most humbly beseech thee in the name of thy servants that are here present whose Souls thou hast bought with thy precious blood that thou wilt give us strength and victory against this cruel Enemy the murtherer of so many Portugals whom with thy favor and ayd and for the honor of thy holy Name I have resolved to seek out as hitherto I have done to the end he may pay to thy Soldiers and faithful servants what he hath so long owed them Whereunto all that were by answered with one cry To them to them in the Name of Iesus Christ that this dog may now render us that which for so long together he hath taken as well from us as from our poor miserable companions Hereupon with marvelous ardor and great acclamations we set sail for the Port of Lailoo which we had left eight leagues behind us whither by the advice of some of his company Antonio de Faria went to furnish himself with all that was necessary for the fight he hoped to make with the Pyrat in the quest of whom as I have
Whereupon Antonio de Faria seeing we were discovered cryed out to his company To them my Masters to them in the name of God before they be succored by their Lorches wherewith discharging all his Ordnance it pleased Heaven that the shot lighted to such purpose as it overthrew and tore in pieces the most part of the valiantest that then were mounted and appeared on the deck even right as we could have wished In the neck hereof our Harquebusiers which might be some hundred and threescore failed not to shoot upon the signal that had formerly been ordained for it so that the hatches of the Junk were cleared of all those that were upon them and that with such a slaughter as not an Enemy durst appear there afterwards At which very instant our two Junks boarded their two in the case they were in where the fight grew so hot on either side as I confess I am not able to relate in particular what passed therein though I was present at it for when it began it was scarce day Now that which rendred the conflict betwixt us and our Enemies most dreadful was the noise of Drums Basins and Bells accompanyed with the report of the great Ordnance wherewith the valleys and rocks thereabouts resounded again This fight continuing in this manner some quarter of an hour their Lorches and Lanteaas came from the shore to assist them with fresh men which one named Diego Meyrelez in Quiay Panians Junk perceiving and that a Gunner employed not his shot to any purpose in regard he was so beside himself with fear that he knew not what he did as he was ready to give fire to a Piece he thrust him away so rudely as he threw him down into the scuttle saying to him Away villain thou canst do nothing this business belongs to men such as I am not to thee whereupon pointing the Gun with its wedges of level as he knew very well how to do he gave fire to the Piece which was charged with bullets and stones and hitting the Lorch that came foremost carryed away all the upper part of her from Poup to Prow so that she presently sank and all that were in her not a man saved The shot then having past so through the first Lorch fell on the hatches of another Lorch that came a little behind and killed the Captain of her with six or seven more that were by him wherewith the two other Lorches were so terrified that going about to fly back to Land they fell foul one of another so as they could not clear themselves but remained entangled together and not able to go forward or backward which perceived by the Captains of our two Lorches called Gasparo d' Oliveyra and Vincentio Morosa they presently set upon them casting a great many artificial pots into them wherewith they were so fired that they burnt down to the very water which made the most of those that were in them to leap into the Sea where our men killed them all with their Pikes so that in those three Lorches alone there dyed above two hundred persons and in the other whereof the Captain was slain there was not one escaped for Quiay Panian pursued them in a Champana which was the Boat of his Junk and dispatched most of them as they were getting to Land the rest were all battered against the rocks that were by the shore which the Enemies in the Junks perceiving being some hundred and fifty Mahometans Luzzons Borneos and Iaos they began to be so discouraged that many of them threw themselves into the Sea whereupon the dog Coia Acem who yet was not known ran to this disorder for to animate his men He had on a Coat of Mail lined with Crimson Sattin edged with gold fringe that had formerly belonged to some Portugal and crying out with a loud voyce that every one might hear him he said three times Lah hilah hilah la Mahumed rocol halah Massulmens and true Believers in the holy Law of Mahomet will you suffer your selves to be vanquished by such feeble slaves as these Christian Dogs who have no more heart then white Pullets or bearded women To them to them for we are assured by the Book of Flowers wherein the Prophet Noby doth promise eternal delights to the Daroezes of the House of Mecqua that he will keep his word both with you and me provided that we bathe our selves in the blood of these dogs without Law With these cursed words the Devil so encouraged them that rallying all into one body they re-inforced the fight and so valiantly made head against us as it was a dreadful thing to see how desperately they ran amongst our weapons In the mean time Antonio de Faria thus exhorted his men Courage valiant Christians and whilest those wicked Miscreants fortifie themselves in their devilish Sect let us trust in our Lord Iesus Christ nailed on the Cross for us who will never forsake us how great sinners soever we be for after all we are his which these Dogs here are not With this ferver and zeal of faith flying upon Coia Acem to whom he had most spleen he discharged so great a blow on his head with a two-handed sword that cutting through a Cap of Mail he wore he layd him at his feet then redoubling with another reverse stroke he lamed him of both his legs so as he could not rise which his followers beholding they gave a mighty cry and assaulted Antonio de Faria with such fury and hardiness as they made no reckoning of a many of Portugals by whom they were invironned but gave him divers blows that had almost overthrown him to the ground Our men seeing this ran presently to his ayd and behaveâ—â—hemselves so well that in half a quarter of an hour forty eight of our enemies lay slaughtered on the dead body of Coia Acem and but fourteen of ours whereof there were not above five Portugals the rest were servants and slaves good and faithful Christians The remainder of them beginning to faint retired in disorder towards the foredeck with an intent to fortifie themselves there for prevention whereof twenty Soldiers of thirty that were in Quiay Panians Junk ran instantly and got before them so that ere they could render themselves Masters of what they pretended unto they were inforced to leap into the Sea where they fell one upon another and were by our men quâ—te made an end of so that of all their number there remained but only five whom they took alive and cast into the Hold bound hand and foot to the end they might afterwards be forced by torments to confess certain matters that should be demanded of them but they fairly tore out one anothers throats with their teeth for fear of the death they expected which yet could not keep them from being dismembered by our servants and after thrown into the Seâ— in the company of the Dog Coia Acem their Captain great Cacis of the King of Bintan the
Soul doth now enjoy the promised delights of thy Mahomet as thou didst yesterday publish to these other Dogs such as thy self Thereupon he commanded all the Slaves and Captives of his company together with their Masters before him unto whom he made a speech like a true Christian as indeed he was whereby he prayed them in the Name of God to manumit these Slaves according to the promise he had made them before the fight engaging himself to satisfie them for it out of his own Estate Whereunto they answered all with one consent that since it was his desire they were wel contented and that they did even then set them at full liberty whereof he caused a writing to be presently made with all their hands unto it being as much as could be done for the instant but afterwards each of them had in particular Letters of manumission granted unto them This done an Inventory was taken of such Commodities as were found to be good and merchantable over and above those which were given to the Portugals and all was praised at an hundred and thirty thousand Taeis in Silver Lingots of Iapan consisting of Sattin Damask raw Silk Taffety Musk and very fine Porcelain for as touching the rest they were not put in writing And all these Robberies the Pyrats had committed on the Coasts between Sumbor and Fucheo where for above a year together they had coursed up and down After that Antonio de Faria had remained four and twenty days in this River of Tinlau during which time all his hurt men were cured he set sail directly for Liampoo where he purposed to pass the Winter to the end that with the beginning of the Spring he might set forth on his Voyage to the Mynes of Quoaniaparu as he had resolved with Quiay Panian the Chinese Pyrat that was in his company but being advanced even to the point of Micuy which is at the height of six and twenty degrees so great a Tempest arose towards the North-west that we were fain to strike our top-sails for fear we should be forced back again from our course but after dinner it increased with such a terrible storm of rain and the Sea went so high that the two Lanteas were not able to brook it so that about evening they made to Land with an intent to recover the River of Xilendau which was about a league and an half from thence whereupon Antonio de Faria doubting some misfortune carried as little sail as possibly he could as well for that he would not outgo the Lanteas as in regard of the violence of the wind which was such as they durst not carry more Now by reason the night was so dark and the billows so great they could not discern a shelf of sand that lay betwixt an Island and the point of a Rock so that passing over it our Junk struck her self so rudely on it as her upper keel cleft in two or three places and her under keel a little whereupon the Gunner would have given fire to a Falconet for to have warned the other Junks to come in to succor us in this extremity but Antonio de Faria would by no means permit him saying that since it pleased God he should be cast away in that place there was no reason that others should be lost there also for his cause But he desired every one to assist him both with manual labor and secret prayers unto God to pardon their sins Having said so he caused the main Mast to be cut down whereby the Junk came to be in somewhat a better case then she was before but alas the fall of it cost three Mariners and one of our servants their lives who chancing to be under it when it fell were battered all to pieces In like manner he made all the other Masts from poop to prow to be hewed down together with all the dead works as the cabins and galleries without so that all was taken away close to the hatches And though all this was done with incredible diligence yet it stood us in little stead for that the weather was so foul the sea so swoln the night so dark the waves so furious the rain so great and the violence of the storm so intolerable that no man was able to withstand it In the mean time the other four Junks made a sign to us as if they also were cast away Whereupon Antonio de Faria lifting up his eyes and hands to Heaven Lord said he before them all as through thy infinite mercy thou wast fastened upon the Cross for the Redemption of sinners so I beseech thee who art all mercy that for the satisfaction of thy Iustice I alone may suffer for the offences which these men have committed since I am the principal cause of their trespassing against thy divine goodness permit not then O Lord that in this woful night they may fall into that danger wherein I see my self as this present by reason of my sins but with a repentant Soul I most humbly beseech thee and that in the name of all the rest though I am most unworthy to be heard that in stead of having regard to our sins thou wilt behold us with the eyes of that pity and infinite clemency wherewith thou art replenished Upon these words we all fell a crying out so lamentably Lord have mercy upon us that it would have grieved any heart in the world to have heard us And as all men that find themselves in the like extremity are naturally carried to the preservation of their lives without any regard at all of ought else there was not one amongst us that sought not the means to safe his so that all of us together employed our selves in discharging our Vessel by casting our goods into the Sea To which effect about an hundred men of us as well Portugals as Slaves and Mariners leapt down into the Ship and in less then an hour heav'd all over-board without any respect in so eminent a danger of that which we did for amongst the rest we threw twelve great chests full of lingots of Silver into the Sea which in the last incounter we had taken from Coia Acem besides many other things of great value whereby our Junk was somewhat lightened Having past the night in that miserable state we were in at length as the day began to break it pleased God that the wind also began to slack whereby our Junk remained a little more at rest though she was still in great peril by reason of the water shâ— had taken in it being almost four yards deep in her so that to avoyd the eminent danger we were threatened with we all of us got forth and catching hold by the tackle we hung on the out-side of the Junk because the waves beat with such violence against her that we feared to be drowned or cast against the Rocks which had already happened to eleven or twelve of our company for want of taking
Chifuu which conducted us that if he did not chastise us in such manner as those gods might be well contented with the punishment inflicted on us for our mockery of them both the one and the other would assuredly torment his soul and never suffer it to go out of hell which threatning so mightily terrified this dog the Chifuu that without further delay or hearing us speak he caused us all to be bound hand and foot and commanded each of us to have an hundred lashes given him with a double cord which was immediately executed with so much rigour as we were all in a gore bloud whereby we were taught not to jeer afterwards at any thing we saw or heard At such time as we arrived here we found twelve Bonzoes upon the place who with silver censors full of perfumes of aloes and beniamin censed those two divelâ—sh Monsters and chanted out aloud Help us even as we serve thee whereunto divers other Priests answered in the name of the Idol with a great noise So I promise to do like a good Lord In this sort they went as it were in procession round about the place singing with an ill tuned voice to the sound of a great many bels that were in Steeples thereabouts In the mean time there were others that with Drums and Basins made such a dinne as I may truly say put them all together was most horrible to hear CHAP. XXIX Our Arrival at Sempitay our encounter there with a Christian woman together with the Original and Foundation of the Empire of China and who they were that first peopled it FRom this place we continued our voyage eleven days more up the river which in those parts is so peopled with Cities Towns Villages Boroughs Forts and Castles that commonly they are not a flight shot distant one from another besides a world of houses of pleasure and temples where Steeples were all guilt which made such a glorious shew as we were much amazed at it In this manner we arrived at a Town named Sempitay where we abode five days by reason the Chifuus wife that conducted us was not well Here by his permission we landed and chained together as we were we went up and down the streets craving of alms which was very liberally given us by the Inhabitants who wondering to see such men as we demanded of us what kind of people we were of what Kingdom and how our countrey was called Hereunto we answered conformably to that we had often said before namely that we were natives of the Kingdom of of Siam that going from Liampoo to Nanquin we had lost all our goods by shipwrack and that although they beheld us then in so poor a case yet we had been formeâ—ly very rich whereupon a woman who was come thither amongst the rest to see us It is very likely said she speaking to them about her that what these poor strangers have related is most true for daily experience doth shew how those that trade by sea do oftentimes make it their grave wherefore it is best and surest to travel upon the earth and to esteem of it as of that whereof it hath pleased God to frame us saying so she gave us two mazes which amounts to about sixteen pence of our mony advising us to make no more such long voyages since our lives were so short Hereupon she unbottoned one of the sleeves of a red Satin Gown she had on and baring her left arm she shewed us a crosse imprinted on it like to the mark of a slave saying Do any of you know this signe which amongst those that follow the way of truth is called a crosse or have any of you ever heard it named To this falling down on our knees we answered with tears in our eyes that we know exceeding well Then lifting up her hands she cried out Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name speaking these words in the Portugal tongue and because she could speak no more of our language she very earnestly desired us in Chinese to tell her whether we were Christians we replyed that we were and for proof thereof after we had kissed that arm whereon the cross was we repeated all the rest of the Lords prayer which she had left unsaid wherewith being assured that we were Christians indeed she drew aside from the rest there present and weeping said to us Come along Christians of the other end of the world with her that is your true Sister in the faith of Jesus Christ or peradventure a kinswoman to one of you by his side that begot me in this miserable exile and so going to carry us to her house the Hupes which guarded us would not suffer her saying that if we would not continue our craving of alms as the Chifuu had permitted us they would return us back to the ship but this they spake in regard of their own interest for that they were to have the moitie of what was given us as I have before declared and accordingly they made as though they would have lead us thither again which the woman perceiving I understand your meaning said she and indeed it is but reason you make the best of your places for thereby you live so opening her purse she gave them two Taeis in silver wherewith they were very well satisfied whereupon with the leave of the Chifuu she carried us home to her house and there kept us all the while we remained in that place making exceeding much of us and using us very charitably Here she shewed us an Oratory wherein she had a cross of wood guilt as also candlesticks and a lamp of silver Furthermore she told us that she was named Inez de Leyria and her Father Tome Pirez who had been great Ambassadour from Portugal to the King of China and that in regard of an insurrection with a Portugal Captain made at Canton the Chineses taking him for a Spye not for an Ambassodor as he termed himself clapped him and all his followers up in prison where by order of Justice five of them were put to torture receiving so many and such cruel stripes on their bodies as they died instantly and that the rest were all banished into several parts together with her father into this place where he married with her mother that had some means and how he made her a Christian living so seven and twenty years together and converting many Gentiles to the faith of Christ whereof there were above three hundred then abiding in that Town which every Sunday assembled in her house to say the Catechisme whereupon demanding of her what were their accustomed prayers she answered that she used no other but these which on their knees with their eyes and hands lift up to heaven they pronounced in this manner O Lord Iesus Christ as it is most true that thou art the very Son of God conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgine Mary for the salvation
of sinners so thou wilt be pleased to forgive us our offenceâ— that thereby we may become worthy to behold thy face in the glory of thy Kingdom where thou art sitting at the right hand of the Almighty Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Amen And so all of them kissing the Cross imbraced one another and thereupon returned every one to his own home Moreover she told us that her Father had left her many other prayers which the Chineses had stollen from her so that she had none left but those before recited whereunto we replyed that those we had heard from her were very good but before we went away we would leave her divers other good and wholsome prayers do so then answered she for the respect you owe to so good a God as yours is and that hath done such things for you for me and for all in general Then causing the cloth to be laid she gave us a very good and plentiful dinner and treated us in like sort every meal during the five days we continued in her house which as I said before was permitted by the Chifuu in regard of a present that this good woman sent his wife whom she earnestly intreated so to deal with her husband as we might be well intreated for that we were men of whom God had a particular care as the Chifuus wife promised her to do with many thanks to her for the present she had received In the mean space during the five days we remained in her House we read the Catechism seven times to the Christians wherewithall they were very much edifyed beside Christophoro Borhalho made them a little Book in the Chinese tongue containing the Pater Noster the Creed the Ten Commandments and many other good Prayers After these things we toâ—k our leaves of Inez de Leyria and the Christians who gave us fifty Taeis in Silver which stood us since in good stead â—s I shall declare hereafter and withall Inez de Leyria gave us secretly fifty Taeis more humbly desiring us to remember her in our Prayers to God After our departure from the Town of Sempitay we continued our course upon the River of Bataupina unto a place named Lequinpau containing about eleven or twelve thousand fires and very well built at least we judged so by that we could discern as also inclosed with good Walls and Curtains rouâ—d about it Not far from it was an exceeding long House having within it thirty Furnaces on each side where a great quantity of Silver was melted which was brought in carts from a Mountain some five leagues off called Tuxenguim The Chineses assured us that above a thousand men wrought continually in that Mine to draw out the Silver and that the King of China had in yearly Revenue out of it about five thousand Picos This place we left about Sun-set and the next day in the evening we arrived just between two little Towns that stood opposite one to another the River onely between the one named Pacau and the other Nacau which although they were little yet were they fairly builâ— and well walled with great hewed stone having a number of Temples which they call Pagods all guilt over and enriched with Steeples and Fanes of great price very pleasing and agreeable to the eye Now in regard of that they recounted unto us here of these two Towns I hold it not amisse to discourâ—e it in this place the rather for that I have heard it confirmed since and that thereby one may come to know the Original and Foundation of this Empire of China whereof ancient Writers have spoken little â—ill this present It is written in the first Chronicle of fourscore which have been made of the Kings of China the thirteenth Chapter as I have heard it many times delivered That six hundred thirty and nine years after the Deluge there was a Country called then Guantipocau which as may be judged by the height of the Climate where it is scituated being in sixty two degrees to the Northward abutts on the backside of our Germany In this Country lived at that time a Prince named Turbano whose state was not very great It is said of him that being a youth he had three children by a Woman called Nancaa whom he extreamly affected although the Queen his Mother then a Widow was exceedingly displeased at it This King being much importuned by the principal Persons of his Kingdom to marry always excused himself alledging some Reasons for it which they did not well allow of but incited by his Mother they pressed him so far that at length they perceived he had no intent to condescend unto them for indeed his minde was to legitimate the eldest Son he had by Nancaa and to resign his Kingdome unto him to which effect he not long after put himself into Religion in a Temple named Gison which seems to have been the Idol of a certain Sect that the Româ—â—s had in their time and that is still at this present in the Kingdomes of China Iappon Cauchenchina Cambaya and Siam whereof I have seen many Pagods in those Countries But first having declared his said â—on King the Queen his Mother would by no means approve of it saying That since the King her Son would needs profess himself into that Religion and leave the Kingdom without a lawful Heir she would labour to remedy so great a disorder as indeed she did by instantly marrying her self being fifty years of age to a Priest of hers called Silau that was but six and twenty whom she proclaimed King notwithstanding all opposition made to the contrary whereof Turbano being presently advertised and knowing that his Mother had done it of purpose to defeat his Son of the Crown he got him forthwith out of his Religion for to repossess himself of it and to that end used all the means and diligence he could whereupon the Queen Mother and Silau fearing that which might follow thereof to both their destructions if he were not in time and that speedily prevented they secretly assembled some of their partakers to the number of thirty Horse and fourscore Foot who going one night where Turbano was slew him and all his Company Howbeit Nancaa saved her self with her three Sons and accompanied with certain of her Domestical Servants she imbarqued her self in a small Lanteaa and fled away down the River to a place some seventy leagues from thence where she landed with those few followers she had There assisted with some others that resorted unto her she fortified her self in a little Island that was in the middest of the River and which she named Pilaunere that signifies The retreat of the poor with an intent there to end the rest of her days now having lived five years in that poor and miserable estate the Tyrant Silan whom the People hated doubting lest the three young Princes coming
to age might expell him oâ—t of what he had injustly usurped upon them or at leastwise disturb him with Wars by reason of the right they pretended to the Kingdom he sent a Fleet of thirty Ienga's wherein as it is said were sixteen hundred men for to seek them out and destroy them whereof Nancaa receiving intelligence fell to consult what she should do and at length resolved by no means to attend these Forces in regard her Sons were but Infants her self a weak Woman her Men few in number and unprovided of all that was necessary to make any defence against so great a number of Enemies and so well furnished whereupon taking a view of her People she found that they were but thirteen hundred in all and of them onely five hundred Men the rest being Women and Children for all which company there were but three little Lanteaa's and one Iangaa in the whole River and they not able to carry an hundred persons so that Nancaa seeing no means to transport them away the History saith She assembled all her People and declaring the fear she was in desired them to advise her what she should do but excusing themselves they ingenuously confessed they knew not what counsel to give her in that extremity Whereupon according to their ancient custome they resolved to cast Lots to the end that on whom the Lot did fall to speak he should freely deliver what God would be pleased to inspire him with For which purpose they took three days time wherein with fasting cries and tears they would all with one voice cravâ— the favour and assistance of the Lord Almighty in whose hands was all the hope of their deliverance This advice being approved of all in general Nancaa made it to be proclaimed that upon pain of Death no person whatever should eat above once during those three days to the end that by this abstinence of the Body the Spirit might be carried with the greater attention towards God The three days abstinence being expired Lots were cast five times one after another and all those five times the Lot fell still on a little Boy of seven years of age named as the Tyrant was Silau whereat they were all exeedingly amazed in regard that in the whole Troop there was not another of this same name After that they had made their Sacrifices with all the accustomed Ceremonies of Musick Perfumes and sweet Odours to render thanks unto God they commanded the little Boy to lift up his hands unto Heaven and then to say what he thought was necessary for the remedying of so great an Affliction as that wherein they were Whereupon the little Boy Silau beholding Nancaa the History affirms he said these words O feeble and wretched Woman now that sorrow and affliction makes thee more troubled and perplexed then ever thou wert in regard of the small relief that humane understanding doth represent unto thee submit thy self with humble sighs to the omnipotent hand of the Lord Esloign then or at leastwise labour to esloign thy minde from the vanities of the Earth lifting up thine eyes with Faith and Hope and thou shalt see what the Prayers of an Innocent afflicted and pursued before the Iustice of him that hath created thee can do For assoon as in all humility thou hast declared the weakness of thy power unto the Almighty Victory will incontinently be given thee from above over the Tyrant Silau wherefore I command thee in his Name to imbarque thy self thy Children and all thy Followers in thine Enemies Vessels wherein amidst the confused murmur of the Waters thou shalt wander so long till thou arrivest at a placew here thou art to lay the Foundation of a House of that Reputation as the Mercy of the most High shall be published there from Generation to Generation by the Voice of a strange People whose Cries shall be as pleasing to him as those of sucking Children that lie in the Cradle This said the little Boy according to the History fell down stark dead to the ground which much astonished Nancaa and all hers The said History further delivers and as I have often heard it read that five days after the success the thirty Iangaas were one morning seen coming down the River in very good equipage but not so much as one man in them the reason hereof by the report of the History which the Chineses hold to be most true was that all these Ships of War being joyned together for to execute unmercifully upon Nancaa and her Children the cruel and damnable intentions of the Tyrant Silau one night as this Fleet rode at Anchor in a place called Catebasoy a huge dark Cloud came over them whereout issued such horrible Thunder and Lightning accompanied with mighty Rain the Drops whereof were so hot that falling upon them which were asleep in the Vessels it made them leap into the River so as within less then an hour they perished all And it is said that one drop of this Rain coming to fall upon a body it burnt in such sort as it penetrated to the very marrow of the bone with most insupportable pain no cloths nor arms being able to resist it Nancaa receiving this favour from the hand of the Lord with abundance of tears and humble thanks embarqued her self her children and all her company in the said thirty Iangaas and sailing down the River was carried by the strength of the current which for her sake the History saith redoubled then in seven and forty days to the very place where now the City of Pequin is built There she and all hers landed and doubting lest the Tyrant Silau whose cruelty she feared might still pursue her she fortified her self in this place the best she could CHAP. XXX The Foundation of the four chief Cities of China together with which of the Kings of China it was that built the Wall between China and Tartaria and many things that we saw as we past along THe said History delivers that few days after the poor Nancaa and her followers were setled on shore she caused them to swear fealty unto her eldest Son and to acknowledge him for their lawful Prince Now the very same day that he received the Oath oâ— Allegeance from these few Subjects of his he made election of the place where the Fortress should be erected together with the inclosure of the Wall Afterwards assoon as the first Foundations were laid which was speedily done he went out of his Tent accompanied with his Mother who governed all together with his Brothers and the chiefest of his company attired in festival Robes with a great stone carried before him by the noblest Personages which he had caused to be wrought aforehand and arriving at the said Foundations he laid his hand upon the Stone and on his knees with his eyes lifted up to Heaven he said to all that were present Brethren and worthy Friends know that I give mine own Name that is Pequin to
time since it was discovered being above two hundred years it never failed but rather more and more was found Having past about a league beyond those twelve Hoâ—ses up the River we came to a place inclosâ—d with three ranks of Iron grates where we beheld thirty Houses divined into five rows six in each row which were very long and compleat with great Towers full of Bells of cast mettle and much carved work as also guilt Pillars and the Frontispieces of fair hewed stone whereupon many Inventious were engraved At this place we went ashore by the Chifâ—us permission that carried us for that he had made a Vow to this Pagod which was called Bigay potim that is to say God of an hundred and ten thousand Gods Corchoo fungané ginaco ginaca which according to their report signifies strong and great above all others for one of the Errors wherewith these wretched people are blinded is that they beleeve every particular thing hath its God who hath created it and preserves its natural being but thâ—t this Bigay potim brought them all forth from under his arm-pitâ— and that from him as a father they derive their being by a filial union which they term Biâ—â— Porentasay And in the Kingdom of Pegu where I have often been I have seen one like unto this named by those of the country Ginocoginans the God of all greatness which Temple was in times past built by the Chineses when as they commanded in the Indiaes being according to their supputation from the year of our Lord Iesus Christ 1013. to the year 1072. by which account it appears that the Indiaes were under the Empire of China but onely fifty and nine years for the successor of him that conquered it called Exiragano voluntarily abandoned it in regard of the great expence of mony and bloud that the unprofitable keeping of it cost him In those thirty Houses whereof I formerly spake were a great number of Idols of guilt Wood and a like number of Tin Lâ—tten and Pourcelain being indeed so many as I should hardly be believed to declare them Now we had not past above five or six leagues from this place but we came to a great Town about a league in circuit quite destroyed and ruinated so that asking the Chineses what might be the cause thereof they told us that this Town was anciently called Cohilouza that is The flower of the field and had in former times been in very great prosperity and that about one hundred forty and two years before a certain stranger in the company of some Merchants of the Port of Tanaçarim in the Kingdom of Siam chanced to come thither being as it seems an holy man although the Bonzes said he was a Sorcerer by reason of the wonders he did having raised up five dead men and wrought many other Miracles whereat all men were exceedingly astonished and that having divers times disputed with the Priests he had so shamed and confounded them as fearing to deal any more with him they incensed the Inhabitants against him and perswâ—ded them to put him to death affirming that otherwise God would consume them with fire from Heaven whereupon all the Townsmen went unto the House of a poor Weaver where he lodged and killing the Weaver with his son and two sons in Law of his that would have defended him the Holy man came forth to them and reprehending them for this uproar he told them amongst other things That the God of the Law whereby they were to be saved was called Iesus Christ who came down from heaven to the earth for to become a man and that it was needful he should dye for men and that with the price of his precious bloud which he shed for sinners upn the Crosse God was satisfied in his justice and that giving him the charge of Heaven and Earth he had promised him that whosoever professed his Law with Faith and good works should be saved and have everlasting life and withall that the gods whom the Bonzes served and adored with sacrifices of bloud were false and Idols wherwith the Devil deceived them Here at the Churchmen entred into so great furie that they called unto the people saying Cursed be he that brings not wood and fire for to burn him which was presently put in execution by them and the fire beginning exceedingly to rage the Holy man said certain Prayers by vertue whereof the fire incontinently went out wherewith the people being amazed cryed out saying Doubtlesse the God of this man is most mighty and worthy to be adored throughout the whole World which one of the Bonzes hearing who was ring-leader of this mutiny and seeing the Town-men retire away in consideration of that they had beheld he threw a stone at the holy man saying They which do not as I do may the Serpent of the night ingulf them into hell fire At these words all the other Bonzes did the like so that he was presently knock'd down dead with the stones they flâ—ng at him whereupon they cast him into the river which most prodigiously staid its course from running down and so continued for the space of five days together that the body lay in it By means of this wonder many imbraced the law of that holy man whereof there are a great number yet remaining in that country Whilest the Chineses were relating thishistory unto us we arrived at a point of land where going to double Cape we descryed a little place environed with trees in the midst whereof was a great cross of stone very well made which we no sooner espied but transported with exceeding joy we fell on our knees before our Conductor humbly desiring him to give us leave to go on shoar but this Heathen dog refused us saying that they had a great way yet to the place where they were to lodge whereat we were mightily grieved Howbeit God of his mercy even miraculously so ordered it that being gone about a league further his wife fell in labour so as he was constrained to return to that place again it being a Village of thirty or forty houses hard by where the Cross stood Here we went on land and placed his wife in an house where some nine days after she died in Child-bed during which time we went to the Cross and prostrating our selves before it with tears in our eyes The people of the Village beholding us in this posture came to us and kneeling down also with their hands lift up to heaven they said Christo Iesu Iesu Christo Maria micauvidau late impont model which in our tongue signifies Iesus Christ Iesus Christ Mary always a Virgine conceived him a Virgine brought him forth and a Virgine still remained whereunto we weeping answered that they spake the very truth Then they asked us if we were Christians we told them we were which as soon as they understood they carried us home to their houses where they entertained us with great affection Now all these
were Christians and descended of the Weaver in whose house the holy man was lodged of whom demanding whether that which the Chineses had told us was true they shewed us a book that contained the whole history thereof at large with many other wonders wrought by that holy man who they said was named Matthew Escandel and that he was an Hermit of Mount Sinai being an Hungarian by nation and born in a place called Buda The same book also related that nine days after this Saint was buried the said Town of Cohilouzaa where he was murthered began to tremble in such sort as all the people thereof in a mighty fright ran out into the fields and there continued in their tents not daring to return unto their houses for they cried out all with one common consent The blood of this stranger craves vengeance for the unjust death the Bonzes hath given him because he preached the truth unto us But the Bonzes rebuked and told them that they committed a great sin in saying so Nevertheless they willed them to be of good cheer for they would go all to Quiay Tiguarem God of the night and request him to command the earth to be quiet otherwise we would offer him no more sacrifices Immediately whereupon all the Bonzes went accordingly in procession to the said Idol which was the chiefest in the Town but none of the people durst follow them for fear of some earthquake which the very next night about eleven of the clock as those divelish monsters were making their sacrifices with odoriferous perfumes and other ceremonies accustomed amongst them increased so terribly that by the Lords permission and for a just punishment of their wickedness it quite overthrew all the Temples houses and other edifices of the Town to the ground wherewith all the Bonzes were killed not so much as one escaped alive being in number above four thousand as the book delivereth wherein it is further said that afterwards the earth opening such abundance of water came forth as it clean overwhelmed and drowned the whole Town so that it became a great lake and above an hundred fathom deep moreover they recounted many other very strange particulars unto us and also however since that time the place was named Fiunganorsee that is the chastisement of heaven whereas before it was called Cohilouzaa which signifies the flower of the field as I have declared heretofore After our Departure from the ruines of Fiunganorsee we arrived at a great Town called Iunquinilau which is very rich abounding with all kind of things fortified with a strong Garrison of Horse and Foot and having a number of Junks and Vessels riding before it Here we remained five days to celebrate the Funeral of our Chifuus wife for whose soul he gave us by way of alms both meat and clothes and withall freeing us from the oar permitted us to go ashore without irons which was a very great ease unto us Having leâ—t this place we continued our course up the river beholding still on either side a world of goodly great Towns invironed with strong walls as also many Fortresses and Castles all along the waters side we saw likewise a great number of Temples whose Steeples were all guilt and in the fields such abundance of cattel that the ground was even covered over with them so far as we could well discern Moreover there were so many vessels upon this river especially in some parts where Fairs were kept that at first sight one would have thought them to be populous Towns besides other lesser companies of three hundred five hundred six hundred and a thousand boats which continually we met withall on both sides of the river wherein all things that one could imagine were sold Moreover the Chineses assured us that in this Empire of China the number of those which levied upon the rivers was not less then those that dwelled in the Towns and that without the good order which is observed to make the common people work and to constrain the meaner sort to supply themselves unto trades for to get their living they would eat up one another Now it is to be noted that every kind of traffique and commerce is divided among them into three or four forms as followeth They which trade in Ducks whereof there are great quantities in this Countrey proceed therein diversly some cause their egs to be hatched for to sell the Ducklings others fat them when they are great for to sell them dead after they are salted These traffique only with the egs others with the feathers and some with the heads feet gizards and intrails no man being permitted to trench upon his companions sale under the penalty of thirty lashes which no priviledg can exempt them from In the same manner concerning hogs some sell them alive and by whole sale others dead and by retail some make bacon of them others sell their pigs and some again sell nothing but the chitterlings the sweet-breads the blood and the haslets which is also observed for fish for such a one sels it fresh that cannot sell it either salted or dried and so of other Provisions as flesh fruit fowls venison pulse and other things wherein such rigour is used as there are chambers expresly established whose officers have commission and power to see that they which trade in one particular may not do it in another if it be not for just and lawful couses and that on pain of thirty lashes There be others likewise that get their living by selling fish alive which to that purpose they keep in great well-boats and so carry them into divers countrys where they know there is no other but salt fish There are likewise all along this river of Batampina whereon we went from Nanquin to Pequin which is distant one from the other one hundred and fourscore leagues such a number of engines for sugar and presses for wine and oyl made of divers sorts of pulse and fruit as one could hardly â—ee any other thing on either side of the water In many other places also there were an infinite company of Houses and Magazines full of all kinds of provision that one could imagine where all sorts of flesh are salted dried smoaked and piled up in great high heaps as gammons of Bacon Pork Lard Geese Ducks Cranes Bustards Ostriches Stags Cows Buffles wild Goats Rhinoceroses Horses Tygers Dogs Foxes and almost all other creatures that one can name so that we said many times amongst our selves that it was not possible for all the people of the world to eat up all those provisions We saw likewise upon the same river a number of Vessels which they call Panouras covered from the poup to the prow with nets in manner of a cage three inches high full of ducks and geese that were carried from place to place to be sold when the Owners of those boats would have these fowl to feed they approach to the Land and where there are rich medows
with dryed orange pills wherewith in victualing houses they boyl dogs flesh for to take away the rank savour and humidity of it as also to reader it more firm In brief we saw so many Vaucans Lanteaas and Barcasses in this river ladâ—n with all kinds of provision that either the sea or land produces and that in such abundance as I must confess I am not able to expresse it in words for it is not possible to imagine the infinite store of things that are in this Country of each whereof you shall see two or three hundred Vessels together at a time all full especially at the Fairs and Markets that are kept upon the solemn festival days of their Pagodes for then all the fairs are free and the Pagodes for the most part are scituated on the banks of rivers to the end all commodities may the more commodiously be brought thither by water Now when all these vessels come to joyn together during these Fairs they take such order as they make as it were a great and fair Town of them so that sometimes you shall have of them a league in length and three quarters of a league in bredth being composed of above twenty thousand vessels besides Balons Guedees and Manchuas which are small boats whose number is infinite For the Government hereof there are threescore Captains appointed of which thirty are to see good order kept and the other thirty are for the guard of the Merchants that come thither to the end they may sail in safety Moreover there is above them a Chaem who hath absolute power both in civil and criminal causes without any appeal or opposition whatsoever during the fifteen days that this Fair lasts which is from the new to the full Moon And indeed more come to see the policy order and beauty of this kind of Town then otherwise for to speak the truth the framing of it in that manner with vessels makes it more to be admired then all the Edifices that can be seen upon the land There are in this moving Town two thousand streets excâ—eding long very strait inclosed on either side with ships most of which are covered with silks and adorned with a world of banners flags and streamers wherein all kind of commodities that can be desired are to be sold In other streets are as many trades to be seen as in any Town on the Land amidst the which they that traffique go up and down in little Manchuas and that very quietly and without any disorder Now if by chance any one is taken stealing he is instantly punished according to his offence As soon as it is night all these streets are shut up with cords athwart them to the end none may passe after the retreat sounded In each of these streets there are at least a dâ—zen of lanthorns with lights burning fastened a good heighth on the Masts of the vessels by means whereof all that go in and out are seen so that it may be known who they are from whence they come and what they would have to the end the Chaem may the next morning receive an account thereof And truly to behold all these lights together in the night is a â—ight scarce able to be imagined neither is there a street without a Bell and a Sentinel so as when that of the Chaems ship is heard to ring all the other bels answer it with so great a noise of voices adjoyned thereunto that we were almost besides our selves at the hearing of a thing which cannot be well conceived and that was ruled with such good order In every of these streets even in the poorest of them there is a Chappel to pray in framed upon great Barcasses like to Gallies very neat and so well accommodâ—ted that for the most part they are enriched with silks and cloth of gold In these Chappels are their Idols and Priests which administer their sacrifices and receive the offerings that are made them wherewith they are abundantly furnished for their living Out of each street one of the most account or chiefest Merchant is chosen to waâ—ch all night in his turn with those of his Squadron besides the Captains of the government who in Ballons walk the round without to the end no thiefe may escape by any avenue whatsoever and for that purpose these guards cry as loud as they can that they may be heard Amongst the most remarkable things we saw one street where there were above an hundred vessels laden with Idols of guilt wood of divers fashions which were sold for to be offered to the Pagodes together with a world of feet thighs arms and heads that sick folks bought to offer in devotion There also we beheld other ships covered with silk hangings where Comedies and other playes were represented to entertain the people withall which in great numbers flocked thither In other places Bils of exchaâ—ge for Heaven were sold wherâ—by these Priests of the Divel promised them many merits with great interest affirming that without these bils they could not possibly be saved for that God say they is a mortal enemy to all such as do not some good to the Pagodes whereupon they tell them such fables and lies as these unhappy wretches do often times take the very bread from their mouths to give it them There were also other vessels all laden with dead mens skuls which diveâ—s men bought for to present as an offering at the tombs of their friends when they should happen to dye for say they as the deceased is laid in the grave in the company of these skuls so shall his soul enter into Heaven attended by those unto whom those skuls belonged wherefore when the Porter of Paradise shall see such a Merchant with many followers he will do him honour as to a man that in this life hath been a man of quality for if he be poor and without a train the Porter will not open to him whereas contrarily the more dead mens skuls he hath buried with him the more happy he shall be esteemed There were many boats likewise where there were men that had a great many of Cages full of live birds who playing on divers instruments of musick exhorted the people with a loud voice to deliver those poor creatures of God that were there in captivity whereupon many came and gave them mony for the redemption of those prisoners which presently they let out of the cages and then as they flew away the redeemers of them cried out to the birds Pichau pitauel catan vacaxi that is Go and tell God how we serve him here below In imitation of these there are others also who in their ships kept a great many of little live fishes in great pots of water and like the sellers of birds invite the people for Gods cause to free those poor innocent fishes that had never sinned so that divers bought many of them and casting them into the river said Get ye gone and tell there below
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
hath created all things From this blindness and incredulity of these people are these great abuses and confused superstitions derived which are ordinary amongst them and wherein they observe a world of diabolical ceremonies For they are so brutish and wicked as to sacrifice humane blood offering it up with divers sorts of perfumes and sweet savors Moreover they present their Priests with many gifts upon assurance from these profane wretches of great blessings in this life and infinite riches and treasure in the other To which effects the same Priests grant them I know not what Certificates as it were Bills of Exchange which the common people call Couchinnoces that after their death they may serve above in Heaven to procure for them a recompence of an hundred for one wherein these miserable creatures are so blinded that they save the very meat drink from their own mouths to furnish those accursed priests of Satan with all things necessary believing that these goodly â—ills they have from them will assuredly return them that benefit There are also Priests of another Sect called Naustolins who contrary to those others preach and affirm with great oaths that reasonable creatures live and die like beasts therfore that they are to make merry spend their goods jovially whiles life shall last there being no other after this as all but fools ignorants are to believe There is another Sect named Trimechau who are of opinion that so long time as a man shall live in this world so long shall he remain under ground until at length by the prayers of their priests his soul shall reassume the body of a child of seven days old wherein he shall live again till he shall grow so strong as to re-enter into the old body which he hed left in the grave and so be transported into the Heaven of the Moon where they say he shal live many years in the end be converted into a star which shall remain fixed above in the Firmament for ever Another Sect there is called Gyson who believe that only the beasts in regard of their sufferings and the labour which they endure in this life shall possess Heaven after their death not man that leadeth his life according to the lusts of the flesh robbing killing and committing a world of other offences by reason whereof say they it is not possible for him to be saved unless at the hour of death he leave all his estate to the Pagodes and to the Priests that they may pray for him whereby one may see that all the intentions of their diabolical Sects is not founded but upon a very tyranny and upon the interests of the Bonzes who are they that preach this pernicions doctrine to the people and perswaded them with many fables to believe it In the mean time these things seem so true to these wretches that hear them as they very willingly give them all their goods imagining that thereby only they can be saved and freed from those punishments and fears wherewithall they threaten them if they do otherwise I have spoken here of no more then these three Sects omitting the rest of the two and thirty which are followed in this great Empire of China as well because I should never have done as I have said heretofore if I would relate them all at large as for that by these it may be known what the others are which are nothing better but in a manner even the very same wherefore leaving the remedy of such evils and great blindness to the mercy and providence of God unto whom only it appertains I will pass on to the declarations of the miseries we indured during our exille in the Town of Quancy until such time as we were made slaves by the Tartars which happened in the year 1544. We had been now two months and an half in this City of Pequin when as on Saturday the thirteenth of Iuly 1554. we were carried away to the Town of Quansy there to serve all the time that we were condemned unto Now as soon as we arrived there the Chaem caused us to be brought before him and after he had asked us some questions he appointed us to be of the number of fourscore Halberdiers which the King assigned him for his Guard This we took as a special favour from God both in regard this imployment was not very painful as also because the entertainment was good and the pay of it better being assured besides that at the time we should recover our liberty Thus lived we almost a month very peaceably and well contented for that we met with a better fortune then we expected when as the divel seeing how well all we nine agreed together for all that we had was in common amongst us and whatsoever misery any one had we shared it with him like true brothers he so wrought that two of our company tell into a quarrel which proved very prejudicial to us all This division sprung from a certain vanity too familiar with the Portugal Nation whereof I can render no other reason but that they are naturally sensible of any thing that touches upon honourâ— Now see what the difference was two of us nine falling by chance in contest about the extraction of the Madureyras and the Fonsecas for to know which of these two houses was in most esteem at the King of Portugals Court the matter went so far that from one word to another they came at length to terms of oyster-wives saying one to the other Who are you and again who are you so that thereupon they suffered themselves to be so transported with choller that one of them gave the other a great box on the ear who instantly returned him a blow with his sword which cut away almost half his cheek this same feeling himself hurt caught up an halbert and therewith ran the other through the arm this disaster begot such part-taking amongst us as of nine that we were seven of us found our selves grievously wounded In the mean time the Chaem came running in person to this tumult with all the Anchacys of Justice who laying hold of us gave us presently thirty lashes a piece which drew more blood from us then our hurts This done they shut us up in a dungeon under ground where they kept us six and forty days with heavy iron collers about our necks manacles on our hands and irons on our legs so that we suffered exceedingly in this deplorable estate This while our business was brought before the Kings Atturny who having seen our accusations and that one of the articles made faith that there were sixteen witnesses against us he stuck not to say That we were people without the fear or knowledge of God who did not confess him otherwise with our mouths then as any wild beast might do if he could speak that these things presupposed it was to be believed that we were men of blood of a Language of a Law
wilt not deign to benefit this defunâ—t with the gift that God hath given thee of singing and playing on this instrument I will no longer say that thou art an holy man as we all believed hitherto but that the excellency of that voice which thou hast comes from the inhabitants of the house of smoak whose nature it was at first to sing very harmoniously though now they weep and wail in the profound lake of the night like hunger-starved dogs that gnashing their teeth and foaming with rage against men discharge the froth of their malice by the offences which they commit against him that lives in the highest of the Heavens After this ten or eleven of them were so earnest with Gaspar de Meyrelez as they made him play almost by force and led him to the place where the deceased was to be burnt according to the custom of those Gentiles In the mean time seeing my self left alone without my comrade I went along to the Forrest for to get some wood according to my Commission and about evening returning back with my load on my back I met with an old man in a black damask Gown furred clean through with white Lamb who being all alone as soon as he espied me he turned a little out of the way but percâ—iving me to pass on without regarding him he cried so loud to me that I might hear him which I no sooner did but casting my eye that way I observed that he beckened to me with his hand as if he called me whereupon imagining there was something more then ordinary herein I said unto him in the Chinese Language Potauquinay which is Doest thou call me whereunto returning no answer he gave me to understand by signes that in effect he called me conjecturing then that there might be some thieves thereabouts which would bereave me of my load of wood I threw it on the ground to be the better able to defend my self and with my staff in my hand I went fair and softly after him who seeing me follow him began to double his pace athwart a little path which confirmed me in the belief I had before that he was some thief so that turning back to the place where I left my load I got it up again on my back as speedily as I could with a purpose to get into the great high way that led unto the City But the man guessing at my intention began to cry out louder to me then before which making me turn my look towards him I presently perceived him on his knees and shewing me afar off a silver cross about a span long or thereabout lifting up withall both his hands unto Heaven whereat being much amazed I could not imagine what this man should be in the mean time he with a very pitiful gesture ceased not to make signes unto me to come to him whereupon somewhat recollecting my self I resolved to go and see who he was and what he would have to which end with my staff in my hand I walked towards him where he stayed for me when as then I came near him having always thought him before to be a Chinese I wondred to see him cast himself at my feet and with tears and sighs to say thus unto me Blessed and praysed be the sweet Name of our Lord Iesus Christ after so long an exile hath shewed me so much grace as to let me see a Christian man that professeth the Law of my God fixed on the Cross. I must confess that when I heard so extraordinary a matter and so far beyond my expectation I was therewith so surprised that scarcely knowing what I said I conjure thee answered I unto him in the Name of our Lord Iesus to tell me who thou art At these words this unknown man redoubling his tears Dear Brother replyed he I am a poor Christian by Nation a Portugal and named Vasco Calvo brother to Diego Calvo who was somtime Captain of Don Nuna Manoel his ship and made a Slave here in this Country about seven and twenty years since together with one Tome Perez who Loppo Soarez sent as Ambassador into this Kingdom of China and that since died miserably by the occasion of a Portugal Captain Whereupon coming throughly to my self again I lifted him up from the ground where he lay weeping like a child and shedding no fewer tears then he I intreated him that we might sit down together which he would hardly grant so desirous he was to have me go presently with him to his house but sitting down by me he began to discourse the whole success of his travels and all that had befallen him since his departure from Portugal till that very time as also the death of the Ambassador Tome Perez and of all the rest whom Fernand Perez d' Amdrada had left at Canton to go to the King of China which he recounted in another manner then our Historians have delivered it After we had spent the remainder of the day in entertaining one another with our passed adventures we went to the City where having shewed me his house he desired me that I would instantly go and fetch the rest of my fellows which accordingly I did and found them all together in the poor lodging where we lay and having declared unto them what had befallen me they were much abashed at it as indeed they had cause considering the stratagems of the accident so they went presently along with me to Vasco Calvo's house who waiting for us gave us such hearty welcome as we could not chuse but weep for joy Then he carried us into a Chamber where was his wife with two little boys and two girls of his she entertained us very kindly and with as much demonstration of love as if she had been the mother or daughter to either of us After this we sat down at the table which he had caused to be covered and made a very good meal of many several dishes provided for us Supper done his wife arose very courteously from the table and taking a key which hung at her girdle she opened the door of an Oratory where there was an altar with a silver cross as also two candlesticks and a lamp of the same and then she and her four children falling down on their knees with their hands lift up to Heaven began to pronounce these words very distinctly in the Portugal tongue O thou true God we wretched sinners do confess before thy Cross like good Christians as we are the most sacred Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons and one God and also we promise to live and dye in thy most Holy Catholique Faith like good and true Christians confessing and believing so much of thy holy truth as is held and believed by thy Church In like manner we offer up unto thee our souls which thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud for to be wholly imployed in thy service all the time of our lives and then to be
being the ceremony or compliment ordinarily used amongst them The Prince was exceedingly pleased with this honour done unto him which with a smiling countenance and much acknowledgment of words he testified unto him This past the Prince with a new ceremony stept two or three paces back and lifting up his voice with more gravity then before as he that represented the Person of the King in whose name he came said unto him He the border of whose rich vesture my mouth kisseth and that out of an incredible greatness mastereth the Scepters of the earth and of the Isles of the Sea sends thee word by me who am his slave that thy honourable arrival is no less agreeable unto him then the Summers sweet morning is to the ground when as the dew doth comfort and refresh our bodies and therefore would have thee without further delay to come and hear his voice mounted on his horse whose trappings are garnished with jewels taken out of his Treasury to the end that riding by my side thou mayest be made equal in honour to the greatest of his Court and that they which behold thee marching in this sort may acknowledge that the right hand of him is mighty and valiant unto whom the labours of war giveth this recompence Hereupon the Mitaquer prostrating himself on the earth with his hands lifted up answered him thus Let my head be an hundred times trampled on by the sole of his feet that all those of my race may be sensible of so great a favour and that my eldest Son may ever carry it for a mark of honour Then mounting on the horse which the Prince had given him trapped with gold and precious stones being one of those that the King used to ride on himself they marched on with a great deal of State and Majesty In this pomp were many spare horses led richly harnessed there were also a number of Ushers carrying silver Maces on their shoulders and six hundred Halberdiers on horsback together with fifteen Chariots full of silver Cymbals and many other ill tuned barbarous instruments that made so great a din as it was not possible to hear one another Moreover in all this distance of way which was a league and an half there were so many men on horsback as one could hardly pass through the croud in any part thereof The Mitaquer being thus in triumph arrived at the first trenches of the Camp he sent us by one of his Servants to his quarter where we were very well received and abundantly furnished with all things necessary for us Fourteen days after we arrived at â—his Camp the Mitaquer our General sent for us to his Tent where in the presence of some of his Gentlemen he said unto us To morrow morning about this time be you ready that I may make good my word unto you which is to let you see the face of him whom we hold for our Soveraign Lord a grace that is done you out of a particular respect to me And this his Majesty doth not only grant unto you but your liberty also which I have obtained of him for you and which in truth I am no less glad of then of the taking of Mixiancoo the particulars whereof you may relate unto him if you come to be so happy as to be questioned by him about it Withall I assure you that I shall take it for a great satisfaction if when you shall return into your Country you will remember that I have kept my word with you and that therein I have shewed my self so punctual as it may be I would not for that consideration demand of the King some other thing more profitable for me that you may know this was that which I only desired Also the King hath done me the honour to grant it me presently and that with such exceeding demonstration of favour as I must confess I am thereby more obliged unto you then you are to me Having spoken thus unto as we prostrated our selves upon the ground and in this sort answered him My Lord the good which you have pleased to do us is so great that to go about to thank you with words as the world useth to do in the state we now are in would rather be an ingratitude then a true and due acknowledgment so that we think it better to pass it by in silence within the secret of that soul which God hath put into us And therefore since our tongues are of no use to us herein and that they cannot frame words capable to satisfie so great an obligation as this is wherein all of us stand for ever so infinitely ingaged unto you we must with continual tears and sighs beg of the Lord which made Heaven and earth that he will reward you for it for it is he that out of his infinite mercy and goodness hath taken upon him to pay that for the poor which they of themselves are not able to discharge It is he then that will throughly recompence you and your children for this good office you have done us and whereby you merit to have a share in his promises and to live long and happily in this world Amongst those which accompanied the Mitaquer at that time there was one named Bonquinuda a man in years and of the principalest Lords of the Kingdom who in this Army commanded over the strangers and Rhinocerots that served for the Guard of the Camp This same unto whom more respect was born then to all the rest that were present had no sooner heard our answer but lifting up his eyes to Heaven he said O! who could be so happy as to be able to ask of God the explication of so high a secret whereunto the weakness of our poor understanding cannot arrive for I would fain know from whence it comes that he permits people so for esloigned from the knowledge â—f our truth to answer on the suddain in terms so agreeable to our ears that I dare well say nay I will venture my head on it that concerning things of God and Heaven they know more sleeping then we do broad awake whence it may be inferred that there are Priests amongst them that understand the course of the Stars and the motions of the Heavens far better then oâ—â— Bonzes of the house of Lechuna Whereupon all that were about him answered Your Greatness hath so much reason for it that we were obliged to behold it as an Article of our faith wherefore we think it were fit that these strangers should not be suffered to go out of our Country where as our Masters and Doctors they might teach us such things they know of the world That which you advise replyed the Mitaquer is not much amiss and yet the King would never permit it for all the treasures of China because if he should he would then violate the truth of his word and so lose all the reputation of his greatness wherefore you must excuse me if I do not
propound things unto him that cannot be whereupon turning himself towards us Go get you gone said he unto us and to morrow morning fail not to be ready for to come again when I shall send for you These words exceedingly contented us as there was great cause they should and accordingly the next day he sent us nine horses very well furnished upon which we mounted and so went to his Tent He in the mean time had put himself into a Piambre that is somewhat like to a Litter drawn with two horses richly harnessed round about him for his Guard marched threescore Halberdiers six pages apparelled in his Livery mounted on white Curtals and we nine on horsback a little more behind In this manner he went on towards the place where the King was whom he â—ound lodged in the great and sumptuous Edifice of the Goddess Nacapirau by the Chineses called the Queen of Heaven whereof I have spoken at large in the thirty â—ourth Chapter Being arrived at the first trenches of the Kings Tent he alighted out of his Litter and all the rest likewise off â—rom their horses for to speak to the Nautaran of whom with a kiâ—d of ceremony after the fashion of the Gentiles he craved leave to enter which was presently granted him Thereupon the Mitaquâ—r being returned into his Litter passed through the gates in the same manner as beâ—ore only we and the rest of his followers waited upon him on foot When he came to a low and very long Gallery where there was a great number of Gentlemen he alighted again out of his Litter and told us that we were to attend him there for that he would go and know whether it were a fit time to speak with the King or no. We stayed there then about an hour during the which some of the Gentlemen that were in the Gallery observing us to be strangers and such kind of people as they had never seen the like they called us and very courteously bid us to sit down by them where having spent some time in beholding certain tumblâ—â—s shewing â—eats of activity we perceived the Mitaquer coming forth with four very beautiful boys attired in long coats after the Turkish fashion garded all over with green and white and wearing about the small of their legs little hoops of gold in the foâ—m of irons and shackleâ— The Gentlemen that were pâ—esent as soon as they saw them rose up on their feet and drawing out their Courâ—elasses which they wore by their sides they laid them on the ground with a new kind of ceremony saying three times Let the Lord of our heads live an hundred thousand years In the mean while as â—e lay with our heads bending to the ground one of those boys said aloud unto us You men of the other end of the world rejoyce now for that the hour is come wherein your desire is to be accomplished and that you are to have the liberty which the Mitaquer promised you at the Castle of Nixiamcoo wherefore arise from off the earth and lift up your hands to Heaven rendring thanks unto the Lord who during the night of our peaceable rest enammels the Firmament with Stars seeing that of himself alone without the merit of any flesh he hath made you to encounter in your exile with a man that delivers your persons To this Speech prostrated as we were on the ground we returned him this answer by our truch-man May Heavens grant us so much happiness as that his foot may trample on our heads whereunto he replied Your wish is not small and may it please God to accord you this gift of riches These four boys and the Mitaquer whom we followed past through a Gallery erected upon five and twenty pâ—llars of brâ—ss and entred into a great room where there were a number of Gentlemen and amongst them many strangers Mogores Persians Bordies Calamiâ—hams and Bramaas After we were out of this room we came unto another where there were many armed men ranged into five Files all along the room with Courtelasses on their shoulders that were garnished with gold Tâ—ese stayed the Mitaquer a little and with great complements asked him some questions and took his oath upon the Maces the boys carried which he performed on his knees kissing the ground three several times whereupon he was admitted to pass on into a great place like a quadrangle there we saw four ranks of Statues of brass in the form of wild men with clubs and crowâ—s of the same mettal guilt These Idols or Gyants were each of them six and twenty spans high and six broad as well on the breâ—t as on the shoulders their countenances were hideous and deformed and their hair curled like to Negroes The desire we had to know what these figures signified made us to demand it of the Tartars who answered us that they were the three hundred and threescore gods which framed the days of the year being placed there expresly to the end that in their effigies they might be continually adored â—or having created the fruits which the earth produceth and withall that the King of Tartary had caused them to be transported thither from a great Temple called Angicamoy which he had taken in the City of Xipaton out of the Chappel of the Tombs of the Kings of China for to triumph over them when as he should happily return into his Country that the whole world might know how in despight of the King of China he had captivated his gods Within this place whereof I speak and amidst a plantation of Orange-trees that was invironed within a fence of Ivy Roses Rosemary and many other sort of flowers which we have not in Europe was a Tent piâ—ched upon twelve Ballisters of the wood of Champhire each of them wreathed about with silver in the fashion of knotted card-work bigger then ones arm In this Tent was a low Throne in the form of an Altar garnished with branched work of fine gold and over it was a cloth of State set thick with silver Stars where also the Sun and Moon were to be seen as also certain clouds some of them white and others of the colour of which appear in the time of rain all enammelled so to the life and with such art that they beguiled all those that bâ—held them for they seemed to rain indeed so as it was impossible to see a thing more compleat either for the proportions or colours In the midst of this Throne upon a bed lay a great Statue of silver called Abicau Nilancor which signifies the God of the health of Kings that had been also taken in the Temple of Angicamoy Now round about the same Statue were four and thirty Idols of the height of a child of five or six years old ranged in two Files and set on theâ—r knees with their hands lifted up towards this Idol as if they would adore him At the entry into this Tent there were four young Gentlemen richly clad
from Heaven is profitable to our fields that are sowed with Rice Finding my self somewhat perplexed with the novelty of these terms and this manner of salutation I made him no answer for the instant which made the King say to the Lords that were about him I â—magine that this strâ—nger is daunted with seeing so much company here for that peradventure he hath not been accustomed unto it wherefore I hold it fit to remit him unto some other time when as he may be better acquainted and not be so abashed at the sight of people Upon this Speech of the Kings I answered by my Truchmâ—n that whereas his Highness had said that I was daunted I confessed that it was true not in regard of so many folks as were about me because I had seen far many more but that my amazement proceeded from the consideration that I was now before thâ— feet of so great a King which was sufficient to make me mute an hundred thousâ—nd years if I could live so long I added further that those which were present there seemed to me but men as I my self was but as for his Highness that God had given him such great advantages above all as it was his pleasure that he should be Lord and that others should be meer servants yea and that I my self was but a silly Ant in comparison of his greatness so that his Majesty could not see me in regard of my smalness nor I in respect thereof be able to answer unto his demands All the Assistants made such account of this mad answer of mine as clapping their hands by way of astonishment they said unto the King Mark I beseech your Highness how he speaks to purpose verily it seems that this man is not a Merchant which meddles with base things as buying and selling but rather a Bonzo that offers sacrifices for the people or if not so surely he is some great Captain that hath a long time scoured the Seas Truly said the King I am of the same opinion now that I see him so resolute but let every man be silent because I purpose that none shall speak to him but my self alone for I assure you that I take so much delight in hearing him talk that at this instant I feel no pain At those words the Queen and her daughters which were set by him were not a little glad and falling on their knees with their hands liâ—â—ed up to Heaven they thanked God for this his great goodness unto him CHAP. XLV The great mishap that befel the King of Bungo's Son with the extream danger that I was in for the same and what followed thereupon A Little after the King caused me to approach unto his bed where he lay sick of the Gout when I was near him I pree thee said he unto me be not unwilling to stay here by me for it does me much good to look on thee and talk with thee thou shalt also oblige me to let me know whether in thy Country which is at the further end of the world thou hast not learn'd any remedy for this disease wherewith I am tormented or for the lack of appetite which hath continued with me now almost these two months without eating any thing to speak of Hereunto I answered that I made no profession of physick for that I had never learnt that art but that in the Junck wherein I came from China there was a certain wood which infused in water healed far greater sicknesses then that whereof he complained and that if he took of it it would assuredly help him To hear of this he was very glad insomuch that transported with an extream desire to be healed he sent away for it in all haste to Tanixumaa where the Junck lay and having used of it thirty dayes together he perfectly recovered of this disease which had held him so for two years together as he was not able to stir from one place to another Now during the time that I remained with much content in this City of Fuchea being some twenty dayes I wanted not occasions to entertain my self withall for sometimes I was imployed in answering the questions which the King Queen Princes and Lords asked of me wherein I easily satisfied them for that the matters they demanded of me were of very little consequence Other-whiles I bestowed my selfe in beholding their Solemnities the Temples where they offered up their prayers their warlike Exercises their naval Fleets as also their fishing and hunting wherein they greatly delight especially in the high flying of Falcons and Vultures Oftentimes I past away the time with my Harquebuse in killing of Turtles and Quailes whereof there is great abundance in the Country In the mean season this new manner of shooting seemed no less marvellous and strange to the inhabitants of this Land then to them of Tanixumaa so that beholding a thing which they had nâ—ver seen before they made more reckoning of it then I am able to express which was the cause that the Kings second Son named Arichaudono of the age of sixteen or seventeen years and whom the King wonderfully loved intreated me one day to teach him to shoot but I put him off by saying that there needed a far longer time for it then he imagined wherewith not well pleased he complained to his Father of me who to content the Prince desired me to give him a couple of charges for the satisfying of his mind whereunto I answered that I would give him as many as his Highness would be pleased to command me Now because he was that day to dine with his Father the matter was referred to the afternoon howbeit then too there was nothing done for thâ—t he waited on his Mother to a Village adjoyning whither they came from all parts on pilgrimage by reason of a certain feast which was celebrated there for the health of the King The next day this young Prince came with only two young Gentlemen waiting on him to my lodging where finding me asleep on a Mat and my Harquebuse hanging on a hook by he would not wake me till he had shot off a couple of charges intending as he told me afterwards himâ—elf that these two shoots should not be comprised in them I had promised him Hâ—ving then commanded one of the young Gentlemen that attended him to go softly and kindle the Match he took down the Harquebuse from the place where it hung and going to charge it as he had seen me do not knowing how much powder he should put in he charged the Piece almost two spans deep then putting in the bullet he set himself with it to shoot at an Orange tree that was not far off but fire being given it was his ill hap that the Harquebuse brake into three pieces and gave him two hurts by one of the which his right hand thumb was in a manner lost instantly whereupon the Prince fell down as one dead which the two Gentlemen perceiving they ran
a review to be made of those that would fight but he â—ound them to be not above two thousand in all and they too so destitute of courage as they â—ould hardly have resisted feeble women Beholding himself then reduced to the last cast he communicated his mind to the Queen only as having no other at that time by whom he may be advised or that indeed could advise him The only expedient then that he could rest on was to render himself into the hands of his Enemy and to stand to his mercy or his rigor Wherefore the next day about six of the clock in the morning he câ—uâ—ed a white flag to be hung out over the wall in sign of peace whereunto they of the Camp answered with another like banner Hereupon the Xenimbrum who was as it were Marshal of the Camp sent an horseman to the bulwark where the flag stood unto whom it was delivered from the top of the wall That the Chaubainhaa desired to send a Letter to the King so as he might have a safe-conduct for it which being signified to the Xenimbrum he instantly dispatched away two of good quality in the Army with a safe-conduct and so these two Bramaaâ— remaining for hostages in the City the Chaubainhaa sent the King a Letter by one of his Priests that was fourscore years of age and reputed for a Saint amongst them The contents of this Letter were these The love of children hath so much power in this house of our weakness that amongst us who are fathers there is not so much as one that for their sakes would not be well contented to descend a thousand times into the deep pit of the house of the Serpent much more would expose his life for them and put himself into the hands of one that useth so much clemency towards them that shall do so For which reason I resolved this night with my wife and children contrary to the opinions that would disswade me from this good which I hold the greatest of all others to render my self unto your Highness that you may do with me as you think fit and as shall be most agreeable to your good pleasure As for the fault wherewith I may be charged and which I submit at your feet I humbly beseech you not to regard it that so the merit of the mercy which you shall shew me may be the greater before God and men May your Highness therefore be pleased to send some presently for to take possession of my person of my wife of my children of the City of the Treasure and of all the Kingdom all which I do even now yield up unto you as to my Soveraign Lord and lawful King All the request that I have to make unto you thereupon with my knees on the ground iâ— that we may all of us with your permission finish our days in a Cloister where I have already vowed continually to bewail and repent my fault past For as touching the honors and estates of the world wherewith your Highness might inrich me as Lord of the most part of the Earth and of the Isles of the Sea they are things which I utterly renounce for evermore In a word I do solemnly swear unto you before the greatest of all the Gods who with the gentle touch of his Almighty hand makes the Clouds of Heaven to move never to leave that Religion which by your pleasure I shall be commanded to profess where being freed from the vain hopes of the world my repentance may be the more pleasing to him that pardoneth all things This holy Grepo Dean of the golden House of Saint Quiay who for his goodnesse and austerity of life hath all power over me will make a more ample relation unto you of what I have omitted and can more particularly tell you that which concerns the offer I make you of rendring my self that so relying on the reality of his Speech the unquietness wherewith my soul is incessantly troubled may be appeased The King of Bramaa having read this Letter instantly returned another in answer thereunto full of promises and oaths to this effect That he would forget all that was past and that for the future he would provide him an estate of so great a Revenue as should very well content him Which he but badly accomplished as I shall declare hereafter These news was published throughout all the Camp with a great deal of joy and the next morning all the Equipage and Train that the King had in his quarter was set forth to view First of all there were to be seen fourscore and six Field-Tents wonderful rich each of them being invironed with thirty Elephants ranked in two Files as if they had been ready to fight with Castles on their backs full of Banners and their Panores fastened to their Trunks the whole number of them amounted unto two thousand five hundred and fourscore Not far from them were twelve thousand and five hundred Bramaas all mounted on horses very richly accoustred with the order which they kept they inclosed all the Kings quarter in four Files and were all armed in Corslets or Coats of Mayl with Lances Cymitars and guilded Bucklers After these Horse followed four Files of Foot all Bramaas being in number above twenty thousand For all the other Souldiers of the Camp there were so many as they could not be counted and they marched all in order after their Captains In this publique Muster were to be seenâ— world of Banners rich colours such a number of Instruments of war sounded that the noise thereof together with that which the Souldiers made was most dreadful and so great as it was not possible to hear one another Now for that the King of Bramaa would this day make shew of his greatness in the reddition of the Chaubainhaa he gave express Command that all the Captains which were strangers with their men should put on their best clothes and Arms and so ranged in two Files they should make as it were a kind of street through which the Chaubainhaa might pass this accordingly was put in execution and this street took beginning from the City gate and reached as far as to the Kings Tent being in length about three quarters of a League or better In this street there were six and thirty thousand strangers of two and forty different Nations namely Portugals Grecians Venetians Turks Ianizaries Iews Armâ—nians Tartars Mogores Abyssins Raizbutos Nobins Coracones Persians Tuparaas Gizares Tanacos Malabares Iaos Achems Moens Siams Lussons of the Island Borneo Chacomas Arracons Predins Papuaas Sâ—lebres Mindanoas Pegus Bramaas and many others whose names I know not All these Nations were ranked according to the Xemimbrums order whereby the Portugals were placed in the Vantgard which was next to the gate of the City where the Chabainhaa was to come After them followed the Armâ—nians then the Ianizaries and Turks and so the rest CHAP. LI. In what manner the Chaubainhaa rendred himself
what he had to do The Rolim went herewith back to the City where he gave the Queen an account of all things saying That this Tyrant was a man without faith and replete with damnable intentions for proof whereof he represented unto her the Siege of Martabano the usage of the Chaubainhaa after he rendred himself unto him upon his word and how he had put him his wife his children and the chiefest Nobility of his Kingdom to a most shamefull death These things considered it was instantly concluded as well by the Queen as by all those of her Councel that she should defend the City till such time as succour came from her Father which would be within fifteen days at the furthest This resolution taken she being of a great courage without further delay took order for all things that were thought necessary for the defence of the City animating to that end her people with great prudence and a man-like Spirit though she was but a woman Moreover as she liberally imparted to them of her Treasure so she promised every one throughly to acknowledg their services with all manner of recompences and honours whereby they were mightily encouraged to fight In the mean space the King of Bramaa seeing that the Rolim returned him no answer within the time prefixt began the next day to fortifie all the Quarters of his Camp with double rows of Cannon for to batter the City on every side and for assaulting of the walls he caused a great number of Ladders to be made publishing withall throughout his whole Army that all Souldiers upon pain of death should be ready within three days to go to the Assault The time then being come which was the third of May 1545. About an hour before day the King went out of his Quarter where he was at anchor upon the river with two thousand vessels of choice men and giving the Signal to the Commanders which were on Land to prepare themselves they altogether in one Body assailed the walls with so great a cry as if Heaven and earth would have come together so that both sides falling to encounter pell-mell with one another there was such a conflict betwixt them as within a little while the air was seen all on fire and the earth all bloody whereunto being added the clashing of weapons and noise of guns it was a spectacle so dreadful that we few Portugals who beheld these things remained astonished and almost besides our selves This fight indured full five hours at the end whereof the Tyrant of Bramaa seeing those within defend themselves so valiantly and the most part of his Forces to grow faint he went to land with ten or eleven thousand of his best men and with all diligence re-inforcing the Companies that were fighting the Bickering renewing in such sort as one would have said it did but then begin so great was the fury of it The second trial continued till night yet would not thâ— Kâ—ng desist from the fight what counsel soever was given him to retire but contrarily he swore not to give over the Enterprise begun and that he would lie that night within the inclosure of the City walls or cut off the heads of all those Commanders that were not wounded at their coming off In the mean time this obstinacy was very pejudicial to him for continuing the Assault till the Moon was gone down which was two hours past midnight he was then forced to sound a Retreat after he had lost in this Assault as was the next day found upon a Muster fourscore thousand of his men besides those which were hurt which were thirty thousand at the least whereof many died for want of dressing whence issued such a plague in the Camp as well through the corruption of the air as the water of the river that was all tainted with blood and dead bodies that thereby about fourscore thousand more perished amongst whom were five hundred Portugals having no other buriall then the bellies of Vultures Crows and such like birds of prey which devoured them all along the Coast where they lay The King of Bramaa having considered that this first Assault having cost him so dear would no more hazaâ—d his men in that manner but he caused a great Terrace to be made with Bavins and above ten thousand Date-trees which he commanded to be cut down and on that he raised up a platform so high as it over-topped the walls of the City two fathom and more where he placed fourscore pieces of Ordnance and with them continually battering the City for the space of nine dayes together it was for the most part demolished with the death of fourteen thousand persons which quite abated the poor Queens courage especially when she came to understand that she had but six thousand fighting men left all the rest which consisted of women chidren old men being unfit and unable to bear Arms. The miserable besieged seeing themselves reduced to such extreamity assembled together in Councel and there by the advice of the chiefest of them it was concluded That all in general should anoint themselves with the Oile of the Lamps of the Chappel of Quiay Nivandel God of Battail of the field Vitan and so offering themselves up in sacrifice to him set upon the platform with a determination either to dye or to vanquish in vowing themselves all for the defence of their young King to whom they had so lately done homage and sworn to be true and faithful Subjects This resolution taken which the Queen and all her Nobility approved of for the best and most assured in a time wherein all things were wanting to them for the longer defending themselves they promised to accomplish it in the manner aforesaid by a solemn Oâ—th which they all took Now there being no further question but to see how they should carry themselves in this affair they first of all made an Uncle of the Queens the Captains of this resolute Band who assembling these six thousand together the same night about the first quarter of the watch made a sally out of the two gates that were neerest to the Terrace and platform and so taking courage from their despair and resolution to dye they fought so valiantly that in less then half an hour the whole Camp was put in disorder the Terrace gained the fourscore pieces of Cannon taken the King himself hurt the Pallisado burnt the Trenches broken and the Xenimbrum General of the Army slain with above fifteen thousand â—en more amongst the which were five hundred Turks there weâ—e moreover forty Elephants taken besides those that were killed and eight hundred Bramaas made prisoners so that these six thousand resolute men did that which an hundred thousand though valiant enough could hardly have effected After this they retreated an hour before day and upon a review they found that of six thousand which they were there was but seven hundred slain This bad success so grieved and incensed the
here with so much diversity of things that we never dreamt of as I know not where to begin for such a multitude of people of all the Nations of these Countries came flocking to this place as is not to be expressed howbeit the chiefest cause of their repair thither in such numbers is a Fair which is kept all the time of the Feast being fifteen dayes namely from the new to the full Moon In this Fair are all things to be sold which Nature hath created on the earth or in the Seâ— and that in so high a degree of abundance as there is not any one kind of thing whereof there are not whole Streets of Houses Cabbins or Tents so long that one can hardly see from one end to the other All these streets are replenished with very rich Merchants besides an infinite company of other people who are lodged all along the River which is above two Leagues broad and planted about with several sorts of Trees as Walnuts Chesnuts Cocos and Dates whereof every one takes what he pleaseth because it doth all belong to the Pagode The Temple of this Idol is a very sumptuous Edifice scituated in the midst of a Plain upon a little round hill more then half a league in circuit It is built all slope fifteen fathom high and from thence upward it hath a wall of free-stone of some three fathom with its Bulwarks and Towers after the fashion of ours Within the inclosure of this wall there is a platform made level with Battlements a stones cast in bredth which together with the wall extends round about the hill so that at first sight one would take it for a Gallery There are likewise all along an hundred and threescore Hospitals in each whereof are above an hundred houses which are low but very neat and convenient where the Pilgrimes Fucatous and Daroezes are entertained which come thither in troops like the Gipsies in our Europe with their Captains each company of them having two or three thousand persons some more some less according as the Kingdoms from whence they resort are nearer or further off now it is known of what Country they are by the devices which they carry in their Banners From the top to the bottom it is all invironed with Cypress-trees and Cedars where many fountains of most excellent water do continually flow forth and on the highest part of this hill almost a quarter of a league in circuit there are four Convents and in them very sumptuous and rich Temples namely two of men and as many of women in each of which as we were assured were very near five hundred persons In the midst of these four Monasteries there is a Garden compassed about with three inclosures of Ballisters of Lattin having very fair Arches of curious Masons-work and Steeples guilt all over with a number of little silver bels in them which â—ing continually with the moving of the air This Chappel of the Idol Tinagoogoo is of a round form all overlaid on the in-side with plates of silver wrought in flowers and garnished with a great many Branches for lights of the same mettal This Monster of whom we could not judge whether he were gold wood or copper guilt stood upright on his feet with his hands lifted up to Heaven and a rich Crown on his head round about him were many other little Idols on their knees and beholding him as it were amazed Below were two men made of brass in the fashion of Gyants seven and thirty spans high and very ugly and deformed whom they held for the Gods of the twelve months of the year Without this place also there were an hundred and forty Gyants who ranked in two Files inclosed it round about and were made of cast iron holding Halberds in their hands as if they had been the Guard of it so that all the Marvels of this Edifice put together made it appear so stately that looking upon it one could not sufficiently esteem the riches â—nd sumptuousness thereof But setting aside for this present the relation I could make of the buildings of this Pagode because that which I have said of it may me thinks suffice for the understanding of the rest I will intreat here of the Sacrifices which we saw to be made there on a festival day called by them Xipatilâ—â— signifâ—ing The refreshing of good people CHAP. LVI The great and sumptuous Procession made in this Pagode together with their Sacrifices and other particularities WHilest this Feast of these Gentiles as also the Fair which was kept all the time thereof endured for the space of fifteen days with an infinite concourse of Merchants and Pilgrims that came flocking thither from all parts as I have declared before there were many Sacrifices made there with different ceremonies not a day passing without some new thing or other For amongst many of great charge and very worthy of observation one of the chiefest was a Iubile after their manner which was published the fifth day of the Moon together with a Procession that was above three leagues in length as we could guess It was the common opinion of all that in this Procession there were forty thousand Priests of the four and twenty Sects which are in this Empire most of them were of different dignities and called Grepos Talagrepos Roolims Neepois Bicos Sacareus and Chanfarauhos Now by the ornaments they wear as also by the devices and ensigns which they carry in their hands they may be distinguished and so every of them is respected according to his dignity Howbeit these went not on foot as the other ordinary Priests for that they were as this day forbidden upon pain of great sin to â—read upon the ground so that they caused themselves to be born in Pallaquins or Arm-chairs upon the shoulders of other Priests their inferiors apparelled in green Sattin with their Stoles of Carnation Damask In the midst of the ranks of this Procâ—ssion were all the inventions of their Sacrifices to be seen as also the rich Custodes of their Idols for the which each of them had a particular Devotion They that carryed them were clothed in yellow having each of them a big wax candle in his hand and between every fifteen of those Custodes went a triumphant Charet all which Charets put together were in number an hundred twenty and six All these Charets were four and some five stories high with as many wheels on either side In each of them there were at the least two hundred persons what with the Priests and the Guards and on the top of all an Idol of Silver with a Miter of Gold on its head and all of them had rich chains of Pearl and precious stones about their necks round about every Charet went little Boys carrying Silver Maces on their shoulders and behind them were a many of Caskets full of exquisite perfumes as also divers persons with Censors in their hands who ever and anon censed
the Idol to the tune of certain Instruments of Musick saying three times with a lamentable voyce Lord asswage the pains of the dead to the end they may praise thee peaceably whereunto all the people answered with a strange noise Such may thy pleasure be and so may it come to pass every day wherein thou shewest us the Sun Each of these Charets was drawn by above three thousand persons who for that purpose made use of very long coards covered with silk and thereby gained to themselves plenary remission of their sins without restitution to be made of any thing at all Now that many might participate of this absolution by drawing the coard they set their hands to it one after and close to another continuing doing so to the very end in such sort that the whole coard was covered with hands and nothing else to be seen but that they also which were without might gain this indulgence they helped those that had their hands on the coard by puâ—ting theirs about their shoulders then they that were behind them did the like and so consequently all the rest In this manner throughout the whole lâ—ngth of the coard there were six or seven Ranks or Files and in each of them above five hundred persons This Procession was enviâ—oned with a great number of Horsemen that carryed staves with pikes at both ends who riding all about went crying to the people which were infinite in number that they should make way and not interrupt the Priests in their prayers Many times also they struck those so rudely whom they first met withall as they brat down three or four together or hurt them grievously no man daring to find fault with or so much as speak a word against it In this order this mervelous Procession passed through above an hundred streets which to that end were all adorned with boughs of Palms and Myrtle amongst the which were many Standarts and Banners of Silk planted There were also many Tables set up in divers places where all that desired it for Gods sake were admitted to eat of free cost yea and in other parts they had clothes and mony given them There likewise Enemies reconciled themselves one to another and the rich men forgave them their debts which were not able to pay In a word so many good works were done there more proper for Cristians then for Gentiles as I must needs conclude that if they had been done with Faith and Baptism for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and without any mixture of the things of this world assuredly they would have been acceptable to him But 〈◊〉 the best was wanting to them and that both for theirs and our sins Whilest this Procession together with the Charets wherein the Idols were passed along in this manner and that with a dreadful noise of Drums and other such instruments behold where out of certain wooden Sheds made expresly for that purpose six seven eight or ten men all besmeared with odors and wrapped up in silk wearing Gold Bracelets about their wrists start forth all at once and room being instantly made them by the people after they had saluted the Idol which was on the top of the Charet they went and layd themselves down athwart on the ground so that the wheels coming to go over them crush'd them all to pieces which the assistants beholding cryed out aloud together My Soul be with thine Presently whereupon nine or ten of the Priests descending from the Charet took up these blessed or rather accursed creatures that sacrificed themselves in this sort and putting the head bowels and all the other members so crushed in pieces into great bowls made for that purpose they shewed them to the people from the highest part of the Charet where the Idol stood saying with a pitiful voyce Miserable sinners fall ye to praying that God may make you worthy to be a Saint as this here is who hath now offered himself up as a sweet smelling Sacrifice Whereunto all the people prostrated on the ground answered with a fearful noise We hope that the God of a thousand Gods will permit to be so In this manner many other of these wretches sacrificed themselves to the number as we were told by certain Merchants worthy of credit of six hundred and more After these followed other Martyrs of the Devil whom they called Xixaporaus which sacrificed themselves before the said Charets by most mercilesly slâ—shing themselves with sharp Rasors that to behold them how they did it one could not think but that they were altogether insensible for they cut off great gobbets of their flesh and holding them on high at the end of Arrows as if they would shoot them up to Heaven they said That they made a Present thereof to God for the Souls of their Fathers of their Wives of their Children or of such a one for whose sake they did this wicked work Now wheresoever this gobbet of flesh chanced to fall there ran so much people to catch it up as oftentimes many were stifled in the press for they held it as a very great relique In this sort these miserable wretches stood upon their feet all bathed in their own blood without Noses without Ears and without any resemblance at all of man until at length they fell down stark dead on the Earth then came the Grepos in all haste down from the top of the Charet and cutting off their heads shewed them to all the people who kneeling on the ground and lifting up their hands to Heaven cryed out with a loud voyce Let us O Lord live to that time wherein for thy service we may do as this same here hath done There were others also whom the Devil drew thither after another manner Those same craving an Alms said Give me an Alms for Gods sake or if thou dost it not I will kill my self So that if they were not presently contented they would instantly cut their own throats with Rasors which they held in their hands or stab themselves in to the belly and so drop down stark dead whereupon the Grepos ran suddenly to them and having cut off their heads shewed them as before to the people who reverenced them prostrated on the ground We likewise saw some named Nucaramons men of a very ill look clothed with Tygers skins and carrying in their hands certain pots of Copper full of excrements and filthy corrupted urine the stench whereof was so horrible and insupportable as it was not possible for any nostril to endure it These craving an Alms of the people said Give me an Alms and that instantly otherwise I will â—at this ordure which the Devil eats and bespatter thee with it that so thou mayst be accursed as he is They no sooner uttered these words but that all ran hastily to give them an Alms for if they stay'd never so little they straightway set the pot to their mouths and taking a great sup of that stinking stuff they
the Scales he passed on through all the other quarters where were Comedies dancing wrastling and excellent consorts of all kinds of musick till at length we arrived at Tinagoogoo but with much labor and pain because the throng was so great as one could hardly break through it This Temple had but one â—sle that was very long and spacious and full of great wax lights each of them having ten or eleven wieks in it set up all about in Silver Candlesticks there was also great store of perfumes of Aloes and Benjamin As for the Image of Tinagoogoo it was placed in the midst of the Temple upon a stately Tribunal in the form of an Altar environed with a number of Silver Candlesticks and a many of Children attired in purple which did nothing but cense it at the sound of Instruments of musick whereon the Priests played reasonable well Before this Idol danced to the tune of the said Instrument 〈◊〉 in Ladies which were wonderful fair and richly clad to whom the people presented their alms and offerings which the Priests received for them and thâ—n layd them before the Tribunal of the Idol with a great deal of ceremony and complement ever and anon prostrating themselves on the ground The Status of this Monster was seven and twenty spans high having the face of a Gyant the hair of a Negro wide distorted nostrils mighty great lips and a very sowre and ill-favored countenance He had in his hand an Hatchet in the form of a Coopers Addis but with a far longer handle With this Addis as the Priests made the people believe this Monster the night before killed the gluttonous Serpent of the House of Smoke for that he would have stoln away the ashes of those that sacrificed themselves There also we saw the Serpent amidst the place before the Tribunal in the form of an Adder more horrible to behold then the wit of man can imagine and done so to the life as all that looked on it trembled for fear It was layd all along with the head cut off being eight fathom long and the neck of it as thick as a Bushel so lively represented that though we knew it to be an artificial thing yet could we not chuse but be afraid of it In the mean time all the assistants ran thronging about it some pricking it with the points of their Halberds and some with their Daggers every one with railing speeches cursing and calling it Proud presumptuous accursed infernal Mannor Pool of Damnation envious of Gods goodness hunger-starved Dragon in the midst of the night and many other names which they delivered in such extraordinary terms and so fitted to the effects of this Serpent as we could not but admire them That done they put into Basins which stood at the foot of the Idols Tribunal a world of alms of Gold Silver Jewels pieces of Silk fine Callicoes Mony and hundred other things in very great abundance After we had seen all these things we continued following the Embassador who went to see the Grots of the Hermits or Penitents which were at the utmost end of the Wood all cut out of the hard Rock and in such order as one would have thought that Nature rather then the hand of man had labored in it There were an hundred forty and two of them in some of the which remained divers men whom they held for Saints and that did very great and austere pennance They in the first Grots wore long Robes like the Bonzes of Iapan and followed the Law of an Idol that had sometimes been a man called Situmpor michay who during his life enjoyned those of his Sect to lead their lives in great austerity assuring them that the only and true way to gain Heaven was to subdue the flesh and that the more they labored to afflict themselves the more liberally God would grant them all they could demand of him They which accompanyed us thither told us that they seldom eat any thing buâ— herbs boyled a few Beans of Aricot rosted and wilde fruit which were provided for them by other Priests who as the Purveyors of a Cloister took care to furnish these Penitenâ—s with such things as were confortmable to the Law whereof they made profession After these we saw in a Grot others of a Sect of one of their Saints or rather of a Devil named Angâ—macur these lived in deep holes made in the midst of the Rock according to the Rule of their wretched order eating nothing but Flies Ants Scorpions and Spiders with the juyce of a certain Herb growing in abundance thereabout much like to sorrel These spent their time in meditating day and night with their eyes lifted up to Heaven and their hands closed one within another for a testimony that they desired nothing of this world and in that manner dyed like beasts but they are accounted greater Saints then all the rest and as such after they are dead they burn them in fires whereinto they cast great quantities of most precious perfumes the Funeral pomp being celebrated with great state and very rich offerings they have sumptuous Temples erected unto them thereby to draw the living to do as they had done for to obtain this vain glory which is all the recompence that the world gives them for their excessive pennance We likewise saw others of a Sect alâ—ogether diabolical invented by a certain Gileu Mitray These have sundry orders of pennance and are not much different in their Opinions from the Abissins of Ethiopia Now that their abstinence may be the more agreeable to their Idol some of them eat nothing but filthy thick â—pitings and snot with Grashoppers and Hens dung others clots of blood drawn from other men with bitter fruits and herbs brought to them from the wood by reason whereof they live but a short time and have so bad a look and colour as they fright those that behold them I will pass by them of the Sect of Godomem who spend their whole life in crying day and night on those mountains Godomem Godomem and desist not from it until they fall down stark dead to the ground for want of breath Neither will I speak of them which they call Taxilacons who dye more brutishly then the rest for they shut themselves up in certain Grots made of purposefor it that are very little and close stopped on all 〈◊〉 and then burning green â—histles and thorns in them they choke themselves with the smoke thereof Whereby one may see how by such rude and different ways of living these miserable creatures render themselves the Devils Martyrs who in reward thereof gives them everlasting Hell-fire and verily it is a pititiful thing to behold the great pains which these wretches take to lose themselves and the little that we do to be saved CHAP. LVII What we saw in the continuing of our voyage until we arrived at the City of Timplan AFter we had seen all these things with wonder enough
misfortune this poor woman was reduced so that we told her our opinion and what we thought was fit for her to do whereupon she concluded to go along with us to Timplam and so to Pegu and from thence to set sail for Coromandel there to finish her days in the Island of St Thomé Having vowed unto us to do thus we quitted her not doubting that she would lose so good an opportunity to retire her self out of the errors wherein she was and to restore her self to an estate wherein she might be saved since it had pleased God to permit her to meet with us in a Country so far distant from that which she could hope for Howbeit she performed nothing for we could never see nor hear of her afterwards which made us to believe that either some thing was befallen her that kept her from coming to us or that through the obstinacy of her sins she deserved not to make her profit of the grace which our Lord had offered to her out of his infinite goodness and mercy CHAP. LVIII The Magnificent Reception of the King of Bramaa his Ambassadour at the City of Timplam and that which passed betwixt the Calaminham and him NIne dayes after the King of Bramaa his Ambassadour had reposed himself there by way of ceremony according to the fashion of the Coâ—try for the more honour of his Ambassage one of the Governours of the City called Quampanogrem came to fetch him accompanied with fourscore Seroos and Laulees very well eqipped and full of luâ—ty able men Throughout this Fleet they played on so many barbarous and ill accorded instruments as Belâ— Cymbals Drums and Sea-corners that the din thereof coming to joyn with the noise which the Rowers made terrified all those that heard it and indeed one would have thought it at first to be some inchantment or to say better a musick of hell if there be any there Amidst this stir we drew near to the City where we arrived about noon Being come to the first Key that was named Campalarraia we saw a great many men both Horse and Foot all richly accoutred as also a number of fighting Elephants very well harnessed having their chairs and forâ—-head pieces garnished with silver and their warlike Panores fastened to their teeth which rendred them very terrible The Ambassadour was no sooner come on shore but the Campanogrem took him by the hand and falling on his knees presented him to another great man that attended for him at the Key in great pomp This same was called Patedacan one of the chiefest of the Kingdom as we were told After he had with a new complement of courtesie received the Ambassadour he offered him an Elephant furnished with a Chair and harness of gold but whatsoever the Mandarin could do to make the Ambassadour accept of it he could by no means draw him thereunto whereupon he caused another almost as well furnished to be brought and gave it to him As for us nine Portugals and fifty or threescore Bramaas they provided Horses on which we mounted In this manner we departed from that place having his Chariots before us full of men that amidst the acclamations of the people played upon divers kinds of instruments namely on silver Cymbals Bells and Drums Thus we were conducted through many long Streets whereof nine were invironed with Ballisters of Lattin and at the entrance into them there were Arches very richly wrought as also many Chapters of pillars guilt and great Bells which like unto clocks struck the hours nay the quarters of the hour of the day whereby the people were ordinarily directed After that with much ado by reason of the great press of people that was in the streets we were come to the outward Court of the Calaminham's Pallace which was as long or little less as a Faulcons shot and broad proportionable thereunto we saw in it above six thousand Horses all trapped with silver and silk and those that were mounted on them were armed with Coâ—slets of Lattin and Copper head-pieces of silver carrying Ensigns in their hands of divers Colours and Targets at their Saddle-bowâ— The Câ—mmander of thâ—se Troops was the Quietor of Justice who is as the Super-intendent over all the other Civil and Criminal Ministers which is a Jurisdiction â—epeâ—ate by it self from whence there is no appeal The Ambassadour being come near unto him who was also advanced to receive him and the two Governours they all prostraâ—eâ— themselves on the ground three times which is amongst them a new kind of Compliment whereupon the Queitor spake not a word to the Ambassadour but onely laid his hand on his head and then gave him a rich Scymitar that he wore by his side which the Ambassadour accepted of very thankfully and kissed it thrice That done the Quieor set the Ambassadour on his right hand and leaving the two Mandarins a little behind they past along through two ranks of Elephants which made a kind of Street of the length of the outward Court they being fifteen hundred in number all furnished with Castles and rich Chairs of divers inventions as also with a great many of silk Banners and gorgeous Coverings round abouâ— were a great Company of Halberdiers and many other shews of Greatness and Majesty which made us believe that this Prince was one of the mightiest of the Country When we were come to a great Gate that stood between two high Towers two hundred men which guarded it no sooner saw the Quietor but they all fell down on their knees Through this Gate we entred into another very long outward Court where the Kings second Guard was composed of a thousand men who were all in guilt Arms their Swords by their sides and on their heads Helmets wrought with gold and silver wherein stuck gallant plums of several colours After we had past through the middle of all this Guard we arrived at a great Hall where there was a Mandarim Uncle to the King called the Monvagaruu a man of above seventy years of age accompanied with a great number of Nobity as also with many Captains and Officers of the Kingdom About him were twelve little boyes richly clad with great Chains of gold three or four times double about their necks and each of them a silver Mace upon his shoulder As soon as the Ambassadour was come near him he touched him on the head with a Ventiloo that he held in his hand and beholding him May thy entrance said he into this Palace of the Lord of the world be as agreeable to his eyes as the rain is to our fields of Rice for so shall he grant thee all that thy King demands of him From thence we went up an high pair of stairs and entred into a very long room wherein there were many great Lords who seeing the Monvagaruu stood up on their feet as acknowledging him for their Superiour Out of this room we entred into another where there were four Altars very well
accommodated with Idols of silver upon one of these Altars we saw the Statue of a woman as big as a Giant being eighteen spans high and with her arms all abroad looking up to Heaven This Idol was of silver and her hair of gold which was very long and spread over her shoulders There also we saw a great Throne incompassed round about with thirty Giants of brass who had guilded Clubs upon their shoulders and faces as deformed as those they paint for the Divel From this room we past into a manner of a Gallery adorned from the top to the bottom with a number of little Tables of Ebony inlayed with Ivory and full of mens heads under every one of the which the name of him to whom it belonged was written in letters of gold At the end of this Gallery there were a dozen of iron Rods guilt whereon hung a great many silver Candlesticks of great value and a number of persuming Pans from whence breathed forth a most excellent odour of Amber and Calambuco or Lignum Aloes but such as we have none in Christendom There on an Altar invironed all about with three rows of Ballisters of silver we saw thirteen Kings vissages of the same mettal with golden Mitars upon their heads and under each of them a dead mans head and below many Candlesticks of silver with great white wax lights in them which were stuffed ever and anon by little boys who accorded their voyces to those of the Grepos that sung in form of a Letany answering one another The Grepos told us that those thirteen dead mens heads which were under the vissages were the skulls of thirteen Calaminhams which in times past gained this Empire from certain strangers called Roparons who by Arms had usurped the same upon them of the Country As for the other dead mens heads which we saw there they were the skâ—ls of such Commanders as by their Heroick deeds had honourably ended their dayes in helping to recover this Empire in regard whereof it was most reasonable that though death had deprived them of the recompence which they had merited by their action yet their memory should not be abolished out of the world When we were gone out of this Gallery we proceeded on upon a great Bridg that was in the form of a Street rayled on either side with Ballisters of Lattin and beautified with a many of Arches curiously wrought upon which were Scutchions of Arms charged with several devices in gold and the Crâ—â—ts over them were silver Globes five spans in circumferences all very stately and majestical to behold At the end of this bridge was another building the doors whereof we found shut whereupon we knocked four times they within not deigning to answer us which is a ceremony observed by them in such occasions At the length after we had rung a bell four times more as it were in haste out comes a woman of about fifty years of age accompanied with six little girls richly attired and Scymitars upon their shoulders garnished with â—lowers wrought in gold This anciâ—nt woman having demanded of the Monvagaruu why he had rung the bell and what he would have he answered her with a great deal of respect That he had there an Ambassadour from the King of Bramaa the Lord of Tanguu who was come thither to treat at the feet of the Calaminham about certain matters much importing his service By reason of the great authority which this woman was in she seemed little to regard this answer whereat we wondred much because he that spake to her was one of the chiefest Lords of the Kingdom and Uncle to the Calaminham as it was said Nevertheless one of the six girls that accompanied her spake thus in her behalf to the Monvagaruu My Lord may it please your Greatness to have a little patience till we may know whether the time be fit for the kissing of the foot of the Throne of this Lord of the World and advertising him of the coming of this stranger and so according to the grace which our Lord will shew him therein his heart may rejoyce and we with him That said the door was shut again for the space of three or four Credoes and then the six Girls came and opened it but the anciant woman that at first came along with them we saw no more howbeit in stead of her there came a Boy of about nine years of age richly apparelled and having on his head an hurfangua of Gold which is a kind of Myter but that it is somewhat more closed all about and without any overture he had also a Mace of Gold much like a Scepter which he carryed upon his shoulder this same without making much reckoning of the Monvagaruu or of any of the other Lords there present took the Embassador by the hand and said unto him The news of thy arrival is come unto the feet of Binaigaa the Calaminhan and Scepter of the Kings that govern the Earth and is so agreeable to his ears that with a smiling look he now sends for thee to give thee audience concerning that which is desired of him by thy King whom he newly receives into the number of his brethren with a love of the son of his entrals that so he may remain powerful and victorious over his Enemies Thereupon he caused him together with the Kings Uncle and the other Governors that accompanyed him to come in lâ—aving all the rest without the Embassador then seeing none of his Train follow him looked three or four times back seeming by his countenance to be somewhat discontented which the Monvagaruu perceiving spake to the Queitor who was a little behind that he should cause the strangers to be let in and none else the doors being then opened again we Portugals began to go in with the Bramaas but such a number of others came thrusting in amongst us as the Gentlemen Ushers who were above twenty had much ado to keep the doors striking many with Battouns which they had in their hands and of those some that were persons of quality and yet could they not therewith neither with their cries nor menaces stop them all from entering Thus being come in we past along through the midst of a great garden made with such art and where appeared so many goodly things so divers and so pleasing to the eye as words are not able to express them For there were there many Alleys environed with Ballisters of Silver and many Arbors of extraordinary scent which we were told had so much sympathy with the Moons of the year that in all seasons whatsoever they bare flowers and fruits withall there was such abundance and variety of Roses and other flowers as almost passeth belief In the midst of this Garden we saw a great many young women very fair and well clad whereof some past away their time in dancing and others in playing on sundry sorts of Instruments much after our manner which they performed with
the Country whose Fathers and Brothers were there present There were also three or four Comedies more like this acted by other young Ladies of great quality and set forth with so much pomp and magnificence as more could not be desired About evening the Calaminhan retired into another room accompanyed with women onely for all the rest they went along with the Monvagaruu who took the Embassador by the hand and led him back to the outermost room of all where with many complements after their manner he took his leave of him and so committed him to the Queitor who straightway caâ—ryed him to his House where he lodged all the while that he was there being two and thirty days during which time he was feasted by the principal Lords of the Court in a splendid and sumptuous manner and continually entertained with several sports of fishing hunting hawking and other such like recreations As for us Portugals we took a singular content in observing over all the City and about it the excellent structure of very sumptuous and magnificent edifices of statâ—ly Pagodes or Temples and of houses adorned with goodly workmanship and of inestimable value Now amongst all these Buildings there was not in the whâ—le City a more majestical one then that which was dedicated to Quiay Pimpocau who is The God of the Sick In it serve continually a number of Priests apparelled in grey Gowns who being of greater knowledg then all the rest of the four and twenty Sects of this Empire do distinguish themselves from the others by certain yellow strings which serve them for girdles they are also by the vulgar people in a soveraign degree of honor called ordinarily Perfect men The Embassador himself went five times to their Temple as well to see very marvelous things as to hear the doctrine of those that preached there of which and of all that concerns the extravagancies of their Religion he brought a great volume to the King of Bramaa which was so pleasing to him as he afterward commanded the said Doctrine to be preached in all the Temples of that Kingdom which is to this day exactly observed in all his states Of this Book I brought a Translation into the Kingdom of Portugal which a Florentine borrowed of me and when I asked him for it again he told me that it was lost but I found afterward that he had carryed it to Florence and presented it to the Duke of Tuscany who commanded it to be printed under this Title The new Belief of the Pagans of the other end of the World Upon a day as the Embassador was talking in this Pagode with one of the Grepos who professed much kindness unto him for indeed they are all of a good nature easie of access and communicating themselves to strangers freely enough he demanded of him how long it was since the Creation of the World or whether those things had a beginning which God doth shew so clearly to our eyes such as the Night the Day the Sun the Moon the Stars and other Creatures that have neither Father nor Mother and of whom no reason can be rendered in Nature how they began The Grepâ— relying more on his own knowledg then on the others that were about him made this answer to his Question Nature said he had no other Creation but that which proceeded from the Will of the Creator who in a certain time determined in his divine Counsel manifested it to the Inhabitants of Heaven created before by his soveraign power and according to that which is written thereof it was fourscore and two thousand Moons since the Earth was discovered from under the Waters when as God created therein a very fair Garden where he placed the first man whom he named Adaa together with his wife Bazagon them he expresly commanded for to reduce thâ—m under the yoke of obedience that they should not touch a certain fruit of a tree called Hilâ—forâ—n for that he reserved the same for himself and in case they came to eat thereof they should for a chastisement of their fault prove the rigor of his Iustice whereof they and their descendants should feel the dire effects This being known to the great Lupantoo who is the gluttonous Serpent of the profound House of Smoke and perceiving how by this commandment God would for mans obedience on Earth give him Heaven for a reward he went to Adaas wife and bid her eat of that fruit and that she should also make her Husband eat thereof for he assured her that in so doing they should both of them be more excellent in knowledg then all other creatures and free from that heavy nature wherâ—â—f he had composed them so that in a moment their bodies should mount to Heaven Then Bazagon hearing what Lupantoo had said unto her was so taken with a desire of enjoying that excellent prerogative of knowledg which he promised her 〈◊〉 to attain thereunto she eat of the fruit and made her Husband likewise to eat of it whence it insued that they were both of them by that unhappy morsel subjected to the pains of death of sorrow and of poverty For God seeing the disobedience of these two first creatures made them feel the â—igor of his Iustice by chasing them out of the Garden where he had placed them and confirming the punishments upon them wherewith he had threatened them before Wherefore Adaâ— fearing lest the divine Iustice should proceed further against him gave himself up for a long time to continual tears whereupon God sent him word that if he continued in his repentance he would forgive him his sin Whilest the Grepo was speaking thus the Embassador wondering at his discourse which was a great novelty to him Certainly said he unto him I am well assured that the King my Master hath never heard the like of this from the Priests of our Temples for they in recompence of our works propound no other thing unto us but the possession of riches in this life for as they say there is no guerdon after death and that we must finish our lives aâ— all the beasts of the field do except the Cows which for a reward of the milk they have given us are converted into other Sea-cows of the apples of whose eyes are pearls ingendred At these words the Grepo puffed up with vanity for that which he had said to the Embassador Think not answered he unto him that there is any one in all this Country can let thee understand so much as I have done unless it be one Grepo who is as learned as my self With this â—ume of presumption he chanced to cast his eye on us Portugalâ— that were behind the Embassador and as the Minister of the Devil believing that we esteemed him as much as he did himself Verily said he unto us I should be glad that you who as strangers have no knowledg of this truth would come more often to hear me for to understand how God hath created all
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
upon their heads bonnets imbroydered with silk and gold and set with Pearls Rubies and Saphirs in the middle of this Procession was a rich Canopy of cloth of gold which twelve of those little children carried invironed round about with perfuming pans and censors of silver from whence breathed forth excellent odors most pleasing to the sent These little children played on divers instruments of musick and went on singing praises to God and praying him to resuscitate this defunct to a new life When they were arrived at the place where the Roolim lay they drew to the shrine and taking away the cloth wherewith it was covered there came out of it a little child which could not be above three or four years old and although he was naked yet was not his nakednesse seen because he was all covered over with gold and pretious stones and appeared in the same fashion as we are accustomed to paint Angells he had also golden wings and a very rich Crown upon his head Whenas he was come from out the shrine the Assistants being prostrated on the ground fell to saying aloud with a voice that made those to tremble which heard them Thou Angel of God sent from heaven for our salvation pray for us when thou returnest thither again The King went instantly to this child and having taken him in his arms with a great deal of respect and a strange ceremony as if he would shew that he was not worthy to touch him in regard he was an Angell sent from heaven he set him on the brink of the grave where after the child had taken away the cloth of black Velvet that covered him whilest all were on their knees with their hands and eys lift up to heaven he said aloud as if he had spoken to him Thou which hast been conceived in sin amidst the misery and filthiness of the flesh God commands thee by me who am the least of his servants that thou do resuscitate to a new life which may be agreeable unto him alwayes dreading the chastisement of his mighty hand to the end that as the last gasp of thy life thou mayest not stumble like the children of the world and that from this place where thou art extended stark dead thou do rise up presently because it hath been so decreed by the greatest of the greatest in the Temple of the earth and come after me and come after me and come after me The King thereupon took this child again in his arms and then the Roolim rising up in the grave where he was as it were amazed with this vision fell on his knees before the child whom the King held and said I accept of this new grace from the hand of thâ— Lord conformably to that which thou hast told me from him obliging my self to be even till death an example of humility and the least of all his to the end the toads of the earth may not lose themselves in the abundance of the world This said the child rid himself again out of the Kings arms and going directly to the grave he lent the Roolim his hand to help him out of it Now he was scarce come forth whenas they gave five toles with a Bell which was a sign for all the people to prostrate themselves on the ground the second time saying Blessed be thou O Lord for so great a grace whereupon all the bells in the City began to ring and all the Ordnance that were on the land to shoot of as also those of above two thousand vessells that rode at Anchor in the Port from whence proceeded so strange a noyse as was most insupportable to the ears of them that heard it CHAP. LXII In what manner the Roolim was conducted to the Isle of Mounay and put into possession of his dignity THe new Roolim was conducted from that place in a chair of gold exceeding rich and set with Pretious Stones which the principall Lords of the Kingdome carried upon their shoulders the King in the mean time marched on foot before him bearing a rich Sâ—ymitar upright in his hand In this equipage he accompanied him to his Palace which was gorgeously furnished and where he was lodged three dayes during which time the preparations necessary for his entry was made in the Isle of Mounay Now whilest he abode in the City of Martabano there were many sorts of inventions of great charge made by the Princes Lordâ— and Inhabitants In two of those feasts the King himself was present in person with a most sumptuous entertainment which I shall not describe because to say the truth I do not know how it did passe The day being arrived wherein the new Roolim who is as I have already declared their Soveraign High Priest was to make his entry into the Isle of Mounay the whole Fleet of Seroos Iangoas Lauleas and such other vessells of divers sorts which were upon the river to the number of two thousand and better were ranked in two files some a league and half in length being the space between the City the Island so that of all those vessels joyned together was formed a street the fairest that possibly could be seen for every vessell was covered with boughs full of several dainty fruits together with all kind of flowers Tangets Standards and banners of silk each one striving in emulation of another to gain their pretended Jubilee and a plenary indulgence and absolution of all the robberies they had formerly committed without being subject to the restitution of any thing whatsoever This they did also to be absolved from an infinite of other abuses of their abhominable lives which I passe by in silence as a matter unfit for devout ears but conformable to their diabolicall Sects and the damnable intentions of those which have instituted them for their whole manner of living is nothing but dissolution and excesse in the lasciviousnesse of the flesh as in like manner are all other infidells and arch-heretiques In the Roolims company there were not above thirty Lauleas who were replenished with a great number of the Nobility as for him he was in a rich Seroo seated in a Throne of silver under a cloth of State of cloth of gold and the King at his feet as not being worthy to sit in a more eminent place round about him were thirty children on their knees attired in Crimson Sattin with silver Maces on their shoulders and twelve standing on their feet cloathed with white Damask having censors in their hands from whence breathed forth most delicate perfumes In the rest of the shipping followed two hundred of the most honorable Talagrepos such as Archbishops and other Prelates may be amongst us in the number of whom were also six or seven young Princes all the Sons of Kings comprehended Now because these Vessells were so full of people as one could not row they had fifteen Lauleas or little Skiffes wherein the Supreme religious men of those nine Sects did row to
bring them the sooner to land In this equipage and in this order the new Roolim parted from the City of Martabano two hours before day and continued his course amidst these Vessellâ— which made as I have delivered a kind of street and forasmuch as it was not yet day there were a great number of Lanterns of different fashions placed amongst the boughs As soon as he began to set forth a Canon was shot off three times at which sign there was such a noyse of Bells and great Ordnance as also of divers sorts of very strange Instruments intermingled with the cries and acclamations of the people as one would have thought that heaven and earth would have come together When he was arrived at the Kay where he was to land he was received with a solemn Procession by certain religious men that live in solitary places and are called Menigrâ—pos which are like to the Capucins in France whom these Gentiles infinitely respect by reason of their manner of living for according to the rule which they observe they use more abstinence by far then all the rest These same being some six or seven thousand in number were all bare foot and cloathed with black Mat to shew their contempt of the world upon their heads they wore the sculls and bones of dead men and great cords about their necks having all their faces dawbed over with dirt and a writing hanging upon them which contained these words Mire mire do not cast thine eye on thy basenesse but on the recompenses which God hath promised to those that vilifie themselves to serve him When as they were very neer to the Roolim who received them very affably they prostrated themselves with their faces down to the ground and after they had continued so some time the chiefest amongst them looking on the Roolim May it please him said he from whose hand thou hast newly received so great a blessing as to be the Head of all on the earth to rendâ—r thee so good and so holy a man that all thy works may be as pleasing unto him as the innocency of children which hold their peace when their mother gives them the dug Whereunto all the rest answered with a great noyse of confused voices Permit O Lord Almighty that it may be so Passing on then accompanied with this Procession which the King for the greater honor governed himself together with some of the principall personages whom he called unto him for that purpose he went directly to the place where the dead Roolim lay buried and being arrived at his Tomb he fell down flat with his face upon it then having shed a great many tears he said with a sad and dolefull voice as if he had spoken to the deceased May it please him who raigns in the beauty of the Stars to make me deserve the honor to be thy Slave to the end that in the house of the Sun where now thou recreatest thy self I may serve as a broom to thy feet for so shall I be made a Diamond of so high a price as the world and all the riches thereof together shall not be able to equall the value of it whereunto the Grepos answered God grant it Thereupon taking a pair of Beads which had belonged to the deceased and that was upon the Tomb he put it about his neck as a relique of great worth giving as an Almes six Lamps of silver two Censors and six or seven pieces of violet coloured Damask This done he retired unto his Palace accompanied still with the King the Princes and great Lords of the Kingdome as also with the Priests that were there assistant from whom he presently rid himself and then from out of the window he threw down upon the Assembly handfulls of Rice as amongst the Papists they use to cast Holy Water which all the people received upon their knees with their hands lifted up This Ceremony ended which lasted very neer three hours they gave three toles with a Bell upon which Signal the Roolim retired for altogether and so did the Vessells and they that came in them wherein all that day was wholly bestowed About evening the King took his leave of the Roolim and returned to the City making directly the next morning towards Pegu which was some eighteen leagues from thence where he arrived the day following two hours within night without making any entry or shew to testifie the extreme griefe he was in for the death of the late Roolim whom it was said he greatly affected CHAP. LXIII That which the King of Bramaa did after his arrivall at the City of Pegu together with his besieging of Savady TWo and twenty daies after the King of Bramaa arrived at the City of Pegu he perceived by the Letter which his Ambassador brought him from the Calaminham that he had concluded the League with him against the Siamon yet in regard the season was not fit for him either to commence that war or to assail the Kingdome of Avaa as he desired he resolved to send his Foster-brother unto whom as I have already declared he had given the title of lawfull Brother to the siege of Savady which was some hundred and thirty Leagues from thence to the North-East Having assembled an Army then of an hundred and fifty thousand men amongst whom were thirty thousand strangers of divers Nations and five thousand fighting Elephants besides three thousand others that carried the baggage and the victualls the Chaumigrem departed from Pegu with a Fleet of thirteen hundred rowing Vessells the fifteenth of the moneth of March Fourteen daies after he arrived in the sight of Savady and having cast Anchor neer to a great Plain called Gâ—mpalaor he remained there six daies in attending the five thousand Elephants which were to come to him by land who were no sooner arrived but he began to besiege the Town so that having begirt it round he assaulted it three times in the open day and retreated still with very great losse as well in regard of the notable resistance which they within made against him as of the extreme trouble his people were at in planting their ladders against the walls by reason of their bad scituation which was all of Slate whereupon consulting with his Commanders about what he should do they were all of opinion to have it battered with the Canon on the weakest side untill that by the overthrow of some part of the wall a breach might be made whereby they might enter with more ease and lesse danger This resolution was as soon executed as taken so that the Ingineers fell to making of two manner of bull-works on the outside upon a great Platform composed of great beams and bavins which in five daies they raised up to such an height as it surpassed the wall two fathom at the least This done they planted on each bulwark twenty great pieces of Ordnance wherewith they began to batter the Town so violently that in a little time they beat
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
faith which a King ought to have whom God himself hath annointed that I will take you and all those of your Nation with all others that beleeve in your God into my protection After that this Letter was read to the great astonishment of all us that heard it we could beleeve no other but that by Divine permission it came from Heaven for the assurance of our lives whereof we stood in very great doubt until then Gonçalo Pacheco and Nuno Fernandez with ten other Portugals which were chosen for that purpose instantly prepared a Present of divers rich Pieces to carry to the King unto whom they went that very same night an hour before day in the company of the Bramaa who brought the Letter in regard the haste the King was in would brook no delay Gonçalo Pacheco Nuno Fernandez and the other Portugals arrived at the camp an hour before Sun-rising and the King sent to receive them one of the chiefest Bramaa Commanders that he had and in whom he very much confided who was accompanied with above an hundred horse and six Serjeants at armes that carried maces This same received the Portugals and lead them to the King who did much honour unto Gonçalo Pacheco and Nuno Fernandez and after he had talked with them of divers matters he put them in mind of the importance of the businesse for which he had sent for them and willed them by any means to leane rather to the Commanders then to him assuring them that he should be very well contented therewith and said many things to them to that purpose Then he caused them to be conducted by the same Bramaa Lord to the Tent where the other four Arbitrators were with the high Treasuror and two Registers when as they had commanded silence to all that were without they fell to debating of the businesse for which they were assembled together whereupon there were many opinions which took up the most part of the day but at last all six came to conclude That albeit on the one side the King by the promise which he had made at Tanguu to the forraigne Souldiers for to give them the spoil or pillage of the places which he should take by force was exceedingly obliged to the performance thereof yet seeing that on the other side this promise was of great and notable prejudice to the innocent because it could not be put in execution without greatly offending God these things considered they ordained by their award That the King in regard of the promise which he had made them should pay unto them a thousand bisses of gold out of his own treasure and that upon the Souldiers receiving thereof they should passe over to the other side of the River and retire directly into their countries but that they should first be also paid all that was due to them before this mutiny began and that they should be furnished with victuals sufficient for twenty daies This award being published was received with much content to either party So that the King commanded it to be instantly and punctually executed and for a greater testimony of his liberality after he had paid them all this sum of mony he bestowed upon the Commanders and Officers of each Company many bountifull rewards wherewith they were all of them very well pleased and satisfied In this sort were these three mutinous nations discharged for the King would by no meanes trust or make use of them any longer Howbeit he would not suffer these strangers to go all away together but caused them to be divided into troups each of them consisting of a thousand men to the end that by this means they should give the lesse suspicion in their returne and should be lesse able to plunder the open townes by which they were to passe and thus the next day they departed As for Gonçalo Pacheco and Nuno Fernandez Teixyra the King gave them ten bisses of gold for being his Arbitrators in this affair whereunto he added a passport written with his own hand whereby the Portugals were permitted to retire freely into the Indies without paying any custome or duty for their marchandize whereof we made more account then of all the mony could have been given us because that for three years before the precedent Kings had retayned us in this country with exceeding much vexation and tyranny whereby we were oftentimes in great danger of our lives by reason of the successe of that which I have spoken heretofore This done there were Proclamations made by men on horseback to give notice that the day following the King would enter into the City in a peaceable manner threatning all such as should do the contrary with a cruell death Accordingly the next morning at nine of the clock the King parted from the Pagode whither he had retired himself and about an hour after arrived at the City wherein to entring by the chiefest gate he was received by an assembly in form of a Procession of six thousand Priests of all the twelve Sects which are in this Kingdome by one of whom called Capizundo an oration was made unto him whereof the preface was thus Blessed and praised be that Lord who ought truly to be acknowledged of all men for such in regard of the holy works which he hath made with his Divine hands testified to us by the light of the day the shining of the night and all the other magnificences of his mercy which he hath produced in us Praised be he I say for that by the effects of his infinite power which are agreeable unto him he hath been pleased to establish thee on the earth above all the Kings that govern it and seeing we hold thee for his favorite we humbly beseech thee our Lord that thou wilt never more remember the faults and offences which we have committed against thee to the end that these thy afflicted people may be comforted with the promise thereof which they hope thy Majesty will make them at this present This same request was likewise made unto him by the six thousand Grepos all prostrated on the ground and with their hands lifted up to heaven who with a dreadful tumult of voices said unto him Grant our Lord and King peace and pardon for that is past to all the people of this thy Kingdome of Pegu to the end they may not be troubled with the feare of their offences which they confesse publikely before thee The King answered them that he was contented so to do and swore to them by the head of Quiay Nivandel the God of Battel of the field Vitau for the confirmation thereof Upon this promise all the people prostrated themselves with their faces on the ground and said unto him God make thee to prosper for infinite years in the victory over thy enemies that thou mayest trample their heads under thy feet Hereupon for a token of great gladnesse they fel to playing on divers instruments after their manner though very barbarously
said he unto him I pray thee by the great goodness of that God in whom thou believest to pardon me that for which thou accusest me and to remember that it is not the part of a Christian in this painful estate wherein I see my self at this present to put me in mind of that which I have done heretofore for besides that thou canst not thereby recover the loss which thou sayest thou hast sustained it will but serve to afflict and trouble me the more Pacheco having heard what this fellow said commanded him to hold his peace which immediately he did whereupon the Xemindoo with a grave countenance made shew that this action pleased him so that seeming to be more quiet it made him to acknowledge that with his mouth which he could not otherwise requite I must confess said he unto him that I could wish if God would permit it I might have one hour longer of life to profess the excellency of the faith wherein you Portugals live for as I have heretofore heard it said your God alone is true and all other gods are lyers The Hangman had no sooner heard these words but he gave him so great a buffet on the face that his nose ran out with bloud so that the poor Patient stooping with his handsâ—downward Brother said he unto him suffer me to save this bloud to the end thou maist not want some to fry my flesh withall So passing on in the same order as before he finally arrived at the place where he was to be executed with so little life as he scarcely thought of any thing When he was amounted on a great Scaffold which had been expresly erected for him the Chirca of Justice fell to reading of his Sentence from an high Seate where he was placed the contents whereof were in few words these The living God of our heads Lord of the Crown of the Kings of Avaa commands that the perfidious Xemindoo be executed as the Perturbator of the people of the earth and the mortal enemy of the Bramaa Nation This said he made a sign with his hand and instantly the Hangman cut off his head at one blow shewing it to all the people vvhich vvere there vvithout number and divided his body into eight quarters setting his bovvels and other interior parts vvhich vvere put together in a place by themselves then covering all vvith a yellovv cloth vvhich is a mark of mourning amongst them they vvere left there till the going dovvn of the Sun at vvhich time they vvere burnt in the manner ensuing The eight quarters of the Xemindooes body vvere exposed from mid-day till three of Clock in the afternoon to the view of all the people whereof there was an infinite company there for every one came thronging thither as well to avoid the punishment wherewith they had been threatned as to gain in so doing the Plenary indulgence called by them Axiperan which their Priests gave them of their sins without restitution of any thing of all the Theeveries by them formerly committed After then that the tumult was appeased and that certain men on horseback had imposed silence on the people by making certain publications whereby the Transgressors therein were threatned with terrible punishments a bell was heard to toll five several times upon this signal twelve men clothed in black robes spotted all over with bloud having their faces covered and bearing silver Maces on their shoulders came out of a house of wood made expresly for that purpose and distant some five or six paces from the Scaffold after them followed twelve Priests which they call Talagrepos being as I have said the most eminent Dignities amongst these Pagans and held by them as Saints then appeared the Xemin Pocasser the King of Bramaaes Uncle who seemed to be near an hundred years old and was as the rest all in mourning and invironed with twelve little boyes richly apparelled carrying on their shoulders Courtelasses curiously Damasked After that the Xemin had with a great deal of Ceremonie prostrated himselfe three times on the ground in way of extraordinary reverence O holy flesh said he which art more to be â—steâ—med then all the Kingdomes of Avaa thou orient Pearle of as many Carats as there be Atomes in the beams of the Sun whom God hath placed in an height of Honour with a Scepter of Soveraign power above that of Kings I that am the least of thy meiny and so unlike thee through my baseness as I can scarcely see my self so little I am do most humbly beseâ—ch thee O thou Lord of my head by the fresh Meadow where thy soul doth now recreat thy self to hear that with thy sorrowful ears which my mouth sayes to thee in publick to the end thou maist remain satisfied for the offence which hath been done thee in this world Oretanan Chaumigrem thy brother Prince of Savady and Tanguu sends to intreat thee by me thy slave that before he departs out of this life thou wilt pardon him that which is past if he have given thee any discontent and withall that thou wilt take possession of all his Kingdomes because he doth even now yeild them up unto thee without reserving the least part thereof for himself withall he protests unto thee by me thy vassal that he makes this reconciliation with thee voluntarily to the end that the complaints which thou maiest prefer against him there above in heaven may not be heard of God Moreover for a punishment of the displeasure he hath done thee he offers to be for thee during this pilgrimage of life the Captain and Guardian of this thy Kingdome of Pegu for which he does thee homage with an oath to accomplish alwaies upon earth whatsoever thou shalt command him from heaven above upon condition that thou wilt bestow the profit which shall arise thereof upon him at an almes for his entertainment for he knowes very well that otherwise he should not be permitted to possess the Kingdome neither would the Menigrepos ever consent thereunto nor at the hour of death give him absolution for so great a sinne Upon these words one of the Priests that was present and that seemed to have more authoritie then all the rest made him answer as if the deceased himself had spoken Since I see O my Sonne that thou doest now confesse thy past faults and cravest pardon of me for them in this publick assembly I do grant it thee with all my hearâ— and it pleases me to leave thee in this Kingdome for the pastor of this my flock on condition that thou dost not violate the faith thou hast given me by this oath which would be as great an offence as if thou shouldst now come to lay hands on me without the permission of Heaven All the people having heard these words answered thereunto with joyfull voices Perform so much my Lord my Lord. After this the Priest being got into the pulpit began to speak thus to the assistants Present me with part
morning as also the day following from one til three During this trembling it was a dreadful thing to hear the terrible noise which the stormes and thunder made After all this such an horrible inundation of waters borke forth out of the center of the earth as in an instant all the Country about was swallowed up threescore leagues round without the saving of any living creature from perishing but only of one child of seven years of age and which was for a great wonder presented to the King of China In the mean time this news was no sooner come to the City of Cantan but all the inhabitants thereof were terrifyed with it yea and all ours were so amazed at it that holding it for an unpossible thing fourteen of our company would needs go thither to know the truth thereof which they immediately put in execution and at their return affirmed that the matter was very certain whereof an attestation was made signed by fourteen ocular witnesses who had been upon the place which attestation was afterwards sent by Francisco Toscano to the King of Portugal Don Ioano the third of glorious memory This prodigious event so affrighted the inhabitants of the City of Cantan that all of them generally testified a world of repentance and although they were Gentiles yet must it be acknowledged that they confounded us Christians who saw how far their devotion extended For on the first day when the newes thereof arrived there Proclamations were made throughout all the Principall streets of the City by six men on horseback who in long mourning robes and with a sad and lamentable voice rode crying out these words Miserable creatures as you are that cease not from offending day by day the Lord of all things Heare O heare the most lamentable and dreadfull adventure that ever was For you are to know that for our sins God hath drawn the sword of his Divine Iustice against all the people of Cuy and Sansy overwhelming pell mell with water fire and tempests from Heaven all that great Province of China none being saved but one only Child which is carried to the Son of the Sun And thereupon they rung a little bell thrice which they had in their hands Then all the people prostrating themselves on the ground said with fearfull cryes God is Iust in all that he doth After this was past all the inhabitants retired into their houses which were shut up for five daies together so that the City was so desolate as there was not a living creature seen stirring in it At the end of the five daies the Chaem and the Anchassis of the government together with all the rest of the people wherein the men only vvere comprehended for as for the vvomen they hold them incapable of being heard of God by reason of the disobedience of the first sinne committed by Eve vvent as it vvere in procession thorow the principall Streets of the Citie while their Priests which vvere above five thousand in number cryed with a loud voyce that pierced the very skies O marvellous and pitifull Lord have no regard to our wickednesse for if thou takest account of them we shall remain dumb before thee Whereunto all the people with an other fearfull cry answered Lord we confesse our faults before thee And so the Procession continuing still going on they at length arrived at a magnificent Temple called Nacapyrau whom they hold for the Queen of Heaven as I have heretofore related From thence they went the next day to another Temple called The God of Iustice and in this sort they continued fourteen dayes during which were great Alms generally bestowed and many prisoners freed also divers Sacrifices were made of the odoriferous perfumes of Aloes and Benjamin There were many others too wherein there was good store of blood shed and wherein many Kine Stags and Swine vvere offered vvhich were all distributed in almes to the poor In pursuance whereof during the three months that we abode there they continued in doing many other good works which were performed vvith so much charge and charity as it is to be beleeved that if the Faith of Jesus Christ had been added thereunto they would have been acceptable unto him We heard afterwards and this report was universall over all the Country that during the three dayes of that Earth-quake at Sansy it had still rained blood in the City of Pequin vvhere the King of China's Court was at that time vvhich made the most part of the inhabitants to forsake it and the King to fly to Nanquin vvhere it was said he gave great alms and set at liberty an infinite many of Slaves amongst the which were five Portugals vvho had been retained prisoners in the Town of Pocasser above twenty yeers together When these came to Cantan they recounted unto us divers marvellous things and amongst others they told us that the almes which the King had given upon this occasion amounted to six hundred thousand Duckats besides the magnificent Temples which he built to appease the vvrath of God amongst the which hee made one in that very City very sumptuous and of great majesty under the title of The Love of God CHAP. LXXIX Our arrival in the Kingdome of Bungo and that which pass'd there THe season being come vvherein vve might continue our Voyage vve parted from this Island of Lampacau the seventh day of May One thousand five hundred fifty and six after vve had imbarqued our selves in a Ship vvhereof Don Francisco de Mascarenhas surnamed Pallia vvas Captain So vve proceeded on in our course for fourteen dayes together at the end whereof vve discovered the first Islands at the height of five and thirty degrees and vvhich by gradation regard the West North-vvest of Tanixumaa vvhereupon the Pilot knowing that it vvas ill sailing there steered to the South-vvest to finde out the point of the Mountain of Minatoo We coasted Tanoraa then and still ran along this coast to the Port of Finugaa And forasmuch as in this Climate the windes are Northerly and that the current of the vvater vvas contrary to them the Pilot had a very bad opinion of his Navigation so that vvhen he came to know his fault although out of an accustomed obstinacy of Mariners he vvould not confess it vve vvere already past threescore leagues beyond the Port vvhere vve meant to arrive by reason vvhereof we vvere fain to tack about for the recovery of it fifteen dayes after though with travell enough for that the vvindes were crosse and without lying our goods and lives were in no little jeopardy by reason all this Coast was risen up against the King of Bungo our Friend and the inhabitants who vvere greatly inclined to the Law of the Lord vvhich had formerly been preached unto them At length after that by the mercy of God vve had got to the Town of Fucheo vvhereof I have oftentimes spoken which is the capitall of the Kingdom of Bungo where the chiefest Christians
already delivered he had spent so much time and yet could never till then hear any news of him in all the Ports and places where he had been The next morning we arrived at the Port of Lailoo where Quiay Panian had much kinred and many friends so that he wanted no credit in that place wherefore he intreated the Mandarin who is the Captain of the Town to permit us to buy for our mony such things as we stood in need of which he instantly granted as well for fear lest some displeasure might be done him as for the sum of a thousand duckets presented unto him by Antonio de Faria wherewith he rested very well satisfied Hereupon some of our Company went ashore who with all diligence bought whatsoever we wanted as Saltpeter and Sulphur to make powder Lead Bullets Victual Cordage Oyl Pitch Rosin Ockam Timber Planks Arms Darts Staves hardened in the fire Masts Sails Sail-yards Targets Flints Pullies and Anchors that done we took in fresh water and furnished our Vessels with Mariners Now although that this place contained not above three or four hundred houses yet was there both there and in the villages adjoyning such a quantity of the aforesaid things that in truth it were hard to express it for China iâ— excellent in this that it may vaunt to be the Country in the world most abounding in all things that may be desired Besides for that Antonio de Faria was exceeding liberal in regard he spent out of the general booty before the partitions were made he payd for all that he bought at the price the sellers would set by means whereof he had more brought him by far then he had use for so that within thirteen days he went out of this Port wonderfully well accommodated with two other new great Junks which he had exchanged for two little ones that he had and two Lanteaas with Oars as also an hundred and sixty Mariners both for rowing and for governing the sails After all these preparations were made and we ready to weigh anchor a general muster was taken of all that were in our Army which in number was found to be five hundred persons as well for fight as for the service and navigation of our Vessels amongst whom were fourscore and fifteen Portugals young and resolute the rest were Boys and Mariners and men of the other Coast which Quiay Panian kept in pay and were well practised in Sea-fight as they that had been five years Pyrats Moreover we had an hundred and sixty Harquebuses forty pieces of brass Ordnance whereof twenty were field-pieces that carryed stone-bullets threescore quintals of powder namely fifty four for the great Ordnance and six for the Harquebuses besides what the Harquebusiers had already delivered to them nine hundred pots of artificial fire whereof four hundred were of powder and five hundred of unsâ—aked Lime after the Chinese manner a great number of stones Arrows Half-pikes four thousand small Javelings store of Hatchets to serve at boarding six Boats full of Flints wherewith the Sailers fought twelve Cramp-irons with their hooks fastned to great Iron chains for to grapple Vessels together and many sorts of fire-works which an Engineer of the Levant made for us With all this equipage we departed from this Port of Lailâ—â— and within three days after it pleased God that we arrived at the fishing place where Coia Acem took the Portugals Junk There as soon as it was night Antonio de Faria sent spies into the River for to lâ—â—rn whereabout he was who took a Paroo with six Fishermen in her that gave us to understand how this Pyrat was some two leagues from thence in a River called Tinlau and that he was accommodating the Junk he had taken from the Portugals for to go in her with two others that he had unto Siam where he was born and that he was to depart within two days Upon this news Antonio de Faria called some of his company to councel where it was concluded that first of all the places and forces of our Enemy was to be visited and seen because in a matter of so much hazard it was not safe to run as it were blindfold unto it but to advise on it well beforehand and that upon the certainty of that which should be known such resolution might afterwards be taken as should seem good to all Then drawing the fishermen out of the Paroo he put some of Quiay Panians Mariners into her and sending her away only with two of those fishermen keeping the rest as hostages he committed the charge of her to a valiant Soldier named Vincentio Morosa attired after the Chinese fashion for fear of discovery who arriving at the place where the Enemy rode made shew of fishing as others did and by that means espyed all that he came for whereupon reâ—urâ—ing he gave an account of what he had seen and assured us that the Enemies were so weak â—s upon â—oarding of them they might easily be taken Antonio de Faria caused the most experienced men of his company to be assembled to advise thereon and that in Quiay Panians Junk to honor him the more as also to maintain his friendship which he much esteemed At this meeting it was resolved that as soon as it was night they should go and anchor at the mouth of the River where the Enemy lay for to set upon him the next morning before day This agreed unto by all Antonio de Fâ—ria set down what order and course should be held at the entring into the River and how the Enemy should be assaulted Then dividing his men he placed thirty Portugals in Quiay Panians Junk such as he pleased to choose because he would be sure to give him no distaste Likewise he disposed six Portugals into each of the Lantâ—â—as and into Christovano Borralho's Junk twenty the rest of the Portugals being three and thirty he retained with himself besides slaves and divers Christians all valiant and trusty men Thus accommodated and ordered for the execution of his enterprize he set sail towards the River of Tinlau where he arrived about Sun-set and there keeping good watch he past the night till three of the clock in the morning at which time he made to the Enemy who rode some half a league up in the River It pleased God that the Sea was calm and the wind so favorable as our Fleet sailing up the River arrived in less then an hour close to the Enemy unperceived of any But because they were Thieves and feared the people of the Country in regard of the great mischiefs and robberies which they dayly committed they stood so upon their guard and kept so good watch that as soon as they discerned us in all haste they rung an alarum with a Bell the sound whereof caused such a rumor and disorder as well amongst them that were ashore as those aboard that one could hardly hear one another by reason of the great noise they made