these two gallions are laden for the king, neither doe they carie any particular mans goods, sauing the portage of the mariners and souldiers, and for this cause they are not voiages for marchants, because that going thither, they shal not haue where to lade their goods of returne; and besides this, the captaine wil not cary any marchants for either of these two places. there goe small shippes of the moores thither, which come from the coast of iaua, and change or guild their commodities in the kingdom of assa, and these be the maces, cloues, and nutmegs, which go for the streights of mecca. the voiages that the king of portugall granteth to his nobles are these, of china and iapan, from china to iapan, and from iapan to china, and from china to the indies, and the voyage of bengala, maluco, and sonda, with the lading of fine cloth, and euery sort of bumbast cloth. sonda is an iland of the moores neere to the coast of iaua, and there they lade pepper for china. [sidenote: the ship of drugs, so termed of the portugals.] the ship that goeth euery yeere from the indies to china, is called the ship of drugs, because she carieth diuers drugs of cambaia, but the greatest part of her lading is siluer. from malacca to china is eighteene hundred miles: and from china to iapan goeth euery yeere a shippe of great importance laden with silke, which for returne of their silke bringeth barres of siluer which they trucke in china. the distance betweene china and iapan is foure and twentie hundred miles, and in this way there are diuers ilands not very bigge, in which the friers of saint paul, by the helpe of god, make many christians there like to themselues. from these ilands hitherwards the place is not yet discouered for the great sholdnesse of sandes that they find. the portugals haue made a small citie neere vnto the coast of china called macao, whose church and houses are of wood, and it hath a bishoprike, but the customs belong to the king of china, and they goe and pay the same at a citie called canton which is a citie of great importance and very beautifull two dayes iourney and a halfe from macao. the people of china are gentiles, and are so iealous and fearefull, that they would not haue a stranger to put his foote within their land: so that when the portugals go thither to pay their custome, and to buy their merchandize, they will not consent that they shall lie or lodge within the citie, but send them foorth into the suburbes. the countrey of china [marginal note: china is vnder the gouernment of the great tartar.] is neere the kingdom of great tartria, and is a very great countrey of the gentiles and of great importance, which may be iudged by the rich and precious marchandize that come from thence, then which i beleeue there are not better nor in greater quantitie, in the whole world besides. first, great store of golde, which they carie to the indies, made in plates like to little shippes, and in value three and twentie caracts a peece, very great aboundance of fine silke, cloth of damaske and taffata, great quantitie of muske, great quantitie of occam in barres, great quantitie of quicksiluer and of cinaper, great store of camfora, an infinite quantitie of porcellane, made in vessels of diuerse sortes, great quantitie of painted cloth and squares, infinite store of the rootes of china: and euery yeere there commeth from china to the indies, two or three great shippes, laden with most rich and precious merchandise. [sidenote: a yeerely carouan from persia to china.] the rubarbe commeth from thence ouer lande, by the way of persia, because that euery yeere there goeth a great carouan from persia to china, which is in going thither sixe moneths. the carouan arriueth at a citie called lanchin, the place where the king is resident with his court. i spake with a persian that was three yeeres in that citie of lanchin, and he tolde me that it was a great citie and of great importance. the voiages of malacca which are in the iurisdiction of the captaine of the castle, are these: euery yeere he sendeth a small shippe to timor to lade white sandols, for all the best commeth from this iland: there commeth some also from solor, but that is not so good: also he sendeth another small ship euery yere to cauchin china, to lade there wood of aloes, for that all the wood of aloes commeth from this place, which is in the firme land neere vnto china, and in that kingdome i could not knowe how that wood groweth by any meanes. [sidenote: a market kept aboord of the ships.] for that the people of the countrey will not suffer the portugales to come within the land, but onely for wood and water, and as for all other things that they wanted, as victuals or marchandise, the people bring that a boord the ship in small barkes, so that euery day there is a mart kept in the ship, vntill such time as she be laden: also there goeth another ship for the said captaine of malacca to sion, to lade verzino: all these voiages are for the captaine of the castle of malacca, and when he is not disposed to make these voiages he selleth them to another. the citie of sion, or siam. [sidenote: a prince of marueilous strength and power.] sion was the imperiall seat, and a great citie, but in the yeere of our lord god one thousand five hundred sixtie and seuen, it was taken by the king of pegu, which king made a voyage or came by lande foure moneths iourney with an armie of men through his lande, and the number of his armie was a million and foure hundreth thousand men of warre: when hee came to the citie, he gaue assault to it, and besieged it one and twentie moneths before he could winne it, with great losse of his people, this i know, for that i was in pegu sixe moneths after his departure, and sawe when that his officers that were in pegu, sent fiue hundreth thousand men of warre to furnish the places of them that were slaine and lost in that assault: yet for all this, if there had not beene treason against the citie, it had not beene lost: for on a night there was one of the gates set open, through the which with great trouble the king gate into the citie, and became gouernour of sion: and when the emperour sawe that he was betrayed, and that his enemie was in the citie, he poysoned himselfe: and his wiues and children, friends and noblemen, that were not slaine in the first affront of the entrance into the citie, were all caried captiues into pegu, where i was at the comming home of the king with his triumphs and victorie, which comming home and returning from the warres was a goodly sight to behold, to see the elephants come home in a square, laden with golde, siluer, iewels, and with noble men and women that were taken prisoners in that citie. now to returne to my yoyage: i departed from malacca in a great shippe which went for saint tome, being a citie situate on the coast of coromandel: and because the captaine of the castles of malacca had vnderstanding by aduise that the king of assi [marginal note: or achem.] would come with a great armie and power of men against them, therefore vpon this he would not giue licence that any shippes should depart: wherefore in this ship wee departed from thence in the night, without making any prouision of our water: and wee were in that shippe foure hundreth and odde men: [sidenote: the mountaines of zerzeline.] we departed from thence with intention to goe to an iland to take in water, but the windes were so contrary, that they would not suffer vs to fetch it, so that by this meanes wee were two and fortie dayes in the sea as it were lost, and we were driuen too and fro, so that the first lande that we discouered, was beyonde saint tome, more then fiue hundreth miles, which were the mountaines of zerzerline, neere vnto the kingdome of orisa, and so wee came to orisa with many sicke, and more that were dead for want of water: and they that were sicke in foure dayes dyed; and i for the space of a yeere after had my throat so sore and hoarse, that i could neuer satisfie my thirst in drinking of water: i iudge the reason of my hoarsenesse to bee with soppes that i wet in vineger and oyle, wherewith i susteyned my selfe many dayes. there was not any want of bread nor of wine: but the wines of that countrey are so hot that being drunke without water they will kill a man: neither are they able to drinke them: when we beganne to want water, i sawe certaine moores that were officers in the ship, that solde a small dish full for a duckat, after this i sawe one that would haue giuen a barre of pepper, which is two quintalles and a halfe, for a litle measure of water, and he could not haue it. truely i beleeue that i had died with my slaue, whom then i had to serue mee, which cost mee verie deare: but to prouide for the daunger at hand, i solde my slaue for halfe that he was worth, because that i would saue his drinke that he drunke, to serue my owne purpose, and to saue my life. of the kingdome of orisa, and the riuer ganges. orisa was a faire kingdome and trustie, through the which a man might haue gone with golde in his hande without any daunger at all, as long as the lawefull king reigned which was a gentile, who continued in the citie called catecha, which was within the lande size dayes iourney. this king loued strangers marueilous well, especially marchants which had traffique in and out of his kingdome, in such wise that hee would take no custome of them, neither any other grieuous thing. [sidenote: the commodities that go out of orisa.] onely the shippe that came thither payde a small thing according to her portage, and euery yeere in the port of orisa were laden fiue and twentie or thirtie ships great and small, with ryce and diuers sortes of fine white bumbaste cloth, oyle of zerzeline which they make of a seed, and it is very good to eate and to fry fish withal, great store of butter, lacca, long pepper, ginger, mirabolans dry and condite, great store of cloth of herbes, which is a kinde of silke which groweth amongst the woods without any labour of man, [marginal note: this cloth we call nettle cloth.] and when the bole thereof is growen round as bigge as an orenge, then they take care onely to gather them. about sixteene yeeres past, this king with his kingdome were destroyed by the king of patane, which was also king of the greatest part of bengala, and when he had got the kingdome, he set custome there twenty pro cento, as marchants paide in his kingdome: but this tyrant enioyed his kingdome but a small time, but was conquered by another tyrant, which was the great mogol king of agra, delly, and of all cambaia, without any resistance. i departed from orisa to bengala, to the harbour piqueno, which is distant from orisa towardes the east a hundred and seuentie miles. [sidenote: the riuer of ganges.] they goe as it were rowing alongst the coast fiftie and foure miles, and then we enter into the riuer ganges: from the mouth of this riuer, to a citie called satagan, where the marchants gather themselues together with their trade, are a hundred miles, which they rowe in eighteene houres with the increase of the water: in which riuer it floweth and ebbeth as it doth in the thamis, and when the ebbing water is come, they are not able to rowe against it, by reason of the swiftnesse of the water, yet their barkes be light and armed with oares, like to foistes, yet they cannot preuaile against that streame, but for refuge must make them fast to the banke of the riuer vntill the next flowing water, and they call these barkes bazaras and patuas: they rowe as well as a galliot, or as well as euer i haue seene any. a good tides rowing before you come to satagan, you shall haue a place which is called buttor, and from thence vpwards the ships doe not goe, because that vpwardes the riuer is very shallowe, and litle water. euery yeere at buttor they make and vnmake a village, with houses and shoppes made of strawe, and with all things necessarie to their vses, and this village standeth as long as the ships ride there, and till they depart for the indies, and when they are departed, euery man goeth to his plot of houses, and there setteth fire on them, which thing made me to maruaile. for as i passed vp to satagan, i sawe this village standing with a great number of people, with an infinite number of ships and bazars, and at my returne comming downe with my captaine of the last ship, for whom i tarried, i was al amazed to see such a place so soone razed and burnt, and nothing left but the signe of the burnt houses. the small ships go to satagan, and there they lade. of the citie of satagan. [sidenote: the commodities that are laden in satagan.] in the port of satagan euery yeere lade thirtie or fiue and thirtie ships great and small, with rice, cloth of bombast of diuerse sortes, lacca, great abundance of sugar, mirabolans dried and preserued, long pepper, oyle of zerzeline, and many other sorts of marchandise. the citie of satagan is a reasonable faire citie for a citie of the moores, abounding with all things, and was gouerned by the king of patane, and now is subiect to the great mogol. i was in this kingdome foure moneths, whereas many marchants did buy or fraight boates for their benefites, and with these barkes they goe vp and downe the riuer of ganges to faires, buying their commoditie with a great aduantage, because that euery day in the weeke they haue a faire, now in one place, and now in another, and i also hired a barke, and went vp and downe the riuer and did my businesse, and so in the night i saw many strange things. the kingdome of bengala in times past hath bene as it were in the power of moores, neuerthelesse there is great store of gentiles among them; alwayes whereas i haue spoken of gentiles, is to be vnderstood idolaters, and whereas i speak of moores i meane mahomets sect. [sidenote: a ceremony of the gentiles when they be dead