Of the comming of this Omoncon vnto the Ilands Philippinas, and of his hardines to carrie the aforesaid vnto the firme land, he being commanded to the contrarie vpon paine of death, and how he was receiued, and great courtesie shewed, and of other things verie curious, you shall finde in the second part of this historie, where as is the substance and whole relation of all that was brought vnto the king of Spaine.
You shall vnderstande that this mightie kingdome is the Orientalest part of all Asia, and his next neighbour towards the Ponent is the kingdome of Quachinchina,[9] whereas they doo obserue in whole all the customes and rites of China. The greatest part of this kingdome is watred with the great Orientall Ocean sea, beginning at the Iland Aynan,[10] which is hard by Quachinchina, which is 19 degrees towards the North, and compassing towards the South, whereas their course is northeast. And beyond Quachinchina towards the North, the Bragmanes[11] do confine, which are much people, and verie rich, of golde, siluer, and pretious stones, but in especiall, rubies: for there are infinit. They are proude and hawtie men, of great corage, wel made, but of browne colour: they haue had (but few times) warre with them of China, in respect for that betwixt both the kingdomes, there are great and mightie mountaines and rockes that doth disturbe them. And harde vnto this nation ioyneth the Patanes[12] and Mogores,[13] which is a great kingdome, and warlike people, whose head[14] is the Gran Samarzan:[15] They are the true Scythas or Massagetas, of whom it is affirmed that they were neuer ouercome by any other nation: they are a people well proportioned and white: by reason they dwel in a cold countrie. Betwixt the West and the South is the Trapobana, or Samatra, a kingdome very rich of gold, pretious stones, & pearles: and more towards the South, are the two Iauas, the great and the lesse, and the kingdome of the Lechios:[16] and in equall distance, are the Iapones: yet notwithstanding those that are more indifferent to this kingdome are the Tartarians, which are on the selfe firme land or continent, and are alonely diuided by a wal, as shal be declared in the 9 chapter of this booke. These Tartarians haue had many times wars with them of China: but at one time (as you shall perceive) they got the whole kingdome of China, and did possesse the same for the space of 93 yeares, till such time as they of China did rebell and forced them out again. At this day they say that they are friends one with another, and that is, for that they bee all Gentiles, and do vse all one manner of ceremonies and rites. They doo differ in their clenes[17] and lawes, in the which the Chinas doth exceede them very much. The Tartarians are very yellow and not so white: and they go naked from the girdlested vpwards, and they eate raw flesh, and do annoint themselues with the blood of raw flesh, for to make them more harder and currish, by reason whereof they doo so stinke, that if the aire doth come from that part where they be, you shall smel them afar off by the strong sauor. They haue for certainty, the truth of the immortalitie of the soule (although it be with error), for they say that the soule doth enter into other bodies, and that soule that liued well in the first bodie, doth better it from poore to rich, or from age to youth: and if it liued evill, to the contrarie in worse. The sons of the Tartarians do very much obserue and keepe the commandement in obeying their parents, for that they doo wholly accomplish the same without failing any iot of their will, vnder paine to be seuerly and publikelie punished. They confess one God, whom they worship, and haue him in their houses carved or painted, and every day they doe offer vnto it incense, or some other sweet smelles: they do call him the high God, and do craue of him vnderstanding and health. They haue also another god, which they say is son vnto the other; they do call him Natigay: this is their god of terestriall things. They haue him likewise in their houses, and every time they go to eate they doo annoint his face with the fattest thing they haue to eate: that being doone they fall to eating, hauing first giuen their gods their pitance. They are a kinde of people that verie seldome doo fable a lie, although their liues should lie thereon, and are verie obedient vnto their king: but in speciall in their warres, in the which euerie one doth that he is appointed to doo: they are led by the sound of a drome or trumpet, with the which their captaines do gouerne them with great ease, by reason that they are trained vp in the same from their youth. And many other things are amongst them, in the which they do resemble them of China, (who) if they did receiue the faith of our Lord Jesu Christ, it is to be belieued that the Tartarians would do the same, for that they are taken for men very ducible, and do imitate verie much them of China.
CHAP. II.
Of the temperature of the kingdome of China.
The temperature of this mightie kingdome is diuersly, by reason that almost the whole bignesse therof is from the south to the north, in so great a length that the iland of Aynan being neere vnto this land, in 19 degrees of altitude, have notice of some prouinces that are in more than 50 degrees, and yet they do vnderstand that beyond that there bee more vpon the confines of Tartaria. It is a strange thing to be seene, the strange and great difference betwixt the colours of the dwellers of this kingdome. In Canton, a mightie citie, whereas the Portingales had ordinarie trafficke with them of China, for that it was nigh vnto Macao, where as they had inhabited long since, and from whence they do bring all such merchandise as is brought into Europe. There is seene great diuersities in the colours of such people as doe come thither to trafficke, as the said Portingales do testifie.
Those which are borne in the citie of Canton, and in al that cost, are browne people, like vnto them in the citie of Fez or Barbarie, for that all the whole countrie is in the said paralel that Barberie is in. And they of the most prouinces inwards are white people, some more whiter than others, as they draw into the cold countrie. Some are like vnto Spanyards, and others more yealow, like vnto the Almans,[18] yelow and red colour.
Finally, in all this mightie kingdome, to speake generally, they cannot say that there is much cold or much heat, for that the geographers do conclude and say it is temperate, and is vnder a temperate clime, as is Italy or other temperate countries, wherby may be vnderstood the fertilitie of the same, which is (without doubt) the fertilest in all the world, and may compare with the Peru and Nuoua Espannia, which are two kingdomes celebrated to be most fertill: and for the verification, you shall perceiue in this chapter next folowing, wherin is declared such things as it doth yeeld and bring forth, and in what quantitie. And yet aboue all things (according unto the sayings of fryer Herrada,[19] prouinciall, and his companions, whose relation I will follow in the most part of this hystorie, as witnesses of sight), vnto whom we may giue certaine credite, without any exception. They say that the countrie is so full of youth that it seemeth the women are deliuered euery moneth, and their children, when they are little, are extreame faire; and the country is so fertill and fat, that it yeldeth fruit three or four times in the yeere, which is the occasion that all things is so good cheape, that almost it seemeth they sell them for nothing.
CHAP. III.