ices euery yeere to Pegu and Mecca within the Red sea,
and other places.

[Sidenote: The voyage to Iapan.] When the Portugals go from Macao in China
to Iapan, they carry much white silke, golde, muske, and porcelanes: and
they bring from thence nothing but siluer. They haue a great caracke which
goeth thither euery yere, and she bringeth from thence euery yere abouve
sixe hundred thousand crusadoes: and all this siluer of Iapan, and two
hundred thousand crusadoes [Marginal note: Eight hundred thousand crusadoes
in siluer imployed yerely by the Portugals in China.] more in siluer which
they bring yeerely out of India, they imploy to their great aduantage in
China: and they bring from thence golde, muske, silke, copper, porcelanes,
and many other things very costly and gilded. When the Portugales come to
Canton in China to traffike, they must remaine there but certaine dayes:
and when they come in at the gate of the city, they must enter their names
in a booke, and when they goe out at night they must put out their names.
They may not lie in the towne all night, but must lie in their boats
without the towne. And their dayes being expired, if any man remaine there,
they are euill vsed and imprisoned. The Chinians are very suspitious, and
doe not trust strangers. It is thought that the king doth not know that any
strangers come into his countrey. And further it is credibly reported that
the common people see their king very seldome or not at all, nor may not
looke vp to that place where he sitteth. And when he rideth abroad he is
caried vpon a great chaire or serrion gilded very faire, wherein there is
made a little house, with a latice to looke out at: so that he may see
them, but they may not looke vp at him: and all the time that he passeth by
them, they heaue vp their hands to their heads, and lay their heads on the
ground, and looke not vp vntil he be passed. The order of China is when
they mourne, that they weare white thread shoes, and hats of straw. The man
doth mourne for his wife two yeeres, the wife for her husband three yeeres:
the sonne for his father a yeere, and for his mother two yeres. And all the
time which they mourne they keepe the dead in the house, the bowels being
taken out and filled with chownam or lime, and coffined: and when the time
is expired they carry them out playing and piping, and burne them. And when
they returne they pull off their mourning weeds, and marry at their
pleasure. A man may keep