ful of rice among the broth. At
the end of nine days, it pleased God that we discovered some fishermen
in small barks, employed in catching fish. We rowed immediately towards
them with much delight and thankfulness, for never were men more glad
than we, being so much reduced by famine that we could hardly stand on
our legs; yet, according to the allotment we had made of our rice, we
still had as much as would have served four days. The first village we
came to was in the gulf of _Tavay_, on the coast of Tanasserim, in the
dominions of Pegu, where we found plenty of provisions; yet for two or
three days after our arrival none of us could eat much, and most of us
were at the point of death. From Tavay to _Martaban_, in the kingdom of
Pegu, the distance is 72 miles[164]. We loaded our boat at Tavay with
provisions sufficient for six months, and then went in our boat to the
city and port of Martaban, in the kingdom of Pegu, and arrived there in
a short time. But not finding our ship there as we hoped, we dispatched
two barks in search of her. They found her in great calamity at an
anchor, with a contrary wind, which was exceedingly unfortunate for the
people, especially as they had been a whole month without a boat, which
prevented them from making any provision of wood and water. The ship,
however, arrived safe, by the blessing of God, in the harbour of
Martaban.

[Footnote 164: On the coast of Tanasserim, in lat. 13 deg. N. is an island
called _Tavay_, so that the gulf of Tavay in the text was probably in
that neighbourhood. Martaban is in lat. 16 deg. 40' N. So that the
difference of latitude is 8 deg. 40', and the distance cannot be less than
250 miles.--E.]

SECTION XVIII

_Of Martaban and the Kingdom of Pegu._

On our arrival at Martaban we found about ninety Portuguese there,
including merchants and lower people, who had fallen at variance with
the governor of the city, because certain vagabond Portuguese had slain
five _falchines,_ or porters, belonging to the king of Pegu. According
to the custom of that country, when the king of Pegu happens to be at a
distance from his capital, a caravan, or company of _falchines_, is
dispatched every fifteen days, each of them having a basket on his head
full of fruit or some other delicacy, or clean clothes for the king's
use. It accordingly happened, about a month after the king of Pegu had
gone against Siam, with 1,400,000 men, that one of these caravans stopt
at Mar