lso for all Espana. For that exceedingly vast kingdom abounds
in whatever can be desired to sustain life, and is such that, since
it has so many people who have no room to live on land, many make
their habitations on the sea in certain small champans, a sort
of boat, very suitable for them. Nevertheless, the large vessels
with chapas, and those of lesser size, are well nigh innumerable;
and they sail annually to surrounding countries, laden with food
and merchandise. Forty, and upwards, were wont to come to Manila
alone. In the year 1631, although then not [many of them] were coming,
the number amounted to fifty, counting large and small vessels. We
will not mention those that go to Japon; and although, in going there,
they experience very great trouble, still a constant stream of vessels
go thither, for great profits are derived there. These vessels go to
Siam, Camboja, Borney, Maluco, and Macasar. In short, they coast and
go everywhere, and carry iron, quicksilver, silk, rice, pork, gold,
and innumerable other things, without causing any deficiency for
their own sustenance. They carry away all the silver in the world;
and even that of Europa, or its value, is about to cease, for the
Portuguese and other nations, as the English and Hollanders, carry it
to the Sangleys, without a single piece of money, or one real's worth
of silver, leaving their own country. Thus (and I do not deceive
myself in saying it) the kingdom of China is the most powerful in
the world; and we might even call it the world's treasury, since the
silver is imprisoned there, and is given an eternal prison. And if
there were no more silver there than what has been taken from Mexico
during sixty-six years of trade, it could make them most wealthy;
and much more so, inasmuch as the Mexican silver is not the most that
they get, for they take much from other quarters. They are the most
greedy for and affectioned to silver of any race known. They hold it
in the greatest esteem, for they withdraw the gold from their own
country in order to lock up the silver therein. And when they see
silver, they look at it admiringly. I am writing not from hearsay,
but from the sight and experience of many years. Consequently, he who
has any silver, and takes passage with them, is not safe. _Depraedari
ergo desiderat qui thesaurum publice portat in via_. [40] It would
not be bad if they only despoiled him, but they will beat him most
cruelly with clubs, which they use as