So
let us have done with the Idols, and speak of other things.
But I must tell you one thing still concerning that Island (and 'tis the
same with the other Indian Islands), that if the natives take prisoner an
enemy who cannot pay a ransom, he who hath the prisoner summons all his
friends and relations, and they put the prisoner to death, and then they
cook him and eat him, and they say there is no meat in the world so
good! - But now we will have done with that Island and speak of
something else.
You must know the Sea in which lie the Islands of those parts is called
the SEA OF CHIN, which is as much as to say "The Sea over against Manzi."
For, in the language of those Isles, when they say Chin, 'tis Manzi
they mean. And I tell you with regard to that Eastern Sea of Chin,
according to what is said by the experienced pilots and mariners of those
parts, there be 7459 Islands in the waters frequented by the said
mariners; and that is how they know the fact, for their whole life is
spent in navigating that sea. And there is not one of those Islands but
produces valuable and odorous woods like the lignaloe, aye and better too;
and they produce also a great variety of spices. For example in those
Islands grows pepper as white as snow, as well as the black in great
quantities. In fact the riches of those Islands is something wonderful,
whether in gold or precious stones, or in all manner of spicery; but they
lie so far off from the main land that it is hard to get to them. And when
the ships of Zayton and Kinsay do voyage thither they make vast profits by
their venture.[NOTE 2]
It takes them a whole year for the voyage, going in winter and returning
in summer. For in that Sea there are but two winds that blow, the one that
carries them outward and the other that brings them homeward; and the one
of these winds blows all the winter, and the other all the summer. And you
must know these regions are so far from India that it takes a long time
also for the voyage thence.
Though that Sea is called the Sea of Chin, as I have told you, yet it is
part of the Ocean Sea all the same. But just as in these parts people talk
of the Sea of England and the Sea of Rochelle, so in those countries they
speak of the Sea of Chin and the Sea of India, and so on, though they all
are but parts of the Ocean.[NOTE 3]
Now let us have done with that region which is very inaccessible and out
of the way.
