At Pacem a cargo of pepper, "as being the chief
article of trade that is valued in China." And it is evident from what
Marsden says in his History of Sumatra, that in the last century some
tangible quantity was still sent to China. The export from the Company's
plantations in Sumatra averaged 1200 tons, of which the greater part came
to Europe, the rest went to China.
[Couto says also: "Os portos principaes do Reyno da Sunda sao Banta, Ache,
Xacatara, por outro nome Caravao, aos quaes vam todos os annos mui perto
de vinte sommas, que sao embarcacoes do Chincheo, huma das Provincias
maritimas da China, a carregar de pimenta, porque da este Reyno todos es
annos oito mil bares della, que sao trinta mil quintaes." (Decada IV.
Liv. III. Cap. I. 167.)]
NOTE 4. - These tattooing artists were probably employed mainly by mariners
frequenting the port. We do not know if the Malays practised tattooing
before their conversion to Islam. But most Indo-Chinese races tattoo, and
the Japanese still "have the greater part of the body and limbs scrolled
over with bright-blue dragons, and lions, and tigers, and figures of men
and women tattooed into their skins with the most artistic and elaborate
ornamentation." (Alcock, I. 191.) Probably the Arab sailors also
indulged in the same kind of decoration.
