We Rowed Through Among Various Islands,
All Or Most Of Which Were Well Inhabited, And Had Several Handsome Towns
Upon Them, One Of Which, Called Facata, Has A Very Strong Castle Built
Of Freestone, But Without Any Cannon Or Garrison.
The ditch of this
castle is five fathoms deep and ten broad, all round about the walls,
and is passed by means of a drawbridge, and the whole is kept in good
repair.
The tide and wind were here so strong against us that we could
not proceed, for which reason I landed and dined at this town, which was
very well built, and seemed to be as large as London is within the
walls. All its streets are so even, that one may see from one end to the
other. This place is exceedingly populous, and the people very civil and
courteous; only that at our first landing, and indeed at all places to
which we came in the whole country, the children and low idle people
used to gather about and follow us a long way, calling core, core,
cocore, Ware that is to say, You Coreans with false hearts; all the
while whooping and hallooing, and making such a noise that we could not
hear ourselves speak; and sometimes throwing stones at us, though seldom
in any of the towns, yet the clamour and shouting was every where the
same, as nobody reproved them for it. The best advice I can give to
those who may come after me, is to pass on without attending to these
idle rabblements, by which their ears only will be disturbed by the
noise. All along this coast, and indeed the whole way to Osaka, we found
various women who lived continually with their families in boats upon
the water, as is done in Holland. These women catch fish by diving even
in the depth of eight fathoms, that are missed by the nets and lines;
and by the habit of frequent diving their eyes become excessively red
and bloodshot, by which mark these divers may be readily distinguished
from all other women.
[Footnote 13: The old king sent 200 tayes, worth five shillings each, to
Captain Saris, for his expences in the journey. - Purch.]
In two days we rowed from Firando to Facata. When eight or ten leagues
short of the straits of Xemina-seque,[14] we came to a great town,
where there lay in a dock a junk of 800 or 1000 tons burden, all
sheathed with iron,[15] and having a guard appointed to keep her from
being set on fire or otherwise destroyed. She was built in a very homely
fashion, much like the descriptions we have of Noah's ark; and the
natives told us she served to transport troops to any of the islands in
case of rebellion or war.
[Footnote 14: The editor of Astley's Collection has altered the
orthography of this name to Shemina seki. In modern maps, we find a
town named Sunono sequi, on one side of these straits, which divide
the island of Kiusiu from the south-west end of the great island of
Niphon.
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