Repair, and to furnish all the rooms conveniently with mats,
according to the fashion of the country, and we to keep it in repair,
with leave to alter as we thought fit.
This day our ship was so pestered with numbers of people coming on
board, that I had to send to the king for a guardian to clear them out,
many things being stolen, though I more suspected my own people than the
natives. There came this day a Dutchman in one of the country boats, who
had been at the island of Mashma, where he sold good store of pepper,
broad-cloth, and elephants teeth, though he would not acknowledge to us
that he had sold any thing, or brought any thing back with him in the
boat; but the Japanese boatmen told us he had sold a great quantity of
goods at a mart in that place, and had brought his returns in bars of
silver, which he kept very secret.
The 21st the old king came aboard again, bringing with him several women
to make a frolic. These women were actors of comedies, who go about from
island to island, and from town, to town, to act plays, which are mostly
about love and war, and have several shifts of apparel for the better
grace of their interludes.
