When The King Goes To War He Is Accompanied By A Great Military Force.

While I was in Pegu, he went to Odia, in the kingdom of Siam, with 300,000 men and 5000 elephants.

His particular guard was 30,000. When the king rides abroad, he is accompanied by a strong guard and many nobles, and often rides on an elephant having a great castle on its back superbly gilded; sometimes he travels on a great frame of wood like a horse-litter, having a small house or canopy upon it, covered over head, and open at the sides, which is all splendidly gilded with gold, and adorned with many rubies and sapphires, of which he hath an infinite store, as a vast many of them are found in this country. This couch or litter is called _serrion_ in their language, and is carried on the shoulders of 16 or 18 men. On these occasions, there is much triumphing and shouting made before the king, by great numbers of men and women.

This king has little force by sea, having very few ships. He has houses quite full of gold and silver, both of which are often coming in to him, but very little goes out again, so that he makes little account of it, and this vast treasury is always open to inspection, in a great walled court with two gates, which are always open to all men. In this court there are four houses very richly gilded and covered with leaden roofs, in each of which is a pagod or idol, of huge stature and vast value. In the first of these houses is the image of a king, all in gold, having a golden crown on his head richly set with large rubies and sapphires, and round about are the images of four children all in gold. In the second house is the image of a man in silver, of prodigious size, as high as a house, insomuch that the foot is as long as the stature of a man. This figure is in a sitting posture, having a crown on its head, richly adorned with precious stones. In the third house is the statue of a man in brass, still larger than the former, with a rich crown on its head. In the fourth house is another brazen statue, still larger than the former, having also a crown on its head richly adorned with jewels. In another court not far from this, there are four other pagodas or idols of wonderful size, made of copper, which were formed in the places in which they now stand, being of such enormous size that they could not be removed. These stand in four separate houses, and are gilded all over except their heads, which resemble black-a-moors. The expences of these people in gilding their images are quite enormous. The king has only one wife, but above 300 concubines, by whom he is said to have 80 or 90 children. He sits in judgment every day, on which occasion the applicants use no speech, but give up their supplications in writing, being upon long slips of the leaves of a tree, a yard long and about two inches broad, written with a pointed iron or stile like a bodkin. He who gives in his application, stands at some distance carrying a present. If his application is to be complied with, his present is accepted and his request granted; but if his suit be denied he returns home with his present.

There are few commodities in India which serve for trade at Pegu, except opium of Cambaia, painted cottons from San Thome or Masulipatam, and white cloth of Bengal, vast quantities of which are sold here. They bring likewise much cotton yarn, dyed red with a root called _saia_, which never loses its colour, a great quantity of which is sold yearly in Pegu at a good profit. The ships from Bengal, San Thome, and Masulipatam, come to the bar of Negrais and to Cosmin. To Martaban, another sea-port in the kingdom of Pegu, many ships come from Malacca, with sandal-wood, porcelains, and other wares of China, camphor of Borneo, and pepper from Acheen in the island of Sumatra. To Siriam, likewise a port of Pegu, ships come from Mecca with woollen cloth, scarlet, velvets, opium, and other goods.

In Pegu there are eight brokers called _tareghe_, which are bound to sell your goods at the prices they are worth, receiving as their fee two in the hundred, for which they are bound to make good the price, because you sell your goods on their word. If the broker do not pay you on the day appointed, you may take him home to your house and keep him there, which is a great shame for him. And, if he do not now pay you immediately, you may take his wife, children, and slaves, and bind them at your door in the sun; for such is the law of the country. Their current money is of brass, which they call _ganza_, with which you may buy gold, silver, rubies, musk, and all other things. Gold and silver is reckoned merchandise, and is worth sometimes more and sometimes less, like all other wares, according to the supply and demand. The ganza or brass money goes by weight, which they call a _biza_; and commonly this biza is worth, in our way of reckoning, about half a crown or somewhat less. The merchandises in Pegu are, gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, spinels, musk, benzoin, frankincense, long pepper, tin, lead, copper, _lacca_, of which hard sealing-wax is made, rice, wine made of rice, [_aruck_,] and some sugar. The elephants eat sugar canes in great quantities, or otherwise they might make abundance of sugar.

They consume many canes likewise[425], in making their _varellas_ or idol temples, of which there are a prodigious multitude, both large and small. These are made round like a sugar loaf, some being as high as a church, and very broad beneath, some being a quarter of a mile in compass.

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