The People Of China Are Heathens, And
Are So Fearful And Jealous That They Are Unwilling To Permit Any
Strangers To Enter Their Country.
Hence when the Portuguese go there to
pay their customs and to buy goods, they are not allowed to lodge within
the city, but are sent out to the suburbs.
This country of China, which
adjoins to great Tartary, is of vast size and importance, as may be
judged by the rich and precious merchandise which comes from thence,
than which I believe there are none better or more abundant in quantity
in all the world besides. In the first place it affords great quantities
of gold, which is carried thence to the Indies made into small plates
_like little ships_, and in value 23 _carats_ each[158]; large
quantities of fine silk, with damasks and taffetas; large quantities of
musk and of _occam_[159] in bars, quicksilver, cinabar, camphor,
porcelain in vessels of divers sorts, painted cloth, and squares, and
the drug called Chinaroot. Every year two or three large ships go from
China to India laden with these rich and precious commodities. Rhubarb
goes from thence over land by way of Persia, as there is a caravan every
year from Persia to China, which takes six months to go there and as
long to return. This caravan arrives at a place called _Lanchin_, where
the king and his court reside. I conversed with a Persian who had been
three years in that city of _Lanchin_, and told me that it was a city of
great size and wealth.
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