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.
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