If
Any Merchant Stranger Die There Without Children, All His Goods Fall To
The King.
When the king dies, he is succeeded in the throne by his
children.
The children of the natives divide equally among them all the
possessions of their father. When any Mahometan merchant dies, their
bodies are embalmed with many sweet spices and gums, and being placed in
wooden coffins, they are buried with their faces towards Mecca. In their
manner of writing they use parchment as we do, and not the leaves of
trees as at Calicut. Their vessels are a kind of shallow brigantines or
barks with flat bottoms, which draw very little water. Some also use
foists having _double foreparts_[87], and two masts, but these have no
decks. They have also some vessels of large burden, even carrying a
thousand tons, in which they have several boats, and these are used when
they go to Malacca for spices.
[Footnote 87: This is not easily understood, unless it may mean that
they are so built that they may sail with either end foremost. - E.]
Having finished our business at Tanaserim, we packed up all our wares
and embarked for Bengal, distant 700 miles from Tanaserim, whither we
arrived in twelve days sailing. In fruitfulness and abundance of all
things _this city_[88] may contend for eminence with any city in the
world. The kingdom dependent upon this city is very large, rich, and
populous, and the king, who is a Mahometan, maintains an army of 200,000
men, including cavalry and infantry, with which he keeps up almost
continual wars against the king of Narsinga. This country is so
fruitful, that it possesses every thing conducive to the use of man,
abounding in all kinds of beasts, wholesome fruits, and corn. It has
spices also of several kinds, and vast abundance of cotton and silk. No
other region in the world is comparable to this, so that there are many
rich merchants. Every year there depart from hence fifty ships laden
with cloths of cotton or silk, bound for the cities of Turkey, Syria,
Arabia, Persia, Ethiopia, and India. There are also many merchant
strangers, who buy precious stones from the natives. We found here many
Christian merchants who were born, as they told us, in the city of
_Sarnau_. They had brought to this great mart wood of aloes and _laser_,
which latter yields the sweet gum called _laserpitium_, commonly called
_belzoi_, or benzoin, which is a kind of myrrh. They bring also musk and
several other sweet perfumes. These Christian merchants told us, that in
their country were many Christian princes, subject to the great khan,
who dwells in the city of _Cathay_[89]. The dress of these Christians
was of camblet, very loose and full of plaits, and lined with cotton;
and they wore sharp pointed caps of a scarlet colour, two spans high.
They are white men, believing in one God with a trinity of persons, and
were baptized after our manner.
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