Recently, the article "China in the eyes of foreigners during the Ming Dynasty" went viral on the Internet, describing the wealth, etiquette, architecture, roads, noble and elegant life of the people, customs and customs of China in the Ming Dynasty, etc., which shocked Chinese netizens: It turns out that China was once so brilliant and great.

The following is the original text of "China in the Eyes of Foreigners during the Ming Dynasty".

Source: Mendoza's History of the Great Chinese Empire, his work is essentially the collation and compilation of materials, which is the material for Westerners to study the Ming Dynasty in China.

He relied on the following sources: the Portuguese Galleot's "Records of Chinese Observations", Cruz's "Notes on the Situation in China", and Martín de Lada's Records of His Missions to China. All three of them went to China in person and lived there for a long time, and there are clear records in Chinese history books.

Thereinto:

Galleott is in 1548 Zhu Su sent the capital to command Lu Bo to attack Shuangyu Port, captured the Portuguese, many Portuguese have been executed by Zhu Kun, and later Zhu Su was impeached, saying that he killed innocents indiscriminately, including Galleott and others were able to escape, Galleott sat in prison in the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and was later exiled to Guangxi, and then escaped from China, he made a very detailed description of the situation in Ming Dynasty China at that time, the prison system, the legal system, as well as customs, economic properties and many places in the Mendoza book are referring to his records。

Cruz was also Portuguese, and during the Jiajing period, he lived in Guangzhou for about two months, and his record of China was also very reliable and in-depth. So later some historians said that Cruz spent more time in China in one month than Marco Polo in China for ten years.

His "Chronicle of China" is also an important reference book for Mendoza.

As for Martin de Rada, he visited China around the seventh year of Wanli to inform the Ming government that Lin Feng, a Chinese pirate attacking Manila at that time, had been besieged by the Spaniards and that it would not take long to capture Lin Feng (although Lin Feng later escaped).

He made a detailed record of the process of his visit to China, and the full text was included in Mendoza's "History of the Great Chinese Empire", which was also a record of his personal experience, and there was no false element.

The second half of the main thread is actually a record by Martin de Lada, except that Mendoza changed the first person to the third person.

Here's an excerpt from the content.

"In this big country,...... The people were well fed, well dressed, and their homes richly furnished, and above all, they were hard workers, and they were great merchants and traders, all of which, together with the fertility of the said land, made it rightfully called the richest country in the world."

"There's a lot of sugar all over the country, and that's why sugar prices are so cheap. ...... There is abundant honey, because they like beekeeping, and even wax is very cheap: the production is so large that you can load it on a ship, or even a fleet."

"They produce a large quantity of silk, of excellent quality and perfect colour, much more than the Granada silk, and is one of the largest trades in the country"

"It is surprising that the velvet, silk, satin, and other fabrics produced there are so cheap. Especially compared to the prices known in Spain and Italy. They did not sell silk or any other fabric by size, not even linen, but by weight, so there was no fraud.

"In the country there are many rivers and people grow rice, which is the common food and grain of the people of the whole country. ...... They harvest so much that when the price of rice is at its highest, you can buy a pinch with one riyal. ”

"In the mountains uncultivable, there are plenty of pine trees, bigger and more flavorful nuts than you usually find in Spain. Between these trees, they grow corn, which is the general food of the Mexican and Peruvian Indians. In short, they don't leave a single foot of unplanted land,...... You hardly see any wasteland or no-harvest place in the whole country. ”

"All the fields are beautiful and fragrant, because there are many kinds of fragrant flowers, and it is also dotted with green villages planted on the banks of rivers and streams, where there are many rivers. There were orchards and gardens, and there were very cheerful feasting halls, and they often went to rest and escape from their worries. The old men, that is, the gentlemen, used to plant large forests and dense forests, in which wild boars, sheep, hares, rabbits, and other wild beasts of all kinds, from their skins were made of fine furs."

"There are plenty of cattle, so cheap that you can buy a good one for 8 riyals, and you can buy beef at half price, and a whole deer sells for 2 riyals: a lot of pigs, and pork is as good and wholesome as our Spanish lamb. Then there are so many sheep and other animals that can be eaten, which is why they are not valuable. There are so many birds on the banks of the lake that a small village in the country consumes several thousand a day, the largest being ducks. ...... They are sold by weight, as are steers and chickens, and are cheap, with two pounds of plucked meat usually worth two cents, which is the equivalent of a Spanish quart, and pork worth two pounds worth one cent, and half a pound is worth six malavards. ”

"As for the fish they have, whether they swim in the water or with crustacearies, it is amazing, not only in the coastal areas, but also in the remote parts of the country. ”

"In addition to these, they are rich in gold, silver, and other metals, which are sold quite cheaply, and 1 kyonta of copper, iron, or steel sells for 8 riyals. Gold is cheaper than in Europe, but silver is more expensive".

"Some of their villages are so big that they lack the name of a state. Most of their cities were built on the banks of the river, navigable, and there were moats at the four corners of the city, which made the city very strong, not only the city, but also the town was surrounded by high and solid stone walls, one fathom high, and the rest of the walls were made of bricks, but they were so solid that they were difficult to break with a hoe. Some cities had very wide walls, on which private individuals and six men could walk side by side, and the walls had many bastions and towers, separated not far from each other, by battlements and wide galleries, before their governors were repeatedly removed, to enjoy the views of the mountains and fragrant fields. There was a great distance between their walls and their moats, so that six horsemen could gallop at the same time, and the same distance between the walls and their houses in the city, and they could pass unhindered. Because they are well cared for, their walls look like newly built ,......".

"Throughout the country, the avenues have been carefully built and kept flat, and the entrances to the towns are elaborate and imposing, with three or four gates, which are firmly covered with iron. Their streets are well paved, as wide as 15 rides can run in parallel, and are so straight that you can see to the end, despite their length. Flanked by porches, below are the shops, filled with all sorts of exotic goods and all the trades you could count on. At a certain distance from each other in the streets, there are many beautiful torii gates, which are built of stone. Their houses generally have three gates, with a gate in the middle, and the rest are smaller, but extremely coordinated. ”

"Their houses are generally beautiful, and they are usually neatly planted with trees outside their doors to look beautiful and shine on the streets. The interiors of the houses were as white as milk, and looked like smooth paper, and the floors were paved with large and flat ashlars, and the ceilings were of a childish wood, well constructed and painted, and looked like brocade, and the color was golden, and they were very beautiful, and each house had three courtyards and courtyards full of ornamental flowers. All of them had a fish pond, even though it was small. One side of the courtyard is ornately furnished, like a bookkeeper. ”

"They are extremely clean, not only in their houses, but also on the streets. They usually had three or four necessary or public resting places in the streets, well arranged, so that those who were busy with official business did not stain the streets, and received supplies from there, and a similar method was used to pass all the roads of the country. Some cities have navigable streets, like Venice in Italy. ”

"The roads of the country are the best and best known to be built, they are very flat, even on the hills, and are made by labor and hoes, and are maintained with bricks and stones. ...... There are many bridges, peculiar in their construction, especially on the wide and deep river. In the city of Fuzhou, directly opposite the mansion of the King's Great Tax Collector, there was a tower, which, according to those who saw it, surpassed any building in Rome, and which he erected on 40 columns, each of which was a stone, large and high. ”

"The men and women of this country have a very good constitution, well-proportioned and pretty, slightly tall, and most of them have broad faces, small eyes, flat noses, and sparse beards, but there are also people with big eyes and beards, and their faces are very even. ”

"The garments of the nobles were made of different colours of silk, and they had fine and fine silks, while the common poor wore another coarse silk and linen, serge and cotton, which were abundant. ”

"They wore the same garments as we wore in ancient times, with long skirts and folded hairs, a side on the chest to tie on the left side, wide and large sleeves, and on the outer garments they wore robes and robes according to their own needs, in the form of what we wear, except with larger sleeves, and the royal blood and those who were given official positions were different from those of other gentlemen. ”

"Their women were dressed in peculiar fashion, much like the style of the Spaniards, and they wore a lot of gold and precious stones, and their clothes had wide sleeves, and they wore gold and silver and all kinds of silk materials, as mentioned before, they had a great quantity of silk, and it was of very good quality, and very cheap, and the poor wore velvet, untrimmed velvet and beep. They kept their hair and combed it carefully and diligently, like the Genoese women, and tied it around their heads with wide ribbons and adorned with pearls and precious stones. ”

"Feasts and feasts are held in these Chinese than any other peoples of the world, because they are rich and carefree, and they do not have the light of God,,...... They are carnal gratifications for themselves, indulge in pleasures, and they live a good life by doing so, and are well arranged, and even if they have a hundred guests, they are still accustomed to having each of them sit and eat at one of their own tables. Their table is exquisite,......。 At these feasts and banquets, there were always actresses, acting and singing, and doing many beautiful movements that pleased the guests, and in addition to the various men who performed other instruments, and somersaults and acters, who performed their comedies perfectly and naturally. ......”

"There are many opportunities to eat in every town, because in the markets and in the streets, but also in the suburbs, there are many restaurants, with tables and chairs neatly arranged, and it does not cost a few dollars, because all kinds of food are extremely cheap, and if the outsider says that he has already eaten it, then the townspeople and the people of the city will take her to another kind of restaurant, with all kinds of preserved fruits and dairy products, fruits and marzipans, and treat him to a meal very kindly,...... They are very polite to foreigners. ”

On the river they had a large number of restaurants and shops, and they could buy other luxuries of the town, such as silk, amber, and precious goods of all kinds, which were well supplied, and they also planted pots of fruit trees of the rank of small orange trees on their boats, and gardens for recreation, planted with flowers and plants, and in the wide on-boat pools, they kept a large number of live fish, which were supplemented by more fish caught daily with nets.

China's supply of fish is the best of any known country, because of the abundance of such boats, and because of the large number of fishermen at sea and in the river, who constantly catch fish with nets and gear, and who transport countless live fish to the ponds on land five hundred miles along the river.

They had bamboo cages as big as the upper cabins, which could keep 4,000 ducks at the same time, and they set up a nest somewhere in the cage for the ducks to lay their eggs every day, and they took out the eggs, and if in the summer, they put the eggs in very warm cow dung or those duck dung, and let the eggs hatch for many days, as a rule,...... In the winter they had to use the help of manpower to warm the dung for the hatching eggs, and in another ingenious way, as in the previous book, they tied a large number of bamboos together, put the dung on them, and then put the eggs on the dung, and covered them tightly with dung, and when they had done this, they placed straw or other similar things under the bamboo, and lit a fire, but did not let the fire burn, but kept it at a natural temperature until they thought they could take it out,...... So they grew to the size of ants, and then they put the ducklings in another cage with old ducklings to protect the ducklings and give them warmth. ...... You can often raise more than 20,000 ducks, but there is very little fertilizer, and the method is like this,......。

"Their ancient account of the history of navigation clearly states that they sailed to the Indies and conquered all the places from China to the ends of India, and they occupied them with great peace until they had made a law of renunciation with good intentions. Thus, today, the Philippine Islands and the coast of Croman, the coast of the Bengal Sea on the Narsinga National Highway, still bear important memorials about them; there is a town there that is still called Chinese land because they built it. Similar ruins and monuments remain in Caligut, where there are many trees and fruits that, according to locals, were transported to the country when the Chinese ruled the country. Today there are similar ruins in Malacca, Milo, Zhanpo and other countries in their vicinity,"

"The officials of the port now allowed merchants to trade in the neighbouring islands, such as to the Philippines, and many ships loaded with large quantities of goods went every year, many times into Spain, and they also traveled to other regions and places where they thought they could be profitable. However, such permission is granted only if they give an undertaking to return within one year. The desire to make a profit led them to travel to Mexico, and in 1585 three Chinese merchants arrived in Mexico, carrying rare goods, to Spain and other countries further afield. ”

"Officials and prefects also allow foreign countries to enter their ports to buy and sell, but first cross-examine and examine, being careful not to ask for any permission other than for this purpose. The foreigner then obtains a permit for a limited period of time. ”

"You often see 2,000 ships and ships in one port. ”

"They learned that in other provinces of China, there were also peculiar and fine cannons. This may be the kind that Captain Atreeda saw, who reported to him the secrets of this country in a letter to King Philep, in which he said that the Chinese use all kinds of weapons just like us, and their cannons are particularly good, and I agree with this statement, because I have seen some of these cannons mounted on ships, which are better made and more solid than ours. ”

"They made large and solid ships for war, with high towers, in the bow and stern, much like the ships from Lipant, and the ships of the Portuguese into the East Indies, and they were so numerous that a single admiral could muster an army of more than six hundred men in four days. ...... They had many other kinds of boats, some with painted and gilded porches and windows,...... "The asphalt which they used to repair their ships was abundant in the country, and was called lacquer in their words, and was made of lime, fish oil, and a paste which they called hemp, and it was strong and moth-proof, so that their ships were twice as durable as ours." ...... The pump in their boat was very different from ours, it was much better, it was composed of many pieces, there was a wheel for pumping water, pressed on the inside of the boat, and they used it to drain the water in the boat very easily, because it only took one person to turn the wheel, and in a quarter of an hour a large ship could be drained, even if the cracks were very large. ”

"And one of the things they did very well, which made us all marvel at them as infidels, was that all their cities had hospitals, and they were always full: we had never seen a man beggar. So we asked them why, and we replied that in every city there was a large area in which there were many houses for the poor, the blind, the lame, the old, and the incapable of earning a living, and these people lived in said houses, and there was always an adequate supply of rice while they lived. ...... He may dwell in the aforementioned great houses until he dies, and besides they have pigs and chickens in these places, so that the poor do not have to beg to live."

"The priest and his companions stayed for two days in the center of the house, where they were treated and invited by order of the Hingquan Dao,...... When they left the city, they were escorted by a large number of soldiers, both muskets and spears, and in front of them there was a noise of trumpets, drums, and trumpets,...... The rivers they cross, on one side and the other, are home to beautiful and fresh villages. Our men were so pleased with some of them that they asked what their names were, and the crew replied that they were villages that were not worthy of a name. ...... They entered a large bay with more than a hundred and fifty warships moored, and their admiral was none other than the captain of the escort monks and others whom we mentioned, and when the fleet found them, they began to salute them, firing cannons, firing muskets and making other kinds of signs."

"The Spaniards were sent along this street to their residences, and they certainly said that the street was half a column long. The streets they passed through were paved with all sorts of strange goods, and food of all kinds, such as all kinds of fresh and salted fish, all kinds of chickens, fowl, and meat, fruits, and vegetables, in quantities sufficient to supply the city of Sever. The streets were so crowded that it was difficult for them to get through, despite the many officers and soldiers who made the way for them. So they sent them to the house, which was very large, beautifully constructed of stone and brick, and had many halls, chambers, and bedrooms,...... The generals of the city, as they called them, brought news that they were welcome and that they were presented with a large number of steers, chickens, ducks, geese, four or five kinds of meat, fresh fish, wine, and fruits of all kinds, so much that they were to be eaten by two hundred people, and they were to put them in the slightly colder air, because it was very hot. ”

"After parting they went to see the city wall that was near, and the playground built on the water, with beautiful corridors and stone open-air halls for banquets, in which there were many beautifully colored tables, and surrounded by tanks for fishing, and connected to the tanks were fine alabasterboards, all of the same stone, the shortest of which was eight long, and there was a gurgling water around it, which made a pleasant sound when the feast was held, and near it was a garden full of flowers and trees, and not far from the place they saw a bridge of stone, and the stone was trimmed and very large, and they measured several pieces of 22 and 20 feet long and 5 feet wide, and it seemed to them that they could not put them there by manpower。 On their way to Quanzhou and Fuzhou, they did see such large stones, and even larger ones, placed on many other bridges.

From Tong'an Town to Quanzhou, there is a 13-mile road, and the journey to Pingtan City is pleasant, on the way they do not see a single piece of uncultivated and occupied land, they know that the whole country is the same land. It was full of people, town after town, and you could hardly think that it was many, but just one, because one town was only a quarter of a mile from the other, and they were told that the population of all the provinces of the country was like that. The land they cultivate is irrigated, so they have a good harvest and they work all year round, and we Spaniards see them growing rice everywhere we go,...... They ploughed the land with tamed cows, buffalo bulls, .......

Beautiful gardens shade the avenue and decorate it, the gardens are neatly planted, and there are spots for selling all kinds of fruits for passers-by to enjoy, some on foot, some on horseback, and some on sedan chairs. The spring beside the avenue was clear and crystalline, and on the same day, when they had already walked halfway there, they saw a pair of soldiers coming at a distance, which at first surprised and frightened them, until they approached, and they were told that this was the captain of the guard of Xingquan Road, the governor of Quanzhou, and that he had ordered them to meet them with 400 soldiers armed with spears and muskets and fully clothed.

The road was constantly frequented by pack horses, carrying goods and other things, but most of them were mules. The road is wide, 20 people ride side by side, and no one gets in the way, and it is paved with large stones, and it is said that the same is true for the roads in other provinces,...... It seems that this is true, because we Spaniards have crossed the mountains in the country and they have found that the roads are also as smooth as you have been told before.

"On the 11th of July, four hours before the night, our Spaniards arrived in the city of Quanzhou. The city is average in the country, with perhaps 70,000 households. It has a large trade, supplying all kinds of goods, because it is only 2 miles from the sea, there is a large river through it, all kinds of goods are transported by water, and there is a bridge that is said to be the most beautiful in the world,...... The bridge is 800 steps long and constructed of 22 feet long and five feet wide, which is an enviable project. ...... Near the aforementioned bridge, there are more than 1,000 boats of all kinds moored in the river, so many boats that the river is covered with people, and every boat is full of people."

"All the streets have sheds on both sides, and below them are shops, full of abundant goods, very valuable and peculiar, and they have built many torii at equal distances from one place to the other to decorate the streets, and there are them on every street in the country, and there are good markets below, where you can buy what you want to eat, such as fish and meat, fruits, vegetables, sweets, honey stacks, all very cheap, and almost nothing. Their food was good, very hearty, and they ate a lot of pork, which was as good and nutritious as Spanish lamb. Some of the fruits we saw were like those we had grown in Spain, others we had never seen, but they were sweet and delicious. ...... The streets you pass through are full of people, and if a grain of wheat falls, it will hardly fall to the ground. ”

As they walked along this street, they thought it was more beautiful than the street into which they had entered, with more beautiful houses and torii, and the shops on both sides were more ornately decorated than the others, and so prosperous, that they saw a large crowd of people, and were so amazed that they looked like lost souls, and thought it was just a dream. In short, they walked down the street for a while, pleasantly seeing new things that they had never seen before, and then they entered a large place where there was a large procession of soldiers, prepared with muskets and spears, and other weapons, and wore silk uniforms, and unfurled flags.

When Xingquan Dao knew that the Spaniards were willing to practice the customary etiquette,...... He immediately ordered them to enter the hall where he was, and it was worth seeing both its vastness and its magnificence,...... The Spaniards left the hall where they had been and entered another room, which was generally large, and there were many soldiers with weapons in their hands, neatly arranged and richly dressed, and approached by many officers and captains, with different banners or insignia, and all wearing silk robes woven with gold or ornaments. ...... ，

Entering a corridor that connected the room where the prefect was, they heard the sound of various musical instruments for a long time, and the melodies were unheard of before before in a melody that made them marvel at the great brilliance of the infidels......

Xingquan Road is located on a beautiful chair under the ornate canopy nearby, and the pomp and circumstance is like that of the emperor himself. He received them in a friendly manner and said welcome to them through his interpreter. ...... The chief was a very kind man, peugeot, pleasant-looking, unlike the others they had seen in the country.

The next day, on Sunday, 11 July, many of the nobles of the city paid a visit to the Spaniards, and according to their custom there were many words of praise for the ceremony,...... This visit takes them all day. They were amazed at the good manners, upbringing, and noble manners of the nobles, and at the seriousness with which they asked what they wanted to know, and how earnestly they answered our questions.

The next day Xingquandao sent an order that he wanted the two priests to stay in the apartment to rest, but that two soldiers, Bertoroch Samiranto and Migue de Roaka, should go and talk to him, and bring their interpreter, because he had a Chinese interpreter there who knew Filipino, but was too bad to use his interpreter to talk about anything important.......

He asked them to report to him the whole situation of the pirate Lin Feng's arrival in the islands, and how the Spaniards had dealt with him, and although he had received an account of everything from the captain Wang Wanggao and Mr. Wang, he suspected that what they had told him was not the truth, and his suspicions were well-founded, but when he knew that Lin Fengji was neither dead nor captured, but only besieged, he offered them that if they were willing to return to Banslan to attack him, he was willing to provide them with five hundred warships and men who were accustomed to fighting on land and sea, and more if they asked for it. ......

At the first table each guest was given a small basket of gold and silver thread, filled with sugar-made foods, such as marzipan, and foods in the shape of castles, kettles, pots, plates, dogs, cows, statues, and other strange shapes, all coated with gold, and many other plates of meat, such as chicken, goose, duck, bacon, beef fillet, and other kinds of meat that filled the table, sometimes more than fifty plates, except for the boiled food they ate. They have a variety of liquors,...... The quality is very good,...... The banquet lasted eight hours, because it was arranged so well that any prince in the world could feast.

The servants and servants they brought with them ate in a nearby hall as abundantly as their masters'.

[Leave Quanzhou and arrive at Fuzhou City]......

For the whole seven days, until they arrived in the city of Fuzhou, no fee or money was charged for this or for the provision of their other needs, and before them there was always a document issued by the prefect, written on a large board, indicating who they were and where they came from, and ordering that all their needs be fully supplied, to be paid for by the royal family......

In this city they lodge in a hostel, which is a large, beautiful building, and they are very rich in lunch and dinner.

And when they were leaving the city, and heading for Hutch, they crossed a great river by a stone bridge, and the bridge was the most beautiful and largest they had ever seen, and its majesty aroused amazement, so they stopped to measure it from one end to the other, and it may be included among the wonders of the country, and they also made notes, and they found that it was 1,300 paces long, and that the smallest stone for which it was built was 7 paces, and many were 22 paces long and 8 paces wide, and they thought that it was impossible for manpower to be transported there, because they saw that there were plains and no mountains all around, and they concluded that the stones were brought from afar。 They crossed the bridge, and for the rest of the day until the evening they passed a wide and flat road, lined with restaurants, and fields with rice, wheat, and other grains, as many people as the streets of a great town.

They walked more than half a mile on the outskirts of Fuzhou City when they came across a messenger sent by the Governor,...... Early the next morning, the governor sent a large number of people to their apartments and prepared for them two splendid palanquins for the priest to ride. ...... In spite of their rapidity, it took them a full hour and a half to reach the gates, and they felt that they had walked two leagues in the suburbs, which were so populous, with their beautiful houses, and so many shops full of goods, that they would have thought it was not the suburbs but the town itself, had they not been told of it.

Before they reached the gates, they crossed a large river three times from a large and beautiful bridge, and the river was deep enough to pass large boats,......

The city is the richest and best supplied city in the country, it is the capital of the province, it is very rich and fertile, with many villages and towns, and it is only 8 leagues from the sea...... They marched on and on, through a wide street leading to the governor's palace, and from the city onwards, one by one, the streets were lined with soldiers, generals, and officials, each armed with a weapon, such as spears, arquebuses, knives, and shields, all in uniform of one color......

They didn't have time to count the soldiers, but they saw that there was a considerable distance from the gate to the governor's palace, and they were all soldiers, richly dressed and of one color. Between the houses and the soldiers, there were so many people in the windows and on the streets, it looked like the end of the world, and the whole world was concentrated on that street.

Out of the midst of the soldiers came a nobleman, who was known to them to be the captain of the governor's guard, and he walked majestically and solemnly to the place where our men were, and it was still the largest and most populous city in the province (though there were much larger in other provinces), and it was said that the emperor and his court were stationed in 300,000 households, but there was another greater city in the country, called Nanking. The Portuguese have reported a lot, but certainly a lot about the majesty of the city. I myself have been to the authorities who have been to Canton, and who have heard and determined that it is true, and that these people should be trustworthy.

The city of Fuzhou had a wide and solid stone wall, five fathoms high and four fathoms wide, which our men measured many times, because all the doors of their dwellings were open to the walls. ............

[The governor feasted on our men in his own house for two days]......

At this second feast, as on the first day, they had a lot of music, and a lot of comedy, and a lot of funny and ridiculous antics performances, and a somersault,......。 Before the play, our people learned about it through the translator,...... In ancient times, there were many great and heroic men in China, but among them there were three brothers in particular, whose great bravery surpassed that of other generations, one of them was white, the other was red or dark, and the third was black, and the red man was more witty and courageous, and tried his best to make his white brother king, and this opinion was supported by others, and then together they seized the empire from the ruler of the time, and that ruler was called Liu Bei (Laupicono), an incompetent and evil man. The play is very exciting, and the costumes are suitable for those characters.

Our soldiers, who were not allowed to bring anything in, felt that it was a great shame and went back to their apartments and told the priest about the situation, and the priest was displeased. But our people still decided to be patient and ask God to show them how to serve God.

The next day the Doge sent to visit our people, and asked them for a sword, an arquebus, and a powder keg: for he was to make it accordingly. Our people sent these and later learned that they copied, though not so identical.

After some time, our men found that they had been in the city for a long time and seemed to be staying longer, so they thought of killing the time, and went to the city to buy what they wanted, and they saw that things were so abundant that they could buy them at such a low price that they could buy them for almost nothing.

They bought a lot of Chinese books about various things and brought them back to the archipelago (and had them translated).

The next day they went to see the gates, and the things that seemed to be known to them, and there were many. Among the things they saw was a luxurious temple of idols, in the main hall they saw 111 idols, and many more in other individual halls,...... There are wild arms, there are land arms, there are eight, and there are extremely deformed yokai, and in front of these people light lamps and many incense and spices. ......

But when the governor knew that our men were going to see the gates and temples (and those who had provided his information suspected that we had sinister intentions in doing so), he immediately ordered that our men should not be allowed to leave their dwellings without his permission,...... It is also forbidden for anyone to take something and sell it to us,...... But in any case, our people are provided with the necessities of personal use every day, so abundant that there is always something left, and nothing is missing.

Later that day he ordered that those who were allowed to go out and about sometimes and that we should be allowed to watch something interesting and friendly. Therefore, one of our people was brought to watch the drills......

Approximately 20,000 men armed with spears and muskets were assembled, and they were so skillful that at the sound of drums or trumpets they formed battle formations, and at the sound of drums or trumpets they formed a phalanx, and at another time the musketeers came out of the formation, and in an instant they returned to their positions, and at the end of this exercise, the spearmen advanced and attacked in such unisonance that the Spaniards thought that they had surpassed the whole world, and if their morale and fighting spirit were the same as their skill and number, it would have been easy for them to conquer the territory of the whole world......

They had been practicing for four hours, and Spain was informed that the whole country was conducting drills at the same day and at the same time, although there was no news of the enemy.

Twenty-five days after he had informed the Spaniards of his decision, the envoy arrived, and the whole city went to welcome him, and he was so honored that if he did not know who he was, he would have believed that he was the emperor.