Of the citie of Satagan.
IN the port of Satagan every yeere lade thirtie or five and
thirtie ships great and small, with rice, cloth of Bombast
of diverse sortes, Lacca, great abundance of sugar, Mirabolans dried and preserved, long pepper, oyle of Zerzeline,
and many other sorts of marchandise. The citie of
Satagan is a reasonable faire citie for a citie of the
Moores, abounding with all things, and was governed
by the king of Patane, and now is subject to the great
Mogol. I was in this kingdome foure moneths, whereas
many marchants did buy or fraight boates for their
benefites, and with these barkes they goe up and downe
the river of Ganges to faires, buying their commoditie
with a great advantage, because that every day in the
weeke they have a faire, now in one place, and now in
another, and I also hired a barke and went up and downe
the river and did my businesse, and so in the night I saw
many strange things. The kingdome of Bengala in times
past hath bene as it were in the power of Moores, neverthelesse there is great store of Gentiles among them;
alwayes whereas I have spoken of Gentiles, is to be understood Idolaters, and wheras I speak of Moores I meane
Mahomets sect. Those people especially that be within
the land doe greatly worship the river of Ganges: for
when any is sicke, he is brought out of the countrey to
the banke of the river, and there they make him a small
cottage of strawe, and every day they wet him with that
water, whereof there are many that die, and when they
are dead, they make a heape of stickes and boughes and
lay the dead bodie thereon, and putting fire thereunto,
they let the bodie alone untill it be halfe rosted, and then
they take it off from the fire, and make an emptie jarre
fast about his necke, and so throw him into the river.
These things every night as I passed up and downe the
river I saw for the space of two moneths, as I passed to
the fayres to buy my commodities with the marchants.
And this is the cause that the Portugales will not drinke
of the water of the river Ganges, yet to the sight it
is more perfect and clearer then the water of Nilus is.
From the port Piqueno I went to Cochin, and from
Cochin to Malacca, from whence I departed for Pegu
being eight hundred miles distant. That voyage is woont
to be made in five and twentie or thirtie dayes, but we
were foure moneths, and at the ende of three moneths our
ship was without victuals. The Pilot told us that wee
were by his altitude not farre from a citie called Tanasary,
in the kingdome of Pegu
, and these his words were not
true, but we were (as it were) in the middle of many
Ilands, and many uninhabited rockes, and there were also
some Portugales that affirmed that they knew the land,
and knewe also where the citie of Tanasari was.
This citie of right belongeth to the kingdome of Sion
,
which is situate on a great rivers side, which commeth
out of the kingdome of Sion
: and where this river runneth
into the sea, there is a village called Mirgim, in whose
harbour every yeere there lade some ships with Verzina,
Nypa, and Benjamin, a few cloves, nutmegs and maces
which come from the coast of Sion
, but the greatest
marchandise there is Verzin and Nypa, which is an excellent wine, which is made of the floure of a tree called
Nyper. Whose liquour they distill, and so make an
excellent drinke cleare as christall, good to the mouth,
and better to the stomake, and it hath an excellent gentle
vertue, that if one were rotten with the french pockes,
drinking good store of this, he shall be whole againe, and
I have scene it proved, because that when I was in
Cochin, there was a friend of mine, whose nose beganne
to drop away with that disease, and he was counselled of
the doctors of phisicke, that he should goe to Tanasary at
the time of the new wines, and that he should drinke of
the nyper wine, night and day, as much as he could before
it was distilled, which at that time is most delicate, but
after that it is distilled, it is more strong, and if you
drinke much of it, it will fume into the head with drunkennesse. This man went thither, and did so, and I have
seene him after with a good colour and sound. This
wine is very much esteemed in the Indies, and for that it
is brought so farre off, it is very deare: in Pegu
ordinarily
it is good cheape, because it is neerer to the place where
they make it, and there is every yeere great quantitie
made thereof. And returning to my purpose, I say, being
amongst these rockes, and farre from the land which is
over against Tanasary, with great scarcitie of victuals,
and that by the saying of the Pylot and two Portugales,
holding then firme that wee were in front of the aforesayd
harbour, we determined to goe thither with our boat and
fetch victuals, and that the shippe should stay for us in a
place assigned. We were twentie and eight persons in
the boat that went for victuals, and on a day about twelve
of the clocke we went from the ship, assuring our selves
to bee in the harbour before night in the aforesaid port,
wee rowed all that day, and a great part of the next
night, and all the next day without finding harbour, or
any signe of good landing, and this came to passe through
the evill counsell of the two Portugales that were with
us.
For we had overshot the harbour and left it behind us,
in such wise that we had lost the lande inhabited, together
with the shippe, and we eight and twentie men had no
maner of victuall with us in the boate, but it was the
Lords will that one of the Mariners had brought a litle
rice with him in the boate to barter away for some other
thing, and it was not so much but that three or foure men
would have eaten it at a meale: I tooke the government
of this Ryce, promising that by the helpe of God that
Ryce should be nourishment for us until it pleased God to
send us to some place that was inhabited: & when I slept
I put the ryce into my bosome because they should not
rob it from me: we were nine daies rowing alongst the
coast, without finding any thing but countreys uninhabited, & desert Ilands, where if we had found but
grasse it would have seemed sugar unto us, but wee could
not finde any, yet we found a fewe leaves of a tree, and
they were so hard that we could not chewe them, we had
water and wood sufficient, and as wee rowed, we could
goe but by flowing water, for when it was ebbing water,
wee made fast our boat to the banke of one of those
Ilandes, and in these nine dayes that we rowed, we found
a cave or nest of Tortoises egges, wherein were one
hundred fortie and foure egges, the which was a great
helpe unto us: these egges are as bigge as a hennes egge,
and have no shell about them but a tender skinne, every
day we sodde a kettle full of those egges, with an handfull
of rice in the broth thereof: it pleased God that at the
ende of nine dayes we discovered certaine fisher men, a
fishing with small barkes, and we rowed towardes them,
with a good cheare, for I thinke there were never men
more glad then we were, for wee were so sore afflicted
with penurie, that we could scarce stande on our legges.
Yet according to the order that we set for our ryce, when
we sawe those fisher men, there was left sufficient for
foure dayes. The first village that we came to was in the
gulfe of Tavay, under the king of Pegu
, whereas we found
great store of victuals: then for two or three dayes after
our arrivall there, we would eate but litle meate any of us,
and yet for all this, we were at the point of death the
most part of us. From Tavay to Martavan, in the kingdome of Pegu
, are seventie two miles. We laded our
bote with victuals which were aboundantly sufficient for
sixe moneths, from whence we departed for the port and
Citie of Martavan, where in short time we arrived, but we
found not our ship there as we had thought we should,
from whence presently we made out two barkes to goe to
looke for her. And they found her in great calamitie,
and neede of water, being at an anker with a contrary
winde, which came very ill to passe, because that she
wanted her boat a moneth, which should have made her
provision of wood and water, the shippe also by the grace
of God arrived safely in the aforesaid port of Martavan.
