iet, being out of the preasse of the people. These riuers do
meet without at one corner point of the City. In either of them were so
many barges great and small, that we all thought them at the least to be
aboue three thousand: the greater number thereof was in the lesser riuer,
where we were. Amongst the rest here lay certaine greater vessels, called
in their language Parai, that serue for the Tutan, when he taketh his
voyage by other riuers that ioyne with this, towards Pachin, where the king
maketh his abode. For, as many times I haue erst said, all this Countrey is
full of riuers. Desirous to see those Parai we got into some of them, where
we found some chambers set foorth with gilded beds very richly, other
furnished with tables and seats, and all other things so neat and in
perfection, that it was wonderfull.

Quiacim shire, as farre as I can perceiue, lieth vpon the South. On that
side we kept at our first entry thereinto, trauayling not farre from the
high mountaines we saw there. Asking what people dwelleth beyond those
monntaines, it was told me that they be theeues and men of a strange
language. And because that vnto sundry places neere this riuer the
mountaines doe approch, whence the people issuing downe do many times great
harme, this order is taken at the entry into Quiacim shire. To guard this
riuer whereon continually go to and fro Parai great and small fraught with
salt, fish poudred with peper, and other necessaries for that countrey,
they do lay in diuers places certaine Parai, and great barges armed, wherin
watch and ward is kept day and night on both sides of the riuer, for the
safety of the passage, and securitie of such Parai as do remaine there,
though the trauailers neuer go but many in company. In euery rode there be
at the least thirtie, in some two hundred men, as the passage requireth.
This guard is kept vsually vntill you come to the City Onchio, where
continually the Tutan of this shire, and eke of Cantan, maketh his abode.
From that City vpward, where the riuer waxeth more narrow, and the passage
more dangerous, there be alwayes armed one hundred and fiftie Parai, to
accompany other vessels fraught with marchandize, and all this at the Kings
charges. This seemed to me one of the strangest things I did see in this
Countrey.

When we lay at Fuquien, we did see certaine Moores, who knew so litle of
their secte, that they could say nothing else but that Mahomet was a Moore,
my father was a M