s being euery-where very
common, it might easily bee supposed, that the number of watermen was equal
vnto the land inhabitants. Howbeit, that is to be vnderstood by
amplification, whereas the cities do swarme so ful with citizens and the
countrie with peasants. [Sidenote: Holesome aire, plenty and peace in
China.] LEO. The abundance of people which you tell vs of seemeth very
strange: whereupon I coniecture the soile to be fertile, the aire to be
holesome, and the whole kingdom to be at peace. MICHAEL. You haue (friend
Leo) ful iudicially coniectured those three: for they do all so excel that
which of the three in this kingdom be more excellent, it is not easie to
discerne. And hence it is that this common opinion hath been rife among the
Portugals, namely, that the kingdom of China was neuer visited with those
three most heauy and sharpe scourges of mankind, warre, famine, and
pestilence. But that opinion is more common then true: sithens there haue
bene most terrible intestine and ciuile warres, as in many and most
autenticall histories it is recorded: sithens also that some prouinces of
the sayd kingdom, euen in these our dayes, haue bene afflicted with
pestilence and contagious diseases, and with famine. [Sidenote: Chinian
stories.] Howbeit, that the foresaid three benefits do mightily flourish
and abound in China, it cannot be denied. For (that I may first speake of
the salubritie of the aire) the fathers of the societie themselues are
witnesses; that scarcely in any other realme there are so many found that
liue vnto decrepite and extreme old age: so great a multitude is there of
ancient and graue personages: neither doe they vse so many confections and
medicines, nor so manifold and sundry wayes of curing diseases, as wee saw
accustomed in Europe. For amongst them they haue no Phlebotomie or letting
of blood: but all their cures, as ours also in Iapon, are atchieued by
fasting, decoctions of herbes, and light or gentle potions. But in this
behalfe let euery nation please themselues with their owne customes. Now,
in fruitfulnes of soile this kingdom certes doth excel, far surpassing all
other kingdoms of the East: yet it is nothing comparable vnto the plentie
and abundance of Europe, as I haue declared at large in the former
treatises. But the kingdom of China is, in this regard, so highly extolled,
because there is not any region in the East partes that aboundeth so with
marchandise, and from whence so much traffiqu