d to
return to Malacca to refit. After which he again resumed his voyage for
China with eight ships. The empire of China is the most eastern in Asia,
as Spain is the most westerly in Europe; and opposite to China is the
island of Hainan, as that of Cadiz is to Spain. It is almost as large as
all Europe, being divided from Tartary by a wonderful wall which runs
from east to west above 200 leagues, and ends at a vast mountain or
promontory which is washed by the eastern sea of Tartary. This vast
empire is divided into fifteen provinces. Along the coast are those of
_Quantung, Fokien, Chekiang, Nanking, Xantung_, and _Leaotung_; those of
the inland country are _Queichieu, Junnan, Quangsi, Suchuen, Huquang,
Xensi, Kiangsi, Honan_, and _Xansi_, in all of which there are 244
cities. Its riches are prodigious, and its government admirable above
all others. The natives allege that they alone have two eyes, the
Europeans one, and that all the other nations are blind. They certainty
had both printing and cannon long before the Europeans. The city of
Quantung or Canton, which is the principal sea-port, is remarkable for
its size, the strength of its fortifications, and the prodigious resort
of strangers for trade.

[Footnote 145: It will appear from the sequel that Fernan Perez de
Andrada commanded on this voyage, not Coello as stated in the text.--E.]

After some considerable difficulties and dangers, Fernan Perez arrived
at Canton, where he had a conference with the three governors of the
city, to whom he presented Thomas Perez as ambassador to the emperor
from the king of Portugal, and requested them to forward him and the
present he was charged with. Perez settled a commercial treaty with the
governors of Canton, and having concluded his traffic there and at the
neighbouring parts, he returned to Malacca, loaded with riches. He was
no less welcome there than Menezes had been formerly, as it was reduced
to a dangerous situation in consequence of war with the king of Bintang,
of which we shall have occasion to give an account in the sequel.

In 1518 Diego Lopez de Sequeira was sent out as governor of India, in
reward for his services in Africa and for having discovered Malacca. One
of his ships was in danger of perishing at the Cape of Good Hope in
consequence of being run against by a great fish, which stuck a long
horn or beak two spans length into her side. It was afterwards found
that this was a fish called the _needle_. S