166 and shares with the men from his country, and so they do not have a marriage law at all. He has plenty of money and many people. He has many other indulgences, such as hunting, riding; dancing and music, and many other entertainments that he is provided with. The Kingdom of Pegu Heading further South East along the coast from the Kingdom of Burma, one comes to another gentile kingdom, which is very rich and has a lot of maritime trade in a variety of goods. It is called Pegu. It has three or four seaports with some principal merchants and many large towns inhabited by Mouros and gentiles, who consider them their own. The city of Pegu lies some seven or eight leagues back from the sea on a small river, which is a branch of a much larger river that flows through this kingdom, coming down from the mountains. At certain times of the year, it has so much water, that it often bursts its banks and irrigates a lot of land, where large quantities of rice are sown and harvested, supplying the whole city. Meat and other provisions are also plentiful and loaded in its ports. There are very large three and fourmasted vessels there called junks, which sail to Malacca, Sumatra and many other places. A lot of white cane sugar in loaves is taken away from this kingdom of Pegu. Many Mouros ships come here each year bringing dyed Cambay cottons and silks, called patolas. They are intricately dyed and are worth a lot of money here; they also bring a lot of opium; copper; many scarlets; a lot of round coral necklaces and polished branch coral; vermillion; quicksilver; rose-waters and many other remedies from Cambay. They take on board a lot of very fine lac which is produced here; a lot of Chinese commodities brought here from Malacca, and with the money left over, they buy musk which comes from the interior, from a city called Ava, which I shall refer to later.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy