A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 9 | Page 9

which resembled our
lute, being bellied like it, but longer in the neck, and fretted like ours,
but had only four gut strings. They fingered with their left hands, as is
done with us, and very nimbly; but they struck the strings with a piece
of ivory held in the right hand, as we are in use to play with a quill on
the citern. They seemed to delight much in their music, beating time
with their hands, and both playing and singing by book, prickt on lines
and spaces much like our own. I feasted them, and gave them several
English commodities, and after two hours stay, they returned on shore.
At this interview I requested the king to let us have a house in the town,
which he readily granted, taking two of my merchants ashore with him,
to whom he pointed out three or four houses, desiring them to make
their choice, paying the owners as we could agree.
On the 13th I went ashore, attended by the merchants and principal
officers, and delivered our presents to the king, to the value of about
£140, which he received with great satisfaction, feasting me and my
whole company with several kinds of powdered wild-fowl and fruits.
He called for a standing cup, which was one of the presents, and
ordering it to be filled with their country wine, which is distilled from
rice, and as strong as brandy, he told me he would drink it all off to the
health of the king of England, which he did, though it held about a pint
and a half, in which he was followed by myself and all his nobles. As
only myself and the Cape merchant sat in the same room with the king,
all the rest of my company being in another room, he commanded his
secretary to go and see that they all pledged the health. The king and
his nobles sat at meat cross-legged, on mats, after the fashion of the
Turks, the mats being richly edged with cloths of gold, velvet, sattin, or
damask. The 14th and 15th were spent in giving presents; and on the
16th I agreed with Audassee, captain of the Chinese quarter, for his
house, paying ninety-five dollars for the monsoon of six months; he to
put it into repair, and to furnish all the rooms conveniently with mats,
according to the fashion of the country, and we to keep it in repair, with
leave to alter as we thought fit.
This day our ship was so pestered with numbers of people coming on
board, that I had to send to the king for a guardian to clear them out,
many things being stolen, though I more suspected my own people than

the natives. There came this day a Dutchman in one of the country
boats, who had been at the island of Mashma, where he sold good store
of pepper, broad-cloth, and elephants teeth, though he would not
acknowledge to us that he had sold any thing, or brought any thing
back with him in the boat; but the Japanese boatmen told us he had sold
a great quantity of goods at a mart in that place, and had brought his
returns in bars of silver, which he kept very secret.
The 21st the old king came aboard again, bringing with him several
women to make a frolic. These women were actors of comedies, who
go about from island to island, and from town, to town, to act plays,
which are mostly about love and war, and have several shifts of apparel
for the better grace of their interludes. These women were the slaves of
a man who fixes a price that every man must pay who has to do with
them. He must not take a higher price than that affixed, on pain of
death, if complained against. At the first, he is allowed to fix upon each
woman what price he pleases, which price he can never afterwards
raise, but may lower it as he likes; neither doth the party bargain with
the women for their favours, but with the master. Even the highest of
the Japanese nobility, when travelling, hold it no disgrace to send for
these panders to their inn, and bargain with them for their girls, either
to fill out their drink for them at table, as is the custom with all men of
rank, or for other uses. When any of these panders die, although in their
life they were received into the best company, they are now held
unworthy to rest among the worst. A straw rope is put round their neck,
and they are dragged through the streets into the fields, and cast on a
dung-hill to be devoured by dogs and fowls.