a.d. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



c.1565. 



of them. These cities are as well walled as any Cities in 

 all the world. As you come in to either of them, there 

 standeth so great and mighty a bridge, that the like 

 thereof I have never seene in Portugal nor else where. 

 I heard one of my fellowes say, that hee tolde in one 

 bridge 40. arches. The occasion wherefore these bridges 

 are made so great is, for that the Countrey is toward the 

 sea very plaine and low, and overflowed ever as the sea 

 water encreaseth. The breadth of the bridges, although 

 it bee well proportioned unto the length thereof, yet are 

 they equally built, no higher in the middle then at either 

 ende, in such wise that you may see directly from the 

 one ende to the other : the sides are wonderfully well 

 engraved after the maner of Rome-workes. But that we 

 did most marveile at was therewithal! the hugenesse of 

 the stones, the like whereof, as we came in to the Citie, 

 we did see many set up in places dis-habited by the way, 

 to no small charges of theirs, howbeit to little purpose, 

 whereas no body seeth them but such as doe come by. 

 The arches are not made after our fashion, vauted with 

 sundry stones set together : but paved, as it were, whole 

 stones reaching from one piller to an other, in such wise 

 that they lye both for the arches heads, and galantly serve 

 also for the high way. I have bene astonied to beholde 

 the hugenesse of the aforesaid stones : some of them are 

 xii. pases long and upward, the least 1 1 . good pases long, 

 and an halfe. 



The wayes echwhere are galantly paved with four- 

 square stone, except it be where for want of stone they 

 use to lay bricke : in this voyage wee travailed over 

 certaine hilles, where the wayes were pitched, and in 

 many places no worse paved then in the plaine ground. 

 This causeth us to thinke, that in all the world there bee 

 no better workemen for buildings, then the inhabitants 

 of China. The Countrey is so well inhabited, that no 

 one foote of ground is left untilled : small store of cattell 

 have we seene this day, we saw onely certaine oxen 

 wherewithall the countreymen do plow their ground. 



298 



