REPORTS OF CHINA a.d. 



c. 1565. 

 erst said, standeth a tower built upon 40. pillers, ech one 

 whereof is but one stone, ech one 40. handfuls or spans 

 long: in bredth or compasse 12, as many of us did 

 measure them. Besides this, their greatnesse is such in 

 one piece, that it might seeme impossible to worke them : 

 they be moreover cornered, and in colour, length and 

 breadth so like, that the one nothing differeth from the 

 other. This thing made us all to wonder very much. 



We are wont to cal this country China, and the people 

 Chineans, but as long as we were prisoners, not hearing 

 amongst them at any time that name, I determined to 

 learne how they were called : and asked sometimes by 

 them thereof, for that they understood us not when we 

 called them Chineans, I answered them, that al the in- 

 habitants of India named them Chineans, wherefore I 

 praied them that they would tel me, for what occasion 

 they are so called, whether peradventure any city of theirs 

 bare that name. Hereunto they alwayes answered me, 

 y 1 they have no such name, nor ever had. Then did I 

 aske them what name the whole Country beareth, & what 

 they would answere being asked of other nations what 

 countrymen they were ? It was told me that of ancient 

 time in this country had bin many kings, & though pre- 

 sently it were al under one, ech kingdom nevertheles 

 enjoyed that name it first had, these kingdomes are the 

 provinces I spake of before. In conclusion they said, 

 that the whole country is called Tamen, & the inhabi- Tamen the 

 tants Tamegines, so that this name China or Chineans, P^pemame 

 is not heard of in y l country. I thinke that the neer- ° J 

 nesse of another province therabout called Cochinchina, 

 & the inhabitants therof Cochinesses, first discovered 

 before China was, lying not far from Malacca, did give 

 occasion to ech of the nations, of that name Chineans, 

 as also the whole country to be named China. But their 

 proper name is that aforesaid. 



I have heard moreover that in the City of Nanquim [II. ii. j6.] 

 remaineth a table of gold, and in it written a kings name, 

 as a memory of that residence the kings were wont to 



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