REPORTS OF CHINA ad. 



c. 1565. 

 alwayes full of people, we never saw any poore body 

 begge. We therefore asked the cause of this : answered He speaketh 

 it was, that in every City there is a great circuit, wherein ^ot here tf all 

 be many houses for poore people, for blinde, lame, old ^q^ f or 

 folke, not able to travaile for age, nor having any other \ n other places 

 meanes to live. These folke have in the aforesaid houses there be beg- 

 ever plentie of rice during their lives, but nothing else. g ers > as y ou 

 Such as be received into these houses, come in after this ave s * ene 

 maner. When one is sicke, blinde or lame, he maketh a swarming out 

 supplication to the Ponchiassi, and proving that to be of trees. 

 true he writeth, he remaineth in the aforesaid great 

 lodging as long as he liveth : besides this they keepe 

 in these places swine and hennes, whereby the poore be 

 relieved without going a begging. 



I said before that China was full of rivers, but now 

 I minde to confirme the same anew : for the farther we 

 went into the Countrey, the greater we found the rivers. 

 Sometimes we were so farre off from the sea, that where 

 we came no sea fish had bene seene, and salt was there 

 very deare, of fresh water fish yet was there great abund- 

 ance, and that fish very good : they keep it good after 

 this maner. Where the rivers do meete, and so passe 

 into the sea, there lieth great store of boats, specially 

 where no salt-water commeth, and that in March and 

 April. These boates are so many that it seemeth won- 

 derfull, ne serve they for other then to take small fish. 

 By the rivers sides they make leyres of fine and strong 

 nettes, that lye three handfuls under water, and one above 

 to keepe and nourish their fish in, untill such time as 

 other fishers do come with boates, bringing for that 

 purpose certaine great chests lined with paper, able to 

 holde water, wherein they cary their fish up and downe 

 the river, every day renuing the chest with fresh water, 

 and selling their fish in every City, towne and village 

 where they passe, unto the people as they neede it : most 

 of them have net leyres to keepe fish in alwayes for their 

 provision. Where the greater boates cannot passe any 

 further forward, they take lesser, and because the whole 



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