A.D. 

 1590. 



Fifteene great 

 provinces in 

 China. 



The seats 

 roiall of the 

 king of China. 

 [II. ii. 89.] 



The warlike 

 munitions of 

 China, iff a 

 marveilous 

 wall. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



of his duties: yea, tributes are imposed upon his subjects, 

 not onely for lands, houses, and impost of marchandise, 

 but also for every person in each family. It is likewise 

 to be understood, that almost no lord or potentate in 

 China hath authoritie to levie unto himselfe any peculiar 

 revenues, or to collect any rents within the precincts of 

 his seigniories, al such power belonging onely unto the 

 king : whereas in Europe the contrary is most commonly 

 seen, as we have before signified. In this most large 

 kingdom are conteined 15 provinces, every one of which 

 were in it selfe sufficient to be made one great kingdom. 

 Six of these provinces do border upon the sea, namely 

 (y l I may use the names of the Chinians themselves) 

 Coantum, Foquien, Chequiam, Nanquin, Xantum, 

 Paquin : the other 9 be in-land provinces, namely, 

 Quiansi, Huquam, Honan, Xiensi, Xansi, Suchuon, 

 Queicheu, Junan, Coansi. Amongst all the foresayd 

 provinces, two are allotted for the kings court and seat 

 roial, that is to say, Paquin for his court in the North, 

 and Nanquin for his court in the South. For the kings 

 of China were woont to be resident altogether at the 

 South court : but afterward, by reason of the manifold 

 and cruell warres mooved by the Tartars, they were con- 

 strained to defixe their princely seate and habitation in 

 that extreme province of the North. Whereupon it 

 commeth to passe, that those Northren confines of the 

 kingdom doe abound with many moe fortresses, martiall 

 engines, and garrisons of souldiers. 



Leo. I have heard, amongst those munitions, a 

 certaine strange and admirable wall reported of, where- 

 with the people of China doe represse and drive backe 

 the Tartars attempting to invade their territories. 



Michael. Certes that wall which you have heard tell 

 of is most woorthie of admiration ; for it runneth alongst 

 the borders of three Northerlie provinces, Xiensi, Xansi, 

 and Paquin, and is sayd to containe almost three hundred 

 leagues in length, and in such sort to bee built, that it 

 hindereth not the courses and streames of any rivers, 



35° 



