A.D. 



1588. 



The state of 

 Java. 



Raja Bolam- 

 boam. 



The wives kill 

 themselves 

 after their 

 husbands 

 deaths. 



A strange 

 order. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



allowance of our Queene, and that there was warre 

 betweene Spaine and England, and that we were come 

 under the King of Portugall into the South sea, and had 

 warred upon the Spaniards there, and had fired, spoiled 

 and sunke all the ships along the coast that we could 

 meete withall, to the number of eighteene or twentie 

 sailes. With this report they were sufficiently satisfied. 



On the other side they declared unto us the state of 

 the yland of Java. First the plentifulnes and great 

 choise and store of victuals of all sorts, & of all maner of 

 fruits as before is set downe : Then the great and rich 

 marchandize which are there to be had. Then they 

 described the properties and nature of the people as 

 foUoweth. The name of the King of that part of the 

 yland was Raja Bolamboam, who was a man had in great 

 majestie and feare among them. The common people 

 may not bargaine, sell, or exchange any thing with any 

 other nation without speciall licence from their king: and 

 if any so doe, it is present death for him. The King 

 himselfe is a man of great yeeres, and hath an hundred 

 wives, his sonne hath fiftie. The custome of the countrey 

 is, that whensoever the king doeth die, they take the 

 body so dead and burne it and preserve the ashes of him, 

 and within five dayes next after, the wives of the said 

 king so dead, according to the custome and use of their 

 countrey, every one of them goe together to a place 

 appointed, and the chiefe of the women, which was 

 neerest unto him in accompt, hath a ball in her hand, and 

 throweth it from her, and to the place where the ball 

 resteth, thither they goe all, and turne their faces to the 

 Eastward, and every one with a dagger in their hand, 

 (which dagger they call a Crise, and is as sharpe as a rasor) 

 stab themselves to the heart, and with their hands all to 

 bee-bath themselves in their owne blood, and falling 

 grovelling on their faces so ende their dayes. This thing 

 is as true as it seemeth to any hearer to be strange. 



The men of themselves be very politique and subtile, 

 and singularly valiant, being naked men, in any action 



340 



