— 134 — 



Shortly afterwards the Franks also sent envoys to the court in order 

 to bring tribute and ask for investiture. When they arrived at Canton the 

 Governor emprisoned the envoys, as their country had not been reckoned 

 before among the tributary kingdoms, and asked orders from the Govern- 

 ment. The Emperor ordered to give them the price of the goods they had 

 brought and to send them away ( 1 ). 



Among the goods which Malacca was accustomed to bring as tribute , 

 the following were the principal articles: agate, pearls, tortoise-shell , coral- 

 trees, crane-crests, quilts made of feathers ( 2 ), white pi-cloth ( 3 ), western-cloth, 

 sa-ha-la ( 4 ) , rhinoceros-horns , ivory , black bears , black monkeys , babi- 

 rusah's, cassowaries, parrots, camphor-baros , rose-oil, fragrant balin, chi- 

 tseh nowers ( 5 ) , terra japonica, lignum aloes, benzoïn, assa-foetida and 

 such more. 



There is a mountain from which a brook runs down; the natives 

 wash its sand in order to obtain tin, which is melted by them and cast 

 into little blocks; a workman may collect one of these blocks in one day. 



The soil is poor and rice is not abundant; the people chiefly occupy 

 themselves with washing tin and fishing. The weather is warm during 

 daytime and cool at night. 



Men and women wear their hair in a knot; their body is verydark, 

 but some are of a lighter colour, being descendants of Chinese. 



Their customs are good and their way of trading is pretty fair, but 

 since the Franks have taken the country, things have become worse and 

 merchant-vessels seldom go there any more, mostly proceeding directly to 

 Sumatra ; when however ships have to go near this country , they are gener- 

 ally plundered , so that the passage there is nearly closed. 



Those of the Franks who come themselves to China for trading pur- 

 poses , go directly to Macao , in the district Hsiang-shan , province of Canton , 

 where some of them are always found. 



(*) We have here a striking example of the way in which Chinese ascendency in these parts 

 was destroyed by the arrival of the Europeans, and of the reasons which caused the latter to be 

 received with bad grace by the Chinese, from the first time they made their appearance. 



o ^ «. 



( B ) t)I§ 7* 'TE according to Williams, Syllabic Dictionary, p. 55, the Gardenia flori- 

 bunda, used to dye yellow 



