The province of Zapage is opposite to China, and distant from thence a month’s sail or less, if the wind be fair.  The king of this country is styled Mehrage, and his dominions are said to be 900 leagues in circumference, besides which, he commands over many islands which lie around; so that, altogether, this kingdom is above 1000 leagues in extent.  One of these islands is called Serbeza, which is said to be 400 leagues in compass; another is called Rhami, which is 800 leagues round, and produces red-wood, camphor, and many other commodities.  In the same kingdom is the island of Cala, which is the mid passage between China and the country of the Arabs.  This island is 80 leagues in circumference, and to it they bring all sorts of merchandize, as aloes wood of several kinds, camphor, sandal wood, ivory, the wood called cabahi, ebony, red-wood, all sorts of spice, and many others; and at present the trade is carried on between this island and that of Oman.  The Mehrage is sovereign over all these islands; and that of Zapage, in which he resides, is extremely fertile, and so populous, that the towns almost touch each other, no part of the land being uncultivated.  The palace of the king or Mehrage, stands on a river as broad as the Tigris at Bagdat or Bassora; but the sea intercepts its course, and drives its waters back with the tide; yet during the ebb the fresh water flows out a good way into the sea.  The river water is let into a small pond, close to the king’s palace, and every morning the master of the household brings an ingot of gold, wrought in a particular manner, and throws it into the pond, in presence of the king.  When the king dies, his successor causes all these ingots, which have been accumulating during the reign of his predecessor, to be taken out; and the sums arising from this great quantity of gold are distributed among the royal household, in certain proportions, according to their respective ranks, and the surplus is given to the poor.

Komar is the country whence the aloes wood, which we call Hud al Komari, is brought; and it is a very populous kingdom, of which the inhabitants are very courageous.  In this country, the boundless commerce with women is forbidden, and indeed it has no wine.  The kingdoms of Zapage and Komar are about ten or twenty days easy sail from each other, and the kingdoms were in peace with other when the following event is said, in their ancient histories, to have occurred.  The young and high-spirited king of Komar was one day in his palace, which looks upon a river much like the Euphrates, at the entrance, and is only a day’s journey from the sea.  One day, in a discourse with his prime minister, the conversation turned upon the glory and population of the kingdom of the Mehrage, and the multitude of its dependent islands, when the king of Komar expressed a wish to see the head of the Mehrage of Zapage on a dish before him.  The minister endeavoured to dissuade him from so unjust