they used extraordinary state, one remaining on board till the other was landed, their children and chief followers using the like ceremony.  There came continually such numbers of people on board, both men and women, that we were not able to go about the decks.  The ship likewise was quite surrounded by boats full of people, greatly admiring her head and stern.  I permitted several women of the better sort to come into my cabin, where the picture of Venus and Cupid was hung, rather wantonly executed.  Some of these ladies, thinking it to be Our Lady and her blessed Son, fell down to worship with appearance of much devotion, whispering our men, so that their companions might not hear, that they were Christians, having been converted by the Portuguese jesuits.

The king came aboard again, bringing four principal women along with him, who were attired in silken gowns, overlapped in front, and girt round them.  Their legs were bare, except that they had half buskins bound about their insteps with silk ribbon.  Their hair was very black and long, tied up in a knot on the crown, in a very comely manner, no part of their heads being shaven, like the men.  They had comely faces, hands, and feet, with clear white complexions, but wanting colour, which they supplied by art.  Their stature was low, but they were very fat, and their behaviour was very courteous, and not ignorant of the respect due according to their fashions.  The king requested that no person might remain in the cabin except myself and my linguist, who was a native of Japan, brought along with me from Bantam.  He was well skilled in the Malay language, in which he explained to me what was said by the king, in Japanese.  The women were at first somewhat bashful, but the king desired them to be frolicsome.  They sung several songs, and played on certain instruments, one of which resembled our lute, being bellied like it, but longer in the neck, and fretted like ours, but had only four gut strings.  They fingered with their left hands, as is done with us, and very nimbly; but they struck the strings with a piece of ivory held in the right hand, as we are in use to play with a quill on the citern.  They seemed to delight much in their music, beating time with their hands, and both playing and singing by book, prickt on lines and spaces much like our own.  I feasted them, and gave them several English commodities, and after two hours stay, they returned on shore.  At this interview I requested the king to let us have a house in the town, which he readily granted, taking two of my merchants ashore with him, to whom he pointed out three or four houses, desiring them to make their choice, paying the owners as we could agree.