Mr William Pauling, our master’s mate, who had been long ill of a consumption, died at the English house upon the 27th of September, of which circumstance I apprised the king, requesting permission to bury him among the Christians, which was granted.  We accordingly put the body in a winding-sheet, and coffined it up, waiting to carry it to the grave next morning.  Our master, and several others of the ship’s company, came ashore in the morning to attend the funeral, when we were given to understand that the body must be transported by water as far as the Dutch house, because the bonzes, or priests, would not suffer us to pass with the corpse through the street before their pagoda, or idol temple.  Accordingly the master sent for the skiff, in which the coffin was transported by water to the place appointed, while we went there by land, and carried it thence to the burial-place; the purser walking before, and all the rest following after the coffin, which was covered by a Holland sheet, above which was a silk quilt.  We were attended by a vast number of the natives, both young and old, curious to see our manner of burial.  After the corpse was interred, we all returned to the factory, where we had a collation, and then our people returned to the ship.  I had almost forgotten to remark, that we had much ado to get any native to dig the grave in which a Christian was to be buried, neither would they permit the body to be conveyed by water in any of their boats.

At this time the king commanded that all the streets in Firando should be cleaned, and that gutters should be made on each side to convey the water from them, all the streets to be new gravelled, and the water-channels to be covered with flat stones.  This work was all done in one day, every one performing so much of it as was in front of his own house, and it was admirable to see the diligence every person used on this occasion.  Our house was not the last in having this task performed, as our landlord, the Chinese captain, set a sufficient number of men to do the work.

The 30th, some other merchants of Miaco came to look at our commodities, who offered twelve tayes the fathom for our best stammel, or red cloth; but they went away without making any bargain.  At this time we had very heavy winds, both by day and night, so that we were in fear of another tuffoon, on which account all the fishers hauled their boats ashore, and every one endeavoured to secure the roofings of their houses.  A week before this, a bose, bonze or conjurer, had predicted to the king that this tempest was to come.  About this time our surgeon, being in his cups, came into a house where a bose was conjuring for a woman who wanted to know if her husband or friends would return from sea.  So when the bose was done, the surgeon gave him three-pence to conjure again, and to tell him when our general would return to Firando.  In the end, the bose told him that the general would return within eighteen days, pretending that he heard a voice answer from behind a wall, both when he conjured for the woman, and now when he conjured for the surgeon.