Their third chiefe officer is a Iudge, his office is to take vp and to end matters in controuersie, to determine of warres and peace, that which he thinketh right, to punish rebels, wherein he may commaund the noble men to assist him vpon paine of forfeiting their goods:  neuerthelesse at all times he is not obeyed, for that many matters are ended rather by might and armes, then determined by law.  Other controuersies are decided either in the Temporall Court, as it seemeth good vnto the Princes, or in the Spirituall consistorie before the Tundi.

Rebelles are executed in this manner, especially if they be noble men or officers.  The king looke what day he giueth sentence against any one, the same day the partie, wheresoeuer he be, is aduertised thereof, and the day told him of his execution.  The condemned person asketh of the messenger whether it may bee lawful for him to kill himselfe:  the which thing when the king doeth graunt, the partie taking it for an honour, putteth on his best apparel and launcing his body a crosse from the breast downe all the belly, murthereth himselfe.  This kind of death they take to be without infamie, neither doe their children for their fathers crime so punished, loose their goods.  But if the king reserue them to be executed by the hangman, then flocketh he together his children, his seruants, and friends home to his house, to preserue his life by force.  The king committeth the fetching of him out vnto his chiefe Iudge, who first setteth vpon him with bow and arrowes, and afterward with pikes and swords, vntill the rebell and family be slaine to their perpetuall ignominie and shame.

The Indie-writers make mention of sundry great cities in this Iland, as Cangoxima a hauen towne in the South part thereof, and Meaco distant from thence three hundred leagues northward, the royall seat of the king and most wealthy of all other townes in that Iland.  The people thereabout are very noble, and their language the best Iaponish.  In Maco are sayd to be ninetie thousande houses inhabited and vpward, a famous Vniuersitie, and in it fiue principall Colleges, besides closes and cloysters of Bonzi, Leguixil, and Hamacata, that is, Priests, Monks and Nunnes.  Other fiue notable Vniuersities there be in Iapan, namely, Coia, Negru, Homi, Frenoi, and Bandu.  The first foure haue in them at the least three thousand and fiue hundred schollers:  in the fift are many mo.  For Bandu prouince is very great and possessed with sixe princes, fiue whereof are vassals vnto the sixt, yet he himselfe subiect vnto the Iaponish king, vsually called the great king of Meaco:  lesser scholes there be many in diuers places of this Ilande.  And thus much specially concerning this glorious Iland, among so many barbarous nations and rude regions, haue I gathered together in one summe, out of sundry letters written from thence into Europe, by no lesse faithfull reporters than famous trauellers. [Sidenote:  Petrus Maffeius de rebus Iaponicis.] For confirmation wherof, as also