is in all parts thereof interfused with commodious riuers, and in many places consisteth of waters, barges and boats being euery-where very common, it might easily bee supposed, that the number of watermen was equal vnto the land inhabitants.  Howbeit, that is to be vnderstood by amplification, whereas the cities do swarme so ful with citizens and the countrie with peasants. [Sidenote:  Holesome aire, plenty and peace in China.] Leo.  The abundance of people which you tell vs of seemeth very strange:  whereupon I coniecture the soile to be fertile, the aire to be holesome, and the whole kingdom to be at peace.  Michael.  You haue (friend Leo) ful iudicially coniectured those three:  for they do all so excel that which of the three in this kingdom be more excellent, it is not easie to discerne.  And hence it is that this common opinion hath been rife among the Portugals, namely, that the kingdom of China was neuer visited with those three most heauy and sharpe scourges of mankind, warre, famine, and pestilence.  But that opinion is more common then true:  sithens there haue bene most terrible intestine and ciuile warres, as in many and most autenticall histories it is recorded:  sithens also that some prouinces of the sayd kingdom, euen in these our dayes, haue bene afflicted with pestilence and contagious diseases, and with famine. [Sidenote:  Chinian stories.] Howbeit, that the foresaid three benefits do mightily flourish and abound in China, it cannot be denied.  For (that I may first speake of the salubritie of the aire) the fathers of the societie themselues are witnesses; that scarcely in any other realme there are so many found that liue vnto decrepite and extreme old age:  so great a multitude is there of ancient and graue personages:  neither doe they vse so many confections and medicines, nor so manifold and sundry wayes of curing diseases, as wee saw accustomed in Europe.  For amongst them they haue no Phlebotomie or letting of blood:  but all their cures, as ours also in Iapon, are atchieued by fasting, decoctions of herbes, and light or gentle potions.  But in this behalfe let euery nation please themselues with their owne customes.  Now, in fruitfulnes of soile this kingdom certes doth excel, far surpassing all other kingdoms of the East:  yet it is nothing comparable vnto the plentie and abundance of Europe, as I haue declared at large in the former treatises.  But the kingdom of China is, in this regard, so highly extolled, because there is not any region in the East partes that aboundeth so with marchandise, and from whence so much traffique is sent abroad. [Sidenote:  The city of Coanchefu, alias Cantam.] For whereas this kingdome is most large and full of nauigable riuers, so that commodities may easilie be conueyed out of one prouince into another:  the Portugals doe find such abundance of wares within one and the same Citie, (which perhaps is the greatest Mart throughout the whole kingdome) that they are verily