at certaine appointed times, do keepe most circumspect
and continuall watch and ward about his person.
Linus. You haue (Michael) sufficiently discoursed
of the Magistrates: informe vs now of the king
himselfe, whose name is so renowmed and spread abroad.
[Sidenote: The king of China.] Michael.
Concerning this matter I will say so much onely as
by certaine rumours hath come to my knowledge; for
of matters appertaining vnto the kings Court we haue
no eye-witnesses, sithens the fathers of the society
haue not as yet proceeded vnto Paquin, who so soone
as (by Gods assistance) they shall there be arriued,
will by their letters more fully aduertise vs. [Sidenote:
Van-Sui.] The king of China therefore is honoured with
woonderfull reuerence and submission thorowout his
whole realme; and whensoeuer any of his chiefe Magistrates
speaketh vnto him, he calleth him van-SVI, signifying
thereby that be wisheth tenne thousands of yeeres vnto
him. [Sidenote: The succession of the crowne.]
The succession of the kingdome dependeth vpon the
bloud royall: for the eldest sonne borne of the
kings first and lawfull wife obtaineth the kingdome
after his fathers decease: neither doe they depriue
themselues of the kingly authority in their life time
(as the maner is in our Ilands of Iapon) but the custome
of Europe is there obserued. [Sidenote: The kings
yonger brethren.] Now, that the safety and life of
the king may stand in more security, his yoonger brethren,
and the rest borne of concubines are not permitted
to liue in the kings Court: but places of habitation
are by the king himselfe assigned vnto them in diuers
prouinces farre distant asunder, where they dwell most
commodiously, being comparable vnto kings for their
buildings and revenues: howbeit they exercise
no authority ouer the people, but all the gouernment
of those cities wherein they dwell concerneth the
Magistrates, who notwithstanding haue the sayde Princes
in high regard and honour, and doe visit them twise
in a moneth, and salute them kneeling vpon their knees,
and bowing their faces downe to the earth: and
yet they communicate nothing vnto them as touching
the administration of the Common-wealth. These
are they which may properly be called the Peeres or
Princes of the Realme of China: for they deriue
their houses and reuenues vnto their posterity, and
so are these royall families continually preserued.
But to returne vnto the king himselfe, hee is most
chary in obseruing the Chinian lawes and customes,
and diligently exerciseth himselfe in learning so much
as concernes his estate, sheweth himselfe dayly vnto
his chiefe Magistrates, and communeth of matters appertaining
to the publique commodity of the Realme. [Sidenote:
Twelue chariots.] His palace is of woonderfull largenesse
and capacity, out of the which he very seldome takes
his progresse; and whensoeuer he doeth so, there are
twelue chariots brought foorth, all of them most like
one to another both in workemanship and in value,


