to quality. The smelting usually lasts the greater part of a week; the furnace roaring night and day the whole time. The quantity of ashes annually disposed of in this way is now very large; but we can, of course, only offer an approximation to the amount. Edinburgh and its neighborhood produce about sixty tons a month, or from 700 to 800 tons a year. Taking Scotland at four times that quantity, we have about 3000 tons per annum. London we calculate to produce nearly double that amount, but, from some cause or other, the trade there seems to have fallen into disrepute; and, generally speaking, the large foundries prefer washing and smelting their own ashes; and in this way we have been told that one or two of the largest of them can keep two smelters constantly at work for their own refuse. The grand seat of the trade, however, is at this moment in Birmingham, where, we have good authority for stating, two thirds of the whole brass of this description made in England is produced; and that the average quantity of ashes sold there to smelters amounts as nearly as possible to 10,000 tons in the year: altogether, we feel quite safe in assuming 30,000 tons of brassfounders' ashes, at an aggregate value of 15,000l. to 18,000l., to be a pretty correct approximation to the produce of the country in this one item of the dirt-washing trade. Ten years ago, this "refuse" was not simply an article of no value: it cost the brassfounders both money and trouble to get rid of it. There is a much greater difficulty in estimating the amount of ingot brass annually disposed of in the country; but we may state from what we do know, that a metal refiner in a very moderate way, employing, we shall say, three or four men, and conducting his business efficiently, will, as an ordinary result, produce brass to the value of 1500l. or 20007. in the course of a year. value of the metal produced from the ashes with which it is mixed and smelted, as we have already explained. The "skimmings" from crucibles, or oxide formed on the surface of the brass; shopsweepings, which contain brass-dust; coppersmiths' ashes, filings, and refuse, with other articles of a similar nature purchased by smelters, belong to this department. The next chief division of the trade consists in refining what are generally termed "plumbers' ashes, or that gray, heavy-looking dross invariably formed on the surface of lead when melted. From the easily reducible nature of lead-ashes, they have always commanded a fair marketable value; although, so far as plumbers are concerned, their price has been nearly doubled within the last ten years, by the competition among smelters. The cause of the formation of this refuse is very easily explained. Lead is one of that class of metals possessing a strong affinity for oxygen, more especially at a high temperature; and, conse quently, whenever the heated surface of melted lead is exposed to the atmosphere, it becomes rapidly oxidized, and, according to the degree of heat employed, yields the protoxide from which is produced the litharge of commerce; and in combination with the sesquioxide, the well-known pigment of red lead. Under no circumstances, however, do plumbers require such high degrees of temperature; and the lead-ashes or dross they produce are only partially oxidized-consisting, in fact, of the protoxide with a moderate admixture of the pure metal. This dross is separated from the surface of the melted lead, and laid aside for the smelters, who purchase it at an average rate of 67. per ton. It is by them washed and smelted in a nearly similar manner to that already described, the only difference in the treatment being a second operation of As if to preserve the character of this trade in refining. It is, after being washed, thrown into its most curious feature, the smelters have, in their the furnace in the usual way by the charging-doorturn, a waste product, technically named "slag," substituting, if necessary, for the last-named flux a which consists of the finer portions of the ashes moderate quantity of slaked lime; and, after being separated in the last part of the washing process, reduced by the heat, is "tapped” out of the furnace together with the irreducible matter taken from the-that is, allowed to discharge from a small apersurface of the melted metal while in the furnace. This commodity, from its siliceous composition, is considered valuable as a flux to the copper ore in the second process of smelting, and also from the minute portions of copper it still contains. Large quantities of this slag, therefore, are annually shipped from the principal ports of the kingdom to Swansea, where it is usually consigned to copperore agents, and sold after the fashion of copper-ores by public ticketing, realizing generally from 17. to 21. per ton. It will easily be conceived, from the extensive ramifications of the trade, that a particle of Newcastle coke, which has passed through the furnace of a London or Edinburgh founder, may ultimately find itself, after innumerable washings and smeltings, roasted to powder in the huge copper-ore furnaces of South Wales! ture at the bottom of the well, after the manner of melted iron-in a large iron pot, where the neces sary heat is still preserved to keep it melted. There it is treated with resinous or fatty matters in a state of combustion, which has the effect of burning out many occasional impurities, such as zinc or tin, that may have resisted the heat of the furnace; but more especially it exercises a certain influence in softening the lead; from this pot it is finally cast into large iron-bar moulds, and allowed to cool. are Much skill and ingenuity of treatment required in the smelting and refining of lead-ashes, and in consequence there exist endless varieties and modes of manipulation among different smelters. The grand desideratum is soft lead, as softness in this case is equivalent to value, hard lead being Brassfounders' borings, filings, and turnings, a most unsalable commodity; and when the many under the general term of "brass-dust," form a impurities lead may contain is considered, it will heavy and costly item in the smelting trade. Its be seen that this property is by no means of easy average price is about 257. per ton, and its produce attainment. We have, however, seen different of metal from two thirds to three fourths. This, however, is not invariably sold by brassfounders, many of whom prefer melting their brass-dust into ingots themselves; and it is to be remarked, that all smelters acknowledge that this article yields no profit in itself, although it serves to enhance the specimens of bar-lead produced in this manner, in no way inferior, in point of quality, to the best English bars in the market. Its commercial value is from 20s. to 30s. per ton below the price of new pig-lead. We have more tangible grounds for arriving at the quantity of this article produced in the country | have known to result from a large melting of typethan in the preceding case. Taking for the basis metal. of our calculation the latest computation of the Regarding the produce of this dross we can annual quantity of pig-lead smelted in the country hardly offer a definite idea, the percentage of at 50,000 tons; assuming it to be in the process of metal obtained is so very variable both in its quantity manufacture twice melted before it is finally dis- and quality. Even the best description of smelted posed of; and placing the exports against the im-type-metal is altogether unsuited to the purpose of ports, together with the very large quantity of old casting types, and is for the most part used for lead constantly in the market, we arrive at a sum quadrats and spaces-that is, the small slips of of 4000 tons of lead-ashes-value about 25,000l. metal necessary to bind a column or page of type sterling-as the annual produce of the kingdom. together, and which may be composed of an indifWe believe this to be nearly a correct estimate at ferent alloy. Its market-price varies from 147. to the present moment; although, since the extensive 207. per ton, though in some cases, if the quality introduction of rolled-lead in the plumbing trade, be very superior, it will realize more. (almost superseding the old method of casting sheet-lead.) we have no doubt the aggregate produce of lead-ashes will have considerably decreased. Twenty years ago we should think the amount then produced exceeded the quantity we have named by at least one half. The greater portion of leadashes is refined at Newcastle, where several eminent houses have their works. Indeed, as a general rule, all lead manufacturers refine their own ashes, and therefore the smelters have only comparatively a small share of this article. One individual in London, however, refines from 400 to 500 tons in the year; but we are not aware of any other who does business to the same extent. The proportion of pure metal obtained from lead-ashes varies from 40 to 60 per cent. Messrs. Campbell, of Edinburgh, to whom we are indebted for much information on the subject, estimate the percentage of their ashes, which they produce in large quantities at their lead works in Leith, at even a higher rate than this. It is surprising how closely this approximates to the produce of the sulphuret of lead or the galena of the mineralogists, (by far the most ordinary description of lead-ore smelted in this country,) which is computed to yield on the average about 80 per cent. of pure metal. The dross obtained from Spanish lead in this way is particularly rich in its produce. In connection with the lead trade are also several other commodities disposed of to smelters-such as tin-ashes, solder-ashes, zinc-ashes, &c., all of which are neither more nor less than oxides of their different metals, produced in the same way, and are treated in a precisely similar manner to that of the lead-ashes. The last notice on our list is that in connection with the dockyards, or, more properly speaking, that department of shipbuilding which comprehends the copper-fastening of new, or the re-coppering of old vessels. In the course of this operation, and more especially in a repair of this latter description, old copper nails, stray pieces of bolt and sheet copper, with other parings of a similar nature, are lost among the chips, or in the bottom of the dock. These chips are sold at an almost nominal price, as rubbish, to the smelters, who cart them away often in large quantities, burn the chips out, then wash and smelt the remainder, if necessary, in the ordinary manner. This is considered to be the most profitable branch in the smelting trade, (it is undoubtedly the least scientific,) but of course is only peculiar to large seaport towns where shipbuilding flourishes. The government dockyards furnish also different descriptions of refuse from the various trades they may comprehend, as brass and copper-founders, and such like. Throughout the whole process we have attempted to describe, it will be observed there exists a close analogy with the smelting of ores, whether regarded in its mode of treatment or in its produce. Indeed, from their striking similarity, and difference only in degree, we think dirt-washing fairly entitled to be considered as a legitimate, although inferior, branch of the smelting business of the country. We wish to make a single observation with regard to the trade in a social point of view. The smelters are considered at this moment by the parties they deal with-such as brass founders-as a class of persons essentially disreputable. In LonThe next department we notice, although not don and the provincial towns of England, they are large, is by no means unimportant; it consists of invariably styled and known by the term of "dirtrefining typefounders' dross, or the oxide formed washers;" and in Scotland they are generally on the surface of the type-metal, in the same man- associated in idea with dealers in old metal quesner as on lead. This is decidedly the hardest part tionably obtained. One rather eminent founding of the smelting trade; and to refine the dross house in Edinburgh habitually prevents any comproperly, a smelter of first-class capability is munication between the sellers and buyers, by required. It is not only difficult to wash, but it is shovelling their ashes, to the extent perhaps of difficult to smelt, without losing the most valuable twenty tons, through a hole in their back-door; component of the alloy-namely, the antimony. and the reason assigned for this extraordinary mode The process, besides, is injurious to the workmen. of procedure, was the discovery they once made of The antimony (in combination with lead, consti- an attempt at bribing their casters to put metal in tuting type-metal) is volatilized to a certain extent the ashes. As an invariable rule, the smelters are by the intense heat to which it is subjected; and required to pay cash for the stuff, and this very whenever the furnace-doors are taken off, or, more often in advance for a year. Such treatment, it especially in the second process of refining, it seems obvious, can result only from the ignorance escapes in a state of impalpable oxide, impregnating and bad reputation of the men who originated the the atmosphere with that peculiar antimonious acid trade; but we have reason to know that it has now which forms the basis of the well-known and to a great extent passed into quite different hands. exceedingly powerful tartar-emetic. Severe vomiting, and even spitting of blood, followed by a protracted debility of the organs of the chest, we Not one in a dozen of the trade as it exists at present were regularly bred to it; and most of the master-smelters we know were led into it by the extravagant misrepresentations they had received of | latitudes as Spain and Italy, but come within the its profits. The mysteries of dirt-washing, how- limits infested by the violent and dangerous hurriever, are now at an end; and its professors may canes of the China Sea. The land is mountainous, henceforward lay aside the cunning pretexts on abounds in volcanoes, and is very subject to earthwhich some of them purchase their materials. It quakes. "In these Isles," (says the same writer is now pretty widely understood, we believe, that whom we have just quoted,)" the sommer is very metallic ashes are not rubbish any more than rags; hote and burnynge, and the winter extreme coulde. while, on the other hand, those who sell such Yet is the climate temperate and healthie, not much refuse must be convinced that they receive a fair pestred with infectious or obnoxious ayres; but price for their commodity. very subject to fierce windes, tempestuous stormes, and terrible earthquakes, insomuch that both ships in the harbor have been oversete, and driven ashore by the furie of the one, and houses on the land disjoynted and shaken to pieces by the fearful trembling of the other." Let us add, however, that we wish to throw no stigma upon the dirt-washers as a body. We know many honest, upright, and by no means unintelligent persons who follow the trade-who possess a practical knowledge of the nature and relations of metals far exceeding that of the artificers from whom they purchase who have enjoyed some curious experiences, moreover, in human nature in the course of their singular dealings-and who, it may be supposed, feel not a little sore at their very existence being so contemptuously ignored. On the whole we shall not be sorry if our little exposé of the principles of metal-refining should have the effect of freeing the trade from whatever is occult and mysterious in its character, and raising it to a respectable, as it now seems to be an indispensable, branch of the national industry. Many of the low valleys are eminently fertile, and those fertile portions of the country are very populous. Of the total population of the empire, however, no account has ever been rendered by any European writer, although a yearly census appears to be taken by the government. If as denselypeopled as China, it ought to amount to 37,000,000. As, however, the civil polity of Japan, and the industry and ingenuity arising from it, are greatly below those of China, while the fertility of its territory is much inferior, so large a number is not likely; and perhaps if we take the average density of its population at 150 to the square mile, which would give a population of 24,000,000, we shall Memorials of the Empire of Japan. Edited, with in some of the cities appears to be very great. Our be nearer the mark. The population accumulated Notes, by THOMAS RUNDALL. Hakluyt Society. From the Examiner. Printed for the THIS is one of the most valuable publications of the Hakluyt Society. It contains an account of all that is accurately known of one of the greatest, and altogether the most singular empire that has ever existed. Although the people of Japan form a large portion of the population of the globe, in so far as concerns intercourse with the rest of mankind, they are little more than if they were the inhabitants of another planet. Two nations only, the Dutch and the Chinese, are permitted a limited access to their shores; and for themselves to quit them is by law a capital offence. This isolation has now been persevered in for two whole centuries. For any authentic information respecting Japan we have to refer to ancient writers, the best of whom is a century and a half old, which is pretty nearly the same thing as if we were obliged to draw our knowledge of India from Jao de Barros, or of the Philippines from Pigafetta. The present volume consists of a description of Japan from the Harleian MSS., as old as the time of Elizabeth, most graphic and faithful; six letters of William Adams, a most original character; and a judicious preface, appendix, and annotations by the editor. early writers give that of two or three of them as being equal to that of the London of the reign of James I; and Kaempfer, in 1690, gave the actual census of Miaco, the ecclesiastical capital, at 529,726, of which 52,169 were priests, being nearly ten in a hundred of the whole-a proportion of sturdy beggars, for they live on charity, which would certainly not be found among the more civilized and industrious Chinese. The most favorable exercise of Japanese skill and industry is exhibited in the cultivation of the soil, and chiefly in the shape of drainage, embanking, and irrigation. The grains and fruits cultivated are, generally, the same as those of temperate Europe. The first consist of barley, the common food of cattle, of wheat in very little estimation, and of rice, which is the chief food of the people, with several pulses. Rye and oats are unknown, nor do we find any mention made of maize. Tobacco seems to have been introduced by Europeans in the beginning of the seventeenth century; and the reigning Emperor of Japan, like his contemporary, of India, published edicts against its use, in the same spirit wherein the cotemporary of both, our James the First, blew his celebrated counterblast. The harmless weed has survived by more than two The Japanese empire consists of one very large centuries the three silly monarchs, and brings into island, and three of considerable size, containing the treasury of the successor of one of them the between them an area of about twice the extent of sum of 5,000,000l. annually. The cotton plant is Great Britain, with many small isles, so that the extensively cultivated in the southern provinces, natives say the whole group numbers 1,000, which and the tea-shrub is also largely cultivated, but in means, however, no more than that they are almost a careless and slovenly manner, so as to yield a innumerable. 66 Japonia," (says the old anony-produce, very inferior in all respects to that of mous writer whose account of Japan is contained China. The domesticated animals of the Japanese in the volume before us,) "may be said to be, as it are the ox, the buffalo, the horse, the hog, the were, a bodye of many and sundry Ilandes, of all common fowl, and the duck. The three last only sorts of bignesse; which Iles, as they are separated are used for food, and the horse is confined to the in situation from the rest of the whole worlde, so saddle. are they, in like manner, inhabited of people, most different from all others, both for maners and customes." The Japanese islands lie between the same north Two centuries' experience attests that the Japanese can live, or at least are content to live, without foreign trade. When they did possess it, the foreign commodities which found a market with how many different religions there were in Japan? "Thirty-five," was the reply. "Well," said he, "where thirty-five sects can be tolerated, we can easily bear with thirty-six; leave the strangers in peace." them were ivory, sapan-wood, pepper, cloves, steel, | the prince, troubled with their importunities, inquired lead, cannon, silk and cotton goods of India, and English broadcloth. The market for all these was very limited; but, it appears to us very clearly, for no other reason than that they were offered at enormous prices, which disabled the purchasers from buying. Thus, the price of pig-lead, which is now in our market worth no more than 177. a ton, is complained of as ruinously low at 271., whereas pepper is thought not remunerating under a shilling a pound, while in the London market, after being conveyed four times as far as Japan is from the source of production, it is, just now, sold for one fourth part of that price. The staple articles exported from Japan by the Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch, were copper, gold and silver. In the beginning of their trade the Dutch, it appears, exported annually, on the average of thirty years, 500,000l. worth of gold, and 450,000l. worth of silver, while in a single year, of the two precious metals together, the amount was no less than 1,150,000l. But the Japanese entertain the same horror of losing their wealth by the abstraction of the precious metals which the Chinese do, and which we ourselves, under the influence of a ridiculous theory, did a very few years ago. Copper of very fine quality, cast in little ingots, much resembling in form, and somewhat in color also, sticks of red sealing-wax, is the only staple article now allowed to be exported by the Dutch or Chinese. The former had, at one time, exported it to the extent of from 300 to 400 tons a year. The metals which abound in the Japanese empire are gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin. Of the latter, old William Adams, to whom we shall presently refer, says, "Tin as good and cheep heer as in Ingland." Among the articles which may possibly be exported from Japan, in the event of a fair trade being ever established with it, is cotton wool, and possibly also hemp and some other textile materials. For near fifty years the Portuguese and Spaniards propagated Christianity with a success unknown in any other part of the East; but in 1587, we find the first symptoms of displeasure expressed by the most able, enlightened, and tolerant of the sovereigns of Japan, Taico Sama, who despatched in rapid succession two commissioners to the ViceProvincial of the Portuguese, demanding an explanation and answer to the following five demands: 1. Why he and his associates forced their creed on the subjects of the empire? 2. Why they incited their disciples to destroy the national temples? 3. Why they persecuted the bonzes, (native priests of Buddha)? 4. Why they, and the rest of their nation, used for food animals useful for man, such as oxen and cows? Finally, why they permitted the merchants of their nation to traffic in his subjects, and carry them away as slaves to the Indies ? that the Christian priests had been insolent, over- European nations have never made so contemptible an exhibition on any foreign theatre of adventure as Japan. Instead of being met here, as in the countries between the tropics, by timid populations, or, as in North America, by savages who retired before them like the wild beasts of the forest, they were encountered by a resolute and tolerably civilized people, with the inclination and the means to resist. The Portuguese were the first European people that arrived in Japan fortyfour years after crossing the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards soon followed, and both were received by the Japanese, seemingly a volatile people and fond of novelties, as Cæsar said of the Gauls, with open arms. They were allowed to propagate The priests from Europe had traversed the country their religion without impediment or restraint. accompanied by large bands of disorderly persons, to The fact is, the Japanese government was utterly the destruction of peace and good order, and in viola indifferent to religious doctrines, rites, or practices, tion of the law; that they had endeavored to seduce as long as religion forbore to meddle in affairs of his subjects from their allegiance; and that they state, and did not endanger the public tranquillity, and its own existence. No less a person than the Governor-General of the Philippines, who had been shipwrecked in Japan on his return to Spain, tells the following anecdote, highly illustrative of the ordinary toleration of the Japanese government in matters of religion. There are no less than thirty-five different sects of religions in Japan. Some deny the immortality of the soul, others acknowledge divers gods, and others adore the elements. All are tolerated. The bonzes of all the sects having concurred in a request to the emperor that he would expel our monks from Japan, of the country, as had been the case in the Philippines. made no secret of their design to effect the conquest The emperor then made the following pertinent observations: "Conceive yourself in my position, the ruler of a great empire; and suppose certain of my subjects should find their way into your possessions, on the pretence of teaching the doctrines of Dsin. If you should discover their assumed zeal in the cause of religion to be a mere mask for ambitious projects; that their real object was to make themselves masters of your dominions, would you not treat them as traitors to the state? I hold the Fathers to be traitors to my state; and as such I do treat them." For fifty years more, with partial prosecutions all respects, however, beside the truth. It is given by Captain Saris, the agent, or, as he is queerly called, "the General," of the Hon. Company of Merchants, writing in the following words: and restraints, Christianity was allowed to be propagated in Japan; but eventually, under the successor of Taico Sama, a most direful persecution of the Christians commenced, and in 1637 came the end. In the words of Komfer, " Japan was shut up." All European residents in the emThe twentie ninth, (of June, 1613,) a Soma or pire, with the exception of the Dutch, were ex- from Syam, laden with Brasill wood and skins of all Iunke of the Flemmings arriued at Langasaque, pelled; a price was set on Christians generally sorts, wherein it was said that there were Englishmen, and on priests particularly; the promulgation of but proued to be Flemmings. For that before our Christianity was prohibited; and all natives, if comming, they passed generally by the name of Engthey quitted the country, were prohibited from re-lishmen; for our English Nation hath been long turning on pain of death. It is very certain that known by report among them, but much scandalled the Christians were persecuted not as religionists, by the Portugals Iesuites, as pyrats and rovers upon but as rebels. The jealousies of the Portuguese the seas; so that the naturals haue a song which they and Spaniards towards each other contributed to call the English Crofonia, shewing how the English the overthrow of both; and the Dutch, who had at doe take the Spanish ships, which they (singing) doe this time, been near thirty years in the country, had act likewise in gesture with their Cattans by their a good opportunity, and availed themselves of it, to sides, with which song and acting, they terrifie and punish their old persecutors in Europe. skare their children, as the French sometimes did theirs with the name of the Lord Talbot. The Dutch arrived in Japan about the year 1600, and there they have continued ever since; their trade reduced, from time to time, from unlimited shipping and capital to two ships and a capital of 72,000l. a year; while, from being allowed to range over the empire, they are now imprisoned in a little barricaded islet of about 1,600 feet in length and the same in breadth. Their first factory was at Firando, and from thence they were removed to their present virtual imprisonment at Nangasaki. The Japanese government, at the time of this removal, was evidently alarmed at the position of the Dutch, although probably without any good reason. The emperor, therefore, sent a commissioner to Firando, who required them to attend before him. His lecture is a curiosity worth quoting. After comparing the creeds of the Portuguese and Dutch, he pronounced them to be essentially the same, and then proceeded as follows: In former times it was well known to us, that you both served Christ, but on account of the bitter enmity you ever bore each other, we imagined there were two Christs. Now, however, the emperor is assured to the contrary. Now he knows you both serve one and the same Christ. From any indication of serving him you must for the future forbear. Moreover, on certain buildings you have newly erected, there is a date carved; which is reckoned from the birth of Christ. These buildings you must raze to the ground, presently. The English arrived in Japan in 1613, and quitted it in 1623, so that their whole experience of that empire was but of ten years' duration. Fifty years after, they attempted, in the reign of Charles the Second, to renew their intercourse, but were baffled by the Dutch, who represented their king as having for wife a country woman of the rebels who had so recently endangered the empire; and this is supposed to have been sufficient to defeat the scheme of a renewed intercourse. Both their first mission under James the First, and their last under the Merry Monarch, were received in a very friendly and hospitable manner by the Japanese court; but it seems to us that our countrymen were, at the moment, wholly unequal to the conduct of so distant and precarious a branch of trade, which even the Portuguese and Dutch, with ampler means, only carried on because they enjoyed each in their time an exclusive monopoly of it. The first English ship brought an ill-assorted cargo, and returned without any cargo at all. The Japanese appear at one time to have had rather a strange and fanciful opinion of the English, not perhaps in trade in Japan were established chiefly through the It is remarkable that both the English and Dutch influence of an Englishman, whose four letters rendering an account of himself and of Japan form the Hakluyt Society. William Adams was a naan interesting portion of the present publication of tive of Gillingham, in Kent, and served a twelve years' apprenticeship to a shipowner of Limehouse. He acted afterwards as pilot in one of the ships of the Royal Navy, and in the same capacity served the Dutch in their first adventure to Japan. Here his merit attracted the notice of the emperor, with whom he became a great favorite, having access to him when it was often denied to his highest ministers. Possessed of this influence, he invited his countrymen to trade with Japan, and it was his influence which secured to them a friendly reception. The emperor conferred on him and his heirs forever a lordship of one hundred farms, and many vassals. Singularly contrasted with the liberality of the Japanese monarch is the strange haggling of the E. India Company, now the masters of a revenue of 20,000,000l. a year, about an advance of 201. which they had made to the wife and children of Adams in England! This man, of low origin and rough education, was unquestionably a person of original character and true merit. He died in Japan, after a residence there of twenty years; and his will, transmitted to England, is to be found in the archives of the India House, in the Japanese language. the Hakluyt Society, we shall give a specimen As a fair example of the present publication of from the first essay in the volume, which is printed from the Harleian manuscripts, and entitled A Description of the Kingdom of Japonia. The inhabitantes shew a notable witte, and an incredible pacience in sufferinge, labour, and sorowes. They take greate and diligent care lest, either in worde or deede, they shoulde shewe either feare, or dulness of mynde, and lest they should make any man (whomsoever he be) partaker of their trowbles and wantes. They covet exceedinglye honor and prayse; and povertie with them bringeth no dammage to the nobilitie of bloude. They suffer not the least and curtesie they gyve not place to the Spainardes. iniurie in the world to pass vnrevenged. For gravitie They are generally affable and full of compliments. They are very punctuall in the entertayning of strangers, of whim they will curiously inquyre even trifles of forreyne people, as of their maners, and such like thinges. They will as soone lose a limbe as omit one ceremonie in welcoming a friend. They use to give |