Komar is the country whence the aloes wood, which we call Hud al Komari, is brought; and it is a very populous kingdom, of which the inhabitants are very courageous. In this country, the boundless commerce with women is forbidden, and indeed it has no wine. The kingdoms of Zapage and Komar are about ten or twenty days easy sail from each other, and the kingdoms were in peace with other when the following event is said, in their ancient histories, to have occurred. The young and high-spirited king of Komar was one day in his palace, which looks upon a river much like the Euphrates, at the entrance, and is only a day's journey from the sea. One day, in a discourse with his prime minister, the conversation turned upon the glory and population of the kingdom of the Mehrage, and the multitude of its dependent islands, when the king of Komar expressed a wish to see the head of the Mehrage of Zapage on a dish before him. The minister endeavoured to dissuade him from so unjust and rash an attempt; but the king afterwards proposed the same exploit to the other officers of his court. Intelligence of this project was conveyed to the Mehrage, who was a wise and active prince, of consummate experience, and in the flower of his age; and who immediately ordered a thousand small ships to be fitted out, with all necessary arms and provisions, and manned with as many of his best troops as they were able to transport; carefully concealing the purpose of this armament, but giving out that he meant to visit the different islands under his authority, and even caused letters to be written to the tributary kings of these islands to prepare for his reception. When every thing was in readiness, he sailed over to the kingdom of Komar, the king of which, and all his courtiers, were a set of effeminate creatures, who did nothing all day long but view their faces in mirrors, and pick their teeth. The Mehrage landed his troops without delay, and immediately invested the palace, in which the king was made prisoner, all his attendants having fled without fighting. Then the Mehrage caused proclamation to be made, granting entire security of life and property to all the inhabitants of the country; and seating himself on the throne, caused the captive king and the prime minister to be brought into his presence. Addressing himself to the fallen monarch, he demanded his reasons for entertaining a project so unjust, and beyond his power to execute, and what were his ultimate intentions if he had succeeded. To this the king of Komar made no answer; and the Mehrage ordered his head to be struck off. To the minister, the Mehrage made many compliments, for the good advice he had given his master, and ordered him to place the person who best deserved to succeed upon the vacant throne; and then departed to his own dominions, without doing the smallest violence or injury to the kingdom of Komar. The news of this action being reported to the kings of China and the Indies, added greatly to their respect for the Mehrage; and from that time, it has been the custom for the kings of Komar to prostrate themselves every morning towards the country of Zapage, in honour of the Mehrage159.
All the kings of China and the Indies believe in the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, as an article of their religion, of which the following story, related by a person of credibility, is a singular instance. One of these princes having viewed himself in a mirror, after recovering from the small-pox, and noticing how dreadfully his face was disfigured, observed, that no person had ever remained in his body after such a change, and as the soul passes instantly into another body, he was determined to separate Ha soul from its present frightful body, that he might pass into another. Wherefore he commanded his nephew to mount the throne, and calling for a sharp and keen scymitar, ordered his own head to be cut off, that his soul might be set free, to inhabit a new body. His orders were complied with, and his body was burnt, according to the custom of the country.
Until the late revolution had reduced them to their present state of anarchy, the Chinese were wonderfully regular and exact in every thing relative to government; of which the following incident affords a striking example. A merchant of Chorassan, who had dealt largely in Irak, and who embarked from thence for China, with a quantity of goods, had a dispute at Canfu with an eunuch, who was sent to purchase some ivory, and other goods for the emperor, and at length the dispute ran so high, that the merchant refused to sell him his goods. This eunuch was keeper of the imperial treasury, and presumed so much on the favour and confidence which he enjoyed with his master, that he took his choice of all the goods he wanted from the merchant by force, regardless of every thing that the merchant could say. The merchant went privately from Canfu to Cumdan, the residence of the emperor, which is two months journey; and immediately went to the string of the bell, mentioned in the former section, which he pulled. According to the custom of the country, he was conveyed to a place at the distance of ten days journey, where he was committed to prison for two months; after which he was brought before the viceroy of the province, who represented to him, that he had involved himself in a situation which would tend to his utter ruin, and even the loss of his life, if he did not speak out the real truth: Because there were ministers and governors appointed to distribute justice to all strangers, who were ready to see him righted; and if the nature of the wrongs, which he had to represent, did not appear such as to entitle him to this application to the emperor, he would assuredly be put to death, as a warning to others not to follow his example. The viceroy, therefore, advised him to withdraw his appeal, and to return immediately to Canfu. The rule on such occasions was, that, if the party should endeavour to recede after this exhortation, he would have received fifty blows of a bamboo, and have been immediately sent out of the country: but if he persisted in his appeal, he was immediately admitted to an audience of the emperor. The merchant strenuously persisted in his demand for justice, and was at length admitted to the presence of the emperor, to whom he related the injustice of the eunuch, in taking away his goods by force. Upon this, the merchant was thrown, into prison, and the emperor ordered his prime minister to write to the governor of Canfu, to make strict inquiry into the complaints which he had exhibited against the eunuch, and to make a faithful report of all the circumstances; and he, at the same time, gave similar orders to three other principal officers, to make the same inquiry, all separate and unknown to each other.
These officers, who are called of the right, of the left, and of the centre, according to their ranks, have the command of the imperial forces, under the prime minister; they are entrusted with the guard of the emperors person: and when, he takes the field, on any military enterprise, or on any other account, these officers are stationed near him, each according to his rank. All of these made accordingly the strictest inquiries into the allegations of the merchant, and all separately gave in their reports, assuring the emperor that these complaints were just and well-founded: and these were followed and confirmed by many other informations. The eunuch was in consequence deprived of his office of treasurer, find all his effects were confiscated; on which occasion the emperor addressed him as follows; "Death ought to have been your doom, for giving occasion of complaint against me to this man, who hath come from Chorassan, which is on the borders of my empire. He hath been in the country of the, Arabs, whence he came into the kingdoms of the Indies, and thence into my empire, seeking his advantage by trade; and you would have occasioned him to return across all these regions, saying to all the people in his way, that he had been abused and stripped of his substance in China. In consideration of your former services, and the rank you have held in my household, I grant your life; but as you have not discharged your duty in regard to the living, I will confer upon you the charge of the dead." The eunuch was accordingly sent to take the custody of the imperial tombs, and to remain there for the remainder of his life.
Before the late commotions, the good order observed in the administration of justice, and the majesty of their tribunals, were very admirable. To fill these, the Chinese chose men who were perfectly versant in the laws; men of sincerity, and zealous in the cause of justice, who were not to be biassed by the interference of the great, and who always administered the laws with impartiality, neither oppressing the poor, nor accepting bribes from the rich. When any one was to be promoted to the office of principal judge, he was previously sent to all the chief cities of the empire, to remain a month or two in each, inquiring minutely into the various customs and affairs of the people, and informing himself of all such persons as were worthy of being credited in their testimony, that his judgment might be regulated in the future discharge of his high office by this preliminary knowledge. After going through all the cities in this manner, and making some stay in those which are most considerable, he repaired to the imperial court, and was invested with the dignity of supreme judge. To him the nomination of all the other judges was confided, after acquainting the emperor with the names of all who, in his estimation, were most worthy of exercising jurisdiction in the various cities and provinces. Every day, the supreme judge causes proclamation to be made, that of any man has been wronged by the viceroy or governor, or by any of his relations or officers, or any other person, he shall receive ample justice. A viceroy or governor is never degraded, except by letters issued from the council, or divan of kings, and this is done only for some flagrant malversation, or for the refusal or delay of justice. The posts of judicature being conferred upon none but men of probity and justice, good order is efectually maintained.
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It is difficult to say anything certain of the countries to which this story relates; which may have been some of the islands now called Philipines, or perhaps some of the islands in the straits of Sunda. – –Harris.
Such is the opinion of the editor of Harris's Collection. But I am disposed, especially from the rivers mentioned, to consider Zapage as Pegu; and that Malacca, Sumatra, and Java, were the dependent islands; and particularly, that Malacca, as the great mart of early trade, though actually no island, was the Cala of Abu Zeid. Siam, or Cambodia may have been the kingdom of Komar. –E.