On the sea of China travelling is done in Chinese ships only, so we shall describe their arrangements.
Description of the Chinese vessels. The Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called junks, middle sized ones called zaws, and small ones called kakams.(1) The large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of bamboo rods plaited like mats. They are never lowered, but they turn them according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left floating in the wind. A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, (92) including archers, men with shields and arbalists, that is men who throw naphtha. Each large vessel is accompanied by three smaller ones, the ‘half, the ‘third’, and the ‘quarter’. These vessels are built only in the town of Zaitun in China [Ch’üan-chou], or in Sin-Kalan, which is Sin al-Sin [Canton].
Their method of building the ships is to construct two walls of timber, the space between which they fill up with immensely large baulks of wood fastened both in length and breadth by huge nails each of which is three cubits in length. When the two walls are firmly joined together by these baulks they build [814] on top of them the bottom flooring of the vessel, and launch them into the sea, where they complete the construction of the ship. Since these baulks and side-walls remain in contact with the water, they go down to them in order to wash themselves and to relieve nature. At the sides of these baulks are their oars, which are as large as masts, ten or fifteen men joining together to work each of them, (93) and they row standing on their feet. In the vessel they build four decks, and it has cabins, suites and salons for merchants; a set of rooms has several rooms and a latrine; it can be locked by its occupant, and he can take along with him slave-girls and wives. Often a man will live in his suite unknown to any of the others on board until they meet on reaching some town. The sailors have their children living on board ship, and they cultivate green stuffs, vegetables and ginger in wooden tanks. The owner’s factor on board ship is like a great amir. When he goes on shore he is preceded by archers and Abyssinians with javelins, swords, drums, bugles and trumpets. On reaching the house where he is to stay they stand their lances on both sides of the door, and continue thus (94) during his stay. Some of the Chinese own large numbers of ships on which their factors are sent to foreign countries. There is no people in the world wealthier than the Chinese.
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)1) I.e. junk, dhow and hoa-ch’üan or trade ship. Cordier (Yule, Cathay, IV, p. 25 n. 1) suggests that kakam may be a corruption of old Italian cocca.