As we could not get back our men, we retained on board sixteen of the chiefs, and three ladies whom we had taken on board the junks, to take them to Spain. We had destined the ladies for the Queen; but Juan Carvalho kept them for himself. The Moors of Burné go naked like the other islanders. They esteem quicksilver very much, and swallow it. They pretend that it preserves the health of those who are well, and that it cures the sick. They venerate Mahomed and follow his law. They do not eat pig’s flesh....[344] With their right hand they wash their face, but do not wash their teeth with their fingers. They are circumcised like the Jews. They never kill goats or fowls without first speaking to the sun.[345] They cut off the ends of the wings of fowls and the skin under their feet, and then split them in two. They do not eat any animal which has not been killed by themselves. In this island is produced camphor, a kind of balsam which exudes from between the bark and the wood of the tree. These drops are small as grains of bran. If it is left exposed by degrees it is consumed: here it is called capor. Here is found also cinnamon, ginger, mirabolans, oranges, lemons, sugarcanes, melons, gourds, cucumbers, cabbage, onions. There are also many animals, such as elephants, horses, buffaloes, pigs, goats, fowls, geese, crows, and others. They say that the King of Burné has two pearls as large as a hen’s eggs, and so perfectly round that if placed on a smooth table they cannot be made to stand still. When we took him the presents I made signs to him that I desired to see them, and he said that he would show them to me, but he did not do so. On the following day some of the chief men told me that they had indeed seen them. The money which the Moors use in this country is of metal,[346] and pierced for stringing together. On one side only it has four signs, which are four letters of the great King of China: they call it _Picis_.[347] For one cathil (a weight equal to two of our pounds) of quicksilver they gave us six porcelain dishes, for a cathil of metal they gave one small porcelain vase, and a large vase for three knives. For a hand of paper they gave one hundred picis. A _bahar_ of wax (which is two hundred and three cathils) for one hundred and sixty cathils of bronze: for eighty cathils a bahar of salt: for forty cathils a bahar of _anime_, a gum which they use to caulk ships, for in these countries they have no pitch. Twenty tabil make a cathil. The merchandise which is most esteemed here is bronze, quicksilver, cinnabar, glass, woollen stuffs, linens; but above all they esteem iron and spectacles.