Page 410
An.1687
The Product and Inhabitants of St. Johns.
till they have lost all their Estates; then it is usu- al with them to hang themselves. This was fre- quently done by the Chinese Factors at Manila, as I was told by Spaniards that lived there. The Spani- ards themselves are much addicted to gaming, and are very expert at it; but the Chinese are too subtle for them, being in general a very cunning people.
factor: a merchant's agent
subtle: cunning
But a particular account of them and their Country would fill a Volume; nor doth my short experience of them qualify me to say much of them. Wherefore to confine my self chiefly to what I observ'd at St. Johns Island, where we lay some time, and visited the shore every day to buy Provision, as Hogs, Fowl, and Buffaloe. Here was a small Town standing in a wet swampy ground, with many filthy Ponds amongst the Houses, which were built on the ground as ours are, not on posts as at Mindanao. In these Ponds were plenty of Ducks; the Houses were small and low, and covered with Thatch, and the inside were but ill furnished, and kept nastily: and I have been told by one who was there, that most of the Houses in the City of Canton itself are but poor and irregular.
St. Johns Island
Shangchuan Island (St. John's Island / δΈε·ε², Guangdong, China)
The Inhabitants of this Village seem to be most Husbandmen: They were at this time very busy in Sowing their Rice, which is their chiefest Com- modity. The Land in which they choose to Sow the Rice is low and wet, and when Plowed the Earth was like a mass of Mud. They plow their Land with a small Plow, drawn by one Buffaloe, and one man both holds the Plow, and drives the Beast. When the Rice is ripe and gathered in, they tread it out of the Earth with Buffaloes, in a large round place made with a hard floor fit for that purpose, where they chain 3 or 4 of these Beasts, one at the tail of the other, and driving them round in a ring, as in a Horse-mill, they so order it
husbandman: farmer of crops and animals