XXXIX, Doc. No. 4
The King of the Country of Malacca respectfully addresses Your Majesty the King of the Country of Ryukyu.
We have learned that every territory yields something, and every thing thus yielded,has its use. And without the multiplication of production, how can one expect self-sufficiency?
We know that the richness of the livelihood of the people and the abundance of products in your country are due to the virtues of you, the Wise King, whose influence extends to all the world, binds the whole world, and is known to the whole world.(10)
Although our country is far away from yours, our friendship has grown ever firmer over these past several years. We have been honored to receive your chief envoy, interpreters and others, who came carrying precious goods, together with a despatch, and paid a courtesy call. We are deeply conscious of our obligation to you. Much as we wanted to dispatch men to go to your country, we have not had an opportunity. Having no other recourse,(11) we could only receive it [the despatch]. We have not yet been able to respond.
We are now specially having our presents forwarded with our respects to Your Majesty the King. We shall be very happy if you will accept them with a smile. Thus we indicate our feelings in a small way.
Your chief envoy indicated his satisfaction at being able to enjoy social intercourse. Finally he is ready to go back with the wind.
Let this despatch be given to the addressee.
The presents are now listed below:
Hao San-lien ta-pu(12) 20 bolts Chiao-ta-pu(13) 10 bolts
[Hsi]-chiao-ta-qu(14) 9 bolts Nan-mo-na-pu(15) 11 bolts
50 bolts all together
Ch'eng-hua 3/3/20 [April 23, 1467]

(10) The pasage beginning with "due to . . ." is a tentative translation of 仁徳之至之天下九天
下知天下也.
(11) This phrase is tentatively translated from 如蒙.
(12) See Annex at the end of the work.
(13) 椒達布. There are other transcriptions in Chinese for the same cloth, like tso-ta 左達 and
shao-ta 紹達.
Duarte Barbosa mentions chautares as one of the many woven cloths produced in Bengal (The Book of Duarte Barbosa, translated, edited and annotated by Mansel Longworth Dames, London, 1918-21, Vol. II, p. 146), and this chautares corresponds to the cloth called sha-t'a-erh mentioned above. (See also Gabriel Ferrand, "Poids, mesures et monnaies des mers du sud aux XVI ͤ et XVII ͤ siècles," Journal Asiatique, Ser. 11, XVI [1920], p. 230.) The cloth known as chiao-ta-pu may be this chautares.
(14) 細椒達布. The term "hsi," missing here but adduced from other documents, indicates "fine" or "delicately woven."
(15) 南嗼哪布. Also transcribed nan-mu-na 南母拿 elsewhere in Chinese records.
Barbosa mentions mamonas as one product of Bengal (The Book, Vol. II, p. 146). The Ying-yai sheng-lan also carries a note, in its article on Bengal, in which it says: "Ma-hei-ma-lo 驀黒驀勒 is a stuff four feet broad and twenty feet long; on the wrong side it is covered with nap half an inch long; it is (our) tou-lo-chin 兜羅錦." (Quoted in Rockhill, "Notes on the Relations," T'oung Pao, XVI (1915), p. 440) The editor of The Book of Duarte Barbosa (Mansel L. Dames) equates mamonas with ma-hei-ma-lo and regards it as muslin: "Of these, Mo-hei-mo-leh may be the mahmūdis alluded to by Barbosa under the name of mamonas, or possibly malmal, 'muslin.' " (The Book, Vol. II, p.146). In the section of Moslem words (that is, Arabo-Persian or Persian words) in the Chinese work called Hua-i i-yü [Glossary of Chinese-Foreign Words], "velvet" is given the transcription of mo-tu-mo-li 黙讀黙力. The ma-hei-ma-lo may represent this mo-tu-mo-li and, thus, velvet.