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The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys cover

The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys

Chapter 64: CAP. LVI.
By Sir John Mandeville
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History - Medieval/Middle AgesReligion/SpiritualityTravel Writing

About This Book

The narrator offers a medieval travelogue that traces routes toward Jerusalem and across regions of Asia, Africa, and India, blending eyewitness-style observations, borrowed reports, and fantastic tales. It catalogs cities, landscapes, animals, plants, trade goods, and unfamiliar customs, alternating itinerary notes with moral and religious commentary. Frequent digressions present marvels and monstrous races alongside practical details about pilgrim routes, local rites, and fortifications, producing a text that shifts between guidebook information and imaginative storytelling. The structure mixes descriptive chapters with episodic anecdotes, inviting readers to weigh veracity while encountering the era's geographical knowledge, commerce, and popular curiosities.

CAP. LVI.

Of the countrey and yle named Java, which is a mighty lande.

AND there is also a great yle that men call Java & the kinge of that countrey hath under hym seven kinges, for he is a full mightie prince. In this yle groweth all maner of spyces more plenteously than in any other place, as ginger, clowes, canell1 nutmyge2 and other, and ye shall understande that the nutmyge beareth the maces, & of all thing therein is plenty savinge wine. The King of this lande hath a riche palace and the best that is in the worlde, for all the greces of his hall and chambres are all made one of gold & another of silver, & all the walls are plated with fine gold and silver, & on those plates are written stories of knightes, and batayles, and the pavimente of the hall and chambres is of golde and silver, and there is no man that woulde beleve this riches that is there except hee had sene it, and the Kynge of this yle is so mightie, that he hath many times overcom the great Caane of Cathay which is the myghtiest Emperour that is in all the worlde, for there is often warre amonge them, for the great Caane would make hym hold his land of him.

1:  Cinnamon.

2:  Nutmeg.