Entry
Xuan-de: Year 1, Month 6, Day 12
16 Jul 1426
The Auxiliary Ministry of Rites memorialized:
"Du Zi-zhong and others, a total of four soldiers of the Embroidered-Uniform Guard had, during the Yong-le reign (1403/24) accompanied the Eunuch Director Zheng He when he went as an envoy to the Western Ocean, but in Sri Lanka had been attacked and captured. Now they have returned on the ship which brought the tribute mission from Samudera."
The Emperor said:
"These four men sailed far away to the distant yi in the service of the Emperor, and their fathers, mothers, wives and children do not know whether they are alive or dead. This is truly a pitiful situation. Confer upon them clothing, paper money and cloth, enable them to return to their villages to see their families and later re-deploy them on duty."
Xuan-zong: juan 18.4b
Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 17, page 480
Preferred form of citation for this entry:
Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/xuan-de/year-1-month-6-day-12, accessed January 22, 2019