Fernão Mendes Pinto, Peregrinação (1614)

The picturesque episode given below takes place, according to the author, in the city of Quansy [Beijing] in China, where he was a convict in January or February 1554.

[...] E cabendo-me a mim um dia ir ao mato em companhia de um Gaspar de Meireles, nos levantámos pela manhã, e nos saímos de casa a fazer o nosso ofício. E como este Gaspar de Meirelez era músico, e tangia numa viola e cantava muito arrezoadamente, que são partes muito agradáveis a esta gente, porque o mais do tempo gastam em banquetes e delícias da carne, gostavam ali muito dele e era muitas vezes chamado para estas cousas, das quais sempre trazia uma esmola com que o mais do tempo nos remediávamos.
E indo nós, como digo, ele e eu para o mato, como nos era mandado, acertámos de encontrar numa rua, antes que saíssemos da cidade, uma grande soma de gente, que com grande regozijo e festa, levavam a enterrar um morto, com muitas insígnias de pompa fúnebre, no meio da qual ia uma grande música de muitos que cantavam e tangiam os seus estrumentos. E conhecendo um daqueles, que como maioral ou mestre da música governa os outros, o Gaspar de Meirelez, lançou mão por ele para tanger, e metendo-lhe na mão uma viola, lhe disse:
– Rogo-te que cantes o mais alto que puderes, por que te ouça este defunto que aqui levamos. Porque te afirmo que vai muito triste pela saudade que leva de sua molher e de seus filhos, a que em estremos era afeiçoado.
O Gaspar de Meirelez se lhe escusou com algumas razões que para isso lhe deu. Porém o mestre da música lhas não aceitou, mas antes já com cólera lhe respondeu:
– Se tu não aproveitares a este defunto com esta graça de tanger e cantar que Deus te deu, não direi de ti que és homem santo, como até agora todos cuidámos, mas que a excelência desta fala que tens é dos habitadores da Casa do Fumo, cuja propriedade e natureza primeira foi também cantar com vozes suaves, inda que agora chorem e gemam no Lago da Noite, como cães esfaimados que rangem os dentes; e ensopados na baba do ódio dos homens, se lhe enxerga a escuma de suas maldades nas ofensas que fazem Ao que vive no mais alto dos Céos.
Após isto, pegaram dez ou doze no Gaspar de Meirelez e o fizeram quasi por força tanger, e o levaram consigo até o lugar onde haviam de queimar o defunto, conforme ao uso de suas gentílicas seitas.

This is an episode that took place in China in 1544, included by Mendes Pinto in his memoirs written fro. 1569 after his return to Portugal after 21 years in Asia. It pertains to a period when he was a beggar in China in the company of vihuelist and singer Gaspar Meireles. The text is drawn from morais2006-1.
This is a machine generated English translation:
[...] And it fell to me one day to go into the bush in company of one Gaspar de Meireles, and we got up in the morning, and left the house to do our work. And as this Gaspar de Meirelez was a musician, who played the vihuela [viola] and sang a lot, which are very pleasing parts to these people, because most of the time they spend in banquets and meat delicacies, they liked him very much and he was often called upon for these things, from which he always brought alms, with which we made up for the time.
And as we were going, as I say, he and I into the bush as we were told, we came upon in one street, before we left the town, a great number of people who with great rejoicing and festivity were bringing a dead man to be buried, with many tokens of funeral pomp, and in the midst of which there was great music, many singing and playing their instruments. And knowing one of those, who as a major or master of music governs the others, Gaspar de Meirelez, he laid hands on him to play, and putting a vihuela in his hand, said to him
- I beseech you to sing as loud as you can, that this dead man whom we bring here may be heard. For I tell you, he is very sad because he misses his wife and children, whom he was so dear to him.
Gaspar de Meirelez excused himself with some reasons that he gave for this. But the master of music did not accept them, but rather answered him with anger:
- If you do not profit this dead man with this grace of singing and singing that God has given you, I will not say of you that you are a holy man, as we all thought until now, but that the excellence of this speech that you have is from the inhabitants of the House of Smoke, whose property and first nature was also to sing with soft voices, although now they weep and groan in the Lake of Night, like hungry dogs that gnash their teeth; And drenched in the slime of men's hatred, the scum of their wickedness is seen on the offences they do to Him who lives in the highest heaven.
After this, they took Gaspar de Meirelez, ten or twelve of them, and made him almost by force to be dragged, and carried him with them to the place where they were to burn the dead man, according to the custom of their gentile sects.