The land of Mou-kou-tou-chou (2); They live along the sea shore. The people construct the walls with pilled up stones. As military exercise they practice with bow and arrow. Their habits include quarrels and violence. The houses are build of cut stone and four or five stories high, with their kitchens, lavatories and reception rooms all on the upper floors.  The men do up their hair in knots hanging all around and wrap cotton cloth around their waists. The women do up their hair in a chignon behind and brighten up the crown with yellow varnish. From their ears hang a number of strings (of coins) around their necks they wear silver rings, and a fringe hangs down on the breast. When they go out, they cover themselves with a cotton sheet, and veil their faces with blue gauze. On their feet they wear shoes or leather slippers. Towards the foot of the mountain (the granite upland stretching from the Shebelle basin to the Juba) the country is a desert of brown soil and stones. The soil is poor the crops sparse. Rain might not fall for a period of several years. They make very deep wells and draw up the water in sheep-skin bags by means of cog-wheels. They also feed their camels, horses, cattle and sheep on them. The native products are frankincense, gold coins, leopards, ambergris. The goods used in trading (here by the Chinese) are gold, silver, and colored taffetas (3).

The poem says; The foreign name is Mou-kou-tou-chou (2), the mountains are red and the color of the land yellow. For long periods the sky is clear without rain and for several years the land is without crops. There are found jewels with precious stones and pearls, ambergris and incense. When looking at those objects you disapprove because of the strangeness of them, but if you have obtained them you find pleasure in their perfection. (chII fol6r-6v)

The land of Pou-la-wa (4)(Brava). This country is formed on the coast and the population is established in groups. The land is a vast salted plain. There are salt lakes, in which you throw branches, when taking them out after some time there is coagulated a white salt. There are no fields to feed the people, but they fish. Man and women roll up their hair, the ones wear short dresses, the others put a piece of cloth around them. The married women wear in both ears gold coins and jewellery around the neck. There are only onions and garlic but no cucumbers or aubergines. The habits are very simple. For the construction of houses they put stones in rows up to three or five stories high. The country produces the animal ma-ha (Oryx), the zebra, the leopard, the antelope, the rhinoceros, myrrh, incense, ambergris, elephant tusks, camels. As merchandises they use gold, silver, satin, silk, rice, broad beans and porcelain.
The poem says: The land of Pou-la stretches along the coast. There are no fields for cultivating rice or cereals. When a branch is thrown into the lake, the salt water crystallizes and becomes salt. Since always cucumbers and aubergines are absent, but there are always onions and garlic. The fragrant woods together with strange animals makes you to admire them. (chIIfol6v-7r)

The land of La-sa (5). They live on the sea coast. They built walls with stones and dirt. The mountains stretch all over and the country is desert. There are no herbs are trees. The cattle, sheep, camels, horses all feet on dry fish. The habits of the people are very honest. The climate is always hot. The fields are sterile and there is little to harvest. There is only a bit of wheat. For years in a row it does not rain. They dig wells and use dented wheels to fetch water in sheep skins. Man and women wear their hair in rolls and long dresses. The married women use cosmetics and cover the head as those in Ormuz. The houses are built with cut stone and dirt up to three and four flours. On top there are kitchens, toilets, sleeping rooms, and the rooms for visitors. The slaves live downstairs. The country produces ambergris, incense, and the camel that runs 1000 li (6). There are no other products. As merchandise are used; gold, silver, satin and colored silk, also porcelain, rice, other cereals, and pepper.
The poem says; The hill in the sea is called La-sa (5). There is really no rain and it is never cold. There are high buildings building layers with cut stone and the furious waves beat the beach. For gold and silver one trades the local products; the camels and horses eat salted fish. And although there is ambergris this barbarian country does not need to be visited. (chIfol11r-11v) 

Taken from:
Hsing-chʻa-sheng-lan : the overall survey of the star raft. [Xin Fei; J V G Mills; Roderich Ptak]
 星槎勝覽 /Xing cha sheng lan; Xin Fei; Jiefu Shen; Yuting Chen
Teobaldo Filesi; China and Africa in the Middle ages.

 Contents of part two
From the seventh year of Yung-lo (7)(with the cyclical characters) chi-ch'ou (1409) to the eight year of Hsuan-te (8)(with the cyclical characters) kuei-ch'ou (1433), I repeatedly followed the principal envoy of the imperial court, the grand eunuch Cheng Ho, and others to all the countries of the Western Ocean to read out the imperial edicts and to confer rewards. During my leisure from official duties, I collected extraordinary (news) on the customs, people and local products of all the barbarians, and  I arranged them in a certain order and praised them in poems
(Below is a list of the places described): the country of Cambodia, Pulau Aur (9), Tamiang (10), Singapore Strait, Langkawi (11), Timor (12), Pahang (13), the countries of Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, Three Islands, the country of Mait (14), the country of Karimata (15), Janggala (16), the country of Borneo, the country of Sulu (17), the country of Quilon (18), the country of Aden, the country of Dhofar (19), the country of Giumbo, the country of Mogadishu, the country of Maldive and Laccadive Islands, the country of Brawa (4), and the country of Mecca.

The above list of countries is taken from the : Hsing-chʻa-sheng-lan : the overall survey of the star raft.

However the: 星槎勝覽 /Xing cha sheng lan, has the same list but does not keep to it in the text. I follow the example (so the entries are not according to the list but according to the text of the星槎勝覽 /Xing cha sheng lan ).

The picture added shows that there are still more versions of the book (=different list) in existence. For more on that see: Hsing-chʻa-sheng-lan : the overall survey of the star raft.

T'ien-Fang
Fei Hsin has drawn from Wang Ta-yuan's book for this. The name T'ien-Fang means 'Heavenly square' and is taken from the Arabic Kaaba or Cube.
....The natural products are gold, amber, precious stones, pearls, lions, camels, tsu-la-fa, (giraffe), leopards, deer..... The ruler of the country and the ministers are very grateful to the Heavenly Dynasty, and their missions are constantly bringing presents of lions and k'i-lin (giraffes) to offer up as tribute.
Note: in this short paragraph two different names for Giraffe are used

A-tan
.. .. .. ..The native products are sheep ; between their breasts to their tails hang down nice pieces (of flesh?), so they are called " nine-tailed sheep". There are also thousand li (6) camels, donkeys with black mottling (zebra), camel-footed birds (ostrich), gold spotted leopards.. .. ..

Tso-Fa-Erh (Dufar)(20)
With a fair wind one may reach this country from Calicut in twenty days. The walls are made of rocks, the houses of layers of lo-ku (coral-stone?); they are three or four stories high in shape like pagodas; the kitchen and bedrooms are all on top. The country is extensive, but the crops sparse. The soil is brownish, and has no vegetation. The people take fish in the sea and dry them, eating the larger ones, and feeding the smaller ones to their cattle; horses, camels, and sheep. 
Men and women do up their hair in knots. They wear a long shirt. When they go out, they cover their heads and faces with cloth, so that the men may not see them.
They are honest in their usages.
The products are the tsu-la-fa (giraffe) gold spotted leopards, ostriches, frankincense, ambergris. The goods used in trading are gold, silver, sandal-wood, rice, pepper, satins, light silks, china-ware. The ruler touched by the imperial bounty, sent a mission to Court with objects of tribute.     

The land of Pou-la-wa (4)(Brava): Going south from Pie-lo-li (Belligam)(21) in Ceylon you reach this country in 21 days. This land is the continuation of t he mountainous country of Mou-kou-tou-chou (2). They live along the sea coast. The walls are constructed with pilled up stones and the houses with masoned stones. The mountain country has no grasses or trees. The land is a vast salt plain. There are salt lakes, in which you throw branches, when taking them out after some time there is coagulated a white salt. The habits are very simple. There are no fields to feed the people, but they fish. Man and women roll up their hair, the ones wear short dresses, the others put a piece of cloth around them. The married women wear in both ears gold coins and jewellery around the neck. There are only onions and garlic but no cucumbers or aubergines. The country produces the animal ma-ha (Oryx) which resembles the musk-deer, the zebra, which resembles a donkey, the leopard, the rhinoceros, myrrh, incense, ambergris, elephant tusks and camels. As merchandise are used gold, silver, satin and silk, rice, broad beans, and porcelain. The head of the country touched by the presents of the Imperial favors presents local produce as tribute. (fol4v-5r)

The land of Thou-pou (1)(Djoubo). One lives here in solitary and dispersed villages. The walls are made of pilled up stones, and the houses are built with blocks. The habits are very simple. Men and women wear their hair in rolls. The man wear a piece of cloth and the women when they leave put on a head cover, they do not show their body or face. The mountain land is of a red-yellow color.  It does not rain for several years and there are no herbs or trees. The have dented wheels to pull up the water from deep holes. They fish with nets. The country produces lions, gold spotted leopards, birds with camel legs up to six or seven feet high of which the feet resemble camel feet, ambergris, incense and golden amber. As merchandise is used vermillion, satin and silk, gold and silver, porcelain, pepper, rice and other cereals. The ruler, receiving the presents was touched and presents local products as tribute. (fol5r)

The land of Mou-kou-tou-chou (2). From small Ko-lon (Qiulon) it can be reached with favorable winds in 20 days and nights. This country stretches along the coast. The walls are made of cut stone and the houses are constructed in layers up to 4 or 5 floors. The kitchen and guestrooms are on top. Man roll up their hair, the rolls hang then all around and they dress in a piece of cloth. The women put their hair together on the head and put bright yellow varnish. They wear round pieces of metal in their ears, and a silver chain around the neck which hangs down up to the breast. When they leave they wear a single piece of cloth and cover the head, also cover the face with a dark blue piece. On their feet they wear sandals or slippers of leader. There are mountains all over and all is desert. The stony soil is red-yellow: the fields are dry and there is little to harvest. Several years in a row there is no harvest. They dig very deep holes and with dented wheels they get out the water in sheep skins. They are hard headed and quarrelsome. As a military exercise they practice bow and arrow. The rich people practise navigation and business with far off places. The poor fish in the sea with nets. They eat the fish after drying in the sun, they feed them to the camels, horses, cattle, sheep. The products of the country are incense, gold spotted leopard skins and ambergris. As merchandise is used gold, silver, satin in colours, sandalwood, rice and other cereals, porcelain and colored silk. The ruler, observing the rites, sends local products as tribute. (fol5r-5v) 

(Lasa) (nothing new)

Note : The writer was a junior officer (intelligence) under Cheng Ho voyages of discovery and trade. He was drafted because of an offence his father or grandfather made. He himself was not on the trip to Mogadishu, he must have interviewed eyewitnesses. That not much more  is written about these travels, is because the imperial court soon after forbade seafaring as the import of luxury products was costing the country to much silver. In 1479 a powerful eunuch asked for the files of the voyages and was told that they were lost.

One liang (22)(or tael) of ambergris is worth more than 40,000 Chinese copper coins in Samudera (23)(Indonesia).

(1) Thou-pou -Djoubo -Djoubb (El Jub), Giumbo: a dug, non-masoned waterhole (according to Marcel Devic p70); the name still exists in the name of the river Jubba. Must have been close to present day Kismayo. Is mostly mentioned by Chinese authors: Yakut (1220); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Fei-Hsin (1436) has Giumbo; Xuanzong Shih-lu (1438) has Zhu-bu; Zhang, Tingyu: Ming Shi (1739); Luo Maodeng (1597). Some authors say the channel mentioned by al Masudi (916) is the Jubba: “…Zinj were the only ones who had crossed a tributary of the Nile (the Jubb) which flowed into a bay or canal, which in turn opened into the Indian Ocean…”.

(2) Mou-kou-tou-chou : Mogadishu

(3) Taffetas : is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk. The word is Persian in origin.

(4) Pou-la-wa (Brawa; Barawa: Brawa or Barawa or Brava): harbour on the South Somali coast; The Bedouna of Idrisi (1150).

(5) La-sa : Duyvendak (1953) identifies it with Muscat. Mills (1970; 347-48) suggests some place on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, probably near Mukalla. Others put it on the East African coast.

(6) Li: a Chinese mile, now standardised at 500m. (Has historically fluctuated between 323m and 645m)

(7) Yung-lo: The Yongle Emperor — personal name Zhu Di, or Chu Ti— was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424.

(8) Hsuan-te: Hsüan-te reign (1426–36). Also known as Xuande Emperor.

(9) Pulau Aur: is an island in Mersing District, Johor, Malaysia.

(10) Tamiang: Aceh Tamiang Regency is a regency in the east of Aceh province of Indonesia, it is located on the island of Sumatra.

(11) Langkawi: an archipelago in the Malacca Strait. Part of Malaysia.

(12) Timor: is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia. The island is divided between the independant state of East Timor and Indonesia on the western part.

(13) Pahang: is a state in Peninsular Malaysia.

(14) the country of Mait: to the north of Brunei.

(15) the country of Karimata: The Karimata Islands are a chain of small islands off the west coast of Indonesian Borneo, the largest of which is (Pulau) Karimata.

(16) Janggala: The Kingdom of Janggala is one of the two Javanese kingdoms that was formed when Airlangga abdicated his throne in favour of his two sons in 1045.

(17) Sulu: the Sulu Archipelago (Philippines)

(18) Quilon: Kulam: Kollam (formerly Quilon) south India.

(19) Dhofar: province in Oman.

(20) Tso-Fa-Erh (Dufar): Dhofar: province in Oman

(21) Pie-lo-li (Belligam) in Ceylon

(22) liang (or tael) : traditional Chinese weight unit, about 37.8 grams, the same as a tael.

(23) Samudera: The Samudera Pasai Sultanate, was a Muslim harbour kingdom on the north coast of Sumatra from the 13th to the 16th centuries CE.

As formal trade had ceased with Somalia in the latter part of the Ming Dynasty, archaeologists have found coins that date to the succeeding Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), showing that China's interests in Somalia were ongoing.