He had had a
large part of his nurture among those uncultivated Tartars, without any
regular training in the art of composition. His Book indeed, owing to
the endless errors and inaccuracies that had crept into it, had come for
many years to be regarded as fabulous; and the opinion prevailed that
the names of cities and provinces contained therein were all fictitious
and imaginary, without any ground in fact, or were (I might rather say)
mere dreams.
[Sidenote: Ramusio vindicates Polo's Geography.]
3. "Howbeit, during the last hundred years, persons acquainted with
Persia have begun to recognise the existence of Cathay. The voyages of
the Portuguese also towards the North-East, beyond the Golden
Chersonese, have brought to knowledge many cities and provinces of
India, and many islands likewise, with those very names which our Author
applies to them; and again, on reaching the Land of China, they have
ascertained from the people of that region (as we are told by Sign. John
de Barros, a Portuguese gentleman, in his Geography) that Canton, one of
the chief cities of that kingdom, is in 30-2/3 deg. of latitude, with the
coast running N.E. and S.W.; that after a distance of 275 leagues the
said coast turns towards the N.W.; and that there are three provinces
along the sea-board, Mangi, Zanton, and Quinzai, the last of which is
the principal city and the King's Residence, standing in 46 deg.
