These had
become dingy and ragged, when, in 1762, the Doge Marco Foscarini
caused them to be renewed by the painter Francesco Grisellini. He
professed to have adhered closely to the old maps, but he certainly
did not, as Morelli testifies. Eastern Asia looks as if based on a
work of Ramusio's age, but Western Asia is of undoubtedly modern
character. (See Operetti di Iacopo Morelli, Ven. 1820, I. 299.)
[10] "Humboldt confirms the opinion I have more than once expressed that
too much must not be inferred from the silence of authors. He adduces
three important and perfectly undeniable matters of fact, as to which
no evidence is to be found where it would be most anticipated: In the
archives of Barcelona no trace of the triumphal entry of Columbus into
that city; in Marco Polo no allusion to the Chinese Wall; in the
archives of Portugal nothing about the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci in
the service of that crown." (Varnhagen v. Ense, quoted by Hayward,
Essays, 2nd Ser. I. 36.) See regarding the Chinese Wall the remarks
referred to above, at p. 292 of this volume.
[11] [It is a strange fact that Polo never mentions the use of Tea in
China, although he travelled through the Tea districts in Fu Kien, and
tea was then as generally drunk by the Chinese as it is now. It is
mentioned more than four centuries earlier by the Mohammedan merchant
Soleyman, who visited China about the middle of the 9th century. He
states (Reinaud, Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes et les
Persans dans l'Inde et a la Chine, 1845, I. 40): "The people of China
are accustomed to use as a beverage an infusion of a plant, which they
call sakh, and the leaves of which are aromatic and of a bitter
taste. It is considered very wholesome. This plant (the leaves) is
sold in all the cities of the empire." (Bretschneider, Hist. Bot.
Disc.I. p. 5.) - H. C.]
[12] It is probable that Persian, which had long been the language of
Turanian courts, was also the common tongue of foreigners at that of
the Mongols. Pulisanghin and Zardandan, in the preceding list, are
pure Persian. So are several of the Oriental phrases noted at p. 84.
See also notes on Ondanique and Vernique at pp. 93 and 384 of this
volume, on Tacuin at p. 448, and a note at p. 93 supra. The
narratives of Odoric, and others of the early travellers to Cathay,
afford corroborative examples. Lord Stanley of Alderley, in one of his
contributions to the Hakluyt Series, has given evidence from
experience that Chinese Mahomedans still preserve the knowledge of
numerous Persian words.
[13] Compare these errors with like errors of Herodotus, e.g., regarding
the conspiracy of the False Smerdis. (See Rawlinson's Introduction, p.
55.) There is a curious parallel between the two also in the supposed
occasional use of Oriental state records, as in Herodotus's accounts
of the revenues of the satrapies, and of the army of Xerxes, and in
Marco Polo's account of Kinsay, and of the Kaan's revenues.
