161-
165), which shows that he was but a pioneer. It was only under Arghun
Khan (1284-1291) that Tauris became the great market for foreign,
especially Genoese, merchants, as Marco Polo remarks on his return
journey; with Ghazan and the new city built by that prince, Tauris
reached a very high degree of prosperity, and was then really the
chief emporium on the route from Europe to Persia and the far East.
Sir Henry Yule had not changed his views, and if in the plate showing
Probable View of Marco Polo's own Geography, the itinerary is not
shown as running to Baghdad, it is mere neglect on the part of the
draughtsman. - H. C.]
[A] Page 19.
[B] Vide Yule, vol. i. p. 5. It is noticeable that John of Pian
de Carpine, who travelled 1245 to 1247, names it correctly.
[C] The modern name is Keis, an island lying off Linga.
[D] Vol. i. p. 110 (Introduction).
[14] It is stated by Neumann that this most estimable traveller once
intended to have devoted a special work to the elucidation of Marco's
chapters on the Oxus Provinces, and it is much to be regretted that
this intention was never fulfilled. Pamir has been explored more
extensively and deliberately, whilst this book was going through the
press, by Colonel Gordon, and other officers, detached from Sir
Douglas Forsyth's Mission. [We have made use of the information given
by these officers and by more recent travellers.
