292); and the remainder of the voyage extended to eighteen
more (i. 35), - twenty-six months in all.
The data are too slight for unexceptional precision, but the following
adjustment will fairly meet the facts. Say that they sailed from
Fo-kien in January 1292. In April they would be in Sumatra, and find
the S.W. Monsoon too near to admit of their crossing the Bay of
Bengal. They remain in port till September (five months), and then
proceed, touching (perhaps) at Ceylon, at Kayal, and at several ports
of Western India. In one of these, e.g. Kayal or Tana, they pass the
S.W. Monsoon of 1293, and then proceed to the Gulf. They reach Hormuz
in the winter, and the camp of the Persian Prince Ghazan, the son of
Arghun, in March, twenty-six months from their departure.
I have been unable to trace Hammer's authority (not Wassaf I find),
which perhaps gives the precise date of the Lady's arrival in Persia
(see infra, p. 38). From his narrative, however (Gesch. der Ilchane,
ii. 20), March 1294 is perhaps too late a date. But the five months'
stoppage in Sumatra must have been in the S.W. Monsoon; and if the
arrival in Persia is put earlier, Polo's numbers can scarcely be held
to. Or, the eighteen months mentioned at vol. i. p. 35, must include
the five months' stoppage.
