Ii. note 5. In a later
chapter Marco calls it the Sea of Sarai, a title also given in the Carta
Catalana. [Odorico calls it Sea of Bacuc (Cathay) and Sea of Bascon
(Cordier). The latter name is a corruption of Abeskun, a small town and
island in the S.E. corner of the Caspian Sea, not far from Ashurada. - H.
C.]
We have little information as to the Genoese navigation of the Caspian,
but the great number of names exhibited along its shores in the map just
named (1375) shows how familiar such navigation had become by that date.
See also Cathay, p. 50, where an account is given of a remarkable
enterprise by Genoese buccaneers on the Caspian about that time. Mas'udi
relates an earlier history of how about the beginning of the 9th century a
fleet of 500 Russian vessels came out of the Volga, and ravaged all the
populous southern and western shores of the Caspian. The unhappy
population was struck with astonishment and horror at this unlooked-for
visitation from a sea that had hitherto been only frequented by peaceful
traders or fishermen. (II. 18-24.)
NOTE 9. - [The enormous quantity of fish found in the Caspian Sea is
ascribed to the mass of vegetable food to be found in the shallower waters
of the North and the mouth of the Volga. According to Reclus, the Caspian
fisheries bring in fish to the annual value of between three and four
millions sterling. - H. C.]
[1] See Letter of Frederic to the Roman Senate, of 20th June, 1241, in
Breholles. Mahommedan writers, contemporary with the Mongol
invasions, regarded these as a manifest sign of the approaching end of
the world. (See Elliot's Historians, II. p. 265.)
[2] When the first edition was published, I was not aware of remarks to
like effect regarding names of this character by Sir H. Rawlinson in
the J. R. As. Soc. vol. xi. pp. 64 and 103.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE KINGDOM OF MAUSUL.
On the frontier of Armenia towards the south-east is the kingdom of
MAUSUL. It is a very great kingdom, and inhabited[NOTE 1] by several
different kinds of people whom we shall now describe.
First there is a kind of people called ARABI, and these worship Mahommet.
Then there is another description of people who are NESTORIAN and JACOBITE
Christians. These have a Patriarch, whom they call the JATOLIC, and this
Patriarch creates Archbishops, and Abbots, and Prelates of all other
degrees, and sends them into every quarter, as to India, to Baudas, or to
Cathay, just as the Pope of Rome does in the Latin countries. For you must
know that though there is a very great number of Christians in those
countries, they are all Jacobites and Nestorians; Christians indeed, but
not in the fashion enjoined by the Pope of Rome, for they come short in
several points of the Faith.[NOTE 2]
