"With a fair wind they carry ten sails;" Ibn Batuta: "One
of these great junks carries from three sails to twelve;" Joseph, the
Indian, speaking of those that traded to India in the 15th century: "They
were very great, and had sometimes twelve sails, with innumerable rowers."
(Lecomte, I. 389; Fr. Jordanus, Hak. Soc., p. 55; Ibn Batuta, IV.
91; Novus Orbis, p. 148.) A fuller account of these vessels is given at
the beginning of Bk. III.
NOTE 4. - I.e. in this case Sumatra, as will appear hereafter. "It is quite
possible for a fleet of fourteen junks which required to keep together to
take three months at the present time to accomplish a similar voyage. A
Chinese trader, who has come annually to Singapore in junks for many
years, tells us that he has had as long a passage as sixty days, although
the average is eighteen or twenty days." (Logan in J. Ind. Archip. II.
609.)
NOTE 5. - Ramusio's version here varies widely, and looks more probable:
"From the day that they embarked until their arrival there died of
mariners and others on board 600 persons; and of the three ambassadors
only one survived, whose name was Goza (Coja); but of the ladies and
damsels died but one."
It is worth noting that in the case of an embassy sent to Cathay a few
years later by Ghazan Khan, on the return by this same route to Persia,
the chief of the two Persian ambassadors, and the Great Khan's envoy, who
was in company, both died by the way.
