- Marco's own errors led commentators much astray about Tanduc or
Tenduc, till Klaproth put the matter in its true light.
Our traveller says that Tenduc had been the seat of Aung Khan's
sovereignty; he has already said that it had been the scene of his final
defeat, and he tells us that it was still the residence of his descendants
in their reduced state. To the last piece of information he can speak as a
witness, and he is corroborated by other evidence; but the second
statement we have seen to be almost certainly erroneous; about the first
we cannot speak positively.
Klaproth pointed out the true position of Tenduc in the vicinity of the
great northern bend of the Hwang-Ho, quoting Chinese authorities to show
that Thiante or Thiante-Kiun was the name of a district or group of
towns to the north of that bend, a name which he supposes to be the
original of Polo's Tenduc. The general position entirely agrees with
Marco's indications; it lies on his way eastward from Tangut towards
Chagannor, and Shangtu (see ch. lx., lxi.), whilst in a later passage (Bk.
II. ch. lxiv.), he speaks of the Caramoran or Hwang-Ho in its lower
course, as "coming from the lands of Prester John."
M. Pauthier finds severe fault with Klaproth's identification of the
name Tenduc with the Thiante of the Chinese, belonging to a city which
had been destroyed 300 years before, whilst he himself will have that name
to be a corruption of Tathung.
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