Pp. 24, 31,
also 64, 80.)
[18] Excepting in the doubtful case of Kan-chau, where one reading says
that the three Polos were there on business of their own not necessary
to mention, and another, that only Maffeo and Marco were there, "en
legation."
[19] Persian history seems to fix the arrival of the lady Kokachin in the
North of Persia to the winter of 1293-1294. The voyage to Sumatra
occupied three months (vol. i. p. 34); they were five months detained
there (ii. 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. We may then suppose that they reached
Hormuz about November 1293, and Ghazan's camp a month or two later.
[20] The French text which forms the basis of my translation says that,
excluding mariners, there were 600 souls, out of whom only 8 survived.
The older MS. which I quote as G. T., makes the number 18, a fact that
I had overlooked till the sheets were printed off.
[21] Died 12th March, 1291.
[22] All dates are found so corrupt that even in this one I do not feel
absolute confidence. Marco in dictating the book is aware that Ghazan
had attained the throne of Persia (see vol. i. p. 36, and ii. pp. 50
and 477), an event which did not occur till October, 1295. The date
assigned to it, however, by Marco (ii. 477) is 1294, or the year
before that assigned to the return home.
The travellers may have stopped some time at Constantinople on their
way, or even may have visited the northern shores of the Black Sea;
otherwise, indeed, how did Marco acquire his knowledge of that Sea
(ii.