I. Yule repeats this
identification in his notes. I may mention that much of the information
given in the present article was published in Vol. XXIV. of the China
Review two or three years ago. I notice that M. Cordier quotes that
volume in connection with other matters, but this particular point does
not appear to have caught his eye.
"As matters now stand, there is a fairly strong presumption that Marco
Polo is once named in the Annals; but there is no irrefragable evidence;
and in any case it is only this once, and not as Pauthier has it."
Cf. also note by Prof. E.H. Parker, China Review, XXV. pp. 193-4, and,
according to Prof. Pelliot (Bul. Ecole franc. Ext. Orient, July-Sept.,
1904, p. 769), the biography of Han Lin-eul in the Ming shi, k. 122, p.
3.
Prof. Pelliot writes to me: "Il faut renoncer une bonne fois a retrouver
Marco Polo dans le Po-lo mele a l'affaire d'Ahmed. Grace aux titulations
successives, nous pouvons reconstituer la carriere administrative de ce
Po-lo, au moins depuis 1271, c'est-a-dire depuis une date anterieure a
l'arrivee de Marco Polo a la cour mongole.
