There
are in the city 70 tomans of soldiers and 70 tomans of rayats, whose
number is registered in the books of the Dewan. There are 700 churches
(Kalisia) resembling fortresses, and every one of them overflowing with
presbyters without faith, and monks without religion, besides other
officials, wardens, servants of the idols, and this, that, and the other,
to tell the names of which would surpass number and space. All these are
exempt from taxes of every kind. Four tomans of the garrison constitute
the night patrol.... Amid the city there are 360 bridges erected over
canals ample as the Tigris, which are ramifications of the great river of
Chin; and different kinds of vessels and ferry-boats, adapted to every
class, ply upon the waters in such numbers as to pass all powers of
enumeration.... The concourse of all kinds of foreigners from the four
quarters of the world, such as the calls of trade and travel bring together
in a kingdom like this, may easily be conceived." (Revised on Hammer's
Translation, pp. 42-43.)
The Persian work Nuzhat-al-Kulub: - "KHINZAI is the capital of the
country of Machin. If one may believe what some travellers say, there
exists no greater city on the face of the earth; but anyhow, all agree
that it is the greatest in all the countries in the East. Inside the place
is a lake which has a circuit of six parasangs, and all round which houses
are built.... The population is so numerous that the watchmen are some
10,000 in number." (Quat. Rash. p. lxxxviii.)
The Arabic work Masalak-al-Absar: - "Two routes lead from Khanbalik to
KHINSA, one by land, the other by water; and either way takes 40 days. The
city of Khinsa extends a whole day's journey in length and half a day's
journey in breadth. In the middle of it is a street which runs right from
one end to the other. The streets and squares are all paved; the houses
are five-storied (?), and are built with planks nailed together," etc.
(Ibid.)
Ibn Batuta: - "We arrived at the city of KHANSA.... This city is the
greatest I have ever seen on the surface of the earth. It is three days'
journey in length, so that a traveller passing through the city has to
make his marches and his halts!.. It is subdivided into six towns, each
of which has a separate enclosure, while one great wall surrounds the
whole," etc. (Cathay, p. 496 seqq.)
Let us conclude with a writer of a later age, the worthy Jesuit Martin
Martini, the author of the admirable Atlas Sinensis, one whose
honourable zeal to maintain Polo's veracity, of which he was one of the
first intelligent advocates, is apt, it must be confessed, a little to
colour his own spectacles:
