My theory of Polo's actual journey would be that he returned from Yun-nan
fu to Ch'eng-tu fu through some part of the province of Kwei-chau, perhaps
only its western extremity, but that he spoke of Caugigu, and probably of
Anin, as he did of Bangala, from report only.
And, in recapitulation, I
would identify provisionally the localities spoken of in this difficult
itinerary as follows: Caugigu with Kiang Hung; Anin with Homi;
Coloman with the country about Wei-ning in Western Kwei-chau; Fungul
or Sinugul with Siu-chau.
[This itinerary is difficult, as Sir Henry Yule says. It takes Marco Polo
24 days to go from Coloman or Toloman to Ch'eng-tu. The land route is 22
days from Yun-nan fu to Swi-fu, via Tung-ch'wan and Chao-t'ung. (J.
China B.R.A.S. XXVIII. 74-75.) From the Toloman province, which I
place about Lin-ngan and Cheng-kiang, south of Yun-nan fu, Polo must have
passed a second time through this city, which is indeed at the end of all
the routes of this part of South-Western China. He might go back to
Sze-ch'wan by the western route, via Tung-ch'wan and Chao-t'ung to Swi-fu,
or, by the eastern, easier and shorter route by Siuen-wei chau, crossing a
corner of the Kwei-chau province (Wei-ning), and passing by Yun-ning hien
to the Kiang, this is the route followed by Mr. A. Hosie in 1883 and by Mr.
F.S.A. Bourne in 1885, and with great likelihood by Marco Polo; he may
have taken the Yun-ning River to the district city of Na-ch'i hien, which
lies on the right bank both of this river and of the Kiang; the Kiang up to
Swi-fu and thence to Ch'eng-tu.
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