The
Locality Of The Ancient Port Of Zabai Or Champa Is Probably To Be Sought On
The West Coast Of Kamboja, Near The Campot, Or The Kang-Kao Of Our Maps.
On
this coast also was the Komar and Kamarah of Ibn Batuta and other Arab
writers, the great source
Of aloes-wood, the country then of the Khmer or
Kambojan People." (Notes on the Oldest Records of the Sea-Route to China
from Western Asia, Proc.R.G.S. 1882, pp. 656-657.)
M. Barth says that this identification would agree well with the testimony
of his inscription XVIII. B., which comes from Angkor and for which Campa
is a part of the Dakshinapatha, of the southern country. But the capital
of this rival State of Kamboja would thus be very near the Treang province
where inscriptions have been found with the names of Bhavavarman and of
Icanavarman. It is true that in 627, the King of Kamboja, according to the
Chinese Annals (Nouv. Mel. As. I. p. 84), had subjugated the kingdom of
Fu-nan identified by Yule and Garnier with Campa. Abel Remusat (Nouv.
Mel. As. I. pp. 75 and 77) identifies it with Tong-king and Stan. Julien
(J. As. 4 deg. Ser. X. p. 97) with Siam. (Inscrip. Sanscrites du
Cambodge, 1885, pp. 69-70, note.)
Sir Henry Yule writes (l.c. p. 657): "We have said that the Arab Sanf, as
well as the Greek Zabai, lay west of Cape Cambodia. This is proved by the
statement that the Arabs on their voyage to China made a ten days' run from
Sanf to Pulo Condor." But Abulfeda (transl. by Guyard, II. ii. p. 127)
distinctly says that the Komar Peninsula (Khmer) is situated west of the
Sanf Peninsula; between Sanf and Komar there is not a day's journey by sea.
We have, however, another difficulty to overcome.
I agree with Sir Henry Yule and Marsden that in ch. vii. infra, p. 276, the
text must be read, "When you leave Chamba," instead of "When you leave
Java." Coming from Zayton and sailing 1500 miles, Polo arrives at Chamba;
from Chamba, sailing 700 miles he arrives at the islands of Sondur and
Condur, identified by Yule with Sundar Fulat (Pulo Condore); from Sundar
Fulat, after 500 miles more, he finds the country called Locac; then he
goes to Pentam (Bintang, 500 miles), Malaiur, and Java the Less (Sumatra).
Ibn Khordadhbeh's itinerary agrees pretty well with Marco Polo's, as
Professor De Goeje remarks to me: "Starting from Mait (Bintang), and
leaving on the left Tiyuma (Timoan), in five days' journey, one goes to
Kimer (Kmer, Cambodia), and after three days more, following the coast,
arrives to Sanf; then to Lukyn, the first point of call in China, 100
parasangs by land or by sea; from Lukyn it takes four days by sea and
twenty by land to go to Kanfu." [Canton, see note, supra p. 199.] (See De
Goeje's Ibn Khordadhbeh, p. 48 et seq.) But we come now to the difficulty.
Professor De Goeje writes to me:
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