The prince in the following year made a pretence of
submission, and the army (if indeed it had been sent) seems to have been
withdrawn. The prince, however, renewed his attack on the Chinese
establishments, and put 100 of their officials to death. Sotu then
despatched a new force, but it was quite unsuccessful, and had to retire.
In 1284 the king sent an embassy, including his grandson, to beg for
pardon and reconciliation. Kublai, however, refused to receive them, and
ordered his son Tughan to advance through Tong-king, an enterprise which
led to a still more disastrous war with that country, in which the Mongols
had much the worst of it. We are not told more.
Here we have the difficulties usual with Polo's historical anecdotes.
Certain names and circumstances are distinctly recognisable in the Chinese
Annals; others are difficult to reconcile with these. The embassy of 1284
seems the most likely to be the one spoken of by Polo, though the Chinese
history does not give it the favourable result which he ascribes to it.
The date in the text we see to be wrong, and as usual it varies in
different MSS. I suspect the original date was MCCLXXXIII.
One of the Chinese notices gives one of the king's names as Sinhopala,
and no doubt this is Ramusio's Accambale (Acambale); an indication at
once of the authentic character of that interpolation, and of the identity
of Champa and Chen-ching.
[We learn from an inscription that in 1265 the King of Champa was
Jaya-Sinhavarman II., who was named Indravarman in 1277, and whom the
Chinese called Che li Tseya Sinho phala Maha thiwa (Cri Jaya Sinha varmma
maha deva). He was the king at the time of Polo's voyage. (A. Bergaigne,
Ancien royaume de Campa, pp. 39-40; E. Aymonier, les Tchames et leurs
religious, p. 14.) - H.C.]
There are notices of the events in De Mailla (IX. 420-422) and Gaubil
(194), but Pauthier's extracts which we have made use of are much fuller.
Elephants have generally formed a chief part of the presents or tribute
sent periodically by the various Indo-Chinese states to the Court of
China.
[In a Chinese work published in the 14th century, by an Annamite, under
the title of Ngan-nan chi lio, and translated into French by M. Sainson
(1896), we read (p. 397): "Elephants are found only in Lin-y; this is the
country which became Champa. It is the habit to have burdens carried by
elephants; this country is to-day the Pu-cheng province." M. Sainson adds
in a note that Pu-cheng, in Annamite Bo chanh quan, is to-day Quang-binh,
and that, in this country, was placed the first capital (Dong-hoi) of the
future kingdom of Champa thrown later down to the south.
