Along The Side Of The Canal Runs The High Road To Machin,
Extending For A Space Of 40 Days' Journey, And This Has Been Paved
Throughout, So That Travellers And Their Animals May Get Along During The
Rainy Season Without Sinking In The Mud....
Shops, taverns, and villages
line the road on both sides, so that dwelling succeeds dwelling without
intermission throughout the whole space of 40 days' journey." (Cathay,
259-260.)
The canal appears to have been [begun in 1289 and to have been completed
in 1292. - H.C.] though large portions were in use earlier. Its chief
object was to provide the capital with food. Pauthier gives the statistics
of the transport of rice by this canal from 1283 to the end of Kublai's
reign, and for some subsequent years up to 1329. In the latter year the
quantity reached 3,522,163 shi or 1,247,633 quarters. As the supplies of
rice for the capital and for the troops in the Northern Provinces always
continued to be drawn from Kiang-nan, the distress and derangement caused
by the recent rebel occupation of that province must have been enormous.
(Pauthier, p. 481-482; De Mailla, p. 439.) Polo's account of the
formation of the canal is exceedingly accurate. Compare that given by Mr.
Williamson (I. 62).
NOTE 3. - "On the Kiang, not far from the mouth, is that remarkably
beautiful little island called the 'Golden Isle,' surmounted by numerous
temples inhabited by the votaries of Buddha or Fo, and very correctly
described so many centuries since by Marco Polo." (Davis's Chinese, I.
149.) The monastery, according to Pauthier, was founded in the 3rd or 4th
century, but the name Kin-Shan, or "Golden Isle," dates only from a
visit of the Emperor K'ang-hi in 1684.
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