And Mr. Milne's map of this route
shows an incomparable density of towns in the Ts'ien T'ang valley from
Yen-chau up to Kiu-chau. Ghiuju then will be KIU-CHAU. But between
Kiu-chau and Chang-shan it is impossible to make four days: barely possible
to make two. My map (Itineraries, No. VI.), based on D'Anville and
Fortune, makes the direct distance 24 miles; Milne's map barely 18;
whilst from his book we deduce the distance travelled by water to be about
30. On the whole, it seems probable that there is a mistake in the figure
here.
[Illustration: Marco Polo's route from Kinsai to ZAITUN, illustrating Mr.
G. Phillips' theory.]
From the head of the great Che-kiang valley I find two roads across the
mountains into Fo-kien described.
One leads from Kiang-shan (not Chang-shan) by a town called Ching-hu,
and then, nearly due south, across the mountains to Pu-ch'eng in Upper
Fo-kien. This is specified by Martini (p. 113): it seems to have been
followed by the Dutch Envoy, Van Hoorn, in 1665 (see Astley, III. 463),
and it was travelled by Fortune on his return from the Bohea country to
Ningpo. (II. 247, 271.)
The other route follows the portage spoken of above from Chang-shan to
Yuh-shan, and descends the river on that side to Hokeu, whence it
strikes south-east across the mountains to Tsung-ngan-hien in Fo-kien.
This route was followed by Fortune on his way to the Bohea country.
