There does not,
however, seem to be on this route any place that can be identified with
his Cuju or Chuju. Ching-hu seems to be insignificant, and the name has no
resemblance. On the other route followed by Mr. Fortune himself from that
side we have Kwansin fu, Hokeu, Yen-shan, and (last town passed on that
side) Chuchu. The latter, as to both name and position, is quite
satisfactory, but it is described as a small poor town. Hokeu would be
represented in Polo's spelling as Caghiu or Cughiu. It is now a place of
great population and importance as the entrepot of the Black Tea Trade,
but, like many important commercial cities in the interior, not being even
a hien it has no place either in Duhalde or in Biot, and I cannot learn
its age.
It is no objection to this line that Polo speaks of Cuju or Chuju as the
last city of the government of Kinsay, whilst the towns just named are in
Kiang-si. For Kiang-Che, the province of Kinsay, then included the
eastern part of Kiang-si. (See Cathay, p. 270.)
[Mr. Phillips writes (T. Pao, I. 223-224): "Eighty-five li beyond
Lan-ki hien is Lung-yin, a place not mentioned by Polo, and another
ninety-five li still further on is Chuechau or Keuchau, which is, I
think, the Gie-za of Ramusio, and the Cuju of Yule's version.
