It would be physically impossible in 25 days
to get beyond the arc which I have laid down on your map (viz. extending a
few miles north-east of Homi). There are scarcely any roads in those
mountains, and easy lines of communication begin only after you have got
to the Lin-ngan territory. In Marco Polo's days things were certainly not
better, but the reverse. All that has been done of consequence in the way
of roads, posts, and organisation in the part of Yun-nan between Lin-ngan
and Xieng Hung, dates in some degree from the Yuen, but in a far greater
degree from K'ang-hi." Hence, even with the Ramusian reading of the
itinerary, we cannot place Anin much beyond the position indicated
already.
[Illustration: Script thai of Xieng-hung.]
Koloman. - We have seen that the position of this region is probably near
the western frontier of Kwei-chau. Adhering to Homi as the
representative of Anin, and to the 8 days' journey of the text, the most
probable position of Koloman would be about Lo-ping which lies about 100
English miles in a straight line north-east from Homi. The first character
of the name here is again the same as the Lo of the Kolo tribes.
Beyond this point the difficulties of devising an interpretation,
consistent at once with facts and with the text as it stands, become
insuperable.
The narrative demands that from Koloman we should reach Fungul, a great
and noble city, by travelling 12 days along a river, and that Fungul
should be within twelve days' journey of Ch'eng-tu fu, along the same
river, or at least along rivers connected with it.
In advancing from the south-west guided by the data afforded by the texts,
we have not been able to carry the position of Fungul (Sinugul, or what
not of G.T. and other MSS.) further north than Phungan. But it is
impossible that Ch'eng-tu fu should have been reached in 12 days from this
point. Nor is it possible that a new post in a secluded position, like
Phungan, could have merited to be described as "a great and noble city."
Baron v. Richthofen has favoured me with a note in which he shows that in
reality the only place answering the more essential conditions of Fungul
is Siu-chau fu at the union of the two great branches of the Yang-tzu,
viz. the Kin-sha Kiang, and the Min-Kiang from Ch'eng-tu fu. (1) The
distance from Siu-chau to Ch'eng-tu by land travelling is just about 12
days, and the road is along a river. (2) In approaching "Fungul" from the
south Polo met with a good many towns and villages. This would be the case
along either of the navigable rivers that join the Yang-tzu below Siu-chau
(or along that which joins above Siu-chau, mentioned further on). (3) The
large trade in silk up and down the river is a characteristic that could
only apply to the Yang-tzu.
These reasons are very strong, though some little doubt must subsist until
we can explain the name (Fungul, or Sinugul) as applicable to Siu-chau.[2]
And assuming Siu-chau to be the city we must needs carry the position
of Coloman considerably further north than Lo-ping, and must presume the
interval between Anin and Coloman to be greatly understated, through
clerical or other error. With these assumptions we should place Polo's
Coloman in the vicinity of Wei-ning, one of the localities of Kolo tribes.
From a position near Wei-ning it would be quite possible to reach Siu-chau
in 12 days, making use of the facilities afforded by one or other of the
partially navigable rivers to which allusion has just been made.
"That one," says M. Garnier in a letter, "which enters the Kiang a little
above Siu-chau fu, the River of Lowa-tong, which was descended by our
party, has a branch to the eastward which is navigable up to about the
latitude of Chao-tong. Is not this probably Marco Polo's route? It is to
this day a line much frequented, and one on which great works have been
executed; among others two iron suspension bridges, works truly gigantic
for the country in which we find them."
[Illustration: Iron Suspension Bridge at Lowatong. (From Garnier.)]
An extract from a Chinese Itinerary of this route, which M. Garnier has
since communicated to me, shows that at a point 4 days from Wei-ning the
traveller may embark and continue his voyage to any point on the great
Kiang.
We are obliged, indeed, to give up the attempt to keep to a line of
communicating rivers throughout the whole 24 days. Nor do I see how it is
possible to adhere to that condition literally without taking more
material liberties with the text.
[Illustration: MARCO POLO'S ITINERARIES No. V.
Indo Chinese Regions (Book II, Chaps. 44-59)]
My theory of Polo's actual journey would be that he returned from Yun-nan
fu to Ch'eng-tu fu through some part of the province of Kwei-chau, perhaps
only its western extremity, but that he spoke of Caugigu, and probably of
Anin, as he did of Bangala, from report only. And, in recapitulation, I
would identify provisionally the localities spoken of in this difficult
itinerary as follows: Caugigu with Kiang Hung; Anin with Homi;
Coloman with the country about Wei-ning in Western Kwei-chau; Fungul
or Sinugul with Siu-chau.
[This itinerary is difficult, as Sir Henry Yule says. It takes Marco Polo
24 days to go from Coloman or Toloman to Ch'eng-tu. The land route is 22
days from Yun-nan fu to Swi-fu, via Tung-ch'wan and Chao-t'ung.
