So far then, provided we admit the reading of the MS. C, there is no ground
for hesitating to adopt the usual route between the two cities,
via Han-chung.
But the key to the exact route is evidently the position of Acbalec Manzi,
and on this there is no satisfactory light.
For the name of the province, Pauthier's text has Acbalec Manzi, for the
name of the city Acmalec simply. The G.T. has in the former case
Acbalec Mangi, in the latter "Acmelic Mangi qe vaut dire le une de le
confine dou Mangi." This is followed literally by the Geographic Latin,
which has "Acbalec Mangi et est dictum in lingua nostra unus ex
confinibus Mangi." So also the Crusca; whilst Ramusio has "Achbaluch
Mangi, che vuol dire Citta Bianca de' confini di Mangi." It is clear that
Ramusio alone has here preserved the genuine reading.
Klaproth identified Acbalec conjecturally with the town of Pe-ma-ching,
or "White-Horse-Town," a place now extinct, but which stood like Mien and
Han-chung on the extensive and populous Plain that here borders the Han.
It seems so likely that the latter part of the name Pe-MACHING ("White
Maching") might have been confounded by foreigners with Machin and
Manzi (which in Persian parlance were identical), that I should be
disposed to overlook the difficulty that we have no evidence produced to
show that Pemaching was a place of any consequence.
