My way,
leaving those on both sides, and many intermediate ones to avoid prolixity,
and not to set down in writing what I only learned from hearsay.
[1] The meaning of this sentence is obscure, unless it is intended to guard
the readers against the supposition that these countries were to the
west of Europe. - E.
[2] Called Lazi by Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition of these travels,
mentioned in the introduction. This place, therefore, may be Lassa, in
the kingdom or province of Ou, in Middle Thibet, the residence of the
Dalai Lama, situate on a branch of the Sampoo, or great Brahma-pootra,
or Barampooter river, which joins the Ganges in the lower part of
Bengal. - E.
[3] This sentence most probably is meant to imply the use of cowries,
sometimes called porellane shells, both for money and ornament. - E.
[4] Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition, names the country Cariam, and the
governor Cocagio. - E.
[5] The ordinary European price is about fourteen for one. - E.
[6] The description of this creature seems to indicate an alligator or
crocodile; which probably Marco had not seen, and only describes from
an imperfect account of the natives. - E.
[7] According to Pinkerton, this province is named Cariti, and its
principal town Nociam, in the edition of Trevigi. - E.
[8] Named previously Carazam and Caraian, afterwards Caraiam, or Carian.
- E.
[9] In some modern maps, Mien is introduced as a large province on the
river of Pegu, immediately to the south-west of Yunnan in China, and
divided from Bengal by the whole country of Ava. But the distribution
of eastern dominion has been always extremely fluctuating; and Mien
may then have included all the north of Ava. - E.
[10] In the original text this animal is called the unicorn; a word of the
same import with rhinoceros. - E.
[11] This either implies that Bengal on the borders of India is to the
south of Thibet; or south is here an error for east, Bengal being
the eastern frontier province of India proper. - E.
[12] The difficulty, or rather impossibility of tracing the steps of Marco
Polo, may proceed from various causes. The provinces or kingdoms,
mostly named from their chief cities, have suffered infinite changes
from perpetual revolutions. The names he gives, besides being
corrupted in the various transcriptions and editions, he probably set
down orally, as given to him in the Tartar or Mogul dialect, very
different from those which have been adopted into modern geography
from various sources. Many of these places may have been destroyed,
and new names imposed. Upon the whole, his present course appears to
have been from Bengal eastwards, through the provinces of the farther
India, to Mangi or southern China; and Cangigu may possibly be
Chittigong. Yet Cangigu is said in the text to be an inland country.
- E.
[13] Kathay and Mangi, as formerly mentioned, are Northern and Southern
China, so that the direction of these rivers ought perhaps to have
been described as north and south, instead of east and west. About
seventy miles from the mouth of the Yellow river, or Hoang-ho, there
is a town called Tsingo, near which a canal runs to the north,
communicating with the river on which Pekin is situated, and another
canal, running far south into Mangi or Southern China. Tsingo, though
now an inferior town, may have been formerly Singui-matu, and a place
of great importance. - E.
[14] Caramoran or Hora-moran, is the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river; and it must
be allowed, that the distance which is placed in the text, between
Singui-matu and this river, is quite hostile to the idea mentioned in
the preceding note, of Tsingo and Singui-matu being the same place.
The only other situation in all China which accords with the two
canals, or rivers, communicating both with Kathay and Mangi, is
Yotcheou on the Tong-ting-hou lake, which is on the Kian-ku river, and
at a sufficient distance from the Hoang-ho to agree with the text. In
the absence of all tolerable certainty, conjecture seems allowable.
- E.
[15] There are no Chinese cities, in our maps, that, in the least
appearance of sound, correspond with the names of these towns or
cities near the mouth of the Hoang-ho. Hoain-gin is the only large
city near its mouth, and that is not on its banks. All therefore that
can be said, is, that the two cities in the text must have stood on
opposite sides of the Hoang-ho in the days of Marco Polo. - E.
SECTION XV.
An account of the Kingdom of Mangi, and the manner of its Reduction under
the dominion of the Great Khan; together with some Notices of its various
Provinces and Cities.
The kingdom of Mangi is the richest and most famous of all that are to be
found in the east. In the year 1269, this kingdom was governed by a king
named Fanfur[1], who was richer and more powerful than any who had reigned
there for an hundred years. Fanfur maintained justice and internal peace in
his dominions, so that no one dared to offend his neighbour, or to disturb
the peace, from dread of prompt, severe, and impartial justice; insomuch,
that the artificers would often leave their shops, filled with valuable
commodities, open in the night, yet no one would presume to enter them.
Travellers and strangers travelled in safety through his whole dominions by
day or night. He was merciful to the poor, and carefully provided for such
as were oppressed by poverty or sickness, and every year took charge of
20,000 infants who were deserted by their mothers from poverty, all of whom
he bred up till they were able to work at some trade.
