[3] Sara is undoubtedly the town of Saray, situated on the eastern arm of
the Wolga, or Achtuba. The Astracan mentioned in the text by
Pegoletti, was not on the spot where that city now stands; both that
ancient Astracan and Saray having been destroyed by Timur Khan, or
Tamerlane, as he is usually called, in the winter 1395. The old town
of Saray was at no great distance from ancient Astracan. - Forst.
[4] Saracanco is probably the town which formerly existed on the river Jaik
or Ural, the remains of which are now known by the name of
Saratschik. - Forst.
[5] The name of Organci is easily recognized In the town of Urgenz in
Kheucaresm; which is named Dschordschanio by Abulfeda, and Korkang by
the Persians. But there were two towns of this name, the greater and
the lesser Urgenz, or Old and New Urgenz. The Old or Greater Urgenz
was situated near to where the Gihon discharges its waters into lake
Aral; the New or Ixsser Urgenz is to be found near Chiwa, or Chiva, on
the Gihon - Forst.
[6] Oltrarra is properly called Otrar, and also Farab, which latter name is
to be found in Abulfeda. It is situate on the river Sihon or Sire. The
Chinese, who cannot pronounce the letter r, call it Uotala. - Forst.
[7] Armalecco is the name of a small town called Almalig, which, according
to Nassir Ettusi and Ulug-beg, is in Turkestan. From the life of
Timur Khan, by Shersfeddin Ali, it appears that Almalig is situate
between the town of Taschkent and the river Irtiah, in the country of
the Gete, and on the banks of the river Ab-eile, which discharges
itself into the Sihon, or Sirr-Daria. - Forst.
[8] Came-xu is in all probability the name of Khame or Khami with the
addition of xu, instead of Tcheou or Tsheu, which, in the Chinese
language, signifies a town of the second rank. - Forst.
[9] Obviously the Kara-Moran, called Hoang-ho by the Chinese, or the Yellow
River. - Forst.
[10] Cassai, or Kaway, seems to be the place called Kissen, on a lake of
that name, near the northernmost winding branch of the Kara-moran, in
Lat. 41.50'. N. long. 107 deg.. 40'. E. - Forst.
[11] It is curious to notice, in the writings, of this intelligent
commercial geographer, and in the travels of Marco Polo, the peculiar
advantages in commerce enjoyed by the Chinese at so early a period, of
being paid in sliver for their commodities and manufactures. This
practice, which prevailed so early as 1260, the era of the elder
Polos, and even, in 851, when the Mahometan travellers visited
Southern China, still continues in 1810. - E.
[12] The value of the silver somno is nowhere mentioned; but it is of no
importance, as it would not enable us to institute any comparison of
values whatsoever. - E.
[13] Gamalecco is undoubtedly Cambalu, Cambalig, or Khan-balig, otherwise
Pekin; exactly as Gattay is substituted for Katay Kathay, or Cathay.
- Forst.
CHAP. XV.
Voyages of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno in 1380.[1]
INTRODUCTION.
Although we have admitted this article into our collection, on the
authority of Ramusio and J. R. Forster, we are disposed to consider the
whole as a fabrication, altogether unworthy of any credit. The first
section, indeed, may possibly have had some foundation in truth, as the
Zenos may have navigated about the close of the fourteenth century to the
Orkneys, and some imperfect and disfigured narrative of their voyage may
have fallen into the hands of Marcolini, the author or editor of these
strangely distorted and exaggerated or pretended voyages. In regard to the
second section, unless we could suppose, that, by Estoitland and Drogio,
some strangely distorted account of different districts in Ireland were
meant to be enigmatically conveyed, the whole of that section must be
pronounced a palpable and blundering forgery. But it appears obviously
intended by the relater, to impress upon his readers, that some portion of
the western hemisphere, afterwards named America, had been visited by
Antonio Zeno; and the high probability is, that Marcolini, a patriotic
Venetian, had invented the whole story, on purpose to rob the rival
republic of Genoa of the honour of haying given birth to the real
discoverer of the New World. If there be any truth whatever in the voyages
of the Zenos, it is only to be found in the first section of this chapter;
and even there the possible truth is so strangely enveloped in
unintelligible names of persons and places, as to be entirely useless. The
second section is utterly unworthy of the slightest serious
consideration; and must either have been a posterior fabrication, engrafted
upon an authentic, but ignorantly told narrative; or the seeming
possibility of the first section was invented to give currency to the
wild forgery of the second. Latin books, a library, gold, ships, and
foreign trade, corn, beer, numerous towns and castles, all in the most
northern parts of America in the fourteenth century, where only nomadic
savages had ever existed, are all irrefragable evidence, that the whole, or
at least that portion of the voyages of the Zenos, is an idle romance. To
increase the absurdity, as if to try the gullability of the readers,
Dedalus, a king of Scotland! is assumed to have been the first discoverer
of the Western World; and his son Icarus is introduced to give his name
to a civilized island, already named Estoitland in the narrative.
After this decided opinion of the falsehood and absurdity of the whole of
this present chapter, it may be necessary to state, that, in a work so
general and comprehensive as that we have undertaken, it did not seem
advisable or proper to suppress an article which had been admitted into
other general collections of voyages and travels.
![A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume 1 - By Robert Kerr
- Eis tnae polis], or the city, by way of eminence, by
which the Greeks distinguished Constantinople, and which the Turks - Page 185](../images/travel.jpg)
