To This The Emperor Said,
That He Had Been A Short Time Upon Earth, All His Transactions Having Very
Little Exceeded The Space Of Thirty Months.
On seeing the image of Mohammed
riding on a camel, and his companions about him, with Arabian shoes and
leathern girdles, Wahab wept; and being asked the reason, he answered, it
was on seeing his prophet and lord, who was his cousin also.
The emperor
then asked concerning the age of the world; and Wahab answered, that
opinions varied on the subject, as some reckoned it to be six thousand
years old, while some would not allow so many, and others extended it to a
greater antiquity. Being asked why he had deserted his own king, to whom he
was so near in blood; he gave information of the revolutions which had
happened at Basra, which had forced him to fly to Siraff; where, hearing of
the glory of the emperor of China, and the abundance of every thing in his
empire, he had been impelled by curiosity to visit it; but that he intended
soon to return to the kingdom of his cousin, where he should make a
faithful report of the magnificence of China, the vast extent of its
provinces, and of the kind usage he had met with. This seemed to please the
emperor, who made him rich presents, and ordered him to be conducted to
Canfu on post horses[4]. He wrote also to the governor of that city,
commanding him to be treated with honour; and to the governors of the
provinces through which he had to pass, to shew him every civility. He was
treated handsomely during the remainder of his stay in China, plentifully
supplied with all necessaries, and honoured with many presents[5].
From the information of Ebn Wahab, we learn that Cumdan, where the emperor
of China keeps his court, is a very large and extremely populous city,
divided into two parts by a very long and broad street. That the emperor,
his chief ministers, the supreme judge, the eunuchs, the soldiery, and all
belonging to the imperial household, dwelt in that part of the city which
is on the right hand eastward; and that the people were not admitted into
that part of the city, which is watered by canals from different rivers,
the borders of which are, planted with trees, and adorned by magnificent
palaces. That portion of the city on the left hand, westwards from the
great street, is inhabited by the ordinary kind of people, and the
merchants, where also are great squares and markets for all the necessaries
of life. At day-break every morning, the officers of the royal household,
with the inferior servants, purveyors, and the domestics of the grandees of
the court, come into that division of the city, some on horseback, and
others on foot, to the public markets, and the shops of those who deal in
all sorts of goods, where they buy whatever they want, and do not return
again till their occasions call them back next morning. The city is very
pleasantly situate in the midst of a most fertile soil, watered by several
rivers, and hardly deficient in any thing except palm trees, which grow not
there.
In our time a discovery has been made, of a circumstance quite new and
unknown to our ancestors. No one ever imagined that the great sea which
extends from the Indies to China had any communication with the sea of
Syria. Yet we have heard, that in the sea of Rum, or the Mediterranean,
there was found the wreck of an Arabian ship, which had been shattered by a
tempest, in which all her men had perished. Her remains were driven by the
wind and weather into the sea of the Chozars, and thence by the canal of
the Mediterranean sea, and were at last thrown upon the coast of Syria.
Hence it is evident, that the sea surrounds all the country of China and
Sila or Cila, the uttermost parts of Turkestan, and the country of the
Chozars, and that it communicates by the strait with that which washes the
coast of Syria. This is proved by the structure of the wreck; of which the
planks were not nailed or bolted, like all those built in the
Mediterranean, or on the coast of Syria, but joined together in an
extraordinary manner, as if sewed, and none but the ships of Siraff are so
fastened. We have also heard it reported, that ambergris has been found on
the coast of Syria, which seems hard to believe, and was unknown to former
times. If this be true, it is impossible that amber should have been thrown
up on the sea of Syria, but by the sea of Aden and Kolsum, which has
communication with the seas where amber is found. And as God has put a
separation between these seas, it must have necessarily been, that this
amber was driven from the Indian Seas into the others, in the same
direction with the vessel of Siraff[6].
The province of Zapage is opposite to China, and distant from thence a
month's sail or less, if the wind be fair. The king of this country is
styled Mehrage, and his dominions are said to be 900 leagues in
circumference, besides which, he commands over many islands which lie
around; so that, altogether, this kingdom is above 1000 leagues in extent.
One of these islands is called Serbeza, which is said to be 400 leagues
in compass; another is called Rhami, which is 800 leagues round, and
produces red-wood, camphor, and many other commodities. In the same kingdom
is the island of Cala, which is the mid passage between China and the
country of the Arabs. This island is 80 leagues in circumference, and to it
they bring all sorts of merchandize, as aloes wood of several kinds,
camphor, sandal wood, ivory, the wood called cabahi, ebony, red-wood, all
sorts of spice, and many others; and at present the trade is carried on
between this island and that of Oman.
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