- E.
[9] There is a series of corruptions or absurdities here: a Malabar
government under a Sultan Asiden, or Asi-o-din, situated at Dely,
conquered by a secret expedition from Turkestan, requires a more
correct edition of the original of Marco Polo to render intelligible.
We can suppose a tribe of Indians or Blacks not far from Gombroon, to
have been under the rule of a mussel man Sultan, and conquered or
subverted by a Tartar expedition from Touran, or the north of Persia:
But this remains a mere hypothetical explanation. - E.
[10] For this paragraph, the editor is indebted to Mr Pinkerton, Mod. Geog.
II. xxii. who has had the good fortune to procure what he thinks an
original edition from the MS. of Marco Polo. - E.
[11] By some singular negligence in translating, Mr Pinkerton, in the
passage quoted in the preceding note, has ridiculously called this
country the plain of Formosa, mistaking the mere epithet,
descriptive of its beauty in the Italian language, for its name. The
district was obviously a distinct small kingdom, named Ormus from its
capital city; which, from its insular situation, and great trade with
India, long maintained a splendid independence. - E.
[12] The two Mahometan travellers of the ninth century, give precisely the
same account of the ships of Siraf, in the same gulf of Persia.
