[18] There can hardly be a doubt that the Zaiturn of Marco is the modern
Canton; yet from the causes already mentioned in several notes, it is
next to an impossibility to trace the route or itinerary from Quinsai
to this place. - E.
[19] This is an obvious error, corruption, or interpolation; for on no
conceivable hypothesis of the situations of Quinsai and Zaitum, can
any river be found in China which answers to this description. - E.
[20] This is the only hint in Marco, of the peculiarly famous manufacture
of China, from which all the best earthen ware of Europe has
acquired this name as par excellence. From this circumstance, and
from the fame of Nankin for this manufacture, I strongly suspect that
this passage has been foisted in by some ignorant or careless editor
in a wrong place. - E.
[21] It is singular that Marco should make no mention whatever of the
peculiar beverage of the Chinese, tea, though particularly described
both in name and use, by the Mahometan travellers in the ninth
century, four hundred years earlier, as used in all the cities of
China. - E.
SECTION XVII
Of the island of Zipangu, and of the unsuccessful attempts made by the
Tartars for its Conquest.
