I Shall Now Leave The Country Of Mangi, And Proceed To Discourse Of India
The Greater, The Middle, And Lesser; In Which I Have Been, Both In The
Service Of The Great Khan, And Also On Our Return Home Along With The
Queen, Who Was Sent From Kathay To Argon.
The ships which are built in the
kingdom of Mangi are made of fir, having only one deck, on which are built
twenty cabins, more or less, according to their size, each for one
merchant.
They have each a good rudder, and four masts, with four sails,
which they raise or let down at pleasure, but some have only two masts.
Some of the largest ships have thirteen divisions in the inside, made of
boards let into each other, so that if, by the blow of a whale, or by
touching on a rock, water should get into one of these divisions, it can go
no farther, and the leak being found, is soon stopped. They are all built
double, or have two courses of boards, one within the other, both of which
are well caulked with oakum, and nailed with iron; but they are not
pitched, as they have no pitch in Mangi, instead of which they are payed
all over with the oil of a certain tree, mixed up with lime and chopped
hemp which binds faster than pitch or lime. The largest of these ships have
three hundred marines, others two hundred, or an hundred and fifty,
according to their size; and they carry from five to six thousand bags of
pepper.
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