He borrows many fabulous stories from Pliny, and from the romances of the middle, ages, yet so ignorantly as to reverse the very circumstances of his authors. Andromeda is not the lady who was rescued by Perseus, but the monster by which she was to have been devoured. Two islands in India, one called Brahmin, and the other Gymnosophist. And a thousand other fictions and absurdities, too ridiculous even for the credulity of children. Of this worse than useless performance, the foregoing analysis is perhaps more than sufficient for the present work. –E.
CHAPTER XIV.
Itinerary of Pegoletti, between Asof and China, in 1355585
In the year 1355, Francisco Balducci Pegoletti, an Italian, wrote a system of commercial geography, of great importance, considering the period in which it was written. Its title translated into English, is, "Of the Divisions of Countries, and of their Measures, Merchandize, and other things useful to be known by the Merchants of various parts of the World." All of this curious work which has any reference to our present undertaking, is the chapter which is entitled, "Guide or the Route from Tana to Kathay, with Merchandize, and back again." This is published entire by J. R. Forster, with several learned notes and illustrations, and is here reprinted.
* * * * *
From Tana or Asof to Gintarchan or Astracan586, is twenty-five days journey with waggons drawn by oxen; but may be accomplished in ten or twelve days, if the waggons are drawn by horses. On the road one meets with a great number of armed Moccols, Moguls or Mongals. From Gintarchan to Sara587 by the river, it is only one days sail; but from Sara to Saracanco588, it takes eight days by water; one may, however, travel either by land or water, whichever is most agreeable; but it costs much less expence to go with merchandize by water. From Saracanco to Organci589 is a journey of twenty days with loaded camels; and whoever travels with merchandize, will do well to go to Organci, as it is a very convenient place for the expeditious sale of goods. From Organci to Oltrarra590, it is thirty-five or forty days journey, with camels: But in going direct from Saracanco to Oltrarra, it takes fifty days journey; and if one has no merchandize, it is a better way than to go by Organci. From Oltrarra to Armalecco591, it is forty-five days journey with loaded asses, and in this road, one meets every day with Moguls. From Armalecco to Camexu592, it is seventy days journey on asses; and from Camexu to a river called the Kara Morin593, it is fifty days journey on horses. From this river, the traveller may go to Cassai594 to dispose of his silver there, as it is an excellent station for the expeditious sale of merchandize; and from Cassai, he may go through the whole land of Gattay or Kathay, with the money he has received at Cassai for his silver595. This money is of paper, and called balischi, four of which balischies are equal to one silver somno596. From Cassai to Galmalecco597, which is the capital of the empire of Kathay, it is thirty days journey.
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If the reader has any idea of the difficulty attendant on making out so many places, disguised by a vicious orthography, a difficulty, which is still more increased by the necessity there is for determining, with accuracy, the situation of these places, and their probable distances from each other, he will be ready to allow that the task is certainly not very trifling, nor to be accomplished without much labour. In the foregoing itinerary, Pegoletti certifies the existence of the paper money which had been previously mentioned by Rubraquis, Haitho, Marco Polo, and Oderic: Some of these authors describe it as having been fabricated of cotton paper; while others remark very justly, that it was made of the bark of the paper mulberry tree. Oderic calls it Balis, Pegoletti gives it the name of Balis-chi. A Jesuit named Gabriel de Magaillans, pretends that Marco Polo was mistaken in regard to this paper money; but the concurrent testimony of five other credible witnesses of the fact, is perfectly conclusive that this paper money did actually exist during the first Mogul dynasty, the descendants of Zinghis, called the legal tribe of Yu by the Chinese. On the downfall of that race it was abolished.
Supposing the station on the Kara-morin and Cassai to be the same, which is highly probable, the whole journey in this itinerary, from Asof to Pekin, extends to 276 days, besides nine days more by water, or 285 in all; so that allowing for delays, rests, accidents, and occasional trafficking, a whole year may fairly be allowed, and as much for the return.
CHAPTER XV.
Voyages of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno in 1380598
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. The remainder of this introduction is from the work of Mr J. R, Forster, extracted partly from Ramusio, and partly consisting of an ingenious attempt to explain and bolster up the more than dubious production of Marcolini: But these observations are here considerably abridged; as an extended, grave, and critical commentary on a narrative we believe fabulous, might appear incongruous, though it did not seem proper to omit them altogether. –E.
586
Gintarchan, or Zintarchan, is, by Josaphat Barbaro, called also Gitarchau; and Witsan, in his account of Northern and Eastern Tartary, says Astracan was called of old
587
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.
588
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.
589
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.
590
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
591
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.
592
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.
594
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. 41є.50'. N. long. 107°. 40'. E. –Forst.
595
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.
596
The value of the silver
597
Gamalecco is undoubtedly Cambalu, Cambalig, or Khan-balig, otherwise Pekin; exactly as Gattay is substituted for Katay Kathay, or Cathay. –Forst.