Twenty-five miles from Quinsai we come to the ocean, between the east and the north-east, near which is a city called Gampu484, having an excellent port frequented by merchant ships from the Indies. While I Marco was in Quinsai, an account was taken for the great khan, of the revenues, and the number of inhabitants, and I saw that there were enrolled 160 toman of fires, reckoning for each fire a family dwelling in one house. Each toman is 10,000, which makes 1,600,000 families485; and for all this population there is only one Nestorian church, all the rest being idolaters. Every householder is obliged to have written over his door the names of every individual in his family, whether males or females, as also the number of horses, adding or effacing as the family increases or diminishes, and this rule is observed in all the cities of Mangi and Kathay. Those also who keep inns, must write down in a book the names of all their guests, with the day and hour of their arrival and departure; and these books are sent daily to the magistrates who preside at the market places. The revenues which accrue to the khan from Quinsai, and the other cities under its authority, are, first from salt eight tomans of gold, every toman being 80,000 sazzi, and a sazzi is more than a gold florin, which will amount to six millions, and four hundred thousand ducats. The cause of this is, that being near the sea, there are many lakes or salines of sea water, which dry up and coagulate into salt in summer, and five other provinces in Mangi are supplied from the coast of Quinsai. This province produces plenty of sugar, which pays, like all other spices, three and a third in the hundred, which is likewise paid for rice-wine. All the twelve companies, which, we said before, have twelve thousand shops, and all merchants who bring goods hither by sea, or carry any away, pay a similar rate. Those who come from India or other remote countries, pay ten per cent. All breeding cattle, and all productions of the earth, as silk, rice, corn, and the like, pay to the khan. The whole computation being made in my presence, amounted yearly, besides the above mentioned produce from salt, to two hundred and ten tomans of gold, which are equal to sixteen millions and eight hundred thousand golden ducats486.
A days journey from Quinsai to the south-east, we pass the whole way through houses, villages, fine gardens, and abundant cultivation, and then come to a fine city called Tapin-zu. Three days hence is Uguiu, and two days farther, we still ride past castles, cities, and well cultivated fields, so near adjoining, that the whole seems, to travellers, like one continued city; in this district are great canes, fifteen paces long, and four palms thick. Two days farther is the large and handsome city of Congui, and travelling thence for four days, through places well filled with industrious people, having plenty of beeves, buffaloes, goats, and swine, but no sheep, we come to the city of Zengian, which is built on a hill in the middle of a river, which, after encompassing it, divides into two branches, one of which runs to the south-east and the other to the north-west. Three days journey thence, through a most pleasant country, exceedingly well inhabited, we come to the large city of Gieza, which is the last in the kingdom of Quinsai, After this we enter into another province of the kingdom of Mangi called Concha, the principal city of which is Fugiu, by which you travel six days journey south-east, through hills and dales, always finding inhabited places, and plenty of beasts, fowls, and game, and some strong lions are found in the mountains and forests487. Ginger, galingal, and other spices, grow here in great plenty, and there is an herb, of which the fruit has the same colour, smell, and effect with saffron, which it is not, and is much used in their meats488, The inhabitants are idolaters, and subjects of the great khan, and eat mans flesh, if the person has not died of disease, even considering it as better flavoured than any other. When they go into the fields, they shave to the ears, and paint their faces with azure. All their soldiers serve on foot, except the captains, who are on horseback, and their arms are swords and lances. They are very cruel, and when they kill an enemy, they immediately drink his blood, and afterwards eat his flesh.
After six days journey is Quelinfu, a great city with three bridges, each of which is eight paces broad, and above an hundred paces long. The men are great merchants and manufacturers, and the women are fair and delicately shaped. The country produces plenty of ginger and galingal, and great abundance of silk and cotton. I was told, but saw them not, that they have hens without feathers, hairy like cats, which yet lay eggs, and are good to eat489. In this part of the country there are many lions, which make the ways very dangerous. After three days journey, we arrive in a populous country inhabited by idolaters, who make great quantities of silk stuffs. The chief city is Unguem, near which abundance of sugar is produced, and sent from thence to Cambalu. Before the reduction of this country by the great Khan, the inhabitants of this country could only manufacture a bad kind of sugar, by boiling down the juice of the cane into a black paste; but certain inhabitants from Babylonia, taught them refine it by means of the ashes of a certain tree490. Fifteen miles farther is the city of Cangiu, still in the province of Concha, and here the Khan has always an army in readiness for keeping the country under subjection. Through this city there runs a river of a mile broad, with handsome buildings on both sides, and the river is constantly covered with vessels carrying sugar and other goods. This river disembogues itself at the distance of five days journey south-east from Cangiu, into the sea at Zaitum all the country between being extremely pleasant, and abounding in trees and shrubs of camphor. Zaitum is a famous port, and much frequented by ships with rich cargoes from India, for the supply of Mangi and Kathay, and from this port the productions of these regions are dispersed all over India. At this port such quantities of pepper are imported, that what comes through Alexandria into our western world is not to be compared to it, being hardly an hundredth part. The concourse of merchants to this famous emporium is incredible, as it is one of the most commodious ports in the whole world, and is exceedingly productive in revenue to the great Khan, who receives ten in the hundred of all merchandize. The merchants pay likewise so high for freights, that not above a half of their cargoes remains to themselves for sale, and yet of that moiety they make immense profits. The inhabitants of Zaitum are idolaters, and much given to pleasure, and in it there are many artizans employed in embroidery and arras-work491.
This river is large, wide, and swift, one arm of it reaching to Quinsai, and the other to Zaitum492, and at the parting of these branches, the city of Tringui is situated, where porcelain dishes are made493. I was told of a certain earth which is cast up into conical heaps, and left exposed to the weather for thirty or forty years without stirring; after which, refined by time, it is made into dishes, which are painted and baked in furnaces; and so cheap is this manufacture, that eight of these dishes may be bought for one Venetian groat494. From this province of Concha, the great Khan derives nearly as great a revenue as he does from Quinsai. In these two provinces I travelled, but in none of die other provinces of Mangi; in all of which one language Is used, with considerable variety in dialect, and but one kind of writing.
484
Supposing Kua-hing to have been Quan-sai, no city appears in the direction indicated in the text for the situation of Gampu. But if we might venture to suppose north-east an error for south, the city of Hanfcheou is nearly at the distance mentioned by Marco, and stands at the bottom of a deep bay of the ocean, in a very convenient situation for trade, communicating with Kua-hing by the great canal –E.
485
Multiplying this number of families by five, would give a population of eight millions of individuals of every age and sex. Fortunately Marco permits us to suppose that this population belonged to the viceroyalty, or province over which Quinsai presided. –E.
486
Either this computation, or that of the duty on salt, is erroneous. If 8 tomans are 6,400,000 ducats, 210 tomans would amount to 168,000,000, instead of the sum in the text. If the latter computation be right, 16,800,000 ducats from 210 tomans; the duty on salt, or 8 tomans, ought only to have been 640,000 ducats, which appears to be the truth. The whole revenue, therefore, of the province, will be 17,440,000 ducats, equal to L. 2,911,250 Sterling, at 3s. 7d. the ducat. –E.
487
Besides the utter discrepancy of these names to those of any cities now in China, it appears obvious, that the direction of the itinerary in the text is erroneous or corrupted. We have been already on the ocean or bay of Nankin, the eastern boundary of China and of the land; yet the text persists continually to travel
488
This was probably Turmeric, so much used in the Eastern cookery, though it is the root which is employed. –E.
490
In the manufacture of sugar it is necessary to neutralize a certain redundant acid in the juice of the cane, by a fit proportion of some alkaline ingredient to enable the sugar to crystallize: The ordinary
491
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.
492
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.
493
This is the only hint in Marco, of the peculiarly famous manufacture of China, from which all the best
494
It is singular that Marco should make no mention whatever of the peculiar beverage of the Chinese,