The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 34

The first objection will be more conveniently answered under next chapter.

As regards the second, the fact urged is true. But even now a straggling street extends to the river, ending in a large suburb on its banks, and a famous bridge there crosses the river to the south side where now the foreign settlements are. There _may_ have been suburbs on that side to justify the _por le mi_, or these words may have been a slip; for the Traveller begins the next chapter--"When you quit Fuju (to go south) you _cross the river_."[3]

Touching the question of foreign commerce, I do not see that Mr.

Phillips's negative evidence would be sufficient to establish his point.

But, in fact, the words of the Geog. Text (i.e. the original dictation), which we have followed, do not (as I now see) necessarily involve any foreign trade at Fu-chau, the impression of which has been derived mainly from Ramusio's text. They appear to imply no more than that, through the vicinity of Zayton, there was a great influx of Indian wares, which were brought on from the great port by vessels (it may be local junks) ascending the river Min.[4]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Scene on the Min River, below Fu-chau. (From Fortune.)

"E sachies che por le mi de ceste cite vait un grant fluv qe bien est large un mil, et en ceste cite se font maintes nes lesquelz najent por cel flum."]

[Mr. Phillips gives the following itinerary after Unguen: Kangiu = Chinchew = Chuan-chiu or Ts'wan-chiu. He writes (_T. Pao_, I. p. 227): "When you leave the city of Chinchew for Changchau, which lies in a south-westerly, not a south-easterly direction, you cross the river by a handsome bridge, and travelling for five days by way of Tung-an, locally Tang-oa, you arrive at Changchau. Along this route in many parts, more especially in that part lying between Tang-oa and Changchau, very large camphor-trees are met with. I have frequently travelled over this road. The road from Fuchau to Chinchew, which also takes five days to travel over, is bleak and barren, lying chiefly along the sea-coast, and in winter a most uncomfortable journey. But few trees are met with; a banyan here and there, but no camphor-trees along this route; but there is one extremely interesting feature on it that would strike the most un.o.bservant traveller, viz.; the Loyang bridge, one of the wonders of China." Had Polo travelled by this route, he would certainly have mentioned it. Pauthier remarks upon Polo's silence in this matter: "It is surprising," says he, "that Marco Polo makes no mention of it."--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--The G.T. reads _Caiton_, presumably for caiton or Zayton. In Pauthier's text, in the following chapter, the name of Zayton is written _caiton_ and _cayton_, and the name of that port appears in the same form in the Letter of its Bishop, Andrew of Perugia, quoted in note 2, ch.

lx.x.xii. Pauthier, however, in _this_ place reads _Kayteu_ which he develops into a port at the mouth of the River Min.[5]

NOTE 3.--The Min, the River of Fu-chau, "varies much in width and depth.

Near its mouth, and at some other parts, it is not less than a mile in width, elsewhere deep and rapid." It is navigable for ships of large size 20 miles from the mouth, and for good-sized junks thence to the great bridge. The scenery is very fine, and is compared to that of the Hudson.

(_Fortune_, I. 281; _Chin. Repos._ XVI. 483.)

[1] Dr. Medhurst calls the proper name of the city, as distinct from the _Fu_, _c.h.i.n.kang_ (_Dict. of the Hok-keen dialect_). Dr. Douglas has suggested _c.h.i.n.kang_, and _T'swan-kok_, i.e. "Kingdom of T'swan"

(chau), as possible explanations of _Chonka_.

[2] Mr. Phillips's views were issued first in the _Chinese Recorder_ (published by Missionaries at Fu-Chau) in 1870, and afterwards sent to the R. Geo. Soc., in whose Journal for 1874 they appeared, with remarks in reply more detailed than I can introduce here. Dr.

Douglas's notes were received after this sheet was in proof, and it will be seen that they modify to a certain extent my views about Zayton, though not about Fu-chau. His notes, which do more justice to the question than Mr. Phillips's, should find a place with the other papers in the Geog. Society's Journal.

[3] There is a capital lithograph of Fu-chau in _Fortune's Three Years'

Wanderings_ (1847), in which the city shows as on a river, and Fortune always speaks of it; e.g. (p. 369): "The river runs through the suburbs." I do not know what is the worth of the old engravings in Monta.n.u.s. A view of Fu-chau in one of these (reproduced in _Astley_, iv. 33) shows a broad creek from the river penetrating to the heart of the city.

[4] The words of the G.T. are these: "_Il hi se fait grant mercandies de perles e d'autres pieres presiose, e ce est por ce que les nes de Yndie hi vienent maintes con maint merchaant qe usent en les ysles de L'ndie, et encore voz di que ceste ville est pres au port de Caiton en la mer Osiani; et illuec vienent maintes nes de Indie con maintes mercandies, e puis de cest part vienent les nes por le grant flum qe je voz ai dit desoure jusque a la cite de Fugui, et en ceste mainere hi vienent chieres cousse de Indie._"

[5] It is odd enough that Martini (though M. Pauthier apparently was not aware of it) does show a fort called _Haiteu_ at the mouth of the Min; but I believe this to be merely an accidental coincidence. The various readings must be looked at together; that of the G.T. which I have followed is clear in itself and accounts for the others.

CHAPTER Lx.x.xII.

OF THE CITY AND GREAT HAVEN OF ZAYTON.

Now when you quit Fuju and cross the River, you travel for five days south-east through a fine country, meeting with a constant succession of flourishing cities, towns, and villages, rich in every product. You travel by mountains and valleys and plains, and in some places by great forests in which are many of the trees which give Camphor.[NOTE 1] There is plenty of game on the road, both of bird and beast. The people are all traders and craftsmen, subjects of the Great Kaan, and under the government of Fuju. When you have accomplished those five days' journey you arrive at the very great and n.o.ble city of ZAYTON, which is also subject to Fuju.

At this city you must know is the Haven of Zayton, frequented by all the ships of India, which bring thither spicery and all other kinds of costly wares. It is the port also that is frequented by all the merchants of Manzi, for hither is imported the most astonishing quant.i.ty of goods and of precious stones and pearls, and from this they are distributed all over Manzi.[NOTE 2] And I a.s.sure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere, destined for Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton; for it is one of the two greatest havens in the world for commerce.[NOTE 3]

The Great Kaan derives a very large revenue from the duties paid in this city and haven; for you must know that on all the merchandize imported, including precious stones and pearls, he levies a duty of ten per cent., or in other words takes t.i.the of everything. Then again the ship's charge for freight on small wares is 30 per cent., on pepper 44 per cent., and on lignaloes, sandalwood, and other bulky goods 40 per cent., so that between freight and the Kaan's duties the merchant has to pay a good half the value of his investment [though on the other half he makes such a profit that he is always glad to come back with a new supply of merchandize]. But you may well believe from what I have said that the Kaan hath a vast revenue from this city.

There is a great abundance here of all provision for every necessity of man's life. [It is a charming country, and the people are very quiet, and fond of an easy life. Many come hither from Upper India to have their bodies painted with the needle in the way we have elsewhere described, there being many adepts at this craft in the city.[NOTE 4]]

Let me tell you also that in this province there is a town called TYUNJU, where they make vessels of porcelain of all sizes, the finest that can be imagined. They make it nowhere but in that city, and thence it is exported all over the world. Here it is abundant and very cheap, insomuch that for a Venice groat you can buy three dishes so fine that you could not imagine better.[NOTE 5]

I should tell you that in this city (i.e. of Zayton) they have a peculiar language. [For you must know that throughout all Manzi they employ one speech and one kind of writing only, but yet there are local differences of dialect, as you might say of Genoese, Milanese, Florentines, and Neapolitans, who though they speak different dialects can understand one another.[NOTE 6]]

And I a.s.sure you that the Great Kaan has as large customs and revenues from this kingdom of Chonka as from Kinsay, aye and more too.[NOTE 7]

We have now spoken of but three out of the nine kingdoms of Manzi, to wit Yanju and Kinsay and Fuju. We could tell you about the other six, but it would be too long a business; so we will say no more about them.

And now you have heard all the truth about Cathay and Manzi and many other countries, as has been set down in this Book; the customs of the people and the various objects of commerce, the beasts and birds, the gold and silver and precious stones, and many other matters have been rehea.r.s.ed to you. But our Book as yet does not contain nearly all that we purpose to put therein. For we have still to tell you all about the people of India and the notable things of that country, which are well worth the describing, for they are marvellous indeed. What we shall tell is all true, and without any lies. And we shall set down all the particulars in writing just as Messer Marco Polo related them. And he well knew the facts, for he remained so long in India, and enquired so diligently into the manners and peculiarities of the nations, that I can a.s.sure you there never was a single man before who learned so much and beheld so much as he did.

NOTE 1.--The _Laurus_ (or _Cinnamomum_) _Camphora_, a large timber tree, grows abundantly in Fo-kien. A description of the manner in which camphor is produced at a very low cost, by sublimation from the chopped twigs, etc., will be found in the _Lettres Edifiantes_, XXIV. 19 _seqq.;_ and more briefly in _Hedde_ by _Rondot_, p. 35. Fo-kien alone has been known to send to Canton in one year 4000 _piculs_ (of 133-1/3 lbs. each), but the average is 2500 to 3000 (Ib.).

NOTE 2.--When Marco says Zayton is one of the _two_ greatest commercial ports in the world, I know not if he has another haven in his eye, or is only using an idiom of the age. For in like manner Friar Odoric calls Java "the _second best_ of all Islands that exist"; and Kansan (or Shen-si) the "_second best_ province in the world, and the best populated." But apart from any such idiom, Ibn Batuta p.r.o.nounces Zayton to be the greatest haven in the world.

Martini relates that when one of the Emperors wanted to make war on j.a.pan, the Province of Fo-kien offered to bridge the interval with their vessels!

ZAYTON, as Martini and Deguignes conjectured, is T'SWAN-CHAU FU, or CHWAN-CHAU FU (written by French scholars _Thsiouan-tcheou-fou_), often called in our charts, etc., _Chinchew_, a famous seaport of Fo-kien about 100 miles in a straight line S.W. by S. of Fu-chau, Klaproth supposes that the name by which it was known to the Arabs and other Westerns was corrupted from an old Chinese name of the city, given in the Imperial Geography, viz. TSEU-T'UNG.[1] _Zaitun_ commended itself to Arabian ears, being the Arabic for an olive-tree (whence Jerusalem is called _Zaituniyah_); but the corruption (if such it be) must be of very old date, as the city appears to have received its present name in the 7th or 8th century.

Abulfeda, whose Geography was terminated in 1321, had heard the real name of Zayton: "_Shanju_" he calls it, "known in our time as Zaitun"; and again: "Zaitun, i.e. Shanju, is a haven of China, and, according to the accounts of merchants who have travelled to those parts, is a city of mark. It is situated on a marine estuary which ships enter from the China Sea. The estuary extends fifteen miles, and there is a river at the head of it. According to some who have seen the place, the tide flows. It is half a day from the sea, and the channel by which ships come up from the sea is of fresh water. It is smaller in size than Hamath, and has the remains of a wall which was destroyed by the Tartars. The people drink water from the channel, and also from wells."

Friar Odoric (in China, circa 1323-1327, who travelled apparently by land from Chin-kalan, i.e. Canton) says: "Pa.s.sing through many cities and towns, I came to a certain n.o.ble city which is called Zayton, where we Friars Minor have two Houses.... In this city is great plenty of all things that are needful for human subsistence. For example, you can get three pounds and eight ounces of sugar for less than half a groat. The city is twice as great as Bologna, and in it are many monasteries of devotees, idol-worshippers every man of them. In one of those monasteries which I visited there were 3000 monks.... The place is one of the best in the world.... Thence I pa.s.sed eastward to a certain city called Fuzo....

The city is a mighty fine one, and standeth upon the sea." Andrew of Perugia, another Franciscan, was Bishop of Zayton from 1322, having resided there from 1318. In 1326 he writes a letter home, in which he speaks of the place as "a great city on the sh.o.r.es of the Ocean Sea, which is called in the Persian tongue _Cayton_ (cayton); and in this city a rich Armenian lady did build a large and fine enough church, which was erected into a cathedral by the Archbishop," and so on. He speaks incidentally of the Genoese merchants frequenting it. John Marignolli, who was there about 1347, calls it "a wondrous fine sea-port, and a city of incredible size, where our Minor Friars have three very fine churches; ... and they have a bath also, and a _fondaco_ which serves as a depot for all the merchants."

Ibn Batuta about the same time says: "The first city that I reached after crossing the sea was ZAITuN.... It is a great city, superb indeed; and in it they make damasks of velvet as well as those of satin (_Kimkha_ and _Atlas_), which are called from the name of the city _Zatuniah_; they are superior to the stuffs of Khansa and Kharbalik. The harbour of Zaitun is one of the greatest in the world--I am wrong; it is _the_ greatest! I have seen there about an hundred first-cla.s.s junks together; as for small ones, they were past counting. The harbour is formed by an estuary which runs inland from the sea until it joins the Great River."

[Mr. Geo. Phillips finds a strong argument in favour of Changchau being Zayton in this pa.s.sage of Ibn Batuta. He says (_Jour. China Br.R.A.

Soc._ 1888, 28-29): "Changchow in the Middle Ages was the seat of a great silk manufacture, and the production of its looms, such as gauzes, satins and velvets, were said to exceed in beauty those of Soochow and Hangchow.

According to the _Fuhkien Gazetteer_, silk goods under the name of Kinki, and porcelain were, at the end of the Sung Dynasty, ordered to be taken abroad and to be bartered against foreign wares, treasure having been prohibited to leave the country. In this Kinki I think we may recognise the Kimkha of IBN BATUTA. I incline to this fact, as the characters Kinki are p.r.o.nounced in the Amoy and Changchow dialects Khimkhi and Kimkhia.

Anxious to learn if the manufacture of these silk goods still existed in Changchow, I communicated with the Rev. Dr. TALMAGE of Amoy, who, through the Rev. Mr. Ross of the London Mission, gave me the information that Kinki was formerly somewhat extensively manufactured at Changchow, although at present it was only made by one shop in that city. IBN BATUTA tells us that the King of China had sent to the Sultan, five hundred pieces of Kamkha, of which one hundred were made in the city of Zaitun.

This form of present appears to have been continued by the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, for we learn that the Emperor Yunglo gave to the Envoy of the Sultan of Quilon, presents of Kinki and Shalo, that is to say, brocaded silks and gauzes. Since writing the above, I found that Dr. HIRTH suggests that the characters Kinhua, meaning literally gold flower in the sense of silk embroidery, possibly represent the mediaeval Khimka. I incline rather to my own suggestion. In the _Pei-wen-yun-fu_ these characters Kien-ki are frequently met in combination, meaning a silk texture, such as brocade or tapestry. Curtains made of this texture are mentioned in Chinese books, as early as the commencement of the Christian era."--H.C.]

Rashiduddin, in enumerating the Sings or great provincial governments of the empire, has the following: "7th FUCHu.--This is a city of Manzi. The Sing was formerly located at ZAITuN, but afterwards established here, where it still remains. Zaitun is a great shipping-port, and the commandant there is Bohauddin Kandari." Pauthier's Chinese extracts show us that the seat of the _Sing_ was, in 1281, at T'swan-chau, but was then transferred to Fu-chau. In 1282 it was removed back to T'swan-chau, and in 1283 recalled to Fu-chau. That is to say, what the Persian writer tells us of Fuju and Zayton, the Chinese Annalists tell us of Fu-chau and T'swan-chau. Therefore Fuju and Zayton were respectively Fu-chau and T'swan-chau.

[In the _Yuen-shi_ (ch. 94), _Shi po_, Maritime trade regulations, it "is stated, among other things, that in 1277, a superintendency of foreign trade was established in Ts'uan-chou. Another superintendency was established for the three ports of K'ing-yuan (the present Ning-po), Shang-hai, and Gan-p'u. These three ports depended on the province of Fu-kien, the capital of which was Ts'uan-chou. Farther on, the ports of Hang-chou and Fu-chou are also mentioned in connection with foreign trade.

Chang-chou (in Fu-kien, near Amoy) is only once spoken of there. We meet further the names of Wen-chou and Kuang-chou as seaports for foreign trade in the Mongol time. But Ts'uan-chou in this article on the sea-trade seems to be considered as the most important of the seaports, and it is repeatedly referred to. I have, therefore, no doubt that the port of Zayton of Western mediaeval travellers can only be identified with Ts'uan-chou, not with Chang-chou.... There are many other reasons found in Chinese works in favour of this view. Gan-p'u of the _Yuen-shi_ is the seaport Ganfu of Marco Polo." (_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I. pp. 186-187.)

In his paper on _Changchow, the Capital of Fuhkien in Mongol Times_, printed in the _Jour. China B.R.A. Soc._ 1888, pp. 22-30, Mr. Geo.

Phillips from Chinese works has shown that the Port of Chang-chau did, in Mongol times, alternate with Chinchew and Fu-chau as the capital of Fuh-kien.--H.C.]

Further, Zayton was, as we see from this chapter, and from the 2nd and 5th of Bk. III., in that age the great focus and harbour of communication with India and the Islands. From Zayton sailed Kublai's ill-fated expedition against j.a.pan. From Zayton Marco Polo seems to have sailed on his return to the West, as did John Marignolli some half century later. At Zayton Ibn Batuta first landed in China, and from it he sailed on his return.

All that we find quoted from Chinese records regarding _T'swan-chau_ corresponds to these Western statements regarding _Zayton_. For centuries T'swan-chau was the seat of the Customs Department of Fo-kien, nor was this finally removed till 1473. In all the historical notices of the arrival of ships and missions from India and the Indian Islands during the reign of Kublai, T'swan-chau, and T'swan-chau almost alone, is the port of debarkation; in the notices of Indian regions in the annals of the same reign it is from T'swan-chau that the distances are estimated; it was from T'swan-chau that the expeditions against j.a.pan and Java were mainly fitted out. (See quotations by Pauthier, pp. 559, 570, 604, 653, 603, 643; _Gaubil_, 205, 217; _Deguignes_, III. 169, 175, 180, 187; _Chinese Recorder_ (Foochow), 1870, pp. 45 seqq.)

When the Portuguese, in the 16th century, recovered China to European knowledge, Zayton was no longer the great haven of foreign trade; but yet the old name was not extinct among the mariners of Western Asia. Giovanni d'Empoli, in 1515, writing about China from Cochin, says: "Ships carry spices thither from these parts. Every year there go thither from Sumatra 60,000 cantars of pepper, and 15,000 or 20,000 from Cochin and Malabar, worth 15 to 20 ducats a cantar; besides ginger (?), mace, nutmegs, incense, aloes, velvet, European goldwire, coral, woollens, etc. The Grand Can is the King of China, and he dwells at ZEITON." Giovanni hoped to get to Zeiton before he died.[2]

The port of T'swan-chau is generally called in our modern charts _Chinchew_. Now _Chincheo_ is the name given by the old Portuguese navigators to the coast of Fo-kien, as well as to the port which they frequented there, and till recently I supposed this to be T'swan-chau. But Mr. Phillips, in his paper alluded to at p. 232, a.s.serted that by _Chincheo_ modern Spaniards and Portuguese designated (not T'swan-chau but) _Chang-chau_, a great city 60 miles W.S.W. of T'swan-chau, on a river entering Amoy Harbour. On turning, with this hint, to the old maps of the 17th century, I found that their Chincheo is really Chang-chau. But Mr.

Phillips also maintains that Chang-chau, or rather its port, a place formerly called Gehkong and now Haiteng, is _Zayton_. Mr. Phillips does not adduce any precise evidence to show that this place was known as a port in Mongol times, far less that it was known as the most famous haven in the world; nor was I able to attach great weight to the arguments which he adduced. But his thesis, or a modification of it, has been taken up and maintained with more force, as already intimated, by the Rev. Dr. Douglas.

The latter makes a strong point in the magnificent character of Amoy Harbour, which really is one of the grandest havens in the world, and thus answers better to the emphatic language of Polo, and of Ibn Batuta, than the river of T'swan-chau. All the rivers of Fo-kien, as I learn from Dr.