animal, that there are found at this place a species of domestic fowls which have no feathers, their skins being clothed with black hair, resembling the fur of cats. Such a sight must be extraordinary. They lay eggs like other fowls, and they are good to eat. The multitude of tigers renders travelling through the country dangerous, unless a number of person go in company.

CHAPTER LXXV.

OF THE CITY OF UN-GUEN.

UPON leaving the city of Kue-lin-fu, and travelling three days, during which you are continually passing towns and castles, of which the inhabitants are idolaters, have silk in abundance, and export it in considerable quantities, you reach the city of Un-guen. This place is remarkable for a great manufacture of sugar, which is sent from thence to the city of Kanbalu for the supply of the court. Previously to its being brought under the dominion of the grand khan, the natives were unacquainted with the art of manufacturing sugar of a fine quality, and boiled it in such an imperfect manner, that when left to cool it remained in the state of a dark-brown paste. But at the time when this city became subject to his majesty's government, there happened to be at the court some persons from Babylon who were skilled in the process, and who, being sent thither, instructed the inhabitants in the mode of refining the sugar by means of the ashes of certain woods.5

3

1 The account of this uncommon species of fowl appears to have been thought too incredible by some early translators; yet the same breed, or one equally singular, is described by Du Halde.

2 With whatever modern name that of Un-guen, or U-gueu (as it appears in the early Venice epitome), may be thought to accord, it is evident from the circumstances that it must be one of the cities of the second or third class, within the jurisdiction of Fu-gui, or Fu-cheu-fu, and in the neighbourhood of that capital.

3 Sugar in that moist and imperfect state is termed jaggri in most parts of the East Indies.

[Babylon was in the middle ages the name for Cairo in Egypt.]' 5 It is well known that alkaline substances are used in the process of granulating sugars. "Towards the end of this boiling," says the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, "they throw into the juice a strong lixivium of wood-ashes, with some quick-lime."

1

THE CITY OF KAN-GIU, OR CANTON.

CHAPTER LXXVI

OF THE CITY OF KAN-GIU.

343

TRAVELLING fifteen miles further in the same direction, you come to the city of Kan-giu, which belongs to the kingdom or viceroyalty of Kon-cha, one of the nine divisions of Manji. In this place is stationed a large army for the protection of the country, and to be always in readiness to act, in the event of any city manifesting a disposition to rebel. Through the midst of it passes a river, a mile in breadth, upon the banks of which, on either side, are extensive and handsome buildings. In front of these, great numbers of ships are seen lying, having merchandise on board, and especially sugar, of which large quantities are manufactured here also. Many vessels arrive at this port from India, freighted by merchants who bring with them rich assortments of jewels and pearls, upon the sale of which they obtain a considerable profit. This river discharges itself into the sea, at no great distance from the port named Zai-tun. The ships coming from India ascend the river as high up as the city, which abounds with every sort of provision, and has delightful gardens, producing exquisite fruits.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

OF THE CITY AND PORT OF ZAI-TUN, AND THE CITY OF TIN-GUL

UPON leaving the city of Kan-giu and crossing the river to proceed in a south-easterly direction, you travel during five days through a well-inhabited country, passing towns, castles, and substantial dwellings, plentifully supplied with all kinds of provisions. The road lies over hills, across plains, and through woods, in which are found many of those shrubs from whence the camphor is procured.2 The country abounds

1 It cannot be doubted that the word Kan-giu is here intended for Kuang-cheu or Quang-cheu, the name of the city improperly termed by Europeans, Canton, being a corruption of Kuang-tong, which belongs to the province of which it is the capital. It is evident that the Kan-giu of our author is the Can-su described by the Arabian travellers; and this latter is proved by the historical events to have been Kuang-cheu, or Canton.

2 This tree, the laurus camphora of China and Japan, grows to a large size, and is improperly termed by Ramusio an arboscello, or

also with game. The inhabitants are idolaters. They are the subjects of the grand khan, and within the jurisdiction of Kan-giu. At the end of five days' journey, you arrive at the noble and handsome city of Zai-tun, which has a port on the sea-coast celebrated for the resort of shipping, loaded with merchandise, that is afterwards distributed through every part of the province of Manji.1 The quantity of pepper imported there is so considerable, that what is carried to Alexandria, to supply the demand of the western parts of the world, is trifling in comparison, perhaps not more than the hundredth part. It is indeed impossible to convey an idea of the concourse of merchants and the accumulation of goods, in this which is held to be one of the largest and most commodious ports in the world. The grand khan derives a vast revenue from this place, as every merchant is obliged to pay ten per cent. upon the amount of his investment. The ships are freighted by them at the rate of thirty per cent. for fine goods, forty-four for pepper, and for lignum aloes, sandalwood, and other drugs, as well as articles of trade in general, forty per cent.; so that it is computed by the merchants, that their charges, including customs and freight, amount to half the value of the cargo; and yet upon the half that remains to them their profit is so considerable, that they are always disposed to return to the same market with a further stock of merchandise. The country is delightful. The people are idolaters, and have all the necessaries of life in plenty: their disposition is peaceable, and they are fond of ease and indulgence. Many persons arrive in this city from the interior parts of India for the purpose of having their persons ornamented by puncturing with needles (in the manner before shrub. Staunton speaks of "the shining leaves of the thick and spreading camphor-tree," the only species of the laurel genus growing in China, and there a large and valuable timber tree. It is not to be confounded with the camphor-tree of Borneo and Sumatra, which is also remarkable for its great size, but is of a genus entirely distinct from the laurus.

1 This famous port of Zai-tun, named Zarten in the Basle edition, Zai-zen in the older Latin, and Jaitoni in the epitome, is generaly supposed to be the place named Tsuen-cheu by the Chinese (the Suentcheou of Du Halde's map). Yet it may be thought that the description applies with equal justness to the nearly adjoining port of Hiamuen, called Emoui by the French and Amoy by the English navigators, which, until the last century, participated largely with Canton in the foreign commerce of the empire.

MANUFACTURE OF PORCELAIN.

345

described), as it is celebrated for the number of its artists skilled in that practice.1

The river that flows by the port of Zai-tun is large and rapid, and is a branch of that which passes the city of Kinsai.2 At the place where it separates from the principal channel stands the city of Tin-gui. Of this place there is nothing further to be observed, than that cups or bowls and dishes of porcelain-ware are there manufactured. The process was explained to be as follows. They collect a certain kind of earth, as it were, from a mine, and laying it in a great

1 This assertion may well appear strange and improbable, and must have been occasioned by some mistake either of arrangement of the matter or translation of the passage; for it cannot be supposed that the inhabitants of this most frequented and civilized part of China were then, or at any historical period, in the habit of puncturing or tattooing their skins. It may be, that a memorandum on the subject (as in other instances we have had strong grounds to suspect) belonging to a description either of the Malayan islands or of Ava, where the practice prevails, has been introduced in the wrong place; or, as I am more inclined to think, that what has been here misunderstood for puncturing the face, was meant by our author for the art of portraitpainting, in which the Chinese are such adepts, that few strangers visit Canton without employing a native to take their likeness, or, as it is expressed in the jargon of the factories, "make handsome face."

Into this geographical error our author must have been led by the report of the natives. In all parts of the East there seems to be a disposition to believe, and to persuade others, that several rivers proceed from one common source (generally a lake), and afterwards diverge, in their progress towards the sea; however contrary this may be to the known operations of nature. That there is no such community of origin between the river Tsien-tang, upon which Hang-cheu or Kin-sai stands, and the river Chang, which empties itself at Amoy, is obvious from inspection of the maps of China; but at the same time it will be seen that the sources of the Chang, and those of the great river that passes by Fu-cheu, the capital of the province, are in the same mountains, and may be said to be intermingled. It may also be observed that the northern branch of the latter river, which passes the city of Kien-ning, is separated only by another ridge from the sources of the Tsien-tang, or river of Hang-cheu; and this sort of connexion of the extremes, by the intervention of a middle term, may have given rise to the mistaken idea adopted by our author, upon a subject of which he was not likely to have any practical knowledge.

3 The city of Ting-cheu, answering to the name of Tin-gui or Tin-giu, stands near the western border of the province of Fo-kien, amongst the mountains that give source to the Chang, mentioned in the preceding note, but upon a river that empties itself near the city of Chao-cheu, in the province of Kuang-tong. It is not, however, at the present day the seat of porcelain works, which are principally carried on at the town of King-te-ching, in the neighbouring province of Kiang-si.

heap, suffer it to be exposed to the wind, the rain, and the sun, for thirty or forty years, during which time it is never disturbed. By this it becomes refined and fit for being wrought into the vessels above mentioned. Such colours as may be thought proper are then laid on, and the ware is afterwards baked in ovens or furnaces. Those persons, therefore, who cause the earth to be dug, collect it for their children and grandchildren. Great quantities of the manufacture are sold in the city, and for a Venetian groat you may purchase eight porcelain cups.

We have now described the viceroyalty of Kon-cha, one of the nine divisions of Manji, from whence the grand khan draws as ample a revenue as even from that of Kin-sai. Of the others we shall not attempt to speak, because Marco Polo did not himself visit any of their cities, as he has done those of Kinsai and Kon-cha. It should be observed that throughout the province of Manji one general language prevails, and one uniform manner of writing, yet in the different parts of the country there is a diversity of dialect, similar to what is found between the Genoese, the Milanese, the Florentine, and the dialects of other Italian states, whose inhabitants, although they have each their peculiar speech, can make themselves reciprocally understood.

Not having yet completed the subjects upon which Marco Polo purposed to write, he will now bring this Second Book to a close, and will commence another with a description of the countries and provinces of India, distinguishing it into the Greater, the Lesser, and the Middle India, parts of which he visited whilst employed in the service of the grand khan, who ordered him thither upon different occasions of business, and afterwards when, accompanied by his father and uncle, in their returning journey they escorted the queen destined for king Argon. He will have the opportunity of relating many extraordinary circumstances observed by himself personally in those countries, but at the same time will not omit to notice others of which he was informed by persons worthy of credit, or which were pointed out to him in the sea-chart of the coasts of India.1

1 It may be presumed that the sea-charts here spoken of were chiefy in the hands of Arabian pilots, who navigated from the Persian Gulf to India and China, and who might have added the results of their experience to the information derived from the geographical work of Ptolemy.