I will not enter upon this now, but
hereafter, when time and place are suitable. [Among the said ships were at
least four or five that carried crews of 250 or 260 men.]
And when the ships had been equipt, the Three Barons and the Lady, and the
Two Brothers and Messer Marco, took leave of the Great Kaan, and went on
board their ships with a great company of people, and with all necessaries
provided for two years by the Emperor. They put forth to sea, and after
sailing for some three months they arrived at a certain Island towards the
South, which is called JAVA,[NOTE 4] and in which there are many wonderful
things which we shall tell you all about by-and-bye. Quitting this Island
they continued to navigate the Sea of India for eighteen months more
before they arrived whither they were bound, meeting on their way also
with many marvels, of which we shall tell hereafter.
And when they got thither they found that Argon was dead, so the Lady was
delivered to CASAN, his son.
But I should have told you that it is a fact that, when they embarked,
they were in number some 600 persons, without counting the mariners; but
nearly all died by the way, so that only eight survived.[NOTE 5]
The sovereignty when they arrived was held by KIACATU, so they commended
the Lady to him, and executed all their commission. And when the Two
Brothers and Messer Marco had executed their charge in full, and done all
that the Great Kaan had enjoined on them in regard to the Lady, they took
their leave and set out upon their journey.[NOTE 6] And before their
departure, Kiacatu gave them four golden tablets of authority, two of
which bore gerfalcons, one bore lions, whilst the fourth was plain, and
having on them inscriptions which directed that the three Ambassadors
should receive honour and service all through the land as if rendered to
the Prince in person, and that horses and all provisions, and everything
necessary, should be supplied to them. And so they found in fact; for
throughout the country they received ample and excellent supplies of
everything needful; and many a time indeed, as I may tell you, they were
furnished with 200 horsemen, more or less, to escort them on their way in
safety. And this was all the more needful because Kiacatu was not the
legitimate Lord, and therefore the people had less scruple to do mischief
than if they had had a lawful prince.[NOTE 7]
Another thing too must be mentioned, which does credit to those three
Ambassadors, and shows for what great personages they were held. The Great
Kaan regarded them with such trust and affection, that he had confided to
their charge the Queen Cocachin, as well as the daughter of the King of
Manzi,[NOTE 8] to conduct to Argon the Lord of all the Levant. And those
two great ladies who were thus entrusted to them they watched over and
guarded as if they had been daughters of their own, until they had
transferred them to the hands of their Lord; whilst the ladies, young and
fair as they were, looked on each of those three as a father, and obeyed
them accordingly. Indeed, both Casan, who is now the reigning prince, and
the Queen Cocachin his wife, have such a regard for the Envoys that there
is nothing they would not do for them. And when the three Ambassadors took
leave of that Lady to return to their own country, she wept for sorrow at
the parting.
What more shall I say? Having left Kiacatu they travelled day by day till
they came to Trebizond, and thence to Constantinople, from Constantinople
to Negropont, and from Negropont to Venice. And this was in the year 1295
of Christ's Incarnation.
And now that I have rehearsed all the Prologue as you have heard, we shall
begin the Book of the Description of the Divers Things that Messer Marco
met with in his Travels.
NOTE 1. - On these plates or tablets, which have already been spoken of, a
note will be found further on. (Bk. II. ch. vii.) Plano Carpini says of
the Mongol practice in reference to royal messengers: "Nuncios, quoscunque
et quotcunque, et ubicunque transmittit, oportet quod dent eis sine mora
equos subductitios et expensas" (669).
NOTE 2. - The mention of the King of England appears for the first time in
Pauthier's text. Probably we shall never know if the communication reached
him. But we have the record of several embassies in preceding and
subsequent years from the Mongol Khans of Persia to the Kings of England;
all with the view of obtaining co-operation in attack on the Egyptian
Sultan. Such messages came from Abaka in 1277; from Arghun in 1289 and
1291; from Ghazan in 1302; from Oljaitu in 1307. (See Remusat in Mem.
de l'Acad. VII.)
[Illustration: Ancient Chinese War Vessel.]
NOTE 3. - Ramusio has "nine sails." Marsden thinks even this lower number
an error of Ramusio's, as "it is well known that Chinese vessels do not
carry any kind of topsail." This is, however, a mistake, for they do
sometimes carry a small topsail of cotton cloth (and formerly, it would
seem from Lecomte, even a topgallant sail at times), though only in quiet
weather. And the evidence as to the number of sails carried by the great
Chinese junks of the Middle Ages, which evidently made a great impression
on Western foreigners, is irresistible. Friar Jordanus, who saw them in
Malabar, says: "With a fair wind they carry ten sails;" Ibn Batuta: "One
of these great junks carries from three sails to twelve;" Joseph, the
Indian, speaking of those that traded to India in the 15th century:
