This river is navigated by so many vessels that the number might seem incredible, and serves to convey from both provinces, that is, from the one province to the other, every requisite article of consumption. It is indeed surprising to observe the multitude and the size of the vessels that are continually passing and repassing, laden with merchandise of the greatest value. On leaving Singui-matu and travelling towards the south for sixteen days, you unceasingly meet with commercial towns and with castles. The people throughout the country are idolaters, and subjects of the grand khan. They burn the bodies of their dead and use paper money. At the end of eight days' journey you find a city named Lingui. It is a very noble and great city; the men are warlike; and it has manufactures and commerce. There are plenty of animals, and abundance of everything for eating and drinking. After leaving Lingui you proceed three days' journey to the south, passing plenty of cities and castles, all under the grand khan. All the inhabitants are idolaters, and burn their dead. At the end of these three days you find a good city called Pingui, where there are all the necessaries of life, and this city furnishes a great revenue to the grand khan. You go thence two days' journey to the south, through fair and rich countries, to a city called Cingui, which is very large, and abounding in commerce and manufactures. All its inhabitants are idolaters and burn their dead; they use paper money, and are subjects of the grand khan. They have much grain and wheat. In the country through which

Luen, the largest by which the canal is fed, falls into it with a rapid stream, in a line which is perpendicular to the course of the canal. A strong bulwark of stone supports the opposite western bank; and the waters of the Luen striking with force against it, part of them follow the northern, and part the southern course of the canal—a circumstance which, not being generally explained or understood, gave the appearance of wonder to an assertion, that if a bundle of sticks be thrown into that part of the river, they would soon separate and take opposite directions." (Vol. ii. p. 387.) The name of this place is Tci-ngin-tcheou in Du Halde's map, and Tsin-jin-tchoo in that of the Embassy; which bears an evident resemblance to the Sin-gui of our

text.

"I should say, that next to the exuberance of population," says Mr. Ellis, "the amount of vessels employed on the rivers is the most striking circumstance hitherto observed, belonging to the Chinese empire," Journal of an Embassy, &c. p. 109.

THE RIVER KARA-MORAN.

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you pass subsequently, you find cities, towns, and castles, and very handsome and useful dogs, and abundance of wheat. The people resemble those just described.

CHAPTER LIV.

OF THE GREAT RIVER CALLED THE KARA-MORAN, AND OF THE CITIES OF KOI-GAN-ZU AND KUAN-ZU.

AT the end of two days' journey you reach, once more, the great river Kara-moran,1 which has its source in the territories that belonged to Prester John. It is a mile wide and of vast depth, and upon its waters great ships freely sail with their full loading. Large fish in considerable quantities are caught there. At a place in this river, about a mile distant from the sea, there is a station for fifteen thousand vessels, each of them capable of carrying fifteen horses and twenty men, besides the crews to navigate them, and the necessary stores and provisions.2 These the grand kla causes to be kept in a constant state of readiness for the conveyance of an army to any of the islands in the (neighbouring) ocean that may happen to be in rebellion, or for expeditions to any more distant region. These vessels are moored close to the bank of the river, not far from a city named Koi-gan-zu,3 on the opposite side to which is another

This is the Tartar name for the great river by the Chinese called the Hoang-ho, and by us the Yellow River, which has its source in the country between the western borders of China and the great desert.

2 The number of fifteen thousand must be a prodigious exaggeration, if we should not rather suppose it to be an error in transcribing. The early Italian epitome says fifteen vessels; but this is an absurdity in the opposite extreme, and it is probable that fifteen hundred was the number intended. The station of these transports, instead of being one mile, is said in other versions to be one day's journey from the sea.

3 Both from its situation and the resemblance of name, we cannot hesitate to consider this as the city of Hoai-gnan-fu, which stands near the south-eastern bank of the Hoang-ho, at the part where it is crossed by the line of the grand canal, and is itself connected, by means of a small cut, with that river. All Chinese words commencing with the aspirate are pronounced by the Western Tartars with a hard guttural sound; as, on the other hand, the guttural articulation of these people is softened by the Chinese to the aspirate: thus for Khan they pronounce Han; for Ko-ko-nor (a certain great lake), Ho-ho-nor; and for Ku-tukh-tu (the second rank of lamas), Hu-tu-tu.

named Kuan-zu, but the former is a large place, and the latter a small one.1 Upon crossing this river you enter the noble province of Manji; but it must not be understood that a complete account has been given of the province of Cathay. Not the twentieth part have I described. Marco Polo, in travelling through the province, has only noted such cities as lay in his route, omitting those situated on the one side and the other, as well as many intermediate places, because a relation of them all would be a work of too great length, and prove fatiguing to the reader. Leaving these parts we shall therefore proceed to speak, in the first instance, of the manner in which the province of Manji was acquired, and then of its cities, the magnificence and riches of which shall be set forth in the subsequent part of our discourse.

CHAPTER LV.

OF THE MOST NOBLE PROVINCE OF MANJI, AND OF THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS SUBDUED BY THE GRAND KHAN.

3

THE province of Manji is the most magnificent and the richest that is known in the eastern world. About the year 1269 it was subject to a prince who was styled Facfur, and who surpassed in power and wealth any other that for a century had reigned in that country. His disposition was pacific,

1 The place here named Kuan-zu or Quan-zu, in the Basle edition Cai-gui, and in the early epitomes Cai-cui, does not appear in the maps, but seems to be the place which De Guignes mentions by the name of Yang-kia-yn.

2 We have not materials for assigning precise boundaries either to Manji or to Khataï; but it is evident that our author considered, generally, that part of China which lies southward of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, as belonging to what he terms the province of Manji, or, with some few limitations, to the empire of the Song; and the part that lies northward of that river, which was conquered by the Mungals, not from the Chinese, but from the dynasty of the Kin or Niuche Tartars, by whom it had been previously subdued, as Khataï or Cathay.

3 This word Facfur was not the name of the individual prince, but the title of Faghfûr, applied by the Arabs and other Eastern people to the emperors of China, as distinguished from the Tartar sovereigns. It also denotes (according to the dictionaries) the porcelain or China-ware, and probably, in general, what the French term "magots de la Chine." The name of the emperor who reigned at that period was Tu-tsong.

THE PRINCE OF MANJI.

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and his actions benevolent. So much was he beloved by his people, and such the strength of his kingdom, enclosed by rivers of the largest size, that his being molested by any power upon earth was regarded as an impossible event. The effect of this opinion was, that he neither paid any attention himself to military affairs, nor encouraged his people to become acquainted with military exercises. The cities of his dominions were remarkably well fortified, being surrounded by deep ditches, a bow-shot in width, and full of water. He did not keep up any force in cavalry, because he was not apprehensive of attack. The means of increasing his enjoyments and multiplying his pleasures were the chief employment of his thoughts. He maintained at his court, and kept near his person, about a thousand beautiful women, in whose society he took delight. He was a friend to peace and to justice, which he administered strictly. The smallest act of oppression, or injury of any kind, committed by one man against another, was punished in an exemplary manner, without respect of persons. Such indeed was the impression of his justice, that when shops, filled with goods, happened, through the negligence of the owners, to be left open, no person dared to enter them, or to rob them of the smallest article. Travellers of all descriptions might pass through every part of the kingdom, by night as well as by day, freely and without apprehension of danger. He was religious, and charitable to the poor and needy. Children whom their wretched mothers exposed in consequence of their inability to rear them, he caused to be saved and taken care of, to the number of twenty thousand annually.2 When the boys attained a

1 His character is painted in more favourable colours by our author than by the Chinese historians, who do not relieve its dark shades with the light of any virtue.

2 The practice in China of exposing infants, and especially females, has become matter of notoriety since this first and unequivocal notice of it by our author. "The number of children," says Barrow, "thus unnaturally and inhumanly slaughtered, or interred alive, in the course of a year, is differently stated by different authors, some making it about ten, and others thirty thousand in the whole empire. The truth, as generally happens, may probably lie about the middle. The missionaries, who alone possess the means of ascertaining nearly the number that is thus sacrificed in the capital, differ very materially in their statements: taking the mean, as given by those with whom we conversed on the subject, I should conclude that about twenty-four

sufficient age, he had them instructed in some handicraft, and afterwards married them to young women who were brought in the same manner.1

up

Very different from the temper and habits of Facfur were those of Kublaï-khan, emperor of the Tartars, whose whole delight consisted in thoughts of a warlike nature, of the conquest of countries, and of extending his renown. After having annexed to his dominions a number of provinces and kingdoms, he now directed his views to the subduing that of Manji, and for this purpose assembled a numerous army of horse and foot, the command of which he gave to a general named Chin-san Bay-an, which signifies in our language, the "Hundred-eyed."2 This occurred in the year 1273. A number of vessels were put under his orders, with which he proceeded to the invasion of Manji. Upon landing there, he immediately summoned the inhabitants of the city of Koigan-zu to surrender to the authority of his sovereign. Upon their refusal to comply, instead of giving orders for an assault, he advanced to the next city, and when he there received a similar answer, proceeded to a third and a fourth, with the same result. Deeming it no longer prudent to leave so many cities in his rear, whilst not only his army was strong, but he expected to be soon joined by another of equal force, which

infants were on an average, in Pekin, daily carried to the pit of death. This calculation gives about nine thousand yearly for the capital alone, where it is supposed about an equal number are exposed to that of all the other parts of the empire."-Travels in China, p. 169.

1. The Latin edition describes the manner in which the emperor provided for a part of these children, in the following terms: "Rex tamen infantes, quos sic colligi jubet, tradit divitibus quibusque, quos in regno suo habet; præsertim illis qui liberis carent, et ut in adoptionis suscipiant filios mandat. Eos verò quos ipse nutrit, matrimonio tradit puellis ejusdem conditionis." It appears that in the reign of Kang-hi, also, (who died in 1722,) there was a public establishment at Pekin for the recovery of infants so exposed.

2 Ba-yan, or, as the Chinese pronounce the name, Pe-yen, literally signifies, in that language, "a hundred eyes," and may be considered as the agnomen or epithet of this distinguished warrior, derived from his vigilance, circumspection, and quickness in improving an advantage.

3 The earliest operation of the war against the Song, or dynasty who reigned in Manji, took place (according to L'Hist. gén.) to the westward, at Siang-yang, which was invested in 1269 (before our author's arrival in China), although not captured till 1273.