Fragm. Vet. Islandic. ap. Langebeck, II. 31. –Forster, Hist. of Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 50.
Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius, by Alfred the Great, translated by Daines Barrington, p. 9. –Langebeck, Script. Dan. II. 106-118. –Forster, Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 53.
Ohthere here calls the inhabitants of the desert Fins, and it would appear that the Laplanders are actually Fins, or Finlanders; the name of Laps or Laplanders being of modern origin, and the Danes and Norwegians still call this country Finmark. –Forst
In former translations of Alfred, this passage is rendered as follows: "He was within three days sail of being as far north as the whale-hunters ever go." This expression is vague and ambiguous, and rather means that the residence from whence he set out was within three days sail, &c.; whereas the next member of the same sentence distinctly indicates a preceding three days sail, as in the adopted translation. –E.
This is not quite accurate, as the coast of Norway, in the course of Ohthere, stretches N.N.E. He was now arrived at the North Cape, whence the coast towards the White Sea trends E. and by N. –E.
This doubt, of whether the sea lies within the land or not, probably refers to the numerous inlets or fiords along the whole coast of Norway and Finmark, and may mean, that he did not examine whether the land might not be parcelled out into innumerable islands. –E.
The Beormas are the Biarmians or Permians of the northern writers; and Perm or Permia is still mentioned among the numerous titles of the emperors of Russia. –Forst.
The Terfennas are mentioned as different from the Scrite-fennas. These were distinguished by Guido, the geographer of Ravenna, in the seventh century, into Rerefinni and Scritifinni. The latter lived entirely by hunting, and wore snow-shoes in winter, called Schrit. The former subsisted on their herds of rein-deer, and perhaps ought to have been therefore called Rene-finni. The name in the text ought perhaps to have been Rhane-fenna, as he tells us they had rein-deer, and employed decoy deer to catch the wild. Perhaps Fer-fenna, from their travelling in sledges; from farra, to travel in a carriage. –Forst.
It is highly probable, from this remark, in which Ohthere could not be mistaken, as it will appear in the sequel that he must have been perfectly well acquainted with the Fins, that the Biarmians were a branch of the great Finnish stock. The principal difference seems to have been, that the Fins continued to be wandering hunters and herdsmen, while the Beormas or Biarmians had advanced to the state of fixed cultivators of the soil. They had likewise an idol called Jomala, which is still the name of one of the deities of the Finlanders. –Forst.
The morse is here named horse-whale by king Alfred, with infinitely greater propriety than the appellation of sea-horse, which long prevailed in our language. The tusks of this animal are still considered as excellent ivory, and are peculiarly valuable for the construction of false teeth; and leather made from the hide is still used in Russia for coach-harness, but stretches more when wet than any other leather. –Forst.
It would appear, from the vast number killed, that this successful fishing must refer to the morse or horse-whale, not to the ordinary large whale. –E.
In the original, the broad and comparatively fertile part of Norway is said to be in the east: the correction adopted in the text is obvious and necessary. –E.
In former translations, this passage is: "opposite to this land, to the south, is Sueoland." The alteration in the text removes the ambiguity –E.
Cwenland and the Cwenas appear to refer to Lapmark, and its inhabitants, the Finlanders. –Forst.
See Sect. iii. p. 12, in which this place is supposed by Mr J. R. Forster to have been where Stockholm now is.
Iraland obviously here means Scotland, with the Faro, Shetland, and Orkney islands. –E.
This is plainly the isle of Gothland. –E.
Apparently the Baltic proper is here called the sea of Sillende, and may have been named from the isle of Zeeland. Yet in this passage it seems to refer to the gulf of Bothnia, as running far up into the country. –E.
See Sect. iii. p. 14, in which Forster endeavours to fix this place at Aarhuus in Jutland.
Forst. Voy. and Disc. 67.
It appears to me, that the description given by Ohthere, implies, that Gotland was directly opposite to Sciringes-heal, or to the east. –E.
Not surely on going southwards, but after he had again turned to the northwards, after doubling the southern point of Sweden. –E.
This is certainly true during the latter part of his voyage, after turning round the south end of Sweden, and standing again to the northward, between Zealand and Fyen; but in coasting down the shore of Sweden to the south, he must have left Gotland to the left, –E.
Alfred's Orosius, by Barrington, p. 16. Langebeck, Scrip. Dan. II. 118– 123. Wulfstan appears to have been a Dane, who had probably become acquainted with Ohthere, during his maritime expeditions, and had gone with him to reside in England. –Forst.
There is a lake still called Truso or Drausen, between Elbing and Prussian Holland, from which, probably, the town here mentioned, which stood on the Frisch-haf, took its name. –Forst.
It is necessary to distinguish accurately between Weonothland, which is probably Fuehnen, Funen, or Fionio, now called Fyen; and Weonodland or Winodland, afterwards Wendenland. –Forst.
Denmark obviously, called simply Dene, in the voyages of Ohthere. –E.
Probably Bornholm. –E.
Called Sueoland in the voyages of Ohthere, is assuredly Sweden, to which all these islands belong. Becinga-eg, is certainly Bleking; the l being omitted in transcription, called an island by mistake. Meore is indisputably the upper and lower Moehre in Smoland; Eowland is Oeland; and Gotland is doubtless the modern isle of that name. –Forst.
Weonodland, or Winodland, extends to the mouth of the Vistula; and is obviously a peculiar and independent country, totally different from Weonothland, belonging to Denmark. –Forst.
Wisle, or Wisla, is the Sclavonian orthography for the Vistula, called Weichsel by the Germans, and Weissel by the Prussians. –Forst.
Witland is a district of Samland in Prussia. It had this name of Witland at the time of the crusades of the Germans against Prussia. The word Wit-land, is a translation of the native term Baltikka, or the white land, now applied to the Baltic Sea. –Forst.
Est-mere, a lake of fresh water, into which the Elbing and Vistula empty themselves; now called Frisch-haf, or the fresh water sea. –Forst.
This is undoubtedly the Elbing which flows from lake Drausen, or Truso, and joins, by one of its branches, that arm of the Vistula which is called Neugat or Nogat. –Forst.
The Ilfing, or Elbing, comes out of Esthonia, yet not from the east, as here said by Alfred, but from the south; except, indeed, he mean that arm of the Elbing which runs into the Nogat, or eastern arm of the Vistula. But the Vistula comes out of Wendenland, called Weonodland in the text, from the south; and the two rivers discharge themselves into the Frisch-haf, which stretches from west to north, or in a north-east direction; and at Pilau, goes northwards into the sea. It is certainly possible that this entrance may have been formerly called Wisle-mund, or the mouth of the Vistula, as well as the western mouth of that river. –Forst.
This concession is not necessary to the truth of Wulfstan and Alfred. There is a cross branch from Elbing, which joins the Nogat and Vistula proper; and which is probably meant in the text, where the Ilfing and Wisle, united, are said to run to the west of Est-mere, or the haf, and then north, into the sea at Wisle-mund. –E.
This circumstance is singular; yet may be explained from the custom of the Tartars. The mares milk, drank by the kings and rich men, was certainly prepared into cosmos, or kumyss, the favourite beverage of the great; while mead, a much inferior liquor in their estimation, was left to the lower orders. –E.
Mead was called Medo in Anglo-Saxon, in Lithuanian Middus, in Polish Miod, in Russian M'ed, in German Meth, in old English Metheglin: perhaps all these are from the Greek verb (Greek: methuo), to intoxicate. Alfred naturally observes, that these drinking-bouts produced many frays; and notices the reason of the Estum or Esthonians brewing no ale, because they had abundance of mead. –Forst.
In a treaty between the Teutonic knights, and the newly converted Prussians, the latter engaged never to burn their dead, nor to bury them with their horses, arms, clothes, and valuables. –Forst.
This power of producing cold in summer, so much admired by Wulfstan and Alfred, was probably the effect of a good ice-cellar, which every Prussian of condition had in, or near his house. –Forst.
Harris, I. 873. Hakluyt, V. II. 38.
Chron. Sax. Ed. Gibson, p. 86.
Hakluyt, II. 88.
Hakluyt, II. 38.
Anglo-Saxon version from Orosius, by AElfred the Great, with an English translation, by Daines Barrington, 8vo. London, 1773. Discoveries in the North, 54.
This word is always employed by Alfred to denote the ocean, while smaller portions are uniformly called sae in the singular, saes in the plural.-Barr
Called Wenadel sea in the Anglo-Saxon original; probably because it had been crossed by the Vandals or Wends, in going from Spain to the conquest of Africa. –E.
In the translation by Barrington, this sentence is quite unintelligible. "All to the northward is Asia, and to the southward Europe and Asia are separated by the Tanais; then south of this same river (along the Mediterranean, and west of Alexandria) Europe and Asia join." –E.
Riffing, in the Anglo-Saxon. –E.
Sermondisc in the Anglo-Saxon, Sarmaticus in Orosius. –E.
Rochouasco in Anglo-Saxon, Roxolani in Orosius. –E.
Certainly here put for Ireland. –E.
Taprobana, Serendib, or Ceylon. –E.
By the Red Sea must be here meant that which extends between the peninsula of India and Africa, called the Erithrean Sea in the Periplus of Nearchus. –E.
The Persian gulf is here assumed as a part of the Red Sea. –E.
He is here obviously enumerating the divisions of the latter Persian empire. Orocassia is certainly the Arachosia of the ancients; Asilia and Pasitha may be Assyria and proper Persia. –E.
The Saxon word is beorhta or bright, which I have ventured to translate parched by the sun, as this signification agrees well with the context. – –Barr.
The true Niger, running from the westwards till it loses itself in the sands of Wangara, seems here alluded to; and the Bahr el Abiad, or Western Nile, is supposed to be its continuation, rising again out of the sand. –E.
This ought certainly to be after, and seems to allude to the Bahr el Abiad. –E.
Literally a great sea. –Barr.
This is a mistake, as it only takes a wide turn to the west in Dongola, around what has been falsely called the Isle of Meroe. The cliffs of the Red Sea seem to imply the mountains of Nubia, and the wide sea may be the lake of Dembea. –E.
A strange attempt to account for the regular overflow of the Nile. –E.
This account of the boundaries of Old Scythia is extremely vague. It seems to imply an eastern boundary by an imaginary river Bore, that the Caspian is the western, the northern ocean on the north, and Mount Caucasus on the south. –E.
In the translation by Barrington, this portion of Scythia is strangely said to extend south to the Mediterranean; the interpolation surely of some ignorant transcriber, who perhaps changed the Euxine or Caspian sea into the Mediterranean. –E.
Called by mistake, or erroneous transcription, Wendel sea, or Mediterranean in the text and translation. –E.
The Cwen sea is the White sea, or sea of Archangel. The Kwen or Cwen nation, was that now called Finlanders, from whom that sea received this ancient appellation. –Forst.
East Francan in the original. The eastern Franks dwelt in that part of Germany between the Rhine and the Sala, in the north reaching to the Ruhre and Cassel, and in the south, almost to the Necker; according to Eginhard, inhabiting from Saxony to the Danube. They were called east Franks to distinguish them from that other part of the nation which inhabited ancient Gaul, and Franconia continues to preserve their name. –Forst.
Swaepas, or Suevae, who formed part of the Allemanic confederacy, and afterwards gave their name of Swabes to an extensive nation, in whose bounds modern Swabia is still situated. –Forst.
The Bavarians, who were the remnant of the Boii or Baeghten, who escaped from the exterminating sword of the Suevi. –Forst.
This may have been the province in which Regens-bergh or Ratisbon is still situated. –Forst.
These were undoubtedly the Bohemians, called afterwards Behemas by our royal geographer. They had their appellation from Boier-heim, or the dwelling place of the Boii, who were exterminated by the Suevi. –Forst.
The Thuringians, at one time so powerful, that their king was able to engage in war against the king of the Franks. Thuringia is still a well known district in Germany. –Forst.
The Old Saxons inhabited the country still called Old Sassen, or Old Saxony, Halsatia in Latin, which has degenerated into Holstein. –Forst.
These Frysae were afterwards confined by Charlemain to the country between the Weser and Elbe, to which they gave the name of Friesland. –Forst.
That is to the north-east of Old Saxony, where the Angles, confederates of the Saxon conquerors of Britain, and who gave their name to the English nation, and England or Angle-land, formerly resided. But they likewise appear to have occupied some of the islands in the Baltic. Sillend is certainly the Danish island of Zeeland. Dene is Denmark in its most limited sense. –Forst.
These are the Obotrites, a Venedic nation, settled in Mecklenburgh, who are called, a little farther on, the Afdrede. They were not, however, to the north-east of Old Saxony, but rather to the eastwards. Perhaps the copyist inserted north instead of east, or rather we ought to read thus: "To the north-east is Apdrede, and to the north the Wolds." –Forst.
The word here translated Wolds on the authority of Daines Barrington, is in the original, Wylte; but whether it refers to the wild or barren state of the country, or the name of a people, it is difficult to say. There were a people named Wilzi in those parts, but J. R. Forster is disposed to believe, that Alfred refers here to the Wends or Vandals, who lived on the Havel, and were called Hevelli. But if they are meant, we must correct the text from north-east to south-east, for such is the situation of Havel-land, with respect to Old Saxony. –Forst.
AEfeldan are, as King Alfred calls them, Wolds or Wilds; as there still are in the middle of Jutland, large high moors, covered only with heath. –Forst.
Wineda-land, the land of the Wends, Vandals, or Wendian Scalvi in Mecklenburg and Pomerania; so called from Wanda or Woda, signifying the sea or water. They were likewise called Pomeranians for the same reason, from po moriu, or the people by the sea side. –Forst.
In this Alfred seems to have committed a mistake, or to have made too great a leap. There is a Syssel, however, in the country of the Wends, on the Baltic, which connects them with the Moravians, or rather with the Delamensan, of whom mention is made afterwards. –Forst.
The Moravians, so called from the river Morava, at that time a powerful kingdom, governed by Swatopluk, and of much greater extent than modern Moravia. –Forst.
Carendre must be Carinthia, or the country of the Carenders or Centani, which then included Austria and Styria. –Forst.
Barrington has erroneously translated this, "to the eastward of Carendre country, and beyond the west part is Bulgaria." But in the original Anglo-Saxon, it is beyond the wastes, or desert, which had been occasioned by the devastations of Charlemain in the country of the Avari. –Forst.
This is the extensive kingdom of Bulgaria of these times, comprising modern Bulgaria and Wallachia, with part of Moldavia and Bessarabia. The Bulgarians were probably a Turkish tribe, dwelling beyond the Wolga, in the country now called Casan, deriving their name from Bolgar, their capital. –Forst.
Forster ought to have added, that the latter country was long called greater Bulgaria, and the former, or the Pulgara-land of the text, lesser Bulgaria. –E.
The Greek empire of Constantinople. –E.
The country on the Wisle or Vistula, being great and little Poland. –Forst.
These for some time inhabited Dacia, and, being famous in history, Alfred was willing at least to mention one of their residences. –Forst.
The Delamensen, or Daleminzen of the middle age writers, sometimes called Dalmatians by mistake, or to shew their erudition, were situated near Lommatsch, or around Meissen or Misnia, on both sides of the Elbe. –Forst.
These must have been a Scalvonian people or tribe, now unknown, and perhaps inhabited near Gorlitz, or near Quarlitz, not far from great Glogau –Forst.
The Sorbi, Sirbi, and Serbii, of old writers, are the Sorbian Sclavons; and the modern Wends or Vandals of Lusatia, still call themselves Sserbs or Ssorbs. –Forst.
These must have been another tribe of Sclavons about Seuselig, to the westward of the Sorbs of lower Lusatia. –Forst.
Perhaps the duchy of Mazovia, called Magaw or Mazaw-land in ancient writers. Or perhaps it is wrong spelt for Wastaland or the Waste. –Forst.
Sermende is the mutilated and disguised name of Sarmatia, which did not exist under that name in the time of Alfred, but which he inserted on the authority of his original author Orosius. –Forst.
A mere corruption of the montes Riphaei or Riphean mountains of Orosius; and Alfred seems here to have got beyond his knowledge, copying merely from Orosius. –Forst.
The Ost sea of Alfred comprehends what are now called the Scaggerrack, Catte-gatt, the Sound, the two Belts, and the Baltic, which our mariners still call the East Sea. –Forst.
That is, both inhabiting North Jutland and the islands of Funen, Zeeland, Langland, Laland, and Falster. –Forst.
Formerly called Apdrede, and explained to be the Obotrites. –E.
Alluding, doubtless, to the country from whence the Saxons who inhabited England had come of old. –E.
This is the same nation called Estum in the voyage of Wulfstan, who lived east of the mouth of the Wisle or Vistula, along the Baltic, and who are mentioned by Tacitus under the name of Estii. When the Hanseatic league existed, they were called Osterlings or Easterlings, or Ost-men, and their country Est-land, Ostland, or Eastland, which still adheres to the northernmost part of Livonia, now called Est-land. –Forst.
The Burgendas certainly inhabited the island of Born-holm, called from them Borgenda-holm, or island of the Borgendas, gradually corrupted to Borgend-holm, Bergen-holm, Born-holm. In the voyage of Wulfstan they are plainly described as occupying this situation. –Forst.
Called formerly AEfelden, a nation who lived on the Havel, and were, therefore, named Hevelli or Haeveldi, and were a Wendick or Vandal tribe. –Forst.
These are the Sviones of Tacitus. Jornandes calls them Swethans, and they are certainly the ancestors of the Swedes. –Forst.
This short passage in the original Anglo-Saxon is entirely omitted by Barrington. Though Forster has inserted these Surfe in his map, somewhere about the duchy of Magdeburg, he gives no explanation or illustration of them in his numerous and learned notes on our royal geographer. –E.
Already explained to be Finland on the White sea. –E.
This is the same nation with the Finnas or Laplanders, mentioned in the voyage of Ohthere, so named because using scriden, schreiten, or snowshoes. The Finnas or Laplanders were distinguished by the geographer of Ravenna into Scerde-fenos, and Rede-fenos, the Scride-finnas, and Ter-finnas of Alfred. So late as 1556, Richard Johnson, Hakluyt, ed. 1809. I. 316. mentions the Scrick-finnes as a wild people near Wardhus. –E.
The North-men or Normans, are the Norwegians or inhabitants of Nor-land, Nord-land, or North-mana-land. –E.
At this place Alfred introduces the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, already given separately, in Sect. ii. and iii, of this chapter. –E.
Either the original or the translation is here erroneous; it ought to run thus: "The Propontis is westward of Constantinople; to the north-east of that city, the arm of the sea issues from the Euxine, and flows south-west; to the north the mouths of the Danube empty themselves into the north-west parts of the Euxine." –E.
Carinthia. The desert has been formerly mentioned as occasioned by the almost utter extirpation of the Avari by Charlemain, and was afterwards occupied by the Madschiari or Magiars, the ancestors of the present Hungarians. –Forst.
Very considerable freedoms have been taken with this sentence; as in Barrington's translation it is quite unintelligible. –E.
Profent and Profent sea, from the Provincia Gallica, now Provence. –Forst.
Probably in relation to Rome, the residence of Orosius. –E.
Gascony, called Wascan in the Teutonic or Saxon orthography and pronunciation. Thus the Saxons changed Gauls to Wales, and the Gauls changed War-men into Guer-men, hence our modern English, Germans. –Forst.
Scotland is here assuredly used to denote Ireland. –E.
Probably in relation to Rome, the residence of Orosius. –E.
Alfred includes the whole island, now called Great Britain, under one denomination of Brittannia, taking no notice whatever of any of its divisions. Orcadus is unquestionably Orcades, or the islands of Orkney and Shetland. –E.
The Thila or Thule of Alfred, from its direction in respect of Ireland, and its great distance, is obviously Iceland. –E.
This seems to have some obscure reference to an idea, that the sea had disjoined Europe and Africa. But the sense is extremely perplexed and even unintelligible. –E.
It must be noticed, that Alfred was unacquainted with any more of Africa than its northern coast, along the Mediterranean, which explains this erroneous idea of its size being inferior to Europe. –E.
The Red Sea, or Ethiopic Gulf. In this part of the geography of Alfred, his translator has left the sense often obscure or contradictory, especially in the directions, which, in this version, have been attempted to be corrected. This may have been owing to errors in the Anglo-Saxon MS. which Barrington professes to have translated literally, and he disclaims any responsibility for the errors of his author. –E.
Probably some corruption of Syrtes Majores, or of Syrenaica. –E.
Tripolitana, now Tripoli. –E.
I can make nothing of this salt lake of the Arzuges, unless it be the lake of Lawdeah, between Tunis and Tripoli. The Getulians and Garamantes are well known ancient inhabitants of the interior of northern Africa; the Natabres are unknown. –E.
The Garamantes are a well known people of the interior of Africa, in ancient geography; of the Natabres I can make nothing; the Geothulas are evidently the Getulians. –E.
Probably the same called just before the Malvarius, and now the Malul. But the geographical description of Africa by Alfred, is so desultory and unarranged as to defy criticism. –E.
Alfred may possibly have heard of the Monselmines who inhabit the north-western extremity of the Sahara, or great African desert, and extend to the Atlantic. –E.
The name of this sea is omitted in the MS. –Barr.
These measures are incorrigibly erroneous, or must have been transposed from some other place, having no possible reference to Corsica. –E.
Hakluyt, II. 39.
Hakluyt, II. 39. Malmsb. Lib. II. ch. xiii.
Hakluyt, II, 40. Malmsb II. xiii.
Hakluyt, II. 41. R. Hoveden, fo, 255. line 15.
Hakluyt, II. 41. Ingulph. Ab. Croyl. apud finem.
Forster, Voy. and Disc. 79.
Vit. S. Anscharii, ap. Langeb. Script. Dan. I. 451. Ad. Brem. Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. cap. 17.
Forster, Hist. of Disc. in the North, 82.
Every quality must be judged of by comparison; and, contrasted with the inhospitable regions of Iceland and Greenland, in lat. 65°, this country, which was as far south as even beyond the south of England, must have appeared admirable. –E.
It is true that grapes grow wild in Canada which are very good to eat, yet no one has ever been able to make good wine from their juice. Whether these wild grapes are found in Newfoundland I know not. The species of vines which grow in North America, are named by Linnaeus, Vitis labrusca, vulpina, and arborea. –Forst.
The propriety of the names imposed by the Norwegians on their new discoveries is admirable. Iceland, Greenland, Helleland, Markland, Winland, and many others; which are perfectly philosophical, excellently systematic, and infinitely preferable to the modern clumsy appellations, New Britain, New France, New England, New Holland, Sandwich Islands, Society islands, and a multitude of much worse names. –E.
Translation from Renaudot, 8vo. Lond. 1733. See likewise Harris, I. 522.
This is probably the sea about the Maldives, which, according to the eastern geographers, divides that part of the Indian Ocean from the sea of Delarowi, or the Magnus Sinus of the ancients. The eastern writers often speak of the Seven Seas, which seems rather a proverbial phrase, than a geographical definition. These are the seas of China, India, Persia, Kolzoum, or the Red Sea, of Rum or Greece, which is the Mediterranean, Alehozar or the Caspian, Pont or the Euxine. The sea of India is often called the Green Sea, and the Persian Gulf the sea of Bassora. The Ocean is called Bahr Mahit. –Harris.
Male-dive signifies, in the Malabar language, a thousand isles. –E.
The subsequent accounts of these islands do not justify this particular sentence, if the author meant that they were always governed by a queen. It might be so in this time by accident, and one queen might have succeeded another, as Queen Elizabeth did Queen Mary. –Harris.
This is the Taprobana of the ancients, and has received many names. In Cosmas Indicopleustes, it is called Sielendiba, which is merely a Grecian corruption of Sielea-dive, or Sielen island; whence the modern name of Ceylon. –E.
This is probably the shark, which is common on all the coasts of India. There was a portion of the MS. wanting at this place; wherein the author treated of the trade to China as it was carried on in his time, and of the causes which had brought it into a declining condition. –Renaud.
Perhaps some account of this Soliman might be contained in the lost pages: But the circumstance of a Mahomedan judge or consul at Canfu is a circumstance worthy of notice, and shews that the Mahomedans had carried on a regular and settled trade with China for a considerable time, and were in high estimation in that country. –Renaud.
It is difficult at this distance of time to ascertain the rout laid down by this author, on account of the changes of names. This mart of Siraff is not to be met with in any of our maps; but it is said by the Arabian geographers to have been in the gulf of Persia, about sixty leagues from Shiraz; and that on its decay, the trade was transferred to Ormuz. –Renaud.
It is probable, or rather certain, that Canton is here meant. –E.
Meaning the Parsees or Guebres, the fire-worshippers of Persia. –E.
It is probable that this Balhara, or king of the people with bored ears, which plainly means the Indians, was the Zamorin or Emperor of Calicut; who, according to the reports of the most ancient Portuguese writers concerning India, was acknowledged as a kind of emperor in the Indies, six hundred years before they discovered the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope. –Harris.
The original editor of this voyage in English, Harris, is certainly mistaken in this point. The Balhara was the sovereign of Southern Seindetic India; of which dominion Guzerat was the principal province. –E.
This is a very early notice of the construction and use of clocks, or machinery to indicate divisions of time, by means of weights. –E.
From the description of this place afterwards, in the travels of Ebn Wahab, in this article, it appears to have been Nankin. –E.
The chronology of the Chinese history is attended with extreme difficulty. According to Du Halde: In the reign of the emperor Hi Tseng, the 18th of the Tsong dynasty, the empire fell into great confusion, in consequence of heavy taxations, and a great famine occasioned by the inundation of the rivers, and the ravages of locusts. These things caused many insurrections, and a rebel, named Hoan Tsia put himself at the head of the malcontents, and drove the emperor from the imperial city. But he was afterwards defeated, and the emperor restored. It must be owned that there are about twenty years difference between the time of the rebellion mentioned in the text, and the date of the great revolt, as assigned by Du Halde; but whether the mistake lies in the Arabian manuscript, or in the difficulties of Chinese chronology, I cannot take upon me to determine; yet both stories probably relate to the same event. –Harris.
According to Abulpharagius, one Abu Said revolted against the Khaliff Al Mohated, in the year of the hegira, 285, A.D. 893, and laid waste Bassora. This date agrees with the story of Ebn Wahab in the text. –Harris.
From this circumstance, it appears probable that the great canal of China was not then constructed. –E.
Some circumstances in this very interesting detail have been a little curtailed. If Abu Zaid had been a man of talents, he might surely have acquired and transmitted more useful information from this traveller; who indeed seems to have been a poor drivelling zelot. –E.
There is a vast deal of error in this long paragraph. It certainly was impossible to ascertain the route or voyage of the wreck, which was said to have been cast away on the coast of Syria. If it could have been ascertained to have come from the sea of the Chozars, or the Euxine, by the canal of Constantinople, and the Egean, into the gulf of Syria, and actually was utterly different from the build of the Mediterranean, it may or must have been Russian. If it certainly was built at Siraff, some adventurous Arabian crew must have doubled the south of Africa from the east, and perished when they had well nigh immortalized their fame, by opening up the passage by sea from Europe to India: And as the Arabian Moslems very soon navigated to Zanguebar, Hinzuan, and Madagascar, where their colonies still remain, this list is not impossible, though very unlikely. The ambergris may have proceeded from a sick cachalot that had wandered into the Mediterranean.
The north-east passage around the north of Asia and Europe, which is adduced by the commentator, in Harris's Collection, is now thoroughly known to be impracticable. –E.
It is difficult to say anything certain of the countries to which this story relates; which may have been some of the islands now called Philipines, or perhaps some of the islands in the straits of Sunda. – –Harris.
Such is the opinion of the editor of Harris's Collection. But I am disposed, especially from the rivers mentioned, to consider Zapage as Pegu; and that Malacca, Sumatra, and Java, were the dependent islands; and particularly, that Malacca, as the great mart of early trade, though actually no island, was the Cala of Abu Zeid. Siam, or Cambodia may have been the kingdom of Komar. –E.
This alludes to the custom of the Arabs, and other orientals, to squat upon this occasion. –E.
It is presumable, that this was a mere bravado, in the full confidence that no one would be found sufficiently foolhardy to engage to follow the example. It is needless to say, that the promise of laughing aloud could not have been performed; so that any one might have safely accepted the challenge, conditioning for the full performance of the vaunt. –E.
Rubies, emeralds, and topazes. –E.
Obviously Canoge, in Bengal. –E.
Buddah, the principal god of an extensive sect, now chiefly confined to Ceylon, and India beyond the Ganges. –E.
The author makes here an abrupt transition to the eastern coast of Africa, and calls it the country of the Zinges; congeneric with the country of Zanguebar, and including Azania, Ajen, and Adel, on the north; and Inhambane, Sabia, Sofala, Mocaranga, Mozambique, and Querimba, to the south; all known to, and frequented by the Arabs. –E.
This incredible story may have originated from an ill-told account of the war bulls of the Caffres, exaggerated into fable, after the usual manner of the Arabs, always fond of the marvellous. –E.
It is somewhat singular to find this ancient Arabian author mentioning the first word of the famous Hiera Picra, or Holy Powder; a compound stomachic purge of aloes and spices, probably combined by the ancients with many other ingredients, as it is by the moderns with rhubarb, though now only given in tincture or solution with wine or spirits. The story of Alexander rests only on its own Arabian basis. –E.
Meaning, doubtless, the isles of the Mediterranean. –E.
Referring, obviously, to the Isthmus of Suez. –E.
This does not refer to the coast of Barbary in the Mediterranean, but must mean the coast of the barbarian Arabs or Bedouins. –E.
This singular expression probably signifies that the inhabitants are without law or regular government. –E.
This curious account of the origin of ambergris, was revived again about twenty-five years ago, and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, as a new discovery. The only difference in the modern account of the matter is, that the ambergris originates within the alimentary canal of the whale, in consequence, probably, of some disease; and that the lumps which are found afloat, or cast on shore, had been extruded by these animals. –E.
Bahrein is an island in the Persian gulf, on the Arabian shore, still celebrated for its pearl fishery. –E.
Harris, I. 545. Forster, 91.
So named as descended from Javan: the Jewish writers affecting to employ scripture names for modern countries and nations. –E.
Manuel Comnenes, who reigned from 1143 to 1180. –E.
These names are corrupt orthographies of the Greek titles in the Hebrew. Manuel being an emperor, Benjamin names all his great officers kings. –E.
Psianki may, perhaps, be Poland, and Buria Bavaria. –E.
The Arabs, so called from their supposed ancestor, Ismael. –E.
Perhaps Blachernae. –E.
The Karaites were a sect among the Jews, who confined their observances and religious belief to the precepts of Moses, while the Rabbinists followed all the wild fancies of the Talmud. An excellent account of these sects is to be found in the Lettres Juives, or Jewish Spy, by the Marquis d'Argens. –E.
Perhaps only an exaggerated account of some Jewish independent tribe in Arabia, of which there were once a considerable number, as particularly mentioned in the History of Mahomet. –E.
Probably the Ahwaz, as he seems to have gone from Bassora. –E.
This must be an error in the author, as the Tigris does not come near that city. –E.
This story is told by other Jewish writers, but with some unimportant variations; and there have been many such pretended Messiahs, who persuaded the Jews of the east into revolts, for which consult Basnage, Histoire des Juifs. –Harris.
The whole secret of this miracle may be easily explained. David escaped from prison, and told all the rest of the story to the ignorant and credulous Jews of Omaria, from whom the fable has been handed down to Benjamin and other believing relaters. –E.
Shiraz, about forty miles from which are the ruins of Persepolis. –E.
The distance here is extremely corrupt, and perhaps four months are meant. –E.
The ridiculous impressing of ancient scriptural names for the geographical features of the country, and the nations which inhabited it in his time, and his rambling itinerary, by days journeys, without pointing out the precise direction of the routs, render it next to impossible to investigate the real objects of his observations with any decent chance of success. –E.
This description suits the Calmuks. –E.
Once a great city in the N.W. of Irac-agemi, not far from Cashbin. See Chardin's Travels in Persia, to be found afterwards in this collection. –E.
This island has much puzzled commentators, some of whom have wandered to Ormus in quest of its situation. It is probably the flat country of Assyria, between the Tigris and Euphrates, below Bagdat, which he may have mistaken for an island; or it may refer to the Delta of the Tigris and Ahwas. The extent mentioned in the text does not say whether it is to be understood as the length or circumference of the island. –E.
This must be at or near Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf, famous for its pearl-fishery. –E.
Nisan, the first month of the Jewish year, contains the latter half of our March and former half of April; Tisri is equivalent to half of September and half of October. –E.
From the circumstance of pepper being plenty in this place it is probable that some part of Malabar is meant, where he may have found a colony of Parsees. Astronomy is often called astrology by old writers. –E.
This must have been some secret mechanical contrivance, all wonders unknown to the ignorant being attributed by them to magic art. –E.
Tzin is obviously China. By the Nikpha, or coagulated sea, the sea of Tartar may be intended; concerning which, some ill-told stories may have reached Benjamin, of mariners having been frozen up. The situation of Cinrog it is impossible to ascertain; but it must have been some part of India, where voluntarily burning alive is still practised, but only by the widows of the higher casts. –E.
Benjamin here obviously speaks of the Jews in the mountains of Abyssinia, still known there under the name of Falassa. It would appear, that the previously indicated courses led across the peninsula of Arabia and the Red Sea; but his names of places are unintelligible. –E.
Perhaps Asowan in upper Egypt, which is rendered probable by the journey through the desert. –E.
Harris considered Gana to mean Guinea; but it is probably Nigritia, or the inland country of Africa, on the Niger or Joliba. –E.
Perhaps Memphis, as he evidently alludes to the pyramids. –E.
Kahira, or Cairo, called also Messir. –E.
Elul contains from the middle of August to the middle of September and Tisri from that to the middle of October. But the Nile begins to rise in the middle of June, and returns to its usual level in October. –E.
Of the Rabbinists or Talmudists. –E.
This may possibly have been the Sarcophagus brought lately from Alexandria, and deposited in the British museum, under the strange idea of having been the tomb of Alexander. Benjamin seems to have known nothing about the hieroglyphics, with which his tomb was obviously covered. –E.
This short commentary upon three words in that part of the travels of Benjamin, which has been omitted in Harris, is extracted from Forster, Hist of Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 92, and shews the extreme difficulty of any attempt to give an accurate edition of the whole work, if that should be thought of, as it would require critical skill not only in Hebrew, but in the languages of the different countries to which the travels refer. –E.
Hakluyt, I, 22.
Acre, in Palestine –E.
Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, IV. 355.
Decl. and Fall, XI. 402.
Dashte Kipzak, or the plain of Kipzak, extended on both sides of the Volga, towards the Jaik or Ural, and the Borysthenes or Dnieper, and is supposed to have given name to the Cosacs. –Gibb.
As reported by Gibbon, from Matthew Paris, p. 396, forty or fifty herrings were sold for a shilling. This must be an error, perhaps for 40 or 50 thousand; as a shilling of these days was worth at least from fifteen to twenty modern shillings in effective value; and within memory herrings have often sold, in a very plentiful fishery, for a shilling the cart-load, when salt could not be had in sufficient quantity. –E.
Decl. and Fall. XII. I.
Hakluyt. I. 24. and 42. for the Latin of the two relations; and p. 59. for the old English translation of the second.
This strange personification of the East and North, as if they were stationary geographical terms, not merely, relative, only means that Mongalia lay in the most north-easterly part of the then known world. –E.
Called likewise Karakum, or Caracorum, and said to signify the Black Sand . –E.
In the previous account of the travels of Carpini, Hakl. I. 27. this Andrew is said to have been duke of Sarvogle, or Seirvogle, perhaps meaning Yeroslave. –E.
Called Chamil or Hami in the maps, in lat. 43° N. and long. 92° E It stands in a province of the same name, on the north side of the great desert of Cobi, and to the N.E. of the land of the Kalmuks, or little Bucharia. –E.
The inhabitants of Northern China, then a separate kingdom from Mangi, or Southern China. –E.
The Huirs or Uigurs. –E.
This probably alludes to the difficulty experienced by the Mongals in forcing a passage across the great rivers Hoang-ho and Kian-ku –E.
These absurd notions must have been picked up by the credulous papal messengers, from ignorant or designing Nestorians in Mongolia. –E.
Probably Tuschi-Khan. –E.
It is needless to remark upon the confused and ignorant geography, and the idle tale of a Christian empire in India in this section. The strangely ill-told story of the copper images, by which the Mongals were scorched with wild-fire, may refer to the actual employment either of cannon or rockets against the Mongals in this invasion. –E.
It is surely unnecessary to remark on this ridiculous story of the canine men, which no commentary could reduce to sense. –E.
These people may possibly have been the Burats. The same practice of eradicating the beard is still followed by the native tribes of America. –E.
The Kirguses, inhabiting Western Turkestan, between Lake Balkash and the Caspian. –E.
The remainder of this short section is so ridiculously fabulous as not to merit translation, and is therefore omitted. –E.
Other authors give a different account of the family of Zingis. According to Harris, I. 556, Zuzi, or Tuschi, was his eldest son, who died six months before his father, and his son Baatu got a great part of Tartary for his share. Zagathai, a son of Zingis, got Transoxiana, or the country of the Kirguses. Tuli, another son, had Chorassan, Persia, and western India. Octai had Mongalia and Cathay, or Northern China. Carpini, or rather Vincentius, has sadly confounded all authentic history, by his rambling colloquial collections from ignorant relators, and has miserably corrupted the orthography of names of nations, places, and persons. –E.
Probably meaning in Persia, beyond the Caspian Sea. –E.
The Busurmen, Musurmen, or Mahometan inhabitants of Turkestan. –E.
This is probably a manufacture of Bagdat or Baldach, from whence its name; and may have been flowered silk or cloth of gold. –E.
This mode of passing over rivers, though carefully translated, is by no means obviously described. I am apt to suppose that the leathern bags, besides holding the apparel and other valuables, were large enough to be blown up with air so as to serve as floats, like those used by the ancient Macedonians; a practice which they may have learnt from the Scythians. The Latin of Vincentius Beluacensis appears to have been translated from the French original of Carpini, from the following circumstance: What is here translated their other baggage is, in the Latin, alias res duriores; almost with certainty mistakenly rendered from the French leurs autres hardes. –E.
The word here used in the Latin, balistais, is probably corrupted in transcription for balistariis; and may either mean cross-bow-men, or men for working balistae, the ancient artillery, if the expression be allowable. Arcubalistarii is the appropriate middle age Latin for men armed with cross-bows. –E.
Our good minorite seems in this chapter to have studied the old proverb, fas est ab hoste doceri; but except in the leading political advice of the section, he might have been better employed in following the adage of ne sutor ultra crepidam. –E.
The journal of Carpini begins here, that of Asceline never appears. –E.
At this period Jeroslaw, or Jeroslaus, was grand duke of Wolodimir or Wladimire, then considered as the sovereigns of Russia, who was succeeded by Alexander.-Playf. Syst. of Chronol. Wasilico, therefore, or Wasile, must have been a subordinate duke, or a junior member of the reigning family. –E.
There is a town named Danilovska, near the S. E. frontiers of European Russia. –E.
From this circumstance, it may be presumed that Kiow was then occupied by a guard of Tartars, under a commander of a thousand men. –E.
This was the 4th February, probably of 1247. –E.
It is difficult to understand the ambiguity here used, unless we suppose that the station of Montij was on the right bank of the Dnieper; while certainly that of Corrensa was on the left or north-east bank. –E.
The Euxine and Caspian are here confounded as one sea. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the Dnieper and Don run into the Euxine, while the Volga and Jaik, or Ural, are discharged into the Caspian. –E.
The Morduyni, Morduas, or Merdas, were probably the same people with those now called Tscheremisses, who call themselves Mari-murt, or the people of Mari. –E.
Probably Tartar trophies of victory. Even Timour, the great Mongol conqueror after Zingis, so much vaunted by many writers for his virtues and humanity, used to order the erection of immense pyramids of recent human heads, in memory of victory. –E.
The confused geographical notices of this traveller are so uninstructive, as not to merit any commentary. A good account of the present state of these immense regions will be found in Pinkerton's Modern Geography, articles Independent Tartary, Chinese Tartary, and Asiatic Russia. The ancient and perpetually changing distribution of nations in Scythia or Tartary, in its most extended sense, almost elude research, and would require lengthened dissertations instead of illustrative notes. –E.
From the subsequent travels of Rubruquis, it will appear, that this ceremony was in honour of the Tartar messengers going from Baatu to the emperor, not from respect to the papal envoys. –E.
This sea is obviously the lake Balkash, or Palkati-nor, at the south end of which our maps represent a group of islands. –E.
The Soongaria of modern Geography. –E.
This term probably signifies the manufacture of Baldach or Bagdat, and may refer to silken stuffs damasced, or woven with gold flowers. –E.
Taking the mark of gold at 84 oz. and valuing the ounce at 4£ 17s, 6d, the sum of 20 marks amounts to L. 780 Sterling. –E.
Called Susdal in a former passage. –E.
In Section XIX of this journey, Wasilico, or Wasiley, is mentioned as duke of Russia; but who must only have been duke of some subordinate province. This submission of Russia, or of his particular dukedom, produced no fruit to the Romish see, as the Russian empire still remains what are called Greek schismatics. –E.
Hakluyt, I. 80. for the Latin, and I.101. for the English. See likewise Harris, I. 556.
Pinkerton, Mod. Geogr. II. xvi.
The Euxine or Black Sea. Though not expressed in the text, he probably took his departure from Constantinople. –E.
By the Latins are here obviously meant the inhabitants of western Europe. The province here mentioned is the Crimea; the Taurica Chersonesus of the ancients, or the modern Taurida. –E.
At the mouth of one of the branches of the Kuban is the town of Temruck, formerly called Tmutrakhan by the Russians, and Tamatarcha by the Greeks; this has been corrupted to Tamaterca, Materca, and Matriga. –Forst.
This obviously refers to the canal of communication between the sea of Azoph and the Euxine. –E.
Called likewise Soldeya, Soldadia and Sogdat, now Sudak. –E.
Sartach was the son of Baatu-khan. –E.
This name is probably meant to imply the Trucheman, Dragoman, or interpreter; and from the strange appellative, Man of God, he may have been a monk from Constantinople, with a Greek name, having that signification: perhaps Theander –E.
Cherson or Kersona, called likewise Scherson, Schursi, and Gurzi. –E.
These castles of the Goths, first mentioned by Rubruquis, were afterwards noticed by Josaphat Barbaro, a Venetian, in 1436; and Busbeck conversed with some of these Goths from the Crimea at Constantinople in 1562, and gives a vocabulary of their language. From the authority of Rubruquis misunderstood, some ancient map makers have inserted the Castella Judeorum instead of Gothorum in the Crimea, and even Danville placed them in his maps under the name of Chateaux des Juifs, castles of the Jews. –Forst.
The butter from ewe-milk is probably here meant. –E.
Under the name of Kumyss, this liquor is much used by the Russian gentry, as a restorative for constitutions weakened by disease or debauchery: and for procuring it they travel to the Tartar districts of the empire. –E.
Whether the author here means the dissolved sour curd, mentioned at the close of the former Section, or gruel made from meal and water, does not appear. –E.
Our falconers use the left hand for carrying their hawks. I leave the inexplicable use of the thongs to be understood by professional falconers. –Hakluyt, ad loc.
Probably this concluding sentence means, that as the king of France had seen some Tartars in Syria, the author did not deem it necessary to describe their form and fashions. –E.
Or hyperpyron, a coin said to be of the value of two German dollars, or six and eightpence Sterling. –E.
From this circumstance it is obvious, that the journey had been hitherto confined to Casaria, or the Crimea, and that he had now reached the lines or isthmus of Precop. –E.
In the English translation of Hakluyt, this word is changed to Capthak, and in the collection of Harris to Capthai; it is probably the Kiptschak of the Russians. –E.
In the Latin this fish is named Barbatus, which both Hakluyt and Harris have translated Turbot, a fish never found in rivers. It was more probably a Barbel, in Latin called Barbus; or it might be of the Sturgeon tribe, which likewise has beard-like appendages, and is found in the Don. –E.
This, according to the Roman method of reckoning, ought to be the last day of July. Yet Rubruquis had previously mentioned the 1st of August a considerable time before. –E.
In the English of Hakluyt and Harris, these people are called Merdas and Mardui. –E.
Now called St Jean d'Acre. –E.
About the year 1097.
It is astonishing how easily a small exaggeration converts truth to fable. Here the ill-told story of the light sledges of the Tshutki, drawn by dogs of a very ordinary size, is innocently magnified into carts dragged by gigantic mastiffs. –E.
The Greater Bulgaria of our author seems to comprehend the provinces of Astracan and Casan in Russia. –E.
This, however, is only to be understood of what may be termed the pretorian or royal horde, in a time of profound peace, travelling in their usual and perpetual round in quest of forage; the almost boundless space of the desert must have been interspersed with numerous subordinate hordes, and though the usual guard of Baatu might not have exceeded 500 heads of families, the military force of his dominions, though subordinate to Mangu-khan, certainly exceeded 200,000 fighting men. –E.
Probably intended for what is now called Servia. –E.
This may be taken at a medium of thirty miles a day which, in forty-six days, would amount to 1380 miles; no doubt a very fatiguing journey for a corpulent heavy man as he describes himself. –E.
The person here alluded to was a monk named Andrew Luciumel, who had been sent ambassador, by the pope, to the emperor of the Mongals, in 1247 or 1248, with the same views as in the missions of Carpini and Asceline at the same period; but of his journey we have no account remaining.-E
It is exceedingly difficult, or rather impossible, to trace the steps of the travels of Rubruquis, for want of latitudes, longitudes, and distances, and names of places. After passing the Volga and Ural or Jaik, he seems to have travelled east in the country of the Kirguses, somewhere about the latitude of 50°. N. to between the longitudes of 65°. and 70°. E. then to have struck to the south across the Kisik-tag into Western Turkestan, in which the cultivated vale may have been on the Tshui or the Talas rivers. –E.
Probably near the north side of the Arguin or Alak mountains. –E.
This position of Rubruquis is sufficiently distinct: Having ferried over the river Tshui, and crossed the Jimbai mountains, the route now lay between the Alak mountain on his right, or to the south, and the lake of Balkash or Palkati Nor, to the left or north. –E.
The Kisik-tag, which he had before passed in descending into Western Turkestan. –E.
This absurd derivation of the name of the country and people, is unworthy of credit. Organum was probably the country called Irgonekan or Irganakon by Abulgari; and the word signifies a valley surrounded by steep mountains, exactly correspondent with the description in the text. –Forst.
The Contomanni or Kontomanians, were probably a Mongal tribe, originally inhabiting the banks of the Konta or Khonda, who had afterwards settled on the banks of the river Ili and lake of Balkash. –Forst.
The Saracens are here much abused by the mistake of our traveller; as, however erroneous their religious opinions, they worship the true God only, and abhor even the least semblance of idolatry. –E.
The Nestorian probably said an idol-house; meaning one of the high towers usually erected near Chinese temples: and even this must have stood upon a very elevated situation, in an extensive plain, to be seen from so great a distance, perhaps of sixty miles. –E.
The following more complete account of this superstition, has been deemed worthy of insertion.
"These supposed Nestorian Christians were undoubtedly professors of the religion of the Dalai-Lama, who had several usages and ceremonies resembling corrupt Christianity. Like the Roman catholics, they had rosaries, containing 108 beads, and their prayer is, Hom-Mani-Pema– Hum. This does not signify, as asserted by Rubruquis, God! thou knowest it; nor, as supposed by Messerschmid, God have mercy on us. But its true import is, that Mani, who holds the flowers of the Lotus, and is the beginning and end of the higher Magic, may hear their prayers, be propitious to them, and render them happy.
"They have rolls or cylinders inscribed with their prayers, which they twirl round on an axis, continually pronouncing these mystic words, and they believe that all the prayers on these rolls are virtually pronounced at each turn of the roll; The religion of the Dalai-Lama, is a branch of the Shamanian and Braminical superstitions, and has for its foundation the Manichaean doctrine of the two principles, which Manes attempted to incorporate into the Christian religion, so that it is no wonder the practices of the followers of the Dalai-Lama should resemble those of the Manichaean and Nestorian Christians." –Forst. Voy. and Disc. 105.
Forster conjectures that the original words of Rubruquis are here corrupted, and that this passage ought to have been "beyond Tangut," instead of beyond Tebet or Thibet; in which case, the countries of Langa and Solanga, may refer to that of the Lamuts and Solonians, the ancestors of the Mantschus or Mundschurians. –Voy. and Disc. 108.
In this supposition Rubruquis was certainly mistaken, as the Seres of the ancients appear to have lived in Turkestan, Gete, and Uigur, and to have then ruled over a great track of eastern central Asia, and may have extended their commerce to northern China. Hence the original name of silk was certainly either adopted from or applied to the intermediate nation, through whom that precious commodity was transmitted to the western nations. –Forst.
A jascot is described as a piece of silver weighing ten marks, so that the tribute is 15,000 marks daily, or about 5 1/2 millions of marks yearly, and is equal in weight of silver, to L. 8,650,000 Sterling; perhaps equal, in real efficacious value, to ten times that sum, and probably superior to the yearly revenue of all the sovereigns then in Europe. –E.
Singan, or Singan-fu in the province of Shensee. In the year 1625, a stone was found here, inscribed with Chinese characters and a Syrian inscription round the borders, implying, that in the year 636, the Nestorians had sent Olopuen into China to propagate the gospel; and that the emperor Tai-sum-ven had approved this step, and allowed the Christian religion to be propagated through all China, with many other particulars relative to the history of Christianity in China. This stone bore to have been erected in 782 by Mar Isdabuzzid, priest, and Chorepiscopus of Cumdan, the royal city of the east, now Nankin. See a dissertation on this monument, following Renaudet's translation of the two Mahometan travellers, London, 1788, p. 76. –E.
Mani or Manes is named Thenaoui by the oriental Christians, and the sect of Manicheans they call Al-Thenaouib, or those who hold the doctrines of the two principles. These Tuinians, therefore, of Rubruquis, are probably the Manicheans. –Forst.
The country on the Onon and Kerlon, in Daouria, or the land of the Tunguses. –Forst.
Caten signifies lady and Cotata was her particular name. –Harris.
From the whole of this story, it would appear that the lady Cota was hysterical from constipation; and that Sergius had the good fortune to remove the cause by a few doses of rhubarb. –E.
About L. 30, perhaps equal in efficacy to L. 300 of modern days; no bad fee for administering a dose of rhubarb. –E.
This surely was a sinless infirmity, and needed not to have been recorded to his dishonour. He was probably afflicted with chilblains, in consequence of the severity of the Tartarian climate. –E.
L. 1500 in weight, equal at least to L. 15,000 of our modern money; a most magnificent present to an itinerant beggar. –E.
So for as was travelled by Rubruquis, and in the route which he pursued on the north of the Alak mountains, this observation is quite correct to longitude 100° E. But what he here adds respecting Kathay, is directly contradictory to the fact; as all the rivers beyond Caracarum run in an easterly direction. The great central plain of Tangut, then traversed by the imperial horde of the Mongals, and now by the Eluts and Kalkas, must be prodigiously elevated above the level of the ocean. –E.
The information here seems corrupted, or at least is quite incorrect. Kathay or northern China is due east, or east south-east from the great plain to the south of Karakum. Daouria, the original residence of the Mongols of Zingis, between the rivers Onon and Kerlon, is to the north-east. –E.
The Kerkis must fee the Kirguses, a tribe of whom once dwelt to the south-west of lake Baikal. The Orangin or Orangey, inhabited on the east side of that lake. Pascatir is the country of the Bashkirs, Baschkirians, or Pascatirians in Great Bulgaria, called Great Hungary in the text, between the Volga and the Ural. –E.
Rubruquis properly rejects the stories of monstrous men, related by the ancients, yet seems to swallow the absurd story of the purple dye, engrafted by the Kathayan priest on a very natural invention for catching apes. He disbelieves the last information of the priest, which must have been an enigmatical representation of the province of death, or of the tombs. –E.
It is difficult to guess as to these people and their islands; which may possibly refer to Japan, or even Corea, which is no island. Such tribute could not have been offered by the rude inhabitants of Saghalien or Yesso. –E.
This evidently but obscurely describes the Chinese characters; the most ingenious device ever contrived for the monopoly of knowledge and office to the learned class, and for arresting the progress of knowledge and science at a fixed boundary. –E.
From this circumstance, it would appear that Rubruquis had found the court of the khan in the country of the Eluts, to the south of the Changai mountains, perhaps about latitude 44° N. and longitude 103° E, the meridian of the supposed site of Karakum on the Orchon. And it may be presumed, that the imperial suite was now crossing the Changai chain towards the north. –E.
Haitho, of whom some account will be found in the succeeding chapter of this work. –E.
Explained as signifying the sound of iron, probably in allusion to his martial power. –E.
The obscurity of this passage is inexplicable. –E.
The reason of the change was, probably, that they might fall in with the travelling Tartar camps, who went northwards in the summer, that they might procure food and change of horses. In going to Mangu, he appears to have travelled through Soongaria, and, in returning, through the country of the Kalmaks. The river here mentioned may have been the Borotala.-E
Sarni, Saray, or Sarey, seems to have been built on the Achtuba, or eastern branch of the Volga, near Zarewpod, where many traces of a large town, still exist. Sumerkent is unknown, but may have been near Astrachan, formerly named Hadschi-Aidar-Khan. But there are ruins of a town still existing on both sides of the Volga, which are now used for the purpose of making saltpetre. –Forst.
Schabran, or Schabiran. –E.
Shamaki, in Shirvan. –E.
The Karai, on which Tefflis or Tiblis stands, runs from the north-west; the Demur, Araz or Araxes from the west; and both united form the Kur, which runs directly south into the Caspian. –E.
Georgia or Gurgistan is to the north-west of the plain of Mogan. –E.
These were the ancestors of the present Turks, who laid the foundation of the Osmanian or Othoman empire. Kanja, called Ganges or Ganghe in the text, was their capital.-Frost.
This passage is erroneous or corrupted. In travelling westwards up the Araxes or Araz, he had Persia on his left, to the south, Georgia on his right, to the north, and the Caspian sea and mountains of the Iron-gate were left behind him, to the east and north-east. –E.
Arz-roum on the Frat or Euphrates, perhaps a corruption of Arx– romanorum; as the Turks give the name of Roum to a part of Lesser Asia; and all the eastern nations call the Constantinopolitan empire Roum to this day. –E.
Turkey, in these travels of Rubruquis, is always, to be understood as referring to the Turkish dominion in Asia Minor, of which Konieh or Iconium was the capital. –E.
Nak-sivan, or Nag-jowan. –E.
This must be an error for eighty. –E.
Rubruquis here tells a long story of an Armenian prophecy, from which they expected to be freed from the iron yoke of the Tartars, by St Louis, not worth inserting. –E.
Kurke or Kurch. –E.
Aias-cala, in the gulf of Aiasso, or Scanderoon. –E.
Antioch or Antakia. –E.
Ptolomais, or St John d'Acre. –E.
Forst. Hist. of Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 113.
Faucon Pelerin, the Pilgrim Falcon, –Forst.
Esmerliones, or Merlins. –Forst.
The Bondree and Sacre, or the Honey-buzzard and Sacre. –Forst.
Harris, I, 593. Forst. Voy. and Disc. p. 117. Modern Geogr. II. xvi.
Ital Libr. p. iv.
Mod. Geogr. II. xvi.
The Black-Sea, or Euxine, is here called the Great Sea. Soldadia, Soldaia, or Sudak, was a city in the Crimea, a little to the west of Caffa. –Forst.
Barha or Barcha, more properly Bereke-khan, who reigned from 1256 to 1266. –E.
Bolgara is the town of Bolgari, the capital of Bulgaria, which subsisted from 1161 to 1578. Alsara is Al-seray, which was built by Baatu-khan, on the Achtuba, a branch of the Volga. –Forst.
Probably Holagu-khan, to whom all Persia was in subjection, quite to Syria. –Forst.
Ukakah, Grikhata, Khorkang, or Urghenz on the Gihon. –Forst.
This probably refers to the Constantinopolitan or Greek emperor; his dominions being called Roum in the east to the present day. –E.
In different editions this name is corruptly written Gogoka, Gogatal, Cogatal, and Chogatal. –E.
Otherwise called Glaza and Galza, but more properly Al-Ajassa, on the south-east extremity of the Euxine or Black-sea. –Forst.
Acon, or more properly Akko. It is not easy to conceive what should have taken them so much out of their way as Acre; unless they could not procure shipping at Giazza, and travelled therefore by land through Asia Minor and Syria; or that they intended here to procure the holy oil for the khan. –E.
This is an error in transcription, and it has been already noticed in the introduction to these travels, that Marco could not then have exceeded the ninth year of his age. –E.
Bibars el Bentochdari, sultan of Kahira or Cairo, in Egypt, often called Babylon. –Forst.
Chambalu, or Khan-balu, or the city of the Khan, now Peking. –Forst.
Called likewise; Kogatin, Gogatin, and Gogongin, in the different transcripts of these travels. –E.
From the circumstance of this kingdom of Argon being near Arbor Secco it would appear to have been one of the eight kingdoms of Persia mentioned in the sequel; and from the sea voyage, it probably was Mekran, which, reaches to the sea and the Indies, –E.
These were most princely letters-patent; equal in weight to 400 guineas, perhaps equal in efficacious value to 4000 in our times. –E.
Marco Polo having spent much the largest portion of his life among the Tartars, necessarily used their names for the countries, places, and people which he described, and these names have been subsequently much disfigured in transcription. This has occasioned great perplexity to commentators in endeavouring to explain his geography conformably with modern maps, and which even is often impossible to be done with any tolerable certainty. The arrangement, likewise, of his descriptions is altogether arbitrary, so that the sequence does not serve to remove the difficulty; and the sections appear to have been drawn up in a desultory manner just as they occurred to his recollection, or as circumstances in the conversation or inquiry of others occasioned him to commit his knowledge to paper. –E.
Gurgistan, usually called Georgia. –E.
This manufacture from Mosul or Moxul, on the Tigris, must be carefully distinguished from the muslins of India, which need not be described.-E
These buckrams seem to have been some coarse species of cotton cloth, in ordinary wear among the eastern nations. The word occurs frequently, in these early travels in Tartary, but its proper meaning is unknown –E.
This word is inexplicable, unless by supposing it some corruption of Syra Horda, the golden court or imperial residence, which was usually in Tangut or Mongalia, on the Orchen or Onguin. But in the days of Marco, the khans had betaken themselves to the luxurious ease of fixed residences and he might have misunderstood the information he received of the residence of Mangu. –E.
Marco Polo is no more answerable for the truth of this ridiculous legend of the 13th century, than the archbishop of Paris of the 19th is for many, equally absurd, that are narrated in the French national Catechism. Both were good catholics, and rehearsed what they had heard, and what neither of them pretended to have seen. –E.
Now Tebriz in Corcan. –E.
This must refer to Fars, or Persia proper; as Tebriz is in Persia. –E.
Perhaps Iracagemi? –E.
Perhaps Kerman? –E.
Inexplicably corrupt. –E.
Timochaim and Arboresecco are inexplicable, perhaps from corrupt transcription. But Timochaim appears to nave been Mekran on the coast of the Indian sea, and perhaps reached to the Indus, as observed in a former note; and it may have included Sigistan. –E.
Jasdi is almost certainly Yezd in Fars. Pinkerton considers Chiaman to be Crerina, which is impossible, as that place is afterwards named: Perhaps it may be the province named Timochaim, mentioned in the immediately preceding note. –E.
As the route may be considered as nearly in a straight line south from Yesd, Crerina may possibly be the city of Kerrnan, and the cold elevated plain, a table land between the top of the Ajuduk mountains and a nameless range to the south, towards Gambroon or Ormus. Adgamad being destroyed, cannot now be ascertained, but it must have stood on the fine plain above described, and at the bottom of these southern mountains. Reobarle is not to be found In our maps, but must have been a name for the province of Ormus. –E.
There is a series of corruptions or absurdities here: a Malabar government under a Sultan Asiden, or Asi-o-din, situated at Dely, conquered by a secret expedition from Turkestan, requires a more correct edition of the original of Marco Polo to render intelligible. We can suppose a tribe of Indians or Blacks not far from Gombroon, to have been under the rule of a mussel man Sultan, and conquered or subverted by a Tartar expedition from Touran, or the north of Persia: But this remains a mere hypothetical explanation. –E.
For this paragraph, the editor is indebted to Mr Pinkerton, Mod. Geog. II. xxii. who has had the good fortune to procure what he thinks an original edition from the MS. of Marco Polo. –E.
By some singular negligence in translating, Mr Pinkerton, in the passage quoted in the preceding note, has ridiculously called this country the plain of Formosa, mistaking the mere epithet, descriptive of its beauty in the Italian language, for its name. The district was obviously a distinct small kingdom, named Ormus from its capital city; which, from its insular situation, and great trade with India, long maintained a splendid independence. –E.
The two Mahometan travellers of the ninth century, give precisely the same account of the ships of Siraf, in the same gulf of Persia. –E.
Marco here probably means the town or city of Kerm-shir, as that lies in the course of his present route from Ormus to the north-east of Persia. –E.
This name is inexplicable; yet from the circumstance of its mines, and the direction of the journey, it may have been situated near the Gebelabad mountains; and some German editor may have changed abad, into the precisely similar significant termination ham. The original probably had Cobin-abad. –E.
In confirmation of the idea entertained of the present route of Marco, from Ormus by Kerm-shir, to the north-east of Persia, there is, in the maps, a short river in the desert between Diden and Mastih, which has no outlet, but loses itself in the sands, on which account he may have called it subterraneous, as sinking into the earth. –E.
More probably of copper, whitened by some admixture of zinc, and other metals, of the existence of which in this district there are sufficient indications in the sequel. These mirrors may have been similar to telescope metal. –E.
What is here called Tutty, is probably the sublimed floculent white oxid, or flowers of zinc. –E.
Timochaim seems obviously Segistan, to which Mechran appears to have been then joined, from the circumstance before related of the Polos having gone from China by sea to this kingdom. The strange application of Timochaim is probably corrupt, and may perhaps be explicable on the republication of the Trevigi edition of these travels; till then, we must rest satisfied with probable conjecture. –E.
The native name of this tree, and of the plain in which it grew, appears obviously to have been translated by Marco into Italian. –E.
It is possible that this Arbore-secco may have some reference to Arbela. –E.
Called likewise Mulete or Alamut; Marco makes here a sudden return to the north-west of Persia; and from the abruptness of the transition, it has been probably disarranged in transcription. This country has been likewise called the land of the Assassins; it is near Cashbin in Dilem, on the borders of Mazenderan. –E.
The last of these princes was named Moadin, who, as mentioned in the text, was made prisoner, and put to death by Houlagu-khan. In the sequel of this work, there will be found other and more full accounts of this old man of the mountain, or prince of the assassins. –E.
The transition seems here again abrupt, and unconnected; at least the intermediate country of Mazerderan and Chorassan to the desert, probably of Margiana, is very slightly passed over. –E.
In this section, Marco seems to trace his journey along with his father and uncle from Giazza towards Tartary; but the regular connection appears to have been thrown into confusion, by ignorant transcribers and editors. –E.
Probably Satugar of the modern maps, on the western border of Balk. –E.
Forster considers this place to be Scasse or Al-shash, on the river Sirr or Sihon, perhaps the Tashkund of modern maps, in the province of Shash. The distances given by Marco must be strangely corrupted by transcribers and editors, or Marco must have forgot when he wrote his travels, perhaps twenty-six years after he passed this country, when only a boy. The distance between Balk, on one of the branches of the Sihon or Oxus, and Shash on the Jihon or Sirr, is at least 350 miles in a straight line; which he appears to have travelled in five days, but which would more probably occupy fifteen. –E.
This river is probably the Sirr or Sihon; and the mountains of Karatan and Arjun pervade the district, the two chains being separated by the river. –E.
Vochan, Vocham or Vakhan, on the river Vash. –Forst.
This observation was made on the mountains of Savoy and Switzerland, not many years ago, by M. de Luc, and published as a new discovery. The phenomena must be owing to the diminished pressure of the atmosphere at this great elevation, by which water boils at a much lower temperature than is requisite for effective cookery: A digester would effectually remove this evil, by enabling the water to become sufficiently hot, without being dissipated. –E.
Beloro, Belor, or Belur, according to Forster. This immense extent of forty days journey through deserts, seems to include the deserts of Sultus, Cobi, and Shamo, and to reach to the frontiers of Kathay, or Northern China. –E.
Cascar, Chascar, Cassar, Kaschgar, or Hasicar, according to Forster. Cashgar is at the western end of the great desert, instead of the eastern, as expressed in the text; indeed this route is most confusedly, and almost unintelligibly laid down, probably from corrupted transcription. The series ought to have been, the high table land of Pamer, the province of Cashgar, and lastly, the desert of Pelow or Belur. But care must be taken to distinguish this from the chain of Belur-tag, which runs north and south, between Great and Little Bucharia. –E.
The text is here obviously transposed. While the editor endeavours to illustrate and explain the descriptions of the author, he does not consider himself at liberty to alter the text, even in the most obviously faulty places. –E.
Charchan, Charcham, Carcam, Hiarkand, Jarkun, Jerket, Jerken, Urkend; such are the varieties in the editions of these travels, for the Yarkand of modern maps. This paragraph ought obviously to have followed the account of Cashgar. –E.
Cotan, Cotam, Hotum, Khoten, Khotan, from which the useful material of manufacture, cotton, takes its name. But instead of being between the east and north-east direction from Yarkand, as in the text, or E.N.E. it is actually E.S.E. –E.
Called likewise Ciarciam, Ciartiam, and Sartam, in different editions. –E.
The journey from Sartem to Lop is obviously retrograde, and this course must have been pursued by the Polos for commercial purposes; perhaps for collecting those valuable stones which are mentioned by Marco as giving so much profit when sold in China. –E.
Schatscheu, Tschat-scheu, or Chat-chou, on the Polonkir, which runs into the Hara lake. –E.
It is highly probable that this emblematical representation had been substituted by some humane legislator or conqueror, in place of the actual sacrifice of the servants, cattle, and goods themselves, which we are well assured was once the practice among many rude nations, in honour of their deceased great men. –E.
Called also Kamul, Chamul, Khami, and Came-xu. –Forst.
The desert of Noman-Cobi; or Tzokurin of modern maps. –E.
Called likewise Cinchincalas, Sanghin-talgin, Sankin-talai, and Chitalas-dalai. –Forst. This appears to be the district stretching to the S.E. of the Bogdo mountains, between the Changai ridge on the north, and the Ungandag on the south, now occupied by a tribe of Eluts, and in which there do not appear to be any towns. –E.
Suchur, Succuir, Souk, or Suck, on the river Suck, which empties itself into the river of Pegu to the north of Thibet. –Forst.
This I suspect to be Chioming of our modern maps, on a river which runs north into the Soukouk lake. –E.
The country of the genuine rhubarb has been described by the great Russian traveller Palas, as situated on the river Selingol, not far from the town of Selinga, which falls into the Chattungol, Hoang-ho, Choango, or Karamuren. –Forst.
The travels of Palas will be found in an after portion of this work; and it need only be remarked in this place, that there are at least two kinds of true rhubarb, the China and Russia; and that two species of the genus, the R. Palmatum and R. Undulatum, certainly produce the drug nearly of the same quality, and are probably to be found in various parts of central Asia or Tartary, –E.
Kampion, Kampition, Kampiciou, Kantscheu, or Kan-tcheou, in the Chinese province of Shensi, on the Etzine-moren, or Etchine river, which joins the Souk. –Forst.
Eziva, or Etzine, on a river of the same name, which runs into the Suck or Souhouk. –Forst.
Caracarum, Caracorum, Taracoram, Korakarum, Karakarin, Karakum, called Holin by the Chinese. This city was laid down by Danville, with acknowledged uncertainty, on the Onguin-pira river, in Lat. 44°. 50'. N. Long. 107°. E.; while others assign its situation on the Orchon, in Lat. 46°. 30. N. Long. 108-1/2 E: about 150 miles to the N.W. –E.
The original residence of the Moals or Monguis, whom Marco always calls Tartars, appears to have been limited by the Selinga and lake Baikal on the west, or perhaps reaching to the Bogdo Altai and Sayanak mountains; the Soilki mountains on the east dividing them from the Mandshurs, and the Ungar-daga mountains on the south, dividing them from the great empire of Tangut, which they overthrew. Bargu may have been on the Baikal, near which there still is a place called Barsuzin. Of Cursa no trace is to be found in our maps. –E.
Prester-John, Presbyter or Priest, or, as called by the Germans, Priester Johann, from which our English denomination, was prince of the Naymanni or Karaites, a tribe residing on tke river Kallassui or Karasibi, which, discharges itself into the Jenisei. His original name is said to have been Togrul, and for some services to the Chinese in their wars, he was honoured with the title of 0ng, Uang, or Wang; from whence arose his Tartarian style of Ung-khan, likewise erroneously written Aunaek, or Avenaek-khan. Perhaps this prince may have been converted by the Nestorian Christians, and may even have received priests orders. –Forst.
It is more probable that he may have belonged to the Dalai-lama religion, which some ignorant traveller, from resemblance in dress, and the use of rosaries in prayer, may have supposed a Christian sect residing in eastern Scythia. –E.
Tenduc, Tenduch, Teuduch. –Forst.
According to the genealogical history of the Tartars by Abulgasi Bayadur-khan, Ugadai-khan succeeded Zingis in 1230. In 1245 he was succeeded by his son Kajuk-khan, called Khen-khan by Marco in the text. To him Mangu-khan succeeded in 1247, who held the empire till 1257; when he was succeeded by Koplai or Kublai-khan, who reigned thirty-five years, and died in 1292. –Harris.
Marco probably dated the reign of Kublai-khan, which he extends to sixty years, from his having received a great delegated government, a long time before he became great khan, or emperor of the Tartars. –E.
Bargu-fin, or Bargouin, is the name of a river on the east side of lake Baikal, on which is a town or village named Barguzin, or Barguzinskoy Ostrog, signifying the town of the Burguzians. But by the description in the text, Marco appears to have comprehended the whole north-east of Tartary, to the north of the Changai mountains, under the general name of Bargu, in which he now includes Curza, mentioned separately at the commencement of the preceding Section, and where the situation of Bargu has been already more particularly described in a note. –E.
Metrites, Meclites, or Markaets. –Forst. No such appellation is to be found in modern geography; but the discontinuance of the designations, of temporary and continually changing associations of the wandering tribes of the desert, is not to be wondered at, and even if their records were preserved, they would be altogether unimportant. –E.
Erigrinul, Eriginul, Erdschi-nur; and this ought to be read fifty days south-west, instead of five days east. –Forst. This may probably be some district in the country of the Eluts of Kokonor, not mentioned in our modern maps. –E.
Singui, Sigan, or Singan-fou, in the Chinese province of Shensee. –Forst.
In the edition of Harris, it is said likewise to have two similar tusks in the lower jaw, but this error must have been put in by some ignorant editor. –E.
According to Forster, this passage is corrupted, and ought to be thus read: "After eight days journey west from Ergimul or Erdschi-nur, we come to Erigaia, Eggaya Organum, or Irganekon." And he names the chief town Calacia, Cailac, Gailak, or Golka. –Forst.
Perhaps, the chamois are here meant, and copied camels by mistake. –Forst.
Tenduc, Tenduch, Teuduch.-Forst
This foolish story of Prester John has been explained in a former note.-E
Cianga-nor, Cianganior, Cyangamor, or Tsahan-nor, in lat. 45°. 30. N. long. 117°. E. Marco, in these accounts of the different districts of Tangut, seems to have followed no regular order, but goes from one to another, as fancy or memory served. –Forst.
Cyandi, Xandu, or Tshangtu. –Forst.
In Harris, the elevation is said to be eighty feet, perhaps a typographical error for eight, as, in a subsequent passage, the table of the khan is merely said to be higher than those of the rest who have the honour to dine along with him; the particular height, therefore, is left indeterminate in the text. –E.
In all ages of the world, except the social, yet irrational ancient superstitions of Greece and Rome, mankind have vainly thought to propitiate the Almighty beneficence, by ridiculous acts of austere self-torment; and even the ignorant or designing followers of the pure and rational religion of Jesus, have copied all the monstrous mummery, and abominable practices of the heathen, which they have engrafted upon his law of love and harmony. –E.
In a former note, it has been mentioned, on the authority of Abulgazi– khan, himself a descendant of Zingis, and prince, of Khuaresm, that Kublai-khan was only the fifth emperor of the Tartars, and that he ascended the throne in 1257. The difference of date in this latter circumstance is quite unimportant, and may have proceeded, either from a different way of reckoning, or the delay of intelligence from so vast a distance. But Kublai died in 1292, after reigning thirty-five years, according to Abulgazi, and is said to have been then eighty years of age. He must therefore have been forty-five years old at his accession, instead of twenty-seven. Harris indeed mentions in, a note, that the age of Kublai in the MSS. and even in many of the printed editions, was left blank. –E.
In Harris, this date is 1286; but as, in a note, this war is said to have occurred on occasion of the election of Kublai to the imperial dignity in 1257, I have ventured to restore what seems to be the true date. Besides Naiam, in 1286, thirty years of age, could not possibly have been the uncle of Kublai. –E.
The new city of Pekin, of which hereafter. –E.
The followers of Naiam in this rebellion are said to have consisted of four nations, or tribes of Tartars, named Ciazza, Cadi, Barscol, and Sitinqui, but of whom no other information or notice remains. –E.
This is the only notice of the Jews in the east by Marco Polo, and serves considerably to confirm the authenticity of Rabbi Banjamin; who, as a Jew, felt more interest in attending to his countrymen. –E.
The proper name of this place is Kan-balgassan, or, for shortness, Khan-balga, signifying the city of the khan. Arabian authors have changed it to Khan-balick or Khan-baligh; and the Italians to Chanbalig, Chanbalu, Cambalu, and even Gamelecco. The Chinese call this northern part of the imperial city King-tshing, which has the same meaning with the Tartar name, and may be translated Kingstown. Pe-king, the other part of the same city, signifies the northern court or residence. –Forst.
The description of this palace is exceedingly confused and unintelligible, most probably from erroneous transcription and mistakes in translation. –E.
By this obscure expression, it seems to be implied that there are no upper rooms. –E.
The soldiers mentioned here and in other places, as present in the great hall upon solemn occasions, can only mean the officers of the military actually on guard over the person of the khan at the time. –E.
The deserts or Tartarian wastes are probably meant in this passage. –E.
Instead of this number, 10,000 post-houses, at 400 horses each, would require four millions of horses. The number and proportion of horses in the text would only supply 500 inns; or would allow only 20 horses each to 10,000 inns. The text, therefore, must be here corrupted. –E.
This must allude to a species of corn-spirits or brandy, distilled from rice, fermented with water, named Arrak. –E.
This evidently points out the use of coal in northern China. –E.
Owing to the prodigious revolutions which have taken place in the East since the time of Marco, and the difference of languages, by which countries, provinces, towns, and rivers have received very dissimilar names, it is often difficult or impossible to ascertain, with any precision, the exact geography of the relations and descriptions in the text. Wherever this can be done with any tolerable probability of usefulness it shall be attempted. –E.
The Pei-ho, which runs into the gulf of Pekin, near the head of the Yellow sea. –E.
Kathay, or Northern China, contained the six northern provinces, and Mangi or Southern China, the nine provinces to the south of the river Kiang, Yang-tse-Kiang or Kian-ku. Tain-fu may possibly be Ten-gan-fu: Gouza it is impossible to ascertain, unless it may be Cou-gan, a small town, about thirty miles south from Peking or Cambalu. I suspect in the present itinerary, that Marco keeps on the north of the Hoang-ho. –E.
Hara-moran, or Hoang-he. Thaigin may therefore be Tan-gin, about twenty miles east from that river, in Lat. S6-1/4 N. In which case, Pian-fu may be the city of Pin-yang; and Tain-fu, Tay-uen. –E.
The meaning of this sentence is obscure, unless it is intended to guard the readers against the supposition that these countries were to the west of Europe. –E.
Called Lazi by Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition of these travels, mentioned in the introduction. This place, therefore, may be Lassa, in the kingdom or province of Ou, in Middle Thibet, the residence of the Dalai Lama, situate on a branch of the Sampoo, or great Brahma-pootra, or Barampooter river, which joins the Ganges in the lower part of Bengal. –E.
This sentence most probably is meant to imply the use of cowries, sometimes called porellane shells, both for money and ornament. –E.
Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition, names the country Cariam, and the governor Cocagio. –E.
The ordinary European price is about fourteen for one. –E.
The description of this creature seems to indicate an alligator or crocodile; which probably Marco had not seen, and only describes from an imperfect account of the natives. –E.
According to Pinkerton, this province is named Cariti, and its principal town Nociam, in the edition of Trevigi. –E.
Named previously Carazam and Caraian, afterwards Caraiam, or Carian. –E.
In some modern maps, Mien is introduced as a large province on the river of Pegu, immediately to the south-west of Yunnan in China, and divided from Bengal by the whole country of Ava. But the distribution of eastern dominion has been always extremely fluctuating; and Mien may then have included all the north of Ava. –E.
In the original text this animal is called the unicorn; a word of the same import with rhinoceros. –E.
This either implies that Bengal on the borders of India is to the south of Thibet; or south is here an error for east, Bengal being the eastern frontier province of India proper. –E.
The difficulty, or rather impossibility of tracing the steps of Marco Polo, may proceed from various causes. The provinces or kingdoms, mostly named from their chief cities, have suffered infinite changes from perpetual revolutions. The names he gives, besides being corrupted in the various transcriptions and editions, he probably set down orally, as given to him in the Tartar or Mogul dialect, very different from those which have been adopted into modern geography from various sources. Many of these places may have been destroyed, and new names imposed. Upon the whole, his present course appears to have been from Bengal eastwards, through the provinces of the farther India, to Mangi or southern China; and Cangigu may possibly be Chittigong. Yet Cangigu is said in the text to be an inland country. –E.
Kathay and Mangi, as formerly mentioned, are Northern and Southern China, so that the direction of these rivers ought perhaps to have been described as north and south, instead of east and west. About seventy miles from the mouth of the Yellow river, or Hoang-ho, there is a town called Tsingo, near which a canal runs to the north, communicating with the river on which Pekin is situated, and another canal, running far south into Mangi or Southern China. Tsingo, though now an inferior town, may have been formerly Singui-matu, and a place of great importance. –E.
Caramoran or Hora-moran, is the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river; and it must be allowed, that the distance which is placed in the text, between Singui-matu and this river, is quite hostile to the idea mentioned in the preceding note, of Tsingo and Singui-matu being the same place. The only other situation in all China which accords with the two canals, or rivers, communicating both with Kathay and Mangi, is Yotcheou on the Tong-ting-hou lake, which is on the Kian-ku river, and at a sufficient distance from the Hoang-ho to agree with the text. In the absence of all tolerable certainty, conjecture seems allowable. –E.
There are no Chinese cities, in our maps, that, in the least appearance of sound, correspond with the names of these towns or cities near the mouth of the Hoang-ho. Hoain-gin is the only large city near its mouth, and that is not on its banks. All therefore that can be said, is, that the two cities in the text must have stood on opposite sides of the Hoang-ho in the days of Marco Polo. –E.
Called Tou-tsong by the Chinese historians, the fifteenth emperor of the nineteenth dynasty, who succeeded to the throne in the year 1264. –Harris.
The name of this general is said to have signified an hundred eyes; doubtless a Tartar title, denoting his vigilance and foresight. By the Chinese historians, this general is named Pe-yen; which may have the same signification. These historians attribute the conquest of Mangi, or Southern China, to the indolence, debauchery, and extreme love of pleasure of this emperor, whom they name Tou-Tsong. –Harris.
The names of all places and provinces in the travels of Marco Polo, are either so disguised by Tartar appellations, or so corrupted, that they cannot be referred with any certainty to the Chinese names upon our maps. Coiganzu, described afterwards as the first city in the south-east of Mangi in going from Kathay, may possibly be Hoingan-fou, which answers to that situation. The termination fou is merely city; and other terminations are used by the Chinese, as tcheou and others, to denote the rank or class in which they are placed, in regard to the subordination of their governors and tribunals, which will be explained in that part of our work which is appropriated to the empire of China. –E.
Or Guinsai, to be afterwards described. –E.
It does not appear where these islands were, situated; whether Hainan or Formosa, properly Tai-ouan, or Tai-wan, or the islands in the bay of Canton. –E.
These sagacious diviners must have been well acquainted with the military energy of the Tartar government, and the abject weakness of their own; and certainly knew, from their brethren in Kathay, the significant name of the Tartar general; on which foundation, they constructed the enigma of their prophecy, which, like many others, contributed towards its own accomplishment. –E.
About a year after the surrender of his capital, Tou-Tsong died, leaving three sons, who all perished in a few years afterwards. The eldest was made prisoner, and died in captivity in Tartary. The second died of a consumption at Canton, where he had taken refuge at eleven years of age. The third, named Ti-Ping, after all the country was seized by the Tartars, was carried on board the Chinese fleet, which was pursued and brought to action by a fleet which the Tartars had fitted out for the purpose. When the Chinese lord, who had the charge of the infant emperor, saw the vessel in which he was embarked surrounded by the Tartars, he took the young prince in his arms and jumped with him into the sea. One considerable squadron of the Chinese fleet forced a passage through that of the Tartars, but was afterwards entirely destroyed in a tempest. –Harris.
This direction must be understood in reference to Kathay; as it is perfectly obvious, that the entrance here spoken of must be in the north-east of Mangi. Supposing the C aspirated, Coigan-zu and Hoaingan-fu, both certainly arbitrarily orthographized from the Chinese pronunciation, are not very dissimilar. –E.
Perhaps an error in transcription for Hara-moran, or Kara-moran, the Mongul or Tartar name of the Hoang-ho, or Whang river, near, and communicating with which, Hoaingan, or Whan-gan-fou is situated. –E.
This is an obscure indication of navigable canals on each side of the paved road of communication to the south. –E.
Cin-gui, or in the Italian pronunciation, Chin, or Tsin-gui, may possibly be Yen-tching. Tin-gui may be Sin-Yang, or Tsin-yang, to the north-east of Yen-tching. –E.
Obviously Yang-tcheou, the latter syllable being its title or designation of rank and precedency. Marco certainly mistakes, from distant recollection, the direction of his travels, which are very nearly south, with a very slight deviation towards the east. South-east would by this time have led him into the sea.-E
Though called a province, this obviously refers to the city of Nankin; the Nau-ghin of the text being probably a corruption for Nan-ghin.-E
For west, we ought certainly here to read south-west. –E.
Quiam, Kiang, Kian-ku, Kin-tchin-kian, or Yang-tsi-kiang. In modern maps, there is a town on the northern shore of this river, named Tsing-Kiang, which may possibly be the Singui of Marco, and we may perhaps look for the Sian-fu of the Polos at Yang-tcheou, at the southern extremity of a chain of lakes immediately to the north of the river Kian-ku. The subject is however full of perplexity, difficulty, and extreme uncertainty. –E.
This must be Tchin-kian-fou; the three separate syllables in both of these oral orthographies having almost precisely similar sounds; always remembering that the soft Italian c has the power of tsh, or our hard ch as in the English word chin, and the Italian gh the sound of the hard English g. –E.
This evinces the great policy of the military government of the Tartars, in employing the subjugated nations in one corner of their empire to make conquests at such enormous distances from their native countries. The Alanians came from the country between the Euxine and Caspian, in Long. 60° E. and were here fighting Long. 135° E.; above 4000 miles from home. –E.
By the language in this place, either Sin-gui and Tin-gui-gui are the same place, or the transition is more than ordinarily abrupt; if the same, the situation of Sin-gui has been attempted to be explained in a former note. If different, Tin-gui-gui was probably obliterated on this occasion, as no name in the least similar appears in the map of China. –E.
There are two Chinese measures called Li; of the greater there are 200 to a degree of latitude, and of the smaller 250. It is possible that Marco may have mistaken one or other of these measures for miles; either of which suppositions would reduce the bounds of Quinsai to some decent moderation, being thirty-four miles for the greater, and twenty-seven miles for the smaller li, yet a large city on even the latter substitution. Koan-sing, which may likewise be written Quan– sing, all Chinese names in alphabetical characters, being quite of arbitrary orthography, is the only place which can be supposed the same with Quinsai. But similarity of sounds is a very uncertain guide. From other circumstances in the text, the modern Kua-hing may have once been Quinsay. –E.
Calculating by Li, this extent will be reduced to eleven or thirteen miles. –E.
By the same reduction, these squares will be reduced to half a quarter of a mile in the sides. –E.
Probably a mistaken translation or transcription for melons, pumpkins, or gourds. –E.
This amounts to more than one sixth of an ounce daily for a population of a million, including infants. A thing utterly incredible, and which must arise from some corruption of the text. It exceeds 9000 tons yearly. Perhaps, instead of pepper the original had salt. –E.
This alone would give a working population exceeding a million, including the women, children, and aged, belonging to these. But populous as the country certainly is, the Chinese, in all ages, from Polo down to Staunton, have imposed those ridiculously exaggerated accounts upon all inquisitive travellers. This subject will be discussed in that division of this work, which particularly relates to China. –E.
The contrast between the cleanness and splendour of Quinsay and the gloomy dirt of European cities in the thirteenth century is very striking. China then enjoyed hackney coaches, tea gardens, and hilarity; while the delights of European capitals were processions of monks among perpetual dunghills in narrow crooked lanes. –E.
Probably meaning a gong. –E.
There must be some corruption in the text here; for even Chinese exaggeration could hardly venture upon this computation, which would extend the garrisons in Mangi alone to many millions. –E.
If Li, from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 miles. –E.
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.
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.
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.
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 south-east, which is impossible. The direction of the itinerary must have been westwards, probably south-west. –E.
This was probably Turmeric, so much used in the Eastern cookery, though it is the root which is employed. –E.
Obviously what are now called Friesland, but more properly frizzled hens. –E.
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 temper, as it is called, for this purpose, in the West Indies, is lime, but any alkali will produce nearly the same effect. This subject will be fully elucidated in that part of our work which is peculiarly appropriated to the sugar colonies in the West Indies, –E.
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.
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.
This is the only hint in Marco, of the peculiarly famous manufacture of China, from which all the best earthen ware of Europe has acquired this name as par excellence. From this circumstance, and from the fame of Nankin for this manufacture, I strongly suspect that this passage has been foisted in by some ignorant or careless editor in a wrong place. –E.
It is singular that Marco should make no mention whatever of the peculiar beverage of the Chinese, tea, though particularly described both in name and use, by the Mahometan travellers in the ninth century, four hundred years earlier, as used in all the cities of China. –E.
In this passage, in the edition of Harris, the sense seems obscurely to insinuate that this had been occasioned by the sea having broken down or overwhelmed certain lands or islands, producing numbers of smaller islands and extensive shoals. –E.
Zipangu, Zipangri, or Cimpagu, is Japan without any doubt. –E.
Named Abataa and Yonsaintin by Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition. The latter Ven-san-sui, or Von-sain-cin, by his name seems to have been a Chinese. –E.
Called Caicon, or Jaiton in the Trevigi edition. Caicon is not very far removed from the sound of Cangtong or Canton, which has already been considered to be the Zaitum of the text. –E.
A.D. 1269, according to the Trevigi edition. –E.
Marco obviously extends this sea and these islands to all those of the Chinese sea and the Indian ocean, from Sumatra in the SW. to Japan in the NE. –E.
Probably the gulph of Siam. –E.
South-west, certainly. –E.
The inlands in the gulf of Siam are small, and not numerous; so that the passage is probably corrupted; and may have been in the original, "that, leaving the gulf of Cheinan on the north, they left infinite islands, &c; on the south." After all, the gulf of Cheinan may mean the whole sea of China. –E.
It is difficult to say precisely what division of farther India is here meant by Ziambar. 1500 miles would carry us to the coast of Malaya; but 1500 li, or about 500 miles reach only to the coast of Cochin-China, or it may be Tsiompa. Ziambar, in the editions, is variously written Ciambau, Ciariban, and Ziambar. –E.
The direction of the voyage is here obviously erroneous, it must have been between the south and the south-west, or south-south-west. In the Trevigi edition, the Java of this part of our text is Lava, and according to Valentine, Lava is the name of the principal city and kingdom in Borneo; which at all events must be the island here mentioned by Marco. –E.
According to the Trevigi edition, as reported by Pinkerton, these islands are only seven miles from Lava or Borneo. At about seventy miles distance to the south-west, there are two islands named Caremata and Soorooto, which may be those mentioned in the text. –E.
Called Lochach in some of the editions, and said to be 200 miles from Sondor and Condur. Whether this may be Ma-lacca or Ma-laya, it is impossible to determine. –E.
In the Trevigi edition only five miles, and the island is called Pentara. This may possibly be the island of Bintang in the south-eastern entrance of the straits of Malacca. –E.
Most probably the kingdom of Malacca. From the Trevigi edition Pinkerton calls this Malonir, and curiously identifies Pepetam, Pentara, or Pentan, as the name of the city and kingdom of Malonir or Malaiur. –E.
If right in our former conjectures, the island spoken of in the text must be Sumatra not that now called Java. Indeed, the mention immediately afterwards of the islands of Nocueran and Angaman 150 miles to the north, which can only he the Nicobar and Andaman islands, establish the identity of Java-minor, here called Java the less, and Sumatra. –E.
The animal here described under the name of unicorn is the Rhinoceros monoceros, or one-horned rhinoceros of naturalists; but the single horn is placed a little above the nose, not on the middle of the forehead, as here erroneously described by Marco.-E
He had evidently missed the Monsoon, and had to await its return. From this kingdom or division of the island, it probably acquired the name of Sumatra, by which it is known in modern geography. From the circumstance in the text of not seeing the great bear, it is probable that Marco was stopped near the south-eastern extremity of the island. What is here translated the great bear, Pinkerton calls, from the Trevigi edition del Maistro. The polar star was invisible of course. –E.
Called Deragola by Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition. –E.
He here distinctly indicates the manufacture of sego. –E.
Nicobar and Andaman, on the east side of the bay of Bengal; called Necunera and Namgama in the Trevigi edition. –E.
This Pinkerton calls Moabar on the margin, and Nachabar in the text, of his dissertation on the Trevigi edition of Marco Polo, very justly observing that it refers to Coromandel, or the Carnatic below the gauts. Harris erroneously substitutes Malabar. Moabar and Madura may have a similar origin, as may Nachabar and Nega-patnam. –E.
The fish here alluded to are sharks; and the same custom of employing bramins to defend the fishermen, by conjuration, against this formidable enemy, is continued to the present day. –E.
Mr Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition, has this passage as follows: "The king of Vor, one of the princes of Nacbabar, purchases about 10,000 horses yearly from the country of Cormos, formerly mentioned, each horse costing five sazi of gold." –E.
Tarantulas is assuredly, a mistake here for centipedes and scorpions, which are common all over India. –E.
Muis in the Trevigi edition, according to Pinkerton, and which, he says, is 10OO miles, instead of the 500 in the text. This certainly refers to Golconda. The districts of India have been continually changing their names with changes of dominion; and one or other of these names given by Marco to the diamond country, may at one time have been the designation of some town or district at the mines –E.
One would suppose we were here reading a fragment of the adventures of Sinbad the sailor, from the Arabian Nights. But on this and a few other similar occasions in the narrative of Marco, it is always proper to notice carefully what he says on his own knowledge, and what he only gives on the report of others. –E.
This obscure expression seems to imply, that Aster was one of the four kings in Moabar, or the Carnatic. –E.
Now called Betel, and still universally used in India in the same manner.-E
Coulam may possibly be Cochin or Calicut, on the Malabar coast as being south-west from Moabar or Coromandel, and having Jews and Christians; as the original trade from the Red Sea to India was on this coast. –E.
Camari or Comati, and Delai or Orbai, are obviously the names of towns and districts on the Malabar coast going north from Coulain. Yet Comari may refer to the country about Cape Comorin. –E.
According to Pinkerton, these are called Melibar and Gesurach in the Trevigi edition, and he is disposed to consider the last as indicating Geriach, because of the pirates. But there seems no necessity for that nicety, as all the north-western coast of India has always been addicted to maritime plunder or piracy. –E.
Socotora is called Scorsia or Scoria in the Trevigi edition. –E.
This concluding section may be considered as a kind of appendix, in which Marco has placed several unconnected hearsay notices of countries where he never had been personally. –E.
Mandeigascar in the Trevigi edition, and certainly meant for Madagascar. –E.
Madagascar has no pretensions to riches or trade, and never had; so that Marco must have been imposed upon by some Saracen or Arab mariner. Its size, climate, and soil certainly fit it for becoming a place of vast riches and population; but it is one almost continued forest, inhabited by numerous independent and hostile tribes of barbarians. Of this island, a minute account will appear in an after part of this work. –E.
There are no elephants in Madagascar, yet these teeth might have been procured from southern Africa. –E.
By India Minor he obviously means what is usually called farther India, or India beyond the Ganges, from the frontiers of China to Moabar, or the north part of the Coromandel coast, including the islands. –E.
Abyssinia, here taken in the most extended sense, including all the western coast of the Red Sea, and Eastern Africa. –E.
This paragraph obviously alludes to the Tartar kingdom of Siberia. –E.
The summer in this northern country of the Samojeds is extremely short; but the expression here used, must allude to the long-continued summer day, when, for several months, the sun never sets. –E.
Hakluyt, II. 142, for the Latin; II. 158, for the old English translation. –Forst. Voy. and Disc. 147.
Perhaps the sea of Marmora; or it may indicate the Euxine or Black Sea. –E.
The holy traveller ought rather to have said, that the springs or rivulet near Azaron flowed into the Euphrates. Azaron is obviously Erzerum, on or near one of the higher branches of the Frat or Euphrates. –E.
Tebriz in Persia. –E.
Sultania or Sultanie. –E.
The Caspian; so called in this place, from Baku or Baccou, a city on its banks, in the province of Shirvan. –E.
Oderic must have made a mistake here, as Casbin is not above seventy or eighty miles from Sultanie, and the journey of the caravans between these cities, could not have exceeded four or five days. –E.
Yezd, about 500 miles east from Ispahan. –E.
This is obviously the city of Kom or Koom, above 400 miles to the north-west of Yezd, and much nearer Sultanie. Our traveller, therefore, must either have strangely forgotten his route or he came back again from Yezd, instead of journeying forwards. –E.
Khus or Khosistan, the south-western province of Persia. –E.
By lower India, our author seems here to indicate the southern provinces of Persia. –E.
Tantus est calor, quod virilia hominum exeunt corpus, et descendant usque at mediam tibiarum: ideo faciunt unctionum, et ungunt illa, et in, quibusdam sacculis ponunt circa se cingentes, et aliter morerentur.
This place seems to have been Tatta, in the Delta of the Indus. –E.
This unknown king, rex Daldili, is probably an error in translating from the Venetian or Friul dialect of Oderic into Monkish Latin, and may have been originally Il Re dal Deli, or the King of Delhi. –E.
The whole of this and the following section is omitted in the old English of Hakluyt, and is here translated from the Latin. –E.
Probably he who is named above Tolentinus. –E.
Probably the same called, at the close of the former sections, Daldili, and there conjecturally explained as the King of Delhi. –E.
The names of these cities or towns, in the pepper country of Malabar, which is called Minibar in the text, are so thoroughly corrupted, that no conjectural criticism can discover them in our modern maps. Hakluyt on the margin, corrects Flandrina, by an equally unknown, Alandrina. They may possibly refer to places now fallen into ruin, in the kingdom or province of Travancore, which has always been a great mart of pepper. –E.
Friar Oderic appears only to have observed the superstitions in the southern part of India very superficially, if at all; and as many opportunities will occur in the course of this collection, for explaining the strange beliefs, customs, and ceremonies of the braminical worship, it has not been thought necessary to discuss these in notes on the present occasion. –E.
Hakluyt has explained Moabar on the margin by Maliassour or Meliassour. The country here indicated is obviously the Carnatic, or kingdom of Arcot of modern times, from the circumstance of containing the shrine of St Thomas. The idols mentioned by Oderic, as filling the church of St Thomas, were probably Nestorian images; not sanctioned by the Roman ritual. –E.
More recent and more accurate travellers have informed us, that this profusion of gold, on the idols and temples of the Buddists, especially, is only rich gilding. –E.
This seems properly enough corrected on the margin by Hakluyt, by the word Comori, or the country about Cape Comorin. –E.
Simoltra or Sumatra.-Hakluyt.
Probably alluding to tatooing, which will be explained in the voyages to the islands of the Pacific ocean. –E.
Hakluyt endeavours to explain this on the margin by Malasmi. It is possible the river Banjar, and the port of Masseen, otherwise called Bendermassin, or Banjar-massin, in the great island of Borneo, may be here indicated. Panten, Petan, or perhaps Bentam, is perhaps a small woody island mentioned by Marco Polo, near great Java or Borneo. The names of places, however, in these early travellers, have been so confounded by ignorant transcribers as often to defy all criticism. –E.
This seems an ill-collected account of Sago. –E.
The Pacific Ocean, the navigation of which was then so much unknown, that those who ventured to navigate it never returned.-E
Probably Siampa, called likewise Ciampa, and Tsiompa. –E.
In the Latin, this number is decies millesies et quatuor, which may even be read 14,000; certainly a vast exaggeration either way. –E.
It is impossible even to conjecture what island is here meant; but as Ceylon follows next in succession, it may possibly refer to Sumatra, though that island appears to have been mentioned already, under the name of Symolora –E.
Explained on the margin by Hakluyt, or Dadin, which is equally inexplicable. –E.
Otherwise Mangi, or Southern China. –E.
This place, which on the margin is corrected by the equally unknown name of Ceuskala, was probably Canton; but having endeavoured to explain the distorted names of places in China, in the travels of Marco Polo, it is unnecessary to resume the almost impossible task in these much less interesting, and perhaps fabricated travels of Oderic. –E.
Oderic here means pelicans, called alca-trarzi by the Spaniards. -Hakluyt.
Called in p. 404. Carchan. –E.
Cansai, Quinzay, or Quinsay.-Hakluyt.
In the Italian copy, published by Ramusio, the number of bridges is extended to 11,000.-Hakluyt.
This enumeration would give 890,000 fires, or almost ten millions of households; which at four persons to each, would produce an aggregate population of 39 millions of people for Quinsay alone. The tribute, as stated by Oderic, amounts to 6,675,000 florins. –E.
These red skins, in the Latin of Hakluyt, pelles rubes, are probably the zaphilines pelles, or sables, of other travellers; converted into red skins by some strange blunder. –E.
This fountain of four drinks, seems copied from honest Rubruquis; but with corrections and amendments. –E.
In the plates of La Monarchie Francaise, by Pere Montfaucon, the French ladies of the fourteenth century are represented as wearing conical caps on their heads, at least one third of their own height. –E.
One hundred and forty millions of florins, as the value of the dresses of the nobles of the imperial court! It seems that most writers concerning China are apt entirely to forget the power of numbers, in the fervour of their admiration. –E.
Odericus, or his Bolandist biographer, seems to have forgot that thirty-three tomans make 330,000 useless ministers of luxury and folly. I strongly suspect the Minorites, for the honour of Oderic, have ignorantly borrowed and exaggerated from Marco Polo, to decorate the legend of the favourite Saint of Udina. –E.
This strange word, both in the Latin and English of Hakluyt, is obviously the Italian for Prester John, information concerning whom will be found in the travels of Marco Polo. –E.
This seems an ill-digested account of a pagoda, or idol temple, of great extent and magnificence, richly gilt, similar to those of which we have splendid views in the relation of the embassy to Ava, by Colonel Symes. –E.
It is impossible to explain this strange word, Melistorte. the dominions of the old man of the mountain, and his earthly paradise, in some other travels of the present volume, are said to have been situated in the north of Persia. –E.
The place in which these wonderful things were seen, is no where indicated; neither is the omission to be regretted, as the whole is evidently fabulous. –E.
This pope reigned from about 1317 to 1334, so that the original editor, or fabricator of these travels, has so for been fortunate in his chronology. –E.
Forst. Voy. and Disc. in the Nerth, p. 148. Pinkert. Mod. Geogr. II. xxxvi. Hakluyt, II. 76.
Forster, Voy. and Disc, in the North, p. 150.
Gintarchan, or Zintarchan, is, by Josaphat Barbaro, called also Gitarchau; and Witsan, in his account of Northern and Eastern Tartary, says Astracan was called of old Citracan. By the Calmuks, it is called Hadschi-Aidar-Khan-Balgassun, or the city of Hadschi Aidar Khan, whence all these names are derived by an obvious corruption, like Sara is undoubtedly the town of Saray, situated on the eastern arm of the Wolga, or Achtuba. The Astracan mentioned in the text by Pegoletti, was not on the spot where that city now stands; both that ancient Astracan and Saray having been destroyed by Timur Khan, or Tamerlane, as he is usually called, in the winter 1395. The old town of Saray was at no great distance from ancient Astracan. –Forst.
Sara is undoubtedly the town of Saray, situated on the eastern arm of the Wolga, or Achtuba. The Astracan mentioned in the text by Pegoletti, was not on the spot where that city now stands; both that ancient Astracan and Saray having been destroyed by Timur Khan, or Tamerlane, as he is usually called, in the winter 1395. The old town of Saray was at no great distance from ancient Astracan.–Forst.
Saracanco is probably the town which formerly existed on the river Jaik or Ural, the remains of which are now known by the name of Saratschik. –Forst.
The name of Organci is easily recognized In the town of Urgenz in Kheucaresm; which is named Dschordschanio by Abulfeda, and Korkang by the Persians. But there were two towns of this name, the greater and the lesser Urgenz, or Old and New Urgenz. The Old or Greater Urgenz was situated near to where the Gihon discharges its waters into lake Aral; the New or Ixsser Urgenz is to be found near Chiwa, or Chiva, on the Gihon –Forst.
Oltrarra is properly called Otrar, and also Farab, which latter name is to be found in Abulfeda. It is situate on the river Sihon or Sire. The Chinese, who cannot pronounce the letter r, call it Uotala. –Forst.
Armalecco is the name of a small town called Almalig, which, according to Nassir Ettusi and Ulug-beg, is in Turkestan. From the life of Timur Khan, by Shersfeddin Ali, it appears that Almalig is situate between the town of Taschkent and the river Irtiah, in the country of the Gete, and on the banks of the river Ab-eile, which discharges itself into the Sihon, or Sirr-Daria. –Forst.
Came-xu is in all probability the name of Khame or Khami with the addition of xu, instead of Tcheou or Tsheu, which, in the Chinese language, signifies a town of the second rank. –Forst.
Obviously the Kara-Moran, called Hoang-ho by the Chinese, or the Yellow River. –Forst.
Cassai, or Kaway, seems to be the place called Kissen, on a lake of that name, near the northernmost winding branch of the Kara-moran, in Lat. 41º.50'. N. long. 107°. 40'. E. –Forst.
It is curious to notice, in the writings, of this intelligent commercial geographer, and in the travels of Marco Polo, the peculiar advantages in commerce enjoyed by the Chinese at so early a period, of being paid in sliver for their commodities and manufactures. This practice, which prevailed so early as 1260, the era of the elder Polos, and even, in 851, when the Mahometan travellers visited Southern China, still continues in 1810. –E.
The value of the silver somno is nowhere mentioned; but it is of no importance, as it would not enable us to institute any comparison of values whatsoever. –E.
Gamalecco is undoubtedly Cambalu, Cambalig, or Khan-balig, otherwise Pekin; exactly as Gattay is substituted for Katay Kathay, or Cathay. –Forst.
Ramusio. Forst. Voy. and Disc, p. 158.
This is a most unlucky blunders as Icaria and Estoitland are obviously one and the same place in the narrative of Marcclini, and therefore, both must be America, or both Ireland, or both in nubibus. –E.
Faira, or Fara, in the Orkneys, called Farras-land, and corrupted into Feislanda or Frisland. –Forst.
Mr Forster is not happy in his explanation of this word, Porlanda or Porland, which he endeavours to derive from Fara-land; precisely the same with Fris-land from Faras-land, only dropping the genitive s. Porland seems used as a general name of the earldom, perhaps connected with the strange name Pomona, still used for mainland, the largest of the Orkney islands. Frisland the particular Fara islands, or one of them. –E.
Sorany or Sorani, of which Sinclair is said to have been duke or lord, Mr Forster considers to have been the Sodor-oe, or southern islands of the Norwegians, or those now called the Western Islands; and traces the corruption from the Norwegian plural Suder-oer contracted Soroer, varied Soroen and transmuted to Sorani. All this may be possible; but it does not appear in Scots history that the Sinclairs ever held the Western Islands, and certainly not at this period: Sorani ought therefore to be looked for in Caithness; or it may possibly refer to Roslin near Edinburgh, which belonged to the family of Sinclair. –E.
By this latter distinction, Zeno probably means a decked vessel. –E.
It is hardly possible to mention all the little islands, and the places situated on the largest of the Orcadian Islands, which by the ancients was called Pomona, and on account of its size, is likewise called Mainland, also Hross-ey, i.e. Gross-ey, or large island. The town was called Kirkiu-og or the harbour near the church, now called by the Scots, Kirkwall. –Forst.
In this note Mr Forster wanders from the subject in hand, and his observations have no reference to the present expedition. Ledovo is probably the Island of Lewis, and Ilofe may possibly be Hay, though that conjecture would lead them too far to the south. –E.
Sudero, or Suder-oe, might mean the Western Islands so called by the Norwegians; but certainly here means some bay of Sutherland, as they here met the troops of Sinclair, who had marched by land. The town of Sanestol is quite inexplicable. Though Mr Forster supposes it to have been the cluster of islands called Schant, or Shanti-oer, which he thinks is here corrupted into Sanestol: But, if correct in our opinion, that they must have been on the main land of Scotland, his conjecture must be erroneous. These conquests could be nothing more than predatory, incursions, strangely exaggerated. –E.
This is a very early mention of salted fish, yet within the lifetime of William Beukels, the supposed inventor of the art of pickling herrings who died in 1397. Professor Sprengel has shewn that herrings were caught at Gernemue, or Yarmouth, so early as 1283. In Leland's Collectanea we meet with a proof that pickled herrings were sold in 1273; and there are German records which speak of them so early as 1236. Vide Gerken, Cod. Diplom. Brandenb. I. 45. and II. 45l. –Forst.
This is certainly a place in the isle of Sky called Pondontown. –Forst.
Britannia in this place is assuredly put for Britany in France. –E.
Estland is probably meant for Shetland, formerly called Yaltaland or Hitland, and afterwards changed into Zet-land and Shetland. This will appear more distinctly in the sequel, when the names given by Zeno to the particular islands of the group, come to be compared with, the modern names. –Forst.
Grisland seems to be the island which lies to the eastward of Iceland, called Enkhuyzen; perhaps the island of Grims-ey to the north, of Iceland. –Forst.
Probably Hamer, a place on the north of Mainland. –Forst.
Engrgroneland, Groenland, or Greenland. –Forst.
The poultry here mentioned in the text; must have been ptarmagans and the flesh that of the reindeer. –Forst.
The lime or mortar here described, appears to be the terra puzzuolana or terras, a compound of lime and oxid of iron, which forms an indestructible cement, even under water; and the remarkably light stones ejected from the volcano, and used in the construction of their vault, were probably of pumice. –E.
The greater part of this concluding paragraph must necessarily be in the language of the editor; perhaps of Ramusio. It contains, however, some palpable contradictions, since Nicolo Zeno could hardly be supposed to mention the rest of the Zenos, descendants of his grand-nephew, while still living himself; neither does it appear how the sons of Nicolo got back to Venice; and there is no account of Antonio ever being allowed to return at all.-E
Or Icarus, for the language in Forster is ambiguous, and does not clearly fix this important historical fact! –E.
The expression is here so equivocal as to leave in doubt whether the killed and wounded were Icarians or Frislanders, or part of both. –E.
Neome seems to be the isle or Stromoe, one of the Faro Islands; as it is in fact to the southward of Iceland, and only three days sail from the Orkneys, the Faras-islands, or Frisland of this author. –Forst.
Forster, Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 158.
About this period, many abuses subsisted among the Golden Tribe on the Wolga. Mamay and Ideku, or Yedeghey-khan, called Edigi by Schildtberger, had not the title of great khan of the Golden Tribe in Kiptschak, but held in fact the supreme power in their hands, and set up khans from among the royal family, or deposed them at their pleasure.-Forst
The names are much disfigured, and the commencement of the journey is not mentioned; but, from the course afterwards, this may be some corruption for Armenia, or one of its districts. –E.
Perhaps a corruption for Daghistan. –E.
Perhaps Kahira, or Cairo. –E.
Schildtberger, or his transcriber, calls this the town of Bursa, by mistake for the mountain of Al-Burs. –Forst.
Probably Agrachan; as both Astracan and Saray had been demolished by Timur. As to his saying that it stood in the middle of the Edil, Etilia, or Wolga, that may be a mistake; but at any rate, Edil signifies any river whatever. –Forst.
Bissibur or Issibur, is the ancient Russian town of Isborsk. –Forst. It would appear that the present expedition was into Siber, or Siberia –E.
This appears to refer to the Uralian chain, and the frozen regions of the north of Russia. –E.
A mistake, by confounding close-made dresses of fur with the notion of naked men, covered all over with shaggy hair. –E.
Probably Wolgar, Bulgar, or Bulgaria, is here meant.-E
From the sequel he appears rather to have been his brother. –E.
This is probably a corruption for Mangrill, or Mingrelia. –E.
Forster explains this by substituting the names of Bebian and Bedias as synonymous. No such name occurs in our best maps; but there is a place near the country of Mingrelia in Guria on the Black-Sea, named Batum, which may be here indicated –E.
This place is called in the text Weisseburgh, signifying the White Town, otherwise named Akkerman or Akkiermann, Asprecastro, Tschetatalba, and Belgorod. –Forst.
From the concluding sentence, Schildtberger, who began his travels, or rather captivity in 1394, must have returned to Munich about 1426 or 1427 –E.
Astley IV. 621. Forst. Voy. and Disc. 158.
I suspect this learned Dutchman has been sometimes quoted in Latin, by the name of Candidius. –E.
The capital of Khorassan, or Corassan, in the north-east of Persia, then the residence of Shah Rokh. –Astl.
Or Zu'lkaadeh, as pronounced by the Persians, called Dhu'lkaddeh by the Arabians, which is the eleventh month of the Mahometan year. As this year is lunar, the months run through all the seasons, for want of a properly regulated kalendar, or a period like the Julian or Gregorian. To enable the reader to understand the journal, we give the Persian names of the months in their order: 1. Moharram; 2. Safar; 3. Rabiya-al-awal, or Prior; 4, Rabiya-al-Akher, or Latter; 5. Jomada-al– awal; 6. Jomada-al-akher; 7. Rajeb; 8. Shaaban; 9. Ramazan; 10. Shawal; 11. Zu'lkaadeh; 12. Zu'lhejjeh. –Astl.
This year began on Thursday, 16th January, 1420. –Astl.
Ulug-Beg was the son and successor of Shah-Rokh, and was famous for his astronomical tables. –Astl.
The Kathayans of Ulug-Beg, here mentioned, were probably Chinese astronomers in the service of that prince, sent on the present occasion to ascertain and report the geographical circumstances of the journey. –E.
The text here is obscure, as appearing to indicate Kathayan ambassadors going to Kathay. They may have been ambassadors from Yong-lo to Shakh-Rokh, now on their return. –E.
Called Asperah by Forster. –E.
From this description of the route, and the implied division of empire, it would appear that Shah-Rokh ruled over a very ample portion of the vast conquests of Timur, having under has command the countries of Iran and Touran; or Persia, Chorassan, Balkh, Kharism, Great Bucharia, and Fergaana; even including Samarkand, the imperial residence of Timur. –E.
Mr Forster calls this place Pielgutu, and explains the name by the substitution of Palchas with a mark of interrogation as doubtful. The geography of the East is rendered difficult and obscure, by the frequent recurrence of names in different languages, and by a lax orthography. Perhaps Pielgutu or Palchas, may have been situated on the lake Balcash, otherwise named Palkati-nor, and Tengis –E.
Otherwise Dagis and Dakgis-Astl.
Called Lenger in Forster, who gives, as synonymous, Ab-lenger and Abi– longur; which merely repeat the original name Lenger, with the prefix abi, which signifies water or river. Of this river no mention is made on our maps; but, from the direction of the route, it must have crossed their way somewhere between the Palkati-nor and Turfan, which is the next station mentioned. –E.
Called Gurgu by Forster. –E.
Fifth son of Shah-Rokh. –Astl.
Perhaps the same place called Yulduz, and Yilduz by others, and supposed to be the Chialis of later authors, in Little Bucharia. In the Jesuits maps there is a river called Cheldos, near the Ili, on which this town may have stood. –Astl.
This is doubtless a mistake for Tarfan, or Turfan, in little Bucharia; the Arabic F and K differing only by a point. Astl. Turfan, Turkhan, or Farkhaan, is situated in Tenduc or Uiguria, in Lat. 43° N. Long. 85°. SO. E. The snowy mountains crossed in such haste must have been the Alahtag. The cold desert of the tribe of Jel, was probably in the eastern part of Soongria; perhaps the Karang desert, north from Turfan and the Alak mountains. –E.
This is supposed to be the same place with Aramuth in other Journals; and to be named Oramchi in the Jesuits map-Astl. Called Kharadztah, Harasliar, Hara-cosa, and Asarlic, by Forster. Now named Asarleak on our best maps. –E.
In Forsters edition, this sentence is differently expressed, as follows: "On the nineteenth they came to a town called Naas, or Naar, near which several Zeijids, or descendants of Mahomet, are settled, at a place named Termed". –E.
This name Kabul is evidently a mistake for Kamul, Khamul, Khamil, Kamyl, or Chamil; called Hami by the Chinese. –Astl.
This is certainly So-chew, near the entrance of the great wall in Shensi. –Astl. Called by Forster Katasekt-schen, Sekt-scheu, Schel– scheu, or Su-tcheu. –E.
This commentary on tea is placed in the text of Forster, and is therefore here preserved in the same form, though no part of the original. –E.
An arpent is a French measure nearly one and a half of which are equal to an English acre. –Astl.
This Persian term Karawl or Karawul, is also introduced into the Tartarian language, from which it has been adopted into Russian, in which language a guard or outpost is termed a Karaul. –Forst.
It seems more probable that the Tartar conquerors had introduced their own military term into the languages of subjugated Persia, and tributary Russia. –E.
In the description of this route by Forster, he brings the ambassadors to Su-tchew before their arrival at the Karaul, and interposes a desert of several days journey between these two places. –E.
This seemingly trifling circumstance was matter of great surprize and scandal to the Mahometans, who consider hogs as unclean animals, and to whom pork is a forbidden food. –Astl.
It is singular how very nearly this arrangement resembles the supposed modern invention of a chain of telegraphs. –E.
Six merres make a pharasang, or Persian league, which is equal to four English miles, and 868 feet. One merre is therefore equal to 1221 yards, and each post station of ten merres is equal to 12,213 yards, or almost seven English miles. –Astl.
Otherwise Kamgiou or Kan-chew, the Kampion or Kainpiou of Marco Polo; which is a city of Shen-si, near the great wall and the desert. –Astl.
In Forsters account of this journey, the ambassadors arrived from the Karaul, or fortified pass, at Natschieu, Nang-tsiew, or Naa-tsieu; after which, they are said to have arrived at Kham-tcheou, the Kan– chew of the text. –E.
The description given in the text of this Chinese pagoda has much the air of a fiction; yet we can hardly conceive the author would venture to report to Shah-Rokh what must have been contradicted by his ambassadors, if false. –Astl.
This is called Lam in the French of Thevenot, and is the same with the Lamb of Marco Polo. –Astl.
This is the Cara-moran or Whang-ho, which they crossed a second time between Shen-si and Shan-si, where it is much larger than at Lan-chew, the place probably alluded to in this part of the text. –Astl.
In the edition, by Forster, this river is named Abi Daraan, or the Daraan, afterwards Kara-raan; but is obviously the Kara-moran, Whang– ho, or Hoang-ho. –E.
This other river, certainly is the same Kara-moran, passed again at a different part of their route. –Astl.
This must have been some city in the province of Pe-che-li, or near its borders in Shan-si; but no such name as that of the text is to be found in any of the maps of China. –Astl.
In Forsters edition, this place is named Chien-dien-puhr, perhaps Tchin-teuen-pou, a city at some distance to the west of the Hoan-ho river. The route is not distinctly indicated in the text; but seems to have been from Soutcheo, at the N.W. extremity of Chensi, in lat. 40° N. following a S. E. direction to the Hoan-ho, somewhere about Yung– nam, in lat. 37° N. long. 104° E.; and Yung-nam may have been the fine city which the Persians named Rosna-baad, or the Habitation of Beauty. –E.
About seventeen or twenty-one English miles, or nineteen miles on the average. –E.
This is the same with the Khambalu of Polo. One name signifies the palace of the Khan, the other the city of the Khan. –Astl.
This is the Fong-whang, or fabulous bird of the Chinese. The Simorg– Anka, is supposed among the Persians to have existed among the Preadamites, and to have assisted Solomon in his wars. –Astl.
The text is here abrupt and inconclusive: These vestments were probably presented to the ambassadors and their suite. –E.
What this may have been does not appear; it may possibly have been arrack, or the wine made of rice and spices, which is frequently mentioned in the travels of Marco Polo. –E.
Shankars, Shonkers, or Shongars, are birds of prey, famous among the Tartars, and may probably have been the most esteemed species of falcon, and which are said to have been white. –Astl.
These silver balishes seem to have come in place of the paper money of the emperors of the race of Zingis, formerly mentioned; but its value is nowhere described. –E.
This surely must be an error for under garments –E.
In Forsters account of these travels, the blank in the text is filled up with Dzjau, or Tzjau; which he supposes to have been tea, and that the numbers refer to certain Chinese weights or packages of that commodity. Forster adds, that small pieces of tin were given to the ambassadors, to some twenty-four, and to others as far as seventy pieces; and he says that Witsen left many of the articles enumerated in the original untranslated, as not understanding the terms. –Forst.
This is the famous Timur-Beg, or Tamerlane the Great. –Astl.
In the abstract of these travels, as given by Forster, this fire is said to have been caused by lightning. –E.
It is to be remarked, that the author of these travels was a Mahometan. The circumstances of the idol temple, says the editor of Astleys Collection, seems malicious; as, in his opinion, there are no images in the imperial temples of Pe-king. I suspect the editor is mistaken; for however strongly the philosophical sect of Confucius may be convinced of the absurdity of idolatry, the religion of Fo is as grossly idolatrous as any on the face of the earth; and it is to be noticed, that the dynasty then reigning in China was native. –E.
The emperor died in the same year; but after the departure of the ambassadors. –Astl.
No such name can be found among the cities of Pe-che-li or Shan-si. –Astl.
In the abstract given by Forster, this place is called Sekan or Segaan; named in the maps Sigan-fou, or more properly Si-Ngan-Fou. –E.
Or Kan-chew, in the province of Shen-si; otherwise called Kam-tsiu, or Kan-tcheou, on the river Etchine. –Forst.
This name is probably erroneously substituted for Sou-chew; as that is the regular station for retracing their former journey, which the text distinctly indicates to have been the case hitherto. –E.
This month began on Thursday the twenty-fifth December, 1421. –Astl.
According to Forster, they recommenced their journey in the month of January, 1421. –E.
Probably taking their route by the lake of Lop, to the south of Little Bucharia. –Astl.
Called likewise Koton, Khateen, and Hotam, in Little Bucharia, or Eastern Turkistan. –E.
Named likewise Khasiger, Kashar, Cashgar, and Hasiker. –Forst.
Probably the same with Anghein, on the river Sir. –Astl.
In Forsters abstract, this place is called Andigan, and the names of Andischdan and Dedschan are said to be synonymous. –E.
Forster, Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 209.
Rost, or Rostoy. –Forst.
The small island of Rust probably the one in question, is the south-westernmost of the Loffoden isles of Norway, in lat. 67°. 80 N. long. 11°. E. and is about 80 statute miles from the nearest land of the continent of Norway to the east. The rest of the Loffoden islands are of considerable size, and are divided from Norway by the Westfiord, which grows considerably narrower as it advances to the north-east. –E.
The Cod or Gadus Morrhua, is termed stock-fish when dried without salt. –E.
This must have appeared a most wonderful reliance upon female chastity, in the opinion of jealous Italians, unaccustomed to the pure morals of the north. –E.
This custom of promiscuous bathing is very ancient, and existed among the Romans, from whom it was learnt by the Greeks, but gave rise to such shameful lewdness, that it was prohibited by Hadrian and Antoninus. This law seems to have fallen into oblivion, as even the Christians in after times fell into the practice, and gave occasion to many decrees of councils and synods for its prohibition; yet with little effect, as even priests and monks bathed promiscuously along with the women. Justinian, in his 117th novel, among the lawful causes of divorce, mentions a married woman bathing along with men, unless with the permission of her husband. Russia probably adopted bathing from Constantinople along with Christianity, and in that country promiscuous bathing still continues; and they likewise use a bundle of herbs or rods, as mentioned in the text, for rubbing their bodies. –Forst.
Norway certainly did not learn the practice of bathing either from Rome or Constantinople. Some learned men are never content unless they can deduce the most ordinary practices from classical authority, as in the above note by Mr Forster. –E.
The Norwegians call this species of sea fowl Maase; which is probably the Larus Candidus; a new species, named in the voyage of Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, Larus eburneus, from being perfectly white. By John Muller, plate xii. it is named Lams albus; and seems to be the same called Raths kerr, in Martens Spitzbergen, and Wald Maase, in Leoms Lapland. The Greenlanders call it Vagavarsuk. It is a very bold bird, and only inhabits the high northern latitudes, in Finmark, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Spitzbergen. This Maase, or sea-gull, is probably the white Muxis of the text. –Forst.
The Rein-deer, Cervus tarandus, Lin. –Forst.
Probably the Tetrao lagopus, Lin. –Forst.
Falco Gyrfalcus, and Falco astur. –Forst.
Forster, Voy. and Disc, in the North p. 165.
Called likewise the sea of Zabachi, Ischaback-Denghissi, the Palus Maeotis, and Sea of Asof. –Forst.
This is explained to signify Deodati, or Given by God. –Forst.
The Ch is used in Italian orthography before e and i to indicate the letter k. Hence Cheremuch is Kererouk, and Chertibei, Kertibei, or Kertibey. In the perpetually varying nomenclature, from vitious orthography, and changes of dominion, it is often difficult to ascertain the nations or districts indicated. This is peculiarly the case in the present instance, and the sequel, which enumerates a number of the Caucasian petty tribes, lying between, the sea of Asof and the Caspian, now mostly subject to the Russian empire, whose momentary names and stations we dare not pretend to guess at. –E.
This odd expression, that these provinces are not far from each other, certainly means that they are not large. –E.
Otherwise called Sebastopolis, also Isguriah or Dioskurios. –Forst.
Hence Asper, the ordinary denomination of silver coin in moderns Turkey is evidently borrowed from the Greek. –E.
Now Precop. –E.
Kumania and Gazzaria, here said to be provinces of the Crimea, or island of Kaffa, must have been small districts of that peninsula, inhabited by tribes of the Kumanians and Gazzarians of the country between the sea of Asof and the mouths of the Wolga, now frequently called the Cuban Tartary. The whole of that country, together with the country between the Wolga and Ural rivers, often bore the name of Kumania. But the destructive conquests of the Mongals, has in all ages broken down the nations of those parts into fragments, and has induced such rapid and frequent changes as to baffle all attempts at any fixed topography, except of lakes, rivers, and mountains. –E.
The ancient Taurica Chersonesus; the Crimea of our days, now again called Taurida by the Russians. –E.
Probably Ulu-beg, or the great prince. –E.
Soragathi or Solgathi, is named by Abulfeda Soldet or Kirm; and is at present called Eskikyrym, or the Old Citadel. –Forst. From the name of this place, Chirmia, Kirmia, Kirm, or Crim, the name of the peninsula and its inhabitants, Chrimea, and Crim-Tartars, are evidently derived. –E.
Kerkiardi is the Kerkri of Abulfeda, and signifies in Turkish forty men. Some call the place Kyrk, and the Poles name it Kirkjel. It is situated on an inaccessible mountain, and was one of the castles belonging to the Goths who dwelt in those mountains, absurdly called Jews by some authors; of whom some traces remained not long ago, as their language contained many words resembling German. –Forst.
I should suspect that this term, here applied to one place only, had been originally the general appellation of the forty castles belonging to the Goths, who long defended themselves in the Tauric Chersonese. The ridiculous conversion of these Goths into Jews, may be accounted for, by supposing that some ignorant transcriber had changed Teutschi into Judei, either in copying or writing from the ear. –E.
The Pantikapaeum of the ancient Bosphorian kings. The Ol-Kars of Abulfeda. –Forst.
This is nearly on the same spot with the Theodosia of the Greeks and Romans. –Forst.
Otherwise Soldadia, Soldadia, or more properly Sugdaja, now Sudak or Suday, by which name it is mentioned in Abulfeda. –Forst.
Grasui, or Grusui, now unknown, perhaps stood at a place now called Krusi-musen, which seems to preserve some traces of the name.-Forst
Called likewise Cimbolo, the or Otherwise Sherson and Schurschi; which was formerly called Cherson Trachea, and was built 600 years before the Christian era, by the inhabitants of Heraclea in Pontus. It was also called Chersonesus, or the Peninsula; but that term properly signified the whole of the peninsula between this harbour and Symbolon or Limen, which was entirely occupied by the Greeks. The Russians took this place in the reign of Wolodimer the great, and it is called Korsen in their annals. By the Turks, it is named Karaje-burn. It must be carefully distinguished from another Cherson on the Dnieper, at no great distance, but not in the peninsula. –Forst.
Otherwise Sherson and Schurschi; which was formerly called Cherson Trachea, and was built 600 years before the Christian era, by the inhabitants of Heraclea in Pontus. It was also called Chersonesus, or the Peninsula; but that term properly signified the whole of the peninsula between this harbour and Symbolon or Limen, which was entirely occupied by the Greeks. The Russians took this place in the reign of Wolodimer the great, and it is called Korsen in their annals. By the Turks, it is named Karaje-burn. It must be carefully distinguished from another Cherson on the Dnieper, at no great distance, but not in the peninsula.–Forst.
This seems a corruption of Klimata; as all the towns named by Barbaro formerly belonged to of the Greeks, and all belonged till lately to the Turks. –Forst.
This is a place at the mouth of the Dniester called Ak-Kierman by the Turks; Tshelatalba by the Walachians; Belgorod by the Russians; Aspro Kastra by the Greeks; and Moncastro by the Genoese. It was the Alba Julia, of the Romans. –Forst.
This circumstance was before noticed by Rubruquis, and is likewise mentioned by Busbeck. Father Mohndorf met with many slaves in the gallies at Constantinople, who were descended from the Goths, and spoke a dialect of German. Now that the Crimea belongs to Russia, it is to be wished that the remaining traces of the Gothic language may be inquired after; as this language might serve to explain and illustrate the remains we still possess of Ulfila's translation of the gospels into Gothic; while the names and customs of this people, together with many of their phrases and turns of expression, might throw light on the manners and customs of the ancient Germans. It is even possible, that some families among them, of the higher rank, may still possess some books in their ancient language, which would be a very important discovery. –Forst.
Otherwise called Erdir, Erdil, Atel, Athol, Etilia, and now the Volga or Wolga. –Forst.
Likewise named Citracan and Astrakhan, Astracan. –Forst.
There is an obvious blunder here, for this account of the trade must be understood as follows: "That the trade in silks and spices from the East, which now come by way of Syria, came over land by way of Astracan to Tanna, whence it was transported by sea to Venice." The concluding sentence, "That no other nation but the Venetians then traded with Syria," is quite inexplicable; as the Syrian trade could not possibly come to Venice by way of Astracan and Tanna. The various routes of trade from India or the East to Western Europe, before the Portuguese discovered the way by sea, have been well illustrated by Dr Robertson; and will be explained in the course of this work. –E.
Riazan on the Oka, the capital of a province or the same name. –E.
Even at present, they make an inebriating liquor in Russia, from millet, called busa, which is very heady, and is probably what is named bossa in the text –Forst.
I strongly suspect that this passage is wrong translated, and that it ought to have been, that the castle as encompassed with wooden walls, as it is well known that the city of Moscow environs the castle or Kremlin. –E.
This expression has no meaning. Barbaro probably wrote that four pounds could be had at Moscow for the same money that would buy one in Venice. –E.
The Caspian, besides the names of Bochri and Bakhu, is likewise called the sea of Khozar, and the sea of Tabristan. –E.
Zagathai was one of the sons of the great conqueror Zingis Khan, and received that part of the empire for his share, which comprehended Turkistan, Mawaralnahar, and Kuaresm; which extensive country took from him the name of Zagathai. –Forst.
The furs mentioned in the text could not be brought from this country, which besides, is to the south-east of Kasan. To the north-east lies Siberia, the true country of fine furs; and which Barbara, by mistake, must have named Zagathai: though perhaps it might at one time form part of that extensive empire.-E
Moxia is the country of the Morduanians, one tribe of whom call themselves Mokscha, or Moxa. –Forst.
This word signifies the New Castle; of this name there are two cities and provinces in European Russia, Novogorod proper, and Nisney Novogorod: The former is the one here meant. –E.
This is near Wilna in Lithuania. –Forst.
I imagine that Slonym is here meant; formerly a place of note, and which used to be the appanege of one of the Lithuanian princes. –Forst.
Varsonich is an evident corruption for Varsovich, or Warsaw, the capital of Masurea or Masovia. –Forst.
It is not easy to determine the situation of Mersaga; but, as on the borders of Poland, towards Brandenburgh, and in the direction of Francfort on the Oder, it is probable that Meseriz, or Miedzyrzyez, is here meant. –Forst.