Ramusio says that the Traveller will now “begin to speak of the territories, cities, and provinces of the Greater, Lesser, and Middle India, in which regions he was when in the service of the Great Kaan, being sent thither on divers matters of business. And then again when he returned to the same quarter with the queen of King Argon, and with his father and uncle, on his way back to his native land. So he will relate the strange things that he saw in those Indies, not omitting others which he heard related by persons of reputation and worthy of credit, and things that were pointed out to him on the maps of manners of the Indies aforesaid.” [Illustration: The Kaan’s Fleet leaving the Port of Zayton.] [Illustration: Marco Polo’s Itineraries Nᵒ. VI. (Book II, Chapters 67–82) Journey through Manzi _Polo’s names thus_ Kinsay] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Dr. C. Douglas objects to this derivation of _Zayton_, that the place was never called _Tseut’ung_ absolutely, but _T’seu-t’ung-ching_, “city of prickly T’ung-trees”; and this not as a name, but as a polite literary epithet, somewhat like “City of Palaces” applied to Calcutta. [2] Giovanni did not get to Zayton; but two years later he got to Canton with Fernão Perez, was sent ashore as Factor, and a few days after died of fever. (De Barros, III. II. viii.) The way in which Botero, a compiler in the latter part of the 16th century, speaks of Zayton as between Canton and Liampo (Ningpo), and exporting immense quantities of porcelain, salt and sugar, looks as if he had before him modern information as to the place. He likewise observes, “All the moderns note the port of Zaiton between Canton and Liampo.” Yet I know no other modern allusion except Giovanni d’Empoli’s; and that was printed only a few years ago. (_Botero, Relazione Universale_, pp. 97, 228.) [3] Martini says of Ganhai (’An-Hai or Ngan-Hai), “Ingens hic mercium ac Sinensium navium copia est ... ex his (’Anhai and Amoy) in totam Indiam merces avehuntur.” [4] Dr. Douglas assures me that the cut at p. 245 is an _excellent_ view of the entrance to the S. channel of the _Chang-chau River_, though I derived it from a professed view of the mouth of the _Chinchew River_. I find he is quite right; see _List of Illustrations_. [5] In a modern Chinese geographical work abstracted by Mr. Laidlay, we are told that the great river of _Tsim-lo_, or Siam, “penetrates to a branch of the Hwang-Ho.” (_J. A. S. B._ XVII. Pt. I. 157.)