Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
“_7th Month_. The entire fleet arrived at the Island of Firando
(P’hing-hu), and passed thence to Goriosan (Ulungshan). The troops
of Tsukuzi were under arms. _1st_ of _3rd Month_. A frightful storm
arose; the Mongol ships foundered or were sorely shattered. The
General (Fan Wen-hu) fled with the other Generals on the vessels
that had least suffered; nobody has ever heard what became of them.
The army of 100,000 men, which had landed below Goriosan, wandered
about for three days without provisions; and the soldiers began to
plan the building of vessels in which they might escape to China.
“_7th day_. The Japanese army invested and attacked them with
great vigour. The Mongols were totally defeated. 30,000 of them
were made prisoners and conducted to Fakata (the _Fokouoka_ of
Alcock’s Map, but _Fakatta_ in Kaempfer’s), and there put to death.
Grace was extended to only (three men), who were sent to China
with the intelligence of the fate of the army. The destruction of
so numerous a fleet was considered the most evident proof of the
protection of the gods.” (_Titsingh_, pp. 264–265.) At p. 259 of
the same work Klaproth gives another account from the Japanese
Encyclopædia; the difference is not material.
The Chinese Annals, in De Mailla, state that the Japanese spared
10,000 or 12,000 of the Southern Chinese, whom they retained as
slaves. Gaubil says that 30,000 Mongols were put to death, whilst
70,000 Coreans and Chinese were made slaves.
Kúblái was loth to put up with this huge discomfiture, and in
1283 he made preparations for another expedition; but the project
excited strong discontent; so strong that some Buddhist monks whom
he sent before to collect information, were thrown overboard by the
Chinese sailors; and he gave it up. (_De Mailla_, IX. 409; 418,
428; _Gaubil_, 195; _Deguignes_, III. 177.)
[Illustration: Japanese in fight with Chinese. (After Siebold, from
an ancient Japanese drawing.)
“=Or ensint avint ceste estoire de la desconfiture de les gens dou
Grant Kaan.=”]
The Abacan of Polo is probably the Asikan of the Japanese, whom
Gaubil calls _Argan_. Vonsainchin is _perhaps_ Fan Wen-hu with the
Chinese title of _Tsiang-Kiun_ or General (elsewhere represented in
Polo by _Sangon_),—FAN TSIANG-KIUN.
We see that, as usual, whilst Marco’s account in some of the main
features concurs with that of the histories, he gives a good many
additional particulars, some of which, such as the ill-will
between the Generals, are no doubt genuine. But of the story of the
capture of the Japanese capital by the shipwrecked army we know not
what to make: we can’t accept it certainly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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