The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 150 : It does not strike me from these pa.s.sages that Sanf must be looked for in the Malay

It does not strike me from these pa.s.sages that Sanf must be looked for in the Malay Peninsula. Indeed Professor G. Schlegel, in a paper published in the _T'oung Pao_, vol. x., seems to prove that Shay-po (Djava), represented by Chinese characters, which are the transcription of the Sanskrit name of the China Rose (_Hibiscus rosa sinensis_), Djava or Dj.a.pa, is not the great island of Java, but, according to Chinese texts, a state of the Malay Peninsula; but he does not seem to me to prove that Shay-po is Champa, as he believes he has done.

However, Professor De Goeje adds in his letter, and I quite agree with the celebrated Arabic scholar of Leyden, that he does not very much like the theory of two Sanf, and that he is inclined to believe that the sea captain of the _Marvels of India_ placed Sundar Fulat a little too much to the north, and that the narrative of the _Relation des Voyages_ is inexact.

To conclude: the history of the relations between Annam (Tong-king) and her southern neighbour, the kingdom of Champa, the itineraries of Marco Polo and Ibn Khordadhbeh as well as the position given to Sanf by Abulfeda, justify me, I think, in placing Champa in that part of the central and southern indo-Chinese coast which the French to-day call Annam (Cochinchine and Ba.s.se-Cochinchine), the Binh-Thuan province showing more particularly what remains of the ancient kingdom.

Since I wrote the above, I have received No. 1 of vol. ii. of the _Bul.

de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient_, which contains a note on _Canf et Campa_, by M.A. Barth. The reasons given in a note addressed to him by Professor De Goeje and the work of Ibn Khordadhbeh have led M.A. Barth to my own conclusion, viz. that the coast of Champa was situated where inscriptions have been found on the Annamite coast.--H.C.]

The Sagatu of Marco appears in the Chinese history as _Sotu_, the military governor of the Canton districts, which he had been active in reducing.

In 1278 Sotu sent an envoy to Chen-ching to claim the king's submission, which was rendered, and for some years he sent his tribute to Kublai. But when the Kaan proceeded to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom by sending a Resident and Chinese officials, the king's son (1282) resolutely opposed these proceedings, and threw the Chinese officials into prison. The Kaan, in great wrath at this insult, (coming also so soon after his discomfiture in j.a.pan), ordered Sotu and others to Chen-ching to take vengeance. The prince in the following year made a pretence of submission, and the army (if indeed it had been sent) seems to have been withdrawn. The prince, however, renewed his attack on the Chinese establishments, and put 100 of their officials to death. Sotu then despatched a new force, but it was quite unsuccessful, and had to retire.

In 1284 the king sent an emba.s.sy, including his grandson, to beg for pardon and reconciliation. Kublai, however, refused to receive them, and ordered his son Tughan to advance through Tong-king, an enterprise which led to a still more disastrous war with that country, in which the Mongols had much the worst of it. We are not told more.

Here we have the difficulties usual with Polo's historical anecdotes.

Certain names and circ.u.mstances are distinctly recognisable in the Chinese Annals; others are difficult to reconcile with these. The emba.s.sy of 1284 seems the most likely to be the one spoken of by Polo, though the Chinese history does not give it the favourable result which he ascribes to it.

The date in the text we see to be wrong, and as usual it varies in different MSS. I suspect the original date was MCCLx.x.xIII.

One of the Chinese notices gives one of the king's names as _Sinhopala_, and no doubt this is Ramusio's _Accambale_ (Acambale); an indication at once of the authentic character of that interpolation, and of the ident.i.ty of Champa and Chen-ching.

[We learn from an inscription that in 1265 the King of Champa was Jaya-Sinhavarman II., who was named Indravarman in 1277, and whom the Chinese called _Che li Tseya Sinho phala Maha thiwa_ (cri Jaya Sinha varmma maha deva). He was the king at the time of Polo's voyage. (_A. Bergaigne, Ancien royaume de Campa_, pp. 39-40; _E. Aymonier, les Tchames et leurs religious_, p. 14.)--H.C.]

There are notices of the events in De Mailla (IX. 420-422) and Gaubil (194), but Pauthier's extracts which we have made use of are much fuller.

Elephants have generally formed a chief part of the presents or tribute sent periodically by the various Indo-Chinese states to the Court of China.

[In a Chinese work published in the 14th century, by an Annamite, under the t.i.tle of _Ngan-nan chi lio_, and translated into French by M. Sainson (1896), we read (p. 397): "Elephants are found only in Lin-y; this is the country which became Champa. It is the habit to have burdens carried by elephants; this country is to-day the Pu-cheng province." M. Sainson adds in a note that Pu-cheng, in Annamite Bo chanh quan, is to-day Quang-binh, and that, in this country, was placed the first capital (Dong-hoi) of the future kingdom of Champa thrown later down to the south.--H.C.]

[The Chams, according to their tradition, had three capitals: the most ancient, _Shri-Banoeuy_, probably the actual Quang-Binh province; _Bal-Hangov_, near Hue; and _Bal-Angoue_, in the Binh-Dinh province. In the 4th century, the kingdom of _Lin-y_ or _Lam-ap_ is mentioned in the Chinese Annals.--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--The date of Marco's visit to Champa varies in the MSS.: Pauthier has 1280, as has also Ramusio; the G.T. has 1285; the Geographic Latin 1288. I incline to adopt the last. For we know that about 1290, Mark returned to Court from a mission to the Indian Seas, which might have included this visit to Champa.

The large family of the king was one of the stock marvels. Odoric says: "ZAMPA is a very fine country, having great store of victuals and all good things. The king of the country, it was said when I was there [circa 1323], had, what with sons and with daughters, a good two hundred children; for he hath many wives and other women whom he keepeth. This king hath also 14,000 tame elephants.... And other folk keep elephants there just as commonly as we keep oxen here" (pp. 95-96). The latter point ill.u.s.trates what Polo says of elephants, and is scarcely an exaggeration in regard to all the southern Indo-Chinese States. (See note to Odoric u.s.)

NOTE 3.--Champa Proper and the adjoining territories have been from time immemorial the chief seat of the production of lign-aloes or eagle-wood.

Both names are misleading, for the thing has nought to do either with aloes or eagles; though good Bishop Pallegoix derives the latter name from the wood being speckled like an eagle's plumage. It is in fact through _Aquila_, _Agila_, from _Aguru_, one of the Sanskrit names of the article, whilst that is possibly from the Malay _Kayu_ (wood)-_gahru_, though the course of the etymology is more likely to be the other way; and [Greek: Aloae] is perhaps a corruption of the term which the Arabs apply to it, viz. _Al-'Ud_, "The Wood."

[It is probable that the first Portuguese who had to do with eagle-wood called it by its Arabic name, _aghaluhy_, or malayalam, _agila_; whence _pao de' aguila_ "aguila wood." It was translated into Latin as _lignum aquilae_, and after into modern languages, as _bois d'aigle_, _eagle-wood_, _adlerholz_, etc. (_A. Cabaton, les Chams_, p. 50.) Mr.

Groeneveldt (_Notes_, pp. 141-142) writes: "_Lignum aloes_ is the wood of the _Aquilaria agallocha_, and is chiefly known as _sinking incense_. The _Pen-ts'au Kang-mu_ describes it as follows: '_Sinking incense_, also called _honey incense_. It comes from the heart and the knots of a tree and sinks in water, from which peculiarity the name _sinking incense_ is derived.... In the Description of Annam we find it called _honey incense_, because it smells like honey.' The same work, as well as the _Nan-fang Ts'au-mu Chuang_, further informs us that this incense was obtained in all countries south of China, by felling the old trees and leaving them to decay, when, after some time, only the heart, the knots, and some other hard parts remained. The product was known under different names, according to its quality or shape, and in addition to the names given above, we find _fowl bones_, _horse-hoofs_, and _green cinnamon_; these latter names, however, are seldom used."--H.C.]

The fine eagle-wood of Champa is the result of disease in a leguminous tree, _Aloexylon Agallochum_; whilst an inferior kind, though of the same aromatic properties, is derived from a tree of an entirely different order, _Aquilaria Agallocha_, and is found as far north as Silhet.

The _Bonus_ of the G.T. here is another example of Marco's use, probably unconscious, of an Oriental word. It is Persian _Abnus_, Ebony, which has pa.s.sed almost unaltered into the Spanish _Abenuz_. We find _Ibenus_ also in a French inventory (_Douet d'Arcq_, p. 134), but the _Bonus_ seems to indicate that the word as used by the Traveller was strange to Rusticiano.

The word which he uses for pen-cases too, _Calamanz_, is more suggestive of the Persian _Kalamdan_ than of the Italian _Calamajo_.

"Ebony is very common in this country (Champa), but the wood which is the most precious, and which is sufficiently abundant, is called 'Eagle-wood,'

of which the first quality sells for its weight in gold; the native name _Kinam_," (_Bishop Louis_ in J.A.S.B. VI. 742; _Dr. Birdwood_, in the _Bible Educator_, I. 243; _Crawford's Dict._)

CHAPTER VI.

CONCERNING THE GREAT ISLAND OF JAVA.

When you sail from Chamba, 1500 miles in a course between south and south-east, you come to a great Island called Java. And the experienced mariners of those Islands who know the matter well, say that it is the greatest Island in the world, and has a compa.s.s of more than 3000 miles. It is subject to a great King and tributary to no one else in the world. The people are Idolaters. The Island is of surpa.s.sing wealth, producing black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingale, cubebs, cloves, and all other kinds of spices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: View in the Interior of Java.

"Une grandissune Ysle qe est avelle Java. Ceste Ysle est de mont grant richesse."]

This Island is also frequented by a vast amount of s.h.i.+pping, and by merchants who buy and sell costly goods from which they reap great profit.

Indeed the treasure of this Island is so great as to be past telling. And I can a.s.sure you the Great Kaan never could get possession of this Island, on account of its great distance, and the great expense of an expedition thither. The merchants of Zayton and Manzi draw annually great returns from this country.[NOTE 1]

NOTE 1.--Here Marco speaks of that Pearl of Islands, Java. The chapter is a digression from the course of his voyage towards India, but possibly he may have touched at the island on his previous expedition, alluded to in note 2, ch. v. Not more, for the account is vague, and where particulars are given not accurate. Java does not _produce_ nutmegs or cloves, though doubtless it was a great mart for these and all the products of the Archipelago. And if by _treasure_ he means gold, as indeed Ramusio reads, no gold is found in Java. Barbosa, however, has the same story of the great amount of gold drawn from Java; and De Barros says that Sunda, i.e. Western Java, which the Portuguese regarded as a distinct island, produced inferior gold of 7 carats, but that pepper was the staple, of which the annual supply was more than 30,000 cwt. (_Ram._ I. 318-319; _De Barros_, Dec. IV. liv. i. cap. 12.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: s.h.i.+p of the Middle Ages in the Java Seas. (From Bas-relief at Boro Bodor.)

"En ceste Ysle vienent grant quant.i.te de nes, e de mercanz qe hi acatent de maintes mercandies et hi font grant gaagne"]

The circuit ascribed to Java in Pauthier's Text is 5000 miles. Even the 3000 which we take from the Geog. Text is about double the truth; but it is exactly the same that Odoric and Conti a.s.sign. No doubt it was a tradition among the Arab seamen. They never visited the south coast, and probably had extravagant ideas of its extension in that direction, as the Portuguese had for long. Even at the end of the 16th century Linschoten says: "Its breadth is as yet unknown; some conceiving it to be a part of the Terra Australis extending from opposite the Cape of Good Hope.

_However it is commonly held to be an island_" (ch. xx.). And in the old map republished in the Lisbon De Bairos of 1777, the south side of Java is marked "Parte incognita de Java," and is without a single name, whilst a narrow strait runs right across the island (the supposed division of Sunda from Java Proper).

The history of Java previous to the rise of the Empire of Maj.a.pahit, in the age immediately following our Traveller's voyage, is very obscure. But there is some evidence of the existence of a powerful dynasty in the island about this time; and in an inscription of ascertained date (A.D.

1294) the King Uttungadeva claims to have subjected _five kings_ and to be sovereign of the whole Island of Java (_Jawa-dvipa_; see La.s.sen, IV. 482).

It is true that, as our Traveller says, Kublai had not yet attempted the subjugation of Java, but he did make the attempt almost immediately after the departure of the Venetians. It was the result of one of his unlucky emba.s.sies to claim the homage of distant states, and turned out as badly as the attempts against Champa and j.a.pan. His amba.s.sador, a Chinese called Meng-K'i, was sent back with his face branded like a thief's. A great armament was a.s.sembled in the ports of Fo-kien to avenge this insult; it started about January, 1293, but did not effect a landing till autumn.

After some temporary success the force was constrained to re-embark with a loss of 3000 men. The death of Kublai prevented any renewal of the attempt; and it is mentioned that his successor gave orders for the re-opening of the Indian trade which the Java war had interrupted. (See _Gaubil_, pp. 217 seqq., 224.) To this failure Odoric, who visited Java about 1323, alludes: "Now the Great Kaan of Cathay many a time engaged in war with this king; but the king always vanquished and got the better of him." Odoric speaks in high terms of the richness and population of Java, calling it "the second best of all Islands that exist," and describing a gorgeous palace in terms similar to those in which Polo speaks of the Palace of Chipangu. (_Cathay_, p. 87 seqq.)

[We read in the _Yuen-s.h.i.+_ (Bk. 210), translated by Mr. Groeneveldt, that "Java is situated beyond the sea and further away than Champa; when one embarks at Ts'wan-chau and goes southward, he first comes to Champa and afterwards to this country." It appears that when his envoy Meng-K'i had been branded on the face, Kublai, in 1292, appointed s.h.i.+h-pi, a native of Po-yeh, district Li-chau, Pao-ting fu, Chih-li province, commander of the expedition to Java, whilst Ike-Mese, a Uighur, and Kau-Hsing, a man from Ts'ai-chau (Ho-nan), were appointed to a.s.sist him. Mr. Groeneveldt has translated the accounts of these three officers. In the _Ming-s.h.i.+_ (Bk.

324) we read: "Java is situated at the south-west of Champa. In the time of the Emperor Kublai of the Yuen Dynasty, Meng-K'i was sent there as an envoy and had his face cut, on which Kublai sent a large army which subdued the country and then came back." (l.c. p. 34.) The prince guilty of this insult was the King of Tumapel "in the eastern part of the island Java, whose country was called Java par excellence by the Chinese, because it was in this part of the island they chiefly traded."

(l.c. p. 32.)--H.C.]

The curious figure of a vessel which we give here is taken from the vast series of mediaeval sculptures which adorns the great Buddhist pyramid in the centre of Java, known as Boro Bodor, one of the most remarkable architectural monuments in the world, but the history of which is all in darkness. The s.h.i.+p, with its outrigger and apparently canvas sails, is not Chinese, but it undoubtedly pictures vessels which frequented the ports of Java in the early part of the 14th century,[1] possibly one of those from Ceylon or Southern India.

[1] 1344 is the date to which a Javanese traditional verse ascribes the edifice. (_Crawford's Desc. Dictionary_.)

CHAPTER VII.

WHEREIN THE ISLES OF SONDUR AND CONDUR ARE SPOKEN OF; AND THE KINGDOM OF LOCAC.

When you leave Chamba[NOTE 1] and sail for 700 miles on a course between south and south-west, you arrive at two Islands, a greater and a less. The one is called SONDUR and the other CONDUR.[NOTE 2] As there is nothing about them worth mentioning, let us go on five hundred miles beyond Sondur, and then we find another country which is called LOCAC. It is a good country and a rich; [it is on the mainland]; and it has a king of its own. The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and pay tribute to n.o.body, for their country is so situated that no one can enter it to do them ill. Indeed if it were possible to get at it, the Great Kaan would soon bring them under subjection to him.