The City of Tanpiju and Others

CHAPTER 79. The City of Tanpiju and Others

When you leave Kinsay and travel a day’s journey to the south-east, through a plenteous region, passing a succession of dwellings and charming gardens, you reach the city of Tanpiju.

It is a great, rich, and fine city, under Kinsay.

The people are subject to the Kaan, and have paper-money, and are Idolaters, and burn their dead in the way described before.

They live by trade and manufactures and handicrafts, and have all necessaries in great plenty and cheapness.{1}

But there is no more to be said about it, so we proceed, and I will tell you of another city called Vuju at three days’ distance from Tanpiju. The people are Idolaters, &c., and the city is under Kinsay. They live by trade and manufactures.

Travelling through a succession of towns and villages that look like one continuous city, two days further on to the south-east, you find the great and fine city of Ghiuju which is under Kinsay.

The people are Idolaters, &c. They have plenty of silk, and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all things necessary in abundance.

At this city you find the largest and longest canes that are in all Manzi; they are full four palms in girth and 15 paces in length.

When you have left Ghiuju you travel four days S.E. through a beautiful country, in which towns and villages are very numerous.

There is abundance of game both in beasts and birds; and there are very large and fierce lions. After those 4 days you come to the great and fine city of Changshan.

It is situated upon a hill which divides the River, so that the one portion flows up country and the other down.

It is still under the government of Kinsay.

The country of Manzi has no sheep. Though they have beeves and kine, goats and kids and swine in abundance. The people are Idolaters here, &c.

When you leave Changshan you travel 3 days through a very fine country with many towns and villages, traders and craftsmen, and abounding in game of all kinds, and arrive at the city of Cuju.

The people are Idolaters, &c., and live by trade and manufactures. It is a fine, noble, and rich city, and is the last of the government of Kinsay in this direction.

The other kingdom which we now enter, called Fuju, is also one of the nine great divisions of Manzi as Kinsay is.

CHAPTER 80. The Kingdom of Fuju [Southern China]

Cuju is the last city of the kingdom of Kinsay.

As you leave it, you enter the kingdom of Fuju, and travel six days in a south-easterly direction through a country of mountains and valleys, in which are a number of towns and villages with great plenty of victuals and abundance of game.

Lions, great and strong, are also very numerous.

The country produces ginger and galingale in immense quantities. 1 Venice groat can get you 80 pounds of good fine-flavoured ginger.

They have also a kind of fruit resembling saffron, and which serves the purpose of saffron just as well.

The people eat all manner of unclean things, even the flesh of a man, provided he has not died a natural death.

So they look out for the bodies of those that have been put to death and eat their flesh, which they consider excellent.

Those who go to war in those parts shave the hair off the forehead and cause it to be painted in blue like the blade of a glaive.

They all go afoot except the chief. They carry spears and swords, and are the most savage people in the world.

They go about constantly killing people, whose blood they drink, and then devour the bodies.

After going 3 days out of the 6 that I told you of you come to the city of Kelinfu, a very great and noble city, belonging to the Great Kaan.

This city has 3 stone bridges which are among the finest and best in the world.

They are a mile long and some 9 paces in width. They are all decorated with rich marble columns.

They are such fine and marvellous works that to build any one of them must have cost a treasure.

The people live by trade and manufactures, and have great store of silk [which they weave into various stuffs], and of ginger and galingale.

They also make much cotton cloth of dyed thread, which is sent all over Manzi.

Their women are particularly beautiful.

There is a strange thing there which I needs must tell you.

They have fowls which have no feathers, but hair only, like a cat’s fur.

They are black all over; they lay eggs just like our fowls, and are very good to eat.

In the other 3 days of the 6 that I have mentioned above, you continue to meet with many towns and villages, with traders, and goods for sale, and craftsmen.

The people have much silk, and are Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan.

There is plenty of game of all kinds, and there are great and fierce lions which attack travellers.

In the last of those 3 days’ journey, when you have gone 15 miles you find a city called Unken, where there is an immense quantity of sugar made.

From this city the Great Kaan gets all the sugar for the use of his Court, a quantity worth a great amount of money.

Before this city came under the Great Kaan these people knew not how to make fine sugar. They only used to boil and skim the juice, which when cold left a black paste.

But after they came under the Great Kaan some men of Babylonia who happened to be at the Court proceeded to this city and taught the people to refine the sugar with the ashes of certain trees.

When you have gone 15 miles from the city of Unken, you come to this noble city which is the capital of the kingdom.

CHAPTER 81. The Greatness of the City of Fuju

Fuju is the key of the kingdom which is called Chonka, and which is one of the 9 great divisions of Manzi.

The city is a seat of great trade and great manufactures.

The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan.

A large garrison is maintained there by that prince to keep the kingdom in peace and subjection. For the city is one which is apt to revolt on very slight provocation.

There flows through the middle of this city a great river, which is about a mile in width, and many ships are built at the city which are launched upon this river.

Enormous quantities of sugar are made there, and there is a great traffic in pearls and precious stones.

For many ships of India come to these parts bringing many merchants who traffic about the Isles of the Indies.

It is in the vicinity of the Ocean Port of Zayton which is greatly frequented by the ships of India with their cargoes of various merchandize.

From Zayton ships come this way right up to the city of Fuju by the river I have told you of; and ’tis in this way that the precious wares of India come hither.

The city is really a very fine one and kept in good order, and all necessaries of life are there to be had in great abundance and cheapness.

CHAPTER 82: The City and Great Haven of Zayton

When you quit Fuju and cross the River, you travel for five days south-east through a fine country, meeting with a constant succession of flourishing cities, towns, and villages, rich in every product.

You travel by mountains and valleys and plains, and in some places by great forests in which are many of the trees which give Camphor.

There is plenty of game on the road, both of bird and beast.

The people are all traders and craftsmen, subjects of the Great Kaan, and under the government of Fuju. When you have accomplished those five days’ journey you arrive at the very great and noble city of Zayton, which is also subject to Fuju.

At this city is the Haven of Zayton, frequented by all the ships of India, which bring thither spicery and all other kinds of costly wares.

It is the port also that is frequented by all the merchants of Manzi, for hither is imported the most astonishing quantity of goods and of precious stones and pearls, and from this they are distributed all over Manzi.

For 1 shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere destined for Christendom, there come 100 such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton; for it is one of the two greatest havens in the world for commerce.

The Great Kaan derives a very large revenue from the duties paid in this city and haven.

On all the merchandize imported, including precious stones and pearls, he levies a duty of 10% or in other words takes tithe of everything.

Then again the ship’s charge for freight on small wares is 30% on pepper 44%., and on lignaloes, sandalwood, and other bulky goods 40%, so that between freight and the Kaan’s duties the merchant has to pay a good half the value of his investment [though on the other half he makes such a profit that he is always glad to come back with a new supply of merchandize].

The Kaan gets a vast revenue from this city.

There is a great abundance here of all provision for every necessity of man’s life.

It is a charming country, and the people are very quiet, and fond of an easy life. Many come hither from Upper India to have their bodies painted with the needle in the way we have elsewhere described, there being many adepts at this craft in the city.

In this province there is a town called Tyunju, where they make the finest vessels of porcelain of all sizes.

They make it only in that city. From there, it is exported all over the world.

Here it is abundant and very cheap. 1 Venice groat can buy 3 dishes so fine that you could not imagine better.

In Zayton, they have a peculiar language.

Throughout all Manzi, they employ one speech and one kind of writing only.

But yet there are local differences of dialect, as you might say of Genoese, Milanese, Florentines, and Neapolitans, who though they speak different dialects can understand one another.

And I assure you that the Great Kaan has as large customs and revenues from this kingdom of Chonka as from Kinsay, aye and more too.{7}

We have now spoken of but three out of the nine kingdoms of Manzi, to wit Yanju and Kinsay and Fuju. We could tell you about the other six, but it would be too long a business; so we will say no more about them.

Next, we will tell you all about the people of India.