IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
228 LETTERS AND REPORTS
commend me to all the faithful. Dated from CAGA1 the 12th day of October, in the year of the Lord 1321.
NO. VI. A SECOND LETTER FROM FRIAR JORDANUS."
•
After the martyrs obtained their glorious crowns I came to Thana, as I have before related, and buried the bodies of those saints.. Since then I have continued alone in the said city and the adjoining territory, for two years and a half, going out and in, but unworthy to partake of the crown of my happy comrades. Alas me, my fathers ! alas me, thus left an orphan and a wayfarer in this pathless and weary wilderness ! Alas for the evil and hateful day which, for the salvation of other souls, so haplessly separated me from my sainted comrades, unwitting of their coming crowns ! Would that it had pleased the Lord most High that then the earth had swallowed me quick, and that I had not been left behind them, unhappy that I am, amid such miseries !
ing to Surat, tells us that he landed at Suali. Tavernier also says that ships for Surat moor at Suali, which is only four leagues from Surat, and two to the north of the Tapti ; and Suali is shown in the same position by Rennell, agreeing with that assigned by Ptolemy to Suppara north of the Tapti. Is it rash to say that Suali, which is thus precisely identified, may mark for us the true site of Sufala or Supera ? (Montfaucon Coll. Nova Patrum, ii, p. 336-339 ; Jaubert's Edrisi, i, 171; Gildemeister, pp. 45, 179, 189 ; Reinaud, Mem. sur l'Inde, 221; P. Vincenzo Maria, Viag., p.109.) Lassen, however, gives Sûrpc raka as the Sanskrit name of Suppara, without noticing the alleged Subahlika or the recently existing Suali, and identifies the ancient city in site with the modern Surat. (Ind. Alterthumsk., i, 107; . iv, 957, and Map in the third volume.)
1 Not having seen these letters when I translated the Mirabilia of Jordanus, I was led by the French editor's remarks on them to suppose that Caga was to be looked for in the Persian Gulf. With the letters before us we see that it is obviously to be looked for in the west of India, and there can be little doubt that it is, as has been explained by Professor Kunstmann, the port of Gujerat, which we call Gogo, opposite to the Paroço and Supera of Jordanus. Gogo appears in the Catalan Map of 1375, and is mentioned by Ibn Batuta as Kilkah.
2 The address and first part of this letter, as given by Wadding, are borrowed from the preceding letter. But the address probably was the same.
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