IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
BIOGRAPHICAL AND INTRODUCTORY NOTICES. 325
always in the south. I was told of this and other matters also by Marco the Venetian, the most extensive traveller and the most diligent inquirer whom I have ever known. He saw this same star under the Antartic ; he described it as having a great tail, and drew a figure of it, thus. He also told me that he
saw the Antarctic Pole at an altitude above the earth, ap-
parently equal to the length
of a soldier's lance, whilst the Arctic Pole was as much depressed. 'Tis from that place,
he said, that they export to us camphor, lign-aloes, and brazil. He says the heat there is intense, and the habitations
few. And these things he witnessed in a certain island at which he arrived by sea ;...and there was no way of getting at this place except by sea." There can be no doubt that this reported oral relation of Marco referred to Sumatra, and the wording of the passage in regard to the Poles, as well as the description of the " other wonderful things in regard to the stars," lead me strongly to suspect that it was from this very passage of Peter of Abano that Master Lemon of Genoa pointed out those facts to Marignolli.
In quitting Saba our author took ship again, probably to return to Malabar on his way towards Europe, and was driven into Ceylon in the manner mentioned above. Here he fell into the bands of a Mussulman buccaneer, who had at this time got possession of a considerable part of the island ; and was by him detained for some four months, and stript of all the Eastern valuables and rarities that he was carrying home.
Notwithstanding these disagreeable experiences, Marignolli appears to recur again and again with fascination to his recollections of Ceylon, and they occupy altogether a considerable space in these notices. The Terrestrial Paradise, if not identified in Marignolli's mind with a part of the island (for his expressions are hazy and ambiguous), is at least closely adjacent, and sheds a delicious influence over all its atmosphere and productions. This
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