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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS 23
growled refusal to all their hints, and but for a happy chance we
should have lost our mediæval Herodotus.
21. Arghún Khan of Persia, Kúblái's great-nephew, had
in 1286 lost his favourite wife the Khatun Bulughán ; and,
mourning her sorely, took steps to fulfil her dying Circum-
stances of
injunction that her place should be filled only by a eDepar-
ture
lady of her own kin, the Mongol Tribe of Bayaut. Polos from
the Kaan's
Ambassadors were despatched to the Court of Kaan- Court.
baligh to seek such a bride. The message was courteously
received, and the choice fell on the lady Kokáchin, a maiden
of 17, " moult bele daine et avenant." The overland road from
Peking to Tabriz was not only of portentous length for such a
tender charge, but was imperilled by war, so the envoys desired
to return by sea. Tartars in general were strangers to all
navigation ; and the envoys, much taken with the Venetians,
and eager to profit by their experience, especially as Marco had
just then returned from his Indian mission, begged the Kaan as
a favour to send the three Firing-his in their company. He
consented with reluctance, but, having done so, fitted the party
out nobly for the voyage, charging the Polos with friendly
messages for the potentates of Europe, including the King of
England. They appear to have sailed from the port of Zayton
(as the Westerns called T'swan-chau or Chin-cheu in Fo-kien)
in the beginning of 1292. It was an ill-starred voyage, involving
long detentions on the coast of Sumatra, and in the South of
India, to which, however, we are indebted for some of the best
chapters in the book ; and two years or upwards passed before
they arrived at their destination in Persia.* The three hardy
* Persian history seems to fix the arrival of the lady Kokáchin in the North of Persia to the winter of 1293-1294. The voyage to Sumatra occupied three months (vol. i. p. 34) ; they were five months detained there (ii. 292) ; and the remainder of the voyage extended to eighteen more (i. 35),—twenty-six months in all.
The data are too slight for unexceptional precision, but the following adjustment
will fairly meet the facts. Say that they sailed from Fo-kien in January 1292.
In April they would be in Sumatra, and find the S.W. Monsoon too near to admit of their crossing the Bay of Bengal. They remain in port till September (five months), and then proceed, touching (perhaps) at Ceylon, at Kayal, and at several ports of Western India. In one of these, e.' Kayal or Tana; they pass the S.W. Monsoon of 1293, and then proceed to the Gulf. They reach Hormuz in the winter, and the camp of the Persian Prince Gházán, the son of Arghún, in March, twenty-six months from their departure.
I have been unable to trace Hammer's authority (not Wassáf I find), which
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