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CHAP. XLVIII.   THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN   67

NOTE I.—We have now arrived at the great province of CARAJAN, the KARÁJÁNG of the Mongols, which we know to be YUN-NAN, and at its capital YACHI, which—I was about to add—we know to be YUN-NAN-FU. But I find all the commentators make it something else. Rashiduddin, however, in his detail of the twelve Sings or provincial governments of China under the Mongols, thus speaks : " loth, KARÁJÁNG. This used to be an independent kingdom, and the Sing is established at the great city of YÁCiir. All the inhabitants are Mahomedans. The chiefs are Noyan Takin, and Yakub Beg, son of 'Ali Beg, the Belúch." And turning to Pauthier's corrected account of the same distribution of the empire from authentic Chinese sources (p. 334), we find : " 8. The administrative province of Yun-nan. . . . Its capital, chief town also of the canton of the same name, was called Chung-khing, now YUN-NAN-FU." Bence Yachi was Yun-nan-fu. This is still a large city, having a rectangular rampart with 6 gates, and a circuit of about 6z miles. The suburbs were destroyed by the Mahomedan rebels. The most important trade there now is in the metallic produce of the Province. [According to Oxenham, Historical Atlas, there were ten provinces or sheng (Liao-yang, Chung-shu, Shen-si, Ho-nan, Sze-ch'wan, Yun-nan, Hu-kwang, Kiang-che, Kiang-si and Kan-suh) and twelve military governorships.—H. C.]

Yachi was perhaps an ancient corruption of the name Yichau, which the territory bore (according to Martini and Biot) under the Han ; but more probably Yichau was a Chinese transformation of the real name Yachi. The Shans still call the city Muang Chi, which is perhaps another modification of the same name.

We have thus got Ch'êng-tu fu as one fixed point, and Yun-nan-fu as another, and we have to track the traveller's itinerary between the two, through what Ritter called with reason a terra incognita. What little was known till recently of this region came from the Catholic missionaries. Of late the veil has begun to be lifted ; the daring excursion of Francis Garnier and his party in 1868 intersected the tract towards the south ; Mr. T. T. Cooper crossed it further north, by Ta-t'sien lu, Lithang and Bathang ; Baron'v. Richthofen in 1872 had penetrated several marches towards the heart of the mystery, when an unfortunate mishap compelled his return, but he brought back with him much precious information.

Five days forward from Ch'êng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five days backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its gold-dust and the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance of five days, I find that our next point in advance, Marco's city of Carajan undisputably Tali fu, is said by him to be ten days from Yachi. The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan and Ta-li I find by measurement on Keith Johnston's map to be 133 Italian miles. [The distance by road is 215 English miles. (See Baber, p. 191.)—H. C.] Taking half this as radius, the compasses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect near its most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the Kin-sha Kiang of the Chinese, or " River of the Golden Sands," the MuRus Ussu and BRICHU of the Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous BRIUS of our traveller.* Hence also the country north of this elbow is CAINDU.

* [Baber writes (p. 107) : " The river is never called locally by any other name than Kin-ho, or ` Gold River.'1 The term Kin-sha-Kiang should in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream ; as applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be supposed to asperse Marco Polo's accuracy. Gold River is the local name from the junction of the Yalung to about P'ingshan ; below P'ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch'uanese naturally call it `the River,' or, by contrast with its affluents, the `Big River' (Ta-ho)." I imagine that Baber

(   here makes a slight mistake, and that they use the name kiang, and not ho, for the river.—H. C.]
[Mr. Rockhill remarks (Land of the Lamas, p. 196 note) that " Marco Polo speaks of the Yangtzű as the Brius, and Orazio della Penna calls it Biciu, both words representing the Tibetan Dré ck'u. This last name has been frequently translated ` Cow yak River,' but this is certainly not its meaning, as cow yak is dri-mo, never pronounced dré, and unintelligible without the suffix,mo. Dré may mean either mule, dirty, or rice, but as T have never seen the word written, I cannot decide on any of these terms, all of which have exactly the same pronunciation. The Mongols call it Murus osu, and in books this is sometimes changed to Murui osa', ` Tortuous river.' The Chinese call it Tung t'ien It

1 Marco Polo nowhere calls the river " Gold River," the name he gives it is Brius.—H. Y.

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