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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. I.XXII. THE CITY OF CAIJU
Ii5
A land road also exists, for the earth dug from those
channels has been thrown up so as to form an embanked
road on either side.'
Just opposite to the city of Caiju, in the middle of the
River, there stands a rocky island on which there is an
idol-monastery containing some 200 idolatrous friars, and
a vast number of idols. And this Abbey holds supremacy
over a number of other idol-monasteries, just like an
archbishop's see among Christians.3
Now we will leave this and cross the river, and I
will tell you of a city called Chinghianfu.
a
~
NOTE i.--No place in Polo's travels is better identified by his local indications than this. It is on the Kiang ; it is at the extremity of the Great Canal from Cambaluc ; it is opposite the Golden Island and Chin-kiang fu. Hence it is KWACHAU, as Murray pointed out. Marsden here misunderstands his text, and puts the place on the south side of the Kiang.
Here Van Braam notices that there passed in the course of the day more than fifty great rice-boats, most of which could easily carry more than 300,000 lbs. of rice. And Mr. Alabaster, in 1868, speaks of the canal from Yang-chau to Kwa-chau as " full of junks."
[Sir J. F. Davis writes (Sketches of China, II. p. 6) : " Two . . . days . . . were occupied in exploring the half-deserted town of Kwa-chow, whose name signifies ` the island of gourds,' being completely insulated by the river and canal. We took a long walk along the top of the walls, which were as usual of great thickness, and afforded a broad level platform behind the parapet : the parapet itself, about six feet high, did not in thickness exceed the length of a brick and a half, and the embrasures were evidently not constructed for cannon, being much too high. A very considerable portion of the area within the walls consisted of burial-grounds planted with cypress ; and this alone was a sufficient proof of the decayed condition of the place, as in modern or fully inhabited cities no person can be buried within the walls. Almost every spot bore traces of ruin, and there appeared to be but one good street in the whole town ; this, however, was full of shops, and as busy as Chinese streets always are."—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—Rashiduddin gives the following account of the Grand Canal spoken of in this passage. " The river of Khanbaligh had," he says, " in the course of time, become so shallow as not to admit the entrance of shipping, so that they had to discharge their cargoes and send them up to Khanbaligh on pack-cattle. And the Chinese engineers and men of science having reported that the vessels from the provinces of Cathay, from Machin, and from the cities of Khingsai and Zaitún, could no longer reach the court, the Kaan gave them orders to dig a great canal into which the waters of the said river, and of several others, should be introduced. This canal extends for a distance of 40 days' navigation from Khanbaligh to Khingsai and Zaitún, the ports frequented by the ships that come from India, and from the city of Machin (Canton). The canal is provided with many sluices . . . and when vessels arrive at these sluices they are hoisted up by means of machinery, whatever be their size, and let down on the other side into the water. The canal has a width of more than 3o ells. Kúblái caused the sides of the embankments to be revetted
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