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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
224
MARCO POLO. BOOK II.
From the head of the great Che-kiang valley I find two roads across the mountains
into Fo-kien described.
One leads from Kiang-span (not Chang-shan) by a town called Ching-hu, and then, nearly due south, across the mountains to Pu-ch'eng in Upper Fo-kien. This is specified by Martini (p. 113) : it seems to have been followed by the Dutch Envoy, Van Hoorn, in 1665 (see Astley, III. 463), and it was travelled by Fortune on his return front the Bohea country to Ningpo. (II. 247, 271.)
The other route follows the portage spoken of above from Chang shah to Yuh-shan, and descends the river on that side to Hokeu, whence it strikes south-east across the mountains to Tsung-ngan-hien in Fo-kien. This route was followed by Fortune on his way to the Bohea country.
Both from Pu-ch'eng on the former route, and from near Tsung-ngan on the latter, the waters are navigable down to Kien-ning fu and so to Fu-chau.
Mr. Fortune judges the first to have been Polo's route. There does not, however, seem to he on this route any place that can be identified with his Cuju or Chuju. Ching-hu seems to be insignificant, and the name has no resemblance. On the other route followed by Mr. Fortune himself from that side we have Kwansin fu, Hokeu, Yen-shan, and (last town passed on that side) Czuchu. The latter, as to both name and position, is quite satisfactory, but it is described as a small poor town. Hokeu would be represented in Polo's spelling as Caghiu or Cughiu. It is now a place of great population and importance as the entrepôt of the Black Tea Trade, but, like many important commercial cities in the interior, not being even a hies, it has no place either in Duhalde or in Biot, and I cannot learn its age.
It is no objection to this line that Polo speaks of Cuju or Chuju as the last city of the government of Kinsay, whilst the towns just named are in Kiang-si. For Kiang Ché, the province of Kinsay, then included the eastern part of Kiang-si. (See Cathay, p. 270.)
[Mr. Phillips writes ( T. Pao, I. 223-224) : " Eighty-five li beyond Lan-ki hien is Lung-yin, a place not mentioned by Polo, and another ninety-five li still further on is Chiichau or Keuchau, which is, I think, the Gie-za of Ramusio, and the Cuju of Yule's version. Polo describes it as the last city of the government of Kinsai (Che-kiang) in this direction. It is the last Prefectural city, but ninety li beyond Chii-chau, on the road to Pu-chêng, is Kiang-shan, a district city which is the last one in this direction. Twenty li from Kiang-shan is Ching-hu, the head of the navigation of the T'sien-T'ang river. Here one hires chairs and coolies for the journey over the Sien-hia Pass to Pu-chêng, a distance of 215 li. From Pu-cheng, Fu-chau can be reached by water in 4 or 5 days. The distance is 78o li."—H. C.]
CHAPTER LXXX.
CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF FUJu.
ON leaving Cuju, which is the last city of the kingdom
of Kinsay, you enter the kingdom of FUJU, and travel
six days in a south-easterly direction through a country
of mountains and valleys, in which are a number of
towns and villages with great plenty of victuals and
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