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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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2 SO MARCO POLO Boox III.
to Ibn Khordâdhbeh (De Goeje, p. 49) Lukyn is the first port of China, ioo parasangs distant from Sanf by land or sea ; Chinese stone, Chinese silk, porcelain of excellent quality, and rice are to be found at Lukyn. —H. C.]
(Bastian, I. 357, III. 433, and in J. A. S. B. XXXIV. Pt. I. p. 27 seqq.; Ramus. I. 318 ; Amyot, XIV. 266, 269 ; Pallesoix, I. 196 ; Bowri;i , I. 41, 72 ; Phayre in J. A. S. B. XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 102 ; Ain Akb. 8o ; Mozchot, I. 7o ; Roe and Fi /er, reprint, 1873, p. 271.)
Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which carried the travellers south-east or south-west of Java to the land of Boeacli (for Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that situation. (See e.g. the map of the world by P. Plancius in Linschoten.) And this has sometimes been adduced to prove an early knowledge of Australia. Mr. Major has treated this question ably in his interesting essay on the early notices of Australia.
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY MALAIUR
WHEN you leave Locac and sail for 50o miles towards
the south, you come to an island called PENTAM, a very
wild place. All the wood that grows thereon consists of
odoriferous trees.' There is no more to say about it ; so
let us sail about sixty miles further between those two
Islands. Throughout this distance there is but four
paces' depth of water, so that great ships in passing this
channel have to lift their rudders, for they draw nearly
as much water as that.2
And when you have gone these 6o miles, and again
about 3o more, you come to an Island which forms a
Kingdom, and is called MALAIUR. The people have a
King of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is
a fine and noble one, and there is great trade carried on
there. All kinds of spicery are to be found there, and
all other necessaries of life.'
NOTE I.—Pentazzm, or as in Ram. l'entan, is no doubt the Bintang of our maps, more properly BENTXN, a considerable Island at the eastern extremity of the Straits of Malacca. It appears in the list, published by Dulaurier from a Javanese Inscription, of the kingdoms conquered in the 15th century by the sovereigns reigning at Majapahit . in Java. (j. A. sér. IV. tom. xiii. 532. ) Bintang was for a long time after the Portuguese
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