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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
MARCO POLO BOOK III.
296
41,
Sumatra had become united, and that the town of Sumatra may have been represented by the Pacem of the Portuguese. * I have to thank Mr. G. Phillips for the copy of a small Chinese chart showing the northern coast of the island, which he states to be from " one of about the 13th century." I much doubt the date, but the map is valuable as showing the town of Sumatra (Sumantala). This seen-is to be placed in the Gulf of Pasei, and very near where Pasei itself still exists. An extract of a " Chinese account of about A.D. 1413" accompanied the map. This states that the town was situated some distance up a river, so as to be reached in two tides. There was a village at the mouth of the river called Talumangkin.t
[Mr. E. H. Parker writes ( China Review, XXIV. p. 102) : " Colonel Yule's remarks about Pasei are borne out by Chinese History (Ming, 325, 20, 24), which states that in 1521 Pieh-tu-lu (Pestrello [for Perestrello ?]) having failed in China ` went for ' Pa-si. Again ` from Pa-si, Malacca, to Luzon, they swept the seas, and all the other nations were afraid of them.' "—H. C.]
Among the Indian states which were prevailed on to send tribute (or presents) to Kúblái in i 286, we find Sumutala. The chief of this state is called in the Chinese record Tu-`Izan pa-ti, which seems to be just the Malay words Tuan Pali, " Lord Ruler." No doubt this was the rising state of Sumatra, of which we have been speaking ; for it will be observed that Marco says the people of that state called themselves the Kaan's subjects. Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the people of Java (i.e. the island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar : " They are all subject to the Kaan." It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles V., in the report of the surviving commander of Magellan's ship to that emperor (printed by Baldelli-Boni, I. lxvii.). Pauthier has curious Chinese. extracts containing a notable passage respecting the disappearance of Sumatra Proper from history : " In the years Wen-chi (1573-1615), the Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state took the name of Achi (Achin). After that Sumatra was no more heard of." (Gaubil, 205 ; De Mailla, IX. 429 ; Elliot, I. 71 ; Pauthier, pp. 605 and 567.)
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NOTE 2.—` ` Vos di que la Tramontaine ne part. Et encore vos di Que l'estoilles dou illeistre ne aparent ne poi' ne grant" (G. T. ). The Tramontaine is the Pole star :—
" De nostre Pére l'Apostoille
Volsisse qu'il semblast l'estoile
Qui ne se muet . . .
Par cele estoile vont et viennent
Et for sen et for voie tiennent
Il l'apelent la tres montaz zze."
—La Bible Guiot de Provins in Barbazan, by Maon, II. 377.
The Meistl e is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus ; but this makes Polo's error greater than it is. Brunetto Latini says : " Devers la tramontane en a il i. autre (vent) plus debonaire, qui a non Chorus. Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE por vij. estoiles qui sont en celui meisme leu," etc. (Li Tresors, p. 122). Magister or Magistra in medieval Latin, La Maistre in old French, signifies " the beam of a plough." Possibly this accounts for the application of Maistre to the Great Bear, or Plough. But on the other hand the pilot's art is called in old French maistrance. Hence this constellation may have had the name as the pilot's guide,—like our Lode-
* Castanheda speaks of Pacem as the best port of the Island : " standing on the bank of a river on mirshy ground about a league inland ; and at the mouth of the river there are some houses of timber where a customs collector was stationed to exact duties at the anchorage from the ships which touched there." (Bk. II. ch. iii.) This agrees with Ibn Batuta's account of Sumatra, 4 miles from its port. [A village named Samudra discovered in our days near Pasei is perhaps a remnant of the kingdom of Samara. (Merveilles de l'Inde, p. 234.)—H. C.)
t If Mr. Phillips had given particulars about his map and quotations, as to date, author, etc., it would have given them more value. He leaves this vague.
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