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PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS.   5

Geographical Journal, October, 1905, pp. 462-465. I answered

again, and I do not think it necessary to carry on farther this

controversy. I recall that Major Sykes writes : " To conclude,

I maintain that Marco Polo entered Persia near Tabriz, whence

he travelled to Sultania, Kashan, Yezd, Kerman, and Hormuz.

From that port, owing to the unseaworthiness of the vessels, the

presence of pirates, the fact that the season was past, or for some

other reason, he returned by a westerly route to Kerman, and

thence crossed the Lut to Khorasan."

I replied in the Geographical Journal, Dec., 1905,

pp. 686-687: "Baghdad, after its fall in 1258, did not cease im-

mediately to be ` rather off the main caravan route.' I shall not

refer Major Sykes to what I say in my editions of ` Odorico'

and ` Polo ' on the subject, but to the standard work of Heyd,

Commerce du Levant, Vol. 2, pp. 77, 78. The itinerary, Tabriz,

Sultania, Kashan, Yezd, was the usual route later on, at the

beginning of the fourteenth century, and it was followed, among

others, by Fra Odorico, of Pordenone. Marco Polo, on his way

to the Far East you must not forget that he was at Acre in

1271 could not have crossed Sultania, which did not exist, as

its building was commenced by Arghún Khan, who ascended the

throne in 1284, and was continued by Oeljaitu (1304-1316),

who gave the name of Sultania to the city." Cf. Lieut.-Col.

P. M. SYKES, A History of Persia, 1915,-2 vols., 8vo ; II., p. 181 n.

Introduction, p. 21. M. Pauthier has found a record in the Chinese

Annals of the Mongol dynasty, which states that in the year 1277, a

certain POLO was nominated a second-class commissioner or agent

attached to the Privy Council, a passage which we are happy to believe

to refer to our young traveller.

Prof. E. H. Parker remarks (Asiatic Quart. Review, 3rd

Series, Vol. XVII., Jan., 1904, pp. 128-130 : " M. Pauthier has

apparently overlooked other records, which make it clear that the

identical individual in question had already received honours

from Kúblái many years before Marco's arrival in 1275. Perhaps

the best way to make this point clear would be to give all the

original passages which bear upon the question. The number I

give refer to the chapter and page (first half or second half of

the double page) of the Yuan Shï :

1.  Chap. 7, p. i§: I27o, second moon. Kúblái inspects a court

pàgeant prepared by Puh-lo and others.

2.  Chap. 7, p. 62 : I 2 70, twelfth moon. The yü-shï chung ch'êng.

(censor) Puh-lo made also President of the Ta-sz-nung department. One