Chapter XX.

OF THE PROVINCE OF MANGI, AND OF THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS REDUCED UNDER THE POWER OF THE TARTARS, TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROVINCES AND CITIES AFTERWARDS REDUCED UNDER THEIR DOMINION.

The province of Mangi is the richest and most famous that is founded in the east; and in A.D. 1269 was governed by a certain king called Fanfur, who was richer and mightier than any which had reigned there in a hundred years, but a man peaceable and charitable, so beloved of his subjects, that thereby, and by the strength of the country, he seemed invincible. It was from a persuasion of this that the king, as well as the people, lost the use and exercise of war and arms. All the city was encompassed with ditches full of water. He held in pay no horses, because he feared nobody; and, in process of time, the king, betaking himself to pleasure more than was fit, employed his whole time in delights. He maintained about a thousand concubines, with whom he passed his time in pleasure. He maintained justice, and preserved peace; no man durst offend his neighbour and disturb the peace for fear of severe and impartial punishment; so that artificers would often leave their shops full of wares open by night, and yet none would presume to go into them. Travellers and strangers safely walked day and night through that whole kingdom, fearing no man. The king himself was also merciful towards the poor, and did not overlook them that were oppressed with necessity, or punished with penury. Besides, every year he took up twenty thousand young infants, cast off by their mothers, who, through poverty, were not able to keep them, which he brought up, and put them, when they were grown up, to some trade, marrying the young men with the maids, which he had in like manner so educated.

Cublai-Khan was of a different disposition from Fanfur, and delighted only in wars and conquests; and to make himself great, he levied an army of horse and foot, and made one, named Chinsan-Baian, i.e., a hundred eyes, general thereof, he therefore coming with his army and a fleet to the province of Mangi, first summoned the city Coiganzu to yield obedience to his Emperor, who refused the same; he departed without any assault given to the city, and required the same of the second city, which likewise refusing, he marched forwards to the third and fourth, and received the like answer of them all; but he assaulted the next with great courage, and vanquished the same by force, and slew every creature of what sex or age soever therein, which so frighted and terrified the rest, that they all presently yielded. The Great Khan sent out another great army after the former, with both which armies he marched against the chief city Quinsai, where the King of Mangi resided, who, being mightily terrified as never having seen any war, fled with his wealth on board the ships he had prepared to certain impregnable islands in the ocean, where he afterwards died, committing the custody of the city of Quinsai to his wife, bidding her to defend it as well as she could, for, being a woman, she needed not fear death if she was taken.

It is to be observed, that King Fanfur had been told by his diviners, that his kingdom would never be taken from him but by one who had a hundred eyes, which the queen knew, and therefore was still in hopes not to lose the city, however straightened, thinking it impossible for one man to have a hundred eyes; but one day she heard the commander of the Tartars was called Baian Chinsan, that is to say, a hundred eyes, and was much terrified; wherefore, calling for the commander of the Tartar army, thinking him to be the man which the astrologers spoke of, she delivered the city unto him, which being heard, the citizens and inhabitants of the whole province yielded to the obedience of the Great Khan. The queen was sent unto the court of the Great Khan, and was most honourably received by him, and maintained like a queen. And now we will speak of the cities in the country of Mangi. Coiganzu is a very fair and rich city situate towards the south-east and east, in the entrance of the province of Mangi, where are always great numbers of ships, being seated on the river Carama, and a great quantity of merchandise is carried thither; salt is also made there in abundance. Proceeding from Coiganzu, you ride towards the south-east one day’s journey on a stone causeway, on both sides whereof are great fences, with deep waters, through which they may pass with proper vessels; neither is there any entrance into Mangi but by shipping, excepting this causeway.

At the end of that day’s journey is a city called Paughin, large and fair; the people make stuffs of gold and silk, are merchants, and idolaters. The paper money of the Great Khan is received throughout the whole country. It is plentiful in all necessaries of life. To the city Caim is from Paughin one day’s journey south-east; and this is also a famous city. The country thereabouts abounding with fish, beasts, and fowl, especially pheasants, are found in exceeding great plenty, as large as peacocks, of which you may have three for a Venetian groat. Proceeding farther from hence one day’s journey, you come through a well manured, most fruitful, and well peopled country to the city of Tingui, which though it be not over large, yet hath in it exceeding great plenty of victuals. They are merchants, and have a vast resort of ships: there is plenty of beasts and fowl. It is seated to the south-east, and on the left hand towards the east, three days’ journey off the ocean, and in the country between, are very many salt-pits, and they make great quantities of salt. After this is Cingui, a great city, whence the country is furnished with salt, whereof the Khan, makes immense profit, almost beyond belief: they are idolaters, and have paper money. From Cingui, riding towards the south-east you meet with the noble city Jangui, under the government whereof are other cities, seven-and-twenty in number; and in that city resides one of the twelve barons, which are governors of provinces, chosen by that Great Khan; they are idolaters, and live on merchandise. They make arms and harness for war, and Master Marco had the sole government thereof, by commission from the Great Khan, three years together, instead of one of these barons. Naughin is a province to the west, one of the greatest and noblest of Mangi; a place of great merchandise; they are idolaters, have none but paper money, have vast quantities of beasts and fowl, wild and tame. They make cloths of gold and silver, and are rich merchants, and the country is very advantageous to the Khan, especially by custom of merchandise; there is likewise great plenty of corn.

Sainfu is a noble and great city in the province of Mangi, and hath twelve rich and great cities under her jurisdiction. They make great quantities of silks and cloths of gold; have plenty of game, fowl, and all things pertaining to a city of note; so strong that it was three years besieged, and could not be vanquished by the army of the Tartars, when the province of Mangi was subdued, for it is encompassed on every side with lakes, that there was no way to it but on the north; so that ships came and went continually bringing plenty of victuals, which not a little afflicted the Great Khan. The two brethren, Master Nicolo and Master Maffio, then in his court, hearing thereof, went to him, and offered him their service to devise certain engines, after the manner of the west, able to shoot a stone of three hundred weight, thereby to kill men and ruin houses. The Khan appointed carpenters, which were Nestorian Christians, who made three of these engines in a short space, which were proved before him, and by ships sent to his army. Planting them therefore against the city Sianfu, they began to cast great stones into the city; and the first falling upon a certain house broke the most part of it with the violence thereof, which the besieged inhabitants seeing, were very much astonished, and yielded themselves, and became subject to the Great Khan, on the same conditions with the rest of Mangi, to the great repute of the two Venetian brethren, the one the author’s father, and the other his uncle. From the city of Sianfu to a certain city called Singui are accounted fifteen miles south-eastward, which, although it is not very large, yet has a prodigious number of ships, being seated upon the greatest river in the world, called Quian, the breadth of which in some places is ten miles, in others eight, and in many six; but the length thereof extendeth above a hundred days’ journey from the source of it into the sea. Innumerable other rivers flow into it, which run through divers regions, and are navigable; and these make it so great, that incredible quantities of merchandise are brought by this river. There are also many other cities, in number about two hundred, which participate of the advantages of this river, for it runs through the bounds of sixteen provinces. The greatest commodity is salt, wherewith all the cities which communicate by these waters aro supplied. Master Marco saw at one time at Singui five thousand vessels, and yet other cities on the river have more; all these ships are covered, and have but one mast and one sail, and usually carry four thousand, and so upwards, some of them twelve thousand Venetia Cantari; neither do they use cordage of hemp, except for the mast and sail, but have canes, fifteen paces long, which they split into thin parts from one end to the other, and binding the cut parts together, and wreathing them, make very long ropes, so that some of them contain three hundred fathom in length; and those ropes are as strong as hemp, and serve for halses and cables, to draw their ships up and down the river, each vessel having ten or twelve horses for that purpose.

On that river, in many places, are rocky hillocks, on which are built monasteries to their idols, and all the way are valleys and places inhabited. Cayngi is a little city upon the same river south-eastward, where every year is brought plenty of corn and rice, carried for the most part to Cambalu; for they pass thither by lakes and rivers, and by one large canal, which the Khan caused to be made for a passage from one river to another, and from Mangi to Cambalu, without going to sea; which work is beautiful and wonderful for the sight and length, and more for the profit which accrues thereby to the cities. He hath made also great causeways to go on land by these waters commodiously. In the midst of the said river is an island, or rock, on which is erected a great temple and monastery, in which are two hundred idolatrous monks. Cinghianfu is a city of Mangi, rich in merchandise, plentiful of game, having all kind of wild beasts and fowl, and of victual. In it are two churches of Nestorian Christians, built A.D. 1274, when the Great Khan sent a governor thither, Marsachis, a Nestorian who built them. From the city Cinghianfu, in three days’ journey south-eastward, you find many cities and castles, all idolaters, and at last come to Tinguigui, a great and fair city, abounding with all kind of provisions.

When Baian Chinsan, general of the army of the Tartars, conquered the province of Mangi, he sent many Christians called Alani against the city, which was double walled; into the inner they retired, into the other the Alans entered, and found there abundance of wine, whereof, after a bad journey, they began to drink so largely that they were all drunk, and the citizens, in their sleep, suddenly falling upon them, slew them all, not one escaping; but Baian, hearing this, sent another great army against those citizens, which in a short space of time vanquishing the city, in revenge, put them all to the sword, leaving none alive. The great and excellent city Singui contains in circuit twenty miles; multitudes of people are in it, it hath many rich merchants and industrious artificers, and it hath also very many physicians and magicians and wise men, or philosophers. In the mountains of this city, rhubarb and ginger grow in great plenty. This city hath sixteen cities under the jurisdiction thereof, in each of which much trade is carried on, and many curious arts are exercised--many sorts of silk are made there. The word Singui signifies the City of the Earth; also they have another city which they call Quinsai, that is to say, the City of Heaven. From Singui, at the distance of one day’s journey, is Vagiu, where is also abundance of silk and able artificers, with many other merchants, as there are in general in all the cities in this country.