Chapter XXVIII.

MANY OBSCURE PASSAGES IN THIS PERFORMANCE EXPLAINED.

We are now arrived at the close of this author’s writings, and therefore are more capable of judging of the particulars they contain, which was the reason that I left some points to be considered here, which I should otherwise have thrown under the head of objections. Some critical readers have affected to doubt whether our author, or rather his performance, deserves credit, from the account, that is given of the manner in which it was wrote, and from the different stories that we have told of the original. We have already accounted for the mistakes that have been made on this head, and shall here only take notice that Francis Pipin, of the order of preachers, who made a Latin translation of our author’s work, tells us in his preface that, from the report of his domestics, he was satisfied that Marco Polo was a man of great prudence, remarkably honest, and one who had the fairest character that could be. It is not very easy to conceive that such a man should expose that credit which he had been at so much pains to establish, by sending into the world an indigested heap of fictions and romances. But the same person informs us farther that Signior Nicolo Polo, the father of our author, was the most esteemed and best beloved man of his time, and that he constantly reported the very same facts during his whole life which his son published in his works; and as for his uncle, Signior Maffio, who enjoyed some of the principal offices in the government at Venice, and distinguished himself by his wisdom and integrity, when he was upon his deathbed he took particular care to assure his confessor that he had reviewed his nephew’s work, and that he was fully satisfied that there was nothing in it that was not strictly true, and this he gave him leave to declare for the satisfaction of the world. Here, then, are three credible witnesses to the same facts, and therefore, according to all the laws of evidence, they ought to be looked upon as thoroughly established.

We must, however, distinguish between such facts as our author reports from his own knowledge, and those which are grounded only on hearsay and information. We may accuse an author of credulity or imprudence who inserts strange and improbable things in his writings, but we cannot with justice charge him with infidelity or falsehood on that head, and we ought also to make some allowance for the genius of the time in which he wrote, because it cannot be presumed that even the wisest and most prudent men can be totally free from the errors of the age in which he flourished it may not be amiss to give a few instances with regard to our author.

In the twenty-fifth chapter there is an account of diamond mines, in the kingdom of Murfili, where we have omitted a passage that is to be met with in most of the editions of our author, because it is reported on the credit of the inhabitants, and we were willing to examine it by itself, that the reader might perceive we had no intention to impose upon him those improbabilities which had been imposed upon our author himself. After having told us that diamonds are found there at the bottom of the rocky mountains, after the rainy season is over, he proceeds thus: “They also in the summer time ascend these mountains, though with great difficulty, because of the vehemence of the heat, and find abundance of those precious stones among the gravel. In this they are likewise much exposed to danger from the vast number of serpents of enormous size, which shelter themselves in the holes and caverns of these rocks, where, nevertheless, they find diamonds in the greatest abundance. Among other methods of obtaining them they make use of this: there are abundance of white eagles that rest in the upper part of those rocks, for the sake of feeding on the serpents, and in the deep valleys and precipices, where men are afraid to venture themselves, they throw pieces of raw meat, which the eagles perceiving, immediately stoop and seize it, with all the little stones and gravel that adhere to these moist pieces of meat. Such as search for diamonds watch the eagles’ nests, and when they leave them pick up such little stones, and search likewise for diamonds among the eagles’ dung. The kings and great men in this country keep the fairest and finest of these stones to themselves, and suffer the merchants to sell the rest.”

The famous Julius Cæsar Scaliger was extremely offended with this relation, which he treats with the utmost contempt, and seems to wonder at the assurance of a writer that expects stories of this kind should gain credit; yet, after all, I do not see that there is any great harm in our author’s relating this tale, however improbable it may seem, since without doubt he received it from the inhabitants, and what motives they had to tell him such a story is not very difficult to guess. The native Indians, in all the revolutions that have happened in the countries where they live, have preserved this trade in their own hands, and by fables of one sort or other kept strangers from attempting to interfere with them. Our author was very probably the first European that was ever at the diamond mines, and therefore we have the less reason to be surprised at his being imposed upon in an affair of which he could not be a competent judge.

But to make the reader some amends for so imperfect a relation of the manner in which this valuable trade is carried on, I shall take this opportunity of inserting the best account of the matter that I believe has been hitherto given, by one who was an eye-witness of it in the year 1680, and that too in the very country known to our author by the name of the kingdom of Murfili. “The diamonds are so scattered and dispersed in the earth, and lie so thin, that in the most plentiful mines it is rare to find one in digging, or till they have prepared the stuff, and searched purposely for them. They are also frequently enclosed in clods; and some of those of Molwilleed, and the new mines in the kingdom of Golconda, have the earth so fixed about them, that, till they grind them on a rough stone with sand, they cannot move it sufficiently to discover they are transparent, or were it not for their shapes to know them from other stones. At the first opening of the mine, the unskilful labourers sometimes, to try what they have found, lay them on a great stone, and striking them one with another, to their costly experience discover they have broken a diamond. One I know who had an excellent stone of eight mangellans, that is, thirty-two grains, served so by ignorant miners he employed. Near the place where they dig they raise a wall, with such rugged stones as they find at hand, whereof all the mines afford plenty, of about two feet high, and six feet over, flooring it well with the same; for the laying of which they have no other mortar than the earth tempered with water. To strengthen and make it tight, they throw up a bank against the side of it, in one part whereof they leave a small vent about two inches from the bottom, by which it empties itself into a little pit made in the earth to receive small stones, if by chance any should run through. The vent being stopped, they fill the cistern they have made with water, soaking therein as much of the earth they dig out of the mine as it can conveniently receive at a time, breaking the clods, picking out the great stones, and stirring it with shovels till the water is all muddy, the gravelly stuff falling to the bottom; then they open the vent, letting out the foul water, and supply it with clean, till all the earthy substance be washed away, and none but a gravelly one remains at the bottom. Thus they continue washing till about ten of the clock before noon, when they take the gravelly stuff they have washed, and spread it on a place made plain and smooth for that purpose near the cistern, which being so dried by the heat of the sun at that time of the day, they very curiously look it over, that the smallest bit of a stone can hardly escape them. They never examine the stuff they have washed, but between the hours of ten and three, lest any cloud, by interposing, intercept the brisk beams of the sun, which they hold very necessary to assist them in their search, the diamonds constantly reflecting them when they shine on them, rendering themselves thereby the more conspicuous.

“Some of the expertest labourers are employed in searching, he that sets them at work usually sitting by and over-looking; but it is hardly possible, especially where many are employed, to watch them so narrowly but that they may steal part of what they find, as many times some of them do, and, selling it privately, convert it to their own use. If they find a large stone, they carry it not presently to their employer, but keep on looking, having an eye on him, till they observe he takes notice of it, when, with the turn of their hand they give him a glimpse of it, but deliver it not till they have done work, and then very privately, it being the general endeavour to conceal what they find, lest it should come to the knowledge of the governor of the place and he requires a share, which in the kingdom of Golconda is usually practised, without any respect to the agreement made with them. The miners, those that employ them, and the merchants that buy stones of them, are usually pagans; not a Mussulman, that ever I heard of, followed the employment. These labourers and their employers are Tellingas, commonly natives of or near the place. The merchants are the Banians of Guzerat, who for some generations have forsaken their own country to take up this trade, in which they have had such success, that it is now solely engrossed by them, who, corresponding with their countrymen in Surat, Goa, Golconda, Visiapore, Agra, and Dilu, and other places in India, furnish them all with diamonds.

“The governors of the mines are also idolaters. In the King of Golconda’s dominions a Tellinga Brammee rents most of them, whose agreement with the adventurer is, that all the stones found under a pagoda weight are to be their own; all of that weight and above is to be his, for the king’s use. But although this agreement be signed and sealed, he minds not at all the performance thereof, but endeavours to engross all the profit to himself, by tyrannically squeezing both merchants and miners, whom he not only taxes very high, but maintaineth spies among them of their own people. On the least suspicion that they have been any ways fortunate, he immediately makes a demand on them, and raises their tax; else on a false pretence they have found a great stone, drubs them, till they surrender what they have to redeem their bodies from torture.

“Besides, the excise is so high on all sorts of provisions, beetel, and tobacco, which with them are esteemed necessaries, that the price of all things is doubled; by which course there is hardly a man to be found worth five hundred pounds amongst them, most of them dealing by moneys taken up at interest of usurers, who reside there purposely to furnish them, who with the governor eat up their gains, so that one would wonder any of them should stay, and not betake themselves to places where they might have better usage, as there are many in other governments, and some few that have the sense to remove; but many their debts, others hopes of a great hit, detains. Both merchant and miner go generally naked, only a poor cloth about their middle, and their sash on their heads; they dare not wear a coat, lest the governor should say they have thriven much, and are rich, and so enlarge his demands on them. The wisest, when they find a great stone, conceal it till they have an opportunity, and then with wife and children run all away into the Visiapore country, where they are secure. The government in the Visiapore country is better; their agreements observed, taxes easier, and no such impositions on provisions. The merchants go handsomely clad, among whom are several persons of considerable estates, which they are permitted to enjoy peaceably, by reason whereof their mines are much more populous, and better employed than those of Golconda.”

It is for the same reason that I have omitted another improbable story of a bird called a rue, of such a monstrous size as to be able to carry an elephant into the air; which absurdities our author was probably induced to believe, by the strange things he daily saw in these parts of the world, and of which the people in Europe had not so much as the least idea. These omissions I thought requisite for keeping the work within bounds, as having no inclination to try the patience of my readers, by inserting any more of these old travels than seem absolutely necessary for connecting the several parts of this discourse, and showing how, in what manner, and by whom those great discoveries were made, which enabled the different nations in Europe to carry on so great a trade as they do to all parts of the East Indies. This, without doubt, was originally owing to this work of Marco Polo, who, though no geographer or seaman himself, yet left such clear and evident proofs of the possibility of reaching the most distant parts of Asia by sea, that his work was more esteemed in Portugal, where the first spirit of discovery appeared, than in Italy itself. It remains, in this place, to give a short account of the names by which he has distinguished the countries he visited, and particularly to answer the great objection raised against his work, from his not making any mention of the famous wall in China for keeping out the Tartars, which shall be done in as few words as possible.

Our author following exactly the sentiments of the Tartars, distinguishes all this great country into two parts, viz., Cathay and Mangi, about which many doubts have been raised, and many disputes set on foot without any just grounds, since it is very plain that, under the denomination of Cathay, Marco Polo comprehends the six northern provinces of China, and under that of Mangi the nine southern provinces, which are separated from the former by the great river Kiang; and when we come hereafter to treat of the present state of the empire of China, we shall take occasion to show that this description of his agrees very well with the best accounts of that empire. This will be the more intelligible to the reader, when he is informed that the Tartars still preserve these very forms of speech, that is to say, give the name of Cathay to the northern parts, and that of Mangi to the southern provinces of China. As to this latter, it is a name of contempt, for Mangi, in the Tartar tongue, implies barbarians, and so they esteemed the Chinese to be, not from the brutality of their manners, but from their extravagant haughtiness and pride, and especially from that intolerable hatred and contempt with which they treated the Tartars themselves. The plain reason why our author did not mention the famous wall in China was, because he entered it by the southern provinces; and as he confines himself to the places he saw, or to such as were in their neighbourhood, and prosecutes his description from the western parts of China to the sea, it was impossible he should take notice of it; so that when we consider this matter attentively, it is very plain that this circumstance, instead of lessening the credit of Marco Polo, ought, in truth, to strengthen it very much, since it is a convincing proof of the truth of what he has asserted in relation to his own travels, and his descriptions of the countries through which he passed; and evidently shows he did not amuse himself with accounts of countries and provinces of which he could say nothing but from report, to which, if he had listened, his relation must have been much more obscure and perplexed than we find it at present. But it is now time to proceed to the conclusion of this section, by showing the advantages that may be obtained by the perusal of Marco Polo’s Travels, in order to the thorough understanding of our subject. And this we shall perform as concisely as possible, and in such a manner as may disengage us from the necessity of looking into any more of these old writers for the future.