Marco Polo

by Robin Brown

  And Marco Polo notes observantly that Madagascar has a unique and distinctive fauna. He records the existence of ‘camelopards and wild asses’. More scientifically informed observers such as Gerald Durrell and David Attenborough would demonstrate (but some 700 years later) that Madagascar’s early separation from the ancient continent of Gondwanaland produced singular evolutionary paths here, not least the development of a distinctive primate, the lemur.

  When describing the natives of the nearby island of Zanzibar Marco Polo, who has seen so many disparate peoples of so many colours, surprisingly lapses into blatant racism. It may have been his first actual contact with Negroes (although it’s hard to believe he had never seen a Negro slave), ‘whose hair is sort of crisp and even when wetted stays tightly curled . . . their noses turn up towards the forehead, their ears are long and their eyes are so large and scary they have the appearance of demons. The women are equally ugly with heads that are large and out of proportion. They are the most ugly women in the world with large mouths, thick noses and ugly breasts four times as large as other women’s.’ A few paragraphs later, however, he commends these people as being very brave in battle, which they fight from the backs of elephants, showing a complete contempt for death. I have worked on conservation projects in Madagascar and I did not know there were ever elephants there, but who knows, there may have been some once.

  Marco Polo can be excused all this hearsay because he was compiling a book which he knew would be read by aspiring Western explorers, traders and mariners who at the time had little or no knowledge of these waters. We know that Christopher Columbus took a heavily annotated copy of Marco’s book on all his famous voyages and Marco is very good when it comes to detail vital to navigation under sail. He accurately describes in this book the trade, or monsoon, winds that blow, reversing direction summer and winter, between India and the Gulf, and so far as I know his is the first Western description of this extremely useful natural phenomenon, which since the dawn of recorded time has stimulated trade between Africa and India. Indeed, it was probably on the strength of information about how these winds behaved, or the knowledge that Arab and Indian mariners were safely making the voyage to and from Persia, that he got up the courage to offer to take Argon’s seventeen-year-old bride-to-be home by sea.

  Book Three has its fair share of the salacious tittle-tattle we have come to expect from this red-blooded young Italian. There’s an eyewitness account of the virgins of Ziambu who are not allowed to marry until the king has tried them out, and another of the dusky lotharios of Maabar who have ‘sensual natures’, go about virtually naked and marry their brothers’ widows and their widowed mothers-in-law.

  We also meet, for the first time in Western literature, the Sumatran rhino which has a single horn. The one Marco Polo met apparently fought with a tongue armed with sharp spikes. They are not, he warns seriously, to be confused with unicorns. Marco apparently believes in the unicorn as much as this rhino and reminds us in all seriousness that a unicorn can only be tamed by a virgin clasping its head to her bosom.

  Marco’s (or Rustichello’s) imagination runs away with him in other places. He tells a wonderful story of natives collecting fabulous diamonds by tempting wild eagles with scraps of meat, afterwards invading their nest on the high peaks to collect the stones which have attached to these scraps. Later researchers found this story, told almost identically, as one of the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor in the Arabian Nights. It is further evidence of Marco’s habit of collecting juicy snippets to titillate the jaded appetite of the Grand Khan or his readers.

  At the end of Book Three our hero then goes on a worldwide ramble as he attempts to tidy up a number of stories told elsewhere and which results, sadly, in a rather anti-climactic end to his tale. Be that as it may, in my view Book Three is the most exciting section of manuscript – some six hundred members of the expedition died on the voyage back to Persia – and it begins aptly enough with a description of the ships of the time, his initial journey overland to Java and then the incredible voyage halfway round the world.

  Book Three

  THE JOURNEY HOME

  Let me start with ships, as in this book I shall be spending a lot of time in them. Built of pine they have a single deck, below which the space is divided into about sixty or more small cabins. Each of these spaces is allocated to a merchant.

  These ships have good rudders and four masts each carrying a sail. There are also some two-masted vessels whose masts can be raised or lowered as circumstances demand. I’ve seen large ships which as well as the cabins have a hold divided into thirteen sections by thick mortised planks. These bulkheads are designed to keep the ship afloat in the event of an accident such as striking a rock or being hit by a whale. The latter occurs quite frequently because, when sailing at night, these vessels make a foaming white bow wave which appears to attract hungry whales. Hoping for food, the leviathan charges violently at the ship striking a blow that quite often caves in her bottom planks.

  There is a kind of well in the ship that is always kept clear into which water can flow if the ship springs a leak. Goods likely to be damaged by the water are removed and because the bulkheads are so well built the water is kept from spreading. The ships are all doubled-planked, the inner hull being sheathed with a second skin held on with iron nails. Inside and out they are well caulked with oakum. They don’t have pitch here so the hulls are coated with a mixture of quicklime and chopped hemp which is mixed with oil from a particular tree. A kind of unguent, it actually retains its viscous properties and sticks better than pitch.

  Some of the larger ships have a crew of three hundred!

  They can carry five to six thousand baskets (or woven bags) of pepper. In former times, I’m told, the ships were even bigger but the violence of the seas hereabouts has broken up the islands and silted up some of the principal ports. Vessels of shallower draught have been built in recent times to handle this want of water. These vessels are rowed by banks of four oarsmen.

  The larger ships are often accompanied by quite large barques each capable of carrying a thousand baskets of pepper and with crews of up to a hundred. They are often employed to tow the larger vessels, sometimes with oars but also under sail. You have to be careful where the wind is coming from. If it is directly aft, the sails of the larger vessels will becalm and the smaller vessels run them down.

  Each ship is equipped with as many as ten small boats for putting out anchors, fishing and a variety of other chores. They are slung on the sides of the ships.

  Ships that have been at sea so long they’re in need of repair are often sheathed over, giving them a third skin of planking. The process can be repeated as many as six times with the new boards fitting as snugly as the originals.

  The part of the world to which I now found myself directed has a great many islands of which the most intriguing is Zipangu [Japan], some fifteen hundred ‘li’ [Chinese miles] from the coast of southern China. You find gold here in great abundance, in fact the supply is said to be inexhaustible. But few merchants visit the place as the king does not allow the wealth to be exported, nor is Zipangu frequented by much shipping from other parts of the world.

  The sovereign’s palace, according to all reports, is extraordinarily opulent. Its entire roof is plated with gold in much the same way as we would roof a building or a church with lead. The ceilings of the royal halls are of the same precious metal. These apartments have small tables of solid gold of a considerable thickness and the windows are also ornamented with gold. To be quite honest, it’s really impossible for me adequately to convey the richness of these royal apartments.

  Pearls of a red [pink] colour, round in shape and of a great size are to be found here in large quantities. They are equal in value or even exceed that of white pearls. Some of the inhabitants – those who bury rather than burn their dead – place one of these pearls in the mouth of the corpse. A number of other precious stones are also to be found here.

  The isl
and of Zipangu was so famously rich it excited a desire in the Grand Khan to conquer it and annex it to his possessions. To this end he fitted out an extensive fleet and embarked a large body of troops under the command of two of his principal officers, Abbacatan and Vonsancin, and a Chinese Mongul general. The expedition sailed from Zai-tun and Kin-sai, managed the voyage safely and arrived in Zipangu in good order.

  Jealousy between the two commanders, however, caused each to treat the plans of the other with contempt, as a result of which they failed to gain possession of a single city or fortification bar one, which was carried by assault but only after the garrison refused to surrender. The entire city was put to the sword, in fact they were beheaded. Just eight people survived thanks to the working of a diabolical charm, a jewel inserted in their right arms between the skin and the flesh. No iron weapon could either kill or indeed wound them. So they were beaten to death with heavy wooden clubs.

  Kublai’s fleet was anchored near the shore of Zipangu when a strong north wind began to blow, causing the Tartar ships to foul each other. The troops were quickly re-embarked and the fleet put to sea. The gale, however, became so violent that a number of ships foundered. Fortunately many of the people aboard these vessels managed to save themselves by floating on pieces of wood to an island about 4 miles off Zipangu.

  The plight of these Tartars – some thirty thousand of them – was now desperate. Abandoned by their generals and having neither arms nor provisions, they fully expected to be taken captive or perish, especially as the island offered nothing in the way of sustenance or shelter. And as soon as the storm ceased and the seas calmed a large force of people from Zipangu came over with the aim of imprisoning the shipwrecked Tartars.

  The Tartars had concealed themselves on high ground and the search for them was conducted in a somewhat disorderly fashion. They were able to observe the movements of the Japanese and, by another road, made their way round the coast to the Japanese boats. Keeping the Japanese colours flying the Tartars set a course for the principal city of Zipangu where, thanks to the flags, they managed to enter the port undetected and unmolested. They found few men there. The women – how shall I put it? – were retained for their own use, the others being driven out.

  The king of Zipangu was enraged by all this and immediately ordered the city to be blockaded. For six months no one entered or left the city. At the end of this time the Tartars, convinced that no one was coming to their rescue, surrendered on condition that their lives would be spared.

  All these events took place in the year 1284. Some years later the Grand Khan, having learned that his expedition had suffered these disasters as a result of the discord of his commanders, had the head of one of them cut off and exiled the other to the savage island of Zarza where prisoners suffer execution in the following manner: they are sewn up tight round both arms in the hide of a freshly killed buffalo. As the skin dries the victim is squeezed until he perishes miserably.

  The people of Zipangu and its various islands worship idols with the heads of animals: oxen, pigs, dogs, goats and many others. Some are single heads displaying two faces, others have three, one in the proper place, the others on each shoulder. Then there are those with fourteen and sometimes even a hundred arms. The more arms the more power and the more devotedly they are worshipped.

  Asked by Christians why they give their deities these many forms, the natives answer that their fathers did it before them and it is their duty to preserve the tradition for all time. I should add that the various rites practised before these idols are so wicked and diabolical it would be an inexcusable abomination to repeat them here.

  You need to know this, however. When these idolaters make a prisoner of some enemy who is unable to pay ransom they invite all their relatives to the house and put the prisoner to death. They then prepare his flesh tastily and eat it with great relish, declaring that there’s nothing to rival human flesh for flavour.

  The ocean in which Zipangu is located is called the Sea of Chin [China]; so extensive is this eastern sea I am told by experienced pilots and mariners who have sailed there and obviously know it well, that it contains no less than 7,440 islands, most of them inhabited. I’ve also heard it reported that all the trees that grow on them give off sweet smells.

  They produce many spices and medicinal plants, particularly lignum-aloes and pepper, both white and black, in great quantities. It’s impossible to put a value on the gold and other goods to be found on all these islands but their distance from the mainland is so great and so troublesome is the navigation that vessels trading from Zai-tun and Kin-sai don’t reap large profits. Sailing in summer and returning in winter, a voyage can consume a whole year, for in this region you only get two shifts of wind, in one direction in winter and the other way in summer.

  That’s about all I can say about these very remote islands and countries as they do not come within the dominion of the Grand Khan and thus I did not have occasion to visit them in person.

  So let me turn to the Gulf of Kei-nan [Hai-nan] which involves a voyage of some 1,500 miles to the south-west and took me two months. It’s located off the coast of southern Manji [China] and bounds the countries of Ania, Tolomon [Kochin China] and many others I’ve already mentioned, including Burma.

  Within the Gulf are a multitude of islands, for the most part well inhabited. Along the coasts of these islands much gold dust is collected from places where rivers discharge into the sea. Copper is also found and a lively trade goes on between the islands, one supplying what another lacks. There is also a rich exchange with the people of the mainland, gold and copper being traded for such necessities as the islanders may require, although most of the islands raise grain in abundance.

  To be honest, the Gulf is so extensive and the inhabitants so numerous, it is in every sense another world.

  At the end of my long voyage across the Gulf of Kei-nan I arrived in the huge, rich country of Ziambu [Kochin China]. It is governed by its own king and has a distinctive language of its own. A tribute of elephants and lignum-aloes is paid annually to the Grand Khan. This came about as follows.

  In about 1268, Kublai heard of the vast wealth of the kingdom and set about conquering it with a large and powerful army under the command of General Sogatu. The king of the time, Accabale, was elderly and did not feel up to engaging Kublai’s forces in the field, so he retired to a stronghold and there proceeded to defend himself valiantly. Kublai quickly overran and laid waste the undefended towns, cities and the inhabitants of the plains until the king grew fearful that he and his entire country would be destroyed. He sent ambassadors to the Grand Khan offering to pay an annual tribute if he would withdraw his army and leave the country in the state of peace and tranquillity which had prevailed for so long previously.

  Kublai, moved to compassion, immediately sent word to Sogatu to pull his army out and campaign elsewhere. The King, for his part, agreed to pay the tribute in the form of a very large quantity of sweet-scented wood and twenty of the largest and most handsome elephants to be found in his kingdom.

  I went to this kingdom in the year 1280 and can thus bear witness to some of its singular customs. As a start no young woman can be given in marriage until she has been tried out by the King! Those whom he likes he keeps for some time and when they are retired they are given a dowry which allows them to make advantageous marriages. When I was there the King had three hundred and twenty-six children. Most of his sons had distinguished themselves as daring soldiers.

  This countryside [Malaya] abounds with elephants, lignum-aloes and forests of fine black ebony which is made into fine furniture.

  Voyaging south by south-east for another 1,500 miles brings one to Java, another island of great size. According to reports I was given by well-informed navigators, it is the largest in the world, some 3,000 miles in circumference. It has a single king and it pays tribute to nobody. The people all worship idols.

  Its produce includes pepper, nutmeg, spikenard, galangal, cubebs, clo
ves and all the other valuable spices and efficacious plant materials. More spices are traded from here than from anywhere else in the world. The only reason the Grand Khan hasn’t brought Java into his domains is the length of the voyage to get there and the dangers of navigation.

  Seven hundred miles south, or rather south-west, of Java Major you encounter the islands of Sondur and Kondur, both uninhabited. Then on a south-easterly heading you reach a rich province, Lochac, forming part of the mainland, with an independent king who discourages visits from strangers in order that his treasure and other secrets of his realm may be as little known to the rest of the world as possible. The country is wild and mountainous and gold is abundant in quantities scarcely credible. Sappan, or brazilwood, is logged in large quantities and there are vast numbers of elephants and other game. From here are exported all the cowrie shells which other countries use as currency. They have a delicious fruit about the size of a lemon called berchi.

  Holding course due south for another 500 miles brings you to the island of Pentan (near the eastern mouth of the Straits of Malacca), which is a wild and uncultivated place but where the forests abound with sweet-scented woods. For 60 miles around the island the sea is nowhere more than 4 fathoms deep, obliging ships to lift their rudders or risk running aground. After sailing another 60 miles in a south-easterly direction you reach an island, in itself a kingdom, named Malaive [Malaya], which is also the name of the principal town. The town is large and well built and a considerable trade is carried on here in spices and medicinal plants.