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.