Now you must know that from this city of Cambaluc proceed many roads
and highways leading to a variety of provinces, one to one province,
another to another, and each road receives the name of the province
to which it leads; and it is a very sensible plan, and the messengers
of the emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the road whichsoever
they will, find at every twenty-five miles of the journey a station
which they call “Yamb,” or, as we should say, the “Horse-Post-House.”
And at each of those stations used by the messengers there is a large
and handsome building for them to put up at, in which they find all
the rooms furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles
in rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they can
want. If even a king were to arrive at one of these he would find
himself well lodged.
[Illustration: PLAIN OF CAMBALUC]
At some of these stations, moreover, there shall be posted some four
hundred horses standing ready for the use of the messengers; at
others there shall be two hundred, according to the requirements,
and to what the emperor has established in each case. At every
twenty-five miles, as I said, or anyhow at every thirty miles, you
find one of these stations on all the principal highways leading
to the different provincial governments, and the same is the case
throughout all the chief provinces subject to the Great Kaan; even
when the messengers have to pass through a roadless tract where
neither house nor hostel exists, still there the station-houses have
been established just the same, excepting that the intervals are
somewhat greater, and the day’s journey is fixed at thirty-five to
forty-five miles, instead of twenty-five to thirty. But they are
provided with horses and all the other necessaries just like those we
have described, so that the emperor’s messengers, come they from what
region they may, find everything ready for them.
And in sooth this is a thing done on the greatest scale of
magnificence that ever was seen. Never had emperor, king, or lord
such wealth as this manifests! For it is a fact that on all these
posts taken together there are more than three hundred thousand
horses kept up specially for the use of the messengers. And the great
buildings that I have mentioned are more than ten thousand in number,
all richly furnished as I told you. The thing is on a scale so
wonderful and costly that it is hard to bring one’s self to describe
it.
But now I will tell you another thing that I had forgotten, but which
ought to be told whilst I am on this subject. You must know that by
the Great Kaan’s orders there has been established between those
post-houses, at every interval of three miles, a little fort, with
some forty houses round about it, in which dwell the people who act
as the emperor’s foot-runners. Every one of those runners wears a
great wide belt, set all over with bells, so that as they run the
three miles from post to post their bells are heard jingling a long
way off. And thus on reaching the post the runner finds another man
similarly equipt, and all ready to take his place, who instantly
takes over whatsoever he has in charge, and with it receives a slip
of paper from the clerk, who is always at hand for the purpose; and
so the new man sets off and runs his three miles. At the next station
he finds his relief ready in like manner; and so the post proceeds,
with a change at every three miles. And in this way the emperor, who
has an immense number of these runners, receives despatches with news
from places ten days’ journey off in one day and night; or, if need
be, news from a hundred days off in ten days and nights, and that
is no small matter! In fact, in the fruit season, many a time fruit
shall be gathered one morning in Cambaluc, and the evening of the
next day it shall reach the Great Kaan at Chandu, a distance of ten
days’ journey.
The clerk at each of the posts notes the time of each courier’s
arrival and departure; and there are often other officers, whose
business it is to make monthly visitations of all the posts, and to
punish those runners who have been slack in their work. The emperor
exempts these men from all tribute, and pays them beside.
Moreover, there are also at those stations other men, equipt
similarly with girdles hung with bells, who are employed for
expresses when there is a call for great haste in sending despatches
to any governor of a province, or to give news when any baron has
revolted, or in other such emergencies; and these men travel a good
two hundred or two hundred and fifty miles in the day, and as much in
the night. I’ll tell you how it stands. They take a horse from those
at the station, which are standing ready saddled, all fresh and in
wind, and mount and go at full speed, as hard as they can ride, in
fact. And when those at the next post hear the bells, they get ready
another horse and a man equipt in the same way, and he takes over the
letter or whatever it be, and is off full speed to the third station,
where again a fresh horse is found all ready, and so the despatch
speeds along from post to post, always at full gallop, with regular
change of horses. And the speed at which they go is marvellous. By
night, however, they cannot go so fast as by day, because they have
to be accompanied by footmen with torches, who could not keep up with
them at full speed.
Those men are highly prized; and they could never do it did they not
bind hard the stomach, chest, and head with strong bands. And each of
them carries with him a gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on
an urgent express; so that if perchance his horse break down, or he
meet with other mishap, whomsoever he may fall in with on the road,
he is empowered to make him dismount and give up his horse. Nobody
dares refuse in such a case; so that the courier hath always a good
fresh nag to carry him.
Now all these numbers of post-horses cost the emperor nothing at all;
and I will tell you the how and the why. Every city, or village, or
hamlet that stands near one of these post-stations has a fixed demand
made on it for as many horses as it can supply, and these it must
furnish to the post. And in this way are provided all the posts of
the cities, as well as the towns and villages round about them; only
in uninhabited tracts the horses are furnished at the expense of the
emperor himself.
How far all this was true, the children were then eager to know. But
Uncle Fritz told them that, as to that, they must look at Col. Yule’s
very interesting notes. And while they clustered around him and Laura,
who had the second volume, all looking at the maps and pictures, Ellen
Mahony came in and said that tea was on the table.
Col. Yule’s edition of Marco Polo was published by Murray, in London,
in 1875. As has been said above, it should be in every public library
which means to provide for intelligent readers.