ASIA. 



ASIA. 



'Won-hian-thunK-khao' (Ei* Researches of Old Monuments), oon- 

 isting of 100 volume* in S48 books, DM given an epitome of Chinese 

 literature to A.D. 1207. ThU great work is characterised by more 

 judgment and accuracy than the similar compilation of Pliny the 

 elder. Nine books are devoted to the geographical descript 

 China at the different periods of the native dynasties, and 25 contain 

 the description uf the foreign countries and nations. 



Europeans began to renew their acquaintance with the countries of 

 Asia on the shores of the Mediterranean in the llth century by 

 pilgrimages, and soon afterwards by the Crusades (1096-1272) under- 

 taken for the delivery of the Holy Sepulchre from the Infidels. The 

 navies of the Italian republics accompanied these expeditions, and the 

 citizens of Pisa, Florence, Genoa, and Venice had thus an opportunity 

 of forming a correct idea of the advantages likely to result from a 

 commercial intercourse with western Asia. Following up these views, 

 they entered into a very lucrative commerce, and brought by their 

 nimiilii the most valuable products to Europe. The Qenoese in 1261 

 having got possession of Galata and Peru, suburbs of Constantinople, 

 and with them the exclusive commerce of the Black Sea, extended 

 their commercial speculations to India through the Crimea, Caffa, 

 La Tare (Azof on the Don), Astrakhan, Urgenz (Khiwa), and Tosh- 

 kend, of which route the interesting work of Balducci Pegoletti, 

 entitled ' Libro do' Divisamenti dei Paesi e Misure," written in 1 335, 

 given some information. Their rivals, the Venetians, had come to an 

 agreement with the sultans of Egypt by which the direct road to India 

 through the Red Sea was opened to them, and the sudden increase of 

 the wealth of the republic proved that they knew how to profit by 

 these advantages. 



Whilst the Italian republics from mercantile motives kept to 

 themselves the scanty information which they had acquired by their 

 commercial intercourse with Asia, the western nations of Europe were 

 at once brought into political connection with those who inhabited 

 the northern and inland parts of this continent. This was brought 

 about by the conquests of Gengis-Khan and his successors. Soon 

 after the death of Oengis-Khnn, who had extended his dominion in 

 little more than 20 years (1206-1227) over all the inland countries of 

 Asia from the boundary of Siberia to that of India and Tibet, the 

 Mongols entered Europe across the Volga, subjected Russia, laid 

 prostrate the power of Poland, and gained a victory at the foot of the 

 Biesengebirge, at Licgnitz, in Silesia (1243). All Europe trembled ; 

 but the barbarians, having got information of the death of their great 

 Khan, instead of pursuing these advantages returned to their native 

 country, preserving however their dominion over Russia. Then the 

 politics of Innocent IV. and of Louis IX. of France suggested the plan 

 of directing the power of the great Mongol empire and its warlike 

 army against the Mohammedan princes in Western Asia : but this plan 

 'li'l not seem practicable to the projectors unless they could previously 

 convert these barbarian* to the Christian faith. For that purpose 

 some friars were sent to the court of the great Khan ; John ill Piano 

 Carpini in 1246, Father Ascelin, a Dominican, in 1248, and William 

 Ku(.ru.|UH or Kuysbroeck, in 1254 ; and though they did not succeed 

 in the main object of their mission, the information which they 

 acquired of the countries through which they passed made the 

 KurojxiiiiH for the first time acquainted with the immense extent of 

 those regions formerly called by the vague name of Scythia, which 

 from that time obtained the name of Mongolia, or Tartary. Carpini 

 traversed a considerable part of the deserts to the south of the Altai 

 range, and Ruysbroeck advanced even to the then metropolis uf the 

 Mongol empire Karakorum situated at the conflux of the Tula and 

 Orkhon, tributaries of the Selenga, to the south of the lake of Baikal. 

 He gives a curious and very interesting description of that extraordi- 

 nary town, which was everywhere surrounded like an oasis by extensive 

 desert*. The Mongols however continued in their career of conquest 

 in Asia, and at length subjected China to their sway (1275-1 27'.*) under 

 the reign of Kublai-Kban (1259-1204), the most able of all the sue- 

 :"<;.-. 



At the court of this monarch the Venetian traveller Marco Polo 

 raided from 1275 to 1292, and as he enjoyed the favour uf the 

 emperor in a very eminent degree, and was well acquainted with tho 

 most important languages spoken by the people of the coflrflry, ho 

 was frequently sent on missions to the remotest provinces of the 

 Mongol empire, which were so distant from one another that he wan 

 often obliged to travel six months before he arrived at the place of 

 Us destination. After traversing under such favourable circumstances 

 the Mongol empire in different directions, he was sent as ambassador 

 to the islands of the Indian Se*, and had thus an opportunity of 

 becoming acquainted with this part of Asia also. On his return to 

 Kuropc he pasmd through the strait of Malacca, remained on account 

 of the monsoons five months in Sumatra, visited Ceylon and Malabar, 

 ii'l Uoded at Ormuz in the Persian Oulf. In all his miiwi 

 travels he had been in the habit of keeping a journal, an.i 

 what appeared to him most worthy of being recorded. On hi 

 to Italy hi* in. i ntrviiifn importuned him by unceasing 



quentioiM, and t length ho resolved to make an extract from hi- 

 journal of the most remarkable objects which he had seen or heard of. 

 Thi. h, did i,, a 1-ook entitled II Miglione di Memere Marc 



inagnis Mirabilibus Mimdi, 1 one of the most curious 

 and important works of modern literature, which has been translated 



into almost all European languages. It very materially influenced 

 the views of Columbus the discoverer of America, and directed the 

 route of Vasco de Gama, who first went t.. India by the way 

 Cape of Good Hope. The correctness of Marco IVlo'x infunnutiun i-, 

 better known and valued in proportion as, by the study of the Asiatic 

 languages and by the reports of modem travellers, we become more 

 acquainted with the countries which he described. He has been 

 frequently called the Herodotus of the middle ages, and has doubtless 

 a claim to that title. If the name of a discoverer of Asia were to be 

 assigned to any person nobody would better deserve it, for he alone 

 added to our geographical knowledge of Asia a much greater amount 

 than what hod previously been known by the ancients, together with 

 what had been acquired by the travels of Carpini and Ituhniquis. 

 Besides the information which be gives us concerning Asia he acquaints 

 UK with the eastern coasts of Africa and the island of Madagascar ; the 

 hitter countries as well as some parts of Asia he hod not personally 

 visited, but even here his information has proved correct, and shows 

 the care which he used in collecting his facts. 



The chief subject of his description is the Mongol empire, which 

 extended over more than half of Asia, including nearly all id 

 countries of which the ancients had either no knowledge at all, or 

 very scanty and confused information. To the north bin knowledge 

 extended to the lake of Baikal, the Tunguse tribes who had no cattle 

 but rein-deer (which tribes he calls Mekrit), and the adjacent sea 

 (Mare Oceano) ; and he informs us of the connection between the 

 plains of eastern Europe on the Volga and Don and those of Tartary 

 and Mongolia. Further, he gives a dewriptiun uf China, in which 

 Peking had become the residence of the Mongol emperors, and of 

 Japan, called by him Xipangu, which name ia evidently funned 

 Japanese Dshi-pcnkue (' the Empire of the Rise of the Sun'). Japan he 

 had not visited, but as his protector, the great Kublai-Khan, hod sent 

 in 1280 and 1281 some naval expeditions from Khonfu and Zaitun, in 

 the Chinese provinces of Chekiang and Fukian to attempt the conquest 

 of the Japanese Islands, Marco Polo bail a good opportunity of collect- 

 ing information concerning them, though as he says they were 1500 

 miles from the Chinese coast. The countries to the west of China 

 he had visited, especially Tibet; here he got information uf Mien 

 (Pegu) and Baugala (Bengal in Hindustan), a name never before known 

 in Europe. Kublai-Khan had sent in 1272 an army to conquer these 

 countries. Marco Polo is the first European, as far as we kuow, who 

 navigated the seas to the east and south uf (!> pcnini-ula l-yn<l ,}, 

 Ganges; and here he mentions the Spice Islan > number as 



h*e says, but he did not see them. They are situated in the sea of 

 Cyn, and are mostly inhabited ; but they have no commercial inter- 

 course with foreign nations, except the men Ma-Chin, or 

 Southern China, who visit them during the monsoons. He next gives 

 some general information of the islands of Sunda and the adjacent 

 groups, which according to the information he obtained from navi- 

 gators consist of 12,700 islands partly inhabited and partly iininh 

 All these countries and islands were almost entirely unknown > 

 the publication of the travels of Marco Polo. But of the coin 

 previously known to tho ancient* the information he ^ave wax likewise 

 interesting, and has proved very useful. He treats of Ceylon, Malabar, 

 and Ormuz, which he himself had visited; and of 'torn, 

 Abascia (that is, Habesh, or Abyssinia), Zanguebor, and Madagascar, 

 which names were for the first lime introduced by him into Europe : 

 these countries hod been indicated to him by Arabian navigator*. 

 information concerning these seas served two centuries later to < 

 the course of Vasco de Oama in his first navigation to the shores of 

 India, for he says : " Departing from the coast of Malabar a vessel 

 make* by the assistance of a current, in three months, a thousand miles 

 towards the south-west, and then arrives at Madagascar, and to the 

 still more extensive islands farther to the west (Southern Africa), 

 which are inhabited by black tribes with curly hair, rich in \.iluabln 

 productions, elephants, camelopards, gold, sandal-wood, amber, and 

 frequently visited by merchant* from Arabia and India." 



After the time of Marco Polo the number of travellers in Asia 



increased, but as none of them traversed any considerable part of it 



they commonly tried to enliven their w. or invent 



their own, or by exaggci 'urination which they had obtained 



by intercourse with the natives. Of this the information 



. ill,- Armenis.li monk llaytoii in ria Orientalis,' by 



'. ,\: I'ort.'iiau (1317), and by Sir John Mandeville (1358). But 



n the 15th century, we find some better info cially 



through the Spanish ambassador Gonzalez Clavijo, who in 1406 was 

 sent to the court uf the famous Tinmr at Samarcaud ; and from the 

 German adventurer John Si hiUKc.rger, who served in the armies of 

 llnja/ct, the Turkish emperor, of Titniir, and Shah llokh, from 1400 

 till 1427 ; and especially the Venetian, Josaphat Itarlmro, who travelled 

 171 ) in the countries east of the Mediterranean Sea, and care- 

 fully collected many remarkable facts. But all these travellers, though 

 back to Europe some useful in: ;'ut<-d 



little or nothing to the extension of our knowledge as to parts which 

 had previously not been known at all, or only very imperfectly. Thin 



TWOS effected in a very eminent decree by the discoveries of 

 the Portuguese noon alter they had found their way to India round 



Hope. 



III. Proyrat of the ycoyraphieat knowledge of Ana after the cinum- 



