A. D. 1295. 457 



is a great mart, to which the merchants from India and other countries 

 bring fpices, pearls, pretious ftones, and other rich articles, from India, 

 The veflels of Ormus are ftoutly built, with one deck, one mafl, and 

 one fail. 



Cambalu in the province of Cathay, two days journey from the Ocean, 

 has been long' the royal relidence. The great khan removed the city to 

 the oppofite fide of the river, where the palaces are. The new-built 

 city, called Taidu, is a fquare of fix miles each fide ; and the fircets, 

 interfeding each other, extend in ftraight lines from gate to gate. In 

 a great building in the center there is a very large bell, which tolls 

 every night at a certain hour, after which no man mufi; be in the fiireets 

 till next morning, unlefs in cafes of very urgent neceflity, and then he 

 mufi: carry a light with him. Adjoining to each of the twelve gates 

 there are fuburbs three or four miles long, wherein the merchants and 

 fi:rangers live, each nation having their own diftindl fiiore-houfes, in 

 which they refide. The quantity and variety of merchandize of all 

 kinds is aflonifliing, and the number of merchants, of whom a great 

 proportion are Saracens, is wonderfully great. The money is not made 

 of metal, but of the middle bark of the mulberry tree, cut in round 

 pieces, and fl:amped with the khan's mark. It is death to counterfeit 

 it, or to refufe it in any part of the empire. Throughout the whole 

 empire there are inns eflablifhed at proper diftances, where the khan's 

 ambafladors or meflengers are fure to find frefh horfes, provifions, and 

 lodgings ; and ferry-boats are alfo fi:ationed at the rivers and lakes. By 

 thefe means letters are conveyed at the rate of 200 or 250 miles in a 

 day. In years of abundance the khan lays up corn in his granaries, 

 and in times of fcarcity fells it out for a fourth part of the current price. 

 Ill Cathay they make a liquor of rice much fl:ronger than wine. They 

 dig up black fl:ones (coals) which burn like wood, and keep on fire 

 through the whole night. The khan has the tenth of all wool, filk, and 

 hemp, and of all produce of the earth except fugar and fpices, which 

 pay only 3^ per cent, as does alfo the wine of rice (or arrack) ; and all 

 mechanics are obliged to work for him one day ii> the week; and thence 

 he clothes his army and the poor *. The whole country is full of great, 

 rich, and crowded, cities (many of which are named and defcribed) 

 thronged with manufadurers of filk, gold fluffs, and other rich or ufe- 

 ful merchandize. The rivers and canals, efpecially the great and mag- 

 nificent one made by turning the river at the city of Singuimatu into 

 two channels, one going towards Cambalu, and the other towards Mangi 



* If our modern travelers have been well in- erroneous in his reeolleaion ; for it muft have beea 



formed on the fubjeft of taxation in China, and a moll prepofterous policy to tax wool, filk, and 



Marco has been corretl; in this part of his narra- hemp, the materials of indullry, thrice as heavy 



tive, thofe opprefTive taxes are now lightened al- as fpiceries, a mere luxury, and arrack, the inftru- 



moft to annihilation. Perhaps Marco was here went of intoxication, idlenefs, and riot. 



Vol. I. 3 M 



