MARCO POLO 39 



Heaven," one hundred, miles in circuit, its canals crossed 

 by twelve thousand bridges, has, twenty-five miles away 

 down the river, " a tow r n and an excellent haven, with 

 a vast amount of shipping, which is engaged in the traffic 

 to and from India and other foreign parts, exporting and 

 importing many kinds of wares, by which the city benefits." 

 " Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's 

 officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced 

 daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 

 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 Ibs." 



This great ocean trade was carried in ships which Marco Chinese 

 describes in detail : " These ships, you must know, are ^5^ *" 

 of fir timber. They have but one deck, though each of their 

 them contains some fifty or sixty cabins, wherein the v< 

 merchants abide greatly at their ease, every man having 

 one to himself. The ship hath but one rudder, but it hath 

 four masts ; and sometimes they have two additional 

 masts, which they ship and unship at pleasure. Moreover 

 the larger of their vessels have some thirteen compartments 

 or severances in the interior, made with planking strongly 

 framed, in case mayhap the ship should spring a leak 

 either by running on a rock or by the blow of a hungry 

 whale. . . . The fastenings are all of good iron nails, and 

 the sides are double, one plank laid over the other, and 

 caulked outside and in. The planks are not pitched, for 

 those people do not have any pitch, but they daub the 

 sides with another matter, deemed by them far better than 

 pitch ; it is this. You see they take some lime and some 

 chopped hemp, a % nd these they knead together with a 

 certain wood-oil ; and, when the three are thoroughly 

 amalgamated, they hold like any glue. And with this 

 mixture they do paint their ships. Each of their great 

 ships requires at least 200 mariners, some of them 300. 

 They are indeed of great size, for one ship shall carry 

 5,000 or 6,000 baskets of pepper. And aboard these ships, 

 you must know, when there is no wind they use sweeps, 

 and these sweeps are so big that to pull them requires 

 four mariners to each. Each great ship has certain large 

 barks or tenders attached to it ; these are large enough to 



