THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 51 



Roman citizen mentioned by Pliny." Poggio's ignorance 

 amazes one ! The commander of the fleet of Alexander 

 had sailed from the mouth of the Indus to the mouth of the 

 Euphrates. The Roman citizen mentioned by Pliny had 

 been driven by a storm to Taprobane, which then meant 

 not Sumatra but Ceylon. It seems inexplicable that Poggio, 

 with his keen interest in distant travels, should mention 

 as the travellers who had hitherto penetrated furthest 

 beyond the Ganges, not Marco Polo nor Friar Odoric, but 

 two persons of ancient times, neither of whom had sailed 

 eastward of Ceylon ! Without any sort of criticism 

 Poggio sets down statements which seem to add nothing 

 to the knowledge given in the book of Marco Polo, and 

 which do add very considerably to the extraordinary errors 

 already produced by misunderstandings of Marco Polo Chaos, 

 and Friar Odoric. Thus Poggio understood Nicolo to 

 say that Malepur, where the body of St. Thomas lies buried, 

 really a town near Madras, is " situated in the second gulf 

 beyond the Indus " ; which seems to have been interpreted 

 to mean that it was on the far side of what is now called 

 the Gulf of Siam ! " In the middle of the Gulf," continues 

 de Conti, " is a very noble island called Zeilan " ; a state- 

 ment which, apparently, was understood to confirm the 

 impression, already got from Marco Polo and Friar Odoric, 

 that Ceylon was somewhere to the South of Cochin China ! 

 Meanwhile de Conti has identified the aneient Taprobane, 

 not with Ceylon, but with Sumatra, which he describes as 

 an island no less than six thousand miles in circuit ! Thence 

 Nicolo passes to the x region that is especially interesting to 

 us. ;< In Central India " (!), he writes, " are two islands, 

 towards the extreme confines of the world, both called De Conti's 



Java. One of these islands is three thousand miles, the Java Major 



' and Java 



other two thousand. Both are situated towards the East, Minor. 



and are distinguished from each other by the names of the 

 Greater and the Less." " These islands," explains Poggio, 

 " lay in his route to the Ocean. They are distant from this 

 continent one month's sail, and lie within one hundred 

 miles of each other. He remained here for nine months 

 with wife and children. ... At fifteen days beyond these 



