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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



that of getting away as speedily as possible. The khan was 

 forced to facilitate the departure of the envoys, though it de- 

 prived him of his friends the Venetians. Preparations were 

 made upon a grand scale for the expedition. Fourteen four- 

 masted ships, a part of them with crews of two hundred and 

 fifty men, were equipped and victualled for two years. The 

 khan bade the Polo party an affectionate adieu, making them 

 his ambassadors to the principal courts of Europe, and extorting 

 from them a promise to return to his service after a visit to their 

 own country. 



Thus honorably dismissed, they set sail from the port of 

 Amoy, in 1291. They coasted along the shores of Cochin China, 

 and came in sight of the islands of Borneo and Java, though 

 they did not land there. At the island of Bintan, near the Straits 

 of Malacca, they obtained some knowledge of the kingdom of 

 the Malays at the southern extremity of the peninsula. They 

 landed upon Sumatra, and visited many parts of the island. 

 Marco thus speaks of one branch of the trade of the inha- 

 bitants: — "It should be known that what is reported respecting 

 the mummies of pygmies sent to Europe from India is only an 

 :dle tale, these pretended human dwarfs being manufactured in 

 this island in the following manner. The country produces a 

 large species of monkey having a countenance resembling that 

 of a man. The Sumatrans catch them, shave off their hair, dry 

 and preserve their bodies with camphor and other drugs, and 

 prepare them generally so as to give them the appearance of 

 little men. They then pack them in wooden boxes and sell them 

 to traders, by whom they are vended for pygmies in all parts of 

 the world. But there are no such things as pygmies in India or 

 anywhere else. It is mere monkey-trade." 



From Sumatra, Marco and his companions sailed into the Bay 

 of Bengal, touched at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, ar- 

 rived at Ceylon, and, doubling the southern point of Hindostan, 

 continued to the northward along its western coast. The pearl- 



