Chap. II. 
“ with him/* He, laid the Emperor, was not long upon 
t£ Earth, feeing that all he did was tr an faffed within 
“ the Space of fomewhat better ' than thirty Months H 
After this the Ebn Wahab faw the Hiftories of the 
other Prophets prefented in the fame Manner we have 
already declared i and he fancied that what was written in 
great Characters, under each Figure, might be the Names 
of the Prophets, the Countries whence they were, and the 
Subjects of their Prophecies. Then faid the fame Ebn 
Wahab , I faw the Image of Mohammed riding upon a Ca- 
mel, and his Companions about him on their Camels, 
with Shoes of the Arabian Mode on their Feet, and leathern 
Girdles about their Loins. At this I wept, and the Em- 
peror commanded the Interpreter to afk me, why I wept ? 
I anfwered, There is our Prophet and our Lord , who is 
alfo my Coujin. He faid I was right, and added, that he 
and his People, had fubdued the fineft of all Kingdoms ; 
but that he had not the Satisfaction of enjoying his Con- 
quefts, though his Succeffors had. 
I afterwards faw a great Number of other Prophets, 
fome of them ftretching forth their Right-hand, and 
with their three Fingers bent down between the Thumb 
and the Fore-finger, juft like thofe who hold up the Hand 
to make oath j others were ftanding, and pointed to the' 
Heavens with their Finger, and others were in different 
Poftures. The Interpreter took them to be the Figures of 
their Prophets, and thofe of the Indians. The Emperor 
then afked me many Queftions concerning the Khaliffs, 
their ufual Drefs, and concerning many Precepts and In- 
junctions of the Mohammedan Religion, and I anfwered 
him the beft I could. 
41. After this, he faid, 88 What is your Opinion con- 
“ cerning the Age of the World ?** I made Anfwer, that 
Opinions varied upon that head ; that fome were for fix 
thoufand Years, and others would not allow fo many •, and 
that others reckoned it at a ftill higher Rate ; but that it 
was, at leaft, as old as I had faid. At this the Em- 
peror and his firft Minifter, who was near him, broke 
out into Laughter, and the Emperor made many Objec- 
tions to what I had advanced. Atlaft, faid he, “What 
88 does your Prophet teach upon this Subject j does he 
88 fay as you do ? 5 * My Memory failed me, and I affured 
him that he did. 
Hereupon I obferved I had difpleafed him, and his Dift 
pleafure appeared plainly in his Countenance. Then he or- 
dered the Interpreter to fpeak to me in the following 
Terms. 88 Take heed of whftt you fay, for Kings never 
88 fpeak but to be informed of the Truth of what they 
48 would know. What did you mean by giving the Etn- 
88 peror to underftand, that there are among you various 
88 Opinions concerning the Age of the World ? If fo it 
46 be! you are alfo divided upon the Things your Prophet 
88 has faid at the fame Time that no Diverfity of Opi- 
88 nions are to be admitted on what the Prophets have pro- 
88 nounced, all which muft be revered as lure and infalli- 
46 ble 1 take heed then how you talk at fuch a Rate 
86 any more V* 
To this he fubjoined many other Things, which, thro* 
Length of Time, have efcaped my Remembrance. At 
laft he afked me ; 88 How is it that thou haft forfaken thy 
86 King, to whom thou art nearer, not only by the Place 
84 of thy abode, but by Blood alfo, than thou art to us ?” 
In Return to which, I informed him of the Revolutions 
which had happened at Bajfora , and how I came to Siraf 
where I faw a Ship ready to fail for China ; and that having 
heard of the Glory of his Empire, and its Abundance in 
all Neceffaries, Curiofity excited me to a Defire of coming 
into his Country, that I might behold it with mine own 
535 
Eyes ; that I fhould foon depart for my own Country, and 
the Kingdom of my Coufin, and that I would make a 
faithful Report of what I had feen of the Magnificence of 
the Empire of China, and the vaft Extent of the Provinces it 
contains, and that I would make a grateful Acknowledg- 
ment of the kind Ufage I there met with, which feemed 
to pleafe him Very much. He then made me rich Pre- 
fen ts, and ordered that I fhould be conducted to Canfit 
upon Poft-horfes. He wrote alfo to the Governor of the 
City, commanding him to treat mewith much Honour, and 
to furnifh me with the like Recommendations to the other 
Governors of the Provinces, that they might entertain me 
till the Time of my Departure. I was thus treated every 
where during my Stay, plentifully fupplied with all Ne- 
ceffaries of Life, and honoured with many Prefents till 
the Time of my Departure from China. 
42. We afked Ebn Wahab many Queftions concerning 
the City of Cumdan , where the Emperor keeps his Court % 
he told us that the City was very large and extremely po- 
pulous, that it was divided into two Parts by a very long 
and very broad Street ; that the Emperor, his chief Mini- 
fters, the Soldiery, the fupreme Judge, the Eunuchs, and 
all belonging to the Imperial Houfhold lived in that 
Part of the City which is on the Right-hand eaftward, that 
the People had no manner of Communication with them ; 
and that they were not admitted into the Places watered by 
Canals from different Rivers, the Borders of which were 
planted with Trees, and adorned with magnificent Pa- 
laces. The Part on the Left-hand weft ward, is inhabited 
by the ordinary People and the Merchants, where are alfo 
great Squares, and Markets for all the Neceffaries of Life. 
At Break of Day, the Officers of the King’s Floufliold, 
with the inferior Servants, the Purveyors, and the Do- 
mefticks of the Grandees of the Court, come fome on 
Foot, others on Horfeback, into that Divifion of the City, 
where are the publick Markets, and the Habitations of fuch 
as deal in all Sorts of Goods, where they buy whatever 
they want, and return not again to the fame Place till 
their Occafions call them thither next Morning. It is by 
the fame Traveller related, that this City has a very plea- 
fan t Situation in the Midft of a moft fertile Soil, watered 
by feveral Rivers, hardly deficient in any thing except 
Palm-trees, which grow not there. 
43. In our times Difcovery has been made of a thing 
quite new and unknown to thofe who lived before us. No 
body imagined that the great Sea, which extends from the 
Indies to China , had any Communication with the Sea of 
Syria, nor could any one apprehend the Poffibility of any 
fuch thing. Now behold what has come to pafs in our 
Days, according to what we have heard. In the Sea of 
Rum , or the Mediterranean , they found the Wreck of an 
Arabian Ship, which had been Shattered by Tempefts ; for 
all her Men periffiing, and ffie beings dalhed to Pieces by 
the Waves, the Remains of her were driven by Wind and 
Weather into the Sea of Chozars , and from thence to the 
Canal of the Mediterranean Sea, and at laft were thrown 
on the Shore of Syria k . 
This renders it evident, that the Sea furrotinds all the 
Country of China and Cila, or Sila, the uttermoft Parts 
of Turkeflan , and the Country of the Chozars ; and that 
then it enters at the Sir eight till it waffies the Shore of Syria. 
The Proof of this is deduced from the Conftitution of the 
Ship we are fpeaking of j for none but the Ships of Siraff are 
fo put together, that the Planks are not nailed or bolted, but 
joined together in an extraordinary manner, as if they were 
fewn. Whereas the Planking of all Ships of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, and of the Coaft of Syria , are nailed, and not 
joined together in that Way K 
of the East Indies. 
I This plainly {hews, that the Chine fe were formerly well acquainted with the Hiftory of other Nations, and affords us good Grounds to believe 
that their Records rauft have been deftroyed in fome fubfequent Revolution ; for, otherwife, it is impoffible to account for their Ignorance in Mat- 
ters of this Nature in fucceeding Times. 
k This is one of the moft curious PaiTages in this Treatife, inafmuch as it plainly proves, that the Arabians had thefame Notions in Geography 
with the Greeks, or, to fpeak with greater Propriety, had their Notions of Geography from them. Our Author, fays plainly, that, according^ to his 
j Judgment, the Indian Qeean wafhed the Coaft of Great ‘Tartary , and fo fell into the Cafpian^Sea, by which Paffage, he fuppofes, that this Ship was 
driven from the bidian-Sea into the Mediterranean. The Conjecture was wrong ; but there is ftill fomething in it very bold, and well imagined, and 
at the Bottom fomething of Truth too ; for though it was impoffible that this Ship fhould come into the Mediterranean in the Manner our Author ima- 
gines, yet it is not impoffible but it might have come through the North-eaft Paffage, agreeable to the firft Part of his Suppofuion ; and if by the Sea 
' of Chozars , we underftand that of Mufcovy, he would be quite right. 
I I very much doubt, whether the Conftruftion of this Veffel, as our Author defcribes it, be fufficient Evidence of its coming from the Indies. It Is 
< very poftible, that it might have been a Boat belonging to the Inhabitants of Greenland , or of fome other Country bordering upon Hudfon's-Bay % 
fince, it is very certain, that there are fuch Veffels in thefe Parts, and it is not at all impoffible that this might have come from thence. I do not pre- 
tend, however, abfoluteiy to contradict him, but only to {hew that the Argument he ufes is not conclufive, though I think, as Things then ftood, he 
f had fufficient Grounds to believe it was conclufive. 
Numb. XXXVII, We 
