14 A TRANSLATION OF THE KEDDAH ANNALS. 
to Ghazan, the son of Arghaun Khan. As Arghaun Khan did not 
die before the end of A. D. 1291, the returning mission from China 
must have reached the Court of Tabreez in A. D. 1292 or 93.’ (i ) 
Marco Polo however was not then present. His father and 
uucle had been at that Court 30 to 40 years before the period of 
Marco Polo’s relation of the marriage It is curious to find the 
Chinese at that period adopting paper money for the purposes of 
finance or circulation, a discovery which Europeans fondly attribute 
to themselves. The notes were stamped with the King’s Seal — 
and when worn out were renewed at the mint. Notes are in use at 
this day in China. 
Marco Polo does not positively inform us if the Princess ever 
returned to China, If she did, perhaps some disasters to the ships 
may have given rise to the mistakes of the Kedd&h Chronicler. 
The latter however minutely, as will be seen, describes the arrival 
of the second fleet at Keddah, being that which was sent in search 
of the lost Ambassador—and apparently about 20 years subse¬ 
quently to his arrival at Keddah. 1 cannot make his, that is the 
Indian’s, advent earlier than A D. 1218. 
In the year of the Hijra 677 or A. D. 1299 the Emperor Plio- 
lagus expelled Baldwin It from the throne of Constantinople or 
Rumi, so that no Mahometan mission could for a loug while after 
that date have proceeded from that city to China. I am inclined 
from collateral evidence, as well as from the internal evidence of the 
Keddah Annals or History, to place the advent of Marong Maha-' 
wangsa somewhere betwixt A. D. 1218 and 1230. The natives 
of India at the above dale had frequent intercourse with the 
Eastern Straits and Archipelago, for they had for centuries pre¬ 
viously possessed settlements in these regions Their voyages were 
probably all coasting ones, where practicable. Marco Polo, accord¬ 
ing to Mr Crawfurd ( 2 ), made such a voyage and without the aid 
of the mariner's compass,—an instrument which I find by Fa 
Hian’s account was unknown in A. D 414. ( 3 ) By the Vene¬ 
tian’s own account he had three months provisions on board his 
fourteen junks—he took three months to sail from China to Java — 
and was eighteen months in reaching Ormuz 
In our present work the author terms China Chin. Sir 
Davis, in his very instructive work on China, considers that its 
present name may have been derived from Tsien. 
Mr Crawfurd states that Chin was the name given to it by 
the Persians and Arabians, and also by the people of the Indian 
Archipelago. 
The trade, says the author of the Translation of the Mahawanso( 4 ) 
(’) Malcolm’s Persia—quoting the Author of the Dil Kusha. 
( 2 ) Crawfurd’s Archipelago vol. III. 
(*) Lt-Col Sykes—quot. M. Landresae—Journal of the Roy. As. Soc.No.XII. 
(j) Tournour’s Transl. Mahawanso. {See also this Journal vol. II p. 603, 
Antiquity of the Chinese trade with and the Indian Archipelago,—E d.] 
