397
APPENDIX.
ters do not work, they employ servants to do all their labor.
T h e province
of Mangi was conquered by the Great Khan, who divided it into nine king足 doms, appointing to each a tributary king.
H e drew from it an immense
revenue, for the country abounded in gold, silver, silks, sugar, spices and perfumes.
ZIPANGU,
ZIPANGRI,
O R
CIPANGO.
Fifteen hundred miles from the shores of Mangi, according to Marco Polo, lay the great island of Zipangu, by some written Zipangri, and by Columbus Cipango.*
Marco Polo describes it as abounding in gold,
which, however, the king seldom permits to be transported out of the island.
T h e king has a magnificent palace covered with plates of gold,
as in other countries the palaces are covered with sheets of lead or cop足 per.
T h e halls and chambers are likewise covered with gold, the win足
dows adorned with it, sometimes in plates of the thickness of two fingers. T h e island also produces vast quantities of the largest and finest pearls, together with a variety of precious stones ; so that, in fact, it abounds in riches.
T h e Great Khan made several attempts to conquer this island,
but in vain ; which is not to be wondered at, if it be true what Marco Polo relates, that the inhabitants had certain stones of a charmed virtue inserted between the skin and the flesh of their right arms, which, through the power of diabolical enchantments, rendered them invulnerable.
This
island was an object of diligent search to Columbus. About the island of Zipangu or Cipango, and between it and the coast of Mangi, the sea, according to Marco Polo, is studded with small islands to the number of seven thousand four hundred and forty, of which the greater part are inhabited.
There is not one which does not produce
odoriferous trees and perfumes in abundance.
Columbus thought himself
at one time in the midst of these islands.
* Supposed to be those islands collectively called Japan.
They are named
by the Chinese Ge-pen, the terminating syllable gu added by Marco Polo, is supposed to be the Chinese word hue, signifying kingdom, which is commonly annexed to the names of foreign countries.
A s the distance of the nearest
part of the southern island from the coast of China near Ning-po, is not more than five hundred Italian miles, Mr. Marsden supposes Marco Polo in stating it to be 1500, means Chinese miles or li, which are in the proportion of some足 what more than one-third of the former.