so far as the Malayan countries are concerned, the work of Marco Polo is most meagre
and unsatisfactory. I t gives, in fact, but obscure glances, leaving us, in the matter
of names, dates, and distances, to mere conjecture. The information communicated
is, indeed, more like what might be expected from a Chinese than an European
traveller, and the author who had gone to China at eighteen, and lived there for
twenty years, was probably in his turn of thinking as much a Chinese as an European.
In the voyage in question he must have chiefly associated with Chinese, or with the
Arabian pilots which must have been present in a fleet bound for the Persian Gulf.
A few examples may be given of the nature of the information which he gives us.
He is the first European author that names Java, but he had not seen it. His
description of it, in reality, comprehends the whole Archipelago, except Sumatra,
for he alleges it to produce gold, cloves, and nutmegs, as well as its own native
products, and he asserts it to be of vast extent, making Sumatra but a lesser Java,
under the name of Java Minor. The first Malayan land that the fleet reached after
quitting Kamboja, or Champa, was an island that he calls Pent&n, which is most
probably the large island of Benton, improperly Bintang, at the eastern entrance
of the Straits of Malacca. Malacca itself seems to be indicated by the word Malacur,
no doubt a corruption of Malayu, or Malay, and it is described as being at once an
island, a state, and a town. “ The people,” he says, “ are governed by a king, and
have their own peculiar language. The town is large and well built. A considerable
trade is there carried- on in spices and drugs, with which the place abounds.”
According to the usual reckoning, Malacca at the time in question had been founded
only forty years. #
The fullest account given by the Venetian traveller is of Sumatra, not under this
name, but that of Java Minor, evidently imposed by himself in order to distinguish
it from all those other lands which he comprehended under the common name of
Java. He describes the elephant and rhinoceros as natives of the island, and his
account of the gomuti and sago-palms is correct, and the earliest ever given. He
says that the majority of the inhabitants were idolators, and some of them, evidently
referring to the Bataks, cannibals. In speaking of one of its kingdoms, which he
calls Felech, and which is probably Parlak, he says that “ many of those who dwell in
the sea-port towns had been converted to the religion of Mahomet^ by the Saracen
merchants who constantly frequent them.” The place referred to is in the territory
of Achin, and the Achinese, by their own account, had been converted in 1206, or
85 years before the arrival of Marco Polo. #
Sumatra is described as being divided into eight different kingdoms, each having
its own proper language, but these alleged kingdoms, in so far as they can be identified
at all with real names, turn out to be mere petty places, and all on the northern
coast of the island. Marco Polo expressly described himself as having visited six out
of tjjese eight kingdoms, which, judging from another part of his narrative, is so
improbable that we are obliged to consider the assertion as either a fiction or an
interpolation,—most likely the latter. He was, he informs us, detained in one of
the eight kingdoms, namely, that called Samara, the place supposed to be the present
Sambalangan, for five months, waiting the return of the north-eastern monsoon in
order to prosecute his voyage westward. “ As it was necessary,” says the narrative,
“ to continue so long a time at this island, Marco Polo established himself on shore,
with a party of about 2000 men, and in order toguard against mischief from the
savage natives who seek for opportunities of seizing stragglers, putting them to
death and eating them, he caused a large and deep ditch to be dug round ^ in
such manner that each of its extremities terminated in the port where the shipping
lay. The ditch he strengthened by erecting several block-houses or redoubts of
wood, the country affording an abundant supply of that material; and being defended
by this kind of fortification, he kept his party in complete^ security during the five
months of their residence. Such was the confidence mspired^ among the natives,
that they furnished supplies of victuals and other necessary articles, according to an
agreement made with them.” The place where this fortified camp was made is distant
from two of the other kingdoms, supposed to be Kampar and Junbi, between 800 and
900 miles. How, it may be fairly asked, was it possible for Marco ^ Polo to have
visited these remote places without any protection, when the protection of his own
fleet, and of an intrenched camp with a garrison of 2000 men were necessary in
one locality to secure stragglers from being killed and eaten by the savage inhabitants?
, .
Marco Polo's notice of the trade between China and the Archipelago is confined to
mere hints. The first of these is to the following effect, in reference to Java, evidently
including Borneo and the Spice Islands. “ The quantity of gold collected there
exceeds all belief. From thence it is that the merchants of Zaitun and Manji (the
northern and southern provinces of China) in general have imported, and to this day
import that metal to a great amount; and from thence also is obtained the greatest
part of the spices that are distributed throughout the world.’ The second is this.—
“ It (Java Minor or Sumatra) contains abundance of riches and all sorts of spices,
lismum-aloes, sappan-wood for dying, and various other kinds of drugs, which on
account of the length of the voyage, and the danger of the navigation, are not
imported into our country (Venice), but which find their way to the provmces of
Manii and Kataia, (the southern and northern provinces of China.)” His own voyage,
indeed, gives us but a very poor idea of the navigation of the Chinese in his time,
compared even with its present imperfect condition. The first departure of the fleet
was from Fokien, which produces now, and most probably did then, the most skilful
and adventurous mariners of China. He could only have sailed with the northeasterly
monsoon, and in all likelihood, only when it had set in steadily in the month
of December. Yet by the time he had passed through the China Sea and the Straits
of and reached the north-western end of Sumatra, that monsoon was already
expended, and he was obliged to await its return during five tedious months. It
would not return earlier than the beginning of November. The monsoon with which
he quitted China would end in the beginning of March, but the voyage through the
Straits of Malacca would be performed with the variable winds which always prevail in
them. The voyage, then, from Fokien to the port at the western entrance of the
Straits where the fleet was arrested by the south-western monsoon, occupied the six
months from December to May inclusive, and it was detained in the port of Samara
for the five months from June to October inclusive. The greatest difficulties of the
voyage to large junks, and some of the fleet of Marco Polo were certainly of this
description, for they had crews of 250 men, would be amongst the sand-banks of the
Straits of Malacca. The voyage, which it took the Imperial fleet six months to
perform in the thirteenth century, would now be performed in one-sixth of the
time. A Fokien junk makes the voyage from Amoy to Singapore in 15 days, and
probably would not take a longer time in passing from one end of the Straits of
Malacca to the other. - . .
It may be asked through what channel Marco Polo acquired his knowledge of the
Malayan Archipelago, scanty as it is. He is described as being acquainted with three
Tartar and one Chinese dialect, hut these would not help him among the Malays,
nor is it probable that his Chinese companions were themselves capable of rendering
much assistance. The probability then is, that he had most of his knowledge from
the Arabian pilots that, although not mentioned, must have been in the fleet, and
this notion is confirmed by the Arabian and not Chinese stamp of the names of
places. The words are, indeed, Malayan, but written just as an Arab would pronounce
them. Thus the Champa of the Malays is converted into Siamba or Ciamba,
the Arabs not having the sound ch. The name of Java is written nearly as Europeans
now pronounce it, with the letter v, instead of with a w, as the natives themselves
do, and this seems also taken from the Arabian pronunciation. I t may be further
mentioned that a derivative of this, namely, Jawi, or Javi, is a common term among the
Arabs for all the countries and people of the Archipelago, and this is not unlikely to
have been the source of Marco Polo’s error in uniting so many countries under the
common name of Java. Another example is found in the name of one of the six
Sumatran kingdoms said to have been visited by the traveller. This he writes
Felech, and is, correctly, the Parlak, or Diamond Point of our maps, and with the
exception of the letter r, the Arabs having no p, and always substituting an f for it,
the pronunciation is what an Arab would give, and an Italian write from an Arab s
pronunciation. , - _ _ .
The amount of knowledge concerning the Archipelago communicated by Marco
Polo, small as it is, yet is great in comparison with what Gibbon justly calls fi the
ignorance of the ancients.” Still, the wonder is that, considering his opportunities, it
should not have been greater, when we recollect the extensive and accurate knowledge
obtained by such writers as Barbosa and Pigafetta, within a very few years of
the first appearance of Europeans in the Indian waters. Much allowance, however,
must be made for the short-comings and errors of his narrative, when it is considered
that it was circulated in manuscript for a century and a half before it was printed,
and that the author, as his judicious commentator, Mr. Marsden remarks, had no
ready use of his own, or any other language, and was, in fact, although an enterprising,
yet an illiterate traveller.