cloisters, each having fifty chambers with their gardens, and in these there were 1000 concubines for the kings service.  Sometimes with the queen, and sometimes with these concubines, the king used to go in his barge for recreation on the lake, or to visit the idol temples.  The rest of the great inclosure was divided into graves, lakes, and gardens, in which all sorts of beasts of chase were kept, as stags, roebucks, hares, conies, and others, and there the king used to divert himself with his damsels, in chariots, or on horseback, no man being allowed to enter there.  In this place the ladies hunted with dogs, and when wearied with sport they retired into the groves, and throwing off their garments, came forth naked, and fell to swimming in the lakes in the kings presence.  Sometimes he banqueted in these groves, being served by his damsels.  All of these particulars I learnt from an old rich merchant of Quinsai, who had been familiar with king Fanfur, and knew all the incidents of his life and reign, and had seen the palace in its most flourishing state; and he carried me to see it.  The viceroy now resides there, the first described galleries remaining, still in their original state, but the chambers of the damsels are fallen to ruin; the walls also which encompassed the woods and gardens, are all fallen down, the beasts and trees are all gone, and all the other ornaments are destroyed.

Twenty-five miles from Quinsai we come to the ocean, between the east and the north-east, near which is a city called Gampu[11], having an excellent port frequented by merchant ships from the Indies.  While I Marco was in Quinsai, an account was taken for the great khan, of the revenues, and the number of inhabitants, and I saw that there were enrolled 160 toman of fires, reckoning for each fire a family dwelling in one house.  Each toman is 10,000, which makes 1,600,000 families[12]; and for all this population there is only one Nestorian church, all the rest being idolaters.  Every householder is obliged to have written over his door the names of every individual in his family, whether males or females, as also the number of horses, adding or effacing as the family increases or diminishes, and this rule is observed in all the cities of Mangi and Kathay.  Those also who keep inns, must write down in a book the names of all their guests, with the day and hour of their arrival and departure; and these books are sent daily to the magistrates who preside at the market places.  The revenues which accrue to the khan from Quinsai, and the other cities under its authority, are, first from salt eight tomans of gold, every toman being 80,000 sazzi, and a sazzi is more than a gold florin, which will amount to six millions, and four hundred thousand ducats.  The cause of this is, that being near the sea, there are many lakes or salines of sea water, which dry up and coagulate into salt in summer, and five other provinces in Mangi are supplied from the coast of Quinsai.  This province produces