Under the Mongols the walls were allowed to decay; and in the disturbed years that closed that dynasty (1341-1368) they were rebuilt by an insurgent chief on a greatly reduced compass, probably that which they still retain.  Whatever may have been the facts, and whatever the origin of the estimate, I imagine that the ascription of 100 miles of circuit to Kinsay had become popular among Westerns.  Odoric makes the same statement.  Wassaf calls it 24 parasangs, which will not be far short of the same amount.  Ibn Batuta calls the length of the city three days’ journey.  Rashiduddin says the enceinte had a diameter of 11 parasangs, and that there were three post stages between the two extremities of the city, which is probably what Ibn Batuta had heard.  The Masalak-al-Absar calls it one day’s journey in length, and half a day’s journey in breadth.  The enthusiastic Jesuit Martini tries hard to justify Polo in this as in other points of his description.  We shall quote the whole of his remarks at the end of the chapters on Kinsay.

[Dr. F. Hirth, in a paper published in the T’oung Pao, V. pp. 386-390 (Ueber den Shiffsverkehr von Kinsay zu Marco Polo’s Zeit), has some interesting notes on the maritime trade of Hang-chau, collected from a work in twenty books, kept at the Berlin Royal Library, in which is to be found a description of Hang-chau under the title of Meng-liang-lu, published in 1274 by Wu Tzu-mu, himself a native of this city:  there are various classes of sea-going vessels; large boats measuring 5000 liao and carrying from five to six hundred passengers; smaller boats measuring from 2 to 1000 liao and carrying from two to three hundred passengers; there are small fast boats called tsuan-feng, “wind breaker,” with six or eight oarsmen, which can carry easily 100 passengers, and are generally used for fishing; sampans are not taken into account.  To start for foreign countries one must embark at Ts’wan-chau, and then go to the sea of Ts’i-chau (Paracels), through the Tai-hsue pass; coming back he must look to Kwen-lun (Pulo Condor).—­H.C.]

The 12,000 bridges have been much carped at, and modern accounts of Hang-chau (desperately meagre as they are) do not speak of its bridges as notable.  “There is, indeed,” says Mr. Kingsmill, speaking of changes in the hydrography about Hang-chau, “no trace in the city of the magnificent canals and bridges described by Marco Polo.”  The number was no doubt in this case also a mere popular saw, and Friar Odoric repeats it.  The sober and veracious John Marignolli, alluding apparently to their statements, and perhaps to others which have not reached us, says:  “When authors tell of its ten thousand noble bridges of stone, adorned with sculptures and statues of armed princes, it passes the belief of one who has not been there, and yet peradventure these authors tell us no lie.”  Wassaf speaks of 360 bridges only, but they make up in size what