“In Fuh-chau fu we have another language which is largely spoken in the centre and north of Fuh-kien.  This has many points of resemblance to the Amoy, but is quite unintelligible to the Amoy people, with the exception of an occasional word or phrase.

“Hing-hwa fu (Heng-hoa), between Fuh-chau and Chinchew, has also a language of its own, though containing only two Hien districts.  It is alleged to be unintelligible both at Amoy and at Fuhchau.

“To the other languages of China that of Amoy is less closely related; yet all evidently spring from one common stock.  But that common stock is not the modern Mandarin dialect, but the ancient form of the Chinese language as spoken some 3000 years ago.  The so-called Mandarin, far from being the original form, is usually more changed than any.  It is in the ancient form of the language (naturally) that the relation of Chinese to other languages can best be traced; and as the Amoy vernacular, which very generally retains the final consonants in their original shape, has been one of the chief sources from which the ancient form of Chinese has been recovered, the study of that vernacular is of considerable importance.”

NOTE 7.—­This is inconsistent with his former statements as to the supreme wealth of Kinsay.  But with Marco the subject in hand is always pro magnifico.

Ramusio says that the Traveller will now “begin to speak of the territories, cities, and provinces of the Greater, Lesser, and Middle India, in which regions he was when in the service of the Great Kaan, being sent thither on divers matters of business.  And then again when he returned to the same quarter with the queen of King Argon, and with his father and uncle, on his way back to his native land.  So he will relate the strange things that he saw in those Indies, not omitting others which he heard related by persons of reputation and worthy of credit, and things that were pointed out to him on the maps of manners of the Indies aforesaid.”

[Illustration:  The Kaan’s Fleet leaving the Port of Zayton]

[Illustration:  Marco Polo’s Itineraries No.  VI. (Book II, Chapters 67-82) Journey through Manzi Polo’s names thus Kinsay]

[1] Dr. C. Douglas objects to this derivation of Zayton, that the place
    was never called Tseut’ung absolutely, but T’seu-t’ung-ching, “city
    of prickly T’ung-trees”; and this not as a name, but as a polite
    literary epithet, somewhat like “City of Palaces” applied to Calcutta.

[2] Giovanni did not get to Zayton; but two years later he got to Canton
    with Fernao Perez, was sent ashore as Factor, and a few days after
    died of fever. (De Barros, III.  II. viii.) The way in which Botero, a
    compiler in the latter part of the 16th century, speaks of Zayton as
    between Canton and Liampo (Ningpo), and exporting immense quantities