[Illustration:  Ship of the Middle Ages in the Java Seas. (From Bas-relief at Boro Bodor.)

“En ceste Ysle vienent grant quantite de nes, e de mercanz qe hi acatent de maintes mercandies et hi font grant gaagne”]

The circuit ascribed to Java in Pauthier’s Text is 5000 miles.  Even the 3000 which we take from the Geog.  Text is about double the truth; but it is exactly the same that Odoric and Conti assign.  No doubt it was a tradition among the Arab seamen.  They never visited the south coast, and probably had extravagant ideas of its extension in that direction, as the Portuguese had for long.  Even at the end of the 16th century Linschoten says:  “Its breadth is as yet unknown; some conceiving it to be a part of the Terra Australis extending from opposite the Cape of Good Hope. However it is commonly held to be an island” (ch. xx.).  And in the old map republished in the Lisbon De Bairos of 1777, the south side of Java is marked “Parte incognita de Java,” and is without a single name, whilst a narrow strait runs right across the island (the supposed division of Sunda from Java Proper).

The history of Java previous to the rise of the Empire of Majapahit, in the age immediately following our Traveller’s voyage, is very obscure.  But there is some evidence of the existence of a powerful dynasty in the island about this time; and in an inscription of ascertained date (A.D. 1294) the King Uttungadeva claims to have subjected five kings and to be sovereign of the whole Island of Java (Jawa-dvipa; see Lassen, IV. 482).  It is true that, as our Traveller says, Kublai had not yet attempted the subjugation of Java, but he did make the attempt almost immediately after the departure of the Venetians.  It was the result of one of his unlucky embassies to claim the homage of distant states, and turned out as badly as the attempts against Champa and Japan.  His ambassador, a Chinese called Meng-K’i, was sent back with his face branded like a thief’s.  A great armament was assembled in the ports of Fo-kien to avenge this insult; it started about January, 1293, but did not effect a landing till autumn.  After some temporary success the force was constrained to re-embark with a loss of 3000 men.  The death of Kublai prevented any renewal of the attempt; and it is mentioned that his successor gave orders for the re-opening of the Indian trade which the Java war had interrupted. (See Gaubil, pp. 217 seqq., 224.) To this failure Odoric, who visited Java about 1323, alludes:  “Now the Great Kaan of Cathay many a time engaged in war with this king; but the king always vanquished and got the better of him.”  Odoric speaks in high terms of the richness and population of Java, calling it “the second best of all Islands that exist,” and describing a gorgeous palace in terms similar to those in which Polo speaks of the Palace of Chipangu. (Cathay, p. 87 seqq.)