There is nothing else to mention except that this is a very wild region, visited by few people; nor does the king desire that any strangers should frequent the country, and so find out about his treasure and other resources.[NOTE 3] We will now proceed, and tell you of something else.

NOTE 1.—­All the MSS. and texts I believe without exception read “when you leave Java,” etc.  But, as Marsden has indicated, the point of departure is really Champa, the introduction of Java being a digression; and the retention of the latter name here would throw us irretrievably into the Southern Ocean.  Certain old geographers, we may observe, did follow that indication, and the results were curious enough, as we shall notice in next note but one.  Marsden’s observations are so just that I have followed Pauthier in substituting Champa for Java in the text.

NOTE 2.—­There is no reason to doubt that these islands are the group now known as that of PULO CONDORE, in old times an important landmark, and occasional point of call, on the route to China.  The group is termed Sundar Fulat (Fulat representing the Malay Pulo or Island, in the plural) in the Arab Relations of the 9th century, the last point of departure on the voyage to China, from which it was a month distant.  This old record gives us the name Sondor; in modern times we have it as Kondor; Polo combines both names. ["These may also be the ‘Satyrs’ Islands’ of Ptolemy, or they may be his Sindai; for he has a Sinda city on the coast close to this position, though his Sindai islands are dropt far away.  But it would not be difficult to show that Ptolemy’s islands have been located almost at random, or as from a pepper castor.” (Yule, Oldest Records, p. 657.)] The group consists of a larger island about 12 miles long, two of 2 or 3 miles, and some half-dozen others of insignificant dimensions.  The large one is now specially called Pulo Condore.  It has a fair harbour, fresh water, and wood in abundance.  Dampier visited the group and recommended its occupation.  The E.I.  Company did establish a post there in 1702, but it came to a speedy end in the massacre of the Europeans by their Macassar garrison.  About the year 1720 some attempt to found a settlement there was also made by the French, who gave the island the name of Isle d’Orleans.  The celebrated Pere Gaubil spent eight months on the island and wrote an interesting letter about it (February, 1722; see also Lettres Edifiantes, Rec. xvi.).  When the group was visited by Mr. John Crawford on his mission to Cochin China the inhabitants numbered about 800, of Cochin Chinese descent.  The group is now held by the French under Saigon.  The chief island is known to the Chinese as the mountain of Kunlun.  There is another cluster of rocks in the same sea, called the Seven Cheu, and respecting these two groups Chinese sailors have a kind of Incidit-in-Scyllan saw:—­