Marco Polo's Voyage to Indian Seas: 2: The Island of Zipangu. [1]


This is a very large island, fifteen hundred miles from the continent. The people are handsome, fair, and of agreeable nature.  They are idolaters. They live quite seperate,  independent, and not easily accessible.  Gold is in abundance, but no man is allowed to export it. No merchant goes to the mainland. I will give you a wonderful account of a very large palace, all covered with gold, as our churches are with lead.
The pavement of the chamber, the halls, the windows and every other part is laid on with two inches thick, so that the riches of this palace are incalculable.  Here are also red pearls, large and of equal value with white, with many other precious stones. Kublai on hearing of this amazing wealth, desired to conquer the island, and sent two of his barons with large fleet, of warriors, both horsemen and on foot.  One was named Abatan, and the other Vonsanicin, both wise and valiant.  They sailed from Saitun and Kinsai, reached the isle, landed and took possession of the plain and a number of houses; but they were unable to take any city or castle, when a sad misadventure occurred.  A mutual jealousy arose between them, which prevented their acting in concert.  One day when the north wind blew very strong, the troops expressed to each other apprehensions, that if they remained all the vessels would be wrecked. They set on a return journey, and then the storm being violent, and one of the ship lost its control and most of them perished.  A few of them took refuge in a small island on the way. They were about 30000 in numbers. They found no way of escape. When they saw that the other ship sailing towards the native land their anger and grief increased.  The sovereign and people of Zipangu rejoiced  greatly, when they saw the enemies scattered and many of them surfaced on the island.  As the storm calmed the enemies assembled and set their ship on sail towards Zipangu to take their men from the island. Zipangu men thought that their own men taken as slaves by the enemy were returning.  They allowed the enemy people to enter into the city.  The Tartars took this opportunity, drove out all men and enslaved all the women. The king and his men when they realised the real position resisted the Tartars. The latter were thus trapped for about seven months, and were not able to send their tidings to the Khan.  Finding the escape difficult, they surrendered to the natives, securing their lives.  This took place in the year 1269.  The great Khan, however,  ordered one of the commanders to lose his head and the other deport to Zipangu to meet his death at the hands of the natives. I have to relate also a wonderful story. These two barons took a number of natives to a castle in Zipangu, occupied by them, and ordered all their heads to be cut off. But eight of the natives put a heavy resistance, because they drew their strength from the consecrated stone, they wore. They could not be killed by steel. Finding this they were beaten to death by clubs and stones.

Notes:

1.  Zipangu: There are many theories regarding the origin of the term "Japan". In Elementary schools they used to teach that the term Japan is derived from the Chinese word Zipangu. The Cantonese used to call the island east of it Jipenquo. Marco Polo never visited Japan. The word Jipenquo, pronounced by Chinese merchants seemed Zipengu to Marco Polo. Local traditions are spread by merchants who always travels from place to place. Moreover, ancient and medieval story tellers also carried the local traditions from one place to another. We have ample examples of story tellers in Sutas of Indian Epics Mahabharata, the Celtic bards, the West African griots, and the Middle East and Central Asian ashiks.

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