Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/175

 ASIATIC NATIONS. 159 ly sailed in those parts. Should his majesty in- cline to give his consent to their adopting that mode of conveyance, they were then to urge him to suffer the three Europeans, as being persons well skilled in the practice of navigation, to accompany them until they should reach the territory of king Arghun.'* * The emperor gave his consent to the sea- voyage ; and, in 1291, the embassy, with the Europeans accompanying it, sailed from the Peiho in a fleet of fourteen junkSy provisioned for two years. They took three months to reach Su- matra, a voyage that a Chinese jmik would now make in probably one-fourth of the time, and no less than eighteen months more to reach Ormuz, or whatever other part of the Persian territory they first made. The following commentary on these circumstances naturally occurs. When Marco Polo told the Chinese court of the facility of navigating the Indian seas, from his own expe- rience, it was received as news. It is highly im- probable, therefore, that the voyage could have been familiar to the Chinese : on this occasion, it looks as if it had been undertaken for the first time, and only on the prospect of having the Eu- ropeans as pilots. An imperial fleet, which we must naturally suppose equipped in the best manner, took two years to reach the port of its destination ;
 * ]Maisden's excellent translation of Marco Polo, p. 28-