Page:Japan - Murray - 1906.djvu/27

 THE STORY OF JAPAN. CHAPTER I. THE JAPANESE ARCHIPELAGO. The first knowledge of the Japanese empire was brought to Europe by Marco Polo after his return from his travels in China in A.D. 1295. He had been told in China of “ Chipangu, 1 an island tow- ards the east in the high seas, 1500 miles from the continent ; and a very great island it is. The peo- ple are white, civilized, and well favored. They are idolaters, and are dependent on nobody. And I can tell you the quantity of gold they have is endless ; for they find it in their own islands.” The name Chipangu is the transliteration of the Chinese name which modern scholars write Chi-pen-kue, by which Japan was then known in China. From it the Japanese derived the name Nippon, and then prefixed the term Dai (great), making it Dai Nippon, the name which is now used by them to designate

I 1 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian; translated by Colo- nel Henry Yule, C.B. Second edition, London, 1875, vol. ii. , p. 235.