Marco Polo
translation: Henry Yule, Henri Cordier

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Volume II.
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CHAPTER XLIII.

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ACBALEC MANZI.

After you have travelled those 20 days through the mountains of CUNCUN that I have mentioned, then you come to a province called ACBALEC MANZI, which is all level country, with plenty of towns and villages, and belongs to the Great Kaan. The people are Idolaters, and live by trade and industry. I may tell you that in this province, there grows such a great quantity of ginger, that it is carried all over the region of Cathay, and it affords a maintenance to all the people of the province, who get great gain thereby. They have also wheat and rice, and other kinds of corn, in great plenty and cheapness; in fact the country abounds in all useful products. The capital city is called ACBALEC MANZI [which signifies "the White City of the Manzi Frontier"].[NOTE 1]

This plain extends for two days' journey, throughout which it is as fine as I have told you, with towns and villages as numerous. After those two days, you again come to great mountains and valleys, and extensive forests, and you continue to travel westward through this kind of country for 20 days, finding however numerous towns and villages. The people are Idolaters, and live by agriculture, by cattle-keeping, and by the chase, for there is much game. And among other kinds, there are the animals that produce the musk, in great numbers.[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.—Though the termini of the route, described in these two chapters, are undoubtedly Si-ngan fu and Ch'eng-tu fu, there are serious difficulties attending the determination of the line actually followed.

The time according to all the MSS., so far as I know, except those of one type, is as follows:

  In the plain of Kenjanfu . . . . . 3 days.
  In the mountains of Cuncun . . . . 20 "
  In the plain of Acbalec . . . . . 2 "
  In mountains again . . . . . . 20 "
                                          —
                                          45 days.
                                          —

[From Si-ngan fu to Ch'eng-tu (Sze-ch'wan), the Chinese reckon 2300 li (766 miles). (Cf. Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, p. 23.) Mr. G.F. Eaton, writing from Han-chung (Jour. China Br.R.A.S. xxviii. p. 29) reckons: "From Si-ngan Fu S.W. to Ch'eng-tu, via K'i-shan, Fung-sien, Mien, Kwang-yuan and Chao-hwa, about 30 days, in chairs." He says (p. 24): "From Ch'eng-tu via Si-ngan to Peking the road does not touch Han-chung, but 20 li west of the city strikes north to Pao-ch'eng. The road from Han-chung to Ch'eng-tu made by Ts'in Shi Hwang-ti to secure his conquest of Sze-ch'wan, crosses the Ta-pa-shan."—H.C.]

It seems to me almost impossible to doubt that the Plain of Acbalec represents some part of the river-valley of the Han, interposed between the two ranges of mountains called by Richthofen T'sing-Ling-Shan and Ta-pa-Shan. But (...)

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