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Updated: May 1, 2025
This was the last town in the province of Mangi that resisted the dominion of Kublaï-Khan; he besieged it for three years, and he owed his taking it at last to the help of the three Polos, who constructed some powerful balistas and crushed the besieged under a perfect hail-storm of stones, some of which weighed as much as three hundred pounds.
Zingis was the first king of the Tartars; the second was Khen-khan, the third Bathyn-khan, the fourth Esu-khan, the fifth Mangu-khan, the sixth Kublai-khan, whose power is greater than that of all his predecessors, as, besides having inherited all their acquisitions, he has added almost the whole world to his empire, during a long and prosperous reign of sixty years . All the great khans and princes of the blood of Zingis, are carried for burial to the mountains of Altai, even from the distance of an hundred days journey; and those who attend the body, kill all whom they meet by the way, ordering them to go and serve their lord in the other world, and a great number of fine horses are slain on the same occasion and pretence.
They resided far some time at the court of Kublai-khan, the great emperor of the Mongals or Tartars; and, returning to Venice in 1269, they found that the wife of Nicolo had died during their absence, leaving a son Marco, the author of the following travels, of whom she was pregnant at the time of their departure.
Sindafu, measuring at that time twenty miles round, was divided into three parts, each surrounded with its own wall, and each part had a king of its own before Kublaï-Khan took possession of the town. The great river Kiang ran through the town: it contained large quantities of fish, and from its size resembled a sea more than a river; its waters were covered by a vast number of vessels.
He had saved his state, but the task had been too heavy for him. He died from exhaustion on his journey home . On account of internal convulsions in the Great Tatar Empire, now united by Kublai-Khan, the fourth in succession from Genghis-Khan, the Golden-Horde had separated from the parent state, and its Khan was absolute ruler of Russia.
They remained one year at the leskar or camp of Bereke-khan, whence they travelled into Bochara, where they tarried three years. From thence they spent one year on their journey to the court of Kublai-khan, and were three years on their journey back to Venice.
At this time, Tchampa was under the dominion of the grand khan, and paid him an annual tribute in elephants; when Marco Polo visited this country before its conquest by Kublaï-Khan, he found the reigning king had no less than 326 children, of whom 150 were old enough to carry arms.
If, therefore, Nicolo and Maffei had set out upon their first journey in 1250, they must have arrived at the imperial residence of Cambalu, or Pekin, in 1255, at the latest, or four years before Kublai-khan ascended the throne. Their first journey commenced while Baldwin II. was emperor of Constantinople, who reigned from 1234 to 1261.
After visiting this province, the traveller went to Bangala, the Bengal of the present day, which at this time, 1290, did not belong to Kublaï-Khan. The emperor's forces were then engaged in trying to conquer this fertile country, rich in cotton plants, in sugar-canes, &c., and whose magnificent oxen were like elephants in height.
In a former note, it has been mentioned, on the authority of Abulgazi- khan, himself a descendant of Zingis, and prince, of Khuaresm, that Kublai-khan was only the fifth emperor of the Tartars, and that he ascended the throne in 1257.
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