The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2

King of the Great Island got news how the one part of the expedition had saved themselves upon that Isle, and the other part was scattered and fled, he was right glad

h such work), they had the sagacity to feign flight. [Now the Island was very high in the middle, and whilst the enemy were hastening after them by one road they fetch

he capital. The garrison of the city, suspecting nothing wrong, when they saw their own banners advancing supposed that it was their own host returning, and so gave them admittance. The Tartars as soon as

go in or come out. Those who were within held the place for seven months, and strove by all means to send word to the Great Kaan; but it was all in vain, they never could get the intelligence carried to him. So when they saw they could hold out no longer they gave themselves up, on condition that their lives should be spared, but st

thing that I had forgotten, wh

n except eight; on these eight they found it impossible to inflict any wound! Now this was by virtue of certain stones which they had in their arms inserted between the skin and the flesh, with such skill as not to show at all externally. And the charm and virtue of

s folk came to pass as I have told you. But let us h

s 1266, but entirely without success. The fullest accessible particulars respecting his efforts are contained in the Japanese Annals translated by Titsing; and these are in complete accordance with the Chinese historie

, and, provoked at this, in 1274, he sent a fleet of 300 vessels with 15,000 me

ed his attempts at negotiation. The Japanese patience was exha

troops to assemble at Tsukuzi (Tsikouzen of Alcock's Map), and sent ... numerous detachments to Miyako to guard the Dairi and the Togou (Heir Apparent) against all danger.... In the first moon (of 1281) the Mongols named Asikan (Ngo Tsa-han[1]), Fan-bunko (Fa

se; the Mongol ships foundered or were sorely shattered. The General (Fan Wen-hu) fled with the other Generals on the vessels that had least suffered; nobody has ever heard what became of them. Th

katta in Kaempfer's), and there put to death. Grace was extended to only (three men), who were sent to China with the intelligence of the fate of the army. The destruction of so numerous a fleet was consid

00 of the Southern Chinese, whom they retained as slaves. Gaubil says that 30,0

roject excited strong discontent; so strong that some Buddhist monks whom he sent before to collect information, were thr

with Chinese. (After Siebold, f

estoire de la desconfit

an

s Argan. Vonsainchin is perhaps Fan Wen-hu with the Chinese title of Tsiang

ood many additional particulars, some of which, such as the ill-will between the Generals, are no doubt genuine. But of the

s to Japan, and ordered them to go by way of Koryu and take with them to Japan a Koryu envoy as well. Arriving in Koryu they delivered this message to the king, and two officials, Son Kun-bi and Kim Ch'an, were appointed to accompany them to Japan. They proceeded by the way of Koje Harbor in Kyung-sang Province, but were driven back by a fierce storm, and the king sent the Mongol envoys back to Peking. The Emperor was ill satisfied with the outcome of the adventure, and sent Heuk Chuk with a letter to the king, ordering him to forward the Mongol envoy to Japan. The message which he was to deli

hole story of the sufferings of his army in the last invasion; the impossibility of squeezing anything more out of Koryu, and the delicate condition of home affair

, were for all that period little better than empty names. So completely were the Hojos masters of the whole country, that they actually had their deputy governors at Kyoto and in Kyushu in the south-west, and thought nothing of banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was made mem

-Tenno (1275; abdicated 1287); Fushimi-Tenno (1288; abdicated 1298); and Go-Fushimi Tenno. The shikken (prime ministers) were Hojo Tok

ffalo, and sew it tight. As this dries it compresses him so terribly that he cannot move, and so, finding no help, his life ends in misery. The same kind of torture is reported of different countries in the

en executed at the Andaman Islands. Friar Odoric speaks of the practice in one of the Indian Islands (apparently Borneo); and the stones possessing such virtue were, according to him, found in the bamboo, presumably the siliceous concretions called Tabashir. Conti also describes the practice in Java of inserting such amulets unde

e the Chinese forms; the others,