* * * * *

If the reader has any idea of the difficulty attendant on making out so many places, disguised by a vicious orthography, a difficulty, which is still more increased by the necessity there is for determining, with accuracy, the situation of these places, and their probable distances from each other, he will be ready to allow that the task is certainly not very trifling, nor to be accomplished without much labour. In the foregoing itinerary, Pegoletti certifies the existence of the paper money which had been previously mentioned by Rubraquis, Haitho, Marco Polo, and Oderic: Some of these authors describe it as having been fabricated of cotton paper; while others remark very justly, that it was made of the bark of the paper mulberry tree. Oderic calls it Balis, Pegoletti gives it the name of Balis-chi. A Jesuit named Gabriel de Magaillans, pretends that Marco Polo was mistaken in regard to this paper money; but the concurrent testimony of five other credible witnesses of the fact, is perfectly conclusive that this paper money did actually exist during the first Mogul dynasty, the descendants of Zinghis, called the legal tribe of Yu by the Chinese. On the downfall of that race it was abolished.

Supposing the station on the Kara-morin and Cassai to be the same, which is highly probable, the whole journey in this itinerary, from Asof to Pekin, extends to 276 days, besides nine days more by water, or 285 in all; so that allowing for delays, rests, accidents, and occasional trafficking, a whole year may fairly be allowed, and as much for the return.

CHAPTER XV.

Voyages of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno in 1380598

Although we have admitted this article into our collection, on the authority of Ramusio and J. R. Forster, we are disposed to consider the whole as a fabrication, altogether unworthy of any credit. The first section, indeed, may possibly have had some foundation in truth, as the Zenos may have navigated about the close of the fourteenth century to the Orkneys, and some imperfect and disfigured narrative of their voyage may have fallen into the hands of Marcolini, the author or editor of these strangely distorted and exaggerated or pretended voyages. In regard to the second section, unless we could suppose, that, by Estoitland and Drogio, some strangely distorted account of different districts in Ireland were meant to be enigmatically conveyed, the whole of that section must be pronounced a palpable and blundering forgery. But it appears obviously intended by the relater, to impress upon his readers, that some portion of the western hemisphere, afterwards named America, had been visited by Antonio Zeno; and the high probability is, that Marcolini, a patriotic Venetian, had invented the whole story, on purpose to rob the rival republic of Genoa of the honour of haying given birth to the real discoverer of the New World. If there be any truth whatever in the voyages of the Zenos, it is only to be found in the first section of this chapter; and even there the possible truth is so strangely enveloped in unintelligible names of persons and places, as to be entirely useless. The second section is utterly unworthy of the slightest serious consideration; and must either have been a posterior fabrication, engrafted upon an authentic, but ignorantly told narrative; or the seeming possibility of the first section was invented to give currency to the wild forgery of the second. Latin books, a library, gold, ships, and foreign trade, corn, beer, numerous towns and castles, all in the most northern parts of America in the fourteenth century, where only nomadic savages had ever existed, are all irrefragable evidence, that the whole, or at least that portion of the voyages of the Zenos, is an idle romance. To increase the absurdity, as if to try the gullability of the readers, Dedalus, a king of Scotland! is assumed to have been the first discoverer of the Western World; and his son Icarus is introduced to give his name to a civilized island, already named Estoitland in the narrative.

After this decided opinion of the falsehood and absurdity of the whole of this present chapter, it may be necessary to state, that, in a work so general and comprehensive as that we have undertaken, it did not seem advisable or proper to suppress an article which had been admitted into other general collections of voyages and travels. The remainder of this introduction is from the work of Mr J. R, Forster, extracted partly from Ramusio, and partly consisting of an ingenious attempt to explain and bolster up the more than dubious production of Marcolini: But these observations are here considerably abridged; as an extended, grave, and critical commentary on a narrative we believe fabulous, might appear incongruous, though it did not seem proper to omit them altogether. –E.

The family of Zeno, in Venice, was very ancient, and not only of the highest rank of nobility, but celebrated for the performance of great actions, and the highest offices of the state had been filled from time immemorial by persons of the family. About the year 1200, Marin Zeno assisted in the conquest of Constantinople, and he was Podesta, or governor of that city, about 1205. He had a son named Pietro Zeno, who was father to Rinieri Zeno, who was elected doge, or Duke of Venice, in 1282, and governed the republic for seventeen years, during which period he waged a successful war against the Genoese. he adopted Andrea, the son of his brother Marco, who was afterwards raised to be captain-general of the Venetian fleet, in the war against Genoa. Rinieri Zeno, the son of Andrea, was the father of Pietro Zeno, who, in 1362, was captain-general of the Venetian squadron in the allied fleet of the Christians against the Turks, and had the surname of Dracone, from the figure of a dragon which he wore on his shield. Pietro had three sons; Carlo Leone, the eldest, who was procurator and captain-general of the fleet: of the republic, and; rescued, her from imminent danger in a war in which, almost all Europe was leagued for her destruction; the second, Nicolo, called likewise il Cavaliere, or the night, shewed great valour in the last mentioned war of Chioggia against the Genoese; Antonio was the youngest.

Francesco Marcolini, a learned Italia, extracted the whole of the ensuing relation from the original letters of the two Zenos, Nicole and Antonio, which is published in the collection of Ramusio; and declares that Antonio laid down all the particulars of these voyages, and of the countries he and his brother had visited, on a map, which he brought with him to Venice, and which he hung up in his house as a sure pledge and incontestible proofs of the truth of his relations, and which still remained as an incontrovertible evidence in the time of Marcolini. Many have been inclined to reject the whole of this narrative because the names which it assigns to several of the countries are nowhere else to be found. After having carefully examined, and made a translation of the whole, I am fully convinced that the narrative is true, and that it contains internal proofs of its own authenticity, and I hope fully to solve, in the course of this dissertation, all the difficulties attending the names, which have been strangely perverted by a vicious orthography.

It has been alleged that the whole narrative has the appearance of a mere fable; and it may be asked where is Friesland and the other countries which it mentions, to be found? Who has ever heard of a Zichmuni who vanquished Kako, or Hakon, king of Norway, in 1369, or 1380? All this is very plausible; but we think a good deal may be done for clearing away the difficulties.