g ones too. You must know that in this river
there are some 15,000 vessels, all belonging to the Great Kaan, and kept
to transport his troops to the Indian Isles whenever there may be
occasion; for the sea is only one day distant from the place we are
speaking of. And each of these vessels, taking one with another, will
require 20 mariners, and will carry 15 horses with the men belonging to
them, and their provisions, arms, and equipments.[NOTE 2]

Hither and thither, on either bank of the river, stands a town; the one
facing the other. The one is called COIGANJU and the other CAIJU; the
former is a large place, and the latter a little one. And when you pass
this river you enter the great province of MANZI. So now I must tell you
how this province of Manzi was conquered by the Great Kaan.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.--SIJU can scarcely be other than Su-t'sien (_Sootsin_ of Keith
Johnston's map) as Murray and Pauthier have said. The latter states that
one of the old names of the place was _Si-chau_, which corresponds to that
given by Marco. Biot does not give this name.

The town stands on the flat alluvial of the Hwang-Ho, and is approached by
high embanked roads. (_Astley_, III. 524-525.)

[Sir J.F. Davis writes: "From _Sootsien Hien_ to the point of junction
with the Yellow River, a length of about fifty miles, that great stream
and the canal run nearly parallel with each other, at an average distance
of four or five miles, and sometimes much nearer." (_Sketches of China_,
I. p. 265.)--H.C.]

[Illustration: Sketch Map, exhibiting the VARIATIONS of the TWO GREAT
RIVERS OF CHINA Within the Period of History]

NOTE 2.--We have again arrived on the banks of the Hwang-Ho, which was
crossed higher up on our traveller's route to Karajang.

No accounts, since China became known to modern Europe, attribute to the
Hwang-Ho the great utility for navigation which Polo here and elsewhere
ascribes to it. Indeed, we are told that its current is so rapid that its
navigation is scarcely practicable, and the only traffic of the kind that
we hear of is a transport of coal in Shan-si for a certain distance down
stream. This rapidity also, bringing down vast quantities of soil, has so
raised the bed that in recent times the tide has not entered the river, as
it probably did in our traveller's time, when, as it would appear from his
account, seagoing craft used to ascend to the ferry north of Hwai-ngan fu,
or thereabouts. Another indication of