it is also now noted for a
great manufacture of sweetmeats (See _Alabaster's Report_, as above, p 6)

[Illustration: Yang chau: the three Cities Under the Sung]

[Through the kindness of the late Father H. Havret, S J, of Zi ka wei, I
am enabled to give two plans from the Chronicles of Yang chau, _Yang chau
fu che_ (ed. 1733); one bears the title "The Three Cities under the Sung,"
and the other. "The Great City under the Sung" The three cities are _Pao
yew cheng_, built in 1256, _Sin Pao cheng_ or _Kia cheng_, built after
1256, and _Tacheng_, the "Great City," built in 1175; in 1357, Ta cheng
was rebuilt, and in 1557 it was augmented, taking the place of the three
cities; from 553 B.C. until the 12th century, Yang-chau had no less than
five enclosures; the governor's yamen stood where a cross is marked in the
Great City. Since Yang-chau has been laid in ruins by the T'ai-P'ing
insurgents, these plans offer now a new interest.--H.C.]

[Illustration: Yang-chau: the Great City under the Sung.]

NOTE 3.--What I have rendered "Twelve _Sings_" is in the G.T. "douze
_sajes_," and in Pauthier's text "_sieges_." It seems to me a reasonable
conclusion that the original word was _Sings_ (see I. 432, supra);
anyhow that was the proper term for the thing meant.

In his note on this chapter, Pauthier produces evidence that Yang-chau was
the seat of a _Lu_ or circuit[1] from 1277, and also of a _Sing_ or
Government-General, but only for the first year after the conquest, viz.
1276-1277, and he seems (for his argument is obscure) to make from this
the unreasonable deduction that at this period Kublai placed Marco
Polo--who could not be more than twenty-three years of age, and had been
but two years in Cathay--in charge either of the general government, or of
an important district government in the most important province of the
empire.

In a later note M. Pauthier speaks of 1284 as the date at which the _Sing_
of the province of Kiang-che was transferred from Yang-chau to Hang-chau;
this is probably to be taken as a correction of the former citations, and
it better justifies Polo's statement. (_Pauthier_, pp. 467, 492.)

I do not think that we are to regard Marco as having held at any time the
important post of Governor-General of Kiang-che. The expressions in the G.
T. are: "_Meser Marc Pol meisme, celui de cui trate ceste livre,
seingneurie ceste cite por trois anz._" Pauthier's MS. A. appears to read:
"_Et ot seigneurie, Marc