t, according to P. Gaubil, the island was that of Firando, near
the city of Nagasaki, not then a place of so much importance as it
has since become.

80. There is here a manifest error in the date, which instead of 1264
should rather be 1284. In the early Venice epitome it is 1269, as
well as in the early texts printed by the Paris Geographical
Society; and in the Basel edition, 1289. Polo cannot be made
accountable for these contradictions among his transcribers.

81. No clew presents itself by which to discover the island meant by
the name of Zorza or--allowing for the Venetian
pronunciation--Jorja. Some suppose it to be in one of the lakes of
Tartary.

82. Translated and edited by Francis Egerton, Earl of Ellesmere.

83. In his charter to the city, King Henry exempts his Jews, who were
to remain the exclusive property of himself and his successors.

84. The remarkable letter of Robert Grostete, then Archdeacon of
Leicester, afterward the famous Bishop of Lincoln, to the Countess
on this subject, shows the feelings of the most enlightened
churchman in those times toward the Jews. His mercy, if it was
mercy, would spare their lives. "As murderers of the Lord, as
still blaspheming Christ and mocking his Passion, they were to be
in captivity to the princes of the earth. As they have the brand
of Cain, and are condemned to wander over the face of the earth,
so were they to have the privilege of Cain, that no one was to
kill them. But those who favored or harbored them were to take
care that they did not oppress Christian subjects by usury. It was
for this reason that Simon de Montfort had expelled them from
Leicester. Whoever protected them might share in the guilt of
their usuries."

85. This act, translated from the Norman French, is remarkable in that
the King admits that they (the Jews) are, and have been, very
profitable to him and his ancestors.

86. The act for the expulsion of the Jews has not come down to us; we
know not, therefore, the reasons alleged for the measure. Of the
fact there can be no doubt (see _Report on the Dignity of a Peer_,
p. 180), and there are many documents relating to the event, as
writs to the authorities in Gloucester and York, to grant them
safe-conduct to the ports where they were to embark.

87. "Great," writes the author of _Anglia Judaica_, "were the spoils