e to the places of Spices by ocean navigation than that
which you are pursuing by Guinea. The most gracious king now desires
from me some statement, or rather an exhibition to the eye, so that even
slightly educated persons can grasp and comprehend that route. Although
I am well aware that this can be proved from the spherical shape of the
earth, nevertheless, in order to make the point clearer and to
facilitate the enterprise, I have decided to exhibit that route by means
of a sailing chart. I therefore send to his majesty a chart made by my
own hands,[434] upon which are laid down your coasts, and the islands
from which you must begin to shape your course steadily westward, and
the places at which you are bound to arrive, and how far from the pole
or from the equator you ought to keep away, and through how much space
or through how many miles you are to arrive at places most fertile in
all sorts of spices and gems; and do not wonder at my calling _west_ the
parts where the spices are, whereas they are commonly called _east_,
because to persons sailing persistently westward those parts will be
found by courses on the under side of the earth. For if [you go] by land
and by routes on this upper side, they will always be found in the east.
The straight lines drawn lengthwise upon the map indicate distance from
east to west, while the transverse lines show distances from south to
north. I have drawn upon the map various places upon which you may come,
for the better information of the navigators in case of their arriving,
whether through accident of wind or what not, at some different place
from what they had expected; but partly in order that they may show the
inhabitants that they have some knowledge of their country, which is
sure to be a pleasant thing. It is said that none but merchants dwell in
the islands.[435] For so great there is the number of navigators with
their merchandise that in all the rest of the world there are not so
many as in one very splendid port called Zaiton.[436] For they say that
a hundred great ships of pepper unload in that port every year, besides
other ships bringing other spices. That country is very populous and
very rich, with a multitude of provinces and kingdoms and cities without
number, under one sovereign who is called the Great Khan, which name
signifies King of Kings, whose residence is for the most part in the
province of Cathay. His predecessors two hundred years ago desired an
all