resorted to by foreign merchants, "qui amenent moult de chieres marchandises," and the second having foreign merchants touching at it, and then going on to the first; but the second has this advantage over the first, that it is the port also frequented by all the merchants of Manzi. On consideration of this question, it appears that the Haven of Zayton said to be frequented by all the ships of India was most probably the present harbour of Amoy, which is very easy of access, and would— owing to its splendid landmark*-be the first port in China steered for, not only by the ships bound for Changchow, but also by all ships bound for Ch'üanehow and the northern ports of Wenchow, Kanpu, and Shanghai. At the harbour of Amoy, ships bound northwards would in all probability take in water and provisions. In this way there would be, during the summer monsoon, a large fleet of foreign vessels from the southern seas, congregated in what is now known as Amoy harbour, or what was then the Haven of Zayton; which would fully bear out Marco Polo's assertion, that "it is one of the two greatest havens in the world for commerce;" and Ibu Batuta's statement,-"Its port is one of the finest in the world. I saw in it about one hundred large junks; small vessels were innumerable." Besides these foreign vessels congregated in the roadstead off the port, there would be the native junks trading with northern China (Kathay). Some of the junks assembled in the harbour of Amoy would from thence pass on to Ch'üanchow, in the manner Marco Polo tells us, that "from Zayton ships come this way right up to the city of Fuju by the river I have told you of; and 'tis in this way that the precious wares of India come thither." Some of them went on doubtless to Anhai,† which was in former years a great port of foreign trade; while others passed on to Zaitun itself, where they were gladly welcomed by many merchants who resorted thither for the purchase of goods, which they distributed all over Manzi. * The landmark for making the port of Amoy is the pagoda on the top of Nan-tai-ba hill, which may be seen for a long distance at sea. Linschoten in his sailing directions says of it: "The Haven of Chinchon [i. e. Amoy harbour] on the Southwest side hath lying above it a very high land, with a stone rocke upon it like a pillar (as the Varella on the coast of Champa hath)." Kerr's Travels, vol. ix. p. 481, speaking of Cape Varella says: "This cape is called Jentam by the Chinese, signifying a chimney in their language, because it has a sharp hummock on the top of the hill, much like a chimney on the top of a house." I make this digression as it seems to fix the position of Yen-tung shan mentioned in Chinese geographical works, which according to the above extract appears to be Cape Varella. + Martini says of it:-"Lors que je me mis en chemin pour retourner en notre Europe, je partis du Fort de Ganhai dans un navire Chinois pour les Isles Philippines : il y a beancoup de marchandises & de vaisseaux de la Chine, l'havre estant assez commode & assez seur, & l'ancrage et la rade assez bonne pour les narines." What is related of the great assemblage of merchants at Zaitun, who purchased goods which they distributed all over Manzi, answers well to Changchow, and not to Ch'üanchow. The geographical position of Changchow is such, that with its splendid inland water communication, goods might with very easy land-porterage, readily be sent south-west to all the districts lying between it and Canton, and also to the frontiers of Kiangsi. By means of the North river there is, with very few hills intervening, water communication with the north and north-castern part of the Fookien province, and the upper and lower waters of the Min down to Foochow itself. Thus the position of Changchow, which I consider to be Zaitun, is undoubtedly the best point in Fookien for the distribution of goods over a large area of southern China, which was called by Marco Polo, Manzi. It is this favourable situation for the distribution of goods, that gives to Chioh-be on the Changchow river, its importance in our day. Chioh-be is near to Haitsang, and was probably the site of Gehkong-Zaitun-the port of Changchow in former years. The claims of Ch'üanchow as a port for the distribution of goods are simply nil, to convey them to any distance; owing to the want of inland water communication, tedious and costly; but at the same time the position of Ch'üanchow as a port was well chosen; for it would have a large population to supply in its own district, and in the neighbouring districts of 永春 Yung-chun, 惠安 Hwuy-gan and 興化 Hinghwa. All these districts would have to be supplied by land carriage, except those of Hing-hwa, part of which might be supplied by sea. There now remains for me to prove, that Changchow and Ch'üanchow, not Foochow and Ch'üanchow,-did engage in foreign trade in the way I have described, more especially before and during Mongol times. The arrival of foreign ships in China, and the departure of Chinese ships from China, appears to have begun about the commencement of the Christian era; but this foreign trade was not shared in by Fookien till many centuries later. Canton in carlier days appears to have been the chief port in the south. The foreign commerce of Fookien did not apparently begin till the ninth or tenth century; and at the outset, all Fookien trading junks appear to have been obliged to procure a license for going abroad from the Canton authorities; and on their return voyage they had to report themselves at Canton, under pain and penalty of having their ships and cargoes confiscated. Previous to their going abroad, they appear to have supplied themselves with foreign articles through Canton.* Wen hien t'ung kao, keuen lxii, p. 10. The ocean-going junks in Fookien employed in this trade, were junks from the Changchow and Ch'üanchow prefectures, as seen by the "Annals of the Canton customs," wherein it appears, that prior to 983, Changchow and Ch'üanchow sea-going junks were allowed to take their cargoes of foreign produce purchased abroad, to other districts than their own; but in that year they were ordered by imperial decree to take their cargoes of spices and drugs for sale to their own particular districts.* This is positive evidence of Changchow and Ch'üanchow sea-going junks resorting to foreign countries for the purposes of trade prior to Mongol times. I can find no mention of junks of this class going abroad from Foochow. I do not think that Fookien junks went abroad much before this time, nor was Fookien visited by foreigners till about the same period.† The earliest record of a foreign ship visiting Changchow was in 986, which came from San-bo-tsai, the Sarbeza of the Arabs. I am inclined to think that Edrisi's Djankow represents Changchow, for the following description of it answers better to that city than to Ch'üanchow. "Djankow-Celle ci est une ville célèbre remarquable par l'elegance de ses edifices, la beauté de ses bazars et la fertilité de ses jardins et de ses vergers. Ses fruits y sont en abondance. On y travaille le verre Chinois, ainsi que toute espèce d'etoffes de soie, et l'on peut s'y procurer tout ce qui se trouve à Djansou, laquelle est située auprès d'un grand fleuve, qui l'entoure et par lequel on remonte a un grand nombre de villes chinoises, comme nous l'avons dit plus haut.” Matters went on pretty much in this way through the Sung, and continued thus till the Mongol dynasty. During this period the chief superintendent of customs resided at Ch'üanchow; and it at appears, the season when foreign vessels came from the south and native vessels returned homewards, that the local officials were deputed to collect the customs revenue. There is mention in Mongol history, that in *The Chinese of which the above is a free translation reads thus: Ł 年閏十二月詔聞在京及諸州府人民或少藥物食用今 以下項香藥止禁榷廣南漳泉等州舶船上不得侵越州 府界紊亂條法如違依條斷遣. The above quotation is taken from the Yu hae kwan che, "Annals of the Canton customs," which is said to have been found in the Summer Palace near Peking. It is full of curious information regarding the foreign commerce of the empire. Mr. A. Frater is the fortunate possessor of the book. +I do not think there is any mention of Zaitun by Arabian writers till the 13th century; although Col. Yule, when speaking of the name, says as follows: "the corruption (if such it be) must be of very old date, as the city appears to have received its present name in the 7th or 8th century." I do not know where the learned editor of Marco Polo got his evidence for that statement; for no foreigners appear to have resorted to Changchow till the end of the ninth century; and at the period Col. Yule speaks of, the entrance of the Changchow river was a large morass, with the country on either side of its banks flooded at high water, nearly up to the present city of Changchow; and taking Zaitun as Chüanchow, I can find no trace of anything like foreign trade there before the tenth century. 1285 there was an officer, whose duties were to collect the revenue from shipping at the ports of Changchow and Ch'üanchow, and in addition to those duties, he was entrusted with the collection of the salt gabel.* There must have been ships from foreign countries resorting to Changchow at that period; for if not, why should there be an officer told off especially to collect shipping dues. In close connection with ships of Changchow going to foreign countries, is the subject of Changchow traders carrying on trade in Java and other places in the Straits. In 1454, or some eighty-six years after the Mongols left China, there is mention made again of the Chinese foreign-going sailors of Changchow; and in the Ying yai sheng lan, an account of the eunuch Cheng Ho's expedition to the southern seas in 1416, or fifty-eight years after the Mongols, mention is made of Changchow men settled at many parts of Java and Sumatra, and-curious to relate —at Bantam in 1608. In the early voyages of the English East India Company, as found in Kerr's Collection, vol. viii. page 190, there is a description of the commodities found for sale at Bantam in Java; and in the long list of articles mentioned as coming from China, the names are all given in the Changchow dialect; e. g. "sugar" is called petong; "sewing gold-thread," kinoswa; "a bundle" is called chippau; "coarse porcelain basons," chopan. Foreign goods, such as "broadcloth," "tin," and "ivory" appear under the names of toloney, sea and ga. To this day Java is the favourite resort for Changchow merchants, and many of them after an absence of twenty or twenty-five years, return to their native district with large fortunes. There is a village not far from here, where a great number of these returned merchants have settled, and which on that account has received the soubriquet of Siao Kalapa-"Little Bantam," or Java. The Ch'üanchow men appear to prefer going to trade at Manila, Sulu and Borneo; and on two occasions, while walking in the streets of Ch'üanchow, I have been accosted by Chinese addressing me in Spanish; while when at Changchow a few weeks ago, a Chinaman got quite angry with me. because I could not understand his Malay, upon the knowledge of which he evidently prided himself; for he had previously told the bystanders,―I am now going to address the gentleman in the language he speaks in his own country;-and on my not understanding him and telling him so in Chinese, they were much amused at his discomfiture. This matter of Changchow Chinese being found settled and *至元二十二年併福建市舶司入鹽運使司改日都轉運 司頜福建漳泉鹽貨市舶 trading in Java so shortly after the departure of the Mongols from China, and of mention of Changchow traders resorting to spice-growing countries prior to the arrival of the Mongols, makes it very probable, that the merchants of Zaitun mentioned by Marco Polo as bringing from Java abundance of gold and spices, were the merchants of Changchow.* A word upon the Zeiton mentioned by d' Empoli. "When the Portuguese, in the 16th century, recovered China to European knowledge, Zayton was no longer the great haven of foreign trade; but yet the old name was not extinct among the mariners of Western Asia. Giovanni d'Empoli, in 1515, writing about China from Cochin, says: 'Ships carry spices thither from these parts. Every year there go thither from Sumatra 60,000 cantars of pepper, and 15,000 or 20,000 from Cochin and Malabar, worth 15 to 20 ducats a cantar; besides ginger (?), mace, nutmegs, incense, aloes, velvet, European gold-wire, coral, woollens, &c. The Grand Can is the King of China, and he dwells at ZEITON. Giovanni hoped to get to Zeiton before he died." This notice of d'Empoli is said to be the most modern allusion to Zaitun, but this Zaitun would seem to point to Gehkong the port of Changchow, which at the time in question was the great focus of the Fookien foreign trade; and it seems not impossible, if d'Empoli had started for Zaitun, he would have found Changchow, just as Father Gocz in searching for Kathay found China. I have already mentioned how Mascarenhas in 1519, was taken to Changchow by the Chinese traders of the Straits. There now remains to see, if any of the names of the officials who held office at Zaitun in Mongol times can be traced in the Chinese annals. Rashid-uddin says (see Yule's Marco Polo, vol. ii. p. 221) "Zaitun is a great shipping port, and the commandant there is Boháuddin Kandári." The first Mongol governor of Changchow was named Yao-hu-nan, which according to the Changchow pronunciation would be Boh-hut-nan. I consulted Dr. Douglas upon the subject of this name, and received from him the following interesting reply:-"As to 'Boháuddin,' I think quite as near as could possibly be expected. The Changchow sound is nearer than your writer gave, namely Boch-hut-lan. The o is accented, while the e is very slightly sounded, so that it approximates to Boh, which is actually the sound in some parts, e. g. An-koi. Then the final t of hut agrees wonderfully with the d-nothing could be better. And lan is much nearer din than seems at first sight, for the in Amoy and Changchow has a strong sound * Mention of Changchow emigrants settled in Java will be found in Mr. Mayers' interesting paper in the China Review, vol. iv. p. 176, and Mr. Groeneveldt's Notes on the Malay Archipelago, p. 47. |
