[12] Obviously Yang-tcheou, the latter syllable being its title or
    designation of rank and precedency.  Marco certainly mistakes, from
    distant recollection, the direction of his travels, which are very
    nearly south, with a very slight deviation towards the east. 
    South-east would by this time have led him into the sea.—­E

[13] Though called a province, this obviously refers to the city of Nankin;
    the Nau-ghin of the text being probably a corruption for Nan-ghin.—­E

[14] For west, we ought certainly here to read south-west.—­E.

[15] Quiam, Kiang, Kian-ku, Kin-tchin-kian, or Yang-tsi-kiang.  In modern
    maps, there is a town on the northern shore of this river, named
    Tsing-Kiang, which may possibly be the Singui of Marco, and we may
    perhaps look for the Sian-fu of the Polos at Yang-tcheou, at the
    southern extremity of a chain of lakes immediately to the north of the
    river Kian-ku.  The subject is however full of perplexity, difficulty,
    and extreme uncertainty.—­E.

[16] This must be Tchin-kian-fou; the three separate syllables in both of
    these oral orthographies having almost precisely similar sounds;
    always remembering that the soft Italian c has the power of tsh,
    or our hard ch as in the English word chin, and the Italian gh
    the sound of the hard English g.—­E.

[17] This evinces the great policy of the military government of the
    Tartars, in employing the subjugated nations in one corner of their
    empire to make conquests at such enormous distances from their native
    countries.  The Alanians came from the country between the Euxine and
    Caspian, in Long. 60 deg.  E. and were here fighting Long. 135 deg.  E.; above
    4000 miles from home.—­E.

[18] By the language in this place, either Sin-gui and Tin-gui-gui are the
    same place, or the transition is more than ordinarily abrupt; if the
    same, the situation of Sin-gui has been attempted to be explained in a
    former note.  If different, Tin-gui-gui was probably obliterated on
    this occasion, as no name in the least similar appears in the map of
    China.—­E.

SECTION XVI.

Of the noble City of Quinsai, and of the vast Revenues drawn from thence by the Great Khan.

In a journey of three days from Vagiu, we find numbers of cities, castles, and villages, all well peopled and rich, the inhabitants being all idolaters and subject to the great khan.  At the end of these three days journey, we come to Quinsay, or Guinsai, its name signifying the City of Heaven, to denote its excellence above all the other cities of the world, in which there are so much riches, and so many pleasures and enjoyments, that a person might conceive himself