extremely long, and that the feet of the women are very small.  He expresses great surprise and admiration at the wealth of the cities through which he passed on his return from Zartan to Pekin.  Tartary and Thibet were visited by him, after leaving China; he mentions the high price of the rhubarb of the former country and the Dalai Lama of Thibet.  In his voyages in India he sailed on board a vessel which carried 700 people,—­a confirmation, as Dr. Vincent observes, of the account we have from the time of Agatharcides down to the sixteenth century,—­which sailed from Guzerat and traversed the Indian Ocean.

Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman, in order to gratify his desire of seeing distant and foreign countries, served as a volunteer under the Sultan of Egypt and the Grand Khan of Cathai.  He travelled through Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, Africa, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Chaldea, Ethiopia, Tartary, India, and China.  There is, however, little information in his travels on our present subject.  He represents the Venetians as not only trading regularly to Ormus, but sometimes even penetrating as for as Cambalu.  Famagusta, in Cyprus, according to him, was one of the most commercial places in the world, the resort of merchants of all nations, Christians and Mahomedans.

Some curious and interesting particulars on the subject of Oriental commerce are scattered in the travels of Clavigo, who formed part of an embassy sent by Henry III. of Castile to Tamerlane, in 1403.  Clavigo returned to Spain in 1406.  He passed through Constantinople, which he represents as not one-third inhabited, up the Black Sea to Trebizond.  Hence he traversed Armenia, the north of Persia, and Khorasan.  Tauris, according to him, enjoyed a lucrative commerce:  in its warehouses were an abundance of pearls, silk, cotton goods, and perfumed oils.  Sultania also was a great mart for Indian commodities.  Every year, between June and August, caravans arrived at this place.  Cotton goods of all colours, and cotton yarn were brought from Khorasan; pearls and precious stones from Ormus; but the principal lading of the caravans consisted of spices of various kinds:  at Sultania these were always found in great abundance, and of the best quality.  From Tauris to Samarcand there were regular stations, at which horses were always ready to convey the orders of the khan or travellers.  We are indebted to Clavigo for the first information of this new route of the commerce between India and Europe, by Sultania:  it is supposed to have been adopted on the destruction of Bagdat by the Moguls; but we learn from other travellers that, towards the end of the fifteenth century, Sultania was remarkable for nothing besides the minarets of a mosque, which were made of metal, and displayed great taste and delicacy of workmanship.