it so earnestly in this manner. If it had pleased God to endow me with great wealth, I would not hesitate to spend on this expedition my entire patrimony, whenever your Majesty should so command. In beginning a battle, the business would be finished, for there is not a man in that whole kingdom who has an income of one hundred ducats or a palm's length of land; nor is there one who considers it a disgrace to be given two hundred lashes. They are a mercenary horde, accustomed to serve foreigners.
78. The kingdom inland, from what I have learned from men who know, is not so large, nor does it extend so far as they say—namely, that it requires a journey of seven months to reach the place where the king lives. There are about five hundred leagues of seacoast running north and south. It is wonderful to see the number of people and the eagerness that they display in their duties and occupations. Besides the ordinary tribute, they say that the king has a million paid soldiers to oppose the Tartars, at the wall[1] made by both nations. With this I send a Chinese map, from which one can learn something, although the Chinese are so barbarous, as will be seen from their papers.
79. In a letter from China, from the Ynçuanton (as they are barbarians, and the real information that they possess of us is that our numbers are but two hundred men), he states (I know not what the words are, but they mean "tribute"), that a present taken by the Chinese the past year, before my arrival, was
- ↑ The Great Wall of China was constructed during the reign of Hoangti, the second emperor of the Tsin dynasty (about 244 to 210 B. C.); it was built to protect the Chinese land from the invasions of the Tartar hordes on the west and north, among whom were those later known as Huns.
