Note {6} — Chapter I

Note 6.—The Chinese sea-going vessels of those days were apparently larger than was at all common in European navigation. Marco here speaks of 200 (or in Ramusio up to 300) mariners, a large crew indeed for a merchant vessel, but not so great as is implied in Odoric’s statement, that the ship in which he went from India to China had 700 souls on board. The numbers carried by Chinese junks are occasionally still enormous. “In February, 1822, Captain Pearl, of the English ship Indiana, coming through Caspar Straits, fell in with the cargo and crew of a wrecked junk, and saved 198 persons out of 1600, with whom she had left Amoy, whom he landed at Pontianak. This humane act cost him 11,000l.” (Quoted by Williams from Chin. Rep. VI. 149.)