Note note 2, ch. lxxxii — Chapter LXXXII

Note 2.—When Marco says Zayton is one of the two greatest commercial ports in the world, I know not if he has another haven in his eye, or is only using an idiom of the age. For in like manner Friar Odoric calls Java “the second best of all Islands that exist”; and Kansan (or Shen-si) the “second best province in the world, and the best populated.” But apart from any such idiom, Ibn Batuta pronounces Zayton to be the greatest haven in the world.