ASIATIC NATIONS. iCl to the Fndian islands and China, as early as the ninth century at least, were the first to instruct the Chinese perhaps even in the route to the Indian islands, as the Europeans in later times shewed them the way to, or at least the advantages of, For- mosa and the Philippines. It is not improbable that the fleet in which Marco Polo sailed had Arabian pilots, even from its first setting out, and highly probable that such were obtained for the more dis- tant part of the voyage, that is, from Sumatra to the Persian Gulf, where the traveller himself says Arabs were settled, and carrying on a commerce with their native country.* Etymology comes in some degree to our assistance on this point. It is not by a Chinese name but an Arabian, or at least a Per- sian one, Chin, that the maritime part of the Chi- nese empire is known to the Indian islanders. It is a legitimate conclusion from this, — that whether the people of the west made the Indian islands
- Mr Marsden supposes the existence, in the fleet, of
these pilots, without drawing the same inference from it that I have done. " It should be observed," says he, " that the Per- lak of the Malays is pronounced Ferlak by the Arabs, who liave not the sound of P in their language; and, amongst the pilots of the fleet, it is probable there were many of that nation who were accustomed to trade to China from the Gulf of Persia and Muskat." — Marsden's Marco Polo, p. 601. VOL. III. I.
