The Travels of Marco Polo E-Book

Marco Polo

• Herausgeber: E-BOOKARAMA
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Marco Polo (1254 to January 8, 1324) was a Venetian explorer known for the book "The Travels of Marco Polo", which describes his voyage to and experiences in Asia. Polo traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295 and remaining in China for 17 of those years. 

Marco Polo’s stories about his travels in Asia were published as a book called " The Description of the World", later known as "The Travels of Marco Polo". Just a few years after returning to Venice from China, Marco commanded a ship in a war against the rival city of Genoa. He was eventually captured and sentenced to a Genoese prison, where he met a fellow prisoner and writer named Rustichello. As the two men became friends, Marco told Rustichello about his time in Asia, what he'd seen, where he'd travelled and what he'd accomplished.

The book made Marco a celebrity. It was printed in French, Italian and Latin, becoming the most popular read in Europe. But few readers allowed themselves to believe Marco's tale. They took it to be fiction, the construct of a man with a wild imagination. 

Leseprobe

Marco Polo

The Travels of Marco Polo

Table of contents

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO

Preface to Third Edition

Preface to Second Edition.

Original Preface.

Original Dedication

Marco Polo and his Book.

The Book of Marco Polo.

Book First.

Here the Book Begins; and First it Speaks of the Lesser Hermenia.

Concerning the Province of Turcomania.

Description of the Greater Hermenia.

Of Georgiania and the Kings Thereof.

Of the Kingdom of Mausul.

Of the Great City of Baudas, and How it was Taken.

How the Calif of Baudas Took Counsel to Slay All the Christians in His Land.

How the Christians Were in Great Dismay Because of what the Calif had Said.

How the One-Eyed Cobler was Desired to Pray for the Christians.

How the Prayer of the One-Eyed Cobler Caused the Mountain to Move.

Of the Noble City of Tauris.

Of the Monastery of St. Barsamo on the Borders of Tauris.

Of the Great Country of Persia; with Some Account of the Three Kings.

What Befell when the Three Kings Returned to Their Own Country.

Of the Eight Kingdoms of Persia, and How They are Named.

Concerning the Great City of Yasdi.

Concerning the Kingdom of Kerman.

Of the City of Camadi and its Ruins; Also Touching the Carauna Robbers.

Of the Descent to the City of Hormos.

Of the Wearisome and Desert Road that has Now to Be Travelled.

Concerning the City of Cobinan and the Things that are Made There.

Of a Certain Desert that Continues for Eight Days´ Journey.

Concerning the Old Man of the Mountain.

How the Old Man Used to Train His Assassins.

How the Old Man Came by His End.

Concerning the City of Sapurgan.

Of the City of Balc.

Of Taican, and the Mountains of Salt. Also of the Province of Casem.

Of the Province of Badashan.

Of the Province of Pashai

Of the Province of Keshimur.

Of the Great River of Badashan.

Of the Kingdom of Cascar.

Of the Great City of Samarcan.

Of the Province of Yarcan.

Of a Province Called Cotan.

Of the Province of Pein.

Of the Province of Charchan.

Of the City of Lop and the Great Desert.

Concerning the Great Province of Tangut.

Of the Province of Camul.

Of the Province of Chingintalas.

Of the Province of Sukchur.

Of the City of Campichu.

Of the City of Etzina.

Of the City of Caracoron.

Of Chinghis, and How he Became the First Kaan of the Tartars.

How Chinghis Mustered His People to March Against Prester John.

How Prester John Marched to Meet Chinghis.

The Battle Between Chinghis Kaan and Prester John.

Of Those who Did Reign After Chinghis Kaan, and of the Customs of the Tartars.

Concerning the Customs of the Tartars.

Concerning the God of the Tartars.

Concerning the Tartar Customs of War.

Concerning the Administering of Justice Among the Tartars.

Sundry Particulars of the Plain Beyond Caracoron.

Of the Kingdom of Erguiul, and Province of Sinju.

Of the Kingdom of Egrigaia.

Concerning the Province of Tenduc, and the Descendants of Prester John.

Concerning the Kaan´s Palace of Chagannor.

Of the City of Chandu, and the Kaan´s Palace There.

Book Second.

Of Cublay Kaan, the Great Kaan Now Reigning, and of His Great Puissance.

Concerning the Revolt of Nayan, who was Uncle to the Great Kaan Cublay.

How the Great Kaan Marched Against Nayan.

Of the Battle that the Great Kaan Fought with Nayan.

How the Great Kaan Caused Nayan to Be Put to Death.

How the Great Kaan Went Back to the City of Cambaluc.

How the Kaan Rewarded the Valour of His Captains.

Concerning the Person of the Great Kaan.

Concerning the Great Kaan´s Sons.

Concerning the Palace of the Great Kaan.

Concerning the City of Cambaluc.

How the Great Kaan Maintains a Guard of Twelve Thousand Horse, which are Called Keshican.

The Fashion of the Great Kaan´s Table at His High Feasts.

Concerning the Great Feast Held by the Grand Kaan Every Year on His Birthday.

Of the Great Festival which the Kaan Holds on New Year´s Day.

Concerning the Twelve Thousand Barons who Receive Robes of Cloth of Gold from the Emperor on the Great Festivals, Thirteen Changes a-Piece.

How the Great Kaan Enjoineth His People to Supply Him with Game.

Of the Lions and Leopards and Wolves that the Kaan Keeps for the Chase.

Concerning the Two Brothers who have Charge of the Kaan´s Hounds.

How the Emperor Goes on a Hunting Expedition.

Rehearsal of the Way the Year of the Great Kaan is Distributed.

Concerning the City of Cambaluc, and its Great Traffic and Population.

[Concerning the Oppressions of Achmath the Bailo, and the Plot that was Formed Against Him.]

How the Great Kaan Causeth the Bark of Trees, Made into Something Like Paper, to Pass for Money Over All His Country.

Concerning the Twelve Barons who are Set Over All the Affairs of the Great Kaan.

How the Kaan´s Posts and Runners are Sped Through Many Lands and Provinces.

How the Emperor Bestows Help on His People, when They are Afflicted with Dearth or Murrain.

How the Great Kaan Causes Trees to Be Planted by the Highways.

Concerning the Rice-Wine Drunk by the People of Cathay.

Concerning the Black Stones that are Dug in Cathay, and are Burnt for Fuel.

How the Great Kaan Causes Stores of Corn to Be Made, to Help His People Withal in Time of Dearth.

Of the Charity of the Emperor to the Poor.

[Concerning the Astrologers in the City of Cambaluc.]

Concerning the Religion of the Cathayans; Their Views as to the Soul; and Their Customs.

Part ii. Journey to the West and South-West of Cathay.

Account of the City of Juju.

The Kingdom of Taianfu.

Concerning the Castle of Caichu.

How Prester John Treated the Golden King His Prisoner.

Concerning the Great River Caramoran and the City of Cachanfu.

Concerning the City of Kenjanfu.

Concerning the Province of Cuncun, which is Right Wearisome to Travel Through.

Concerning the Province of Acbalec Manzi.

Concerning the Province and City of Sindafu.

Concerning the Province of Tebet.

Further Discourse Concerning Tebet.

Concerning the Province of Caindu.

Concerning the Province of Carajan.

Concerning a Further Part of the Province of Carajan.

Concerning the Province of Zardandan.

Wherein is Related How the King of Mien and Bangala Vowed Vengeance Against the Great Kaan.

Of the Battle that was Fought by the Great Kaan´s Host and His Seneschal, Against the King of Mien.

Of the Great Descent that Leads Towards the Kingdom of Mien.

Concerning the City of Mien, and the Two Towers that are Therein, One of Gold and the Other of Silver.

Concerning the Province of Bangala.

Discourses of the Province of Caugigu.

Concerning the Province of Anin.

Concerning the Province of Coloman.

Concerning the Province of Cuiju.

Part iii. Journey Southward Through Eastern Provinces of Cathay and Manzi.

Concerning the City of Chinangli, and that of Tadinfu, and the Rebellion of Litan.

Concerning the Noble City of Sinjumatu.

Concerning the Cities of Linju and Piju.

Concerning the City of Siju, and the Great River Caramoran.

How the Great Kaan Conquered the Province of Manzi.

Concerning the City of Coiganju.

Of the Cities of Paukin and Cayu.

Of the Cities of Tiju, Tinju, and Yanju.

Concerning the City of Nanghin.

Concerning the Very Noble City of Saianfu, and How its Capture was Effected.

Concerning the City of Sinju and the Great River Kian.

Concerning the City of Caiju.

Of the City of Chinghianfu.

Of the City of Chinginju and the Slaughter of Certain Alans There.

Of the Noble City of Suju.

Description of the Great City of Kinsay, which is the Capital of the Whole Country of Manzi.

[Further Particulars Concerning the Great City of Kinsay.]

Treating of the Great Yearly Revenue that the Great Kaan Hath from Kinsay.

Of the City of Tanpiju and Others.

Concerning the Kingdom of Fuju.

Concerning the Greatness of the City of Fuju.

Of the City and Great Haven of Zayton.

Book Third.

Of the Merchant Ships of Manzi that Sail Upon the Indian Seas.

Description of the Island of Chipangu, and the Great Kaan´s Despatch of a Host Against it.

What Further Came of the Great Kaan´s Expedition Against Chipangu.

Concerning the Fashion of the Idols.

Of the Great Country Called Chamba.

Concerning the Great Island of Java.

Wherein the Isles of Sondur and Condur are Spoken Of; and the Kingdom of Locac.

Of the Island Called Pentam, and the City Malaiur

Concerning the Island of Java the Less. The Kingdoms of Ferlec and Basma.

The Kingdoms of Samara and Dagroian.

Of the Kingdoms of Lambri and Fansur.

Concerning the Island of Necuveran.

Concerning the Island of Angamanain.

Concerning the Island of Seilan.

The Same Continued. The History of Sagamoni Borcan and the Beginning of Idolatry.

Concerning the Great Province of Maabar, which is Called India the Greater, and is on the Mainland.

Continues to Speak of the Province of Maabar.

Discoursing of the Place where Lieth the Body of St. Thomas the Apostle; and of the Miracles Thereof.

Concerning the Kingdom of Mutfili.

Concerning the Province of Lar whence the Brahmins Come.

Concerning the City of Cail.

Of the Kingdom of Coilum.

Of the Country Called Comari

Concerning the Kingdom of Eli.

Concerning the Kingdom of Melibar.

Concerning the Kingdom of Gozurat.

Concerning the Kingdom of Tana.

Concerning the Kingdom of Cambaet.

Concerning the Kingdom of Semenat.

Concerning the Kingdom of Kesmacoran.

Discourseth of the Two Islands Called Male and Female, and why They are So Called.

Concerning the Island of Scotra.

Concerning the Island of Madeigascar.

Concerning the Island of Zanghibar. A Word on India in General.

Treating of the Great Province of Abash which is Middle India, and is on the Mainland.

Concerning the Province of Aden.

Concerning the City of Esher.

Concerning the City of Dufar.

Concerning the Gulf of Calatu and the City So Called.

Returns to the City of Hormos Whereof We Spoke Formerly.

Book Fourth

Concerning Great Turkey.

Of Certain Battles that Were Fought by King Caidu Against the Armies of His Uncle the Great Kaan.

What the Great Kaan Said to the Mischief Done by Kaidu His Nephew.

Of the Exploits of King Caidu´s Valiant Daughter.

How Abaga Sent His Son Argon in Command Against King Caidu.

How Argon After the Battle Heard that His Father was Dead, and Went to Assume the Sovereignty as was His Right.

How Acomat Soldan Set Out with His Host Against His Nephew who was Coming to Claim the Throne that Belonged to Him,

How Argon Took Counsel with His Followers About Attacking His Uncle Acomat Soldan.

How the Barons of Argon Answered His Address.

The Message Sent by Argon to Acomat.

How Acomat Replied to Argon´s Message.

Of the Battle Between Argon and Acomat, and the Captivity of Argon.

How Argon was Delivered from Prison.

How Argon Got the Sovereignty at Last.

How Acomat was Taken Prisoner.

How Acomat was Slain by Order of His Nephew.

How Argon was Recognised as Sovereign.

How Kiacatu Seized the Sovereignty After Argon´s Death.

How Baidu Seized the Sovereignty After the Death of Kiacatu.

Concerning King Conchi who Rules the Far North.

Concerning the Land of Darkness.

Description of Rosia and its People. Province of Lac.

He Begins to Speak of the Straits of Constantinople, but Decides to Leave that Matter.

Concerning the Tartars of the Ponent and Their Lords.

Of the War that Arose Between Alau and Barca, and the Battles that They Fought.

How Barca and His Army Advanced to Meet Alau.

How Alau Addressed His Followers.

Of the Great Battle Between Alau and Barca.

How Totamangu was Lord of the Tartars of the Ponent.

Of the Second Message that Toctai Sent to Nogai, and His Reply.

How Toctai Marched Against Nogai.

How Toctai and Nogai Address Their People, and the Next Day Join Battle.

The Valiant Feats and Victory of King Nogai.

Conclusion.

"Geneaology of the House of Chinghiz, to end of Thirteenth Century".

"The Polo Families".

"Calendar of Documents Relating to Marco Polo and his Family".

"Comparative Specimens of Different Recensions of Polo´s Text."

"The Preface of Friar Pipino to his Latin Version of Marco Polo." (Circa 1315-1320.)

"Note of Mss. of Marco Polo so far as they are known."

"Diagram showing Filiation of Chief Mss. and Editions of Marco Polo."

"Bibliography of Marco Polo´s Book".

"Titles of Works which are cited by abbreviated References in this Book".

"Values of certain Moneys, Weights, and Measures, occurring in this Book".

"Sundry Supplementary Notes on Special Subjects". -(H.C.)

Index

Notes and Addenda to Sir Henry Yule´s Edition, Containing the Results of Recent Research and Discovery, By Henri Cordier

Preface

Introductory Notices.

Book First.

Book Second.

Part II. Journey to the West and South-West of Cathay.

Part III. Journey Southward Through Eastern Provinces of Cathay and Manzi.

Book Third.

Book Fourth.

Appendices.

Index

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO

Marco Polo

Preface to Third Edition

Little did I think, some thirty years ago, when I received a copy of the first edition of this grand work, that I should be one day entrusted with the difficult but glorious task of supervising the third edition. When the first edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo reached “Far Cathay,” it created quite a stir in the small circle of the learned foreigners, who then resided there, and became a starting-point for many researches, of which the results have been made use of partly in the second edition, and partly in the present. The Archimandrite PALLADIUS and Dr. E. BRETSCHNEIDER, at Peking, ALEX. WYLIE, at Shang-hai — friends of mine who have, alas! passed away, with the exception of the Right Rev. Bishop G. E. MOULE, of Hang-chau, the only survivor of this little group of hard-working scholars — were the first to explore the Chinese sources of information which were to yield a rich harvest into their hands.

When I returned home from China in 1876, I was introduced to Colonel HENRY YULE, at the India Office, by our common friend, Dr. REINHOLD ROST, and from that time we met frequently and kept up a correspondence which terminated only with the life of the great geographer, whose friend I had become. A new edition of the travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone, our “mutual friend,” in which Yule had taken the greatest interest, was dedicated by me to his memory. I knew that Yule contemplated a third edition of his Marco Polo, and all will regret that time was not allowed to him to complete this labour of love, to see it published. If the duty of bringing out the new edition of Marco Polo has fallen on one who considers himself but an unworthy successor of the first illustrious commentator, it is fair to add that the work could not have been entrusted to a more respectful disciple. Many of our tastes were similar; we had the same desire to seek the truth, the same earnest wish to be exact, perhaps the same sense of humour, and, what is necessary when writing on Marco Polo, certainly the same love for Venice and its history. Not only am I, with the late CHARLES SCHEFER, the founder and the editor of the Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographie depuis le XIII’e jusqu’à la fin du XVI’e siècle, but I am also the successor, at the Ecole des langues Orientales Vivantes, of G. PAUTHIER, whose book on the Venetian Traveller is still valuable, so the mantle of the last two editors fell upon my shoulders.

I therefore, gladly and thankfully, accepted Miss AMY FRANCIS YULE’S kind proposal to undertake the editorship of the third edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo, and I wish to express here my gratitude to her for the great honour she has thus done me. 1

Unfortunately for his successor, Sir Henry Yule, evidently trusting to his own good memory, left but few notes. These are contained in an interleaved copy obligingly placed at my disposal by Miss Yule, but I luckily found assistance from various other quarters. The following works have proved of the greatest assistance to me:— The articles of General HOUTUM-SCHINDLER in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and the excellent books of Lord CURZON and of Major P. MOLESWORTH SYKES on Persia, M. GRENARD’S account of DUTREUIL DE RHINS’ Mission to Central Asia, BRETSCHNEIDER’S and PALLADIUS’ remarkable papers on Mediaeval Travellers and Geography, and above all, the valuable books of the Hon. W. W. ROCKHILL on Tibet and Rubruck, to which the distinguished diplomatist, traveller, and scholar kindly added a list of notes of the greatest importance to me, for which I offer him my hearty thanks.

My thanks are also due to H.H. Prince ROLAND BONAPARTE, who kindly gave me permission to reproduce some of the plates of his Recueil de Documents de l’Epoque Mongole, to M. LÉOPOLD DELISLE, the learned Principal Librarian of the Bibliothèque Nationale, who gave me the opportunity to study the inventory made after the death of the Doge Marino Faliero, to the Count de SEMALLÉ, formerly French Chargé d’Affaires at Peking, who gave me for reproduction a number of photographs from his valuable personal collection, and last, not least, my old friend Comm. NICOLÒ BAROZZI, who continued to lend me the assistance which he had formerly rendered to Sir Henry Yule at Venice.

Since the last edition was published, more than twenty-five years ago, Persia has been more thoroughly studied; new routes have been explored in Central Asia, Karakorum has been fully described, and Western and South–Western China have been opened up to our knowledge in many directions. The results of these investigations form the main features of this new edition of Marco Polo. I have suppressed hardly any of Sir Henry Yule’s notes and altered but few, doing so only when the light of recent information has proved him to be in error, but I have supplemented them by what, I hope, will be found useful, new information. 2

Before I take leave of the kind reader, I wish to thank sincerely Mr. JOHN MURRAY for the courtesy and the care he has displayed while this edition was going through the press.

HENRI CORDIER. PARIS, 1st of October, 1902.

1 Miss Yule has written the Memoir of her father and the new Dedication. [Omitted from this edition.]

2 Paragraphs which have been altered are marked thus +; my own additions are placed between brackets [ ]. — H. C.

[Illustration:

“Now strike your Sailes yee jolly Mariners,

For we be come into a quiet Rode”. . . .

— THE FAERIE QUEENE, I. xii. 42.]

Preface to Second Edition.

The unexpected amount of favour bestowed on the former edition of this Work has been a great encouragement to the Editor in preparing this second one.

Not a few of the kind friends and correspondents who lent their aid before have continued it to the present revision. The contributions of Mr. A. WYLIE of Shang-hai, whether as regards the amount of labour which they must have cost him, or the value of the result, demand above all others a grateful record here. Nor can I omit to name again with hearty acknowledgment Signor Comm. G. BERCHET of Venice, the Rev. Dr. CALDWELL, Colonel (now Major–General) R. MACLAGAN, R.E., Mr. D. HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr. EDWARD THOMAS, F.R.S. (Corresponding Member of the Institute), and Mr. R. H. MAJOR.

But besides these old names, not a few new ones claim my thanks.

The Baron F. VON RICHTHOFEN, now President of the Geographical Society of Berlin, a traveller who not only has trodden many hundreds of miles in the footsteps of our Marco, but has perhaps travelled over more of the Interior of China than Marco ever did, and who carried to that survey high scientific accomplishments of which the Venetian had not even a rudimentary conception, has spontaneously opened his bountiful stores of new knowledge in my behalf. Mr. NEY ELIAS, who in 1872 traversed and mapped a line of upwards of 2000 miles through the almost unknown tracts of Western Mongolia, from the Gate in the Great Wall at Kalghan to the Russian frontier in the Altai, has done likewise. 1 To the Rev. G. MOULE, of the Church Mission at Hang-chau, I owe a mass of interesting matter regarding that once great and splendid city, the KINSAY of our Traveller, which has enabled me, I trust, to effect great improvement both in the Notes and in the Map, which illustrate that subject. And to the Rev. CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS, LL.D., of the English Presbyterian Mission at Amoy, I am scarcely less indebted. The learned Professor BRUUN, of Odessa, whom I never have seen, and have little likelihood of ever seeing in this world, has aided me with zeal and cordiality like that of old friendship. To Mr. ARTHUR BURNELL, Ph.D., of the Madras Civil Service, I am grateful for many valuable notes bearing on these and other geographical studies, and particularly for his generous communication of the drawing and photograph of the ancient Cross at St. Thomas’s Mount, long before any publication of that subject was made on his own account. My brother officer, Major OLIVER ST. JOHN, R.E., has favoured me with a variety of interesting remarks regarding the Persian chapters, and has assisted me with new data, very materially correcting the Itinerary Map in Kerman.

Mr. BLOCHMANN of the Calcutta Madrasa, Sir DOUGLAS FORSYTH, C.B., lately Envoy to Kashgar, M. de MAS LATRIE, the Historian of Cyprus, Mr. ARTHUR GROTE, Mr. EUGENE SCHUYLER of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, Dr. BUSHELL and Mr. W.F. MAYERS, of H.M.‘s Legation at Peking, Mr. G. PHILLIPS of Fuchau, Madame OLGA FEDTCHENKO, the widow of a great traveller too early lost to the world, Colonel KEATINGE, V.C., C.S.I., Major–General KEYES, C.B., Dr. GEORGE BIRDWOOD, Mr. BURGESS, of Bombay, my old and valued friend Colonel W. H. GREATHED, C.B., and the Master of Mediaeval Geography, M. D’AVEZAC himself, with others besides, have kindly lent assistance of one kind or another, several of them spontaneously, and the rest in prompt answer to my requests.

Having always attached much importance to the matter of illustrations, 2 I feel greatly indebted to the liberal action of Mr. Murray in enabling me largely to increase their number in this edition. Though many are original, we have also borrowed a good many; 3 a proceeding which seems to me entirely unobjectionable when the engravings are truly illustrative of the text, and not hackneyed.

I regret the augmented bulk of the volumes. There has been some excision, but the additions visibly and palpably preponderate. The truth is that since the completion of the first edition, just four years ago, large additions have been made to the stock of our knowledge bearing on the subjects of this Book; and how these additions have continued to come in up to the last moment, may be seen in Appendix L, 4 which has had to undergo repeated interpolation after being put in type. KARAKORUM, for a brief space the seat of the widest empire the world has known, has been visited; the ruins of SHANG-TU, the “Xanadu of Cublay Khan,” have been explored; PAMIR and TANGUT have been penetrated from side to side; the famous mountain Road of SHEN-SI has been traversed and described; the mysterious CAINDU has been unveiled; the publication of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier’s great work on the French Exploration of Indo–China has provided a mass of illustration of that YUN-NAN for which but the other day Marco Polo was well-nigh the most recent authority. Nay, the last two years have thrown a promise of light even on what seemed the wildest of Marco’s stories, and the bones of a veritable RUC from New Zealand lie on the table of Professor Owen’s Cabinet!

M. VIVIEN de St. MARTIN, during the interval of which we have been speaking, has published a History of Geography. In treating of Marco Polo, he alludes to the first edition of this work, most evidently with no intention of disparagement, but speaks of it as merely a revision of Marsden’s Book. The last thing I should allow myself to do would be to apply to a Geographer, whose works I hold in so much esteem, the disrespectful definition which the adage quoted in my former Preface 5 gives of the vir qui docet quod non sapit; but I feel bound to say that on this occasion M. Vivien de St. Martin has permitted himself to pronounce on a matter with which he had not made himself acquainted; for the perusal of the very first lines of the Preface (I will say nothing of the Book) would have shown him that such a notion was utterly unfounded.

In concluding these “forewords” I am probably taking leave of Marco Polo, 6 the companion of many pleasant and some laborious hours, whilst I have been contemplating with him (“ vôlti a levante”) that Orient in which I also had spent years not a few.

And as the writer lingered over this conclusion, his thoughts wandered back in reverie to those many venerable libraries in which he had formerly made search for mediaeval copies of the Traveller’s story; and it seemed to him as if he sate in a recess of one of these with a manuscript before him which had never till then been examined with any care, and which he found with delight to contain passages that appear in no version of the Book hitherto known. It was written in clear Gothic text, and in the Old French tongue of the early 14th century. Was it possible that he had lighted on the long-lost original of Ramusio’s Version? No; it proved to be different. Instead of the tedious story of the northern wars, which occupies much of our Fourth Book, there were passages occurring in the later history of Ser Marco, some years after his release from the Genoese captivity. They appeared to contain strange anachronisms certainly; but we have often had occasion to remark on puzzles in the chronology of Marco’s story! 7 And in some respects they tended to justify our intimated suspicion that he was a man of deeper feelings and wider sympathies than the book of Rusticiano had allowed to appear. 8 Perhaps this time the Traveller had found an amanuensis whose faculties had not been stiffened by fifteen years of Malapaga? 9 One of the most important passages ran thus:—

“Bien est voirs que, après ce que Messires Marc Pol avoit pris fame et si estoit demouré plusours ans de sa vie a Venysse, il avint que mourut Messires Mafés qui oncles Monseignour Marc estoit: (et mourut ausi ses granz chiens mastins qu’avoit amenei dou Catai, 10 et qui avoit non Bayan pour l’amour au bon chievetain Bayan Cent-iex); adonc n’avoit oncques puis Messires Marc nullui, fors son esclave Piere le Tartar, avecques lequel pouvoit penre soulas à s’entretenir de ses voiages et des choses dou Levant. Car la gent de Venysse si avoit de grant piesce moult anuy pris des loncs contes Monseignour Marc; et quand ledit Messires Marc issoit de l’uys sa meson ou Sain Grisostome, souloient li petit marmot es voies dariere-li courir en cryant Messer Marco Miliòn! cont’ a nu un busiòn! que veult dire en François ‘Messires Marcs des millions di-nous un de vos gros mensonges.’ En oultre, la Dame Donate fame anuyouse estoit, et de trop estroit esprit, et plainne de couvoitise. 11 Ansi avint que Messires Marc desiroit es voiages rantrer durement.

“Si se partist de Venisse et chevaucha aux parties d’occident. Et demoura mainz jours es contrées de Provence et de France et puys fist passaige aux Ysles de la tremontaingne et s’en retourna par la Magne, si comme vous orrez cy-après. Et fist-il escripre son voiage atout les devisements les contrées; mes de la France n’y parloit mie grantment pour ce que maintes genz la scevent apertement. Et pour ce en lairons atant, et commencerons d’autres choses, assavoir, de BRETAINGNE LA GRANT.”

Cy devyse dou roiaume de Bretaingne la grant.

“Et sachiés que quand l’en se part de Calés, et l’en nage XX ou XXX milles à trop grant mesaise, si treuve l’en une grandisme Ysle qui s’apelle Bretaingne la Grant. Elle est à une grant royne et n’en fait treuage à nulluy. Et ensevelissent lor mors, et ont monnoye de chartres et d’or et d’argent, et ardent pierres noyres, et vivent de marchandises et d’ars, et ont toutes choses de vivre en grant habondance mais non pas à bon marchié. Et c’est une Ysle de trop grant richesce, et li marinier de celle partie dient que c’est li plus riches royaumes qui soit ou monde, et qu’il y a li mieudre marinier dou monde et li mieudre coursier et li mieudre chevalier (ains ne chevauchent mais lonc com François). Ausi ont-il trop bons homes d’armes et vaillans durement (bien que maint n’y ait), et les dames et damoseles bonnes et loialles, et belles com lys souef florant. Et quoi vous en diroie-je? Il y a citez et chasteau assez, et tant de marchéanz et si riches qui font venir tant d’avoir-depoiz et de toute espece de marchandise qu’il n’est hons qui la verité en sceust dire. Font venir d’Ynde et d’autres parties coton a grant planté, et font venir soye de Manzi et de Bangala, et font venir laine des ysles de la Mer Occeane et de toutes parties. Et si labourent maintz bouquerans et touailles et autres draps de coton et de laine et de soye. Encores sachiés que ont vaines d’acier assez, et si en labourent trop soubtivement de tous hernois de chevalier, et de toutes choses besoignables à ost; ce sont espées et glaive et esperon et heaume et haches, et toute espèce d arteillerie et de coutelerie, et en font grant gaaigne et grant marchandise. Et en font si grant habondance que tout li mondes en y puet avoir et à bon marchié”.

Encores cy devise dou dyt roiaume, et de ce qu’en dist Messires Marcs.

“Et sachiés que tient icelle Royne la seigneurie de l’Ynde majeure et de Mutfili et de Bangala, et d’une moitié de Mien. Et moult est saige et noble dame et pourvéans, si que est elle amée de chascun. Et avoit jadis mari; et depuys qu’il mourut bien XIV ans avoit; adonc la royne sa fame l’ama tant que oncques puis ne se voult marier a nullui, pour l’amour le prince son baron, ançois moult maine quoye vie. Et tient son royaume ausi bien ou miex que oncques le tindrent li roy si aioul. Mes ores en ce royaume li roy n’ont guieres pooir, ains la poissance commence a trespasser à la menue gent Et distrent aucun marinier de celes parties à Monseignour Marc que hui-et-le jour li royaumes soit auques abastardi come je vous diroy. Car bien est voirs que ci-arrières estoit ciz pueple de Bretaingne la Grant bonne et granz et loialle gent qui servoit Diex moult volontiers selonc lor usaige; et tuit li labour qu’il labouroient et portoient a vendre estoient honnestement labouré, et dou greigneur vaillance, et chose pardurable; et se vendoient à jouste pris sanz barguignier. En tant que se aucuns labours portoit l’estanpille Bretaingne la Grant c’estoit regardei com pleges de bonne estoffe. Mes orendroit li labours n’est mie tousjourz si bons; et quand l’en achate pour un quintal pesant de toiles de coton, adonc, par trop souvent, si treuve l’en de chascun C pois de coton, bien XXX ou XL pois de plastre de gifs, ou de blanc d’Espaigne, ou de choses semblables. Et se l’en achate de cammeloz ou de tireteinne ou d’autre dras de laine, cist ne durent mie, ains sont plain d’empoise, ou de glu et de balieures.

“Et bien qu’il est voirs que chascuns hons egalement doit de son cors servir son seigneur ou sa commune, pour aler en ost en tens de besoingne; et bien que trestuit li autre royaume d’occident tieingnent ce pour ordenance, ciz pueple de Bretaingne la Grant n’en veult nullement, ains si dient: ‘Veez-là: n’avons nous pas la Manche pour fossé de nostre pourpris, et pourquoy nous penerons-nous pour nous faire homes d’armes, en lessiant nos gaaignes et nos soulaz? Cela lairons aus soudaiers.’ Or li preudhome entre eulx moult scevent bien com tiex paroles sont nyaises; mes si ont paour de lour en dire la verité pour ce que cuident desplaire as bourjois et à la menue gent.

“Or je vous di sanz faille que, quand Messires Marcs Pols sceust ces choses, moult en ot pitié de cestui pueple, et il li vint à remembrance ce que avenu estoit, ou tens Monseignour Nicolas et Monseignour Mafé, à l’ore quand Alau, frère charnel dou Grant Sire Cublay, ala en ost seur Baudas, et print le Calife et sa maistre cité, atout son vaste tresor d’or et d’argent, et l’amère parolle que dist ledit Alau au Calife, com l’a escripte li Maistres Rusticiens ou chief de cestui livre. 12

“Car sachiés tout voirement que Messires Marc moult se deleitoit à faire appert combien sont pareilles au font les condicions des diverses regions dou monde, et soloit-il clorre son discours si disant en son language de Venisse: ‘Sto mondo xe fato tondo, com uzoit dire mes oncles Mafés.’

“Ore vous lairons à conter de ceste matière et retournerons à parler de la Loy des genz de Bretaingne la Grant.

Cy devise des diverses créances de la gent Bretaingne la Grant et de ce qu’en cuidoit Messires Marcs.

“Il est voirs que li pueples est Crestiens, mes non pour le plus selonc la foy de l’Apostoille Rommain, ains tiennent le en mautalent assez. Seulement il y en a aucun qui sont féoil du dit Apostoille et encore plus forment que li nostre prudhome de Venisse. Car quand dit li Papes: ‘Telle ou telle chose est noyre,’ toute ladite gent si en jure: ‘Noyre est com poivre.’ Et puis se dira li Papes de la dite chose: ‘Elle est blanche,’ si en jurera toute ladite gent: ‘Il est voirs qu’elle est blanche; blanche est com noifs.’ Et dist Messires Marc Pol: ‘Nous n’avons nullement tant de foy à Venyse, ne li prudhome de Florence non plus, com l’en puet savoir bien apertement dou livre Monseignour Dantès Aldiguiere, que j’ay congneu a Padoe le meisme an que Messires Thibault de Cepoy à Venisse estoit. 13 Mes c’est joustement ce que j’ay veu autre foiz près le Grant Bacsi qui est com li Papes des Ydres.’

“Encore y a une autre manière de gent; ce sont de celz qui s’appellent filsoufes; 14 et si il disent: ‘S’il y a Diex n’en scavons nul, mes il est voirs qu’il est une certeinne courance des choses laquex court devers le bien.’ Et fist Messires Marcs: ‘Encore la créance des Bacsi qui dysent que n’y a ne Diex Eternel ne Juge des homes, ains il est une certeinne chose laquex s’apelle Kerma.’ 15

“Une autre foiz avint que disoit un des filsoufes à Monseignour Marc: ‘Diex n’existe mie jeusqu’ores, ainçois il se fait desorendroit.’ Et fist encore Messires Marcs: ‘Veez-là, une autre foiz la créance des ydres, car dient que li seuz Diex est icil hons qui par force de ses vertuz et de son savoir tant pourchace que d’home il se face Diex presentement. Et li Tartar l’appelent Borcan. Tiex Diex Sagamoni Borcan estoit, dou quel parle li livres Maistre Rusticien.’ 16

“Encore ont une autre manière de filsoufes, et dient-il: ‘Il n’est mie ne Diex ne Kerma ne courance vers le bien, ne Providence, ne Créerres, ne Sauvours, ne sainteté ne pechiés ne conscience de pechié, ne proyère ne response à proyère, il n’est nulle riens fors que trop minime grain ou paillettes qui ont à nom atosmes, et de tiex grains devient chose qui vive, et chose qui vive devient une certeinne creature qui demoure au rivaige de la Mer: et ceste creature devient poissons, et poissons devient lezars, et lezars devient blayriaus, et blayriaus devient gat-maimons, et gat-maimons devient hons sauvaiges qui menjue char d’homes, et hons sauvaiges devient hons crestien.’

“Et dist Messires Marc: ‘Encore une foiz, biaus sires, li Bacsi de Tebet et de Kescemir et li prestre de Seilan, qui si dient que l’arme vivant doie trespasser par tous cez changes de vestemens; si com se treuve escript ou livre Maistre Rusticien que Sagamoni Borcan mourut iiij vint et iiij foiz et tousjourz resuscita, et à chascune foiz d’une diverse manière de beste, et à la derreniere foyz mourut hons et devint diex, selonc ce qu’il dient.’ 17 Et fist encore Messires Marc: ‘A moy pert-il trop estrange chose se juesques à toutes les créances des ydolastres deust dechéoir ceste grantz et saige nation. Ainsi peuent jouer Misire li filsoufe atout lour propre perte, mes à l’ore quand tiex fantaisies se respanderont es joenes bacheliers et parmy la menue gent, celz averont pour toute Loy manducemus et bibamus, cras enim moriemur; et trop isnellement l’en raccomencera la descente de l’eschiele, et d’home crestien deviendra hons sauvaiges, et d’home sauvaige gat-maimons, et de gat-maimon blayriaus.’ Et fist encores Messires Marc: ‘Maintes contrées et provinces et ysles et citéz je Marc Pol ay veues et de maintes genz de maintes manières ay les condicionz congneues, et je croy bien que il est plus assez dedens l’univers que ce que li nostre prestre n’y songent. Et puet bien estre, biaus sires, que li mondes n’a estés creés à tous poinz com nous creiens, ains d’une sorte encore plus merveillouse. Mes cil n’amenuise nullement nostre pensée de Diex et de sa majesté, ains la fait greingnour. Et contrée n’ay veue ou Dame Diex ne manifeste apertement les granz euvres de sa tout-poissante saigesse; gent n’ay congneue esquiex ne se fait sentir li fardels de pechié, et la besoingne de Phisicien des maladies de l’arme tiex com est nostre Seignours Ihesus Crist, Beni soyt son Non. Pensez doncques à cel qu’a dit uns de ses Apostres: Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmet ipsos; et uns autres: Quoniam multi pseudo-prophetae exierint; et uns autres: Quod benient in nobissimis diebus illusores . . . dicentes, Ubi est promissio? et encores aus parolles que dist li Signours meismes: Vide ergo ne lumen quod in te est tenebrae sint.

Commant Messires Marcs se partist de l’ysle de Bretaingne et de la proyère que fist.

“Et pourquoy vous en feroie-je lonc conte? Si print nef Messires Marcs et se partist en nageant vers la terre ferme. Or Messires Marc Pol moult ama cel roiaume de Bretaingne la grant pour son viex renon et s’ancienne franchise, et pour sa saige et bonne Royne (que Diex gart), et pour les mainz homes de vaillance et bons chaceours et les maintes bonnes et honnestes dames qui y estoient. Et sachiés tout voirement que en estant delez le bort la nef, et en esgardant aus roches blanches que l’en par dariere-li lessoit, Messires Marc prieoit Diex, et disoit-il: ‘Ha Sires Diex ay merci de cestuy vieix et noble royaume; fay-en pardurable forteresse de liberté et de joustice, et garde-le de tout meschief de dedens et de dehors; donne à sa gent droit esprit pour ne pas Diex guerroyer de ses dons, ne de richesce ne de savoir; et conforte-les fermement en ta foy’. . . . ”

A loud Amen seemed to peal from without, and the awakened reader started to his feet. And lo! it was the thunder of the winter-storm crashing among the many-tinted crags of Monte Pellegrino — with the wind raging as it knows how to rage here in sight of the Isles of Aeolus, and the rain dashing on the glass as ruthlessly as it well could have done, if, instead of Aeolic Isles and many-tinted crags, the window had fronted a dearer shore beneath a northern sky, and looked across the grey Firth to the rain-blurred outline of the Lomond Hills.

But I end, saying to Messer Marco’s prayer, Amen.

PALERMO, 31st December, 1874.

1 It would be ingratitude if this Preface contained no acknowledgment of the medals awarded to the writer, mainly for this work, by the Royal Geographical Society, and by the Geographical Society of Italy, the former under the Presidence of Sir Henry Rawlinson, the latter under that of the Commendatore C. Negri. Strongly as I feel the too generous appreciation of these labours implied in such awards, I confess to have been yet more deeply touched and gratified by practical evidence of the approval of the two distinguished Travellers mentioned above; as shown by Baron von Richthofen in his spontaneous proposal to publish a German version of the book under his own immediate supervision (a project in abeyance, owing to circumstances beyond his or my control); by Mr. Ney Elias in the fact of his having carried these ponderous volumes with him on his solitary journey across the Mongolian wilds!

2 I am grateful to Mr. de Khanikoff for his especial recognition of these in a kindly review of the first edition in the Academy.

3 Especially from Lieutenant Garnier’s book, mentioned further on; the only existing source of illustration for many chapters of Polo.

4 [Merged into the notes of the present edition. — H. C.]

5 See page xxix.

6 Writing in Italy, perhaps I ought to write, according to too prevalent modern Italian custom, Polo Marco. I have already seen, and in the work of a writer of reputation, the Alexandrian geographer styled Tolomeo Claudio! and if this preposterous fashion should continue to spread, we shall in time have Tasso Torquato, Jonson Ben, Africa explored by Park Mungo, Asia conquered by Lane Tamer, Copperfield David by Dickens Charles, Homer Englished by Pope Alexander, and the Roman history done into French from the original of Live Tite!

7 Introduction p. 24, and passim in the notes.

8 Ibid., p. 112.

9 See Introduction, pp. 51, 57.

10 See Title of present volumes.

11 Which quite agrees with the story of the document quoted at p. 77 of Introduction.

12 Vol. i. p. 64, and p. 67.

13 I.e. 1306; see Introduction, pp. 68–69.

14 The form which Marco gives to this word was probably a reminiscence of the Oriental corruption failsúf. It recalls to my mind a Hindu who was very fond of the word, and especially of applying it to certain of his fellow-servants. But as he used it, bara failsúf — “great philosopher”— meant exactly the same as the modern slang “ Artful Dodger”!

15 See for the explanation of Karma, “the power that controls the universe,” in the doctrine of atheistic Buddhism, Hardy’s Eastern Monachism, p. 5.

16 Vol. ii. p. 316 (see also i. 348).

17 Vol. ii. pp. 318–319.

Original Preface.

The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance with the mediaeval geography of some parts of Asia, which was acquired during the compilation of a work of kindred character for the Hakluyt Society, 1 could hardly fail to suggest as a fresh labour in the same field the preparation of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one kindly critic (in the Examiner) laid it upon the writer as a duty to undertake that task.

Though at least one respectable English edition has appeared since Marsden’s, 2 the latter has continued to be the standard edition, and maintains not only its reputation but its market value. It is indeed the work of a sagacious, learned, and right-minded man, which can never be spoken of otherwise than with respect. But since Marsden published his quarto (1818) vast stores of new knowledge have become available in elucidation both of the contents of Marco Polo’s book and of its literary history. The works of writers such as Klaproth, Abel Rémusat, D’Avezac, Reinaud, Quatremère, Julien, I. J. Schmidt, Gildemeister, Ritter, Hammer–Purgstall, Erdmann, D’Ohsson, Defrémery, Elliot, Erskine, and many more, which throw light directly or incidentally on Marco Polo, have, for the most part, appeared since then. Nor, as regards the literary history of the book, were any just views possible at a time when what may be called the Fontal MSS. (in French) were unpublished and unexamined.

Besides the works which have thus occasionally or incidentally thrown light upon the Traveller’s book, various editions of the book itself have since Marsden’s time been published in foreign countries, accompanied by comments of more or less value. All have contributed something to the illustration of the book or its history; the last and most learned of the editors, M. Pauthier, has so contributed in large measure. I had occasion some years ago 3 to speak freely my opinion of the merits and demerits of M. Pauthier’s work; and to the latter at least I have no desire to recur here.

Another of his critics, a much more accomplished as well as more favourable one, 4 seems to intimate the opinion that there would scarcely be room in future for new commentaries. Something of the kind was said of Marsden’s at the time of its publication. I imagine, however, that whilst our libraries endure the Iliad will continue to find new translators, and Marco Polo — though one hopes not so plentifully — new editors.

The justification of the book’s existence must however be looked for, and it is hoped may be found, in the book itself, and not in the Preface. The work claims to be judged as a whole, but it may be allowable, in these days of scanty leisure, to indicate below a few instances of what is believed to be new matter in an edition of Marco Polo; by which however it is by no means intended that all such matter is claimed by the editor as his own. 5

From the commencement of the work it was felt that the task was one which no man, though he were far better equipped and much more conveniently situated than the present writer, could satisfactorily accomplish from his own resources, and help was sought on special points wherever it seemed likely to be found. In scarcely any quarter was the application made in vain. Some who have aided most materially are indeed very old and valued friends; but to many others who have done the same the applicant was unknown; and some of these again, with whom the editor began correspondence on this subject as a stranger, he is happy to think that he may now call friends.

To none am I more indebted than to the Comm. GUGLIELMO BERCHET, of Venice, for his ample, accurate, and generous assistance in furnishing me with Venetian documents, and in many other ways. Especial thanks are also due to Dr. WILLIAM LOCKHART, who has supplied the materials for some of the most valuable illustrations; to Lieutenant FRANCIS GARNIER, of the French Navy. the gallant and accomplished leader (after the death of Captain Doudart de la Grée) of the memorable expedition up the Mekong to Yun-nan; to the Rev. Dr. CALDWELL, of the S.P.G. Mission in Tinnevelly, for copious and valuable notes on Southern India; to my friends Colonel ROBERT MACLAGAN, R.E., Sir ARTHUR PHAYRE, and Colonel HENRY MAN, for very valuable notes and other aid; to Professor A. SCHIEFNER, of St. Petersburg, for his courteous communication of very interesting illustrations not otherwise accessible; to Major–General ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM, of my own corps, for several valuable letters; to my friends Dr. THOMAS OLDHAM, Director of the Geological Survey of India, Mr. DANIEL HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr. EDWARD THOMAS, Mr. JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S., Sir BARTLE FRERE, and Dr. HUGH CLEGHORN, for constant interest in the work and readiness to assist its progress; to Mr. A. WYLIE, the learned Agent of the B. and F. Bible Society at Shang-hai, for valuable help; to the Hon. G. P. MARSH, U.S. Minister at the Court of Italy, for untiring kindness in the communication of his ample stores of knowledge, and of books. I have also to express my obligations to Comm. NICOLÒ BAROZZI, Director of the City Museum at Venice, and to Professor A. S. MINOTTO, of the same city; to Professor ARMINIUS VÁMBÉRY, the eminent traveller; to Professor FLÜCKIGER of Bern; to the Rev. H. A. JAESCHKE, of the Moravian Mission in British Tibet; to Colonel LEWIS PELLY, British Resident in the Persian Gulf; to Pandit MANPHUL, C.S.I. (for a most interesting communication on Badakhshan); to my brother officer, Major T. G. MONTGOMERIE, R.E., of the Indian Trigonometrical Survey; to Commendatore NEGRI the indefatigable President of the Italian Geographical Society; to Dr. ZOTENBERG, of the Great Paris Library, and to M. CH. MAUNOIR, Secretary–General of the Société de Géographie; to Professor HENRY GIGLIOI, at Florence; to my old friend Major–General ALBERT FYTCHE, Chief Commissioner of British Burma; to DR. ROST and DR. FORBES-WATSON, of the India Office Library and Museum; to Mr. R. H. MAJOR, and Mr. R. K. DOUGLAS, of the British Museum; to Mr. N. B. DENNYS, of Hong-kong; and to Mr. C. GARDNER, of the Consular Establishment in China. There are not a few others to whom my thanks are equally due; but it is feared that the number of names already mentioned may seem ridiculous, compared with the result, to those who do not appreciate from how many quarters the facts needful for a work which in its course intersects so many fields required to be collected, one by one. I must not, however, omit acknowledgments to the present Earl of DERBY for his courteous permission, when at the head of the Foreign Office, to inspect Mr. Abbott’s valuable unpublished Report upon some of the Interior Provinces of Persia; and to Mr. T. T. COOPER, one of the most adventurous travellers of modern times, for leave to quote some passages from his unpublished diary.

Palermo, 31st December, 1870.

1Cathay and The Way Thither, being a Collection of Minor Medieval Notices of China. London, 1866. The necessities of the case have required the repetition in the present work of the substance of some notes already printed (but hardly published) in the other.

2 Viz. Mr. Hugh Murray’s. I mean no disrespect to Mr. T. Wright’s edition, but it is, and professes to be, scarcely other than a reproduction of Marsden’s, with abridgment of his notes.

3 In the Quarterly Review for July, 1868.

4 M. Nicolas Khanikoff.

5 In the Preliminary Notices will be found new matter on the Personal and Family History of the Traveller, illustrated by Documents; and a more elaborate attempt than I have seen elsewhere to classify and account for the different texts of the work, and to trace their mutual relation.

As regards geographical elucidations, I may point to the explanation of the name Gheluchelan (i. p. 58), to the discussion of the route from Kerman to Hormuz, and the identification of the sites of Old Hormuz, of Cobinan and Dogana, the establishment of the position and continued existence of Keshm, the note on Pein and Charchan, on Gog and Magog, on the geography of the route from Sindafu to Carajan, on Anin and Coloman, on Mutafili, Cail, and Ely.

As regards historical illustrations, I would cite the notes regarding the Queens Bolgana and Cocachin, on the Karaunahs, etc., on the title of King of Bengal applied to the K. of Burma, and those bearing upon the Malay and Abyssinian chronologies.

In the interpretation of outlandish phrases, I may refer to the notes on Ondanique, Nono, Barguerlac, Argon, Sensin, Keshican, Toscaol, Bularguchi, Gat-paul, etc.

Among miscellaneous elucidations, to the disquisition on the Arbre Sol or Sec in vol. i., and to that on Mediaeval Military Engines in vol. ii.

In a variety of cases it has been necessary to refer to Eastern languages for pertinent elucidations or etymologies. The editor would, however, be sorry to fall under the ban of the mediaeval adage:

“ Vir qui docet quod non sapit

Definitur Bestia!”

and may as well reprint here what was written in the Preface to Cathay:

I am painfully sensible that in regard to many subjects dealt with in the following pages, nothing can make up for the want of genuine Oriental learning. A fair familiarity with Hindustani for many years, and some reminiscences of elementary Persian, have been useful in their degree; but it is probable that they may sometimes also have led me astray, as such slender lights are apt to do.

Original Dedication

[ Original Dedication.]

TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, MARGHERITA, Princess of Piedmont, THIS ENDEAVOUR TO ILLUSTRATE THE LIFE AND WORK OF A RENOWNED ITALIAN IS BY HER ROYAL HIGHNESS’S GRACIOUS PERMISSION Dedicated WITH THE DEEPEST RESPECT BY

H. YULE.

Marco Polo and his Book.

Introductory Notices.

I. Obscurities in the History of His Life and Book. Ramusio’s Statements.

Illustration: Doorway of the House of Marco Polo in the Corte Sabbionera, at Venice

Obscurities of Polo’s Book, and personal History.]

1. With all the intrinsic interest of Marco Polo’s Book it may perhaps be doubted if it would have continued to exercise such fascination on many minds through succesive generations were it not for the difficult questions which it suggests. It is a great book of puzzles, whilst our confidence in the man’s veracity is such that we feel certain every puzzle has a solution.

And such difficulties have not attached merely to the identification of places, the interpretation of outlandish terms, or the illustration of obscure customs; for strange entanglements have perplexed also the chief circumstances of the Traveller’s life and authorship. The time of the dictation of his Book and of the execution of his Last Will have been almost the only undisputed epochs in his biography. The year of his birth has been contested, and the date of his death has not been recorded; the critical occasion of his capture by the Genoese, to which we seem to owe the happy fact that he did not go down mute to the tomb of his fathers, has been made the subject of chronological difficulties; there are in the various texts of his story variations hard to account for; the very tongue in which it was written down has furnished a question, solved only in our own age, and in a most unexpected manner.

Ramusio, his earliest biographer. His account of Polo.]

2. The first person who attempted to gather and string the facts of Marco Polo’s personal history was his countryman, the celebrated John Baptist Ramusio. His essay abounds in what we now know to be errors of detail, but, prepared as it was when traditions of the Traveller were still rife in Venice, a genuine thread runs through it which could never have been spun in later days, and its presentation seems to me an essential element in any full discourse upon the subject.

Ramusio’s preface to the Book of Marco Polo, which opens the second volume of his famous Collection of Voyages and Travels, and is addressed to his learned friend Jerome Fracastoro, after referring to some of the most noted geographers of antiquity, proceeds: 1 —

“Of all that I have named, Ptolemy, as the latest, possessed the greatest extent of knowledge. Thus, towards the North, his knowledge carries him beyond the Caspian, and he is aware of its being shut in all round like a lake — a fact which was unknown in the days of Strabo and Pliny, though the Romans were already lords of the world. But though his knowledge extends so far, a tract of 15 degrees beyond that sea he can describe only as Terra Incognita; and towards the South he is fain to apply the same character to all beyond the Equinoxial. In these unknown regions, as regards the South, the first to make discoveries have been the Portuguese captains of our own age; but as regards the North and North–East the discoverer was the Magnifico Messer Marco Polo, an honoured nobleman of Venice, nearly 300 years since, as may be read more fully in his own Book. And in truth it makes one marvel to consider the immense extent of the journeys made, first by the Father and Uncle of the said Messer Marco, when they proceeded continually towards the East–North-East, all the way to the Court of the Great Can and the Emperor of the Tartars; and afterwards again by the three of them when, on their return homeward, they traversed the Eastern and Indian Seas. Nor is that all, for one marvels also how the aforesaid gentleman was able to give such an orderly description of all that he had seen; seeing that such an accomplishment was possessed by very few in his day, and he had had a large part of his nurture among those uncultivated Tartars, without any regular training in the art of composition. His Book indeed, owing to the endless errors and inaccuracies that had crept into it, had come for many years to be regarded as fabulous; and the opinion prevailed that the names of cities and provinces contained therein were all fictitious and imaginary, without any ground in fact, or were (I might rather say) mere dreams.

Ramusio vindicates Polo’s Geography.]

3. “Howbeit, during the last hundred years, persons acquainted with Persia have begun to recognise the existence of Cathay. The voyages of the Portuguese also towards the North–East, beyond the Golden Chersonese, have brought to knowledge many cities and provinces of India, and many islands likewise, with those very names which our Author applies to them; and again, on reaching the Land of China, they have ascertained from the people of that region (as we are told by Sign. John de Barros, a Portuguese gentleman, in his Geography) that Canton, one of the chief cities of that kingdom, is in 30–2/3° of latitude, with the coast running N.E. and S.W.; that after a distance of 275 leagues the said coast turns towards the N.W.; and that there are three provinces along the sea-board, Mangi, Zanton, and Quinzai, the last of which is the principal city and the King’s Residence, standing in 46° of latitude. And proceeding yet further the coast attains to 50°. 2 Seeing then how many particulars are in our day becoming known of that part of the world concerning which Messer Marco has written, I have deemed it reasonable to publish his book, with the aid of several copies written (as I judge) more than 200 years ago, in a perfectly accurate form, and one vastly more faithful than that in which it has been heretofore read. And thus the world shall not lose the fruit that may be gathered from so much diligence and industry expended upon so honourable a branch of knowledge.”

4. Ramusio, then, after a brief apologetic parallel of the marvels related by Polo with those related by the Ancients and by the modern discoverers in the West, such as Columbus and Cortes, proceeds:—

Ramusio compares Polo with Columbus.]

And often in my own mind, comparing the land explorations of these our Venetian gentlemen with the sea explorations of the aforesaid Signor Don Christopher, I have asked myself which of the two were really the more marvellous. And if patriotic prejudice delude me not, methinks good reason might be adduced for setting the land journey above the sea voyage. Consider only what a height of courage was needed to undertake and carry through so difficult an enterprise, over a route of such desperate length and hardship, whereon it was sometimes necessary to carry food for the supply of man and beast, not for days only but for months together. Columbus, on the other hand, going by sea, readily carried with him all necessary provision; and after a voyage of some 30 or 40 days was conveyed by the wind whither he desired to go, whilst the Venetians again took a whole year’s time to pass all those great deserts and mighty rivers. Indeed that the difficulty of travelling to Cathay was so much greater than that of reaching the New World, and the route so much longer and more perilous, may be gathered from the fact that, since those gentlemen twice made this journey, no one from Europe has dared to repeat it, 3 whereas in the very year following the discovery of the Western Indies many ships immediately retraced the voyage thither, and up to the present day continue to do so, habitually and in countless numbers. Indeed those regions are now so well known, and so thronged by commerce, that the traffic between Italy, Spain, and England is not greater.

Recounts a tradition of the travellers’ return to Venice.]

5. Ramusio goes on to explain the light regarding the first part or prologue of Marco Polo’s book that he had derived from a recent piece of luck which had made him partially acquainted with the geography of Abulfeda, and to make a running commentary on the whole of the preliminary narrative until the final return of the travellers to Venice:—