MARCO POLO.
Born 1250.—Died 1324.
Born 1250.—Died 1324.
Born 1250.—Died 1324.
Therelations of Ascelin, Carpini, and Rubruquis, which are supposed by some writers to have opened the way to the discoveries of the Polo family, are by no means entitled to so high an honour. Carpini did not return to Italy until the latter end of the year 1248; Ascelin’s return was still later; and although reports of the strange things they had beheld no doubt quickly reached Venice, these cannot be supposed to have exercised any very powerful influence in determining Nicolo and Maffio to undertake a voyage to Constantinople, the original place of their destination, from whence they were accidentally led on into the extremities of Tartary. With respect to Rubruquis, he commenced his undertaking three years after their departure from Venice, while they were in Bokhāra; and before his return to Palestine they had already penetrated into Cathay. The influence of the relations of these monks upon the movements of the Polos is therefore imaginary.
Nicolo and Maffio Polo, two noble Venetians engaged in commerce, having freighted a vessel with rich merchandise, sailed from Venice in the year 1250. Traversing the Mediterranean and the Bosphorus, they arrived in safety at Constantinople, Baldwin II. being then Emperor of the East. Here they disposed of their cargo, and purchasing rich jewels with the proceeds, crossed the Black Sea to Soldain, or Sudak, in the Crimea, from whence they travelled by land to the court of Barkah Khan, a Tartar prince, whose principal residences were the cities of Al-Serai, and Bolghar. To this khan theypresented a number of their finest jewels, receiving gifts of still greater value in return. When they had spent a whole year in the dominions of Barkah, and were beginning to prepare for their return to Italy, hostilities suddenly broke out between the khan and his cousin Holagon; which, rendering unsafe all passages to the west, compelled them to make the circuit of the northern and eastern frontiers of Kipjak. Having escaped from the scene of war they crossed Gihon, and then traversing a desert of seventeen days’ journey, thinly sprinkled with the tents of the wandering tribes, they arrived at Bokhāra. Here they remained three years. At the termination of this period an ambassador from Holagon to Kublai Khan passing through Bokhāra, and happening accidentally to meet with the Polos, who had by this time acquired a competent knowledge of the Tartar language, was greatly charmed with their conversation and manners, and by much persuasion and many magnificent promises prevailed upon them to accompany him to Cambalu, or Khanbalik, in Cathay. A whole year was consumed in this journey. At length, however, they arrived at the court of the Great Khan, who received and treated them with peculiar distinction.
How long the brothers remained at Cambalu is not known; but their residence, whatever may have been its length, sufficed to impress Kublai Khan with an exalted opinion of their honour and capacity, so that when by the advice of his courtiers he determined on sending an embassy to the pope, Nicolo and Maffio were intrusted with the conduct of the mission. They accordingly departed from Cambalu, furnished with letters for the head of the Christian church, a passport or tablet of gold, empowering them to provide themselves with guides, horses, and provisions throughout the khan’s dominions, and accompanied by a Tartar nobleman. This Tartar falling exceedingly ill on the way, they proceededalone, and, after three years of toil and dangers, arrived at Venice in 1269.
Nicolo, who, during the many years he had been absent, seems to have received no intelligence from home, now found that his wife, whom he had left pregnant at his departure, was dead, but that she had left him a son, named Marco, then nineteen years old. The pope, likewise, had died the preceding year; and various intrigues preventing the election of a successor, they remained in Italy two years, unable to execute the commission of the khan. At length, fearing that their long absence might be displeasing to Kublai, and perceiving no probability of a speedy termination to the intrigues of the conclave, they, in 1271, again set out for the East, accompanied by young Marco.
Arriving in Palestine, they obtained from the legate Visconti, then at Acre, letters testifying their fidelity to the Great Khan, and stating the fact that a new pope had not yet been chosen. At Al-Ajassi, in Armenia, however, they were overtaken by a messenger from Visconti, who wrote to inform them that he himself had been elected to fill the papal throne, and requested that they would either return, or delay their departure until he could provide them with new letters to the khan. As soon as these letters and the presents of his holiness arrived, they continued their journey, and passing through the northern provinces of Persia, were amused with the extraordinary history of the Assassins, then recently destroyed by a general of Holagon.
Quitting Persia, they proceeded through a rich and picturesque country to Balkh, a celebrated city, which they found in ruins and nearly deserted, its lofty walls and marble palaces having been levelled with the ground by the devastating armies of the Mongols. The country in the neighbourhood had likewise been depopulated, the inhabitants having taken refuge in the mountains from the rapaciouscruelty of the predatory hordes, who roamed over the vast fields which greater robbers had reaped, gleaning the scanty plunder which had escaped their powerful predecessors. Though the land was well watered and fertile, and abounding in game, lions and other wild beasts had begun to establish their dominion over it, man having disappeared; and therefore, such travellers as ventured across this new wilderness were constrained to carry along with them all necessary provisions, nothing whatever being to be found on the way.
When they had passed this desert, they arrived in a country richly cultivated and covered with corn, to the south of which there was a ridge of high mountains, where such prodigious quantities of salt were found that all the world might have been supplied from those mines. The track of our travellers through the geographical labyrinth of Tartary it is impossible to follow. They appear to have been prevented by accidents from pursuing any regular course, in one place having their passage impeded by the overflowing of a river, and on other occasions being turned aside by the raging of bloody wars, by the heat or barrenness, or extent of deserts, or by their utter inability to procure guides through tracts covered with impervious forests or perilous morasses.
They next proceeded through a fertile country, inhabited by Mohammedans, to the town of Scasom, perhaps the Koukan of Arrowsmith, on the Sirr or Sihon. Numerous castles occupied the fastnesses of the mountains, while the shepherd tribes, like the troglodytes of old, dwelt with their herds and flocks in caverns scooped out of the rock. In three days’ journey from hence they reached the province of Balascia, or Balashghan, where, Marco falling sick, the party were detained during a whole year, a delay which afforded our illustrious traveller ampleleisure for prosecuting his researches respecting this and the neighbouring countries. The kings of this petty sovereignty pretended to trace their descent from the Macedonian conqueror and the daughter of Darius; making up, by the fabulous splendour of their genealogy, for their want of actual power. The inhabitants were Mohammedans, and spoke a language peculiar to themselves. It was said, that not many years previous they had possessed a race of horses equally illustrious with their kings, being descended from Bucephalus; but as it was asserted that these noble animals possessed one great advantage over their kings, that of bearing upon their foreheads the peculiar mark which distinguished the great founder of their family, thus proving the purity of the breed, they very prudently added that the whole race had recently been exterminated.
This country was rich in minerals and precious stones, lead, copper, silver, lapis lazuli, and rubies abounding in the mountains. The climate was cold, and that of the plains insalubrious, engendering agues, which quickly yielded, however, to the bracing air of the hills; where Marco, after languishing for a whole year with this disorder, recovered his health in the course of a few days. The horses were large, strong, and swift, and had hoofs so tough that they could travel unshod over the most rocky places. Vast flocks of wild sheep, exceedingly difficult to be taken, were found in the hills.
Marco’s health being restored, our travellers resumed their journey towards Cathay, and proceeding in a north-easterly direction, arrived at the roots of a vast mountain, reported by the inhabitants to be the loftiest in the world. Having continued for three days ascending the steep approaches to this mountain, they reached an extensive table-land, hemmed in on both sides by still loftier mountains, and having a great lake in its centre. A fine river likewiseflowed through it, and maintained so extraordinary a degree of fertility in the pastures upon its banks, that an ox or horse brought lean to these plains would become fat in ten days. Great numbers of wild animals were found here, among the rest a species of wild sheep with horns six spans in length, from which numerous drinking-vessels were made. This immense plain, notwithstanding its fertility, was uninhabited, and the severity of the cold prevented its being frequented by birds. Fire, too, it was asserted, did not here burn so brightly, or produce the same effect upon food, as in other places: an observation which has recently been made on the mountains of Savoy and Switzerland.
From this plain they proceeded along the foot of the Allak mountains to the country of Kashgar, which, possessing a fertile soil, and an industrious and ingenious population, was maintained in a high state of cultivation, and beautified with numerous gardens, orchards, and vineyards. From Kashgar they travelled to Yarkand, where the inhabitants, like those of the valleys of the Pyrenees, were subject to the goitres, or large wens upon the throat. To this province succeeded that of Khoten, whence our wordcottonhas been derived. The inhabitants of this country, an industrious but unwarlike race, were of the Mohammedan religion, and tributaries to the Great Khan. Proceeding in their south-easterly direction, they passed through the city of Peym, where, if a husband or wife were absent from home twenty days, the remaining moiety might marry again; and pursuing their course through sandy barren plains, arrived at the country of Sartem. Here the landscape was enlivened by numerous cities and castles; but when the storm of war burst upon them, the inhabitants, like the Arabs, relied upon famine as their principal weapon against the enemy, retiring with their wives, children, treasures, and provisions, into the desert, whither none couldfollow them. To secure their subsistence from plunder, they habitually scooped out their granaries in the depths of the desert, where, after harvest, they annually buried their corn in deep pits, over which the wind soon spread the wavy sand as before, obliterating all traces of their labours. They themselves, however, possessed some unerring index to the spot, which enabled them at all times to discover their hoards. Chalcedonies, jaspers, and other precious stones were found in the rivers of this province.
Here some insurmountable obstacle preventing their pursuing a direct course, they deviated towards the north, and in five days arrived at the city of Lop, on the border of the desert of the same name. This prodigious wilderness, the most extensive in Asia, could not, as was reported, be traversed from west to east in less than a year; while, proceeding from south to north, a month’s journey conducted the traveller across its whole latitude. Remaining some time at the city of Lop, or Lok, to make the necessary preparations for the journey, they entered the desert. In all those fearful scenes where man is constrained to compare his own insignificance with the magnificent and resistless power of the elements, legends, accommodated to the nature of the place, abound, peopling the frozen deep or the “howling wilderness” with poetical horrors superadded to those which actually exist. On the present occasion their Tartar companions, or guides, entertained our travellers with the wild tales current in the country. Having dwelt sufficiently upon the tremendous sufferings which famine or want of water sometimes inflicted upon the hapless merchant in those inhospitable wastes, they added, from their legendary stores, that malignant demons continually hovered in the cold blast or murky cloud which nightly swept over the sands. Delighting in mischief, they frequently exerted their supernaturalpowers in steeping the senses of travellers in delusion, sometimes calling them by their names, practising upon their sight, or, by raising up phantom shapes, leading them astray, and overwhelming them in the sands. Upon other occasions, the ears of the traveller were delighted with the sounds of music which these active spirits, like Shakspeare’s Ariel, scattered through the dusky air; or were saluted with that sweetest of all music, the voice of friends. Then, suddenly changing their mood, the beat of drums, the clash of arms, and a stream of footfalls, and of the tramp of hoofs, were heard, as if whole armies were marching past in the darkness. Such as were deluded by any of these arts, and separated, whether by night or day, from their caravan, generally lost themselves in the pathless wilds, and perished miserably of hunger. To prevent this danger, travellers kept close together, and suspended little bells about the necks of their beasts; and when any of their party unfortunately lagged behind, they carefully fixed up marks along their route, in order to enable them to follow.
Having safely traversed this mysterious desert, they arrived at the city of Shatcheu, on the Polonkir, in Tangut. Here the majority of the inhabitants were pagans and polytheists, and their various gods possessed numerous temples in different parts of the city. Marco, who was a diligent inquirer into the creed and religious customs of the nations he visited, discovered many singular traits of superstition at Shatcheu. When a son was born in a family, he was immediately consecrated to some one of their numerous gods; and a sheep, yeaned, perhaps, on the birthday of the child, was carefully kept and fed in the house during a whole year: at the expiration of which term both the child and the sheep were carried to the temple, and offered as a sacrifice to the god. The god, or, which was the same thing, the priests, accepted the sheep, which they could eat, inlieu of the boy, whom they could not; and the meat being dressed in the temple, that the deity might be refreshed with the sweet-smelling savour, was then conveyed to the father’s dwelling, where a sumptuous feast ensued, at which it may be safely inferred the servants of the temple were not forgotten. At all events, the priests received the head, feet, skin, and entrails, with a portion of the flesh, for their share. The bones were preserved, probably for purposes of divination.
Their exit from life was celebrated with as much pomp as their entrance into it. Astrologers, the universal pests of the east, were immediately consulted; and these, having learned the year, month, day, and hour in which the deceased was born, interrogated the stars, and by their mute but significant replies discovered the precise moment on which the interment was to take place. Sometimes these oracles of the sky became sullen, and for six months vouchsafed no answer to the astrologers, during all which time the corpse remained in a species of purgatory, uncertain of its doom. To prevent the dead from keeping the living in the same state, however, the body, having been previously embalmed, was enclosed in a coffin so artificially constructed that no offensive odour could escape; while, as the soul was supposed to hover all this while over its ancient tenement, and to require, as formerly, some kind of earthly sustenance, food was daily placed before the deceased, that the spirit might satisfy its appetite with the agreeable effluvia. When the day of interment arrived, the astrologers, who would have lost their credit had they always allowed things to proceed in a rational way, sometimes commanded the body to be borne out through an opening made for the purpose in the wall, professing to be guided in this matter by the stars, who, having no other employment, were extremely solicitous that all Tartars should be interred in due form. On the way fromthe house of the deceased to the cemetery, wooden cottages with porches covered with silk were erected at certain intervals, in which the coffin was set down before a table covered with bread, wine, and other delicacies, that the spirit might be refreshed with the savour. The procession was accompanied by all the musical instruments in the city; and along with the body were borne representations upon paper of servants of both sexes, horses, camels, money, and costly garments, all of which were consumed with the corpse on the funeral pile, instead of the realities, which, according to Herodotus, were anciently offered up as a sacrifice to the manes at the tombs of the Scythian chiefs.
Turning once more towards the north, they entered the fertile and agreeable province of Khamil, situated between the vast desert of Lop and another smaller desert, only three days’ journey across. The natives of this country, practical disciples of Aristippus, being of opinion that pleasure is happiness, seemed to live only for amusement, devoting the whole of their time to singing, dancing, music, and literature. Their hospitality, like that of the knights of chivalry, was so boundlessly profuse, that strangers were permitted to share, not only their board, but their bed, the master of a family departing when a guest arrived, in order to render him more completely at home with his wife and daughters. To increase the value of this extraordinary species of hospitality, it is added that the women of Khamil are beautiful, and as fully disposed as their lords to promote the happiness of their guests. Mangou Khan, the predecessor of Kublai, desirous of reforming the morals of his subjects, whatever might be the fate of his own, abolished this abominable custom; but years of scarcity and domestic afflictions ensuing, the people petitioned to have the right of following their ancestral customs restored to them. “Since you glory in your shame,” said Mangou to their ambassadors,“you may go and act according to your customs.” The flattering privilege was received with great rejoicings, and the practice, strange as it may be, has continued up to the present day.
Departing from this Tartarian Sybaris, they entered the province of Chinchintalas, a country thickly peopled, and rich in mines, but chiefly remarkable for that salamander species of linen, manufactured from the slender fibres of the asbestos, which was cleansed from stains by being cast into the fire. Then followed the district of Sucher, in the mountains of which the best rhubarb in the world was found. They next directed their course towards the north-east, and having completed the passage of the desert of Shomo, which occupied forty days, arrived at the city of Karakorum, compared by Rubruquis to the insignificant town of St. Denis, in France, but said by Marco Polo to have been three miles in circumference, and strongly fortified with earthen ramparts.
Our travellers now turned their faces towards the south, and traversing an immense tract of country which Marco considered unworthy of minute description, passed the boundaries of Mongolia, and entered Cathay. During this journey they travelled through a district in which were found enormous wild cattle, nearly approaching the size of the elephant, and clothed with a fine, soft, black and white hair, in many respects more beautiful than silk, specimens of which Marco procured and brought home with him to Venice on his return. Here, likewise, the best musk in the world was found. The animal from which it was procured resembled a goat in size, but in gracefulness and beauty bore a stronger likeness to the antelope, except that it had no horns. On the belly of this animal there appeared, every full moon, a small protuberance or excrescence, like a thin silken bag, filled with the liquid perfume; to obtain which the animal was hunted and slain. This bag wasthen severed from the body, and its contents, when dried, were distributed at an enormous price over the world, to scent the toilets and the persons of beauties in reality more sweet than itself.
Near Changanor, at another point of their journey, they saw one of the khan’s palaces, which was surrounded by beautiful gardens, containing numerous small lakes and rivulets and a prodigious number of swans. The neighbouring plains abounded in partridges, pheasants, and other game, among which are enumerated five species of cranes, some of a snowy whiteness, others with black wings, their feathers being ornamented with eyes like those of the peacock, but of a golden colour, with beautiful black and white necks. Immense flocks of quails and partridges were found in a valley near this city, where millet and other kinds of grain were sown for them by order of the khan, who likewise appointed a number of persons to watch over the birds, and caused huts to be erected in which they might take shelter and be fed by their keepers during the severity of the winter. By these means, the khan had at all times a large quantity of game at his command.
At Chandu, three days’ journey south-west of Changanor, they beheld the stupendous palace which Kublai Khan had erected in that city. Neither the dimensions nor the architecture are described by Marco Polo, but it is said to have been constructed, with singular art and beauty, of marble and other precious materials. The grounds of this palace, which were surrounded by a wall, were sixteen miles in circumference, and were beautifully laid out into meadows, groves, and lawns, watered by sparkling streams, and abundantly stocked with red and fallow deer, and other animals of the chase. In this park the khan had a mew of falcons, which, when at the palace, he visited once a week, and caused to be fed with the flesh of young fawns. Tame leopards were employed in hunting the stag, and, like the chattah,or tiger, used for the same purpose in the Carnatic, were carried out on horseback to the scene of action, and let loose only when the game appeared.
In the midst of a tall grove, there was an elegant pavilion, or summer-house, of wood, supported on pillars, and glittering with the richest gilding. Against each pillar stood the figure of a dragon, likewise richly gilt, with its tail curling round the shaft, its head touching the roof, and its wings extended on both sides through the intercolumniations. The roof was composed of split bamboos gilded and varnished, and so skilfully shelving over each other that no rain could ever penetrate between them. This beautiful structure could easily be taken to pieces or re-erected, like a tent, and, to prevent it from being overthrown by the wind, was fastened to the earth by two hundred silken ropes. At this palace the khan regularly spent the three summer months of June, July, and August, leaving it on the 28th of the last-named month, in order to proceed towards the south. Eight days previous to his departure, however, having solemnly consulted his astrologers, the khan annually offered sacrifice to the gods and spirits of the earth, the ceremony consisting in sprinkling a quantity of white mare’s milk upon the ground with his own hands, at the same time praying for the prosperity of his subjects, wives, and children. Kublai Khan was in no danger of wanting milk for this sacrifice, since he possessed a stud of horses, nearly ten thousand in number, all so purely white, that like certain Homeric steeds, they might, without vanity, have traced their origin to Boreas, the father of the snow. Indeed, much of this imperial nectar must have streamed in libations to mother earth on less solemn occasions; since none but persons of the royal race of Genghis Khan were permitted to drink of it, with the exception of one single family, named Boriat, to whom this distinguished privilege had been granted by Genghis for their prowess and valour.
Our travellers now drew near Cambalu, and the khan, having received intelligence of their approach, sent forth messengers to meet them at the distance of forty days’ journey from the imperial city, that they might be provided with all necessaries on the way, and conducted with every mark of honour and distinction to the capital. Upon their arrival, they were immediately presented to the khan; and having prostrated themselves upon the ground, according to the custom of the country, were commanded to rise, and most graciously received. When they had been kindly interrogated by the emperor respecting the fatigues and dangers they had encountered in his service, and had briefly related their proceedings with the pope and in Palestine, from whence, at the khan’s desire, they had brought a small portion of holy oil from the lamp of Christ’s sepulchre at Jerusalem, they received high commendations for their care and fidelity. Then the khan, observing Marco, inquired, “Who is this youth?”—“He is your majesty’s servant, and my son,” replied Nicolo. Kublai then received the young man with a smile, and, appointing him to some office about his person, caused him to be instructed in the languages and sciences of the country. Marco’s aptitude and genius enabled him to fulfil the wishes of the khan. In a very short time he acquired, by diligence and assiduity, a large acquaintance with the manners of the Mongols, and could speak and write fluently in four of the languages of the empire.
When Marco Polo appeared to have acquired the necessary degree of information, the khan, to make trial of his ability, despatched him upon an embassy to a city or chief called Karakhan, at the distance of six months’ journey from Cambalu. This difficult commission our traveller executed with ability and discretion; and in order still further to enhance the merit of his services in the estimation of his sovereign, he carefully observed the customs and mannersof all the various tribes among whom he resided, and drew up a concise account of the whole in writing, which, together with a description of the new and curious objects he had beheld, he presented to the khan on his return. This, as he foresaw, greatly contributed to increase the favour of the prince towards him; and he continued to rise gradually from one degree of honour to another, until at length it may be doubted whether any individual in the empire enjoyed a larger portion of Kublai’s affection and esteem. Upon various occasions, sometimes upon the khan’s business, sometimes upon his own, he traversed all the territories and dependencies of the empire, everywhere possessing the means of observing whatever he considered worth notice, his authority and the imperial favour opening the most secluded and sacred places to his scrutiny.
As our traveller has not thought proper, however, to describe these various journeys chronologically, or, indeed, to determine with any degree of exactness when any one of them took place, we are at liberty, in recording his peregrinations, to adopt whatever arrangement we please; and it being indisputable that Northern China was the first part of Kublai’s dominions, properly so called, which he entered, it appears most rational to commence the history of his Chinese travels with an outline of what he saw in that division of the empire.
The khan himself, whose profuse munificence enabled Marco Polo to perform with pleasure and comfort his long and numerous expeditions, was a fine handsome man of middle stature, with a fresh complexion, bright black eyes, a well-formed nose, and a form every way well proportioned. He had four wives, each of whom had the title of empress, and possessed her own magnificent palace, with a separate court, consisting of three hundred maids of honour, a large number of eunuchs, and a suite amounting at least to ten thousand persons. He,moreover, possessed a numerous harem besides his wives; and in order to keep up a constant supply of fresh beauties, messengers were despatched every two years into a province of Tartary remarkable for the beauty of its women, and therefore set apart as a nursery for royal concubines, to collect the finest among the daughters of the land for the khan. As the inhabitants of this country considered it an honour to breed mistresses for their prince, the “elegans formarum spectator” had no difficulty in finding whatever number of young women he desired, and generally returned to court with at least five hundred in his charge. So vast an army of women were not, however, marched all at once into the khan’s harem. Examiners were appointed to fan away the chaff from the corn,—that is, to discover whether any of these fair damsels snored in their sleep, had an unsavoury smell, or were addicted to any mischievous or disagreeable tricks in their behaviour. Such, says the traveller, as were finally approved were divided into parties of five, and one such party attended in the chamber of the khan during three days and three nights in their turn, while another party waited in an adjoining apartment to prepare whatever the others might command them. The girls of inferior charms were employed in menial offices about the palace, or were bestowed in marriage, with large portions, upon the favoured officers of the khan.
The number of the khan’s family, though not altogether answerable to this vast establishment of women, was respectable,—consisting of forty-seven sons, of whom twenty-two were by his wives, and all employed in offices of trust and honour in the empire. Of the number of his daughters we are not informed.
The imperial city of Cambalu, the modern Peking, formed the residence of the khan during the months of December, January, and February. The palace of Kublai stood in the midst of a prodigious park, thirty-two miles in circumference, surrounded by alofty wall and deep ditch. This enclosure, like all Mongol works of the kind, was square, and each of its four sides was pierced by but one gate, so that between gate and gate there was a distance of eight miles. Within this vast square stood another, twenty-four miles in circumference, the walls being equidistant from those of the outer square, and pierced on the northern and southern sides by three gates, of which the centre one, loftier and more magnificent than the rest, was reserved for the khan alone. At the four corners, and in the centre of each face of the inner square, were superb and spacious buildings, which were royal arsenals for containing the implements and machinery of war, such as horse-trappings, long and crossbows and arrows, helmets, cuirasses, leather armour, &c. Marco Polo makes no mention of artillery or of firearms of any kind, from which it may be fairly inferred that the use of gunpowder, notwithstanding the vain pretensions of the modern Chinese, was unknown to their ancestors of the thirteenth century; for it is inconceivable that so intelligent and observant a traveller as Marco Polo should have omitted all mention of so stupendous an invention, had it in his age been known either to the Chinese or their conquerors. Indeed, though certainly superior in civilization and the arts of life to the nations of Europe, they appear to have been altogether inferior in the science of destruction; for when Sian-fu had for three years checked the arms of Kublai Khan in his conquest of Southern China, the Tartars were compelled to have recourse to the ingenuity of Nicolo and Maffio Polo, who, constructing immense catapults capable of casting stones of three hundred pounds’ weight, enabled them, by battering down the houses and shaking the walls as with an earthquake, to terrify the inhabitants into submission.
To return, however, to the description of the palace. The space between the first and second wallswas bare and level, and appropriated to the exercising of the troops. But having passed the second wall, you discovered an immense park, resembling the paradises of the ancient Persian kings, stretching away on all sides into green lawns, dotted and broken into long sunny vistas or embowered shades by numerous groves of trees, between the rich and various foliage of which the glittering pinnacles and snow-white battlements of the palace walls appeared at intervals. The palace itself was a mile in length, but, not being of corresponding height, had rather the appearance of a vast terrace or range of buildings than of one structure. Its interior was divided into numerous apartments, some of which were of prodigious dimensions and splendidly ornamented; the walls being covered with figures of men, birds, and animals in exquisite relief and richly gilt. A labyrinth of carving, gilding, and the most brilliant colours, red, green, and blue, supplied the place of a ceiling; and the united effect of the whole oppressed the soul with a sense of painful splendour. On the north of this poetical abode, which rivalled in vastness and magnificence the Olympic domes of Homer, stood an artificial hill, a mile in circumference and of corresponding height, which was skilfully planted with evergreen trees, which the Great Khan had caused to be brought from remote places, with all their roots, on the backs of elephants. At the foot of this hill were two beautiful lakes imbosomed in trees, and filled with a multitude of delicate fish.
That portion of the imperial city which had been erected by Kublai Khan was square, like his palace. It was less extensive, however, than the royal grounds, being only twenty-four miles in circumference. The streets were all straight, and six miles in length, and the houses were erected on each side, with courts and gardens, like palaces. At a certain hour of the night, a bell, like the curfew of the Normans, was sounded in the city, after which it wasnot lawful for any person to go out of doors unless upon the most urgent business; for example, to procure assistance for a woman in labour; in which case, however, they were compelled to carry torches before them, from which we may infer that the streets were not lighted with lamps. Twelve extensive suburbs, inhabited by foreign merchants and by tradespeople, and more populous than the city itself, lay without the walls.
The money current in China at this period was of a species of paper fabricated from the middle bark of the mulberry-tree, and of a round form. To counterfeit, or to refuse this money in payment, or to make use of any other was a capital offence. The use of this money, which within the empire was as good as any other instrument of exchange, enabled the khan to amass incredible quantities of the precious metals and of all the other toys which delight civilized man. Great public roads, which may be enumerated among the principal instruments of civilization, radiated from Peking, or Cambalu, towards all the various provinces of the empire, and by the enlightened and liberal regulations of the khan, not only facilitated in a surprising manner the conveyance of intelligence, but likewise afforded to travellers and merchants a safe and commodious passage from one province to another. On each of these great roads were inns at the distance of twenty-five or thirty miles, amply furnished with chambers, beds, and provisions, and four hundred horses, of which one half were constantly kept saddled in the stables, ready for use, while the other moiety were grazing in the neighbouring fields. In deserts and mountainous steril districts where there were no inhabitants, the khan established colonies to cultivate the lands, where that was possible, and provide provisions for the ambassadors and royal messengers who possessed the privilege of using the imperial horses and the public tables. In the night thesemessengers were lighted on their way by persons running before them with torches; and when they approached a posthouse, of which there were ten thousand in the empire, they sounded a horn, as our mail and stage coaches do, to inform the inmates of their coming, that no delay might be experienced. By this means, one of these couriers sometimes travelled two hundred or two hundred and fifty miles in a day. In desolate and uninhabited places, the courses of the roads were marked by trees which had been planted for the purpose; and in places where nothing would vegetate, by stones or pillars.
The manners, customs, and opinions of the people, though apparently considered by Marco Polo as less important than what regarded the magnificence and greatness of the khan, commanded a considerable share of our traveller’s attention. The religion of Buddha, whose mysterious doctrines have eluded the grasp of the most comprehensive minds even up to the present moment, he could not be expected to understand; but its great leading tenets, the unity of the supreme God, the immortality of the soul, the metempsychosis, and the final absorption of the virtuous in the essence of the Divinity, are distinctly announced. The manners of the Tartars were mild and refined; their temper cheerful; their character honest. Filial affection was assiduously cultivated, and such as were wanting in this virtue were condemned to severe punishment by the laws. Three years’ imprisonment was the usual punishment for heinous offences; but the criminals were marked upon the cheek when set at liberty, that they might be known and avoided.
Agriculture has always commanded a large share of the attention of the Chinese. The whole country for many days’ journey west of Cambalu was covered with a numerous population, distinguished for their ingenuity and industry. Towns and cities were numerous, the fields richly cultivated, and interspersedwith vineyards or plantations of mulberry-trees. On approaching the banks of the Hoang-ho, which was so broad and deep that no bridges could be thrown over it from the latitude of Cambalu to the ocean, the fields abounded with ginger and silk; and game, particularly pheasants, were so abundant, that three of these beautiful birds might be purchased for a Venetian groat. The margin of the river was clothed with large forests of bamboos, the largest, tallest, and most useful of the cane species. Crossing the Hoang-ho, and proceeding for two days in a westerly direction, you arrived at the city of Karianfu, situated in a country fertile in various kinds of spices, and remarkable for its manufactories of silk and cloth of gold.
This appears to have been the route pursued by Marco Polo when proceeding as the emperor’s ambassador into Western Tibet. Having travelled for ten days through plains of surpassing beauty and fertility, thickly sprinkled with cities, castles, towns, and villages, shaded by vast plantations of mulberry-trees, and cultivated like a garden, he arrived in the mountainous district of the province of Chunchian, which abounded with lions, bears, stags, roebucks, and wolves. The country through which his route now lay was an agreeable succession of hill, valley, and plain, adorned and improved by art, or reluctantly abandoned to the rude but sublime fantasies of nature.
On entering Tibet, indelible traces of the footsteps of war everywhere smote upon his eye. The whole country had been reduced by the armies of the khan to a desert; the city, the cheerful village, the gilded and gay-looking pagoda, the pleasant homestead, and the humble and secluded cottage, having been overthrown, and their smoking ruins trampled in the dust, had now been succeeded by interminable forests of swift-growing bamboos, from between whose thick and knotty stems the lion, thetiger, and other ferocious animals rushed out suddenly upon the unwary traveller. Not a soul appeared to cheer the eye, or offer provisions for money. All around was stillness and utter desolation. And at night, when they desired to taste a little repose, it was necessary to kindle an immense fire, and heap upon it large quantities of green reeds, which, by the crackling and hissing noise which they made in burning, might frighten away the wild beasts.
This pestilential desert occupied him twenty days in crossing, after which human dwellings, and other signs of life, appeared. The manners of the people among whom he now found himself were remarkably obscene and preposterous. Improving upon the superstitious libertinism of the ancient Babylonians, who sacrificed the modesty of their wives and daughters in the temple of Astarte once in their lives, these Tibetians invariably prostituted their young women to all strangers and travellers who passed through their country, and made it a point of honour never to marry a woman until she could exhibit numerous tokens of her incontinence. Thieving, like want of chastity, was among them no crime; and, although they had begun to cultivate the earth, they still derived their principal means of subsistence from the chase. Their clothing was suitable to their manners, consisting of the skins of wild beasts, or of a kind of coarse hempen garment, less comfortable, perhaps, and still more uncouth to sight. Though subject to China, as it is to this day, the paper money, current through all other parts of the empire, was not in use here; nor had they any better instrument of exchange than small pieces of coral, though their mountains abounded with mines of the precious metals, while gold was rolled down among mud and pebbles through the beds of their torrents. Necklaces of coral adorned the persons of their women and their gods, their earthly andheavenly idols being apparently rated at the same value. In hunting, enormous dogs, nearly the size of asses, were employed.
Still proceeding towards the west, he traversed the province of Kaindu, formerly an independent kingdom, in which there was an extensive salt-lake, so profusely abounding with white pearls, that to prevent their price from being immoderately reduced, it was forbidden, under pain of death, to fish for them without a license from the Great Khan. The turquoise mines found in this province were under the same regulations. Thegadderi, or musk deer, was found here in great numbers, as were likewise lions, bears, stags, ounces, deer, and roebucks. The clove, extremely plentiful in Kaindu, was gathered from small trees not unlike the bay-tree in growth and leaves, though somewhat longer and straighter: its flowers were white, like those of the jasmin. Here manners were regulated by nearly the same principles as in the foregoing province, strangers assuming the rights of husbands in whatever houses they rested on their journey. Unstamped gold, issued by weight, and small solid loaves of salt, marked with the seal of the khan, were the current money.
Traversing the province of Keraian, of which little is said, except that its inhabitants were pagans, and spoke a very difficult language, our traveller next arrived at the city of Lassa, situated on the Dom or Tama river, a branch of the Bramahpootra. This celebrated and extensive city, the residence of the Dalai, or Great Lama, worshipped by the natives as an incarnation of the godhead, was then the resort of numerous merchants, and the centre of an active and widely-diffused commerce. Complete religious toleration prevailed, pagans, Mohammedans, and Christians dwelling together apparently in harmony; the followers of the established religion, a modification of Buddhism, being however byfar the most numerous. Though corn was here plentiful, the inhabitants made no use of any other bread than that of rice, which they considered the most wholesome; and their wine, which was flavoured with several kinds of spices, and exceedingly pleasant, they likewise manufactured from the same grain. Cowries seem to have been used for money. The inhabitants, like the Abyssinians, ate the flesh of the ox, the buffalo, and the sheep raw, though they do not appear to have cut their steaks from the living animals. Here, as elsewhere in Tibet, women were subjected, under certain conditions, to the embraces of strangers.
From Lassa, Marco Polo proceeded to the province of Korazan, where veins of solid gold were found in the mountains, and washed down to the plains by the waters of the rivers. Cowries were here the ordinary currency. Among the usual articles of food was the flesh of the crocodile, which was said to be very delicate. The inhabitants carried on an active trade in horses with India. In their wars they made use of targets and other defensive armour, manufactured, like the shields of many of the Homeric heroes, from tough bull or buffalo hide. Their arms consisted of lances or spears, and crossbows, from which, like genuine savages, they darted poisonous arrows at their foes. When taken prisoners, they frequently escaped from the evils of servitude by self-slaughter, always bearing about their persons, like Mithridates and Demosthenes, a concealed poison, by which they could at any time open themselves a way to Pluto. Previous to the Mongol conquests, these reckless savages were in the habit of murdering in their sleep such strangers or travellers as happened to pass through their country, from the superstitious belief, it is said, that the good qualities of the dead would devolve upon those who killed them, of which it must be confessed they stood in great need; and perhapsfrom the better grounded conviction that they should thus, at all events, become the undoubted heirs of their wealth.
Journeying westward for five days our traveller arrived at the province of Kardandan, where the current money were cowries brought from India, and gold in ingots. Gold was here so plentiful that it was exchanged for five times its weight in silver; and the inhabitants, who had probably been subject to the toothache, were in the habit of covering their teeth with thin plates of this precious metal, which, according to Marco, were so nicely fitted that the teeth appeared to be of solid gold. The practice of tattooing, which seems to have prevailed at one time or other over the whole world, was in vogue here, men being esteemed in proportion as their skins were more disfigured. Riding, hunting, and martial exercises occupied the whole time of the men, while the women, aided by the slaves who were purchased or taken in war, performed all the domestic labours. Another strange custom, the cause and origin of which, though it has prevailed in several parts of the world, is hidden in obscurity, obtained here; when a woman had been delivered of a child, she immediately quitted her bed, and having washed the infant, placed it in the hands of her husband, who, lying down in her stead, personated the sick person, nursed the child, and remained in bed six weeks, receiving the visits and condolences of his friends and neighbours. Meanwhile the woman bestirred herself, and performed her usual duties as if nothing had happened. Marco Polo could discover nothing more of the religious opinions of this people than that they worshipped the oldest man in their family, probably as the representative of the generative principle of nature. Broken, rugged, and stupendous mountains, no doubt the Himmalaya, rendered this wild country nearly inaccessible to strangers, who were further deterredby a report that a fatal miasma pervaded the air, particularly in summer. The knowledge of letters had not penetrated into this region, and all contracts and obligations were recorded by tallies of wood, as small accounts are still kept in Normandy, and other rude provinces of Europe.
Ignorance, priestcraft, and magic being of one family, and thriving by each other, are always found together. These savages, like Lear, had thrown “physic to the dogs;” and when attacked by disease preferred the priest or the magician to the doctor. The priests, hoping to drive disease out of their neighbour’s body by admitting the Devil into their own, repaired, when called upon, to the chamber of the sick person; and there sung, danced, leaped, and raved, until a demon, in the language of the initiated, or, in other words, weariness, seized upon them, when they discontinued their violent gestures, and consented to be interrogated. Their answer, of course, was, that the patient had offended some god, who was to be propitiated with sacrifice, which consisted partly in offering up a portion of the patient’s blood, not to the goddess Phlebotomy, as with us, but to some member of the Olympian synod whose fame has not reached posterity. In addition to this, a certain number of rams with black heads were sacrificed, their blood sprinkled in the air for the benefit of the gods, and a great number of candles having been lighted up, and the house thoroughly perfumed with incense and wood of aloes, the priests sat down with their wives and families to dinner; and if after all this the sick man would persist in dying, it was no fault of theirs. Destiny alone was to blame.
The next journey which Marco Polo undertook, after his return from Tibet, was into the kingdom of Mangi, or Southern China, subdued by the arms of the khan in 1269. Fanfur, the monarch, who had reigned previous to the irruption of the Mongols, isrepresented as a mild, beneficent, and peaceful prince, intent upon maintaining justice and internal tranquillity in his dominions; but wanting in energy, and neglectful of the means of national defence. During the latter years of his reign he had abandoned himself, like another Sardanapalus, to sensuality and voluptuousness; though, when the storm of war burst upon him, he exhibited far less magnanimity than that Assyrian Sybarite; flying pusillanimously to his fleet with all his wealth, and relinquishing the defence of the capital to his queen, who, as a woman, had nothing to fear from the cruelty of the conqueror. A foolish story, no doubt invented after the fall of the city, is said to have inspired the queen with confidence, and encouraged her to resist the besiegers: the soothsayers, or haruspices, had assured Fanfur, in the days of his prosperity, that no man not possessing a hundred eyes should ever deprive him of his kingdom. Learning, however, with dismay that the name of the Tartar general now besieging the place signified “the Hundred-eyed,” she perceived the fulfilment of the prediction, and surrendered up the city. Kublai Khan, agreeably to the opinion of Fanfur, conducted himself liberally towards the captive queen; who, being conveyed to Cambalu, was received and treated in a manner suitable to her former dignity. The dwarf-minded emperor died about a year after, a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth.
The capital of Southern China, called Quinsai, or Kinsai, by Marco Polo, a name signifying the “Celestial City,” was a place of prodigious magnitude, being, according to the reports of the Chinese, not less than one hundred miles in circumference. This rough estimate of the extent of Kinsai, though beyond doubt considerably exaggerated, is after all not so very incredible as may at first appear. Within this circumference, if the place was constructed after the usual fashion of a Chinese city, would be includedparks and gardens of immense extent, vast open spaces for the evolutions of the troops, besides the ten market-places, each two miles in circumference, mentioned by Marco Polo, and many other large spaces not covered with houses. By these means Kinsai might have been nearly one hundred miles in circuit, without approaching London in riches or population. That modern travellers have found no trace of such amazing extent in Hang-chen, Kua-hing, or whatever city they determine Kinsai to have been, by no means invalidates the assertion of Marco Polo; for considering the revolutions which China has undergone, and the perishable materials of the ordinary dwellings of its inhabitants, we may look upon the space of nearly six hundred years as more than sufficient to have changed the site of Kinsai into a desert. Were the seat of government to be removed from Calcutta to Agra or Delhi, the revolution of one century would reduce that “City of Palaces,” to a miserable village, or wholly bury it in the pestilential bog from which its sumptuous but perishable edifices originally rose like an exhalation.
I will suppose, therefore, in spite of geographical skepticism, that Kinsai fell very little short of the magnitude which the Chinese, not Marco Polo, attributed to it. The city was nearly surrounded by water, having on one side a great river, and on the other side a lake, while innumerable canals, intersecting it in all directions, rendered the very streets navigable, as it were, like those of Venice, and floated away all filth into the channel of the river. Twelve thousand bridges, great and small, were thrown over these canals, beneath which barks, boats, and barges, bearing a numerous aquatic population, continually passed to and fro; while horsemen dashed along, and chariots rolled from street to street, above. Three days in every week the peasantry from all the country round poured into the city, to the number of forty or fifty thousand, bringing in the productionsof the earth, with cattle, fowls, game, and every species of provision necessary for the subsistence of so mighty a population. Though provisions were so cheap, however, that two geese, or four ducks, might be purchased for a Venetian groat, the poor were reduced to so miserable a state of wretchedness that they gladly devoured the flesh of the most unclean animals, and every species of disgusting offal. The markets were supplied with an abundance of most kinds of fruit, among which a pear of peculiar fragrance, and white and gold peaches, were the most exquisite. Raisins and wine were imported from other provinces; but from the ocean, which was no more than twenty-five miles distant, so great a profusion of fish was brought, that, at first sight, it seemed as if it could never be consumed, though it all disappeared in a few hours.
Around the immense market-places were the shops of the jewellers and spice-merchants; and in the adjoining streets were numerous hot and cold baths, with all the apparatus which belong to those establishments in eastern countries. These places, as the inhabitants bathed every day, were well frequented, and the attendants accustomed to the business from their childhood exceedingly skilful in the performance of their duties. A trait which marks the voluptuous temperament of the Chinese occurs in the account of this city. An incredible number of courtesans, splendidly attired, perfumed, and living with a large establishment of servants in spacious and magnificent houses, were found at Kinsai; and, like their sisters in ancient Greece, were skilled in all those arts which captivate and enslave enervated minds. The tradesmen possessed great wealth, and appeared in their shops sumptuously dressed in silks, in addition to which their wives adorned themselves with costly jewels. Their houses were well built, and contained pictures and other ornaments of immense value. In their dealings they were remarkable fortheir integrity, and great suavity and decorum appeared in their manners. Notwithstanding the gentleness of their disposition, however, their hatred of their Mongol conquerors, who had deprived them of their independence and the more congenial rule of their native princes, was not to be disguised.
All the streets were paved with stone, while the centre was macadamized, a mark of civilization not yet to be found in Paris, or many other European capitals, any more than the cleanliness which accompanied it. Hackney-coaches with silk cushions, public gardens, and shady walks were among the luxuries of the people of Kinsai; while, as Mr. Kerr very sensibly remarks, the delights of European capitals were processions of monks among perpetual dunghills in narrow crooked lanes. Still, in the midst of all this wealth and luxury, poverty and tremendous suffering existed, compelling parents to sell their children, and when no buyers appeared, to expose them to death. Twenty thousand infants thus deserted were annually snatched from destruction by the Emperor Fanfur, and maintained and educated until they could provide for themselves.
Marco Polo’s opportunities for studying the customs and manners of this part of the empire were such as no other European has ever enjoyed, as, through the peculiar affection of the Great Khan, he was appointed governor of one of its principal cities, and exercised this authority during three years. Yet, strange to say, he makes no mention of tea, and alludes only once, and that but slightly, to the manufacture of porcelain. These omissions, however, are in all probability not to be attributed to him, but to the heedlessness or ignorance of transcribers and copyists, who, not knowing what to make of the terms, boldly omitted them. The most remarkable manufacture of porcelain in his time appears to have been at a city which he calls Trinqui, situated on one branch of the river which flowed to Zaitum, supposedto be the modern Canton. Here he was informed a certain kind of earth or clay was thrown up into vast conical heaps, where it remained exposed to the action of the atmosphere for thirty or forty years, after which, refined, as he says, by time, it was manufactured into dishes, which were painted and baked in furnaces.
Having now remained many years in China, the Polos began to feel the desire of revisiting their home revive within their souls; and this desire was strengthened by reflecting upon the great age of the khan, in the event of whose death it was possible they might never be able to depart from the country, at least with the amazing wealth which they had amassed during their long residence. One day, therefore, when they observed Kublai to be in a remarkably good-humour, Nicolo, who seems to have enjoyed a very free access to the chamber of the sovereign, ventured to entreat permission to return home with his family. The khan, however, who, being himself at home, could comprehend nothing of that secret and almost mysterious power by which man is drawn back from the remotest corners of the earth towards the scene of his childhood, and who, perhaps, imagined that gold could confer irresistible charms upon any country, was extremely displeased at the request. He had, in fact, become attached to the men, and his unwillingness to part with them was as natural as their desire to go. To turn them from all thoughts of the undertaking, he dwelt upon the length and danger of the journey; and added, that if more wealth was what they coveted, they had but to speak, and he would gratify their utmost wishes, by bestowing upon them twice as much as they already possessed; but that his affection would not allow him to part with them.
Providence, however, which under the name of chance or accident so frequently befriends the perplexed, now came to their aid. Not long after theunsuccessful application of Nicolo, ambassadors arrived at the court of the Great Khan, from Argûn, Sultan of Persia, demanding a princess of the imperial blood for their master, whose late queen on her deathbed had requested him to choose a wife from among her relations in Cathay. Kublai consented; and the ambassadors departed with a youthful princess on their way to Persia. When they had proceeded eight months through the wilds of Tartary, their course was stopped by bloody wars; and they were constrained to return with the princess to the court of the khan. Here they heard of Marco, who had likewise just returned from an expedition into India by sea, describing the facility which navigation afforded of maintaining an intercourse between that country and China. The ambassadors now procured an interview with the Venetians, who consented, if the permission of the khan could be obtained, to conduct them by sea to the dominions of their sovereign. With great reluctance the khan at length yielded to their solicitation; and having commanded Nicolo, Maffio, and Marco into his presence, and lavished upon them every possible token of his affection and esteem, constituting them his ambassadors to the pope and the other princes of Europe, he caused a tablet of gold to be delivered to them, upon which were engraven his commands that they should be allowed free and secure passage through all his dominions; that all their expenses, as well as those of their attendants, should be defrayed; and that they should be provided with guides and escorts wherever these might be necessary. He then exacted from them a promise that when they should have passed some time in Christendom among their friends, they would return to him, and affectionately dismissed them.
Fourteen ships with four masts, of which four or five were so large that they carried from two hundred and fifty to two hundred and sixty men, wereprovided for their voyage; and on board of this fleet they embarked with the queen and the ambassadors, and sailed away from China. It was probably from the officers of these ships, or from those with whom he had made his former voyage to India, that Marco Polo learned what little he knew of the great island of Zipangri or Japan. It was about fifteen hundred miles distant, as he was informed, from the shores of China. The people were fair, gentle in their manners, and governed by their own princes. Gold, its exportation being prohibited, was plentiful among them; so plentiful, indeed, that the roof of the prince’s palace was covered with it, as churches in Europe sometimes are with lead, while the windows and floors were of the same metal. The prodigious opulence of this country tempted the ambition or rapacity of Kublai Khan, who with a vast fleet and army attempted to annex it with his empire, but without success. It was Marco’s brief description of this insular El Dorado which is supposed to have kindled the spirit of discovery and adventure in the great soul of Columbus. Gentle as the manners of the Japanese are said to have been, neither they nor the Chinese themselves could escape the charge of cannibalism, which appears to be among barbarians what heresy was in Europe during the middle ages, the crime of which every one accuses his bitterest enemy. The innumerable islands scattered through the surrounding ocean were said to abound with spices and groves of odoriferous wood.
The vast islands and thickly-sprinkled archipelagoes which rear up their verdant and scented heads among the waters of the Indian ocean, now successively presented themselves to the observant eye of our traveller, and appeared like another world. Ziambar, with its woods of ebony; Borneo, with its spices and its gold; Lokak, with its sweet fruits, its Brazil wood, and its elephants;—these were the new and strange countries at which they touchedon the way to Java the less, or Sumatra. This island, which he describes as two thousand miles in circumference, was divided into eight kingdoms, six of which he visited and curiously examined. Some portion of the inhabitants had been converted to Mohammedanism; but numerous tribes still roamed in a savage state among the mountains, feeding upon human flesh and every unclean animal, and worshipping as a god the first object which met their eyes in the morning. Among one of these wild races a very extraordinary practice prevailed: whenever any individual was stricken with sickness, his relations immediately inquired of the priests or magicians whether he would recover or not; and if answered in the negative, the patient was instantly strangled, cut in pieces, and devoured, even to the very marrow of the bones. This, they alleged, was to prevent the generation of worms in any portion of the body, which, by gnawing and defacing it, would torture the soul of the dead. The bones were carefully concealed in the caves of the mountains. Strangers, from the same humane motive, were eaten in an equally friendly way.
Here were numerous rhinoceroses, camphor, which sold for its weight in gold, and lofty trees, ten or twelve feet in circumference, from the pith of which a kind of meal was made. This pith, having been broken into pieces, was cast into vessels filled with water, where the light innutritious parts floated upon the top, while the finer and more solid descended to the bottom. The former was skimmed off and thrown away, but the latter, in taste not unlike barley-bread, was wrought into a kind of paste, and eaten. This was the sago, the first specimen of which ever seen in Europe was brought to Venice by Marco Polo. The wood of the tree, which was heavy and sunk in water like iron, was used in making spears.
From Sumatra they sailed to the Nicobar andAndaman islands, the natives of which were naked and bestial savages, though the country produced excellent cloves, cocoanuts, Brazil wood, red and white sandal wood, and various kinds of spices. They next touched at Ceylon, which appeared to Marco Polo, and not altogether without reason, to be the finest island in the world. Here no grain, except rice, was cultivated; but the country produced a profusion of oil, sesamum, milk, flesh, palm wine, sapphires, topazes, amethysts, and the best rubies in the world. Of this last kind of gem the King of Ceylon was said to possess the finest specimen in existence, the stone being as long as a man’s hand, of corresponding thickness, and glowing like fire. The wonders of Adam’s Peak Marco Polo heard of, but did not behold. His account of the pearl-fishery he likewise framed from report.
From Ceylon they proceeded towards the Persian Gulf, touching in their way upon the coast of the Carnatic, where Marco learned some particulars respecting the Hindoos; as, that they were an unwarlike people, who imported horses from Ormus, and generally abstained from beef; that their rich men were carried about in palankeens; and that from motives of the origin of which he was ignorant, every man carefully preserved his own drinking-vessels from the touch of another.
At length, after a voyage of eighteen months, they arrived in the dominions of Argûn, but found that that prince was dead, the heir to the throne a minor, and the functions of government exercised by a regent. They delivered the princess, who was now nearly nineteen, to Kazan, the son of Argûn; and having been magnificently entertained for nine months by the regent, who presented them at parting with four tablets of gold, each a cubit long and five fingers broad, they continued their journey through Kurdistan and Mingrelia, to Trebizond, where they embarked upon the Black Sea; and, sailing down theBosphorus and Dardanelles, crossed the Ægean, touched at Negropont, and arrived safely at Venice, in the year 1295.
On repairing to their own house, however, in the street of St. Chrysostom, they had the mortification to find themselves entirely forgotten by all their old acquaintance and countrymen; and even their nearest relations, who upon report of their death had taken possession of their palace, either could not or would not recognise them. Forty-five years had no doubt operated strange changes in the persons of Nicolo and Maffio; and even Marco, who had left his home in the flower of his youth, and now returned after an absence of twenty-four years, a middle-aged man, storm-beaten, and bronzed by the force of tropical suns, must have been greatly altered. Besides, they had partly forgotten their native language, which they pronounced with a barbarous accent, intermingling Tartar words, and setting the rules of syntax at defiance. Their dress, air, and demeanour, likewise, were Tartarian. To convince the incredulous, however, and prove their identity, they invited all their relations and old associates to a magnificent entertainment, at which the three travellers appeared attired in rich eastern habits of crimson satin. When all the guests were seated, the Polos put off their satin garments, which they bestowed upon the attendants, still appearing superbly dressed in robes of crimson damask. At the removal of the last course but one of the entertainment, they distributed their damask garments also upon the attendants, these having merely concealed far more magnificent robes of crimson velvet. When dinner was over, and the attendants had withdrawn, Marco Polo exhibited to the company the coats of coarse Tartarian cloth, or felt, which his father, his uncle, and himself had usually worn during their travels. These he now cut open, and from their folds and linings took out so prodigious a quantity of rubies,sapphires, emeralds, carbuncles, and diamonds, that the company, amazed and delighted with the beauty and splendour of these magnificent and invaluable gems, no longer hesitated to acknowledge the claims of the Polos, who, by the same arguments, might have proved their identity with Prester John and his family.
The news of their arrival now rapidly circulated through Venice, and crowds of persons of all ranks, attracted, partly by their immense wealth, partly by the strangeness of their recitals, flocked to their palace to see and congratulate them upon their return. The whole family was universally treated with distinction, and Maffio, the elder of the brothers, became one of the principal magistrates of the city. Marco, as being the youngest, and probably the most communicative of the three, was earnestly sought after by the young noblemen of Venice, whom he entertained and astonished by his descriptions of the strange and marvellous things he had beheld; and as in speaking of the subjects and revenues of the Great Khan he was frequently compelled to count by millions, he obtained among his companions the name ofMarco Millione. In the time of Ramusio the Polo palace still existed in the street of St. Chrysostom, and was popularly known by the name of theCorte del Millioni. Some writers, however, have supposed that this surname was bestowed on the Polos on account of their extraordinary riches.
Marco Polo had not been many months at Venice before the news arrived that a Genoese fleet, under the command of Lampa Doria, had appeared near the island of Curzola, on the coast of Dalmatia. The republic, alarmed at the intelligence, immediately sent out a numerous fleet against the enemy, in which Marco Polo, as an experienced mariner, was intrusted with the command of a galley. The two fleets soon came to an engagement, when Marco, with that intrepid courage which had carried himsafely through so many dangers, advanced with his galley before the rest of the fleet, with the design of breaking the enemy’s squadron. The Venetians, however, who were quickly defeated, wanted the energy to second his boldness; and Marco, who had been wounded in the engagement, was taken prisoner and carried to Genoa.
Here, as at Venice, the extraordinary nature of his adventures, thenaïvetéof his descriptions, and the amiableness of his character soon gained him friends, who not only delighted in his conversation, but exerted all their powers to soften the rigours of his captivity. Day after day new auditors flocked around this new Ulysses, anxious to hear from his own lips an account of the magnificence and grandeur of Kublai Khan, and of the vast empire of the Mongols. Wearied at length, however, with for ever repeating the same things, he determined, in pursuance of the advice of his new friends, to write the history of his travels; and sending to Venice for the original notes which he had made while in the East, compiled or dictated the brief work which has immortalized his memory. The work was completed in the year 1298, when it may also be said to have been published, as numerous copies were made and circulated.
Meanwhile, his father and uncle, who had hitherto looked to Marco for the continuation of the Polo family, and who had vainly endeavoured by the offer of large sums of money to redeem him from captivity, began to deliberate upon the course which they ought to adopt under the present circumstances; and it was resolved that Nicolo, the younger and more vigorous of the two, should himself marry. Four years after this marriage, Marco was set at liberty at the intercession of the most illustrious citizens of Genoa; but on returning to Venice he found that three new members had been added to the Polo family during his absence, his father having had so many sons by his young wife. Marco continued,however, to live in the greatest harmony and happiness with his new relations; and shortly afterward marrying himself, had two daughters, Maretta and Fantina, but no sons. Upon the death of his father, Marco erected a monument to his memory in the portico of the church of St. Lorenzo, with an inscription stating that it was built in honour of the traveller’s father. Neither the exact date of his father’s death nor of his own has hitherto been ascertained; but it is supposed that our illustrious traveller’s decease took place either in the year 1323 or 1324. According to Mr. Marsden’s opinion, he was then seventy years of age; but if we follow the opinion of the majority of writers, and of M. Walkenaer among the rest, he must have attained the age of seventy-three or seventy-four. The male line of the Polos became extinct in 1417, and the only surviving female was married to a member of the noble house of Trevisino, one of the most illustrious in Venice.
When the travels of Marco Polo first appeared, they were generally regarded as a fiction; and this absurd belief had so far gained ground, that when he lay upon his deathbed, his friends and nearest relatives, coming to take their eternal adieu, conjured him, as he valued the salvation of his soul, to retract whatever he had advanced in his book, or at least such passages as every person looked upon as untrue; but the traveller, whose conscience was untroubled upon that score, declared solemnly in that awful moment, that far from being guilty of exaggeration, he had not described one-half of the wonderful things which he had beheld. Such was the reception which the discoveries of this extraordinary man experienced when first promulgated. By degrees, however, as enterprise lifted more and more the veil from central and eastern Asia, the relations of our traveller rose in the estimation of geographers; and now that the world, though still containing manyunknown tracts, has been more successfully explored, we begin to perceive that Marco Polo, like Herodotus, was a man of the most rigid veracity, whose testimony presumptuous ignorance alone can call in question.
To relate the history of our traveller’s work since its first publication would be a long and a dry task. It was translated during his lifetime into Latin (for the opinion of Ramusio that it was originally composed in that language seems to be absurd), as well as into several modern languages of Europe; and as many of those versions were made, according to tradition, under the author’s own direction, he is thought to have inserted some numerous particulars which were wanting in others; and in this way the variations of the different manuscripts are accounted for. The number of the translations of Marco Polo is extraordinary; one in Portuguese, two in Spanish, three in German, three in French, three or four in Latin, one in Dutch, and seven in English. Of all these numerous versions, that of Mr. Marsden is generally allowed to be incomparably the best, whether the correctness of the text or the extent, riches, and variety of the commentary be considered.