The story of Marco Polo

Front matter

Glass X

Rnnk " fe 7

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

Preface

' I ^HE story of Marco Polo and his companions is ■*■ one of the most romantic and interesting of mediaeval or of modern times. The manner of the return of the Polos long after they had been given up for dead, the subsequent adventures of Marco Polo, the incredulity with which his book of travels was received, the gradual and slow confirmation of the truth of his reports as later explorations penetrated the mysterious Orient, and the fact that he may be justly regarded as the founder of the geography of Asia, have all combined to give to his narrative a certain fascination, with which no other story of travel has been invested. At first read for pure amusement, Marco Polo's book eventually became an authoritative account of regions of the earth which were almost wholly unknown to Europe up to his time, and some portions of which even now remain unexplored by Western travellers.

vi PREFACE.

In this little book the author and compiler has endeavoured to give a connected account of the travels of Marco Polo for the entertainment and instruction of young readers, with the hope that maturer minds may find therein a comprehensive and intelligible summary of the most valuable and trustworthy parts of the said book. As far as possible he has allowed the traveller to speak for himself, refraining from that fashion of condensation, which suppresses the original author and gives the reader only a narration which has been coloured by its passage through the mind of an editor. In his comments on the text of Marco Polo, the author has made use of the erudite notes of Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., whose admirable translation of " The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian" (John Murray, London, 1871) has been made the basis of this volume. The works of the Abbe Hue, Williams's "The Middle Kingdom," Gilmour's " Among the Mongols," and other lessknown books have been consulted in quest of light and information for the better understanding of the great Venetian's pages.

NOAH BROOKS.

Chapter I

PAGE CONCERNING MARCO, HIS FATHER, AND HIS UNCLE — MISTY NOTIONS OF THE FAR EAST HELD BY MEN OF MEDIEVAL TIMES — HOW THE POLOS WENT TO THE DOMINIONS OF KUBLAI KHAN AND GOT BACK AGAIN— A MARVELLOUS JOURNEY I

Chapter II

YOUNG MARCO AT THE COURT OF KUBLAI KHAN — THE GREAT KHAN'S CONDESCENSION TO THE YOUNG TRAVELLER — THE MANNER OF THE RETURN OF THE POLOS — HOW MESSER MARCO POLO WAS CAPTURED BY THE GENOESE, AND HOW HE WROTE HIS FAMOUS BOOK OF TRAVELS . 12

Chapter XIV

THE BEAUTIFUL PALACE OF KUBLAI KHAN — HOW THE EM- PEROR SPENT HIS TIME — CONCERNING THE MIGHTY CITY OF CAMBALUC — THE MANNER OF SERVING DINNER IN THE GREAT KHAN'S PALACE— ANCIENT AND MODERN PEKING — COSTLY ROBES 1 24

CONTENTS.

Chapter XV

PAGE THE KHAN AS A MIGHTY HUNTER — HIS FALCONERS, HAWKS, AND HUNTING GEAR — RIDING IN A CHAMBER ON ELE- PHANTS' BACKS — RIGHT ROYAL SPORT . . . -139

Chapter XVI

KUBLAl'S FINANCES AND GOVERNMENT — THE GREAT KHAN AS A MONEY-SPINNER — PRINTING MONEY TO ORDER — THE EMPEROR'S VALUABLE MONOPOLIES — THE TWELVE BARONS AND THEIR POWERS — POST-RUNNERS WHO TRAVEL FAST — BURNING "BLACK STONES " FOR FUEL — THE KHAN'S PATRIARCHAL RULE 147

Chapter XVII

THE GOLDEN KING AND PRESTER JOHN — THE FAMED YEL- LOW RIVER — SOME OF THE WONDERS OF YUNNAN — THE TRAVELLER MEETS WITH CROCODILES — "THE PEOPLE

OF THE GOLD TEETH " — CURIOSITIES OF TATTOOING

A FAMOUS BATTLE — THE CITY OF MIEN . . . 1 63

Chapter I

CONCERNING MARCO, HIS FATHER, AND HIS UNCLE — MISTY NOTIONS OF THE FAR EAST HELD BY MEN OF MEDIAEVAL TIMES — HOW THE POLOS WENT TO THE DOMINIONS OF KUBLAI KHAN AND GOT BACK AGAIN — A MARVELLOUS JOURNEY.

MANY hundred years ago, in the year 1295, let us say, before Columbus discovered America, or the art of printing had been invented, a strange thing happened in Venice. Three men, dressed in outlandish garb, partly European and partly Asiatic, appeared in the streets of that city, making their way to the gates of a lofty and handsome house which was then occupied by members of the ancient family of Polo. The three strangers, whose speech had a foreign accent, claimed admittance to the mansion, saying that they were Maffeo and Nicolo

Polo, brothers, and Marco, son of Nicolo, all of whom had been absent in the wild and barbarous countries of the Far East for more than twenty-four years, and had long since been given up as lost.

In those days nobody in Europe knew much about the regions in which the three Polos had travelled, the little that was known being derived from scanty and vague reports. Two friars, Piano Carpini and William Rubruquis, it is true, had reached the borders of Cathay, or Northern China, and had brought back slender accounts of the wonders of that mysterious land, of which they had heard from the subjects of the Great Khan, who reigned over a vast empire. But nobody among the learned and most travelled people of Europe knew exactly what manner of people lived, or what countries lay, beyond the western boundary of Cathay. None knew aught of the inhabitants (or if there were inhabitants) of the regions that we now know as India, Sumatra, Japan, Corea, and the eastern coasts of Asia and Africa. It was supposed that the farthest extreme, or eastern edge, of Cathay ran off into a region of continual darkness, a bog or marsh where all manner of strange beasts, hobgoblins, and monsters roamed and howled. And it was not surprising that, when the three Polos (for these were they) came back from that desperately savage country and claimed their own, they were laughed to scorn. It seemed reasonable to believe

RETURN OF THE WANDERERS.

that the three, having been gone so many years, had wandered off into the Sea of Darkness and had perished miserably, or had been destroyed by the wild creatures of that terrible region.

How the three Polos so far convinced their relations, who were in possession of the Polo mansion

Oic Emperor of Omt in Venice, as to gain admittance, we do not know ; but John Baptist Ramusio, who has written an entertaining history of the Polo family, sets forth what was done by the three Polos to prove that they were what they claimed to be, after they had taken possession of their house. They explained that they had been in the service of the Great Khan, or Emperor, of the Mongol Empire, and that they had amassed wealth while in the region variously known as Cathay, China, Mongolia, and the Far East. Here is what the good John Baptist Ramusio has to tell of the device by which Maffeo, Nicolo, and young Marco Polo finally convinced their neighbours of the truth of their marvellous story :

They invited a number of their kindred to an entertainment, which they took care to have prepared with great state and splendour in that house of theirs ; and when the hour arrived for sitting down to table, they came forth of their chamber, all three clothed in crimson satin, fashioned in long robes reaching to the ground, such as people in those days wore within doors. And when water for the hands had been served, and the guests were set, they took off those robes and put on others of crimson damask, whilst the first suits were by their orders cut up and divided among the servants. Then after partaking of some of the dishes, they went out again and came back in robes of crimson velvet; and when they had again taken their seats, the second suits were divided as before. When dinner was over, they did the like with the robes of velvet, after they had put on dresses of the ordinary fashion worn by the rest of the company. These proceedings caused much wonder and amazement among the guests. But when the cloth had been drawn, and all the servants had been ordered to retire from the dining-hall, Messer Marco, as the youngest of the three, rose from table, and, going into another chamber, brought forth the three shabby dresses of coarse stuff which they had worn when they first arrived. Straightway they took sharp knives and began to rip up some of the seams and welts, and to take out of them

I.] ALL DOUBTS REMOVED. 5

jewels of the greatest value in vast quantities, such as rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, which had all been stitched up in those dresses in so artful a fashion that nobody could have suspected the fact. For when they took leave of the Great Can, they had changed all the wealth that he had bestowed upon them into this mass of rubies, emeralds, and other jewels, being well aware of the impossibility of carrying with them so great an amount of gold over a journey of such extreme length and difficulty. Now this exhibition of such a huge treasure of jewels and precious stones, all tumbled out upon the table, threw the guests into fresh amazement, insomuch that they seemed quite bewildered and dumbfounded. And now they recognised that in spite of all former doubts these were in truth those honoured and worthy gentlemen of the Ca' Polo * that they claimed to be ; and so all paid them the greatest honour and reverence. And when the story got wind in Venice, straightway the whole city, gentle and simple, flocked to the house to embrace them, and to make much of them, with every conceivable demonstration of affection and respect. On Messer Maffeo, who was the eldest, they conferred the honours of an office that was of great dignity in those days ; whilst the young men came daily to visit and converse with the ever polite and gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about Cathay and the Great Can, all of which he answered with such kindly courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his debtor. And as it happened that in the story, which he was constantly called on to repeat, of the magnificence of the Great Can, he would speak of his revenues as amounting to ten or fifteen millions of gold, and in like manner, when recounting other instances of great wealth in those parts, would always make use of the term

* House oi Polo.

millions ', so they gave him the nickname of Messer Marco Millioni : a thing which I have noted also in the Public Books of this Republic where mention is made of him. The Court of his House, too, at S. Giovanni Chrisostomo, has always from that time been popularly known as the Court of the Millioni.

It is with the youngest of the three Polos that our story has to do ; for Marco, the son of Nicolo, was the author of the book that bears his name ; and he was the most famous traveller of his time, as we shall presently see. He was seventeen years old when he first started on his adventurous journey into Far Cathay. He was forty-one years old when he returned to his native city of Venice, with his father and his uncle Maffeo ; and it was not until three or four years later, while he was a prisoner of war, that he began to write, or dictate, the tale of his wonderful travels.

The two Polo brothers, Nicolo and MafYeo, began their wanderings in the Far East before Marco was born. After several years of trading and travelling in that region of the world, which was called the Levant, because the sun was seen to rise there (from the French verb lever, to rise), the two Polos were in Constantinople in 1260. From that city they went on a trading venture round the northern shore of the Black Sea to the Crimea and the Sea of Azov, and thence into Western Asia and to Bokhara, where

I.] THE MONGOLS. 7

they remained three years. While there, they heard distinct and trustworthy tales of the Great Khan, as he was called — the Emperor of the Mongols — and they resolved to go and see the splendours of his court.

At that time the Mongolian Empire was one of the largest, if not the largest, in the world. The Mongols, beginning their wandering life in the northern part of Asia, had overrun all the western part of that continent, and as far to the southward as the island of Sumatra, excepting India. To the eastward, the islands of Cipango, or Japan, alone resisted the dominion of the Great Khan ; and in the west, his hordes had even broken over the borders of Europe, had taken possession of the country now known as Russia, had invaded Poland and Hungary, and had established themselves on the mouths of the Danube. During the reign of the great Jenghiz Khan and his immediate successors, it has been said, "In Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might bark without Mongol leave, from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia to the Amur and the Yellow Sea."

When the two Polos arrived at the chief city of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan, a grandson of the great Jenghiz, was the reigning Sovereign. The Khan had never seen any Europeans, and he was greatly pleased with the appearance of the Polo brothers. This is what Marco Polo says of the reception of his father and uncle by Kublai Khan :

When the Two Brothers got to the Great Kaan, he received them with great honour and hospitality, and showed much pleasure at their visit, asking them a great number of questions. First, he asked about the emperors, how they maintained their dignity and administered justice in their dominions, and how they went forth to battle, and so forth. And then he asked the like questions about the kings and princes and other potentates.

And then he inquired about the Pope and the Church, and about all that is done at Rome, and all the customs of the Latins. And the Two Brothers told him the truth in all its particulars, with order and good sense, like sensible men as they were; and this they were able to do, as they knew the Tartar language well.

When that Prince, whose name was Cublay Kaan, Lord of the Tartars all over the earth, and of all the kingdoms and provinces and territories of that vast quarter of the world, had heard all that the Brothers had to tell him about the ways of the Latins, he was greatly pleased, and he took it into his head that he would send them on an Embassy to the Pope. So he urgently desired them to undertake this mission along with one of his Barons ; and they replied that they would gladly execute all his commands as those of their Sovereign Lord. Then the Prince sent to summon to his presence one of his Barons whose name was Cogatal, and desired him to get ready, for it was proposed to send him to the Pope along with the Two Brothers. The Baron replied that he would execute the Lord's commands to the best of his ability.

After this the Prince caused letters from himself to the Pope to be indited in the Tartar tongue, and committed them to the Two Brothers and to that Baron of his own,

THE POLO BROTHERS RECEIVING THE TABLET OF GOLD.

I.] THE KHAN'S INSTRUCTIONS. 9

and charged them with what he wished them to say to the Pope. Now the contents of the letter were to this purport : He begged that the Pope would send as many as an hundred persons of our Christian faith ; intelligent men, acquainted with the Seven Arts, well qualified to enter into controversy, and able clearly to prove by force of argument to idolaters and other kinds of folk, that the Law of Christ was best, and that all other religions were false and naught; and if they would prove this, he and all under him would become Christians and the Church's liegemen. Finally he charged his Envoys to bring back to him some Oil of the Lamp which burns on the Sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem.

When the Prince had charged them with all his commission, he caused to be given them a Tablet of Gold, on which was inscribed that the three Ambassadors should be supplied with everything needful in all countries through which they should pass — with horses, with escorts, and, in short, with whatever they should require. And when they had made all needful preparations, the three Ambassadors took their leave of the Emperor and set out.

So great was the reverence in which the Great Khan was held by all who frequented his court that he was called the Lord, or the Lord of the Earth. Ramusio spells the title variously, sometimes " Kaan," and sometimes " Can." He also calls him " Cublay " at times, but most scholars give the name as Kublai. The Seven Arts which the Great Khan wanted to have brought to his court by teachers were : Rhetoric, Logic, Grammar, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music and Geometry. These were then regarded as the sum of human knowledge ; and if the people of the Great Khan were taught these, they would know all that the Europeans knew. Everything went well with the travellers, except that the Tatar baron fell sick, and had to be left behind. They reached Acre in 1269, where, finding to their dismay that the Pope was dead, and that his successor had not been chosen, they went, says Marco Polo,

to a certain wise Churchman who was Legate for the whole kingdom of Egypt, and a man of great authority, by name Theobald of Piacenza, and told him of the mission on which they were come. When the Legate heard their story, he was greatly surprised, and deemed the thing to be of great honour and advantage for the whole of Christendom. So his answer to the Two Ambassador Brothers was this : " Gentlemen, ye see that the Pope is dead ; wherefore ye must needs have patience until a new Pope be made, and then shall ye be able to execute your charge." Seeing well enough that what the Legate said was just, they observed : " But while the Pope is a-making, we may as well go to Venice and visit our households." So they departed from Acre and went to Negropont, and from Negropont they continued their voyage to Venice. On their arrival there, Messer Nicolas found that his wife was dead, and that she had left behind her a son of fifteen years of age, whose name was Marco ; and 'tis of him this Book tells. The Two Brothers abode at Venice a couple of years, tarrying until a Pope should be made.

When the Two Brothers had tarried as long as I have told you, and saw that never a Pope was made, they said that their return to the Great Kaan must be put off no longer. So they set out from Venice, taking Marco along

I.] POPE GREGORY X. II

with them, and went straight back to Acre, where they found the Legate of whom we have spoken. They had a good deal of discourse with him concerning the matter, and asked his permission to go to Jerusalem to get some Oil from the Lamp on the Sepulchre, to carry with them to the Great Kaan, as he had enjoined. The Legate giving them leave, they went from Acre to Jerusalem and got some of the Oil, and then returned to Acre, and went to the Legate and said to him : " As we see no sign of a Pope's being made, we desire to return to the Great Kaan ; for we have already tarried long, and there has been more than enough delay." To which the Legate replied : "Since 'tis your wish to go back, I am well content." Wherefore he caused letters to be written for delivery to the Great Kaan, bearing testimony that the Two Brothers had come in all good faith to accomplish his charge, but that as there was no Pope they had been unable to do so.

Armed with these, the Polos started on their return ; but they had not gone far when they were overjoyed to learn that their good friend, Archdeacon Tebaldo, had been chosen Pope. The news was sent after them, and they went back to Acre, where Tebaldo, afterwards known as Pope Gregory X., received them graciously ; but he could supply them with only two priestly teachers, and these afterwards became so alarmed by the dangers of the way that they drew back. It is related that the Great Khan, in consequence of this failure to supply him with Christian teachers, resorted to Tibet, where he found holy men who brought for his unruly subjects instruction in the religion of Buddha.

Chapter II

YOUNG MARCO AT THE COURT OF KUBLAI KHAN — THE GREAT KHAN'S CONDESCENSION TO THE YOUNG TRAVELLER — THE MANNER OF THE RETURN OF THE POLOS — HOW MESSER MARCO POLO WAS CAPTURED BY THE GENOESE, AND HOW HE WROTE HIS FAMOUS BOOK OF TRAVELS.

TV /f ARCO and his father and uncle were very -L¥J» cordially received when they reached the court of the Great Khan, which was then established at the imperial summer residence among the hills to the north of Cambaluc, or Peking. The palace was a vast group of buildings, and was known as the City of Peace, or Chandu : its other names were Kemenfu, Kaiminfu, and Kaipingfu. Here is young Marco's own account of the reception which the three Venetians had in the City of Peace:

And what shall I tell you? When the Two Brothers and Mark had arrived at that great city, they went to the Imperial Palace, and there they found the Sovereign attended by a great company of Barons. So they bent the knee before him, and paid their respects to him with all possible reverence, prostrating themselves on the ground. Then the Lord bade them stand up, and treated them

Ch. II. J MARCO, THE LINGUIST. 1 3

with great honour, showing great pleasure at their coming, and asked many questions as to their welfare and how they had sped. They replied that they had in verity sped well, seeing they had found the Kaan well and safe. Then they presented the credentials and letters which they had received from the Pope, which pleased him right well ; and after that they produced the Oil from the Sepulchre, and at that also he was very glad, for he set great store thereby. And next, spying Mark, who was then a young gallant, he asked who was that in their company ? " Sire," said his father, Messer Nicolo, " 'tis my son and your liegeman." "Welcome is he too," quoth the Emperor. There was great rejoicing at the Court because of their arrival ; and they met with attention and honour from everybody. So they abode at the Court with the other Barons.

Now it came to pass that Marco, the son of Messer Nicolo, sped wondrously in learning the customs of the Tartars as well as their language, their manner of writing, and their practice of war ; in fact, he came in brief space to know several languages and four sundry written characters. And he was discreet and prudent in every way, insomuch that the Emperor held him in great esteem. And so when he discerned Mark to have so much sense, and to conduct himself so well and beseemingly, he sent him on an ambassage of his, to a country which was a good six months' journey distant. The young gallant executed his commission well and with discretion. Now he had taken note on several occasions that when the Prince's ambassadors returned from different parts of the world they were able to tell him about nothing except the business on which they had gone, and that the Prince in consequence held them for no better than fools and dolts, and would say, " I had far liever hearken about the strange things, and the manners of the different countries you have seen, than merely be told of the business you went upon " ; for he took great delight in hearing of the affairs of strange countries. Mark, therefore, as he went and returned, took great pains to learn about all kinds of different matters in the countries which he visited, in order to be able to tell about them to the Great Kaan.

When Mark returned from his ambassage, he presented himself before the Emperor; and after making his report of the business with which he was charged, and its successful accomplishment, he went on to give an account, in a pleasant and intelligent manner, of all the novelties and strange things that he had seen and heard ; insomuch that the Emperor and all such as heard his story were surprised, and said : " If this young man live, he will assuredly come to be a person of great worth and ability." And so from that time forward he was always entitled Messer Marco Polo, and thus we shall style him henceforth in this Book of ours, as is but right.

Thereafter Messer Marco abode in the Kaan's employment some seventeen years, continually going and coming, hither and thither, on the missions that were entrusted to him by the Lord, and sometimes, with the permission and authority of the Great Kaan, on his own private affairs. And as he knew all the Sovereign's ways, like a sensible man he always took much pains to gather knowledge of anything that would be likely to interest him, and then on his return to Court he would relate everything in regular order, and thus the Emperor came to hold him in great love and favour. And for this reason also he would employ him the oftener on the most weighty and most distant of his missions. These Messer Marco ever carried out with discretion and success, God be thanked. So the Emperor became ever more partial to him, and treated him with the greater distinction, and kept him so close to his person that some of the Barons waxed very envious thereat. And thus it came about that Messer Marco Polo had

II.] MARCO, THE EXPLORER. 1 5

knowledge of, or had actually visited, a greater number of the different countries of the World than any other man ; the more that he was always giving his mind to get knowledge, and to spy out and inquire into everything, in order to have matter to relate to the Lord.

It is pleasant to think of this bright young stranger in the court of Kublai Khan, winning friends for himself by his zeal in acquiring knowledge of the peoples and countries subject to the sway of the Khan. By his intelligence and agreeable manners he was able to command the means to explore countries which, even to this day, are very imperfectly understood by the rest of the world. Within the memory of men now living, European travellers have explored, for the first time since Marco Polo's visits, the Pamir steppes, other portions of Mongolia, Tibet, and some of the south-western provinces of China.

He was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole length of Asia, says one of his biographers, " describing kingdon after kingdom that he had seen with his own eyes." He was the first traveller to explore the deserts and the flowering plains of Persia, to reveal China with its mighty rivers, its swarming population, and its huge cities and rich manufactures ; the first to visit and bring back accounts of Tibet, Laos, Burmah, Siam, Cochin China, Japan, the Indian Archipelago, Ceylon, Farther India, and the Andaman Islands ; the first to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian empire of Abyssinia ; the first to speak even vaguely of Zanzibar, Madagascar, and other regions in the mysterious South, and of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean in the terrible and much dreaded North. Although centuries have passed since young Marco Polo grew to man's estate while threading his dangerous way among these distant lands, we must still look back to his discoveries for much that we know about those countries ; for we have learned nothing new of many of them since his time.

Years passed while the three Polos were gathering riches and knowledge in Cathay ; the Great Khan was growing old and infirm, and the father and the uncle of Marco were now well stricken in years. It was time that they took back to Venice their gold, precious stones, and costly stuffs. But the old Emperor growled a refusal whenever they suggested that they would like to leave his court. A lucky chance gave them an opportunity of getting away.

The Khan of Persia, Arghun, who was a greatnephew of Kublai Khan, had lost his favourite wife, and, fulfilling her dying request, he now sent to the Mongol court for a lady of her own kin. The Lady Kukachin, a lovely damsel of seventeen years, was selected to be the bride of the Persian Khan, and three envoys of the widowed ruler were told to take

II.] A MISSION TO PERSIA. 1 7

her to him. But the way from Cathay to Persia was very hazardous, owing to the wars which then prevailed ; and it was thought best for the party to take ship from one of the ports of China to Ormus, on the Persian Gulf. The Tatars are not good sailors ; and the Persian envoys, who could not get much help or comfort from their friends in the court of Kublai Khan when they planned their voyage, naturally bethought them of engaging the services of the three hardy and venturous Venetians, who were voyagers, as well as land travellers.