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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
The Travels of Marco Polo (Vol. 1&2) is a captivating anthology of exploration and adventure, chronicling the awe-inspiring journeys of Marco Polo and expertly transcribed by Rustichello of Pisa. This seminal work captures the diverse and often extraordinary cultures, landscapes, and peoples encountered during Polo's epic travels across Asia and beyond. With a range of styles blending factual narration with vivid storytelling, the collection allows readers to traverse both real and mythical realms, offering a rich tapestry of medieval exploration that establishes it as a critical work in the canon of travel literature. The anthology is a product of the collaboration between Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant with firsthand experience of the lands he describes, and Rustichello of Pisa, a gifted scribe known for his ability to bring stories to life in written form. Together, they create a narrative deeply embedded in the historical context of the Silk Road and the complex cultural exchanges of the 13th century. This collection aligns with the era's literary movements of discovery and curiosity, showcasing diverse voices and perspectives that paint a multifaceted picture of the medieval world. Readers are invited to immerse themselves in the richly detailed accounts of this anthology, gaining insights into the vast expanses of the world as seen through the eyes of Polo and transcribed by Pisa. The Travels of Marco Polo is not just a journey into distant lands but also an exploration of diverse human experiences and ambitions, offering invaluable lessons in history, culture, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge. This two-volume set is essential for anyone interested in the early dynamics of global interaction and the legacies of medieval exploration. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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The Travels of Marco Polo (Vol. 1&2)
Table of Contents
Introduction
At the crossroads of curiosity, commerce, and empire, The Travels of Marco Polo shows how a Venetian merchant’s observations and a Pisan writer’s craft transform a sprawling world into an intelligible journey.
This classic of medieval travel literature was composed around 1298–1300, when Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, dictated his experiences to Rustichello of Pisa while they were confined in Genoa. The resulting narrative, often known as Il Milione, circulated widely in manuscript across late medieval Europe and was translated, adapted, and copied in several languages. Set chiefly across Eurasia under Mongol rule—with special attention to Yuan China—it offers an expansive geography of routes, cities, and courts. Many modern editions present the text in two volumes, a practical division that mirrors its regional organization and the density of its descriptive detail.
The premise is straightforward yet sweeping: a traveler recounts what he saw, heard, and learned while moving from the Mediterranean through the overland and maritime arteries of Asia. Readers encounter a sequence of places and peoples, with particular focus on the networks that sustained long-distance trade and imperial governance. The account dwells on encounters at the court of Kublai Khan and in surrounding territories, but it remains a traveler’s book rather than a chronicle of a single event. The experience it offers is observational and reportorial, inviting readers to navigate an ever-widening map through steady accumulation of detail.
The collaboration between Marco Polo and Rustichello produces a distinctive voice: plainspoken and pragmatic in its attention to commodities, routes, and customs, yet shaped by the narrative habits of medieval romance. Descriptions are organized by regions, often proceeding from geography to resources to social and religious practices. The tone alternates between matter-of-fact enumeration and a sense of wonder at scale and difference. The style privileges function over flourish, aiming for clarity that aids recall and comparison. Across both volumes, the cadence is that of a guidebook expanded to the dimensions of a world survey, anchored by the rhythms of travel itself.
Core themes emerge with consistent force: cross-cultural contact, the circulation of knowledge, the structures of power under a vast empire, and the ways commerce knits disparate societies together. The book continually asks how to describe what is new without losing credibility, and how to weigh hearsay against direct observation. It tracks the relationship between mobility and authority, showing how roads, protections, and administrative systems enable exchange. It also reflects the limits and biases of its time, making it a valuable document for thinking about perspective, translation, and mediation. Readers today will find a case study in how information becomes narrative and narrative becomes knowledge.
Equally important is the work’s transmission. Surviving in multiple recensions and languages, The Travels of Marco Polo bears the marks of copying, abridgment, and expansion, which have prompted long-standing debates about accuracy and source materials. That variability is part of its historical significance: it shows how reports from afar were digested and circulated within Europe. Its influence on geographic imagination and cartographic efforts is well documented, even as scholars continue to assess its claims. Approaching the text with awareness of its manuscript history enriches the reading, highlighting the interplay between eyewitness testimony, compilation, and the expectations of medieval audiences.
Read today, the book matters not only for what it describes but for how it models attention across cultural distance. It offers a disciplined curiosity, an attempt to render systems, practices, and everyday life intelligible to outsiders without collapsing difference. The two-volume format encourages a deliberate journey, allowing time to compare regions, weigh patterns, and note repetitions that reveal underlying structures. Its questions—about credibility, encounter, and the ethics of representation—remain urgent. As an early, influential example of global reportage, The Travels of Marco Polo invites readers to imagine connectivity at scale while recognizing the contingencies that shape every account of the wider world.
Synopsis (Selection)
The Travels of Marco Polo, attributed to Marco Polo and compiled by Rustichello of Pisa, recounts the Polos’ journeys and observations across Asia in the late thirteenth century. Framed as a faithful record of lands seen or reliably reported, the book presents geography, commerce, customs, and governance under Mongol rule. It opens with the earlier voyage of Niccolò and Maffeo Polo from Venice to the court of Kublai Khan, their reception, and their return to Europe bearing requests to the Pope. The narrative then introduces young Marco, who later accompanies his father and uncle back to the Khan, establishing the itinerary that structures Volume 1 and Volume 2.
In 1271 the three Polos depart Venice, securing papal letters and holy oil before traveling through Acre and Armenia toward the Persian plateau. They pass through cities such as Tabriz, Yazd, and Kerman, noting trade in silk, gems, and steel. At Hormuz they decline unsafe ships and continue overland into Khorasan and Badakhshan. The account emphasizes caravan logistics, climate, and hazards, including deserts, banditry, and altitude. Crossing the Pamirs and the Gobi, they describe oases, relay stations, and the routines of long-distance commerce. The journey culminates with entry into Cathay, where imperial messengers expedite their progress to the Mongol court.
At Kublai Khan’s court in Shangdu and Khanbaliq, the Polos are received with favor, and Marco enters service as an envoy. The narrative details the Great Khan’s palaces, seasonal movements, and ceremonies, including feasts, hunts, and displays of authority. It explains the imperial relay system, administrative records, and provisions that sustain rapid communication. Notable economic practices are described, such as the use of paper currency, the salt monopoly, and state granaries. Observations highlight natural resources and products—coal, rhubarb, musk, pearls—and crafts like porcelain and silk. Marco’s missions provide a framework for regional chapters that follow the empire’s lines of control.
The book surveys the northern provinces and steppe domains, outlining Mongol military organization, taxation, and governance of diverse peoples. It notes religious pluralism—Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians—and the patronage extended to various communities. Descriptions of Khanbaliq emphasize markets, canals, and urban planning. Attention is given to the imperial hunt, courier horses, and winter quarters, illustrating logistical discipline across vast distances. The narrative also records climate, soils, and agriculture, connecting geography to revenue. Accounts of wonder and utility appear side by side: black stones that burn in stoves, salamander cloth that resists fire, and engineered causeways that bind cities to their hinterlands.
Turning south to Manzi, recently incorporated after the fall of the Southern Song, the work describes densely populated cities linked by rivers and canals. Hangzhou, presented under the name Quinsai, is depicted with extensive bridges, warehouses, pleasure boats, and markets for silk, spices, and tea. Maritime commerce through ports like Zaytun integrates foreign merchants and customs officials. The narrative catalogs revenue from salt, licensing, and transport; the legal system’s examinations and penalties; and public order maintained by night watch and patrol boats. Domestic habits, garden pavilions, and banquets are noted alongside crafts and manufactures, illustrating the economic sophistication of the lower Yangtze.
Further chapters recount the borderlands and highlands: Yunnan (Carajan), Tibet, and adjacent realms. Features include elephants, rhinoceros, and gold-bearing streams; hillside cultivation and forest products; and fortified towns at trade crossroads. The account registers distinctive rites, marriages, and funerary customs, as well as local healers and diviners. It narrates campaigns involving Mongol generals, sieges, and tribute arrangements with neighboring powers. The kingdom of Mien (Burma) appears with descriptions of pagodas, courts, and war elephants. Travel difficulties—swamps, mountain passes, and unfamiliar foods—are noted in sequence, maintaining the itinerary’s march from imperial centers to peripheral regions and back again.
Volume 2 extends seaward to islands and coasts of the Indian Ocean. Reports cover Cipangu (Japan), Java and Sumatra, the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, and Sri Lanka, with emphasis on spices, aromatic woods, and pearls. Navigation is explained by monsoon winds, sewn-hull ships, and pilotage between ports. The western littoral of India—Gujarat and Malabar—features pepper harvests, pearl fisheries, caste distinctions, and courtly protocols; the Coromandel coast adds textiles and temple centers. References to Hormuz, Aden, and East African waters outline longer circuits. Throughout, the text distinguishes what was seen from what was heard, while preserving marvels and commercial particulars valuable to merchants.
The narrative describes the Polos’ return with a Mongol princess sent to the Ilkhanate in Persia. Traveling by sea from a Chinese port through Southeast Asia and across the Bay of Bengal, the convoy loses many ships before reaching Hormuz. On arrival, the intended marriage is altered due to political changes and a recent death, and the bride is given to a close relative of the original suitor. The Polos proceed overland through Tabriz and Trebizond to the Black Sea, eventually returning to Venice after years abroad. Later captured in a Venetian-Genoese conflict, Marco dictates his recollections to Rustichello, who organizes and transmits the book.
The Travels presents a comprehensive inventory of routes, polities, and commodities across Eurasia under Mongol hegemony. Its purpose is to inform readers about geography, governance, resources, and customs, combining firsthand observation with credible report in a sequence mirroring the journeys. The work highlights imperial administration, urban prosperity, and networks that support transcontinental trade by land and sea. It also preserves accounts of wonders consistent with medieval encyclopedic aims. Circulating in multiple versions and languages, the book shaped European knowledge of Asia for centuries, conveying the scale and diversity of the regions encountered without advancing personal judgment or polemic.
Historical Context
Set during the mid-to-late thirteenth century, the narrative of The Travels unfolds across the breadth of Eurasia, from the mercantile republic of Venice through the Persian plateau and Central Asian oases to the Mongol capitals of Shangdu and Khanbaliq (Dadu, present-day Beijing). Its temporal horizon spans roughly 1271–1295 for the journey itself and circa 1298–1299 for its composition in a Genoese prison. The political backdrop is the Mongol Empire at or near its apogee, whose administrative cohesion and military supremacy created unprecedented continental mobility. Urban hubs such as Tabriz, Hormuz, Kashgar, Quanzhou, and Hangzhou anchor a world where imperial communication routes, commercial arteries, and cultural exchanges intersected at scale.
The expansion and consolidation of the Mongol Empire form the precondition for the Polos’ itinerary. Temüjin was proclaimed Chinggis (Genghis) Khan in 1206, initiating campaigns that integrated steppe polities and conquered from China’s north to the fringes of Europe. Under Ögedei (r. 1229–1241) and subsequent rulers, Mongol forces reached Kiev, Budapest, and Baghdad, while the empire developed the yam postal-relay network and paizi passports to secure movement and intelligence. This Pax Mongolica stabilized long-distance trade by the 1260s. The book is inseparable from these institutions: its descriptions of relay stations, secure caravan travel, and official passes reflect the infrastructure that made the authors’ transcontinental observations possible.
Kublai Khan’s reign (1260–1294) and the founding of the Yuan dynasty in 1271 defined the political core of the narrative’s East Asian sections. Following the Toluid civil war (1260–1264) with Ariq Böke, Kublai moved the capital to Dadu (Khanbaliq) and completed the conquest of the Southern Song: Lin’an (Hangzhou) fell in 1276, and the naval battle of Yamen in 1279 ended organized resistance. Yuan governance blended steppe sovereignty with Chinese administrative practice, including large-scale census-taking, a hierarchical ethnic order, and extensive use of paper money (jiaochao). The Travels records the issuing of notes from mulberry bark, state seals, and fiscal monopolies such as salt, as well as the logistical reach of granary systems and canal transport. Descriptions of colossal Hangzhou, with its markets and bridges, and of the summer capital at Shangdu, align the text with the realities of Yuan urban governance and courtly ceremony.
The Polos’ journey crystallizes several geopolitical vectors. Niccolò and Maffeo Polo traveled east in the early 1260s, reaching Bukhara and, by c. 1266, Kublai’s court, before returning to Europe with a request for learned envoys. In 1271 they set out again with the young Marco, moving via Acre and Laiazzo (Ayas), then across Tabriz, Kerman, and Hormuz. Blocked from sailing, they crossed Badakhshan, traversed the Pamirs, and passed Kashgar, Khotan, and the Lop Desert to Gansu, arriving at Shangdu in 1275. Marco reports years of service on missions to Yunnan, Tibet, and coastal China, observing administrative and commercial systems. Their return, escorting a Mongol princess by sea (1292–1293) through Sumatra, Ceylon, and the Indian littoral to the Ilkhanid realm, ended with their arrival in Venice in 1295.
The maritime rivalry between Venice and Genoa frames the book’s composition. The War of 1296–1299 culminated in the Venetian defeat at Curzola on 8 September 1298, where Marco Polo was captured. Imprisoned in Genoa, he dictated his account to Rustichello of Pisa, a Pisan romance writer also in captivity. Their Franco-Italian text blended mercantile reportage with courtly anecdote and circulated rapidly in manuscript, spawning Latin and Tuscan versions. This wartime, carceral context explains the work’s audience orientation toward European courts and traders and its role in transmitting Eurasian political and commercial intelligence to a Mediterranean world locked in fierce competition for routes and markets.
Key East and Southeast Asian campaigns structure many episodes Polo recounts or contextualizes. The siege of Xiangyang (1268–1273) introduced counterweight trebuchets engineered by specialists from the Near East, tipping the balance against the Song and opening the Yangzi heartland. Kublai’s maritime projections followed: the invasions of Japan in 1274 (Bun’ei) and 1281 (Kōan) failed amid fierce resistance and destructive storms; campaigns against Đại Việt (Vietnam) in 1257, 1285, and 1287–1288 and against Champa in 1283 strained Yuan logistics; an expedition to Java in 1293 intersected with local dynastic struggles. The Travels references Cipangu’s riches, the bustling ports of Zaitun (Quanzhou) and Guangzhou, and the spice and aromatics circuits of Sumatra and Java, mapping warfare, commerce, and imperial ambition onto the maritime rim.
The western and central Mongol domains shaped the Polos’ routes and observations. Hülegü’s creation of the Ilkhanate (1256) and the sack of Baghdad in 1258 ended the Abbasid Caliphate, shifting economic gravity to cities like Tabriz and Maragha. The Golden Horde dominated the Pontic steppes, while the Chagatai realm controlled Transoxiana; the long rivalry of Kaidu (c. 1269–1301) with Kublai destabilized segments of Central Asia. Despite contests, caravan trade expanded, with Hormuz, Kerman, Yazd, and Tabriz serving as nodal markets. The book notes papal-Mongol diplomacy after 1271, Nestorian Christian communities, and wide religious toleration at court. Its detailed depictions of Tabriz’s bazaars and Hormuz’s maritime exchanges anchor the narrative in Ilkhanid political economy.
As a social and political mirror, the book juxtaposes Mongol-derived imperial integration with the fractured sovereignties of the Mediterranean. It exposes systems of extraction and labor—corvée, requisitions, monopolies, and punitive justice—alongside mechanisms that reduced transaction costs, such as passports, postal relays, and paper currency. The portrayal of religious toleration at court contrasts with European confessional conflict, while accounts of tribute hierarchies, slavery, and frontier warfare illuminate the human costs of empire. Descriptions of vast wealth in cities like Hangzhou and Quanzhou sit beside rural precarities and tax burdens. By detailing administrative capacity and commercial rationalization, the book implicitly critiques parochial governance, oligarchic rivalries, and informational poverty in contemporary Europe.
The Travels of Marco Polo (Vol. 1&2)
VOLUME 1
Table of Contents
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
Little did I think, some thirty years ago, when I received a copy of the first edition of this grand work, that I should be one day entrusted with the difficult but glorious task of supervising the third edition. When the first edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo reached "Far Cathay," it created quite a stir in the small circle of the learned foreigners, who then resided there, and became a starting-point for many researches, of which the results have been made use of partly in the second edition, and partly in the present. The Archimandrite PALLADIUS and Dr. E. BRETSCHNEIDER, at Peking, ALEX. WYLIE, at Shang-hai—friends of mine who have, alas! passed away, with the exception of the Right Rev. Bishop G. E. MOULE, of Hang-chau, the only survivor of this little group of hard-working scholars—were the first to explore the Chinese sources of information which were to yield a rich harvest into their hands.
When I returned home from China in 1876, I was introduced to Colonel HENRY YULE, at the India Office, by our common friend, Dr. REINHOLD ROST, and from that time we met frequently and kept up a correspondence which terminated only with the life of the great geographer, whose friend I had become. A new edition of the travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone, our "mutual friend," in which Yule had taken the greatest interest, was dedicated by me to his memory. I knew that Yule contemplated a third edition of his Marco Polo, and all will regret that time was not allowed to him to complete this labour of love, to see it published. If the duty of bringing out the new edition of Marco Polo has fallen on one who considers himself but an unworthy successor of the first illustrious commentator, it is fair to add that the work could not have been entrusted to a more respectful disciple. Many of our tastes were similar; we had the same desire to seek the truth, the same earnest wish to be exact, perhaps the same sense of humour, and, what is necessary when writing on Marco Polo, certainly the same love for Venice and its history. Not only am I, with the late CHARLES SCHEFER, the founder and the editor of the Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l'Histoire de la Géographie depuis le XIII'e jusqu'à la fin du XVI'e siècle, but I am also the successor, at the Ecole des langues Orientales Vivantes, of G. PAUTHIER, whose book on the Venetian Traveller is still valuable, so the mantle of the last two editors fell upon my shoulders.
I therefore, gladly and thankfully, accepted Miss AMY FRANCIS YULE'S kind proposal to undertake the editorship of the third edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo, and I wish to express here my gratitude to her for the great honour she has thus done me.[1]
Unfortunately for his successor, Sir Henry Yule, evidently trusting to his own good memory, left but few notes. These are contained in an interleaved copy obligingly placed at my disposal by Miss Yule, but I luckily found assistance from various other quarters. The following works have proved of the greatest assistance to me:—The articles of General HOUTUM-SCHINDLER in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and the excellent books of Lord CURZON and of Major P. MOLESWORTH SYKES on Persia, M. GRENARD'S account of DUTREUIL DE RHINS' Mission to Central Asia, BRETSCHNEIDER'S and PALLADIUS' remarkable papers on Mediaeval Travellers and Geography, and above all, the valuable books of the Hon. W. W. ROCKHILL on Tibet and Rubruck, to which the distinguished diplomatist, traveller, and scholar kindly added a list of notes of the greatest importance to me, for which I offer him my hearty thanks.
My thanks are also due to H.H. Prince ROLAND BONAPARTE, who kindly gave me permission to reproduce some of the plates of his Recueil de Documents de l'Epoque Mongole, to M. LÉOPOLD DELISLE, the learned Principal Librarian of the Bibliothèque Nationale, who gave me the opportunity to study the inventory made after the death of the Doge Marino Faliero, to the Count de SEMALLÉ, formerly French Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, who gave me for reproduction a number of photographs from his valuable personal collection, and last, not least, my old friend Comm. NICOLÒ BAROZZI, who continued to lend me the assistance which he had formerly rendered to Sir Henry Yule at Venice.
Since the last edition was published, more than twenty-five years ago, Persia has been more thoroughly studied; new routes have been explored in Central Asia, Karakorum has been fully described, and Western and South-Western China have been opened up to our knowledge in many directions. The results of these investigations form the main features of this new edition of Marco Polo. I have suppressed hardly any of Sir Henry Yule's notes and altered but few, doing so only when the light of recent information has proved him to be in error, but I have supplemented them by what, I hope, will be found useful, new information.[2]
Before I take leave of the kind reader, I wish to thank sincerely Mr. JOHN MURRAY for the courtesy and the care he has displayed while this edition was going through the press.
HENRI CORDIER. PARIS, 1st of October, 1902.
[1] Miss Yule has written the Memoir of her father and the new Dedication.
[2] Paragraphs which have been altered are marked thus +; my own additions are placed between brackets [ ].—H. C.
[Illustration: "Now strike your Sailes yee jolly Mariners, For we be come into a quiet Rode". … —THE FAERIE QUEENE, I. xii. 42.]
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The unexpected amount of favour bestowed on the former edition of this Work has been a great encouragement to the Editor in preparing this second one.
Not a few of the kind friends and correspondents who lent their aid before have continued it to the present revision. The contributions of Mr. A. WYLIE of Shang-hai, whether as regards the amount of labour which they must have cost him, or the value of the result, demand above all others a grateful record here. Nor can I omit to name again with hearty acknowledgment Signor Comm. G. BERCHET of Venice, the Rev. Dr. CALDWELL, Colonel (now Major-General) R. MACLAGAN, R.E., Mr. D. HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr. EDWARD THOMAS, F.R.S. (Corresponding Member of the Institute), and Mr. R. H. MAJOR.
But besides these old names, not a few new ones claim my thanks.
The Baron F. VON RICHTHOFEN, now President of the Geographical Society of Berlin, a traveller who not only has trodden many hundreds of miles in the footsteps of our Marco, but has perhaps travelled over more of the Interior of China than Marco ever did, and who carried to that survey high scientific accomplishments of which the Venetian had not even a rudimentary conception, has spontaneously opened his bountiful stores of new knowledge in my behalf. Mr. NEY ELIAS, who in 1872 traversed and mapped a line of upwards of 2000 miles through the almost unknown tracts of Western Mongolia, from the Gate in the Great Wall at Kalghan to the Russian frontier in the Altai, has done likewise.[1] To the Rev. G. MOULE, of the Church Mission at Hang-chau, I owe a mass of interesting matter regarding that once great and splendid city, the KINSAY of our Traveller, which has enabled me, I trust, to effect great improvement both in the Notes and in the Map, which illustrate that subject. And to the Rev. CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS, LL.D., of the English Presbyterian Mission at Amoy, I am scarcely less indebted. The learned Professor BRUUN, of Odessa, whom I never have seen, and have little likelihood of ever seeing in this world, has aided me with zeal and cordiality like that of old friendship. To Mr. ARTHUR BURNELL, PhD., of the Madras Civil Service, I am grateful for many valuable notes bearing on these and other geographical studies, and particularly for his generous communication of the drawing and photograph of the ancient Cross at St. Thomas's Mount, long before any publication of that subject was made on his own account. My brother officer, Major OLIVER ST. JOHN, R.E., has favoured me with a variety of interesting remarks regarding the Persian chapters, and has assisted me with new data, very materially correcting the Itinerary Map in Kerman.
Mr. BLOCHMANN of the Calcutta Madrasa, Sir DOUGLAS FORSYTH, C.B., lately Envoy to Kashgar, M. de MAS LATRIE, the Historian of Cyprus, Mr. ARTHUR GROTE, Mr. EUGENE SCHUYLER of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, Dr. BUSHELL and Mr. W.F. MAYERS, of H.M.'s Legation at Peking, Mr. G. PHILLIPS of Fuchau, Madame OLGA FEDTCHENKO, the widow of a great traveller too early lost to the world, Colonel KEATINGE, V.C., C.S.I., Major-General KEYES, C.B., Dr. GEORGE BIRDWOOD, Mr. BURGESS, of Bombay, my old and valued friend Colonel W. H. GREATHED, C.B., and the Master of Mediaeval Geography, M. D'AVEZAC himself, with others besides, have kindly lent assistance of one kind or another, several of them spontaneously, and the rest in prompt answer to my requests.
Having always attached much importance to the matter of illustrations,[2] I feel greatly indebted to the liberal action of Mr. Murray in enabling me largely to increase their number in this edition. Though many are original, we have also borrowed a good many;[3] a proceeding which seems to me entirely unobjectionable when the engravings are truly illustrative of the text, and not hackneyed.
I regret the augmented bulk of the volumes. There has been some excision, but the additions visibly and palpably preponderate. The truth is that since the completion of the first edition, just four years ago, large additions have been made to the stock of our knowledge bearing on the subjects of this Book; and how these additions have continued to come in up to the last moment, may be seen in Appendix L,[4] which has had to undergo repeated interpolation after being put in type. KARAKORUM, for a brief space the seat of the widest empire the world has known, has been visited; the ruins of SHANG-TU, the "Xanadu of Cublay Khan," have been explored; PAMIR and TANGUT have been penetrated from side to side; the famous mountain Road of SHEN-SI has been traversed and described; the mysterious CAINDU has been unveiled; the publication of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier's great work on the French Exploration of Indo-China has provided a mass of illustration of that YUN-NAN for which but the other day Marco Polo was well-nigh the most recent authority. Nay, the last two years have thrown a promise of light even on what seemed the wildest of Marco's stories, and the bones of a veritable RUC from New Zealand lie on the table of Professor Owen's Cabinet!
M. VIVIEN de St. MARTIN, during the interval of which we have been speaking, has published a History of Geography. In treating of Marco Polo, he alludes to the first edition of this work, most evidently with no intention of disparagement, but speaks of it as merely a revision of Marsden's Book. The last thing I should allow myself to do would be to apply to a Geographer, whose works I hold in so much esteem, the disrespectful definition which the adage quoted in my former Preface[5] gives of the vir qui docet quod non sapit; but I feel bound to say that on this occasion M. Vivien de St. Martin has permitted himself to pronounce on a matter with which he had not made himself acquainted; for the perusal of the very first lines of the Preface (I will say nothing of the Book) would have shown him that such a notion was utterly unfounded.
In concluding these "forewords" I am probably taking leave of Marco Polo,[6] the companion of many pleasant and some laborious hours, whilst I have been contemplating with him ("vôlti a levante") that Orient in which I also had spent years not a few.
* * * * *
And as the writer lingered over this conclusion, his thoughts wandered back in reverie to those many venerable libraries in which he had formerly made search for mediaeval copies of the Traveller's story; and it seemed to him as if he sate in a recess of one of these with a manuscript before him which had never till then been examined with any care, and which he found with delight to contain passages that appear in no version of the Book hitherto known. It was written in clear Gothic text, and in the Old French tongue of the early 14th century. Was it possible that he had lighted on the long-lost original of Ramusio's Version? No; it proved to be different. Instead of the tedious story of the northern wars, which occupies much of our Fourth Book, there were passages occurring in the later history of Ser Marco, some years after his release from the Genoese captivity. They appeared to contain strange anachronisms certainly; but we have often had occasion to remark on puzzles in the chronology of Marco's story![7] And in some respects they tended to justify our intimated suspicion that he was a man of deeper feelings and wider sympathies than the book of Rusticiano had allowed to appear.[8] Perhaps this time the Traveller had found an amanuensis whose faculties had not been stiffened by fifteen years of Malapaga?[9] One of the most important passages ran thus:—
"Bien est voirs que, après ce que Messires Marc Pol avoit pris fame et si estoit demouré plusours ans de sa vie a Venysse, il avint que mourut Messires Mafés qui oncles Monseignour Marc estoit: (et mourut ausi ses granz chiens mastins qu'avoit amenei dou Catai,[10] et qui avoit non Bayan pour l'amour au bon chievetain Bayan Cent-iex); adonc n'avoit oncques puis Messires Marc nullui, fors son esclave Piere le Tartar, avecques lequel pouvoit penre soulas à s'entretenir de ses voiages et des choses dou Levant. Car la gent de Venysse si avoit de grant piesce moult anuy pris des loncs contes Monseignour Marc; et quand ledit Messires Marc issoit de l'uys sa meson ou Sain Grisostome, souloient li petit marmot es voies dariere-li courir en cryant Messer Marco Miliòn! cont' a nu un busiòn! que veult dire en François 'Messires Marcs des millions di-nous un de vos gros mensonges.' En oultre, la Dame Donate fame anuyouse estoit, et de trop estroit esprit, et plainne de couvoitise.[11] Ansi avint que Messires Marc desiroit es voiages rantrer durement.
"Si se partist de Venisse et chevaucha aux parties d'occident. Et demoura mainz jours es contrées de Provence et de France et puys fist passaige aux Ysles de la tremontaingne et s'en retourna par la Magne, si comme vous orrez cy-après. Et fist-il escripre son voiage atout les devisements les contrées; mes de la France n'y parloit mie grantment pour ce que maintes genz la scevent apertement. Et pour ce en lairons atant, et commencerons d'autres choses, assavoir, de BRETAINGNE LA GRANT."
Cy devyse dou roiaume de Bretaingne la grant.
"Et sachiés que quand l'en se part de Calés, et l'en nage XX ou XXX milles à trop grant mesaise, si treuve l'en une grandisme Ysle qui s'apelle Bretaingne la Grant. Elle est à une grant royne et n'en fait treuage à nulluy. Et ensevelissent lor mors, et ont monnoye de chartres et d'or et d'argent, et ardent pierres noyres, et vivent de marchandises et d'ars, et ont toutes choses de vivre en grant habondance mais non pas à bon marchié. Et c'est une Ysle de trop grant richesce, et li marinier de celle partie dient que c'est li plus riches royaumes qui soit ou monde, et qu'il y a li mieudre marinier dou monde et li mieudre coursier et li mieudre chevalier (ains ne chevauchent mais lonc com François). Ausi ont-il trop bons homes d'armes et vaillans durement (bien que maint n'y ait), et les dames et damoseles bonnes et loialles, et belles com lys souef florant. Et quoi vous en diroie-je? Il y a citez et chasteau assez, et tant de marchéanz et si riches qui font venir tant d'avoir-de- poiz et de toute espece de marchandise qu'il n'est hons qui la verité en sceust dire. Font venir d'Ynde et d'autres parties coton a grant planté, et font venir soye de Manzi et de Bangala, et font venir laine des ysles de la Mer Occeane et de toutes parties. Et si labourent maintz bouquerans et touailles et autres draps de coton et de laine et de soye. Encores sachiés que ont vaines d'acier assez, et si en labourent trop soubtivement de tous hernois de chevalier, et de toutes choses besoignables à ost; ce sont espées et glaive et esperon et heaume et haches, et toute espèce d arteillerie et de coutelerie, et en font grant gaaigne et grant marchandise. Et en font si grant habondance que tout li mondes en y puet avoir et à bon marchié".
Encores cy devise dou dyt roiaume, et de ce qu'en dist Messires Marcs.
"Et sachiés que tient icelle Royne la seigneurie de l'Ynde majeure et de Mutfili et de Bangala, et d'une moitié de Mien. Et moult est saige et noble dame et pourvéans, si que est elle amée de chascun. Et avoit jadis mari; et depuys qu'il mourut bien XIV ans avoit; adonc la royne sa fame l'ama tant que oncques puis ne se voult marier a nullui, pour l'amour le prince son baron, ançois moult maine quoye vie. Et tient son royaume ausi bien ou miex que oncques le tindrent li roy si aioul. Mes ores en ce royaume li roy n'ont guieres pooir, ains la poissance commence a trespasser à la menue gent Et distrent aucun marinier de celes parties à Monseignour Marc que hui-et-le jour li royaumes soit auques abastardi come je vous diroy. Car bien est voirs que ci-arrières estoit ciz pueple de Bretaingne la Grant bonne et granz et loialle gent qui servoit Diex moult volontiers selonc lor usaige; et tuit li labour qu'il labouroient et portoient a vendre estoient honnestement labouré, et dou greigneur vaillance, et chose pardurable; et se vendoient à jouste pris sanz barguignier. En tant que se aucuns labours portoit l'estanpille Bretaingne la Grant c'estoit regardei com pleges de bonne estoffe. Mes orendroit li labours n'est mie tousjourz si bons; et quand l'en achate pour un quintal pesant de toiles de coton, adonc, par trop souvent, si treuve l'en de chascun C pois de coton, bien XXX ou XL pois de plastre de gifs, ou de blanc d'Espaigne, ou de choses semblables. Et se l'en achate de cammeloz ou de tireteinne ou d'autre dras de laine, cist ne durent mie, ains sont plain d'empoise, ou de glu et de balieures.
"Et bien qu'il est voirs que chascuns hons egalement doit de son cors servir son seigneur ou sa commune, pour aler en ost en tens de besoingne; et bien que trestuit li autre royaume d'occident tieingnent ce pour ordenance, ciz pueple de Bretaingne la Grant n'en veult nullement, ains si dient: 'Veez-là: n'avons nous pas la Manche pour fossé de nostre pourpris, et pourquoy nous penerons-nous pour nous faire homes d'armes, en lessiant nos gaaignes et nos soulaz? Cela lairons aus soudaiers.' Or li preudhome entre eulx moult scevent bien com tiex paroles sont nyaises; mes si ont paour de lour en dire la verité pour ce que cuident desplaire as bourjois et à la menue gent.
"Or je vous di sanz faille que, quand Messires Marcs Pols sceust ces choses, moult en ot pitié de cestui pueple, et il li vint à remembrance ce que avenu estoit, ou tens Monseignour Nicolas et Monseignour Mafé, à l'ore quand Alau, frère charnel dou Grant Sire Cublay, ala en ost seur Baudas, et print le Calife et sa maistre cité, atout son vaste tresor d'or et d'argent, et l'amère parolle que dist ledit Alau au Calife, com l'a escripte li Maistres Rusticiens ou chief de cestui livre.[12]
"Car sachiés tout voirement que Messires Marc moult se deleitoit à faire appert combien sont pareilles au font les condicions des diverses regions dou monde, et soloit-il clorre son discours si disant en son language de Venisse: 'Sto mondo xe fato tondo, com uzoit dire mes oncles Mafés.'
"Ore vous lairons à conter de ceste matière et retournerons à parler de la Loy des genz de Bretaingne la Grant.
Cy devise des diverses créances de la gent Bretaingne la Grant et de ce qu'en cuidoit Messires Marcs.
"Il est voirs que li pueples est Crestiens, mes non pour le plus selonc la foy de l'Apostoille Rommain, ains tiennent le en mautalent assez. Seulement il y en a aucun qui sont féoil du dit Apostoille et encore plus forment que li nostre prudhome de Venisse. Car quand dit li Papes: 'Telle ou telle chose est noyre,' toute ladite gent si en jure: 'Noyre est com poivre.' Et puis se dira li Papes de la dite chose: 'Elle est blanche,' si en jurera toute ladite gent: 'Il est voirs qu'elle est blanche; blanche est com noifs.' Et dist Messires Marc Pol: 'Nous n'avons nullement tant de foy à Venyse, ne li prudhome de Florence non plus, com l'en puet savoir bien apertement dou livre Monseignour Dantès Aldiguiere, que j'ay congneu a Padoe le meisme an que Messires Thibault de Cepoy à Venisse estoit.[13] Mes c'est joustement ce que j'ay veu autre foiz près le Grant Bacsi qui est com li Papes des Ydres.'
"Encore y a une autre manière de gent; ce sont de celz qui s'appellent filsoufes;[14] et si il disent: 'S'il y a Diex n'en scavons nul, mes il est voirs qu'il est une certeinne courance des choses laquex court devers le bien.' Et fist Messires Marcs: 'Encore la créance des Bacsi qui dysent que n'y a ne Diex Eternel ne Juge des homes, ains il est une certeinne chose laquex s'apelle Kerma.'[15]
"Une autre foiz avint que disoit un des filsoufes à Monseignour Marc: 'Diex n'existe mie jeusqu'ores, ainçois il se fait desorendroit.' Et fist encore Messires Marcs: 'Veez-là, une autre foiz la créance des ydres, car dient que li seuz Diex est icil hons qui par force de ses vertuz et de son savoir tant pourchace que d'home il se face Diex presentement. Et li Tartar l'appelent Borcan. Tiex Diex Sagamoni Borcan estoit, dou quel parle li livres Maistre Rusticien.'[16]
"Encore ont une autre manière de filsoufes, et dient-il: 'Il n'est mie ne Diex ne Kerma ne courance vers le bien, ne Providence, ne Créerres, ne Sauvours, ne sainteté ne pechiés ne conscience de pechié, ne proyère ne response à proyère, il n'est nulle riens fors que trop minime grain ou paillettes qui ont à nom atosmes, et de tiex grains devient chose qui vive, et chose qui vive devient une certeinne creature qui demoure au rivaige de la Mer: et ceste creature devient poissons, et poissons devient lezars, et lezars devient blayriaus, et blayriaus devient gat-maimons, et gat-maimons devient hons sauvaiges qui menjue char d'homes, et hons sauvaiges devient hons crestien.'
"Et dist Messires Marc: 'Encore une foiz, biaus sires, li Bacsi de Tebet et de Kescemir et li prestre de Seilan, qui si dient que l'arme vivant doie trespasser par tous cez changes de vestemens; si com se treuve escript ou livre Maistre Rusticien que Sagamoni Borcan mourut iiij vint et iiij foiz et tousjourz resuscita, et à chascune foiz d'une diverse manière de beste, et à la derreniere foyz mourut hons et devint diex, selonc ce qu'il dient.'[17] Et fist encore Messires Marc: 'A moy pert-il trop estrange chose se juesques à toutes les créances des ydolastres deust dechéoir ceste grantz et saige nation. Ainsi peuent jouer Misire li filsoufe atout lour propre perte, mes à l'ore quand tiex fantaisies se respanderont es joenes bacheliers et parmy la menue gent, celz averont pour toute Loy manducemus et bibamus, cras enim moriemur; et trop isnellement l'en raccomencera la descente de l'eschiele, et d'home crestien deviendra hons sauvaiges, et d'home sauvaige gat- maimons, et de gat-maimon blayriaus.' Et fist encores Messires Marc: 'Maintes contrées et provinces et ysles et citéz je Marc Pol ay veues et de maintes genz de maintes manières ay les condicionz congneues, et je croy bien que il est plus assez dedens l'univers que ce que li nostre prestre n'y songent. Et puet bien estre, biaus sires, que li mondes n'a estés creés à tous poinz com nous creiens, ains d'une sorte encore plus merveillouse. Mes cil n'amenuise nullement nostre pensée de Diex et de sa majesté, ains la fait greingnour. Et contrée n'ay veue ou Dame Diex ne manifeste apertement les granz euvres de sa tout-poissante saigesse; gent n'ay congneue esquiex ne se fait sentir li fardels de pechié, et la besoingne de Phisicien des maladies de l'arme tiex com est nostre Seignours Ihesus Crist, Beni soyt son Non. Pensez doncques à cel qu'a dit uns de ses Apostres: Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmet ipsos; et uns autres: Quoniam multi pseudo-prophetae exierint; et uns autres: Quod benient in nobissimis diebus illusores … dicentes, Ubi est promissio? et encores aus parolles que dist li Signours meismes: Vide ergo ne lumen quod in te est tenebrae sint.
Commant Messires Marcs se partist de l'ysle de Bretaingne et de la proyère que fist.
"Et pourquoy vous en feroie-je lonc conte? Si print nef Messires Marcs et se partist en nageant vers la terre ferme. Or Messires Marc Pol moult ama cel roiaume de Bretaingne la grant pour son viex renon et s'ancienne franchise, et pour sa saige et bonne Royne (que Diex gart), et pour les mainz homes de vaillance et bons chaceours et les maintes bonnes et honnestes dames qui y estoient. Et sachiés tout voirement que en estant delez le bort la nef, et en esgardant aus roches blanches que l'en par dariere-li lessoit, Messires Marc prieoit Diex, et disoit-il: 'Ha Sires Diex ay merci de cestuy vieix et noble royaume; fay-en pardurable forteresse de liberté et de joustice, et garde-le de tout meschief de dedens et de dehors; donne à sa gent droit esprit pour ne pas Diex guerroyer de ses dons, ne de richesce ne de savoir; et conforte-les fermement en ta foy'. … "
A loud Amen seemed to peal from without, and the awakened reader started to his feet. And lo! it was the thunder of the winter-storm crashing among the many-tinted crags of Monte Pellegrino—with the wind raging as it knows how to rage here in sight of the Isles of Aeolus, and the rain dashing on the glass as ruthlessly as it well could have done, if, instead of Aeolic Isles and many-tinted crags, the window had fronted a dearer shore beneath a northern sky, and looked across the grey Firth to the rain-blurred outline of the Lomond Hills.
But I end, saying to Messer Marco's prayer, Amen.
PALERMO, 31st December, 1874.
[1] It would be ingratitude if this Preface contained no acknowledgment of the medals awarded to the writer, mainly for this work, by the Royal Geographical Society, and by the Geographical Society of Italy, the former under the Presidence of Sir Henry Rawlinson, the latter under that of the Commendatore C. Negri. Strongly as I feel the too generous appreciation of these labours implied in such awards, I confess to have been yet more deeply touched and gratified by practical evidence of the approval of the two distinguished Travellers mentioned above; as shown by Baron von Richthofen in his spontaneous proposal to publish a German version of the book under his own immediate supervision (a project in abeyance, owing to circumstances beyond his or my control); by Mr. Ney Elias in the fact of his having carried these ponderous volumes with him on his solitary journey across the Mongolian wilds!
[2] I am grateful to Mr. de Khanikoff for his especial recognition of these in a kindly review of the first edition in the Academy.
[3] Especially from Lieutenant Garnier's book, mentioned further on; the only existing source of illustration for many chapters of Polo.
[4] [Merged into the notes of the present edition.—H. C.]
[5] See page xxix.
[6] Writing in Italy, perhaps I ought to write, according to too prevalent modern Italian custom, Polo Marco. I have already seen, and in the work of a writer of reputation, the Alexandrian geographer styled Tolomeo Claudio! and if this preposterous fashion should continue to spread, we shall in time have Tasso Torquato, Jonson Ben, Africa explored by Park Mungo, Asia conquered by Lane Tamer, Copperfield David by Dickens Charles, Homer Englished by Pope Alexander, and the Roman history done into French from the original of Live Tite!
[7] Introduction p. 24, and passim in the notes.
[8] Ibid., p. 112.
[9] See Introduction, pp. 51, 57.
[10] See Title of present volumes.
[11] Which quite agrees with the story of the document quoted at p. 77 of Introduction.
[12] Vol. i. p. 64, and p. 67.
[13] I.e. 1306; see Introduction, pp. 68–69.
[14] The form which Marco gives to this word was probably a reminiscence of the Oriental corruption failsúf. It recalls to my mind a Hindu who was very fond of the word, and especially of applying it to certain of his fellow-servants. But as he used it, bara failsúf—"great philosopher"—meant exactly the same as the modern slang "Artful Dodger"!
[15] See for the explanation of Karma, "the power that controls the universe," in the doctrine of atheistic Buddhism, Hardy's Eastern Monachism, p. 5.
[16] Vol. ii. p. 316 (see also i. 348).
[17] Vol. ii. pp. 318–319.
ORIGINAL PREFACE.
The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance with the mediaeval geography of some parts of Asia, which was acquired during the compilation of a work of kindred character for the Hakluyt Society,[1] could hardly fail to suggest as a fresh labour in the same field the preparation of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one kindly critic (in the Examiner) laid it upon the writer as a duty to undertake that task.
Though at least one respectable English edition has appeared since Marsden's,[2] the latter has continued to be the standard edition, and maintains not only its reputation but its market value. It is indeed the work of a sagacious, learned, and right-minded man, which can never be spoken of otherwise than with respect. But since Marsden published his quarto (1818) vast stores of new knowledge have become available in elucidation both of the contents of Marco Polo's book and of its literary history. The works of writers such as Klaproth, Abel Rémusat, D'Avezac, Reinaud, Quatremère, Julien, I. J. Schmidt, Gildemeister, Ritter, Hammer-Purgstall, Erdmann, D'Ohsson, Defrémery, Elliot, Erskine, and many more, which throw light directly or incidentally on Marco Polo, have, for the most part, appeared since then. Nor, as regards the literary history of the book, were any just views possible at a time when what may be called the Fontal MSS. (in French) were unpublished and unexamined.
Besides the works which have thus occasionally or incidentally thrown light upon the Traveller's book, various editions of the book itself have since Marsden's time been published in foreign countries, accompanied by comments of more or less value. All have contributed something to the illustration of the book or its history; the last and most learned of the editors, M. Pauthier, has so contributed in large measure. I had occasion some years ago[3] to speak freely my opinion of the merits and demerits of M. Pauthier's work; and to the latter at least I have no desire to recur here.
Another of his critics, a much more accomplished as well as more favourable one,[4] seems to intimate the opinion that there would scarcely be room in future for new commentaries. Something of the kind was said of Marsden's at the time of its publication. I imagine, however, that whilst our libraries endure the Iliad will continue to find new translators, and Marco Polo—though one hopes not so plentifully—new editors.
The justification of the book's existence must however be looked for, and it is hoped may be found, in the book itself, and not in the Preface. The work claims to be judged as a whole, but it may be allowable, in these days of scanty leisure, to indicate below a few instances of what is believed to be new matter in an edition of Marco Polo; by which however it is by no means intended that all such matter is claimed by the editor as his own.[5]
From the commencement of the work it was felt that the task was one which no man, though he were far better equipped and much more conveniently situated than the present writer, could satisfactorily accomplish from his own resources, and help was sought on special points wherever it seemed likely to be found. In scarcely any quarter was the application made in vain. Some who have aided most materially are indeed very old and valued friends; but to many others who have done the same the applicant was unknown; and some of these again, with whom the editor began correspondence on this subject as a stranger, he is happy to think that he may now call friends.
To none am I more indebted than to the Comm. GUGLIELMO BERCHET, of Venice, for his ample, accurate, and generous assistance in furnishing me with Venetian documents, and in many other ways. Especial thanks are also due to Dr. WILLIAM LOCKHART, who has supplied the materials for some of the most valuable illustrations; to Lieutenant FRANCIS GARNIER, of the French Navy. the gallant and accomplished leader (after the death of Captain Doudart de la Grée) of the memorable expedition up the Mekong to Yun-nan; to the Rev. Dr. CALDWELL, of the S.P.G. Mission in Tinnevelly, for copious and valuable notes on Southern India; to my friends Colonel ROBERT MACLAGAN, R.E., Sir ARTHUR PHAYRE, and Colonel HENRY MAN, for very valuable notes and other aid; to Professor A. SCHIEFNER, of St. Petersburg, for his courteous communication of very interesting illustrations not otherwise accessible; to Major-General ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM, of my own corps, for several valuable letters; to my friends Dr. THOMAS OLDHAM, Director of the Geological Survey of India, Mr. DANIEL HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr. EDWARD THOMAS, Mr. JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S., Sir BARTLE FRERE, and Dr. HUGH CLEGHORN, for constant interest in the work and readiness to assist its progress; to Mr. A. WYLIE, the learned Agent of the B. and F. Bible Society at Shang-hai, for valuable help; to the Hon. G. P. MARSH, U.S. Minister at the Court of Italy, for untiring kindness in the communication of his ample stores of knowledge, and of books. I have also to express my obligations to Comm. NICOLÒ BAROZZI, Director of the City Museum at Venice, and to Professor A. S. MINOTTO, of the same city; to Professor ARMINIUS VÁMBÉRY, the eminent traveller; to Professor FLÜCKIGER of Bern; to the Rev. H. A. JAESCHKE, of the Moravian Mission in British Tibet; to Colonel LEWIS PELLY, British Resident in the Persian Gulf; to Pandit MANPHUL, C.S.I. (for a most interesting communication on Badakhshan); to my brother officer, Major T. G. MONTGOMERIE, R.E., of the Indian Trigonometrical Survey; to Commendatore NEGRI the indefatigable President of the Italian Geographical Society; to Dr. ZOTENBERG, of the Great Paris Library, and to M. CH. MAUNOIR, Secretary-General of the Société de Géographie; to Professor HENRY GIGLIOI, at Florence; to my old friend Major-General ALBERT FYTCHE, Chief Commissioner of British Burma; to DR. ROST and DR. FORBES-WATSON, of the India Office Library and Museum; to Mr. R. H. MAJOR, and Mr. R. K. DOUGLAS, of the British Museum; to Mr. N. B. DENNYS, of Hong-kong; and to Mr. C. GARDNER, of the Consular Establishment in China. There are not a few others to whom my thanks are equally due; but it is feared that the number of names already mentioned may seem ridiculous, compared with the result, to those who do not appreciate from how many quarters the facts needful for a work which in its course intersects so many fields required to be collected, one by one. I must not, however, omit acknowledgments to the present Earl of DERBY for his courteous permission, when at the head of the Foreign Office, to inspect Mr. Abbott's valuable unpublished Report upon some of the Interior Provinces of Persia; and to Mr. T. T. COOPER, one of the most adventurous travellers of modern times, for leave to quote some passages from his unpublished diary.
PALERMO, 31st December, 1870.
[Original Dedication.]
TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, MARGHERITA,Princess of Piedmont, THIS ENDEAVOUR TO ILLUSTRATE THE LIFE AND WORK OF A RENOWNED ITALIAN IS BY HER ROYAL HIGHNESS'S GRACIOUS PERMISSION Dedicated WITH THE DEEPEST RESPECT BY
H. YULE.
[1] Cathay and The Way Thither, being a Collection of Minor Medieval Notices of China. London, 1866. The necessities of the case have required the repetition in the present work of the substance of some notes already printed (but hardly published) in the other.
[2] Viz. Mr. Hugh Murray's. I mean no disrespect to Mr. T. Wright's edition, but it is, and professes to be, scarcely other than a reproduction of Marsden's, with abridgment of his notes.
[3] In the Quarterly Review for July, 1868.
[4] M. Nicolas Khanikoff.
[5] In the Preliminary Notices will be found new matter on the Personal and Family History of the Traveller, illustrated by Documents; and a more elaborate attempt than I have seen elsewhere to classify and account for the different texts of the work, and to trace their mutual relation.
As regards geographical elucidations, I may point to the explanation of the name Gheluchelan (i. p. 58), to the discussion of the route from Kerman to Hormuz, and the identification of the sites of Old Hormuz, of Cobinan and Dogana, the establishment of the position and continued existence of Keshm, the note on Pein and Charchan, on Gog and Magog, on the geography of the route from Sindafu to Carajan, on Anin and Coloman, on Mutafili, Cail, and Ely.
As regards historical illustrations, I would cite the notes regarding the Queens Bolgana and Cocachin, on the Karaunahs, etc., on the title of King of Bengal applied to the K. of Burma, and those bearing upon the Malay and Abyssinian chronologies.
In the interpretation of outlandish phrases, I may refer to the notes on Ondanique, Nono, Barguerlac, Argon, Sensin, Keshican, Toscaol, Bularguchi, Gat-paul, etc.
Among miscellaneous elucidations, to the disquisition on the Arbre Sol or Sec in vol. i., and to that on Mediaeval Military Engines in vol. ii.
In a variety of cases it has been necessary to refer to Eastern languages for pertinent elucidations or etymologies. The editor would, however, be sorry to fall under the ban of the mediaeval adage:
"Vir qui docet quod non sapit Definitur Bestia!"
and may as well reprint here what was written in the Preface to Cathay:
I am painfully sensible that in regard to many subjects dealt with in the following pages, nothing can make up for the want of genuine Oriental learning. A fair familiarity with Hindustani for many years, and some reminiscences of elementary Persian, have been useful in their degree; but it is probable that they may sometimes also have led me astray, as such slender lights are apt to do.
TO HENRY YULE.
[Illustration]
Until you raised dead monarchs from the mould And built again the domes of Xanadu, I lay in evil case, and never knew The glamour of that ancient story told By good Ser Marco in his prison-hold. But now I sit upon a throne and view The Orient at my feet, and take of you And Marco tribute from the realms of old.
If I am joyous, deem me not o'er bold; If I am grateful, deem me not untrue; For you have given me beauties to behold, Delight to win, and fancies to pursue, Fairer than all the jewelry and gold Of Kublaï on his throne in Cambalu.
E. C. BABER.
20th July, 1884.
MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE.
Henry Yule was the youngest son of Major William Yule, by his first wife, Elizabeth Paterson, and was born at Inveresk, in Midlothian, on 1st May, 1820. He was named after an aunt who, like Miss Ferrier's immortal heroine, owned a man's name.
