lend the meaning of this masquerade, when, having dismissed all the attendants, Marco Polo brought forth the coarse Tartar dresses in which they had arrived. Slashing them in several places with a knife, and ripping open the seams and lining, there tumbled forth a vast quantity of precious jewels, such as rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds. The whole table glittered with inestimable wealth, which they had acquired from the munificence of the Grand Khan, and which they had conveyed in this portable form through the perils of their long journey.

The company, observes Ramusio, were out of their wits with amazement, and now clearly perceived what they had at first doubted, that these in very truth were those honoured and valiant gentlemen the Polos, and accordingly paid them great respect and reverence.

The account of this curious feast is from Ramusio, who gives it on traditional authority, having heard it many times related by the illustrious Gasparo Malipiero, a very ancient gentleman, and a senator, who had it from his father, who had it from his grandfather, and so on up to the fountain head.

When the fame of this banquet came to be divulged throughout Venice, and the wealth also of the travellers, all the city, noble and simple, crowded to see the Polos; to caress and honour them. Matteo, who was the eldest, was admitted to the dignity of the magistracy. The youth of the city came every day to visit and converse with Marco Polo, who was extremely amiable and communicative. They were insatiable in their inquiries about Cathay and the Grand Khan, which he answered with great courtesy, and gave them details with which they were vastly delighted, and as he always spoke of the wealth of the Grand Khan in round numbers, they gave him the name of Messer Marco Milioni.

Some months after their return, Lampo Doria, commander of the Genoese navy, appeared in the vicinity of the island of Cuzzola with seventy galleys. Andrea Dandolo, the Venetian admiral, was sent against him. Marco Polo commanded a galley of the fleet. His usual good fortune deserted him. Advancing the first in the line with his galley, and not being properly seconded, he was taken prisoner, thrown in irons, and carried to Genoa. Here he was detained for a long time in prison, and all offers of ransom rejected. His imprisonment gave great uneasiness to his father and uncle, fearing that he might never return. ing themselves in this unhappy state, with so much treasure and no heirs, they consulted together. They were both very old men; but Nicolo, observes Ramusio, was of a galliard complexion. It was determined he should take a wife. He did so; and, to the wonder of his friends, in four years had three children.

See

In the meanwhile, the fame of Marco Polo's travels had circulated in Genoa. His prison was daily crowded with nobility, and he was supplied with every thing that could cheer him in his confinement. A Genoese gentleman, who visited him every day, at length prevailed upon him to write an account of what he had seen. He had his papers and journals sent to him from Venice, and with the assistance of his friend produced the work which afterwards made such noise throughout the world.

The merit of Marco Polo at length procured him his liberty. He returned to Venice, where he found his father with a house full of children. He took it in good part, followed the old man's example, married, and had two daughters, Moretta and Fantina. The three sons of his father by the second marriage died without male issue, and the family of Polo or Paolo was extinguished in 1417.

Such are the principal particulars known of Marco Polo; a man whose travels for a long time made a great noise in Europe, and will be found to have had a great effect on modern discovery. His splendid account of the extent, wealth and population of the Tartar territories filled every one with admiration. The possibility of bringing all those regions under the dominion of the church, and rendering the Grand Khan an obedient vassal to the holy chair, was for a long time a favourite topic among the enthusiastic missionaries of Christendom, and there were many saints errant who undertook to effect the conversion of this magnificent infidel.

Even at the distance of two centuries, when the enterprizes for the discovery of the new route to India had set all the warm heads of Europe madding about these remote regions of the east, the conversion of the Grand Khan became again a popular theme; and it was too speculative and romantic an enterprize not to catch the vivid imagination of Columbus. In all his voyages, he will be found continually to be seeking after the territories of the Grand Khan, and even after his last expedition, when nearly worn out by age, hardships and infirmities, he offered, in a letter to the Spanish monarchs, written from a bed of sickness, to conduct any missionary to the territories of the Tartar emperor, who would undertake his conversion.

No. XIX.

THE WORK OF MARCO POLO.

THE work of Marco Polo is stated by some to have been originally written in Latin*, though the most probable

* Hist. des Voyages, T. 27, L. 4, Ch. 3. Paris, 1549.

opinion is that it was written in Italian. Copies of it in manuscript were multiplied and rapidly circulated; translations were made into various languages, until the invention of printing enabled it to be widely diffused throughout Europe. In the course of these translations and successive editions, the original text, according to Purchas, has been much vitiated, and it is probable many extravagances in numbers and measurements with which Marco Polo is charged may be the errors of translators and printers.

When the work first appeared, it was considered by some as made up of fictions and extravagances, but Vossius assures us that it was at one time highly esteemed among the learned. Francis Pepin, author of the Brandenburgh version, styles Polo a man recommendable for his devoutness, prudence, and fidelity. Athanasius Kircher, in his account of China, says that none of the ancients have described the kingdoms of the remote parts of the east with more exactness. Various other learned men have borne testimony to his character, and most of the substantial points of his work have been authenticated by subsequent travellers. It is manifest, however, that he dealt much in exaggeration. The historical part of his work is full of errors and fables. He confuses the names of places, is very inexact as to distances, and gives no latitudes of the places he visited.

It has been strongly doubted whether he really visited all the countries he described, and whether his account of Tartary and Cathay, and of different parts of India, and the African coasts, were not taken from Mahometan narratives. Ramusio thinks that a great part of the third book was collected by him from narrations of mariners of the Indian Athanasius Kircher is at a loss to know why he makes no mention of the great wall of China, which he must have passed unless he visited that country by water.

seas.

The most probable opinion given concerning him is that he really visited part of the countries which he describes, and collected information from various sources concerning the others; that he kept no regular journal, but after his return home composed his work from various memorandums and from memory. Thus, what he had seen, and what he had heard, became mixed up in his mind, and floating fables of the east were noted down with as much gravity and authority as well ascertained facts. Much has been said of a map brought from Cathay by Marco Polo, which was conserved in the convent of St. Michael de Murano, in the vicinity of Venice, and in which the Cape of Good Hope, and the island of Madagascar were indicated, countries which the Portuguese claim the merit of having discovered two centuries afterwards. It has been suggested also that Columbus had visited the convent and examined this map, from whence he derived some of his ideas concerning the coast of India. According to Ramusio, however, who had been at the convent, and was well acquainted with the prior, the map preserved there was one copied by a friar from the original one of Marco Polo, and many alterations and additions had since been made by other hands, so that for a long time it lost all credit with judicious people, until on comparing it with the work of Marco Polo it was found in the main to agree with his descriptions*. The Cape of Good Hope was doubtless among the additions made subsequent to the discoveries of the Portuguese. Columbus makes no mention of this map, which he most probably would have done had he seen it. He seems to have been entirely guided by the one furnished by Paulo Toscanelli, and which was appa

* Ramusio, V. 2, p. 17.