PROLOGUE TO THE BOOK OF SER MARCO POLO, THE VENETIAN, CONCERNING THE KINGDOMS AND MARVELS OF THE EAST

The Most Famous Book of Travels Ever Written MARCO POLO lived just two centuries before Columbus. He was born in Venice and at seventeen years of age started upon his travels to China and the East with his father and uncle. He was several years in the service of the Emperor of China, living at Pekin and elsewhere. When he returned to Venice in 1295, he had been gone twenty-four years.

His book of travels was written three years later while in prison at Genoa. He died in Venice probably in the year 1324. His will executed in that year contains, among other interesting provisions, the following:

"I release Peter the Tartar, my servant, from all bondage, as completely as I pray God to release mine own soul from all sin and guilt."

"GREAT princes, emperors and kings, dukes and marquises, counts, knights and burgesses, and people of all degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various races of mankind and of the diversities of the sundry regions of the world, take this book and cause it to be read to you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of wonderful things, and the divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and of Persia, and of the Land of the Tartars, and of India, and of many another country of which our book doth speak, particularly and in regular succession, according to the description of Messer Marco Polo, a wise and noble citizen of Venice, as he saw them with his own eyes. Some things there be indeed therein which he beheld not; but these he heard from men of credit and veracity. And we shall set down things seen as seen, and things heard as heard only, so that no jot of falsehood may mar the truth of our book, and that all who shall read it, or hear it read, may put full faith in the truth of all its contents. For let me tell you that since our Lord God did mould with His hands our first father Adam, even until this day, never hath there been Christian, or Pagan, or Tartar, or Indian, or any man of any nation, who in his own person hath had so much knowledge and experience of the world and its wonders as hath had this Messer Marco. And for that reason he bethought himself that it would be a very great pity did he not cause to be put in writing all the great marvels that he had seen, or on sure information heard of, so that other people who had not these advantages might, by his book, get such knowledge. And I may tell you that in acquiring this knowledge he spent in those various parts of the world good six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an inmate of the prison at Genoa, he caused Messer Rusticiano, of, Pisa, who was in the said prison likewise, to reduce the whole to writing; and this befell in the year 1298 from the birth of Jesus."

MARCO POLO'S ACCOUNT OF JAPAN AND JAVA

ON HIS voyage of discovery Columbus carried a map of the world prepared by the celebrated astronomer Toscanelli. This map was based upon accounts of the eastern coast of Asia and the adjacent islands given by Marco Polo in his "Travels."

Columbus died in the belief that his explorations had been made among the East Indies or on the coast of Japan (Chipangu), the country described by this celebrated traveler.

Marco Polo's descriptions of the fabulous wealth of the Far East inflamed the imaginations of all those Europeans who read and believed him. Columbus thought that if he could open up a new trade route to the Orient, he would quickly become immensely wealthy. He did not want riches for himself, but to equip a great Crusader army and rescue Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher from the "infidel Turk." Columbus always cherished the ambition to become a second Godfrey de Bouillon.

CHIPANGU is an island toward the east in the high seas, 1,500 miles distant from the continent; and a very great island it is.

The people are white, civilized, and well-favored. They are idolaters, and are dependent on nobody. And I can tell you the quantity of gold they have is endless ; for they find it in their own islands [and the king does not allow it to be exported. Moreover], few merchants visit the country because it is so far from the main land, and thus it comes to pass that their gold is abundant beyond all measure.

I will tell you a wonderful thing about the Palace of the Lord of that island. You must know that he hath a great palace which is entirely roofed with fine gold, just as our churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it would scarcely be possible to estimate its value. Moreover, all the pavement of the palace, and the floors of its chambers, are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of stone, a good two fingers thick ; and the windows also are of gold, so that altogether the richness of this palace is past all bounds and all belief.

They have also pearls in abundance, which are of a rose color, but fine, big, and round, and quite as valuable as the white ones. [In this island some of the dead are buried, and others are burned. When a body is burned, they put one of these pearls in the mouth, for such is their custom.] They have also quantities of other precious stones.

Cublay, the Grand Kaan, who now reigneth, having heard much of the immense wealth that was in this island, formed a plan to get possession of it. For this purpose he sent two of his barons with a great navy, and a great force of horse and foot. These barons were able and valiant men, one of them called Abacan and the other Vonsainchin, and they weighed with all their company from the ports of Zayton and Kinsay, and put out to sea. They sailed until they reached the island aforesaid, and there they landed, and occupied the open country and the villages, but did not succeed in getting possession of any city or castle. And so a disaster befell them, as I shall now relate.

You must know that there was much ill-will between those two barons, so that one would do nothing to help the other. And it came to pass that there arose a north wind which blew with great fury, and caused great damage along the coasts of that island, for its harbors were few. It blew so hard that the Great Kaan's fleet could not stand against it. And, when the chiefs saw that, they came to the conclusion that, if the ships remained where they were, the whole navy would perish. So they all got on board and made sail to leave the country. But, when they had gone about four miles, they came to a small island, on which they were driven ashore in spite of all they could do; and a great part of the fleet was wrecked, and a great multitude of the force perished, so that there escaped only some 30,000 men, who took refuge on this island.

These held themselves for dead men, for they were without food, and knew not what to do, and they were in great despair when they saw that such of the ships as had escaped the storm were making full sail for their own country, without the slightest sign of turning back to help them. And this was because of the bitter hatred between the two barons in command of the force ; for the baron who escaped never showed the slightest desire to return to his colleague who was left upon the island in the way you have heard, though he might easily have done so after the storm ceased, and it endured not long. He did nothing of the kind, however, but made straight for home. And you must know that the island to which the Soldiers had escaped was uninhabited: there was not a creature upon it but themselves.

Now we will tell you what befell those who escaped on the fleet, and also those who were left upon the island.