[2] In Polo's diction C frequently represents H., e.g., Cormos = Hormuz;
Camadi probably = Hamadi; Caagiu probably = Hochau; Cacianfu =
Hochangfu, and so on. This is perhaps attributable to Rusticiano's
Tuscan ear. A true Pisan will absolutely contort his features in the
intensity of his efforts to aspirate sufficiently the letter C.
Filippo Villani, speaking of the famous Aguto (Sir J. Hawkwood), says
his name in English was Kauchouvole. (Murat. Script. xiv. 746.)
[3] In the Venetian dialect ch and j are often sounded as in English,
not as in Italian. Some traces of such pronunciation I think there
are, as in Coja, Carajan, and in the Chinese name Vanchu
(occurring only in Ramusio, supra, p. 99). But the scribe of the
original work being a Tuscan, the spelling is in the main Tuscan. The
sound of the Qu is, however, French, as in Quescican, Quinsai,
except perhaps in the case of Quenianfu, for a reason given in vol.
ii. p. 29.
[4] For example, that enthusiastic student of mediaeval Geography, Joachim
Lelewel, speaks of Polo's "gibberish" (le baragouinage du Venitien)
with special reference to such names as Zayton and Kinsay, whilst
we now know that these names were in universal use by all foreigners
in China, and no more deserve to be called gibberish than
Bocca-Tigris, Leghorn, Ratisbon, or Buda.
[5] I am quite sensible of the diffidence with which any outsider should
touch any question of Chinese language or orthography. A Chinese
scholar and missionary (Mr. Moule) objects to my spelling chau,
whilst he, I see, uses chow. I imagine we mean the same sound,
according to the spelling which I try to use throughout the book. Dr.
C. Douglas, another missionary scholar, writes chau.
[Illustration: MARCO POLO'S ITINERARIES,
No. I.
(Prologue; Book I. Chapters 1-36; and Book IV.)]
[Illustration: SKETCH SHOWING CHIEF MONARCHIES OF ASIA IN LATTER PART OF
13th CENTURY]
THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO.
PROLOGUE.
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 indeed there be 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 divers parts 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.
CHAPTER I.
HOW THE TWO BROTHERS POLO SET FORTH FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TRAVERSE THE
WORLD.
It came to pass in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin was reigning at
Constantinople,[NOTE 1] that Messer Nicolas Polo, the father of my lord
Mark, and Messer Maffeo Polo, the brother of Messer Nicolas, were at the
said city of CONSTANTINOPLE, whither they had gone from Venice with their
merchants' wares. Now these two Brethren, men singularly noble, wise, and
provident, took counsel together to cross the GREATER SEA on a venture of
trade; so they laid in a store of jewels and set forth from
Constantinople, crossing the Sea to SOLDAIA.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1. - Baldwin II (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of
Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by Michael
Palaeologus.
The date in the text is, as we see, that of the Brothers' voyage across
the Black Sea. It stands 1250 in all the chief texts. But the figure is
certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the Brothers return to Venice in
1269, they find Mark, who, according to Ramusio's version, was born after
their departure, a lad of fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, they
must have left Venice about 1253-54. And we shall see also that they
reached the Volga in 1261. Hence their start from Constantinople may well
have occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as the most probable
correction. Where they spent the interval between 1254 (if they really
left Venice so early) and 1260, nowhere appears.
