18 in our App. F.).
This contains Polo, Odoric, William of Boldensel, the Book of the
Estate of the Great Kaan by the Archbishop of Soltania, Maundevile,
Hayton, and Ricold of Montecroce, of which all but Polo and Maundevile
are French versions by this excellent Long John. A list of the Polo
miniatures is given in App. F. of this Edition, p. 527.
It is a question for which there is sufficient ground, whether the
Persian Historians Rashiduddin and Wassaf, one or other or both, did
not derive certain information that appears in their histories, from
Marco Polo personally, he having spent many months in Persia, and at
the Court of Tabriz, when either or both may have been there. Such
passages as that about the Cotton-trees of Guzerat (vol. ii. p. 393,
and note), those about the horse trade with Maabar (id. p. 340, and
note), about the brother-kings of that country (id. p. 331), about the
naked savages of Necuveram (id. p. 306), about the wild people of
Sumatra calling themselves subjects of the Great Kaan (id. pp. 285,
292, 293, 299), have so strong a resemblance to parallel passages in
one or both of the above historians, as given in the first and third
volumes of Elliot, that the probability, at least, of the Persian
writers having derived their information from Polo might be fairly
maintained.
[14] Li Romans de Bauduin de Sebourc III'e Roy de Jherusalem; Poeme du
XIV'e Siecle; Valenciennes, 1841. 2 vols. 8vo. I was indebted to two
references of M. Pauthier's for knowledge of the existence of this
work. He cites the legends of the Mountain, and of the Stone of the
Saracens from an abstract, but does not seem to have consulted the
work itself, nor to have been aware of the extent of its borrowings
from Marco Polo. M. Genin, from whose account Pauthier quotes,
ascribes the poem to an early date after the death of Philip the Fair
(1314). See Pauthier, pp. 57, 58, and 140.
[15] See Polo, vol. i. p. 204, and vol. ii. p. 191.
[16] See Polo, vol. i. p. 246.
[17] See Polo, vol. ii. p. 339.
[18] See Polo, vol. i. p. 140. Hashishi has got altered into
Haus Assis.
[19] See vol. i. p. 358, note.
[20] See vol. i. p. 189, note 2.
[21] Vol. i. pp. 183-186.
[22] Vol. i. pp. 68 seqq. The virtuous cobler is not left out, but is made
to play second fiddle to the hero Bauduin
[23] Vol. i. p. 144.
XIII. NATURE OF POLO'S INFLUENCE ON GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE.
[Sidenote: Tardy operation, and causes thereof.]
79. Marco Polo contributed such a vast amount of new facts to the
knowledge of the Earth's surface, that one might have expected his book to
have had a sudden effect upon the Science of Geography:
