On Martinmas Day, The Yules Reached The Beautiful Capital Of Sicily,
Palermo, Which, Though They Knew It Not, Was To Be Their Home - A Very
Happy One - For Nearly Eleven Years.
During the ensuing winter and spring, Yule continued the preparation of
Cathay, but his appetite for work not being
Satisfied by this, he, when
in London in 1865, volunteered to make an Index to the third decade of the
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, in exchange for a set of such
volumes as he did not possess. That was long before any Index Society
existed; but Yule had special and very strong views of his own as to what
an Index should be, and he spared no labour to realise his ideal.[56] This
proved a heavier task than he had anticipated, and he got very weary
before the Index was completed.
In the spring of 1866, Cathay and the Way Thither appeared, and at once
took the high place which it has ever since retained. In the autumn of the
same year Yule's attention was momentarily turned in a very different
direction by a local insurrection, followed by severe reprisals, and the
bombardment of Palermo by the Italian Fleet. His sick wife was for some
time under rifle as well as shell fire; but cheerfully remarking that
"every bullet has its billet," she remained perfectly serene and
undisturbed. It was the year of the last war with Austria, and also of the
suppression of the Monastic Orders in Sicily; two events which probably
helped to produce the outbreak, of which Yule contributed an account to
The Times, and subsequently a more detailed one to the Quarterly
Review.[57]
Yule had no more predilection for the Monastic Orders than most of his
countrymen, but his sense of justice was shocked by the cruel incidence of
the measure in many cases, and also by the harshness with which both it
and the punishment of suspected insurgents was carried out. Cholera was
prevalent in Italy that year, but Sicily, which had maintained stringent
quarantine, entirely escaped until large bodies of troops were landed to
quell the insurrection, when a devastating epidemic immediately ensued,
and re-appeared in 1867. In after years, when serving on the Army Sanitary
Committee at the India Office, Yule more than once quoted this experience
as indicating that quarantine restrictions may, in some cases, have more
value than British medical authority is usually willing to admit.
In 1867, on his return from London, Yule commenced systematic work on his
long projected new edition of the Travels of Marco Polo. It was
apparently in this year that the scheme first took definite form, but it
had long been latent in his mind. The Public Libraries of Palermo afforded
him much good material, whilst occasional visits to the Libraries of
Venice, Florence, Paris, and London, opened other sources. But his most
important channel of supply came from his very extensive private
correspondence, extending to nearly all parts of Europe and many centres
in Asia. His work brought him many new and valued friends, indeed too many
to mention, but amongst whom, as belonging specially to this period, three
honoured names must be recalled here: Commendatore (afterwards Baron)
CRISTOFORO NEGRI, the large-hearted Founder and First President of the
Geographical Society of Italy, from whom Yule received his first public
recognition as a geographer, Commendatore GUGLIELMO BERCHET
(affectionately nicknamed il Bello e Buono), ever generous in learned
help, who became a most dear and honoured friend, and the Hon. GEORGE P.
MARSH, U.S. Envoy to the Court of Italy, a man, both as scholar and
friend, unequalled in his nation, perhaps almost unique anywhere.
Those who only knew Yule in later years, may like some account of his
daily life at this time. It was his custom to rise fairly early; in summer
he sometimes went to bathe in the sea,[58] or for a walk before breakfast;
more usually he would write until breakfast, which he preferred to have
alone. After breakfast he looked through his notebooks, and before ten
o'clock was usually walking rapidly to the library where his work lay. He
would work there until two or three o'clock, when he returned home, read
the Times, answered letters, received or paid visits, and then resumed
work on his book, which he often continued long after the rest of the
household were sleeping. Of course his family saw but little of him under
these circumstances, but when he had got a chapter of Marco into shape,
or struck out some new discovery of interest, he would carry it to his
wife to read. She always took great interest in his work, and he had great
faith in her literary instinct as a sound as well as sympathetic critic.
The first fruits of Yule's Polo studies took the form of a review of
Pauthier's edition of Marco Polo, contributed to the Quarterly Review
in 1868.
In 1870 the great work itself appeared, and received prompt generous
recognition by the grant of the very beautiful gold medal of the
Geographical Society of Italy,[59] followed in 1872 by the award of the
Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, while the Geographical
and Asiatic Societies of Paris, the Geographical Societies of Italy and
Berlin, the Academy of Bologna, and other learned bodies, enrolled him as
an Honorary Member.
Reverting to 1869, we may note that Yule, when passing through Paris early
in the spring, became acquainted, through his friend M. Charles Maunoir,
with the admirable work of exploration lately performed by Lieut. Francis
Garnier of the French Navy. It was a time of much political excitement in
France, the eve of the famous Plebiscite, and the importance of
Garnier's work was not then recognised by his countrymen. Yule saw its
value, and on arrival in London went straight to Sir Roderick Murchison,
laid the facts before him, and suggested that no other traveller of the
year had so good a claim to one of the two gold medals of the R.G.S. as
this French naval Lieutenant.
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