2. The first person who attempted to gather and string the facts of Marco
Polo's personal history was his countryman, the celebrated John Baptist
Ramusio. His essay abounds in what we now know to be errors of detail,
but, prepared as it was when traditions of the Traveller were still rife
in Venice, a genuine thread runs through it which could never have been
spun in later days, and its presentation seems to me an essential element
in any full discourse upon the subject.
Ramusio's preface to the Book of Marco Polo, which opens the second volume
of his famous Collection of Voyages and Travels, and is addressed to his
learned friend Jerome Fracastoro, after referring to some of the most
noted geographers of antiquity, proceeds:[1] -
"Of all that I have named, Ptolemy, as the latest, possessed the
greatest extent of knowledge. Thus, towards the North, his knowledge
carries him beyond the Caspian, and he is aware of its being shut in all
round like a lake, - a fact which was unknown in the days of Strabo and
Pliny, though the Romans were already lords of the world. But though his
knowledge extends so far, a tract of 15 degrees beyond that sea he can
describe only as Terra Incognita; and towards the South he is fain to
apply the same character to all beyond the Equinoxial. In these unknown
regions, as regards the South, the first to make discoveries have been
the Portuguese captains of our own age; but as regards the North and
North-East the discoverer was the Magnifico Messer Marco Polo, an
honoured nobleman of Venice, nearly 300 years since, as may be read more
fully in his own Book. And in truth it makes one marvel to consider the
immense extent of the journeys made, first by the Father and Uncle of
the said Messer Marco, when they proceeded continually towards the East-
North-East, all the way to the Court of the Great Can and the Emperor of
the Tartars; and afterwards again by the three of them when, on their
return homeward, they traversed the Eastern and Indian Seas. Nor is that
all, for one marvels also how the aforesaid gentleman was able to give
such an orderly description of all that he had seen; seeing that such an
accomplishment was possessed by very few in his day, and he had had a
large part of his nurture among those uncultivated Tartars, without any
regular training in the art of composition. His Book indeed, owing to
the endless errors and inaccuracies that had crept into it, had come for
many years to be regarded as fabulous; and the opinion prevailed that
the names of cities and provinces contained therein were all fictitious
and imaginary, without any ground in fact, or were (I might rather say)
mere dreams.
[Sidenote: Ramusio vindicates Polo's Geography.]
3. "Howbeit, during the last hundred years, persons acquainted with
Persia have begun to recognise the existence of Cathay. The voyages of
the Portuguese also towards the North-East, beyond the Golden
Chersonese, have brought to knowledge many cities and provinces of
India, and many islands likewise, with those very names which our Author
applies to them; and again, on reaching the Land of China, they have
ascertained from the people of that region (as we are told by Sign. John
de Barros, a Portuguese gentleman, in his Geography) that Canton, one of
the chief cities of that kingdom, is in 30-2/3 deg. of latitude, with the
coast running N.E. and S.W.; that after a distance of 275 leagues the
said coast turns towards the N.W.; and that there are three provinces
along the sea-board, Mangi, Zanton, and Quinzai, the last of which is
the principal city and the King's Residence, standing in 46 deg. of
latitude. And proceeding yet further the coast attains to 50 deg..[2] Seeing
then how many particulars are in our day becoming known of that part of
the world concerning which Messer Marco has written, I have deemed it
reasonable to publish his book, with the aid of several copies written
(as I judge) more than 200 years ago, in a perfectly accurate form, and
one vastly more faithful than that in which it has been heretofore read.
And thus the world shall not lose the fruit that may be gathered from so
much diligence and industry expended upon so honourable a branch of
knowledge."
4. Ramusio, then, after a brief apologetic parallel of the marvels related
by Polo with those related by the Ancients and by the modern discoverers
in the West, such as Columbus and Cortes, proceeds: -
[Sidenote: Ramusio compares Polo with Columbus.]
And often in my own mind, comparing the land explorations of these our
Venetian gentlemen with the sea explorations of the aforesaid Signor Don
Christopher, I have asked myself which of the two were really the more
marvellous. And if patriotic prejudice delude me not, methinks good
reason might be adduced for setting the land journey above the sea
voyage. Consider only what a height of courage was needed to undertake
and carry through so difficult an enterprise, over a route of such
desperate length and hardship, whereon it was sometimes necessary to
carry food for the supply of man and beast, not for days only but for
months together. Columbus, on the other hand, going by sea, readily
carried with him all necessary provision; and after a voyage of some 30
or 40 days was conveyed by the wind whither he desired to go, whilst the
Venetians again took a whole year's time to pass all those great deserts
and mighty rivers. Indeed that the difficulty of travelling to Cathay
was so much greater than that of reaching the New World, and the route
so much longer and more perilous, may be gathered from the fact that,
since those gentlemen twice made this journey, no one from Europe has
dared to repeat it,[3] whereas in the very year following the discovery
of the Western Indies many ships immediately retraced the voyage
thither, and up to the present day continue to do so, habitually and in
countless numbers.
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