The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

W >> Washington Irving >> The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44

The ambassadors despaired of conveying the beautiful bride to the arms of
her expecting bridegroom, when Marco Polo returned from a voyage to
certain of the Indian islands. His representations of the safety of a
voyage in those seas, and his private instigations, induced the
ambassadors to urge the Grand Khan for permission to convey the princess
by sea to the gulf of Persia, and that the Christians might accompany
them, as being best experienced in maritime affairs. Cublai Khan consented
with great reluctance, and a splendid fleet was fitted out and victualed
for two years, consisting of fourteen ships of four masts, some of which
had crews of two hundred and fifty men.

On parting with the Venetians the munificent Khan gave them rich presents
of jewels, and made them promise to return to him after they had visited
their families. He authorized them to act as his ambassadors to the
principal courts of Europe, and, as on a former occasion, furnished them
with tablets of gold, to serve, not merely as passports, but as orders
upon all commanders in his territories for accommodations and supplies.

They set sail therefore in the fleet with the oriental princess and her
attendants and the Persian ambassadors. The ships swept along the coast of
Cochin China, stopped for three months at a port of the island of Sumatra
near ihe western entrance of the straits of Malacca, waiting for the
change of the monsoon to pass the bay of Bengal. Traversing this vast
expanse, they touched at the island of Ceylon and then crossed the strait
to the southern part of the great peninsula of India. Thence sailing up
the Pirate coast, as it is called, the fleet entered the Persian gulf and
arrived at the famous port of Olmuz, where it is presumed the voyage
terminated, after eighteen months spent in traversing the Indian seas.

Unfortunately for the royal bride who was the object of this splendid
naval expedition, the bridegroom, the Mogul king, had died some time
before her arrival, leaving a son named Ghazan, during whose minority the
government was administered by his uncle Kai-Khatu. According to the
directions of the regent, the princess was delivered to the youthful
prince, son of her intended spouse. He was at that time at the head of an
army on the borders of Persia. He was of a diminutive stature, but of a
great soul, and, on afterwards ascending the throne, acquired renown for
his talents and virtues. What became of the Eastern bride, who had
traveled so far in quest of a husband, is not known; but every thing
favorable is to be inferred from the character of Ghazan.

The Polos remained some time in the court of the regent, and then
departed, with fresh tablets of gold given by that prince, to carry them
in safety and honor through his dominions. As they had to traverse many
countries where the traveler is exposed to extreme peril, they appeared on
their journeys as Tartars of low condition, having converted all their
wealth into precious stones and sewn them up in the folds and linings of
their coarse garments. They had a long, difficult, and perilous journey to
Trebizond, whence they proceeded to Constantinople, thence to Negropont,
and, finally, to Venice, where they arrived in 1295, in good health, and
literally laden with riches. Having heard during their journey of the
death of their old benefactor Cublai Khan, they considered their
diplomatic functions at an end, and also that they were absolved from
their promise to return to his dominions.

Ramusio, in his preface to the narrative of Marco Polo, gives a variety of
particulars concerning their arrival, which he compares to that of
Ulysses. When they arrived at Venice, they were known by nobody. So many
years had elapsed since their departure, without any tidings of them, that
they were either forgotten or considered dead. Besides, their foreign
garb, the influence of southern suns, and the similitude which men acquire
to those among whom they reside for any length of time, had given them the
look of Tartars rather than Italians.

They repaired to their own house, which was a noble palace, situated in
the street of St. Giovanni Chrisostomo, and was afterwards known by the
name of la Corte de la Milione. They found several of their relatives
still inhabiting it; but they were slow in recollecting the travelers, not
knowing of their wealth, and probably considering them, from their coarse
and foreign attire, poor adventurers returned to be a charge upon their
families. The Polos, however, took an effectual mode of quickening the
memories of their friends, and insuring themselves a loving reception.
They invited them all to a grand banquet. When their guests arrived, they
received them richly dressed in garments of crimson satin of oriental
fashion. When water had been served for the washing of hands, and the
company were summoned to table, the travelers, who had retired, appeared
again in still richer robes of crimson damask. The first dresses were cut
up and distributed among the servants, being of such length that they
swept the ground, which, says Ramusio, was the mode in those days, with
dresses worn within doors. After the first course, they again retired and
came in dressed in crimson velvet; the damask dresses being likewise given
to the domestics, and the same was done at the end of the feast with their
velvet robes, when they appeared in the Venetian dress of the day. The
guests were lost in astonishment, and could not comprehend the meaning of
this masquerade. Having dismissed all the attendants, Marco Polo brought
forth the coarse Tartar dresses in which they had arrived. Slashing them
in several places with a knife, and ripping open the seams and lining,
there tumbled forth rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and other
precious stones, until the whole table glittered with inestimable wealth,
acquired from the munificence of the Grand Khan, and conveyed in this
portable form through the perils of their long journey.

The company, observes Ramusio, were out of their wits with amazement, and
now clearly perceived what they had at first doubted, that these in very
truth were those honored and valiant gentlemen the Polos, and,
accordingly, paid them great respect and reverence.

The account of this curious feast is given by Ramusio, on traditional
authority, having heard it many times related by the illustrious Gasparo
Malipiero, a very ancient gentleman, and a senator, of unquestionable
veracity, who had it from his father, who had it from his grandfather, and
so on up to the fountain-head.

When the fame of this banquet and of the wealth of the travelers came to
be divulged throughout Venice, all the city, noble and simple, crowded to
do honor to the extraordinary merit of the Polos. Maffeo, who was the
eldest, was admitted to the dignity of the magistracy. The youth of the
city came every day to visit and converse with Marco Polo, who was
extremely amiable and communicative. They were insatiable in their
inquiries about Cathay and the Grand Khan, which he answered with great
courtesy, giving details with which they were vastly delighted, and, as he
always spoke of the wealth of the Grand Khan in round numbers, they gave
him the name of Messer Marco Milioni.

Some months after their return, Lampa Doria, commander of the Genoese
navy, appeared in the vicinity of the island of Curzola with seventy
galleys. Andrea Dandolo, the Venetian admiral, was sent against him. Marco
Polo commanded a galley of the fleet. His usual good fortune deserted him.
Advancing the first in the line with his galley, and not being properly
seconded, he was taken prisoner, thrown in irons, and carried to Genoa.
Here he was detained for a long time in prison, and all offers of ransom
rejected. His imprisonment gave great uneasiness to his father and uncle,
fearing that he might never return. Seeing themselves in this unhappy
state, with so much treasure and no heirs, they consulted together. They
were both very old men; but Nicolo, observes Ramusio, was of a galliard
complexion; it was determined he should take a wife. He did so; and, to
the wonder of his friends, in four years had three children.

In the meanwhile, the fame of Marco Polo's travels had circulated in
Genoa. His prison was daily crowded with nobility, and he was supplied
with every thing that could cheer him in his confinement. A Genoese
gentleman, who visited him every day, at length prevailed upon him to
write an account of what he had seen. He had his papers and journals sent
to him from Venice, and, with the assistance of his friend, or, as some
will have it, his fellow-prisoner, produced the work which afterwards made
such noise throughout the world.

The merit of Marco Polo at length procured him his liberty. He returned to
Venice, where he found his father with a house full of children. He took
it in good part, followed the old man's example, married, and had two
daughters, Moretta and Fantina. The date of the death of Marco Polo is
unknown; he is supposed to have been, at the time, about seventy years of
age. On his death-bed he is said to have been exhorted by his friends to
retract what he had published, or, at least, to disavow those parts
commonly regarded as fictions. He replied indignantly that so far from
having exaggerated, he had not told one half of the extraordinary things
of which he had been an eye-witness.

Marco Polo died without male issue. Of the three sons of his father by the
second marriage, one only had children, viz. five sons and one daughter.
The sons died without leaving issue; the daughter inherited all her
father's wealth, and married into the noble and distinguished house of
Trevesino. Thus the male line of the Polos ceased in 1417, and the family
name was extinguished.

Such are the principal particulars known of Marco Polo; a man whose
travels for a long time made a great noise in Europe, and will be found to
have had a great effect on modern discovery. His splendid account of the
extent, wealth, and population of the Tartar territories filled every one
with admiration. The possibility of bringing all those regions under the
dominion of the church, and rendering the Grand Khan an obedient vassal to
the holy chair, was for a long time a favorite topic among the
enthusiastic missionaries of Christendom, and there were many
saints-errant who undertook to effect the conversion of this magnificent
infidel.

Even at the distance of two centuries, when the enterprises for the
discovery of the new route to India had set all the warm heads of Europe
madding about these remote regions of the East, the conversion of the
Grand Khan became again a popular theme; and it was too speculative and
romantic an enterprise not to catch the vivid imagination of Columbus. In
all his voyages, he will be found continually to be seeking after the
territories of the Grand Khan, and even after his last expedition, when
nearly worn out by age, hardships, and infirmities, he offered, in a
letter to the Spanish monarchs, written from a bed of sickness, to conduct
any missionary to the territories of the Tartar emperor, who would
undertake his conversion.

No. XXI.

The Work of Marco Polo.

The work of Marco Polo is stated by some to have been originally written
in Latin, [339] though the most probable opinion is that it was written in
the Venetian dialect of the Italian. Copies of it in manuscript were
multiplied and rapidly circulated; translations were made into various
languages, until the invention of printing enabled it to be widely
diffused throughout Europe. In the course of these translations and
successive editions, the original text, according to Purchas, has been
much vitiated, and it is probable many extravagances in numbers and
measurements with which Marco Polo is charged may be the errors of
translators and printers.

When the work first appeared, it was considered by some as made up of
fictions and extravagances, and Vossius assures us that even after the
death of Marco Polo he continued to be a subject of ridicule among the
light and unthinking, insomuch that he was frequently personated at
masquerades by some wit or droll, who, in his feigned character, related
all kinds of extravagant fables and adventures. His work, however, excited
great attention among thinking men, containing evidently a fund of
information concerning vast and splendid countries, before unknown to the
European world. Vossius assures us that it was at one time highly esteemed
by the learned. Francis Pepin, author of the Brandenburgh version, styles
Polo a man commendable for his piety, prudence, and fidelity. Athanasius
Kircher, in his account of China, says that none of the ancients have
described the kingdoms of the remote East with more exactness. Various
other learned men of past times have borne testimony to his character, and
most of the substantial parts of his work have been authenticated by
subsequent travelers. The most able and ample vindication of Marco Polo,
however, is to be found in the English translation of his work, with
copious notes and commentaries, by William Marsden, F. R. S. He has
diligently discriminated between what Marco Polo relates from his own
observation, and what he relates as gathered from others; he points out
the errors that have arisen from misinterpretations, omissions, or
interpretations of translators, and he claims all proper allowance for the
superstitious coloring of parts of the narrative from the belief,
prevalent among the most wise and learned of his day, in miracles and
magic. After perusing the work of Mr. Marsden, the character of Marco Polo
rises in the estimation of the reader. It is evident that his narration,
as far as related from his own observations, is correct, and that he had
really traversed a great part of Tartary and China, and navigated in the
Indian seas. Some of the countries and many of the islands, however, are
evidently described from accounts given by others, and in these accounts
are generally found the fables which have excited incredulity and
ridicule. As he composed his work after his return home, partly from
memory and partly from memorandums, he was liable to confuse what he had
heard with what he had seen, and thus to give undue weight to many fables
and exaggerations which he had received from others.

Much had been said of a map brought from Cathay by Marco Polo, which was
conserved in the convent of San Michale de Murano in the vicinity of
Venice, and in which the Cape of Good Hope and the island of Madagascar
were indicated; countries which the Portuguese claim the merit of having
discovered two centuries afterwards. It has been suggested also that
Columbus had visited the convent and examined this map, whence he derived
some of his ideas concerning the coast of India. According to Ramusio,
however, who had been at the convent, and was well acquainted with the
prior, the map preserved there was one copied by a friar from the original
one of Marco Polo, and many alterations and additions had since been made
by other hands, so that for a long time it lost all credit with judicious
people, until on comparing it with the work of Marco Polo it was found in
the main to agree with his descriptions. [340] The Cape of Good Hope was
doubtless among the additions made subsequent to the discoveries of the
Portuguese. [341] Columbus makes no mention of this map, which he most
probably would have done had he seen it. He seems to have been entirely
guided by the one furnished by Paulo Toscanelli, and which was apparently
projected after the original map, or after the descriptions of Marco
Polo, and the maps of Ptolemy.

When the attention of the world was turned towards the remote parts of
Asia in the 15th century, and the Portuguese were making their attempts to
circumnavigate Africa, the narration of Marco Polo again rose to notice.
This, with the travels of Nicolo le Comte, the Venetian, and of Hieronimo
da San Stefano, a Genoese, are said to have been the principal lights by
which the Portuguese guided themselves in their voyages. [342]

Above all, the influence which the work of Marco Polo had over the mind of
Columbus, gives it particular interest and importance. It was evidently an
oracular work with him. He frequently quotes it, and on his voyages,
supposing himself to be on the Asiatic coast, he is continually
endeavoring to discover the islands and main-lands described in it, and to
find the famous Cipango.

It is proper, therefore, to specify some of those places, and the manner
in which they are described by a Venetian traveler, that the reader may
more fully understand the anticipations which were haunting the mind of
Columbus in his voyages among the West Indian islands, and along the coast
of Terra Firma.

The winter residence of the Great Khan, according to Marco Polo, was in
the city of Cambalu, or Kanbalu, (since ascertained to be Pekin,) in the
province of Cathay. This city, he says, was twenty-four miles square, and
admirably built. It was impossible, according to Marco Polo, to describe
the vast amount and variety of merchandise and manufactures brought there;
it would seem they were enough to furnish the universe. "Here are to be
seen in wonderful abundance the precious stones, the pearls, the silks,
and the diverse perfumes of the East; scarce a day passes that there does
not arrive nearly a thousand cars laden with silk, of which they make
admirable stuffs in this city."

The palace of the Great Khan is magnificently built, and four miles in
circuit. It is rather a group of palaces. In the interior it is
resplendent with gold and silver; and in it are guarded the precious vases
and jewels of the sovereign. All the appointments of the Khan for war, for
the chase, for various festivities, are described in gorgeous terms. But
though Marco Polo is magnificent in his description of the provinces of
Cathay, and its imperial city of Cambalu, he outdoes himself when he comes
to describe the province of Mangi. This province is supposed to be the
southern part of China. It contains, he says, twelve hundred cities. The
capital, Quinsai (supposed to be the city of Hang-cheu), was twenty-five
miles from the sea, but communicated by a river with a port situated on
the seacoast, and had great trade with India.

The name Quinsai, according to Marco Polo, signifies the city of heaven;
he says he has been in it and examined it diligently, and affirms it to be
the largest in the world; and so undoubtedly it is if the measurement of
the traveler is to be taken literally, for he declares that it is one
hundred miles in circuit. This seeming exaggeration has been explained by
supposing him to mean Chinese miles or _li,_ which are to the Italian
miles in the proportion of three to eight; and Mr. Marsden observes that
the walls even of the modern city, the limits of which have been
considerably contracted, are estimated by travelers at sixty _li_.
The ancient city has evidently been of immense extent, and as Marco Polo
could not be supposed to have measured the walls himself, he has probably
taken the loose and incorrect estimates of the inhabitants. He describes
it also as built upon little islands like Venice, and has twelve thousand
stone bridges, [343] the arches of which are so high that the largest
vessels can pass under them without lowering their masts. It has, he
affirms, three thousand baths, and six hundred thousand families,
including domestics. It abounds with magnificent houses, and has a lake
thirty miles in circuit within its walls, on the banks of which are
superb palaces of people of rank. [344] The inhabitants of Qninsai are
very voluptuous, and indulge in all kinds of luxuries and delights,
particularly the women, who are extremely beautiful. There are many
merchants and artisans, but the masters do not work, they employ servants
to do all their labor. The province of Mangi was conquered by the Great
Khan, who divided it into nine kingdoms, appointing to each a tributary
king. He drew from it an immense revenue, for the country abounded in
gold, silver, silks, sugar, spices, and perfumes.

Zipangu, Zifangri, or Cipango.

Fifteen hundred miles from the shores of Mangi, according to Marco Polo,
lay the great island of Zipangu, by some written Zipangri, and by Columbus
Cipango. [345] Marco Polo describes it as abounding in gold,
which, however, the king seldom permits to be transported out of the
island.--The king has a magnificent palace covered with plates of gold, as
in other countries the palaces are covered with sheets of lead or copper.
The halls and chambers are likewise covered with gold, the windows adorned
with it, sometimes in plates of the thickness of two fingers. The island
also produces vast quantities of the largest and finest pearls, together
with a variety of precious stones; so that, in fact, it abounds in riches.
The Great Khan made several attempts to conquer this island, but in vain;
which is not to be wondered at, if it be true what Marco Polo relates,
that the inhabitants had certain stones of a charmed virtue inserted
between the skin and the flesh of their right arms, which, through the
power of diabolical enchantments, rendered them invulnerable. This island
was an object of diligent search to Columbus.

About the island of Zipangu or Cipango, and between it and the coast of
Mangi, the sea, according to Marco Polo, is studded with small islands to
the number of seven thousand four hundred and forty, of which the greater
part are inhabited. There is not one which does not produce odoriferous
trees and perfumes in abundance Columbus thought himself at one time in
the midst of these islands.

These are the principal places described by Marco Polo, which occur in the
letters and journals of Columbus. The island of Cipango was the first land
he expected to make, and he intended to visit afterwards the province of
Mangi, and to seek the Great Khan in his city of Cambalu, in the province
of Cathay. Unless the reader can bear in mind these sumptuous descriptions
of Marco Polo, of countries teeming with wealth, and cities where the very
domes and palaces flamed with gold, he will have but a faint idea of the
splendid anticipations which filled the imagination of Columbus when he
discovered, as he supposed, the extremity of Asia. It was his confident
expectation of soon arriving at these countries, and realizing the
accounts of the Venetian, that induced him to hold forth those promises of
immediate wealth to the sovereigns, which caused so much disappointment,
and brought upon him the frequent reproach of exciting false hopes and
indulging in willful exaggeration.

No. XXII.

Sir John Mandeville.

Next to Marco Polo, the travels of Sir John Mandeville, and his account
of the territories of the Great Khan along the coast of Asia, seem to have
been treasured up in the mind of Columbus.

Mandeville was born in the city of St. Albans. He was devoted to study
from his earliest childhood, and, after finishing his general education,
applied himself to medicine. Having a great desire to see the remotest
parts of the earth, then known, that is to say, Asia and Africa, and above
all, to visit the Holy Land, he left England in 1332, and passing through
France embarked at Marseilles. According to his own account, he visited
Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, Upper and Lower Lybia, Syria, Persia, Chaldea,
Ethiopia, Tartary, Amazonia, and the Indies, residing in their principal
cities. But most he says he delighted in the Holy Land, where he remained
for a long time, examining it with the greatest minuteness, and
endeavoring to follow all the traces of our Saviour. After an absence of
thirty-four years he returned to England, but found himself forgotten and
unknown by the greater part of his countrymen, and a stranger in his
native place. He wrote a history of his travels in three languages,
English, French, and Latin, for he was master of many tongues. He
addressed his work to Edward III. His wanderings do not seem to have made
him either pleased with the world at large, or contented with his home. He
railed at the age, saying that there was no more virtue extant; that the
church was ruined; error prevalent among the clergy; simony upon the
throne; and, in a word, that the devil reigned triumphant. He soon
returned to the continent, and died at Liege in 1372. He was buried in the
abbey of the Gulielmites, in the suburbs of that city, where Ortelius, in
his Itinerarium Belgiae, says that he saw his monument, on which was the
effigy, in stone, of a man with a forked beard and his hands raised
towards his head (probably folded as in prayer, according to the manner of
old tombs) and a lion at his feet. There was an inscription stating his
name, quality, and calling, (viz. professor of medicine,) that he was very
pious, very learned, and very charitable to the poor, and that after
having traveled over the whole world he had died at Liege. The people of
the convent showed also his spurs, and the housings of the horses which he
had ridden in his travels.