MARCO POLO'S GALLEY IN BATTLE.
"Soon after his return, an expedition was sent from Venice against Genoa, and Marco was placed in command of one of the ships or galleys. A great battle was fought; the Venetians were defeated; Marco was captured, placed in irons, and lodged in a prison at Genoa. While in captivity, he told the story of his travels to a fellow-prisoner named Rusticiano or Rustichello, of Pisa, and the latter committed it to writing. It was fortunate for us, though not so for him, that Marco Polo was in prison, as otherwise we might never have had an account of his travels. After his release, he led a quiet life at Venice, and seems to have died not far from the year 1325. He was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo; but all trace of his tomb was lost when that edifice was rebuilt.
"Now it is Fred's turn," said Frank; "I have told the history of Marco Polo, and shown why and how he went to the East; Fred will give you an account of what the great traveller saw in his absence from Europe of nearly twenty years."
Fred drew his note-book from his pocket and proceeded to his share of the entertainment.
"Marco Polo's work," said Fred, "consists of four divisions or books and a prologue. The prologue opens as follows:
"'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 read it or hear it read may put full faith in the truth of all its contents.'
"It is hardly worth while to read the whole prologue to you," Fred remarked, "as it is long, and we can only give a general glance at the contents of the whole work. A great many editions of the travels of Marco Polo have been published; the most valuable of all is the latest, which is by Colonel Yule, an English officer who spent a long time in India. He has made a careful study of the subject, and his work, with explanatory notes, is as complete as years of labor could make it. Indeed, there are more pages taken up with the explanatory notes than with the original text of Marco Polo.
"The four divisions or books give an account of the various countries he visited in his years of wandering, and of the wonderful sights he beheld. The route he followed can be traced by geographers without difficulty, and the cities he visited have most of them been identified. Many have had their names changed, and some have disappeared altogether, so that in a few instances the localities are in dispute. But, taken as a whole, the story is a truthful one, and shows Marco Polo to have been the greatest traveller of his time.
"Some of the stories that seem at first to be the wildest fiction are known to be founded in fact, if not literally correct. In speaking of Syria, he says: 'There is a great lake at the foot of a mountain, and in this lake are found no fish, great or small, throughout the whole year till Lent comes. On the first day of Lent they find in it the finest fish in the world, and great store, too, thereof; and these continue to be found till Easter-eve. After that they are found no more till Lent comes round again; and so 'tis every year.'