Marco Polo Visits the Great Kaan.—Several Europeans visited the court of the Great Kaan, or Mongol king, and of one of them, Marco Polo, we must speak in particular. He was a Venetian, and when a young man started in 1271 with his father and uncle on a visit to the Great Kaan. They passed from Italy to Syria, across to Bagdad, and so up to Turkestan, where they saw the wonderful cities of this strange oasis, thence across the Pamirs and the Desert of Gobi to Lake Baikal, where the Kaan had his court. Here in the service of this prince Marco Polo spent over seventeen years. So valuable indeed were his services that the Kaan would not permit him to return. Year after year he remained in the East. He traversed most of China, and was for a time “taotai,” or magistrate, of the city of Yang Chan near the Yangtze River. He saw the amazing wonders of the East. He heard of “Zipangu,” or Japan. He probably heard of the Philippines.

Finally the opportunity came for the three Venetians to return. The Great Kaan had a relative who was a ruler of Persia, and ambassadors came from this ruler to secure a Mongol princess for him to marry. The dangers and hardships of the travel overland were considered too [55]difficult for the delicate princess, and it was decided to send her by water. Marco Polo and his father and uncle were commissioned to accompany the expedition to Persia.

History of Marco Polo’s Travels.—They sailed from the port of Chin Cheu, probably near Amoy,1 in the year 1292. They skirted the coasts of Cambodia and Siam and reached the eastern coasts of Sumatra, where they waited five