o the
true faith--employ the riches I shall acquire in the equipment of a
force of four thousand horse and fifty thousand foot, for the recovery
of the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidels? I am unwilling
to think that your speech tends to the end of imputing to me mercenary
motives; but wherein do we differ? Is not the way opened, and will not
the intercourse I mean to establish with the pagan monarch contribute
greatly to the purpose I keep ever in view? The holy father at Rome
himself lends me encouragement in my undertaking, and regards with
approbation my efforts to lead into the true Church so mighty a
potentate."

"With all the deference that is due to your excellency's superior
wisdom and experience, I would state that therein lies the very point
of our difference. I deem it by no means certain that your ships have
touched the territories of the grand khan at all, but rather land that
has hitherto been alike unknown to him and to us. Thousands of leagues
may yet intervene between that land and his dominions, whether of sea
or earth remains to be discovered; and I judge in this wise as well
from the accounts of cosmographers who have written on the subject, as
from the description of the barbarous natives which you yourself have
fallen in with in recent discoveries.

"The accounts of those who have penetrated to distant regions of the
East lead us to understand that the subjects of the grand khan live in
the midst of the most profuse wealth and luxury, and bedeck themselves
with superfine garments, gold, and jewelry. These people, however, are
wild and naked, little if any superior to the beasts, and cannot, I
think, be in any wise connected with a monarch of such magnificence.
My own thoughts carry me to the conviction that there exists near unto
the lands you have visited an immense country, which may possibly
belong to and be part of the grand khan's dominions, though I doubt if
such be the case. Marco Polo himself speaks of an island lying far out
in the ocean which washes the eastern shores of Asia--the great
Cipango, abounding in riches and precious stones, which has never been
subdued by the sovereign of Cathay, although he has made attempts to
conquer it. This island I deem it necessary to discover, in the first
place; then, even after it is circumnavigated or passed over--and the
last may be the easier way--a voyage of long duration will still have
to be accomplished before the empire of Catha