s which found their way to the West were seen to be
but the refuse of their accumulated stores.

The discovery of Asia in the thirteenth century was the direct result of
the Mongol conquest. Before the death of Jenghis Khan in 1227, the
Tartar rule was established in northern China or Cathay, and in central
Asia from India to the Caspian; while within half a century the
successors of the first emperor were dominant to the Euphrates and the
Dniester on the west, and as far south as Delhi, Burma, and Cochin
China. The earlier conquests were conducted with incredible ferocity;
but the influence of Chinese civilization moderated the temper of the
later Khans, who exhibited a genial and condescending curiosity in the
people of Christendom. Diplomatic relations were established between
Tartar and Christian princes. In the Paris archives may still be seen
letters written from Tabriz to the kings of France bearing official
Chinese seals of the thirteenth century. For the first time Europeans
were welcome beyond the Great Wall. Kublai Khan sent presents to the
Pope and requested Christian missionaries for the instruction of his
people. Traders and travelers were hospitably received, clever
adventurers were taken into favor and loaded with benefits and high
office.

It was in 1271 that two prosperous Italian merchants, Maffeo and Nicolo
Polo, at the invitation of Kublai Khan, left Venice, taking with them
Nicolo's son, the young Marco, destined to be the most famous of
mediaeval travelers. Going out by way of the Tigris River to Hormos, they
turned eastward, and after many weary months journeying across Persia
and China arrived at the city of Cambulac, now known as Peking. Here
they remained for twenty years, favored guests or honored servants at
the court of the Grand Khan. Henceforth Maffeo and Nicolo retire into
the background; we catch occasional glimpses of them, shrewd Venetians,
unobtrusively putting money in their purses, while the young Marco
occupies the center of the stage as royal favorite, member of the Privy
Council, or trusted ambassador to every part of the emperor's wide
domains. A happy chance enabled them to return at last; and by a route
no European had yet taken: from Peking to Zaiton; thence by sea through
the famous Malacca Straits to Ceylon and India; up to Hormos and across
to Tabriz and Trebizond; and so, by way of the Bosphorus, home to
Venice, with a tale of experiences rivaling the Arabian Nights, an