Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1868-09-10

ION will be to make the countries which u
isits better known to the Chinese and al
q TO make the Chinese better known to-
hem. Each will know the other better
nd will better comprehend that condition
f mutual dependence which Is the law Oh
In the relations among nations,
s in common life, this is Of infinite value
thus far. | fear that the Chinese are poor-i
' informed with regard to us ON sure
hat we ore poorly informed with regard 10
hem. We know them through the por-
,elain of our tables, with its lawless pro |
,pective, and the tea chest with its unintel-
ieible hieroglyphics, there are two pic
trres of them in the literature Of our Ian
yuape, which cannot fail to leave an Inn
The first is in Paradise Lost,
where Milton, always learned, even in his
poetry, represents Satan as descending In
flight
On the barren plains ,r-
OF sericana where Chinese drive
with sails aud wind their cany wagons light
The other is in that admirable address on
the study of the law of nature and nations,
where sir James Macintosh in words Of
sinor1lar felicity, alludes to 1.-THE tame but
ancient and immovable civilization Of Chi
ma" It will be for us now to enlarge these
pictures and to fill the canvas with life.
80 not know If it has occurred to our hon
ored plenipotentiary that he Is not the first
stranger who, after sojourning in this aus
tant unknown land, has come back
with messages to the Christian Powers. He
"a not without apredecessor in his mission.
There is another career as marvellous as his
own. refer to the Venetian, Marco Polo,
whose reports, once discredited as the ia
bles of traveller, are now recognized among
the sources of history, and especially OF
geographical knowledge, 1t was in the
latter part Of the far away thirteenth CEN
tury that this enterprising Venetian, in
company with his father and uncle, jour
neyed from Venice, by the way of Constan-
tinople Trebizond on the Black Sea, and
Asia until they reached that golden coun-
try known az Cathay, where the great ruler,
Kubial Khan, treated them with honor,
and employed young Polo as his ambassa-
dor. This was none other than China and
the great ruler was one of its Mongolian
Emperors. At last the Venetian with his
companions, was dismissed with honors
and riches, charged with letters for Euro
pean soyereigns, as our Bostonian has let
ters now. There were letters for the Pope,
the King of France, the King OF Spain,
and other Christian princes. 1t does not
appear that England was expressly desig-
mated. Her name, 80 great now, was not at
that time on the visiting list of the distant
Emperor Polo, with his companions, reached
Venice ON his return in 1895, OF the very
time when Dante in Florence was meditat-
inc his divine poem, and when Roger b.
con in Eaoland was astonishing the age
with his knowledge. These were two of
his greatest contemporaries. The return
of the Venetian ambassador to his native
city was attended by incidents which have
not occurred among u.s. Bronzed by long
residence. under the sun Of the East, wear
ing the dress of Tartar, and speaking his
native language with difficulty it was some
time before he could persuade his friends
of his identity. Happily there ia no ques-
tion ON the identity of our returned fellow
citizen. and surely il cannot be said that
he speaks his native language with diff
eulty. There was dinner given at Venice
MS at Boston. and the Venetian dinner, af-
ter the lapse of nearly FIVE hundred years,
still lives in glowing description On this
occasion Marco Polo, with his companions,
appeared first in long robes of crimson
satin reaching to the floor, which, after the
guests had washed their hands, were
changed for other robes Of crimson dam
ask and then again, after the first course
of the dinner, for other robes of crimson
velvet, and at the conclusion of the
banquet for the ordinary dress
worn By the rest of the company.
Meanwhile the other costly garments were
distributed in succession among the walters
at the table. Then was brought forward
the coarse threadbare clothes in which
they had travelled, when, on ripping the
lining and patches with knife, costly
Jewels in sparkling showers, leaped forth
before the eyes Of the company who for
time were motionless with wonder. When
at last says the Italian chronicler, every
doubt was bsnished and ell were satisfied
that these were the valiant and honorable
gentlemen Of the house of Polo. l do not
relate this history in order to suggest any
such operation on the dress OF urreturned
fellow citizen NOsuch evidence is needed
to assure us of his identity. The success
of Marco Polo is attested in other ways.
From the habit of speaking Of millions of
people and millions Of money, he was
known as malioni, or the millionaire, being
the earliest instance in history of desig-
nation SO common in this prosperous age.
But better than millions was the knowl-
edge he impaired and the impulse that he
gave to that science which teaches the
shape of the globe and the place Of ma
tons on its face, The work, in which he
dictated his travels, was translated
into several languages, and after the inven-
tion of printing was multiplied in
more than fifty editions. Unquestiona-
bly, it prepared the way for the two greatest
geographical discoveries OF modern times
the Cape Of Good Hope by Vasco de
Cana, and the New World by Christopher
Columbus. One of his admirers, a learned
German, does not hesitate to say that when,
in the long series Of ages, we seek the
three men who by the influence Of their
discoveries have most contributed to the
progress Of geography and the knowledge
of the globe, the modest name Of the Ven
etian finds a place in the same line with
Alexander the Great and Christopher Col
umbus. It is well known that the imagin-
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