The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-08-22
THE MIDDLE AGES I'm ASIA
A. D. 1860

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France busy reforming his kingdom,
while over the way the English barons
were reforming Henry III on the eve
of the founding of parliament, and the
Spaniards were %inventing the bull fight
by way of a national sport. The Eng
lish national pastime then was batting
Jews. They got twopence per week in
the pound for the use of their money,
but next year one of them was caught
in the act of cheating, a little error
which led to the massacre of seven
hundred.
That year the great Khan Kublai
came to the throne of the Mongol en-
pire, a pastoral realm of the grass
lands extending from the edge of Eu-
rope to the Pacific ocean. Kublai be-
gan to build his capital, the city of
Picking, and in all directions his people
extended their conquests. The looting
and burning of Bagdad took them
seven days and the resistless pressure
of their hordes was forcing the Turks
upon Europe.
Meanwhile in the dying Christian
empire of the East the Latins held Con
stantinople, with Baldwin on the
throne, but next year the Greek army,
led by Michael P%aleologus. crept
through a tunnel and manged to cap
ture the city.
Among the merchants at CONSTANT
nople in 1860 were the two Polo broth
ers, Nicolo and Matteo, Venetian no.
bles, who invested the whole of their
capital in gems and set off on a trad
ing voyage to the Crimea. Their bust
ness finished, they went on far up the
Eolga river to the court of a Mongol
prince, and to him they gave the whole
of their gems as a present, getting a
present in return, worth twice the mon
ey. But now their line of retreat was
blocked by a war among the Mongol
princes, so they went off to trade at
Kokhara in Persia, where they spent
a year. And so it happened that the
Polo brothers met with certain Mongol
ENJOYS who were returning to the court
of their emperor, Kublai. Come with
u.s. said the ENJOYS. 1.-THE great khan
has never seen a European and he will
be glad to have you as his guests" So
the Polos travelled under safe conduct
with the ENJOYS, a years journey, until
they reached the court of the great
khan at Picking and were received with
honor and liberality.
Now it so happened that Kublai
sought for himself and his people the
faith of Christ, and wanted the pope
to send i.im a hundred priests. 50 lie
dispatched these Italian gentlemen as
his ambassadors to the court of Rome.
He gave them a passport engraved on
a slab of gold, commanding his sub
jccts to help the ENJOYS upon their way
with food and horses, and thus, travel
ing in state across Asia, the Polos re-
turned from a Journey, the Creates
ever made up to that time by any
Christian men.
At Venice, Nicolo, the elder of the
brothers, found that his wife had died
leaving to Lin a son, then aged six
teen, young Marco Polo, a gallant,
courageous, hardy lad, it seems, and
very truthful, without the slightest
symptoms of any sense of humor.
The schoolboy who defined the Vati-
can as a great empty space without air,
vas perfectly correct. for when the
Polos arrived there was a sort Of
vacuum in Rome, the pope being dead
and no new appointment made because
the electors were squabbling. Two
years the ENJOYS waited, and when at
last a new pope was elected, he proved
to be a friend of theirs, the legate
Theobald on whom they waited at the
Christian fortress of Acre in Palestine.
But, instead of sending a hundred
clergymen to convert the Mongol EN-
pire, the new pope had only n priest
to spare, who proved to be a coward,
and deserted.
Empty-handed, their mission a fail
IRE, the Polos went back, a three and
one-half years journey to Picking, tax
ing with them young Marco Polo, a
handsome gallant. who at onee found
favor with old Kublai Khan. Marco
sped wondrously in learning the Gus
ADAio - LIC Ia Noioi 40 Wei do illNli
language, their manner of writing, and
their practice Of war, insomuch that
the emperor held him in great esteem.
And so, when he discerned Mark to
have so much sense, and to conduct
himself so well and beseemingly, he
sent him on an embassage of his to a
country which was a good six months
journey distant. The young gallant
executed his commission well and with
discretion" The fact is that Kublai's
ambassadors, returning from different
parts of the world, were able TO tell
him nothing except the business on
which they had gone, and that the
prince in consequence held them for no
better than dolts and fools.' Mark
brought back plenty of gossip, and was
a great success, for seventeen years
being employed by the emperor On all
sorts of missions. And thus it came
about that Messer Marco Polo had
knowledge of or had actually visited
a greater number of the different coun-
tries Of the world than any other
man.
In the Chinese annals of the Mongol
dynasty there is record in 1877 of one