Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/350

338 of the Tartar and four other languages; and his progress was so rapid, that in a very short time he was able to read and write with fluency in the Eastern tongues. He fell in also, so easily, with the manners and customs of the people among whom he lived, that he was frequently supposed to be a native of the country, differing from them only in those qualities of mind which will always give the European a superiority over the Oriental. The emperor having soon remarked the wisdom and prudence of the young man, entrusted him with an important mission into a distant country; and Marco Polo on his return, did not content himself like other ambassadors, with giving the bare official account of the affairs that had been confided to him, but related so many curious and interesting details as to the habits of the people he had visited, that the emperor became greatly interested in his narration. The reputation of the young Venetian increased rapidly from this time, and he soon gained a position at court, which commanded for him the esteem and respect of all the great men of the empire. As his age increased, his enlarged experience, his activity of mind, and affable manners, gained for him a favour that was always justified by his zeal and fidelity, and the affairs of the empire and the most important embassies occupied the best years of his life. Entrusted for three years with the government of a province, he became acquainted with all the springs of the administration, and the resources of the empire; and it was to his industry, that Kublai owed the surrender of a place, that he had been vainly besieging for years, in the south of China, since by inventing some engines of war for throwing stones of an enormous size, he compelled the