Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/352

 340 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. which they had explored more thoroughly than any other Europeans. Marco Polo, however, was not long destined to remain in the quiet enjoyment of the rest he had hoped for ; for only a few months after his return, a war broke out between Venice and Genoa, and the ex-ambas- sador of Kublai-Khan had the honour of serving on board the Venetian fleet, and of exposing his life in the defence of the country which he had just rendered illustrious by his Asiatic discoveries. At the battle of Curzola, where the Venetians were defeated, Marco Polo commanded a galley holding a position in the front rank, and falling at his post severely wounded, he was captured by the enemy, and taken as a prisoner of war to Genoa. His captivity lasted for four years, but it was this misfortune that in reality put the finishing stroke to his celebrity. The Genoese received with admiration and avidity the accounts of his visit to countries which had formerly been almost unknown. No account had as yet been published ; and though all the materials were at Venice, he had them brought to him, put them in order, and had a complete narrative of his travels written under his own eye by a citizen of Pisa, who shared his captivity.* His work became very widely known, the copies of it were multiplied, abridgments and translations were published, and it circulated every- where ; it was in fact, to European readers, like the announcement of a new world — like a revelation of the manners and habits of a new race. Some of the regions of Central Asia had, indeed, been previously vol. i. introduction, p. xlv.
 * Recueil de Voyages, &c, publie par la Societe de Geographie,