Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/355

Rh each other's course, and then fly with the utmost speed, as if in these dangerous regions man himself was the peril most to be feared.

The accounts of Rubruk and Plano-Carpini are little more than the history of their personal adventures, their transactions with the Tartars, and their constant struggles against hunger, thirst, fatigue, and the inclemencies of the climate. Marco Polo, on the contrary, who remained for a long period in Central Asia, and visited many of the countries there with the rank of ambassador, never let slip an opportunity of examining the plants, animals, and other productions of each, making especial mention of those which appeared to him, either on account of their value, utility, or commercial importance, most worthy of note. His observations upon the various arts describe processes as minutely as results ; the stuffs manufactured, the peculiar kinds of embroidery work, and the modes of working metals, are all touched upon. In less civilised regions, he speaks of the animals which furnish the most valued skins ; if spices are collected in any country he visits, he describes the different plants and barks most highly thought of; in fact, wherever he goes, Marco Polo shows that he belongs to a maritime and commercial nation, and never forgets that he is a Venetian, and that his observations on the industry and navigation of the nations with whom he comes in contact, will be peculiarly interesting to his countrymen.

In his narrative, Marco Polo devotes himself especially to the description of Cathay, so long unknown to Europeans, and the general aspect of which presents so much that is remarkable. The enormous population of this vast empire, the brilliant court of Pekin with its