Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 1).djvu/50

 *ners of all the various tribes among whom he resided, and drew up a concise account of the whole in writing, which, together with a description of the new and curious objects he had beheld, he presented to the khan on his return. This, as he foresaw, greatly contributed to increase the favour of the prince towards him; and he continued to rise gradually from one degree of honour to another, until at length it may be doubted whether any individual in the empire enjoyed a larger portion of Kublai's affection and esteem. Upon various occasions, sometimes upon the khan's business, sometimes upon his own, he traversed all the territories and dependencies of the empire, everywhere possessing the means of observing whatever he considered worth notice, his authority and the imperial favour opening the most secluded and sacred places to his scrutiny.

As our traveller has not thought proper, however, to describe these various journeys chronologically, or, indeed, to determine with any degree of exactness when any one of them took place, we are at liberty, in recording his peregrinations, to adopt whatever arrangement we please; and it being indisputable that Northern China was the first part of Kublai's dominions, properly so called, which he entered, it appears most rational to commence the history of his Chinese travels with an outline of what he saw in that division of the empire.

The khan himself, whose profuse munificence enabled Marco Polo to perform with pleasure and comfort his long and numerous expeditions, was a fine handsome man of middle stature, with a fresh complexion, bright black eyes, a well-formed nose, and a form every way well proportioned. He had four wives, each of whom had the title of empress, and possessed her own magnificent palace, with a separate court, consisting of three hundred maids of honour, a large number of eunuchs, and a suite amounting at least to ten thousand persons. He,