The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1

Book 1
128 chapters

Characters

Locations

Factions

Lore

World

Events

Book 1
Ch. 11Marco Polo Captured at CurzolaDuring the Genoese victory at Curzola, Marco Polo, commanding a Venetian galley, is taken prisoner and brought to Genoa.
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Ch. 12Marco Polo’s Release and Return to VeniceAfter his release from Genoese captivity, Marco returns to Venice, shares his book with French knight Thibault de Cepoy, and settles his affairs.
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Ch. 24Polo Brothers Reach Kúblái’s CourtAfter a year-long journey from Bokhara, Nicolo and Maffeo Polo arrive at the Great Kaan’s court and are received with honor.
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Ch. 26Kúblái Appoints the Polos Envoys to the PopePleased by their account of Latin customs, Kúblái sends the Polo brothers and Baron Cogatal to the Pope with letters requesting 100 Christian scholars and oil from the Holy Sepulchre.
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Ch. 28Polo Brothers Arrive in AcreThe brothers reach Acre in April 1269 only to learn that the Pope has died, forcing them to await a successor.
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Ch. 29Marco Joins the Journey EastAfter two years in Venice, Nicolo and Maffeo set out again for Acre, taking the young Marco with them.
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Ch. 31Gregory X Authorizes the MissionThe newly elected Pope Gregory X receives the Polos, grants them credentials, and appoints two Dominican friars to accompany them.
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Ch. 33Polo Party Reaches Kúblái’s CourtAfter three and a half years of travel, Nicolo, Maffeo, and Marco arrive at the Great Kaan’s palace and present the Pope’s letters and the holy oil.
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Ch. 35Marco Earns Kúblái’s FavorMarco’s command of languages and careful observation of distant provinces wins the Great Kaan’s esteem; he is sent on important embassies and rewarded with the title Messer Marco Polo.
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Ch. 36Kúblái Permits the Polos’ ReturnAfter repeated requests, Kúblái finally allows the three Venetians to escort Princess Kokáchin to Persia and then return home.
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Ch. 47Miracle of the Moving MountainIn Baghdad, the Caliph challenges the Christians to move a mountain within ten days or convert; after the one-eyed cobbler prays, the mountain moves.
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Ch. 99Nayan’s Rebellion CrushedKúblái marches secretly against his rebellious nephew Nayan, surprises his camp, and defeats his army in a day-long battle.

Chapters

1THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
This text contains only the title page and publication information for the first volume of *The Travels of Marco Polo*; no narrative events or characters appear. It establishes the work as the complete Yule-Cordier edition, presenting Henry Yule’s annotated translation as revised by Henri Cordier, alongside Cordier’s later notes and addenda.
2NOTE BY MISS YULE.
In a brief note, A. F. Yule expresses gratitude to Professor Henri Cordier for editing her father’s work in the spirit her father would have valued. She reflects on the shortcomings and emotional circumstances of her memoir, affirms that her father would have approved it, and explains the choice to associate the new edition with the Murchison name. The tone is respectful, grateful, and shaded by bereavement.
3SIR GEORGE UDNY YULE, C.B., K.C.S.I.[80]
This biographical chapter traces George Udny Yule from his years as a famed hunter and reforming colonial administrator in Bengal to his energetic leadership against the Mutiny, followed by service in Oudh and Hyderabad and eventual retirement to Britain. In London and Scotland he shunned status, devoted himself to books, flowers, and helping others, and is remembered for principled courage, benevolent justice, and quiet generosity; he died after falling on a frosty pavement while doing a kindness.
4Biographies of Sir Henry Yule.
This chapter is a bibliographic survey of notices, memoirs, and tributes to Sir Henry Yule, published in Britain and Europe around and after his death. It highlights the range of accounts—including General Maclagan’s memoir, Henri Cordier’s studies, and a later memoir by Yule’s daughter Amy Frances—while noting that the compiled list remains incomplete and inviting further additions.
5I. Obscurities in the History of his Life and Book. Ramusio’s Statements.
This chapter surveys the uncertainties surrounding Marco Polo’s life and book, then presents John Baptist Ramusio’s vivid, partly erroneous account of the family’s travels and legacy. In Ramusio’s telling, the Polo men return to Venice unrecognized, reveal jewels hidden in their shabby clothes, and Marco is later captured by the Genoese, where he writes his travel book; he eventually returns, marries, and outlives his father’s hopes for the family line. The tone blends scholarly skepticism with affectionate wonder at the shifting fortunes and enduring legend of the Polo family.
6II. Sketch of the State of the East at the time of the Journeys of the Polo Family.
Opening in 1260, the chapter surveys the fractured political landscape that frames the Polo family’s travels: Latin powers cling to the Levant, Italian republics compete for trade, and Mongol rule stretches across much of Asia while splintering among rival dynasties. It also sketches China under Mongol conquest, the still-independent Sung south, and the kingdoms of India and Indo-China, creating a broad, unsettled panorama of imperial ambition and commercial possibility.
7III. The Polo Family. Personal History of the Travellers down to their final Return from the East.
This chapter traces the Polo family’s uncertain Venetian origins before following Nicolo and Maffeo’s journeys from Constantinople to Kúblái’s court, where young Marco joins them and earns the Great Kaan’s favor through language, observation, and service across distant provinces. Years later, the three Venetians return west escorting Princess Kokáchin by sea, surviving a perilous voyage and reaching Venice around 1295; the account’s scholarly, measured tone lends their remarkable travels both historical weight and a quiet sense of homecoming.
8IV. Digression concerning the Mansion of the Polo Family at Venice.
This chapter examines where the Polo family lived in Venice, weighing documentary evidence that they settled in the parish of San Giovanni Grisostomo only after returning from the East. It traces the traditional site of their house through fires, later buildings, surviving Byzantine carvings, maps, and a newly discovered property document, ultimately finding the evidence broadly supportive but not conclusive. The tone is scholarly and measured, turning a vanished family home into a careful reconstruction of place and memory.
9V. Digression concerning the War-Galleys of the Mediterranean States in the Middle Ages.
This chapter pauses the Traveller’s biography for a detailed account of medieval Mediterranean war-galleys, explaining how rowers, crews, weapons, and fleet tactics were organized and how the vessels changed over time. Through technical evidence and vivid historical descriptions of banners, music, and battle, the digression evokes both the ingenuity and brutal labor of galley warfare before turning back toward the circumstances that will place the Traveller in command of one.
10VI. The Jealousies and Naval Wars of Venice and Genoa. Lamba Doria’s Expedition to the Adriatic; Battle of Curzola; and Imprisonment of Marco Polo by the Genoese.
Commercial rivalry and political resentment turn Venice, Genoa, and Pisa into increasingly hostile powers, with Venice’s dominance in the eastern Mediterranean deepening Genoa’s grievance. A long conflict over St. Sabba’s church in Acre ends first in Venetian victory, then reverses when Genoa allies with Michael Palaeologus, helps topple the Latin dynasty, and celebrates the destruction of a Venetian stronghold. The chapter closes on a mood of entrenched hatred, as rival fleets sail under convoy and fight whenever they meet.
11VII. Rusticiano or Rustichello of Pisa, Marco Polo’s Fellow-Prisoner at Genoa, the Scribe who wrote down the Travels.
Amid escalating war between Genoa and Venice, the Genoese win decisive naval victories at Ayas and Curzola; at Curzola, Marco Polo is captured and taken to Genoa. In prison he meets the Pisan writer Rusticiano, who records Marco’s travels, while the chapter weighs conflicting evidence about Marco’s capture and traces Rusticiano’s identity and literary past. The tone is scholarly and measured, set against the violence and pride of rival maritime republics, with the imprisonment emerging as the unlikely beginning of Marco’s book.
12VIII. Notices of Marco Polo’s History, after the Termination of his Imprisonment at Genoa.
After his release from Genoese captivity, Marco Polo reappears in the record as a Venetian merchant and respected citizen: he shares his Book with the French knight Thibault de Cepoy, pursues a commercial dispute, and settles his affairs in a final will. The chapter traces his death and burial at San Lorenzo, then follows the fragmentary fortunes of his wife, daughters, and disputed descendants. Its tone is documentary and elegiac, piecing together a celebrated traveller’s quieter, uncertain afterlife from wills, court records, and fading traditions.
13IX. Marco Polo’s Book; and the Language in which it was first written.
The chapter outlines the structure of Marco Polo’s book: a brief prologue recounting the Polos’ journeys to Kúblái’s court and their return through Persia, followed by chapters describing Asia, its peoples, and the emperor’s court and rule. It notes that the closing accounts of Mongol dynastic wars are often omitted or shortened, judging them verbose and of little value despite the author’s general preference for completeness.
14X. Various Types of Text of Marco Polo’s Book.
This scholarly chapter traces the competing manuscript traditions of Marco Polo’s book, arguing that its oldest French text most closely preserves the account dictated in a Genoese prison, while later versions revise, abridge, translate, and sometimes distort it. The author weighs evidence from language, names, and unique passages, then considers Ramusio’s intriguing blend of editorial changes and likely authentic supplementary memories, before closing with an Irish translation preserved in the Book of Lismore. There are no changing settings or character arcs; the tone is meticulous, inquisitive, and quietly animated by the search for Polo’s original voice.
15XI. Some Estimate of the Character of Polo and His Book.
The narrator weighs Marco Polo’s true stature: not a figure of genius on Columbus’s level, but the first traveler to chart Asia across its breadth and reveal an astonishing range of peoples and places. Reading the silences, errors, and glimpses in Polo’s book, he sketches a practical, reticent man shaped by wonder, commerce, and romance, while acknowledging how imperfectly the text preserves him. The tone is admiring yet measured, defending Polo’s legacy without disguising the limits of his account.
16XII. Contemporary Recognition of Polo and his Book.
The chapter weighs the evidence for Marco Polo’s reputation in his own era, finding that his book circulated less widely than later claims suggest, though several contemporaries knew or cited him. Its most vivid proof of influence is the Romance of Bauduin de Sebourc, which reshapes Polo’s accounts of distant customs, the Old Man of the Mountain, and miraculous trials into comic, adventurous fiction. The tone is scholarly and measured, enlivened by the romance’s extravagant, irreverent retelling.
17XIII. Nature of Polo’s Influence on Geographical Knowledge.
The chapter traces Marco Polo’s uneven influence on medieval and early modern geography: his descriptions informed the Catalan Map of 1375, but later mapmakers combined his place names with inherited myths and new discoveries, often producing confusion rather than accuracy. It also challenges the story that Polo brought block-printing to Europe, arguing that the claim lacks evidence and that other travelers and trade routes offered ample opportunities for such knowledge to arrive; the tone is scholarly, critical, and occasionally wry.
18XIV. Explanations regarding the Basis adopted for the present Translation.
The editor explains how he constructed his English translation of Marco Polo’s account, combining Pauthier’s text with readings and material from the Geographic Text and selected passages from Ramusio. He also sets out his principles for choosing and Anglicizing place names, arguing that Polo’s spellings are often more faithful than later critics have acknowledged. The chapter is a measured defense of editorial judgment, ending with a poetic image of the translation as a weary vessel nearing harbor.
19PROLOGUE.
The prologue introduces Marco Polo’s account as a record of the world’s peoples, regions, and wonders, promising to distinguish what he witnessed from what he learned through trustworthy reports. It presents him as an unparalleled traveler whose twenty-six years of experience inspired him to preserve this knowledge, and explains that he dictated the book to Rusticiano while both were imprisoned in Genoa in 1298.
20CHAPTER I.
In 1260, the Venetian brothers Nicolas and Maffeo Polo, merchants of Constantinople, decide to pursue trade beyond the Black Sea. Stocking jewels, they set sail for Soldaia, a thriving port on the Crimean coast and gateway to the Mongol world; their departure begins a journey defined by enterprise and uncertainty.
21CHAPTER II.
The two brothers leave Soldaia and travel to the court of Barca Kaan, where their jewels win them a generous welcome and they spend a year in his company. When war erupts between Barca and Aláu, the route back becomes perilous, so they press onward from Bolgara through Ucaca and across a vast, empty desert inhabited only by Tartar herders. The chapter’s tone shifts from hospitable courtly calm to uncertainty and endurance as the brothers’ journey carries them farther into unfamiliar lands.
22CHAPTER III.
After crossing the desert, the two brothers reach Bocara, a prosperous Persian city, but find themselves unable to travel onward or return and remain there for three years. A party of envoys bound for the Great Kaan’s court invites them to join its journey, promising safe passage and honor; the brothers eagerly agree to hear more, opening the way toward a new and uncertain adventure.
23CHAPTER IV.
After completing their arrangements, the two brothers set out with the envoys and travel northward and northeastward for a year until they reach the Great Kaan’s court. The chapter briefly notes the marvels they witness along the way, reserving their fuller account for Marco’s later narrative; its tone is brisk and anticipatory.
24CHAPTER V.
The Two Brothers arrive at the Great Kaan’s court, where he welcomes them with great honor and hospitality. Eager to learn, he questions them about how emperors, kings, and other rulers govern, administer justice, and wage war; the encounter is cordial and curious, with no change of setting beyond their arrival at court.
25CHAPTER VI.
The Great Kaan asks the Two Brothers about the Pope, the Church, Rome, and Latin customs, and they answer truthfully and clearly in the Tartar language. The chapter then turns to an extended scholarly note on the names “Tartar” and “Tatar,” tracing their usage and challenging later claims about their origins and meaning; its tone is informative and corrective.
26CHAPTER VII.
Pleased by the Brothers’ account of Latin customs, Cublay Kaan appoints them and his Baron Cogatal as envoys to the Pope. He gives them a letter requesting learned Christian teachers to debate other faiths—promising that he and his people will become Christians if they succeed—and asks them to bring back oil from the lamp at Christ’s Sepulchre. The chapter’s tone is formal and purposeful, presenting the Kaan’s religious curiosity as an ambitious diplomatic mission.
27CHAPTER VIII.
The Great Kaan equips the three ambassadors with a gold tablet guaranteeing supplies and assistance throughout their journey. When the Tartar Baron falls ill, the two brothers continue without him, relying on the tablet’s authority as they endure three years of delays from snow, rain, and swollen rivers before reaching Layas in Armenia. The tone is matter-of-fact and steady, emphasizing the hardships of travel and the protection their imperial commission affords.
28CHAPTER IX.
Arriving in Acre in April 1269, the two brothers learn that the Pope has died, delaying their mission until a successor is chosen. On the Legate’s advice they return by way of Negropont to Venice, where Nicolas discovers that his wife has died and meets his fifteen-year-old son, Marco; the brothers remain there for two years awaiting a new Pope. The chapter’s tone is restrained and expectant, marking a change of place and bringing Marco into the story.
29CHAPTER X.
After waiting in Venice without a new pope, the two brothers decide they can delay no longer and set out for Acre with Mark, Nicolas’s son. With the Legate’s permission, they travel to Jerusalem to obtain oil from the Sepulchre for the Great Kaan, then return to Acre, where the Legate provides letters explaining their faithful efforts and the delay. The chapter’s restrained, practical tone marks the beginning of their return journey and introduces Mark as their companion.
30CHAPTER XI.
The Two Brothers set out from Acre toward the Grand Kaan, but at Layas they learn that the Legate has been elected Pope Gregory X and receive his command to return. The King of Hermenia sends them by galley back to Acre, where the account’s tone shifts from brisk travel narrative to a historical portrait of Gregory’s election, character, and legacy.
31CHAPTER XII.
At Acre, the brothers Nicolas and Maffeo receive the new Pope’s blessing, credentials, and two Dominican friars to accompany them on their journey toward the Great Kaan; Marco travels with them. When they reach Layas amid reports of a devastating Saracen invasion, the frightened friars abandon the mission and leave their documents with the brothers, who must continue without them.
32CHAPTER XIII.
Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, travelling with Mark, reach the Great Kaan at Kemenfu after a journey of three and a half years, delayed by severe weather and cold. The Kaan has sent an escort forty days’ journey to welcome and provision them, and they are honourably received along the road; the chapter’s tone is brisk and factual, emphasizing the scale of the journey and the ruler’s hospitality.
33CHAPTER XIV.
Nicolo and Maffeo Polo arrive with Marco at the Great Kaan’s imperial palace, where they kneel before the ruler and present the Pope’s letters and oil from the Sepulchre. The Kaan welcomes them warmly, especially greeting young Marco as his liegeman, and the travelers are honored by the court; the chapter ends with them residing among the Barons. The mood is ceremonial and joyful, marking Marco’s formal introduction to the Kaan’s court.
34CHAPTER XV.
Marco’s command of Tartar customs, languages, and writing—and his prudent conduct—wins the Great Kaan’s esteem, and the Emperor sends him on a six-month embassy. Marco notices that the Kaan values accounts of unfamiliar peoples and places as much as official business, so he carefully observes the countries he travels through to bring back a fuller report. The chapter’s tone is admiring and purposeful, presenting Marco’s curiosity and adaptability as the qualities that make him a trusted emissary.
35CHAPTER XVI.
After returning from a successful mission, Mark reports to the Emperor and impresses him with his lively account of distant places and unfamiliar things. The Emperor rewards him with the title Messer Marco Polo and, over the next seventeen years, increasingly entrusts him with important journeys; Marco’s curiosity and careful observations win him lasting favor, though they stir jealousy among the Barons.
36CHAPTER XVII.
After years at the Great Kaan’s court, Nicolo, Maffeo, and Marco repeatedly seek permission to return home, fearing that the aging ruler may die before they can leave; his affection for them keeps him reluctant to agree. When Argon’s envoys arrive seeking a bride from the late Queen Bolgana’s family, Marco’s travel experience makes the three Venetians valuable guides for their sea journey, and the Kaan finally allows them to depart with the envoys and Cocachin. The chapter shifts from the Kaan’s court toward a perilous voyage home, balancing the travelers’ relief and hope with the sadness of parting.
37CHAPTER XVIII.
The Great Kaan sends Marco Polo and his two companions home with golden tablets, imperial messages, and a fleet escorting a princess across the seas. After a perilous voyage in which nearly all their company dies, they deliver the princess and complete their commission, then travel overland through Trebizond and Constantinople to Venice in 1295. Their affectionate farewell with the princess lends tenderness to an account otherwise marked by danger, loss, and the long-awaited return.
38CHAPTER I.
The chapter introduces Lesser Hermenia as a fertile, well-stocked but unhealthy land, ruled by a king under Tartar supremacy, whose once-valiant nobles are now mocked for their drunkenness. Its coastal city of Layas emerges as a vital trading port and gateway to the East. The historical notes widen the account into a brief chronicle of the Armenian kingdom’s rise, Mongol allegiance, and eventual fall, lending the passage a reflective, scholarly tone.
39CHAPTER II.
The chapter surveys Turcomania, describing its pastoral Turcoman population alongside Armenian and Greek communities who trade, practice crafts, and produce celebrated carpets and silks. It names the region’s principal cities and notes its subjection to the Tartar of the Levant, then turns toward Greater Armenia; the tone is factual and geographical, with no character development or dramatic events.
40CHAPTER III.
The narrator surveys Greater Armenia, describing its cities, renowned buckram and hot springs, seasonal pastures, silver mine, and severe winter climate. He recounts the tradition of Noah’s Ark resting on an inaccessible snowy mountain and notes the region’s borders and abundant oil springs, before turning toward Georgiania. The chapter is a measured, documentary portrait rather than a personal narrative, with an atmosphere of geographic wonder and practical detail.
41CHAPTER IV.
The chapter surveys Georgiania as a rugged, wealthy Christian kingdom whose mountain passes and fortresses have resisted complete Tartar conquest, recounting the legendary Iron Gate where Alexander supposedly confined the peoples of Gog and Magog. It then turns to the seasonal abundance of fish at the lake near St. Leonard’s convent and to the Caspian Sea, its fisheries, silk trade, and emerging Genoese navigation. The tone is curious and encyclopedic, blending travel description with marvels, historical legends, and skeptical commentary.
42CHAPTER V.
Marco Polo describes the kingdom of Mausul as a diverse frontier region populated by Muslim Arabs, Nestorian and Jacobite Christians, and Kurdish communities, while highlighting its silk and gold textiles and the merchants who trade them. He also notes nearby Mus and Mardin for their cotton and cloth production; the chapter is a measured, catalog-like portrait of cultural and commercial variety, with a somber undertone in the commentary on the region’s political decline and Kurdish raiding.
43CHAPTER VI.
The chapter describes Baghdad’s wealth and commercial splendor before recounting its capture by Alaü’s Mongol army. Finding the Caliph’s immense treasure unused for the city’s defense, Alaü condemns his hoarding and imprisons him without food, presenting Baghdad’s fall and the Caliph’s death as a grim lesson in failed leadership. The account closes by turning toward a promised miracle on behalf of the Christians.
44CHAPTER VII.
In Baudas, a caliph who hates the Christians conspires with his religious advisers to force them to convert or die. Citing the Gospel’s promise that faith can move mountains, he summons the Christians, demands that they move a nearby mountain within ten days, and dismisses them to face the crisis. The chapter closes on a tense, threatening note, with the Christians’ fate hanging on an impossible test.
45CHAPTER VIII.
In the Calif’s shadow, the Christians gather in fear and pray for eight days and nights, having no hope but divine protection. A heavenly vision directs a bishop to seek the prayers of a one-eyed cobbler, whose piety is revealed through the severe act by which he blinded himself to resist temptation; the chapter’s tone is anxious, devotional, and unsettling.
46CHAPTER IX.
After the Bishop’s vision recurs, he tells the Christians, who summon the one-eyed cobbler and ask him to pray, believing God will answer through him. The cobbler humbly protests that he is not as virtuous as they think, but their gentle persistence persuades him to agree; the chapter’s tone is reverent and quietly hopeful.
47CHAPTER X.
On the appointed day, a vast Christian procession gathers before a mountain as the Caliph and his armed Saracen host threaten them; after the one-eyed cobbler prays, the mountain moves, prompting many Saracens—and the Caliph, secretly—to embrace Christianity. The Christians return home rejoicing, while the narrator condemns the Saracens’ law and turns from Baudas toward the city of Tauris.
48CHAPTER XI.
The chapter presents Tauris as a prosperous trading city in Yrac, drawing merchants from distant regions with its silk-and-gold crafts, precious stones, and abundant gardens. Its population is a diverse mix of religious and ethnic communities, while the narrator’s description remains brisk and matter-of-fact; he then leaves Tauris behind and turns toward Persia.
49CHAPTER XII.
On the borders of Tauris, Marco describes the monastery of St. Barsamo, where monks knit woollen girdles and place them on the altar before distributing them to people who prize their pain-relieving qualities. An editor’s notes identify the monastery’s historical associations and add a more fantastical legend: its defenses supposedly move by themselves to repel attackers.
50CHAPTER XIII.
Marco Polo describes Persia as a once-powerful country now devastated by the Tartars, then recounts the tombs of the Three Magi in Saba and a local tradition from the nearby Castle of the Fire-worshippers. In that tale, three kings visit the newborn Child with gold, incense, and myrrh, each first seeing him as his own age before they enter together and behold him as a thirteen-day-old infant; the story blends wonder with the people’s enduring reverence for the Magi.
51CHAPTER XV.
On their journey home, the Three Kings discover a stone in the Child’s gift box, cast it into a well, and witness heavenly fire descend; remorseful, they carry the flame to a church, where it becomes the center of their people’s worship. The narrative then turns from legend to geography, describing Persia’s eight kingdoms, its valuable horses and asses, commerce, and the dangers faced by travelers. The tone shifts from wonder and repentance to an observational account of a vast, varied, and often perilous land.
52CHAPTER XVI.
Marco Polo describes Yasdi as a prosperous Persian city known for its silk weaving and trade, then traces the seven-day journey onward across broad plains toward Kerman. The route’s sparse stopping places, date groves, game birds, and wild asses give the passage a vivid sense of travel and abundance; the historical notes later compare this account with changing landscapes and roads. The tone is observant and practical, focused on the region’s commerce and geography rather than personal emotion.
53CHAPTER XVII.
The chapter describes Kerman as a Persian kingdom under Tartar-appointed rule, renowned for turquoise and metal deposits, finely made arms, silk embroidery, and swift red-breasted falcons. The account then follows the road from the city across seven settled, pleasant days of travel to a cold mountain pass and a two-day descent, where former communities have vanished and only a few herders remain. Its tone is measured and observant, balancing admiration for Kerman’s crafts and landscape with a quiet sense of decline and hardship.
54CHAPTER XVIII.
Marco Polo describes the hot plain of Reobarles, its ruined city of Camadi, distinctive wildlife, and walled settlements threatened by the Carauna robbers. He recounts their terrifying raids under Nogodar, then recalls how he narrowly escaped a raid’s engulfing darkness near Conosalmi, losing most of his traveling company. The chapter’s tone shifts from curious travelogue to stark danger and personal loss.
55CHAPTER XIX.
Marco Polo’s account follows the route down from Kerman to Hormos, a hot, fertile port city whose markets connect Persian merchants with India. He describes its diet, stitched-together ships, seasonal flight from the deadly heat, and a devastating sand wind, then turns back toward Kerman and prepares to travel north. The chapter’s tone shifts between wonder at the region’s abundance and unease at its hazards, while the extensive notes test Polo’s itinerary against geography and later historical accounts.
56CHAPTER XX.
Marco Polo describes the punishing seven-day journey from Kerman toward Cobinan: three days across a waterless, lifeless desert, a brief respite at a hidden underground stream, then four more days of wasteland where wild asses appear. The chapter’s bleak, matter-of-fact account is framed by scholarly notes debating the route and identifying the desert and its concealed waterworks, lending the landscape both historical precision and desolation.
57CHAPTER XXI.
Marco Polo describes Cobinan as a large town whose people worship Mahomet and whose industries include iron, steel mirrors, and the production of tutia and spodium in a furnace. The chapter then turns to extensive scholarly notes that debate Cobinan’s location and explain the minerals and historical methods behind the process; the tone is descriptive and antiquarian rather than narrative.
58CHAPTER XXII.
After an eight-day crossing of a barren, waterless desert, Marco Polo reaches Tonocain, a temperate province rich in towns and provisions. He describes its solitary Arbre Sol—the famed “Dry Tree,” linked by local tradition to Alexander’s battle with Darius—while the chapter’s extended commentary explores the tree’s botanical identity and the legends that gathered around it. The journey shifts from hardship to abundance, with an overall tone of measured wonder and antiquarian curiosity.
59CHAPTER XXIII.
Marco Polo recounts how Aloadin, the Old Man of the Mountain, built a secluded valley into a lavish imitation of Paradise, complete with palaces, flowing streams, and beautiful gardens. To recruit young men as Ashishin, he drugged them and carried them into the garden, where they awoke believing they had entered the afterlife. The chapter’s wonder and seduction are framed by a scholarly note that complicates Polo’s tale with the sect’s history and the origins of its names.
60CHAPTER XXIV.
The Old Man of the Mountain trains his assassins by giving youths a drugged vision of Paradise, then convincing them that obedience—and even death—will return them there. Their zeal lets him command murders and intimidate neighboring princes into paying tribute; the chapter also notes imitators in Damascus and Kurdistan. The narrative’s wonder-laden account is followed by historical commentary that places the legend alongside parallel stories and documented assassinations, lending the tale a darker, scholarly frame.
61CHAPTER XXV.
In 1252, Alaü’s forces besiege the Old Man’s fortress until its defenders run out of food; the Old Man and his men are killed, and the castle and its fabled garden are destroyed. The narrative then turns from Polo’s brief account to an extensive historical commentary tracing the Ismailites’ survival, the later Agha Khan’s lineage and influence, and debates over the fortress and its identification. The tone shifts from stark closure to scholarly reflection on how a vanished stronghold and its sect endured in altered forms.
62CHAPTER XXVI.
After leaving the Castle, the travelers cross six days of fertile plains, valleys, and hill country dotted with towns, though occasional waterless desert stretches make the journey arduous. They reach Sapurgan, a plentiful city famed for its sweet sun-dried melon strips and abundant game; the chapter’s tone is chiefly descriptive, celebrating the richness of the landscape and its produce.
63CHAPTER XXVII.
The narrator describes Balc, once a grand city now devastated by conquest, and notes its place at the edge of Persia and the Tartar Lord’s empire. He then leaves Balc for Dogana, beginning a twelve-day journey through uninhabited country where travelers must carry their provisions and may encounter lions. The chapter’s tone is measured and historical, underscoring how war has emptied and ruined once-inhabited lands.
64CHAPTER XXVIII.
Marco Polo describes the fortified market town of Taican, its seemingly inexhaustible salt mountains, and the fertile, inexpensive countryside beyond. After reaching Casem, he recounts its river, porcupines, and cave-dwelling herders before setting out across a desolate three-day stretch toward Badashan; the chapter’s tone is chiefly matter-of-fact, attentive to the region’s striking resources and hardships.
65CHAPTER XXIX.
Marco Polo’s account portrays Badakhshan as a remote, cold, and wealthy mountain kingdom, famed for its tightly controlled Balas ruby and azure mines, swift horses, falcons, wild sheep, and rugged strongholds. He describes its people and customs, then recalls recovering from a year-long illness in the pure air of the highlands. The chapter’s admiring tone is tempered by the commentary’s account of the region’s later invasions, depopulation, and decline.
66CHAPTER XXX.
The chapter briefly describes Pashai as a hot, rugged region whose people are portrayed as idolaters, skilled in sorcery, and distinctive in dress and customs, before Polo moves south-east toward Keshimur. The editor’s extensive commentary questions the geography and argues that the account is hearsay, likely blending traditions about Udyána and Kashmir with knowledge of the Pashai people; its tone is scholarly and uncertain, tracing the limits of historical identification.
67CHAPTER XXXI.
Marco Polo describes Keshimur as a self-governing province of forests, towns, and mountain passes, renowned for enchantments, religious communities, and its distinctive customs. The account pauses over the region’s austere hermits and Buddhist heritage before Marco turns back toward Badashan, postponing his journey into India; the tone is curious and reflective.
68CHAPTER XXXII.
Marco Polo’s route climbs from Badashan through the dependent province of Vokhan to the stark, high Pamir plateau, where a lake feeds a river and lush pasture contrasts with the surrounding cold, empty wilderness. He then travels through the barren mountain country of Bolor, emphasizing the hardship of a journey without settlements or supplies; the chapter’s tone is austere and awed by the immense landscape.
69CHAPTER XXXIII.
The chapter describes Cascar (Kashgar), a once-independent kingdom now said to be under the Great Kaan: a trading region of gardens, vineyards, cotton, and distinct religious communities, including Nestorian Christians. The extensive commentary situates Kashgar along Central Asian routes, debates its political allegiance and Marco Polo’s journey there, and notes its later history as the seat of Ya’kúb Kúshbegi. Its tone is scholarly and geographical, turning a brief travel account into an inquiry into routes, borders, and historical claims.
70CHAPTER XXXIV.
In Samarcan, a contested stone becomes the center of a religious dispute: after the Saracen prince Sigatay dies, Saracens demand the stone they say was taken for a Christian church, and the Christians face the threat of the church collapsing if it is removed. On the appointed day, they find the stone gone but the unsupported column still standing, a wonder that leaves the Saracens without satisfaction and the Christians grateful; the narrator then resumes the journey.
71CHAPTER XXXV.
The narrator briefly describes Yarcan, a prosperous province whose Muslim majority lives alongside Nestorian and Jacobite Christians under the Great Kaan’s nephew. He notes its cotton, skilled craftspeople, and widespread goitre, then the later editorial notes expand on the disease and its suspected connection to the region’s water. The chapter is factual and compact, with no personal character development or change of setting beyond the survey of Yarcan.
72CHAPTER XXXVI.
Marco Polo describes Cotan, an eight-day-long province under the Great Kaan, whose Muslim inhabitants live chiefly by commerce and manufacture rather than warfare. Its capital is prosperous, with abundant cotton, crops, vineyards, and gardens; the extensive historical notes broaden the portrait by tracing Khotan’s shifting religious and political past and its rich agricultural and archaeological heritage.
73CHAPTER XXXVII.
Marco Polo describes Pein, a prosperous province under the Great Kaan, noting its trade, cotton, and rivers yielding jasper and chalcedony, as well as its unusual marriage custom for spouses separated on long journeys. The chapter then places Pein within Great Turkey; extensive commentary debates its location and identification with Pima or Kiria, and explains the region’s jade trade and shifting desert sands. The tone is measured and geographical, enriched by scholarly uncertainty about the landscape and its history.
74CHAPTER XXXIX.
Marco Polo’s account moves from Charchan’s bitter waters and shifting sands to Lop, a town where travelers rest and provision themselves before entering the vast desert. The crossing is depicted as a month-long ordeal of scarce water, trackless dunes, and eerie voices and sounds said to lure stragglers astray; the chapter’s notes widen this travel narrative into a scholarly debate over the region’s vanished settlements, shifting lakes, ancient routes, and desert legends.
75CHAPTER XL.
After crossing the desert, Marco Polo reaches Sachiu in Tangut, a diverse province under the Great Kaan, and describes the local Buddhist customs surrounding worship, sacrifice, and death. He recounts how families honor idols with food and preserve the dead until astrologers choose a suitable day for cremation, while offerings and paper figures are burned for the deceased’s afterlife. The chapter’s detached, ethnographic tone gives way at its close to the promise of a new destination beyond the desert.
76CHAPTER XLI.
Marco Polo describes Camul, an oasis province between two deserts, whose people are said to live abundantly and cheerfully—and to honor a custom of offering their wives’ company to visiting strangers. When Kaan Mangu forbids the practice, the people blame their ensuing misfortunes on its suppression and petition to restore it; he relents, and they resume their ancestral custom. The chapter’s tone is detached and anecdotal, ending with a transition to another province under the Great Kaan.
77CHAPTER XLII.
Marco Polo describes Chingintalas, a remote province on the edge of the desert, noted for its many settlements and deposits of steel, ondanique, and the mineral used to make fireproof cloth. Drawing on his Turkish acquaintance Zurficar’s account, he explains how the mineral is mined, processed into fibres, woven into napkins, and whitened by fire—replacing the mythical fireproof salamander with a practical explanation. The chapter’s tone is curious and matter-of-fact, before Polo leaves the digression and resumes his journey eastward.
78CHAPTER XLIII.
After a ten-day journey through nearly uninhabited country, the narrator reaches Sukchur, a populated province in Tangut whose people are subject to the Great Kaan. The account turns from travel to the region’s defining features: abundant mountain rhubarb, agriculture, and a poisonous plant that threatens unfamiliar cattle. Its tone is measured and observational, presenting Sukchur as a healthy, productive place shaped by both its landscape and its hazards.
79CHAPTER XLIV.
Marco Polo describes Campichu, the prosperous capital of Tangut, with its diverse religious communities and monumental, gold-covered idols, including a colossal figure lying at length. He recounts the customs of the city’s Buddhist recluses and inhabitants, then notes that he and Maffeo Polo spent a year there on a mission before setting out toward provinces farther north. The tone is measured and inquisitive, blending travel description with observations on unfamiliar faiths and social practices.
80CHAPTER XLV.
After a twelve-day ride from Campichu, the travelers reach Etzina, a sparsely traded Tangut city where they must stock provisions before crossing a vast, uninhabited desert. The account shifts from settled life among herds and falcons to a stark wilderness of cold, pine groves, and wild asses, ending with the promise of a northern province beyond the forty-day crossing.
81CHAPTER XLVI.
The chapter introduces Caracoron, a city the Tartars first possessed beyond their homeland, then recounts how their growing numbers alarmed their overlord, Prester John, and how they fled across a desert to escape his control and stop paying tribute. The narrative’s restrained, chronicle-like tone gives way to an extensive historical commentary tracing the city’s location and disentangling the shifting legends that identified Prester John with Mongol, Central Asian, and Georgian rulers.
82CHAPTER XLVII.
The chapter recounts how Chinghis Kaan rises to power, unites the Tartars, and expands his rule by protecting conquered peoples and winning their loyalty. Confident in his growing strength, he asks Prester John for his daughter’s hand; the ruler angrily rejects him as a rebellious vassal, setting a tense, defiant tone. Scholarly notes qualify the account’s dates and marriage story, grounding its dramatic narrative in historical uncertainty.
83CHAPTER XLVIII.
After Prester John sends Chinghis Kaan an insulting message, Chinghis swears revenge and raises an immense army, warning his rival to prepare. Prester John dismisses the threat as a jest but marshals a vast, multinational force of his own. The chapter shifts to the broad, beautiful plain of Tanduc, where Chinghis camps eagerly awaiting battle, as both rulers move toward a clash charged with fury and confidence.
84CHAPTER XLIX.
Prester John marches with his forces to the plain of Tanduc, where his army camps opposite Chinghis Kaan’s, and both hosts pause before battle. Seeking an omen, Chinghis watches Christian astrologers use two split canes to represent the rival leaders; the cane named for Chinghis rises above Prester John’s, delighting him and earning the Christians his lasting respect. The chapter’s tone is less martial than portentous, with the accompanying notes placing the divination in a wider history of ritual practices and questioning the account’s battlefield geography.
85CHAPTER L.
After two days of rest, Chinghis Kaan defeats Prester John in a vast and bloody battle, killing him and gradually conquering his kingdom. The narrative then recounts Chinghis’s continued campaigns and his eventual death from an arrow wound, before turning toward the Tartars’ customs; the tone is brisk and elegiac, briefly pausing to acknowledge the uncertainty surrounding the historical details.
86CHAPTER LI.
Marco Polo names the rulers who followed Chinghis Kaan and presents Cublay Kaan as overwhelmingly powerful, lord of all the Tartars. He then describes the Mongol custom of carrying rulers to a shared burial mountain and killing people and horses encountered along the funeral route so they may serve the dead in the next world. Extensive editorial notes challenge Polo’s succession and burial claims, weighing competing histories, traditions, and reports of Mongol funerary rites.
87CHAPTER LII.
The narrator describes the Tartars’ nomadic life, moving seasonally between warm plains and cool mountain pastures, carrying felt-covered homes and traveling wagons. He outlines their food, work, marital customs, and household order, presenting a society organized around mobility, herding, hunting, and polygamous marriage; the tone is informative and matter-of-fact.
88CHAPTER LIII.
The chapter describes the religious practices of the Tartars, who honor both a supreme god of Heaven and Natigay, a household earth god whose felt family receives offerings of food. It also notes their fermented mare’s-milk drink, kumiz, and the wealthy’s silk, gold, and fur clothing. The tone is ethnographic and explanatory, with extensive commentary tracing the customs’ Shamanist roots and the drink’s preparation and reputation.
89CHAPTER LIV.
The chapter describes the Tartars’ military prowess: their archery and endurance, the disciplined hierarchy of their armies, their austere provisions, and their feigned retreats that turn pursuit into defeat. Its tone is admiring but wary, presenting a people whose strength lies in discipline and adaptability before noting that settled Tartars have adopted the customs of the peoples around them.
90CHAPTER LV.
Marco Polo describes Tartar justice, from graded beatings and severe penalties for major theft to the branding of livestock that roam the plains without keepers. He then recounts the solemn custom of arranging marriages between unmarried children who have died, with contracts and dowries burned so the dead may receive them in the next world. After completing this account of Tartar customs, he turns back toward the larger story of the Grand Kaan and the plain where his tale had paused; the tone is observational, at once matter-of-fact and touched by the strangeness of the customs described.
91CHAPTER LVI.
Marco Polo describes the remote Plain of Bargu, where the Mescript live by herding reindeer, hunting flightless waterfowl, and fishing amid lakes and marshes. Beyond the plain, an icy northern coast and its islands supply peregrine and gerfalcon falcons for the Great Kaan; having reached the limits of land, Polo turns back toward Campichu. The chapter’s tone is exploratory and matter-of-fact, with the commentary underscoring how much of this distant geography rests on hearsay.
92CHAPTER LVIII.
Marco Polo’s account moves east from Erguiul to Sinju, describing the region’s peoples, trade, striking wildlife, musk, and unusually large pheasants. He then travels onward to Egrigaia, where the city of Calachan is known for Nestorian churches and fine camel-wool textiles, before setting out toward the former territory of Prester John. The chapter’s tone is measured and wonder-filled, presenting the journey as a sequence of cultural and natural marvels.
93CHAPTER LIX.
Marco Polo describes Tenduc, a prosperous province under the Great Kaan, ruled by King George, a Christian said to descend from Prester John. He surveys its mixed peoples, trades, and neighboring towns before continuing east toward Cathay; the tone is measured and geographical, with the accompanying notes complicating the account through debates over Tenduc’s location and the identity of its rulers.
94CHAPTER LX.
After three days’ travel, the narrative reaches Chagan Nor, where the Grand Kaan’s palace stands amid lakes, rivers, and game-rich plains that draw him for falconry. The chapter lingers over the region’s five kinds of cranes and the Kaan’s valley enclosures, where attendants keep great numbers of large partridges for his visits. Its tone is descriptive and admiring, presenting the landscape and its wildlife as part of the emperor’s cultivated pleasure.
95CHAPTER LXI.
Marco Polo describes Chandu, Kublai Khan’s summer retreat: its ornate marble palace, vast game-filled park, and ingenious gilded cane palace, where the Khan spends the cool months before departing in August. His account then turns to the court’s rituals and marvels—white-mare milk offered to spirits, weather-working enchanters, magical feats, and Buddhist and Taoist religious communities—shifting the chapter’s mood from admiration of imperial splendor to fascination with the strange and supernatural.
96CHAPTER I.
The narrator introduces Cublay Kaan as the reigning Great Kaan and declares him the most powerful ruler in history, promising to demonstrate the scale of his authority and greatness. An array of historical commentary and praise reinforces his formidable reputation, while the chapter’s tone is celebratory and emphatic rather than narrative.
97CHAPTER II.
The chapter presents Cublay Kaan as a powerful, legitimate ruler whose long reign has kept him largely away from the battlefield. His ambitious young vassal Nayan, commanding 300,000 horsemen, conspires with the rebellious prince Caidu to attack him from two sides; Caidu agrees and raises an army of 100,000. The tone is foreboding and political, as the account ends with Cublay learning of the plot, just before the conflict begins.
98CHAPTER III.
When Nayan’s rebellion reaches him, the Great Kaan prepares in secrecy and, confident in his authority, swiftly assembles an army—described as only a fraction of his vast power. After astrologers predict victory, he marches for twenty days and catches Nayan’s forces unprepared; Nayan himself is asleep beside a beloved wife when the Kaan arrives. The chapter’s tone is assured and dramatic, emphasizing the ruler’s reach, speed, and control, while an editorial note questions the scale of the army and adds context about the empire’s garrisons.
99CHAPTER IV.
The Great Kaan surprises Nayan’s unguarded camp and assembles his vast army on a hill above the plain, while Nayan hastily prepares his forces for battle. After both hosts sing and play until the great drums signal the charge, a brutal fight lasting from morning to noon ends in the Kaan’s victory: Nayan and his barons are captured, despite the cross on his banner. The chapter’s tone is grand and ferocious, framing the defeat as the consequence of Nayan’s rebellion against his liege lord.
100CHAPTER V.
After capturing Nayan, the Great Kaan orders his secret execution by suffocation in a carpet, sparing royal blood from being spilled on the ground; Nayan’s provinces then renew their allegiance. When religious groups mock Christians because Nayan’s cross-bearing banner did not save him, the Kaan publicly defends them, arguing that the Cross rightly withheld aid from a traitor, and the taunts cease. The chapter’s tone shifts from grim, restrained violence to a display of imperial authority and religious tolerance.
101CHAPTER VI.
After defeating Nayan, the Great Kaan returns to Cambaluc to rest and celebrate, while Caydu fears the same fate and prepares for war. The chapter then turns from military victory to Kúblái’s religious policy: an account of his respect for many faiths and conditional interest in Christianity gives way to the narrator’s view that he chiefly treated religion as a political instrument for governing and civilising his empire.
102CHAPTER VII.
After returning from battle, the Great Kaan rewards his captains according to their service, raising their ranks and granting them precious gifts and tablets of authority. The chapter explains how these tablets signify military command and delegated power, from officers’ badges to the highest honors, including ceremonial privileges and the right to requisition horses and supplies. Its tone is formal and admiring, presenting the Kaan’s empire as a carefully ordered hierarchy where loyalty and valor are rewarded with both status and authority.
103CHAPTER VIII.
Marco Polo describes Kublai Kaan’s appearance, his four empresses and their vast courts, and the system by which young women from the Ungrat tribe are selected to serve him in rotating groups. The chapter is less a dramatic narrative than a portrait of imperial hierarchy and courtly custom, with an observant, matter-of-fact tone; the accompanying notes broaden the account with historical debate and context.
104CHAPTER IX.
The chapter surveys Kublai Kaan’s many sons, emphasizing the military and governing prowess of his children and naming Temur, grandson of the Kaan, as the intended successor after his father Chinkin dies. Historical notes complicate Polo’s account with competing genealogies and details of Chinkin’s death, Temur’s selection, and the princes’ roles, giving the chapter a measured, scholarly tone.
105CHAPTER X.
Marco Polo describes the Great Kaan’s winter palace at Cambaluc: its immense, fortified compounds, armory-filled towers, richly adorned hall, private quarters, parks, lake, and carefully cultivated Green Mount. A matching palace across the lake is prepared for the emperor’s successor, underscoring the dynasty’s planned continuity. The chapter is less a sequence of events than a portrait of imperial power expressed through vastness, wealth, order, and a landscape fashioned for the ruler’s pleasure.
106CHAPTER XI.
Marco Polo describes Cambaluc, the old imperial city, and Taidu, the vast new capital built beside it after the Great Kaan’s astrologers warned that Cambaluc would rebel. He depicts Taidu’s immense earthen walls, gates and palaces, orderly chessboard streets, nighttime bell, and armed guards, presenting a city shaped by imperial power and meticulous design. The historical notes complicate his account with later evidence about Peking’s changing walls, gates, and landmarks, lending the chapter a measured, documentary tone.
107CHAPTER XII.
The chapter describes the Great Kaan’s 12,000 Keshican horse guards, divided into four companies that rotate palace duty in three-day shifts, sustaining a permanent watch. An extended scholarly commentary traces the term’s varied spellings and related traditions across Mongol, Persian, and other courts, turning the account into a measured inquiry into the guard’s name, organization, and history.
108CHAPTER XIII.
Marco Polo describes the Great Kaan’s lavish court feasts: a carefully ranked hall, a vast crowd beyond its doors, and gold vessels arranged around an ornate buffet. Strict etiquette governs guests and servants, while masked nobles serve the emperor amid music and ritual obeisance; after the meal, jugglers entertain the company. The chapter presents imperial power through spectacle, hierarchy, and abundance, with an atmosphere of disciplined grandeur and communal celebration.
109CHAPTER XIV.
Marco Polo describes the Great Kaan’s annual birthday feast, a lavish court celebration marked by matching gold-woven robes for the ruler and thousands of nobles, offerings from across his realm, and petitions from those seeking employment. People of many faiths gather in solemn prayers for the Kaan’s health and long life, presenting the feast as both a spectacle of imperial wealth and a display of allegiance. The chapter closes by turning toward the New Year’s White Feast.
110CHAPTER XV.
At the Great Kaan’s New Year feast, the Mongol court gathers in white, receives lavish gifts and an immense procession of elephants and camels, then performs formal acts of adoration before the Emperor’s tablet. The chapter traces the celebration from public spectacle to ordered ceremony and feasting, conveying the scale of imperial power and the reverent, auspicious mood of the occasion.
111CHAPTER XVI.
The chapter describes how the Great Kaan outfits 12,000 Keshican barons with thirteen lavish ceremonial robes, golden girdles, and embroidered boots, matching his own attire to theirs for each festival. It then recounts the startling spectacle of an unchained lion bowing before the Emperor, reinforcing the grandeur and near-mythic authority of his court.
112CHAPTER XVII.
During the three winter months when the Great Kaan resides in his capital, people across the surrounding region must hunt and send him most of their larger game and birds, transported in carts. Those living farther away send tanned hides for the emperor’s army, revealing the vast reach of the Kaan’s demands and the abundance of game around his domains.
113CHAPTER XVIII.
Marco Polo describes the Kaan’s menagerie of trained hunting animals: leopards and lynxes pursue game, great striped lions are carried to the hunt in covered carts, and powerful eagles seize wolves, deer, and other prey. The chapter’s tone is one of wonder at the scale and spectacle of imperial hunting, while the extensive notes place these practices in a wider history of animal training and clarify the creatures Polo describes.
114CHAPTER XIX.
Marco Polo describes the Kaan’s two brother barons, Baian and Mingan, who command vast, color-coded forces of huntsmen and mastiff handlers. Their coordinated sweep across the plains turns the imperial hunt into a spectacle of overwhelming scale, while their office also requires them to supply the court with daily game and fish through the winter. The chapter’s tone is chiefly admiring and descriptive, presenting the hunt as both grand entertainment and an instrument of imperial administration.
115CHAPTER XX.
Each March, the Emperor leaves Cambaluc for a grand hunting expedition, carried in a gilded chamber atop elephants and accompanied by thousands of falconers and watchers. At the vast, richly appointed camp of Cachar Modun, he and his court spend the spring hawking and hunting amid strict protections for game and an efficient system for recovering lost property. The chapter’s tone is admiring and abundant, presenting the expedition as a dazzling display of imperial power, organization, and leisure.
116CHAPTER XXI.
The chapter traces the Great Kaan’s yearly circuit: he divides his time among Cambaluc, the cooler Cane Palace at Chandu, and hunting expeditions toward the sea, punctuated by lavish feasts and brief returns to the capital. No personal transformation occurs; the account presents his ordered, pleasure-filled routine with a tone of wonder at its magnificence, while a concluding note adds historical detail about the court’s route to Shangtu.
117CHAPTER XXIII.
Cambaluc emerges as a vast, crowded center of trade, its thriving suburbs and constant influx of silk and foreign merchants underscoring the scale of the Kaan’s empire. The chapter then recounts Achmath’s years of corruption and abuse, the failed Cathayan conspiracy that kills him but is swiftly crushed, and the Kaan’s belated discovery of his minister’s crimes. The tone shifts from measured wonder at the city’s abundance to grim outrage at oppression and the fragile justice that follows.
118CHAPTER XXIV.
Marco Polo describes the Great Kaan’s paper currency: made from mulberry bark, authenticated with official signatures and a vermilion seal, and accepted throughout the empire under threat of death. Through state payments and regulated exchanges, the Kaan draws merchants’ precious metals and jewels into his treasury, presenting a system whose ingenuity and vast reach inspire awe. The chapter closes by turning from the mint to the emperor’s other dignitaries; the extended notes place Polo’s account within the broader history of paper money.
119CHAPTER XXV.
Marco Polo describes the Great Kaan’s twelve Barons, who govern affairs across thirty-four provinces from a palace in Cambaluc called the Shieng. They appoint provincial governors, direct military movements, and refer only the most important matters to the Emperor, while the chapter’s commentary compares conflicting historical accounts of the council and provincial system. The tone is administrative and analytical, presenting imperial power through an orderly but historically uncertain bureaucracy.
120CHAPTER XXVI.
Marco Polo describes the Great Kaan’s vast courier network: lavish relay stations stocked with horses, foot-runners who pass messages every three miles, and express riders who gallop day and night. Funded largely by nearby communities and supported by strict oversight, the system carries news across immense distances with astonishing speed. The chapter is an admiring portrait of imperial organization and scale, ending as Polo turns to the Kaan’s generosity toward his people.
121CHAPTER XXVII.
The Emperor sends officials to identify communities struck by famine, storms, locusts, or livestock disease, then remits their taxes and provides grain, seed, or replacement cattle. He also exempts property accidentally struck by his arrows from taxes or duties, treating the accident as divine displeasure. The chapter presents his rule as paternal and merciful, emphasizing his concern for ordinary people and their protection from exploitation.
122CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Great Kaan orders trees planted along the highways so travelers can find their way and take comfort from the shade, even across uninhabited regions. Where desert ground cannot sustain trees, he sets up pillars or stones as landmarks; the chapter presents these measures as practical care shaped by his belief that planting trees brings long life.
123CHAPTER XXIX.
The chapter describes Cathay’s rice wine, brewed from rice and spices, as clear, pleasing to the eye, and exceptionally potent. A lengthy scholarly note compares it with other celebrated wines and recounts traditions about the origins and preparation of intoxicating drinks in China; there is no plot or character development, and the tone is informative and antiquarian.
124CHAPTER XXX.
The chapter describes how people across Cathay mine and burn abundant black stones—coal—as a cheaper, longer-lasting fuel than wood, with the narrator noting that its use supports the country’s widespread bathing and domestic needs. Extensive commentary expands the account into a survey of China’s coalfields, mining methods, historical uses, and the immense economic power these resources may hold; the tone is informative and quietly awed.
125CHAPTER XXXI.
The chapter describes how the Great Kaan buys grain when it is plentiful, stores it carefully in granaries across his empire, and distributes it cheaply when shortages arise. This policy is presented as an expression of provident, compassionate rule, ensuring that his people need not suffer famine; the tone is practical and admiring, with the notes adding historical context and later criticism of public granaries.
126CHAPTER XXXII.
The narrator describes how the Great Kaan of Cambaluc aids the poor, supplying indigent families with grain and giving hot bread daily to tens of thousands, while also arranging clothing from taxed materials and labor. The account presents the emperor’s charity as a mark of compassion and authority, explaining that Buddhist sages encouraged the practice and that the poor come to revere him almost as a god. The appended note places this generosity within a broader history of Buddhist and Chinese charitable institutions.
127CHAPTER XXXIII.
In Cambaluc, thousands of astrologers from Christian, Saracen, and Cathayan communities study the heavens, publish yearly predictions, and advise people using the signs and circumstances of their birth. The chapter then turns to an antiquarian investigation of the great bronze instruments at Peking’s observatory, arguing that they were made under Kublai Khan and preserved from the Mongol era, not produced by later Jesuit astronomers. Its tone is learned and documentary, linking everyday belief in auspicious days to the history and limits of astronomical science.
128CHAPTER XXXIV.
Marco Polo describes the Cathayans’ household worship, beliefs about reincarnation, courteous manners, filial obligations, and the Great Kaan’s rules for crime, gambling, and courtly conduct. The chapter then shifts from travelogue to commentary: the editor questions and contextualizes Polo’s account, illustrating Chinese Buddhist devotion through stories of virtue, salvation, and moral consequence. Its tone moves from ethnographic curiosity to reflective respect for spiritual life and ethical conduct.

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