EFFECT OF REVIVAL OF LEARNING.

91

and to expeditions to find out new and shorter routes to those distant lands.1

And there was no discovery which offered so magnificent a return, none which was sought for with so much intrepidity and eagerness, as a shorter way to that marvellous India, with its fabulous riches and strange peoples, which such travellers as Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville had visited and written of, but which, as yet, could only be reached by adventurous merchants through long and perilous journeys overland. The pursuit of this chimera, rendered possible by the fresh acquisitions of knowledge, and the wants of the age, was the crowning event which revealed a New World, whose existence had been held to be one of the curious fables of ancient philosophers.

1 See Robertson's History of America, book ii.

THE KINGDOM OF CATHAY.-EFFORTS IN EUROPE TO FIND A SEA-WAY TO INDIA. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR. BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. - HIS DESIGN OF A WESTERN VOYAGE TO INDIA.FAITH IN HIS DIVINE MISSION. THE THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHERS. HIS LIFE IN SPAIN. THE COUNCIL AT SALAMANCA.- HIS FIRST VOYAGE. HIS BELIEF THAT HE HAS DISCOVERED INDIA. THE DELUSION OF HIS LIFE. HIS BRIEF HONOR AND FINAL DISGRACE.

IN the far East had reigned for centuries a line of mighty monarchs of the race of Kublai Khan. Among many provinces owing them

THE CITY OF QUINSAI.

93

The province

in India.

allegiance was that of Mangi, bordering on the sea. In this province alone, Marco Polo said, there were twelve thousand cities, all within a few days' travel of each other. Quinsai, whose circuit was a hundred miles, was only one of a hundred and forty cities of Mangi standing in such contiguity that they seemed but one. A permanent garrison of thirty thousand soldiers guarded Quinsai alone; a police force of some hundreds of thousands of men was always on duty to preserve its domestic peace and order. Spanning its many streets were twelve thousand noble bridges, some of them so lofty that ships could sail beneath without interruption to the passage of the multitudes that were continually crossing them, to and fro. Its principal street, forty paces in width, bridged in many places by these works of beautiful architecture, extended from one side of the city to the other in a straight line. At intervals of every four miles on this magnificent avenue of thirty-three miles were market-places, each two miles in compass; behind them ran a canal, on the banks of which were great stone warehouses always filled with precious merchandise. In these spacious marts from forty to fifty thousand people met three days in the week to trade, thronging through the streets that radiated in every direction. These thoroughfares were all of great width and length, and paved with stone, as indeed were all the highways, in city and country, of the province of Mangi.

City of

The sewerage of Quinsai was more perfect than that of any modern. city, for the waters of a river, that bounded it on one side, were led through the streets and washed completely away Quinsai. all filth and waste matter to a lake on the other side, whence they were carried out to sea. Besides this system of thorough drainage, for the preservation of the public health, there were free baths of hot and cold water, with attendants, male and female, for daily bathing was the habit of this luxurious people from earliest childhood; and for the sick and feeble the hospitals were "exceeding many," where all were taken care of who were not able to work. A trained fire-department was in constant readiness to protect the city from conflagrations, and at a fixed hour of the night the putting out of domestic lights and fires was enforced by severe penalties, as a safeguard against accident. All the inhabitants were required to be within their houses at a certain time, and from every guard-house and on every bridge each hour of the day and night was struck on great resounding basons or gongs.

The marble palace of the king, with its arcades and corridors, its terraces and courts, its lakes and groves and gardens, filled a circuit of ten miles; its wide expanse of roof, profusely wrought in gold, rested upon hundreds of pillars of pure gold cunningly adorned in arabesque

of azure, to heighten the native richness of the yellow metal. Here on holydays, sacred to their gods, were feasts of ten and twelve days' continuance, with guests ten thousand at a time.

The annual revenue of the king from salt alone, from Quinsai and its associated cities, comprising only one ninth of Mangi, was six million, four hundred thousand ducats; from other products, sixteen million eight hundred thousand more. The population of this one of the one hundred and forty contiguous cities was one million and six huudred thousand families; they consumed daily nine thousand four hundred and sixty pounds of pepper, and "hence," says Polo, "may be guessed the quantity of victuals, flesh, wine, and spices were there spent." So wealthy and prosperous and luxurious were these people, that a part of every day was given up to pleasure in boats and barges fitted up for banquets on the lake; in driving about the long and beautiful streets in chariots lined with cushions and cloths of silk; in feasting in palaces gorgeously furnished and kept for public use; in loitering in public gardens, or resting in inviting bowers scattered through them at convenient distances. And this city, "for the excellency thereof," said Marco Polo, "hath the name of the city of Heaven; for in the world there is not the like, or a place in which are found so many pleasures, that a man would think he were in Paradise."

Of all the provinces of the East, Mangi was the richest, as it was also the most accessible from the sea. But all the kingdoms, both of Mangi and Cathay, teemed with people, abounded in precious commodities of nature and of art, and their cities, villages, fortresses, and palaces were tens upon tens of thousands. Armenia the Greater was, like Mangi and Cathay, tributary to the great Khan. There also were many opulent communities; out of its soil sprang wholesome hot waters for the curing of all diseases; on the top of one of its mountains Noah's Ark still rested. At the city of Cambalu, on the northeast of Cathay, where the Khan resided for three winter months, his palace was of marble with a roof of gold, so blazoned in many colors that nothing but gold and imagery met the eye. It stood in the centre of the city, which was a succession of courts from one to six miles in width, each surrounded with a wall, the outer wall of all extending eight miles on each side of a square. In one of these courts stood always a guard of ten thousand soldiers; in the imperial stables near by were five thousand elephants.

Magnificence

From Cambalu radiated roads to the most distant boundof the Great aries of the empire; at every twenty-five or thirty miles on these highways were post-houses, wherein were many chambers fit to lodge a king, and relays of horses were kept always in readi

Khan.

THE GREAT KHAN.

95 ness for the use of the royal messengers. Of these post-houses there were about ten thousand in the whole empire, and the number of horses kept in them exceeded two hundred thousand. Between these houses, at intervals of three or four miles, were other stations where runners swift of foot always stood ready to carry letters on the king's business, having at their girdles little bells, the ringing whereof gave notice of their coming, and as they met, the letters were handed from one to another and thus hurried forward without a moment's delay. The bridges on these roads, over the many rivers and canals which watered this wonderful country, were noble works of art, built sometimes of polished serpentine, sometimes of beautiful marbles, stately with many columns, ornamented with great stone lions and other sculptures, curiously and beautifully wrought.

In another city, Ciandu, the Khan made his residence for three of the summer months, and there also was "a marvellous palace of marble and other stones," in an enclosure of sixteen miles. So large was the banquet-hall of this royal residence, that the Khan's table in the centre was eighty yards high. Here the royal stud was a herd of white horses and mares to the number of ten thousand, which were in a manner sacred; for none dared to go before or to hinder these animals wherever they went, and none were allowed to drink of the milk of the mares except they were of the imperial blood.

The Khan's army was almost like the sands of the sea for numbers, and so magnificent was the state of its many generals that they sat in chairs of solid silver. The royal fleet was fifteen thousand sail, and each vessel carried fifteen horses and twenty men, or two hundred and twenty-five thousand horses and three hundred thousand men for the fleet. But the merchant marine far exceeded this, for in a single port Polo saw five thousand ships engaged in trade, and there were many cities that numbered still more.

In one province a mountain of turquoises pierced the clouds; in a valley of another nestled a lake where pearls were so plentiful that had there been freedom to gather them, pearls would have been so common as to be of little worth. There were many mines of silver, many rivers whose beds were spangled with gold. The beasts and birds were various and wonderful: serpents with two little feet near their heads, with claws like lions, with eyes bigger than a loaf; hens that had no feathers, but were covered with hair; birds of gorgeous plumage; oxen as large as elephants, with manes as fine as silk; game of all kinds, which the Khan hunted with hawks and with leopards seated on the backs of horses, whence they sprang at the prey. Spices grew everywhere; and of fruit there were nuts as large as a child's head, filled with a delicious milk, pears that weighed ten