Marco, a celebrated traveller, was the son of a Venetian merchant, and was born about 1250, at a time when his father was absent in the East. He was approaching the age of manhood when his parent, Niccolo Polo, and his uncle, Maffio Polo, returned to Venice in 1269 with a long account of their many travels and adventures. They had repaired, in pursuit of commerce, to Bolgar, on the Volga, the seat of the khan of the Western Tartars. A fierce war in the neighbourhood had cut off their return, and had left them no alternative but to travel round the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, and take refuge in Bokhara. After residing there for three years, they had been persuaded, in 1264, by a Persian ambassador to accompany him to Kemenfu in Chinese Tartary, the court of Kublai, the grand khan. Taking their lives in their hands, they had passed through severe snow-storms and over flooded rivers to their destination, a place that had never been visited before by any European. The great potentate had received them with condescension and affability, had shown a deep interest in the institutions of the western nations, and had sent them back to Europe on an embassy to the Pope. The brothers Polo now resolved to take young Marco with them on their return. Accordingly, in 1272, the three set out from Acre, bearing letters and presents from the newly-elected supreme pontiff, Gregory X. A journey of three years and a half, over toilsome deserts and through dangerous defiles, brought them to Tai-yuen-foo, the city where the grand khan was then holding his court. They were welcomed with the most distinguished honours, and were immediately raised to places of dignity and trust. Marco soon found himself in the most favourable circumstances for obtaining correct and extensive information regarding the land of his sojourn. The natives, gratified with the easy manner in which he assumed their language and manners, admitted him into their society, and treated him as one of themselves. The khan himself was constantly sending him on confidential missions to the most distant parts of the empire. The government of the city of Yang-tchou-foo was even entrusted to him for the space of three years. At the same time, he was encouraged by his sovereign employer to take notes of everything that seemed rare or remarkable. Marco Polo had been employed in this manner for seventeen years, when he and his companions set their minds upon returning home. Kublai was at first unwilling to gratify their request. A circumstance, however, soon occurred which compelled him to yield. A Persian embassy, who were charged with conducting home a bride to their native prince from the court of the khan, found that they could not proceed by land, on account of the prevalence of hostilities along their route. At the same time, it was evident that they could not journey by sea, except under the guidance of those who were more skilful in navigation than the natives. There was therefore no resource but to allow the three Europeans to depart, in order that they might pilot the ambassadors as far as the Persian Gulf. Accordingly, in 1295, after an absence of twenty-four years, they arrived in Venice, complete foreigners in dress, appearance, and language, and without a single home-bred feature to recall them to the remembrance even of their nearest relations. Marco Polo, however, during the rest of his life, was treated with great honour and respect by all classes of people. Many of his fellow-citizens repaired to his house to drink in his wonderful stories about the grand khan and the far-distant Cathay. Still more went to pay court to the priceless wealth which he had brought home with him, and to bask in the delicious atmosphere of luxury which he had spread around him. No less consideration was paid to him when he had been taken prisoner in a sea-fight, and consigned to a prison in Genoa. It soon became fashionable among the Genoese to visit the cell of the far-travelled Venetian. So often was he called upon to tell his adventures that he grew tired, and resolved to recount them once for all in a written narrative. Rusticien de Pise, a well-known medieval writer, was employed to put the facts into a legible form; and in 1298 the manuscript was circulated, to the great delight and satisfaction of the traveller's numerous admirers. At length, after a lapse of four years, the public interest in his welfare became so great that he was released, and sent home to his native Venice to live to a good old age.

During the three centuries after Marco Polo's death, his narrative continued to be very popular in different coun- tries. In fact the translations into various languages be- came so numerous that there is a difficulty of determining what tongue is the original, and what text is the most cor- rect. Yet it seems to be ascertained that the original language was French, and that the best edition is that in Italian, by Count Baldelli, in 4 vols. 4to, Florence, 1827. The latest English translation of the Travels of Marco Polo is that of Marsden, edited by Thomas Wright, Esq., and published in Bohn's "Antiquarian Library," London, 1854.