vember 1271, but soon lost the company of the Dominicans,
who lost heart and went back.

They went first to Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, then
struck northward through Khorasan Balkh to the Oxus, and thence
on to the Plateau of Pomir. Thence they passed the Great Desert
of Gobi, and at last reached Kublai in May 1275, at his summer
residence in Kaipingfu. Notwithstanding that they had not carried
out his request, the Khan received them in a friendly manner, and
was especially taken by Marco, whom he took into his own service;
and quite recently a record has been found in the Chinese annals,
stating that in the year 1277 a certain Polo was nominated a
Second-Class Commissioner of the PrivyCouncil. His duty was to
travel on various missions to Eastern Tibet, to Cochin China, and
even to India. The Polos amassed much wealth owing to the Khan's
favour, but found him very unwilling to let them return to Europe.
Marco Polo held several important posts; for three years he was
Governor of the great city of Yanchau, and it seemed likely that
he would die in the service of Kublai Khan.

But, owing to a fortunate chance, they were at last enabled to get
back to Europe. The Khan of Persia desired to marry a princess of
the Great Khan's family, to whom he was related, and as the young
lady upon whom the choice fell could not be expected to undergo
the hardships of the overland journey from China to Persia, it was
decided to send her by sea round the coast of Asia. The Tatars
were riot good navigators, and the Polos at last obtained permission
to escort the young princess on the rather perilous voyage. They
started in 1292, from Zayton, a port in Fokien, and after a voyage
of over two years round the South coast of Asia, successfully carried
the lady to her destined home, though she ultimately had to marry
the son instead of the father, who had died in the interim. They
took leave of her, and travelled through Persia to their own place,
which they reached in 1295. When they arrived at the ancestral
mansion of the Polos, in their coarse dress of Tatar cut, their
relatives for some time refused to believe that they were really
the long-lost merchants. But the Polos invited them to a banquet,
in which they dressed themselves all in their best, and put on new
suits for every course, giving the clothes they had taken off to
the servants. At the conclusion of the banquet they brought forth
the shabby dresses in which they had