ificent manner and
costly presents were given to all.

At last the Venetians left their friends, went to the Black Sea
and took ship for Venice.

They had been away so long and were so much changed in appearance
that none of their relations and old friends knew them when they
arrived in Venice. As they were dressed in Tatar costume and sometimes
spoke the Chinese language to one another, they found it hard to
convince people that they were members of the Polo family.

At length, on order to show that they were the men that they declared
themselves to be, they gave a dinner to all their relations and old
friends. When the guests arrived they were greeted by the travelers,
arrayed in gorgeous Chinese robes of crimson satin. After the first
course they appeared in crimson damask; after the second, they
changed their costumes to crimson velvet; while at the end of the
dinner they appeared in the usual garb of wealthy Venetians.

"Now, my friends," said Marco, "I will show you something that
will please you." He then brought into the room the rough Tatar
coats which he and his father and uncle had worn when they reached
Venice. Cutting open the seams, he took from inside the lining
packets filled with rubies, emeralds and diamonds. It was the finest
collection of jewels ever seen in Venice.

The guests were now persuaded that their hosts were indeed what
they claimed to be.

II

Eight hundred years before Marco Polo's birth, some of the people
of North Italy had fled before the Attila to the muddy islands of
the Adriatic and founded Venice upon them. Since then the little
settlement had become the most wealthy and powerful city of Europe.
Venice was the queen of the Adriatic and her merchants were princes.
They had vessels to bring the costly wares of the East to their
wharves; they had warships to protect their rich cargoes from the
pirates of the Mediterranean; they carried on wars. At the time
when Marco Polo returned from Cathay they were at war with Gen'o-a.

The two cities were fighting for the trade of the world. In a great
naval battle the Venetians were completely defeated. Marco Polo
was in the battle and with many of his countrymen was captured
by the enemy. For a year he was confined in a Genoese prison. One
of his fellow-prisoners was a skillful penman and Marco dictated
to him an account of his experiences in China, Japan, and other
Eastern countries. This account was carefully written out. Copies
o