torms or contrary winds, or other
unforeseen accident.

"'Moreover, to give you full information of all those places
which you are very desirous to know about, you must
understand that none but traders live and reside in all
those islands, and that there is as great a number of ships
and seafaring people, with merchandise, as in any other part
of the world, particularly in a most noble port called
Zaitun, where there are every year a hundred large ships of
pepper loaded and unloaded, besides many other ships that
take in other spices. This country is mighty populous, and
there are many provinces and kingdoms, and innumerable
cities, under the dominion of _a prince called the Grand
Khan_, which name signifies king of kings, who for the most
part resides in the province of Cathay. His predecessors
were very desirous to have commerce and be in amity with
Christians, and two hundred years since sent ambassadors to
the Pope, desiring him to send them many learned men and
doctors, to teach them our faith; but by reason of some
obstacles the ambassadors met with they returned back,
without coming to Rome. Besides, there came an ambassador to
Pope Eugenius IV., who told him of the great friendship
there was between those princes and their people, and the
Christians. _I discoursed with him a long while_ upon the
several matters of the grandeur of their royal structures,
and of the greatness, length, and breadth of their rivers,
and he told me many wonderful things of the multitude of
towns and cities along the banks of the rivers, upon a
single one of which there were two hundred cities, with
marble bridges of great length and breadth, adorned with
numerous pillars.

"'This country deserves as well as any other to be
discovered; and there may not only be great profit made
there, and many things of value found, but also gold,
silver, many sorts of precious stones, and spices in
abundance, which are not brought into our ports. And it is
certain that many wise men, philosophers, astrologers, and
other persons skilled in all arts and very ingenious, govern
that mighty province and command their armies. From Lisbon
directly westward there are in the chart twenty-six spaces,
each of which contains two hundred and fifty miles, to the