done openly
to one of thy sovereigns. And he was thy guest, and had seated himself
at thy hearth.

To the end of all time the boys of France will talk and sing of the
fell hospitality of the _Bellerophon_, and when their songs of bitter
mockery are heard across the Channel the cheeks of all honorable
Britons will blush with shame. But a day will come when this song will
be wafted across the Straits, but not to Britain; the British nation
is humbled in the dust, the tombs of the abbey are in ruins, the royal
ashes they hold are forgotten; and St. Helena is the Holy Sepulcher to
which the peoples of the East and of the West make pilgrimages in
scarfed barks, and comfort their hearts with the great memories of the
savior of the world who suffered under Hudson Lowe, as it is written
in the gospels of Las Casas, of O'Meara, and of Autommarchi.

Strange, the three greatest adversaries of the Emperor have already
found an awful fate. Londonderry cut his throat; Louis XVIII rotted on
his throne; and Professor Sealfeld is still professor at Gottingen.

ITALY

1254-1803

MARCO POLO

Born in Venice in 1254, died in 1324; his father and uncle
mercantile men whom he accompanied in 1271, when seventeen
years of age, on a journey to Central Asia by way of Bagdad,
and thence to the court of Kublai Khan; in 1275 entered the
public service of Kublai Khan and was employed by him on
important missions; left China in 1292, returning to Venice
by way of India; at a battle between Venetians and Genoese,
1298, made a prisoner and confined for a year, during which
he dictated in the French language to a fellow captive his
book of travels; he and his father and uncle first-known
Europeans to visit China.

A DESCRIPTION OF JAPAN[24]

Zipangu is an island in the Eastern Ocean, situated at the distance of
about fifteen hundred miles[25] from the mainland, or coast of Manji.
It is of considerable size; its inhabitants have fair complexions, are
well made, and are civilized in their manners. Their religion is the
worship of idols. They are independent of every foreign power, and
governed only by their own kings. They have gold in the greatest
abundance, its sources being inexhaustible, but, as the king does not
allow of its being exported, few merchants visit the country, nor is
it frequented by much shipping from other parts. To this circumstance
we are to attrib