, when they were dismissed, having failed in their mission,
but having gained a good deal of information about the great Mongol
Empire and its somewhat mysterious ruler.

But while the kingdoms in Europe trembled before the growing expansion
of the Mongol Empire and the dangers of Tartar hordes, the merchants
of Venice rejoiced in the new markets which were opening for them in
the East.

CHAPTER XVII

MARCO POLO

Now Venice at this time was full of enterprising merchants--merchants
such as we hear of in Shakspere's _Merchant of Venice_. Among these
were two Venetians, the brothers Polo. Rumours had reached them of
the wealth of the mysterious land of Cathay, of the Great Khan, of
Europeans making their way, as we have seen, through barren
wildernesses, across burning deserts in the face of hardships
indescribable, to open up a highway to the Far East.

So off started Maffio and Niccolo Polo on a trading enterprise, and,
having crossed the Mediterranean, came "with a fair wind and the
blessing of God" to Constantinople, where they disposed of a large
quantity of their merchandise. Having made some money, they directed
their way to Bokhara, where they fell in with a Tartar nobleman, who
persuaded them to accompany him to the Court of the Great Khan himself.
Ready for adventure, they agreed, and he led them in a north-easterly
direction; now they were delayed by heavy snows, now by the swelling
of unbridged rivers, so that it was a year before they reached Pekin,
which they considered was the extremity of the East. They were
courteously received by the Great Khan, who questioned them closely
about their own land, to which they replied in the Tartar language
which they had learnt on the way.

Now since the days of Friar John there was a new Khan named Kublai,
who wished to send messengers to the Pope to beg him to send a hundred
wise men to teach the Chinese Christianity. He chose the Polo brothers
as his envoys to the Pope, and accordingly they started off to fulfil
his behests. After an absence of fifteen years they again reached
Venice. The very year they had left home Niccolo's wife had died, and
his boy, afterwards to become the famous traveller, Marco Polo, had
been born. The boy was now fifteen.

[Illustration: HOW THE BROTHERS POLO SET OUT FROM CONSTANTINOPLE WITH
THEIR NEPHEW MARCO FOR CHINA. From a miniature painting in the
fourteenth century _Livre des Merveilles_.]

The stories told by his fat