lead him by steering to the west to seek
a short cut to the Eldorado.
[Page 133]
How strange the occult connection of sublunary things! The Mongol
Kublai must be invoked to account for the discovery of America!
The same story kindled the fancy of Coleridge, in the following
exquisite fragment, which he says came to him in a vision of the
night:

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea."
--_Kubla Khan._

Still another Italian claims mention as having made some impression
on the court of Kublai. This was Corvino, a missionary sent by the
Pope; but of his church, his schools, and his convents, there were
left no more traces than of his predecessors, the Nestorians.

The glory of Kublai was not of long duration. The hardy tribes of
the north became enervated by the luxury and ease of their rich
patrimony. "Capua captured Hannibal." Nine of the founder's descendants
followed him, not one of whom displayed either vigour or statesmanship.

Their power ebbed more suddenly than it rose. Shun-ti, the last
of the house, took refuge behind the Great Wall from the rising
tide of Chinese patriotism; and after a tenure of ninety years,
or of two centuries of fluctuating dominion, reckoning from the
rise of Genghis Khan, the Yuen dynasty came to an untimely end.

The magnificent waterway, the Grand Canal, remains an imperishable
monument of the Mongol
[Page 134]
sway. As an "alimentary canal" it was needed for the support of
the armies that held the people in subjection; and the Mongols
only completed a work which other dynasties had undertaken. A
description of it from personal observation is given in Part I of
this work (page 31). It remains to be said that the construction
of the Canal, like that of the Great Wall, was a leading cause of
the downfall of its builders. Forced labour and aggravated taxation
gave birth to discontent; rebellion became rife, and the Mongols
were too effeminate to take active measures for its suppression.

[Page 135]
CHAPTER XXV

THE MING DYNASTY, 1368-1644 A. D.
(16 Emperors)

_Humble Origin of the Founder--Nanking and Peking as Capital--First
Arrival of European Ships--Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch
Traders--Arrival of Missionaries--Tragic End of the Last of the
Mings_

Humble as was the origin of the founder of the House of Han, spoken
of as _Pu-i_