ollections of voyages and travels. The remainder of this
introduction is from the work of Mr J. R, Forster, extracted partly from
Ramusio, and partly consisting of an ingenious attempt to explain and
bolster up the more than dubious production of Marcolini: But these
observations are here considerably abridged; as an extended, grave, and
critical commentary on a narrative we believe fabulous, might appear
incongruous, though it did not seem proper to omit them altogether.--E.

The family of Zeno, in Venice, was very ancient, and not only of the
highest rank of nobility, but celebrated for the performance of great
actions, and the highest offices of the state had been filled from time
immemorial by persons of the family. About the year 1200, Marin Zeno
assisted in the conquest of Constantinople, and he was Podesta, or governor
of that city, about 1205. He had a son named Pietro Zeno, who was father to
Rinieri Zeno, who was elected doge, or Duke of Venice, in 1282, and
governed the republic for seventeen years, during which period he waged a
successful war against the Genoese. he adopted Andrea, the son of his
brother Marco, who was afterwards raised to be captain-general of the
Venetian fleet, in the war against Genoa. Rinieri Zeno, the son of Andrea,
was the father of Pietro Zeno, who, in 1362, was captain-general of the
Venetian squadron in the allied fleet of the Christians against the Turks,
and had the surname of Dracone, from the figure of a dragon which he wore
on his shield. Pietro had three sons; Carlo Leone, the eldest, who was
procurator and captain-general of the fleet: of the republic, and; rescued,
her from imminent danger in a war in which, almost all Europe was leagued
for her destruction; the second, Nicolo, called likewise il Cavaliere, or
the night, shewed great valour in the last mentioned war of _Chioggia_
against the Genoese; Antonio was the youngest.

Francesco Marcolini, a learned Italia, extracted the whole of the ensuing
relation from the original letters of the two Zenos, Nicole and Antonio,
which is published in the collection of Ramusio; and declares that Antonio
laid down all the particulars of these voyages, and of the countries he and
his brother had visited, on a map, which he brought with him to Venice, and
which he hung up in his house as a sure pledge and incontestible proofs of
the truth of his relations, and which still remained as an incontrovertible
evidence in the time of Marcolini