te and gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about
Cathay and the Great Can, all which he answered with such kindly
courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his debtor." But when
he talked of the Great Khan's immense wealth, and of other treasures
accumulated in Eastern lands, he continually spoke of millions and
millions, and therefore he was nicknamed by his countrymen Messer Marco
Millioni.

At that time, and for long afterwards, great envy and jealousy raged
between the three great commercial republics, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
In the year 1298 the Genoese equipped a mighty fleet which ravaged the
Venetian territory on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Here it
was met by the Venetian fleet, in which Marco Polo commanded a galley.
After a hot fight the Genoese gained the victory, and with 7000
prisoners sailed home to Genoa, where they made a grand procession
through the city amidst the jubilation of the people. The prisoners were
put in chains and cast into prison, and among them was Marco Polo.

In the prison Marco had a companion in misfortune, the author Rusticiano
from Pisa. It was he who recorded Marco Polo's remarkable adventures in
Asia from his dictation, and therefore there is cause of satisfaction at
the result of the battle, for otherwise the name of Marco Polo might
perhaps have been unknown to posterity.

After a year prisoners were exchanged and Marco Polo returned to Venice,
where he married and had three daughters. In the year 1324 he died, and
was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice.

On his deathbed he was admonished to retract his extraordinary
narrative. No reliance was placed on his words, and even at the
beginning of the eighteenth century there were learned men who
maintained that his whole story was an excellently planned romance. The
narrative taken down in prison was, however, distributed in an
innumerable number of manuscript copies. The great Christopher Columbus,
discoverer of America, found in it a support to his conviction that by
sailing west a man would at length come to India.

There are many curious statements in Marco Polo's book. He speaks of the
"Land of Darkness" in the north, and of islands in the northern sea
which lie so far north that if a man travels thither he leaves the
pole-star behind him. We miss also much that we should expect to find.
Thus, for example, Marco Polo does not once mention the Great Wall,
though he must have passe