. It extended from Tyre through Damascus and
Palmyra[2] to the head of the Persian Gulf; this gradually fell into
disuse after the founding of Alexandria.

The general effects of this trade were very far-reaching. To the greater
number of the people of Europe, the countries of India, China, and Japan
were mythical. According to tradition they were infested with dragons
and gryphons, and peopled by dog-headed folk or by one-eyed Arimaspians.
About the first real information of them to be spread over Europe was
brought by Marco Polo, whose father and uncle had travelled all through
these countries during the latter part of the thirteenth century.[3]
Marco Polo's writings were very widely read, and influenced a great many
people who could not be reached through the ordinary channels of
commerce. So between the wars of the Crusades on the one hand, and the
growth of commerce on the other, a new and a better civilization began
to spread over Europe.

=The Turkish Invasions.=--But the magnificent trade that had thus grown up
was checked for a time by an unforeseen factor. The half-savage
Turkomans living southeast of Russia had become converted to the
religion of Islam, and in their zeal for the new belief, determined to
destroy the commerce which seemed to be connected with Christianity. So
they moved in upon the borderland between Europe and Asia, and one after
another the trade routes were tightly closed. Then they captured
Constantinople, and the routes between Genoa and the Orient were
hermetically sealed. Moslem power also spread over Syria and Egypt, and
so, little by little, the trade of Venice was throttled.

[Illustration: ROUTES TO INDIA--THE TURK CHANGES THE COMMERCE OF THE
WORLD]

Now a commerce that involved not only many millions of dollars, but the
employment of thousands of people as well, is not likely to be given up
without a struggle. So the energy that had been devoted to this great
trade was turned in a new direction, and there began a search for a new
route to India--one that the Turks could not blockade.

=The Search for an All-Water Route to India.=--Overland routes were out of
the question; there were none that could be made available, and so the
search was made for a sea-route. Rather singularly the Venetians and
Genoese, who had hitherto controlled this trade, took no part in the
search; it was conducted by the Spanish and the Portuguese.

The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Casti