Among the most celebrated travellers of the middle ages, was Marco Polo:
he, his father, and uncle, after trading for some time in many of the
commercial and opulent cities of Lesser Asia, reached the more eastern
parts of that continent, as far as the court of the great khan, on the
borders of China. For 26 years they were either engaged in mercantile
transactions, or employed in negociations with the neighbouring states by
the khan; they were thus enabled to see much, and to collect much important
information, the result of which was drawn up by Marco Polo. He was the
first European who reached China, India beyond the Ganges, and the greater
number of the islands in the Indian Ocean. He describes Japan from the
accounts of others: notices great and little Java, supposed to be Borneo
and Sumatra; and is the first who mentions Bengal and Guzerat by their
present names, as great and opulent kingdoms. On the east coast of Africa,
his knowledge did not reach beyond Zanguebar, and the port of Madagascar
opposite to it: he first made known this island to Europe. Such is a sketch
of the countries described by Marco Polo; from which it will easily be
perceived, how much he added to the geographical knowledge of Asia
possessed at that period.
The information he gives respecting the commerce of the countries he either
visited himself, or describes from the reports of others, is equally
important.
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