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But Marco's curiosity was inherited; and no Venetian was ever averse to seeing strange lands and seeking out new opportunities for trade; so the Polos decided to go on and visit the Khan of central Asia or Chagatai, and perhaps make their way back to Constantinople by some unfrequented route.
The Tatars were riot good navigators, and the Polos at last obtained permission to escort the young princess on the rather perilous voyage.
The Polos were very cordially and gladly received by the potentate, then ruling over a territory so vast that it has been well said that, "In Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might bark without Mongol leave, from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia to the Amoor and the Yellow Sea."
The election of the pope was deferred two years, and the Polos became afraid least the great khan might be displeased at their delay. They went therefore back to Acre, carrying Marco along with them; and having gone to Jerusalem for the holy oil requested by Kublai, they received letters from the legate, testifying their fidelity to the great khan, and that a pope was not yet chosen.
They waited about for a couple of years till Gregory X. was elected, but he only meagrely responded to the Great Khan's demands, and instructed two Dominicans to accompany the Polos, who on this occasion took with them their young nephew Marco, a lad of seventeen. They started in November 1271, but soon lost the company of the Dominicans, who lost heart and went back.
It was difficult to find any one trustworthy enough to take charge of so important a person on so long and dangerous a journey. But Kublai Khan had faith in the Polos. They had traveled more than any one else he knew, and were cautious and brave. So he gave them permission to return to their home, and requested them to take the princess to Tabriz on the way.
They themselves had grown older, and their clothes differed from those worn by the Venetians; for fashions changed even in the thirteenth century, although not so often as they change at the present time. It is no wonder that the Polos were not known until they recalled themselves to the memory of their friends.
It was decided that the journey should be made by sea, as the land route was so beset by robbers as to be unsafe. Besides, the Polos were fine sailors. They started from the eastern coast of China, and continued their voyage for three years, around the peninsula of Cochin China, and through the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf.
This, together with the whole account of the first journey of the elder Polos, the circumstances of the second journey, and of their subsequent return occurs in the first chapter of Marco Polo's book, which is a general introduction, after which he proceeds to describe in order the lands through which he passed. This autobiographical section is unfortunately all too short.
For almost twenty years the Polos were attached to the court of Kublai Khan, the nephew, Marco, rising higher and higher in the graces of that ruler. Marco Polo was one of the well-known type of Italian adventurers who appeared at foreign courts, and, with the versatility of their race, made themselves useful, and indeed indispensable, to their masters.
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