Marco Polo: An Inspiration to Christopher Columbus and the Age of Discovery by: Pearl L. Sensenig ". . . and when one is set out from the city of Ciagannor which I have named to you above and one goes riding three days journeys then one finds a city which is called Ciandu, which the great Khan, who is now and reigns and who has the name Cublai Khan, who is spoken of in this book, made them there make. . ." --Marco Polo, Travels Thus Marco Polo gave Europe of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a glimpse into the world of the Far East, an alien world dominated by a colorful ruler whose power extended from Indonesia to Siberia, from the interior of Asia to Burma, and from Novgorod in Russia to the eastern coasts of China. With his vivid descriptions of all that he saw, from the Khan's gilded and lacquered palace to the flourishing marketplaces filled with exotic goods from faraway ports, Marco Polo captivated his readers and supplied them with the stuff of dreams. Marco Polo's manuscript became one of the most popular texts of the medieval period, instrumental in exciting the imagination--and lust--of nations, and inspiring explorers who used this account as a guidebook for their travels. One of his most ardent believers was Christopher Columbus himself. The thirteenth century was a time of remarkable economic prosperity for Europe. One important feature of this expansion was the growing demand for luxury goods such as spices and silk sparking an interest among the merchants of the day in exotic trade. Historian Richard Humble comments that "the energy and ebullience" of thirteenth century Europeans was never more clearly shown than by the speed in which shrewd and far-sighted European entrepreneurs, especially the Venetians, adjusted their attitude towards the awe-inspiring new power (the Tartar reign, referred to also as the Mongol reign or the Yuan Dynasty) which was rumored to have towered up in the East (Marco Polo 9). Merchants knew fortunes awaited those who made contact with the Tartar overlords. The first Venetian merchants to go to the Far East in search of that fortune were the brothers Niccolo and Maffeo Polo. The Polos went to the court of Barka Khan to extract a trading concession within the Khan territory. They traded for 12 months and then, after being cut off from the West by continuing battles between the western khanates, accepted an invitation to visit the court of Kubilai Khan in Cathay. As the first Europeans to visit the great capital of the Tartar Empire (what is now modern day Beijing), the Polos mar- velled at the layout of the city, with its chessboard pattern of streets surrounding the walled Imperial Palace at its core. When the brothers were brought before the Great Khan, they found him to be a handsome man of medium height, strong, thick-set, and intelligent. He was dressed in a robe so stiff with golden embroidery on colored silk that he appeared to be dressed in cloth of gold according to writers Forman and Burland (81). The Khan welcomed them with lavish hospitality and plied them with questions about the West. The Polos stayed in Kubilai's court for a year, answering his questions about the rulers of Europe and the Christian religion. Kubilai Khan became sufficiently intrigued by Christianity to dispatch them back to Europe with a request to the Pope for 100 doctors of divinity to teach him and his people about this strange religion. In addition the Khan, who was a great collector of religious relics of all kinds, asked them to bring back a sample of holy oil from Jerusalem. When the Polos arrived back in Europe they found that Pope Gregory had died and the religious situation was in a disarray. Finally after numerous arrangements for acquiring religious instructors fell through, the brothers concluded they had no choice but to return to Cathay and explain their failure to the Khan. However, according to researcher Richard Humble, they were able to obtain the holy oil he had requested, a feat which much impressed the Khan and deepened his trust in them (Marco Polo 111). But before the Polo brothers left Venice they made a fateful decision. They decided to take with them Niccolo Polo's fifteen year old son, Marco Polo. Marco Polo later recorded the details of their trip in a book entitled Travels, including in it a prologue telling about his father and uncle's first trip. According to historian Richard Humble, Marco Polo was to spend 26 years in the East, 17 of those working as a surveyer of potential markets for Kubilai Khan himself (The Explorers 23-26). Throughout Travels, Marco Polo's mercantile influence is revealed and takes the lead. The book is not structured as a blow by blow itinerary, but rather as a collection of descrip- tions of the cities which he visited. Marco Polo notes the main exports of each region, giving a clear picture of prosperous communities with busy marketplaces. In Caindu, he notices that musk deer, valued for their scent, were in abundance, as well as ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. In Kalachan, camel-hair cloth was being sold. In Tenduc, lapis was available. Everyday over a thousand cart-loads of silk entered Khanbalig. Marco Polo describes the province of Fu-chow in the following way: The province has villages and towns in plenty. Silk is produced here in abundance and the silken fabrics and cloth-of-gold woven here are the finest ever seen. There are also the best goshawks in the world. There are ample supplies of everything, and commerce and industry flourish. And Marco Polo continues his description: In a city called Tinju they make bowls of porcelain, large and small, of incomparable beauty. They are made nowhere else except in this city, and from here they are exported all over the world. In the city itself they are so plenti- ful and cheap that for a Venetian goat you might buy three bowls of such beauty that nothing lovelier could be imagined . . . (from Travels) Because of his position in the Khan's court, Marco Polo had access to official documents. He notes that in Hangchow, 43 cartloads of pepper, each cartload consisting of 223 pounds, were consumed daily by the populace. Marco reported also on the heavy taxes imposed by the Khan. In Hangchow, there was a 33% duty imposed upon locally produced salt and all spices. On imports from distant countries, on rice, wine, fuel, silk and manufac- tured items there was a 10% duty. Upon one occasion when Marco was sent to inspect the customs and revenues of the area, he found dues amounting to millions of gold coins, according to writers Forman and Burland (131). In Travels Marco notes other magnificent wonders that he encountered as he traveled around the empire. In Burma, he saw one pagoda covered entirely with gold and another one covered in silver. Marco Polo mentions the province of Maarbar, across the strait from Ceylon, and describes the process of pearl fishing, alluding to the fact that he involved himself in some private business arrangements as well as completing an assessment for the Khan. Although there is no evidence of personal involvement between Marco and the young women of the Far East, he did supply some details about the females he met there. He was especially enthusiastic about the Cathayan girls saying that they, "exel in modesty and the strict observance of decorum" and do not "frisk or flirt and dance or sulk" as quoted by Humble in Marco Polo (160). Eventually, the Polos made their way back to Europe, although the return trip involved doing one last errand for the Khan. Their task was to escort a Mongol princess to Persia to marry a prince there, a job that they completed successfully. The Khan also gave the Polos letters to deliver to the Pope and to the kings of Europe, including King Edward of England and King Louis of France. Marco, Niccolo, and Maffeo Polo returned to Venice in 1295. Initially their Tartar clothing caused them to be turned away as tramps. However, as legend would have it, when they ripped open the seams of their robes and streams of jewels fell to the ground, people were ready to listen to their stories. Within a few years of the Polos' return to Europe the Central Asia land routes that they had followed became inaccess- ible due to Turkish and Moslem advances. European trade had to be channeled through middle men such as Arab, Turkish, and Persian merchants who held monopolies on Asian markets. Meanwhile, the great Khan empire that Marco had known in Cathay didn't remain static either. Eighty years after Polo left Cathay, the Yuan Empire fell, ending the Tartar reign. Native Chinese rule was restored to Cathay by the ethnic Han people through the Ming Dynasty, a fact unknown to Europe until 200 years later. Upon his return to Venice, Marco Polo married and had children. Later he helped to fight against Genoa as the "gentleman commander" of a Venetian galley, according to author Humble (Marco Polo 205). In one of the skirmishes that ensued, Marco Polo was captured and put in the Prison of Genoa. He shared this experience with a Messer Rusticiano of Pisa who in 1298 began to record the adventures of Marco Polo in medieval French as they were dictated to him. Thus Marco Polo was able to fulfill what he regarded as a sacred obligation; upon being released from the Khan's service, he had said to his father, "It must be God's pleasure that we return to Venice to tell people of all the things the world contains." This was the beginning of a manuscript that has been called by historians Forman and Burland "the most valuable account of the world outside Europe that was available at the time" (19). It reached a fascinated, if a bit incredulous, audience which debated whether it was fact or fiction. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, editions of the manuscript ran into the hundreds within a century after Marco Polo's death. Shortly after the manuscript was first published in 1299, Marco earned the nickname "il Milione"--Marco of the Millions--due perhaps to his excessive use of superlatives in describing the wonders of the East. Even Marco's friends didn't quite believe all of the far-fetched stories the manuscript contained. On his deathbed they urged him to take back some of the more obvious exaggerations, so that he could meet God with a clear conscience. But Marco Polo never retracted any part of his account. His only response was, "I never told the half of what I saw. . ." Yet Marco Polo's book became a valuable resource as a record of the last contact between Europeans and the Far East until 200 years later when Vasco de Gama opened the first sea route between Europe and India. The business community read with interest about the commercial potential described by Marco Polo, now unavailable for their exploitation. Geographers were also intrigued. Marco Polo revealed many little-known geographic facts about the East. Abraham Cresque, author of the Catalan Atlas, a series of maps issued in 1375, based his work on the "world in light of the travels of Marco Polo and his missionary successors to Cathay." The placing of the cities of Central Asia, as well as the semicircle of the coastline revealed the author's familiarity with Marco's descriptions, according to author Albion (19). The maps also showed the thousands of small islands off the coast of China that Marco had mentioned in his book. Historian Penrose asserts that there was not another portrayal of the Eastern Hemisphere as well done until the Cantino Map of 1502 was published (18). Albion notes it is almost certain that Henry the Navigator saw this atlas (19). In any case the son of Abraham Cresque, Jahuda Cresque, was the Prince's leading navigational expert, a position in which he was able to wield considerable influence upon the Prince's exploration strategy. Paolo Toscanelli, a celebrated Florentine scholar whose hobby was geography, also admired Marco Polo and studied the accounts of his travels. Toscanelli accepted the theory that the Asiatic land mass extended much farther eastward than even Ptolemy had argued. He figured that there were 5,000 miles between the Canary Islands and Kinsay (Hangchow). He was an early exponent of the western route to the Indies. Toscanelli found a receptive audience in a young Genoese, Christopher Columbus, who in 1474 began a correspondence with him according to historian Humble (The Explorers 56). Columbus obtained a copy of Marco Polo's book and devoured the descrip- tions of the riches of the Far East and especially of Cipangu (now Japan), an island containing palaces with "roofs of gold". Cipangu was one of the more than 7,000 island Marco Polo had described off the coast of Asia, an archipelago so large that it had the effect of extending the land mass of Asia a good 30 degrees farther East than by earlier calculations. Columbus concluded that Asia would be closer to the West--by way of the Atlantic Ocean. He figured that Cipangu must be around 28 degrees latitude which would make it 2,400 miles due west on a 270 degree course at a speed of four knots, therefore he could arrive at Cipangu in three weeks. From Cipangu to the Cathay mainland would be another 1500 miles he thought. He assumed, of course, that between the European coastline and the eastern shores of Asia, there were no new lands to be discovered. Columbus obtained an audience with King John II of Portugal in 1484 to gain support for his proposed adventure. He used Marco Polo's account to back up his theories. However the court chronicler, Joao de Barros, later wrote that the "king observed this Christavao Clumn to be a great talker, and full of fancy and imagination." According to Columbian expert Morison, the mari- time advisory committee appointed to discuss his plan dismissed it "as vain, simply founded on imagination, or things like that Isle of Cypangu of Marco Polo" (371). The King gave him no support. At long last , Columbus found the support he sought from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. In his log, Columbus records how he used the prologue of Marco Polo's book, the account of the Khan requesting missionaries to teach him about Christianity, in his effort to convince the monarchy of the importance of his project: I informed Your Highnesses how this Great Khan and his predecessors had sent to Rome many times to beg for men learned in our Holy Faith so that his people might be instructed therein, and that the Holy Father never furnished them, and therefore, many peoples believing in idolatries and receiving among themselves sects of perdition were lost. (from Columbus' Log) The argument proved convincing and in May 1492 Columbus began fitting out three ships. Finally in August of the same year, Columbus set out on his journey. In his possession was a letter from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella addressed to the Great Khan, with the understanding that it should be given to the heirs that had succeeded him. Columbus took his task seriously and went to great lengths to try to deliver the letter. After leaving their Canary Island stopover Columbus and his company spent 36 days at sea before sighting land. They had traveled 2,400 miles, which should have brought them to Cipangu, according to Columbus' calculations. However, the land that they found didn't seem to resemble the fabulous Cathay of Marco Polo's book. The land was stony and scrubby and the people were poor. Columbus decided that he had landed on one of the 7,448 islands about which Marco Polo had written. He decided to search further for the mainland. From Marco Polo's description, the mainland should have been to the west of Cipangu, however the islanders that Columbus interrogated, signaled that there was a king to the south who had "great vessels" and "possessed a lot". Native guides indicated that a place called Colba (Cuba) was wealthy and populated, "full of ships and sailors, both great and many". Columbus naturally assumed that Colba and Cuba were words meaning Cipangu. The native word "Cubanacan" actually meant a place in the center of an island, but again Columbus assumed they were referring to the Khan. When Columbus arrived in Cuba, he found the people to be just as poor as the initial natives he had encountered. The Cubans, however, indicated that there was a powerful king to the west. Columbus went west, but again found nothing that looked like Cathay. He pulled into an inlet (Puerto Gibara) and decided to send two of his men inland to find the Khan. The men went 25 miles inland in their futile search. Columbus then decided to explore the eastern tip of Cuba, thus bumping into Hispaniola. He didn't find the Khan there, but he did find a culture that seemed, to him, a little more civil- ized. One native displayed a belt made of gold and indicated that it came from "Cibao", meaning the Cibao region to the southeast where gold was panned in streams. Columbus again assumed he was close to his goal of finding Cathay and the Great Khan. On his excursion eastward, he encountered problems with his ship and went ashore to ask for help. Of course he also used the opportunity to ask again about the Khan. The chief promised to take Columbus to Cibao but warned that they would have to beware of the Caniba, a fierce tribe that ate their enemies. Columbus rashly concluded, "Caniba is nothing else than the people of the Great Khan, which should be very near." At this point, it was decided that some of Columbus' men should remain there in a fortress, while Columbus and the others sailed back to Europe to tell of their discoveries in what they thought was the East. On consequent journeys to America, Columbus continued to search for the Great Khan. Upon his death he was probably still unaware that he had never come close to the Cathay he sought. During this age of discovery, explorers from various nations looked for a sea route to Asia, or the Indies as they called it. Many of them used at least some part of Marco Polo's Travels to guide them. Prince Henry the Navigator had directed his sailors southward to circumnavigate Africa in search of the land further east. John Cabot's proposition to the English in 1494 was based on the idea that Columbus didn't go far enough. According to historian Fuson, Cabot proposed that he find a shorter northern route to the Asian mainland and then sail south to Marco's Cathay which would be behind the offshore islands discovered by Columbus (23). Magellan discovered the western passage while looking for Asia. Even the discovery of Australia by the Dutch may have been inspired in part by Polo's description of the southern region of "Locach". So, although there were a host of motivations for the explorers of the medieval period, the goal remained the same-- easier access to the lands and riches of Asia. Many of the explorers read Marco Polo's Travels or were at least indirectly influenced by it. The book, although somewhat exaggerated in detail and written by a man unschooled in the sciences, added valuable, mostly accurate, facts about geography, commercial possibilities, and foreign cultures to the knowledge base of medieval Europe. Some Polo admirers, like Christopher Columbus, actually carried the manuscript and used it as a guide book in planning for voyages and in the actual search for Cathay and the Great Khan. Marco Polo, with his skill at telling a good story and his flair for drama, was able to inspire a variety of people with mixed motives. Merchants were enchanted by the wealth of goods to be traded and the prospect of fortunes to be made, geographers grasped the details that helped them to better create models of the world outside of Europe, explorers used the infor- mation to plan exotic and previously unattempted ventures, and a King and Queen seized the opportunity to spread their Christian faith to the lost pagans as well as to enrich the coffers of their nation. WORKS CITED Albion, Robert G. Exploration and Discovery. The Macmillan Co. New York. 1965 Andrews, Kenneth R. Trade, Plunder and Settlement. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, Great Britain. 1984. Fuson, Robert H. (trans.) The Log of Christopher Columbus. International Marine Publishing Co. Camden, ME. 1987. Forman, Werner and Burland, Cotie A. The Travels of Marco Polo. McGraw-Hill Book Co. New York. 1970. Humble, Richard. The Explorers. Time-Life Books, Inc. Alexandria, VA. 1978. Humble, Richard. Marco Polo. G.P. Putman Sons. New York. 1975. Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Great Explorers. Oxford Press. New York. 1978. Moule, A.C. and Pelliot, Paul. Marco Polo: The Description of the World. George Routledge and Sons, Ltd. London. 1938. Penrose, Boise. Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance. Harvard University Press. Boston, MA. 1967. Rugoff, Milton (ed.). The Great Travellors, Vol.I. Simon and Schuster. New York. 1960. Samhaber, Ernst. Merchants Make History. trans. E. Osers. John Day Co. New York. 1964.