384
APPENDIX.
where all the rich merchandise of the East was brought to be transported thence by Syria and Egypt into Europe. Having taken note of every thing here, he embarked on the Red Sea, and arrived at the court of an Abyssinian prince named Escander, (the Ara足 bic version of Alexander,) whom he considered the real Prester John.
The
prince received him graciously, and manifested a disposition to favor the object of his embassy, but died suddenly, and his successor Naut refused to let Covilham depart, but kept him for many years about his person, as his prime councilor, lavishing on him wealth and
honors.
After all,
this was not the real Prester John ; who, as has been observed, was an Asiatic potentate.
No. X X . MARCO
POLO.*
T H E travels of Marco Polo, or Paolo, furnish a key to many parts of the voyages and speculations of Columbus, which without it would hardly be comprehensible. Marco Polo was a native of Venice, who, in the thirteenth
century,
made a journey into the remote, and, at that time, unknown regions of the East, and filled all Christendom with curiosity by his account of the coun足 tries he had visited.
H e was preceded in his travels by his father Nicho足
las and his uncle Maffeo Polo.
These two brothers were of an illustrious
family in Venice, and embarked about the year 1 2 5 5 , on a commercial voyage to the East.
Having traversed the Mediterranean and through the
* In preparing the first edition of this work for the press the author had not the benefit of the English translation of Marco Polo, published a few years since, with admirable commentaries, by William
Marsden, F. R. S.
availed himself, principally, of an Italian version in the Venetian
He
edition
of Ramusio (1606), the French translation by Bergeron, and an old and very incorrect
Spanish translation.
Mr. Marsden he has Marco Polo.
Having since procured the work of
made considerable alterations
in these notices of