APPENDIX.
3 8 5
Bosphorus, they stopped for a short time at Constantinople, which city had recently been wrested from the Greeks by the joint arms of France and Venice.
Here they disposed of their Italian merchandise, and, having pur
chased a stock of jewelry, departed on an adventurous expedition to trade with the western Tartars, who, having overrun many parts of Asia and Europe, were settling and forming cities in the vicinity of the W o l g a . After traversing the Euxine to Soldaia, (at present Sudak,) a port in the Crimea, they continued on, by land and water, until they reached the mili tary court, or rather camp of a Tartar prince, named Barkah, a descendant of Ghengis Khan, into whose hands they confided all their merchandise. T h e barbaric chieftain, while he was dazzled by their precious commodi ties, was flattered by the entire confidence in his justice manifested by these strangers.
H e repaid them with princely munificence, and loaded
them with favors during a year that they remained at his court.
A war
breaking out between their patron and his cousin Hulagu, chief of the eastern Tartars, and Barkah being defeated, the Polos were embarrassed how to extricate themselves from the country and return home in safety. T h e road to Constantinople being cut off by the enemy, they took a cir cuitous route, round the head of the Caspian Sea, and through the deserts of Transoxiana, until they arrived in the city of Bokhara, where they re sided for three years. W h i l e here there arrived a Tartar nobleman who was on an embassy from the victorious Hulagu to his brother the Grand Khan.
T h e ambas
sador became acquainted with the Venetians, and finding them to be versed in the Tartar tongue and possessed of curious and valuable know ledge, he prevailed upon them to accompany him to the court of the em peror, situated as they supposed, at the very extremity of the East. After a march of several months, being delayed by snow-storms and inundations, they arrived an the court of Cublai, otherwise called the Great Khan, which signifies King of Kings, being the sovereign potentate of the Tartars.
This magnificent prince received them with great distinction ;
he made inquiries about the countries and princes of the W e s t , their civil and military government, and the manners and customs of the Latin nation. Above all, he was curious on the subject of the Christian religion.
He
was so much struck by their replies, that after holding a council with the chief persons of his kingdom, he entreated the two brothers to go on his part as ambassadors to the pope, to entreat him to send a hundred learned men well instructed in the Christian faith, to impart a knowledge of it to the sages of his empire.
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in.
H e also entreated them to bring him a little oil
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