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APPENDIX.
T h e merit of Marco Polo at length procured him his liberty.
He
returned to Venice, where he found his father with a house full of children. H e took it in good part, followed the old man's example, married, and had two daughters, Moretta and Fantina.
T h e date of the death of Marco
Polo is unknown ; he is supposed to have been, at the time, about seventy years of age.
O n his death-bed he is said to have been exhorted by his
friends to retract what he had published, or, at least, to disavow those parts commonly regarded as
fictions.
H e replied indignantly that so far
from having exaggerated, he had not told one half of the extraordinary things of which he had been an eye-witness. Marco Polo died without male issue.
O f the three sons of his father
by the second marriage, one only had children, viz. five sons and one daughter.
T h e sons died without leaving issue ; the daughter inherited
all her father's wealth and married into the noble and distinguished house of Trevesino.
T h u s the male line of the Polos ceased in 1417, and the
family name was extinguished. Such are the principal particulars known of Marco Polo ; a man whose travels for a long time made a great noise in Europe, and will be found to have had a great effect on modern discovery.
His splendid account of the
extent, wealth, and population of the Tartar territories filled every one with admiration.
T h e possibility of bringing all those regions under the
dominion of the church, and rendering the Grand Khan an obedient vassal to the holy chair, was for a long time a favorite topic among the enthusi足 astic missionaries of Christendom, and there were many saints-errant who undertook to effect the conversion of this magnificent infidel. Even at the distance of two centuries, when the enterprises for the discovery of the new route to India had set all the warm heads of Europe madding about these remote regions of the East, the conversion of the Grand Kahn became again a popular theme ; and it was too speculative and romantic an enterprise not to catch the vivid imagination of Columbus. In all his voyages, he will be found continually to be seeking after the ter足 ritories of the Grand Khan, and even after his last expedition, when nearly worn out by age, hardships, and infirmities, he offered, in a letter to the Spanish monarchs, written from a bed of sickness, to conduct any mis足 sionary to the territories of the Tartar emperor, who would undertake his conversion.