I desire to take this opportunity of recording my grateful sense of the unsparing labour, learning, and devotion, with which my father’s valued friend, Professor Henri Cordier, has performed the difficult and delicate task which I entrusted to his loyal friendship. Apart from Professor Cordier’s very special qualifications for the work, I feel sure that no other Editor could have been more entirely acceptable to my father. I can give him no higher praise than to say that he has laboured in Yule’

Little did I think, some thirty years ago, when I received a copy of the first edition of this grand work, that I should be one day entrusted with the difficult but glorious task of supervising the third edition. When the first edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo reached “Far Cathay,” it created quite a stir in the small circle of the learned foreigners, who then resided there, and became a starting-point for many researches, of which the results have been made use of partly in the second edit

The unexpected amount of favour bestowed on the former edition of this Work has been a great encouragement to the Editor in preparing this second one. Not a few of the kind friends and correspondents who lent their aid before have continued it to the present revision. The contributions of Mr. A. Wylie of Shang-hai, whether as regards the amount of labour which they must have cost him, or the value of the result, demand above all others a grateful record here. Nor can I omit to name again with he

The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance with the mediæval geography of some parts of Asia, which was acquired during the compilation of a work of kindred character for the Hakluyt Society, [1] could hardly fail to suggest as a fresh labour in the same field the preparation of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one kindly critic (in the Examiner ) laid it upon the writer as a duty to undertake that task. Though at least one respectable English edition has appeared since M

Henry Yule was the youngest son of Major William Yule, by his first wife, Elizabeth Paterson, and was born at Inveresk, in Midlothian, on 1st May, 1820. He was named after an aunt who, like Miss Ferrier’s immortal heroine, owned a man’s name. On his father’s side he came of a hardy agricultural stock, [1] improved by a graft from that highly-cultured tree, Rose of Kilravock. [2] Through his mother, a somewhat prosaic person herself, he inherited strains from Huguenot and Highland ancestry. There

Reprinted in Proceedings of the Museum of Economic Geology , 1852. Had several editions. Reprinted in the Colonial Magazine of March, 1850. Republished in Henley’s Lyra Heroica , a Book of Verse for Boys. London, D. Nutt, 1890. The last pp. iv.–70 contain: Notes on the Geological features of the banks of the River Irawadee and on the Country north of the Amarapoora, by Thomas Oldham ... Calcutta, 1856. Ten copies printed for private circulation. Printed for the Hakluyt Society, M.DCCC.LXIII, 8vo

Great Princes , Emperors, and Kings, Dukes and Marquises, Counts, Knights, and Burgesses! and People of all degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various races of mankind and of the diversities of the sundry regions of the World, take this Book and cause it to be read to you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of wonderful things, and the divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and of Persia, and of the Land of the Tartars, and of India, and of many another country of which our Book doth s

There are two Hermenias, the Greater and the Less. The Lesser Hermenia is governed by a certain King, who maintains a just rule in his dominions, but is himself subject to the Tartar. {1} The country contains numerous towns and villages, {2} and has everything in plenty; moreover, it is a great country for sport in the chase of all manner of beasts and birds. It is, however, by no means a healthy region, but grievously the reverse. {3} In days of old the nobles there were valiant men, and did do

Now you must know that the Emperor sent the aforesaid Messer Marco Polo, who is the author of this whole story, on business of his into the Western Provinces. On that occasion he travelled from Cambaluc a good four months’ journey towards the west. {1} And so now I will tell you all that he saw on his travels as he went and returned. When you leave the City of Cambaluc and have ridden ten miles, you come to a very large river which is called Pulisanghin , and flows into the ocean, so that mercha

Cacanfu is a noble city. The people are Idolaters and burn their dead; they have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts. For they have plenty of silk from which they weave stuffs of silk and gold, and sendals in large quantities. [There are also certain Christians at this place, who have a church.] And the city is at the head of an important territory containing numerous towns and villages. [A great river passes through it, on which much merchandise is carried to the city of Cambaluc, fo

Note .—A considerable number of the quasi-historical chapters in this section (which I have followed M. Pauthier in making into a Fourth Book) are the merest verbiage and repetition of narrative formulæ without the slightest value. I have therefore thought it undesirable to print all at length, and have given merely the gist (marked thus ⚜), or an extract, of such chapters. They will be found entire in English in H. Murray’s and Wright’s editions, and in the original French in the edition of the

There is no need of a long Preface to this small book. When the third edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo was published in 1903, criticism was lenient to the Editor of Yule’s grand work, and it was highly satisfactory to me that such competent judges as Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin gave their approval to the remarks I made on the itineraries followed in Central Asia by the celebrated Venetian Traveller. Nevertheless occasional remarks having been made by some of the reviewers, proper notice

—— Notes [miscellaneous] by H. Yule, Palermo, August 28th, 1872. ( Indian Antiquary , I. 1872, pp. 320–321.) —— “Discovery of Sanskrit.” By H. Yule, Palermo, Dec. 26th, 1872. ( Indian Antiquary , II. 1873, p. 96.) —— “Sopeithes, King of the Κηκεοί .” By H. Yule. ( Indian Antiquary , II. 1873, p. 370.) —— The Geography of Ibn Batuta’s Travels in India. By Col. H. Yule, Palermo. ( Indian Antiquary , III. 1874, pp. 114–117, 209–212.) —— The Geography of Ibn Batuta’s Travels. By Col. H. Yule, C.B. (

II., p. 6 . “ Cordier (Yule) identifiziert den von Pegolotti gewählten Namen Säracanco mit dem jüngeren Sarai oder Zarew (dem Sarai grande Fra Mauros), was mir vollkommen untunlich erscheint; es wäre dann die Route des Reisenden geradezu ein Zickzackweg gewesen, der durch nichts zu rechtfertigen wäre.” (Dr. Ed. Friedmann , Pegolotti , p. 14.) Prof. Pelliot writes to me: “Il n’y a aucune possibilité de retrouver dans Saracanco, Sarai + Ḳúnk . Le mot Ḳúnk n’est pas autrement attesté, et la constru

II., p. 334. It is worthy of note that Nayan had given up Buddhism and become a Christian as well as many of his subjects. Cf. Pelliot , 1914, pp. 635–6. VII., pp. 352, 353. Instead of Sir-i-Sher , read Sar-i-Sher . ( Pelliot. ) “Dr. Bushell’s note describes the silver p’ai , or tablets (not then called p’ai tsz ) of the Cathayans, which were 200 (not 600) in number. But long before the Cathayans used them, the T’ang Dynasty had done so for exactly the same purpose. They were 5 inches by 1½ inch

XXXVII, p. 13. “There grow here [Taianfu] many excellent vines, supplying great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is produced. It is carried hence all over the country.” Dr. B. Laufer makes the following remarks to me: “Polo is quite right in ascribing vines and wine to T’aï Yüan-fu in Shan Si, and is in this respect upheld by contemporary Chinese sources. The Yin shan cheng yao written in 1330 by Ho Se-hui, contains this account [1] : ‘There are numerous brands

LX., p. 133. The Rev. A. C. Moule ( T’oung Pao , July, 1915, p. 417) says that “Ciang lu [Ch’ang-lu] was not, I think, identical with Ts’ang chou,” but does not give any reason in support of this opinion. “To this day the sole name for this industry, the financial centre of which is T’ien Tsin, is the ‘Ch’ang-lu Superintendency.’” ( E. H. Parker , As. Quart. Review , Jan., 1904, p. 147.) “The ‘Ch’ang-lu,’ or Long Reed System, derives its name from the city Ts’ang chou, on the Grand Canal (south

JAPAN, THE ARCHIPELAGO, SOUTHERN INDIA, AND THE COASTS AND ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN SEA. II., p. 256, n. 1. Regarding the similitude between Nipon and Nafún , Ferrand, Textes , I., p. 115 n., remarks: “Ce rapprochement n’a aucune chance d’être exact. نافون Nafūn est certainement une erreur de graphie pour ياقوت Yākūt ou ناقوس Nāḳūs .” III., p. 261. “Hung Ts’a-k’iu, who set out overland viâ Corea and Tsushima in 1281, is much more likely than Fan Wên-hu to be Von-sain- chin (probably a misprint for

XXII., p. 488. “It seems that Russia [Chinese A-lo-sz’ = Mongol Oros ; the modern Chinese name for Russia is Wo-lo-sz’ ] was unknown to the nations of Eastern Asia before the Mongol period. In the Mongol and Chinese annals the Russians are first mentioned after Subutai’s invasion of Southern Russia in 1223. The Yüan chao pi shi terms Russia or the Russians Orus , as they are called even now by the Mongols. The Chinese of the Mongol period write A-lo-sz’ , sometimes also Wa-lo-sz’ or U-lu-sz’ . A

II., p. 533. Glasgow , Hunterian Museum. [2] No. 84, vellum, 4to, Cent. XV.: 1. Guido de Colonna’s Destruction of Troy. 2. Julius Valerius’ History of Alexander the Great. 3. Archbishop Turpin’s Itinerary. 4. Marco Polo. Begins (25, 5 [f. 191 (197) r o , lines 1–3): ¶ [blue] Incipit liber domini marci Pauli de Venecijs | de condicionibus et consuetudinibus orientalium regionum [rubric] L [small illuminated initial] Ibrum prudentis honorabilis ac fidelissimi domini marci. Ends (33, 3 [f. 253 (259