The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 | Page 2

not that advantage.
No one can be more conscious than myself of its many shortcomings,
which I will not attempt to excuse. I can, however, honestly say that
these have not been due to negligence, but are rather the blemishes
almost inseparable from the fulfilment under the gloom of bereavement
and amidst the pressure of other duties, of a task undertaken in more
favourable circumstances.
Nevertheless, in spite of all defects, I believe this sketch to be such a
record as my father would himself have approved, and I know also that
he would have chosen my hand to write it.
In conclusion, I may note that the first edition of this work was
dedicated to that very noble lady, the Queen (then Crown Princess)
Margherita of Italy. In the second edition the Dedication was
reproduced within brackets (as also the original preface), but not
renewed. That precedent is again followed.
I have, therefore, felt at liberty to associate the present edition of my
father's work with the Name MURCHISON, which for more than a
generation was the name most generally representative of British
Science in Foreign Lands, as of Foreign Science in Britain.
A. F. YULE.

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
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 edition,
and partly in the present. The Archimandrite PALLADIUS and Dr. E.
BRETSCHNEIDER, at Peking, ALEX. WYLIE, at Shang-hai--friends
of mine who have, alas! passed away, with the exception of the Right
Rev. Bishop G. E. MOULE, of Hang-chau, the only survivor of this
little group of hard-working scholars,--were the first to explore the
Chinese sources of information which were to yield a rich harvest into
their hands.
When I returned home from China in 1876, I was introduced to Colonel
HENRY YULE, at the India Office, by our common friend, Dr.
REINHOLD ROST, and from that time we met frequently and kept up
a correspondence which terminated only with the life of the great
geographer, whose friend I had become. A new edition of the travels of
Friar Odoric of Pordenone, our "mutual friend," in which Yule had
taken the greatest interest, was dedicated by me to his memory. I knew
that Yule contemplated a third edition of his _Marco Polo_, and all will
regret that time was not allowed to him to complete this labour of love,
to see it published. If the duty of bringing out the new edition of Marco
Polo has fallen on one who considers himself but an unworthy
successor of the first illustrious commentator, it is fair to add that the
work could not have been entrusted to a more respectful disciple. Many
of our tastes were similar; we had the same desire to seek the truth, the
same earnest wish to be exact, perhaps the same sense of humour, and,
what is necessary when writing on Marco Polo, certainly the same love
for Venice and its history. Not only am I, with the late CHARLES
SCHEFER, the founder and the editor of the _Recueil de Voyages et de
Documents pour servir à l'Histoire de la Géographie depuis le XIII'e
jusqu'à la fin du XVI'e siècle_, but I am also the successor, at the Ecole
des langues Orientales Vivantes, of G. PAUTHIER, whose book on the
Venetian Traveller is still valuable, so the mantle of the last two editors
fell upon my shoulders.
I therefore, gladly and thankfully, accepted Miss AMY FRANCIS
YULE'S kind proposal to undertake the editorship of the third edition
of the _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, and I wish to express here my
gratitude to her for the great honour she has thus done me.[1]
Unfortunately for his successor, Sir Henry Yule, evidently trusting to

his own good memory, left but few notes. These are contained in an
interleaved copy obligingly placed at my disposal by Miss Yule, but I
luckily found assistance from various other quarters. The following
works have proved of the greatest assistance to me:--The articles of
General HOUTUM-SCHINDLER in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society_, and the excellent books of Lord CURZON and of Major P.
MOLESWORTH SYKES on Persia, M. GRENARD'S account of
DUTREUIL DE RHINS' Mission to Central Asia,
BRETSCHNEIDER'S and PALLADIUS' remarkable papers on
Mediaeval Travellers and Geography, and above all, the valuable books
of the Hon. W. W. ROCKHILL on