The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 | Page 3

Tibet and Rubruck, to which the
distinguished diplomatist, traveller, and scholar kindly added a list of
notes of the greatest importance to me, for which I offer him my hearty
thanks.
My thanks are also due to H.H. Prince ROLAND BONAPARTE, who
kindly gave me permission to reproduce some of the plates of his
_Recueil de Documents de l'Epoque Mongole_, to M. LÉOPOLD
DELISLE, the learned Principal Librarian of the Bibliothèque
Nationale, who gave me the opportunity to study the inventory made
after the death of the Doge Marino Faliero, to the Count de SEMALLÉ,
formerly French Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, who gave me for
reproduction a number of photographs from his valuable personal
collection, and last, not least, my old friend Comm. NICOLÒ
BAROZZI, who continued to lend me the assistance which he had
formerly rendered to Sir Henry Yule at Venice.
Since the last edition was published, more than twenty-five years ago,
Persia has been more thoroughly studied; new routes have been
explored in Central Asia, Karakorum has been fully described, and
Western and South-Western China have been opened up to our
knowledge in many directions. The results of these investigations form
the main features of this new edition of Marco Polo. I have suppressed
hardly any of Sir Henry Yule's notes and altered but few, doing so only
when the light of recent information has proved him to be in error, but I
have supplemented them by what, I hope, will be found useful, new
information.[2]
Before I take leave of the kind reader, I wish to thank sincerely Mr.
JOHN MURRAY for the courtesy and the care he has displayed while

this edition was going through the press.
HENRI CORDIER. PARIS, _1st of October, 1902_.
[1] Miss Yule has written the Memoir of her father and the new
Dedication.
[2] Paragraphs which have been altered are marked thus +; my own
additions are placed between brackets [ ].--H. C.
[Illustration: "Now strike your Sailes yee jolly Mariners, For we be
come into a quiet Rode".... --THE FAERIE QUEENE, I. xii. 42.]

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
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 hearty acknowledgment Signor Comm. G. BERCHET of Venice,
the Rev. Dr. CALDWELL, Colonel (now Major-General) R.
MACLAGAN, R.E., Mr. D. HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr. EDWARD
THOMAS, F.R.S. (Corresponding Member of the Institute), and Mr. R.
H. MAJOR.
But besides these old names, not a few new ones claim my thanks.
The Baron F. VON RICHTHOFEN, now President of the Geographical
Society of Berlin, a traveller who not only has trodden many hundreds
of miles in the footsteps of our Marco, but has perhaps travelled over
more of the Interior of China than Marco ever did, and who carried to
that survey high scientific accomplishments of which the Venetian had
not even a rudimentary conception, has spontaneously opened his
bountiful stores of new knowledge in my behalf. Mr. NEY ELIAS, who
in 1872 traversed and mapped a line of upwards of 2000 miles through
the almost unknown tracts of Western Mongolia, from the Gate in the
Great Wall at Kalghan to the Russian frontier in the Altai, has done
likewise.[1] To the Rev. G. MOULE, of the Church Mission at
Hang-chau, I owe a mass of interesting matter regarding that once great
and splendid city, the KINSAY of our Traveller, which has enabled me,

I trust, to effect great improvement both in the Notes and in the Map,
which illustrate that subject. And to the Rev. CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS,
LL.D., of the English Presbyterian Mission at Amoy, I am scarcely less
indebted. The learned Professor BRUUN, of Odessa, whom I never
have seen, and have little likelihood of ever seeing in this world, has
aided me with zeal and cordiality like that of old friendship. To Mr.
ARTHUR BURNELL, Ph.D., of the Madras Civil Service, I am
grateful for many valuable notes bearing on these and other
geographical studies, and particularly for his generous communication
of the drawing and photograph of the ancient Cross at St. Thomas's
Mount, long before any publication of that subject was made on his
own account. My brother officer, Major OLIVER ST. JOHN, R.E., has
favoured me with a variety of interesting remarks regarding the Persian
chapters, and has assisted me with new data, very materially correcting
the Itinerary Map