THE VOYAGERS 



come to be recognised as veracious and exact narratives, 



erring here and there only from natural misconceptions. 



Their descriptions of the Great Khan's Court, of the KhublaKkan, 



magnificence of his retinue, and the resources and extent 



of his Empire, might well excite Western curiosity and 



stimulate the efforts of voyagers. It was not without 



reason that Hakluyt included in his compilation the 



stories of some of these Eastern travellers ; without them 



his epic would lack its true beginning. The travels 



of Marco Polo were too well known to be inserted, 



but they are essential to the completeness of the 



book. 



The quest of Cathay, then, is the main theme 

 of this long poem of adventure ; it is the purpose 

 and soul of centuries of travel. But the theme is 

 diversified with episodes and digressions and underplots. 

 The singleness of an enterprise is not necessarily re- 

 flected in the minds and hearts of all who take part in 

 it. Men who left their homes, and sailed to an unknown 

 world, were influenced by the most diverse motives, 

 political or religious, commercial or scientific. In not 

 a few cases the ' good unsought discoveries ' made by 

 the way caused the original purpose to be forgotten. 

 The Letters of Columbus, at the outset of the history, 

 foreshadow some later developments. Columbus him- '^^^ ^^^^^ of 

 self was full of zeal for the spread of Christianity, and 

 the increase of knowledge. But it was necessary to show 

 that his expedition would pay its promoters in temporal 

 coin. ' I gave to the subject,' he says in the account 

 of his Third Voyage, * six or seven years of great 

 anxiety, explaining, to the best of my ability, how great 

 service might be done to our Lord, by this undertaking, 



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