GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRl S FAMILY. 



55 



But these warlike apostles, who, during the ; 

 early centuries of their Hegira, had formed col- I 

 onies so numerous in the region beyond the In- ! 

 dus, were stopped in their career of conquest, and ! 

 maintained with these countries a commerce I 

 only proportioned to the luxury of the West. I 

 This luxury was itself very limited in centuries | 

 when the people lived with a simplicity of man- 

 ners natural to those scarcely emerged from 

 barbarism. 



Europeans knew very little of the productions 

 of Asia, except the manufactures of Syria and 

 Persia, which were as yet introduced only among 

 the great. The people, who were theu either 

 slaves or soldiers, had but very few wants. 



It was not until after the first religious enter- 

 prises in Palestine that the Europeans, who had 

 made great advances towards civilization, and 

 who, during their conquests, had acquired a taste 

 for the merchandise of the Indies, sought with 

 avidity the productions of that rich country. 



The small amount of trade which, up to that 

 time, had connected Europe with Asia, was car- 

 ried on in the Caspian sea by the natives of the 

 country, and in the Red sea and in Syria by the 

 Arabs. 



Europeans, just beginning to turn their atten- 

 tion in this direction, would buy the few articles 

 of which they felt need in the markets of these 

 people, and on hard conditions. 



Difference in religion, and consequently in 

 manners and ideas, rendered it nearly impossi- 

 ble for them to penetrate into the regions of the 

 East. The Arabs, masters of these means of 

 intercourse, not being stimulated by emulation 

 or competition, measured their speculations but 

 by the sales they could make in Europe. 



Shorn of their ancient power, and forced, by 

 lack of vessels, by the nature of the country, and 

 by the insufficient police among them, to voyage 

 by caravans, they would buy their merchandise 

 only in the markets of India, where it was car- 

 ried by the natives. 



The Crusades brought about a revolution in 

 the commercial system of these regions. By aug- 

 menting among the people of the West, the love 

 of luxury and of opulence, they indirectly multi- 

 plied the business relations and the industry of 

 all concerned in gratifying these desires. 



They opened to Europeans the entrance to 

 Asia, and thus furnished to an active, enterpris- 

 ing people the means of knowing and of extend- 

 ing; the trade of India. 



From the first the colonies of Christians in 

 Palestine gave facilities for .-penetrating into 

 those countries, and afterwards the reciprocal 

 want of articles of merchandise to which they 

 were accustomed, added to the love of gain, of 

 which they had tasted the advantages on both 

 sides, maintained among these peoples ties and 

 relations, even amidst the difficulties and fetters 

 presented by the differences in religion, and by 

 political rivalries, 



We therefore behold a crowd of adventurers 

 going into the interior of Asia, and on their re- 

 turn to Europe spreading knowledge of those 

 lands and their productions. 



The obstacles to, and dangers of, these voyages 

 were very great ; but what cannot be done by 

 the human soul possessed with a thirst for gold 

 and passion of discovery V 



Often it was necessary to become Mahome- 

 tans in order to be accepted in the caravan, and 

 it was only in caravans that the Arabs them- 

 selves could pass from the Mediterranean sea 

 to the Indian ocean. 



They were exposed to an infinity of dangers 

 of every sort, for these voyages offered such, 

 whether they traversed Arabia to Mecca and 

 Aden, or the route of the Persian gulf by Asia 

 Minor, or, finally, that of the Red sea, the most 

 perilous and difficult. 



But the enthusiasm for voyaging so filled the 

 minds of Europeans that they would brave all 

 dangers to penetrate into these regions, and the 

 adventures of Marco Polo, Nicolas de Conti, 

 Jerome of Santo-Stefano, and many others, are 

 monuments of the courage and obstinacy of 

 these adventurers. (It is surprising that Marco 

 Polo, who reached China and /India, has never 

 spoken of the orange tree. I have carefully 

 read the relation of his voyage, and found but 

 one place where he speaks of the pomme de para- 

 dis, which is, perhaps, the Adam's apple. But it 

 is necessary to observe that this adventurer did 

 not write during his voyage. He could not 

 have done so iu those countries, and if he 

 could have written, it would have been im- 

 .possible to save his manuscript and bring it 

 to Europe. We know that in order to carry 

 his wealth he reduced it to precious stones, 

 which he sewed into the folds of his tunic. Be- 

 sides, we know that his narration was writ- 

 ten at Genoa whilst he was a prisoner, and 

 where, in recounting his adventures, be managed 

 to obtain consideration, which sweetened his 

 captivity. He had not, even then, narrated them 

 except "in the societies of Venice, where they 

 did not give an unreserved belief to all offered 

 them of the marvellous. They called him, deri- 

 sively, Marco Milioni, because" of his continual 

 description of riches. We need not, then, be 

 astonished by his forgetting to speak of the 

 orange tree, which he certainly saw in his tra- 

 vels.) 



During a long time the adventurers were led 

 only by the spirit of commerce ; but finally there 

 was allied to a desire of gain the taste for dis- 

 coveries, and that passion for plants and foreign 

 arts which have enriched Europe with the secret 

 of glass-making and silk stuff manufactures; 

 with ranunculuses, lilies, Arabian jasmine, and 

 many other flowers, brought into our gardens 

 in the course of the fifteenth century. (Every 

 one knows the great progress in the study of 

 plants made in Europe during the fifteenth cen- 

 tury. We have but to consult the learned work 

 of Sprengel, upon the history of botany, to see 

 the large number of plants which passed from 

 Asia into. Europe at this epoch. I shall confine 

 myself to citing here one fact, little known, 

 which goes to show the passion of the people of 

 the Occident for the vegetation of the Orient. 

 We read in a little Italian treatise on flowers, 

 printed in Tuscany towards the close of the six- 

 teenth century, that the jasmine of Arabia 

 (nyctanthes sambac, L.\ carried from the East to 

 the Medicis, was not cultivated except in the 

 gardens of the Villa Castello, at Florence, where 

 it was guarded jealously as a plant peculiar to 

 this pleasure house. In truth, the plant has not 

 long been elsewhere than in those gardens. 



