36 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



put down everything, facts and fancies, in his book of 

 marvels for what they might seem worth. And thus 

 we get a wonderful picture of things seen and things heard, 

 a picture painted on a gigantic canvas, and with Vene- 

 tian colour. It revolutionized geographical conceptions. 

 It was the main inspiration of Columbus. It influenced 

 for centuries the minds of those who made voyages in 

 Australian seas. And still, to the modern student, it 

 is both true history and delightful romance, embodying 

 geographical knowledge and guesses as to the contents 

 of the Indian Ocean at the end of the thirteenth century. 



All things that men knew about the Indian Ocean 

 Marco Polo knew. 1 The wisdom of China was at his 

 disposal, and we shall notice in a moment what he 

 Venetian learnt from it about the Southern World. Though he 

 lour ' never visited Java, he met Malay seamen in the ports 

 of " the Indian seas," and took notes of their talk. 

 Indian Buddhists, " Idolaters " he irreverently calls 

 them, he met both in Bengal and in Ceylon. Arabs or 

 " Saracens " he met everywhere. The Great Kaan's 

 prime minister was a Saracen, who oppressed the native 

 Chinese, caused a rebellion, and came to a bad end. In 

 Sumatra, Marco found Saracen merchants converting 

 the idolaters to the religion of Mahomed, and they told 

 him of " men with tails, a span in length," who lived 

 a secluded life among the mountains the descendants 

 evidently of Sinbad's Old Man of the Sea ! He found 

 Saracens again in Ceylon, disputing with the " idolaters" 

 the great question as to whether the famous relics of 

 teeth and hair had belonged to Adam or to Buddha, 

 and representing the former view so effectually to the 

 Great Kaan that he sent an embassy to the King of Ceylon 

 to demand them, and actually obtained from him " two 

 large back teeth together with some of the hair of the 

 Father of Mankind." He talked with " mariners and 

 eminent pilots," and he read " the writings of those who 

 have navigated the Indian seas," an cV learnt that those 



1 See Yule's Map (vol. i. p. 108) giving " Probable view of Marco 

 Polo's own geography," reproduced in this volume, p. 35. 



