52 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



islands Eastward two others are found ; the one is called 

 Sandai, in which nutmegs and mace grow ; the other is 

 called Bandam ; this is the only island in which cloves 

 grow, which are exported thence to the Java islands. The 

 sea is not navigable beyond these islands, and the stormy 

 atmosphere keeps navigators at a distance." 



The conversation which interested Poggio so deeply 

 seems to carry us not one step beyond Marco Polo ! All 

 that Nicolo adds are certain enormous mistakes. His 

 Java the Greater is simply a copy of the Java Major of 

 Marco Polo and of Odoric, a huge island of three thousand 

 The futility miles in circuit. Polo's Java Minor, an island of two 

 of Nicolo. thousand miles in circuit, was Sumatra. But de Conti had 

 already described Sumatra, under the name of Taprobane, 

 as an island of six thousand miles in circuit ! His Java the 

 Lesser, an island of two thousand miles, only one hundred 

 miles away from Java, if it represents anything on earth, 

 must represent Sumbava, in reality a very small island. 

 Then we have the names of two Spice Islands ; and then a 

 passage which reminds one of the Mare Mortuum of Friar 

 Odoric, 'declaring that navigation beyond these islands is 

 impossible, on account of the stormy atmosphere. Surely 

 Poggio could have learnt as much from the book of Marco 

 Polo and the Journal of Friar Odoric as he learnt from the 

 conversation of Nicolo de Conti. 1 



And now one more Italian traveller in the far East 



comes to add to our knowledge and to our problems ! In 



Ludovico di the year 1502, Ludovico di Varthema, " longing for novelty 



travels as a thirsty man longs for fresh water," set off in his travels 



eastward, eastwards. He had experience of novelty in great plenty 



in Cairo, in Mecca, in Aden ; and then joined a Persian 



1 See Yule's chapter (vol. i. p. 116) on " Contemporary recognition 

 of Polo and his book." Also Nordenskiold's Periplus, p. 140, on 

 scholars' ignorance of Marco Polo. Also Fiske's Discovery of America, 

 vol. i, p. 28. " Here was altogether too much geographical knowledge 

 for European ignorance in those days to digest. While Marco's book 

 attracted much attention, its influence upon the progress of geography 

 was slighter than it would have been if addressed to a more enlightened 

 public. Many of its sober statements of facts were received with 

 incredulity . . . Marco Polo's acquisitions were altogether too far in 

 advance of his age to be readily assimilated." 



