Chap. II. of the East Indie s. 
; lowed the Humour of the Age in which he wrote, and af- 
fected, as he has done, to give a quaint and fanciful Turn 
: to all that lie tranflated, inftead of keeping clofe to his Au- 
thors. This was chiefly owing to a Notion that then pre- 
vailed, that there were many Improbabilities and Abfur- 
i dities in their Writings ; which, however, the Diligence 
of fucceeding Times hath, in a great meafure, difeo- 
vered to have been a groundlefs and injurious Charge arif- 
Ing fornetimes from their having very bad Copies of the 
■Authors they ufed, at other Times from the Ignorance 
of thole who undertook to tranflate them either in the 
[ Languages in which they Were wrote, or as to the Subjects 
i which were handled in them. 
It deferves alfo to be conlidered, that the firft Voyages 
into any remote Country muft lie under great Difadvan- 
stages, becaufe they report Things abfolutely unknown be- 
fore, and which, for that Reafon, appear monftrous and 
incredible j whereas, in Procefs of Time, and after vari- 
ous Perfons have vifited the fame Place, the Publick be- 
gins to grow familiar with their Relations ; and having 
received repeated Teftimonies as to the Truth of ftrange 
FaCts, renounce the Prejudices that were conceived againft 
them at the Beginning. It is for this Reafon that many 
.learned Men abroad, but particularly Ramufio in Italy, and 
■ Bergeron in France , have taken fo much Pains to examine, 
correct, and fet forth in a moft per fed Manner, many 
of thefe old Writers *, which after the Care they have ta- 
ken about them, appear to fo great Avantage, that they 
fcarce feem to be the fame that were known to us for- 
merly in fo wretched a Condition K 
But if fuch Treatifes are liable to a bad Reception at 
their firft Appearance, their Credit increafes with Pofte- 
irity, and there is very good Reafon for recurring to the 
firft Voyages, as we do to the firft Editions of Books to 
fee how Things ftood at the Beginning. Such Writers 
are, generally Ipeaking, the moft curious and the moft ex- 
aCt ; for being extremely ftruck with every thing they fee 
and hear, they are more vigilant in their Searches, and 
more particular in their Relations, than thofe that follow 
them, fuch taking it for granted, that what is common in 
remote Countries has been already reported by others, and 
■will not give themfelves the Trouble of fetting down any 
thing that is not marvelous or extraordinary. We ought 
not, likewife, to forget that fuch Travellers as arefent to 
vifit diftant Countries, or who go thither purely out of 
Curiofity, and from a Defire of feeing what others have 
mot feen before, are much more likely to record exaCtly 
whatever they meet with, than fuch as go afterwards in- 
to thefe Countries purely on the Score of Trade ; and on 
their Return, perhaps, are perfuaded to oblige the World 
! with an Account of what they have met with, compiled at 
a confiderable Diftance of Time, and conlequently very 
liable to Miftakes and other Imperfections. 
We may add to all this, that the firft Sort of Authors 
are, generally fpeaking, Men of better Capacities, and 
more capable of fetting forth their Difcoveries than the 
latter fo that on the whole, if we mean to be thoroughly 
; acquainted with Things, and with all the Circumftances 
relating to them, we fhall read fuch original Writers with 
much greater Pleafure than thofe Collections which have 
appeared in later Times, and which are frequently no 
way comparable to them, either for the Importance of 
FaCts, or the Accuracy with which they are related. 
it fell out in the Eaft, as it fell out before in the Weft 
that is to fay, the northern Nations poured in upon them as 
a Deluge, and bore down all before them. It was this 
Inundation of the Tartars which overturned, and, in a 
great meafure, effaced the whole Policy of the Eaft •, fo 
that in the thirteenth Century, the Empire eftablifhed by 
the Great Tartar Monarch J enghizWhan, extended as far 
as China on the one Side, and into Europe on the other. 
His Succeffors augmented his Dominions, and that in 
fuch a Mnner as to reach as far as the Nile one Way, and 
to the Danube and Vifiula on the other. Such an Extent 
of Dominion muft appear to a confiderate Reader, a more 
formidable Empire than any yet fpoken of \ and the Ihort 
Space of Time in which it was raifed, muft render it ftill 
54S 
more amazing : To fay the Truth, all the great Monarchies 
in this Part of the World, large and powerful as they 'ate, 
ought, ftriCtly fpeaking, to be confidered as Fragments 
only of this enormous Sovereignty, and as the Remains 
and Ruins of this prodigious Structure. All the Tartar 
Principalities in Europe and Afia , the noble Empire of 
China , with fo much of T 'artary as belongs to it, the wide 
Dominions of the Great Mogul, fome of the Kingdoms 
eftablifhed in the Indian Elands, the Kingdom of Perfta 
as it ftands at prefent, together with the beft Part of the 
Grand Seignor’s Territories, fall under this Defcription, and 
were once but fo many Parts of the Tartar Empire, and we 
may from thence eafily difeern how much it imports us to 
have a competent Knowledge of the Rife, Progrefs, and 
Declenfion of this over-grown Power. 
But that this, however expedient, however neeeffary, 
might not break in too much on the Series of our Voyages, 
I have taken Care to feleCt a few out of the many ancient 
Travels that may anfwer both Ends ; that is to fay, may 
preferve the Chain of our Narrations, according to the 
natural Order of Time, and alfo fulfil what is requifite 
with refpeCt to explaining the Hiftory of thefe People, fo 
as to bring the whole into a reafonable Compais, without 
depriving the Reader of any thing that is neceffary for 
his Information, or curtailing the Authors that are given 
him, fo, as to put it out of his Power to judge of the 
Value of each, or to know what the Writer himfelf re- 
lates, and what has been inferted by his Editors. 
The firft of thefe fhall be the earlieft Traveller next to 
our Arabs I mean the famous JewiJh Writer Benjamin 
of Tudela , in the Kingdom of Navarre , who travelled 
through a great Part of Europe , Afia, and Africa , in the 
twelfth Century, in which we have not one Voyage be- 
fides ; and though his chief Defign, as plainly enough ap- 
pears, was to aggrandize his own Nation, however dif- 
perfed over the Face of the Earth, and to keep up the 
Hopes of his Brethren, by reprefenting them as a nume- 
rous, wealthy,and flourifhing People, notwithftanding their 
Difperfioni Yet, in doing this, he has collected fo many 
curious Circumftances with regard to the Eaftern Nations, 
and interfperfed his Travels with fuch a Variety of hifto- 
rical Paffages to be met with no where elfe, that whate- 
ver Faults may be found with him, he will be always 
thought an Author worthy of Notice ; though, to avoid 
Prolixty, we have inferted only fo much of his Work in 
the next SeCtion, as has relation to the SubjeCt of which 
we are treating. It will from thence however, appear, 
that what is fuggefted by Purchas , the only Author that 
has attempted to publifh him in our Language, as to the 
Impoffibility of making his Treatife clear and intelligi- 
ble, is not over-well founded, but that with due Care and 
diligent Attention, his Travels might be publifhed entire, 
in fuch a Manner as to fatisfy the moft critical and inqui- 
fitive Reader. 
The next of thefe ancient Travellers lhall be William 
Rubruquis , a Monk fent by the French King St. Lewis , 
to the then Khan of the Tartars , whofe Hiftory of his Jour- 
ney through feveral Countries then in a Manner entirely, 
and even now, but very imperfectly known, is addreffed 
to that Prince, and written with a Spirit of Humility and 
Mpdefty, and with fuch plain Evidence of the.ir Author’s 
Veracity, as very fully juftifies the Efteem that has been 
always had of his Work. The third is Marco Polo , the 
Venetian , who travelled as well as Rubruquis in the thir- 
teenth Century, whofe Work has ftood the Teft of Time 
and the fevereft Criticks, and rifen by flow Degrees, from 
the leaft into the higheft Credit. There are indeed very 
few Books that have born fo many Editions, or have had 
fo much Pains taken about them-, and indeed hardly any 
have deferved it better, fince purged from the Errors that 
had crept into the old Copies, and into the feveral Tran- 
flations made into different Languages, it appears to be as 
well difpofed, as well written, as curious, as entertaining, 
and as correCt a Performance as any of its kind : And yet 
to avoid the Trouble of comparing fo many Copies and 
Tranfiations, it has been wholly omitted in our modern, 
Collections, though the perufing it is in a Manner abfo- 
1 The Quotation in the preceding Note from Purchase will fully prove the Truth of this to the intelligent Reader. 
Numb. 37, 6 Z lutety 
