The Delphian Course (Volume 5); A Systematic Plan of Education, Embracing the World's Progress and Development of the Liberal Arts

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VIII. MARCO POLO'S TRAVELS. In the Thirteenth Century, Marco Polo accompanied his father from Venice upon a tour throughout Asia. This has been made famous by the accounts left by Marco Polo in his Book of Travels. Detached bits of information pertaining to trade and other industrial matters, together with such portions of the narrative as throw light upon conditions of travel, have here been selected. His journey fell into three general divisions: Western Asia as traversed by the caravan?sea routes?the Black Sea, Tigris-Euphrates valleys and the Persian Gulf; the wealthy manufacturing and mercantile cities of Eastern China; the rich islands of the Malay Archipelago and the coast of India. There is no question but that Polo's book did much to stimulate men to travel and to interest them in lands beyond their own horizon. The Plain Of Formosa. When you have ridden two days you come to the Ocean Sea, and on the shore you find a city with a harbor which is called Hormos.1 Merchants come hither from India, with ships loaded with spicery and precious stones, pearls, cloths of ' Hormos?Mormuz, a harbor on the east coast, about where the Persian Gulf empties into the Indian Ocean. Kerman, a town in Persia directly north?some distance from this harbor. In this country of Persia there is a great supply of fine horses; and the people take them to India for sale, for they are horses of great price, a single one being worth as much of their money as is equal to 200 livres Tournois; some will be more, some less, according to the quality. Here also are the finest asses in the world, one of them being worth full 30 marks of silver, for they are very large and fast, and acquire a capital amble. Dealers carry them to Kisi and Curmpsa, two cities on the shores of the Se...