The bridal party sailed from the port of ' (Chiuchau) in the spring of 1292. I hey touched at Ceylon, at a port on the inancle1 coast, at Kayal, a port of Tin:levelly, the hod of the present purl lialteries, and at other ports on the Malabar and Konkan coasts of Western India, at one of which they passed the monsoon of 1293. Marco Polo notices the flue cotton,' of Coromandel, the abundance of pepper and ginger of Malabar, the incense of Tanual, and the pepper, ginger, indigo, and cotton of Gujerat, Sailing on the cleft of the monsoon from Lydia, the party reached Ormuz about November 1293, and the Persian camp two months later. Here the fair princess wept as she took leave of the three Polos, who went on to Tabreez, and, after a long halt there,• proceeded towards Venice, where they arrived some time in 1295, having been absent from home nearly 21 years The publication of The Book of Ser Marva Polo became one of the influences which inspired Columbus. It was thought that no great breadth of ocean rolled between Western Europa and Eastern Asia, and, full of this idea, Columbus launched boldly on the Atlantic, convinced that the first shores reached by him would be those of Chipatign ' (Japan), Cathay, Chamba' (Cochin China), and India. From the time of the
Saracen conquest of Egypt, Syria, and Persia. Christians had been forbidden to pass through those countries to the east, and the direct over land trade of Europe with India had entirely ceased. Marco Polo, therefore, was the first after Cosmas Indicopleustes (circa A.D. 535-550) to give a written account of India, and yet we owe its existence to the accident of his having late in life been taken in a sea fight by the Genoese, and thrown into prison, where he was persuaded by a fellow-prisoner to dictate his narrative to relieve the tedium of their captivity.
In Marco Polo's old age, and the years following his death, a remarkable land trade, but temporary, sprang up between China and the trading cities of Italy, of which curious details are given in the book of Pegoletti. The chief imports from the east were the rich satins and damasks of China. European linens were carried for sale on the way; but to China itself, in general, only silver, to purchase goods there. Factories of Genoese merchants were established at Foh-kicn. This trade was apparently carried on entirely by Italian merchants travelling to make their own purchases. —Sir George Birdwood ; India Office Records.