Page 25 - English Reader - 6

Shortly afterwards news came that Kublai Khan was also dead. There was no need now for Marco

Polo to go back to Peking as he had promised. He, his father, and his uncle had grown very rich. They
returned to Venice where they arrived in 1295. They had been away on their journey for 24 years.
The lad of 17 who had left home in 1271 was 41 when he returned.

It is believed that when the Polos landed in Venice, no one could recognise them. So they invited
all their friends and relatives to take dinner one night. The Polos were wearing the rough, ragged
clothes they had worn on this journey.

When the guests were all
present, the Polos tore
off the seams of their
clothes. Precious stones

and jewels fell from the
linings of the clothes
before the astonished
eyes of the guests.

Then they believed the
wonders of their journey
and welcomed them back
home.

But Marco Polo’s adventures were not yet over. He had to face many more years of hardship still.

War broke out between Venice and Genoa. Marco Polo, who was sailing one of his trading ships, was
taken prisoner. He remained in prison for three years, but he did not waste his time. He called for the
notes made on his journeys and dictated a book to a fellow prisoner. When peace was made after
three years, he was allowed to go home.

Marco Polo’s book became very famous. He had written not so much about his own adventures as
about things, places, and people he had seen. Among other places he had written about was Japan.

No one in Europe had ever heard of Japan before; no one even knew that it existed.
Marco Polo is supposed to have been the first European to have travelled right across Asia. People

in Europe had very little knowledge of the East in those days. They found it hard to believe much
of what Marco Polo had written. For centuries it was thought that the book was a collection of lies.

It was only in the nineteenth century that the facts were verified by travellers and scholars and
found generally to be true. There were, of course, certain things which Marco had only heard. These
were not always correct.

Marco’s book fired people’s fancy. Men who were fond of adventure began to dream of going out to
India and China and making their fortunes.

–An Adaptation

23