Eight hundred years before Marco Polo's birth, some of the people
of North Italy had fled before the Attila to the muddy islands of
the Adriatic and founded Venice upon them. Since then the little
settlement had become the most wealthy and powerful city of Europe.
Venice was the queen of the Adriatic and her merchants were princes.
They had vessels to bring the costly wares of the East to their
wharves; they had warships to protect their rich cargoes from the
pirates of the Mediterranean; they carried on wars. At the time
when Marco Polo returned from Cathay they were at war with Gen'o-a.
The two cities were fighting for the trade of the world. In a great
naval battle the Venetians were completely defeated. Marco Polo
was in the battle and with many of his countrymen was captured
by the enemy. For a year he was confined in a Genoese prison. One
of his fellow-prisoners was a skillful penman and Marco dictated
to him an account of his experiences in China, Japan, and other
Eastern countries. This account was carefully written out. Copies
of the manuscript exist to this day. One of these is in a library
in Paris. It was carried into France in the year 1307. Another
copy is preserved in the city of Berne. It is said that the book
was translated into many languages, so that people in all parts
of Europe learned about Marco's adventures.
About a hundred and seventy-five years after the book was written,
the famous Genoese, Christopher Columbus, planned his voyage across
the Atlantic. It is believed that he had read Marco's description
of Java, Sumatra and other East India Islands, which he thought he
had reached when he discovered Hai'ti and Cuba. So Marco Polo may
have suggested to Columbus the voyage which led to the discovery
of America.