VOLUME I
_Containing the first volume of the 1903 edition_
DEDICATION.
TO THE MEMORY OF
SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., G.C.ST.A., G.C.ST.S.,
ETC.
THE PERFECT FRIEND
WHO FIRST BROUGHT HENRY YULE AND JOHN MURRAY TOGETHER
(HE ENTERED INTO REST, OCTOBER 22ND, 1871,)
AND TO THAT OF HIS MUCH LOVED NIECE,
HARRIET ISABELLA MURCHISON,
WIFE OF KENNETH ROBERT MURCHISON, D.L., J.P.,
(SHE ENTERED INTO REST, AUGUST 9TH, 1902,)
UNDER WHOSE EVER HOSPITABLE ROOF MANY OF THE PROOF
SHEETS OF THIS EDITION WERE READ BY ME,
I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES FROM
THE OLD MURCHISON HOME,
IN THANKFUL REMEMBRANCE OF ALL I OWE TO
THE ABIDING AFFECTION, SYMPATHY, AND EXAMPLE OF BOTH.
TARADALE, AMY FRANCES YULE.
ROSS-SHIRE, SEPTEMBER 11TH, 1902.
SCOTLAND.
* * * *
Ed è da noi sì strano,
Che quando ne ragiono
I’ non trovo nessuno,
Che l’abbia navicato,
* * * *
Le parti del Levante,
Là dove sono tante
Gemme di gran valute
E di molta salute:
E sono in quello giro
Balsamo, e ambra, e tiro,
E lo pepe, e lo legno
Aloe, ch’è sì degno,
E spigo, e cardamomo,
Giengiovo, e cennamomo;
E altre molte spezie,
Ciascuna in sua spezie,
E migliore, e più fina,
E sana in medicina.
Appresso in questo loco
Mise in assetto loco
Li tigri, e li grifoni,
Leofanti, e leoni
Cammelli, e dragomene,
Badalischi, e gene,
E pantere, e castoro,
Le formiche dell’oro,
E tanti altri animali,
Ch’io non so ben dir quali,
Che son sì divisati,
E sì dissomigliati
Di corpo e di fazione,
Di sì fera ragione,
E di sì strana taglia,
Ch’io non credo san faglia,
Ch’alcun uomo vivente
Potesse veramente
Per lingua, o per scritture
Recitar le figure
Delle bestie, e gli uccelli....
—From _Il Tesoretto di Ser Brunetto Latini_ (_circa_ MDCCLX.).
(_Florence_, 1824, pp. 83 _seqq._)
[Illustration]
Ἂνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
Πλάγχθη . . . . . . .
Πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω.
_Odyssey_, I.
————“I AM BECOME A NAME;
FOR ALWAYS ROAMING WITH A HUNGRY HEART
MUCH HAVE I SEEN AND KNOWN; CITIES OF MEN,
AND MANNERS, CLIMATES, COUNCILS, GOVERNMENTS,
MYSELF NOT LEAST, BUT HONOURED OF THEM ALL.”
TENNYSON.
“_A SEDER CI PONEMMO IVI AMBODUI
VÔLTI A LEVANTE, OND’ERAVAM SALITI;
CHÈ SUOLE A RIGUARDAR GIOVARE ALTRUI._”
DANTE, _Purgatory_, IV.
[Illustration: Messer Marco Polo, with Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo,
returned from xxvi years’ sojourn in the Orient, is denied entrance to
the Ca’ Polo. (See _Int._ p. _4_)]
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
page
DEDICATION iii
NOTE BY MISS YULE v
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION vii
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xi
ORIGINAL PREFACE xxi
ORIGINAL DEDICATION xxv
MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE BY AMY FRANCES YULE, L.A.SOC. ANT.
SCOT. xxvii
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIR HENRY YULE’S WRITINGS lxxv
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS lxxxiii
EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. xcvii
INTRODUCTORY NOTICES _1–144_
THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO.
NOTE BY MISS YULE.
I desire to take this opportunity of recording my grateful sense of
the unsparing labour, learning, and devotion, with which my father’s
valued friend, Professor Henri Cordier, has performed the difficult and
delicate task which I entrusted to his loyal friendship.
Apart from Professor Cordier’s very special qualifications for the
work, I feel sure that no other Editor could have been more entirely
acceptable to my father. I can give him no higher praise than to say
that he has laboured in Yule’s own spirit.
The slight Memoir which I have contributed (for which I accept all
responsibility), attempts no more than a rough sketch of my father’s
character and career, but it will, I hope, serve to recall pleasantly
his remarkable individuality to the few remaining who knew him in his
prime, whilst it may also afford some idea of the man, and his work and
environment, to those who had not that advantage.
No one can be more conscious than myself of its many shortcomings,
which I will not attempt to excuse. I can, however, honestly say that
these have not been due to negligence, but are rather the blemishes
almost inseparable from the fulfilment under the gloom of bereavement
and amidst the pressure of other duties, of a task undertaken in more
favourable circumstances.
Nevertheless, in spite of all defects, I believe this sketch to be such
a record as my father would himself have approved, and I know also that
he would have chosen my hand to write it.
In conclusion, I may note that the first edition of this work was
dedicated to that very noble lady, the Queen (then Crown Princess)
Margherita of Italy. In the second edition the Dedication was
reproduced within brackets (as also the original preface), but not
renewed. That precedent is again followed.
I have, therefore, felt at liberty to associate the present edition
of my father’s work with the Name MURCHISON, which for more than a
generation was the name most generally representative of British
Science in Foreign Lands, as of Foreign Science in Britain.
A. F. YULE.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
Little did I think, some thirty years ago, when I received a copy
of the first edition of this grand work, that I should be one day
entrusted with the difficult but glorious task of supervising the
third edition. When the first edition of the _Book of Ser Marco Polo_
reached “Far Cathay,” it created quite a stir in the small circle
of the learned foreigners, who then resided there, and became a
starting-point for many researches, of which the results have been
made use of partly in the second edition, and partly in the present.
The Archimandrite PALLADIUS and Dr. E. BRETSCHNEIDER, at Peking, ALEX.
WYLIE, at Shang-hai—friends of mine who have, alas! passed away, with
the exception of the Right Rev. Bishop G. E. MOULE, of Hang-chau, the
only survivor of this little group of hard-working scholars,—were the
first to explore the Chinese sources of information which were to yield
a rich harvest into their hands.
When I returned home from China in 1876, I was introduced to Colonel
HENRY YULE, at the India Office, by our common friend, Dr. REINHOLD
ROST, and from that time we met frequently and kept up a correspondence
which terminated only with the life of the great geographer, whose
friend I had become. A new edition of the travels of Friar Odoric
of Pordenone, our “mutual friend,” in which Yule had taken the
greatest interest, was dedicated by me to his memory. I knew that Yule
contemplated a third edition of his _Marco Polo_, and all will regret
that time was not allowed to him to complete this labour of love, to
see it published. If the duty of bringing out the new edition of _Marco
Polo_ has fallen on one who considers himself but an unworthy successor
of the first illustrious commentator, it is fair to add that the work
could not have been entrusted to a more respectful disciple. Many of
our tastes were similar; we had the same desire to seek the truth,
the same earnest wish to be exact, perhaps the same sense of humour,
and, what is necessary when writing on Marco Polo, certainly the same
love for Venice and its history. Not only am I, with the late CHARLES
SCHEFER, the founder and the editor of the _Recueil de Voyages et de
Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographie depuis le XIIIᵉ
jusqu’à la fin du XVIᵉ siècle_, but I am also the successor, at the
École des langues Orientales Vivantes, of G. PAUTHIER, whose book on
the Venetian Traveller is still valuable, so the mantle of the last two
editors fell upon my shoulders.
I therefore, gladly and thankfully, accepted Miss AMY FRANCIS YULE’S
kind proposal to undertake the editorship of the third edition of the
_Book of Ser Marco Polo_, and I wish to express here my gratitude to
her for the great honour she has thus done me.[1]
Unfortunately for his successor, Sir Henry Yule, evidently trusting
to his own good memory, left but few notes. These are contained in an
interleaved copy obligingly placed at my disposal by Miss Yule, but I
luckily found assistance from various other quarters. The following
works have proved of the greatest assistance to me:—The articles of
General HOUTUM-SCHINDLER in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_,
and the excellent books of Lord CURZON and of Major P. MOLESWORTH
SYKES on Persia, M. GRENARD’S account of DUTREUIL de RHINS’ Mission
to Central Asia, BRETSCHNEIDER’S and PALLADIUS’ remarkable papers
on Mediæval Travellers and Geography, and above all, the valuable
books of the Hon. W. W. ROCKHILL on Tibet and Rubruck, to which the
distinguished diplomatist, traveller, and scholar kindly added a list
of notes of the greatest importance to me, for which I offer him my
hearty thanks.
My thanks are also due to H.H. Prince ROLAND BONAPARTE, who kindly
gave me permission to reproduce some of the plates of his _Recueil
de Documents de l’Époque Mongole_, to M. LÉOPOLD DELISLE, the
learned Principal Librarian of the Bibliothèque Nationale, who gave
me the opportunity to study the inventory made after the death of
the Doge Marino Faliero, to the Count de SEMALLÉ, formerly French
Chargé d’Affaires at Peking, who gave me for reproduction a number
of photographs from his valuable personal collection, and last, not
least, my old friend Comm. NICOLÒ BAROZZI, who continued to lend me the
assistance which he had formerly rendered to Sir Henry Yule at Venice.
Since the last edition was published, more than twenty-five years
ago, Persia has been more thoroughly studied; new routes have been
explored in Central Asia, Karakorum has been fully described, and
Western and South-Western China have been opened up to our knowledge
in many directions. The results of these investigations form the main
features of this new edition of _Marco Polo_. I have suppressed hardly
any of Sir Henry Yule’s notes and altered but few, doing so only when
the light of recent information has proved him to be in error, but
I have supplemented them by what, I hope, will be found useful, new
information.[2]
Before I take leave of the kind reader, I wish to thank sincerely Mr.
JOHN MURRAY for the courtesy and the care he has displayed while this
edition was going through the press.
HENRI CORDIER.
PARIS, _1st of October, 1902_.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Miss Yule has written the Memoir of her father and the new
Dedication.
[2] Paragraphs which have been altered are marked thus ✛; my own
additions are placed between brackets [ ].—H. C.
[Illustration:
“=Now strike your Sailes yee jolly Mariners,
For we be come into a quiet Rode=”....
—THE FAERIE QUEENE, I. xii. 42.]
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The unexpected amount of favour bestowed on the former edition of this
Work has been a great encouragement to the Editor in preparing this
second one.
Not a few of the kind friends and correspondents who lent their aid
before have continued it to the present revision. The contributions
of Mr. A. WYLIE of Shang-hai, whether as regards the amount of labour
which they must have cost him, or the value of the result, demand
above all others a grateful record here. Nor can I omit to name again
with hearty acknowledgment Signor Comm. G. BERCHET of Venice, the Rev.
Dr. CALDWELL, Colonel (now Major-General) R. MACLAGAN, R.E., Mr. D.
HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr. EDWARD THOMAS, F.R.S. (Corresponding Member of the
Institute), and Mr. R. H. MAJOR.
But besides these old names, not a few new ones claim my thanks.
The Baron F. VON RICHTHOFEN, now President of the Geographical Society
of Berlin, a traveller who not only has trodden many hundreds of miles
in the footsteps of our Marco, but has perhaps travelled over more of
the Interior of China than Marco ever did, and who carried to that
survey high scientific accomplishments of which the Venetian had not
even a rudimentary conception, has spontaneously opened his bountiful
stores of new knowledge in my behalf. Mr. NEY ELIAS, who in 1872
traversed and mapped a line of upwards of 2000 miles through the almost
unknown tracts of Western Mongolia, from the Gate in the Great Wall at
Kalghan to the Russian frontier in the Altai, has done likewise.[1] To
the Rev. G. MOULE, of the Church Mission at Hang-chau, I owe a mass
of interesting matter regarding that once great and splendid city,
the KINSAY of our Traveller, which has enabled me, I trust, to effect
great improvement both in the Notes and in the Map, which illustrate
that subject. And to the Rev. CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS, LL.D., of the English
Presbyterian Mission at Amoy, I am scarcely less indebted. The learned
Professor BRUUN, of Odessa, whom I never have seen, and have little
likelihood of ever seeing in this world, has aided me with zeal and
cordiality like that of old friendship. To Mr. ARTHUR BURNELL, Ph.D.,
of the Madras Civil Service, I am grateful for many valuable notes
bearing on these and other geographical studies, and particularly for
his generous communication of the drawing and photograph of the ancient
Cross at St. Thomas’s Mount, long before any publication of that
subject was made on his own account. My brother officer, Major OLIVER
ST. JOHN, R.E., has favoured me with a variety of interesting remarks
regarding the Persian chapters, and has assisted me with new data, very
materially correcting the Itinerary Map in Kerman.
Mr. BLOCHMANN of the Calcutta Madrasa, Sir DOUGLAS FORSYTH, C.B.,
lately Envoy to Kashgar, M. de MAS LATRIE, the Historian of Cyprus,
Mr. ARTHUR GROTE, Mr. EUGENE SCHUYLER of the U.S. Legation at St.
Petersburg, Dr. BUSHELL and Mr. W. F. MAYERS, of H.M.’s Legation at
Peking, Mr. G. PHILLIPS of Fuchau, Madame OLGA FEDTCHENKO, the widow of
a great traveller too early lost to the world, Colonel KEATINGE, V.C.,
C.S.I., Major-General KEYES, C.B., Dr. GEORGE BIRDWOOD, Mr. BURGESS, of
Bombay, my old and valued friend Colonel W. H. GREATHED, C.B., and the
Master of Mediæval Geography, M. D’AVEZAC himself, with others besides,
have kindly lent assistance of one kind or another, several of them
spontaneously, and the rest in prompt answer to my requests.
Having always attached much importance to the matter of
illustrations,[2] I feel greatly indebted to the liberal action of Mr.
Murray in enabling me largely to increase their number in this edition.
Though many are original, we have also borrowed a good many;[3]
a proceeding which seems to me entirely unobjectionable when the
engravings are truly illustrative of the text, and not hackneyed.
I regret the augmented bulk of the volumes. There has been some
excision, but the additions visibly and palpably preponderate. The
truth is that since the completion of the first edition, just four
years ago, large additions have been made to the stock of our knowledge
bearing on the subjects of this Book; and how these additions have
continued to come in up to the last moment, may be seen in Appendix
L,[4] which has had to undergo repeated interpolation after being put
in type. KARAKORUM, for a brief space the seat of the widest empire
the world has known, has been visited; the ruins of SHANG-TU, the
“Xanadu of Cublay Khan,” have been explored; PAMIR and TANGUT have been
penetrated from side to side; the famous mountain Road of SHEN-SI has
been traversed and described; the mysterious CAINDU has been unveiled;
the publication of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier’s great
work on the French Exploration of Indo-China has provided a mass of
illustration of that YUN-NAN for which but the other day Marco Polo
was well-nigh the most recent authority. Nay, the last two years have
thrown a promise of light even on what seemed the wildest of Marco’s
stories, and the bones of a veritable RUC from New Zealand lie on the
table of Professor Owen’s Cabinet!
M. VIVIEN de St. MARTIN, during the interval of which we have been
speaking, has published a History of Geography. In treating of Marco
Polo, he alludes to the first edition of this work, most evidently with
no intention of disparagement, but speaks of it as merely a revision
of Marsden’s Book. The last thing I should allow myself to do would be
to apply to a Geographer, whose works I hold in so much esteem, the
disrespectful definition which the adage quoted in my former Preface[5]
gives of the _vir qui docet quod non sapit_; but I feel bound to say
that on this occasion M. Vivien de St. Martin has permitted himself to
pronounce on a matter with which he had not made himself acquainted;
for the perusal of the very first lines of the Preface (I will say
nothing of the Book) would have shown him that such a notion was
utterly unfounded.
In concluding these “forewords” I am probably taking leave of Marco
Polo,[6] the companion of many pleasant and some laborious hours,
whilst I have been contemplating with him (“_vôlti a levante_”) that
Orient in which I also had spent years not a few.
• • • • •
And as the writer lingered over this conclusion, his thoughts wandered
back in reverie to those many venerable libraries in which he had
formerly made search for mediæval copies of the Traveller’s story;
and it seemed to him as if he sate in a recess of one of these with
a manuscript before him which had never till then been examined with
any care, and which he found with delight to contain passages that
appear in no version of the Book hitherto known. It was written in
clear Gothic text, and in the Old French tongue of the early 14th
century. Was it possible that he had lighted on the long-lost original
of Ramusio’s Version? No; it proved to be different. Instead of the
tedious story of the northern wars, which occupies much of our Fourth
Book, there were passages occurring in the later history of Ser Marco,
some years after his release from the Genoese captivity. They appeared
to contain strange anachronisms certainly; but we have often had
occasion to remark on puzzles in the chronology of Marco’s story![7]
And in some respects they tended to justify our intimated suspicion
that he was a man of deeper feelings and wider sympathies than the book
of Rusticiano had allowed to appear.[8] Perhaps this time the Traveller
had found an amanuensis whose faculties had not been stiffened by
fifteen years of Malapaga?[9] One of the most important passages ran
thus:—
“_Bien est voirs que, après ce que |Messires Marc Pol| avoit pris
fame et si estoit demouré plusours ans de sa vie a |Venysse|, il
avint que mourut |Messires Mafés| qui oncles |Monseignour Marc|
estoit: (et mourut ausi ses granz chiens mastins qu’avoit amenei
dou Catai,[10] et qui avoit non |Bayan| pour l’amour au bon
chievetain |Bayan Cent-iex|); adonc n’avoit oncques puis |Messires
Marc| nullui, fors son esclave |Piere le Tartar|, avecques lequel
pouvoit penre soulas à s’entretenir de ses voiages et des choses
dou Levant. Car la gent de |Venysse| si avoit de grant piesce
moult anuy pris des loncs contes |Monseignour Marc|; et quand
ledit |Messires Marc| issoit de l’uys sa meson ou Sain Grisostome,
souloient li petit marmot es voies dariere-li courir en cryant
|Messer Marco Miliòn! cont’a nu un busiòn!| que veult dire en
François ‘Messires Marcs des millions di-nous un de vos gros
mensonges.’ En oultre, la Dame |Donate| fame anuyouse estoit, et de
trop estroit esprit, et plainne de convoitise.[11] Ansi avint que
|Messires Marc| desiroit es voiages rantrer durement._
_“Si se partist de |Venisse| et chevaucha aux parties d’occident.
Et demoura mainz jours es contrées de |Provence| et de |France| et
puys fist passaige aux Ysles de la tremontaingne et s’en retourna
par |la Magne|, si comme vous orrez cy-après. Et fist-il escripre
son voiage atout les devisements les contrées; mes de la France
n’y parloit mie grantment pour ce que maintes genz la scevent
apertement. Et pour ce en lairons atant, et commencerons d’autres
choses, assavoir, de |BRETAINGNE LA GRANT|._
=Cy devyse dou roiaume de Bretaingne la grant.=
_“Et sachiés que quand l’en se part de |Calés|, et l’en nage |XX|
ou |XXX| milles à trop grant mesaise, si treuve l’en une grandisme
Ysle qui s’appelle |Bretaingne la Grant|. Elle est à une grant royne
et n’en fait treuage à nulluy. Et ensevelissent lor mors, et ont
monnoye de chartres et d’or et d’argent, et ardent pierres noyres,
et vivent de marchandises et d’ars, et ont toutes choses de vivre
en grant habondance mais non pas à bon marchié. Et c’est une Ysle
de trop grant richesce, et li marinier de celle partie dient que
c’est li plus riches royaumes qui soit ou monde, et qu’il y a li
mieudre marinier dou monde et li mieudre coursier et li mieudre
chevalier (ains ne chevauchent mais lonc com François). Ausi ont-il
trop bons homes d’armes et vaillans durement (bien que maint n’y
ait), et les dames et damoseles bonnes et loialles, et belles com
lys souef florant. Et quoi vous en diroie-je? Il y a citez et
chasteau assez, et tant de marchéanz et si riches qui font venir
tant d’avoir-de-poiz et de toute espece de marchandise qu’il n’est
hons qui la verité en sceust dire. Font venir |d’Ynde| et d’autres
parties coton a grant planté, et font venir soye de |Manzi| et de
|Bangala|, et font venir laine des ysles de la Mer Occeane et de
toutes parties. Et si labourent maintz bouquerans et touailles et
autres draps de coton et de laine et de soye. Encores sachiés que
ont vaines d’acier assez, et si en labourent trop soubtivement de
tous hernois de chevalier, et de toutes choses besoignables à ost;
ce sont espées et glaive et esperon et heaume et haches, et toute
espèce d’arteillerie et de coutelerie, et en font grant gaaigne
et grant marchandise. Et en font si grant habondance que tout li
mondes en y puet avoir et à bon marchié._
=Encores cy devise dou dyt roiaume, et de ce qu’en dist Messires
Marcs.=
_“Et sachiés que tient icelle Royne la seigneurie de l’|Ynde
majeure| et de |Mutfili| et de |Bangala|, et d’une moitié de
|Mien|. Et moult est saige et noble dame et pourvéans, si que
est elle amée de chascun. Et avoit jadis mari; et depuys qu’il
mourut bien |XIV| ans avoit; adonc la royne sa fame l’ama tant que
oncques puis ne se voult marier a nullui, pour l’amour le prince
son baron, ançois moult maine quoye vie. Et tient son royaume ausi
bien ou miex que oncques le tindrent li roy si aioul. Mes ores en
ce royaume li roy n’ont guieres pooir, ains la poissance commence
a trespasser à la menue gent. Et distrent aucun marinier de celes
parties à |Monseignour Marc| que hui-et-le jour li royaumes soit
auques abastardi come je vous diroy. Car bien est voirs que
ci-arrières estoit ciz pueple de |Bretaingne la Grant| bonne et
granz et loialle gent qui servoit Diex moult volontiers selonc lor
usaige; et tuit li labour qu’il labouroient et portoient a vendre
estoient honnestement labouré, et dou greigneur vaillance, et
chose pardurable; et se vendoient à jouste pris sanz barguignier.
En tant que se aucuns labours portoit l’estanpille |Bretaingne
la Grant| c’estoit regardei com pleges de bonne estoffe. Mes
orendroit li labours n’est mie tousjourz si bons; et quand l’en
achate pour un quintal pesant de toiles de coton, adonc, par trop
souvent, si treuve l’en de chascun |C| pois de coton, bien |XXX|
ou |XL| pois de plastre de gifs, ou de blanc d’Espaigne, ou de
choses semblables. Et se l’en achate de cammeloz ou de tireteinne
ou d’autre dras de laine, cist ne durent mie, ains sont plain
d’empoise, ou de glu et de balieures._
_“Et bien qu’il est voirs que chascuns hons egalement doit de son
cors servir son seigneur ou sa commune, pour aler en ost en tens
de besoingne; et bien que trestuit li autre royaume d’occident
tieingnent ce pour ordenance, ciz pueple de |Bretaingne la
Grant| n’en veult nullement, ains si dient: ‘Veez-là: n’avons
nous pas la |Manche| pour fossé de nostre pourpris, et pourquoy
nous penerons-nous pour nous faire homes d’armes, en lessiant
nos gaaignes et nos soulaz? Cela lairons aus soudaiers.’ Or li
preudhome entre eulx moult scevent bien com tiex paroles sont
nyaises; mes si ont paour de lour en dire la verité pour ce que
cuident desplaire as bourjois et à la menue gent._
_“Or je vous di sanz faille que, quand |Messires Marcs Pols| sceust
ces choses, moult en ot pitié de cestui pueple, et il li vint à
remembrance ce que avenu estoit, ou tens |Monseignour Nicolas| et
|Monseignour Mafé|, à l’ore quand |Alau|, frère charnel dou Grant
Sire |Cublay|, ala en ost seur |Baudas|, et print le |Calife| et sa
maistre cité, atout son vaste tresor d’or et d’argent, et l’amère
parolle que dist ledit Alau au Calife, com l’a escripte li Maistres
Rusticiens ou chief de cestui livre.[12]_
_“Car sachiés tout voirement que |Messires Marc| moult se deleitoit
à faire appert combien sont pareilles au font les condicions des
diverses regions dou monde, et soloit-il clorre son discours si
disant en son language de |Venisse:| ‘|Sto mondo xe fato tondo|,
com uzoit dire mes oncles Mafés.’_
_“Ore vous lairons à conter de ceste matière et retournerons à
parler de la Loy des genz de |Bretaingne la Grant|._
=Cy devise des diverses créances de la gent Bretaingne la Grant et
de ce qu’en cuidoit Messires Marcs.=
_“Il est voirs que li pueples est Crestiens, mes non pour le
plus selonc la foy de l’Apostoille Rommain, ains tiennent le en
mautalent assez. Seulement il y en a aucun qui sont féoil du
dit Apostoille et encore plus forment que li nostre prudhome de
|Venisse|. Car quand dit li Papes: ‘Telle ou telle chose est
noyre,’ toute ladite gent si en jure: ‘Noyre est com poivre.’ Et
puis se dira li Papes de la dite chose: ‘Elle est blanche,’ si
en jurera toute ladite gent: ‘Il est voirs qu’elle est blanche;
blanche est com noifs.’ Et dist |Messires Marc Pol|: ‘Nous n’avons
nullement tant de foy à |Venyse|, ne li prudhome de |Florence| non
plus, com l’en puet savoir bien apertement dou livre Monseignour
|Dantès Aldiguiere|, que j’ay congneu a |Padoe| le meisme an que
Messires |Thibault de Cepoy| à |Venisse| estoit.[13] Mes c’est
joustement ce que j’ay veu autre foiz près le Grant |Bacsi| qui est
com li Papes des Ydres.’_
_“Encore y a une autre manière de gent; ce sont de celz qui
s’appellent filsoufes;[14] et si il disent: ‘S’il y a Diex n’en
scavons nul, mes il est voirs qu’il est une certeinne courance
des choses laquex court devers le bien.’ Et fist |Messires Marcs|:
‘Encore la créance des |Bacsi| qui dysent que n’y a ne Diex Eternel
ne Juge des homes, ains il est une certeinne chose laquex s’appelle
|Kerma|.’[15]_
_“Une autre foiz avint que disoit un des filsoufes à |Monseignour
Marc|: ‘Diex n’existe mie jeusqu’ores, ainçois il se fait
desorendroit.’ Et fist encore |Messires Marcs|: ‘Veez-là, une autre
foiz la créance des ydres, car dient que li seuz Diex est icil
hons qui par force de ses vertuz et de son savoir tant pourchace
que d’home il se face Diex presentement. Et li Tartar l’appelent
|Borcan|. Tiex Diex |Sagamoni Borcan| estoit, dou quel parle li
livres Maistre |Rusticien|.’[16]_
_“Encore ont une autre manière de filsoufes, et dient-il: ‘Il n’est
mie ne Diex ne |Kerma| ne courance vers le bien, ne Providence,
ne Créerres, ne Sauvours, ne sainteté ne pechiés ne conscience de
pechié, ne proyère ne response à proyère, il n’est nulle riens fors
que trop minime grain ou paillettes qui ont à nom |atosmes|, et
de tiex grains devient chose qui vive, et chose qui vive devient
une certeinne creature qui demoure au rivaige de la Mer: et ceste
creature devient poissons, et poissons devient lezars, et lezars
devient blayriaus, et blayriaus devient gat-maimons, et gat-maimons
devient hons sauvaiges qui menjue char d’homes, et hons sauvaiges
devient hons crestien.’_
_“Et dist |Messires Marc|: ‘Encore une foiz, biaus sires, li
|Bacsi| de |Tebet| et de |Kescemir| et li prestre de |Seilan|, qui
si dient que l’arme vivant doie trespasser par tous cez changes de
vestemens; si com se treuve escript ou livre |Maistre Rusticien|
que |Sagamoni Borcan| mourut iiij vint et iiij foiz et tousjourz
resuscita, et à chascune foiz d’une diverse manière de beste, et
à la derreniere foyz mourut hons et devint diex, selonc ce qu’il
dient.’[17] Et fist encore |Messires Marc|: ‘A moy pert-il trop
estrange chose se juesques à toutes les créances des ydolastres
deust dechéoir ceste grantz et saige nation. Ainsi peuent jouer
Misire li filsoufe atout lour propre perte, mes à l’ore quand tiex
fantaisies se respanderont es joenes bacheliers et parmy la menue
gent, celz averont pour toute Loy =manducemus et bibamus, cras
enim moriemur=; et trop isnellement l’en raccomencera la descente
de l’eschiele, et d’home crestien deviendra hons sauvaiges, et
d’home sauvaige gat-maimons, et de gat-maimon blayriaus.’ Et fist
encores |Messires Marc|: ‘Maintes contrées et provinces et ysles
et citéz je |Marc Pol| ay veues et de maintes genz de maintes
manières ay les condicionz congneues, et je croy bien que il est
plus assez dedens l’univers que ce que li nostre prestre n’y
songent. Et puet bien estre, biaus sires, que li mondes n’a estés
creés à tous poinz com nous creiens, ains d’une sorte encore
plus merveillouse. Mes cil n’amenuise nullement nostre pensée de
Diex et de sa majesté, ains la fait greingnour. Et contrée n’ay
veue ou Dame Diex ne manifeste apertement les granz euvres de sa
tout-poissante saigesse; gent n’ay congneue esquiex ne se fait
sentir li fardels de pechié, et la besoingne de Phisicien des
maladies de l’arme tiex com est nostre Seignours Ihesus Crist, Beni
soyt son Non. Pensez doncques à cel qu’a dit uns de ses Apostres:
=Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmet ipsos=; et uns autres: =Quoniam
multi pseudo-prophetae exierint=; et uns autres: =Quod venient in
novissimis diebus illusores ... dicentes, Ubi est promissio?= et
encores aus parolles que dist li Signours meismes: =Vide ergo ne
lumen quod in te est tenebrae sint=._
=Commant Messires Marcs se partist de l’ysle de Bretaingne et de la
proyère que fist=.
_“Et pourquoy vous en feroie-je lonc conte? Si print nef |Messires
Marcs| et se partist en nageant vers la terre ferme. Or |Messires
Marc Pol| moult ama cel roiaume de |Bretaingne la grant| pour son
viex renon et s’ancienne franchise, et pour sa saige et bonne Royne
(que Diex gart), et pour les mainz homes de vaillance et bons
chaceours et les maintes bonnes et honnestes dames qui y estoient.
Et sachiés tout voirement que en estant delez le bort la nef, et
en esgardant aus roches blanches que l’en par dariere-li lessoit,
|Messires Marc| prieoit Diex, et disoit-il: ‘Ha Sires Diex ay merci
de cestuy vieix et noble royaume; fay-en pardurable forteresse de
liberté et de joustice, et garde-le de tout meschief de dedens et
de dehors; donne à sa gent droit esprit pour ne pas Diex guerroyer
de ses dons, ne de richesce ne de savoir; et conforte-les fermement
en ta foy’ ...”_
A loud _Amen_ seemed to peal from without, and the awakened reader
started to his feet. And lo! it was the thunder of the winter-storm
crashing among the many-tinted crags of Monte Pellegrino,—with the wind
raging as it knows how to rage here in sight of the Isles of Æolus,
and the rain dashing on the glass as ruthlessly as it well could have
done, if, instead of Æolic Isles and many-tinted crags, the window had
fronted a dearer shore beneath a northern sky, and looked across the
grey Firth to the rain-blurred outline of the Lomond Hills.
But I end, saying to Messer Marco’s prayer, Amen.
PALERMO, _31st December, 1874_.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] It would be ingratitude if this Preface contained no acknowledgment
of the medals awarded to the writer, mainly for this work, by the
Royal Geographical Society, and by the Geographical Society of
Italy, the former under the Presidence of Sir Henry Rawlinson,
the latter under that of the Commendatore C. Negri. Strongly as
I feel the too generous appreciation of these labours implied
in such awards, I confess to have been yet more deeply touched
and gratified by practical evidence of the approval of the two
distinguished Travellers mentioned above; as shown by Baron von
Richthofen in his spontaneous proposal to publish a German version
of the book under his own immediate supervision (a project in
abeyance, owing to circumstances beyond his or my control); by Mr.
Ney Elias in the fact of his having carried these ponderous volumes
with him on his solitary journey across the Mongolian wilds!
[2] I am grateful to Mr. de Khanikoff for his especial recognition of
these in a kindly review of the first edition in the _Academy_.
[3] Especially from Lieutenant Garnier’s book, mentioned further on;
the only existing source of illustration for many chapters of Polo.
[4] [Merged into the notes of the present edition.—H. C.]
[5] See page xxix.
[6] Writing in Italy, perhaps I ought to write, according to too
prevalent modern Italian custom, _Polo Marco_. I have already
_seen_, and in the work of a writer of reputation, the Alexandrian
geographer styled _Tolomeo Claudio_! and if this preposterous
fashion should continue to spread, we shall in time have _Tasso
Torquato_, _Jonson Ben_, Africa explored by _Park Mungo_, Asia
conquered by _Lane Tamer_, Copperfield David by _Dickens Charles_,
Homer Englished by _Pope Alexander_, and the Roman history done
into French from the original of _Live Tite_!
[7] Introduction p. _24_, and _passim_ in the notes.
[8] _Ibid._, p. _112_.
[9] See Introduction, pp. _51_, _57_.
[10] See Title of present volumes.
[11] Which quite agrees with the story of the document quoted at p.
_77_ of Introduction.
[12] Vol. i. p. 64, and p. 67.
[13] _I.e._ 1306; see Introduction, pp. _68–69_.
[14] The form which Marco gives to this word was probably a
reminiscence of the Oriental corruption _failsúf_. It recalls to
my mind a Hindu who was very fond of the word, and especially of
applying it to certain of his fellow-servants. But as he used it,
_bara failsúf_,—“great philosopher”—meant exactly the same as the
modern slang “_Artful Dodger_”!
[15] See for the explanation of _Karma_, “the power that controls the
universe,” in the doctrine of atheistic Buddhism, Hardy’s _Eastern
Monachism_, p. 5.
[16] Vol. ii. p. 316 (see also i. 348).
[17] Vol. ii. pp. 318–319.
ORIGINAL PREFACE.
The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance with the
mediæval geography of some parts of Asia, which was acquired during the
compilation of a work of kindred character for the Hakluyt Society,[1]
could hardly fail to suggest as a fresh labour in the same field
the preparation of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one
kindly critic (in the _Examiner_) laid it upon the writer as a duty to
undertake that task.
Though at least one respectable English edition has appeared since
Marsden’s,[2] the latter has continued to be the standard edition, and
maintains not only its reputation but its market value. It is indeed
the work of a sagacious, learned, and right-minded man, which can never
be spoken of otherwise than with respect. But since Marsden published
his quarto (1818) vast stores of new knowledge have become available
in elucidation both of the contents of Marco Polo’s book and of its
literary history. The works of writers such as Klaproth, Abel Rémusat,
D’Avezac, Reinaud, Quatremère, Julien, I. J. Schmidt, Gildemeister,
Ritter, Hammer-Purgstall, Erdmann, D’Ohsson, Defrémery, Elliot,
Erskine, and many more, which throw light directly or incidentally
on Marco Polo, have, for the most part, appeared since then. Nor, as
regards the literary history of the book, were any just views possible
at a time when what may be called the _Fontal_ MSS. (in French) were
unpublished and unexamined.
Besides the works which have thus occasionally or incidentally
thrown light upon the Traveller’s book, various editions of the book
itself have since Marsden’s time been published in foreign countries,
accompanied by comments of more or less value. All have contributed
something to the illustration of the book or its history; the last and
most learned of the editors, M. Pauthier, has so contributed in large
measure. I had occasion some years ago[3] to speak freely my opinion
of the merits and demerits of M. Pauthier’s work; and to the latter at
least I have no desire to recur here.
Another of his critics, a much more accomplished as well as more
favourable one,[4] seems to intimate the opinion that there would
scarcely be room in future for new commentaries. Something of the
kind was said of Marsden’s at the time of its publication. I imagine,
however, that whilst our libraries endure the _Iliad_ will continue
to find new translators, and Marco Polo—though one hopes not so
plentifully—new editors.
The justification of the book’s existence must however be looked
for, and it is hoped may be found, in the book itself, and not in
the Preface. The work claims to be judged as a whole, but it may be
allowable, in these days of scanty leisure, to indicate below a few
instances of what is believed to be new matter in an edition of Marco
Polo; by which however it is by no means intended that all such matter
is claimed by the editor as his own.[5]
From the commencement of the work it was felt that the task was
one which no man, though he were far better equipped and much more
conveniently situated than the present writer, could satisfactorily
accomplish from his own resources, and help was sought on special
points wherever it seemed likely to be found. In scarcely any quarter
was the application made in vain. Some who have aided most materially
are indeed very old and valued friends; but to many others who have
done the same the applicant was unknown; and some of these again, with
whom the editor began correspondence on this subject as a stranger, he
is happy to think that he may now call friends.
To none am I more indebted than to the Comm. GUGLIELMO BERCHET, of
Venice, for his ample, accurate, and generous assistance in furnishing
me with Venetian documents, and in many other ways. Especial thanks
are also due to Dr. WILLIAM LOCKHART, who has supplied the materials
for some of the most valuable illustrations; to Lieutenant FRANCIS
GARNIER, of the French Navy, the gallant and accomplished leader
(after the death of Captain Doudart de la Grée) of the memorable
expedition up the Mekong to Yun-nan; to the Rev. Dr. CALDWELL, of
the S. P. G. Mission in Tinnevelly, for copious and valuable notes
on Southern India; to my friends Colonel ROBERT MACLAGAN, R.E., Sir
ARTHUR PHAYRE, and Colonel HENRY MAN, for very valuable notes and
other aid; to Professor A. SCHIEFNER, of St. Petersburg, for his
courteous communication of very interesting illustrations not otherwise
accessible; to Major-General ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM, of my own corps, for
several valuable letters; to my friends Dr. THOMAS OLDHAM, Director
of the Geological Survey of India, Mr. DANIEL HANBURY, F.R.S., Mr.
EDWARD THOMAS, Mr. JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S., Sir BARTLE FRERE, and Dr.
HUGH CLEGHORN, for constant interest in the work and readiness to
assist its progress; to Mr. A. WYLIE, the learned Agent of the B. and
F. Bible Society at Shang-hai, for valuable help; to the Hon. G. P.
MARSH, U.S. Minister at the Court of Italy, for untiring kindness in
the communication of his ample stores of knowledge, and of books. I
have also to express my obligations to Comm. NICOLÒ BAROZZI, Director
of the City Museum at Venice, and to Professor A. S. MINOTTO, of the
same city; to Professor ARMINIUS VÁMBÉRY, the eminent traveller;
to Professor FLÜCKIGER of Bern; to the Rev. H. A. JAESCHKE, of the
Moravian Mission in British Tibet; to Colonel LEWIS PELLY, British
Resident in the Persian Gulf; to Pandit MANPHUL, C.S.I. (for a most
interesting communication on Badakhshan); to my brother officer,
Major T. G. MONTGOMERIE, R.E., of the Indian Trigonometrical Survey;
to Commendatore NEGRI the indefatigable President of the Italian
Geographical Society; to Dr. ZOTENBERG, of the Great Paris Library, and
to M. CH. MAUNOIR, Secretary-General of the Société de Géographie; to
Professor HENRY GIGLIOLI, at Florence; to my old friend Major-General
ALBERT FYTCHE, Chief Commissioner of British Burma; to Dr. ROST and
Dr. FORBES-WATSON, of the India Office Library and Museum; to Mr.
R. H. MAJOR, and Mr. R. K. DOUGLAS, of the British Museum; to Mr.
N. B. DENNYS, of Hong-kong; and to Mr. C. GARDNER, of the Consular
Establishment in China. There are not a few others to whom my thanks
are equally due; but it is feared that the number of names already
mentioned may seem ridiculous, compared with the result, to those who
do not appreciate from how many quarters the facts needful for a work
which in its course intersects so many fields required to be collected,
one by one. I must not, however, omit acknowledgments to the present
Earl of DERBY for his courteous permission, when at the head of the
Foreign Office, to inspect Mr. Abbott’s valuable unpublished Report
upon some of the Interior Provinces of Persia; and to Mr. T. T. COOPER,
one of the most adventurous travellers of modern times, for leave to
quote some passages from his unpublished diary.
PALERMO, _31st December, 1870_.
[_Original Dedication._]
TO
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS,
MARGHERITA,
_Princess of Piedmont_,
THIS ENDEAVOUR TO ILLUSTRATE THE LIFE AND WORK
OF A RENOWNED ITALIAN
IS
BY HER ROYAL HIGHNESS’S GRACIOUS PERMISSION
=Dedicated=
WITH THE DEEPEST RESPECT
BY
H. YULE.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] _Cathay and The Way Thither, being a Collection of Minor Medieval
Notices of China_. London, 1866. The necessities of the case have
required the repetition in the present work of the substance of
some notes already printed (but hardly published) in the other.
[2] Viz. Mr. Hugh Murray’s. I mean no disrespect to Mr. T. Wright’s
edition, but it is, and professes to be, scarcely other than a
reproduction of Marsden’s, with abridgment of his notes.
[3] In the _Quarterly Review_ for July, 1868.
[4] M. Nicolas Khanikoff.
[5] In the Preliminary Notices will be found new matter on the Personal
and Family History of the Traveller, illustrated by Documents; and
a more elaborate attempt than I have seen elsewhere to classify and
account for the different texts of the work, and to trace their
mutual relation.
As regards geographical elucidations, I may point to the
explanation of the name _Gheluchelan_ (i. p. 58), to the discussion
of the route from Kerman to Hormuz, and the identification of the
sites of Old Hormuz, of _Cobinan_ and _Dogana_, the establishment
of the position and continued existence of _Keshm_, the note on
_Pein_ and _Charchan_, on _Gog_ and _Magog_, on the geography of
the route from _Sindafu_ to _Carajan_, on _Anin_ and _Coloman_, on
_Mutafili_, _Cail_, and _Ely_.
As regards historical illustrations, I would cite the notes
regarding the Queens _Bolgana_ and _Cocachin_, on the _Karaunahs_,
etc., on the title of King of _Bengal_ applied to the K. of Burma,
and those bearing upon the Malay and Abyssinian chronologies.
In the interpretation of outlandish phrases, I may refer to the
notes on _Ondanique_, _Nono_, _Barguerlac_, _Argon_, _Sensin_,
_Keshican_, _Toscaol_, _Bularguchi_, _Gat-paul_, etc.
Among miscellaneous elucidations, to the disquisition on the _Arbre
Sol_ or _Sec_ in vol. i., and to that on Mediæval Military Engines
in vol. ii.
In a variety of cases it has been necessary to refer to Eastern
languages for pertinent elucidations or etymologies. The editor
would, however, be sorry to fall under the ban of the mediæval
adage:
“_Vir qui docet quod non sapit Definitur Bestia!_”
and may as well reprint here what was written in the Preface to
_Cathay_:
“I am painfully sensible that in regard to many subjects dealt
with in the following pages, nothing can make up for the want of
genuine Oriental learning. A fair familiarity with Hindustani for
many years, and some reminiscences of elementary Persian, have been
useful in their degree; but it is probable that they may sometimes
also have led me astray, as such slender lights are apt to do.”
[Illustration]
TO
HENRY YULE.
Until you raised dead monarchs from the mould
And built again the domes of Xanadu,
I lay in evil case, and never knew
The glamour of that ancient story told
By good Ser Marco in his prison-hold.
But now I sit upon a throne and view
The Orient at my feet, and take of you
And Marco tribute from the realms of old.
If I am joyous, deem me not o’er bold;
If I am grateful, deem me not untrue;
For you have given me beauties to behold,
Delight to win, and fancies to pursue,
Fairer than all the jewelry and gold
Of Kublaï on his throne in Cambalu.
E. C. BABER.
_20th July, 1884._
MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE.
Henry Yule was the youngest son of Major William Yule, by his first
wife, Elizabeth Paterson, and was born at Inveresk, in Midlothian, on
1st May, 1820. He was named after an _aunt_ who, like Miss Ferrier’s
immortal heroine, owned a man’s name.
On his father’s side he came of a hardy agricultural stock,[1] improved
by a graft from that highly-cultured tree, Rose of Kilravock.[2]
Through his mother, a somewhat prosaic person herself, he inherited
strains from Huguenot and Highland ancestry. There were recognisable
traces of all these elements in Henry Yule, and as was well said
by one of his oldest friends: “He was one of those curious racial
compounds one finds on the east side of Scotland, in whom the hard
Teutonic grit is sweetened by the artistic spirit of the more genial
Celt.”[3] His father, an officer of the Bengal army (born 1764, died
1839), was a man of cultivated tastes and enlightened mind, a good
Persian and Arabic scholar, and possessed of much miscellaneous
Oriental learning. During the latter years of his career in India, he
served successively as Assistant Resident at the (then independent)
courts of Lucknow[4] and Delhi. In the latter office his chief was the
noble Ouchterlony. William Yule, together with his younger brother
Udny,[5] returned home in 1806. “A recollection of their voyage was
that they hailed an outward bound ship, somewhere off the Cape, through
the trumpet: ‘What news?’ Answer: ‘The King’s mad, and Humfrey’s beat
Mendoza’ (two celebrated prize-fighters and often matched). ‘Nothing
more?’ ‘Yes, Bonapart_y_’s made his _Mother_ King of Holland!’
“Before his retirement, William Yule was offered the
Lieut.-Governorship of St. Helena. Two of the detailed privileges
of the office were residence at Longwood (afterwards the house of
Napoleon), and the use of a certain number of the Company’s slaves.
Major Yule, who was a strong supporter of the anti-slavery cause
till its triumph in 1834, often recalled both of these offers with
amusement.”[6]
William Yule was a man of generous chivalrous nature, who took large
views of life, apt to be unfairly stigmatised as Radical in the narrow
Tory reaction that prevailed in Scotland during the early years of the
19th century.[7] Devoid of literary ambition, he wrote much for his
private pleasure, and his knowledge and library (rich in Persian and
Arabic MSS.) were always placed freely at the service of his friends
and correspondents, some of whom, such as Major C. Stewart and Mr.
William Erskine, were more given to publication than himself. He never
travelled without a little 8vo MS. of Hafiz, which often lay under his
pillow. Major Yule’s only printed work was a lithographed edition of
the _Apothegms_ of ’Ali, the son of Abu Talib, in the Arabic, with an
old Persian version and an English translation interpolated by himself.
“This was privately issued in 1832, when the Duchesse d’Angoulême was
living at Edinburgh, and the little work was inscribed to her, with
whom an accident of neighbourhood and her kindness to the Major’s
youngest child had brought him into relations of goodwill.”[8]
Henry Yule’s childhood was mainly spent at Inveresk. He used to say
that his earliest recollection was sitting with the little cousin,
who long after became his wife, on the doorstep of her father’s house
in George Street, Edinburgh (now the Northern Club), listening to the
performance of a passing piper. There was another episode which he
recalled with humorous satisfaction. Fired by his father’s tales of
the jungle, Yule (then about six years old) proceeded to improvise an
elephant pit in the back garden, only too successfully, for soon, with
mingled terror and delight, he saw his uncle John[9] fall headlong
into the snare. He lost his mother before he was eight, and almost his
only remembrance of her was the circumstance of her having given him
a little lantern to light him home on winter nights from his first
school. On Sundays it was the Major’s custom to lend his children,
as a picture-book, a folio Arabic translation of the Four Gospels,
printed at Rome in 1591, which contained excellent illustrations from
Italian originals.[10] Of the pictures in this volume Yule seems never
to have tired. The last page bore a MS. note in Latin to the effect
that the volume had been read in the Chaldæan Desert by _Georgius
Strachanus_, _Milnensis_, _Scotus_, who long remained unidentified, not
to say mythical, in Yule’s mind. But George Strachan never passed from
his memory, and having ultimately run him to earth, Yule, sixty years
later, published the results in an interesting article.[11]
Two or three years after his wife’s death, Major Yule removed to
Edinburgh, and established himself in Regent’s Terrace, on the face
of the Calton Hill.[12] This continued to be Yule’s home until his
father’s death, shortly before he went to India. “Here he learned to
love the wide scenes of sea and land spread out around that hill—a
love he never lost, at home or far away. And long years after, with
beautiful Sicilian hills before him and a lovely sea, he writes words
of fond recollection of the bleak Fife hills, and the grey Firth of
Forth.”[13]
Yule now followed his elder brother, Robert, to the famous High School,
and in the summer holidays the two made expeditions to the West
Highlands, the Lakes of Cumberland, and elsewhere. Major Yule chose his
boys to have every reasonable indulgence and advantage, and when the
British Association, in 1834, held its first Edinburgh meeting, Henry
received a member’s ticket. So, too, when the passing of the Reform
Bill was celebrated in the same year by a great banquet, at which Lord
Grey and other prominent politicians were present, Henry was sent to
the dinner, probably the youngest guest there.[14]
At this time the intention was that Henry should go to Cambridge (where
his name was, indeed, entered), and after taking his degree study for
the Bar. With this view he was, in 1833, sent to Waith, near Ripon, to
be coached by the Rev. H. P. Hamilton, author of a well-known treatise,
_On Conic Sections_, and afterwards Dean of Salisbury. At his tutor’s
hospitable rectory Yule met many notabilities of the day. One of them
was Professor Sedgwick.
There was rumoured at this time the discovery of the first known (?)
fossil monkey, but its tail was missing. “Depend upon it, Daniel
O’Conell’s got hold of it!” said ‘Adam’ briskly.[15] Yule was very
happy with Mr. Hamilton and his kind wife, but on his tutor’s removal
to Cambridge other arrangements became necessary, and in 1835 he was
transferred to the care of the Rev. James Challis, rector of Papworth
St. Everard, a place which “had little to recommend it except a
dulness which made reading almost a necessity.”[16] Mr. Challis had at
this time two other resident pupils, who both, in most diverse ways,
attained distinction in the Church. These were John Mason Neale, the
future eminent ecclesiologist and founder of the devoted Anglican
Sisterhood of St. Margaret, and Harvey Goodwin, long afterwards the
studious and large-minded Bishop of Carlisle. With the latter, Yule
remained on terms of cordial friendship to the end of his life. Looking
back through more than fifty years to these boyish days, Bishop Goodwin
wrote that Yule then “showed much more liking for Greek plays and for
German than for mathematics, though he had considerable geometrical
ingenuity.”[17] On one occasion, having solved a problem that puzzled
Goodwin, Yule thus discriminated the attainments of the three pupils:
“The difference between you and me is this: You like it and can’t do
it; I don’t like it and can do it. Neale neither likes it nor can do
it.” Not bad criticism for a boy of fifteen.[18]
On Mr. Challis being appointed Plumerian Professor at Cambridge, in the
spring of 1836, Yule had to leave him, owing to want of room at the
Observatory, and he became for a time, a most dreary time, he said, a
student at University College, London.
By this time Yule had made up his mind that not London and the Law,
but India and the Army should be his choice, and accordingly in Feb.
1837 he joined the East India Company’s Military College at Addiscombe.
From Addiscombe he passed out, in December 1838, at the head of the
cadets of his term (taking the prize sword[19]), and having been duly
appointed to the Bengal Engineers, proceeded early in 1839 to the
Headquarters of the Royal Engineers at Chatham, where, according to
custom, he was enrolled as a “local and temporary Ensign.” For such
was then the invidious designation at Chatham of the young Engineer
officers of the Indian army, who ranked as full lieutenants in their
own Service, from the time of leaving Addiscombe.[20] Yule once
audaciously tackled the formidable Pasley on this very grievance. The
venerable Director, after a minute’s pondering, replied: “Well, I don’t
remember what the reason was, but I have _no_ doubt (_staccato_) it ...
was ... a very ... _good_ reason.”[21]
“When Yule appeared among us at Chatham in 1839,” said his friend
Collinson, “he at once took a prominent place in our little Society by
his slightly advanced age [he was then 18½], but more by his strong
character.... His earlier education ... gave him a better classical
knowledge than most of us possessed; then he had the reserve and
self-possession characteristic of his race; but though he took small