CHAPTER I.

HOW THE TWO BROTHERS POLO SET FORTH FROM CONSTANTINOPLE

TO TRAVERSE THE WORLD.

It came to pass in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin was reigning

at Constantinople,{1} that Messer Nicolas Polo, the father of my lord

Mark, and Messer Maffeo Polo, the brother of Messer Nicolas, were at

the said city of CONSTANTINOPLE, whither they had gone from Venice with

their merchants’ wares. Now these two Brethren, men singularly noble,

wise, and provident, took counsel together to cross the GREATER SEA on

a venture of trade; so they laid in a store of jewels and set forth

from Constantinople, crossing the Sea to SOLDAIA.{2}

NOTE 1.—Baldwin II. (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of

Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by

Michael Palaeologus.

The date in the text is, as we see, that of the Brothers’ voyage

across the Black Sea. It stands 1250 in all the chief texts.

But the figure is certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the

Brothers return to Venice in 1269, they find Mark, who, according

to Ramusio’s version, was _born after their departure_, a lad of

fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, they must have left Venice

about 1253–54. And we shall see also that they reached the Volga

in 1261. Hence their start from Constantinople may well have

occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as the most probable

correction. Where they spent the interval between 1254 (if they

really left Venice so early) and 1260, nowhere appears. But as

their brother, Mark the Elder, in his Will styles himself “_whilom

of Constantinople_,” their headquarters were probably there.

[Illustration: Castle of Soldaia or Sudak.]

NOTE 2.—In the Middle Ages the Euxine was frequently called _Mare

Magnum_ or _Majus_. Thus Chaucer:—

“In the GRETE SEE,

At many a noble Armee hadde he be.”

The term Black Sea (_Mare Maurum_ v. _Nigrum_) was, however, in

use, and Abulfeda says it was general in his day. That name has

been alleged to appear as early as the 10th century, in the form

Σκοτεινή, “The Dark Sea”; but an examination of the passage cited,

from Constantine Porphyrogenitus, shows that it refers rather to

the Baltic, whilst that author elsewhere calls the Euxine simply

Pontus. (_Reinaud’s Abulf._ I. 38, _Const. Porph. De Adm. Imp._ c.

31, c. 42.)

✛ _Sodaya, Soldaia_, or _Soldachia_, called by Orientals _Súdák_,

stands on the S.E. coast of the Crimea, west of Kaffa. It had

belonged to the Greek Empire, and had a considerable Greek

population. After the Frank conquest of 1204 it apparently fell to

Trebizond. It was taken by the Mongols in 1223 for the first time,

and a second time in 1239, and during that century was the great

port of intercourse with what is now Russia. At an uncertain date,

but about the middle of the century, the Venetians established a

factory there, which in 1287 became the seat of a consul. In 1323

we find Pope John XXII. complaining to Uzbek Khan of Sarai that

the Christians had been ejected from Soldaia and their churches

turned into mosques. Ibn Batuta, who alludes to this strife, counts

Sudak as one of the four great ports of the World. The Genoese got

Soldaia in 1365 and built strong defences, still to be seen. Kaffa,

with a good anchorage, in the 14th century, and later on Tana, took

the place of Soldaia as chief emporium in South Russia. Some of the

Arab Geographers call the Sea of Azov the Sea of Sudak.

The Elder Marco Polo in his Will (1280) bequeaths to the Franciscan

Friars of the place a house of his in _Soldachia_, reserving life

occupation to his own son and daughter, then residing in it.

Probably this establishment already existed when the two Brothers

went thither. (_Elie de Laprimaudaie_, passim; _Gold. Horde_, 87;

_Mosheim_, App. 148; _Ibn Bat._ I. 28, II. 414; _Cathay_, 231–33;

_Heyd_, II. passim.)