CHAPTER III.

HOW THE TWO BROTHERS, AFTER CROSSING A DESERT, CAME TO THE

CITY OF BOCARA, AND FELL IN WITH CERTAIN ENVOYS THERE.

After they had passed the desert, they arrived at a very great and

noble city called BOCARA, the territory of which belonged to a king

whose name was Barac, and is also called Bocara. The city is the best

in all Persia.{1} And when they had got thither, they found they could

neither proceed further forward nor yet turn back again; wherefore they

abode in that city of Bocara for three years. And whilst they were

sojourning in that city, there came from Alau, Lord of the Levant,

Envoys on their way to the Court of the Great Kaan, the Lord of all the

Tartars in the world. And when the Envoys beheld the Two Brothers they

were amazed, for they had never before seen Latins in that part of the

world. And they said to the Brothers: “Gentlemen, if ye will take our

counsel, ye will find great honour and profit shall come thereof.” So

they replied that they would be right glad to learn how. “In truth,”

said the Envoys, “the Great Kaan hath never seen any Latins, and he

hath a great desire so to do. Wherefore, if ye will keep us company

to his Court, ye may depend upon it that he will be right glad to see

you, and will treat you with great honour and liberality; whilst in

our company ye shall travel with perfect security, and need fear to be

molested by nobody.”{2}

NOTE 1.—Hayton also calls Bokhara a city of Persia, and I see

Vámbéry says that, up till the conquest by Chinghiz, Bokhara,

Samarkand, Balkh, etc., were considered to belong to Persia.

(_Travels_, p. 377.) The first Mongolian governor of Bokhara was

Buka Bosha.

King Barac is Borrak Khan, great-grandson of Chagatai, and

sovereign of the Ulús of Chagatai, from 1264 to 1270. The Polos,

no doubt, reached Bokhara before 1264, but Borrak must have been

sovereign some time before they left it.

NOTE 2.—The language of the envoys seems rather to imply that

they were the Great Kaan’s own people returning from the Court of

Hulaku. And Rashid mentions that Sartak, the Kaan’s ambassador to

Hulaku, returned from Persia in the year that the latter prince

died. It may have been his party that the Venetians joined, for the

year almost certainly was the same, viz. 1265. If so, another of

the party was Bayan, afterwards the greatest of Kublai’s captains,

and much celebrated in the sequel of this book. (See _Erdmann’s

Temudschin_, p. 214.)

Marsden justly notes that Marco habitually speaks of _Latins_,

never of _Franks_. Yet I suspect his own mental expression was

_Farangi_.