in case of great urgency they will ride ten days on end without lighting a fire or taking a meal. On such an occasion they will sustain themselves on the blood of their horses, opening a vein and letting the blood jet into their mouths, drinking till they have had enough, and then staunching it...their horses are trained so perfectly that they will double hither and thither, just like a dog, in a way quite astonishing...in truth they are stout and valiant soldiers, and inured to war.
The book was widely popular, though few believed that the accounts in it were true. "He's mad," they whispered in the streets. "He's a liar," others scoffed. While many did believe, and Christopher Columbus later read it closely in preparation for his own attempt to reach the riches of the East, skepticism survived. A recent scholar, Frances Wood, echoed that sentiment when she published a book titled Did Marco Polo Go To China? In it she detailed logical arguments for the theory that the famous adventurer never actually made it to China, and merely related stories he heard from Persian merchants and other sources. Why do people subscribe to this theory? Let's take a look at the accepted account and decide for ourselves.
Marco Polo was born sometime around 1254 to a wealthy merchant family in Venice. As a young man, he saw his father and uncle depart for a trip to China where they met with some of Kublai Khan's officials. The envoys gave the Polos a message for the pope, asking for Christian missionaries to be sent to China. The Mongol Empire practiced religious tolerance, though eventually the cultural diversity would be a factor in the downfall of the empire. The Polos returned to Venice in 1269, and two years later set off again with the 17 year old Marco. Two missionaries started out with the group, but returned to Europe before venturing very far. In 1275, Marco finally met Kublai Khan in his capitol, now known as Beijing, and soon made an impression on the emperor. He quickly picked up the Mongol language and regaled the emperor with stories of his travels. Kublai Khan gave Marco a job as a civil servant and sent him to various parts of China to make reports on what he found. The Polos made themselves so useful to the emperor, in fact, that they served him for 17 years, despite their own wish to return home. Faced with the inevitable, however, in 1292 the emperor allowed the family to serve as escorts to a Mongol princess bound for a marriage in Persia, realizing they would not return to his service. The voyage home was made by sea, instead of the land route they had used to arrive in China, and when they entered their home in Venice, their family did not recognize them. The diamonds, gems and rich objects they displayed were, however, recognizable, and went far in substantiating their story.
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