ftition of Benjamin the Jew, in difcovering the interior and remote provinces of Afia. All Chriftendom having been alarmed with accounts of the rapid progrefs of the Tartar arms under Zengis Khan, Innocent IV, who entertained moft exalted ideas concerning the plenitude of his own power, and the fubmiffion due to his injunctions, fent Father John de Plano Carpini, at the head of a miffion of Francifcan monks, and Father Afcolino, at the head of another of Dominicans, to exhort Kayuk Khan, the grandson of Zengis, who was then at the head of the Tartar empire, to embrace the Chriftian faith, and to defift from defolating the earth by his arms. The haughty defcendant of the greateft conqueror Afia had ever beheld, aftonifhed at this ftrange mandate from an Italian priest, whose name and jurisdiЄtion were alike unknown to him, received it with the contempt which it merited, though he difmiffed the mendicants who delivered it with impunity. But as they had penetrated into the country by different routes, and followed for fome time the Tartar camps, which were always in motion, they had an opportunity of vifiting a great part of Afia. Carpini, who proceeded by the way of Poland and Ruffia, travelled through its northern provinces as far as the extremities of Thibet. Afcolino, wo feems to have landed fomewhere in Syria, advanced through its fouthern provinces, into the interior parts of Perfia n).

n) Hakluyt. 1, p. 21. Bergeron tom. 1.

Not long after, St Louis of France contributed farther towards extending the knowledge which Europeans had begun to acquire of those diftant regions. (1253) Some defigning impoftor, who took advantage of the flender acquaintance of Chriftendom with the ftate and character of the Afiatic nations, having informed him that a powerful Chan of the Tartars had embraced the Christian faith, the monarch listened to the tale with pious credulity, and inftantly refolved to fend ambaffadors to this illuftrious convert, with a view of inciting him to attack their common enemy the Saracens in one quarter, while he fell upon them in another. As monks were the only perfons in that age who poffeffed fuch a degree of knowledge as qualified them for a fervice of this kind, he employed in it Father Andrew, a Jacobine, who was followed by Father William de Rubruquis, a Francifcan. With respect to the progress of the former, there is no memorial extant. The journal of the latter has been published. He was admitted into the prefence of Mangu, the third Khan in fucceffion from Zengis, and made a circuit through the interior parts of Afia, more extenfive than that of any European who had hitherto explored them o).

To thofe travellers, whom religious zeal fent forth to vifit Afia, fucceeded others who ventured into remote conntries, from the profpect of commercial advantage, or from motives of mere ) Hakluyt, i. 21. Bergerom tom, I,

curiofity. The first and most eminent of thefe was Marco Polo, a Venetian of a noble family, (1269.) Having engaged early in trade, according to the custom of his country, his aspiring mind wifhed for a sphere of activity more extenfive than was afforted to it by the established traffic carried in thofe ports of Europe and Afia, which the Venetians frequented. This promted him to travel into unknown countries, in expeetation of opening with them a commercial intercourse, more fuited to the fanguine ideas and hopes of a young adventurer,

As his father had already carried fome European commodities to the court of the great Chan of the Tartars, and had difpofed of them to advantage, he reforted thither. Under the protection of Kublay Chan, the moft powerfull of all the Succeffors of Zengis, he continued his mercantile peregrinations in Afia upwards of twenty-fix years; and during that time advanced towards the eaft, far beyond the utmoft boundaries to which any European traveller had ever proceeded. Instead of following the course of Carpini and Rubruquis, along the vast unpeopled plains of Tartary, he paffed through the chief trading cities in the more cultivated parts of Afia, and penetrated to Cambalu, or Pecking, the capital of the great kingdom of Cathay, or China, fubject at that time to the fucceffors of Zengis, He made more than one voyage on the Indian he traded in many of the iflands, from

ocean,

which Europe had long received fpiceries and other commodities, which it held in high estimation. though unacquainted with the particular countries to which it was indebted for those precious productions; and he obtained information concerning feveral countries, which he did not vifit in perfon, particularly the ifland Zigangry, probably the fame now known by the name of Japan p). On his return, he aftonished his contemporaries with his defcriptions of vaft regions, whofe names had never been heard of in Europe, and with fuch pompous accounts of their fertility, their populousness, their opulence, the variety of their manufactures, and the extent of their trade, as rofe far above the conception of an uninformed age.

(1322) About half a century after Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, an Englifhman, encouraged by his example, vifited most of the countries in the east wich he had defcribed, and, like him, published an account of them q). The narrations of thofe early travellers abound with many wild incoherent tales, concerning giants, enchanters, and monfters. But they were not, from that circumftance, lefs acceptable to an ignorant age, which delighted in what was marvellous. The wonders which they told, moftly on hearfey, filled the multitude with admiration. The facts which they related from their own obfervation,

p.) Viaggi di Marco Polo. Ramuf. ii. 2. Bergeron, tom. il. q) Voyages and Traveis, by Sir John Mandeville.

attracted the attention of the more difcerning, The former, wich may be confidered as the popular traditions and fables of the countries through which they had paffed, were gradually difregarded as Europe advanced in knowledge. The latter, howewer incredible fome of them may have appeared in their own time, have been confirmed by the obfervations of modern travellers. By means of both, howewer, the curiofity of mankind was excited with respect to te remote parts of the earth, their ideas were enlarged, and they were not only infenfibly difpofed to attempt new difcoveries, but received fuch information as directed to that particular courfe in which these were afterwards carried on,

And by the invention of the mariners compafs,

.

While this fpirit was gradually forming in Europe, a fortunate difcovery was made, which contributed more than all the efforts and ingenuity of preceding ages, to improve and to extend navigation. That wonderful property of the magnet by which it communicates fuch virtue to a needle or flender rod of iron, as to point towards the poles of the earth, was obferved. The ufe which might be made of this in directing navigation was immediately perceived. That moft valuable, but now familiar inftrument, the mariners compafs, was formed. When, by means of it, navigators found that at all feafons, and in every place, they could difcover the north and