Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/173

ASIATIC NATIONS. 157 lation, and the pressure of population against the means of subsistence has, by necessity, begot a pa- tient and systematic industry unknown to other Asiatic nations. This industry, however, we find, is constantly directed to objects of mere necessity, or of the gratification of the senses, and never as- sumes a character of intellectual enterprise. There is nothing, indeed, in the character of the Chinese that would lead us to believe them capable of bold and perilous adventure, and I must, for this rea- son, and others to be now mentioned, utterly dis- credit their distant voyages beyond the Indian islands, to Malabar, or the Persian Gulf. The on- ly authentic record of a distant voyage made by them, is that in which the celebrated Venetian Marco Polo was engaged. The circumstances of it, which are very remarkable, deserve a particular examination, as they throw much light on the sub- ject of our inquiry. The Tartar sovereign of Persia sent ambassadors to his relation Kuhldl, the Tartar emperor of China, for a wife. A young lady of the royal family was conceded to him, and she and her retinue attempted to proceed to Per- sia by land, but, from the wars among the princes of Tartary, found this impracticable. The Polo family were now at the Chinese court, and Marco had just returned from a voyage among the Indian islands, which the Persian ambassadors hearing of, proposed to return to their native country by sea,