Discoverers and Explorers

This is a children book. He described golden Cathay, with its vast cities rich in manufactures, and also Cipango, Hindustan, and Indo-China. He knew of the Indies Islands, rich in spices, and he described Siberia, and told of the sledges drawn by dogs, and of the polar bears. The fact that an ocean washed the eastern coast of Asia was proved by him, and this put at rest forever the theory that there was an impassable swamp east of Asia. This book by Marco Polo was eagerly read, and the facts that it stated were so remarkable that many people refused to believe them. It stirred others with a desire to travel and see those lands for themselves. Traveling by land, however, was very dangerous, because of the bands of robbers by which the country was occupied.