The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 22 (Color Image)

0022	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

has been some excision, but the additions visibly and

palpably bl preponderate. The truth is that since the

Y Pre P

completion of the first edition, just four years ago,

large additions have been macle to the stock of our

knowledge bearing on the subjects of this Book ; and

how these additions have continued to come in up to

the last moment, may be seen in Appendix L,* which

has had to undergo repeated interpolation after being

put in type. KARAKORUM, for a brief space the seat

of the widest empire the world has known, has been

visited ; the ruins of SHANG-TU, the " Xanadu of Cublay

Khan," have been explored ; PAMIR and TANGUT have

been penetrated from side to side ; the famous mountain

Road of SHEN-SI has been traversed and described ;

the mysterious CAINDU has been unveiled ; the publi-

cation of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier's great

work on the French Exploration of Indo-China has

provided a mass of illustration of that YUN-NAN for

which but the other day Marco Polo was well-nigh

the most recent authority. Nay, the last two years

have thrown a promise of light even on what seemed

the wildest of Marco's stories, and the bones of a

veritable Ruc from New Zealand lie on the table of

Professor Owen's Cabinet !

M. VIVIEN de St. MARTIN, during the interval of

which we have been speaking, has published a History

of Geography. In treating of Marco Polo, he alludes

to the first edition of this work, most evidently with

no intention of disparagement, but speaks of it as

merely a revision of Marsden's Book. The last thing

I should allow myself to do would b

Y be to apply to a

* [Merged into the notes of the present edition.—H. C.]

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