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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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AGE, 44-47. CATHAY—SICILIAN INSURRECTION—MARCO POLO lix
In the spring of 1866, Cathay and the Way Thither appeared,
and at once took the high place which it has ever since
retained. In the autumn of the same year Yule's attention was
momentarily turned in a very different direction by a local
insurrection, followed by severe reprisals, and the bombardment
of Palermo by the Italian Fleet. His sick wife was for some
time under rifle as well as shell fire ; but cheerfully remarking
that " every bullet has its billet," she remained perfectly serene
and undisturbed. It was the year of the last war with Austria,
and also of the suppression of the Monastic Orders in Sicily ;
two events which probably helped to produce the outbreak,
of which Yule contributed an account to The Times, and sub-
sequently a more detailed one to the Quarterly Review.57
Yule had no more predilection for the Monastic Orders than
most of his countrymen, but his sense of justice was shocked by
the cruel incidence of the measure in many cases, and also by the
harshness with which both it and the punishment of suspected
insurgents was carried out. Cholera was prevalent in Italy that
year, but Sicily, which had maintained stringent quarantine,
entirely escaped until large bodies of troops were landed to quell
the insurrection, when a devastating epidemic immediately ensued,
and re-appeared in 1867. In after years, when serving on the
Army Sanitary Committee at the India Office, Yule more than
once quoted this experience as indicating that quarantine restric-
tions may, in some cases, have more value than British medical
authority is usually willing to admit.
In 1867, on his return from London, Yule commenced sys-
tematic work on his long projected new edition of the Travels of
Marco Polo. It was apparently in this year that the scheme
first took definite form, but it had long been latent in his mind.
The Public Libraries of Palermo afforded him much good
material, whilst occasional visits to the Libraries of Venice,
Florence, Paris, and London, opened other sources. But his most
important channel of supply came from his very extensive private
correspondence, extending to nearly all parts of Europe and many
centres in Asia. His work brought him many new and valued
friends, indeed too many to mention, but amongst whom, as
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57 He saw a good deal of the outbreak when taking small comforts to a friend, the Commandant of the Military School, who was captured and imprisoned by the
insurgents.
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