related by Polo with those related by the Ancients and by the modern
discoverers in the West, such as Columbus and Cortes, proceeds:—
[Sidenote: Ramusio compares Polo with Columbus.]
“And often in my own mind, comparing the land explorations of these
our Venetian gentlemen with the sea explorations of the aforesaid
Signor Don Christopher, I have asked myself which of the two were
really the more marvellous. And if patriotic prejudice delude me
not, methinks good reason might be adduced for setting the land
journey above the sea voyage. Consider only what a height of
courage was needed to undertake and carry through so difficult an
enterprise, over a route of such desperate length and hardship,
whereon it was sometimes necessary to carry food for the supply
of man and beast, not for days only but for months together.
Columbus, on the other hand, going by sea, readily carried with
him all necessary provision; and after a voyage of some 30 or 40
days was conveyed by the wind whither he desired to go, whilst the
Venetians again took a whole year’s time to pass all those great
deserts and mighty rivers. Indeed that the difficulty of travelling
to Cathay was so much greater than that of reaching the New World,
and the route so much longer and more perilous, may be gathered
from the fact that, since those gentlemen twice made this journey,
no one from Europe has dared to repeat it,[3] whereas in the very
year following the discovery of the Western Indies many ships
immediately retraced the voyage thither, and up to the present day
continue to do so, habitually and in countless numbers. Indeed
those regions are now so well known, and so thronged by commerce,
that the traffic between Italy, Spain, and England is not greater.”
[Sidenote: Recounts a tradition of the travellers’ return to Venice.]