PAGE Hanno, the Carthaginian--Herodotus visits Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, Phoenicia, Arabia, Babylon, Persia, India, Media, Colchis, the Caspian Sea, Scythia, Thrace, and Greece--Pytheas explores the coasts of Iberia and Gaul, the English Channel, the Isle of Albion, the Orkney Islands, and the land of Thule--Nearchus visits the Asiatic coast, from the Indus to the Persian Gulf-- Eudoxus reconnoitres the West Coast of Africa--Caesar conquers Gaul and Great Britain--Strabo travels over the interior of Asia, and Egypt, Greece, and Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 CHAPTER II. CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS FROM THE FIRST TO THE NINTH CENTURY. PAUSANIAS, 174; FA-HIAN, 399; COSMOS INDICOPLEUSTES, 500; ARCULPHE, 700; WILLIBALD, 725; SOLEYMAN, 851. Pliny, Hippalus, Arian, and Ptolemy--Pausanias visits Attica, Corinth, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaia, Arcadia, Boeotia, and Phocis--Fa-Hian explores Kan-tcheou, Tartary, Northern India, the Punjaub, Ceylon, and Java--Cosmos Indicopleustes, and the Christian Topography of the Universe--Arculphe describes Jerusalem, the valley of Jehoshaphat, the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, Jericho, the river Jordan, Libanus, the Dead Sea, Capernaum, Nazareth, Mount Tabor, Damascus, Tyre, Alexandria, and Constantinople--Willibald and the Holy Land--Soleyman travels through Ceylon, and Sumatra, and crosses the Gulf of Siam and the China Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 CHAPTER III. CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS BETWEEN THE TENTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES. BENJAMIN OF TUDELA, 1159-1173; PLAN DE CARPIN, OR CARPINI, 1245-1247; RUBRUQUIS, 1253-1254. The Scandinavians in the North, Iceland and Greenland--Benjamin of Tudela visits Marseilles, Rome, Constantinople, the Archipelago, Palestine, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Damascus, Baalbec, Nineveh, Baghdad, Babylon, Bassorah, Ispahan, Shiraz, Samarcand, Thibet, Malabar, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, Germany, and France--Carpini explores Turkestan--Manners and customs of the Tartars--Rubruquis and the Sea of Azov, the Volga, Karakorum, Astrakhan, and Derbend . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 CHAPTER IV. MARCO POLO, 1253-1324. I. The interest of the Genoese and Venetian merchants in encouraging the exploration of Central Asia--The family of Polo, and its position in Venice--Nicholas and Matteo Polo, the two brothers--They go from Constantinople to the Court of the Emperor of China--Their reception at the Court of Kublai-Khan-- The Emperor appoints them his ambassadors to the Pope--Their return to Venice--Marco Polo--He leaves his father Nicholas and his uncle Matteo for the residence of the King of Tartary--The new Pope Gregory X.--The narrative of Marco Polo is written in French from his dictation, by Rusticien of Pisa . . . . . . . . 43 II.