Some daring spirits ventured to suggest that the dry land stretched much further round the globe than was commonly supposed, so that one might sail from Spain to Asia in quite a short time, and they sheltered themselves behind the great names of Aristotle, Seneca, Pliny, and Esdras.[426] Albertus Magnus quotes Aristotle to this effect, although in another part of the same book (his _De Cælo et Mundo_), he repeats the usual phrase about the habitable Earth being all contained within one of the northern quadrants of earth. Roger Bacon expresses himself more boldly, and it is possible that he was impressed by the long journey of the Franciscan friar Rubruquis, on his mission to Central Asia, from St. Louis of France to the Emperor of the Mongols. Besides relating the story of this journey, Bacon speaks of men who were known to live in tropical Taprobane (Ceylon), and if there, why not also south of Capricorn? There may be delightful countries there, since it is the better and nobler part of the world, as Aristotle and Averroës taught. Moreover, Dante’s own countryman, the learned Pietro d’Abano, maintained that there are habitable lands on, and even beyond the equator, and did not hesitate to quote conversations with Marco Polo as evidence, although this “most extensive traveller and most diligent enquirer” was accounted a romancer by most of his contemporaries. Had not Messer Marco told him that in islands south of the equator he had seen not only great rams with coarse stiff wool like the bristles of pigs, but human beings?[427] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [426] _Esdras_ II. vi. 42. [427] Beazley, _Dawn of Geography_ iii. 28, 29. ------------------------------------------------------------------------