His travels will not, on the whole, suffer by a comparison with those of Marco Polo or Sir John Mandeville; for, though his discoveries are much less in extent than those of the Venetian merchant, they are, perhaps, as remarkable as those of the English adventurer, while the manner in which he has presented them is superior to that of either. His Spanish loyalty and his Catholic faith are everywhere apparent. He plainly believes that his modest embassy is making an impression of his king’s power and importance, on the countless and careless multitudes of Asia, which will not be effaced; while, in the luxurious capital of the Greek empire, he seems to look for little but the apocryphal relics of saints and apostles which then burdened the shrines of its churches. With all this, however, we may be content, because it is national; but when we find him filling the island of Ponza with buildings erected by Virgil,[331] and afterwards, as he passes Amalfi, taking note of it only because it contained the head of Saint Andrew,[332] we are obliged to recall his frankness, his zeal, and all his other good qualities, before we can be quite reconciled to his ignorance. Mariana, indeed, intimates, that, after all, his stories are not to be wholly believed. But, as in the case of other early travellers, whose accounts were often discredited merely because they were so strange, more recent and careful inquiries have confirmed Clavijo’s narrative; and we may now trust to his faithfulness as much as to the vigilant and penetrating spirit he shows constantly, except when his religious faith, or his hardly less religious loyalty, interferes with its exercise.[333] [331] “Hay en ella grandes edificios de muy grande obra, que fizo Virgilio.” p. 30. [332] All he says of Amalfi is, “Y en esta ciudad de Malfa dicen que está la cabeza de Sant Andres.” p. 33. [333] Mariana says that the Itinerary contains “muchas otras cosas asaz maravillosas, si verdaderas.” (Hist., Lib. XIX. c. 11.) But Blanco White, in his “Variedades,” (Tom. I. pp. 316-318,) shows, from an examination of Clavijo’s Itinerary, by Major Rennell, and from other sources, that its general fidelity may be depended upon.