give any distinct account of the secluded Christian empire of Abyssinia and the semi-Christian island of Socotra; to speak, though indeed dimly, of Zanzibar with its negroes and its ivory, and of the vast and distant Madagascar, bordering on the dark ocean of the South, with its ruc and other monstrocities; and, in a remotely opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, of dog-sledges, white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses.”[79] Never before had the people of Europe heard of such extraordinary wealth and unlimited resources as existed in the far-off countries visited by Marco Polo. His novel descriptions of stately, gold-covered palaces, of the royal magnificence of the entertainments of the Grand Khan, of the intoxicating fragrance of an endless profusion of rare flowers, of luscious fruits and sweet spicery, of heavily laden argosies of valuable merchandise floating on noble rivers, and of vast collections of gold, silver, and precious stones, were read with the most exaggerated conceptions of their reality. These enchanting details respecting Cathay and the adjacent countries were fully confirmed in the fourteenth century by Sir John Mandeville, who, in 1322, departed from England, and after an absence of thirty-four years in different countries returned to write, in Latin, in French, and in English, a narrative of his extended travels.[80] Dazzled by the splendor of the Orient the people of Western Europe were eager to enter into commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of Cathay. But there were innumerable barriers, both natural and political, obstructing all the overland ways to the East. Chief among the obstacles classed as political was the selfish exclusiveness of the different governments possessing the intervening territory. Had there been no national opposition to the establishment of a protected system of overland commerce between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, the distance was too great to be travelled over by slowly moving caravans.