This statement regarding the capture of Marco _at the Battle of Ayas_ is one which cannot be true, for we know that he did not reach Venice till 1295, travelling from Persia by way of Trebizond and the Bosphorus, whilst the Battle of Ayas of which we have purposely given some detail, was fought in May, 1294. The date MCCLXXXXVI assigned to it in the preceding extract has given rise to some unprofitable discussion. Could that date be accepted, no doubt it would enable us also to accept this, the sole statement from the Traveller’s own age of the circumstances which brought him into a Genoese prison; it would enable us to place that imprisonment within a few months of his return from the East, and to extend its duration to three years, points which would thus accord better with the general tenor of Ramusio’s tradition than the capture of Curzola. But the matter is not open to such a solution. The date of the Battle of Ayas is not more doubtful than that of the Battle of the Nile. It is clearly stated by several independent chroniclers, and is carefully established in the Ballad that we have quoted above.[31] We shall see repeatedly in the course of this Book how uncertain are the transcriptions of dates in Roman numerals, and in the present case the LXXXXVI is as certainly a mistake for LXXXXIV as is Boniface VI. in the same quotation a mistake for Boniface VIII. But though we cannot accept the statement that Polo was taken prisoner at _Ayas, in the spring of 1294_, we may accept the passage as evidence from a contemporary source that he was _taken prisoner in some sea-fight with the Genoese_, and thus admit it in corroboration of the Ramusian Tradition of his capture in a sea-fight at Curzola in 1298, which is perfectly consistent with all other facts in our possession. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] In this part of these notices I am repeatedly indebted to _Heyd._ (See _supra_, p. 9.) [2] On or close to the Hill called _Monjoie_; see the plan from Marino Sanudo at p. 18. [3] “Throughout that year there were not less than 40 machines all at work upon the city of Acre, battering its houses and its towers, and smashing and overthrowing everything within their range. There were at least ten of those engines that shot stones so big and heavy that they weighed a good 1500 lbs. by the weight of Champagne; insomuch that nearly all the towers and forts of Acre were destroyed, and only the religious houses were left. And there were slain in this same war good 20,000 men on the two sides, but chiefly of Genoese and Spaniards.” (_Lettre de Jean Pierre Sarrasin_, in _Michel’s Joinville_, p. 308.) [4] The origin of these columns is, however, somewhat uncertain. [See _Cicogna_, I. p. 379.]