“Great Cathay,” the marvellous empire of the remote East, whence travellers had brought wonderful tales in the latter Middle Ages, had become the ultimate goal of adventurous3 voyages. The hazy4 region was the “extremity of the habitable world” of the ancients. Early Christian5 fancy had identified within it the Earthly Paradise, the seat of the old “Garden of Eden,” beyond the Ocean stream, “raised so high on a triple terrace of mountain that the deluge6 did not touch it.” Under the name of Cathay the strange empire had been opened to the speculation7 of medi?val Europe in the thirteenth century, with the vast conquest of the Mongol Genghis Khan, reckoned in history one of the greatest conquerors8 the world has ever seen.
Two Franciscan friars—John de Plano Carpini and 54William of Rubruk (Rubruquis) in French Flanders, who reached the court in Mongolia, the former in 1245 or 1246, the latter in 1247 or 1253—appear to have been the first Europeans to approach its borders. They saw the Cathayans in the bazaars9 of their Great Khan’s camps, and brought back to Europe the first accounts of the people and of the wonderful things seen, presented in their journals of their adventures. Both of these “rare jewels,” as he appreciatively terms them, Hakluyt found at London in manuscripts while delving10 in Lord Lumley’s library, and he printed them in full in the second edition of the Principal Navigations. After the friars two Venetians penetrated11 the empire, the first European travellers to visit Cathay itself. These were the brothers Nicolo and Maffei Polo, members of a noble trading family of Venice. They were there for a short time in or about the year 1269. Soon afterward12 they made a second visit, when Marco, the son of Nicolo, then a youth of seventeen, quick-witted, open-eyed, and observant, accompanied them. This visit extended through more than twenty years, the three Venetians basking13 in the sunshine of the Great Khan’s favour. The elders helped the Khan with suggestions for the profitable application of the knowledge of the West which they opened to him, while Marco’s cleverness was variously employed in his service; sometimes as a commissioner14 attached to the Imperial council, at others on distant missions, and at one period a governor of a great city. Marco’s recollections, given to the world long after the final 55return of the Polos to Venice, first made the name of Cathay familiar to Europe. These recollections were taken down from his lips by one Rusticiano of Pisa, a clever literary hack15, who was shut up in prison with him for a year (the two having been among the captives taken by the Genoese in a sea-fight with the Venetians in 1298), and formed the basis of the book of marvellous adventures, subsequently published in various languages and varying texts, which came to be famous as the Voyages and Travels of Marco Polo. From this Hakluyt also gives copious16 extracts.
Commercial intercourse17 of adventuresome European traders began with the region in the early fourteenth century, and continued fairly to flourish for about fifty years. Then, with changes in dynasties and tribal18 wars, the ways of approach were closed and it fell again into darkness. It was long supposed to be a separate country, distinct from the Indies, lying to the north of what we now know as China, and stretching to the Arctic sea. It was not until 1603 (after the publication of the final volume of the Principal Navigations) that it was found to be identical with the then vaguely19 known empire of China, of which similar marvels20 had for some time been recited. Its identity was the discovery by a lay Jesuit, Benedict Go?s, sent out through Central Asia by his superiors in India for the specific object of determining whether Cathay and China were or were not separate empires. Go?s died upon the completion of his mission, at Suhchow, the frontier city of China.
56Cathay was the aim of Columbus. He was possessed21 by the conviction that the fabled22 riches of this wondrous23 region lay directly across the trackless Atlantic “over against” the coast of Spain. Believing the world to be a sphere, he conceived his design of reaching Asia by sailing west. This was the project that he carried for weary years from court to court, seeking the patronage24 of a favouring prince.
But for a mischance England, instead of Spain, would have had the glory and the advantage of his first discovery of 1492. Hakluyt recalls the circumstances in these two “testimonies”:
(1)
"The offer of the discovery of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus to king Henry the seventh in the yeere 1488 the 13 of February: with the kings acceptation of the offer, & the cause whereupon he was deprived of the same: recorded in the thirteenth chapter of the history of Don Fernand Columbus of the life and deeds of his father Christopher Columbus.
"Christopher Columbus fearing least if the king of Castile in like maner (as the king of Portugall had done) should not condescend25 unto his enterprise, he should be enforced to offer the same againe to some other prince, & so much time should be spent therein, sent into England a certaine brother of his which he 57had with him, whose name was Bartholomew Columbus, who albeit26 he had not the Latine tongue, yet neverthelesse was a man of experience and skilfull in Sea causes, and could very wel make sea cards & globes and other instruments belonging to that profession, as he was instructed by his brother. Wherefore after that Bartholomew Columbus was departed for England his lucke was to fall into the hands of pirats, which spoiled him with the rest of them which were in the ship which he went in. Upon which occasion, and by reason of his poverty and sicknesse which cruelly assaulted him in a countrey so farre distant from his friends, he deferred27 his ambassage for a long while, untill such time as he had gotten somewhat handsome about him with making of Sea cards. At length he began to deale with king Henry the seventh the father of Henry the eight which reigneth at this present: unto whom he presented a mappe of the world, wherein these verses were written, which I found among his papers: and I will here set them downe rather for their antiquity28 than for their goodnesse:
"‘Thou which desirest easily the coasts of lands to know,
This comely29 mappe right learnedly the same to thee will shew:
Which Strabo, Plinie, Ptolomew and Isodore maintaine:
Yet for all that they do not all in one accord remaine.
Here also to set downe the late discovered burning Zone
By Portingals unto the world which whilon was unknowen,
Whereof the knowledge now at length thorow all the world is blowen.’
58"And a little under he added:
"‘For the Authour or the Drawer.
"‘He, whose deare native soile bright stately Genua,
Even he whose name is Bartholomew Colon30 de Terra Rubra
The year of Grace a thousand and four hundred and four-score
And eight, and on the thirteenth day of February more,
In London published this worke. To Christ all laud31 therefore.’
“And because some peradventure may observe that he calleth himselfe Columbus de Terra Rubra, I say, that in like maner I have seene some subscriptions32 of my father Christopher Columbus, before he had the degree of Admirall, wherein he signed his name thus, Columbus de Terra Rubra. But to returne to the king of England, I say, that after he had seen the map, and that which my father Christopher Columbus offered unto him, he accepted the offer with joyfull countenance33, and sent to call him into England. But because God had reserved the sayd offer for Castile, Columbus was gone in the meane space, and also returned with the performance of his enterprise, as hereafter in order shall be rehearsed. Now will I leave off from making any farther mention of that which Bartholomew Colon had negotiated in England, and I will return unto the Admirall, &c.”
59(2)
"Another testimony34 taken out of the 60 chapter of the aforesayd history of Ferdinando Columbus, concerning the offer that Bartholemew Columbus made to King Henry the seventh on the behalfe of his brother Christopher.
“Christopher Columbus the Admirall being returned from the discovery of Cuba and Jamayca, found in Hispaniola his brother Bartholomew Columbus, who before had beene sent to intreat of an agreement with the king of England for the discovery of the Indies, as we have sayd before. This Bartholomew therefore returning unto Castile, with the capitulations granted by the king of England to his brother, understood at Paris by Charles the king of France, that the Admirall his brother had already performed that discovery: whereupon the French king gave unto the sayd Bartholemew an hundred French crownes to beare his charges into Spaine. And albeit he made great haste upon this good newes to meet with the Admirall in Spaine, yet at his comming to Sevil his brother was already returned to the Indies with seventeene saile of shipps. Wherefore to fulfill35 that which he had left him in charge in the beginning of the yeere 1494 he repaired to the Catholike princes, taking with him Diego Colon my brother, and me also, which were to be preferred as Pages to the most excellent Prince Don John, who now is with God, according to the commandment of the Catholike Queene Lady Isabell, which was then in 60Validolid. As soone therefore as we came to the Court, the princes called for Don Bartholomew, and sent him to Hispaniola with three ships, &c.”
The news of Columbus’ achievement filled all Europe with wonder and admiration36. To “sail by the West into the East where spices grow by a way that was never known before” was affirmed “a thing more divine than human.” Offering the promise of a direct route to Cathay, the feat37 was of tremendous import. There was especially “great-talk of it” in the English court with keen regret that England, through untoward38 happenings, had failed of the honour and profit of the momentous39 discovery, and Henry and his counsellors were eager to emulate40 Spain. Although the full significance of the discovery was not then realized—that the new-found islands were the barriers of a new continent—no underestimate of the value of the region was made by either nation. Ferdinand and Isabella gave it the name of the Indies, considering it, with the discoverer, to be a part of India, and no time was lost in clinching41 their rights. Nor were “their Catholic highnesses” idle. In May, 1493, Pope Alexander the sixth granted his bull fixing a “line of demarcation” between the Spanish and Portuguese42 possessions, which was nothing less than a division of the world between Spain and Portugal. This line was run from pole to pole and one hundred degrees west of the Azores, and all newly discovered and to be discovered lands on the east of the line were assigned to the absolute possession of the crown of Portugal, those on the west to the 61crown of Castile. In 1494 Columbus made his second voyage and discovered, among other islands, Porto Rico and Jamaica.
Meanwhile in the English maritime city of Bristol the Venetian merchant, John Cabot (or Zuan Caboto in the Venetian dialect), then resident there, had perfected his scheme of shortening the way to India by the Northwest Passage, and in 1496, before Columbus’s return from his second voyage, it had been proposed to King Henry, had met his hearty43 approbation44, had been endorsed45 by his letters patent issued to Cabot and Cabot’s three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, and preparations for the venture had begun.
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1
maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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4
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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5
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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6
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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8
conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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9
bazaars
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| （东方国家的）市场( bazaar的名词复数 )； 义卖； 义卖市场； （出售花哨商品等的）小商品市场 | |
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10
delving
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| v.深入探究，钻研( delve的现在分词 ) | |
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11
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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12
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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13
basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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14
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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15
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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16
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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17
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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18
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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19
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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20
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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21
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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22
fabled
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| adj.寓言中的，虚构的 | |
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23
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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24
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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25
condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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26
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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27
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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28
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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29
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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30
colon
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| n.冒号，结肠，直肠 | |
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31
laud
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| n.颂歌；v.赞美 | |
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32
subscriptions
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| n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助 | |
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33
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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34
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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35
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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36
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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37
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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38
untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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39
momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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40
emulate
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| v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿 | |
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41
clinching
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的现在分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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42
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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43
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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44
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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45
endorsed
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| vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品 | |
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