History of the United States from the earliest discovery of America to the present time . ,the latter are far too indefinite to let usbe sure that they are applicable to UnitedStates localities. But were we to go so far as to admitthat the Northmen came here and began 4o DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1260 the settlements ascribed to them, they cer-tainly neither appreciated nor publishedtheir exploits. Their colony, wherever itwas, endured but for a day, and it, with itslocality, speedily passed from knowledge inScandinavia itself. America had not yet,in effect, been discovered. We must remember t
History of the United States from the earliest discovery of America to the present time . ,the latter are far too indefinite to let usbe sure that they are applicable to UnitedStates localities. But were we to go so far as to admitthat the Northmen came here and began 4o DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1260 the settlements ascribed to them, they cer-tainly neither appreciated nor publishedtheir exploits. Their colony, wherever itwas, endured but for a day, and it, with itslocality, speedily passed from knowledge inScandinavia itself. America had not yet,in effect, been discovered. We must remember that long anterior to Columbussday unbiassedand thoughtfulmen had cometo believe theearth to beround. Theyalso knew that The Old Stone Mill at Newport, R. I. Europe con-stituted but a small part of it. In the year1260 the Venetian brothers Niccolo andMafTeo Polo made their way to China, thefirst men from Western Europe ever totravel so far. They returned in 1269, butin 1271 set out again, accompanied by Nic-colos son, a youth of seventeen. This sonwas the famous Marco Polo, whose work,. 1300J COLUMBUS 4i The Wonders of the World, reciting hisextended journeys through China and theextreme east and southeast of Asia, and hiseventful voyage home by sea, ending in1295, has come down to our time, one ofthe most interesting volumes in the Orderics eastern travels in 1322-1330, as appropriated by Sir John Mande-ville, were published before 1371. Columbus knew these writings, and thereading and re-reading of them had madehim an enthusiast. In Polos book he hadlearned of Mangi and Far Cathay, withtheir thousands of gorgeous cities, themeanest finer than any then in Europe ; oftheir abounding mines pouring forth infi-nite wealth, their noble rivers, happy popu-lations, curious arts, and benign govern-ment. Polo had told him of Cambalu(Peking), winter residence of the GreatKhan, Kublai—Cambalu with its palaces ofmarble, golden-roofed, its guard of ten thou-sand soldiers, its
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1912
