Contemporaries of Marco Polo

The accounts left by these travelers are important, not only for their corroboration of Marco Polo’s tales of wonder, but because they throw light upon the early history, customs and religion of one of the great peoples of the modern world—the Chinese. In these account we see the roots of Chinese pride, patience, endurance and heroism. Through them we learn to understand that the greatness of the Chinese people today is not an accident, but the result, the fruit of an anciently founded and mature culture, a culture that could live side-by-side with the ravishing, destructive, brutal culture of the Mongolian Tartars and even survive the holocaust visited upon them by these barbarians.