time unknown, respecting the Eastern parts of the world, and
these he diligently and regularly committed to writing....
And by this means he obtained so much honour that he provoked
the jealousy of other officers of the court.[19]

It is small wonder that when first the lad came back with his reports
the Great Khan and his courtiers marvelled and exclaimed, 'If this young
man live he will assuredly be a person of great worth and ability.'

It was while on these various public missions that Marco Polo journeyed
through the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, and Szechuen, and skirted the
edge of Tibet to Yunnan, and entered Northern Burma, lands unknown again
to the West until after 1860. For three years he was himself governor of
the great city of Yangchow, which had twenty-four towns under its
jurisdiction, and was full of traders and makers of arms and military
accoutrements.[20] He visited Karakorum in Mongolia, the old Tartar
capital, and with his Uncle Maffeo spent three years in Tangut. On
another occasion he went on a mission to Cochin China, and by sea to the
southern states of India, and he has left a vivid picture of the great
trading cities of Malabar. He might indeed have pondered with Ulysses,

I am become a name
For always roaming with a hungry heart,
Much have I seen and known, cities of men,
And manners, climates, countries, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all.

He describes the great capital Cambaluc (Peking) in the north, and the
beautiful Kinsai (Hangchow) in the south. He describes the Khan's summer
palace at Shandu, with its woods and gardens, its marble palace, its