ABSTRACT

One of the ways in which Marco Polo says he served the Great Khan was in compiling surveys. It is known that Khubilai sent out teams to explore his new dominions; in 1280, for example, one such expedition went to look for the source of the Yellow River. When he returned to Venice in 1294 Polo was just over forty years old. He had spent over half his life in Asia. These had not been the years of his childhood and adolescence, but we might still reasonably suppose their effect to show through in any book he wrote, making it to this extent 'Asian'. Polo also claims he visited 'India' and Champa, now northern Vietnam, in the Khan's service. Khubilai Khan several times ordered envoys to south Asia to demand political submission and seek out precious goods, skilled men and Buddhist relics, as Polo says.