The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano

thought it worth while to construct a map from its indications, in order to get some approximation to Polo’s own idea of the face of that world which he had traversed so extensively. There are three allusions to maps in the course of his work (II. 245, 312, 424). In his own bearings, at least on land journeys, he usually carries us along a great general traverse line, without much caring about small changes of direction. Thus on the great outward journey from the frontier of Persia to that of China the line runs almost continuously “_entre Levant et Grec_” or E.N.E. In his journey from Cambaluc or Peking to Mien or Burma, it is always _Ponent_ or W.; and in that from Peking to Zayton in Fo-kien, the port of embarkation for India, it is _Sceloc_ or S.E. The line of bearings in which he deviates most widely from truth is that of the cities on the Arabian Coast from Aden to Hormuz, which he makes to run steadily _vers Maistre_ or N.W., a conception which it has not been very easy to realise on the map.[9] [Sidenote: Singular omissions of Polo in regard to China; Historical inaccuracies.]