NOT AN AMRICAN

Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 9

NOT AN AMRICAN

The "Low Down" On Marco Polo And The Princess Kukachin

A "Record" Special

by

K.

GOULTER

NTIL the tilm ‘Adventures of Marco Polo" came along, the wandering young man of Venice was just another of those names out of a history book to a present-tense public who forgets what’s in history

books as quickly as it conveniently can. So, lest Gurdon Mirams be taken seriously and the present-tense public runs away with the idea that Marco was just another American who went to China and fell in love with a Sslit-ered beauty, I am going to gire you the low-down on the real Marco. The public remembers what it sees in films almost as assiduously as it forgets what it was forced to read in history books. Actually, even thé historians don’t know very much about Marco, for, in his celebrated manuscripts, he has been fairly explicit concerning his travels, but of himself he suys very little indeed, being no egotist. Now and again he displayed a remarkable credulity,

and was uot, like Louis de Rougement, Whose story was told in last week's "Reeord." atraid to draw the long bow, though fairly reliable in matters he recounts as haying seen with his own eyes. , CONT RARY to general beliet, it Was not Marco Polo but his father, Nicolo Polo, secompanied by his uncle, Muffeo, who were the tirst Europeans 1o travel to Chinu. The two Polos were Welcomed by the Great Khan Kublai at his court, Which had recently been transferred from the Mongolian Plains.

Nine years after their urrival, in 1269, the Khan sent the brothers baek to Venice with a request that they should return to China with learned men to instruct his court. On return to their own city, Niculo tound his wife had died, leaving one son, Marco, a lad of tifteeun-the Mareo Polo of history. ° Now Muareo, even at that early age, showed sigus of the indomitable will which was later to make him great, and when his father and uncle set out on their return journey to China-without the learned men unfortunately-the boy insisted on accompanying them. This second jorney beguu in 1271 from Aere, und the party travelled to Mosul, Baghdad und Ormuz, on the Persian Gulf. Froin here they went north, through Persia, Khorasan and the Himalayas (where Mareo fell ill with fever, and they were long delayed), across the plateau of Pamir, into the region around Lake Lop, over the sands of

the dreaded Gobi Desert. They suffered every conceivable hardship until they came to the Great Wall. Finally, in the spring of 1275, four years from their journey’s beginning, they reached the court of the great IShan at Shangtu. Marco, now twenty-one years old, immediately set himself to study the languages of the Khan’s great kingdom, and soon we find him mentioned in Chinese annals as a member of the Imperial Council-"assessor of the Privy Council’--a favourite of the Great Khan,

and his emissary on many journeys to distant territoriesTibet, Yunnan, Northern Burma, North Gobi, CochinChina, and the Southern States of India. Rising still higher in the Khan’s favour, Mareo was appointed Governor of the great city of Yangchow. But, for all that, it Was ag an agent-who could entertain him with tales of the places he visited-that the Khan chiefly valued his young Venetian councillor. Mareo’s ability for picturesque detail and narrative was rapidly developing. When Nicolo, Maffeo and

Marco, tiring of their exile, re quested the Khan's permission to return to Venice, he would not give his consent. The travellers might have ended their days in China, had it not been for 4 happy chance. Ambassadors from the Khan of Persia-a granidson of Kublai’s brother--arrived at the court with a request from the Persian Khan’s dying Mongo] wife that her place should be filled by one of her own tribe. Kublai chose the Princess Kukachin to be the Persian’s wife, though she was only a maiden of seventeen, and the three Venetians scized the opportunity to join her retinue as a special escort. Reluctantly the Khan permitted their departure and, in 1292, the party sailed from the port of Zaitun. After many hardships, including the loss of two of the Persian enyoys and a large part of their suite, they arrived at the eourt of the Khan of Persia, more than two years after their departure from Cathay. (Continued on page 55.)

U NTIL recently Marco Polo, along with Sir John Mandeville, was regarded as one of the most monumental liars in history. Then the historians got hold of him and showed that he was a credulous | but honest man. After that the films got hold of him and made him a young American like Gary Cooper. . Now the "Record" gets hold of him _ and gives you an unvarnished summary t. of his history.

Not An American

THE REAL MARCO POLO (Continued from page 9). It is chronicled that the lovely Kukachin, who (Arghun Khan having died), married the reigning Khan’s son, parted from her three Venetian escorts, "not without tears": and the statement makes ‘one wonder whether or not the handsome Marco, still a young man, had the little Princess’s heart, History, however, prosaically chronicles that Marco married’ Donata, a Venetian lady, and was the father of three daughters, Tradition has it that on the Polos’ return’ to Venice, so outlandish was their appearance and garb that they were unrecognised, and were refused admittance to their home, the Casa Polo. Marco was still young, so it is not surprising that we find him mentioned in 1298 as commander of a galley in the Battle of the Bay of Curzola, when the Venetians and Genoese met in a naval engagement. The Genovese won, and 7000 Venetians were taken prisoner, among whom was Marco Polo. Marco’s year of captivity in u Genoese prison was notable for the fact that a fellow prisoner, Rusticiano of Pisa. persuaded him to dictate his eastern experiences, and it is in this way, from the Pisan’s hand, that Marco’s adventures have been preserved for posterity. Nothing further is chronicled of Mareo Polo, except that, on his death at the age of seventy, he was buried in the Church of St. Lorenzo, So, after all Marco Polo wasn't a young American!