Page 122 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

travel guides 1899

Traveler’s Impressions
of the Ainu of Japan

Isabella Bird, an adventurous traveler to Japan in
the late 1800s, recorded her impressions of the account of his travels and travails. It was massive in its
Ainu in Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: geographic focus, detailing the lands from Japan to Zanz-
ibar. As a youth, Marco Polo had traveled from Venice
They have no history, their traditions are scarcely
with his father and uncle, who had made a prior journey
worth the name, they claim descent from a dog,
to China, to the East to establish a new outlet for Euro-
their houses and persons swarm with vermin,
pean exports. He spent about twenty years living and
they are sunk in the grossest ignorance, they
traveling in the East in the service of the founder of the
have no letters, or any numbers above a thou-
Mongol dynasty, Khubilai Khan (d. 1294 CE), and trav-
sand, they are clothed in the bark of trees and the
eled to China, Burma (modern Myanmar), India, central
untanned skins of beasts, they worship the bear,
Asia, and Byzantium (modern Istanbul, Turkey). He
the sun, moon, fire, water, and I know not what,
undertook a three-year maritime return journey, returning
they are uncivilisable and altogether irreclaimable
to Venice in 1295 CE. Captured at the Battle of Curzola
savages, yet they are attractive, and in some ways
on 6 September 1298, Marco Polo was imprisoned in
fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget the
Genoa and there met Rustichello da Pisa, an author of
music of their low sweet voices, the soft light of
romances, who eventually published Marco Polo’s
their mild brown eyes and the wonderful sweet-
account. However, Rustichello certainly fabricated parts
ness of their smile.
of the text to create a gripping narrative; the presence of
Source: Bird, I. (1881). Unbeaten tracks in Japan:An account of travels in the inte- bandits, pirates, and wild animals points to the hazards
rior including visits to the Aborigines of the Yezo and the shrines of Nikko and Ise.
London: Murray. of travel. The luxury and common goods that pepper
Polo’s story point to the commercial nature, and rewards,
of an enterprising journey.
Iberian Peninsula. Surpassed in importance only by A medieval narrative that can compare with Marco
Jerusalem and Rome, the cathedral at the end of the 800- Polo’s is the fourteenth-century rihla (travel narrative) of
kilometer route housed the relics of Saint James, one of the Moroccan Abu ‘Abdullah ibn Battuta (d. 1369 CE),
the twelve apostles. Pilgrims from all parts of Europe fol- A Gift of the Observers Concerning the Curiosities of the
lowed the route through the mountainous northern coast Cities and Marvels Encountered in Travels. From 1325 to
of Spain to Galicia. Because of the popularity of the 1349 ibn Battuta traveled extensively and related his
route, the cleric Aimeric Picaud, between 1130 and 1140 observations and experiences during his hajj (religious
CE, edited the Liber Sancti Jacobi (The Book of Saint pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia) and his subsequent
James), also called the “Codex Calixtinus.” The fifth book travels within the Dar al-Islam, the Islamic world, from
of the Codex was essentially a pilgrim’s guide and north Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to Delhi, Ceylon,
described to pilgrims the terrain and conditions of the Bengal, China, and Mali.
land, pointed out major sights along the route, and
warned them of hazards that could waylay the unfortu- Early Modern Travelers
nate pilgrim. Travel writings did not cease with the “closing of the
ecumene”—the arrival of Europeans in the Americas
Medieval Travelers— with the first trans-Atlantic voyages of the Genoese sailor
Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta Christopher Columbus (1492–1493). Columbus owned
Possibly the most famous travel narrative and guide of the a highly glossed account of Marco Polo’s travels, attest-
Middle Ages was The Travels by the Venetian merchant ing to the influence that travel guides had upon explo-
and diplomat Marco Polo (1254–1324 CE).Also known ration. From the fifteenth through the seventeenth century
as the “Description of the World,” it was a wildly popular Europeans traversed the globe in increasing numbers,