BOOK II. CHAPTER I. CONTINUATION OF THE REVIEW OF THE COM- 1. BEFORE proceeding with the immediate subject of this history, it will prepare us for the contemplation of events about to be related, to resume the brief review already taken of the progress of the commercial intercourse between Europe and India. During the middle ages, that intercourse was too indirect to bring much accession to the knowledge of these regions already possessed by the inhabitants of the West. The avidity of the European nations for the productions of Asia now increased with the difficulty of obtaining them: and the powerful competition excited between several Italian states to secure a monopoly in the market, caused the trade to be carried on with an activity and an enterprise, which ultimately led to the opening of India to the western world, and to the supplanting of the Mahomedans by the Christian powers that embarked in the commerce of that country. Increasing anxiety in tions of India. CHAP. Crusaders recover the from the Mahome dans. 2. For many years after the conquest of Alexandria by the Mahomedans, the inhabitants of Europe were dependent upon the Arab Holy Land merchants for the productions of India; but their intercourse with them was very precarious; indeed, it soon became extremely hazardous, in consequence of the animosity that existed between the Christians and the believers in Mahomet. When the crescent was planted in Palestine, all Christendom was animated with zeal to recover "the holy land" from the disciples of the Arabian impostor. In this cause, numerous hosts of crusaders were called forth from all parts of Europe, until, after much delay, and a profuse expenditure of lives and treasures, they finally succeeded in expelling the infidels, and in once more raising the standard of the cross on the battlements of Jerusalem. A. D. 1204. This event opened the Indian trade to the Vene tians in the thirteenth century. They are supplanted 3. In the progress of the Christian arms, the interests of the Indian trade were not forgotten. The fourth crusade was undertaken about the beginning of the thirteenth century, at which time the republic of Venice had risen into importance by means of commerce. Many Venetian merchants accompanied the army of crusaders, to whom they rendered essential aid; and for this service, on the capture of Constantinople, they were rewarded with an extensive portion of the Imperial dominions in the East. Here they settled and carried on a lucrative trade, especially in silk and other productions of India, which had so long enriched that capital of the Greek empire.' 4. But the Venetians did not long enjoy their in the East prosperity, being dislodged from their possessions by the republic of Genoa, within sixty by the Genoese. Hallam's Middle ages.-Robertson's Disquisition. years after their settlement at Constantinople. The Genoese were envious of their rivals' growing power and wealth, and circumstances soon favoured their design to supplant them. Seeing the Greeks of the country impatient under a foreign yoke, they combined with them to overturn the throne of the Latin Emperor; and, upon the success of this enterprise, they wrested from the Venetians all their commercial advan tages. The Greek Emperor munificently recompensed the Genoese for these important services, and they improved their opportunities with so much industry and zeal, that Genoa soon became the chief commercial power in Europe. A. D. 1261. pursue the at in conjunc the Mahom 5. In the meantime, the Venetians, driven from Constantinople and the Black Sea, did Venetians not sit down in despair, but endeavoured to trade repair their loss by resorting to the ancient Alexandria mart of Alexandria for the commodities of the tion with East. Here their exertions were soon rewarded edans. beyond expectation. The prejudices and antipathies that had long subsisted between Christians and Mahomedans gradually subsided. The merchants of both religions, having one common object in view, the pursuit of commerce, suspended their religious animosities; and their mutual interests induced them now to establish, for the first time, a fair and open trade between them.' In the fifteenth are admitted 6. While the affairs of commerce were thus advancing, under the Venetians and Genoese, century the a third power entered the field, the state of Florentines Florence. For some time the Florentines con- to a share of fined their attention to their domestic manufactures, and to pecuniary transactions with the other European states. At length, however, 1 Robertson. Dis. 121-125. the com merce of Alexandria. CHAP. 1. A. D. 1425. Marco Paolo's travels in India and China awaken the curiosity & ambition of Europe. they began to covet a share of the Indian trade, and in the beginning of the fifteenth century they applied to the Soldan of Egypt, to admit them to all the commercial immunities which the Venetians enjoyed at Alexandria, and other parts of his dominions. Their application was partially successful, as they were admitted to the market of Indian productions: and soon after this period we find spices enumerated among the goods which the Florentines imported into England.' 7. Of these three rival powers, the Venetians appear to have been the most enterprising. It is foreign from the object of this history to follow them in their active pursuit of new channels for acquiring and circulating their commodities: but it is quite within our province to notice the improved knowledge of India for which the inhabitants of Europe were at this time indebted to a citizen of Venice. It has been seen how effectually the Mahomedans excluded the Christians of Europe from the East, ever since they became masters of Egypt. From that time to the period at which we have now arrived, very little information had been added to the account of India published in the sixth century by Cosmas Indicopleustes. But in the thirteenth century, Marco Paolo, a Venetian of a noble family, brought great accessions to the information already possessed. He was engaged in pursuits of commerce, and, after trading for some time in Lesser Asia, was induced to penetrate further to the East, even to the court of the Great Khan, on the frontier of China. During the course of twenty years, employed partly in mercantile transactions, and 1 Robertson. Dis. 125-127. 1 partly in conducting negociations with which the Great Khan intrusted him, he explored many regions of the East, through which no european had ever yet travelled. He proceeded through China as far as Pekin; visited different parts of Hindoostan; and was the first who described Bengal and Guzzerat by their present names, as great and opulent kingdoms. He also made several voyages in the Indian Ocean, during which he visited Java, Sumatra, and Ceylon, with several other islands of minor importance, and sailed round the peninsula of India, as far as the Gulf of Cambay. Most of the places that he visited he called by the names which they at present bear. There are some inaccuracies in his topographical descriptions, which, considering the great disadvantages under which he travelled, may be easily accounted for; but they are sufficiently correct to identify them with the places to which they are applied. This was the most extensive survey of the East hitherto made, and the most complete description of it that had ever been given by any European and in an age which had hardly any knowledge of those regions except what was derived from the geography of Ptolemy, not only the Venetians, but all the people of Europe, were very naturally astonished at the discovery of immense countries open to their view, beyond what had hitherto been reputed the utmost boundary of the earth in that quarter. A. D. 1425. Mahome Constanti 8. In the midst of the conjectures of the dans take philosopher and the speculations of the mer- nople, and chant, to which these discoveries gave birth, an Genoese. 1 Marco Paolo calls it "the great kingdom of Cathay, the name by which China is still known in many parts of the East."-Robertson. 132, 133. expel the |