Marco Polo was the first European who visited China; and certainly none of those who have succeeded him ever enjoyed equal opportunities of acquiring a perfect knowledge of that country. The account, however, which he published of his travels was adapted to the taste and sentiments of the age in which he lived; and much of his valuable information was probably withheld, from a fear that it might not prove generally interesting. The splendour and state of the imperial court, the manners and military organisation of the Tatars, occupy a comparatively larger portion of his volume than the character, commerce, and industry of the Chinese; and yet it is quite evident that these had sufficiently engaged his attention; and in proportion as he advances in the course of his description from the frontiers of Tatary towards the south of China, he speaks in terms of continually increasing admiration of the arts, wealth, and population of the country.

To the northern part of China, or all that lay to the north of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, he gives the name of Khatai or Cathay; the country south of that river he calls the province of Manji. This province, he says, is the most magnificent and richest that is known in the Eastern world. About the year 1269 it was subject to a prince styled Fanfur, who surpassed in wealth and power all who had reigned in that country for a century before him.