While the most powerful kingdoms in Europe trembled at the dangerous proximity of the Tatar hordes which were now firmly established in the east of Europe, the merchants of Genoa and Venice felt not a little satisfaction, perhaps, at the prospect of new and ample markets being thus opened for the commodities of the West. The character of a merchant is held in much respect by Eastern nations: pomp and profusion are reckoned by them among the virtues of a prince; the simplicity of the Tatars and their ignorance of Europe promised ample profits to those who first ventured to open a correspondence with them. The valuable productions of the East had so firmly associated the idea of wealth with that quarter of the world, that it would be matter of surprise if the enterprising merchants of the Italian states had neglected to try their fortunes at the courts of the Tatarian princes.

Two noble Venetians, named Maffio and Nicolo Polo, were among the first to make the experiment, After disposing of a large stock of merchandise at Constantinople, they considered how they might employ their capital to the best advantage, and resolved on a trading visit to the Tatars, who had now resumed the occupations of peace in the plains around the Volga. They accordingly purchased a stock of jewels, and crossed the Black Sea in 1254, to the camp of Barkah, brother or son of Baatu, whose usual residence was at Bolgar or Saraï.

When the Portuguese had once established their dominion in the East, they no longer spread themselves abroad to gratify curiosity, or for the liberal purpose of enlarging their knowledge of the globe. The wealth of the Indies and the weakness of the natives called forth their worst passions. Avarice, inflamed by religious bigotry, became their chief spring of action, and they are thenceforward to be viewed not so much in the light of skilful and intrepid navigators, as in that of rapacious adventurers, military merchants, pirates, and missionaries. The personal narrative of one of the most extraordinary adventurers of that remarkable age remains to us, and in it we find marked out not only the farthest extent of the geographical knowledge of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, but also an exact and vivid picture of their manners.

Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, the author and hero of this narrative, was one of the first Europeans who visited Japan; and if the geographical notices which occur in his volume are too often obscure and unintelligible, he contributes, on the other hand, to throw a light on the history of geography, by revealing to us the habits and character of those of his countrymen who first reached the remotest countries of the East.

The victories of the Romans achieved the grand project which had been first conceived by the genius of Alexander. The numerous and distant nations comprehended within the wide limits of the Roman empire communicated together as members of the same great body, and learned to estimate the advantages of mutual intercourse. The work of union was promoted by the dares of a vigilant and liberal administration. Great roads were constructed traversing the empire in all directions; a common language was diffused; and, in short, the chief obstacles, both natural and moral, to the easy and intimate correspondence of foreign nations, were either totally broken down or rendered much less insurmountable. How far the growth of the imperial power and the gradual extinction of liberty in the Roman world, was connected with the decline of literature and the arts, or whether the extension of the Roman power was conducive to the civilisation of mankind, are questions which lie beyond the compass of this work. But certain it is that the causes, whatever they were, to which we must ascribe the general declension of taste, did not at all impede the progress of geography. This science, depending for its growth almost wholly on the accumulation of facts, continually profited from experience, unaffected by the sinister influence of political corruption; and its progress appears to have been particularly rapid between the Augustan age, when Strabo wrote, and that of the Antonines, in which Ptolemy flourished, and when the Roman empire was already on the verge of decay.