d the Cowan of Levant, blocking theirreturn home. Thus Niccol and Maffeo traveled deeper into mongol territory, movingsoutheast to Bukhara, which was ruled by a third Cowan. While waiting there, they metan emissary traveling farther eastward who invited them to accompany him to the courtof the great Cowan, Kublai, in Cathay.6 In Cathay, Kublai Khan gave the Polos a friendlyreception, appointed them his emissaries to the pope, and ensured their safe travel backto Europe.7 They were to return to Cathay with one hundred learned men who couldinstruct the Mongols in the Christian religion and the liberal arts. In 1269, Niccol andMaffeo Polo arrived back in Venice, where Niccol found out his wife had died while hewas gone.8 Their son, Marco, who was only about fifteen years old, had been only six oryounger when his father left home: thus; Marco was reared primarily by his mother andthe extended Polo family-and the streets of Venice. After his mother's death, Marco hadprobably begun to think of himself as something of a orphan.9 Then his father and unclesuddenly reappeared, as if from the dead, after nine years of traveling in far-off, romanticlands. These experiences were the formative influences on young Marco, and one can seetheir effects mirrored in his character: a combination of sensitivity and toughness,independence and loyalty, motivated by an eagerness for adventure, a love of stories, anda desire to please or impress.10 In 1268, Pope Clement IV died, and a two or three year delay, while another popewas being elected, gave young Marco time to mature and to absorb the tales of his fatherand uncle. Marco was seventeen years old when he, his father and uncle finally set outfor the court of Kublai Khan.11 They were accompanied not by one hundred wise menbut by two Dominican friars, and the two good friars turned back at the first sign ofadversity, another local war in the Levant. Aside from the pope's messages, the onlyspiritual gift Euro...
