Chapter XIII: Traders, Travelers, and Explorers in the Later Middle Ages

THE PERILS OF TRADERS. There was a time in the Middle Ages when
merchants scarcely dared to travel from one town to another for fear of
being plundered by some robber lord or common thief. If they traveled by
sea they might also be attacked by robbers. Some of these robbers, like
the Northmen, came from afar, but others were ordinary sailors who put
out from near-by ports when there seemed nothing better to do.

This state of things gradually changed. The kings or great lords
succeeded in protecting merchants on land, and the merchants armed
vessels of their own to drive the pirates from the sea. As trade grew
greater the towns became richer and stronger and the robbers and pirates
fewer, so that the number of merchant ships increased rapidly and long
voyages were attempted.

FAIRS. At first trade was carried on at great fairs, held in places
convenient for the merchants of England and western Europe. The fairs
lasted about six weeks, and one fair followed another. As soon as the
first was over the merchants packed their unsold wares and journeyed to
the next. At the fairs were found drugs and spices, cottons and silks
from the East, skins and furs from the North, wool from England, and
other products from Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

THE TREASURES OF THE EAST. Men in the Middle Ages were dependent
for luxuries upon the lands of Asia which are commonly called the East.
By this name we may mean Persia, Arabia, India, China, or the Molucca
Islands, where the choicest spices still grow. Spices were a great
luxury, and were needed to flavor the food, because the manner of
cooking was poor and there was little variety in the kinds of food. Most
of the cotton cloth, the silks, the drugs, and the dyes were also
procured from the East.

ROUTES TO THE EAST. No one knew that it was possible to reach Asia
by sailing around the southern point of Africa or through what is called
the Strait of Magellan. The products of the East were brought to Europe
by several routes, two reaching the Mediterranean at Alexandria, in
Egypt, a third at Antioch, in Syria, and a fourth on the southeastern
shore of the Black Sea.

The loads were carried by camels in long caravans across the deserts
from the Red Sea, or the Persian Gulf, or from northern India. Ships
from the Italian cities of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice struggled with one
another for the right to bring back these precious wares and sell them
to the merchants of Europe, who were ready to pay high prices.

VENETIAN TRADERS. Merchants from Germany came to Venice to trade
the products of the North for spices, drugs, dyes, and silks, which they
carried back across the Alps. Once a year the Venetians sent a fleet of
vessels westward through the straits of Gibraltar and along the Atlantic
shore as far as Bruges and London. The voyage was long and dangerous,
and the Venetians traded in ports on the way. Spices in Bruges sold for
two or three times what they cost in Venice.

THE CRUSADES. One event that brought to the Venetians an
opportunity to enrich themselves was the Crusades. The Mohammedans had
long held a large part of Spain, and towards the end of the eleventh
century they threatened France and Italy. They also attacked what was
left of the Roman Empire in the East, and the emperors sent to the pope
and the western kings frantic appeals for help. Thousands of Frenchmen,
Germans, Englishmen, and Italians were suddenly seized with the desire
to go to Palestine and drive the Mohammedans from Jerusalem, the Holy
City, and from the tomb of Christ. For the next two centuries large
armies were sent there, sometimes gaining victories, sometimes being
defeated in battle or overcome by disease.

WHAT THE VENETIANS GAINED FROM THE CRUSADES. Most of the Crusaders
went to the Holy Land by sea, and when they had no ships of their own
they often took passage in Venetian ships. The Venetians asked large
sums for this, and also succeeded in obtaining all the rights of trade
in many of the seaports which were captured. Sometimes the Venetians
undertook to govern islands like Cyprus and Crete, or territories along
the coasts, but their main aim was to increase their trade rather than
to build up an empire.

THE NEW VENETIAN SHIPS. The Crusaders who returned to Europe brought
back a liking for the luxuries of the East, and their tales made other
men eager for them. For this reason more ships were built to sail in the
Mediterranean. The shipowners attempted to make their ships larger and
stronger. They were larger than those built by the English or by other
peoples along the Atlantic coast, but they would seem small to us. There
is an account of Venetian ships in the thirteenth century which tells us
that they were one hundred and ten feet long and carried crews of one
thousand men. They relied mainly upon the use of oars, but had a mast,
sometimes two masts, rigged with sails, which they could use if the wind
was favorable.

DANGERS OF THE SEA. One difficulty about sailing was the lack of
any means in cloudy weather, and especially at night, of telling the
direction in which they were going. The sailors did not like to venture
far from shore, although the open sea is safer during a storm than a
wind-swept and rocky coast. At the time when the sailors of the
Mediterranean were building up their trade to Alexandria, Antioch, and
the Black Sea, two instruments came into use which enabled them to tell
just where they were.

THE COMPASS. One of these instruments was the compass, which the
Chinese had long used, and which was known to the Arabs before the
Europeans heard of it. If a boy will take a needle, rub its point with a
magnet, and lay the needle on a cork floating in water, he will have a
rough sort of compass. The point of the needle wherever it may be turned
will swing back towards the north, thus guiding the sailors.

The compass was known in Europe about 1200. There is a story that at
first sailors thought its action due to magic and refused to sail under
a captain who used it. But a century later it was in general use, and
had been so much improved that even in the severest storms the needle
remained level and pointed steadily towards the north.

THE ASTROLABE. The other instrument, called the astrolabe, was a
brass circle marked off into 360 degrees. To this circle were fastened
two movable bars, at the ends of which were sights, or projecting pieces
pierced by a hole. The astrolabe was hung on a mast in such a way that
one bar was horizontal and the other could be moved until through its
sights some known star could be seen. The number of degrees marked on
the circle between the two bars told how high the star was above the
horizon, and the sailors could reckon the latitude of the place where
they were. In a similar way their longitude could be found out.

The astrolabe was not so useful as the compass, for it could be used
only on clear days or nights. With these two instruments it was possible
to sail far out into the Atlantic. By the middle of the fourteenth
century ships from Genoa and Portugal had visited the Madeira and the
Canary Islands, and even the Azores which are a thousand miles from
the mainland.

WHAT MEN THOUGHT ABOUT A SEA ROUTE TO THE EAST. Men learned more
about other strange lands through a Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, who
wrote an account of his wonderful journey to the court of the Grand
Khan, or Emperor of the Mongols, of his travels through China, and of
his return to Persia by sea.

Many men in the Middle Ages had believed that east of Asia was a great
marsh, and that because of it even if they succeeded in sailing around
Africa it would be impossible to reach the region of the spices and
silks and jewels which they so much desired. They also thought that the
heat in the tropics was so intense that at a certain distance down the
coast of Africa they would find the water of the ocean boiling. These
things and the tales of strange monsters that inhabited the deep sea had
terrified them. The news which Marco Polo brought changed this feeling.

THE MONGOLS. The way Marco Polo happened to visit the court of the
Mongol emperor was this. The Mongol Tartars were great conquerors, and
they not only subdued the Chinese but marched westward, overrunning most
of Russia and stopping only when they were on the frontiers of Italy.
For a long time southern Russia remained under their rule. Their capital
was just north of the Great Wall of China.

The Mongol emperor did not hate Europeans, and even sent to the pope for
missionaries to teach his people. Marco Polo's father and uncle while on
a trading expedition had found their way to his court, and on a second
journey, in 1271, they took with them Marco, a lad of seventeen years.
The emperor was much interested in his western visitors and took young
Marco into his service.

MARCO POLO'S TRAVELS. Marco Polo traveled over China on official
errands, while his father and uncle were gathering wealth by trade.
After many years they desired to return to Italy, but the emperor was
unwilling to lose such able servants. It happened, however, that the
emperor wished to send a princess as a bride to the Khan or Emperor of
Persia, also a Mongol sovereign, and the three Polos, who were known to
be trustworthy seamen, were selected to escort the princess to her royal
husband. After doing this they did not return to China, but went on
to Italy.

They had been absent twenty-four years, and they found that their
relatives had given them up for dead and did not recognize them. It was
like the old story of Ulysses, who, when he returned to his native
Ithaca after his wanderings, was recognized by nobody. The Polos proved
the truth of what they said by showing the great treasures which they
had sewed into the dresses of coarse stuff of a Tartar pattern which
they wore. They displayed jewels of the greatest value, diamonds,
emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.

WHAT MARCO POLO TOLD. In the account Marco Polo wrote of his
travels and of the countries he had visited he described a wonderful
palace of the Great Emperor. Its walls were covered with gold and
silver, the dining hall seated six thousand people, and its ceiling was
inlaid with gold. This palace seemed to Marco Polo so large, so rich,
and so beautiful that no man on earth could design anything to equal it.
The robes of the emperor and his twelve thousand nobles and knights were
of silk and beaten gold, each having a girdle of gold decorated with
precious stones.

Marco Polo told of great cities in China where men traded in the costly
wares of the East, and where silk was abundant and cheap. He described
from hearsay Japan as an island fifteen hundred miles from the mainland.
Its people, he said, were white, civilized, and wondrously rich. The
palace of the emperor of Japan was roofed with gold, its pavements and
floors were of solid gold, laid in plates two fingers thick.

REASONS FOR FINDING A SEA ROUTE TO THE EAST. Tales of such great
wealth made Europeans more eager than ever to reach the East. Marco Polo
had shown that it was possible to sail past India, through the islands,
to the eastern coast of Asia. When printing was invented his account was
printed, and the copy of that book which Columbus owned is still
preserved. Upon its margins Columbus wrote his own opinions about
geography.

Other travelers besides the Polos returned with similar tales of the
East. Soon, however, all chance to go there by way of the land was lost,
because the Mongol emperors were driven out of China and the new rulers
would not permit Europeans to enter the country. The ordinary caravan
routes to the East were also closed not long afterwards. In 1453 the
Turks captured Constantinople, drove away the Italian merchants, and
prevented European sailors from reaching the Black Sea. Fifty years
later the Turks seized Egypt and closed that route also. Fortunately
before this happened a better route had been discovered.

THE PORTUGUESE SAILORS. During the Middle Ages the Portuguese princes
fought to recover Portugal from the Moors. When this was done they were
eager to cross the straits and attack the Moors in Africa. Prince Henry
of Portugal made an expedition to Africa and returned with the desire to
know more about the coast south of the point beyond which European
sailors dared not venture. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Sea
of Darkness or killed by the heat of the boiling tropics.

From his love of exploring the seas Prince Henry has been called "The
Navigator." He took up his residence on a lonely promontory in southern
Portugal, and gathered about him learned men of all peoples, Arabian and
Jewish mathematicians, and Italian mapmakers. Captains trained in this
new school of seamanship were sent into the southern seas. Each was to
sail farther down the western coast of Africa than other captains had
gone. Before Prince Henry died in 1460 his captains had passed Cape
Verde, and ten years later they crossed the equator without suffering
the fate which men had once feared. But they were discouraged when they
found that beyond the Gulf of Guinea the coast turned southward again,
for they had hoped to sail eastward to Asia.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE DISCOVERED. At last in 1487 the end of what
seemed to be an endless coast was reached. The fortunate captain who
accomplished this was Bartholomew Diaz, who came of a family of daring
seamen. He had been sailing southward along the coast for nearly eight
months, when a northerly gale drove him before it for thirteen days. The
weather cleared and Diaz turned eastward to find the coast. As he did
not see land he turned northward and soon discovered land to the west.
This showed that he had passed the southern point of Africa. His crew
were unwilling to go farther and he followed the coast around to the
western side again. The southern point he called the Cape of Storms, but
the king of Portugal, when the voyagers returned, named it the Cape of
Good Hope, for now he knew that an expedition could be sent directly to
the Indies.

Diaz had sailed thirteen thousand miles, and his voyage was the most
wonderful that Europeans had ever heard about.

THE SEA ROUTE TO INDIA. Eleven years later the Portuguese king sent
Vasco da Gama, another captain, to attempt to reach the coast of India
by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope which Diaz had discovered. Da
Gama was successful and landed at Calicut on the south-western coast of
India. He returned to Portugal in 1499, and his cargo was worth sixty
times the cost of the voyage. This was the beginning of a trade with the
East which enriched Portugal and especially the merchants of Lisbon.

QUESTIONS

1. What dangers threatened traders in the Middle Ages who traveled
by sea or land? What was a fair?

2. What products were brought from the East? By what routes? Point
these out on a map. What rival trading cities were in Italy? How did
the Venetians get their wares to London?

3. Who were the Crusaders? Why did they attack the Mohammedans? What
did the Venetian traders gain by these wars? Describe a large
Venetian ship of this time.

4. When was the compass invented? Why was it dangerous to sail great
seas and oceans without a compass? Tell how an astrolabe was made.

5. What at first kept men from attempting to sail to eastern Asia?
Who was Marco Polo? Describe his adventures. How did he return to
Venice? How did people learn about the lands he had visited?

6. Why after 1453 was it necessary to find a sea route to Asia? What
did Prince Henry the Navigator succeed in doing? How was the Cape of
Good Hope discovered? Who went with Diaz on this voyage?

7. Who first sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope? Was the
voyage profitable? What city was made rich by the new trade?

EXERCISES

1. Find from a map in the geography how many miles goods must have
been carried to reach Venice from Persia, India, the Moluccas, or
China. How far is it from Venice by sea to Bruges or London?

2. Where and how do we now obtain cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves?

3. What line of emperors has been recently ruling over China? Where
has been their capital? Find out about the present Mongols. Collect
pictures of China and Japan.

4. Read a longer account of Marco Polo.

5. Study the geography of Portugal. Collect pictures of Portugal.
Find out if many Portuguese are living in the United States.

REVIEW

_Steps Towards the Discovery of America_

Greek colonies in Italy, Gaul, and Spain.

Roman conquest of Gaul, Spain, and Britain.

Viking voyages to Greenland and Vinland.

Venetian trade in spices with the East, and Venetian voyages to
London and Bruges.

Marco Polo's travels in China and the East.

Portuguese voyages down the coast of Africa and about the Cape of
Good Hope.