  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.
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