Marco Polo: Overland to China

Gregory Bryan is a member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

There are 20 titles in the Footsteps of Explorers series. Each book in
the series contains a table of contents, simple timelines, a glossary
defining about 20 to 35 words, and an index. Each book also contains
large, colourful illustrations, sometimes a smattering of historical
black-and-white photos, and useful maps. A global map on the title page
of each book features the travel routes of the explorer featured inside.


The series covers exploration of wilderness frontiers, by sea, river
ways, and the arctic. It also embraces exploration of different
countries, with an understandably disproportionate focus on exploration
of the Americas.

One of the best features of the series is the historical extract penned
by each book’s subject, or a contemporary of that explorer, which
gives the reader insight into the explorer and the times. Another
enticing feature is the recipe in each book that provides a glimpse into
the everyday life of the explorer; for example, Daniel Boone provides
instructions for making beef jerky. Topics in the books explore “life
at sea,” “life in a colony,” and “life in the wilderness.”
There is also often a description of the indigenous way of life of the
original inhabitants of a land before the arrival of the explorers.
While lauding the achievements of the explorers, the authors present
information in a manner that is appropriately sympathetic toward
indigenous peoples and the changes to their lives that resulted from
explorers’ arrivals.

In Ferdinand Magellan, readers learn that his method of deterring
would-be-mutineers was to mount the head of a dissident on a pole. Only
18 of Magellan’s 200 men survived the three-year circumnavigation.
Radisson and des Groseilliers discusses the establishment of the
Hudson’s Bay Company and the central role that fur traders played in
opening up the North. The book also mentions the painful torturing of a
teenaged Radisson by the Iroquois.

After seeing the Tahitians’ tattooed bodies, James Cook’s botanist,
Joseph Banks, had his arm tattooed in Tahiti. Cook died in Hawaii. Peary
and Henson describes the enormity of their journey to the North Pole;
Peary lost eight toes to frostbite. The African-American Henson’s
penned extract reveals Peary’s progressive attitude toward him, given
the times. The Ponce de Leуn cover illustration depicts the
explorer’s search for the mythical fountain of youth. The text
recounts the difficulties the explorer endured as he struggled to
establish a colony in what is now Florida.

Incredibly, Samuel de Champlain crossed the Atlantic Ocean on 21
occasions. To keep spirits high during the long winters at Port Royal,
he established the “Order of Good Cheer.” Sir Walter Raleigh
provides an interesting discussion of Raleigh’s search for the fabled
El Dorado. Another fascinating story was Raleigh limping before Queen
Elizabeth and regaining her favour, Raleigh seemingly having proven his
loyalty and worth by having his leg reduced to shreds by a cannonball.

After writing about his travel adventures, Marco Polo apparently became
known as “Marco Millions,” because he was considered to have
invented a million stories. On his deathbed, Polo was asked if his
stories were true. He replied that, because he knew he wouldn’t be
believed, he did not tell even half of the amazing things that he saw on
his trek to China. Daniel Boone explains the hardships the explorer
endured during the establishment of Boonesborough: his son died and the
Shawnee captured both Boone and his daughter, Jemima. Boone’s
favourite book was Gulliver’s Travels.

An interesting first-person report by Hernando by Cortés describes how
he was forbidden to touch Montezuma when the two first met. The book
also includes a detailed description of the march toward, and conquest
of, Tenochtitlan. Sieur de La Salle reports that La Salle left his
seminary training, explaining that he did not feel his morals were
sufficiently strong for a life in the priesthood. But later we read of
La Salle’s deception of King Louis by tampering with maps of the
Mississippi River.

Crabtree Publishing is to be commended for another impressive,
informative, and attractive series. Recommended.