July 4, 1298
Dear Brunelleschi,
My life has been pretty lonely. I have been in jail for a while now with some guy named Rustichello of Pisa, whom is a writer. I’ve been telling him stories of my adventures to the Mongolian Empire and he is making a book about the adventures I tell him. The reason I'm in jail is that I commanded a ship in a war against the rival city of Genoa and they soon captured me and now I am in a cell of loneliness.
Although I'm in jail with someone, I still feel lonely. My mom died when I was very young and my dad left to go explore the other world when I wasn't even born. He came back with his brother, Maffeo Polo, and they invited me to go back to Mongolia with them. My dad, Maffeo Polo, and I are merchants. We find goods to sell in other City-states where they would more valuable. On the way, we had to avoid bandits and had to trade our valuable things for camels, water, and food for the harsh Gobi desert in front of us.
When we made it to Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Mongolian Empire, Kublai made me and my family go to the outer edges of his empire, since he could not see his whole grand empire. Our mission was to come back to him and tell him how the people in his empire live, what religion they practice, and lastly, how life is different from where the palace was to where they lived. When we got back to Kublai Khan, he gave us golden passports so we could come again with no one hurting us and stealing our supplies. After he gave us the golden passports, he wanted us to go back to Venice and get the pope and bring the pope to Kublai.
When we got back to Venice, the priests were fighting over who would be the next pope. We only convinced two priests to come with us and this time we took a boat. We and the priests were the only people who survived the sail and we soon got to Kublai Khan with the priests. The priests could not believe what they were seeing. The Mongolians had a much more civilized empire than back in Venice. They had paper money, advanced heating system to keep their houses warm, and lastly, they were the civilization that protected the silk road.
When I came back to Venice, Kublai Khan passed and that was the end of the silk road. As I came home, I told every one of my stories but nobody believed me. The Venetians claimed that they were the most advanced civilization and no one was as advanced as them. Now I realized sitting here with Rustichello, I traveled the whole silk road, only to find myself imprisoned by my own people.
From the merchant,
Marco Polo
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