Marco Polo — "My heart beats as much as I can breathe."

"The people of this country are all idolaters, and they offer sacrifices to their idols, and they believe in many false gods."

"They are a very poor people, and they live in great misery, and have nothing to eat but roots and herbs."

"There is also a sort of black stone, which is dug from the mountains and burns like wood."

"The people of the Sahara Desert are very poor, and they live like beasts."

"I believe it was God's will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since, as we have said in the first chapter of this book, no other man, Christian or Sara…"