It Seems A Somewhat Complex Question Whether A Native Even Of French
Flanders At That Time Should Be Necessarily Claimable As A
Frenchman;[A] But No Doubt On This Point Is Alluded To By M. D'Avezac,
So He Probably Had Good Ground For That Assumption.
[See also Yule's
article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Rockhill's Rubruck,
Int., p. xxxv.
- H. C.]
That cross-grained Orientalist, I. J. Schmidt, on several occasions
speaks contemptuously of this veracious and delightful traveller,
whose evidence goes in the teeth of some of his crotchets. But I am
glad to find that Professor Peschel takes a view similar to that
expressed in the text: "The narrative of Ruysbroek [Rubruquis], almost
immaculate in its freedom from fabulous insertions, may be indicated
on account of its truth to nature as the greatest geographical
masterpiece of the Middle Ages." (Gesch. der Erdkunde, 1865, p.
151.)
[A] The County of Flanders was at this time in large part a fief of
the French Crown. (See Natalis de Wailly, notes to Joinville,
p. 576.) But that would not much affect the question either one
way or the other.
[2] High as Marco's name deserves to be set, his place is not beside the
writer of such burning words as these addressed to Ferdinand and
Isabella: "From the most tender age I went to sea, and to this day I
have continued to do so. Whosoever devotes himself to this craft must
desire to know the secrets of Nature here below.
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