They were in good health.

And I heard they were on their way home, though they would travel overland and not risk the great dangers of the sea.

I suppose, if they go back to China, you'll be going with them ?" "I don't know," says Marco Polo.
"You ought to see China.

It's a great country, a beautiful country." "It would have to be very great and beautiful," says Marco Polo, "to out-weigh the greatness and the beauty that are here.

You mustn't think I'm running down your country, mister," says he; "but for greatness, where is the beating of Venice in this day?
What struck Constantinople like a thunderbolt but the mailed hand of Venice?
When the Barbary corsairs roamed the seven seas, so that it was no more safe for a merchant vessel to be sailing than for a babe to be walking through a wild jungle, it was Venice who accepted the challenge and made the great sea as peaceful as the Grand Canal.