After some time, Kublai-khan having consulted with his great lords, informed them, that he was desirous to send them as his ambassadors to the pope of the Romans, accompanied by one of his lords named Chogatal[8], requesting that he would send an hundred men, learned in the Christian religion, to his courts, that they might instruct his wise men, that the faith of the Christians was preferable to all other sects, being the only way of salvation; that the gods of the Tartars were devils, and that they and other people of the east were deceived in the worship of these gods.  He likewise commanded them, on their return from Jerusalem, to bring him some of the oil from the lamp which burns before the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the emperor had great devotion, believing him to be the true God.  Yielding due reverence to the great khan, they promised faithfully to execute the charge which he had committed to them, and to present to the pope the letters in the Tartarian language, which he gave them for that purpose.  According to the custom of the empire, the great khan caused to be given them a golden tablet, engraven and signed with the mark or signet of the khan, in virtue of which, instead of a passport, the bearers were entitled to be everywhere conveyed in safety through dangerous places, by the governors of provinces and cities, throughout the whole empire, having their expences everywhere defrayed, and should be furnished with whatever was needful for them and their attendants in all places, and for as long as they might have occasion to stay.

Taking their leave of the great khan, they set out upon the journey into the west, carrying with them the letters to the pope, and the golden tablet.  After travelling twenty days, the Tartar lord, who was associated in their embassy to the pope, fell grievously sick; on which, having consulted upon what was best to be done, they resolved to leave him, and to continue their journey, They were everywhere courteously received, through the authority of the imperial tablet; yet they were often compelled to wait, by the overflowing of the rivers, in the course of their journey, so that they spent three years before they reached the port in the country of the Armenians, called Giazza [9].  From thence they proceeded to Acre [10], where they arrived in the month of April 1269.  On their arrival at Acre, they were informed of the death of Pope Clement IV., by Tibaldo Visconti of Placentia, the papal legate who then resided in that place.  They related to him what had befallen them, and declared what commission they had received from the great khan to the pope, and he advised to wait the creation of a new pope, to whom they might deliver their letters.  Upon this they took shipping for Venice, by the way of Negropont, intending to visit their friends and relations, and to remain there until a new pope should be elected.  On their arrival, Nicolo found that his wife was dead, whom he had left pregnant at his departure; but that she had left a son, now nineteen [11] years of age, who is this very Marco, the author of this book, in which he will make manifest all those things which he has seen in his travels.