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Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a trader from Venice, Italy. Some accounts say that he was born in Croatia, but this theory is widely rejected by most scholars. Polo, along with his uncle, Maffeo Polo, and his father, Niccolo Polo visited many civilizations throughout the Far East, most notably China. The Polo party reached China in 1296 and left in 1291, although they did not reach Venice until 1292. He became a confidant of Kublai Khan (1214-1294), and he traveled all of China. It is reported that he tried to leave numerous times, but Khan enjoyed his company so much that he would not permit him to leave.
The Khan requested Maffeo and Niccolo to ask the Pope to send 100 missionaries when he met them in the 1260s (which was before Marco joined the group), perhaps to convert the Mongols to Christianity. The two Polos did not return with the requested missionaries, but because Marco’s mother died, they had to take him along with them. The Polo party left Venice in 1271, but they did not reach China until 1275. The Khan was fond of Marco and conscripted him for service to the empire. While the Khan enjoyed the company of the Polos, he allowed them to leave the empire under the condition that they would escort a Persian princess who was to be married. The Polos, the princess, and over 500 sailors left on from a port in southern China. The armada left in 1292, but they encountered a horrendous storm. Allegedly, only eighteen people out of the original 600 survived, but this is rather unlikely, as all of the Polos and the princess all survived. They arrived in Venice in 1293.
A few years after Marco Polo returned, in 1298, Venice and Genoa went to war with each other. Marco joined the army, but was taken as a prisoner of war (POW). While he was incarcerated for two years, Marco dictated his travels to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello. Rustichello, who was a French writer, subsequently published the book into The Travels of Marco Polo, which is still in print to this day. In this book, Marco describes the politics, agriculture, military power, economy, sexual practices, and religions of each area. The book was also called Il Milione, meaning a million. This nickname has three possible origins. One is that Emilione was the Polo family nickname. Some people were very skeptical of Marco’s travels, and may have nicknamed the book due to it being “a million (which was considered an extremely large number at the time) lies”. The most likely origin, however is that Marco Polo often described things in the hundreds, thousands, or occasionally millions. A typical passage from the book describes the island of Nicobar as approximately 150 miles north of the island of Java, an anarchic community, and a place where men and women run naked. He describes the people as idolaters who decorated their houses with silk (which hung from rods) as ornaments. He also said that their forests were filled with valuable foods, such as coconuts. The exact passage reads as follows:
Concerning the Island of Nicobar
When you leave the island of Java and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about one hundred and fifty miles, and then you come to two islands, one of which is called Nicobar. On this island they have no king or chief, but live like beasts. They go all naked, both men and women, and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are idolaters. They decorate their houses with long pieces of silk, which they hang from rods as an ornament, regarding it as we would pearls, gems, silver, or gold. The woods are filled with valuable plants and trees, including cloves, brazil, and coconuts.
There is nothing else worth relating so we will go on to the island of Andaman...

References:
The Travels of Marco Polo (primary)
http://geography.about.com/cs/marcopolo/a/marcopolo.htm
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/marcopolo.shtml