the Christians and Mahometans. Egypt, it is probable, was not again opened as a channel of trade between Europe and India, until after the year 1260, when the Genoese had restored the Greeks to the empire of Constantinople. In recompense for this service, they obtained from the Greek emperors exclusive commercial privileges. The Venetians, when they found themselves shut out from the trade of the Black Sea, concluded a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, in consequence of which Alexandria again became the emporium of Indian produce, and so continued to be, till the time when the Portuguese discovered the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, and opened a direct commerce with the Spice Islands.

Previous to this commercial revolution, the Genoese and Venetians received their merchandise from India and China by Caffa, Tana, and Ajazzo. It arrived by two different routes. A part of it was brought to Bassora, at the mouth of the Tigris, in the Persian Gulf, whence it was conveyed by the river, and across Persia to Tebriz or Tauris, from which place it was sent forward by the Caspian Sea, through Armenia and Georgia, to Tana, at the mouth of the Tanais or Don. The more precious and less bulky commodities were transported direct from Tauris over the mountains to Ajazzo or Aias, on the Mediterranean Sea.

The merchandise conveyed by the other chief commercial route made a great circuit before its arrival at the Black Sea. It was conveyed up the river Indus as far as that river is navigable; and then carried on camels through Bokhara to the Gihon, whence it was despatched over-land to the Caspian Sea. From Astrachan the route to Asoph lay along the foot of Caucasus. This was the course that was followed also by the caravans to China from the Black Sea, which were sometimes, it is said, twelve months upon the journey. The countries traversed by these caravans were, in a great measure, deserts, inhabited only by nomadic tribes, without cities or cultivation, or other objects calculated to attract the

attention of the traveller: the journeys themselves were attended with both danger and fatigue: it is not surprising, therefore, that few relations of them remain, and that these in general bear the marks of being written under unfavourable circumstances. It is now time to return to the revolutions of Asia.

CHAP. III.

JOURNEY OF CARPINI INTO TATARY.

RISE OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE. ZINGIS KHAN. MONGOLS INVADE EUROPE. OVER-RUN HUNGARY.-THOUGHT TO BE DEMONS. THEIR THREATS.-ATTACK THE SARACENS.MISSION OF ASCELIN.-ITS ILL SUCCESS.-LETTER TO THE POPE.—MISSION OF CARPINI.THE CAMP OF BAATU.-JOURNEY TO THE RESIDENCE OF THE GRAND KHAN.— GREAT HUNGARY. — THE COUNTRY OF THE ALANS. THE KANGITTE. BISERMINI. — ELECTION OF A GRAND KHAN.—THE CEREMONIES. THE GOLDEN TENT. APPEARANCE OF THE EMPEROR. RECEPTION OF THE FRIARS. THE HARDSHIPS THEY ENDURED.-DESCRIPTION OF THE MONGOLS. — THEIR CHARACTER. SUPERSTITIONS. WORSHIP THE MOON.-TRIBES OF THE MONGOLS.-CLIMATE OF MONGOLIA. PRODIGIOUS SHOWERS OF HAIL. CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE CHINESE. PRESTER JOHN.COMBUSTIBLES USED IN WAR.

THE events which, in the course of the thirteenth century, brought together nations hitherto separated by the whole extent of the old world are almost without ex

ample in the history of the human race. The greatness of the Mongols, which seemed to embrace the universe, was created in less time than is ordinarily required to found and people a single city. The chief of a petty tribe, hardly distinguished among the tributaries of the Jou-chi, a principal Mongol nation, courageously resisted the attacks of some neighbours as unimportant as himself. The continuance of these struggles gradually led to bolder efforts directed against his superiors. His good fortune, and indefatigable spirit, made his horde or

camp the refuge of every discontented or unquiet character. His rivals are quickly humbled and his enemies destroyed. The country at the sources of the rivers Onon, Keroulan, and Toula, was the first theatre of the revolutions which shortly after spread through all Asia and a part of Europe. At length, in the year 1206, the heroic Mongol prince assumed the title of Chingis or Zingis Khan, and established the centre of his empire at Cara-corum, an ancient city of the Turks, situated between the Toula, the Orgon, and Silinga, nearly in the same latitude as Paris.

He

From this epoch in the history of the Mongols follows a series of uninterrupted victories. Each year a new kingdom was added to the empire. The successors of Zingis Khan, not contented with the immense extent of empire which that conqueror had bequeathed them, still acted under that impulse of ambition which he had communicated to the nation. Ogadaï, his immediate successor, having extended the Mongol dominion to the very centre of China, levied an army of fifteen hundred thousand men, destined to act at the same time at the opposite extremities of Asia, in the Corea, and beyond the Caspian Sea. Baatu Khan, under whom were many generals and princes of the royal blood, commanded the expedition which was directed against Europe. over-ran the country of the Bashkirs, penetrated into Russia, and took the city of Moscow, with the other chief places of the principality. The grand dukes of Russia became in consequence the tributaries of the Grand Khan. At the same time another Tatar army ravaged the countries of Armenia and Georgia, where they met with a stubborn but ineffectual resistance. At the termination of the destructive campaign of 1239, a Georgian prince, named Avag, accompanied by his sister Thamtha, ventured in person to make his submissions to Ogodaï, who received him favourably, and gave him a letter to the Mongolian general Charmagan, commanding the restitution of his estates. The success of this journey encouraged many other princes of the West to

visit Cara-corum, and to obtain from the Grand Khan himself the redress of the injuries committed by his officers. Many obtained from him their suits; and the imperial tent of Cara-corum, like the papal throne, became the tribunal before which were determined the appeals of kings.

In the North, the Mongols again showed themselves in a more threatening array. In the year 1240, Baatu took Kiow and Kaminiek, and sent one of his generals to make the conquest of Poland. The army of this latter, divided into several bodies, crossed the Vistula, advanced to Cracow, took and destroyed that celebrated city, collected an immense booty, and spread the utmost terror through all the surrounding countries. The troops of Poland, Moravia, and Silesia, posted at Waldstadt, were defeated in a great battle; after which the Tatars joined the army of Baatu in Hungary. This prince, with five hundred thousand men under his command, had routed the count palatine of Saxony, and scouring the country without resistance, destroyed every thing with fire and sword.

The alarm spread throughout Europe by these destructive irruptions is strongly manifested in the writings of that age. The people of Friesland, it is said, were reduced to great distress, having lost the season of the herring fishery from the fear of a Tatar invasion. Queen Blanche of France was unable to conceal her apprehensions from St. Louis : "This terrible irruption of the Tatars," she exclaimed, "seems to threaten us with a total ruin, ourselves, and our holy church."-"Mother," replied that brave and pious prince, "let us look to Heaven for consolation. If these Tatars come, either we will make them return to the Tartarus whence they have issued forth, or else we ourselves will go to find in heaven the happiness of the elect." The equivocation which is here attributed to the king of France is strictly in harmony with the opinions of those times, when the expression Tartari imo Tartarei was in general favour. In fact, an opinion very generally prevailed that the

*

Mongols were demons sent for the punishment of man, or at least that they had an intercourse with demons: this latter opinion received some support from the fire and whirlwinds of smoke which they had the art, it was said, of raising in the midst of battle. This is supposed to have reference to some species of artillery and inflammable powders, which the Mongols, according to the alleged testimony of the Chinese historians, were already acquainted with in that age." Against those demoniacal invaders, succour was sought by solemn prayers and general fastings. They nevertheless still continued their successful progress. Hungary was totally reduced : the emperor Frederic was summoned to do homage for his kingdom, and he was offered in recompense whatever office he was pleased to hold in the court of the Grand Khan. This, according to the Tatar usages, was an honourable offer, and well proportioned to the rank and dignity of the first of Christian potentates.

In their negotiations with the Hungarians, the Tatars employed as interpreter an Englishman, who lived some time among them, and who wrote some account of their character and manners in the year 1243. Imprudence had made him an exile from his country: he had dissipated all his property in gaming, and careless of life wandered as a beggar through Palestine and Syria. He at length became master of several Eastern languages, and thus recommended himself to the notice of the Tatar generals. The account which this adventurer gives of the Mongols is far from flattering, and perhaps not very unjust. Yet he does not say that they feasted on the dead bodies of their enemies; or that "they devoured dead carcasses like delicious cates, while the very greedy and ravenous vultures disdained to eat the relics; it may be concluded from these expressions of Hacluyt, that such an opinion was entertained at the time. The pleasure which the Tatars took in spreading alarm among the Christians is quaintly described by the English ad

venturer:

* Abel Remusat. Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vi. 1820.

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