The third day after this, being the feast of St Brice, 13th November, we received our passport, and a letter sealed with the emperor's own seal; and going to the emperor's mother, she gave each of us a gown made of fox-skins, having the hair outwards, and a linen robe; from every one of which our Tartar attendants stole a yard, and from those that were given to our servants, they stole a full half. We were perfectly aware of this knavery, but did not think it convenient to take any notice.

At length we took our departure, and travelled the whole winter through the desert, often sleeping all night on the snow, unless when we cleared a piece of ground with our feet, and frequently in the morning we found ourselves entirely covered by the snow, which had drifted over us during the night. On Ascension day, we arrived at the court of Baatu, of whom we inquired what message we should deliver in his name to the Pope? To this he answered, that he had no message to give us in charge, but only that we should carefully deliver what we had received from the emperor. Having received additional passports from him, we continued our journey, and arrived at the station of Montij on the Sabbath after the Whitson week, where our companions and servants, who had been kept so long from us, were returned at our desire. From thence we travelled to the station of Corrensa, who again required presents from us, but we now had none to give. He however appointed two Comanians, of the lowest order of the Tartar subjects, to accompany us to Kiow in Russia; but our Tartar guide did not quit us till we were beyond the Tartar bounds; after which the Comanians, who had been ordered by Corrensa to attend us, brought us in six days from the last guard of the Tartars, to the city of Kiow, where we arrived fifteen days before the festival of John the Baptist, 9th June 1248. On receiving notice of our approach, the whole inhabitants of Kiow came out joyfully to receive us, congratulating us as men returned from death to life; and we were received in a similar manner in our whole progress through Russia, Poland, and Bohemia. Daniel, and his brother Wasilico, feasted us splendidly, and detained us, contrary to our desire, for eight days. In the meantime, they and their bishops and nobles, having consulted on those matters, which we had propounded to them, when on our journey towards the Tartars, made an unanimous declaration, that they would henceforwards hold the Pope as their special lord and holy father, and would adhere to the Roman church as their lady and mistress, confirming all things which they had previously sent on this subject, by their own abbot, to the Pope before our return; and in ratification of all this, they sent envoys and letters along with us to the Pope252.

CHAPTER IX.

Travels of William de Rubruquis into Tartary, about the year 1253253

These travels were undertaken by order of Louis IX. of France, usually called St Louis. In the original, or at least in the printed copies which have come down to our times, Rubruquis is said to have commenced his journey in the year 1253; but this date is attended with some difficulties, as we are certain that king Louis was a prisoner from 1249 to 1254. It is possible, indeed, that he may have dispatched this mission while a prisoner; yet it is more probable, that the date may have been vitiated in transcription. The real name of this early traveller, who was a friar of the minorite order, is said to have been Van Ruysbroek254, from a village of that name near Brussels, Latinized, or Frenchified rather, into De Rubruquis. By Hakluyt he is named Rubruk. The version here offered to the public, is a translation from the Latin copy in Hakluyt, as addressed by the adventurous traveller to his royal master, after his return from traversing the whole extent of Tartary; the English translation, by that early and meritorious collector, being far too antiquated for modern readers.

Dedication by the Author

To the Most Excellent and Most Christian Lord Louis, by the Grace of GOD the illustrious King of the French; Friar William de Rubruquís, the meanest of the Minorite Order, wisheth health and continual triumph in CHRIST JESUS.

It is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus, "That the truly wise man shall travel through strange countries; for he hath tried the good and evil among men." All this, Sire, I have performed; and I wish I may have done so as a wise man, and not as a fool. For many do foolishly those things which have been done by wise men, and I fear I may be reckoned among that number. But as you were pleased to command me at my departure, that I should write down every thing I saw among the Tartars, and should not fear to write long letters, I now therefore obey your orders, yet with awe and reverence, as wanting fit language in which to address so great a king.

Be it known, therefore, to your sacred majesty, that in the year 1253, on the 7th of May, we entered into the sea of Pontus, which the Bulgarians call the Great Sea255; which I was informed, by certain merchants, is 1008 miles in length, and is in a manner divided, about its middle, into two parts, by means of two provinces which project into it, one on the north, and the other on the south. That which is on the south is called Synope, and contains the castle and port of the Sultan of the Turks. The northern province is called Gasaria by the Latins256, and Cassaria by the Greek inhabitants of its coast, which is the same with Caesaria; and from thence certain headlands extend southwards into the sea, towards Synope, from the nearest part of which they are 300 miles distant; so that the distance from these points to Constantinople is 700 miles in length and breadth, and 700 miles to Hiberia in the east, which is a province of Georgia.

We arrived in the province of Gasaria, or Casaria, which is of a triangular form, having a city named Kersova on its western extremity, in which St Clement suffered martyrdom. While sailing past that city, we saw an island containing a church, which is said to have been built by the angels. In the middle of this province, and on a cape to the south, stands the city of Soldaia, directly facing Synope. And here all merchants land who come from Turkey, in their way to the north, and embark here again on their return from Russia and the north for Turkey; these latter bring ermines and martins, and other valuable furs, and the former carry cloths made of cotton, or bombasins, and silk webs, and aromatic spices. On the east of this province is the city of Matriga257, where the Tanais flows into the Pontus, by a mouth of twelve miles wide258. Before this river enters the Euxine, it forms itself into a sea towards the north, of seven hundred miles in length and breadth, but in no place above six paces deep, so that it is not navigable for large vessels: For which reason, the merchants of Constantinople, when they arrive at the city of Matriga, send their barks to the Tanais, where they purchase dried fish, sturgeons, thosas, barbels, and many other sorts of fish.