The Emperor,
His Mother, And The Rest Of The Sung Princes And Princesses, Were
Despatched To The Mongol Capital.
A desperate attempt was made, at
Kwa-chau (infra, ch.
Lxxii.) to recapture the young emperor, but it failed.
On their arrival at Ta-tu, Kublai's chief queen, Jamui Khatun, treated them
with delicate consideration. This amiable lady, on being shown the spoils
that came from Lin-ngan, only wept, and said to her husband, "So also shall
it be with the Mongol empire one day!" The eldest of the two boys who had
escaped was proclaimed emperor by his adherents at Fu-chau, in Fo-kien, but
they were speedily driven from that province (where the local histories, as
Mr. G. Phillips informs me, preserve traces of their adventures in the
Islands of Amoy Harbour), and the young emperor died on a desert island off
the Canton coast in 1278. His younger brother took his place, but a battle,
in the beginning of 1279 finally extinguished these efforts of the expiring
dynasty, and the minister jumped with his young lord into the sea. It is
curious that Rashiduddin, with all his opportunities of knowledge, writing
at least twenty years later, was not aware of this, for he speaks of the
Prince of Manzi as still a fugitive in the forests between Zayton and
Canton. (Gaubil; D'Ohsson; De Mailla; Cathay, p. 272.) [See Parker,
supra, p. 148 and 149. - H.C.]
There is a curious account in the Lettres Edifiantes (xxiv.
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