Quorum Vitam Et Mores Vobis Describam Prout Possum.

The same in English.

The iournal of frier William de Rubruquis a French man of the order of the minorite friers, vnto the East parts of the worlde. An. Dom. 1253.

To his most Soueraigne, & most Christian Lord Lewis, by Gods grace the renowned king of France, frier William de Rubruk, the meanest of the Minorites order, wisheth health and continual triumph in CHRIST.

It is written in the booke of Ecclesiasticus concerning the wise man: [Sidenote: Ecclus. 39, ver. 4] He shall trauell into forren countries, and good and euill shall he trie in all things. The very same action (my lord and kinge) haue I atchieued: howbeit I wish that I haue done it like a wise man, and not like a foole. For many there be, that performe the same action which a wise man doth, not wisely but more vndiscreetly: of which number I feare myselfe to be one. Notwithstanding howsoeuer I haue done it, because you commanded mee, when I departed from your highnes, to write all things vnto you, which I should see among the Tartars, and you wished me also that I should not feare to write long letters, I haue done as your maiestie inioined me: yet with feare and reuerence, because I want wordes and eloquence sufficient to write vnto so great a maiestie. Be it knowen therefore vnto your sacred Maiestie, that in the yere of our Lord 1253, about the Nones of May, we entered into the sea of Pontus, which the Bulgarians call the great sea.

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