Sic Ergo Exiuit Magna Fama De Illo Rege Iohanne.

Et quando ego transiui per pascua eius, nullus aliquid sciebat de eo nisi Nestoriani pauci.

[Sidenote: Kencham vbi habitauit Frater Andreas in Curia Kencham. Vut can, vel Vne. Caracarum Villula. Crit, et Merkit.] In pascuis eis habitat Kencam, apud cuius curiam fuit frater Andreas: et ego etiam transiui per eam in reditu. Huic Iohanni erat frater quidam potens, pastor similiter, nomine Vut: et ipse erat vltra Alpes ipsorum Caracatay, distans a fratre suo spacium trium hebdomadarum et erat dominus cuiusdam Villula qua dicitur Caracarum, populum habens sub se, qui dicebantur Crit, Merkit, qui erant Christiani Nestorini. Sed ipse dominus eorum dimisso cultu Christi, sectabatur idola; habens sacerdotes idolorum, qui omnes sunt inuocatores damonum et sortilegi. [Sidenote: Moal pauperimi homines.] Vltra pascua istius ad decem vel quindecem dictas erant pascua Moal: qui erant paupernmi homines sine capitaneo et sine lege, exceptis sortilegijs et diuinationibus, quibus omnes in partibus illis intendunt. [Sidenote: Tartarorum sedes.] Et iuxta Moal erant alij pauperes, qui dicebantur Tartari. Rex Iohannes mortuus fuit sine harede, et ditatus est frater eius Vnc: et faciebat se vocari Can: et mittebantur armenta greges eius vsque ad terminos Moal. [Sidenote: Cyngis.] Tunc temporis Chingis faber quidam erat in populo Moal, et furabatur de animalibus Vnc can quod poterat: In tantum quod conquesti sunt pastores Vut domino suo. Tunc congregauit exercitum et equitauit in terram Moal, quarens ipsum Cyngis. Et ille fugit inter Tartaros et latuit ibi. Tunc ipse Vut accepta prada Moal et a Tartaris reuersus est. Tunc ipse Cyngis allocutus est Tartaros et ipsos Moal dicens, Quia sine duce sumus opprimunt nos vicini nostri et fecerunt ipsum ducem et capitaneum Tartari et Moal. Tunc latenter congregato exercitu irruit super ipsum Vut, et vicit ipsum et ipse fugit in Cathaiam. Ibi capta fuit filia eius, quam Cyngis dedit vni ex filijs in vxorem, ex quo ipsa suscepit istum qui nunc regnat Mangu. [Sidenote: Mangu-can.] Tunc ipse Cyngis permittebat vbique ipsos Tartaros: et inde exiuit nomen eorum, quia vbique clamabatur, Ecce Tartari veniunt. Sed per crebra bella modo omnes fere deleti sunt. Vnde isti Moal modo volunt extinguere illud nomen et suum eleuare. [Sidenote: Mancherule] Terra illa in qua primo fuerunt, et vbi est adhuc curia Cyngiscan, vocatur Mancherule. Sed quia Tartari est regio circa quam fuit acquisitio corum, illam ciuitatem habent pro regali, et ibi prope eligunt suum Can.

The same in English.

Howe Sartach, and Mangu Can, and Ken Can doe reuerence vnto Christians. Chap. 19.

At the same time when the French men tooke Antioch, a certaine man named Con Can had dominion ouer the Northren regions, lying thereabouts. Con is a proper name: Can is a name of authority or dignitie, which signifieth a diuiner or soothsayer All diuiners are called Can amongst them. Whereupon their princes are called Can, because that vnto them belongeth the gouernment of the people by diuination. Wee doe reade also in the historie of Antiochia, that the Turkes sent for aide against the French-men, vnto the kingdome of Con Can. For out of those parts the whole nation of the Turkes first came. The said Con was of the nation of Kara-Catay, Kara signifieth blacke, and Katay is the name of a countrey. So that Kara-Catay signifieth the blacke Catay. [Sidenote: An Ocean sea.] This name was giuen to make a difference between the foresaid people, and the people of Catay, inhabiting Eastward ouer against the Ocean sea: concerning whom your maiesty shall vnderstand more hereafter. These Catayans dwelt vpon certaine Alpes, by the which I trauailed. [Sidenote: Nayman. Presbiter Iohn.] And in a certaine plane countrey within those Alpes, there inhabited a Nestorian shepheard, being a mighty gouernour ouer the people called Yayman, which were Christians, following the sect of Nestorius. After the death of Con Can, the said Nestorian exalted himselfe to the kingdome, and they called him King Iohn, [Marginal note: This history of Presbiter Iohn in the North-east, is alledged at large by Gerardus Mercator in his generall mappe. From whence the Turkes first sprang.] reporting ten times more of him then was true. For so the Nestorians which come out of those parts, vse to doe. For they blaze abroade great rumors, and reports vpon iust nothing. Whereupon they gaue out concerning Sartach, that he was become a Christian, and the like also they reported concerning Mangu Can, and Ken Can namely because these Tartars make more account of Christians, then they doe of other people, and yet in very deede, themselues are no Christians. So likewise there went foorth a great report concerning the said king Iohn. Howbeit, when I trauailed along by his territories, there was no man that knew any thing of him, but onely a fewe Nestorians. [Sidenote: The place of Ken Can his abode. Vut Can, or Vnc Can. The village of Cara Carum. Crit and Merkit.] In his pastures or territories dwelleth Ken Can, at whose Court Frier Andrew was. And I my selfe passed by it at my returne. This Iohn had a brother, being a mightie man also, and a shepheard like himselfe, called Vut, and be inhabited beyond the Alpes of Cara Catay, being distant from his brother Iohn, the space of three weekes iourney. He was lord ouer a certain village, called Cara Carum, hauing people also for his subiects, named Crit, or Merkit, who were Christians of the sect of Nestorius. But their Lorde abandoning the the worship of Christ followed after idoles, reteining with him Priests of the saide idoles, who all of them are worshippers of deuils and and sorcerers. [Moal in olde time a beggerly people.] Beyond his pastures, some tenne or fifteene dayes iourney, were the pasture of Moal, who were a poore and beggerly nation, without gouernour, and without Lawe, except their soothsayings, and their diuinations, vnto the which detestable studies, all in those partes doe apply their mindes. [Sidenote: The place of the Tartars.] Neere vnto Moal were other poore people called Tartars.

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