Quod & Fecimus.

Post plures dies nos iterum vocari fecit, & vtrum essent apud Dominum Papam, qui Ruthenorum vel Sarracenorum, aut etiam Tartarorum literam intelligerent, interrogauit.

Cui respondimus, quod nullam istarum literarum habebamus. Sarraceni tamen erant in terra, sed remoti erant a Domino Papa. Diximus tamen, quia nobis expedire videbatur, quod in Tartarico scriberent, & nobis interpretarentur, nos autem in litera nostra diligenter scriberemus, & tam literam quam interpretationem ad Dominum Papam deferremus. Tunc a nobis recesserunt, & ad Imperatorem iuerunt. Porro a die Beati Martini fuimus vocati. Tunc Kadac, totius imperij procurator, & Chingay & Bala, pluresque scriptores ad nos venerunt, nobisque literam de verbo ad verbum interpretati fuerunt. Et cum in Latina litera scripsissemus, faciebant sibi per singulas orationes interpretari, volentes scire, si nos in aliquo verbo erraremus. Cum igitur amba litera fuissent scripta, fecerunt nos semel ac secundo legere, ne forte minus aliquid haberemus. Dixerunt enim nobis, videte, quod omnia bene intelligatis, quia non expediret, quod non omnia bene intelligeretis. Literas etiam in Sarracenico scripserunt, vt aliquis in partibus nostris inueniri posset, qui eas, si opus esset, legeret.

The same in English.

How the Friers coming at length vnto the Emperour, gaue, and receiued letters. Chap. 31.

[Sidenote: Coyne dissembleth with the Legates.] To be short, the Tartars brought vs vnto their Emperor, who when he had heard of them, that we were come vnto him, commanded that we should return, vnto his mother. For he was determined the next day, (as it is abouesaid) to set vp a flag of defiance against all the countreis of the West, which he would haue vs in no case to know. Wherefore returning, we staid some few dayes with his mother, and so returned backe again vnto him. With whom we continued for the space of one whole moneth in such extreme hunger and thirst, that we could scarce hold life and soule together. For the prouision allowed vs for foure dayes, was scantly sufficient for one day. Neither could we buy vs any sustenance, because the market was too farre off. [Sidenote: Cosmas a Russian.] Howbeit the Lorde prouided for vs a Russian goldsmith, named Cosmas, who being greatly in the Emperours fauour, procured vs some sustenance. This man shewed vnto vs the throne of the Emperour, which hee had made, before it was set in the proper place, and his seale, which he also had framed. [Sidenote: The message of Chingay.] Afterward the Emperor sent for vs, giuing vs to vnderstand by Chingay his chief Secretary, that wee should write downe our messages & affaires, and should deliuer them vnto him. Which thing we performed accordingly. After many daies he called for vs againe, demanding whether there were any with our Lord the Pope, which vnderstood the Russian, the Saracen, or the Tartarian language? To whom we answered, that we had none of those letters or languages. Howbeit, that there were certaine Saracens in the land, but inhabiting a great distance from our Lord the Pope. And wee saide, that wee thought it most expedient, that when they had written their mindes in the Tartarian language, and had interpreted the meaning thereof vnto vs, we should diligently translate it into our own tongue, and so deliuer both the letter and the translation thereof vnto our Lord the Pope.

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