- Forst.
[3] Schabran, or Schabiran. - E.
[4] Shamaki, in Shirvan. - E.
[5] The Karai, on which Tefflis or Tiblis stands, runs from the north-west;
the Demur, Araz or Araxes from the west; and both united form the Kur,
which runs directly south into the Caspian. - E.
[6] Georgia or Gurgistan is to the north-west of the plain of Mogan. - E.
[7] These were the ancestors of the present Turks, who laid the foundation
of the Osmanian or Othoman empire. Kanja, called Ganges or Ganghe in
the text, was their capital. - Frost.
[8] This passage is erroneous or corrupted. In travelling westwards up the
Araxes or Araz, he had Persia on his left, to the south, Georgia on
his right, to the north, and the Caspian sea and mountains of the
Iron-gate were left behind him, to the east and north-east. - E.
[9] Westwards. - E.
[10] Arz-roum on the Frat or Euphrates, perhaps a corruption of Arx-
romanorum; as the Turks give the name of Roum to a part of Lesser
Asia; and all the eastern nations call the Constantinopolitan empire
Roum to this day. - E.
[11] Turkey, in these travels of Rubruquis, is always, to be understood as
referring to the Turkish dominion in Asia Minor, of which Konieh or
Iconium was the capital. - E.
[12] Nak-sivan, or Nag-jowan. - E.
[13] This must be an error for eighty. - E.
[14] Rubruquis here tells a long story of an Armenian prophecy, from which
they expected to be freed from the iron yoke of the Tartars, by St
Louis, not worth inserting. - E.
[15] Kurke or Kurch. - E.
[16] Aias-cala, in the gulf of Aiasso, or Scanderoon. - E.
[17] Antioch or Antakia. - E.
[18] Ptolomais, or St John d'Acre. - E.
CHAP. X.
Travels of Haitho, Prince of Armenia, in Tartary, in 1254 [1].
SECTION I.
Introduction.
Haitho, or Hatto, was the son of Livon, or Leon II., nephew of Haitho I.,
king of Armenia Minor, in Lesser Asia. At the demise of his father, he
refused to accept of the crown, which he resigned in favour of his brother
Thores or Theodore; but assisted him and his son and successor, Leon III.,
in all the wars and troubles in which they were engaged during many years.
During the reign of his father in 1254, accompanied by his wife and child,
he travelled to the court of Mangu-khan, the great sovereign of the Tartars
or Mongals, for the purpose of obtaining an abatement of the tribute which
had been imposed by these conquerors upon his country, and appears to have
been successful in his negotiations. His journey into the east took place
in the same year in which Rubruquis was on his return; and while at the
court or leskar of Sartach, he was of material service to two of the
attendants of Rubruquis, who had been left at that station; and who but for
his interference must have perished by famine, or would have been reduced
to slavery. Forster asserts that Haitho met with Rubruquis, who was then on
his return home; but we have already seen, in the account of the travels of
Rubruquis, that the two travellers did not meet.
In the year 1305, when he must have become very old, Haitho became a monk
of the Praemonstratensian order at Episcopia in Cyprus. He afterwards went
to Poitou in France, where he dictated in French to Nicholas Salconi, a
history of the events which had occurred in the east from the first
commencement of the conquests of the Tartars or Mongals, including the
reigns of Zingis-khan and his successors, to Mangu-khan inclusively; and a
particular narrative of the history of his own country, Armenia Minor, from
the reign of Haitho I. to that of Leon II. both inclusive. This account
Salconi translated into Latin in 1307, by order of the reigning Pope.
The travels of Haitho being perfectly contemporary with those of Rubruquis,
are not sufficiently interesting to be here inserted; and the historical
part of his relations have no connection with the plan of this work, which
it would swell beyond due bounds: But the following brief account of his
geographical description of the east, as it existed in the thirteenth
century, and as abstracted by J. R. Forster, in his Voyages and Discoveries
in the North, have been deemed worthy of insertion, together with the
observations or commentaries of that ingenious author.
[1] Forst. Hist. of Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 113.
SECTION II.
Geographical Notices of the East in the Thirteenth Century, by Haitho.
Sec. 1. The empire of Kathay is one of the most extensive, most opulent, and
most populous in the world, and is entirely situated on the sea coast. The
inhabitants have a very high notion of their own superior intelligence,
which they express by saying, that they only of all the people on earth
have two eyes; to the Latins they allow one, and consider all other
nations as blind. The Kathayans have small eyes and no beards. Their money
consists of small square pieces of paper, impressed with the seal of their
emperor. To the west, this empire is bounded by that of the Tarsae; to the
north by the desert of Belgian; and to the south by the sea, in which there
are innumerable islands. The inhabitants of Kathay are exceedingly skilful
and ingenious in all works of art and in manufactures, but are of a very
timorous disposition. In the foregoing description, and in the traits of
character, the empire and inhabitants of northern China are distinctly
indicated. - Forst.
Sec. 2. The empire of Tarsa is divided into three provinces, each of which
has a sovereign who assumes the title of King.
