At Length The Herds Complained To Their Lord Of The
Reiterated Robberies Which Were Committed By Zingis, And Vut-Khan Went With
An Army To Seize Him.
But Zingis fled and hid himself among the Tartars,
and the troops of Vut-khan returned to their own country, after having made
considerable spoil both from the Moal and the Tartars.
Then Zingis
remonstrated with the Moal and Tartars, upon their want of a supreme ruler
to defend them from the oppressions of their neighbours, and they were
induced by his suggestions to appoint him to be their khan or ruler.
Immediately after his elevation, Zingis gathered an army secretly together,
and made a sudden invasion of the territories belonging to Vut, whom he
defeated in battle, and forced to fly for refuge into Katay. During this
invasion, one of the daughters of Vut was made prisoner, whom Zingis gave
in marriage to one of his sons, and to whom she bore Mangu-khan, the
presently reigning great khan of the Moal and Tartars. In all his
subsequent wars, Zingis used continually to send the Tartars before him in
the van of his army: by which means their name came to be spread abroad in
the world, as, wherever they made their appearance, the astonished people
were in use to run away, crying out, the Tartars! the Tartars! In
consequence of almost continual war, this nation of the Tartars is now
almost utterly extirpated, yet the name remains; although the Moals use
every effort to abolish that name and to exalt their own. The country where
these Tartars formerly inhabited, and where the court of Zingis still
remains, is now called Mancherule; and as this was the centre of all their
conquests, they still esteem it as their royal residence, and there the
great khan is for the most part elected.
[1] About the year 1097.
SECTION XX.
Of the Russians, Hungarians, Alanians, and of the Caspian.
I know not whether Sartach really believes in Christ, but am certain that
he refuses to be called a Christian, and I rather think that he scoffs at
Christianity. His residence lies in the way through which the Russians,
Walachians, Bulgarians of the lesser Bulgaria, the Soldaians, or Christians
of Casaria, the Kerkis, Alanians, and other Christians have to pass in
their way with gifts or tribute to the court of his father Baatu-khan; and
by this means Sartach is more connected with the Christians than any of the
rest, yet when the Saracens or Mahometans bring their gifts, they are
sooner dispatched. Sartach has always about him some Nestorian priests, who
count their beads and sing their devotions.
There is another commander under Baatu-khan, called Berta or Berca, who
pastures his flocks towards the Iron-gate, or Derbent, through which lies
the passage of all the Saracens or Mahometans who come from Persia and
Turkey, to pay their gifts and tributes to Baatu, and who make presents to
Berta in their way.
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