It Is Possible, Indeed, That He May Have Dispatched This Mission While A Prisoner; Yet It Is More Probable, That The Date May Have Been Vitiated In Transcription.

The real name of this early traveller, who was a friar of the minorite order, is said to have been Van Ruysbroek[2], from a village of that name near Brussels, Latinized, or Frenchified rather, into De Rubruquis.

By Hakluyt he is named Rubruk. The version here offered to the public, is a translation from the Latin copy in Hakluyt, as addressed by the adventurous traveller to his royal master, after his return from traversing the whole extent of Tartary; the English translation, by that early and meritorious collector, being far too antiquated for modern readers.

[1] Hakluyt, I. 80. for the Latin, and I.101. for the English. See likewise Harris, I. 556.

[2] Pinkerton, Mod. Geogr. II. xvi.

Dedication by the Author

To the Most Excellent and Most Christian Lord Louis, by the Grace of GOD the illustrious King of the French; Friar William de Rubruquis, the meanest of the Minorite Order, wisheth health and continual triumph in CHRIST JESUS.

It is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus, "That the truly wise man shall travel through strange countries; for he hath tried the good and evil among men." All this, Sire, I have performed; and I wish I may have done so as a wise man, and not as a fool. For many do foolishly those things which have been done by wise men, and I fear I may be reckoned among that number.

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