Yet The Vast Empire Which Timour Established, Fell Into
Fragments After His Death, In 1405, And His Descendants Have Sunk
Into
oblivion; while the race of Othman and Bajazet still rule over a large
empire in Europe and Asia, nearly
Commensurate with the eastern Roman
empire, still called Rumi in the east.
Having thus traced an outline of the revolutions of empire in Tartary, down
to what may be considered as modern history, it is only necessary farther
to mention, that all eastern Tartary and Mongalia is now subject to China,
and Kipzac and all the northern to Russia. Hardly any part of it now
remains independent, except Zagatai; or Transoxiana, Kharism, Candabar, and
the deserts of Western Tartary: the former of which is subject to the
Usbeks, and the latter to the Kirguses.
[1] Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, IV. 355.
[2] Decl. and Fall, XI. 402.
[3] Dashte Kipzak, or the plain of Kipzak, extended on both
sides of the Volga, towards the Jaik or Ural, and the Borysthenes or
Dnieper, and is supposed to have given name to the Cosacs. - Gibb.
[4] As reported by Gibbon, from Matthew Paris, p. 396, forty or
fifty herrings were sold for a shilling. This must be an error,
perhaps for 40 or 50 thousand; as a shilling of these days was worth
at least from fifteen to twenty modern shillings in effective value;
and within memory herrings have often sold, in a very plentiful
fishery, for a shilling the cart-load, when salt could not be had in
sufficient quantity. - E.
[5] Decl. and Fall. XII. I.
CHAP. VIII.
The Travels of John de Plano Carpini and other Friars, sent about the year
1246, as ambassadors from Pope Innocent IV, to the great Khan of the Moguls
or Tartars.[1]
INTRODUCTION.
In the collection of early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries, by Hakluyt,
published originally in 1599, and reprinted at London in 1809 with
additions, there are two separate relations of these travels. The first,
in p. 24, is the journal of John de Plano Carpini, an Italian minorite,
who, accompanied by friar Benedict, a Polander, went in 1246 by the north
of the Caspian sea, to the residence of Batu-khan, and thence to Kajuk-
khan, whom he calls Cuyne, the chief or Emperor of all the Mongols. The
second in p. 42, is a relation taken from the Speculum Historiale of
Vincentius Beluacensis, lib. xxxii. ch. 2. of the mission of certain
friars, predicants and minorites in the same year, 1246, to the same
country; and in p. 59. of the same collection, there is a translation by
Hakluyt into antiquated English of this second account. From this second
narrative it appears, that Vincentius had received an account of the
journey of the second mission from Simon de St Quintin, a minorite friar
belonging to the party; and that he had worked up along with this, the
whole of the narrative which had been separately published by Carpini of
his journey; which indeed forms by far the larger and more interesting
portion of the work published by Vincentius. This latter edition, therefore
has been considered as sufficient for the present collection, because to
have given both would have been an unnecessary repetition; and it is here
translated from the Latin of Hakluyt, I. 42.
The object of this mission or embassy seems to have been as follows: A
prodigious alarm was excited in Europe, by the victorious and destructive
progress of the Mongals or Tartars; who, under the command of Tuschi-khan,
and of Batu-khan, the son of Tuschi, advancing through Kipzhak, Russia,
Poland, and Hungary, all of which they had most horribly ravaged and laid
waste, had penetrated even into Silesia; while by the eastern side or the
Caspian, penetrating through Transoxiana and Persia, under the command of
Zagatai-khan, likewise a son of Zingus, and Holagu-khan, a nephew of
Zagatai, they had made their appearance on the banks of the Euphrates and
Tigris. In this alarming conjuncture, it was thought advisable by Pope
Innocent IV. in a convocation of the clergy at Lyons, in 1245, to send
ambassadors to these formidable conquerors, to endeavour to pacify them,
and induce them to turn the destructive tide of their conquests in some
other direction, and perhaps partly in the hope of endeavouring, if
possible, to convert them to the Christian faith, and inducing them to
direct their arms against the Turks and Saracens, who oppressed the Holy
Land. For this purpose, six monks were selected from the new and severe
orders of predicants and minorites. John de Plano Carpini and Benedict,
travelled through Bohemia and Poland to Kiow in Russia, and thence by the
mouth of the Dnieper to the camp of Korrensa, or Corrensa, a general of the
Mongals; whence, crossing the Don and Wolga or Volga, they came to the
encampment of Bata-khan, called also Baty and Baatu, who sent them to
Kajuk-khan, the emperor of the Mongals, whom they call Cuyne. The other
ambassadors were Asceline, with Friars Alexander, Albert, and Simon de St
Quintin: who went by the south of the Caspian, through Syria, Persia, and
Chorassan, to the court of Baiju-Nojan, or as they call him Bajothnoy: but
of the particulars of this journey very little has been preserved by
Vincentius, so that in fact, the travels here published belong almost
exclusively to Carpini.
The full title given by Hakluyt to this relation is worth preserving as a
literary curiosity, and is as follows:
"The long and wonderful voyage of Friar John de Plano Carpini, sent
ambassador, by Pope Innocent IV. A.D. 1246, to the great Can of Tartacia;
wherein he passed through Bohemia, Polonia, Russia, and so to the city of
Kiow upon Boristhenes, and from thence rode continually post for the space
of sixe moneths through Comania, over the mighty and famous rivers, Tanais,
Volga, and Jaie, and through the countries of the people called Kangittae,
Bisermini, Karakitay, Naimani, and so to the native country of the Mongols
or Tartars, situate in the extreme north-eastern partes of all Asia; and
thence back again the same Way to Russia, and Polonia, and so to Rome;
spending in the whole voyage among the sayd Tartars, one whole year, and
above four moneths:
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