(A.D. 1331.)
[His life, by several writers on the Franciscan Saints. His travels
were dictated by him to Friar Guglielmo, who wrote them down, and
added an account of his death. No copy of his original Latin MS.
exists, and the Italian and Latin copies we have vary so much from
one another that it is difficult to know which is the most correct.
Copyists, not considering the things related in his travels as
sufficiently marvellous, have supplied by their fancy what Ordorico
never dictated. Although no copy of the original MS. exists, we can
trace the progress of amplification and error by comparing the
oldest and best account of the travels extant, with some of the
later narratives of Friar Ordorico's life and adventure.]
Among the early travellers in the East a conspicuous place is due to
Friar Ordorico de Pordenone, commonly called Il Beato, the Blessed. He
was born in the district of Pordenone, in the Friuli, about the year
1286. Early in life he entered the Order of Friars Minors, or
Franciscans, and took the vows in their house at Udine. After many years
of exemplary life and industry he girded up his loins for the perilous
pilgrimage and great mission--that is, he proceeded to the remote
countries of the East to convert the infidel and idolater. He is
believed to have been absent from Italy for the long space of sixteen
years. He took with him his monastic habit, his cord, and his pilgrim's
staff, and apparently no other thing. Where there were Christians, he
claimed their charity; and where there were none, he threw himself upon
the hospitality of the unbelievers. Friar Ordorico went from the
Adriatic Sea to Constantinople, and proceeding from that great city to
the Black Sea, he landed at Trebizond. From Trebizond he travelled
through Armenia and Persia, and came to Ormuz on the Persian Gulf. At Ur
of the Chaldees, he was shocked to find that the men did the knitting
and spinning; and he was surprised that they liked a head of venison
more than four fat partridges. At Bagdad, says he, the men are handsome
and the women ugly; the women carry loads and the men saunter about in
idleness. But this, alas! is not confined to Bagdad. At the port of
Balsora he embarked, and crossing the Indian Ocean, he reached the
coasts of Malabar. There, says he, he much surprised, the people prefer
dates to venison. Thence he turned round upon Ceylon. He landed in that
magnificent island, and travelled through the greater part of it. He
describes the quantities of elephants which are found in the interior of
that country; the blood-sucking land-leeches, so well-known to the
Indians, which render the passage through the jungle so painful to
Europeans; he correctly describes the general qualities of that
remarkable tree, the talipot, which flourishes in the island of Ceylon,
and in the contiguous Malabar country. He mentions Adam's Peak, and the
lake at its side, which the natives told him was formed of the tears of
Adam and Eve after their fall. "But," adds the friar, "I perceived this
to be false, for I saw the water flowing from the mountain into the
lake, and filling it." He adds that on the sides of the lake rubies are
discovered. His account of the pearl fishery is without exaggeration. In
the neighbouring continent some of the Brahminical superstitions are
correctly set down. The excessive cruelty and indisputable cannibalism
of the Andaman Islanders, who are called natives of Bodan, are
accurately noted. So shocked was the friar with what he saw there, that
he remained there some while preaching, but he admits with no success.
Then he voyaged to Meliapore. After this he ran down the Indian Ocean to
Sumatra and Java, whence he appears to have reached some of the islands
of Japan, which he calls Zapan. He next entered the empire of China, and
there he remained several years. He travelled through various of the
vast provinces of China, and then turned West, and after long and
dangerous wayfaring, he entered the country of Thibet.
In company with three other friars, he was one day resting with them
under a tree, when the Khan passed by. Then one of the friars, who was a
bishop, put on his pontifical vestments, and took his pastoral cross,
and all four advanced to meet the Khan chanting the _Veni Creator_. Then
the Khan stopped his car, and asked who these were, and when told that
they were four Frank missionaries, he called them to him, and kissed the
cross of the bishop. Then, because it is the custom of the country not
to approach the king empty-handed, the friars offered him a plate with
some apples on it. The Khan took two, ate one, and drove away tossing
the other about in his hands. From his kissing the cross the friars were
satisfied that he knew something of the Catholic faith.
The account left of these travels breaks off abruptly in Thibet, leaving
us entirely in the dark as to the route and the manner by which the
friar reached Europe. It is known, however, from a postscript to his
book, that he returned in 1330, when he was forty-four years old. His
health appears to have been much broken by the fatigues and privations
he had undergone during his peregrinations; and he died within a few
months after his return to his native country.[51]
[Illustration: Hermit Saints. S. Anthony.]