Sketch of the Tartar Nations.
The Tartars, descended from the ancient Scythians, have preserved to this
day the dexterity of their ancestors in archery and horsemanship. The
early part of their history is veiled in obscurity, enveloped as they are
by the wonders and prodigies of the exploits of their first conqueror,
Okhous-Han, who seems to be the Madyes of Herodotus. This illustrious
leader of the Scythian hordes carried his arms into Syria, and reached
even the confines of Egypt.
The Chinese annals frequently mention certain nomad tribes, which they
call Hioung-Nou, and which are no other than the Huns. These wandering
and warlike tribes gradually extended themselves, and finished by
covering the immense deserts of Tartary from east to west. Thenceforward
they made continual incursions on their neighbours, and on several
occasions made attacks on the frontiers of the empire. It was on such an
occasion that Thsin-Chi-Hoang-Ti had the Great Wall built in the year 213
B.C. About 134 B.C. the Huns, under the conduct of Lao-Chan, their
emperor, made an attack on the Tartars Youei-Tchi (the Getae), who dwelt
on the confines of the province of Chen-Si. After a series of long and
terrible conflicts, Lao-Chan defeated them, slew their chief, and made of
his head a drinking cup, which he wore suspended from his girdle. The
Getae did not choose to submit to the victors, and preferred going
elsewhere in search of another country. They divided into two principal
bands. One advanced towards the north-west, and took possession of the
plains situated upon the banks of the river Ili, beyond the glaciers of
the Moussour mountains; this is that part of Tartary which is now called
the Tourgout. The other division marched southwards, associated with it
in its course several other tribes, and reached the regions watered by
the Indus. There it laid waste the kingdom founded by the successors of
Alexander, strove for some time against the Parthians, and finished by
establishing itself in Bactriana. The Greeks called these Tartar tribes
Indo-Scythians.
Meanwhile divisions arose among the Huns; and the Chinese, ever politic
and cunning, took advantage of this circumstance to enfeeble them.
Towards the year 48 of our era, the Tartar empire was divided into
northern and southern. Under the dynasty of Han, the Northern Huns were
completely defeated by the Chinese armies. They were obliged to abandon
the regions wherein they had settled, and proceeded in large numbers
towards the west, to the borders of the Caspian Sea; here they spread
themselves over the countries watered by the Volga, and round the Palus
Maeotis.
They commenced in 376 their formidable irruptions upon the Roman empire.
They began by subduing the territory of the Alani, a nomad and pastoral
people like themselves; some of these sought refuge in the Circassian
mountains, others migrated further west, and finally settled on the
shores of the Danube. Later, they drove before them the Suevi, the
Goths, the Gepidae, and the Vandals, and with these advanced to ravage
Germany, in the beginning of the fifth century. These large hordes of
barbarians resembling waves, one driven on by the other, thus formed, in
their destructive course, a fearful torrent, which finally inundated
Europe.
The Southern Huns, who had remained in Tartary, were for a long time
weakened by the dispersion of their northern countrymen; but they
recovered, by insensible degrees, and again became terrible to the
Chinese; though they did not acquire a political and historical
importance till the time of the famous Tchinggiskhan, towards the close
of the twelfth century.
The power of the Tartars, long confined within the desert steppes of
Mongolia, broke at length its bounds, and innumerable armies might be
seen descending from the lofty table-lands of Central Asia, and
precipitating themselves with fury on horrified nations: Tchinggiskhan
carried pillage and death even to the most remote regions. China,
Tartary, India, Persia, Syria, Muscovy, Poland, Hungary, Austria,--all
these countries successively felt the terrible blows of the victorious
Tartar. France, Italy, and the other regions further west, escaped with
their fear.
In the year 1260 of our era, Khan-Khoubilai, grandson of Tchinggis, who
had commenced the conquest of China, succeeded in subduing that vast
empire. It was the first time that it had passed under the yoke of
foreigners. Khoubilai died at Peking in the year 1294, aged eighty. His
empire was, without dispute, the largest that had ever existed. Chinese
geographers state that, under the Mongol dynasty of the Youen, the empire
northwards went beyond the In-Chan mountains; westwards it extended
beyond the Gobi or sandy desert; to the east, it was terminated by the
countries situated on the left of the river Siao; and in the southern
direction it reached the shores of the Youe Sea. It is obvious that this
description does not include the countries tributary to the empire.
Thibet, Turkestan, Muscovy, Siam, Cochin China, Tonking, and Corea,
acknowledged the supremacy of the Grand Khan of the Tartars, and
faithfully paid him tribute. Even European nations were, from time to
time, insolently summoned to acknowledge the Mongol supremacy. Haughty
and threatening letters were sent to the Pope, to the King of France, to
the Emperor, commanding them to send as tribute the revenues of their
states to the depths of Tartary. The descendants of Tchinggiskhan, who
reigned in Muscovy, Persia, Bactriana, and Sogdiana, received investiture
from the Emperor of Peking, and undertook nothing of importance without
first giving him notice. The diplomatic papers which the King of Persia
sent, in the thirteenth century, to Philip the Fair, are a proof of this
dependance. On these precious monuments, which are preserved to this day
in the archives of France, are seals in Chinese characters, which testify
the supremacy of the Grand Khan of Peking over the sovereigns of Persia.
The conquests of Tchinggiskhan and of his successors; and, in later
times, those of Tamerlan or Timour, which transferred the seat of the
Mongol empire to Samarcand, contributed, in as great, and perhaps a
greater degree than the Crusades, to renew the intercourse of Europe with
the most distant states of the East, and favoured the discoveries which
have been so useful to the progress of the arts, of the sciences, and of
navigation.
On this subject, we will quote in this place, an interesting passage from
the Memoirs which M. Abel Remusat published in 1824, on the political
relations of the Christian princes, and particularly of the Kings of
France with the Mongol Emperors:--
"The lieutenants of Tchinggiskhan, and of his first successors, on
arriving in Western Asia, did not seek at first, to contract any
alliance there. The princes, whose domains they entered, silently
permitted the impost of a tribute; the rest were required to submit.
The Georgians and Armenians were among the first. The Franks of
Syria, the Kings of Hungary, the Emperor himself, had to repel their
insolent demands. The Pope was not exempted, by the supremacy he
enjoyed in relation to the other Christian princes; nor the King of
France, by the high renown he enjoyed throughout the East. The
terror which the Tartars inspired, precluded a fitting answer to
their demands. The course resorted to was conciliation, the seeking
their alliance, and the endeavouring to rouse them against the
Moslems. The latter attempt would scarcely have been successful, had
not the Christians in the East, who, by adhesion as vassals, had
obtained credit at the courts of their generals and their princes,
zealously employed themselves in the matter. The Mongols were
induced at last to undertake war against the Sultan of Egypt. Such
were the relations with this nation during the first period, which
lasted from 1224 to 1262.
"In the second period, the Khalifat was destroyed; a Mongol
principality was founded in Persia: it bordered on the states of the
Sultan of Egypt. A sanguinary rivalry arose between the two
countries, which the Eastern Christians did all in their power to
irritate. The Mongol empire was divided. Those of Persia had need
of auxiliaries, which their Armenian vassals procured for them: these
auxiliaries were the Franks. From this time, their power declined
more and more; and ere long it was annihilated. Fresh crusades might
restore it. The Mongols excited these in the West. They joined
their exhortations to those of the Georgians, Armenians, of the wreck
of the crusaders, who had taken refuge in Cyprus, and to those of the
sovereign pontiffs. The first Tartars had commenced by threats; the
last came to offers, and even descended to supplications. Twenty
ambassadors were sent by them to Italy, France, and England; and it
was no fault of theirs that the fire of the holy wars was not
rekindled, and extended over Europe and Asia. These diplomatic
attempts, the recital of which forms, so to speak, an epilogue to the
transmarine expeditions, scarcely noticed by those who have written
their history, and, indeed, unknown to most of them, would deserve,
perhaps, our fixed attention. We should have to collect facts,
resolve difficulties, and place in a clear point of view the
political system to which the negociations with the Tartars belong.
Specialties of this class could not be appreciated, whilst they were
considered isolately, and without examining them one with another.
We might doubt, with Voltaire and De Guignes, that a king of the
Tartars had met Saint Louis with offers of service. This fact might
seem not tenable, and its recital paradoxical. Yet such scepticism
would be unreasonable, after we had seen that the Mongols had acted
upon that principle for fifty years; and when we are assured, by
reading contemporary writings, and by the inspection of original
monuments, that this conduct was natural on their part, that it
entered into their views, that it conformed to their interests, and
that it is explained by the common rules of reason and policy.
"The series of events which are connected with these negociations
serves to complete the history of the Crusades; but the part they may
have had in the great moral revolution, which soon followed the
relations which they occasioned between people hitherto unknown to
each other, are facts of an importance more general and still more
worthy of our particular attention. Two systems of civilization had
become established at the two extremities of the ancient continent,
as the effect of independent causes, without communication, and
consequently without mutual influence. All at once the events of war
and political combinations bring into contact these two great bodies,
long strangers to each other. The formal interviews of ambassadors
are not the only occasions which brought them together. Other
occasions more private, but also more efficacious, were established
by imperceptible, but innumerable ramifications, by the travels of a
host of individuals, attracted to the two extremities of the earth,
with commercial views, in the train of ambassadors or armies. The
irruption of the Mongols, by throwing everything into agitation,
neutralized distance, filled up intervals, and brought the nations
together; the events of war transported millions of individuals to an
immense distance from the places where they were born. History has
recorded the voyages of kings, of ambassadors, of missionaries.
Sempad, the Orbelian; Hayton, King of Armenia; the two Davids, Kings
of Georgia; and several others were led by political motives to the
depths of Asia. Yeroslaf, Grand Duke of Sousdal and vassal of the
Mongols, like the other Russian princes, came to Kara-Koroum, where
he died of poison, it was said, administered by the Empress herself,
the mother of the Emperor Gayouk. Many monks, Italians, French,
Flemings, were charged with diplomatic missions to the Grand Khan.
Mongols of distinction came to Rome, Barcelona, Valencia, Lyons,
Paris, London, Northampton; and a Franciscan of the kingdom of Naples
was Archbishop of Peking. His successor was a professor of theology
of the Faculty of Paris. But how many others, less celebrated, were
led in the train of those men, either as slaves, or impelled by the
desire of gain, or by curiosity, to countries hitherto unexplored.
Chance has preserved the names of a few. The first envoy who came on
the part of the Tartars to the King of Hungary was an Englishman,
banished from his country for certain crimes, and who, after having
wandered throughout Asia, had finally taken service among the
Mongols. A Flemish Cordelier met in the depth of Tartary a woman of
Metz, named Paquette, who had been carried away from Hungary, a
Parisian goldsmith whose brother was established in Paris on the
Grand Pont, and a young man from the environs of Rouen, who had been
present at the capture of Belgrade; he saw there also Russians,
Hungarians, and Flemings. A singer, named Robert, after travelling
through the whole of Eastern Asia, returned to find a grave in the
Cathedral of Chartres. A Tartar was a helmet-maker in the armies of
Philip the Fair. Jean de Plan-Carpin met, near Gayouk, with a
Russian gentleman, whom he calls Temer, who served as interpreter.
Several merchants of Breslau, Poland, and Austria, accompanied him in
his journey to Tartary; others returned with him through Russia;
these were Genoese, Pisans, and two merchants of Venice whom chance
had brought to Bokhara. They were induced to go in the suite of a
Mongol ambassador, whom Houlagou had sent to Khoubilai. They
sojourned several years in China and Tartary, took letters from the
Grand Khan to the Pope, and returned to the Grand Khan, bringing with
them the son of one of their number, the celebrated Marco-Polo, and
quitted once more the Court of Khoubilai to return to Venice.
Travels of this kind were not less frequent in the succeeding age.
Of this number are those of John de Mandeville, an English physician;
of Oderic of Friuli; of Pegoletti; of Guillaume de Boutdeselle, and
several others. We may be certain that the journeys which have been
recorded are but a small portion of those which were performed, and
that there were at that period more people able to make a long
journey than to write an account of it. Many of these adventurers
must have established themselves and died in the countries they went
to visit. Others returned to their country as obscure as when they
left it; but with their imaginations full of what they had seen,
relating it all to their families and friends, and doubtless with
exaggerations; but leaving around them, amidst ridiculous fables, a
few useful recollections and traditions productive of advantage.
Thus were sown in Germany, in Italy, in France, in the monasteries,
among the nobility, and even in the lowest grades of society,
precious seeds destined to bud at a later period. All these obscure
travellers, carrying the arts of their native country to distant
lands, brought back other information about these no less precious,
and thus effected, unconsciously, exchanges more productive of good
than all those of commerce. By this means not merely the traffic in
silks, in porcelains, in commodities from Hindostan, was made more
extensive and more practicable, opening new routes to industry and
commerce; but, that which was far more valuable, foreign manners and
customs of before unknown nations, extraordinary productions, were
presented to the European mind, confined, since the fall of the Roman
empire, within too narrow a circle. Men began to have an idea that,
after all, there was something worthy of notice in the finest, the
most populous and the most anciently civilized of the four quarters
of the world. People began to think of studying the arts, the
religions, the languages of the nations who inhabited it, and there
was even a proposition to establish a professorship of the Tartar
language in the University of Paris. Romantic narratives, reduced by
discussion within reasonable proportions, diffused in all directions
juster and more varied information: the world seemed opening towards
the East. Geography made immense strides, and ardour of discovery
became the new form assumed by the adventurous spirit of Europeans.
The idea of another hemisphere ceased, as soon as our own became
better known, to present itself to the mind as a paradox destitute of
all probability, and it was in going in search of the Zipangri of
Marco-Polo that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World.
"I should make too great a digression, were I to investigate what
were in the East the effects of the Mongol irruption, the destruction
of the Khalifat, the extermination of the Bulgarians, of the Romans,
and other northern nations. The decline of the population of Upper
Asia, so favourable to the reaction by which the Russians, hitherto
the vassals of the Tartars, subdued in their turn all the nomads of
the North; the submission of China to a foreign yoke; the definitive
establishment of the Indian religion in Thibet and Tartary; all these
events deserve to be studied in detail. I will not even pause to
inquire what might have been the results, to the nations of Eastern
Asia, of the intercourse which they had with the West. The
introduction of the Indian numerals into China, a knowledge of the
astronomical system of the Moslems, the translation of the New
Testament and the Psalms into the Mongol language, executed by the
Latin Archbishop of _Khan Balik_ (Peking), the foundation of the
lamanical hierarchy, framed in imitation of the pontifical court, and
produced by the fusion effected between the remnants of the
Nestorianism established in Tartary and the dogmas of the Buddhists;
such were all the innovations of which there are any traces in
Eastern Asia, and therewith the commerce of the Franks has very
little to do. The Asiatics are punished for their contempt of the
knowledge of Europeans, by the limited results which that very scorn
enables them to derive from it. To confine myself to what concerns
the people of the West, and to attempt to justify what I said at the
commencement of this Memoir, that the effects of the communications
with the nations of Upper Asia, in the thirteenth century, had
contributed indirectly to the progress of European civilization, I
will conclude with a reflection, which I shall offer with the more
confidence, that it is not entirely new, while, at the same time, the
facts we have just investigated seem calculated to give it a sanction
it had not before.
"Before the establishment of the intercourse which, first the
Crusades, and then, later, the irruption of the Mongols, caused to
spring up between the nations of the East and those of the West, the
greater part of those inventions, which distinguished the close of
the middle ages, had been known to the Asiatics for centuries. The
polarity of the loadstone had been discovered and put into operation
in China from the remotest antiquity. Gunpowder had been as long
known to the Hindoos and the Chinese, the latter of whom had, in the
tenth century, 'thunder carriages,' which seem to have been cannon.
It is difficult to account in any other way for the fire-stone
throwers, which are so often mentioned in the history of the Mongols.
Houlagou, when he set out for Persia, had in his army a body of
Chinese artillerymen. Again, the first edition of the classic books
engraved on wooden boards is dated in the year 952. The institution
of bank notes, and of banking and exchange offices, took place among
the Jou-Tchen in 1154. Bank notes were adopted by the Mongols
established in China; they were known to the Persians by the same
name as the Chinese give them, and Josaphat Barbaro was informed in
1450 by an intelligent Tartar whom he met at Asof, and who had been
on an embassy to China, that this sort of money was printed in China
every year _con nuova stampa_; and this expression is remarkable
enough, considering the time when Barbaro made this observation.
Lastly, playing cards--into the origin of which so many learned
antiquarians would not have busied themselves to inquire, were it not
that it marked one of the first applications of the art of engraving
on wood--were invented in China in the year 1120.
"There are, besides, in the commencement of each of these inventions,
particular features which seem calculated to show their origin. I
will not speak of the compass, the ancient use of which, in China,
Hager seems to me successfully to have demonstrated, and which passed
into Europe by means of the Crusades, previous to the irruption of
the Mongols, as the famous passage in Jacques de Vitry, and some
others, prove. But the oldest playing cards, those used in the _jeu
de tarots_, have a marked analogy in their form, their designs, their
size, their number, with the cards which the Chinese make use of.
Cannons were the first firearms made use of in Europe; they are also,
it would appear, the only fire-arms with which the Chinese were
acquainted at this period. The question as to paper money appears to
have been viewed in its true light by M. Langles, and after him by
Hager. The first boards made use of to print upon were made of wood
and stereotyped, like those of the Chinese; and nothing is more
natural than to suppose that some book from China gave the idea.
This would not be more surprising than the fragment of the Bible, in
Gothic characters, which Father Martini discovered in the house of a
Chinese at Tchang-Tcheou-Fou. We have the instance of another usage,
which evidently followed the same route--it is that of the Souan-Pan,
or arithmetical machine of the Chinese, which was, doubtless,
introduced into Europe by the Tartars of the army of Batou, and which
has so extensively pervaded Russia and Poland, that women who cannot
read use nothing else in the settlement of their household accounts,
and their little commercial dealings. The conjecture which gives a
Chinese origin to the primitive idea of European typography is so
natural, that it was propounded before there was any opportunity for
collecting together all the circumstances which make it so probable.
It is the idea of Paulo Jovio, and of Mendoca, who imagine that a
Chinese book may have been brought into Europe before the arrival of
the Portuguese in the Indies, by the medium of the Scythians and
Muscovites. It was developed by an anonymous Englishman; and
carefully putting aside from the consideration the impression in
moveable types, which is, no doubt, an invention peculiar to the
Europeans, one cannot conceive any sound objection to an hypothesis
which bears so strongly the stamp of probability. But this
supposition acquires a still greater degree of probability when we
apply it to the totality of the discoveries in question. All were
made in Eastern Asia; all were unheard-of in the West. Communication
took place: it was continued for a century and a-half, and ere
another century had elapsed, all these inventions were known in
Europe. Their origin is veiled in obscurity. The region where they
manifested themselves, the men who produced them, are equally a
subject of doubt. Enlightened countries were not their theatre. It
was not learned men who were their authors; it was common men,
obscure artisans, who lighted up, one after another, these unexpected
flames. Nothing can better demonstrate the effects of a
communication; nothing can be more in accordance with what we have
said above as to those invisible channels, those imperceptible
ramifications, whereby the science of the Eastern nations penetrated
into Europe. The greater part of these inventions appear at first in
the state of infancy in which the Asiatics have left them; and this
circumstance alone, almost prevents our having any doubt as to their
origin. Some are immediately put in practice; others remain for some
time enveloped in obscurity, which conceals from us their progress,
and they are taken, on their appearance, for new discoveries; all are
soon brought to perfection, and, as it were, fecundated by the genius
of Europeans, operating in concert, communicate to human intelligence
the greatest impulse known to history. Thus, by this shock of
nations, the darkness of the middle age was dispersed. Calamities,
which at first aspect seemed merely destined to afflict mankind,
served to arouse it from the lethargy in which it had remained for
ages; and the subversion of twenty empires was the price at which
Providence accorded to Europe the light of modern civilization."
The Mongol dynasty of the Youen occupied the empire for a century. After
having shone with a brilliancy, the reflection of which spread over the
most remote regions, it ended with Chun-Ti, a feeble prince, more mindful
of frivolous amusements than of the great inheritance which had been left
him by his ancestors. The Chinese regained their independence; and
Tchou-Youen-Tchang, the son of a labourer, and for some time a servant in
a convent of bonzes, was the founder of the celebrated dynasty of the
Ming. They ascended the imperial throne in 1368, and reigned in the name
of Houng-Wou.
The Tartars were massacred in great numbers in the interior of China, and
the rest were driven back to their old country. The Emperor Young-Lo
pursued them three several times beyond the desert, more than 200 leagues
north of the Great Wall, in order to exterminate them. He could not,
however, effect this object, and, dying on his return from his third
expedition, his successors left the Tartars in peace beyond the desert,
whence they diffused themselves right and left. The principal chiefs of
the blood of Tchinggiskhan occupied, each with his people, a particular
district, and gave birth to various tribes, which all formed so many
petty kingdoms.
These fallen princes, ever tormented by the recollection of their ancient
power, appeared several times on the frontiers of the empire, and did not
cease to disquiet the Chinese princes, without, however, succeeding in
their attempts at invasion.
Towards the commencement of the seventeenth century, the Mantchou Tartars
having made themselves masters of China, the Mongols gradually submitted
to them, and placed themselves under their sovereignty. The Oelets, a
Mongol tribe, deriving their name from Oloutai, a celebrated warrior in
the fourteenth century, made frequent irruptions into the country of the
Khalkhas, and a sanguinary war arose between these two people. The
Emperor Khang-Hi, under the pretence of conciliating them, intervened in
their quarrel, put an end to the war by subjecting both parties, and
extended his domination in Tartary to the frontiers of Russia; the three
Khans of the Khalkhas came to make their submission to the Mantchou
Emperor, who convoked a grand meeting near Tolon-Noor. Each Khan
presented to him eight white horses, and one white camel; from which
circumstance this tribute was called, in the Mongol language,
_Yousoun-Dchayan_, (the nine white); it was agreed that they should bring
every year a similar present.
At the present time the Tartar nations, more or less subject to the sway
of the Mantchou emperors, are no longer what they were in the time of
Tchinggiskhan and Timour. Since that epoch Tartary has been disorganized
by so many revolutions; it has undergone such notable political and
geographical changes, that what travellers and writers said about it in
former periods no longer applies to it.
During a length of time geographers divided Tartary into three grand
parts--1. Russian Tartary, extending from east to west, from the sea of
Kamchatka to the Black Sea, and from north to south, from the regions
inhabited by the Tongous and Samoiede tribes, to the lakes Baikal and
Aral. 2. Chinese Tartary, bounded east by the sea of Japan, south by
the Great Wall of China, west by the Gobi or great sandy desert; and
north, by the Baikal Lake. 3. Independent Tartary, extending to the
Caspian Sea, and including in its limits the whole of Thibet. Such a
division is altogether chimerical, and without any sound basis. All
these immense tracts, indeed, once formed part of the great empires of
Tchinggiskhan and Timour. The Tartar hordes made encampments there at
their will in the course of their warlike wanderings; but now all this is
completely changed, and, to form an exact idea of modern Tartary, it is
necessary to modify in a great degree the notions that have been
transmitted to us by the mediaeval authors, and which, in default of
better information, have been adopted by all the geographers, down to
Malte-Brun, inclusive. To realize a definite idea about Tartary, we
think that the clearest, most certain, and consequently the most
reasonable rule, is to adopt the opinions of the Tartars themselves, and
of the Chinese, far more competent judges of this matter than Europeans,
who, having no connection with this part of Asia, are obliged to trust to
conjectures which have often little to do with truth. In accordance with
a universal usage, the soundness of which we were enabled to confirm in
the course of our travels, we will divide the Tartar people into Eastern
Tartars (Toung-Ta-Dze), or Mantchous, and Western Tartars (Si-Ta-Dze), or
Mongols. The boundaries of Mantchouria are very distinct, as we have
already stated. It is bounded on the north by the Kinggan mountains,
which separate it from Siberia; on the south by the gulf of Phou-Hai and
Corea; on the east by the sea of Japan; and on the west by the Barrier of
Stakes and a branch of the Sakhalien-Oula. It would be a difficult
matter to define the limits of Mongolia in an equally exact manner;
however, without any serious departure from the truth, we may include
them between the 75th and the 118th degrees longitude of Paris, and 85th
and 50th degrees of north latitude. Great and Little Boukaria,
Kalmoukia, Great and Little Thibet--all these denominations seem to us
purely imaginary. We shall enter, by-and-by, into some details on this
subject, in the second part of our travels, when we come to speak of
Thibet and of the neighbouring people.
The people who are comprised in the grand division of Mongolia, that we
have just given, are not all to be indiscriminately considered as
Mongols. There are some of them to whom this denomination can only be
applied in a restricted sense. Towards the north-west, for instance, the
Mongols are frequently confounded with the Moslems; and towards the
south, with the Si-Fans, or Eastern Thibetians. The best way clearly to
distinguish these people, is to pay attention to their language, their
manners, their religion, their costume, and particularly to the name by
which they designate themselves. The Mongol Khalkhas are the most
numerous, the most wealthy, and the most celebrated in history. They
occupy the entire north of Mongolia. Their country is of vast extent,
including nearly 200 leagues from north to south, and about 500 from east
to west. We will not repeat here what we have already said about the
Khalkha district; we will merely add that it is divided into four great
provinces, subject to four separate sovereigns. These provinces are
sub-divided into eighty-four banners, in Chinese called Ky, in Mongol
Bochkhon. Princes of different ranks are at the head of each banner.
Notwithstanding the authority of these secular princes, it may safely be
said that the Khalkhas are all dependent on the Guison-Tamba, the Grand
Lama, the Living Buddha of all the Mongol Khalkhas, who consider it an
honour to call themselves Disciples of the Holy One of Kouren (_Koure
bokte ain Chabi_).
The Southern Mongols have no special designation; they merely bear the
name of the principality to which they belong. Thus they say, "Mongol of
Souniout, Mongol of Gechekten," etc. Southern Mongolia comprises
twenty-five principalities, which, like those of the Khalkhas, are
sub-divided into several Bochkhon. The principal are the Ortous, the two
Toumet, the two Souniout, the Tchakar, Karatsin Oungniot, Gechekten,
Barin, Nayman, and the country of the Eleuts.
The Southern Mongols, near the Great Wall, have little modified their
manners by their constant intercourse with the Chinese. You may remark
sometimes in their dress a sort of studied elegance, and in their
character pretensions to the refined politeness of the Chinese. Laying
aside, on the one hand, the frankness, the good-natured openness of the
Mongols of the North, they have borrowed from their neighbours somewhat
of their cunning and foppery.
Proceeding to the South-east, we encounter the Mongols of the Koukou-Noor
or Blue Lake (in Chinese, Tsing-Hai or Blue Sea). This country is far
from possessing the extent which is generally assigned to it in
geographical charts. The Mongols of the Koukou-Noor only dwell around
the lake, from which they derive their name; and, moreover, they are
mixed up to a great extent with Si-Fans, who cannot live secure in their
own country, because of the hordes of robbers that are constantly
ravaging it.
To the west of the Koukou-Noor is the river Tsaidam, on whose banks
encamp the numerous tribes, called Tsaidam-Mongols, who must not be
confounded with the Mongols of the Koukou-Noor. Farther still, in the
very heart of Thibet, we encounter other Mongol tribes. We shall say
nothing about them here, as we shall have occasion to speak of them in
the course of our narrative. We will revert, therefore, in some detail
to the Mongols of the Koukou-Noor and the Tsaidam.
The Torgot-Tartars, who formerly dwelt near Kara-Koroum, the capital of
the Mongols in the time of Tchinggiskhan, are now situated to the
north-west of Mongolia. In 1672, the whole tribe, having raised their
tents and assembled all their flocks, abandoned the district which had
served them as a resting-place, migrated to the western part of Asia, and
established themselves in the steppes between the Don and the Volga.
The Torgot princes recognised the sovereignty of the Muscovite emperors,
and declared themselves their vassals. But these wandering hordes,
passionately attached to the independence of their nomad life, could not
long accommodate themselves to the new masters they had selected. They
soon felt an aversion to the laws and regular institutions which were
becoming established in the Russian empire. In 1770, the Torgots again
made a general migration. Led by their chief, Aboucha, they suddenly
disappeared, passed the Russian frontiers, and halted on the banks of the
river Ili. This flight had been concerted with the government of Peking.
The Emperor of China, who had been informed beforehand of the period of
their departure, took them under his protection, and assigned to them
settlements on the banks of the Ili.
The principality of Ili is now the Botany-Bay of China: thither are sent
the Chinese criminals, condemned to exile by the laws of the empire.
Before their arrival in these distant regions they are obliged to cross
frightful deserts, and to climb the Moussour (glacier) mountains. These
gigantic summits are entirely formed of icebergs, piled one on the top of
the other, so that travellers cannot advance except by hewing steps out
of the eternal ice. On the other side of the Moussour mountains the
country, they say, is magnificent; the climate temperate enough, and the
soil adapted for every kind of cultivation. The exiles have transported
thither a great many of the productions of China; but the Mongols
continue to follow their nomad life, and merely to pasture herds and
flocks.
We had occasion to travel for some time with Lamas of the Torgot; some of
them arrived with us at Lha-Ssa. We did not remark, either in their
costume, in their manners, or in their language, anything to distinguish
them from the Mongols. They spoke a good deal about the _Oros_
(Russians), but in a way to make us understand that they were by no means
desirous of again becoming subject to their sway. The Torgot camels are
remarkably fine, and generally much larger and stronger than those in the
other parts of Mongolia.
It would be a very desirable thing to send missionaries to Ili. We
believe that there would be found already formed there a numerous and
fervent body of Christians. It is well known that for many years past,
it is hither that the Christians who have refused to apostatize, have
been exiled from all the provinces of China. The missionary who should
obtain permission to exercise his zeal in the Torgot, would doubtless
have to undergo great privations during his journey thither; but he would
be amply compensated, by the thought of carrying the succour of religion
to all those generous confessors of the faith, whom the tyranny of the
Chinese government has sent to die in these distant regions.
To the south-west of Torgot is the province of Khachghar. At the present
day, this district cannot at all be considered a part of Mongolia. Its
inhabitants have neither the language, nor the physiognomy, nor the
costume, nor the religion, nor the manners of the Mongols; they are
Moslems. The Chinese, as well as the Tartars, call them Hoei-Hoei, a
name by which they designate the Mussulmen who dwell in the interior of
the Chinese empire. This description of Khachghar, is also applicable to
the people to the south of the Celestial Mountains, in the Chinese tongue
called Tien-Chan, and in Mongol, Bokte-oola (holy mountains).
Not long since the Chinese government had to sustain a terrible war
against Khachghar. We are indebted for the following details to some
military Mandarins who accompanied this famous and distant expedition.
The Court of Peking kept in Khachghar two grand Mandarins, with the title
of Delegates Extraordinary (_Kintchai_), who were charged to guard the
frontiers, and to keep an eye on the movements of the neighbouring
people. These Chinese officers, instead of merely watching, exercised
their power with such horrible and revolting tyranny, that they wore out
the patience of the people of Khachghar, who, at length, rose in a body,
and massacred all the Chinese resident in the country. The news reaching
Peking, the Emperor, who knew nothing of the misconduct of his officers,
assembled his troops, and marched them against the Moslems. The contest
was long and bloody. The Chinese government had several times to send
reinforcements. The Hoei-Hoei were commanded by a hero called
Tchankoeul; his stature, they say, was prodigious, and he had no weapon
but an enormous club. He frequently defeated the Chinese army, and
destroyed several grand military Mandarins. At length, the Emperor sent
the famous Yang, who put an end to the war. The conqueror of Khachghar
is a military Mandarin of the province of Chang-Tong, remarkable for his
lofty stature, and above all for the prodigious length of his beard.
According to the account we heard of him, his manner of fighting was
singular enough. As soon as the action commenced, he tied up his beard
in two great knots, in order that it might not get in his way, and then
he placed himself behind his troops. There, armed with a long sabre, he
drove his soldiers on to combat, and massacred, without pity, those who
were cowards enough to draw back. This method of commanding an army will
seem somewhat peculiar; but those who have lived among the Chinese will
see that the military genius of Yang was founded on a thorough knowledge
of the soldiers he had to deal with.
The Moslems were defeated, and Tchankoeul was, by means of treachery,
made a prisoner. He was conveyed to Peking, where he had to undergo the
most barbarous and humiliating treatment, even the being exposed to the
people, shut up in an iron cage, like a wild beast. The Emperor
Tao-Kouang wished to see this warrior, of whom fame spoke so much, and
ordered him to be brought to him. The Mandarins immediately took alarm;
they were afraid lest the prisoner should reveal to the Emperor the
causes which had brought about the revolt of Khachghar, and the horrible
massacres which had followed it. The great dignitaries saw that these
revelations would be dangerous for them, and make them seem guilty of
negligence in the eyes of the Emperor, for not having duly observed the
conduct of the Mandarins who were placed in charge of distant provinces.
To obviate this danger, they made the unfortunate Tchankouel swallow a
draught which took away his speech, and threw him into a disgusting state
of stupor. When he appeared in the presence of the Emperor, his mouth,
they say, foamed, and his visage was horrible; he could not answer any of
the questions which were addressed to him. Tchankouel was condemned to
be cut into pieces, and to be served up as food for the dogs.
The Mandarin Yang was loaded with favours by the Emperor, for having so
happily terminated the war of Khachghar. He obtained the dignity of
Batourou, a Tartar word signifying valorous. This title is the most
honourable that a military Mandarin can obtain.
The Batourou Yang was sent against the English, in their last war with
the Chinese; but there it would appear his tactics did not avail. During
our travels in China we inquired of several Mandarins, how it was that
the Batourou Yang had not exterminated the English: the answer everywhere
was, that he had had compassion on them.
The numerous principalities of which Mongolia is composed, are all more
or less dependent on the Mantchou Emperor, in proportion as they show
more or less weakness in their relations with the Court of Peking. They
may be considered as so many feudal kingdoms, giving no obedience to
their sovereign beyond the extent of their fear or their interest; and
indeed, what the Mantchou dynasty fears above all things, is the vicinity
of these Tartar tribes. The Emperors are fully aware that, headed by an
enterprising and bold chief, these tribes might successfully renew the
terrible wars of other times, and once more obtain possession of the
empire. For this reason, they use every means in their power to preserve
the friendship of the Mongol princes, and to enfeeble the strength of
these terrible nomads. It is with this view, as we have already
remarked, that they patronise lamanism, by richly endowing the
Lamaseries, and by granting numerous privileges to the Lamas. So long as
they can maintain their influence over the sacerdotal tribe, they are
assured that neither the people nor the princes will stir from their
repose.
[Picture: Chinese Princess]
Alliances are another means by which the reigning dynasty seeks to
consolidate its power in Mongolia. The daughters and nearest relations
of the Emperor, intermarrying with the royal families of Tartary,
contribute to maintain between the two peoples pacific and friendly
relations. Yet these princesses continue to have a great predilection
for the pomp and grandeur of the imperial court. The mournful,
monotonous life of the desert soon fatigues them, and they sigh for the
brilliant fetes of Peking. To obviate the inconvenience that might
attend their frequent journeys to the capital, a very severe regulation
has been made to moderate the wandering humour of these princesses.
First, for the first ten years after their marriage, they are forbidden
to come to Peking, under penalty of having the annual pension the Emperor
allows to their husbands suspended. This period having elapsed, they are
allowed to go to Peking, but never at their own mere fancy. A tribunal
is appointed to examine their reasons for temporarily quitting their
family. If these are considered valid, they allow them a certain number
of days, on the expiration of which they are enjoined to return to
Tartary. During their stay at Peking, they are supported at the expense
of the Emperor, suitably to their dignity.
The most elevated personages in the hierarchy of the Mongol princes, are
the Thsin-Wang and the Kiun-Wang. Their title is equivalent to that of
king. After them come the Peile, the Beisse, the Koung of the first and
second class, and the Dchassak. These may be compared to our ancient
dukes, barons, etc. We have already mentioned that the Mongol princes
are bound to pay certain rents to the Emperor; but the amount of these is
so small, that the Mantchou dynasty can only levy it on account of the
moral effect that may result. As simple matter-of-fact, it would be
nearer the truth to say that the Mantchous are the tributaries of the
Mongols; for, in return for the few beasts they receive from them, they
give them annually large sums of money, silken stuffs, clothes, and
various articles of luxury and ornament, such as buttons, sables,
peacocks' feathers, etc. Each Wang of the first degree receives annually
2,500 ounces of silver (about 800 pounds), and forty pieces of silk
stuff. All the other princes are paid according to the rank they derive
from the Emperor. A Dchassak, for example, receives yearly one hundred
ounces of silver, and four pieces of silk.
There exist certain Lamaseries, termed Imperial, where each Lama, on
obtaining the degree of Kalon, is obliged to offer to the Emperor an
ingot of silver of the value of fifty ounces; his name is then inscribed
on the register of the imperial clergy at Peking, and he is entitled to
the pension given yearly to the Lamas of the Emperor. It is obvious that
all these measures, so calculated to flatter the self-love and avarice of
the Tartars, do not a little contribute to maintain their feelings of
respect and submission towards a government which takes such pains to
court their friendship.
The Mongols, however, of the district of the Khalkhas do not seem to be
much affected by these demonstrations. They only see in the Mantchous a
rival race, in possession of a prey which they themselves have never
ceased to desire. We have frequently heard the Mongol Khalkhas use the
most unceremonious and seditious language in speaking of the Mantchou
Emperor. "They are subject," say they, "to the Guison-Tamba alone, to
the _Most Holy_, and not to the black-man (layman), who sits on the
throne of Peking." These redoubtable children of Tchinggiskhan still
seem to be cherishing in their inmost heart schemes of conquest and
invasion. They only await, they say, the command of their Grand Lama to
march direct upon Peking, and to regain an empire which they believe to
be theirs, for the sole reason that it was formerly theirs. The Mongol
princes exact from their subjects or slaves certain tributes, which
consist in sheep, and here is the absurd and unjust regulation, in
accordance with which this tribute must be paid:
The owner of five or more oxen must contribute one sheep: the owner of
twenty sheep must contribute one of them; if he owns forty he gives two;
but they need give no more, however numerous their flocks. As may be
seen, this tribute really weighs upon the poor only; the wealthy may
possess a great number of cattle without being obliged to contribute more
than two sheep.
Besides these regular tributes, there are others which the princes are
accustomed to levy on their slaves, on some extraordinary occasions; for
instance, marriages, burials, and distant voyages. On these occasions,
each collection of ten tents is obliged to furnish a horse and a camel.
Every Mongol who owns three cows must pay a pail of milk; if he possesses
five, a pot of koumis or wine, made of fermented milk. The owner of a
flock of 100 sheep, furnishes a felt carpet or a tent covering; he who
owns three camels must give a bundle of long cords to fasten the baggage.
However, in a country where everything is subject to the arbitrary will
of the chief, these regulations, as may be supposed, are not strictly
observed. Sometimes the subjects are altogether exempted from their
operation, and sometimes also there is exacted from them much more than
the law decrees.
Robbery and murder are very severely punished among the Mongols; but the
injured individuals, or their parents, are themselves obliged to
prosecute the prisoner before the tribunals: the worst outrage remains
unpunished if no one appears to prosecute. In the ideas of a
semi-barbarous people, the man who attempts to take the property or life
of any one, is deemed to have committed merely a private offence,
reparation for which ought to be demanded, not by the public, but by the
injured party or his family. Theses rude notions of justice are common
to China and to Thibet; and for that matter, we know that Rome herself
had no other until the establishment of Christianity, which caused the
right of the community to prevail over the right of the individual.
Mongolia, generally speaking, wears a gloomy and savage aspect; the eye
is nowhere recreated by the charm and variety of landscape scenery. The
monotony of the steppes is only interrupted by ravines, by vast rents of
the earth, or by stony and barren hills. Towards the north, in the
district of Khalkhas, nature is more animated; tall forests decorate the
summits of the mountains, and numerous rivers water the rich pastures of
the plains; but in the long winter season, the earth remains buried under
a thick bed of snow. Towards the Great Wall, Chinese industry glides
like a serpent into the desert. Towns arise on all sides. The Land of
Grass is crowned with harvests, and the Mongol shepherds find themselves
driven back northwards, little by little, by the encroachments of
agriculture.
Sandy plains occupy, perhaps, the greater part of Mongolia; you do not
see a single tree there; some short, brittle grass, which seems to have
much difficulty in issuing from this unfruitful soil, creeping briars, a
few scanty tufts of heath, such is the sole vegetation and pasturage of
Gobi. Water is very rarely seen; at long intervals you meet with a few
deep wells, dug for the convenience of the caravans that are obliged to
cross this dismal tract.
In Mongolia there are only two seasons in the year, nine months for
winter, and three for summer. Sometimes the heat is stifling,
particularly on the sandy steppes, but it only lasts a few days. The
nights, however, are almost invariably cold. In the Mongol countries,
cultivated by the Chinese, outside the Great Wall, all agricultural
labour must be comprehended within three months. As soon as the earth is
sufficiently thawed, they hastily set to work, or rather they do nothing
but touch the surface of the ground lightly with the plough; they then
immediately sow the seed; the corn grows with astonishing rapidity.
Whilst they are waiting for it to come to maturity, the men are
incessantly occupied in pulling up the weeds that overrun the plain.
Scarcely have they gathered in the harvest when the winter comes with its
terrible cold; during this season they thresh the corn. As the cold
makes vast crevices in the earth, they throw water over the surface of
the threshing-floor, which freezes forthwith, and creates for the
labourers, a place always smooth and admirably clean.
The excessive cold which prevails in Mongolia may be attributed to three
causes:--to the great elevation of the country; to the nitrous substances
with which it is strongly impregnated, and to the almost entire absence
of cultivation. In the places which the Chinese have cultivated the
temperature has risen in a remarkable degree; the heat goes on
increasing, so to speak, from year to year, as cultivation advances; so
that particular grain crops, which at first would not grow at all,
because of the cold, now ripen with wonderful success.
Mongolia, on account of its immense solitudes, has become the haunt of a
large number of wild animals. You see at every step, hares, pheasants,
eagles, yellow goats, grey squirrels, foxes and wolves. It is remarkable
that the wolves of Mongolia attack men rather than animals. They may be
seen, sometimes, passing at full gallop, through a flock of sheep, in
order to attack the shepherd. About the Great Wall they frequently visit
the Tartaro-Chinese villages, enter the farms, and disdaining the
domestic animals they find in the yard, proceed to the inside of the
house, and there select their human victims, whom they almost invariably
seize by the throat and strangle. There is scarcely a village in
Tartary, where, every year, misfortunes of this kind do not occur. It
would seem as though the wolves of this country were resolved to avenge
on men, the sanguinary war which the Tartars make upon their brethren.
The stag, the wild goat, the mule, the wild camel, the yak, the brown and
black bear, the lynx, the ounce and the tiger, frequent the deserts of
Mongolia. The Tartars never proceed on a journey, unless armed with
bows, fusils and lances.
When we consider the horrible climate of Tartary, that climate ever so
gloomy and frozen, we should be led to think that the inhabitants of
these wild countries must be of an extremely fierce and rugged
temperament; their physiognomy, their deportment, the costume they wear,
all would seem to confirm this opinion. The Mongol has a flat face, with
prominent cheek bones, the chin short and retiring, the forehead sunken,
the eyes small and oblique, of a yellow tint, as though full of bile, the
hair black and rugged, the beard scanty, the skin of a deep brown, and
extremely coarse. The Mongol is of middle height, but his great leathern
boots and large sheep-skin robe, seem to take away from his height, and
make him appear diminutive and stumpy. To complete this portrait, we
must add a heavy and ponderous gait, and a harsh, shrill, discordant
language, full of frightful aspirates. Notwithstanding this rough and
unprepossessing exterior, the disposition of the Mongol is full of
gentleness and good nature; he passes suddenly from the most rollicking
and extravagant gaiety to a state of melancholy, which is by no means
disagreeable. Timid to excess in his ordinary habits; when fanaticism or
the desire of vengeance arouses him, he displays in his courage an
impetuosity which nothing can stay; he is candid and credulous as an
infant, and he passionately loves to hear marvellous anecdotes and
narratives. The meeting with a travelling Lama is always for him a
source of happiness.
Aversion to toil and a sedentary life, the love of pillage and rapine,
cruelty, unnatural debaucheries, are the vices which have been generally
attributed to the Mongol Tartars. We are apt to believe that the
portrait which the old writers have drawn of them was not exaggerated,
for we always find these terrible hordes, at the period of their gigantic
conquests, bringing in their train, murder, pillage, conflagration, and
every description of scourge. But are the Mongols the same now that they
were formerly? We believe we can affirm the contrary, at least to a
great extent. Wherever we have seen them, we have found them to be
generous, frank, and hospitable; inclined, it is true, like ill-educated
children, to pilfer little things which excite their curiosity, but by no
means in the habit of practising what is called pillage and robbery. As
to their aversion for toil and a sedentary life, they are just the same
as heretofore. It must also be admitted that their manners are very
free, but their conduct has more in it of recklessness than of absolute
corruption. We seldom find among them those unbridled and brutal
debaucheries to which the Chinese are so much given.
The Mongols are strangers to every kind of industry. Some felt carpets,
some rudely tanned hides, a little needlework and embroidery, are
exceptions not deserving of mention. On the other hand, they possess to
perfection the qualities of a pastoral and nomad people. They have the
senses of sight, hearing, and scent prodigiously developed. The Mongol
is able to hear at a very long distance the trot of a horse, to
distinguish the form of objects, and to detect the distant scent of
flocks, and the smoke of an encampment.
Many attempts have already been made to propagate Christianity among the
Tartars, and we may say that they have not been altogether fruitless.
Towards the end of the eighth century and in the commencement of the
ninth, Timothy, patriarch of the Nestorians, sent some monks to preach
the Gospel to the Hioung-Nou Tartars, who had taken refuge on the shores
of the Caspian Sea. At a later period they penetrated into Central Asia,
and into China. In the time of Tchinggiskhan and his successors,
Franciscan and Dominican missionaries were dispatched to Tartary. The
conversions were numerous; even princes, it is said, and emperors were
baptized. But we must not entirely credit the statements of the Tartar
ambassadors, who, the more easily to draw the Christian princes of Europe
into a league against the Moslems, never failed to state that their
masters had been baptized, and had made profession of Christianity. It
is certain, however, that at the commencement of the fourteenth century,
Pope Clement V. erected at Peking an archbishopric, in favour of Jean de
Montcorvin, a Franciscan missionary who preached the Gospel to the
Tartars for forty-two years; he translated into the Mongol language the
New Testament and the Psalms of David, and left at his death a very
flourishing Christendom. We find on this subject some curious details in
"Le Livre de l'Estat du Grant Caan" {259} (The book of the State of the
Grand Khan), extracted from a manuscript of the National Library, and
published in the "Nouveau Journal Asiatique" (vol. vi.), by M. Jacquet, a
learned orientalist. We conceive that it may be acceptable to quote a
few passages from this production.
OF THE MINORITES WHO DWELL IN THIS COUNTRY OF CATHAY (CHINA).
"In the said city of Cambalech was an archbishop, who was called Brother
John of Mount Curvin, of the order of Minorites, and he was legate there
for Pope Clement V. This archbishop erected in that city aforesaid,
three houses of Minorites, and they are two leagues distant from one
another. He likewise instituted two others in the city of Racon, which
is a long distance from Cambalech, being a journey of three months, and
it is on the sea coast; and in these two places were put two Minorites as
bishops. The one was named Brother Andrew of Paris, and the other,
Brother Peter of Florence. These brothers, and John the Archbishop,
converted many persons to the faith of Jesus Christ. He is a man of
irreproachable life, agreeable to God and the world, and very much in the
Emperor's favour. The Emperor provided him and all his people with all
things necessary, and he was much beloved by both Christians and Pagans;
and he certainly would have converted all that country to the Christian
and Catholic faith, if the false and misbelieving Nestorian Christians
had not prevented it. The archbishop had great trouble in restoring
these Nestorians to the obedience of our Holy Mother the Roman Church;
without which obedience, he said, they could not be saved; and on this
account these Nestorian schismatics disliked him greatly. This
archbishop has just departed, as it pleased God, from this life. A great
multitude of Christians and Pagans attended his funeral; and the Pagans
tore their funeral robes, as is their custom. And these Christians and
infidels took, with great reverence, the robes of the archbishop, and
held them in great respect, and as relics. He was buried there
honourably, in the fashion of the faithful. They still visit his tomb
with great devotion."
OF CERTAIN NESTORIAN CHRISTIAN SCHISMATICS WHO DWELL THERE.
"In the said city of Cambalech there is a sort of Christian schismatics
whom they call Nestorians. They observe the customs and manners of the
Greek Church, and are not obedient to the Holy Church of Rome; but they
are of another sect, and are at great enmity with all the Catholic
Christians who are loyal to the Holy Church of Rome aforesaid. And when
the archbishop, of whom we spoke just now, built those abbeys of
Minorites aforesaid, the Nestorians destroyed them in the night, and did
them all the mischief in their power; for they dared not injure the said
archbishop, or his brethren, or the other faithful Christians publicly
and openly, because the Emperor loved them and showed them his favour.
These Nestorians dwelling in the said empire of Cathay, number more than
30,000, and are very rich; but many of them fear the Christians. They
have very beautiful and very holy churches, with crosses and images in
honour of God and of the saints. They receive from the said Emperor
several offices, and he grants them many privileges, and it is thought
that if they would consent to unite and agree with these Minorites and
with other good Christians who reside in this country, they might convert
the whole of this country and the Emperor to the true faith."
OF THE EXTRAORDINARY FAVOUR WHICH THE GRAND KHAN SHOWS TO THE SAID
CHRISTIANS.
"The Grand Khan protects the Christians who in this said kingdom are
obedient to the Holy Church of Rome, and makes provision for all their
wants, for he shows them very great favour and love; and whenever they
require anything for their churches, their crosses, or their sanctuaries,
in honour of Jesus Christ, he awards it with great willingness. But they
must pray to God for him and his health particularly in their sermons.
And he is very anxious that they should all pray for him; and he readily
allows the brethren to preach the faith of God in the churches of the
infidels, which they call _vritanes_, and he also permits the infidels to
hear the brethren preach; so that the infidels go there very willingly,
and often with great devotion, and give the brethren much alms; and,
likewise, the Emperor lends and sends his servants to aid and assist the
Christians when they require their services, and so solicit the Emperor."
While the Tartars remained masters of China, Christianity made great
progress in the empire. At the present day (we say it with sorrow),
there is not to be found in Mongolia the least vestige of what was done
in ages gone by, in favour of these nomad people. We trust, however,
that the light of the Gospel will ere long shine once more in their eyes.
The zeal of Europeans for the propagation of the faith will hasten the
accomplishment of Noah's prophecy. Missionaries, the children of
Japheth, will display their courage and devotion: they will fly to the
aid of the children of Shem, and will esteem themselves happy to pass
their days under the Mongol tents: "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he
shall dwell in the tents of Shem."--Genes. cap. ix. v. 27.
[Picture: Chinese Caricature]
[Picture: Irrigation of the Fields]