A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume I Part 11

26. E, to the promontory of Tschuts-koi-nos, or the East Cape of Asia, in long. 190. E. this vast region extends in length 160 degrees of longitude, or not less than 8000 miles. Its southern boundaries are more difficultly ascertainable: but, except where they are pressed northwards by the anciently civilized empire of China, these may be a.s.sumed at a medium on the thirty-fifth degree of north lat.i.tude; from, whence Scythia or Tartary extends in breadth to the extremity of the frozen north.

Next to the nomadic nations of Western Scythia, who encountered and baffled the arms of Darius, King of Persia, under the general name of Scythians, who were perhaps congeneric, or the same with those afterwards known by the name of Goths, the dreaded name of the Huns became known to the declining Roman Empire. But our object does not require us to attempt to trace the history of these nations, under their various appellations of Huns, Topa, Geougen, Turks, Chozars, and others, till the establishment of the vast empire of Zingis connected the history and devastating conquests of the Tartars with the affairs of modern Europe[2].

In the beginning of the thirteenth century, Temugin, the son of a Mogul chief, laid the foundations of a vast empire in the north east of Tartary or Mongolia. His father had reigned over thirteen hordes or tribes of the Moguls, Moals, or Monguls: and as it was not customary for these warlike tribes to submit to be ruled over by a boy, Temugen, who at the death of his father was only thirteen years of age, had to contend with his revolted, subjects, and had to obey a conqueror of his own nation. In a new attempt to recover the command over the subjects of his, father, he was more successful: and under the new appellation of _Zingis_, which signifies _most great_, he became the conqueror of an empire of prodigious extent. In person, or by means of his lieutenants, he successfully reduced the nations, tribes, or hordes of Tartary or Scythia, from China to the Volga, and established his undisputed authority over the whole pastoral world. He afterwards subjugated the five northern provinces of China, which were long imperfectly known under the name of Kathay; and successively reduced Carisme or Transoxiana, now great Bucharia, Chora.s.san, and Persia: and he died in 1227, after having exhorted and instructed his sons to persevere in the career of conquest, and more particularly to complete the conquest of China.

The vast empire established by Zingis, was apportioned among his four princ.i.p.al sons, Tous.h.i.+, Zagatai, Octai, and Tuli, who had been respectively his great huntsman, chief judge, prime minister, and grand general. Firmly united among themselves, and faithful to their own and the public interest, three of these brothers, and their families and descendants, were satisfied with subordinate command; and Octai, by general consent of the maols, or n.o.bles, was proclaimed _Khan_, or emperor of the Moguls and Tartars. Octai was succeeded by his son Gayuk; after whose death, the empire devolved successively on his cousins Mangou or Mangu, and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons of Zingis. During the sixty-eight years of the reigns of these four successors of Zingis, the Moguls subdued almost all Asia, and a considerable portion of Europe. The great Khan at first established his royal court at Kara-k.u.m in the desert, and followed the Tarter custom of moving about with the golden horde, attended by numerous flocks and herds, according to the changes of the season: but Mangu-Khan, and Cublai-Khan, established their princ.i.p.al seat of empire in the new city of Pe-king, or Khan-balu, and perfected the conquest of China, reducing Corea, Tonkin, Cochin-china, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, to different degrees of subjection, or tribute, under the direct influence of the great Khan, and his peculiar lieutenants.

The conquest of Persia was completed by Holagu, the son of Tuli and grandson of Zingis, who of course was' brother to the two successive emperors, Mangu and Cublai. From Persia, the Moguls spread their ravages and conquests over Syria, Armenia, and Anatolia, or what is now called Turkey in Asia; but Arabia was protected by its burning deserts, and Egypt was successfully defended by the arms of the Mamalukes, who even repelled the Moguls from Syria.

Batu, another son of Tuli, conquered Turkestan and Kipzak[3], Astracan and Cazan, and reduced Georgia and Circa.s.sia to dependence. Advancing from the Black Sea to Livonia on the Baltic, Moscow and Kiow were reduced to ashes, and Russia submitted to pay tribute. Their victorious arms penetrated into Poland, in which they destroyed the cities of Lublin and Cracow; and they even defeated the confederate army of the dukes of Silesia, the Polish palatines, and the great master of the Teutonic knights, at Lignitz, the, most western extremity of their destructive march. From Lignitz they turned aside into Hungary, and reduced the whole of that country to the north of the Danube. During the winter, they crossed the Danube on the ice. Gran, the capital of Hungary, was taken by storm, and Bela, the unfortunate king of Hungary, had to take shelter in one of the islands at the head of the Adriatic. So terrible was the alarm in Europe, that the inhabitants of Sweden and the north of Germany neglected, in 1238, to send their s.h.i.+ps, as usual, to the herring-fishery on the coast of England; and, as observed by Gibbon, it is whimsical enough to learn, that the price of herrings in the English market was lowered in consequence of the orders of a barbarous Mogul khan, who resided on the borders of China[4]. The tide of ruin was stemmed at Newstadt in Austria, by the bravery of fifty knights and twenty cross-bow-men; and the Tartars, awed by the fame of the valour and arms of the Franks, or inhabitants of western Europe, raised the siege on the approach of a German army, commanded by the emperor Frederic the Second.

After laying waste the kingdoms of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, the adventurous Batu slowly retreated from the Danube to the Volga, and established his seat of command in the city and palace of Serai, both of which he had caused to be built upon the eastern arm of that n.o.ble river.

Another of the sons of Tuli, Shaibani-khan, led a horde of 15,000 Tartar families into the wilds of Siberia; and his descendants reigned above three centuries at Tobolsk, in that secluded region, and even reduced the miserable Samoyedes in the neighbourhood of the polar circle.

Such was the establishment and extent of the first Tartar or Mogul empire.

The descendants of Cublai gave themselves up to luxury in the palace of Peking, amidst a mischievous crowd of eunuchs, concubines, and astrologers, and their Mogul army, dissolved and dispersed in a vast and populous country, forgot the discipline and bravery of their ancestors. The secondary Mogul sovereigns of the west, a.s.sumed entire independence; and the great khan was satisfied with the empire of China and eastern Mongalia, In 1367, one hundred and forty years after the death of Zingis, roused to rebellion by a dreadful famine, in which thirteen millions of the inhabitants of China perished, the native Chinese expelled their degenerate Mogul oppressors, and the great khan became a wanderer in the desert. The vast empire established by Zingis and his immediate successors was now broken down into four vast fragments, each a powerful empire, Mongalia, Kipzak, Zagtai or Transoxiana, and Persia; and these four khans often contended with each other. On their ruins in lesser Asia, arose the formidable, more permanent, and still subsisting empire of the Ottoman Turks, whose youthful energies threatened the subversion of the last remains of the Greek empire, which they at last effected, and might perhaps have conquered the whole of Western Europe, if their progress had not been arrested by the power of a new Mogul dynasty.

In the distribution of the vast empire of Zingis, we have already seen that Zagathai, one of his sons, received the subordinate rule of Transoxiana, or the rich country on the rivers Jihon or Amu, and the Sir or Sihon, the Oxus and Jaxartes of the ancients. This extensive and fertile country, now called Western Turkestan, Great Bucharia, Kharism, Chora.s.san, and Balk, with some other smaller territories, is bounded on the west by the Caspian, on the east by the Belur-tag or Imaus, on the north by the deserts of western Tartary, and on the south by the mountains of the Hindoo-koh, and the desert of Margiana. The descendants of Zagatai were long considered as the khans or sovereigns of this fair empire, which fell into civil war and anarchy, through the divisions and subdivisions of the hordes, the uncertain laws of succession, and the ambition of the ministers of state, who reduced their degenerate masters to mere state puppets, and elevated or deposed successive khans at their pleasure; and the divided and distracted country was subjected or oppressed by the invasions of the khans of Kashgar, who ruled over the Calmucks or Getes in eastern Turkestan, or little Bucharia, on the cast of Imaus or the Belur-tag.

In this state of misery and depression, a new hero arose, in 1361, to vindicate and re-establish the fame and empire of the Moguls[5]. Timour, usually called Tamerlane, was the son of the hereditary chief of Cash, a small but fruitful territory about forty miles to the south of Samarcand.

He was the fifth in descent from Carashar-Nevian, who had been vizir or prime minister to Zagathai, of which sovereign Timour was descended in the female line. After various fortunes, he in 1370, rendered himself absolute sovereign of Transoxiana, then called Zagatai, after its first Mogul ruler; but for some time, he affected to govern as prime minister, or general, to a nominal khan of the house of Zingis, who served as a private officer at the head of his family horde in the army of his servant. After establis.h.i.+ng his authority in Zagatai, and conquering Kharism, and Candahar, he turned his arms against Persia or Iran, which had fallen into disorganization by the extinction of the descendants of the great Holacou, and which country he reduced under subjection. He successively reduced Cashgar, or eastern Turkestan, and Kipzak or western Tartary, and invaded Syria and Anatolia.

In this invasion, in 1402, was fought the great battle of Angora, in which Bajazet, the great sultan of the Turks, was defeated and taken prisoner.

By this great victory, the progress of the Turkish arms was checked for a time, and perhaps Europe was saved on that day from being subjected to the law of Mahomet. 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 s.h.i.+lling. This must be an error, perhaps for 40 or 50 thousand; as a s.h.i.+lling of these days was worth at least from fifteen to twenty modern s.h.i.+llings in effective value; and within memory herrings have often sold, in a very plentiful fishery, for a s.h.i.+lling the cart-load, when salt could not be had in sufficient quant.i.ty.--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 amba.s.sadors 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. x.x.xii. 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 repet.i.tion; and it is here translated from the Latin of Hakluyt, I. 42.

The object of this mission or emba.s.sy 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 amba.s.sadors 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 amba.s.sadors were Asceline, with Friars Alexander, Albert, and Simon de St Quintin: who went by the south of the Caspian, through Syria, Persia, and Chora.s.san, 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 t.i.tle 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 amba.s.sador, by Pope Innocent IV. A.D. 1246, to the great Can of Tartacia; wherein he pa.s.sed through Bohemia, Polonia, Russia, and so to the city of Kiow upon Boristhenes, and from thence rode continually post for the s.p.a.ce 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: Taken out of the 32 booke of Vincentius Beluacensis his Speculum Historiale."

[1] Hakluyt. I. 24. and 42. for the Latin of the two relations; and p. 59.

for the old English translation of the second.

SECTION I.

_Introductory Epistle by John de Plano Carpini_.

To all the faithful in Christ, to whom this writing may come, I friar John de Plano Carpini, of the order of minorites, legate and messenger from the Apostolic see to the Tartars and other nations of the east, wish the Grace of G.o.d in this life, and glory in the next, and perpetual triumph over all the enemies of the Lord. Having learnt the will of our lord the Pope, and the venerable Cardinals, and received the commands of the holy see, that we should go to the Tartars and other nations of the east, we determined to go in the first place to the Tartars; because we dreaded that the most imminent and nearest danger to the Church of G.o.d arose from them. And although we personally dreaded from these Tartars and other nations, that we might be skin or reduced to perpetual slavery, or should suffer hunger and thirst, the extremes of heat and cold, reproach, and excessive fatigue beyond our strength, all of which; except death and captivity, we have endured, even beyond our first fears, yet did we not spare ourselves, that we might obey the will of G.o.d, according to the orders of our lord the Pope, that we might be useful in any thing to the Christians, or at least, that the will and intention of these people might be a.s.suredly known, and made manifest to Christendom, lest suddenly invading us, they might find us unprepared, and might make incredible slaughter of the Christian people.

Hence, what we now write is for your advantage, that you may be on your guard, and more secure; being what we saw with our own eyes, while we sojourned with and among these people, during more than a year and four months, or which we have learnt from Christian captives residing among them, and whom we believe to, be worthy of credit. We were likewise enjoined by the supreme pontiff, that we should examine and inquire into every thing very diligently; all of which, both myself and friar Benedict of the same order, my companion in affliction and interpreter, have carefully performed.

SECTION II.

_Of the first Mission of Friars Predicants and Minorites to the Tartars_.

At the same period, Pope Innocent IV. sent Friar Asceline of the order of friars predicants, with three other friars from different convents, with apostolical letters to the army of the Tartars, exhorting them to desist from slaughtering mankind, and to adopt the true Christian faith; and from one of these lately returned, Friar Simon de St Quintin, of the minorite order, I have received the relations concerning the transactions of the Tartars, which are here set down. At the same period, Friar, John de Plano Carpini of the order of minorites, with some others, was sent to the Tartars, and remained travelling among them for sixteen months. This Friar John hath written a little history, which is come to our hands, of what he saw among the Tartars, or learnt from divers persons living in captivity.

From which I have inserted such things, in the following relation, as were wanting in the accounts given me by Friar Simon.

SECTION III.

_Of the Situation and Quality of the Land of the Tartars, from Carpini_.

The land of Mongolia or Tartary is in the east part of the world, where the east and north are believed to unite[1]; haying the country of Kathay, and the people called Solangi on the east; on the south the country of the Saracens; the land of the Huini on the south-east; on the west the province of Naimani, and the ocean on the north. In some parts it is full of mountains, in other parts quite plain; but everywhere interspersed with sandy barrens, not an hundredth part of the whole being fertile, as it cannot be cultivated except where it is watered with rivers, which are very rare. Hence there are no towns or cities, except one named Cracurim[2], which is said to be tolerably good. We did not see that place, although within half a day's journey, when we were at the horde of Syra, the court of their great emperor. Although otherwise infertile, this land is well adapted for the pasture of cattle. In some places there are woods of small extent, but the land is mostly dest.i.tute of trees; insomuch, that even the emperor and princes, and all others, warm themselves and cook their victuals with fires of horse and cow dung. The climate is very intemperate, as in the middle of summer there are terrible storms of thunder and lightning, by which many people are killed, and even then there are great falls of snow, and there blow such tempests of cold winds, that sometimes people can hardly sit on horseback. In one of these, when near the Syra Horde, by which name they signify the station of the emperor, or of any of their princes, we had to throw ourselves prostrate on the ground, and could not see by reason of the prodigious dust. It never rains in winter, but frequently in summer, yet so gently as scarcely to lay the dust, or to moisten the roots of the gra.s.s. But there are often prodigious showers of hail; insomuch, that by the sudden melting of one of these, at the time when the emperor elect was about to be placed on his throne, at which time we were at the imperial court, above an hundred and sixty persons were drowned, and many habitations and much valuable things were swept away. In summer there are often sudden and intolerable heats, quickly followed by extreme cold.

[1] This strange personification of the East and North, as if they were stationary geographical terms, not merely, relative, only means that Mongalia lay in the most north-easterly part of the then known world.

--E.

[2] Called likewise Karak.u.m, or Caracorum, and said to signify the _Black Sand_.--E

SECTION IV.

_Of the Appearance, Dress, and Manner of Living of the Tartars_.

The appearance of the Mongols or Tartars is quite different from all other nations, being much wider between the eyes and cheeks, and their cheeks are very prominent, with small flat noses, and small eyes, having the upper lids opened up to the eyebrows, and their crowns are shaven like priests on each side, leaving some long hair in the middle, the remainder being allowed to grow long like women, which they twist into two tails or locks, and bind behind their ears. The garments of the men and women are alike, using neither cloaks, hats, nor caps, but they wear strange tunics made of bucram, purple, or baldequin. Their gowns are made of skins, dressed in the hair, and open behind. They never wash their clothes, neither do they allow others to wash, especially in time of thunder, till that be over. Their houses are round, and artificially made like tents, of rods and twigs interwoven, having a round hole in the middle of the roof for the admission of light and the pa.s.sage of smoke, the whole being covered with felt, of which likewise the doors are made. Some of these are easily taken to pieces or put together, and are carried on sumpter-cattle; while others are not capable of being taken to pieces, and are carried on carts. Wherever they go, whether to war, or only travelling to fresh pastures, these are carried with them. They have vast numbers of camels, oxen, sheep, and goats, and such prodigious mult.i.tudes of horses and mares, as are not to be found in all the rest of the world; but they have no swine. Their emperor, dukes, and other n.o.bles, are extremely rich in gold and silver, silks, and gems.

They eat of every thing that is eatable, and we have even seen them eat vermin. They drink milk in great quant.i.ty, and particularly prefer that of mares. But as in winter, none but the rich can have mares milk, they make a drink of millet boiled in water; every one drinking one or two cups in the morning, and sometimes having no other food all day; but in the evening, every one has a small quant.i.ty of flesh, and they drink the broth in which it was boiled. In summer, when they have abundance of mares milk, they eat little flesh, unless it is given them, or when they catch venison or birds.