Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/142

130 130 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. and when he attacked a country, and desired that it should surrender, and pay him homage, his very concise summons was concluded by these words : — "If you do not submit, how do we know what will happen ? God alone knows that." * But whatever may have been the religious faith of Tchinguiz-Khan, a matter not very easy to determine, it is certain that he was very tolerant, and left his subjects to profess freely whatever faith pleased them best, from Christianity down to the grossest and most absurd superstitions. His successors inherited this in- difference, and we shall see how faithful they were to the recommendation of the famous founder of the Mon- gol power, to tolerate all religions, and show no pre- ference for any. After rendering the last honours to Tchinguiz-Khan, the princes of his family, and the chiefs of his army, and of the various hordes, separated, to return to their cantonments; and it was only after the lapse of two years, and in the fear of the evil that might result from a longer interregnum, that they agreed to assemble, and elect a sovereign. In the spring of the year 1229, the chiefs and generals came from all parts of the Tartar empire, to the great horde on the banks of the Keroulan. These ferocious ravagers of nations had at their head, the three sons of Tchinguiz-Khan, Ogotai, Tchagatai, and Touloui.f The latter had been charged to under- take the regency, until the election of a new sovereign. -J- Dgoutchi, the eldest son of Tchinguiz-Khan, had died some years before, but his descendants reigned for several centuries over a vast empire north of the Caspian and Black Seas, that counted Russia among its tributaries.
 * " Tarikh Djihankuschai," vol. i.