Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/151

139 INVASION 01? POLAND. — ST. HYACINTH. 139 with hides, a kind of portmanteau, in which they packed their baggage ; they then placed themselves astride of this extempore contrivance, fastened it to the tail of their horses, and thus, making use of their bows for oars, the whole army crossed the river without accident ; for horses, as well as men, had great experience in this kind of navigation. The metropolis of Russia was then soon in the hands of the Mongols, who, according to custom, massacred the inhabitants, and burnt their town.* There was at Kiew, at the period of the Tartar in- vasion, a monk celebrated for his apostolic labours, named Hyacinth, a nephew of Yves of Kouski, Bishop of Cracow. After having received at Rome, from the hands of St. Dominic, the habit of the preaching Brothers, he returned to Poland, and revived the faith among his own countrymen, and he afterwards pro- ceeded, with indefatigable zeal, to combat the remains of idolatry in Prussia, Pomerania, Denmark, Sweden, Gothland, and Norway, as well as in Russia, Black and Red, the Greek Archipelago, and among the Coumans. This apostle, whose astonishing zeal embraced all Asia, subsequently traversed Tartary and Thibet, and even penetrated to China, whence he returned to Poland, marking every day by a victory over paganism, Mussul- man infidelity, heresy, and schism. Saint Hyacinth Turks made use of nearly the same method for crossing rivers. " To pass the Danube, they filled a piece of leather with cork, and then closed it so that no drop of water could get in ; then seating them- selves upon it, and holding by the tail of their horses, and carrying at the same time their saddles and arms, they thus passed the waters of the broad Danube." — Nicetas, " Choniates Mem. Popul. ad Ann. 1154," vol. iii. p. 929.
 * It appears, according to the Greek historian Nicetas, that the