Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/207

195 LETTER OF THE CONSTABLE OF ARMENIA. 105 letters differ widely from the originals, and often eon- tain only the substance of them amplified, embellished and decorated in all sorts of ways that might seem likely to please the European princes. Whilst St. Louis was at Cyprus with the Tartar envoys, a letter addressed by the Constable of Ar- menia, who had been making a journey in Tartary to the King of Cyprus, was communicated to him. This letter contains some curious details, and on the whole agrees tolerably well with that of lltchikadai. We copy it from Bergeron : — " To the Excellent and Puissant Prince Henry of Lusignan, by the Grace of God, King of Cyprus, to the Queen his Sister, and to her noble Brother Yves de Ibelin, the Constable of Armenia se?ids health and greeting. " You must know, that having undertaken this journey for the honour of God, and the good of Christianity, it has pleased Jesus Christ to bring me to the town of Samarcand. Having visited several countries, and left the Indies behind us, we traversed the countries of Shadah, in which we employed about two months of travel. " I noticed several cities destroyed by the Tartars, the grandeur and riches of which must have been inestimable. I saw many re- markable mountains composed of the bones of those whom the Tartars had put to death ; and it seemed to us, that if God had not willed it thus, and that the Tartars who have thus destroyed the pagans had not come, all these nations might have conquered and overrun all those that are beyond the sea. " As for the Tartars, you know that they are in such numbers that they cannot be counted. They are very good archers, of terrible appearance, and various kinds of faces. It would be very difficult to describe to you in detail their manners and modes of life. For eight months we did nothing else, night and day, but march ; and yet we were given to understand that with all that, we did not get more than half way to the country where the Tartar emperor resides. We made out for certain that Couyouk, father of the Khan o 2