Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/258

246 246 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. confidence in the security of his dominions, while the Mongol power was swallowing up all nations in its overwhelming march, resolved, by the advice of his ministers, to take a journey to Tartary, and try to secure his kingdom by getting into the good graces of Mangou-Khan. Before setting out, he thought it ad- visable, however, to send thither his brother Sinibald, the Constable of his kingdom, in order to feel his way. Sinibald betook himself to the court of Batou, with a numerous suite and magnificent presents ; and made the most favourable preparation for the good reception of the king, to whom he returned in four years, and described all that he had seen, and even wrote to the King of Cyprus the curious letter already mentioned. King Hayton was therefore confirmed in his resolu- tion, and undertook the journey to Tartary accordingly, proceeding by the way of Derbend that he might visit Batou and Sartak, and then going on to the imperial court, where he met with a most honourable reception. After a residence of fifty days he quitted it, bearing with him letters patent by which he was invested with his own kingdom, and an ordonnance that not only diminished the tribute imposed on Little Armenia, but guaranteed to his clergy the freedom from all imposi- tions. The narrative of the King of Armenia's journey was written by one of his nephews, named like himself Hayton, and we here give a few extracts from it in their original simplicity* : — conquest of the Holy Land, with the help of the Tartars, the enemies of the Turks of Syria and Egypt, and knowing that there was at Cyprus a monk named Hayton, of the order of Premonstrants, who had been in all the wars of the Tartars against the Turks, sent for
 * "In the year 1205, Pope Clement V., desiring to undertake the