Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/286

274 274 CHKISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. even attempted the conquest of Japan, but with no other result than the loss of his fleet. At other points, how- ever, he was more fortunate. He rendered Tong-king, Cochin China, and Pegu, tributary to his empire, and subjugated Thibet, and the country which separates the course of the Ganges from the rivers of Eastern Asia ; but no narrative extant affords so adequate an idea of Kublai and his vast dominions, as the travels of Marco Polo, of which we shall presently speak. Whilst this potentate was extending his conquests in the extreme East, the Mongol Empire in the West was undergoing divisions from which resulted some curious changes in the relations of the Tartars with the Persians and the Franks. The first missionary sent to a Mongol chief had, as we have seen, incurred great danger, and the question had been mooted of the expediency of skinning him alive, and stuffing his skin with straw. The envoys of St. Louis had been treated with less bar- barity, but with excessive pride and insolence. But the successes of the Mamelukes of Egypt now produced some striking modifications in the tone and behaviour of the Mongols. The victory gained over his army at the Fountain of Goliath had tended greatly to enlighten Houlagou as to the possible advantages of an alliance with the Christians ; and no sooner had the news reached him than he assembled an army, summoned the princes of Georgia and Armenia, and despatched emissaries to the Frank princes in the East, to induce them to march against the Sultan of Egypt and the other Mussulmans. It is difficult to imagine what might have been the issue of such an expedition, had it not been checked at the outset by the death of Houlagou. The Franks flattered themselves that if they had met