Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/361

349 CORVINO'S LETTER FROM CATHAY. 349 the Psalms of David into that tongue, and published an edition of it, remarkable for the beauty and elegance of the characters ; a performance which gained him much renown amongst a people who had already obtained some insight into the ancient civilisation and literature of the Chinese. Jean de Monte Corvino himself describes with a beautiful simplicity the difficulties he encountered, and the final success of his mission, in a letter addressed to the vicars-general of the Dominicans and Franciscans, and to all missionaries established in the province of Persia ; this curious document is as follows : — " Khanbalik in the kingdom of Cathay, the 8th of the month of January, 1305. " I, brother Jean de Monte Corvino, of the order of Minor Friars, quitted Tauris, the capital of Persia, in the year of our Lord 1291. I penetrated into the Indies, and remained thirteen months in the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. There I baptized about a hundred persons ; and there the companion of my journey, brother Nicolas de Pistore, died and was buried. For myself, proceeding further on, I arrived at the kingdom of Cathay, the dominions of the Emperor of Tartary, called the Great Khan. On presenting to him the letters from the Pope, I. endeavoured to induce him to embrace the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ ; but though he was himself too profoundly plunged in idolatry to do so, it did not prevent him from conferring many favours on the Christians. I have been at his court for two years. Certain Nestorians, who, though pretending to be Christians, conform but little to the Christian re- ligion, have acquired much authority in this country,