Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/389

377 CORRESPONDENCE OF KHAN CEULDJAITOU. 377 cannot have forgotten. Now that, by the power of God, we are seated on the great throne, we shall not depart from the commands of our predecessors, our good grand- father, our good father and our good elder brother ; we shall follow their precepts, and what our good ancestors have promised you, we will perform, as if their words were our own oaths. We will bind ourselves in a stricter friendship than that of times past, we will send ambassadors to each other. " We, elder and younger brothers, have been divided by the effect of the slanderous words of wicked vassals ; now, Timour Khagan, Toctoga Tchabar, Togha and ourselves, the principal descendants of Tchinguiz-Khan, are all, elder and younger, reconciled by the inspiration and with the help of God ; so that, from the country of the Chinese in the East to the lake Tala, our people are united, and the roads are open. We with one accord have agreed to fall upon any one amongst us who shall change his mind. " Unable to forget the ties of friendship which united you with our good grandfather, our good father and our good elder brother, I send you two messengers, Mamalac and Touman. It has been reported to me that you, Sultan of the Franks, are living in peace. Concord is certainly a good thing. Now, amongst us, as amongst you, we Avill all, by the power of God, fall together upon him who shall disturb our union, God knows it ! Our letter is written on the eighth of the first month of sum- mer in the year of the Serpent (14 Mai 1305) in our residence of Alidjan." This letter of the apostate Kharbende has been taken from the archives of France, where it had remained for five hundred years, by Abel Kemusat. " The original