Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/397

385 THE ARCIIIEPISCOrAL SEE OF SOULTANIYE. 38 J structed at the expense of the Vizier, who raised be- sides a large edifice, surmounted by two minarets, which contained a college, a hospital, and a convent, all richly endowed. The citadel was surrounded by a square wall, flanked with towers, each side five hun- dred cubits long, built of hewn stone, and so thick, that four horses might easily have run abreast upon the top of it. Kharbende had also a mausoleum built for him- self in the castle ; it was an edifice of an octangular form, each side of which was sixty cubits in length, and covered with a cupola which rose to the height of a hundred and twenty cubits. The royal habitation consisted of a lofty pavilion, surrounded at a short dis- tance by twelve smaller ones, each having a window, which looked out into a marble paved court, used as a hall of justice, and vast enough to contain two thousand persons, and several other buildings. During the whole of his reign, Kharbende devoted considerable sums every year to the buildings at Soultaniye, which, had he lived longer, would have become one of the finest cities in Asia.* It did become in a short time the centre of commerce between Europe and the Indies, and strangers, attracted by the love of traffic and lucre, flocked thither from all parts of Asia; but they were preceded by the mis- sionaries, always eager to hasten wherever there was good to be done or souls to be saved. The first apostle of Soultaniye was Franco, a native of Perouse. Having assumed the habit of St. Dominic, towards the year 1270, he was not long in becoming conspicuous amongst his brethren by his virtues and talents ; and at the be- VOL. I. C C
 * D'Ohsson, Hist, des Mongols, t. iv. p. 486.