Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/426

414 414 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Such were the missionaries who evangelised the north of Tartary, and who had chosen Ily-Balik for the centre of their apostolic operations. A zeal so ardent could not fail to effect numerous conversions, and the khan of these countries also had become the friend of the Christians. It happened that this prince was taken ill just at the time when the mission was established in his capital, and friar Francis of Alexandria, who possessed apparently some skill in surgery, succeeded in curing him of a fistula and other ailments, a cure that won for him the complete confidence of the khan, who called him his father, and admitted him to his counsels, so that he acquired great authority amongst the dignitaries of the empire. The superiority of their tolents, but especially the exemplary conduct and perfect disinterestedness of the missionaries, seemed to the Mongol prince a proof of the holiness of their religion, as no other could be capable, he thought, of inspiring such self-devotion. He had not, however, the strength of mind himself to embrace the doctrines he so much admired, but gave his son, a boy of eight years of age, to Francis, to be educated in the principles of Christianity. This young prince received baptism and the name of John, and friar Francis, who often went to the imperial palace, to carry him through a course of religious instruction, profited by this opportunity to introduce the Christian truth into the court. Catholicism had at length struck deep root into this soil, long so sterile. The germs of faith were deve- loping themselves in abundance, and all presaged a rich harvest, when a political catastrophe suddenly blighted all these beautiful and joyful hopes. The Tartar sovereign, who had been so great a friend