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My opinion of this procedure in our host, was, that we might have gone by Onam and Cherule, the original residence of Zingis . On the way, the secretary told me that Baatu, in his letters to Mangu, said that we wanted the assistance of a Tartar army against the Saracens; by which I was much astonished, as I knew the letters from your majesty required no army, and only advised the khan to be a friend to all Christians, to exalt the cross, and to be an enemy to all the enemies of the cross of Christ.
It is the custom of Mangu to make a feast on such days as are pointed out by his soothsayers, or the Nestorian priests; and on these days the Christians came first to court and pray for him, and bless his cup, after which the Saracen priests do the same, and after them the idolatrous priests.
Perhaps in consequence of this failure Louis turned his army against Egypt instead of Syria; but the envoys returned to find him after the disastrous Egyptian campaign in Palestine, where he spent four years. In consequence of their report he sent to Kuyuk's successor, Mangu, a Franciscan, William of Ruysbroek or Rubruquis.
If the bones are cracked across, or round pieces fly out of them in burning, it is considered an evil omen; but if they crack lengthways, even one of the three, he then proceeds in his design. When we went in before Mangu, the Nestorian priests gave him incense, which he put upon the censer, with which they perfumed him.
Then I declared unto them all I knew respecting David and Friar Andrew, all of which was put down in writing and laid before Mangu. They came back, saying, "Our lord the khan thinks you have staid long here, and his pleasure is that you return into your own country; but he desires to know whether you would conduct his ambassadors along with you."
Pretending to make very light of the matter, he went privately and took a good horse from the herd, and rode with great speed with the intelligence to the court of Mangu; who quickly assembled his forces, and placing a strong guard around his court; sent the rest against Siremon, and brought him and all his followers prisoners to court.
The more purely missionary efforts which were being made contemporaneously with the events just related, were directed chiefly to China which, on the death of Mangu, had fallen to the lot of Kublai Khan. The opportunity for these was opened out by the relations already established with the Mongolians on other grounds.
When the great Mangu Khan died in 1259, one empire lay spread across Asia and Europe, from the Yellow River to the Danube. There had been nothing like it in the world before, and there was nothing like it again, until the Russian Empire of modern times. By 1268 it was beginning to split up into the four kingdoms of China, central Asia, Russia, and Persia, but still it was one people.
When within a few days journey of the court of Mangu, one of his waggons broke down, and a servant of Mangu happened to assist the waggoner in repairing it. This man was very inquisitive into the objects of the journey, and the waggoner revealed the whole plot to him.
It was afterwards reported to the Pope that Mangu and another Tartar Prince had been converted. Such fabricated stories were only too common. Rubruquis has left us much information about the Tartar Court; but his public discussions before the Khan with Nestorians, Mohammedans and Buddhists led to no practical result. On the death of Mangu his dominions were divided between his two brothers.
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