The ostensible object of Rubruquis was to obtain permission to remain in Mongolia for the purpose of preaching the Gospel; but whether this was merely a feint, or that the appearance of the country and people had cooled his zeal, it is certain that he did not urge the point very vehemently. However, the khan was easily prevailed upon to allow him to prolong his stay till the melting of the snows and the warm breezes of spring should render travelling more agreeable. In the mean while our ambassador employed himself in acquiring some knowledge of the people and the country; but the language, without which such knowledge must ever be superficial, he totally neglected.
About Easter the khan, with his family and smaller tents or pavilions, quitted the camp, and proceeded towards Karakorum, which might be termed his capital, for the purpose of examining a marvellous piece of jewelry in form of a tree, the production of a French goldsmith. This curious piece of mechanism was set up in the banqueting-hall of his palace, and from its branches, as from some miraculous fountain, four kinds of wines and other delicious cordials, gushed forth for the use of the guests. Rubruquis and his companions followed in the emperor’s train, traversing a mountainous and steril district, where tempests, bearing snow and intolerable cold upon their wings, swept and roared around them as they passed, piercing through their sheep-skins and other coverings to their very bones.
At Karakorum, a small city, which Rubruquis compares to the town of St. Denis, near Paris, our ambassador-missionary maintained a public disputation with certain pagan priests, in the presence of three of the khan’s secretaries, of whom the first was a Christian, the second a Mohammedan, and the third a Buddhist. The conduct of the khan was distinguished by the most perfect toleration, as he commanded under pain of death that none of the disputants should slander, traduce, or abuse his adversaries, or endeavour by rumours or insinuations to excite popular indignation against them; an act of mildness from which Rubruquis, with the illiberality of a monk, inferred that Mangou was totally indifferent to all religion. His object, however, seems to have been to discover the truth; but from the disputes of men who argued with each other through interpreters wholly ignorant of the subject, and none of whom could clearly comprehend the doctrines he impugned, no great instruction was to be derived. Accordingly, the dispute ended, as all such disputes must, in smoke; and each disputant retired from the field more fully persuaded than ever of the invulnerable force of his own system.
At length, perceiving that nothing was to be effected, and having, indeed, no very definite object to effect, excepting the conversion of the khan, which to a man who could not even converse with him upon the most ordinary topic, seemed difficult, Rubruquis took his leave of the Mongol court, and leaving his companion at Karakorum, turned his face towards the west. Returning by an easier or more direct route, he reached the camp of Batou in two months. From thence he proceeded to the city of Sarai on the Volga, and descending along the course of that river, entered Danghistan, crossed the Caucasus, and pursued his journey through Georgia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Syria.
Here he discovered that, taught by misfortune or yielding to the force of circumstances, the French king had relinquished, at least for the present, his mad project of recovering Palestine. He was therefore desirous of proceeding to Europe, for the purpose of rendering this prince an account of his mission; but this being contrary to the wishes of his superiors, who had assigned him the convent of Acra for his retreat, he contented himself with drawing up an account of his travels, which was forwarded, by the first opportunity that occurred, to St. Louis in France. Rubruquis then retired to his convent, in the gloom of whose cloisters he thenceforward concealed himself from the eyes of mankind. It has been ascertained, however, that he was still living in 1293, though the exact date of his death is unknown.
The work of Rubruquis was originally written in Latin, from which language a portion of it was translated into English and published by Hackluyt. Shortly afterward Purchas published a new version of the whole work in his collection. From this version Bergeron made his translation into French, with the aid of a Latin manuscript, which Vander Aa and the “Biographie Universelle” have multiplied into two. In all or any of these forms, the work may still be read with great pleasure and advantage by the diligent student of the opinions and manners of mankind.
MARCO POLO.
Born 1250.—Died 1324.
The relations of Ascelin, Carpini, and Rubruquis, which are supposed by some writers to have opened the way to the discoveries of the Polo family, are by no means entitled to so high an honour. Carpini did not return to Italy until the latter end of the year 1248; Ascelin’s return was still later; and although reports of the strange things they had beheld no doubt quickly reached Venice, these cannot be supposed to have exercised any very powerful influence in determining Nicolo and Maffio to undertake a voyage to Constantinople, the original place of their destination, from whence they were accidentally led on into the extremities of Tartary. With respect to Rubruquis, he commenced his undertaking three years after their departure from Venice, while they were in Bokhāra; and before his return to Palestine they had already penetrated into Cathay. The influence of the relations of these monks upon the movements of the Polos is therefore imaginary.