He testifyed also his Affection to us, by causing often Meat to be carry'd to our Tents from his own Table, willing also that on some Occasions we should eat in his; and every time he did us this Honour, he had a regard to our Days of Abstinence, and of Fasting, sending us only such Meats as we could use.
The eldest Son of the Emperor, after the Example of his Father, gave us marks also of his Bounty, for having been constrained to stay more than 10 Days, by reason of a fall from his Horse, by which he was hurt in his right Shoulder; and one part of the Army in which we were, having attended, whilst the Emperor with the other, continued his Hunting, he was not wanting in sending to us daily, and sometimes twice a Day, during this space, Food from his own Table. In fine, we look'd on all these Favours of the Royal Family, as the effects of a particular Providence which watched over us, and over Christianity, for which we had so much the more occasion to thank God, for that the affection of the Emperor, was never so constantly shewn to the Grandees of the Empire, nor to the Princes of the Blood.
As to what relates to the other particularities of our Journey, they are like to those which happened to us the last Year, in the Journey to the Eastern Tartary, which I have fully described in my last Letter; that is to say, that we made use of the Emperor's Horses, and of his Litters, that we lodged in the Tents, and eat at the Table of the Prince his Unkle, to whom he had particularly recommended us.
During more than 600 Miles, which we had passed in going and returning (for we did not return by the same Road) he caused to be made a great High-way cross the Mountains and the Vallies, for the Queen Mother, who went in a Chariot; he caused also an infinite number of Bridges to be made over the Torrents, as also the Rocks to be cut, and the Points of the Mountains, with incredible Pains and Expences: Father Grimaldi shall describe the other particulars in his Letters.
As to the benefit which the Religion may draw from our Journey, I have spoken elsewhere; it sufficeth to say that the Emperor, to whose Will we cannot make the least resistance, without exposing all this Mission to a manifest Danger, has order'd us to follow him. I ceased not however to speak twice to that Lord of the Court, who is our particular Friend, to excuse us for the time to come from these long Journeys, and especially me, who am not of an Age fit for it: I tried to obtain at least that they would be contented to take only one of us; the Letters of our Fathers were daily brought us during the Journey, and I had the convenience of writing to them, by means of the Couriers which continually went to and came from the Royal City: I write all this in haste, that I may continue to give you an account of our Affairs.
An Explanation, necessary to justify the Geography supposed in these Letters.
It may seem wonderful, that the Author of these Letters makes mention in his former, of a kind of War between the Oriental Tartars and the Muscovites, notwithstanding the extream distance these People appear to be from one another in our Geographical Charts; but those who know how much the Muscovites have extended the Bounds of the Empire along the Tartarian Sea, will judge the thing less difficult, besides those who have seen these Countries, have made Discoveries much differing from those which our Geographers have informed us of hitherto. Very lately Monsieur D'Arcy, who commands one of the King's Ships, in the Fleet of Monsieur Le Marescal d'Estrees, informed us, that having served in Poland, and having been made Governor of a Place towards Moscovy, the Moscovite Ambassadors in their return having pass'd by him, and being by him treated in such a manner as put them into a very good Humour; one of them shewed him a Chart of the Countries between Moscovy and China: and told him, that from three Cities which he shewed him, whose Names were Lopsla, Abasinko, Nerginsko, all three under the Government of the great Dukes, tho' situated in the great Tartary, there was a way to Pekin, which was not more than 25 or 30 Days Journey. This Map it seems must be kept very secret in Moscovy: For the next Day the Moscovite was in despair, for having given it, saying that if it should be known, he should come to great Damage. The Officer being come back since into France, has given a Copy to the King, and another to Monsieur Le Marquis de Signelay. To confirm this, it may be added, what a French Man has writ from Moscovy within this two Months, that they are actually raising Troops to go to War with the Chinese.