kewise
enjoined by the supreme pontiff, that we should examine and inquire into
every thing very diligently; all of which, both myself and friar Benedict
of the same order, my companion in affliction and interpreter, have
carefully performed.

SECTION II.

_Of the first Mission of Friars Predicants and Minorites to the Tartars_.

At the same period, Pope Innocent IV. sent Friar Asceline of the order of
friars predicants, with three other friars from different convents, with
apostolical letters to the army of the Tartars, exhorting them to desist
from slaughtering mankind, and to adopt the true Christian faith; and from
one of these lately returned, Friar Simon de St Quintin, of the minorite
order, I have received the relations concerning the transactions of the
Tartars, which are here set down. At the same period, Friar, John de Plano
Carpini of the order of minorites, with some others, was sent to the
Tartars, and remained travelling among them for sixteen months. This Friar
John hath written a little history, which is come to our hands, of what he
saw among the Tartars, or learnt from divers persons living in captivity.
From which I have inserted such things, in the following relation, as were
wanting in the accounts given me by Friar Simon.

SECTION III.

_Of the Situation and Quality of the Land of the Tartars, from Carpini_.

The land of Mongolia or Tartary is in the east part of the world, where the
east and north are believed to unite[1]; haying the country of Kathay, and
the people called Solangi on the east; on the south the country of the
Saracens; the land of the Huini on the south-east; on the west the province
of Naimani, and the ocean on the north. In some parts it is full of
mountains, in other parts quite plain; but everywhere interspersed with
sandy barrens, not an hundredth part of the whole being fertile, as it
cannot be cultivated except where it is watered with rivers, which are very
rare. Hence there are no towns or cities, except one named Cracurim[2],
which is said to be tolerably good. We did not see that place, although
within half a day's journey, when we were at the horde of Syra, the court
of their great emperor. Although otherwise infertile, this land is well
adapted for the pasture of cattle. In some places there are woods of small
extent, but the land is mostly destitute of trees; insomuch, that even the
emperor and princes, and all others, warm themselves and cook their
vic