earned in the Christian
religion, to his courts, that they might instruct his wise men, that the
faith of the Christians was preferable to all other sects, being the only
way of salvation; that the gods of the Tartars were devils, and that they
and other people of the east were deceived in the worship of these gods. He
likewise commanded them, on their return from Jerusalem, to bring him some
of the oil from the lamp which burns before the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to whom the emperor had great devotion, believing him to be the
true God. Yielding due reverence to the great khan, they promised
faithfully to execute the charge which he had committed to them, and to
present to the pope the letters in the Tartarian language, which he gave
them for that purpose. According to the custom of the empire, the great
khan caused to be given them a golden tablet, engraven and signed with the
mark or signet of the khan, in virtue of which, instead of a passport, the
bearers were entitled to be everywhere conveyed in safety through dangerous
places, by the governors of provinces and cities, throughout the whole
empire, having their expences everywhere defrayed, and should be furnished
with whatever was needful for them and their attendants in all places, and
for as long as they might have occasion to stay.

Taking their leave of the great khan, they set out upon the journey into
the west, carrying with them the letters to the pope, and the golden
tablet. After travelling twenty days, the Tartar lord, who was associated
in their embassy to the pope, fell grievously sick; on which, having
consulted upon what was best to be done, they resolved to leave him, and to
continue their journey, They were everywhere courteously received, through
the authority of the imperial tablet; yet they were often compelled to
wait, by the overflowing of the rivers, in the course of their journey, so
that they spent three years before they reached the port in the country of
the Armenians, called Giazza [9]. From thence they proceeded to Acre [10],
where they arrived in the month of April 1269. On their arrival at Acre,
they were informed of the death of Pope Clement IV., by Tibaldo Visconti of
Placentia, the papal legate who then resided in that place. They related to
him what had befallen them, and declared what commission they had received
from the great khan to the pope, and he advised to wait the creation of a
new pope, to whom they might delive