have drawn of them was not exaggerated,
for we always find these terrible hordes, at the period of their gigantic
conquests, bringing in their train, murder, pillage, conflagration, and
every description of scourge. But are the Mongols the same now that they
were formerly? We believe we can affirm the contrary, at least to a
great extent. Wherever we have seen them, we have found them to be
generous, frank, and hospitable; inclined, it is true, like ill-educated
children, to pilfer little things which excite their curiosity, but by no
means in the habit of practising what is called pillage and robbery. As
to their aversion for toil and a sedentary life, they are just the same
as heretofore. It must also be admitted that their manners are very
free, but their conduct has more in it of recklessness than of absolute
corruption. We seldom find among them those unbridled and brutal
debaucheries to which the Chinese are so much given.

The Mongols are strangers to every kind of industry. Some felt carpets,
some rudely tanned hides, a little needlework and embroidery, are
exceptions not deserving of mention. On the other hand, they possess to
perfection the qualities of a pastoral and nomad people. They have the
senses of sight, hearing, and scent prodigiously developed. The Mongol
is able to hear at a very long distance the trot of a horse, to
distinguish the form of objects, and to detect the distant scent of
flocks, and the smoke of an encampment.

Many attempts have already been made to propagate Christianity among the
Tartars, and we may say that they have not been altogether fruitless.
Towards the end of the eighth century and in the commencement of the
ninth, Timothy, patriarch of the Nestorians, sent some monks to preach
the Gospel to the Hioung-Nou Tartars, who had taken refuge on the shores
of the Caspian Sea. At a later period they penetrated into Central Asia,
and into China. In the time of Tchinggiskhan and his successors,
Franciscan and Dominican missionaries were dispatched to Tartary. The
conversions were numerous; even princes, it is said, and emperors were
baptized. But we must not entirely credit the statements of the Tartar
ambassadors, who, the more easily to draw the Christian princes of Europe
into a league against the Moslems, never failed to state that their
masters had been baptized, and had made profession of Christianity. It
is certain, however, that at the commencement of the fourte