Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/383

ODERIC DE FRIULI RETURNS TO TISA. 371 the capital of Thibet was entirely constructed like the quarter we have endeavoured to describe. The courage and zeal of the preachers of the gospel had, it seems, already carried the light of Christianity into countries almost inaccessible, on account of the lofty, rugged mountains, and the extreme severity of the climate ; for Oderic found in the capital of Thibet Catholic missionaries who were effecting numerous con- versions. After having visited the different provinces of Thibet, Oderic crossed the Himalaya mountains and traversed India and Persia, on his return to Europe, and he arrived at Pisa in 1330. This indefatigable apostle had, in the course of sixteen years, visited the most distant and savage regions of the globe, sowing everywhere the evangelical seed. His great and sincere humility caused him to suppress, in his narration, the success of his long apostleship ; but it is known that he converted and baptized more than twenty thousand infidels. When he again beheld his native country, he was so changed by the sufferings and miseries he had endured, his body was so emaciated, and his face so withered and black- ened by the sun that his relations could not recognize him ; nevertheless, the eyes of Christians must have contemplated, with affection and pride, this hero of the faith, must have thought him embellished by the rude marks of suffering, and found in his weather-beaten person the manly beauty of an old warrior returning from a long campaign mutilated and covered with scars. Oderic remained at Pisa only a few days, and then hastened to Avignon to give an account to the sovereign pontiff of the state of the Catholic missions in Upper Asia, and to ask in the name of the great Khan for B B 2