Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/253

RETURN OF RUBRUK TO FRANCE. 241 Rubruk took leave of Mango u on the 8th of July, 1254, and took with him as a present to St. Louis from the Parisian goldsmith, a girdle ornamented with a precious stone, which the Tartars make use of as a spell against thunder. Bartholomew of Cremona did not, on account of his bad health, wish to pass again through the desert to revisit the encampment of Baton, and Rubruk, therefore, set off without him, accompanied only by a guide and a servant. During his stay at Kara-Koroum, he had baptized a considerable number of children. Towards the end of the month of August, the travellers met Prince Sartak, who was going to the emperor ; and, if we may believe what was declared to Pope Innocent the Fourth by a priest named John, by whom he was accompanied, the prince had just been baptized. He appeared pleased to see the Franciscan again, and gave him two silk robes ; one for himself, and the other for the King of France ; but Rubruk sent them both to St. Louis. On the 16th of September, the missionary reached the camp of Batou, after a march of seventy days, during which he saw but one village, and there he could not procure so much as a little flour. Very often he had no kind of nourishment except kumys. Rubruk, for several weeks, accompanied the nomadic court of Batou, but at length quitted the Tartars, and took his way towards the Caucasus ; and after having traversed Armenia and Syria, arrived on the 15 th of August, 1255, at his convent of St. John d'Acre, whence he addressed the narrative of his journey to St. Louis, who had returned to France. The curious details given by this indefatigable monk VOL. i. R