Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/365

PROGRESS OF CORVINO'S MISSION. 353 of sorrows and trials, without the power even of cor- responding with their brethren or friends. Jean de Monte Corvino remains for twelve years without hearing anything whatever from the West, and then simply an- nounces the fact without complaining, and without letting slip a word of sadness or discontent. Faith alone could have produced resignation like this. In 1305, the generous apostle of the Tartars and Chinese wrote to the Franciscan and Dominican mis- sionaries in Persia, to give them some information as to the persecutions raised by the Nestorians, and the progress of his mission. " I have prepared," he says, " six pictures from the Old and New Testament, for the instruction of the ignorant, and several of the children whom I have collected and baptized, have, since then, been taken to the Lord. Altogether, since I have been in Tartary, I have baptized 5000 persons ; and I have now founded a new establishment close to the palace of the great Khan, from the door of which, indeed, it is only a stone's throw. A certain Peter de Lucalongo, an excellent Christian and a rich merchant, who travelled with me from Tauris, has bought the piece of land at his own expense, and presented it to me, for the love of God ; and when we chant there, the great Khan can hear us from his own apartments. The two churches that I have built are about two miles apart, and are both in the interior of the town, which is of a very great size. I can assure you, indeed, that in no part of the world is there as vast empire as that of the great Khan. I have permission to enter the palace, and an acknowledged office at court, as legate from the pope, and the emperor pays me as much respect as any other prelate." VOL. i. A A