Being the Arrival of Fra Rubruquis at the Lashgar,
or Traveling Court of Mangu Khan, the Grand-
son of Genghis Khan. ¹

ONLY TWO EUROPEANS have left us a description of
the Mongols before the residence of the Khans
was changed to Cathay. One is the monk Carpini, and
the other the burly Fra Rubruquis who rode with a
stout heart into Tatary, half convinced that he would
be tortured to death. On behalf of his royal master,
Saint Louis of France, he went not as an envoy of his
king, but as an emissary of peace, in the hope that the
pagan conquerors might be moved somewhat to refrain
from warfare against Europe.

For fellowship he had only a badly frightened
brother monk— Constantinople left behind them and
the steppes of Asia closing around them. He had been
chilled to the marrow and half starved, and jolted for
three thousand miles. The Mongols had outfitted him
with sheepskins and felt footsocks and boots and hoods
of skin, and had been careful to select a powerful horse
for him each day during the long journey from the
Volga frontier, because he was corpulent and heavy.

He was a mystery to the Mongols—a long-robed and
barefoot man out of the far land of the Franks, who
was neither merchant nor ambassador, who carried no
arms, gave no presents and would accept no reward. A

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