We remained in Sebasta, Siwas, or Sivas, a town of the Lesser Armenia, in the Easter week, and on the succeeding Sunday we came to Caesaria of Capadocia, now called Kaisarea. In about fifteen days, making short journeys, we came to Konieh or Iconium. This delay arose in part from the difficulty of procuring horses, but chiefly because the guide chose to stop, often for three days together in one place, to negotiate his own affairs; and though much dissatisfied, I durst not complain, as he might have slain me and our servants, or sold us for slaves, and there was none to hinder it. I found many Franks at Iconium, and among these a merchant called Nicholas de Sancto Syrio, and his partner Boniface de Molandino, who had a monopoly of all the alum of Turkey from the soldan, and by this means they had raised the price so much, that what used to sell for fifteen byzants, is now sold for forty. My guide presented me to the soldan, who said he would willingly get me conveyed to the sea of Armenia or Cilicia; but the above merchants knowing that the Turks made little account of me, and that I was much distressed with my guide, caused me to be conveyed to Curruma327, a port in the dominions of the king of Armenia. Having remained here from before the Ascension till after Pentecost, or near a fortnight, I heard there were messengers arrived from the king to his father, and I went to the kings father to learn the news. I found him surrounded by all his sons, except Barum Usin, who resided in a certain castle; and he told me that his son was on his return, and that Mangu-khan had much eased his tribute, granting him a privilege that no ambassador should come into his country. On this the old man and all his sons made a banquet; and he caused me to be conveyed by sea to the haven called Aijax328, whence I passed over into Cyprus, and at Nicosia I found our provincial, who, the same day, carried me with him to Antiochia329, which is in a very weak state; we were there on the feast of St Peter, and St Paul, 29th June; and from thence we went to Tripolis in Syria, where the chapter of our order was held, on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, 15th August 1255.
Our provincial is determined that I shall reside at Acon330, and will not suffer me to come to your majesty, but commands me to write what I will by the bearer of these presents. I would willingly see your highness, and some spiritual friends in your kingdom; and beseech your majesty to write our provincial to allow me to go to you, and to return shortly again into the Holy Land.
I would have your majesty to understand, that in Turkey, every tenth man is not a Mahometan; they are all Armenians and Greeks, and are ruled over by children. The soldan, who was conquered by the Tartars, had a lawful wife of Iberia, by whom he had one feeble son, whom he directed to succeed him as soldan. He had another son by a Greek concubine, whom he committed to the guardianship of a certain great admiral. The third he had by a Turkish woman, to whom many Turks and Turkomans having gathered, they proposed to have slain all the soldans sons by Christian mothers, and if successful, to have destroyed all the churches, and to compel all to become Mahometans on pain of death. But he was overcome in battle, and many of his men slain. He recruited his army, and ventured a second battle, in which he was defeated and taken prisoner, and still remains confined. Pacester, the son of the Greek concubine, was soon afterwards made soldan, as the other was weak, whom they have sent to the Tartars; the kindred by the mothers side, of this son, such as the Iberians and Curds, are much dissatisfied at his being deprived; so that at this time a child ruleth in Turkey, having no treasure, few soldiers, and many enemies. The son of Vestacius is weak, and at war with the son of Assan, who is likewise a child, and worn out with the servitude of the Tartars. If, therefore, an army of the church were now to come to the Holy Land, it were easy to subdue all these countries, or to pass through them. The king of Hungary hath not above 30,000 soldiers. From Cologne to Constantinople are not above sixty days journey by waggons; and from Constantinople not so many to the country of the king of Armenia. In old times, valiant men passed through all these countries and prospered; yet they had to contend with most valiant opponents, whom God hath now destroyed out of the earth. In this way we need fear no dangers of the sea, or the mercy of sailors, and the price of freight would defray the expences by land. I say confidently, if our countrymen would go as the king of the Tartars does, and would be contented with such victuals, they might conquer the whole world.
It does not seem to me expedient, that any more friars should be sent to the Tartars, in the way I went, or as the predicant friars go. But if our lord the Pope were to send a bishop in an honourable style, capable to answer their follies, he might speak unto them as he pleased; for they will hear whatever an ambassador chooses to speak, and always demand if he will say any more. But he ought to have many good interpreters, and ought to be at large expences.
I have thus written to your highness, according to my weak power and understanding, craving pardon from your clemency, for my superfluities or wants, or for any thing that may be indiscreetly or foolishly written, as from a man of little understanding, not accustomed to write long histories. The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, preserve your heart and fortify your mind.
CHAPTER X.
Travels of Haitho, Prince of Armenia, in Tartary, in 1254331
Haitho, or Hatto, was the son of Livon, or Leon II., nephew of Haitho I., king of Armenia Minor, in Lesser Asia. At the demise of his father, he refused to accept of the crown, which he resigned in favour of his brother Thores or Theodore; but assisted him and his son and successor, Leon III., in all the wars and troubles in which they were engaged during many years. During the reign of his father in 1254, accompanied by his wife and child, he travelled to the court of Mangu-khan, the great sovereign of the Tartars or Mongals, for the purpose of obtaining an abatement of the tribute which had been imposed by these conquerors upon his country, and appears to have been successful in his negotiations. His journey into the east took place in the same year in which Rubruquis was on his return; and while at the court or leskar of Sartach, he was of material service to two of the attendants of Rubruquis, who had been left at that station; and who but for his interference must have perished by famine, or would have been reduced to slavery. Forster asserts that Haitho met with Rubruquis, who was then on his return home; but we have already seen, in the account of the travels of Rubruquis, that the two travellers did not meet.
In the year 1305, when he must have become very old, Haitho became a monk of the Praemonstratensian order at Episcopia in Cyprus. He afterwards went to Poitou in France, where he dictated in French to Nicholas Salconi, a history of the events which had occurred in the east from the first commencement of the conquests of the Tartars or Mongals, including the reigns of Zingis-khan and his successors, to Mangu-khan inclusively; and a particular narrative of the history of his own country, Armenia Minor, from the reign of Haitho I. to that of Leon II. both inclusive. This account Salconi translated into Latin in 1307, by order of the reigning Pope.
The travels of Haitho being perfectly contemporary with those of Rubruquis, are not sufficiently interesting to be here inserted; and the historical part of his relations have no connection with the plan of this work, which it would swell beyond due bounds: But the following brief account of his geographical description of the east, as it existed in the thirteenth century, and as abstracted by J. R. Forster, in his Voyages and Discoveries in the North, have been deemed worthy of insertion, together with the observations or commentaries of that ingenious author.