CHAP. III - JOURNEY OF CARPINI INTO TATARY

Summary

The events which, in the course of the thirteenth century, brought together nations hitherto separated by the whole extent of the old world are almost without example in the history of the human race. The greatness of the Mongols, which seemed to embrace the universe, was created in less time than is ordinarily required to found and people a single city. The chief of a petty tribe, hardly distinguished among the tributaries of the Jou-chi, a principal Mongol nation, courageously resisted the attacks of some neighbours as unimportant as himself. The continuance of these struggles gradually led to bolder efforts directed against his superiors. His good fortune, and indefatigable spirit, made his horde or camp the refuge of every discontented or unquiet character. His rivals are quickly humbled and his enemies destroyed. The country at the sources of the rivers Onon, Keroulan, and Toula, was the first theatre of the revolutions which shortly after spread through all Asia and a part of Europe. At length, in the year 1206, the heroic Mongol prince assumed the title of Chingis or Zingis Khan, and established the centre of his empire at Cara-corum, an ancient city of the Turks, situated between the Toula, the Orgon, and Silinga, nearly in the same latitude as Paris.