What Was At
First Undertaken From Policy And Fear, Was Afterwards Continued From
Religious Zeal, Curiosity, A Love Of Knowledge, And Other Motives.
So that,
to the devastations of Genghis Khan we may justly deem ourselves indebted
for the full and important information we possess respecting the remote
parts of Asia during the middle ages.
The accounts of India and China by the two Mahomedan travellers have been
already noticed: between the period of their journey, and the embassies and
missions to which we have just alluded, the only account of the East which
we possess is derived from the work of Benjamin, a Jew of Tudela in Spain.
It is doubted whether he visited all the places he describes: his object
was principally to describe those places where the Jews resided in great
numbers.
After describing Barcelona as a place of great trade, frequented by
merchants from Greece, Italy, and Alexandria, and a great resort of the
Jews, and giving a similar character of Montpelier and Genoa, he proceeds
to the East. The inhabitants of Constantinople being too lazy to carry on
commerce themselves, the whole trade of this city, which is represented as
surpassing all others, except Bagdad, in wealth, was conducted by foreign
merchants, who resorted to it from every part of the world by land and sea.
New Tyre was a place of considerable traffic, with a good harbour: glass
and sugar were its principal exports. The great depot for the produce and
manufactures of India, Persia, Arabia, &c., was an island in the Persian
Gulf. He mentions Samarcand as a place of considerable importance, and
Thibet as the country where the musk animal was found. But all beyond the
Persian Gulf he describes in such vague terms, that little information can
be gleaned. It is worthy of remark, that nearly all the Jews, whom he
represents as very numerous in Thebes, Constantinople, Samarcand, &c., were
dyers of wool: in Thebes alone, there were 2000 workers in scarlet and
purple. After the conquest of the northern part of China by Genghis Khan,
the city of Campion in Tangut seems to have been fixed upon by him as the
seat of a great inland trade. Linens, stuffs made of cotton, gold, silver,
silks, and porcelain, were brought hither by the Chinese merchants, and
bought by merchants from Muscovy, Persia, Armenia, &c.
In the years 1245, 1246, the pope sent ambassadors to the Tartar and Mogul
khans: of these Carpini has given us the most detailed account of his
embassy, and of the route which he followed. His journey occupied six
months: he first went through Bohemia, Silesia, and Poland, to Kiov, at
that time the capital of Russia. Thence he proceeded by the Dnieper to the
Black Sea, till he arrived at the head quarters of the Khan Batou. To him
we are indebted for the first information of the real names of the four
great rivers which water the south of Russia, the Dnieper, the Don, the
Volga, and the Jaik. He afterwards proceeded to the head quarters of
another khan, on the eastern shores of the Caspian. After passing a country
where the famous Prester John is said to have reigned, he reached the end
of his journey, the head quarters of the khan of the Moguls. Besides the
information derived from his own observations, he inserts in his narrative
all he had collected; so that he may be regarded as the first traveller who
brought to the knowledge of western Europe these parts of Asia; but though
his travels are important to geography, they throw little light on the
commerce of these countries.
Rubruquis was sent, about this time, by the king of France to the Mogul
emperor: he passed through the Crimea, and along the shores of the Volga
and the Caspian Sea; visited the Khans Sartach and Batou; and at length
arrived at the great camp of the Moguls. Here he saw Chinese ambassadors;
from whom, and certain documents which he found among the Moguls, he learnt
many particulars respecting the north of China, the most curious of which
is his accurate description of the Chinese language and characters. He
returned by the same route by which he went. In his travels we meet with
some information respecting the trade of Asia. The Mogul khans derived a
considerable revenue from the salt of the Crimea. The alum of Caramonia was
a great object of traffic. He is the first author, after Ammianus
Marcellinus, who mentions rhubarb as an article of medicine and commerce.
Among the Moguls he found a great number of Europeans, who had been taken
prisoners: they were usually employed in working the mines, and in various
manufactures. He is the first traveller who mentions _koumis_ and
arrack; and he gives a very particular and accurate description of the
cattle of Thibet, and the wild and fleet asses of the plains of Asia.
Geography is indebted to him for correcting the error of the ancients,
which prevailed till his time, that the Caspian joined the Northern Ocean:
he expressly represents it as a great inland sea, - the description given of
it by Herodotus, but which was overlooked or disbelieved by all the other
ancient geographers.
While the pope and the French monarch were thus endeavouring to conciliate
the Moguls by embassies, the Emperor Frederic of Germany, having recovered
Jerusalem, Tyre, and Sidon, formed an alliance with the princes of the
East; and this alliance he took advantage of for the purposes of oriental
commerce: for his merchants and factors travelled as far as India. In the
last year of his reign, twelve camels, laden with gold and silver, the
produce of his trade with the East, arrived in his dominions. The part of
India to which he traded, and the route which was pursued, are not
recorded.
Among the most celebrated travellers of the middle ages, was Marco Polo:
he, his father, and uncle, after trading for some time in many of the
commercial and opulent cities of Lesser Asia, reached the more eastern
parts of that continent, as far as the court of the great khan, on the
borders of China.
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