WILLIAM DE RUBRUQUIS 



A.D. 



1253- 



The journal of frier William de Rubruquis a [I. 93.] 

 French man of the order of the minorite friers, 

 unto the East parts of the worlde. An. Dom. 



1253- 



O his most Soveraigne, & most Christian 

 Lord Lewis, by Gods grace the renowmed 

 king of France, frier William de Rubruk, 

 the meanest of the Minorites order, 

 wisheth health & continual triumph in 

 CHRIST. 



It is written in the booke of Ecclesi- Ecclus. 39. 

 asticus concerning the wise man : He shall travell ^^^- 4- 

 into forren countries, and good and evill shall he trie 

 in all things. The very same action (my lord and king) 

 have I atchieved : howbeit I wish that I have done it 

 like a wise man, and not like a foole. For many there 

 be, that performe the same action which a wise man doth, 

 not wisely but more undiscreetly : of which number I 

 feare my selfe to be one. Notwithstanding howsoever 

 I have done it, because you commanded mee, when I 

 departed from your highnes, to write all things unto you, 

 which I should see among the Tartars, and you wished 

 me also that I should not feare to write long letters, I have 

 done as your majestic injoined me : yet with feare and 

 reverence, because I want wordes and eloquence sufficient 

 to write unto so great a majestie. Be it knowen there- 

 fore unto your sacred Majestie, that in the yeare of our 

 Lord 1253. about the Nones of May, we entered into the 

 sea of Pontus, which the Bulgarians call the great sea. 

 It containeth in length (as I learned of certaine merchants) 

 1008 miles, and is in a maner, divided into two parts. 

 About the midst thereof are two provinces, one towards 

 the North, and another towards the South. The South 

 province is called Synopolis, and it is the castle and porte 

 of the Soldan of Turkie : but the North province is 

 called of the Latines, Gasaria : of the Greeks, which 



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