A.D. 

 1253- 



Certain Alpes 

 wherein the 

 Car a Catal- 

 ans inhabited. 

 A mighty 

 riz'er. 



Ground tilled. 

 Equius. 



J lake of 

 Jifteene dayes 

 journey in 

 compasse. 



[I 1,+.] 



Cailac a great 

 citie, and full 

 of merchants. 



Contomanni. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



of Baatu are more surlie and stoute, and shewe not so 

 much curtesie unto the subjectes of Mangu-Can, as they 

 doe unto them. A fewe dayes after, wee entered upon 

 those Alpes where the Cara Catayans were woont to 

 inhabite. And there wee found a mightie river : inso- 

 much that wee were constrained to imbarke our selves, 

 and to saile over it. Afterward we came into a certaine 

 valley, where I saw a castle destroyed, the walles whereof 

 were onely of mudde : and in that place the ground was 

 tilled also. And there wee founde a certaine village, named 

 Equius, wherein were Saracens, speaking the Persian 

 language : howbeit they dwelt an huge distance from 

 Persia. The day following, having passed over the 

 foresaide Alpes which descended from the great mountains 

 Southward, we entred into a most beautiful plaine, having 

 high mountaines on our right hande, and on the left 

 hande of us a certaine Sea or lake, which containeth fifteene 

 dayes journey in circuite. All the foresayde plaine is 

 most commodiously watered with certaine freshets dis- 

 tilling from the said mountaines, all which do fall into 

 the lake. In Sommer time wee returned by the North 

 shore of the saide lake, and there were great mountaines 

 on that side also. Upon the forenamed plaine there were 

 wont to bee great store of villages : but for the most part 

 they were all wasted, in regarde of the fertile pastures, 

 that the Tartars might feede their cattel there. Wee 

 found one great citie there named Cailac, wherein was 

 a mart, and great store of Merchants frequenting it. 

 In this citie wee remained fifteene dayes, staying for a 

 certaine Scribe or Secretarie of Baatu, who ought to have 

 accompanied our guide for the dispatching of certaine 

 affaires in the court of Mangu. All this countrey was 

 wont to be called Organum : and the people thereof had 

 their proper language, and their peculiar kinde of writing. 

 But it was altogether inhabited of the people called 

 Contomanni. The Nestorians likewise in those parts 

 used the very same kinde of language and writing. They 

 are called Organa, because they were wont to be most 



