THE UNIVERSE. OCEANIC DISCOVERIES. 253 



and by Lorenz Jansson Koster in Haarlem), between 1436 

 and 1439,, or in the fortunate epoch of the first immigration 

 of learned Greeks into Italy. 



Two centuries before the fountains of Grecian literature 

 were open to the nations of the west, and a quarter of a 

 century before the birth of Dante, who formed one of the 

 great epochs in the history of the intellectual cultivation of 

 southern Europe, events were taking place in the interior of 

 Asia, as well as in the East of Africa, which, by extending 

 commercial intercourse, accelerated the arrival of the period 

 of the circumnavigation of Africa and of the expedition of 

 Columbus. The armies of the Moguls in the course of twenty- 

 six years spread the terror of their name from Pekin and the 

 Chinese wall as far as Cracow and Leignitz, and produced a 

 feeling of alarm throughout Christendom. A number of able 

 monks were sent both in a religious and diplomatic capacity ; 

 John de Piano Carpini and Nicolas Ascelin to Batu Khan, 

 and Ruisbroeck (Rubruquis) to Mangu Khan to Karakorum. 

 The last named of these missionaries has left us some acute 

 and important remarks on the geographical extension of 

 different families of nations and of languages in the middle 

 of the thirteenth century. He was the first to recognize 

 that the Huns, the Bashkirs (inhabitants of Paskatir, Basch- 

 gird of Ibn-Eozlan), and the Hungarians, were of Finnish 

 or Uralian race ; and he found Gothic tribes, still preserving 

 their language, in the strong holds of the Crimea. ( 392 ) 

 The accounts given by Eubmquis of the immeasurable 

 riches of Eastern Asia excited the cupidity of two 

 powerful maritime nations of Italy, the Venetians and the 

 Genoese. Rubruquis knew "the silver walls and golden 

 towers of Quinsay," though he does not name that great 



