404 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. empire. The missionaries had even succeeded in col- lecting a flourishing Christian community at Ily-Ballik, an important town situated in the centre of Tartary, where they built a large and beautiful church, so that the religion of Jesus Christ was spreading, from day to day, in the remote deserts of Mongolia. The grand khan of the Tartars and Chinese, desirous of strength- ening the alliance which he had formed with the Chris- tians, sent, in 1338, a deputation to the sovereign pontiff. It was composed of six persons, the chief of whom was named Andre, and belonged to the order of the Francis- cans. He was the bearer of two letters, one from the emperor himself, and the other from several princes resident at the court of Pekin. The emperor wrote as follows : — " In the power of God Omnipotent. " Manifesto of the Emperor of Emperors ! " We send our ambassador Andre, a Frank by birth, with fifteen companions, to the Pope, the Lord of the Christians of France*, beyond the seven seas, where the sun sets, in order to open a way for communica- tions and messages from the pope to us, and from us to the pope. " We pray the pope to make mention of us in his holy prayers, and to interest himself in the Alains, his Christian children and our servants. We beg him also to send us some horses and other ivonderful things (equos et alia mirabilia) from the place where the sun sets. Written at Khanbalik, in the year of the Rat f (1336), on the third day of the sixth moon."
- The pope was then at Avignon.
f It is well known that the Tartars and Chinese count the years
