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.
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