He is the first author, after Ammianus
Marcellinus, who mentions rhubarb as an article of medicine and commerce.
Among the Moguls he found a great number of Europeans, who had been taken
prisoners: they were usually employed in working the mines, and in various
manufactures. He is the first traveller who mentions _koumis_ and
arrack; and he gives a very particular and accurate description of the
cattle of Thibet, and the wild and fleet asses of the plains of Asia.
Geography is indebted to him for correcting the error of the ancients,
which prevailed till his time, that the Caspian joined the Northern Ocean:
he expressly represents it as a great inland sea,--the description given of
it by Herodotus, but which was overlooked or disbelieved by all the other
ancient geographers.
While the pope and the French monarch were thus endeavouring to conciliate
the Moguls by embassies, the Emperor Frederic of Germany, having recovered
Jerusalem, Tyre, and Sidon, formed an alliance with the princes of the
East; and this alliance he took advantage of for the purposes of oriental
commerce: for his merchants and factors travelled as far as India. In the
last year of his reign, twelve camels, laden with gold and silver, the
produce of his trade with the East, arrived in his dominions. The part of
India to which he traded, and the route which was pursued, are not
recorded.
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