Year 1227, and was interred on the Mountain of Leoupan in Chenfi, aged 66 Years. He declared his third Son, Otay, his Heir and Succeffor, and in the mean time Toley his fourth and youngest Son ruled the Empire.

Otay was not proclaimed Emperor till the 1229. eighth Moon of this Year, when he appointed Toley his Generaliffimo.

1230.

Otay continued the War against the 'Emperor of the Kin, and reduced him to the utmoft Diftrefs. He entered into a Treaty with the Emperor of the Song, who poffeffed many of the nobleft and moft fouthern Provinces af China, and then retired into Tartary, in the ninth Moon of this Year. Toley dies, to the 1232. great grief of the whole Empire; and Sapatay carries on the War in Honan, and takes and pillages Nankin in the fecond Month of the next 1233. Year.

In the very firft Moon of this Year the unhap 1234. py Emperor of the Kin, unable to bear up against the Torrent of his Afflictions, burnt himfelf at Juning fou, declaring his Son his Heir to the Crown; but the young Prince being murdered by his own Guards, Otay became abfolute Lord of the Empire of the Kin.

Otay built Holin into a new City, and adorned it with a vaft Palace. He dispatched two of his Nephews and General Sapotay to attack the Kingdoms of the Weft. They coafted round the North-end of the Caspian, and thence penetrated into a Climate where the Days at Midfummer are of extraordinary length. But the Hiftory of this War being very dark, and the Names horridly mangled, we fhould, it feems, be able to learn nothing therefrom, if we did not otherwife know that they harraffed Po

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land,

1235

1242.

land, Germany and Hungary. His two Nephews did not return till many Years after his Death. They loft a great Number of their People, fays the Hiftory; but they acquired great Glory.

But while this was in agitation, 0,7av kni another Force to invade the Emperor of the Song.

To conclude, he died in the 56th Year of his Age,and nominated to be his Succeffor Sbe-ly-man his Grandfon, by his fourth Son, who perifhed in War.

BUT this Succeffion was difturbed by the 1146. Emprefs Regent Naitmatchin, who declared her eldelt Son Quay, Yeu Emperor of the Moguls, which he did in the feventh Moon of this Year. This Prince fubmitted every thing to his Mother; did nothing worth notice; and is accused of having been fond of the Bonzes, He' 1248. reigned but two Years and about a Month, and died at the Age of 34.

HEREUPON two powerful Parties arofe. At the Head of the one appeared the Empreffes Naitmatchin the Mother, and Hai-my-he the Wife of the deceased Emperor; thefe declared for She-ly-man, and were fupported by fome old Counsellors, feveral Generals, and all the Princes, Sons and Grandfons of Otay. At the head of the other was Patú the great General of the Army and Nephew to Octay, who, with fome others, declared for Mongko another Nephew of the fame Emperor, Thefe prevailing, Mongko was, at Holin, proclaimed Emperor 1. of the Moguls. He committed the conquered Provinces of China to hisBrother Húpily[Koblay] and took the Reins of the Government in gene ral into his own hands.

THIS

·

THIS Year he put to death the Princefs or 1252. Emprefs Hai-my-fhe, on pretence the was a Sorcerefs; imprifoned She-ly-man; and banish'd Naitmachin, and the Princes of the Party of She-ly-man

THE next Year he rendezvous'd two great. Armies in the Neighbourhood of Holin. The Command of the firft he conferred on Hulan Holay, under the Orders of Húpily, to invade Tibet, Pegu, and Cochinchina, and to make an Inroad into Junnan and Soutchouen. The fecond Army commanded by Hin-li-bu, [Hologu] his fixth Brother, he fent to invade Perfia and Syria, there to fall upon the Sû-tán, [Soltans] and the Halifu [Khalif] a Mohammedan Prince and King of Pabata [Baghdad]. Hologu had Ko-kan with him to affift him with his Advice.

1257.

Hologu and Ko-kan depart from Holin in the 1253. fecond Month of this Year; and to pafs over their tedious March, through which we cannot eafily trace them, for want of a Certainty of the Names of the Places mention'd, they fucceeded in this diftant War to admiration. In the fourth Year after their Outlet, they took Baghdad,and sent the Khalif Prifoner to Mongko. We are told, that the Chinese Relation is pretty circumftantial on this Tranfaction, and describes the City very well: That it fpeaks of the fine Palace of the Khalif, of the River which parts the two Towns, of the Beauty of the Houses, of the Maffacre Ko-kan ordered in the Weft Town, of the Extent of the Kingdom, and of the Number and Lives of the Khalifs.

THIS important Action fo happily decided, Hologu detaches Ko-kan to the Weftward. He marches twenty Days towards that Point of the Compafs, and comes to a Temple dedicated to Heaven,

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Heaven, as the Chinese have it. They tell Ko-kan that here the greatest of all Saints had been anciently interred; and in the midst of this. Temple, he fees a great Iron Chain hanging, and many Inscriptions, which, faid they, were. done by Pictapacul, the Name of the Saint here buried. Tho' all this has the Air of a Romance, as much as Heart could with whatever Truth may be in it, our Commentator puts on a grave Face, and runs the following Divifion upon the Name Pictapacul, (viz.) Pembar, Pembal, Bembar or Bembal Perhaps Ben-baal, Benbal, the Son of Baal. Mighty right, to be fure; a high Probability: but we fhould, however, be glad to know who was the Father of this Son of Baal? who he could be? whence this Son fhould come? what drove him a twenty Days March to the Weftward of Baghdad? but above all, how he had been able to keep this Houfe over his Head, maugre all the unparallelled Zeal of the Mohammedans, and Chriftians, who were Lords, and pretty fevere ones too, either on the one fide or the other of him? Thefe are Queftions not to be rationally anfwered, and this Play upon Names, tho' fometimes juftifiable, is too often prefumptuous and vain. But the Roman Clergy must be ignorant of nothing; they muft difplay their Omniscience upon all occafions. For our parts, upon the firft perufal of the Paffage, we were afraid this Pagod, as it is reprefented, would have been commented into the Church of Jerusalem; and perhaps, if it had not been for the ugly Iron Chain, it had been the Cafe: and, in truth, it had been far lefs abfurd than to talk of the Houfe of a young Baal any where in thefe

Parts,

Parts, at that time of day. But to return whence we digreffed.

Ko-kan having furvey'd this great Curiofity of a Temple, and done great Feats over this western Region, croffes the Sea and continues his Conquefts in a Country called Foulon. This Foulon, we are told, fignifies Franks; and this Country is here noted to have been fome Part of Syria, inhabited by the Followers of the Crufade; but this feems to be faid at a ven-ture, to be a moft fuperficial and ill-weighed' Remark. What Sea had Ko-kan to 'crofs in his way from Baghdad to Syria? We know of none but the Sea of Gallilee, or, perhaps, the Dead Sea; and that he did, would, or could' crofs either of them with his Army, is impoffible to fuppofe. Had it not been better to have looked this Paffage over as inexplicable,and even frankly to have pronounced it fuch, rather than by an Affectation of universal Criticism to have cleared it up fo lamely, fo blindly? But to take a Survey of this Country of Foulon, it feems the Women there were dreffed after the manner of the Statues in the Chinese Temples. Here the Soltán Hûtú, as he is called, did Homage.

THIS Year Holagú and Ko-kan continued 1259. their Conquefts, and towards the latter End of it, Ko-kan was fent Poft by his General, to give Mongko an account of all thefe Expeditions. But when he arrived in China, he had the forrowful News that Mongko had been slain on the tenth of August, this fame Year, as he was befieging Hotchcou a City in Soutchouen, at the Age of 52. This Siege was very obftinate, and the Moguls having loft a great number of Officers, broke it up. The Chinese History reports he had Valour and Senfe; but reproaches him with great Super