After their return from conquering the Naymani and Cara-Cathayans, the Mongals prepared to go to war with the Kythaos, or Cathayans[1]; but the Mongals were defeated in a great battle, and all their nobles were slain except seven. Zingis and the rest who had escaped from this defeat, soon afterwards attacked and conquered the people called Huyri[2], who were Nestorian Christians, from whom they learned the art of writing. After this they conquered the land of Sarugur, and the country of the Karanites, and the land of Hudirat, and returning into their own country, took a short respite from war. Again assembling a great army, they invaded Cathay, and after a long struggle, they conquered the greater part of that country, and besieged the emperor in his greatest city. The siege lasted so long, that the army of the Mongals came to be in want of provisions, and Zingis is said to have commanded that every tenth man of his own army should be slain as food for the rest. At length, by great exertions, the Mongals dug a mine underneath the walls of the city, through which a party entered and opened the gates for the rest of the army, so that the city was carried, and the emperor and many of the citizens put to the sword. Having appointed deputies to rule over his conquests, Zingis returned into Mongalia with immense quantities of gold and silver and other precious spoil. But the southern parts of this empire, as it lies within the sea, has not been conquered by the Mongals to this day[3]. The people of Cathay are Pagans, having a peculiar kind of writing of their own, in which they are reported to possess the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. They have also lives of the fathers, and houses in which they pray at stated times, built like churches; they are even said to have saints, to worship one God, to venerate the Lord Jesus Christ, and to believe eternal life; but they are not baptised[4]. They have no beards, and they partly resemble the Mongals in their features. Their country is exceeding fruitful in corn, and abounds in gold and silver, wine and silk, and all manner of rich commodities, and the whole world has not more expert artificers in all kinds of works and manufactures. [1] The inhabitants of Northern China, then a separate kingdom from Mangi, or Southern China.--E. [2] The Huirs or Uigurs.--E. [3] This probably alludes to the difficulty experienced by the Mongals in forcing a passage across the great rivers Hoang-ho and Kian-ku--E. [4] These absurd notions must have been picked up by the credulous papal messengers, from ignorant or designing Nestorians in Mongolia.--E. SECTION X. _Of the Wars of the Mongals against the Greater and Lesser India._