At this place I met five preaching friars, four of whom came from Provence, and the fifth joined them in Syria.  They had but one sickly boy who could speak Turkish and a little French, and they had the Popes letters of request to Sartach, Baatu, and Mangu-khan, that they might be suffered to continue in the country to preach the word of God.  But when I had told them what I had seen, and how I was sent back, they directed their journey to Tefflis, where there were friars of their order, to consult what they should do.  I said that they might pass into Tartary with these letters, but they might lay their account with much labour, and would have to give an account of the motives of their journey; for having no other object but preaching, they would be little cared for particularly as they had no ambassador.  I never heard what they did afterwards.

On the second Sunday in Lent we came to the head of the Araxes, and passing the mountains, we came to the Euphrates, by which we descended eight days journey, going to the west, till we came to a castle named Camath or Kemac, where the Euphrates trends to the south, towards Halapia, or Aleppo.  We here passed to the north-west side of the river, and went over very high mountains, and through deep snow, to the west.  There was so great an earthquake that year in this country, that in one city called Arsingan, ten thousand persons are said to have perished.  During three days journey we saw frequent gaps in the earth, which had been cleft by the convulsion, and great heaps of earth which had tumbled down from the mountains into the vallies.  We passed through the valley where the soldan of the Turks was vanquished by the Tartars, and a servant belonging to my guide, who was in the Tartar army, said the Tartars did not exceed 10,000 men, whereas the soldan had 200,000 horse.  In that plain there broke out a great lake at the time of the earthquake, and it came into my mind, that the earth opened her mouth to receive yet more blood of the Saracens.

We remained in Sebasta, Siwas, or Sivas, a town of the Lesser Armenia, in the Easter week, and on the succeeding Sunday we came to Caesaria of Capadocia, now called Kaisarea.  In about fifteen days, making short journeys, we came to Konieh or Iconium.  This delay arose in part from the difficulty of procuring horses, but chiefly because the guide chose to stop, often for three days together in one place, to negotiate his own affairs; and though much dissatisfied, I durst not complain, as he might have slain me and our servants, or sold us for slaves, and there was none to hinder it.  I found many Franks at Iconium, and among these a merchant called Nicholas de Sancto Syrio, and his partner Boniface de Molandino, who had a monopoly of all the alum of Turkey from the soldan, and by this means they had raised the price so much, that what used to sell for fifteen byzants, is now sold for forty.  My guide presented me to the soldan, who said he would willingly get me conveyed to the sea