The first knowledge Europeans had of a colony of Jews at K’ai-fung fu, in the Ho-nan province, was obtained through the Jesuit missionaries at Peking, at the beginning of the 17th century; the celebrated Matteo Ricci having received the visit of a young Jew, the Jesuits Aleni (1613), Gozani (1704), Gaubil and Domenge who made in 1721 two plans of the synagogue, visited Kai-fung and brought back some documents.  In 1850, a mission of enquiry was sent to that place by the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews; the results of this mission were published at Shang-hai, in 1851, by Bishop G. Smith of Hongkong; fac-similes of the Hebrew manuscripts obtained at the synagogue of Kai-fung were also printed at Shang-hai at the London Missionary Society’s Press, in the same year.  The Jewish merchants of London sent in 1760 to their brethren of Kai-fung a letter written in Hebrew; a Jewish merchant of Vienna, J. L. Liebermann, visited the Kai-fung colony in 1867.  At the time of the T’ai-P’ing rising, the rebels marched against Kai-fung in 1857, and with the rest of the population, the Jews were dispersed. (J.  Tobar, Insc. juives de Kai-fong-fou, 1900; Henri Cordier, Les Juifs en Chine, and Fung and Wagnall’s Jewish Encyclopedia.) Palladius writes (p. 38), “The Jews are mentioned for the first time in the Yuen shi (ch. xxxiii. p. 7), under the year 1329, on the occasion of the re-establishment of the law for the collection of taxes from dissidents.  Mention of them is made again under the year 1354, ch. xliii. fol. 10, when on account of several insurrections in China, rich Mahommetans and Jews were invited to the capital in order to join the army.  In both cases they are named Chu hu (Djuhud).”—­H.  C.]

The synagogue at Kaifungfu has recently been demolished for the sake of its materials, by the survivors of the Jewish community themselves, who were too poor to repair it.  The tablet that once adorned its entrance, bearing in gilt characters the name ESZLOYIH (Israel), has been appropriated by a mosque.  The 300 or 400 survivors seem in danger of absorption into the Mahomedan or heathen population.  The last Rabbi and possessor of the sacred tongue died some thirty or forty years ago, the worship has ceased, and their traditions have almost died away.

(Cathay, 225, 341, 497; Ch.  Rep. XX. 436; Dr. Martin, in J.  N. China Br.  R. A. S. 1866, pp. 32-33.)

CHAPTER VI.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN WENT BACK TO THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.

And after the Great Kaan had defeated Nayan in the way you have heard, he went back to his capital city of Cambaluc and abode there, taking his ease and making festivity.  And the other Tartar Lord called Caydu was greatly troubled when he heard of the defeat and death of Nayan, and held himself in readiness for war; but he stood greatly in fear of being handled as Nayan had been.[NOTE 1]