“Lord protector of the world, all hail!  I am a poor traveller and world-seer, who am come here from a far country called England, which ancient historians thought to have been situated in the farthest bounds of the west, and which is the queen of all the islands in the world.  The causes of my coming hither are four.  First, that I might behold the blessed countenance of your majesty, whose great fame has resounded over all Europe, and through all the Mahometan countries.  When I heard of the fame of your majesty, I made all possible haste hither, and cheerfully endured the labour of travelling, that I might see your glorious court.  Secondly, I was desirous of seeing your majesty’s elephants, which kind of beasts I have not seen in any other country.  Thirdly, that I might see your famous river the Ganges, the captain of all the rivers in the world.  Fourthly, to entreat your majesty, that you would vouchsafe to grant me your most gracious phirmaund, that I may travel into the country of Tartaria to the city of Samarcand, to visit the blessed sepulchre of the Lord of the Corners,[251] whose fame, by reason of his wars and victories, is published over the whole world, so that perhaps he is not altogether so famous in his own country of Tartary as in England.  I have a strong desire to see the sepulchre of the Lord of the Corners for this cause, that, when in Constantinople, I saw a notable old building in a pleasant garden near the said city, where the Christian emperor, Emanuel, made a sumptuous banquet to the Lord of the Corners, after he had taken Sultan Bajazet in a great battle near the city of Brusa, when the Lord of the Corners bound Sultan Bajazet in golden fetters, and put him into an iron cage.  These causes have induced me to travel thus far from my native country, having come a-foot through Turkey and Persia into this country, my pilgrimage having extended so three thousand miles, with much labour and toil, such as no mortal man hath ever yet performed, to see the blessed countenance of your majesty, since the first day of your being inaugurated in your imperial throne.”

[Footnote 250:  The whole discourse, of which the following paragraph in the text is the translation, is contained in the Pilgrims:  But doubting its accuracy, as that book is most incorrectly printed throughout, the editor requested the favour of the late learned professor of oriental languages in the University of Edinburgh, Dr Alexander Murray, to revise and correct this first sentence, which he most readily did, adding the following literal translation:  “Presence, [or face.] of the world—­protector, salutation to thee:  A poor dervish and world-wanderer I am; that I have come from a kingdom far, to-wit, from the kingdom of Ingliz-stan, which historians ancient, relation have made, that kingdom said, in the end of the west was, which the mother of every island of the world is,” &c.]

[Footnote 251:  This is the title given to Tamerlane in this country, in the Persian language, meaning that he was lord over the four corners of the earth, that is, the highest and supreme monarch of the world.—­Purch.]