service of his Majesty, and are in a position to remedy it all; and, with so good and certain an ally, would win all those rich kingdoms and reduce to the holy Catholic faith so many thousands of souls, which are being lost, not by their own fault—­we noticed that the king of Sian had been much pained by the death, before he had seen it, of the horse which was brought from your Lordship.  And, considering the great pleasure which he took in a philosopher’s stone, we promised him that if he would send me to this country I should bring him back a large horse and mare for breeding, and a philosopher’s stone a cubit long, which he had said he would prize much.  Out of desire for these things, he ordered that I be sent back; and told the fathers that they on his behalf should write to your Lordship—­for he is so arrogant that he even sets no store by writing.  He ordered to be given to me, to present to your Lordship, two elephants and an ivory tusk, which I have already delivered to your Lordship.  After I set out upon the voyage I underwent many hardships, as I arrived at Malaca with ill weather, and when the chief captain found what message I was carrying and learned my intentions in the matter, he wished to interfere with me and detain me and stop the voyage.  He attempted to take the elephants from the junk, in order to send them to Goya, and to take me prisoner.  And in fact I suffered in the said city and fortress of Malaca, more hardships and hindrances than among the heathen before I was sent on the road with these letters to bring to your Lordship, as appears more at length by the information which I have given your Majesty for the remedy of all this.

In the name of the king of Canvoja, whose ambassador I am, and on behalf of the religious and other Christians who are in captivity in the kingdom of Ssian, and on my own behalf, as ambassador to your Lordship, I petition and beseech that you be pleased to attend to the giving of the aid which has been sought by him.  And now I petition in the name of this poor and much-beset king of Canvoja, who is so friendly to our nation and to Christianity, more especially at present, when he has been ruined and is in danger of a return of the king of Sian against him (who would make complete the ruin and desolation of his country), so good a friend of ours, who has no one to aid him.  And especially will this aid now be of profit and of immense importance, as the king of Sian is without troops of war and has them scattered; and each day he is becoming more powerful and is possessing himself of the kingdom of Pegu—­whose king likewise is a very close friend of the Christians—­and he is destroying Christian lands and churches which lie within that kingdom, in large numbers.  If the aid which your Lordship would send were joined to the power of Canvoja, the principal city of Sian might easily be taken; and then the other kingdoms could immediately and easily be won, for when this one is undone the others have no spirit to defend