st his empire from him if he could. So this Nayan
sent envoys to another Tartar Prince called CAIDU, also a great and potent
Lord, who was a kinsman of his, and who was a nephew of the Great Kaan and
his lawful liegeman also, though he was in rebellion and at bitter enmity
with his sovereign Lord and Uncle. Now the message that Nayan sent was
this: That he himself was making ready to march against the Great Kaan
with all his forces (which were great), and he begged Caidu to do likewise
from his side, so that by attacking Cublay on two sides at once with such
great forces they would be able to wrest his dominion from him.

And when Caidu heard the message of Nayan, he was right glad thereat, and
thought the time was come at last to gain his object. So he sent back
answer that he would do as requested; and got ready his host, which
mustered a good hundred thousand horsemen.

Now let us go back to the Great Kaan, who had news of all this plot.

NOTE 1.--There is no doubt that Kublai was proclaimed Kaan in 1260 (4th
month), his brother Mangku Kaan having perished during the seige of Hochau
in Ssechwan in August of the preceding year. But Kublai had come into
Cathay some years before as his brother's Lieutenant.

He was the _fifth_, not sixth, Supreme Kaan, as we have already noticed.
(Bk. I. ch. li. note 2.)

NOTE 2.--Kublai was born in the eighth month of the year corresponding to
1216, and had he lived to 1298 would have been eighty-two years old.
[According to Dr. E. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 30), quoting the _Yuen-Shi_,
Kublai died at Khanbaligh, in the Tze-t'an tien in February, 1294.--H. C.]
But by Mahomedan reckoning he would have been close upon eighty-five. He
was the fourth son of Tuli, who was the youngest of Chinghiz's four sons
by his favourite wife Burte Fujin. (See _De Mailla_, IX. 255, etc.)

NOTE 3.--This is not literally true; for soon after his accession (in
1261) Kublai led an army against his brother and rival Arikbuga, and
defeated him. And again in his old age, if we credit the Chinese annalist,
in 1289, when his grandson Kanmala (or Kambala) was beaten on the northern
frontier by Kaidu, Kublai took the field himself, though on his approach
the rebels disappeared.

Kublai and his brother Hulaku, young as they were, commenced their
military career on Chinghiz's last expedition (1226-1227). His most
notable campaign was the conquest of Yunnan in 1253-1254. (_De Mailla_,
IX. 298, 441.)

NOTE 4.-