depends, I will
now write what has happened this year. There have not been so many
and various warlike occurrences as in former years, for it has been
somewhat more peaceful here. I will relate briefly what has happened
as occasion may require.

Of Great China

Although last year I gave an account of the war which the Chinese
were carrying on with the Tartars, I will now return to this point,
because we have received letters from our fathers in China. To begin
with the earliest events, there was in the province of Teatum, [4] one
of the provinces of Great China adjoining Tartaria, a powerful eunuch
who collected taxes in the name of the king, and who had some seventy
servants in his following. They committed a thousand robberies and
tyrannies among the people. The mandarins who governed that district
reported this to the king. He ordered them to bring the eunuch in
custody to Tiquin, where he is still in prison. The eunuch's servants
were hunted by the mandarins in order that they might be given the
punishment they deserved for their crimes; but they, with many other
Chinese, fled to the Tartars, whom they begged and persuaded to invade
and destroy China, offering themselves to serve as guides. It was not
difficult to induce the Tartars to do this, since for other reasons
they were already angry with the Chinese. So they planned that these
Chinese traitors and some Tartars should go with concealed weapons,
and in the guise of friends, to a certain place. They went there, and
one night suddenly seized their arms, killed the greater part of the
soldiers, sacked the place, and, pretending to flee, withdrew with the
spoils. They left a great number of people in ambush, in the woods. The
Chinese viceroy of that district, learning of the affair, immediately
sent a large body of soldiers who are always on duty there. The troops
pursued the Tartars, but unexpectedly fell into the ambush and were
completely routed. When the Tartars saw that they were victorious,
they returned to the fort and destroyed it. When this was learned in
Paquin the mandarins came together to discuss with the king some means
of redress. As the king did not wish to see them he simply ordered that
they should consult among themselves and then report everything to
him. Now the Tartars sacked and destroyed some other smaller forts,
as well as one very important stronghold called Sin Hon [_i.e._,
Tsingho]. From this point they made their forays through th