Den amerikanske författaren Jack Weatherford återger i sin bok "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" en redogörelse som skrivits ned av den engelske munken Matthew Paris år 1240:
https://books.google.se/books?id=A8Y...0trees&f=false
"The refugees spread information about the Mongols across Europe, as can be seen from the chronicle written by Matthew Paris, a monk of the Benedictine abbey at St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England. In 1240 he recorded the oldest known mention of the Mongols in western Europe, calling them "an immense horde of that destestable race of Satan" and "like demons loose from Tartarus". He wrote, incorrectly, that "they are called Tartars, from a river called Tartar, which runs through their mountains." Tartarus was the Greek name for Hell, the lowest cavern beneath Hades, where the Titans had been condemned after creating a war among the gods.
Paris wrote that the Mongols "ravaged the eastern countries with lamentable destruction, spreading fire and slaughter wherever they went." He then described in specific detail the horror of these invaders who "razed cities to the ground, burnt woods, pulled down castles, tore up the vine-trees, destroyed gardens and massacred the citizens and husbandmen; if by chance they spared any who begged their lives, they compelled them, as slaves of the lowest condition, to fight in front of them against their own kindred. And if they merely pretended to fight, or perhaps warned their countrymen to flee, the Tartars following in their rear, slew them; and if they fought bravely and conquered, they gained no thanks by way of recompense, and thus these savages ill-treated their captives as though they were horses."
Ingen kan givetvis med säkerhet säga hur mycket av detta som är fakta och hur mycket som är överdrivna rykten och hörsägen, men det verkar som om mongolerna de facto var riktiga härjare.