"Indeed if I had had but two or three comrades to aid me 'tis possible that the Emperor Cham would have been baptized by this time! I ask then for such brethren to come, if any are willing to come, such I mean as will make it their great business to lead exemplary lives. . . . I have myself grown old and grey, more with toil and trouble than with years; for I am not more than fifty-eight."
— John of Montecorvino
Source: Letter from Cambalec (Khanbaliq), 8 January 1305, tr. H. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, vol. III (1914)