A disposition to indulge in the marvellous is conspicuous in the narratives of all the earliest travellers; but already in the beginning of the fifteenth century a better taste began to appear. Among the well-informed and veracious travellers of this period, the Spaniard, Ruy-Gonzales de Clavijo is the most distinguished. The fame of Timur's conquests being spread abroad through every part of Europe, induced Henry III. king of Castile to send ambassadors to the khan, with instructions to pay their respects to him in the heart of his dominions. The real object of the embassy, however, was to learn the manners and the strength of the nations inhabiting the interior of Asia, to observe the situation of the conquered, and the character of the conqueror. In consequence of this determination, two noblemen of the court, Pelajo de Sotomayor and Ferdinand de Palazuelas, set out for the Levant in 1393, arrived at the camp of Timur before his victory over Bajazet, and witnessed the total overthrow of the Turkish army. The conqueror dismissed the Spaniards loaded with presents, and sent an embassage along with them as an additional honour to the king of Castile.

The success of this first step towards a correspondence encouraged Henry to send a second embassy to Tamerlane in 1403; at the head of this was Clavijo, who returned to Spain in 1406, and wrote an account of the reception he had met with at Samarcand, and of all that he observed in the various countries through which he passed.