we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to demand the men to
be delivered to them that had abused their priests and burned their
idol, that they might burn them with fire; and upon this, they
said, they would go away, and do us no further harm, otherwise they
would destroy us all. Our men looked very blank at this message,
and began to stare at one another to see who looked with the most
guilt in their faces; but nobody was the word – nobody did it. The
leader of the caravan sent word he was well assured that it was not
done by any of our camp; that we were peaceful merchants,
travelling on our business; that we had done no harm to them or to
any one else; and that, therefore, they must look further for the
enemies who had injured them, for we were not the people; so they
desired them not to disturb us, for if they did we should defend
ourselves.
They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer: and a
great crowd of them came running down in the morning, by break of
day, to our camp; but seeing us so well posted, they durst come no
farther than the brook in our front, where they stood in such
number as to terrify us very much; indeed, some spoke of ten
thousand. Here they stood and looked at us a while, and then,
setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd of arrows among us; but we
were well enough sheltered under our baggage, and I do not remember
that one of us was hurt.
Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and
expected them on the rear: when a cunning fellow, a Cossack of
Jarawena, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, “I
will send all these people away to Sibeilka.” This was a city four
or five days’ journey at least to the right, and rather behind us.
So he takes his bow and arrows, and getting on horseback, he rides
away from our rear directly, as it were back to Nertsinskay; after
this he takes a great circuit about, and comes directly on the army
of the Tartars as if he had been sent express to tell them a long
story that the people who had burned the Cham Chi-Thaungu were gone
to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them – that
is to say, Christians; and that they had resolved to burn the god
Scal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguses. As this fellow was himself a
Tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so
well that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violent
hurry to Sibeilka. In less than three hours they were entirely out
of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor whether they
went to Sibeilka or no. So we passed away safely on to Jarawena,
where there was a Russian garrison, and there we rested five days.
From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us twenty-
three days’ march. We furnished ourselves with some tents here,
for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leader
of the caravan procured sixteen waggons of the country, for
carrying our water or provisions, and these carriages were our
defence every night round our little camp; so that had the Tartars
appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would not
have been able to hurt us. We may well be supposed to have wanted
rest again after this long journey; for in this desert we neither
saw house nor tree, and scarce a bush; though we saw abundance of
the sable-hunters, who are all Tartars of Mogul Tartary; of which
this country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans,
but we saw no numbers of them together.
After we had passed this desert we came into a country pretty well
inhabited – that is to say, we found towns and castles, settled by
the Czar with garrisons of stationary soldiers, to protect the
caravans and defend the country against the Tartars, who would