esting at noon, and taking up
our quarters for the night on the bare ground, without any protection
against the weather. To prevent us from being surprized in the night by
the wandering Tartars, outguards were placed every night in three
directions around our resting-place. During the greater part of this long
and dreary journey, we were very ill off for water both for ourselves and
our cattle, and we never saw any wild animals. One day we saw about forty
horses, which we were told had escaped from a caravan of merchants the
year before. We fell in one day with a small horde of Tartars, having
twenty waggons, but I was not able to learn where they were going. As our
provisions decreased rapidly, we were forced to use the remainder very
sparingly, and were consequently reduced to a very short allowance.

On the 22d of September 1475, we entered Russia, and discovered a few
huts in the middle of a wood. On the inhabitants learning that Marcus,
their countryman, was in our caravan, they came to see him that he might
protect them from the Tartars, and brought him a present of honey and wax,
a part of which he gave to us. This was a most providential supply, as we
were so much reduced by fatigue and spare diet, that we were hardly able
to sit on horseback. The first city we came to in this country was
_Rezan_[2], the prince of which place had married a sister of the Grand
Duke of Russia. The castle and all the houses of this city are built of
wood. We here procured bread and meat, and mead in abundance, to our
great comfort and satisfaction. The next city we came to was _Kolomna_,
passing a very large bridge over the _Monstrus_[3] which flows into the
Wolga. At this place, Marcus quitted the caravan, which travelled too
slowly in his opinion, and pushed on for Moscow, where we arrived on the
26th of September, after a journey of forty-seven days through the desert,
from the 10th of August, on which day we left Citracan. In a great part
of this journey we found no wood, and were forced to cook our victuals
with fires made of dried cow dung. We returned thanks to God on our
arrival, for our preservation through so many and great dangers. On our
arrival, Marcus procured a dwelling for us, consisting of a small stove-
room and some chambers, with stabling for our horses. Though small and
mean, I felt as if lodged in a palace, when I compared my present state
of tranquil security with the dangers and inconveniences I had been so
l