ain who was travelling south
in great style to take up a command at Astrakan with five hundred boats
laden with soldiers, stores, food, and merchandise.

After three months' travelling, and having passed over some one
thousand two hundred miles, the Englishman reached the south. The city
of Astrakan offered no attractions and no hope of trade, so Jenkinson
boldly took upon himself to navigate the mouth of the Volga and to
reach the Caspian Sea. He was the first Englishman to cross Russia
from the White Sea to the Caspian. Never before on the Caspian had
the red cross of St. George been seen flying from the masthead of a
ship sailed by Englishmen. After three weeks' buffeting by contrary
winds, they found themselves on the eastern shores, and, getting
together a caravan of one thousand camels, they went forward. No sooner
had they landed than they found themselves in a land of thieves and
robbers. Jenkinson hastened to the Sultan of these parts, a noted
robber himself, to be kindly received by the Tartar Prince, who set
before him the flesh of a wild horse and some mare's milk. Then the
little English party travelled on for three weeks through desolate
land with no rivers, no houses, no inhabitants, till they reached the
banks of the Oxus. "Here we refreshed ourselves," says the explorer,
"having been three days without water and drink, and tarried there
all the next day making merry with our slain horses and camels." For
a hundred miles they followed the course of this great river until
they reached another desert, where they were again attacked by bands
of thieves and robbers.

It was Christmas Eve when they at last reached Bokhara, only to find
that the merchants were so poor that there was no hope of any trade
worth following, though the city was full of caravans from India and
the Far East. And here they heard that the way to Cathay was barred
by reason of grievous wars which were going on. Winter was coming on;
so Jenkinson remained for a couple of months before starting on his
long journey home. With a caravan of six hundred camels he made his
way back to the Caspian, and on 2nd September he had reached Moscow
safely with presents of "a white cow's tail of Cathay and a drum of
Tartary" for the King, which seemed to give that monarch the greatest
pleasure. He evidently stayed for a time in Russia, for it is not till
the year 1560 that we find him writing to the Merchant Adventurers
that "at the next shipping I em