o inquire if
there were any ships bound for Germany or England, there being always a
great concourse of people on such occasions. The chevalier was five days on
the road, and had more than 100 horses in his train. At Wadstena they took
leave of their beneficent countryman, who furnished them amply with money
and clothes for their journey, and ordered his son Matthew, a very amiable
young man, to accompany them eight days journey on their way to Lodese, on
the river Gotha; and where he lodged them in his own house for some time,
till the ship in which they were to embark was ready to sail The chevalier
Franco lent them his own horses all the way from his castle of Stegeborg;
and, as Quirini was ill of a fever, he mounted him on a horse which had a
wonderfully easy pace.

From Lodese, three of Quirini's crew went home in a vessel bound for
Rostock, and eight of them accompanied him to England, where they came to
their friends in London, by way of Ely and Cambridge. After residing two
months at London, they took shipping thence for Germany; and, travelling
thence by way of Basil, in Switzerland, they arrived, after a journey of
twenty-four days, in safety and good health at Venice.

[1] The Rein-deer, Cervus tarandus, Lin.--Forst.

[2] Probably the Tetrao lagopus, Lin.--Forst.

[3] Falco Gyrfalcus, and Falco astur.--Forst.

CHAP. XIX.

_Travels of Josaphat Barbaro, Ambassador from Venice to Tanna, now called
Asof, in 1436_[1].

INTRODUCTION.

Josaphat Barbaro, a Venetian, was sent, in the year 1436, by the republic
of Venice, as ambassador to Tanna, now called Asof, which at that time was
in the hands of the Genoese. This relation was printed in a small and
scarce collection at the Aldus press in Venice, by Antonio Minutio in 1543,
and was afterwards inserted in the collection of Giovanne Baptista Ramusio.
The following is an abstract of that journey. He went afterwards into
Persia in 1471, as ambassador to Ussum Hassan, or Assambei, a Turkomanian
prince of the white weather tribe, and was sixteen years among the Tartars;
and on his return to his native country wrote an account of both these
expeditions. He died at Venice at a very advanced age, in 1494.

These travels are not given in any regular order, nor is any itinerary
mentioned. It would appear that he resided for some time at Tanna, now
Asof, making several journeys into the Crimea, and among the nations which
inhabit between the Don and the Wol