e rides away from our rear directly, as it were,
back to Nertzinskay; after this, he takes a great circuit about, and
comes to the army of the Tartars, as if he had been sent express to tell
them a long story, that the people who had burnt their Cham-Chi-Thaungu
were gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them;
that is to say, Christians; and that they were resolved to burn the god
Seal Isarg, belonging to the Tonguses.

As this fellow was a mere Tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he
counterfeited so well, that they all took it from him, and away they
drove, in a most violent hurry, to Sibeilka, which, it seems, was five
days journey to the south; and in less than three hours they were
entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor ever
knew whether they went to that other place called Sibeilka or no.

So we passed safely on to the city of Jarawena, where there was a
garrison of Muscovites; and there we rested five days, the caravan being
exceedingly fatigued with the last day's march, and with want of rest in
the night.

From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us three-and-twenty
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 carriages, or waggons, of the country, for carrying our
water and 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 want rest again after this long journey; for
in this desert we saw neither house or tree, or scarce a bush: we saw,
indeed, abundance of the sable-hunters, as they called them. These are
all Tartars of the Mogul Tartary, of which this country is a part; and
they frequently attack small caravans; but we saw no numbers of them
together. I was curious to see the sable skins they catched; but I could
never speak with any of them; for they durst not come near us; neither
durst we straggle from our company to go near them.

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 of Muscovy, with garrisons of stationary soldiers to protect the
caravans, and defend the country against the Tartars, who would
otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; an