In This Place We Took Up Our Lodgings With A Person Named
Arminius, Of The Catholic Faith.
In travelling through Georgia, we found
a few villages composed of huts, and some castles among the mountains,
but these were rare and distant.
On the 19th of July, being near the frontiers of Mingrelia, we chanced to
meet with Pangratius, king of Georgia, in the midst of a forest
surrounded by mountains, and went to pay our respects to him, when he
invited us to dinner. We had to sit on the ground, having a skin spread
before us instead of a table-cloth, and were served with roasted meat and
fowls, very ill dressed; but, by way of making amends, they frequently
presented us with large goblets of wine, as they seem to place all
dignity and merit in deep drinking. For this reason it is their custom,
at the conclusion of their meals, to challenge one another to drink, and
he who empties the greatest number of goblets, is held in highest esteem.
As the Turks drink no wine, their presence was some restraint that day on
their usual bacchanalian contests, and as we neither could nor would
compete with them, we were held in great contempt. The king was about
forty years old, and of large make, with a strong resemblance to the
Tartar countenance. We parted from the king of Georgia next day, and on
the 22d of July, on the confines of Mingrelia, we fell in with a Georgian
commander at the head of some troops, both cavalry and infantry who was
posted in this place to prevent injury from the disorders that had broke
out in Mingrelia, in consequence of the death of Bendian, prince of that
country. These people stopped, and frightened us with, many cruel menaces;
but at length, after being robbed of two quivers full of arrows, and
having to gratify them with some money, we escaped from them, and made
the best of our way to a distance. Leaving the public road, we struck off
into a thick wood, where we passed the night in prodigious apprehension.
On the following day, while approaching the city of _Cotati_[2], we met
some peasants in a narrow pass, who prevented us for some time from going
forwards, and even threatened to put us to death. After much altercation,
and many threats, they seized three horses belonging to the Turks[3],
which were with great difficulty redeemed for twenty ducats. On the
evening we reached Cutais, which is a royal fortress. While passing a
bridge over a river, early in the morning of the 24th of July, we were
again attacked by robbers, who came upon us suddenly, and, after many
threats, forced us to pay the full value of our horses, before they would
allow us to continue our journey. After passing this bridge, we entered
Mingrelia, where we followed our wonted custom of sleeping under the
canopy of heaven, though we had many worse inconveniencies and dangers to
encounter: for, on the 25th of July, having passed over a river by means
of rafts, we were conducted to the dwelling of a certain lady, named
_Maresca_, sister of the deceased prince Badian, who received us at first
with much civility, and treated us with bread and wine, after which we
were conducted into a field belonging to her, which was close shut on all
sides. On the morrow, when we were about to depart, we offered her a
present of twenty ducats, as a return for her hospitality, which at first
she pretended to refuse; but we soon discovered her treachery, as she
insisted on our paying two ducats as a ransom for each of our horses. We
expressed our astonishment at this rapacity, and endeavoured to represent
our inability to comply with such exorbitant demands, but all to no
purpose, and we were forced to comply, being afraid that she might even
have plundered us of every thing.
Leaving this rapacious dame, we arrived at _Phasis_ on the 27th of July,
some on horseback and others in boats, where we again lodged with
_Martha_ the Circassian lady, whom I formerly mentioned. After having run
many risks in our journey, we here learnt a piece of most afflictive news,
that the Turks had taken possession of Kaffa or Theodosia in the Crimea,
by which we were deprived of our last resource, and shut out apparently
from every hope of continuing our voyage homewards. Our distress on
receiving this intelligence may easily be conceived, and, in fact, we
were so much cast down, as not to know what measures to pursue, or to
which hand to turn us. Louis, the patriarch of Antioch, resolved upon
going through Tartary and Russia, with which route he was acquainted. It
was to no purpose that I urged the promises we had mutually come under at
the beginning of our journey, never to separate on any account. To this
he answered, that the unforeseen circumstances which had occurred, were a
sufficient warrant to every one to consult his own individual safety. I
insisted and beseeched him not to treat me with such unfeeling cruelty,
but all in vain, for he prepared to set off along with the Turkish
ambassador, who had been sent by Uzun-Hassan as his particular companion.
In this extremity I went to Marcus Ruffus, and the Turkish ambassador who
was joined with him by the king of Persia, to whom I mentioned my
intention of returning back to Uzun-Hassan. They pretended to approve my
plan, and even to join me, and we embraced as entering, into promise of
keeping together; but they secretly came to a determination of taking
their journey through the province of _Gorgore_, which is subject to
_Calcicanus_, and to the city of _Vati_,[4] which is on the frontiers of
the Turks, and pays tribute to the Grand Signior.
The patriarch set out on the 6th of August, and the next day Marcus
Ruffus followed him, accompanied by several Russians, partly on horseback,
and partly by means of boats.
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