We Made Long Marches,
Travelling Without Any Halt From Four In The Afternoon To Eight In
The Morning.
Arriving at a valley where travellers seldom escape being plundered,
we were obliged to double our pace, and were
So happy as to pass it
without meeting with any misfortune, except that we heard a bird
sing on our left hand - a certain presage among these people of some
great calamity at hand. As there is no reasoning them out of
superstition, I knew no way of encouraging them to go forward but
what I had already made use of on the same occasion, assuring them
that I heard one at the same time on the right. They were happily
so credulous as to take my word, and we went on till we came to a
well, where we stayed awhile to refresh ourselves. Setting out
again in the evening, we passed so near a village where these
robbers had retreated that the dogs barked after us. Next morning
we joined the fathers, who waited for us. After we had rested
ourselves some time in that mountain, we resolved to separate and go
two and two, to seek for a more convenient place where we might hide
ourselves. We had not gone far before we were surrounded by a troop
of robbers, with whom, by the interest of some of the natives who
had joined themselves to our caravan, we came to a composition,
giving them part of our goods to permit us to carry away the rest;
and after this troublesome adventure arrived at a place something
more commodious than that which we had quitted, where we met with
bread, but of so pernicious a quality that, after having ate it, we
were intoxicated to so great a degree that one of my friends, seeing
me so disordered, congratulated my good fortune of having met with
such good wine, and was surprised when I gave him an account of the
whole affair. He then offered me some curdled milk, very sour, with
barley-meal, which we boiled, and thought it the best entertainment
we had met with a long time.
Chapter XIV
They are betrayed into the hands of the Turks; are detained awhile
at Mazna; are threatened by the Bassa of Suaquem. They agree for
their ransom, and are part of them dismissed.
Some time after, we received news that we should prepare ourselves
to serve the Turks - a message which filled us with surprise, it
having never been known that one of these lords had ever abandoned
any whom he had taken under his protection; and it is, on the
contrary, one of the highest points of honour amongst them to risk
their fortunes and their lives in the defence of their dependants
who have implored their protection. But neither law nor justice was
of any advantage to us, and the customs of the country were doomed
to be broken when they would have contributed to our security.
We were obliged to march in the extremity of the hot season, and had
certainly perished by the fatigue had we not entered the woods,
which shaded us from the scorching sun.
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