In Short, I Have Omitted Nothing
Deserving Of Notice, That Occurred During My Three Years Journey, Having
Left Venice On The First Day Of Lent, In The Year 1473, And Having
Returned To My Beloved Country On The 24th Of February In The Year
1476[1]."
SECTION I.
_The Ambassador, after passing through Germany, Poland, Russia, and the
Tartarian Deserts, or Upper European Sarmatia, arrives at Caffa or
Theodosia._
I left Venice on the 23d of February, in the year 1473, accompanied by the
venerable priest Stephen Testa, who acted as my chaplain and secretary,
and by Demetrius de Seze, my interpreter, together with two servants,
Maffei de Bergamo, and John Ungaretti, all of us disguised in ordinary
German dresses, our money being concealed in the clothes of Stephen Testa.
We went by water in the first place to the church of _St Michael in
Murano_, where we heard mass, and received the benediction of the prior;
after which, we mounted our horses, which were there in waiting, and
reached Treviso[2] the same day. I anxiously wished to have procured some
person to accompany us on the journey who knew the road, but could not
meet with any, nor could I even procure a guide for hire. Leaving Treviso
on the 24th, we arrived that day at Cogiensi, now called Cornegliano[3];
and knowing the dangers and difficulties we must experience during our
long journey, we here confessed, and partook of the holy sacrament of the
eucharist, after which we resumed our journey.
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