As Nothing Was Locked Up, They
Took Such Victuals As They Could Find, And Then Went To Rest.
Sometimes the
masters of the houses in which they stopt would come in and find them
asleep, and be
Much amazed till the guide acquainted them with their story,
on which their astonishment became mingled with compassion, and they would
give the travellers every thing necessary without taking any remuneration;
by which means these twelve persons, with the three horses, did not spend
more than the four guilders they had received at Drontheim, during their
journey of fifty-three days.
On the road they met with horrid barren mountains and vallies, and with a
great number of animals like roes[1], besides abundance of fowls, such as
hasel-hens, and heath-cocks, which were as white as snow, and pheasants the
size of a goose[2]. In St Olave's church at Drontheim, they saw the skin of
a white bear, which was fourteen feet and a half long; and they observed
other birds, such as gerfalcons, goss-hawks[3], and several other kinds of
hawks, to be much whiter than in other places, on account of the coldness
of the country.
Four days before they reached Stegeborg, they came to a town called
Wadstena, in which St Bridget was born, and where she had founded a
nunnery, together with chaplains of the same order. At this place the
northern kings and princes have built a most magnificent church covered
with copper, in which they counted sixty-two altars. The nuns and chaplains
received the strangers with great kindness; and, after resting two days,
they set out to wait on the chevalier Giovanne Franco, who relieved them in
a manner that did honour to his generosity, and did every thing in his
power to comfort them in their distressed situation. A fortnight after
their arrival at his residence, a plenary indulgence was given at the
church of St Bridget, in Wadstena, to which people from Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden, and even from Germany, Holland, and Scotland, came to partake;
some of whom came from a distance of more than 600 miles. They went to the
indulgence at Wadstena along with Giovanne Franco, in order to 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 Wolga, the Black Sea and the Caspian; and
that he returned home by way of Moscow, Novogorod, Warsaw, and Francfort on
the Oder, and through Germany into Italy.
* * * * *
Josaphat Barbaro began his journey to Tanna in 1436, and explored that
country with great assiduity, and a spirit of inquiry that does him much
honour, partly by land and partly by water, for sixteen years. The plain of
Tartary is bounded on the east by the great river Ledil, Edil, or Wolga; on
the west by Poland; on the north by Russia; on the south by the Great or
Black Sea, Alania, Kumania or Comania, and Gazaria, all of which border on
the sea of Tebache[2]. Alania has its name from the people called Alani,
who call themselves As in their own language. These people were
Christians, and their country had been ravaged and laid waste by the
Tartars or Mongals. The province of Alania contains many mountains, rivers,
and plains, and in the latter there are many hills made by the hand of man,
serving for sepulchral monuments, on the top of each of which there is a
flat stone with a hole in it, in which a stone cross is fixed.
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