The Armenian Who Had Joined Us At Kaffa, Under
Pretence Of Being An Ambassador From Uzun-Hassan To The Pope, Was
Recognized By The Inhabitants Of This Village As An Impostor And A
Notorious Robber, And Many Were Astonished How We Had Escaped From His
Machinations:
I got rid of him therefore immediately, and made him
restore me a horse which I had lent him for the journey; after which I
procured a priest of an honest character to conduct me to Tauris.
Leaving
Reo with my new guide on the 26th of July, we ascended a mountain, and
came on the other side to a plain surrounded by hills, where we found a
village inhabited by Turks, near which we had to pass the night in the
open air, though the inhabitants treated us with decent civility. Next
morning we departed before day, having to pass another mountain, on the
side of which was a village inhabited by Turks, among whom we should have
run extreme hazard of our lives if they had seen us; but by using much
diligence we avoided this danger, and got down into an extensive plain,
full of fine pastures, and travelled with great expedition that we might
pass the night at a respectable distance from the lawless inhabitants of
the hills. On the 29th we passed the mountain of Noah, or _Ararat_, which
is so lofty that it is covered with snow the whole year. We were told
that many who had attempted to reach the top of this mountain had never
been more heard of, while others, on making the same attempt, said, on
their return, that it was quite inaccessible.
From this place forwards we travelled through extensive plains intermixed
with hills, and arrived on the 30th of July at a castle named _Chiagri_,
inhabited by Armenians. Finding abundance of bread, wine, and poultry in
this place, we rested here for a day, and then set out with a new guide
for Ecbatana or Tauris. Leaving Chiagri towards evening of the 1st August,
we came next day to an Armenian village at the foot of a mountain, where
we had to cross a river in boats, and were informed that Uzun-Hassan had
formerly gained a great victory near this place over the Tartars, having
hemmed them into a corner, where their army wasted away with famine and
disease. The ruler of these Tartars, named Sultan _Buzech_[2], was made
prisoner, and was afterwards put to death. We here saw, on our left hand,
eleven Armenian villages, near each other, who were Catholic Christians,
their bishop being under submission to the Roman pontiff. The country is
extremely agreeable, and is the most fertile of all the provinces of
Persia. We arrived on the 3d of August at a large village called Marerich,
near which we passed the night, and had to ride all the next day through
a plain country exposed to great heat, which was greatly aggravated, as
we could not procure a single drop of water for ourselves or our horses.
On the way we met several Turkmans, whose custom it is to encamp here and
there about the country, wherever they can find pasture for their cattle,
and to change their residence as the pastures become exhausted.
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