The Inhabitants Of This
Country Are Very Miserable, And The Only Productions Are Hemp, Wax, And
Silk.
On the 1st of July we arrived near Phasis, followed by a vessel filled
with Mingrelians, who seemed all to be fools or drunk.
Quitting the vessel,
we went up the river in a boat, passing an island in the mouth of the
river, where Oetes, the father of Medea the enchantress, is said to have
reigned. On this island we spent the night, and were sadly infested by
midges. Next day we went up the river in the boat, passing the city of
Asso, which stands on its banks in the midst of a forest. I here found one
Nicholas Capella, of Modena, who commanded in these parts, and a
Circassian woman named Martha, who had been the slave of a person of Genoa,
but was now married. This Martha received me with much kindness, and with
her I staid two days. Phasis is a city of Mingrelia, subject to prince
Bendian, whose dominions extend only about three days journey in length.
The country is very mountainous, and full of forests. The inhabitants are
so fierce and savage, that they might be accounted wild beasts. Their
principal drink is beer; they have some corn and wine, but in very small
quantities; boiled millet being their ordinary food, which is a very poor
kind of nourishment. They sometimes procure wine and salted fish from
Trebisond, and import salt from Kaffa, without which they could not exist.
Their only productions consist in a small quantity of hemp and wax.
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