CHAP. XVI.
How he levieth an Army; their Arms and Provision; how he divideth the
Spoil, and his Service to the Great Turk.
{MN} When he intends any Wars, he must first have leave of the Great Turk, whom he is bound to assist when he commandeth, receiving daily for himself and chief of his Nobility, Pensions from the Turk, that holds all Kings but Slaves, that pay Tribute, or are subject to any: signifying his intent to all his Subjects, within a Month commonly he raiseth his Army, and every Man is to furnish himself for three Months Victuals, which is parched Millet, or ground to Meal, which they ordinarily mingle with Water (as is said) hard Cheese or Curds dried, and beaten to powder, a little will make much Water like Milk, and dried Flesh, this they put also up in Sacks; The Chan and his Nobles have some Bread and Aquavitæ, and quick Cattel to kill when they please, wherewith very sparingly they are contented. Being provided with expert Guides, and got into the Country he intends to Invade, he sends forth his Scouts to bring in what Prisoners they can, from whom he will wrest the utmost of their Knowledge fit for his purpose; having advised with his Council, what is most fit to be done, the Nobility, according to their Antiquity, doth march; then moves he with his whole Army: if he find there is no Enemy to oppose him, he adviseth how far they shall Invade, commanding every Man (upon pain of his Life) to kill all the obvious Rusticks; but not to hurt any Women, or Children.
{MN} How he levieth an Army.
{MN} Ten, or fifteen thousand, he commonly placeth, where he findeth most convenient for his standing Camp; the rest of his Army he divides in several Troops, bearing ten or twelve Miles square before them, and ever within three or four days return to their Camp, putting all to Fire and Sword, but that they carry with them back to their Camp; and in this scattering manner he will invade a Country, and be gone with his Prey, with an incredible Expedition. But if he understand of an Enemy, he will either fight in Ambuscado, or flie; for he will never fight any Battel if he can chuse, but upon treble advantage; yet by his innumerable flights of Arrows, I have seen flie from his flying Troops, we could not well judge, whether his fighting or flying was most dangerous, so good is his Horse, and so expert his Bow-men; but if they be so intangled they must fight, there is none can be more hardy, or resolute in their defences.
{MN} The manner of his Wars.
{MN} Regaining his own Borders, he takes the tenth of the principal Captives, Man, Woman, Child, or Beast (but his Captains that take them, will accept of some particular Person they best like for themselves) the rest are divided amongst the whole Army, according to every Mans Desert and Quality; that they keep them, or sell them to who will give most; but they will not forget to use all the means they can, to know their Estates, Friends, and Quality, and the better they find you, the worse they will use you, till you do agree to pay such a Ransom, as they will impose upon you; therefore many great Persons have endured much misery to conceal themselves, because their Ransoms are so intolerable: their best hope is of some Christian Agent, that many times cometh to redeem Slaves, either with Money, or Man for Man; those Agents knowing so well the extream covetousness of the Tartars, do use to bribe some Jew or Merchant, that feigning they will sell them again to some other Nation, are oft redeemed for a very small Ransom.
{MN} How he divideth the spoil.
{MN} But to this Tartarian Army, when the Turk, commands, he goeth with some small Artillery; and the Nagayans, Precopens, Crims, Osovens, and Circassians, are his Tributaries; but the Perigorves, Oczaconians, Bialogordens, and Dobrucen Tartars, the Turk by Covenant commands to follow him, so that from all those Tartars he hath had an Army of an hundred and twenty thousand excellent, swift, stomackfull Tartarian Horse for foot they have none. Now the Chan, his Sultans and Nobility, use Turkiso, Caramanian, Arabian, Parthian, and other strange Tartarian Horses; the swiftest they esteem the best; seldom they feed any more at home, than they have present use for; but upon their Plains is a short Wood-like Heath, in some Countries like Gail, full of Berries, much better than any Grass.
{MN} How the Chan doth serve the Great Turk.
{MN} Their Arms are such, as they have surprised or got from the Christians or Persians, both Brest-plates, Swords, Scimitars, and Helmets; Bows and Arrows they make most themselves, also their Bridles and Saddles are indifferent, but the Nobility are very handsome, and well armed like the Turks, in whom consisteth their greatest Glory; the ordinary sort have little Armour, some a plain young Pole unshaven, headed with a piece of Iron for a Lance; some an old Christian Pike, or a Turks Cavarine, yet those Tattertimallions will have two or three Horses, some four or five, as well for service, as for to eat; which makes their Armies seem thrice so many as there are Soldiers. The Chan himself hath about his Person, Ten thousand chosen Tartars and Janizaries, some small Ordnance, and a white Mares Tail, with a piece of green Taffity on a great Pike, is carried before him for a Standard; because they hold no Beast so precious as a white Mare, whose Milk is only for the King and Nobility, and to Sacrifice to their Idols; but the rest have Ensigns of divers Colours.
{MN} Their Arms.
For all this miserable Knowledge, Furniture, and Equipage, the mischief they do in Christendom is wonderful, by reason of their hardness of Life and Constitution, Obedience, Agility, and their Emperours Bounty, Honours, Grace, and Dignities he ever bestoweth upon those, that have done him any memorable Service in the face of his Enemies.
{MN} The Caspian Sea, most Men agree that have passed it, to be in length about 200 Leagues, and in breadth an hundred and fifty, environed to the East, with the great Desarts of the Tartars of Turkomania; to the West, by the Circasses, and the Mountain Caucasus; to the North, by the River Volga, and the Land of Nagay; and to the South, by Media, and Persia: This Sea is fresh Water in many places, in others as salt as the great Ocean; it hath many great Rivers which fall into it, as the mighty River of Volga, which is like a Sea, running near Two thousand Miles, through many great and large Countries, that send into it many other great Rivers; also out of Saberia, Yaick, and Yem, out of the great Mountain Caucasus, the River Sirus, Arash, and divers others, yet no Sea nearer it than the black Sea, which is at least an hundred Leagues distant: In which Country live the Georgians, now part Armenians, part Nestorians; it is neither found to increase or diminish, or empty it self any way, except it be under Ground, and in some places they can find no Ground at Two hundred fathom.
{MN} A Description of the Caspian Sea.
Many other most strange and wonderful things are in the Land of Cathay, towards the North-east, and China towards the South-east, where are many of the most famous Kingdoms in the World, where most Arts, Plenty, and Curiosities are in such abundance, as might seem incredible, which hereafter I will relate, as I have briefly gathered from such Authors as have lived there.