JOURNEY TO THE CRIMEA.
I left Assov in company with the army of Geraï Khán of eighty thousand men, and twenty thousand Infidels of Moldavia and Valachia, and crossed the Tanais with them, which disembogues at the end of the sea of Assov. The water being shallow in the great Don, it was passed by eight hundred thousand horsemen without the least difficulty, the water reaching only to the stirrups. The Tátárs tied their jacks and luggage to the tails of their horses, and in the space of twenty-one hours, the whole army reached the opposite steppes of Heihát.
At the station of Búrebaí, opposite to the western side of Assov, a branch of the Don flows in its way to the sea of Assov, where it disembogues in three different channels; as it runs through reeds for a great distance, it is not very sweet: the complexion of the inhabitants on its shores is yellow, and they have a kind of excrescence or crop on the neck. The whole army halted here, as on a pleasant flowery meadow, and three hundred horses were slaughtered and eaten up that evening. It was here that I ate horseflesh for the first time. Though I belonged to the Tátár Khán, yet I lived with Kiá Beg of the tribe of Mássúrlí, who have their Yúrds (encampments) in Crimea; the district of Mankis Eli on the side of Gozlava is their Yúrd. Their horses are extremely fat, and their flesh can hardly be distinguished from roes’ flesh, and is easy to digest. Next morning the kettle-drums beat, and after a march of nine hours we arrived at the river Sud, which the whole army crossed, and halted on the other side, but the ground being extremely marshy, one hundred horses and fifty slaves were lost in the marshes. This river issues from the western mountains of Russia and here enters the sea of Assov. The name Sud or milk-river is derived from its whitish colour, which it contracts from the different metallic strata over which it passes in its course. It is not good for drinking, and causes crops or swellings on the necks of those who drink of it. There are seventy cultivated towns and villages on both sides of this river, but they are not very flourishing on account of the depredations of the Crimea Tátárs. These places all belong to the Russians.
We left this place and came to the river Mús, a large river which we passed over with the greatest difficulty at this cold season, the arms being all put in leather jacks. It is fresh water like that of the Don, Dnieper, and Danube, and contains excellent fish. It comes from the northern mountains of Russia. We crossed it, and next day when the Kettle-drums were beaten for departure, the snow had fallen three cubits deep. We slept that night on the snow of the field of Kipchák, and arrived next day at the station of Búrúmbaí; here we slept again on the snow, and on the following day after sixteen hours ride, reached the frontier of Crimea.
The moment we entered the castle of Orághzí, Kara Rejíb Aghá, the Courier of the great Vezír Kara Mustafa Páshá, with twenty horsemen arrived from Constantinople, and after having heard the sad story of the impossibility to take Assov, took letters from the Khán, and returned to Constantinople. I poor Evlíya entered the town of Bágcheseraï with the Khán, and was assigned a house there on the borders of the valley of Chúrúksú (rotten water) where I quietly passed the winter without travelling one step. But the Khán to prevent the Infidels sending reinforcements to the castle of Assov, made three excursions with between forty and fifty thousand horsemen even up to the guns of Assov, bringing back prisoners. His Vezír (the Kalgha Sultán) made also three expeditions into the interior of Russia, and returned with ten thousand slaves and a great deal of booty to Crimea. In the beginning of spring came Hassan Aghá the Chamberlain of the Sublime Porte bringing to the Khán twelve thousand ducats as boot-money, and an Imperial diploma commanding him to be ready to take the field, with the commencement of the fine season, against Assov. The Khán received the orders with all signs of submission and duty, the horses were put to feed in the meadows for forty days, after which the army broke up again to return to Assov, the garrison of which, weighing all the hardships of siege, their losses, and the impossibility of holding the fortress finally against the Ottoman power, abandoned it and fled with their arms and effects to different other Castles.
The Tátár Khán having arrived on the border of the river Sud, heard of the flight of the garrison from some prisoners he had taken, and made the greatest possible haste to reach the fortress. He found it empty, not only of men, but also of animals, neither dog, cat nor mouse being seen; only one Genoese tower remained standing. The Tátár Khán then sent the welcome news to Constantinople. On the eleventh day some Russian spies coming from Constantinople were taken and brought before the Tátár Khán. They confessed freely and openly, that there were forty spies at the Port, who, having been aware of the immense preparations of the Ottoman Army, had given notice to the garrison to leave the Castle, and that arriving there themselves, they had fallen into the hands of the Tátárs. These three spies were beheaded. On the 13th day of this month the Ottoman army arrived with great pomp, commanded by Chowán Kapújí-báshí Vezir Mohammed Páshá, and found the fortress empty. They ascribed it at first to some infernal stratagem of the Infidels, and waited three days, on the fourth day Moslim prayer was proclaimed, and all the Moldavians and Valachians were commanded to work on the foundations and to build them anew. They dug three days till they came to springs of water; the ships were all busy carrying stones from an old Convent in the island of Timúrlenk, and the work of building was begun. In one month two towers were finished, stronger than the former Genoese towers, and the histories of Crimea record the date of its building and name of the builder. It was declared the seat of a Sanjak Beg belonging to the government of Kaffa, a Begler-Beg was left as commander with twenty regiments of Janissaries, six regiments of artillerymen, ten regiments of armourers, seven thousand Tátárs, seven Sanjak Begs, and twelve Alaï Begs, with twenty-six thousand men; seventy large guns on the bulwarks, and three hundred small ones on the border of the ditch. The complete repair and fitting out cost the sum of five thousand purses. During its building the Tátárs made seven inroads into Russia, and returned with from fifteen to twenty thousand prisoners to the Ottoman camp, so that the prisoners were sold for no more than ten piastres each. At last the King of the Moscovites imploring pardon and crying out, Amán! Amán! (pardon O Family of Osmán!) sent ambassadors to Constantinople. The building being nearly finished, the Commander-in-Chief Mahommed Páshá returned to Constantinople, and the rest of the army got permission to return to their homes. I again followed the tribe of Mássúrlí, and came with them to Crimea. We took our pleasure for twenty days in Bágcheseraï, then got permission from the Khán to return to Constantinople, with a present of a purse of piastres, three slaves, a sable pelisse, and a caftán. The Kalgha Sultán and Núr-ud-dín Sultán (the two first dignities of the Tátár court) and fourteen Aghás, gave me a slave each, so that I had a number of slaves and four purses of money; to these slaves I added the eighteen which I had acquired on my travels from Trebisonde to Mingrelia and Abaza, took leave of the Khán and all the great men, and mounted on the horses of the Kalgha-Sultán, began my journey in company with some friends, who remained with me till we arrived at Káchidere. There we parted, all my friends returned to Bágcheseraï, and I continued my way to the south for the space of six hours to Báliklava.
Description of the Castle of Báliklava.
Prevented by warlike expeditions from visiting with leisure the curiosities of Crimea, I dare not give a description of it; such is also the case with the castle of Báliklava. Having embarked here with three hundred persons on board of the Shaika of Úchelí Sefer Reis, I slept on board, troubled by heavy dreams; on the next day I went on shore, to do away the evil of the night by some alms, and next day got clear of the port in an evil hour, succeeded, as the text of the Korán says, by worse days. One day and one night we went straight before the wind, and were then about the middle of the Black Sea. The mountains of Báliklava and Súlúyár had disappeared, neither were those of Sinope and Amassra to be seen, and we were tossed about without well knowing where we were going to. All at once an easterly gale sprung up with thundering clouds, at the appearance of which the boatmen changed colour, and began to wring their hands; they looked at the compass, and then on each other, and already made up their minds to lose their souls. An old sailor said to them; “Lads (Dais!) don’t you see the forerunners of a tempest, what are you afraid of? Lower the topmast with the sail.” This they did, but the ship going too heavy, they threw the bags, mats, casks and trunks that were on deck into the sea; they stowed two hundred young prisoners below (Enbár) and closed the hatches. Thus the ship was lightened, but still terribly tossed by the effect of the currents. Verse:—
“If in the storm my bark drives on the strand,
What shall I do? none can the winds command.”