But very early on the day they were to have had an audience of the king, M. Caterino entered his room, and spoke to him with such convincing arguments, that, being backed up by Despina and by pity for the Caramanian monarch exiled from his home, and who, having come into his presence, supplicated, and entreated him not to abandon him in his adversity, the ambassadors were dismissed without ceremony. And having given immediate orders for war, he put his army in readiness; and he himself having arrived in great haste at the city of Betilis,[200] sent for M. Caterino, and said that he wished him to come with him to his army that he might see with what promptitude he had undertaken the war, partly for his own sake and for the safety of the kingdom of Persia, and partly incited by our Republic, and by the recent injury done to the Caramanian lord, his friend and ally, whom he could not desert, as he had thrown himself altogether into his hands.
These things M. Caterino heard with great delight, and thanked him with many words for the affection he had for our most illustrious Government, and joining one of his captains, called Amarbei Giusultan Nichenizza, went to make a muster of the king’s warriors, who, as he writes in a private letter, were one hundred thousand horse, reckoning attendants, who accompanied their masters; some of them and their horses armed after the manner of Italy, and some covered with strong, thick hides, able to save the wearer from any heavy blow. Others were clothed in fine silk with doublets quilted so thickly that they could not be pierced by arrows. Others had gilt cuirasses and coats of mail, with so many weapons of offence and defence, that it was a marvel to behold how well and skilfully they bore themselves in arms.[201] Their servants also were excellently mounted, with cuirasses of polished iron and in place of bucklers which our people use, they have round shields, with which they cover themselves, and make use of the keenest scimitars in battle; the masters made a total of forty thousand men, all brave soldiers, and their servants sixty thousand, and finer cavalry were never seen in any army: the men were tall and very muscular, and very dexterous in wielding their weapons, so that it is reported that a small troop of them would have routed ever so great a squadron of the enemy. The muster being completed, he made forced marches with the whole army towards the country of the enemy, and with him went Pirameto,[202] the Caramanian chief, and all the king’s sons who were valiant young men. And M. Caterino, who also wished to be with them, went to bid adieu to the Queen Despina; but the army marched ahead with such speed that he could not rejoin it, and therefore was much disgusted. Going on his way with a squadron of five hundred horse he was attacked in Giauas[203] by the people of the country, who caused them much loss; thus, having lost many soldiers, and having suffered several other inconveniences, he turned towards Tocat, and led them at last to the city of Carpeto,[204] where he heard, to his great comfort, that Ussun Cassano was soon to arrive. The Persian army entered Giauas in the month of September, and carried fire and sword through the country far and near, plundering and cutting people to pieces, to the great terror of the inhabitants, so that every one fled before this tempest. And passing Arsenga[205] and Tocat, he burnt the towns and villages everywhere with the same fury, and assaulted and took Carle, which belonged to the Caramanian.
Mustafà, the son of the Turk, who, with Acomat Pasha, was in Lulla, a city of Caramania, being alarmed at this, fled towards Cogno:[206] and removing his mother, sent her to Saibcacarascar,[207] four days’ journey in the interior, towards Constantinople. But the Persians coming towards Cogno, the Turk wrote letters to his son that he should retreat, and not rashly seek to come to blows with the enemy, because any little victory would raise their courage, and make them attempt anything. On account of these letters Mustafà, who knew that his father was right, retired to Cuteia,[208] where he found Daut[209] Pasha, Beglerbeg of Natolia, making great assemblies of people of war. The Grand Turk then did not think it right to linger lest his men, missing his presence, might lose spirit and allow the enemy boldly to enter the country and to capture the strongholds. On this account, having passed into Asia with his whole court, he expected soon to encounter Ussun Cassano with the Persian army. But having heard from his spies that the disturbances in those provinces arose from a captain of Ussun Cassano’s, who, with forty thousand horse, went plundering, burning, and slaughtering, and who just then was marching towards Bursia[210] to burn it (the king having remained behind with the rest of the army), the Turk despatched Mustafà with sixty thousand of the best cavalry of the army, who moved by forced marches towards the enemy, desirous of encountering them and of putting a stop to such devastation. The Persian army being warned of this, commenced a retreat, knowing themselves to be much inferior in number to the enemy; and, as they were loaded with booty and made slow progress, four thousand Turks who pursued at great speed under Armaut,[211] came up with them and at once attacked, when the Persians, beginning to fight bravely, pressed them hard, and routed them in a moment, and cut to pieces two thousand Turks with their leader Armaut. Scarcely was this action over when Mustafà arrived with the rest of his men, who, closing in one squadron, attacked the Persians fiercely; while the latter, on their side, resisted not less courageously. Both parties bore themselves bravely for many hours, and it is thought that anyhow the victory would have been on the side of the Persians, if they had not first fought with those four thousand horse, since Mustafà, who came up with fresh men, found them fatigued with that battle and with the journey, and thus remained the conqueror, although with great loss on his side.[212] The number of the slain is not given in the letters from which this history is taken; it is only mentioned that Usufcan,[213] the general of Ussun Cassano, was taken prisoner by the Turks, and that Pirameto,[214] the Caramanian Prince, fled and saved himself with a great part of the army. The whole of the succeeding winter the king and the Turk busied themselves in making fresh preparations for war, that they might in the spring again confront each other.
And Ussun Cassano, in the beginning of the summer, took the field with his army, and having captured some of the spies of the Turk, commanded their hands to be cut off and hung round their necks, and that they should be sent back to the Ottoman in this manner.
At this very time arrived letters for M. Caterino, written by M. Pietro Mocenigo, who was afterwards Doge, then Captain-General of the Sea, and M. Giosafat Barbaro[215] giving him intelligence, both of the presents which our most Illustrious Government was sending to the king, and of the arrival of the fleet on the coast of Caramania. And above all, he heard with great satisfaction of the castles which they had taken and restored to the generals of the Caramanian Prince; these letters filled Ussun Cassano with such joy and hope, that he ordered the news to be spread through the whole army, and commanded as a greater token of affection and honour towards our Republic, that at the sound of the trumpet, and Zamblacare,[216] the Venetian name should be lauded and saluted, and such was the din, that the noise might be heard at several miles’ distance.
The Turk also having made greater exertions than before, passed into Asia, and shut himself up in Amasia, a city of Cappadocia, which was the Sangiacato[217] of his son Bajazet,[218] who together with Mustafà, went with his father to this war, Gien,[219] his third son, remaining in Constantinople. And since the difficulty of leading armies into Persia consists in supplying provisions, it being the custom of the Persians to desolate the country for fifteen or twenty days’ journey on the side on which they expect an invasion; so that, whoever, in attacking Persia, does not go well provided with necessaries, either dies of hunger on the road, has to retire much to his dishonour, or else becomes a prey to the enemy. Mahomet, who had deliberated well about this with his people, after having made a good provision of victuals, divided all his army into five columns.
The first he led in person, in which, with the corps of Janissaries, were thirty thousand soldiers—the flower of the Turkish nation, so to speak.
The second, of another thirty thousand, Bajazet commanded.
Mustafà led the third, also of thirty thousand, including twelve thousand Wallachians, led by Basaraba, their captain, who came to the aid of the Turks in this war.
The fourth was under Asmurat Palæologus, a Turk, Beglerbeg of Roumania, numbering sixty thousand men, among whom were many of his Christian subjects.