In Chapter 37, the author says that he was present at the marriage festivities of a daughter of the sultan, Boursbaï, a monarch who ascended the throne in 1422; and as he did not lose his lord, Tchekre, until about the year 1424 or 1425, it follows that he must have gone to Egypt, at least for the second time, subsequently to the latter date, but by what route and for what purpose there are no means of determining; although this was probably the occasion of his passing the island of Imbros, and touching at the port of Salonica. During his sojourn in Egypt, the author was afforded the opportunity of witnessing the reception of foreign ambassadors at the Court of the Mamelouk monarch, some portion of the ceremonial observed upon those occasions reminding us of the brilliant doings in the palace of the Greek Emperors, amongst whose earliest predecessors those magnificent state formalities were introduced by the Romans, who had themselves adopted them from the Kings of Persia, after their conquests in the far East.
From Egypt, Schiltberger was sent into Palestine, when he visited several of the holy places, and to Arabia, where it may be taken for granted that he assisted at one of the customary Mahomedan pilgrimages. Being too devotedly attached to his own Church to entertain the least sympathy for Islamism, our traveller is careful to avoid saying anything that might be construed into a semblance of his having renounced his religion, under whatsoever circumstances; but that he must have done so, inevitably, may be accepted as an unquestionable fact, for where is the page in the history of Bajazet, of Timour, and of his successors, that tells of a Christian having been spared persecution, followed by torture and death? Nor is it credible that the presence of a slave, professing Christianity, would have been at all tolerated in the camps of those barbarous and fanatic rulers. Schiltberger has taken delight in supplying all the information he was able to obtain on the forms and solemnities of the Armenian and Greek Churches, showing at the same time the respect in which he held Saints in general, by never failing to relate the miracles attributed to them, for
“Our superstitions with our life begin;”
but he has equally proved his proficiency in Mahomedanism, in devoting no less than eleven chapters to an exposition of its history, doctrines, and legends.
Whether or not Schiltberger traversed the Hyjaz of Arabia, will possibly remain a controverted point; the probability is that he did do so, not from the shores of the Red Sea, but from Syria and Palestine. We find him describing from personal observation, first, the pelican, a bird which, according to Buffon, frequents the borders of Palestine and Arabia, and even the arid wastes of Arabia and Persia; then the “giant’s shin-bone”, that spanned a ravine between two mountains and served as a bridge; an indication that leads Professor Bruun to the neighbourhood of Kerak and Shaubek, on the beaten track to the Hyjaz. More than this, mention is made of the tomb of the prophet at a place called “Madina”, its situation and ornamentations being clearly explained; accuracy that is quite exceptional, as nearly all mediæval notices of the tomb of Mahomet place it at Mecca. If our author did indeed travel into Arabia from Palestine, he would have been the predecessor of Varthema (1503) by that route, and he is also the first European known to have visited the holy places of Islam.
Quitting Egypt, Schiltberger returned to the Crimea, afterwards accompanying his lord, “Manstzusch”, to the Caucasus, where he found the slave trade in full swing, a traffic he vigorously condemns by saying of the people, who sold even their own children, that they were “bös lüt”. Whilst in Circassia, at that time tributary to the Golden Horde, the Great Khan required of its ruler that “Manstzusch” should be expelled his territory. That prince being thus forced to change his residence, proceeded to Mingrelia, through Abhase and Soukhoum its chief town. An unhealthy country, says our author, when describing the peculiar customs, dress, and religion of the people.
It is singular that, although Schiltberger notices the existence of Christians at Samsoun, Joulad, in Georgia, the Crimea, and other places, he makes no mention of the large European community at Savastopoli, as Soukhoum was called by the Genoese, who, especially, were very numerous, and had had a consul at that port from the year 1354. That there were many Roman Catholics at Savastopoli is very certain, for the place was constituted a bishop’s see, a condition not at all gratifying to the native population which belonged to the Greek Church, as would appear from the following circumstance:—
In 1330, Peter, bishop of Senascopoli (sic) or Savastopoli, addressed a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of England, collectively, in which he complains of the oppression practised on Christians in the East, who were carried off into slavery; an infamous traffic he was unable to suppress because the local authorities, who belonged to the schismatic Greek religion, were inimical to him. He entreats the bishops of England to present the bearer of the letter, one Joachim of Cremona, to the warriors of England, who fight for God and aspire to power! That letter is preserved in the public library at Ratisbon, and can scarcely be supposed to have reached its destination at any time.
Being in Mingrelia, Schiltberger was in a Christian country temptingly situated on the borders of the Black Sea. It is most likely that he received sufficient encouragement from the people to induce him to attempt to regain his liberty, and, at a favourable moment, he and four of his Christian comrades made their escape and succeeded in reaching the coast at Poti,[7] where they had hoped to find some friendly vessel that would receive them. Failing in this, they rode along the shore to the hills in Lazistan, and one evening, after dark, had the good fortune to communicate, by means of signal fires, with a European ship off the land. Our traveller and his companions were obliged to prove their identity by repeating the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Credo, before the boat’s crew could be prevailed upon to take them off to the ship; and after a tedious voyage of many weeks, during which the vessel was chased by pirates and detained by contrary gales, and the crew had suffered from want of provisions, Constantinople was reached. There the runaways were kindly received and cared for by the emperor (John VIII. Palæologos), who placed them in charge of the patriarch, in whose house they lived. Schiltberger is full of admiration for the great palaces, the church of St. Sophia, and the magnificent walls of the imperial city; but not being free to move about as he pleased, during his long stay in it, the account of Constantinople and of its marvels is exceedingly meagre, when compared with the descriptions left by other visitors. Indeed, what little Schiltberger was able to do in the way of sight-seeing was effected surreptitiously, with the connivance of the patriarch’s servants, whom he accompanied on their errands as opportunities offered.