After leaving Sarai, on the feast of All Saints, 1st November, we travelled south till the feast of St Martin, 11th November, when we came to the mountains of the Alani. In fifteen days travel we found no people, except at one little village, where one of the sons of Sartach resided, accompanied by many falconers, and falcons. For the first five days we did not meet a single man, and were a whole day and night in great danger of perishing for want of water. The Alani in some of the mountains, still hold out against the Tartars, so that two of every ten of the subjects of Sartach are obliged to guard certain passes in the mountains of Dagistan, lest the Alanians carry away the cattle in the plain. There are likewise certain Mahometans called Lesghis in these mountains who are not subjugated, so that the Tartars had to give us a guard of twenty men to see us safe beyond the Iron-gate. I was glad of this circumstance, as I had never seen the Tartars armed; and yet, of all those twenty, only two had habergions, which they said they had procured from the Alani, who are excellent smiths and armourers. In my opinion, the Tartars have small store of armour, except bows and arrows, and leather jackets; some have iron plates, and skull cups from Persia, and I saw two at the court of Mangu armed with clumsy and unwieldy coats of rough hog-skin. We found one castle of the Alanians, which had been subdued by the Tartars, about which there were many vineyards, and there we drank wine for the first time. On the following day we reached Derbent or the Iron-gate, built by Alexander the Macedonian, on a small plain between the sea and the mountains, one end of the city reaching to the shore, while the other extends a mile in length to the top of the mountain, on which is a strong castle. But the breadth of the city scarcely exceeds a stones throw. It has very strong walls, and turrets of large polished stones, with no trenches; but the Tartars have demolished the tops of the turrets, and the bulwarks of the walls.
Two days journey from Derbent we came to a city named Samaron[3], in which there were many Jews; near which we saw walls descending from the mountains to the sea; and leaving the way by the sea, because it turns to the east, we went up into the high countries, towards the south. Next day we passed through a valley, in which we could perceive the foundations of walls, stretching quite across between two mountains, which were themselves quite impassable. All these walls were erected of old by Alexander, for restraining the fierce nations of Scythian shepherds, inhabiting the wilderness, from invading the plains and cities of the southern countries of Persia and Asia Minor. There were also other walls and inclosures inhabited by Jews. Next day we came to a great city called Samach[4]; and after this we entered the great plain of Moan, through which runs the river Cur or Cyrus, from which the Curgi or Curdi have their name, whom we call Georgians, and which river passes through the middle of Tefflis, their capital. The Cur comes directly from the west, running east into the Caspian, and in it are excellent salmon[5]. In the plains of Moan or Mogan we again met with Tartars; and through this plain flows the Araxes, which comes from Armenia the Greater, called likewise the land of Ararat. To the west of that plain is Curgia[6], and in this plain the Crosmini, Krosmians or Korasmiens[7], formerly dwelt. Ganges or Kanja, a great city in the entrance of the mountains towards Georgia, was their capital, and prevented the Georgians from coming down to plunder the plain country. We next came to a bridge of boats fastened together with great iron chains, for crossing the united stream of the Kur and Araxes.
[3] Schabran, or Schabiran.--E.
[4] Shamaki, in Shirvan.--E.
[5] The Karai, on which Tefflis or Tiblis stands, runs from the north-west; the Demur, Araz or Araxes from the west; and both united form the Kur, which runs directly south into the Caspian.--E.
[6] Georgia or Gurgistan is to the north-west of the plain of Mogan.--E.
[7] These were the ancestors of the present Turks, who laid the foundation of the Osmanian or Othoman empire. Kanja, called Ganges or Ganghe in the text, was their capital.--Frost.
We proceeded thence, travelling up the river called pontem inidignatus Araxes, leaving Persia and the Caspian mountains on our left hand, towards the south, Curgia and the great sea on our right hand, towards the west[8]. Going all the way southwards[9], we passed through the meadows of Bacchu- khan, the general of the Tartar army on the Araxes, who has likewise subjugated the Curgi, the Turks, and the Persians. There is another Tartar governor of Persia at Tauris, named Argon, who presides over the tribute. But Mangu-khan has recalled both of these generals to make way for one of his brothers, as I formerly mentioned, who is to have the command in Persia. I was in the house of Bacchu, who gave me wine, while he drank cosmos; and, although it was the best new wine, I would rather have had cosmos, if he had offered it, being more restorative for such a half starved wretch as I then was. We ascended the Araxes to its head, and beyond the mountains, where it rises, is the good city of Arsorum [10], which belongs to the Soldan of Turkey [11]. When we departed from Bacchu, my guide went to Tauris to speak with Argon, and took my interpreter with him; but Bacchu caused me to be carried to Naxuam [12], formerly the capital of a great kingdom, and the greatest and fairest city in those parts, but the Tartars have now made it a wilderness. There were formerly eight hundred churches [13] of the Armenians here, which are now reduced to two very small ones, in one of which I held my Christmas as well as I could, with our clerk Gosset. Next day the priest of this church died, and a bishop with twelve monks came from the mountains to his funeral, for all the bishops of the Armenians are monks, and likewise most of those belonging to the Greeks [14].
[8] This passage is erroneous or corrupted. In travelling westwards up the Araxes or Araz, he had Persia on his left, to the south, Georgia on his right, to the north, and the Caspian sea and mountains of the Iron-gate were left behind him, to the east and north-east.--E.
[9] Westwards.--E.