My mameluke also met with five or six of his countrymen, young Circassian slaves, who were on their way to the residence of the sultan. He was desirous to regale them on their meeting; and, as he had heard there were Christians at Larande, he guessed they would not be without wine, and begged of me to procure him some. By dint of inquiry, and for half a ducat, I was enabled to purchase the half of a goatskin full, of which I made him a present. He showed great joy on receiving it, and instantly went to his companions, with whom he passed the whole night drinking. He himself swallowed so much, that on the morrow he was near dying on the road, but he cured himself by a method which is peculiar to them. In such cases, they have a very large bottle full of water, and as their stomach becomes empty, they drink water as long as they are able, as if they would rinse a bottle, which they throw up, and then drink of it again. He was thus employed on the road until mid-day, when he was perfectly recovered.
From Larande we went to Qulongue, called by the Greeks Quhonguopoly[467]. These places are two days' journey distant from each other. The country is fine, and well furnished with villages, but wants water, and has no trees but such as have been planted near houses for their fruit, nor any other river but that which runs near the town. This town is considerable and commercial, defended by ditches en glacis, and good walls strengthened with towers, and is the best the karman possesses. There remains a small castle: formerly there was a very strong one in the centre of the town, but it has been pulled down to furnish materials to build the prince's palace.
I staid there four days, that the ambassador from Cyprus and the caravan might have time to arrive. When the ambassador came, I asked him when he intended to wait on the karman, and repeated my request to be present, which he promised to grant. There were, however, among his slaves four Greek renegadoes, one of whom was his usher-at-arms, who united in their efforts to dissuade him from it; but he replied that he saw no inconvenience, and besides, that I had shown such eagerness to witness the ceremony, that he should take pleasure in obliging me. He was apprized of the hour when he might make his obeisance to the prince, inform him of the object of his mission, and offer his presents; for it is an established custom in the east never to appear before a superior without bringing presents. His were six pieces of camlet of Cyprus, I know not how many ells of scarlet, forty sugar loaves, a peregrine falcon, two cross-bows, and a dozen of bolts. Some genets were sent him to carry the presents; and he and his attendants were mounted on horses, which the great lords, who had come to the palace to attend the prince during this ceremony, had left at the gate. The ambassador made use of one of them, but dismounted at the entrance of the palace, when we were ushered into a large hall where there might be about three hundred persons. The prince occupied the adjoining apartment, around which were arranged thirty slaves, standing; he was himself in a corner, seated on a carpet on the ground, according to the custom of the country, clad in a crimson and gold cloth, with his elbow leaning on a cushion of another sort of cloth of gold. Near him was his sword, his chancellor standing in front, and, at a little distance, three men seated.
The presents were first laid before him, which he scarcely deigned to look at; then the ambassador entered, attended by an interpreter, because he did not understand the Turkish language. After the usual reverences, the chancellor demanded his credential letters, which he read aloud. The ambassador then addressed the king by means of his interpreter, and said that the king of Cyprus had sent him to salute him, and to request that he would accept the presents now before him, as a mark of his friendship. The prince made no answer, but caused him to be seated on the ground after their manner, below the three persons before mentioned, and at some distance from the prince. He now inquired after the health of his brother the king of Cyprus, and was told that he had lost his father, and had commissioned him to renew the alliance that had subsisted between the two countries during the lifetime of the deceased, for which he was very anxious. The prince answered that he desired it as earnestly. He then questioned the ambassador when the late king died, the age of his successor, if he were prudent, if his country was obedient; and, as the answer to these last questions was 'Yes,' he seemed well pleased.
After these words, the ambassador was told to rise, which he did, and took leave of the prince, who did not move more at his departure than at his entrance. On leaving the palace, he found the same horses which had carried him thither; and, having mounted one of them, he was reconducted to his lodgings: but he was scarcely entered, when the ushers of arms presented themselves, for in these ceremonies it is customary to give them money, and the ambassador did not neglect it. He next went to pay his compliments to the son of the prince, to offer him presents and deliver his letters. He was seated like his father, with three persons near him; but when the ambassador made his reverence, he rose up, then reseated himself, and placed the ambassador above these three personages. As for us, who accompanied him, they placed us far behind. Having noticed a bench, I was about to seat myself on it without any ceremony; but I was pulled off, and made to bend my knees and crouch on the ground like the rest. On our return home, an usher of arms to the son visited us, as those of the father had done, who also received some money. These people, however, are satisfied with a little. The prince and his son, in their turn, sent the ambassador a present for his expenses, which is likewise one of their customs. The first sent fifty aspres, the second thirty. An aspre is the money of the country, and fifty are equal in value to a Venetian ducat.
I saw the prince go through the town in procession on a Friday, which is a holiday with them, when he was going to say his prayers. His guards were about fifty horsemen, the greater part his slaves, and about thirty infantry, who surrounded him. He bore a sword in his belt, and had a tabolcan at the pommel of his saddle, according to the custom of the country. He and his son have been baptized in the Greek manner, to take off the bad smell; and I was told that the son's mother was a Christian. It is thus all the grandees get themselves baptized, that they may not stink. His territories are considerable: they begin one day's journey on this side Tharsis, and extend to the country of Amurath Bey[468], the other karman I spoke of, and whom we call the Grand Turk. In this line they are, as it is said, twenty leagues in breadth; but they are sixteen days' journey in length, as I know well from having travelled them. They extend, as they assured me, on the north-east, as far as the frontiers of Persia. The karman possesses also a maritime coast, called the Farsats. It extends from Tharsis to Courco, which belongs to the king of Cyprus, and to a port called Zabari. This district produces the most expert sailors known, but they have revolted against him.
The karman is a handsome prince, about thirty-two years old, and married to a sister of Amurath Bey. He is well obeyed by his subjects, although I have heard people say he was very cruel, and that few days passed without some noses, feet, or hands being cut off, or some one put to death. Should any man be rich, he condemns him to die, that he may seize his fortune; and it is said that the greater part of his nobles have thus perished. Eight days before my arrival he had caused one to be torn to pieces by dogs. Two days after this execution he had caused one of his wives to be put to death, even the mother of his eldest son, who, when I saw him, knew nothing of this murder. The inhabitants of the country are a bad race—thieves, cheats, and great assassins; they kill each other, and justice is so relaxed that they are never arrested for it.
I found at Couhongue Antoine Passerot, brother to Perrin Passerot, whom I had seen at Larande. They had both been accused of attempting to deliver Famagusta to the king of Cyprus, and had been banished. They had retired to the states of the karman; the one to Larande, the other to Couhongue. Antony had been unfortunate. Vice sometimes blinds people; and he had been caught with a Mohammedan woman, and the king had forced him to deny his religion to escape death; but he appeared to be still a stanch Catholic. In our conversations, he told me many particulars of the country, of the character and government of the prince, and especially as to the manner in which he had taken and delivered up Ramedan. The karman, he said, had a brother whom he banished from the country, and who took refuge at the court of the sultan, where he found an asylum. The sultan did not dare to declare war against him, but gave him to understand, that, unless he delivered Ramedan into his hands, he would send his brother with troops so to do. The karman made no hesitation, and rather than fight with him committed an infamous treason in regard to his brother-in-law. Antony added, that he was weak and cowardly, although his people are the bravest in all Turkey. His real name is Imbreymbas; but he is called karman, from his being the lord of the country. Although he is allied to the Grand Turk, having married his sister, he detests him for having taken from him a portion of the karman. He is, however, afraid to make war on him, as he is the stronger; but I am persuaded that if he saw him successfully attacked by the Europeans he would not leave him in peace.
In traversing his country, I passed near the frontiers of another, called Gasserie[469], which is bounded on one side by the karman, and on the other by the high mountains of Turcomania that extend towards Tharsis and Persia. Its lord is a valiant warrior, called Gadiroly[470], who has under his command thirty thousand Turcoman men-at-arms, and about one hundred thousand women, as brave and as fit for combat as men[471]. There are four lords continually at war with each other—Gadiroly, Quharaynich, Quarachust, and the son of Tamerlane, who is said to govern Persia.
Antony told me, that when I quitted the mountains on the other side of Eregli, I had passed within half a day's journey of a celebrated town[472] where the body of St. Basil is interred, and spoke of it in such a manner that I had a wish to see it; but he so strongly represented that I should lose more by separating myself from the caravan, and expose myself to great risks when travelling alone, that I renounced all thoughts of it. He owned to me that his intentions were to accompany me to my lord the duke; for that he had no desire to become a Saracen, and that if he had entered into any engagements on this head it was solely to escape death. It had been ordered that he should be circumcised, and he was expecting the execution of it daily, which gave him many fears. He was a very handsome man, about thirty-six years old. He told me also that the natives offer up public prayers in their mosques, like as we do in our churches on Sundays, in behalf of Christian princes, and for other objects which we ask from God. Now one of the things they pray to God for is, to deliver them from the coming of such a man as Godfrey de Bouillon.