So we pass'd fafely on to the City of Faravena, where there was a Garrison of Mufcovites, and there we refted five Days, the Caravan being exceedingly fatigued with the laft Day's hard march, and with want of Reft in the Night.

From this City we had a frightful Defart, which held us three and twenty Days march: We furnish'd our felves with fome Tents here, for the better accommodating our felves in the Night and the Leader of the Caravan, procured fixteen Carriages or Waggons of the Country, for carrying our Water and Provifions, and thefe Carriages were our Defence every Night round our little Camp; fo that had the Tartars appear'd, unless they had been very numerous, indeed, they would not have been able to hurt us.

We may well be fuppos'd to want Rest again after this long Journey; for in this Defart, we faw neither Houfe or Tree, or scarce a Bush; we faw abundance of the Sable-Hunters, as they call'd them: Thefe are all Tartars of the Mongul Tartary, of which this County is a Part, and they frequently attack fmall Caravans, but we faw no Numbers of them together; I was curious to fee the Sable Skins they catch'd, but could never speak with any of them, for they durft not come near us, neither durft we straggle from our Company, to go near them.

After we had pafs'd this Defart, we came in. to a Country pretty well inhabited; that is to fay, we found Towns and Caftles, fettled by the Czar of Mufcovy, with Garrifons of Stationa

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ry Soldiers to protect the Caravans, and defend the Country against the Tartars, who would other wife make it very dangerous travelling; and his Czarish Majefty has given such strict Orders for the well guarding the Caravans and Merchants, that if there are any Tartars heard of in the Country, Detachments of the Garrifons are always fent to fee the Travellers fafe from Station to Station.

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And thus the Governour of Adinskoy, who I had Opportunity to make a Vifit to, by means of the Scots Merchant who was acquainted with. him, offer'd us a Guard of fifty Men, if we thought there was any Danger to the next Station.

I thought long before this, that as we came nearer to Europe we fhould find the Country better peopled, and the People more civiliz'd, but I found my felf miftaken in both, for we had yet the Nation of the Tonguefes to pass through; where we faw the fame Tokens of Paganifm and Barbarity, or worse, than before, only as they were conquer'd by the Mufcovites, and entirely reduc'd, they were not fo dangerous; but for Rudeness of Manners, Idolatry, and Multi-theism no People in the World ever went beyond them: They are cloth'd all in Skins of Beasts, and their Houfes are built of the fame: You know not a Man from a Woman, neither by the Ruggedness of their Countenances or their Cloths; and in the Winter, when the Ground is cover'd with Snow, they live under Ground in Houfes like Vaults, which have Cavities going from one to another.

If the Tartars had their Cham-Chi-Toungu for a whole Village or Country, thefe had Idols in eve

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ry Hut and in every Cave; befides, they worship the Stars, the Sun, the Water, the Snow, and in a word, every thing that they do not understand, and they understand but very little, so that almost every Element, every uncommon thing, fets them a facrificing.

But I am no more to defcribe People than Countrys, any farther than my own Story comes to be concern'd in them: I met with nothing peculiar to my felf in all this Country, which I reckon was from the Defart which I spoke of last, at least 400 Miles, Half of it being another Defart, which took us up twelve Days fevere travelling, without Houfe, or Tree, or Bufh, but were oblig'd again to carry our own Provifions, as well Water as Bread. After we were out of this Defart, and had travell❜d two Days, we came to Janezay, a Mufcovite City or Station, on the great River Janezay; this River they told us parted Europe from Afia, tho' our Map-makers, as I am told, do not agree to it; however, it is certainly the Eaftern Boundary of the ancient Siberia, which now makes up a Province only of the vaft Muscovite Empire, but is it felf equal in Bigness to the whole Empire of Germany.

And yet here I obferv'd Ignorance and Paganifm, ftill prevail'd, except in the Muscovite Garr.fons; all the Country between the River Oby and the River Janezay is as entirely Pagan and the People as barbarous as the remoteft of the Tartars, nay, as any Nation for ought I know in Afia or America's I alfo found, which I obferv'd to the Mufcovite Governours who I had Opportunity to converse with, that the poor Pagans are not much the wifer or the nearer Christianity for being under the Muf

sovite Government, which they acknowledg'd was true enough, but, as they said, was none of their Bufinefs: That if the Czar expected to convert his Siberian, or Tonguese, or Tartar Subje&s, it fhould be done by fending Clergy-men among them, not Soldiers; and they added, with more Sincerity than I expected, that they found it was not fo much the Concern of their Monarch to make the People Chriftians, as it was to make them Subjects.

From this River to the great River Oby, we crofs'd a wild uncultivated Country, I cannot fay 'tis a barren Soil, 'tis only barren of People, and good Management, otherwise it is in it felf a most pleafant, fruitful and agreeable Country; what Inhabitants we found in it are all Pagans, except fuch as are fent among them from Ruffia, for this is the Country I mean on both Sides the River Oby, whither the Muscovite Criminals that are not put to Death, are banish'd, and from whence it is next to impoffible they fhould ever come away.

I have nothing material to fay of my particular Affairs till I came to Tobolski, the capital City of Siberia, where I continu'd fome time on the following Occafion.

We had been now almoft feven Months on our Journey, and Winter began to come on apace, whereupon my Partner and I call'd a Council about our particular Affairs, in which we found it proper, confidering that we were bound for England, and not for Mufcow, to confider how to dif pofe of our felves; they told us of Sledges and Rain Deer to carry us over the Snow in the Winter time, and indeed they have such Things that it would

would be incredible to relate the Particulars of, by which Means the Ruffians travel more in the Winter than they can in Summer, because in these Sleds they are able to run Night and Day; the Snow being frozen is one univerfal Covering to Nature, by which the Hills, the Vales, the Rivers, the Lakes, all are fmooth and hard as a Stone, and they run upon the Surface without any Regard to what is underneath.

But I had no Occafion to push at a Winter Journey of this kind: I was bound to England, not to Mufcow, and my Rout lay two Ways, either I must go on as the Caravan went till I came to Jeroflaw, and then go off Weft for Narva, and the Gulph of Finland; and fo either by Sea or Land to Dantzick, where I might poffibly fell my China Cargo to good Advantage, or I must leave the Caravan at a little Town on the Dwina, from whence I had but fix Days by Water to Arch Angel, and from thence might be fure of Shipping, either to England, Holland, or Hamburgh,

Now to go any of thefe Journeys in the Winter would ha' been prepofterous; for as to Dantzick, the Baltick would be frozen up, and I could not get Paffage, and to go by Land in thofe Countrys was far lefs fafe than among the Mongul Tartars; likewife to go to Arch-Angel in October, all the Ships would be gone from thence, and even the Merchants who dwell there in Summer, retire South to Muscow in the Winter when the Ships are gone; fo that I fhould have nothing but Extremity of Cold to encounter, with a Scarcity of Provisions, and muft lye there in an empty Town all the Winter; fo that upon the whole I thought it much my better Way to let the Cara