em with fire; and upon this, they said, they would
go away, and do us no further harm, otherwise they would destroy us all.
Our men looked very blank at this message, and began to stare at one
another to see who looked with the most guilt in their faces; but nobody
was the word--nobody did it. The leader of the caravan sent word he was
well assured that it was not done by any of our camp; that we were
peaceful merchants, travelling on our business; that we had done no harm
to them or to any one else; and that, therefore, they must look further
for the enemies who had injured them, for we were not the people; so they
desired them not to disturb us, for if they did we should defend
ourselves.

They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer: and a great
crowd of them came running down in the morning, by break of day, to our
camp; but seeing us so well posted, they durst come no farther than the
brook in our front, where they stood in such number as to terrify us very
much; indeed, some spoke of ten thousand. Here they stood and looked at
us a while, and then, setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd of arrows
among us; but we were well enough sheltered under our baggage, and I do
not remember that one of us was hurt.

Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and expected
them on the rear: when a cunning fellow, a Cossack of Jarawena, calling
to the leader of the caravan, said to him, "I will send all these people
away to Sibeilka." This was a city four or five days' journey at least
to the right, and rather behind us. So he takes his bow and arrows, and
getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear directly, as it were
back to Nertsinskay; after this he takes a great circuit about, and comes
directly on the army of the Tartars as if he had been sent express to
tell them a long story that the people who had burned the Cham
Chi-Thaungu were gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he
called them--that is to say, Christians; and that they had resolved to
burn the god Scal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguses. As this fellow was
himself a Tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so
well that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violent hurry
to Sibeilka. In less than three hours they were entirely out of our
sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor whether they went to
Sibeilka or no. So we passed away safely on to Jarawena, where there was