ow
reduced to a very small caravan, having only thirty-two horses and camels
in all, which passed for mine, though my new guest was proprietor of
eleven of them. It was natural also that I should take more servants
with me than I had before; and the young lord passed for my steward; what
great man I passed for myself I know not, neither did it concern me to
inquire. We had here the worst and the largest desert to pass over that
we met with in our whole journey; I call it the worst, because the way
was very deep in some places, and very uneven in others; the best we had
to say for it was, that we thought we had no troops of Tartars or robbers
to fear, as they never came on this side of the river Oby, or at least
very seldom; but we found it otherwise.

My young lord had a faithful Siberian servant, who was perfectly
acquainted with the country, and led us by private roads, so that we
avoided coming into the principal towns and cities upon the great road,
such as Tumen, Soloy Kamaskoy, and several others; because the Muscovite
garrisons which are kept there are very curious and strict in their
observation upon travellers, and searching lest any of the banished
persons of note should make their escape that way into Muscovy; but, by
this means, as we were kept out of the cities, so our whole journey was a
desert, and we were obliged to encamp and lie in our tents, when we might
have had very good accommodation in the cities on the way; this the young
lord was so sensible of, that he would not allow us to lie abroad when we
came to several cities on the way, but lay abroad himself, with his
servant, in the woods, and met us always at the appointed places.

We had just entered Europe, having passed the river Kama, which in these
parts is the boundary between Europe and Asia, and the first city on the
European side was called Soloy Kamaskoy, that is, the great city on the
river Kama. And here we thought to see some evident alteration in the
people; but we were mistaken, for as we had a vast desert to pass, which
is near seven hundred miles long in some places, but not above two
hundred miles over where we passed it, so, till we came past that
horrible place, we found very little difference between that country and
Mogul Tartary. The people are mostly pagans; their houses and towns full
of idols; and their way of living wholly barbarous, except in the cities
and villages near them, where they are Christians, as they call
t