d his czarish majesty 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 garrison are always sent to see travellers safe from
station to station.

And thus the governor of Adinskoy, whom I had an opportunity to make a
visit to, by means of the Scots merchant, who was acquainted with him,
offered 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 should
find the country better peopled, and the people more civilized; but I
found myself mistaken in both, for we had yet the nation of the Tonguses
to pass through; where we saw the same tokens of paganism and barbarity,
or worse, than before; only as they were conquered by the Muscovites,
and entirely reduced, they were not so dangerous; but for the rudeness
of manners, idolatry, and polytheism, no people in the world ever went
beyond them. They are clothed all in skins of beasts, and their houses
are built of the same. You know not a man from a woman, neither by the
ruggedness of their countenances, or their clothes; and in the winter,
when the ground is covered with snow, they live under ground, in houses
like vaults, which have cavities or caves going from one to another.

If the Tartars had their Cham-Chi-Thaungu for a whole village, or
country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides, 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, sets them
a-sacrificing.

But I am no more to describe people than countries, any farther than my
own story comes to be concerned in them. I met with nothing peculiar to
myself in all this country, which I reckon was, from the desert which I
spoke of last, at least four hundred miles, half of it being another
desert, which took us up twelve days severe travelling, without house,
tree, or bush; but we were obliged again to carry our own provisions, as
well water as bread. After we were out of this desert, and had travelled
two days, we came to Janezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the great
river Janezay. This river, they told us, parted Europe from Asia, though
our map-makers, as I am told, do not agree to it; however, it is
certainly the eastern boundary of the ancient Siberia, w