_How Captain_ Smith _was sent Prisoner thorow the_ Black _and_
Dissabacca _Sea in_ Tartaria; _the Description of those seas, and his
usage._
This Noble Gentlewoman took sometime occasion to shew him to some Friends,
or rather to speak with him, because she could speak Italian, would feign
her self sick when she should go to the _Bannians,_ or weep over the
Graves, to know how _Bogal_ took him Prisoner; and if he were as the
_Bashaw_ writ to her, a _Bohemian_ Lord conquered by his Hand, as he had
many others, which ere long he would present her, whose Ransomes should
adorn her with the glory of his Conquests.
But when she heard him protest he knew no such matter, nor ever saw
_Bogal,_ till he bought him at _Axopolis,_ and that he was an
_English-man,_ only by his Adventures made a Captain in those Countries.
To try the truth, she found means to find out many who could speak
_English, French, Dutch,_ and _Italian,_ to whom relating most part of
these former Passages she thought necessary, which they so honestly
reported to her, she took (as it seemed) much compassion on him; but having
no use for him, lest her Mother should sell him, she sent him to her
Brother, the _Timor Bashaw_ of _Nalbrits,_ In the Country of _Cambia,_ a
Province in _Tartaria._
{MN-1} Here now let us remember his passing, in this speculative course
from _Constantinople_ by _Sander, Screw, Panassa, Musa, Lastilla,_ to
_Varna,_ an ancient City upon the _Black Sea._ In all which Journey,
having little more liberty, than his eyes judgment, since his Captivity,
he might see the Towns with their short Towers, and a most plain, fertile,
and delicate Country, especially that most admired place of _Greece,_ now
called _Romania,_ but from _Varna,_ nothing but the _Black Sea_ Water,
till he came to the two Capes of _Taur_ and _Pergilos,_ where he passed
the Streight of _Niger,_ which (as he conjectured) is some ten Leagues
long, and three broad, betwixt two Low-lands, the Channel is deep, {MN-2}
but at the entrance of the Sea _Dissabacca,_ there are many great
Osie-shaulds, and many great black Rocks, which the _Turks_ said were
Trees, Weeds, and Mud, thrown from the In-land Countries, by the
Inundations and violence of the Current, and cast there by the Eddy. They
Sailed by many low Isles, and saw many more of those muddy Rocks, and
nothing else, but salt Water, till they came betwixt _Sufax_ and
_Curuske,_ only two white Towns at the entrance of the River _Bruapo_
appeared: In six or seven days Sail, he saw four or five seeming strong
Castles of Stone, with flat tops and Battlements about them, but arriving
at _Cambia,_ he was (according to their custom) well used. The River was
there more than half a Mile broad. The Castle was of a large
Circumference, fourteen or fifteen foot thick, in the Foundation some six
foot from the Wall, is a _Pallizado,_ and then a Ditch of about forty foot
broad full of Water. On the West side of it, is a Town, all of low flat
Houses, which as he conceived, could be of no great strength, yet it keeps
all them barbarous Countreys about it in admiration and subjection. After
he had stayed there three days; it was two days more before his Guides
brought him to _Nalbrits,_ where the _Tymor_ was then resident, in a great
vast Stone Castle, with many great Courts about it, invironed with high
Stone Walls, where was quartered their Arms, when they first subjected
those Countries, which only live to labour for those Tyrannical _Turks._
* * * * *
{MN-1} _How he was sent into_ Tartaria.
{MN-2} _The Description of the_ Dissabacca _Sea._
{MN} To her unkind Brother, this kind Lady writ so much for his good
usage, that he half expected, as much as she intended; for she told him,
he should there but sojourn to learn the Language, and what it was to be a
_Turk,_ till time made her Master of her self. But the _Tymor,_ her
Brother, diverted all this to the worst of Cruelty; for within an hour
after his arrival, he caused his _Drubman_ to strip him naked, and shave
his Head and Beard so bare as his Hand, a great Ring of Iron, with a long
stalk bowed like a Sickle, revitted about his Neck, and a Coat made of
_Ulgries_ Hair, guarded about with a piece of an undrest Skin. There were
many more Christian Slaves, and near an hundred _Forsados_ of _Turks_ and
_Moors,_ and he being the last, was slave of Slaves to them all. Among
these slavish Fortunes, there was no great choice; for the best was so
bad, a Dog could hardly have lived to endure, and yet for all their pains
and labours, no more regarded than a Beast.
* * * * *
{MN} Smith's _usage in_ Tartaria.
* * * * *