Smith being thus “refurnished,” made the tour of Italy, satisfied
himself with the rarities of Rome, where he saw Pope Clement the Eighth
and many cardinals creep up the holy stairs, and with the fair city of
Naples and the kingdom's nobility; and passing through the north he came
into Styria, to the Court of Archduke Ferdinand; and, introduced by an
Englishman and an Irish Jesuit to the notice of Baron Kisell, general
of artillery, he obtained employment, and went to Vienna with Colonel
Voldo, Earl of Meldritch, with whose regiment he was to serve.
He was now on the threshold of his long-desired campaign against the
Turks. The arrival on the scene of this young man, who was scarcely
out of his teens, was a shadow of disaster to the Turks. They had been
carrying all before them. Rudolph II., Emperor of Germany, was a weak
and irresolute character, and no match for the enterprising Sultan,
Mahomet III., who was then conducting the invasion of Europe. The
Emperor's brother, the Archduke Mathias, who was to succeed him, and
Ferdinand, Duke of Styria, also to become Emperor of Germany, were much
abler men, and maintained a good front against the Moslems in Lower
Hungary, but the Turks all the time steadily advanced. They had long
occupied Buda (Pesth), and had been in possession of the stronghold
of Alba Regalis for some sixty years. Before Smith's advent they had
captured the important city of Caniza, and just as he reached the ground
they had besieged the town of Olumpagh, with two thousand men. But the
addition to the armies of Germany, France, Styria, and Hungary of John
Smith, “this English gentleman,” as he styles himself, put a new face
on the war, and proved the ruin of the Turkish cause. The Bashaw of Buda
was soon to feel the effect of this re-enforcement.
Caniza is a town in Lower Hungary, north of the River Drave, and just
west of the Platen Sea, or Lake Balatin, as it is also called. Due north
of Caniza a few miles, on a bend of the little River Raab (which empties
into the Danube), and south of the town of Kerment, lay Smith's town
of Olumpagh, which we are able to identify on a map of the period as
Olimacum or Oberlymback. In this strong town the Turks had shut up the
garrison under command of Governor Ebersbraught so closely that it was
without intelligence or hope of succor.
In this strait, the ingenious John Smith, who was present in the
reconnoitering army in the regiment of the Earl of Meldritch, came
to the aid of Baron Kisell, the general of artillery, with a plan of
communication with the besieged garrison. Fortunately Smith had made
the acquaintance of Lord Ebersbraught at Gratza, in Styria, and had (he
says) communicated to him a system of signaling a message by the use
of torches. Smith seems to have elaborated this method of signals,
and providentially explained it to Lord Ebersbraught, as if he had a
presentiment of the latter's use of it. He divided the alphabet into
two parts, from A to L and from M to Z. Letters were indicated and
words spelled by the means of torches: “The first part, from A to L, is
signified by showing and holding one linke so oft as there is letters
from A to that letter you name; the other part, from M to Z, is
mentioned by two lights in like manner. The end of a word is signifien
by showing of three lights.”
General Kisell, inflamed by this strange invention, which Smith
made plain to him, furnished him guides, who conducted him to a high
mountain, seven miles distant from the town, where he flashed his
torches and got a reply from the governor. Smith signaled that they
would charge on the east of the town in the night, and at the alarum
Ebersbraught was to sally forth. General Kisell doubted that he should
be able to relieve the town by this means, as he had only ten thousand
men; but Smith, whose fertile brain was now in full action, and who
seems to have assumed charge of the campaign, hit upon a stratagem for
the diversion and confusion of the Turks.
On the side of the town opposite the proposed point of attack lay the
plain of Hysnaburg (Eisnaburg on Ortelius's map). Smith fastened two
or three charred pieces of match to divers small lines of an hundred
fathoms in length, armed with powder. Each line was tied to a stake at
each end. After dusk these lines were set up on the plain, and being
fired at the instant the alarm was given, they seemed to the Turks like
so many rows of musketeers. While the Turks therefore prepared to repel
a great army from that side, Kisell attacked with his ten thousand men,
Ebersbraught sallied out and fell upon the Turks in the trenches, all
the enemy on that side were slain or drowned, or put to flight.
And while the Turks were busy routing Smith's sham musketeers, the
Christians threw a couple of thousand troops into the town. Whereupon
the Turks broke up the siege and retired to Caniza. For this exploit
General Kisell received great honor at Kerment, and Smith was rewarded
with the rank of captain, and the command of two hundred and fifty
horsemen. From this time our hero must figure as Captain John Smith. The
rank is not high, but he has made the title great, just as he has made
the name of John Smith unique.
After this there were rumors of peace for these tormented countries; but
the Turks, who did not yet appreciate the nature of this force, called
John Smith, that had come into the world against them, did not intend
peace, but went on levying soldiers and launching them into Hungary.
To oppose these fresh invasions, Rudolph II., aided by the Christian
princes, organized three armies: one led by the Archduke Mathias and
his lieutenant, Duke Mercury, to defend Low Hungary; the second led
by Ferdinand, the Archduke of Styria, and the Duke of Mantua, his
lieutenant, to regain Caniza; the third by Gonzago, Governor of High
Hungary, to join with Georgio Busca, to make an absolute conquest of
Transylvania.
In pursuance of this plan, Duke Mercury, with an army of thirty
thousand, whereof nearly ten thousand were French, besieged
Stowell-Weisenberg, otherwise called Alba Regalis, a place so strong by
art and nature that it was thought impregnable.
This stronghold, situated on the northeast of the Platen Sea, was, like
Caniza and Oberlympack, one of the Turkish advanced posts, by means of
which they pushed forward their operations from Buda on the Danube.
This noble friend of Smith, the Duke of Mercury, whom Haylyn styles Duke
Mercurio, seems to have puzzled the biographers of Smith. In fact, the
name of “Mercury” has given a mythological air to Smith's narration and
aided to transfer it to the region of romance. He was, however, as we
have seen, identical with a historical character of some importance, for
the services he rendered to the Church of Rome, and a commander of
some considerable skill. He is no other than Philip de Lorraine, Duc de
Mercceur.'
[So far as I know, Dr. Edward Eggleston was the first to identify him.
There is a sketch of him in the “Biographie Universelle,” and a life
with an account of his exploits in Hungary, entitled: Histoire de Duc
Mercoeur, par Bruseles de Montplain Champs, Cologne, 1689-97]
At the siege of Alba Regalis, the Turks gained several successes by
night sallies, and, as usual, it was not till Smith came to the front
with one of his ingenious devices that the fortune of war changed. The
Earl Meldritch, in whose regiment Smith served, having heard from
some Christians who escaped from the town at what place there were the
greatest assemblies and throngs of people in the city, caused Captain
Smith to put in practice his “fiery dragons.” These instruments of
destruction are carefully described: “Having prepared fortie or fiftie
round-bellied earthen pots, and filled them with hand Gunpowder, then
covered them with Pitch, mingled with Brimstone and Turpentine, and
quartering as many Musket-bullets, that hung together but only at the
center of the division, stucke them round in the mixture about the
pots, and covered them againe with the same mixture, over that a strong
sear-cloth, then over all a goode thicknesse of Towze-match, well
tempered with oyle of Linseed, Campheer, and powder of Brimstone, these
he fitly placed in slings, graduated so neere as they could to the
places of these assemblies.”
These missiles of Smith's invention were flung at midnight, when the
alarum was given, and “it was a perfect sight to see the short flaming
course of their flight in the air, but presently after their fall, the
lamentable noise of the miserable slaughtered Turkes was most wonderful
to heare.”
While Smith was amusing the Turks in this manner, the Earl Rosworme
planned an attack on the opposite suburb, which was defended by a muddy
lake, supposed to be impassable. Furnishing his men with bundles of
sedge, which they threw before them as they advanced in the dark night,
the lake was made passable, the suburb surprised, and the captured
guns of the Turks were turned upon them in the city to which they had
retreated. The army of the Bashaw was cut to pieces and he himself
captured.
The Earl of Meldritch, having occupied the town, repaired the walls and
the ruins of this famous city that had been in the possession of the
Turks for some threescore years.
It is not our purpose to attempt to trace the meteoric course of Captain
Smith in all his campaigns against the Turks, only to indicate the large
part he took in these famous wars for the possession of Eastern Europe.
The siege of Alba Regalis must have been about the year 1601--Smith
never troubles himself with any dates--and while it was undecided,
Mahomet III.--this was the prompt Sultan who made his position secure
by putting to death nineteen of his brothers upon his accession--raised
sixty thousand troops for its relief or its recovery. The Duc de
Mercoeur went out to meet this army, and encountered it in the plains
of Girke. In the first skirmishes the Earl Meldritch was very nearly
cut off, although he made “his valour shine more bright than his armour,
which seemed then painted with Turkish blood.” Smith himself was sore
wounded and had his horse slain under him. The campaign, at first
favorable to the Turks, was inconclusive, and towards winter the Bashaw
retired to Buda. The Duc de Mercoeur then divided his army. The Earl of
Rosworme was sent to assist the Archduke Ferdinand, who was besieging
Caniza; the Earl of Meldritch, with six thousand men, was sent to assist
Georgio Busca against the Transylvanians; and the Duc de Mercoeur set
out for France to raise new forces. On his way he received great
honor at Vienna, and staying overnight at Nuremberg, he was royally
entertained by the Archdukes Mathias and Maximilian. The next morning
after the feast--how it chanced is not known--he was found dead His
brother-inlaw died two days afterwards, and the hearts of both, with
much sorrow, were carried into France.
We now come to the most important event in the life of Smith before he
became an adventurer in Virginia, an event which shows Smith's readiness
to put in practice the chivalry which had in the old chronicles
influenced his boyish imagination; and we approach it with the
satisfaction of knowing that it loses nothing in Smith's narration.
It must be mentioned that Transylvania, which the Earl of Meldritch,
accompanied by Captain Smith, set out to relieve, had long been in a
disturbed condition, owing to internal dissensions, of which the Turks
took advantage. Transylvania, in fact, was a Turkish dependence, and
it gives us an idea of the far reach of the Moslem influence in Europe,
that Stephen VI., vaivode of Transylvania, was, on the commendation of
Sultan Armurath III., chosen King of Poland.
To go a little further back than the period of Smith's arrival, John II.
of Transylvania was a champion of the Turk, and an enemy of Ferdinand
and his successors. His successor, Stephen VI., surnamed Battori, or
Bathor, was made vaivode by the Turks, and afterwards, as we have said,
King of Poland. He was succeeded in 1575 by his brother Christopher
Battori, who was the first to drop the title of vaivode and assume that
of Prince of Transylvania. The son of Christopher, Sigismund Battori,
shook off the Turkish bondage, defeated many of their armies, slew some
of their pashas, and gained the title of the Scanderbeg of the times
in which he lived. Not able to hold out, however, against so potent
an adversary, he resigned his estate to the Emperor Rudolph II., and
received in exchange the dukedoms of Oppelon and Ratibor in Silesia,
with an annual pension of fifty thousand joachims. The pension not being
well paid, Sigismund made another resignation of his principality to his
cousin Andrew Battori, who had the ill luck to be slain within the
year by the vaivode of Valentia. Thereupon Rudolph, Emperor and King of
Hungary, was acknowledged Prince of Transylvania. But the Transylvania
soldiers did not take kindly to a foreign prince, and behaved so
unsoldierly that Sigismund was called back. But he was unable to settle
himself in his dominions, and the second time he left his country in
the power of Rudolph and retired to Prague, where, in 1615, he died
unlamented.
It was during this last effort of Sigismund to regain his position that
the Earl of Meldritch, accompanied by Smith, went to Transylvania, with
the intention of assisting Georgio Busca, who was the commander of the
Emperor's party. But finding Prince Sigismund in possession of the most
territory and of the hearts of the people, the earl thought it best
to assist the prince against the Turk, rather than Busca against the
prince. Especially was he inclined to that side by the offer of free
liberty of booty for his worn and unpaid troops, of what they could get
possession of from the Turks.
This last consideration no doubt persuaded the troops that Sigismund had
“so honest a cause.” The earl was born in Transylvania, and the Turks
were then in possession of his father's country. In this distracted
state of the land, the frontiers had garrisons among the mountains, some
of which held for the emperor, some for the prince, and some for the
Turk. The earl asked leave of the prince to make an attempt to regain
his paternal estate. The prince, glad of such an ally, made him
camp-master of his army, and gave him leave to plunder the Turks.
Accordingly the earl began to make incursions of the frontiers into what
Smith calls the Land of Zarkam--among rocky mountains, where were some
Turks, some Tartars, but most Brandittoes, Renegadoes, and such like,
which he forced into the Plains of Regall, where was a city of men and
fortifications, strong in itself, and so environed with mountains that
it had been impregnable in all these wars.
It must be confessed that the historians and the map-makers did not
always attach the importance that Smith did to the battles in which he
was conspicuous, and we do not find the Land of Zarkam or the city of
Regall in the contemporary chronicles or atlases. But the region is
sufficiently identified. On the River Maruch, or Morusus, was the town
of Alba Julia, or Weisenberg, the residence of the vaivode or Prince
of Transylvania. South of this capital was the town Millenberg, and
southwest of this was a very strong fortress, commanding a narrow pass
leading into Transylvania out of Hungary, probably where the River
Maruct: broke through the mountains. We infer that it was this pass
that the earl captured by a stratagem, and carrying his army through it,
began the siege of Regall in the plain. “The earth no sooner put on her
green habit,” says our knight-errant, “than the earl overspread her with
his troops.” Regall occupied a strong fortress on a promontory and the
Christians encamped on the plain before it.
In the conduct of this campaign, we pass at once into the age of
chivalry, about which Smith had read so much. We cannot but recognize
that this is his opportunity. His idle boyhood had been soaked in old
romances, and he had set out in his youth to do what equally dreamy but
less venturesome devourers of old chronicles were content to read
about. Everything arranged itself as Smith would have had it. When
the Christian army arrived, the Turks sallied out and gave it a lively
welcome, which cost each side about fifteen hundred men. Meldritch had
but eight thousand soldiers, but he was re-enforced by the arrival of
nine thousand more, with six-and-twenty pieces of ordnance, under Lord
Zachel Moyses, the general of the army, who took command of the whole.
After the first skirmish the Turks remained within their fortress, the
guns of which commanded the plain, and the Christians spent a month in
intrenching themselves and mounting their guns.
The Turks, who taught Europe the art of civilized war, behaved all this
time in a courtly and chivalric manner, exchanging with the besiegers
wordy compliments until such time as the latter were ready to begin. The
Turks derided the slow progress of the works, inquired if their ordnance
was in pawn, twitted them with growing fat for want of exercise, and
expressed the fear that the Christians should depart without making an
assault.
In order to make the time pass pleasantly, and exactly in accordance
with the tales of chivalry which Smith had read, the Turkish Bashaw in
the fortress sent out his challenge: “That to delight the ladies, who
did long to see some courtlike pastime, the Lord Tubashaw did defy any
captaine that had the command of a company, who durst combat with him
for his head.”
This handsome offer to swap heads was accepted; lots were cast for the
honor of meeting the lord, and, fortunately for us, the choice fell
upon an ardent fighter of twenty-three years, named Captain John Smith.
Nothing was wanting to give dignity to the spectacle. Truce was made;
the ramparts of this fortress-city in the mountains (which we cannot
find on the map) were “all beset with faire Dames and men in Armes”;
the Christians were drawn up in battle array; and upon the theatre thus
prepared the Turkish Bashaw, armed and mounted, entered with a flourish
of hautboys; on his shoulders were fixed a pair of great wings,
compacted of eagles' feathers within a ridge of silver richly garnished
with gold and precious stones; before him was a janissary bearing his
lance, and a janissary walked at each side leading his steed.
This gorgeous being Smith did not keep long waiting. Riding into the
field with a flourish of trumpets, and only a simple page to bear his
lance, Smith favored the Bashaw with a courteous salute, took position,
charged at the signal, and before the Bashaw could say “Jack Robinson,”
thrust his lance through the sight of his beaver, face, head and all,
threw him dead to the ground, alighted, unbraced his helmet, and cut off
his head. The whole affair was over so suddenly that as a pastime for
ladies it must have been disappointing. The Turks came out and took
the headless trunk, and Smith, according to the terms of the challenge,
appropriated the head and presented it to General Moyses.
This ceremonious but still hasty procedure excited the rage of one
Grualgo, the friend of the Bashaw, who sent a particular challenge to
Smith to regain his friend's head or lose his own, together with
his horse and armor. Our hero varied the combat this time. The two
combatants shivered lances and then took to pistols; Smith received a
mark upon the “placard,” but so wounded the Turk in his left arm that he
was unable to rule his horse. Smith then unhorsed him, cut off his head,
took possession of head, horse, and armor, but returned the rich apparel
and the body to his friends in the most gentlemanly manner.
Captain Smith was perhaps too serious a knight to see the humor of
these encounters, but he does not lack humor in describing them, and
he adopted easily the witty courtesies of the code he was illustrating.
After he had gathered two heads, and the siege still dragged, he became
in turn the challenger, in phrase as courteously and grimly facetious as
was permissible, thus:
“To delude time, Smith, with so many incontradictible perswading
reasons, obtained leave that the Ladies might know he was not so much
enamored of their servants' heads, but if any Turke of their ranke would
come to the place of combat to redeem them, should have also his, upon
like conditions, if he could winne it.”
This considerate invitation was accepted by a person whom Smith, with
his usual contempt for names, calls “Bonny Mulgro.” It seems difficult
to immortalize such an appellation, and it is a pity that we have not
the real one of the third Turk whom Smith honored by killing. But
Bonny Mulgro, as we must call the worthiest foe that Smith's prowess
encountered, appeared upon the field. Smith understands working up
a narration, and makes this combat long and doubtful. The challenged
party, who had the choice of weapons, had marked the destructiveness of
his opponent's lance, and elected, therefore, to fight with pistols and
battle-axes. The pistols proved harmless, and then the battle-axes came
in play, whose piercing bills made sometime the one, sometime the other,
to have scarce sense to keep their saddles. Smith received such a blow
that he lost his battle-axe, whereat the Turks on the ramparts set up
a great shout. “The Turk prosecuted his advantage to the utmost of
his power; yet the other, what by the readiness of his horse, and
his judgment and dexterity in such a business, beyond all men's
expectations, by God's assistance, not only avoided the Turke's
violence, but having drawn his Faulchion, pierced the Turke so under the
Culets throrow backe and body, that although he alighted from his horse,
he stood not long ere he lost his head, as the rest had done.”
There is nothing better than this in all the tales of chivalry, and John
Smith's depreciation of his inability to equal Caesar in describing his
own exploits, in his dedicatory letter to the Duchess of Richmond, must
be taken as an excess of modesty. We are prepared to hear that these
beheadings gave such encouragement to the whole army that six thousand
soldiers, with three led horses, each preceded by a soldier bearing a
Turk's head on a lance, turned out as a guard to Smith and conducted
him to the pavilion of the general, to whom he presented his trophies.
General Moyses (occasionally Smith calls him Moses) took him in his arms
and embraced him with much respect, and gave him a fair horse, richly
furnished, a scimeter, and a belt worth three hundred ducats. And his
colonel advanced him to the position of sergeant-major of his regiment.
If any detail was wanting to round out and reward this knightly
performance in strict accord with the old romances, it was supplied by
the subsequent handsome conduct of Prince Sigismund.
When the Christians had mounted their guns and made a couple of breaches
in the walls of Regall, General Moyses ordered an attack one dark night
“by the light that proceeded from the murdering muskets and peace-making
cannon.” The enemy were thus awaited, “whilst their slothful governor
lay in a castle on top of a high mountain, and like a valiant prince
asketh what's the matter, when horrour and death stood amazed at
each other, to see who should prevail to make him victorious.” These
descriptions show that Smith could handle the pen as well as the
battleaxe, and distinguish him from the more vulgar fighters of his
time. The assault succeeded, but at great cost of life. The Turks sent a
flag of truce and desired a “composition,” but the earl, remembering the
death of his father, continued to batter the town and when he took it
put all the men in arms to the sword, and then set their heads upon
stakes along the walls, the Turks having ornamented the walls with
Christian heads when they captured the fortress. Although the town
afforded much pillage, the loss of so many troops so mixed the sour
with the sweet that General Moyses could only allay his grief by sacking
three other towns, Veratis, Solmos, and Kapronka. Taking from these a
couple of thousand prisoners, mostly women and children, Earl Moyses
marched north to Weisenberg (Alba Julia), and camped near the palace of
Prince Sigismund.
When Sigismund Battori came out to view his army he was made acquainted
with the signal services of Smith at “Olumpagh, Stowell-Weisenberg, and
Regall,” and rewarded him by conferring upon him, according to the law
of--arms, a shield of arms with “three Turks' heads.” This was granted
by a letter-patent, in Latin, which is dated at “Lipswick, in Misenland,
December 9, 1603” It recites that Smith was taken captive by the
Turks in Wallachia November 18, 1602; that he escaped and rejoined his
fellow-soldiers. This patent, therefore, was not given at Alba Julia,
nor until Prince Sigismund had finally left his country, and when the
Emperor was, in fact, the Prince of Transylvania. Sigismund styles
himself, by the grace of God, Duke of Transylvania, etc. Appended to
this patent, as published in Smith's “True Travels,” is a certificate
by William Segar, knight of the garter and principal king of arms of
England, that he had seen this patent and had recorded a copy of it in
the office of the Herald of Armes. This certificate is dated August 19,
1625, the year after the publication of the General Historie.
Smith says that Prince Sigismund also gave him his picture in gold, and
granted him an annual pension of three hundred ducats. This promise of
a pension was perhaps the most unsubstantial portion of his reward,
for Sigismund himself became a pensioner shortly after the events last
narrated.
The last mention of Sigismund by Smith is after his escape from
captivity in Tartaria, when this mirror of virtues had abdicated. Smith
visited him at “Lipswicke in Misenland,” and the Prince “gave him
his Passe, intimating the service he had done, and the honors he had
received, with fifteen hundred ducats of gold to repair his losses.”
The “Passe” was doubtless the “Patent” before introduced, and we hear no
word of the annual pension.
Affairs in Transylvania did not mend even after the capture of Regall,
and of the three Turks' heads, and the destruction of so many villages.
This fruitful and strong country was the prey of faction, and became
little better than a desert under the ravages of the contending armies.
The Emperor Rudolph at last determined to conquer the country for
himself, and sent Busca again with a large army. Sigismund finding
himself poorly supported, treated again with the Emperor and agreed to
retire to Silicia on a pension. But the Earl Moyses, seeing no prospect
of regaining his patrimony, and determining not to be under subjection
to the Germans, led his troops against Busca, was defeated, and fled to
join the Turks. Upon this desertion the Prince delivered up all he
had to Busca and retired to Prague. Smith himself continued with the
imperial party, in the regiment of Earl Meldritch. About this time the
Sultan sent one Jeremy to be vaivode of Wallachia, whose tyranny
caused the people to rise against him, and he fled into Moldavia. Busca
proclaimed Lord Rodoll vaivode in his stead. But Jeremy assembled an
army of forty thousand Turks, Tartars, and Moldavians, and retired
into Wallachia. Smith took active part in Rodoll's campaign to recover
Wallachia, and narrates the savage war that ensued. When the armies were
encamped near each other at Raza and Argish, Rodoll cut off the heads of
parties he captured going to the Turkish camp, and threw them into
the enemy's trenches. Jeremy retorted by skinning alive the Christian
parties he captured, hung their skins upon poles, and their carcasses
and heads on stakes by them. In the first battle Rodoll was successful
and established himself in Wallachia, but Jeremy rallied and began
ravaging the country. Earl Meldritch was sent against him, but the
Turks' force was much superior, and the Christians were caught in a
trap. In order to reach Rodoll, who was at Rottenton, Meldritch with
his small army was obliged to cut his way through the solid body of the
enemy. A device of Smith's assisted him. He covered two or three hundred
trunks--probably small branches of trees--with wild-fire. These fixed
upon the heads of lances and set on fire when the troops charged in the
night, so terrified the horses of the Turks that they fled in dismay.
Meldritch was for a moment victorious, but when within three leagues
of Rottenton he was overpowered by forty thousand Turks, and the last
desperate fight followed, in which nearly all the friends of the Prince
were slain, and Smith himself was left for dead on the field.
On this bloody field over thirty thousand lay headless, armless,
legless, all cut and mangled, who gave knowledge to the world how dear
the Turk paid for his conquest of Transylvania and Wallachia--a conquest
that might have been averted if the three Christian armies had been
joined against the “cruel devouring Turk.” Among the slain were many
Englishmen, adventurers like the valiant Captain whom Smith names, men
who “left there their bodies in testimony of their minds.” And there,
“Smith among the slaughtered dead bodies, and many a gasping soule with
toils and wounds lay groaning among the rest, till being found by the
Pillagers he was able to live, and perceiving by his armor and habit,
his ransome might be better than his death, they led him prisoner
with many others.” The captives were taken to Axopolis and all sold as
slaves. Smith was bought by Bashaw Bogall, who forwarded him by way of
Adrianople to Constantinople, to be a slave to his mistress. So chained
by the necks in gangs of twenty they marched to the city of Constantine,
where Smith was delivered over to the mistress of the Bashaw, the young
Charatza Tragabigzanda.