[O'BRIEN] CABOT'S LANDFALL AND CHART 431 



"We see here again that it was not merely to a city he was accred- 

 ited as Ambassador, but to a country or State, the various parts of 

 which he visited. Whilst it is quite true that the vast tract of fertile 

 land between the Volga on the east and the Dnieper on the west, and 

 running north to Eussia was practically in the hands of the Tartars, 

 who roamed over it at pleasure, yet. a portion of it was still known as 

 Tanais. This is apparent from the words of our author, not only in the 

 passage just ■ quoted, but in several others. Speaking of a horde of 

 Tartars who passed near the city, he twice uses the expression, ^'fiume 

 della Tana," which cannot be translated "the river Tanais," but "the 

 river of the Country of Tanais." He says also this horde came "before 

 the plain, or country of Tanais," {avanti il Campo della Tana,") and "it 

 went or passed before this plain in eight different groups," Again 

 when the chief of the horde had encamped near the city, our author 

 was asked by the authorities to be the .bearer of presents to him. We 

 are told it was customary to give a novena of presents, or nine different 

 articles. These were duly talcen forth and presented to the chief by 

 our author who "recommended to liim the country together with the 

 people," (li raccomandai la terra insieme col popolo "). The land of 

 Tanais was still, in the estimation of its people, a distinct portion of 

 the plains of Tartary. 



The city was walled and had a beautiful tower over its gateway. 

 Its civil head was styled, as in Rome of old. Consul. It was as it had 

 long been, and as it continued to be for more than one hundred years, 

 a busy mart, where buyers and sellers from Italy, the Grecian Islands, 

 Eussia, Persia and even Egypt met and exchanged commodities. The 

 search for buried treasure is not peculiar to moderns. Our author tried 

 his hand at it. A summary of his narrative on this point will reveal 

 to us how thoroughly well known Tanais was to the . Venetians and 

 many others. He tells us there were many sepulchral mounds around 

 Tanais. In the time that Messer Pietro Lando (evidently an Italian) 

 was Consul, a man named Gulbedin came from Cairo where he had 

 heard from a Tartar woman that a great treasure was buried in one of 

 these mounds, the whereabouts of which she made known to him. For 

 two years he dug, then died before he had reached the treasure. On 

 the night of the feast of St. Catherine (25th Nov.) 1437, seven mer- 

 chants, Francisco Corharo, Catharin Contarini, Giovan Barbarigo, Git)- 

 van da Valle, Moise Bon, Bartolomeo Eosso and our author, (several of 

 Avhom were Venetians and all Italians), were together in the house of 

 Bartolemeo Eosso, "'a citizen of Venice," and talking over this in- 

 cident of Gulbedin, they made an agreement to hire a hundred and 



