-Chap. II. of W I L L I A M 
the fame Day I departed thence a Tear before, viz. the 
fecond Day after the Exaltation of the bleffed Crofs, and I 
found our young Men in Health, yet much affiidted with 
Poverty, as Gojfet told me, and if the King of Armenia had 
not comforted them, and recommended them to Sartach , 
they had perifhed, for they thought I had been dead. The 
Tartars alfo demanded of them, if they could keep Oxen, 
or milk Mares, for if I had not returned, they had been 
brought into Servitude by thofe People, 
After this Baatu ordered me to come to him, and made 
the Letters which Mangu-Khan fends unto you to be inter- 
preted unto me \ for fo Mangu wrote unto him, that if it 
pieafed him to add any thing, or leave out, or change, he 
fhould do it. Then laid he, ye fhall carry thefe Letters, 
and caufe them to be underftood. He demanded alfo what 
Way I would go, whether by Sea or Land ? I faid, the Sea 
was froze, becaufe it was Winter, and I muft go by Land, 
for I thought you had been ftill in Syria , fo 1 diredled my 
Journey towards Perfia , for if I had thought you had paffed 
into France , I would have gone into Hungary ; for I fhould 
fooner have come into France , and by a more eafy Way 
than tho* Syria ; then we travelled a Month with him before 
we could obtain a Guide ; at length they appointed me a 
certain Jugure , who underftanding I would give him no- 
thing, and that I would go forthwith into Armenia , caufed 
Letters to be made to conduct me to the Soldan of Turky , 
hoping he fhould receive Gifts of the Soldan, and that he 
fhould gain more that V/ay ; then we took our Journey 
ipeedily fifteen Days before the Feaft of All Saints towards 
■Sami , going diredtly Southward, defcending near to Etilia , 
which is there divided into three Arms, every one whereof 
is almoft twice as big as the Branch of the River of Nile at 
I) ami eta. 
It divides afterwards into four letter Arms, fo that we 
paffed the River in feven Places by Boats. Upon the middle 
Branch is the Village called Sumerkant , without a Wall •, but 
when the River overflows, it is compaffed with W ater. The 
Tartars were eight Years about it before they could take it, 
and the Alani and the Saracens were nine. There we found 
one German with his Wife, a very good Man, with whom 
Gojfet flayed in the Winter ; for Sartach Tent him thither 
to eafe his Court. About thefe Parts was Baatu on the one 
Side of the River, and Sartach on the other about Chrift- 
mafs , and they go no farther down ; and when it happens 
that all the River is frozen, they pafs over. Here is great 
Store of Grafs, and there among the Caves, Thieves hide 
themfelves till the Ice melt. Coiac’s Father receiving 
Sartach’s Letters, reftored my Veflments unto me, except 
my Albs, and an Almic trimmed with fine Silk, a Stole, 
a Girdle, and a Tualia, adorned with Golden Embroidery, 
and a Surplice. He reftored alfo to me all the Silver Plate, 
except the Cenfor, and the little Box where the Chrifm 
was, all which the Prieft which was with Sartach had. He 
returned my Books, except our Lady’s Pfalter, which he 
kept with my Leave, becaufe I could not deny it him ; for 
he faid Sartach took much Delight in It. He alfo requefted 
me, that if it happened that 1 return unto thofe Parts again, 
X would bring them a Man that knew how to make Parch- 
ment, for he had built a great Church by the Command of 
Sartach upon the Weft Side of the River, as he faid, and 
a new Town ; yet I knew that Sartach meant no fuch 
Matter. Sarai and the Palace of Baatu are upon the Eaft 
Side of the River, and the Valley through which the Arms 
of the River are fpread abroad eontaineth more than feven 
Leagues in Breadth. There is great Store of Fifh there, a 
Bible alfo in Verfe, and a certain Book in the Arabian Lan- 
guage worth thirty Sultalines, and many other things I 
never recovered. 
55 . . After our Departure from him on the Feaft of All 
Saints , going towards the South until the Feaft of Saint 
Martin , we came to the Mountains of the Alani ^ between 
Baatu and Sarai. In fifteen Days, we found no People but 
one of his Sons, who went before him with Falcons and 
his Falconers, who were many, at one little Village. ; from 
the Feaft of All Saints for five Days we met not with fo 
much as a Man, and we were in great Danger by reafon of 
Third, one whole Day and a Night, finding no Water, 
till about Three of the Clock the next Day. The Alani in 
fome Mountains yet hold out, fo that of ten of the Subjects 
DE RUBRUQlIIS. 
of Sartach two muft come and guard the narrow Railages 
of the Hills, left they come forth of the Mountains, and 
carry awdy the Cattle in the Plain. Between the Alani and 
Fort a Ferrea , which is two Days Journey from thence, 
where the Plain of the Alani beginneth, between the Cafpian- 
Sea and the Mountains, there are certain Saracens , called 
Lefgi , inhabiting the Mountains, who likewife are free j fo 
that thofe Tartars who dwell at the Foot of the Mountains 
of the Alani were obliged to give us twenty Men to bring 
us beyond the Iron Gate, or Porta Ferrea \ and I was glad, 
becaufe I hoped to fee them armed, for 1 could never fee 
their Armour, tho 5 1 had been very defirousof feeing it ; and 
when we came to this dangerous Paffage of the whole twenty, 
there were hut two who had Harbergions, and I demanded 
of whom they had them ? They faid, they had them of the 
Alani , who are able Workmen in fuch things, and ex- 
cellent Smiths. I think they have fmall Store of Armour, 
but Quivers and Bows, and Leather Jackets ; I faw them 
prefented with Iron Plates, and Iron Skull-caps out of 
Perfia , and faw two alfo who prefented themfelves to 
Mangu , armed with Coats made of Hogs-fkins, bent inward, 
of rough Leather, which were very clumfy and unweiidy. 
Before we came to Porta Ferrea , we found one Caftle of 
the Alans , which was Mangu Khan’s , for he had fubdued 
that Country. There we firft found Vineyards and drunk 
Wine the Day following we came to Porta Ferrea , or 
the Iron-Gate, which Alexander the Macedonian King 
made, and it is a City whofe Eaft End. is upon the Sea 
Shore : And there is a little Plain between the Sea and the 
Mountains, through which the City extends in Length to 
the Top of the Mountain, which bordereth upon it on 
the Weft, fo that there is no Way above for the Rugged- 
nefs of the Mountains, nor below for the Sea, but imme- 
diately through the midft of the City, where there is an 
Iron-Gate, from whence the City hath its Name. This 
City is more than a Mile long, and on the Top of a Hill 
is a ftrong Caftle ; and it is as much in Breadth as a Stone’s 
Caft. It hath very ftrong Walls, without Trenches and 
Turrets, of large polilhed Stones. But the Tartars have 
deftroyed the Tops of the Turrets and the Bulwarks of 
the Walls, laying the Turrets even with the Wall. Be- 
low that City, the Country was formerly like a Paradife, 
Two Day’s Journey from hence we found another City 
called Samar on, wherein there were many Jews , and 
when we paffed it we faw Walls defcending from the 
Mountains to the Sea ; and leaving the Way by the Sea 
by thofe Walls, becaufe it turns towards the Eaft, we 
went up into the high Countries towards the South. 
The next Day we paffed through a certain Valley, 
wherein the Foundations of Walls appeared from one 
Mountain to another, and there was no Way through the 
Tops of the Mountains. Thefe were in times paft the In- 
cloliires, or Walls eredled by Alexander for reftraining the 
fierce Nations, the Shepherds of the Wildernefs, that 
they could not invade the inhabited Countries and Cities. 
There are alfo other Walls and Inclolures where Jews are. 
The next Day we came to a cer tain great City called Samach , 
and after this we entered into a great Plain called Moan , thro* 
which the River Cur or Cyrus runs, from which the Cur- 
gi or Curdi have their Names, whom we call Georgians ; 
and it runneth through the Middle of T ifflis, which is the 
Metropolis of the Curgines , and comes diredlly from the 
Weft, running to the Eaft into the Cafpian Sea, and in it 
are excellent Salmon. In that Plain we found Tartars 
again. Alfo by that Plain runs the River Araxes , which 
cometh from the Greater Armenia , from betwixt the South 
and Weft, from which it is called the Land of Ararat. 
Whereupon in the Book of the Kings it is faid of the Sons 
of Senacherib , that having ftain their Father, they fled into 
the Land of the Armenians . And in Ifaiah it is faid, that they 
fled into the Land of Ararat. To the Weft then of that 
moft beautiful Plain is Qurgia. In that Plain the Crofminl 
were fettled formerly. And there is a great City in the 
Entrance of the Mountains called Ganges , which was their 
Metropolis, flopping the Georgians , that they could not 
come down into the Plain. Then we came to the Bridge 
of Boats, which was fattened together with a great Iron 
Chain, ftretched forth crofs the River, wherein Cur and the 
Arqxu met together, but the Cur lofeth its Name there. 
