inhabited by Turks, among whom we should have run extreme hazard of our lives if they had seen us; but by using much diligence we avoided this danger, and got down into an extensive plain, full of fine pastures, and travelled with great expedition that we might pass the night at a respectable distance from the lawless inhabitants of the hills.  On the 29th we passed the mountain of Noah, or Ararat, which is so lofty that it is covered with snow the whole year.  We were told that many who had attempted to reach the top of this mountain had never been more heard of, while others, on making the same attempt, said, on their return, that it was quite inaccessible.

From this place forwards we travelled through extensive plains intermixed with hills, and arrived on the 30th of July at a castle named Chiagri, inhabited by Armenians.  Finding abundance of bread, wine, and poultry in this place, we rested here for a day, and then set out with a new guide for Ecbatana or Tauris.  Leaving Chiagri towards evening of the 1st August, we came next day to an Armenian village at the foot of a mountain, where we had to cross a river in boats, and were informed that Uzun-Hassan had formerly gained a great victory near this place over the Tartars, having hemmed them into a corner, where their army wasted away with famine and disease.  The ruler of these Tartars, named Sultan Buzech[2], was made prisoner, and was afterwards put to death.  We here saw, on our left hand, eleven Armenian villages, near each other, who were Catholic Christians, their bishop being under submission to the Roman pontiff.  The country is extremely agreeable, and is the most fertile of all the provinces of Persia.  We arrived on the 3d of August at a large village called Marerich, near which we passed the night, and had to ride all the next day through a plain country exposed to great heat, which was greatly aggravated, as we could not procure a single drop of water for ourselves or our horses.  On the way we met several Turkmans, whose custom it is to encamp here and there about the country, wherever they can find pasture for their cattle, and to change their residence as the pastures become exhausted.  These people are abominable robbers, and look upon rapine as their highest glory; and as we had great reason to be afraid of them, I gave orders to all my people to tell whoever we met, that I was journeying to wait upon their sovereign, which was the only expedient for saving us from their violence.

We arrived on the 4th of August at the city of Ecbatana or Tauris[3], which stands in a plain, and is surrounded by an earthen rampart in bad repair.  There are high mountains in its neighbourhood, which are said to be the Taurus of the ancients.  I here lodged with a very good man, who gave us two sleeping chambers, a convenience we had been long unused to.  He was quite astonished how we should have been able to escape the dangers of our journey, as