to court.  On this occasion, I went in a coach and six, accompanied by four noblemen and several other persons.  The king himself did me the honour to receive me, and conducted me into a magnificent apartment, where he introduced me to two of his sons in presence of many nobles, knights, and gentlemen of the court.  A chair was placed for me in the middle of the room; and when I offered to kneel on one knee while addressing the king, his majesty had the goodness to insist that I should sit down in his presence, which I did after some hesitation.  I then gave a recital of all that had occurred in my travels, with some account of the dominions of Uzun-Hassan, and of the number of his forces, and of the empire and manners of the Tartars.  The king and his courtiers listened to me with much attention during my whole speech, which lasted more than half an hour.  I then thanked his majesty for the present he had made me, and for all his kindnesses to me, attributing his attentions to the esteem he entertained for our illustrious republic.  His majesty was pleased, by means of an interpreter, to express great satisfaction at my safe arrival, as he hardly expected I should ever have been able to return; and that he was much pleased with the information I had given him respecting Uzun-Hassan and the Tartars, which he believed to be more authentic than any he had received before.  After some other discourse, I was conducted to the hall where the dinner was served; soon after which his majesty came into the hall with his two sons, preceded by several trumpets.  The king sat down at the head of the table, having his two sons on his right hand; the primate of the kingdom sat next on his majestys left, and I was placed next the bishop.  The remainder of the table was occupied by about forty of the nobles.  Each service was ushered in with the sound of trumpets, and all the meats were served on large silver dishes.

After dinner, which lasted two hours, I rose to depart, and asked the king if he had any farther orders to honour me with; when he was pleased to say very graciously, that he charged me to assure the senate that his most anxious desire was to cultivate perpetual friendship and good-will with our illustrious republic, and he was pleased to make his sons express the same friendly wishes.  Having respectfully taken leave of the king, I was conducted back to my lodgings by several of the courtiers.

Being supplied with a guide, I departed from Troki on the 16th of February, and in nine days, passing through the city of Ionici, I arrived at Warsaw on the 1st of March.  The country of Poland appeared very pleasant, and abundant in every, thing except fruit.  During our journey we saw many villages and castles, and were well received everywhere, but we found no considerable city.  After remaining four days in Warsaw, where I purchased horses for the rest of our journey, we set out from that place on the 5th of March, and came that day to a town call