ABSTRACT
Our departure was delayed for a long time, and in that hot furnace of stones we were wasting away for lack of the necessities of life. We kept pressing for permission and for the order for camels to make our journey, but the king was unwilling, intending to milk us dry, continually demanding what pleased him, even copper cauldrons. And as all these petty kings have a favourite for reasons of state, through whom they govern, I negotiated with this person one night in the greatest secrecy. He agreed to bring about our departure if I would give him a certain quantity of cloth. And as it seems likely that this was all he was waiting for, in two days the message came that we could set out on our journey at nightfall if, at the place agreed upon, the said favourite were to receive the payment for his diligence. From that time forward, he was to be our agent for the journey which was soon arranged, camels being brought and our goods loaded on them. We were accompanied by the Portuguese who had come to find us and the Muslim brother-in-law of this same king, also ambassador, along with still others, all of whom were in hopes of some sort of gain. We left that place where we had been for twenty-seven days in the comfortable circumstances which I have described. However, the king wanted to justify himself as we were leaving, ordering us to be called to his presence and asking us to say everywhere that he had done us great kindnesses, especially in our report to the Emperor. We promised him that we would do this, with the truthfulness permitted by the time and place. He begged our pardon, and he gave us a few flint-stones, for they have unusual ones there, and a cow. He sent for his own horse, which, saddled and accoutred just as he himself rode it, he ordered the Patriarch to mount, being the most important of us all, with his own servants accompanying him. This was an extraordinary honour and one which is given only when they want to honour someone very much, and as such we were grateful to him, although we soon paid for it; for when we arrived at the house, all the Muslims in our retinue demanded their customary reward, and it was necessary to give it to them because this was the way of doing honour and providing payment
follo~ing behind, however, carrying arms, clothing, and provisions, and wtth worse people accompanying us than on the first journey. The way was rugged, almost as wild as the one we had traversed before, without any possibility ofbuying the necessities oflife. We had to get along with some millet 2 we carried with us and some slices of cow's meat dried in the sun, the thickness of a finger, but even so they were very little to eat. In places we considered it necessary, because of their being infested with snakes, to keep beating the ground and making a great noise to frighten them away. And when we went through such territory in the daytime, it was not so bad because we killed some that came between our feet, but at night the danger was greater and it was difficult to avoid them except by the threshing made by all of us together and the clamour that we intentionally set up, leaving the principal care for our safety in the hands of God Our Lord, in whose service we were taking those steps. And it was a necessary thing to travel thus at night so that we could arrive where there was water, in which those lands are singularly lacking. For this reason, there are special places which one must reach at the end of a day's journey, where there is water to be drawn from holes made in the sand or in places where rivers or brooks flow in winter, which is usually very bad. It happened that we travelled two or three days along a dry river bed between mountains and very high cliffs, and since the land is so rugged, this road made by the water is of great service to travellers. And at places in this locality we found much good water, which was as cool and running as was the opposite which we found elsewhere. It soon however was hidden underground, coming out again at a point six or eight leagues beyond with an abundant, perennial flow as if it had been continued to that point free and above ground. On these occasions, since they were not many, we satiated our thirst and made merry for a few days.
