67.—Through which countries I have come away.
When Zegra was defeated, as is already related, I came over to a lord named Manstzusch; he had been a councillor of Zegra. He was obliged to fly, and he went to a city called Kaffa, where there are Christians; it is a strong city in which there are [people of] six kinds of religion. There he remained five months, and then crossed an arm of the Black Sea, and came to a country called Zerckchas; there he remained half a year. When the Tartar king became aware of this, he sent to the lord of the country, and asked that he should not allow the lord Mantzuch to remain in his territory, and he would do him a great favour. Mantzuch went into another country called Magrill; and, as we now came into the country of Magrill, we, five Christians, agreed, that we should go to our native country from the land of the Infidels, as we were not more than three days’ journey from the Black Sea; and when it appeared to us opportune and right to get away, all five of us escaped from the said lord, and came to the chief town of the country, which was called Bothan, on the Black Sea shore, and begged that we should be taken across [the sea], but it was not granted to us. Then we left the city, and rode along the sea-shore, and got to a mountainous country. There we rode until the fourth day, and came to a mountain from which we saw a kocken on the sea, at about eight Italian miles from the coast. We remained on the mountain until night, and made a fire, and when the captain saw the fire, he sent some men in a skiff that they might see who we were near the fire on the mountain, and when they came towards us, we made ourselves known. They asked what sort of people we were? We said we were Christians, and were made prisoners when the king of Ungern was defeated at Nicopolis, and had come so far with the help of God; therefore, might we not go over the sea, as we had dependance and hope in God, that we should yet return to our homes and to Christianity. They would not believe us, and asked if we could repeat the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, and the Belief? We said, “Yes”, and repeated them. They then asked how many of us there were? We said, “Five”. They told us to wait on the mountain, and went to their master and told him how we had spoken to them. He ordered that we should be brought, and they came with the skiff, and took us to the kocken. On the third day that we were on board the kocken, pirates came in three galleys, and would gladly have done us harm, because they were Turks. They chased us three days and two nights, but could do us no harm. We got to the city of Sant Masicia;(1) there we remained until the fourth day, then the Turks went their own way. After that, we went to sea. We wanted to go to Constantinoppoli; but when we got out to sea, so that we could see nothing but sky and water, there came a wind which threw back the kocken about eight hundred Italian miles, to a city called Synopp. There we remained eight days, and after that we went further, and were one month and a half on the sea without being able to get to the land; and we ran short of food, and we had no more to eat and drink, until we got to a rock in the sea, where we found snails and crabs, which we picked off, and upon which we lived for four days, and were one month on the sea before we got to Constantinoppoli. And when we got there, I and my companions remained, and the kock passed through the strait for Italy. And as we were passing through the gate into Constantinopel, they asked us where we came from? We replied, that we had been prisoners amongst the Infidels, and that we had escaped, and wanted to return to Christianity. Then they took us before the Greek emperor, who asked us how we had escaped from the Infidels? We related to him from the beginning to the end, and when he heard it all, he told us not to be anxious; he would take care to send us home; and he sent us to the patriarch, who also lives in the city, and ordered us to wait until he sent a galley for his brother, who was with the queen of Unger, when he would help us into Walachy. Thus we were three months at Constantinoppel, which is surrounded by a wall eighteen Italian miles [in extent], and the wall has fifteen hundred towers. There are one thousand and one churches in the city, and the principal church is called Sant Sophia, which is built, and is also paved, with polished marble, so that when one who has not been before, goes into the temple, he imagines that the church is full of water, the marble shines so. It has a large dome covered with lead.