ANTHONY JENKINSON.

1558

from Urgence; and after having traveled 100 miles along the river Oxus, we found another river called Ardok, where we paid some small tolls. Departure from Urgence and arrival at the river Ardok, which is described. * The Ardok is a large and very swift river that flows from the Oxus. After having run 1,000 miles to the North, it hides itself under the earth, and 500 miles later it emerges again and discharges into the lake of Kitay Cathay, as has been said. On December 7th we arrived at a castle called Kait, belonging to the Sultan Saramet. It was nothing but the fear that he had for the Prince of Urgence that prevented him from robbing our caravan. He contented himself with obliging us to give him a gift, and we gave him a red cow-hide for every camel, and other small gifts to his servants.

On the night of the 10th of this month, when we had set our guards, we captured 4 horsemen who gave us assurance that there were many robbers in the land. We bound them and sent them to the Sultan of Kait, who Are strengthened against the robbers by the Sultan of Kaite. soon came with 300 men. They confessed to being part of the gang of a banished Prince, who was hiding 3 days' journey from there with 40 men in order to rob us. The Sultan provided us with 80 men along with a commander to escort us, and he took our 4 prisoners with him. This escort consumed a large portion of our provisions. On the morning of the 3rd day, they separated themselves from the caravan, in order, so they said, to scout the wilderness. We saw them return after 4 hours in great haste, telling us that they had seen many horse tracks, and demanding from us what we would give them to save us from the danger in which we were. We could not come to an agreement,

The obscurity found in the description of these two rivers is also present in the English text.