624 _ APPROACH OF THE TARTARS.

said. However, after some signs to him not to come nearer to
them at his peril, so he said he understood them to mean, offering
to shoot at him if he advanced, the fellow came back no wiser than
he went; only that by their dress, he said, he believed them to be
some Tartars of Kalmuck, or of Circassian hordes, and that there
must be more of them upon the great desert, though he never
heard that any of them ever were seen so far north before.

This was small comfort to us: however, we had no remedy.
There was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile’s distance,
a little grove or clump of trees, which stood close together, and
very near the road. I immediately resolved we would advance to
those trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could there: for,
first, I considered that the trees would, in a great measure, cover
us from their arrows ; and, in the next place, they could not come
to charge us in a body. It was indeed my old Portuguese pilot
who proposed it, and who had this excellency attending him,
namely, that he was always readiest, and most apt to direct and
encourage us in cases of the most danger. We advanced imme-
diately with what speed we could, and gained that little wood, the
Tartars or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keeping
their stand, and not attempting to hinder us. When we came
thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy,
springy piece of ground; and on the one side, a very great spring
of water, which, running out in a little rill or brook, was, a little
farther, joined by another of the like bigness, and was, in short,
the head or source of a considerable river, called afterwards the
Wirtska. The trees which grew about this spring were not in all
above two hundred, but were very large, and stood pretty thick ;
so that as soon as we got in we saw ourselves perfectly safe from
the enemy, unless they alighted and attacked us on foot.

But to make this more difficult, our Portuguese, with indefati-
gable application, ent down great arms of the trees, and laid them
hanging, not quite cut off, from one tree to another, so that he
made a continued fence almost round us.

We stayed here, waiting the motion of the enemy, some hours,
without perceiving they made any motion : when, about two hours
before night, they came down directly upon us; and, though we