418 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF

that.””. The Chinese wanted mightily to know what I said to
the pilot, and I gave him leave to tell him a few days after, for
we were then almost out of their country, and he was to leave
us a little time after this; but when he knew what I said, he
was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no more of his
fine story of the Chinese power and greatness while he stayed.

After we passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, some-
thing like the Picts’ walls so famous in Northumberland, built
by the Romans, we began to find the country thinly inhabited,
and the people rather confined to live in fortified towns, as
being subject to the inroads and depredations of the Tartars,
who rob in great armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by
the naked inhabitants of an open country. And here I began
to find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan as we
travelled, for we saw several troops of Tartars roving about ;
but when I came to see them distinctly, I wondered more that
the Chinese empire could be conquered by such contemptible
fellows; for they are a mere horde of wild fellows, keeping
no order, and understanding no discipline or manner of fight.
Their horses are poor lean creatures, taught nothing, and fit for
nothing ; and this we found the first day we saw them, which
was after we entered the wilder part of the country. Our
leader for the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to goa
hunting as they call it; and what was this but a hunting of
sheep !—however, it may. be called hunting too, for these
creatures are the wildest and swiftest of foot that ever I saw of
their kind! only they will not run a great way, and you are
sure of sport when you begin the chase, for they appear gener-
ally thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep
together when they fly.

In pursuit of this odd sort of game it was our hap to meet
with about forty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton,
as we were, or whether they looked for another kind of prey,
we know not; but as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a
hideous blast on a kind of horn. This was to call their friends
about them, and in less than ten minutes a troop of forty or
fifty more appeared, at about a mile distance ; but our work was
over first, as it happened.

One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be
amongst us; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us that
we had nothing to do but to charge them without loss of time;
and drawing us up in a line, he asked if we were resolved. We
told him we were ready to follow him; so he rode directly
towards them. They stood gazing at us like a mere crowd,