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Updated: June 29, 2025
On this account it was proposed to pass over to the other side of the river, and to travel towards the straits between the Don and the Wolga, which are about five days journey from Citracan, after which it was presumed we should be out of danger.
He who first, on the banks of the Wolga, or the Jenisca, had taught the Scythian to mount the horse, to move his cottage on wheels, to harass his enemy alike by his attacks and his flights, to handle at full speed the lance and the bow, and when beat from his ground, to leave his arrows in the wind to meet his pursuer; he who had taught his countrymen to use the same animal for every purpose of the dairy, the shambles, and the field of battle; would be esteemed the founder of his nation; or like Ceres and Bacchus among the Greeks, would be invested with the honours of a god, as the reward of his useful inventions.
After resting some time, we quitted the banks of the river, and resumed our journey. This river Wolga is certainly the largest and deepest river in the world, being, as well as I could judge, two miles broad, and has very high banks. Contarini, after crossing European Sarmatia, arrives at Moscow, the capital of White Russia, and is presented to the Grand Duke.
East of that sea also was a vast steppe-region rolling plains of sand or grass the home of nomadic hordes similar in character to those who drank the waters of the Don and Wolga. The Sacse, Massagetse, and Dahse of this country, who dwelt about the Caspian, the Aral, and the Lower Jaxartes, were an enemy scarcely less formidable than the Sarmatians and the Scyths of the West.
Before we could cover their retreat, the enemy were upon us. The shock was dreadful, and for some minutes carried all before it; but then rallying, the brave horsemen of France closed up and faced the foe. How vain all the efforts of the redoubted warrior of the Dnieper and the Wolga against the stern soldier of Napoleon!
We thus find the water of this great plain running in all directions to its centre. Had this been the lowest place, here would have been formed a sea or lake. But this water found a lower place in the bed of the Caspian; and into this bason it has made its way, in forming to itself a channel in the great plain of the Wolga.
Forster, Voy. and Disc, in the North, p. 150. Gintarchan, or Zintarchan, is, by Josaphat Barbaro, called also Gitarchau; and Witsan, in his account of Northern and Eastern Tartary, says Astracan was called of old Citracan. Forst. Sara is undoubtedly the town of Saray, situated on the eastern arm of the Wolga, or Achtuba.
We were told that there is another tribe of Tartars beyond the Wolga, named wild Tartars, who allow their hair to grow extremely long. In the middle of winter they often make inroads to the very skirts of the city of Citracan, whence they carry off cattle, but do no other damage. These people, like all the Tartars, shift their encampments in search of pasturage and water.
Let us briefly rehearse the main stages of the misery, and trace the ascending steps of the tragedy, according to the great divisions of the route marked out by the central rivers of Asia. The first stage, we have already said, was from the Wolga to the Jaik; the distance about three hundred miles; the time allowed seven days.
About this period, many abuses subsisted among the Golden Tribe on the Wolga. Mamay and Ideku, or Yedeghey-khan, called Edigi by Schildtberger, had not the title of great khan of the Golden Tribe in Kiptschak, but held in fact the supreme power in their hands, and set up khans from among the royal family, or deposed them at their pleasure. Forst
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