We were invited here by a sudden Accident to have gone Home by the Caspian Sea and Astracan , so thro Muscovy ; but I had heard so much of the Barbarity of the Russians , the dangerous Navigation of the Caspian Sea by Reason of the Calms and Shoals, the Hazard of being robbd by the Tartars on the River Wolga , and the like, that I chose to travel to Constantinople , a Journey through Desarts, over Mountains and Wastes, among so many Sorts of Barbarians, that I would run any Kind of Hazards by Sea, before I would attempt such a Thing again.
It would deserve another History to let you into all the different Circumstances of this Journey; how well I was usd by some, and how ill by others; nay, how well by some Mahometans , how ill by some Christians: But it shall suffice to tell you, that I am at present at Constantinople ; and, tho I write this here, I do not purpose to send it to you till I come to Marseilles in France ; from whence I intend to go and live in some inland Town, where, as they have, perhaps, no Notion of the Sea, so they will not be inquisitive after us.
I am, &c.