A Nogai town outside Astrakhan's walls
Editorial contextWintering at Astrakhan, Christopher Burrough's party saw half of the Nogai Tatar settlement beside the Russian castle burn by accident. He notes that these Nogais were the Tsar's vassals, some seven thousand men, women and children. Weeks later other Nogais and Crimeans camped around Astrakhan with 1,400 horsemen but did not attack.
The Nagayes that inhabit that towne are the Emperour of Russia his vassals. It is supposed there are of them inhabiting that place, of men, women, and children, the number of seuen thousand. … The seuenth of March 1580. the Nagayes and Crims came before Astracan to the number of one thousand foure hundred horsemen, which incamped round about
About Nogai Tatars (vassals of the Tsar) and raiding Crimeans
Keep in mind
The town's name (given on the previous page as the 'Yurt') is badly garbled in this OCR.
Ruins of a stone castle and horseman tombs at Uvek
Editorial contextSailing down the Volga, Burrough's party stopped at Uvek on the 'Crims side' (west bank) and saw the ruins of a fine stone castle and tombs of important people. One tombstone showed a mounted archer, and inscriptions the English took for Armenian letters. The narrative does not say who built it; the editors' index labels Uvek an old Tartar town, and it was in fact a Golden Horde city.
At this place had beene a very fayre stone castle, called by the name Oueake … There remaineth, at this day, to be seene a part of the ruines of the castle and certain tombs, wherein, as it seemeth, haue beene laid noble personages ; for vpon a tombe stone might be perceiued the forme of a horse, and a man sitting on it with a bowe in his hand
About Unnamed former inhabitants (the editors' index calls Uvek an 'old Tartar town')
Keep in mind
The 'Armenian' reading of the inscriptions is the travellers' guess.
Nogai river raiders attack an English barge
Editorial contextForty miles above Astrakhan, the English barge was attacked by about 300 Nogai Tatars in eighteen boats, armed with swords, spears and bows. After a two-hour fight the English firearms drove them off, and the English later heard from an escaped Russian prisoner that 120 raiders had died. Banister, the editors note, survived thanks to a mail shirt.
the Nagaian Tartares, being a kind of theeuish and cruell people, made an assault vpon them with 18. boates of theirs, each of them being armed, some with swords, some with speares, and some others with bowes and arrowes, and the whole number of them they discouered to bee about 300. men.
About Nogai Tatars
Keep in mind
Written down secondhand from a participant; the casualty figure came from a prisoner.
Five 'kingdoms of the Tartars' on the road to Bukhara
Editorial contextIn a late summary of his travels, Jenkinson says he went forty days beyond the Caspian through five kingdoms 'of the Tartars' and the lands of the Turkmen and 'Zayatay' (Chagatai) to the great city of Bukhara. The editors' note names the five as Mangishlak, Vazir, Urgench, Kath and Bukhara. Here 'Tartar' covers the Muslim Turkic states of Central Asia.
of the Tartars, and all the land of Turkenian and Zayatay, and so to the great citie of Boghar, in Bactria, not without great perils and dangers sundry times.
About Turkmen and Uzbek khanates of Central Asia
Keep in mind
The sentence begins on the previous page ('passed through 5. kingdomes').
Crimeans, Nogais and 'the whole nation of the Tartarians'
Editorial contextAn English visitor to Ivan IV's court lists the Tsar's usual enemies: Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Livonia, and three kinds of Tatars. He separates the Crimeans and the Nogais from 'the whole nation of the Tartarians' and praises them all as tough fighters.
His enemies, with whom he hath warres for the most, are these : Litto, Poland, Sweden, Denmarke, Liefland, the Crimmes, Nagaians, and the whole nation of the Tartarians, which are a stoute and a hardie people as any vnder the Sunne.
About Crimean Tatars, Nogais and other Tatars
Keep in mind
Authorship attribution to Robert Best is the editors' (following Hamel).
A town swallowed by the earth for its wickedness
Editorial contextNext to the ruined castle of Uvek, the Russians told the English, there had stood a town they called Sodom, which God had swallowed into the earth with part of the castle because of its people's wickedness. It is a local legend attached to real ruins, and the narrator clearly labels it as Russian report.
adioyning to the same was a towne called by Russes Sodom. This towne & part of the castle (by report of the Russes) was swallowed into the earth by the iustice of God, for the wickednesse of the people that inhabited the same.
About Russians' legend about a ruined Volga town
Keep in mind
Legend reported by Russian boatmen, not observed.
A unicorn's horn on the coast of Tartaria
Editorial contextArguing for a sea route to China round the north of Asia, Jenkinson pointed to a unicorn's horn found on the 'coast of Tartaria', which he thought must have floated there from the east. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, reporting the debate, scoffs that the 'barbarous Tartarians' might not know a unicorn's horn at all, and that such a horn would not float. The editors note the many forms of the unicorn legend across Asia.
His second reason is, that there was an Vnicornes horne … found vpon the coast of Tartaria, which could not come (sayd … he) thither by any other meanes then with the tides
About 'Barbarous Tartarians' of the northern coast of Asia
Keep in mind
Nobody here saw the horn; it may have been a walrus or narwhal tusk, but the source does not say.
OCR normalized; printed margin notes omitted.