We had some tough work here, and now and then they were too
many for us. Having annoyed us thus for a time, they began to form
themselves into close columns, six or eight abreast; but we had now
attained so much address, that we no longer found them formidable.
After continuing this route for a considerable way, the face of the
country suddenly changed, and we began to enter upon a vast succession
of snowy plains, where we were each furnished with a certain light
weapon, peculiar to the country, which we flourished continually, and
with which we made many light strokes, and some desperate ones. The
waters hereabouts were dark and brackish, and the snowy surface of the
plain was often defaced by them. Probably, we were now on the borders of
the Black Sea. These plains we travelled across and across for many a
day.
Upon quitting this district, the country became far more dreary: it
appeared nothing but a dry and sterile region, the soil being remarkably
hard and slatey. Here we saw many curious figures, and we soon found
that the inhabitants of this desert were mere ciphers. Sometimes they
appeared in vast numbers, but only to be again suddenly diminished.
Our road, after this, wound through a rugged and hilly country, which
was divided into nine principal parts or districts, each under a
different governor; and these again were reduced into endless
subdivisions.
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