legged, after the fashion of the Turks or Tartars, we took our meal, and drinking somewhat freely, made a long supper of it. Next night we came to a certain river, not at all frozen at the time we came up to it; but after midnight the cold was so intense, and the river frozen so hard, that ten heavily laden waggons first crossed over it; but the horses were driven to a spot where the current of the river was stronger, and passed over amongst the broken ice.
At that point, which is twelve miles from Smolensko, my guides left me, and I proceeded for Lithuania; and at eight miles from the frontier, came to Dobrovna, where I received abundance of the necessaries of life, with Lithuanian hospitality.
To Orsa, four miles; between which and Viesma we had the Dnieper on our right, which river we had to cross twice at no long interval, both above and below Smolensko. Leaving it near Orsa, we came straight to
Druzek, eight miles.
Grodno, eleven miles.
Borisov, six miles, on the river Beresina, whose sources Ptolemy ascribes to the Dnieper.
Lohoschakh, eight miles.
Radochostye, nearly seven miles.
Crasno Sello, two miles.
Modolesch, two miles.
The town of Creva, with a deserted fortress, six miles.
Mednick, also a town with a deserted fortress, seven miles, and thence at length we came to
Vilna; and there stayed a few days, after the departure of the king for Poland, while my servants were returning with my horses from Novogorod through Livonia. On receiving my horses, I immediately made a diversion of four miles from the road into Troki, in order to see some bisons, called by some "uri", but in German, "auroxen", and which were there kept enclosed in a garden. The palatine,
