_ 333 _ and the Venetian to understand for we concealed the truth from the latter, and feared him more than all the others, because of the cunning of his nature and his ill conscience; if he had found out he would have wanted half of the poor woman’s meagre possessions in order to remain silent, as we were often reminded later that the Armenians had taken her to a monastery nearby to be cured, so that the caravan should not be infected. All this effort was necessary because of the Turks, who, if they had found out, would certainly have taken from us all her possessions, if not more. The people in the caravan and the Venetian always suspected it, but were never able to find out for certain. On that same day the plague affected a little black Bengali girl whom the Venetian had bought in Ormuz and was taking with him; and with her thus afflicted for this problem was never absent from the caravan, we left this city, having spent two days there and paid four xains per load in dues, on the next Friday, 25th of the month, an hour before dawn. We travelled over rough descents, with little cold or snow, and some rain, and a little after midday we crossed a very high, long bridge from east to west, called in Turkish Altun Copri, which means “golden bridge.”
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