_ 84 _ directions, but going mainly towards the north. That night we camped in a broad plain at the foot of a high mountain. I believe that the camel-drivers knew of a theft of two fardos, because they caused the merchants to camp at some distance from one another, although the usual custom was for all to camp close together. On the following day at sunrise we left there across lower mountain-ranges where there was no river, and an hour before sunset we arrived at a castle called Tezerj where there is a Moorish captain subject to the King of Ormuz, for this region is still his. Below the castle there is a settlement of fifty Persian Moorish citizens living in poor houses made of earth, who live on dates, chickens, goats and milk by-products, which they sell to travellers. There are also grapes as good as our own. We camped a little beyond on a hill and drank from a river of very good water and ate very good figs and pomegranates. Up to this point we had had poor food. At this point an Armenian Christian, my companion, died from the great heat, leaving as his beneficiary a Turk, who went off with all his wealth without my secretly telling the captain of the castle. It did no good even though I gave him the goods, since they belonged to a Christian, so that they would be returned to Ormuz; and for a hundred larins, each one worth four times what the Turk gave him, he failed to do so.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy