Egypt enjoys a large share of trade, and is frequented by almost all nations; and the port of Alexandria swarms with vessels from every part of Christendom, as from Valencia, Tuscany, Lombardy, Apulia, Malfi, and Sicily. Others come from the most northern parts of Europe, and even from inland places; as from Cracow, Cordova, Spain, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, England, Flanders, Artois, Normandy, France, Poitou, Angiers, Gascony, Arragon, and Navarre. There come many also from the western empire of the Ishmaelites or Arabs, as from Andalusia, Algarve, Africa, and even Arabia, besides what come by the Indian ocean from Havilah or Abyssinia, and the rest of Ethiopia, not omitting the Greeks and Turks. To this, country likewise are brought the richest merchandizes of the Indies, and all sorts of perfumes and spices, which are bought by the Christian merchants. The city is extremely populous, on account of its extensive commerce; and for the greater conveniency in the carrying on of their dealings, every nation has its separate factory. There is, near the sea side, a marble tomb, on which are engraven the figures of all sorts of birds and beasts, with an inscription in such old characters, that no one can now read them; whence it is believed that it had belonged to some king who governed that country before the deluge. The length of this sepulchre is fifteen spans, and it is six spans broad[32]. To conclude, there are about 3000 Jews in Alexandria.
[32] This may possibly have been the Sarcophagus brought lately from Alexandria, and deposited in the British museum, under the strange idea of having been the tomb of Alexander. Benjamin seems to have known nothing about the hieroglyphics, with which his tomb was obviously covered.--E.
Leaving Egypt, Benjamin made an expedition from Damietta to Mount Sinai, and returned to Damietta, whence he sailed to Messina in Sicily, and travelled to Palermo. Crossing into Italy, he went by land to Rome and Lucca. He afterwards crossed the Alps, and passed through a great part of Germany, mentioning, in his remarks, the great multitudes of Jews who were settled in the numerous cities of that extensive empire, insisting at large on their wealth, and generosity, and hospitality to their distressed brethren, and gives a particular detail of the manner in which they were received. He informs us, that at the entertainments of the Jews they encourage each other to persist in hoping for the coming of their Messiah, when the tribes of Israel shall be gathered under his command, and conducted back into their own country. Until this long expected event shall arrive, they hold it their duty to persevere in their obedience to the law of Moses, to lament with tears the destruction of Jerusalem and Zion, and to beseech the Almighty to pity them in their affliction, and restore them at his appointed time. He asserts that his countrymen are not only settled in all the provinces and cities of the German empire, but through all the countries of the north, to the very extremities of Russia; and describes that country as so cold in winter that the inhabitants could not stir out of doors. He tells us that France, which the Rabbins call Tzorphat, is full of the disciples of the wise men, who study the law day and night, and are extremely charitable to their distressed brethren; and concludes with an earnest prayer to God, to remember his promise to the children of Israel, to return unto them, and to reassemble them from among all the nations, through which, in his wrath, he has dispersed them.
Towards the end of his travels[33], Benjamin mentions that Prague in Bohemia is the beginning of Sclavonia. In speaking of the Russian empire, he says it extends from the gates of Prague to the gates of [Hebrew] Phin, a large town at the beginning of the kingdom. In that country the animals called [Hebrew] Wairegres, and [Hebrew] Neblinatz are found. Interpreters disagree about the meaning of these words. But it clearly appears that Phin is no other than Kiow, then the capital of the Russian empire; and we should therefore read [Hebrew:] Chiw: and indeed the interpreters might easily have supposed that the word was wrong written, from its wanting the final nun. Russia has always been famous for its gray foxes or gray squirrels, which, in the Russian language, are called [Hebrew] in the Hebrew text, therefore, of Benjamin, we should read [Hebrew] Waiwerges, which as nearly resembles the Russian word, as a Spanish Jew could possibly write it. The name of the other animal should be written [Hebrew] Zeblinatz, by which are meant Sables. Jordanis had before this called these skins Sapphilinias pelles.--Forst.
[33] This short commentary upon three words in that part of the travels of Benjamin, which has been omitted in Harris, is extracted from Forster, Hist of Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 92, and shews the extreme difficulty of any attempt to give an accurate edition of the whole work, if that should be thought of, as it would require critical skill not only in Hebrew, but in the languages of the different countries to which the travels refer.--E.
CHAPTER VI.
Travels of an Englishman into Tartary, and thence into Poland, Hungary, and Germany, in 1243.[1]
[1] Hakluyt, I, 22.
This earliest remaining direct account of the Tartars, or Mongols receiving that name, which is extremely short and inconclusive, is recorded by Matthew Paris, in a letter from Yvo de Narbonne to the archbishop of Bourdeaux, and is here given as a literary curiosity.
Provoked by the sins of the Christians, the Lord hath become as it were a destroying enemy, and a dreadful avenger; having sent among us a prodigiously numerous, most barbarous, and inhuman people, whose law is lawless, and whose wrath is furious, even as the rod of God's anger, overrunning and utterly ruining infinite countries, and cruelly destroying every thing where they come with fire and sword. This present summer, that nation which is called Tartars, leaving Hungary, which they had surprised by treason, laid siege, with many thousand soldiers, to the town of Newstadt, in which I then dwelt, in which there were not above fifty men at arms, and twenty cross-bow-men, left in garrison. All these observing from certain high places the vast army of the enemy, and abhorring the beastly cruelty of the accomplices of Antichrist, signified to the governor the hideous lamentations of his Christian subjects, who, in all the adjoining provinces, were surprised and cruelly destroyed, without any respect of rank, fortune, age, or sex. The Tartarian chieftains, and their brutishly savage followers, glutted themselves with the carcasses of the inhabitants, leaving nothing for the vultures but the bare bones; and strange to tell, the greedy and ravenous vultures disclaimed to prey on the remains left by the Tartars. Old and deformed women they gave for daily sustenance to their cannibals: The young and beautiful they devoured hot, but smothered them shrieking and lamenting under their forced and unnatural ravishments; and cutting off the breasts of tender virgins to present as dainties to their leaders, they fed themselves upon their bodies.
Their spies having descried from the top of a high mountain the Duke of Austria, the King of Bohemia, the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Duke of Carindiia, and as some say, the Earl of Baden, approaching with a mighty power towards them, the accursed crew immediately retired into the distressed and vanquished land of Hungary, departing as suddenly as they had invaded, and astonishing all men by the celerity of their motions. The prince of Dalmatia took eight of the fugitives, one of whom was recognized, by the Duke of Austria as an Englishman, who had been perpetually banished from England for