and by day. We answered that we should prefer
to rest for two days, but were told that we must
not stay any longer, for if the lord should know
of it this knight would lose his head. The
ambassadors were so ill that they were more dead
than alive; but the knight caused soft pillows
to be placed on the bows of their saddles, and
so we departed. Wherever we arrived, plenty
of meat was given us, and fresh horses, and we
set out again with the knight who had been sent
to conduct us. The great lord had horses waiting
at the end of each day's journey, at some
places one hundred, and at others two hundred;
and thus the posts were arranged on the road as
far as Samarcand. Those whom Timour sent in
any direction, or who were sent to him, went on
these horses, as fast as they could, day and
night. He also had horses placed in deserts and
uninhabited districts, as well as in places that
were populous; and he caused great houses to
be built in uninhabited places, where horses and
provisions were supplied by the nearest towns
and villages. By command of Timour Beg, any
man met on the road who refused to give up his
horse when wanted by one travelling to or from
the great lord, lost his head. There were
messengers, also, on all the roads, so that news
could come in a few days from every province.
The lord is better pleased with one who travels
a day and night for fifty leagues and kills two
horses, than with him who does the distance in
three days. When horses are knocked up,
they kill and sell them for meat, if they are
in an inhabited country; but we found many
dead horses on the road, which had been killed
by hard riding. We travelled day and night, no
rest being permitted, and, although it was night,
the heat was so great that it was quite wonderful,
and there was hot and burning wind. Gomez
de Salazar was nearly dying, and there was no
water on the road. At last we left him behind
in a village, very ill, as he could not travel any
longer. A litter was afterwards sent to carry
him to the city of Nishapore, where he died in
a good house, attended by the best doctors.

At Nishapore, the ambassadors found another
knight, who had been sent by the great lord
Timour to do them honour, and to hurry them
as much as possible. We went on, therefore,
and whenever we arrived at any village or town,
the first man met in the street was taken, and
forced with many blows to guide us to the
house of the chief. The people, when they saw
the troops of Timour Beg, ran away in horror,
and those who were behind their shops selling
merchandise, shut them up, and fled into their
houses. The chief of the place, being brought
before these knights, received a wonderful number
of blows and whippings, and was threatened
that he should pay dearly because everything
was not ready, of food, fruits, and fodder, for
the ambassadors, their train, and horses.

Over the hot deserts we at last came to the
river Oxus, and crossed the bridge which was
built for Timour's army before it was destroyed
after him, as he had given orders. None can
cross over the Oxus out of Samarcand, by means
of the ferry-boat which is the only passage,
without a pass; but any one may enter. This is
to prevent escape of prisoners. Because the
lord has brought many captives into Samarcand
from the countries which he has conquered, to
people and enrich the land. (Though, when the
ambassadors passed, they found orphans and
women without support in the land of Persia
and Khorassan, yet the men had been taken by
force— above one hundred thousand persons— to
the land of Samarcand.) As we travelled onward,
an attendant, who had been very ill, departed
this life, and on Thursday, the twenty-eighth of
August, we arrived at the city of Kesh, in a
green watered plain. The lord Timour Beg and
his father were both natives of this city. Here,
was a great mosque being built by Timour for
his own body, and in it the lord gives twenty
boiled sheep every day for the souls of his
father and son who lie buried there. We stayed
in Kesh, one day, during which we were shown
the magnificence of Timour's palaces. We then
departed, and when we were within a league of
the city of Samarcand, halted, while one of the
knights went forward to announce our approach
to the great lord.

Next day at dawn, he returned with a command
that the ambassadors, and the ambassador
of the Sultan of Babylon who travelled with them,
should be taken to a garden near the village,
and should remain there until he gave further
orders. On the fourth of September, word was
brought that Timour was occupied with ambassadors
from the Emperor Tokatmish, and could
not see us yet; but that we might not be impatient,
he had sent us wherewith to make merry.
Many cooked sheep and a roasted horse. It is
the custom not to see any ambassador until five
or six days are passed, and the more important
he is, the longer he has to wait.

On Monday, the eighth of September, we
went over a plain covered with houses, gardens,
and markets, to a large garden and palace
outside the city of Samarcand, where the lord
Timour was. Having dismounted, we went into
an outer building, where two knights came to
take our presents and place them in the arms of
men who were to carry them respectfully before
the mighty chief. We then entered the garden
under a broad high portal covered with tiles
glazed in blue and gold, and came to six
elephants with men in wooden castles on their
backs. The two knights, as we approached
Timour Beg, held the ambassadors under the
armpits, and Timour's return envoy was with
them— much laughed at because he wore his
Spanish dress. The ambassadors were conducted
to an old knight in an ante-room, before whom
they bowed reverentially. He was the son of a
sister of Timour Beg. They were then brought
before some small boys, Timour's grandsons, and
bowed also before them. To one of these boys
they gave up the letter sent to Timour by the
King of Castile. The three boys carried the
letter, and the ambassadors were then brought
before Timour himself.

They found him, in the porch of a beautiful