CHAPTER XVI

Trebizond, — The Usurper. — Kaffa, — The slave-market. — Tafur
purchases three slaves.—The Don.—The trade in caviare,—
The Grand Khan,—The Tartars,

Trebizond has about 4000 inhabitants. It is well
walled, and they say that the ground is fruitful and that
it produces a large revenue. We landed and went to
see the Emperor,-^ who enquired of me concerning the
Emperor of Conftantinople, in what manner he had
departed for Italy, and what people he had taken
with him, and he enquired also as to the Empress, his
sifter, and his brother, whom he had exiled. All
this he did, because he desired to know from me whether
it was true that his brother was betrothed to a daughter
of the Lord of Mytilene, and that this lord and the
Genoese and the Emperor had given him a great fleet
to make war on Trebizond, and I assured him that this
was so, whereupon he was much eaft down and replied
that he had sufficient to resift them all, and many more.
He asked me much in order that he might know who
I was and whither I was going, and he urged me to
remain there, and promised, in order to satisfy me, that
he would send me in one of his ships to see what I
wished to see. I replied that I thanked him for de¬
siring my company, but that I could not consent,
since I had to accomplish my journey and be back in
my own country within a certain time, as the King, my
Mafter, was going to war with the Moors. Further,
that if matters were otherwise I could not remain with
him, for he was married to a daughter of a Turk, and
that some harm would surely come to him from that.
He replied that God would show him grace, because
he had married her with intent to make her a Chriftian,

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