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metgerei, king of Precop, who at her instigation dispatched the army of Precop to disperse the remainder of the forces of Savolha.

After the rout of these forces, Scheachmet, king of Savolha, seeing the miserable plight in which he was, fled, accompanied by nearly six hundred horsemen, to Alba, which is situated on the river Thyra, in the hope of obtaining assistance from the Turks; but learning that a plot was laid in that city to take him he turned back, and arrived with scarcely half of his cavalry at Kiev. In that city he was surrounded by Lithuanians and taken, and on being conducted to Vilna by order of the king of Poland, the king came forward to meet him, and after giving him an honourable reception, escorted him in his own company to a convention of the Poles, at which the desirableness of a war against Mendligerei was decided upon. But as the Poles took an unreasonable time in mustering their army, the Tartar took grievous offence, and began a second time to contemplate flight, but was apprehended in the attempt and taken back to the castle of Troky, four miles from Vilna, where I saw him and dined with him. This was the termination of the reign of the kings of Savolha, and together with them ended the race of the kings of Astrachan, who derived their origin from the same royal line.

After their extinction the power of the kings of Taurida received a great accession, and they became so formidable to the neighbouring nations, that they compelled the king of Poland to pay a certain stipend on condition that he should have their assistance in any case of pressing necessity. The prince of Muscovy also used from time to time to conciliate him [the king of Taurida] by sending presents, which he did because, as they [the prince of Muscovy and the king of Poland] were constantly embroiled in mutual wars, each strove to overwhelm the other by engaging the cooperation of the Tartar forces. He being aware of this, deluded both