Voyage to India
Athanasius Nikitin of Twer
translated by Count Wielhorski
By the prayer of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, Thy sinful
servant, Athanasius, son of Nikita.
This is, as I wrote it, my sinful wandering beyond the three seas: the first, the sea of Derbend - Doria
Khvalitskaia; the second, the India Sea - Doria Hondustanskaia; the third, the Black Sea - Doria
Stembolskaia. I started from the church of our holy Saviour of Zlatoverkh, with the kind permission of
the Grand-Duke Michael Borissowich and the bishop Gennadius of Twer; went down the Volga, came to
the convent of the holy life-giving Trinity, and the holy shrines of Boris and Gleb the martyrs; and
received the blessing of the hegumen Macarius and the brethren. From Koliazin I went to Ooglich;
thence to Kostromah, to the Kniaz Alexander, with an epistle. And the Grand-Duke of all Russia allowed
me to leave the country unhindered, and I went on by Plesso to Nijni-Novgorod, to the namestnik
Michael Kisseleff, and to Iwan Saraeff, the collector of duties, both of whom let me pass freely. Vassili
Papin merely passed through that town; but I stopped a fortnight to wait for the Tartar ambassador of
Shirvanshah - Assanbek, who was coming with falcons from the Grand-Duke Ivan, ninety in number.
With him I descended the Volga. We passed unmolested through Kazan, the Orda, Ooslan, Sarai, and
Berekezany, and we entered the river Buzan. Here we fell in with three godless Tartars, who told us false
tidings: - "The sultan Kaissim watches foreign merchants in the Buzan, and three thousand Tartars are
with him."
Assanbek, the ambassador of Shirvanshah, gave to each of them a coat and a piece of linen, that they
might guide him around Astrakhan, avoiding the town. They took the coat, but informed the zar of
Astrakhan.
I abandoned my boat and crept into the ambassadores with my companions, and we sailed by Astrakhan
at moonlight. The zar perceived us, and at once the Tartars cried: "Do not fly;" and the zar ordered the
whole orda to chase us. For our sins we were overtaken on the Bogoon (Buzan).
One of our men was shot; but we shot two of theirs.
The smaller of our boats ran foul of some fishing-stakes, was seized, and instantly plundered with all my
things in her. In the larger we reached the sea, but having grounded at the mouth of the Volga we were
taken, and the boat was hauled up again to the fishing-stakes. There they took her and four head
Russians, dismissing us bare and naked beyond the sea, and forbidding us to return home because of the
news.
And so we went on to Derbend in two boats: in one, the ambassador Assanbek, some Teziks, and
ten head Russaks; in the other, six Muscovites and six Tweritians. A storm having arisen at sea, the
smaller boat was wrecked on shore. Then came the Kaitaks and made the whole party prisoners, and we
came to Derbend, where Vassily Papin had arrived safe and well, but we robbed. I prayed him and also
Assanbek, the ambassador of Shirwanshah, as we had travelled together, to take pity on the men that had
been plundered by the Kaitaks near Tarki. And this he did, and went up the hill to Boolat-bek; and
Boolat-bek sent immediately to Shirvanshah bek, to say that a Russian craft had been wrecked near Sarai,
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