Beauplan.
to see such multitudes together. Thus these mighty Armies march, halting every hour, about half a quarter of an hour, to give their Horses time to Stall; and they are so well manag'd, that they do it as soon as they stop; then the Tartars alight and piss too. They remount immediately, and go on, all which is done only by the Signal of a Whistle; and when they are come within three or four Leagues of the Borders, they lie still two or three days in some place chosen on purpose, where they think they are conceal'd; there they give out Orders, and refresh their Army, which they dispose in this manner. They divide it into three parts, two thirds are to compose one Body, the other third is subdivided into two parts, each of these two making a Wing, one on the right, the other on the left. In this order they enter the Country. The main Body moves slowly (which in their Language they call Choche) with the Wings, but continually without halting day or night, allowing but an hour to refresh, till they are got sixty or eighty Leagues into the Country without doing any harm. But as soon as they begin to march back, the Body holds the same pace: then the General dismisses the two Wings, which have liberty each on its own side to stray ten or twelve Leagues from the main Body, but that is to be understood half of the way forward, and the other half Sideways. I had almost forgot to say, that each Wing, which may consist of eight or ten thousand Men, is again subdivided into ten or twelve Squadrons, of five or six hundred Men each, who run up and down to the Villages, encompass them, making four Corps de Garde about each Village, and great Fires all the night, for fear any Peasant should escape them: then they fall to Pillaging and Burning, kill all that make any resiftance, and take and carry away all that submit, not only Men, Women, and Socking Babes, but the Cattel, Horses, Cows, Oxen, Sheep, Goats; &c. As for the Swine, they drive and shut them up in a Barn or such like place, and fire the four corners, so great is the loathing they have for those Creatures. The Wings being allow'd to stray but ten or twelve Leagues (as has been said) return with their Booty to their main Body, which is easily done; for they leave a great track, marching above fifty in front, so that they have nothing to do but to follow; and in four or five hours they join their Body again, where as soon as they are come, two other Wings consisting of the like number as the former, go out on the right and left to make much the same havock: then they come in, and two others go out, and so continue their Excursions without ever diminishing their Body, which, as has been mention'd, makes two thirds of the Army, and move gently, to be always in breath, and ready to fight the Polish Army, if they should meet it, tho their design is not to meet but avoid it, as near as possible. They never return the same way they broke in, but take a compass, the better to escape the Polish Army: for they always fight in their own defence, nay and they must be forced to it, without they knew themselves to be ten to one; and yet would they consider of it before they fell on, for these Robbers (so we may call the Tartars) do not enter Poland to fight, but to pillage and rob by way of Surprize. When the Polanders meet them, they make work, forcing them to get home faster than their usual pace. At other times after they have sufficiently stray'd, plunder'd and rob'd, they enter upon the Desert Plains in the Frontiers, thirty or forty Leagues in length; and being in that place of safetymake a great halt, recovering breath, and putting themselves into order, if they were in any confusion on account of meeting the Polanders.
That day fev'night they bring together all their Booty, which consists in Slaves and Cattel, and divide it among themselves. It is a sight would grieve the most stony heart to see a Husband parted from his Wife, and the Mother from her Daughter, without hopes of ever seeing one another, being fallen into miserable Slavery under Mahometan Infidels, who use them inhumanly. Their brutish Nature causing them to commit a thousand Enormities, as ravishing of Maids, forcing of Women in the sight of their Parents and Husbands, and circumcising their Children in their presence to devote them to Mahomet. In short, it would move the most insensible to compassion, to hear the cries and lamentations of those wretched Russians; for those People sing and roar when they cry. These poor Creatures are dispers'd several ways, some for Constantinople, some for Crim Tartary, and some for Anatolia, &c.
Thus the Tartars gather and carry away above 50000 Souls in less than a Fortnight: thus they use their Slaves when they have shar'd them, and then sell them if they think fit, when they return into their Country.Now
