Beauplan.
All this is done in less than an hour and a half, and riding a large trot; for when they are discover'd they can never make haste enough; they have all of them these tricks at their fingers ends, and know all the Plains as well as Pilots know their Harbours.
Every little Squadron of ten or eleven crosses the Country at discretion, without ever meeting in their Range, but at a day appointed they rendevouz 10 or 12 Leagues from the place where they broke up, in some Bottom where there is Water and good Grass, for there they lie. Every little Troop travels by it self, fome have but a little way to the Rendevouz, but others by reason of their windings and the compass they take, have a long Journy; and the Grass trod but by eleven Horses, rises again the next day, so that no sign remains.
When together, they lie hid some days, then move in a body, and fall upon some open Town on the Frontiers, which they surprize and carry; which done, they fly, as has been said before. This crafty method have the Tartars found out to conceal themselves in the Plains, and the better to delude the Cossacks, who pursue them hotly, knowing they are not above 5 or 600: the Cossacks mount to the number of 1000 or 1200, pursue them, seek the tracks, and: having found them, follow them to the Maze abovemention'd, where their Measures are broken, and they know not where to look for them, because the track goes every way, which obliges them to return home, and say they could see nothing.
You see how difficult a matter it is to find those Tartars, unless they light upon them by chance, eating or drinking, or resting at night, but always upon their guard. Their Eyes are sharper and clearer than ours, because they are not so open, and therefore the Rays are stronger, and they see better than we do: They discover us before we do them, and Policy, not Strength, carries it. If they meet in the Morning or Evening an hour before Sunrising, or after his setting, they both: contrive to have the Sun in their back, as two Ships at Sea strive for the Wind.
How they fight. If the Polanders fall in with the Tartars, and they find they are not strong enough to stand them with Sword in hand, they will scatter like Flies, and run every one a several way, shooting with their Bow as they gallop full speed, so dexterously that they never miss their Man at 60 or 100 paces distance. The Polanders cannot pursue them, their Horses being shorter winded than the Tartars. These rally again a quarter of a League off, and give a fresh charge upon the Polanders, and when drove disperse again, shooting over their left Shoulder, for they cannot over the right, and so tire the Polanders that they are forced to go off: and this is when the Tartars, as I said before, perceive they are ten to one, otherwise they go clear off without looking back. Thus those People made War in that Country.
Now let us give an account how the Tartars swin Rivers, and those the biggest in Europe. All their Horses swim well, especially in that Country which is cold, and the Water heavier than ours in France, as not being so well purg'd by the Sun: but I am satisfied that were their Horses brought into France, they would not cross the Seine as they do the Boristhenes; for, as I said, the Water is heavier, and consequently bears other Bodies better, as I have found by Experience. When their Army would cross the Boristhenes, which is the greatest River in that Country, they seek out where the Banks are easiest on both sides, and every one provides Rushes, or Reeds, as they find, and makes two little Trusses three foot long, and ten or twelve Inches thick, about a foot distant from one another, and join'd together with three Sticks well bound at top, and one under from corner to corner, well fastned and tied to the Horses Tail.
Then the Tartar puts his Saddle upon his Float, strips himself, lays his Clothes on the Saddle, and on that his Bow, Arrows and Scimeter, all well bound and fastened together; then enters the River stark naked with a Whip in his hand, and drives on his Horse with his Bridle on his Neck, which yet he holds sometimes with one hand and sometimes with the other, together with the Mane; and so putting on his Horse, makes him swim, and he swims with one hand, holding the Mane with the other, and the Bridle which he never quits; and thus leads bis Horse, putting him on with the Whip till he has pass'd the River. Then when his Horse finds his feet upon the other side, and the Water reaches but to his Belly, he stops him, takes the Float from his Tail, and carries it ashoar. All of them pass together in this manner, for they make a Front half a League in length upon the River. All the Cattel passes in the same manner.
This is what I could learn of the Tartars.It
