CHAPTER XVI.
MARRIAGE EMBASSY TO HUNGARY.
During this long interval Solomon and Don Abraham had been engaged, the one in embassies among his brethren in Poland, Hungary and Russia, and partly in directing the travels of Spanish Jews, who found Spain utterly uninhabitable by men of their race. By means of merchants already established in Russia Solomon effected exchanges whereby considerable sums escaped from the inquisitional search of the Castilian authorities, who proved themselves far more truculent than those of Aragon. The other exerted himself in establishing a connection, by way of the Volga and the Caspian on one side, and the’ trade routes from Barcelona through Dalmatia on the other, between the many wanderers of his race who passed eastward from Spain, and joining men of the same faith in the orient spread a knowledge of the condition of Europe, the means of entry, and the furious fanaticism prevalent there, among the now restless and conquering hordes that had begun the final movement from the confines of Turcomania and Tartary. Returning at this time in order to escort his family to a friendly shelter accorded to him among the Kharesmians, he decided to pay a final visit to his friends in Moravia.
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