Leaving this rapacious dame, we arrived at _Phasis_ on the 27th of July, some on horseback and others in boats, where we again lodged with _Martha_ the Circassian lady, whom I formerly mentioned. After having run many risks in our journey, we here learnt a piece of most afflictive news, that the Turks had taken possession of Kaffa or Theodosia in the Crimea, by which we were deprived of our last resource, and shut out apparently from every hope of continuing our voyage homewards. Our distress on receiving this intelligence may easily be conceived, and, in fact, we were so much cast down, as not to know what measures to pursue, or to which hand to turn us. Louis, the patriarch of Antioch, resolved upon going through Tartary and Russia, with which route he was acquainted. It was to no purpose that I urged the promises we had mutually come under at the beginning of our journey, never to separate on any account. To this he answered, that the unforeseen circumstances which had occurred, were a sufficient warrant to every one to consult his own individual safety. I insisted and beseeched him not to treat me with such unfeeling cruelty, but all in vain, for he prepared to set off along with the Turkish ambassador, who had been sent by Uzun-Hassan as his particular companion. In this extremity I went to Marcus Ruffus, and the Turkish ambassador who was joined with him by the king of Persia, to whom I mentioned my intention of returning back to Uzun-Hassan. They pretended to approve my plan, and even to join me, and we embraced as entering, into promise of keeping together; but they secretly came to a determination of taking their journey through the province of _Gorgore_, which is subject to _Calcicanus_, and to the city of _Vati_,[4] which is on the frontiers of the Turks, and pays tribute to the Grand Signior.