He was prevailed upon by some of his noble friends, who supposed him to be possessed of the wealth of Crœsus, to purchase a baronial castle and estate near Lyons, the repairs of which, united with the absurd expenses of his household, quickly threatened to plunge him into the poverty and obscurity from which he originally rose. To accelerate this unhappy catastrophe, undoubtedly owing principally to his own folly, his nephew, to whose management he had intrusted a valuable venture in the hope of retrieving his shattered fortune, proved dishonest, married, and remained in the East, appropriating to his own use the property of his uncle. To increase the consternation caused in his family by these private calamities, it was rumoured that the edict of Nantes was about to be revoked, which induced him immediately to dispose of his estate, and prepare to emigrate with the great body of the Protestants out of France. Time for proper negotiations not being allowed, the barony was sold for considerably less than it had cost him; and every thing now going unprosperously with our noble jeweller, his family retired to Berlin, while he repaired, in an obscure manner, to Paris, in quest of funds for another journey into the East. Tavernier was now in his eighty-third year, broken in spirits, ruined in fortune, and bending beneath the effects of age; but his courage had not forsaken him. He succeeded by dint of great exertions in getting together a considerable venture, and departed for Hindostan by way of Russia and Tartary. That he arrived safely at Moscow is tolerably certain; but in this city we lose sight of him; some writers affirming that he died there, while others more confidently assert, that having spent some time at this ancient capital of Russia, he continued his journey, and embarked with his merchandise in a bark upon the Volga, with the design of descending that river to the Caspian Sea. Whether this wretched bark foundered in the stream, or, which is more probable, was plundered, and its crew and passengers massacred by the Tartars, is what has never been ascertained. At all events, Tavernier here disappears, for no tidings of him ever reached France from that time. He is supposed to have died in 1685, or 1686.