Having collected together the jewels, gems, and curious clocks and watches which he had been commissioned to purchase for the King of Persia, he repaired to Leghorn, where he embarked with his mercantile companion for Smyrna. Owing to the unskilfulness of the mariners, the variableness of the winds, and the badness of the weather, this short voyage was not performed in less than three months, during which the passengers endured all the privation and misery which such a voyage could inflict. From Smyrna he proceeded to Constantinople, where, through the aid of M. de Nointel, the ambassador of France, he was initiated in all the mysteries of diplomacy, which he unveils in his travels with infinite skill and _naïveté_ for the amusement of his readers. In other respects his connexion with the French ambassador was rather prejudicial than useful to him; for M. de Nointel having conducted himself in all his negotiations with the Turks in a puerile and fluctuating manner, passing by turns from extreme haughtiness to extreme cringing and servility, the anger of the Porte was roused, and directed against the whole French nation; and Chardin, when he became desirous of departing, was denied a passport. From this difficult and somewhat dangerous position he was delivered by the ingenuity of a Greek, who contrived to procure him a passage to Azoph, on the Palus Mæotis, on board of a Turkish vessel then about to set sail with the new commandant and fresh troops which the Porte sent every year to that remote fortress. The Black Sea, which receives its appellation from the gloomy clouds and tempestuous winds which hover over and vex its waters in almost every season of the year, was now to be traversed; and considering the unskilfulness and apathy of Turkish sailors, who creep timidly along the shore, and have little knowledge of the use of the compass, our traveller was not without his apprehensions. After a voyage of eight days, however, they arrived at Caffa, in the Crimea, where, by the help of the Greek friend who had enabled him to laugh at the sultan’s beard and embark without a passport, he eluded the exorbitant demands of the custom-house, and transported his merchandise on board another vessel bound for Mingrelia.