On the 17th, we mounted our horses, as I have mentioned, and returned through Mengrelia with some difficulty. On the 21st we were in Cotatis, and, as our guide gave me much trouble, I was obliged to dismiss him. We remained at Cotatis till the 24th, partly because I did not feel well, and partly to wait for some people to accompany us. At length we started in company with some people whom we neither knew nor understood, and travelled over certain mountains, not without fear, until the 30th, when we reached Tiflis. Here I dismounted, more dead than alive, at the church of an Armenian Catholic, by whom we and many others were certainly well received. This priest had a son, who, to our misfortune, fell sick of the plague, which had been very prevalent at this place during the year. As my people went in his company, he gave it to Mapheo da Bergamo, the servant, who attended me, and who kept near me for two days while ill with it. Having at length thrown himself down on his bed, and his disease being discovered, I was advised to move to other quarters. A place where cows were kept at night having been cleaned as well as it was possible, and furnished with a little hay, I was made to rest in it on account of my great weakness. The priest would not allow Mapheo to remain in his house any longer, and, as there was nowhere else, it was necessary to put him in a corner of the place where I was. He was waited upon by Priest Stephano, but it pleased our Lord God to take him. I then obtained, after many prayers, another cowshed, where I was accommodated in a similar manner. We were abandoned by everyone except an old man, who understood a little Turkish, and continued to serve us. But how we fared may be easily judged. We remained at Tiflis until the 21st of October; on the day preceding which, as my good fortune would have it, there arrived the Turkish ambassador, who had accompanied brother Ludovico, the Patriarch of Antioch. From him I learnt that when they had proceeded as far as Avogasia they had been robbed of everything, and that the robbery was to be attributed to the Patriarch himself. He had, therefore, left him to return to his own country, and said that this would cause great dissatisfaction to Ussuncassan. I condoled with him as well as I could, and we left together on the 21st of October. Tiflis belongs to Pangrati, King of Giorgiania. After travelling two days we entered the territory of Ussuncassan, as it was on our way to Samachi, and passed through a fine country.