48 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 not to 20 to the prikase untill he should returne

Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"

48 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661

not to 20 to the prikase untill he should returne, and then give up a petition
or request for ray dismission ; bringing in for my reasons, that the ambas-
sadour Zamiaty Fiodorovits Leontiuf, with whom I capitulated in Polland,
had promised me to be paid in silver or other equivalent coine, which I
found farr otherwise now, and that I found the constitution of my body not
agreeable with this climate. But the Diack, getting notice of my intentions,
and fearin^r the wrath of the Boyar at his returne, colluded with my
Colouell to entice me into the towne ; so that I being come one morn-
ing to pay my respects to my Colonell, he desired me to accompany him to
the towne, which after some tergiversation I di'l ; and being come and
takeing a walke on the piazza, a writer, with a couple of catchpoles
with him, came to me and desired me to come into the prikase, which
I refused. He told me, that he had order to force me, if I would not
come fairely. Being come into the chiefFe writer, Tichon Fiodorovits
Motiakin received me very courteously, desireing me to sitt downe ; and then,
after some very civill discourse, presented me with orders to diverse offices
for money, sables, damask, and cloth for me and those who came with me ;
which I absolutely refused, tellinu him that I would stay untill the Boyar
returned, with whom I hoped to prevalle and procure my dismission out of
the countrey. This Avriter, being a courteous person, began to reason with
me very civilly, showing me many reasons to divert me from such resolu-
tions ; and haveing sent for my Colonell (who was not farr to seeke) they
both tooke me aside, and among other reasons told me, that it would be my
ruine to desire out of the countrey, because the Russe would presume that
comeing from such a countrey, with which they were in open warr, and
being a Roman Cathohck, I was come to spy out their countrey only, and
then returne ; and that, if I mentioned any such thing, they would not
only not dismiss me, but send me to Sibiria or some remote place, and that
they would never trust me thereafter. This, indeed, did startle me, con-
sidering the nature of the people ; so that, with great reluctancy, I consented
to accept of the orders for our comeing into the countrey.

I gott orders to receive from a Russe seven hundred men, who were to
be in our regiment, being runneway sojours out of severall regiments, and
fetched back from diverse places. Haveing received these, 1 marched
through the Sloboda of the strangers to Crasna Cella,* where wee gott our

* [The German editors explain cella or sclo would have been known to Gordon as a Url^
to be a village with a church— what in Scotland, town.]