Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/130

cii further delay, this latter also was prevented, through a journey which he was compelled to make previous to his departure, from joining Herberstein till some time after. The emperor, who had wished to finish the whole business when in Augsburg, left that place in October, and desired Herberstein to follow him. They passed through Tyrol, Switzerland, and Brisgau, to Hagenau, from which place at last Herberstein was despatched alone to Moscow on the 14th of December.

A journey to Russia at that time naturally offered many difficulties, partly real and partly imaginary. The real ones were caused by the great distance, by the severity of the climate, surpassing in coldness that of all other European countries, the danger of passing the rivers increased at this season by the floating ice, the bad state and insecurity of the high roads, more especially at this time from the cruel war which had been carried on now for many years between Poland and Russia, by the neglect with which foreigners were then generally treated in Russia, and finally by the difficulty of making themselves clearly understood. The imaginary difficulties consisted in the imperfect knowledge and strange notions which they had of the countries to be passed through, and especially of that northern country Russia, the dreadful name of which only summoned up to the imaginations of the then uninformed inhabitants of the south, the thought of encountering Scythians and barbarians, cruelty, ice, and darkness. Any journey, therefore, to Moscow, could not fail of being regarded as a very hazardous