Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/31

Rh portant. In the first place, may be mentioned the clear-sightedness and experience which his residence in foreign courts had superadded to his own naturally keen understanding; add to this, the intercourse which his position as ambassador at Moscow enabled him to cultivate with the best informed and most intelligent people of the metropolis. Independent of these advantages, which enabled him to sift and scrutinize the accounts which might be supplied to him from the descriptions of others, he possessed a fund of information in the men who were assigned to him as interpreters. These persons, named Gregor Istoma, Vlas, and Dmitrii, had themselves made considerable journeys in their native country, and the results of their several observations in these journeys were communicated to Herberstein by the first-mentioned of the three in writing. Our author likewise had the benefit of being acquainted with several foreigners who had long resided in Russia, among whom should especially be mentioned the minister and confidant of the Grand Duke, often spoken of in his work under the name of George the Little. Another source of information may also be mentioned as proving serviceable to Herberstein in the composition of a work which has conferred immortality upon his name; namely, a considerable number of manuscript annals, to which he makes especial reference, under the title of “Literæ cujusdam Warlami Prioris Huttiniensis Monasterii”, anno 7034 [ 1525].

Before we proceed to give an account of the biblio-