The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

in aouthweatern Armenia in the early 1390'a . The
Spanish ambaaaador Clavijo encountered Caucaaian bandita
both enroute to Erzi*jan from Trebizond in 1403, and on
hia return, again in northwestern Armenia and eeuthwestern
Georgia: "for though they are Armenians and profess to
be Christiana, all are robbers and brigands; indeed
they forced us, before we were let free to pass, to give
2
a present of our goods as toll for right of passage" .
The lord encountered in the Trebizond area in 1403> prob-
ably a Graeco-Georgian, was typical of thia group of
mountain lords:
He preceded to explain to us that he lived
in that barren land, where indeed we found him
now at peace, but that he had continually to defend
himself against the Turks who were hia neighbors
on all aides, against whom he was ever at war.
Further he said he and hia men had nothing to lire
on, except it were what they could get given them
by those who passed through their country, or what
they could come to by plundering the landa of their
neighbors, and hence he, Cabaaioa, must now Implore
of us to give him some aid aa a free gift in the
form of money or gooda. In answer we stated that
we were ambassadors and no merchants, being envoys
whom our master the King of Spain was sending
to the Lord Timur, and that further we carried
no gooda with us except what we were bearing aa
gifts to Timur. That Tatar ambaaaador of Timur,
who was our travelling companion, here broke in,
saying that though he well knew the Emperor of
Trebizond was the overlord of all that country,
he was in fact none the less a vassal potentate
tributary to Timur, wherefore it was Incumbent
TK p. 27.
Clav. p. 336.
235