FILMED BY BAY MICROFILM, INC. SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF CA, BERKELEY IN 1994 ~ THIS MATERIAL MAY BE COVERED BY COPYRIGHT LAW TITLE 17 U.S. CODE. REPRODUCTIONS OF THE FILM ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH UC BERKELEY GENERAL LIBRARY INTERLIBRARY LOAN OFFICE BERKELEY, CA 94720 FUNDED IN PART BY NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES REPRODUCTIONS MAY NOT BE MADE WITHOUT PERMISSION. AUTHOR: Milner Thos. (Thomas) I TITLE: The Grimea PLACE: London DATE: 1855 VOLUME: cALL DK511 M NEG: 93- NO: C7 7351 M5 UN © \ 9 \ ANERES A IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-2) 2 V 1] 20 \ SH NN N wuwog| 12 14 Hgd7| W9pa9 A707q Ge92 Sulxi 33g7n Oelvf 4ef8k 2xbiy GmnOc Y5a50 E119¢g 7n34a K2b8t Dé6fmh 9ss9d Wecuzl Llcdg 6Y3si Okjdg FUTURA 14 12 NEWS GOTHIC K2b8t Okjdg 4ef8k GmnOc Zlobx Ge92 /n34a 6Y3sl YOr8j A707q Oelvf 2xbiy 9ss9d Llcdg 33qg7n E1t9g Z35lg Hgd7) Sulxi Y5a5 “lz fs Oo = Fa ER = lS 2 fl pe | 1ZC6B USM7P PN6SB 0IKOG Y 6 wk CHlm Zm7 9a 8 XMBBO HWEKH XYAHQ SIDDS 2hY0z bund Dm)H2) T1whe KP7Y Rhot UnmkhY Eeafd C6Jfm Zm Oz7h9B5elPWodnk 8ti1zxI4CI9E83 BISAJ Z7QYI 0KJUDQ IO VILNU MZHSF XMBBO HWEKH 9a 3s431 1skrY |26FRKM EB7AU FUDWM BOONF POINT SERIF (BASKERVILLE) SIZE SANS SERIF (MICROFONT) / VY ¢ oe TT P.O. BOX 338 WEBSTER, NEW YORK 14580 (716) 265-1600 PHOTOGRAPHIC SCIENCES CORPORATION 770 BASKET ROAD 6" | UNNUMBERED PAGE[S] Pagination begins on p.vi, pp. [| ]-[ va] [ix] | are not indicated. THE CRIMEA, "ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY. LoNDoN : A. and G. A. SPOTTISWOODE, New-street-Square. UNNUMBERED PAGES]. Foldouts are unpaged in the text. o 5 10 cn Atala r Srinz 8 20 / #8 SHabanchik or” 1 / Boz Oglii Eo ie am Loralth i { Enpatoria) he ¥en mse CEupatoria re Kalamita |upqpt Jabs RS British Miles 69% =1 Degree P ! > Russian Versts 104-1 Degree 10 20 30 40 37 Engraved by E.Weller. Duke Str Bloomsbury. Londen. Longman & Co . THE CRIMEA,. ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY: THE KHANS, THE SULTANS, AND THE CZARS. WITH NOTICES OF ITS SCENERY AND POPULATION. BY LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1855. TO THOSE WHO HAVE RELATIVES AND FRIENDS IN THE CRIMEA, AT REST IN THE GRAVE, FALLEN IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY, This Tolume, DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS NATURAL FEATURES AND CHANGING FORTUNES, IS INSCRIBED, IN HONOUR OF PATIENCE, FORTITUDE, AND VALOUR. PREFACE. In dismissing this volume, 1 desire to remark, that it has been written under circumstances unfavour- able to literary exactness. It formed no part of my object to detail the events of the present war, or to criticise its conduct. I have merely sought to {llustrate its scenes, and give the general annals of a peninsula, which, after being famous in by-gone times, and lapsing into obscurity, has been suddenly raised to lasting celebrity, as the site specially selected by the Western Powers on which to fight the battle with Russia. The case is unique in his- tory, of the armies of five great sovereigns being con- centrated in such a narrow space—those of a Queen, an Emperor, a King, a Sultan, and a Czar—belonging to the four leading religious professions of Europe, the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mohammedan, and Russo-Greek communions. Some passages from contributions by the writers to the public journals have been made use of in the following pages. vii PREFACE. It is to be lamented, that the description of the Museum of Kertch must be read as an account of Whit : it was, all its contents — relics of the old Milesian Greeks —having been destroyed, apparently CoNBENIS by the Turks and Zouaves. Brixton, June 24. 1855, CHAPTER I. THE PENINSULA AND ITS WATERS. Geography and War.— General Notice of the Crimea.—Penin- sulas of Kertch and Arabat. — The Black Sea.— Its ancient and modern Names. — Ovid and Tertullian. — Character of the Navigation. — Sea of Azof.—The Putrid Sea.— Strait of Kertch. — Mud Volcanoes. — Fish of the Euxine. — The Saighir River. — The Alma. — The Tchernaya Retchia. — Salt Lakes. — Mud Bathing - - - Page 1 CHAP. II THE MOUNTAINS AND THE STEPPES. Natural Division of the Surface. — The South Coast Range. — Summits of the Highlands.—Rock of Shirin.— The Tchadir- Dagh.— Cave of Foul Kouba.—Landslips.— Valley of Baidar. — Pass of Merdven.—Pass of Osembash.— Mangoup Kalé.— The Steppes. — General Characteristics. — Tumuli. — Their Design. — Monotony of the Plains. — Optical Illusions. — Columns of Dust. — Gentlemen of the Road. — The Steppe- Limestone. — Sunset = - - - - 34 CONTENTS. CHAP. III. THE BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, AND CLIMATE, Flowering Plants and Grasses. — Burian. — The Steppe Witch. —Forests and Woods.— Vineyards.—Locusts—their Ravages. —Caterpillars. — Wild Quadrupeds. — Birds. — Reptiles. — Domesticated Animals. — Summer and Winter. — Storms Page 60 CHAP. IV. THE LEGENDARY, GREEK, AND ROMAN AGE. Legend of the Argonauts. — Wanderings of Ulysses. — The Cimmerians and Tauri.— Legend of Iphigenia.— First Mile- sian Colonists.—Kingdom of Bosphorus.— Trade. — Colonists from Heraclea. — Mithridates. — Pharnaces. — Bosphoran Kings.—Republic of Cherson.—Theodosia and Panticapzum. — Cherson and Eupatorium.—Inkerman.—Cape Parthenium 82 CHAP. V. THE MEDIEVAL AGE. The Wandering of the Nations. — Alans, Goths, and Huns. — The Turk Family. — The Khazars. — Khazarian Empire. — The Russians in the South. — Vladimir I. at Cherson. — The Pichengues and Comanes. — The Mongol Tartars. — Con- quests of Batou Khan. — Empire of Kiptshak. — Subjects of the Empire. — The Tatars chiefly Turkish Tribes. — Intro- duction of Mohammedanism.— The Grand Khans Berke and Mengli. — Foundation of Kaffa. — The Genoese, Venetians, CONTENTS. xi and Pisans.— Commerce between Europe and Asia. — Com- merce of the Genoese.— Progress of Kaffa.— Dissensions with the Tatars. — Timour. — Dismemberment of the Kipt- shak. — Hadji Devlet Gherai. — Ottoman Conquest of Con- stantinople. — Fall of Kaffa - - - Page 108 CHAP. VL KHANATE AND KHANS OF THE CRIMEA. The early Khans.-~Khanate of Kasan.—Princess Souyounbecka. —The early Sultans.— The Czar Ivan the Terrible.— Selim II. — Burning of Moscow. — Gazi Gherai. — Cossacks of the Dnieper. — Piratical Expeditions. — The Zaporogians. — Cossacks and Tatars. — Siege of Vienna. — Selim Gherai. — Commerce of the Black Sea. — The Porte and the Khanate. —Military System.— Officers of the Government.—Nobility. , — Lands. — Revenue. — Court Pastimes.— Baron de Tott.— Bakchi-Serai.— Palace of the Khans.—Fountain of Marie.— Tombs of the Khans - - - . - 145 CHAP. VIL THE RUSSIAN BATTLE FOR THE BLACK SEA. Early Attempts against the Crimea. — Mazeppa. — Peter the Great.—Charles XII. and the Zaporogians.—Devlet Gherai. — Peace of the Pruth.— Russian Pretensions to the Ka- bardahs.— First Invasion of the Crimea. — Capture of Pere- kop.—Subsequent Inroads.— Marshals Munich and Lacy. — Other foreign Officers employed. — War of 1768. — Krim Gherai. — His Expedition to the Ukraine. — Death of the Khan. — Conquest of the Crimea. — Catherine to Voltaire.— Inscription at Arabat.—Peace of Kainardji ~~ - - 187 CONTENTS. CHAP. VIII THE RUSSIAN ANNEXATION OF THE CRIMEA. Catherine II.— Prince Potemkin. — Treaty of Kainardji,— Measures of Russia.— The Rival Khans. — The Turks. — Chahyn Gherai.—The Bey Mansour. — His extraordinary Character. — Russian Interference. — Manifesto of the Em- press.—Summer Palace of the Khans.—The Taurida Palace. — Visit of Catherine to the Crimea. — Its Design. — Progress of the Empress. — Alliance of Russia and Austria. — War with the Turks.—Potemkin’s Festival.— Results of the War. — Fate of the Gherais. — Fate of Mansour. — Death of Po- temkin. — Shiftings of Population. — The Province con- stituted - - - » - Page 229 CHAP. 1X. SEBASTOPOL AND THE COAST. First Map of the Crimea.— Early Notices of the Ports. — Suwarrow at Atkiar. — Cherson, Nicolaief, and Sebastopol. — Russian War-fleet. — Harbour of Sebastopol — The For- tifications, — Dockyard and Canal. — The English Engineer. — The Town.— English Burying-ground. — Balaklava. — Greek Colony.—Railway.—Monastery of St. George.— Sub- marine Electric Telegraph. — South Coast. — Aloupka. — Prince Woronzow. — Three celebrated Women, — Imperial Domain.—Yalta.—Botanic Garden. — Alushta. — Soudak.— Kaffa.—Kertch. — Visit of Nicholas. —Yenikale.—Eupatoria 284 CONTENTS. CHAP. X. SIMFEROPOL AND THE INTERIOR. The Civil Capital. — Akmetchet and Simferopol. — Professor Pallas. — Valley of the Salghir. —Bakchi-Serai.— Character of the Town, — Traders.— Howling Dervishes.— A Gipsey Village. — The Gipsey Dog-Killer. — Monastery of the As- sumption. — Tchoufout Kaleh. — Valley of Jehoshaphat. — The Karaim Jews. — Talmudical Jews. — Karasu-Basar. — Population of the Crimea.—The Tatars of the Steppe.—The Hill - dwellers. — The Nogais. — General Character of the Tatars - > . - - - Page 336 UNNUMBERED PAGES Should be pp. [ Xiv]-[ xvi], [1]. DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. Map of the Crimea, to be inserted as a “ Frontispiece.’ Bird's-eye View of the Crimea, to face “ Chapter 1.” Manstein Map, fo face “ Chapter IX.” SE 4 v i xf y { bia : ~ > TAT TE IME 3) TIS 7 1H] iA 100 LUI IN Y Mh Ik / I THE CRIMEA : ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY. PRET, ATER i ERG or CA IroaN\ Ae ow AL IFO RN ue CHAPTER L Soc: THE PENINSULA AND ITS WATERS. GEOGRAPHY AND WAR. — GENERAL NOTICE OF THE CRIMEA. — PENINSULAS OF KERTCH AND ARABAT.— TEE BLACK SEA. — ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN NAMES. — OVID AND TERTULLIAN. — CHARACTER OF THE NAVIGATION. — SEA OF AZOF.— THE PUTRID SEA.— STRAIT OF KERTCH, — MUD VOLCANOES. — FISH OF THE FUXINE. — THE SALGHIR RIVER. — THE ALMA, — THE TCHERNAYA RETCHIA. — SALT LAKES. — MUD BATHING. WHATEVER may be the political issue of the present exciting war, one result has already accrued from it, not designed by either of the belligerent parties — the improvement and extension of geographical knowledge. My Lords” of the Admiralty have had their charts of the Baltic and Black Seas in no slight degree corrected and amplified by the surveying B 2 THE CRIMEA. ships of the squadrons, and are now acquainted with the position, contour, capabilities, and dangers of many a fiord and inlet, before not known at all, or inaccurately delineated. Not a few also among the educated classes of society have received enlighten- ment respecting various localities, so as to form definite ideas of their configuration and features, with which aforetime they were only verbally familiar ; while the names of countries and places, of seas, shores, rivers, straits, and islands, have become household words to tens and hundreds of thousands, who were profoundly ignorant of them eighteen months ago. "Who has not heard and talked of the Crimea, of Sebastopol and Balaklava, Perekop, and Eupatoria, Inkerman and the Alma? Nobles in their palaces, squires in their halls, peasants by their hearths, artizans at their craft, cottagers on lonely moors, and fishermen on dreary shores, have alike been hearing and repeating these terms, with an intelligent apprehension of their significance. But to a very large proportion of the community, at a recent date, the region to which they refer was a perfect terra incognita. If Sebastopol had then been mentioned, it would have been a dubious point to “mine host” of the hamlet and his satellite the ostler, now enfranchised with competent ideas, GEOGRAPHY OF WAR. 3 whether king or queen, man or woman, fish, flesh, or fowl, was the object intended. Journalising accounts of the passage of fleets, the march of armies, the hurly-burly of camps, and the stern tug of battle, with cheap plans of the seat of hostilities, have per- formed the office of the geographical instructor. While information has thus been extended in western Europe respecting its eastern countries, the advantage has doubtless been reciprocated by the Orientals, at least to some small extent.- Never since the days of Godfrey de Bouillon has Constan- tinople seen such a gathering of Europeans in its neighbourhood, as that which the passage of the Anglo-French fleets and armies through the Bos- phorus presented to its inhabitants. The spectacle wrung many a Mashallah! Allah is great! from the cross-legged, coffee-sipping, chibouque-smoking, and apathetic Turks. Their ideas can scarcely fail to have been rectified and enlarged by it respecting the resources of the two great nations of the Giaours who so gallantly came to their aid against the overbearing Muscovite; while it may be surmised, that some knowledge of the home quarters of their occidental auxiliaries has been incidentally acquired. The subjects of His Highness the Sultan have not been i i . Even famous for their geographical accomplishments. Ev B 2 4 THE CRIMEA. members of the Divan have more than once made an amusing display of their deficiencies. Von Hammer relates, that when he was interpreter at Constanti- nople, in the year 1800, and it was proposed to bring an Anglo-Indian force to the assistance of the Porte, the grand-vizier stoutly denied the possibility of the undertaking, not being aware of any com- munication subsisting between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Sir Sydney Smith with great difficulty convinced him, by the exhibition of charts and other authorities, that the two seas are con- nected. Farther back, in 1769, when the Russian fleet for the first time made its way round western Europe, intent upon cruising against the Turks in the Greek Archipelago, the Divan positively refused to credit the tidings of the armament, gravely alleging that no maritime passage existed between the Baltic and the Mediterranean! When somewhat staggered in its incredulity, application was made to the Austrian government to prevent the passage of the ships by Trieste and the Adriatic! The coun- sellors of the Sultan are now better acquainted with the map of Europe, for through nearly half a century, the dangers with which the Ottoman Empire has been menaced, have enforced attention to it, especially to the whereabouts and means of its western nations, GENERAL NOTICE OF THE PENINSULA. 5 —topics which the present tremendous struggle must have illustrated more generally to the oriental mind. Not to deal unfairly, it may be remarked, that authorities on the Bosphorus have not been the only men in office at fault in their geography. It is within memory, that our own Colonial office sent out a document, the work probably of some new hand, not put into place by merit, in which one of our dependencies on the South American main was defined to be a West India island. A brief description of the physical geography of the Crimea will appropriately precede a general review of its history. The Crimea, formerly called Crim-Tatary, and in remoter times known by the designation of Taurica Chersonesus, is a peninsula on the northern shore of the Black Sea, projecting into it from the mainland of southern Russia. It forms part of the extreme south-eastern corner of Europe. The territory, henceforth of celebrity in our annals, lies between the meridians of 32° 45’ and 36° 39” east longitude, and between the parallels of 44° 40” and 46° 5’ north latitude ; thus corresponding in its latitudinal position with the north of Italy and the south of France. It extends rather more than 130 miles from north to south by 170 miles from west to east; but the latter B 3 6 THE CRIMEA. direction embraces a long narrow strip of country, abutting eastward from the main mass. The total area is estimated at 10,050 square miles, which is equal to that of our own principality of Wales, with the addition to it of the English border counties. In the middle ages, travellers sometimes styled the Crimea the Island of Caffa, in allusion to the city of that name on the east coast, and to the almost com- plete insulation of the territory ; in fact, that it once was entirely detached from the continent, a true island, is very probable. This was the opinion of Strabo, Pliny, and Herodotus ; and the character of the neck of land connecting the peninsula with the European main sustains the hypothesis. The Isthmus of Perekop, the tract in question, about seventeen miles in length by five in breadth, is so low that, from the centre the seas on either hand are appa- rently above the level of the spectator, and seem only to want a slight impulse from the wind in order to unite their waters. In far remote times, the Greeks fortified the isthmus, the Taphros of their geography. This name, Tagpos, signifies “a ditch,” and alludes to the defensive work. There appears, also, to have been a town in the neighbourhood bearing the same denomination. The fosse ran from sea to sea, and had towers at intervals, which were anxiously MINOR PENINSULAS. 7 guarded, to prevent the incursions of barbarous tribes. In a similar manner, and at the same point, the isthmus has ever since been fortified. Taphros, as the name of an inhabited site, was followed by that of Or-Gapy, or the “ Royal Gate,” the grandiloquent title of a humble Tatar village, referring to the passage into the Crimea at the spot by a bridge over the moat, and an arched gateway beneath a tower. Russia finally substituted the present name, Perekop, signifying a trench between two seas. The fosse, wide and deep, still exists, though much dilapidated ; and the other fortifications are not fit for defence. The peninsula contains three similar tracts upon a smaller scale. One of these is the nook of land on the south-west coast, bounded by the sea, and a line running from the far extremity of the principal harbour of Sebastopol to the inlet of Balaklava, This was the Chersonesus Heracleotica of the ancients, sometimes called the Small Chersonesus, to distinguish it from the main body of the country, or the Great Chersonesus. The district is associated with many poetic and historical memorials of the olden time ; and has now, for more than six months, absorbed the attention of the civilised world. Its limits include the southern side of Sebastopol, the camps, batteries, and trenches of the allied armies, B 4 8 THE CRIMEA. with the fields which witnessed the chivalric display of Balaklava and the bloody fight of Inkerman. The second peninsula is that of Kertch, on the east, well known to the merchants of ancient Athens, and his- torically memorable as the seat, for eight centuries, of the kingdom of the Bosphorus. It lies between the Sea of Azof and the Black Sea, extends about eighty miles from west to east, by a medium width of twenty-four miles from north to south, and is con- nected with the rest of the country by an isthmus little more than ten miles broad, forming a level plain. The third minor peninsula is physically re- markable as a tongue of land projecting northerly from the former tract at Arabat, seventy miles in length, but often not more than a quarter of a mile in width. It separates the Sea of Azof from its arm, the Putrid Sea, and is very slightly raised above their level. The two seas communicate at the north extremity through the somewhat pompously desig- nated Strait of Genatch; for it has more the aspect of an artificial canal than a natural channel, being only 100 yards wide. Here a bridge connects the peninsula with the main land of Russia; and by this route the chief intercourse between the eastern part of Crimea and the continent is carried on. A road runs along the narrow causeway, on which several THE BLACK SEA. 9 post-stations are established for the convenience of travellers. But rapid travelling is often impeded by the sottishness of the masters, who stupefy them- selves with bad brandy, to relieve the isolation and monotony of their position. Demidoff encountered one of these professed auxiliaries of locomotion, who could never remember what he had done the day before, and who answered his demand for horses with sundry inarticulate sounds and salutations, accom- panied by every kind of gesture which drunkenness could prompt. The singular promontory consists partly of shelly sand, clothed with excellent pastu- rage, and partly of barren saline sand, more or less consolidated. Besides the post-stations, the huts of peasantry are scattered at intervals over it. The Black Sea washes the Crimea on the west and south; and being tideless, the waters of land- locked inlets have a lake-like aspect. This expanse is distinguished by its vast size, compact form, and nearly unbroken surface, for only one small island near the mouth of the Danube, and two rocks off shore in the Crimea, interrupt its continuity. The extreme length, east and west, is about 690 miles, and the greatest breadth, north and south, between Odessa and the Channel of Constantinople, 390 miles. The breadth diminishes to rather less than 160 miles me Ee — i} i! | Bi iit 1H bi —_ 10 THE CRIMEA, between the south point of the Crimea and Sin on the opposite shore of Asia Minor. It ex a eastwards to 300 miles, but decreases or on SYitomity. The area occupied by the waters is estimated at 180,000 square miles. This exceeds the area of the Baltic or the Caspian, but is less than that of the North Sea. The total area of the basin, which includes the countries drained by the Danube, the Dneister, the Dneiper, the Bo : th Don, the Kuban, and other rivers, is not of 1,000,000 of square miles, comprehending nearl one-third of Europe, and a small portion of i western Asia. The length of the coast-line is upwards of 2000 miles. Polybius gives the diagonal distance across the sea, from the Thracian to the Cimmerian Bosphorus, or from the Channel of Con- stnsinople to the Strait of Kertch, at 500 Roma miles, Which is very nearly correct, and shows he ancients ha a more accurate method of deter- fue a ship’s way than is commonly imagined. y compared its form to that of the Scythian bow, taking the south coast for the strine ho th remainder for the bow, a rude but not rs in : curate resemblance. Owing to the immense Se ! of sediment brought down by the northern ny Polybius hazarded the prediction, that the sea oo THE BLACK SEA. 11 doomed to become unfit for navigation, if not ab- solutely converted into dry land. But the depth of its bed, with the vigorous and constant rush of water through the Channel of Constantinople, will always sufficiently dispose of the alluvial soil of the rivers without such a consummation, though at, their mouths the formation of new land is in process. In the time of the Greek geographers, a great bank, a thousand stadia in length, existed at the distance of one day’s sail from the Danube, upon which the sailors often ran aground by night, no traces of which are to be found at present. Probably the Jand at the mouth of the river has so increased in the lapse of nineteen or twenty centuries, that what was then a bank from thirty to forty miles off-shore, (a moderate computation for a day’s sail,) has since become an integral part of it. The Black Sea, though not so salt as the Mediterranean, is much salter than the Baltic, notwithstanding a vast influx of fresh water from its mighty rivers, and a constant outflow by the passage of Constantinople. To ac- count for this, some physical geographers have had recourse to an under-current from the Archipelago, making its way through the Dardanelles to the Bosphorus, and communicating its saltness to the waters with which it finally commingles. But the 12 THE CRIMEA. great abundance of salt in the countries on the northern shores, some of which must constantly be finding its way to the sea by the drainage, is an adequate and more satisfactory explanation. This great inland reservoir has been known under various and contradictory designations. The Latin writers often called it simply Pontus, the sea. The Greeks, in their earliest age, styled it Azenus, or “ inhospitable.” It owed this name probably to the stormy weather common at certain times of the year, formidable and perilous to timid and unskilful mariners, as well as to the barbarity of the nations on its shores, some of the northern Scythian hordes being reputed cannibals. At a subsequent date, when the Greeks had established colonies upon the coast, they substituted the more auspicious title of Euzinus, hospitable,” friendly to strangers,” out of compliment to their own civilised habits, and as an inducement to emigration. But a bad character, justly or unjustly acquired, adheres with extra- ordinary tenacity ; and notwithstanding the change of style, the old adage about once giving a dog a ied Rata was verified in this case. The world persisted in thinking as ill of the Euxine as of the Azxenus ; and it still retains the impression, that there is something specially unfavourable in its character, SVE RAR y ; OF THE Ly IVERSITY } i or A os 2 \ P By F ISOM po {! IK y dad Rw ce cox on ed THE BLACK SEA. 13 not to be found elsewhere. The modern denomi- nation has contributed to strengthen this idea. The present name, the Black Sea, Kara-dengis, originated with the Turks It is not suggestive of the agreeable, nor is it remarkable for pertinence. The nomenclature of seas and shores, in general, has been very arbitrarily settled ; distinctive titles having been grafted upon very partial features, not at all confined to the localities they denominate. The White Sea is not whiter than Baffin’s Bay; the Vermilion Sea is not more rosy than the Levant; the Red Sea is not ruddier than the Persian Gulf’; and the Pacific Ocean roars just as terribly as the Atlantic, and quite as often. Such epithets are unfortunate. They make a false impression upon the mind in early life, which subsequent knowledge may correct, but seldom entirely effaces. The Turks and other eastern nations are accustomed to call sluggish waters Kara, “black.” They are com- monly of a dusky complexion; while the quick- flowing streams of mountain districts are called « white,” being generally limpid. The Euxine is, however, intensely blue, and the reverse of being a sleepy sea. But orientalism frequently denotes torrent-like rivers, and waters of difficult or dan- gerous passage, by the term “ black,” as well as men 14 THE CRIMEA, . of evil deeds, formidable to their fellows. The Ottoman empire has numberless Kara-su’s, or black waters, in its geography; and quite as many grand viziers, pashas, and seraskiers in its history, who, like the Kara Chalib Chendereli of its early age, have acquired an inglorious celebrity, and been similarly designated. In the same manner, real or supposed perils to navigation, the storms of winter, with the fogs which mark the dawn of spring and the close of autumn, are metaphorically expressed by the ominous phrase of the Black Sea. But, till very recent times, the surface has never been navigated by expert mariners, in efficient craft; and, under similar circumstances, the narrow seas of Great Britain would have strong claims to a sombre style and title. No part of the globe has been more vituperated than the Euxine, Pontic, or Black Sea region. Two writers of antiquity, Ovid and Tertullian, a poet and an ecclesiastic, have expatiated upon its demerits,— especially the former, who had some years’ acquaint- ance with its western shore. In the fifty-first year of his age, he was relegated from Rome by the edict of the Emperor Augustus, probably for not keeping a still tongue in his head, and using it in gossiping about a piece of court scandal. By the terms of his OVID IN EXILE. 15 banishment, he was ordered to reside at Tomi,—a colony of the Milesians, near the mouth of the Danube, — a spot in those days on the very confines of civilisation. Ovid was sent to his destination quite as unceremoniously as many an incautious chatterer at St. Petersburg has been marched off to Siberia. He reached it in winter, through stormy seas, and died in the ninth year of his exile. Fond of wine, baths, perfumes, fruits, flowers, and luxuri- ous ease, the sentence came upon him like a thunder- clap. Never man took to his lot in a more dolorous spirit. His Tristia and Pontic Epistles, ditties sent home to his friends, are crowded with abject solicita~ tions for a remission of his sentence, and babyish complaints of everything—Iland, water, and sky—the climate, the soil, the air, and the people. “I am under the sky,” says he, «of the extremity of the world. Alas! how near is the end of the earth to me !” He thus apostrophises the land: “ Thou art the most intolerable part of my wretched banish- ment. Thou dost neither feel the spring, bedecked with the flowery wreaths, neither dost thou behold the naked bodies of the reapers. For thee no autumn holds forth the clustering grapes, but all seasons retain an intense cold. Thou keepest the sea bound up with ice; and often, in the ocean, does the 16 THE CRIMEA. fish swim enclosed in the covered water. Thou hast no springs, except of running water almost as salt as the sea; and it is a matter of doubt whether that quenches thirst, or increases it. But few trees, and those of no strong growth, appear in the open country, and on the dry land is beheld an exact resemblance of the sea. No bird warbles forth its notes, unless perchance in the distant forest. The bitter worm- wood grows prickly along the unproductive plains, a harvest, in its bitterness, fitting to the place of its growth.” If there was any truth in the former part of this description, in the time of the writer, the climate of the country has since undergone a change for the better. The latter part correctly depicts the vegetation and sea-like aspect of the steppes. Ovid thus speaks of the Pontic winter as of its ordinary character. * The snow lies deep; and, as it lies, neither sun nor rain melt it. Boreas hardens it, and makes it endure for ever. Hence, when the former ice has not yet melted, fresh succeeds, and in many a place it is wont to last for two years. So great is the strength of the north wind when aroused, that it levels high towers with the ground, and carries off roofs. The inhabitants poorly defend themselves from the cold by skins and sewn trowsers; and, of OVID IN EXILE. 17 the whole body, the face is the only part exposed. Often the hair, as it is moved, rattles with the pen- dent icicle ; and the white beard shines with the ice that has formed upon it. Liquid wine becomes solid, preserving the form of the vessel : they do not quaff draughts of liquor, but pieces, which are pre- sented. Why should I mention how the frozen rivers become hard, and how brittle water is dug out of the streams. The Danube itself, which, no narrower than the river which bears the papyrus, mingles through many mouths with the vast ocean, freezes as the winds harden its azure streams, and it rolls to the sea with covered waters. Where ships had gone, they now walk on foot: and the hoof of the horse strikes the waters hardened by freezing. Sarmatian oxen drag the uncouth wagons along unwonted bridges, as the waters roll beneath. I have seen the vast sea frozen with ice, and a slippery crust covered over the unmoved waters. To have seen it is not enough. I have trod upon the hard- ened ocean, and the surface of the water was under my feet, not wetted by it.” Making allowance for poetical exaggeration in this passage, it may still be regarded as evidence in favour of an opinion, sup- ported by other facts, that the general climate of Europe was much more rigorous in former ages than Cc 18 THE CRIMEA. at present; for only the most northerly ports of the Black Sea, with the Strait of Kertch, and the Sea of Azof, are now annually ice-bound. Shakspeare, in the tragedy of Othello, mentions the « icy current of the Pontic Sea;” and the Channel of Constantinople itself has answered to the description. In A.D. 401, large tracts of the Euxine were strongly frozen ; and when the weather broke up, such mountains of ice drifted by the city as frightened the inhabitants. In the reign of Constantine Copronymus, so severe a winter occurred, that people walked upon the ice from Constantinople to Scutari. Either of these events now would be quite a phenomenon. The ecclesiastic, even more than the poet, has been guilty of exaggeration with reference to the Pontic region. Tertullian, declaiming against the heretic Marcion, has supplied the following unsur- passed sample of libellous writing: * That tract which is called the Pontus Euxinus — the hospitable sea— has been refused all favours, and is mocked by its very name. The day is never open—the sun never shines willingly. There is but one atmosphere —fog. The whole year is wintry ; every wind that blows comes from the north ; liquors are only such before the fire ; the rivers are blocked up with ice; the mountains are heaped higher with snow; all NAVIGATION OF THE BLACK SEA. 19 things are benumbed and stiff with cold. Nothing but cruelty has there the warmth of life; such cruelty, I mean, which has supplied the stage with fables concerning the sacrifices of the Tauri, the loves of Colchis, and the tortures of Caucasus. But there is nothing so barbarous and miserable in Pontus as that it has given birth to Marcion. He is more savage than a Scythian, more unstable than the wild inhabitant of a wagon, more inhuman than the Massageta, more audacious than the Amazon, darker than the mist, colder than the winter, more brittle than the ice, more treacherous than the Danube, more precipitous than Caucasus.” Well may the Euxine, with such descriptions afloat, have been in bad odour throughout the world, conceived of by the popular imagination as a kind of enormous Styx, fit only for satyrs to visit, and centaurs to navigate. The truth is, that the Black Sea has its special dangers and demerits like most other parts of Nep- tune’s empire. Tremendous storms from the north occasionally visit it in winter, and at the equinoxes, accompanied with blinding snow or sleet. Dense fogs are common in spring and autumn, and a slight gale ruffles the surface with harassing, though not perilous, billows. On the other hand, it is admirably adapted for navigation through many months of the C2 20 THE CRIMEA. year, being generally deep, so that the largest ships may often sail close in shore, unobstructed with shoals and islands, affording ample sea-room and possessing several excellent harbours. But, till a very recent date, the nations in command of its shores have done little or nothing to facilitate the safety of the mariners who visit them. Upon a coast-line of more than 2000 miles there are not more than twenty lighthouses. The charts have been few in number, and for the most part inaccu- rate, while the majority of the seamen would be classed with landlubbers ” by sailors accustomed to double Cape Horn. The Turk does his best in the storm, but cares little for chart or compass, and resigns himself to a disaster as the irrevocable decree of kismet or fate. The Russian crews of coasting vessels are searcely more advanced. The first expe- dient commonly adopted in rough weather is to throw everything moveable overboard, and if there is no improvement, the next and final experiment is to throw themselves before the images of saints, aban- doning the ship to the care of St. Nicholas or St. Alexander Nevsky. It is related that an English captain, on approaching the Dardanelles, met with a vessel from the Crimea, the master of which asked him where he was. It appeared that, after having THE SEA OF AZOF. 21 been driven hither and thither by a gale of wind, he had been forced out of the Black Sea through the Bosphorus, the Propontis, and the Dardanelles, and was quite unable to ascertain his position. Not many years have elapsed since some of the Russian men-of-war had the inglorious reputation of being manned with fair-weather and smooth-water sailors, the greater part of the officers and crews being always sea-sick when the breeze blew strong. Once, when the admiral was between Sebastopol and Odessa, it is said, that he and his officers were so completely at fault, that observing a village on shore, the flag- lieutenant proposed to land in order to inquire the way. Though there is malicious wit in this state- ment, it is nevertheless true that, to very modern times, the Euxine has had to bear the blame of many a mishap which was simply the result of deficient nautical skill. The Crimea is bounded on the east by the Sea of Azof, with its arm, the Putrid Sea, and the Strait of Kertch, through which communication is maintained with the Black Sea. The former is the Palus Mzeotis of the Latin and Greek geographers. Though extending nearly 200 miles from north-east to south- west, by 100 in the opposite direction, its character is far more lacustrine than sea-like, the water being c3 22 THE CRIMEA. everywhere shallow and comparatively fresh. The greatest depth in the centre never exceeds seven and a half fathoms, while towards the shores there is rarely water sufficient to allow of the close approach of a twelve-oared row-boat. At Taganrog, on the northern coast, ships lie off at the distance of fifteen versts, about ten miles, to unload or take in their cargoes. From hence to Azof, on the opposite shore, a shoal extends, or rather a continuation of shoals; and when violent east winds blow, the sea retires so remarkably, that the inhabitants are able to effect the passage between the two points on land, a distance of about fourteen miles. But the experiment is somewhat hazardous, as the wind shifts suddenly, and rapidly brings back the waters, to the occasional destruction of human life. This singular kind of monsoon takes place almost every year after mid- summer. The sea is supposed by the people on its shores to be rapidly filling up; and there seems to be no doubt of the fact. Pallas records, in 1793, the launch of a large frigate where lighters now sail with difficulty. This is the consequence of the mud and slime discharged by the Don, which also render the waters anything but blue and limpid. From No- vember to March the surface is frozen, and the navi- gation is seldom safe earlier than April. From THE PUTRID SEA. 23 thence to midsummer a south-west wind prevails steadily, favouring the arrival of vessels from the Black Sea, and greatly increasing the depth by checking the outward current. The Putrid Sea, the Sivash of the Russians, lies between the main coast of the Crimea and the Peninsula of Arabat, being connected with the Sea of Azof by the insignificant Strait of Genatch. The name has excited some curiosity on the part of many who have been led by passing events, for the first time, to pore over charts of the district. Ideas of the tragic and horrible have been suggested, as if once the scene of some mighty massacre, which red- dened the waters with blood and long contaminated the atmosphere. But its features are very vulgar and commonplace. The tract is one of shallows, lined with swamps and quagmires, scarcely passable by men or animals, giving off noxious exhalations in the heat of summer which render the whole neigh- bourhood at that season insalubrious. Large beds of osiers jut out into it, and serve as a summer haunt for a quantity of moor-fowl. The ancients appre- ciated its true character more correctly than we do when they called it a marsh or lake, Palus Putris. This old-standing title proves that from time imme- morial the district has had the same unpleasant attri- C4 24 THE CRIMEA. butes. But occasionally, when the east winds blow, driving away the waters of the Sea of Azof from Taganrog, they are forced through the Strait of Genatch into the Putrid Sea, cover its mud-banks, freshen its aspect, and abate the nuisance. These outlying basins are united to the grand expanse of Black Sea by the Strait of Kertch, the old Cimmerian Bosphorus. The ancient name refers to the aborigines of the shores,—the Cimmerians, a people belonging partly to legend and partly to his- tory, described in the Odyssey as dwelling beyond the ocean-stream, immersed in darkness, and unblest by the rays of Helios, the sun. The other term, Bosphorus, or more correctly Bosporus, which an- ciently denominated as well the Channel of Constan- tinople, distinguished as the Thracian, is variously explained. According to legend, it was at these two straits that Io, when transformed by Jupiter into an ox, passed from one continent to the other in the course of her wanderings. A more sober account is, that the first voyage through them was made in a vessel on the prow of which was the figure of an ox. Hence the straits received the name of Bos-porus, “ the passage of the ox.” But, as implying the passage of cattle, the name may have been suggested by their transit from shore to shore in winter across MUD VOLCANOES. 25 the ice. Herodotus states, that the Scythians of Chersonesus, who live on the inner side of the trench (Perekop), traverse the Bosphorus on the ice with their chariots in order to go to the country of the Indians.” Mithridates fought on the ice in the same part of the Cimmerian Bosphorus where a naval engagement had taken place in the preceding summer. An inscription on a marble slab, disco- vered on the Asiatic side, states: — In the year 6576 (A.D. 1068), Prince Gleb measured the sea on the ice, and the distance from Tmutaracan (Taman) to Kertchy was 30,054 fathoms.” In severe seasons, at present, loaded wagons sometimes pass over the Strait of Kertch; and it is far from impossible that, during the past winter, the Russians may have thus conveyed both men and stores from the Caucasus to the Crimea. The strait is a narrow, winding, shallow channel, lined with sand-banks, as it was in the days of Polybius, and as it may always be expected to remain, from the crookedness of the passage, which prevents the fair rush of the stream from the Sea of Azof, and favours the accumulation of deposit. Both shores of the strait exhibit evidences of pseudo-volcanic action. Kertch has a mud volcano in its neighbourhood ; but the most remarkable is on the opposite coast, twenty-seven miles from Taman. = ah 23 KX! Fae ills LT = % TX TA rienced pip 26 THE CRIMEA, The hill in its ordinary state resembles a vast sore. There are various apertures in a crater-like area, from which water is discharged, with dingy-looking mire, and a fetid gas. But paroxysmal action is sometimes displayed in a prodigious outpouring of mud, accompanied with grand columns of fire dl smoke. One of these eruptions took place February the 27th, 1794, when the flames rose to the height of 300 feet, and the mud was thrown into the air. : In a thors time, according to the estimate of Pallas, who visited the spot, 100,000 cubic fathoms were ejected. The Cossacks distinguished the place by the name of Pred, signifying « Hell.” In 1799, at no oreat distance, an island was thrown up in the Sea of Azof, which, after remaining visible some time, ora- dually subsided beneath the waves. Tiomniions noises alarmed the inhabitants on the shore, and shocks of an earthquake were felt. Tt is not im- probable, that in former ages igneous action might be far more intense in the district, and ay the fancy, common to all the ancients, that Cinta lay at the entrance to the subterranean kingdom of Hades. g The seas of the Crimea, especially along the east coast, abound with fish, few districts being more plentifully stocked than the Sea of Azof. The FISH OF THE EUXINE. 27 varieties sought after are classified by the Russians into red and white fish. The fine sturgeons which periodically alternate between the salt water of the Euxine and the fresh water of the Don, literally crowding the intervening strait, are included in the former class: mackerel, herrings, turbot, and other kinds in the latter. Besides these, the Euxine has sharks, dolphins, seals, porpoises, and tunny fish, the latter entering it from the Mediterranean for the purpose of spawning. The sharks, neither large nor ferocious, are sometimes eaten, but are pursued more for the sake of their rough skin, which is used by cabinet makers and polishers. One of the most remarkable of the fish, the bitshki, always produces fever in those who eat it, and builds for its young a regular nest like a bird. Male and female collect reeds and soft seaweed, and deposit them in a small hole on the shore. Both keep guard by the side of the nest till the spawn is hatched, and the young leave it for the world of waters. This habit —an exception to the rule observed by the finny tribes— was noticed by Aristotle in relation to another species; and additional examples of it are known. An immense number of sturgeons and herrings are annually taken in the Strait of Kertch. From the roe of the former caviare is made in great quantities. LTR ne Ri Sr a ae ETRY nC TEN ee ora gl EE Ay ni ah wrebiiui a — Ah eis mat ag tag SS AUR + RL es sapien i helps Bruyn ma 28 THE CRIMEA. The latter are either carried fresh to the markets of the neighbourhood, or salted and sold to dealers who come from the interior of Russia. Through the whole era of Christendom in the East, salted fish has been largely exported from the Crimea to Constantinople, Asia Minor, and other quarters, owing to the demand for it occasioned by the numerous fasts of the Oriental Church. Tt was also famous at a more remote period. The coins of the Greek cities situated on the coasts of the Euxine show the antiquity of the trade, and the value set upon it, by exhibiting the figure of a fish, sometimes a fish-hook. Not a single river exists in the Crimea worthy of the name through the entire year. Many of the small streams are wholly dried up by the heat and drought of summer, while the larger are either reduced to a thin shallow volume, or to a series of ponds scarcely connected with each other. The Salghir, the most considerable, rises in the mountain chain of the southern coast, passes by the modern capital, Simferopol, enters the steppe country, and creeps slowly through it to the Putrid Sea, In nearly all parts of its course, before reaching the plains, it may be passed dry-shod in summer, by simply stepping from one stone to another in its bed. THE ALMA RIVER. 29 But the heavy rains of autumn, and the melting of the snows in spring accumulated in the highlands, convert it into a deep and rapid river. At Simferopol on the 18th of January, being Twelfth-day, Old Style, the ceremony of blessing the waters, observed by the Russian Greek Church throughout the empire, is a notable occasion. The priests, arrayed in all their sacerdotal splendour, go down to the river, attended by the civil authorities, perform service on its banks, and immerse the cross several times in the stream. The people then crowd to fill their vessels with the consecrated water, and carefully preserve it to be used as occasion may offer, having great faith in its curative properties, both for man and beast. The Salghir and all the streams which descend from the mountains to the steppe, remark- ably change their character on making the transit. The steppe being entirely devoid of stones, they lose their gravelly and pebbly bottom, with their limpid appearance, and assume the aspect of canals. The Alma, now famous in military history, similarly changes its character with the season from a rapid stream to an insignificant rill. It flows from the neighbourhood of Bagtche-serai, the old Tatar capital, to the west coast; and is confined to the hill country through the whole of its course. The 30 THE CRIMEA. scenery on its banks is beautiful, and rendered luxuriant by cultivation. Orchards and vineyards, with the snug dwellings of their owners nestling among trees, are on either hand; and in summer, nightingales keep up a continued song from eve to morn in the groves. Thousands of frogs add to the sound without improving the melody ; yet, however unmusical the croak, it is not discordant, being a merry utterance, a note of self-satisfaction, like ha- ha-ha, as though the creatures were not merely content with their lot, but replete with enjoyment. The Alma winds remarkably. Hommaire De Hell crossed it eighteen times in the space of three hours. Another stream, by the side of which many a gallant soldier has found a grave, is the Tchernaya Retchia, or the Black River of the Russians, called by the Tatars the Bouiouk Quzine, or Great Water, a sufficient indication of the poverty of their water- courses, considering its insignificant character. It has its principal source in the vale of Baidar, flows through the valley of Inkerman, and enters the upper extremity of the harbour of Sebastopol. The heights in its neighbourhood are picturesque, but its own features are as uninviting as those of one of our fen streams, at least in the lower parts of its course, — tall reeds, rushes, and other aquatic plants, lining SALT LAKES. 31 and overgrowing the channel. In the esteem of sportsmen, it has one redeeming quality, the vegeta~- tion being the favourite haunt, at certain seasons, of snipes and wild ducks. But the Tchernaya is serious evil to the government, being the toa ground of an almost imperceptible worm — equally pernicious in salt water as in fresh — which attacks the ships at Sebastopol, and reduces them to prema- ture decay. The ravages of this little animal shorten the time which a Russian ship of war may be ex- pected to last to a period of eight years, while the average duration of ships belonging to the British and French navies is reckoned at about double that interval. Various expedients have been adopted to protect the vessels, but they have not been followed by the success anticipated. Salt lakes are numerous in the steppes, from which the indispensable condiment is readily obtained in vast quantities, and transported to immense distances. The largest and most productive extends from the southern extremity of the isthmus of Perekop, along the shore of the Putrid Sea. Carts are driven axle-deep into the shallow water, and loaded at once, the salt being at the bottom like sand. Tt is then sent into the interior of Russia, and forms an important part of the revenue which SEAT ACR EASES fa ei = Le i AE a RAE 32 THE CRIMEA. the government derives from the peninsula. Saline lakes occur in the neighbourhood of Kertch and Theodosia, and furnish an article of commerce with the shores of the Black Sea. They are also found near Eupatoria, and from these the home market is chiefly supplied. Not far from this town, the little village ‘of Saak is situated upon the margin of a saline lake. The place was unknown to fame a few years ago ; but it now enjoys a high reputation, has a large hotel, and annually attracts a crowd of Russian fashionables, some of whom come from distances as remote as Moscow or St. Petersburg. During the summer heats, in June and July, the waters of the lake evaporate, and leave a residuum of slime and mud, of pasty consistency, saline and black. To bathe in the mud, when thoroughly heated by the . . . . . sun, is the grand object of the visitors, as a cure for rheumatic affections and cutaneous disorders. Gipsies, male and female, are at hand to attend upon the invalids; and a medical man is in residence to regulate the duration of the baths. A hole having been dug in the warm slime, the bather occupies it in a reclining position; the body is then covered, only the head being left above ground to mark the site of the living man’s grave. The sensations are described at first as the reverse of agreeable. MUD BATHING. 33 Breathing is rendered difficult by the weight of the mud upon the chest, and the interment can only be borne for a few minutes ; but after the process has been repeated a few times, it is conveniently endured for a longer period; and patients lie by the hour embedded in a voluntary tomb. The Russian journals have been filled with accounts of marvel- lous cures effected at the spot; but there needs no pilgrimage to the Crimea to experience the virtue of a hot saline bath, much less a wallowing in the mire. The popularity of the mud baths of Saak is only another example of that fondness for novel- ties, which, in all countries and ages, has led men to prefer the distant Jordan to the Abanas and Pharpars of their own neighbourhood. Ee a EE cE i. .7, #0 RN Ferdi iieen pri tik Rony i TY Sriomabifensld rh Ri RT a rr ma THE CRIMEA. CHAP. IL THE MOUNTAINS AND THE STEPPES. NATURAL DIVISION OF THE SURFACE. — THE SOUTH COAST RANGE, — SUMMITS OF THE HIGHLANDS. — ROCK OF SHIRIN. — THE TCHADIR-DAGH. — CAVE OF FOUL KOUBA. — LANDSLIPS. — VALLEY OF BAIDAR. — PASS OF MERDVEN. — PASS OF OSEMBASH. — MANGOUP KALE, — THE STEPPES.— GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS, — TUMULI THEIR DESIGN. —MONOTONY OF THE PLAINS.— OPTICAL ILLUSIONS. — COLUMNS OF DUST. — GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD. — THE STEPPE-LIMESTONE. — SUNSET. NATURE has distributed the Crimea into two regions, the features of which are nearly as distinct as those of day and night. There is a highland range on the south coast, and a vast plain to the north of it, which comprehends by far the greater portion of the country. The transition from the one to the other may perhaps be regarded as constituting a third district, marked with gentle hills and broad valleys. To the Russian who has had no experience of scenery but what may be observed on the journey from Moscow or St. Petersburgh to the south of the Crimea, the view of its bold heights and picturesque THE SOUTH COAST RANGE. 35 defiles may well have an indescribable charm. The whole intervening distance, of more than a thousand miles, is a flat, monotonous expanse, with no difference of level beyond what is made by hammocky ground and low rolling ridges; while successive grass-lands, swamps, and sandy wastes are the chief diversities of the surface. The contrast between these plains, of which the eye is speedily weary, and the mountains heightens the effect of the latter, and has led to exaggerated representations of the beauty and grandeur of the region. It comprises, indeed, the lovely, the romantic, and the sublime, but has no claim to a unique character, being fully equalled, and often transcended, in these features by other European landscapes. The highlands range along the coast from the neighbourhood of Sebastopol eastward towards the Peninsula of Kertch, an extent of about a hundred miles, by from twelve to twenty miles in breadth. The crest is sometimes less than three miles from the sea, and never more than twelve. Bold and preci- pitous cliffs form a considerable part of the coast line. The conical Aiu-dagh, or Bear Mountain, near Yalta, projects grandly into the Euxine; and has been so called from its fancied resemblance to a bear going down to the sea with cubs to drink, D 2 36 THE CRIMEA. alluding to some adjoining masses. The rocks that line the shore are perforated with caves and grottoes, which the waves have scooped, formerly haunted by pirates, now inhabited by sea-fowl, and occasionally occupied at the entrance by the wild figtree. A good carriage road, of recent construction, runs along the coast-chain from Sebastopol to Alushta, at the average height of two thousand feet above the level of the sea. The country between this road and the shore, being protected from the rough cold winds of the north, and entirely open to the warm breezes of the south, enjoys a delightful climate, which allows the vine, the olive, and the pomegranate to flourish. It has been styled in consequence the Italy of Russia. From Alushta another road crosses the chain to Simferopol, the highest point of which is 2800 feet above the sea. It commands a magnificent view of the coast below, and of the blue expanse of the Euxine beyond. An obelisk near this spot indicates the place where the Emperor Alexander stood to enjoy the prospect, at the period of his last visit to the Crimeain 1824. Nigh at hand, close to a spring, is a monument to the memory of Kutusoff. These roads, which render a difficult country of easy access, were constructed under the auspices of Prince Woronzow, while governor-general of the province, SUMMITS OF THE HIGHLANDS. 37 who employed a young officer of engineers upon the work. The mountains rise with a steep inclination on the seaward side, sometimes presenting a mural face of 1800 feet above the base, and decline by a very gradual descent to the level of the northern plain. The prevailing rock is calcareous, analogous to the Jura limestone, though more friable ; but varieties of granite, greenstone, and other igneous rocks have been largely erupted. Prince Woronzow’s palace at Aloupka is chiefly of greenstone from the neigh- bourhood. Granite quarried from the Bear Mountain has been largely used for the docks, quays, and forts of Sebastopol. Lime and sandstone compose the plateau upon which the allied armies pitched their camps before it, chiefly the former. The whole is covered, except where the rock crops out, with a light rich soil, varying from twelve to eighteen inches in depth, but which the rains convert into a heavy and tenacious mud, rendering transit as difficult as the passage of a newly-ploughed field after a soaking shower. The most peculiar feature of the highlands is their summits; they are not rounded or needle-shaped, but consist of extensive flats, forming high table-lands, corresponding to the paramos of the Andes, except in size. The people D3 38 THE CRIMEA. apply to them the name of yailas, or mountain pasture grounds. In winter they are covered with snow; but upon its disappearance towards the close of May, a carpet of rich grass appears, which continues fresh through the summer, while the vegetation of the plains is burnt up. Accordingly the Tatars then quit the steppes with their flocks and herds, and occupy these high sites, easily ascended on the northern side, till the season returns when the rain is turned into snow upon the mountain range of the Crimea. An outlier, towards the eastern extremity of the chain, near Kara-su-Basar, supplies a good example of the general arrangement. It bears the Tatar name of Ak-Kaya, or the White Rock, in allusion to the limestone of which it is composed. But the Russians call it Shirinfelsen, the Rock of Shirin, in reference to historical associations. The insulated mass, from five to six hundred feet in height, and about three miles in length, rises in the midst of an undulating plain. On one side it is so perpendicular, and so regularly formed, as to resemble a vast fortress; on the other, it may be scaled with little difficulty : the summit is a flat of considerable extent. On this plateau, as a defensive point, the patriotic Tatars pitched their camp in the struggle THE TCHADIR-DAGH. 39 for independence. In the flourishing days of the Tatar Khanate, it belonged to the richest subject family, which bore the name of Shirin, and held all the country in the east of the peninsula. The males of this family were alone suffered to enter into matrimonial alliance with the daughters of the khans. Trusting to their power, the chieftains frequently rebelled against their lords. Then their vassals and retainers were summoned to appear in arms on the top of the White Rock ; and hence the name of the Rock of Shirin. The culminating point of the highlands is the Tchadir-dagh, or Tent Mountain, an imposing mass a little to the left of the road leading from Alushta to Simferopol. It rises to the height of 5,135 feet above the sea, and is mainly composed of a friable grey limestone, with veins of a darker colour. The limestone emits a slightly fetid odour upon friction, and is perforated with grottoes and caverns, in some of which masses of ice remain from winter to winter. The sides are very precipitous, and destitute of timber ; but dense woods clothe the lower slopes, and surround the base. The top is a spacious, uneven platform, entirely bare. It forms a very prominent object, towering at least a thousand feet above any other eminence, and possesses a peculiarly well- D 4 EE eT RR Ae x2 i 0 EES SERS ERE ERA 40 THE CRIMEA. defined shape. When the condensed vapours gather in clouds around the summit, the Tatars, who have been taught by experience the usual result, augur speedy rain, and say that Tchadir-dagh has put on his cap— an expression common with the Swiss and other highlanders, when their heights are similarly veiled.. The mountain is the Trapezus of Strabo, and was doubtless so called from its resemblance to a gigantic table or altar. But the form has suggested various names to the different tribes who have been successively in the country; and the names are somewhat characteristic of their respective habits. After being the Table Mountain of the Greeks, a domesticated race, fond of luxurious living, it became the Tent Mountain of the Tatars, originally a nomadic people, camping out under canvass; and then the Saddle Mountain of the Cossacks, fearless riders and untiring horsemen. In recent times, an Englishman is said to have returned to Sebastopol from a visit, with the impression upon his mind that it resembled wpothing so much as a sirloin of beef’! Multitudinous nations of varied habits, language, and religion— Scythians, Greeks, Romans, Alans, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Tatars, Genoese, Turks, and Russians, between some of whom mortal strife sub- CAVE OF FOUL KOUBA. 41 sisted, have occupied the country around the Tcha- dir-dagh. One of its caverns retains at present the memorials of a deadly feud. It bears the significant name of Foul Kouba. Armed with a tallow candle, the visitor creeps into it through a mere hole, and proceeds for twenty or thirty yards on hands and knees. Human skulls and bones rattle dismally as he crawls along, compelled occasionally to shuffle himself on in a perfectly flat position. After this disagreeable entry the opening expands, and he is able to stand upright in a spacious chamber, about forty feet high, apparently supported by huge sta- lactites. Other chambers follow, and streams are heard trickling in the distance; but the extent of the perforation has not been ascertained, although a Frenchman is said to have penetrated half a day’s journey. The bones are the relics of unhappy Genoese, who took refuge in this recess during their wars with the Tatars, and were smoked to death by them in it. Kisil Kouba, another cave not far distant, is remarkable for its magnificent entrance, but has not been thoroughly explored. Far out at sea, the mariner hails the peculiar outline of the Tent Mountain long before the inter- vening country comes into sight; and from its summit, in clear weather, the eye overlooks a pano- 42 THE CRIMEA. rama of the whole peninsula, with the engirdling waters of the Euxine on the south, and the vast plains beyond the Isthmus of Perekop on the north. ‘ Immediately at our feet,” says an observer, ‘and so directly beneath us that a stone might be dropped upon the trees 2000 feet” below, lay charmingly- diversified woods and meadows. Curling wreaths of blue smoke ascended from clumps of trees scat- tered over the park-like scenery, while large herds of cattle seemed, from their diminutiveness, to have been peppered out upon the rich pasture-land. Snug-looking Tatar villages were dotted over the well-cultivated valleys, and mountain-streams mean- dered through them to the sea, which was scarcely discernible beneath a dense bank of clouds that al- together concealed from our view the southern horizon. Facing us, towards the west, the rival mountain of Babugan Yaila reared its stupendous crags; while far as eye could reach, in a northerly direction, stretched the undulating steppe, narrowing as it reached the Isthmus of Perekop. We could trace the wooded valley of the Salghir, discern the white houses of Simferopol on its left bank; and, nearer still, we saw the beech-woods through which we had ridden in the morning, and the vast table- land of limestone rock over which we had been LANDSLIPS. 43 stumbling. We found a large stone on which a Russian had inscribed his name; and, thinking fhe spot undeserving of such desecration, we hurled it over a less abrupt part of the precipice, and strained our necks to see it reach the bottom ; but we could only hear it crash and echo as it bounded from crag to crag. A magnificent eagle, surprised at so un- usual a sound, soared majestically away from an eyry a few feet down the cliff, and left us in urflise puted possession of the summit of the Tchadir- dagh.” : The scenery of the mountain district includes wid gorges bounded by precipitous cliffs, and charming valleys enclosed with wooded heights of moderate elevation. The former are very commonly strewed with huge fragments of rock which have fallen, to the occasional destruction of life and property. The Tatars are fond of perching their cottages on ledges and in nooks of the mountains, where, if some tottering crag comes down, the dwelling is crushed in its impetuous career. Sometimes the base of hess habitations gives way, and whole villages are rbued by the landslip; though, as signs of the approaching convulsion are perceived in the previous sinking or tremor of the ground, the inhabitants have generally time to escape. At Koutchouk Koui, a small village, 44 THE CRIMEA. as the name denotes, by which the high road on the southern coast passes, evidences remain of a cata- strophe of this description. The site is at a high elevation, and can only be approached by paths of the most frightful ruggedness. The Tatars still cling to it, though, about half a century ago, a great number of the dwellings, with their inhabitants, were destroyed by a landslip. Few places have been more eulogised for beauty than the Valley of Baidar, a short ride from Balak- lava. It has been styled the Tauric Arcadia and Crimean Tempe. But its merits have been extrava- gantly overrated. The valley, upwards of thirty miles in circuit, is an elegantly-shaped oval basin — not deep, but enclosed by finely-wooded hills, and watered by two limpid streams. It is exclusively occupied by Tatars, who enjoy a degree of prosperity unknown to their co-religionists of the plains, owing to the productiveness of the soil. Their villages, eleven in number, have a very pleasing appearance, being surrounded with orchards, and overtopped by enormous round-headed walnut trees. Possibly in extent, beauty, and fertility the valley may be without a rival in Russia; but there are thousands superior to it elsewhere. Formerly, the only direct communication between Baidar and the coast was by PASS OF OSEMBASH, 45 the Merdven or the Stairs, a passage consisting of steps cut out of the rock, and arranged in short zig- zags to the extent of about 300 feet. On leaving the valley the stairs are descended, and ascended in the opposite direction. Though nearly perpendicular, the native horses go down and clamber up without difficulty, their riders, of course, dismounting. The spot is highly picturesque, shaded by trees and shrubs, whose stems and branches interweave with each other in all sorts of fantastic shapes, and assist the course of the traveller. The necessity for fol- lowing this route has been obviated by the Wo- ronzow road. The finest of all the passes through the coast-chain is the one which crosses it from Yalta to the Valley of Osembash, in the direction of Bagtche-serai. On gaining the summit a landscape, with strongly contrasting features, is beheld. Look- ing towards the interior of the peninsula, the distant northern steppe appears like a haze upon the horizon, Nearer, and around, are valleys shut in by lofty walls of limestone, studded with the ruins of forts,— memorials chiefly of the Genoese and of their forays. Above rise magnificent crags and peaks, bare at the summit, but densely clothed below with gloomy pine woods. In the opposite direction the vine cul- tivation of the coast is seen, with the town and bay 46 THE CRIMEA. of Yalta, and a noble sweep of the Euxine, as blue as the sky above it. On the one hand, the eye beholds a semblance of Norway; on the other, of Italy. The mountains have played an important part in the revolutions to which the Crimea has been subject. Tribes driven from the plains by invaders from the north retreated to them, and found refuge from disturbance in natural strongholds; while the possessors of the south coast protected themselves against invasion from the interior by citadels on the more commanding and precipitous heights. One of the most remarkable of these latter sites is the fortress-town of Mangoup Kalé, renowned through- out the country, of which the old inhabitants never speak but with veneration. It occupied the summit of an insulated semicircular rock, bnly accessible on one side by a very steep path: this has once been paved the whole way up, but is now ruinous and difficult, yet nimbly climbed by the Tatar horses. The top is a plain, about a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad, covered with fine turf, except where it is strewn with time-worn fragments of ancient buildings. So extensive are the latter, as to show that not only a fort but a town in former days occupied the spot, probably held successively by MANGOUP KALE. 47 Greeks, Goths, Genoese, and Tatars. But great uncertainty hangs over the history of the place. Karaim Jews were its last inhabitants, who dis- appeared gradually towards the close of the last century, leaving behind them a dilapidated syna- gogue and the cemetery of their fathers, The whole is now desolate, and has a stern, melancholy air. But in spring, clumps of lilacs bloom over the memorials of past generations, and strikingly con- trast with them. While Dr. Clarke crept on hands and knees to look over the edge of the mountain at a point from which the descent is nearly perpen- dicular, a half-clad Tatar, wild as the winds, mounted upon a colt equally unsubdued, without saddle or bridle, galloped to the very brink of the precipice, and amused himself by pointing out the different objects in the vast district which the eye com- manded.. Large chambers connected with galleries hewn in the rock, perforate the sides of the moun- tain, and are approached by steps from the upper surface. The purpose of these excavations is quite unknown, but they might serve as posts of military observation. One of the most prominent has been hollowed out of a projecting point or promontory, and is open on three sides, the openings being arch- ways. It bears the name of the Cape of the Winds, 48 THE CRIMEA. and is accessible to almost every gust. Through the apertures, bold heights and wild ravines are seen in one direction, that of the coast range; hills, valleys, orchards, and meadows, intersected by streams, appear in another, that of Simferopol ; while in a third, in clear weather, the distant sea is perceived, with the cliffs of the shore, and the harbour of Sebastopol. At the period of the Rus- sian conquest, it is said that the last body of Tatars who made any resistance took refuge at Mangoup Kalé. The other great natural division of the Crimea consists of a series of plains or steppes, extending northwards from the highland district to the Isthmus of Perekop, and eastward to the extremity of the Kertch Peninsula. The word steppe is of Russian origin, and strictly denotes a flat, open, and un- wooded country, mantled with a rank, grassy, and herbaceous vegetation. This is the general cha- racter of the region thus denominated, but it includes extensive swamps and marshes, with tracts of saline sand of the true desert description. The plain of the Crimea is a southerly prolongation through the isthmus which connects the peninsula with the con- tinent of the vast similar tract stretching from the borders of Hungary into the heart of Asia, of which THE STEPPES. 49 it has been said, though with obvious exaggeration, that a calf, beginning to graze at the base of the Carpathian Mountains, might eat its way to the Wall of China, and arrive there a full-grown ox. Rubru- quis, the Dutch traveller, who crossed the steppes in the fifteenth century, aptly describes them : Nulla est sylva, nullus mons, nullus lapis —* not a tree, not a hill, not a stone.” ¢ We journeyed,” says he, “ towards the east, with no other objects in view than earth and sky, and occasionally the sea upon our right, which is called the Sea of Tanais (Azof); and moreover the sepulchres of the Comani, which seemed about two leagues distant, constructed ac- cording to the mode of burial which characterised their ancestors.” Hundreds of miles may be passed on a soil remarkable for its richness, and the luxuri- ance of its herbage, without a tree being encoun- tered ; although, in a few favoured spots, there are small copses, known to the Tatars, which shelter game, and are visited on that account. While almost perfectly flat through extensive spaces, the surface more generally gently undulates. Hollows also occur, or slight rounded depressions, as if made by the stamp of a Titan on his passage across the plain. These places are of no small importance, as natural troughs in which the rain collects. Though the E 50 THE CRIMEA. water is speedily evaporated by the sun, and ab- sorbed by the soil, they remain moist and verdant long after the adjoining lands are wholly parched ; and are hence prized by the herdsmen. Tumuli, the khourgans of the natives, are other diversities of the steppes, of an opposite character to the depressions. The tumuli are eonical mounds of earth, covered with a fine turf, rising generally from twenty-five to thirty feet above the level of the plain, of very simple yet artificial shape, evidently constructed by the hand of man. They are found through the whole region of the steppes, from the banks of the Don to those of the Pruth, and even the Danube; extending from the confines of Poland and the centre of Russia southwards into the Crimea, where they are specially numerous, and in close proximity in the peninsula of Kertch. The design of these mounds has given rise to much conjecture; but it is un- doubted that, to a very large extent, they are the mansions of the dead of past ages. In those parts of the country which the ancient Greeks colonised, stone sarcophagi have been found in the interior, with bones, vases, coins, ear-rings, bracelets, and other golden ornaments, executed with such skill that they would bear comparison with the produc- tions of the best modern jewellers. Many of these TUMULIL. 51 objects are in the museums of Kertch and St. Peters- burg. With less care and ceremony, but in like manner, the rude tribes who have successively oc- cupied the steppes seem to have buried their dead, merely heaping collections of earth over their remains. Simple as are these funereal monuments of an ancient world, their very simplicity is sublime ; for tombs so constructed are calculated for an almost endless duration, and will retain a natural inscription, intelligible ages after marble slabs and lettered epi- taphs have perished. It has been recently observed that, in many instances, a portion of the earth em- ployed in the formation of the mounds must have been brought from a distance, as it is not identical with the soil in the vicinity. This may be illustrated by a usage still existing among the Cossacks of the Don, who carry a small bagful of native earth on the breast in distant expeditions, in order to take it with them to the grave, if removed by the hand of death away from home. Many tribes have also re- garded it as a sacred duty to convey ancestral soil to the distant resting-places of friends and relatives. But these curious elevations have answered other purposes : and some must have been expressly con- structed with a different design. Many have been opened without anything funereal having been dis- E 2 52 THE CRIMEA. covered. In the large spaces where the steppe is flat and without undulations, the arrangement of the tumuli often indicates a system of correspondence, or some strategic contrivance. Rows may be ob- served, comprising from five to seven, forming lines, each taking a particular direction. On the northern coast of the Black Sea they run nearly due east and west, and were probably raised as landmarks, from which the hordes of barbarians, who have so fre- quently crossed the steppes, struck their line of march. It is a natural surmise, that, where a con- siderable horde encamped for any length of time, hillocks would be thrown up to serve as a shelter against the violence of the winds, to protect the tents of the chiefs, or as stations on which to post a look- out. By means of signals or watch-fires on these elevated points, distant detachments would be able to maintain correspondence; and in the event of battle, or of natural death, the mounds became grave- hills, receiving the remains of the deceased. It is at least certain, that in the Crimea, and other parts of the steppe-region, the tumuli are now devoted to the practical purposes of life. Herdsmen, when they have to call together the horses and cattle under their charge, station themselves upon their summits to command a view of the surrounding plain; and MONOTONY OF THE STEPPES. 53 advantage has been taken of these ancient observa- tories to establish a line of telegraphic communication across the peninsula. Though the obscurity which invests their origin may never be fully dissipated, they will always excite interest and produce impres- sion, as monuments of the life of long bygone ages, in many instances occupying sites which are now tenantless for leagues around them, and only visited occasionally by droves of cattle, their peasant watchmen, and the passing traveller. Voyagers have frequently described the oppressive monotony of life at sea,—only the sky above — water beneath and around. But “breeze, or gale, or storm,” introduces variety to the surface of the ocean ; and the tenants of the deep often appear to divert the passenger. There is far more of dull uni- formity in the features of the steppes. Even in spring, when alone for a brief interval they have any beauty, derived from the fresh grasses and the flowering plants, the sameness of the landscape soon becomes wearisome. At first, indeed, the apparent boundlessness of the plains is very impressive to the stranger ; but, having once become familiar with this idea, the charm is over. Impatience is the next feeling ; for, however Jehu may urge on his horses with vigorous halloo and whip, the traveller seems E 3 54 THE CRIMEA. for days together to have made no progress. There is the same huge disc of flatness around him, of which he appears to be the motionless centre. If summer is advanced, the aspect of the country, lite- rally baked with heat, is one of melancholy desola- tion. The grasses and flowers are then dust and ashes ; the surface is a perfect desert ; and can only support a few herbs and scrubby bushes, neither of which have any tinge of green, but are of a pale sickly yellow colour, or ashy grey. Dreary in the extreme is the appearance of everything in winter, when the snow is lord-paramount of the soil, and every trace of a road or trackway is obliterated. But, except during an actual snow-storm, the Tatars are never in danger of losing their way, being ac- quainted with the bearing and direction of every tumulus ; while minute objects, which others would pass by unnoticed, serve as guide-posts to them. The direction of the principal roads is now indicated by pyramids of stone, twelve feet high, built at certain intervals from each other, the work of Prince Woronzow. Hence, unless the view is closely bounded by showers of sleet or snow, the route cannot be mistaken. Optical illusions are common summer phenomena, precisely analogous to those observed in the hot OPTICAL ILLUSIONS. 55 oriental deserts. They tend to relieve the general tedium of nature, and beguile the weary way of the traveller. A tumulus, a horse, or the figure of a man on the distant horizon, magnified to a gigantic size, often appears detached from the surface of the ground, as if moving on stilts or hovering in the air. Occasionally the unequal refraction of the atmosphere gives rise to complex and picturesque combinations, and the forms of towers, spires, bridges, and trees are projected on the edge of the steppe, as though a city existed at the spot ; the whole becoming confused as the spectator advances to the indicated site, till the enchantment vanishes entirely, and nothing is met with but the parched grass waving in the wind. The exhibition of vast deceptive lakes in the hazy distance is more frequent. They acquire a striking air of reality from the bodies of the cattle on the pasture-grounds only being seen, as if the legs of the animals were actually immersed in water. However natural the apparition, the herds are never misled, as they can always distinguish real water by the smell. Variety is also introduced to the landscape by the whirling breeze. Heat and drought combine to pulverise the vegetation, and accumulate a prodi- gious quantity of fine dust upon the plains. Ro- tating currents of air, which are of very common E 4 56 THE CRIMEA. occurrence, carry up immense quantities to a great height in their vortex, and originate the appearance of tall dusky columns marching in silent stateliness over the surface. Several of these moving pillars may frequently be seen at once, forming a kind of procession, as if on some mysterious errand; or so grouped, and changing their relative position, as to suggest the idea of huge genii at their gambols. A disagreeable diversity is at times offered by gentlemen of the road; though travelling is in ge- neral tolerably secure. They are not footpads, but mounted brigands. Not long ago a Tatar robber, named Alime, infested the country between Simfer- opol and Perekop, and for years eluded the efforts of the government to capture him. He belonged to the class of Robin Hood rather than to that of Rob Roy, conducting his business with some discrimina- tion. He was not known to take the life of any one, or inflict bodily injury. Neither did he remorselessly strip his victims of their all; but after levying a contribution for himself, he would make over a portion of spoil to the poorer members of a plundered party. Upon health failing, his occupation was gone; and being an outcast, he had to depend for subsistence upon the charity of some herdsmen and shepherds, who secretly afforded him a refuge. One GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. 57 of these at last betrayed him to the authorities, tempted by the reward offered for his apprehension ; and after undergoing the knout, Alime was sent to end his days in Siberia. The steppes are geologically composed of lime- stone belonging to the newest tertiary period, elevated from 120 to 200 feet above the level of the Black Sea, and terminating at its shore in an abrupt terrace. On this plateau lies a stratum of arable earth, of varying thickness and composition, but generally argillaceous and slightly saline. A seam of true sea-sand sometimes intervenes between the two, and comes to the surface at various spots. This is also the case with the limestone, the upper soil having been washed off by the rains. The rock being very friable, is readily disintegrated by atmo- spheric. influences, wherever it is exposed; and an almost impalpable dust is ‘formed, which the slightest breeze raises in clouds. Though usually of an ashy grey colour, it is sometimes dazzlingly white ; and in these districts the eyes are painfully affected by the glare. Even the inhabitants, who are accustomed to the aspect of the surface, are seasonally visited with ophthalmia. The limestone is largely used as a building material. In the villages of the steppes, the houses of the better class are entirely composed of it, 58 THE CRIMEA. with the majority of the dwellings and public buildings at Simferopol, Sebastopol, Kertch, Nico- laef, Cherson, and Odessa. The facility with which it may be wrought, together with the scarcity of timber, is the great temptation to its use. Being a conglomerate of shells feebly cemented, it yields like wood to the saw or the axe, and is generally cut into long quadrangular blocks for transport. To the Russians, who have a mania for the rapid execution of building projects, the stone has been quite a godsend; enabling them to run up quickly and cheaply new foundations in the country, adorned with columns and architraves, beautiful and imposing while fresh from the hands of the architect. But the soft and porous material speedily yields to the wear and tear of the elements; and erections which are still youthful, exhibit the characteristic dilapida- tions of age. If, as is not improbable, the ancient Greeks used the steppe limestone in building their cities on the coast, it is not surprising, that some of them have vanished so completely as scarcely to have left a wreck behind to identify their site. The change from day to night in the steppes has great peculiarity to the stranger. It transpires with a suddenness which is very impressive, and at first somewhat awful. In a country of woods and SUNSET. 59 diversified levels, the shadows of the trees and hills, gradually elongating, give warning of the sun’s approach to the western horizon. But on these great plains, where nothing intercepts his rays till the disc of the luminary touches their edge, there are no shadows projected premonitory of the universal gloom about to cover the face of nature. Earth and sky are in a blaze of light till the sunset actually commences. In a few minutes, the whole orb is below the line of the steppe; the bright glow is gone from the landscape ; and the sombre curtains of the night are drawn. The suddenness and rapidity with which the transition is effected surprise the traveller, and invest a common incident with an air of supernatural majesty and strangeness. THE CRIMEA. CHAP. IIL THE BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, AND CLIMATE. FLOWERING PLANTS AND GRASSES. ~— BURIAN. — THE STEPPE WITCH. — FORESTS AND WOODS. — VINEYARDS. — LOCUSTS — THEIR RAVAGES, — CATERPILLARS. — WILD QUADRUPEDS., — BIRDS, — REPTILES. — DOMES=- TICATED ANIMALS, — SUMMER AND WINTER, — STORMS. Ix spring, when the grasses are rising, the steppes resemble an immeasurably verdant ocean of the freshest and brightest green. But this hue soon ceases to be uniform, and is almost entirely extin- guished over extensive spaces, owing to flowering plants putting forth their floral glories, and waving to the wind their masses of varied colour. Thou- sands of acres may be seen covered with the purple larkspur, intermingled with patches of bright scarlet poppy, and the pink-coloured wild peach-shrub. There are tulips, crocuses, pinks, hyacinths, and ane- mones innumerable, finely contrasting with each other; and there is mignionette in abundance, but without the odour which cultivation has given to it. While the vegetation of the steppes is astonishingly PLANTS AND GRASSES. 61 vigorous, it is not remarkable for variety. Botanists enumerate about 500 species of plants in these vast grazing grounds, each species usually growing in large masses. The commonest plant is the hair- grass, Stipa capillata, which often occupies more than half the surface. Next to it is the closely related feather-grass, Stipa pennata, called Schelkowoi, or silk-weed, by the Russians, which generally covers a fourth of the land, and is frequently grown as an ornament in English gardens. Though these grasses are not esteemed with us as fodder for cattle and sheep, they form the principal food of the herds and flocks on the plains of Southern Russia. Both grasses have ripe seeds in July, which are a danger- ous torment to the sheep, and entail an onerous duty upon the shepherds. The sharp seeds adhere to the wool, and with subtle art insinuate themselves in the fleece, till they reach the skin of the animal, and produce an incessant irritation. During the great heats of summer, the irritated spots inflame, and the sores become fatal, if the cause is not removed. To prevent loss, the shepherd and his family are usually employed every evening in picking out the seeds; a very tedious office, owing to the extent of the flocks and the number of the plants armed with these offensive weapons. 62 THE CRIMEA. In the every-day life of shepherds and herdsmen, and in the simple ballads with which their children are familiar, no term is of more common occurrence than that of durian, by which plants affording little or no nourishment to cattle are denoted; though their woody stems can be used as fuel in winter. Thistles are prominent in this class, occasionally attaining the height of six or eight feet. The relations may, therefore, be credited, of the Cossacks concealing themselves and their horses in the thickets of the steppe. Wormwood belongs to the same category. It rises to the height of six feet, and the cattle are compelled to feed upon it in specially dry summers ; when milk and butter are rendered de- testably bitter by the aliment. But Gypsophila panikulata is a pre-eminent member of the worthless part of the vegetable kingdom. This is the “Steppe- witch ” of popular speech, the theme of many a tale and ballad of childhood. The plant rises to the height of three feet, and ramifies considerably up- wards, so as to form a thick round bush, bearing pretty little flowers. When sapless and withered in autumn, the main stalk is broken off close to the ground by the first high wind that rises, and the rounded top is carried rolling, hopping, and skipping over the plain, under the control of the breeze. Other THE FORESTS. 63 small withered plants become attached to the mass, and it gradually forms a huge mis-shapen ball ; while several being driven together, adhere like enormous burs, and have some witchery in their appearance as they go dancing and bounding before the gale. Hundreds of these objects may frequently be seen scouring the steppes at the same time, and may easily be mistaken at a distance for hunters and wild herds. Heavy rains put an end to the career of the witches, or the Black Sea, into which they are blown, summarily arrests their course. The natural forests of the Crimea, which are entirely confined to the highland and hilly region, have been vastly crippled, owing to the great con- sumption of wood for fuel, and the careless way in which the timber has been felled. The clearing away of the woods, which favour humidity of climate, has already had an injurious effect, as some of the rivers have sensibly diminished in volume, and many springs are less copious and permanent in their flow. The common trees are the pine, the oak, the elm, the ash, the beech, the linden tree, the yew, the turpentine tree, and the juniper. On the loftier exposed elevations, the Pinus Taurica is stunted and irregular; but in the ravines, and on the lower slopes, it is remarkable for magnificent size and 64 THE CRIMEA. beautiful proportions. Its gloomy foliage protects the inferior hills of the chain, and is the natural dispenser to them of a welcome shade in the hot summer. The oak does not grow so luxuriantly as in England, but becomes scrubby; and many of the other timber trees have a propensity for the bush form, not attaining the height to which we are accustomed. One of the native junipers, Juniperus excelsa, has been observed at Orianda, with a trunk not less than three feet and a half in diameter. Considering its slow growth, this measurement in- dicates an age of more than a thousand years. Con- sequently the tree was in its youthful days con- temporary with the wandering of the nations, when the peninsula so often changed its masters. The pear, the crab-apple, the plum, the kisil or cornel cherry, the filbert, and our common hazel-nut, grow wild, the latter occurring in great abundance in the woods which crown the lower hills. In autumn, when the nuts are ripe, peasant women gather them, Taking a requisite supply of food, and sleeping in the open air, they sometimes remain a fortnight together from home, till their labours are ended. Parthenit, a village on ‘the south coast, boasts of a hazel tree of enormous size, under which the Prince de Ligne indited a letter to the Empress Catherine II. The thick THE VINE. 65 foliage overshadows an extensive space, while the trunk is not less than eight yards in circumference. A large wooden divan surrounds the trunk, and is almost always occupied by travellers, who use it as a tavern. The inhabitants regard the patriarchal tree with geeat veneration, and meet beneath its shade to discuss village affairs. Splendid walnut trees, chest- nuts, and mulberries are found in the valleys. The produce of a single walnut tree, sometimes amount- ing to 80,000 or 100,000 nuts, is often the chief support of a peasant family. Old olives are fre- quently met with near the coast, with wild vines of immense dimensions, both originally introduced by the Greeks or the Genoese. Cypresses thrive remark- ably ; but, though numerous, and of large size, they have not yet seen three score years and ten in the Crimea. Prince Potemkin planted two at Aloupka in 1787, to commemorate the visit of Catherine to the country, which are still flourishing; and all the other examples of the species have been raised by cuttings from them. The vine has existed in the Crimea from remote antiquity. An imperfect inscription on a slab of white marble, of the ancient Greek age, dug up near Sebastopol, seems to commemorate the gratitude of a people to some citizen or magistrate for the intro- F 66 THE CRIMEA. duction of vineyards. The plant was under rude cultivation by the Tatars, in the valleys both on the northern and southern slopes of the coast-chain, at the period of the Russian occupation. The new masters have concentrated vineyards in the latter locality, owing to its warm sunny exposures and immense sums have been expended in procuring the best varieties of stock from foreign countries, with competent dressers, in order to produce wines capable of competing with French and Rhenish. In 1826, Prince Woronzow commenced the attempt at improvement ; and eight years afterwards, in 1834, there were 2,000,000 plants in the country, raised from cuttings obtained in various parts of the globe. In that year, the total number in the old and new plantations amounted to 7,100,000. But, notwith- standing every effort, the Crimean wines are held in low repute,— the best varieties of the vine from abroad degenerating rapidly in the soil, and losing their characteristic peculiarities. The wine-growing district extends from the Alma, round by Cape Chersonese, to Soudak ; but that part of the seaside between Balaklava and Aloushta is the principal region. When the British took possession of Bala- klava, the valley extending from the upper extremity of the harbour to Kadikoi, the * Judge’s Village,” LOCUSTS, 67 now traversed by a railroad, was beautifully planted with vineyards, interspersed with poplars. Olive groves, though met with, are not widely cultivated, owing to the precariousness of successful husbandry. The cold nights common in spring cut off the young shoots, and unexpected sharp frosts kill the trees by wholesale. Besides unseasonable frosts and crippling aridity, the vegetation of the plains and of the hill country has another enemy to deal with. Locusts are a terrible scourge ; though, fortunately for the farmer and the husbandman, their appearance in destructive swarms is only occasional. Years pass away without damage from them, owing to the limited number. Then for successive years a gradual increase is ob- served, till millions upon millions cover ‘the ground, and darken the air when on the wing. Several species are found in the Crimea, of different sizes and hues, some of which attack the herbage, others the shrubs and trees. But the most common is the Gryllus devastator, and may be inferred from its name to be the most destructive, combining, accord- ing to a common saying, the bite of the horse, the greediness of the wolf, and unequalled powers of rapid digestion. In the beginning of May, when the eggs deposited in the ground the preceding autumn F2 68 THE CRIMEA. are hatched by the returning warmth of summer, the baby locusts crawl out of their holes, and are about the size of small flies. After remaining sta- tionary a few days, they are compelled to migrate, by the consumption of the grass and an enormous appe- tite. Not having wings, they creep slowly, or proceed by a succession of leaps. They pause at night, and also in cold wet weather ; but, when on the march, no natural impediment or artificial ob- struction arrests it. Fire and water are alike sur- mounted. If fires are lighted in their path the foremost ranks perish; but their bodies extinguish the flames, and the vast host behind advances in safety. If thousands are carried away by the cur- rent in crossing a stream, millions succeed in swim- ming to the opposite bank, or gain it over the carcases of their comrades. “In the year 1851,” says a recent writer, “I chanced to be residing on the banks of the Alma, when intelligence was brought that an immense column of locusts was approaching to the opposite side of the river; and, having heard that they were afraid of water, I was curious to know how they would act, as the water was at this place about ten yards wide, and the current pretty strong. By the time I arrived at the water’s edge a number had already passed over; the LOCUSTS. 69 water was black with them; and the opposite bank, which was five or six feet high, was covered with a moving mass, very like bees as they hang from the hive before swarming. As those in the rear pressed forward, those in front sprang into the stream and swam across : although millions were carried away by the current and drowned, no diminution in their numbers was perceptible. In spite of the voracious- ness of their appetite, they sometimes pick and choose as they go along ; for they passed through a field of millet without touching it, devoured the leaves of the tobacco-plant in the next field, and, entering the garden, attacked the pepper plant and some of the vegetables, leaving others untouched.” Usually every green thing disappears in the line of march pursued by the locust army, from the leaves of the forest to the herbs of the plain. Fields, vineyards, gardens, pasture, everything is laid waste. ¢ The land is before them as the Garden of Eden, and behind them a desolate wilderness.” Though commonly proceeding in a straight line, they acquire a taste for the cultivated vegetation, and will move to the left or right to attack the plantations of a town or village. The Tatars endeavour to get rid of the enemy by beating the ground with branches of trees. Deep trenches are also dug, filled with lighted F 3 70 THE CRIMEA. straw, to protect fields threatened with invasion ; and at Odessa long iron rollers are dragged by horses at full pace over the invaded surface. But all the means resorted to at present are more plausible than effectual, the living not being sensibly dimi- nished by the numbers destroyed. In four or five weeks the locusts attain their full size,— about an inch and a quarter long,— cast their skins, and emerge with full-formed wings. From this period, the middle of June, they fly about the country in vast clouds till the middle of September, when they all perish, — the females having deposited their eggs in the earth during the preceding month. While on the wing, no ray of sunshine can pierce the mass, and the shadow cast on the ground is as dense and defi- nite as that of a thunder-cloud. I was riding,” says a traveller, “upon the outside of the calash, reading a book ; and as we rolled slowly along, I perceived a large black cloud lying upon the top of the hill. T first thought it betokened a thunder- storm, —a daily occurrence during the whole of our journey. I was, however, struck with the motion of the cloud, which seemed to assume all shapes, lengthening, and contracting, and throwing itself into various contortions. I knew not to what this could be attributable, but of course immediately re- LOCUSTS. 71 ferred it to the usual and unerring cause which accounts for all physical phenomena,— electricity. As I was still gazing upon it, the calash suddenly stopped, and Count , who was in the van, beck- oned me to him. ¢Do you see that large black cloud in the distance?’ ¢I have been watching it for some time,” I answered. ¢ Well, what do you think it is?’ ¢It is not difficult to say what it is, but I am puzzling my brains to find out what causes it to make such evolutions.” As I spoke it suddenly tapered into a long string. ‘Now look at them,’ said the Count. © These are locusts upon wing. I hardly ever saw such an army in the air. We shall hear what devastation they have done before we get to Odessa. Woe to him on whose fields they alight !’” During their winged existence of four months the locusts are not so formidable as when young, being less voracious; and, having the means of flight, shouts, drums, and guns are sometimes employed with success to scare them away. Occasionally a swarm will settle upon a town or village, when every inch of ground in the streets, and the roofs of the houses, are covered with the vermin; and while thousands rattle like hail against the windows, thousands more gain access to the interior by tum- bling down the chimneys. F 4 72 THE CRIMEA. A peculiar species of caterpillar forms another pest to the vegetation, chiefly attacking the hedges, orchards, and forests; but its appearance in destruc- tive numbers, like that of the locusts, is only at intervals some years apart. When in force, the trees are soon stripped of their foliage as completely as if by the hand of winter, exhibiting nothing on their branches but the webs of the insects. Some- times, when unusually abundant, they intrude into the towns, enter the dwellings, and have been seen crawling about the streets of Sebastopol. The animal kingdom in the Crimea is rather more prolific in the number of species than the vegetable. The wolf, fox, stag, and roebuck, are found in the woodland districts. Through the greater part of the year, the wolf is confined to the more inaccessible forests of the mountains ; but visits the open country in winter, when pressed by hunger, prowling about the sheepfolds, or following the caravans to pick up prey. Upon a Tatar discovering a wolf on the plains, far from any covert, he seldom fails to run him down, and soon despatches the exhausted brute with his heavy whip. The deed entitles him to a reward from the authorities, on exhibiting the head, while a profit is made of the skin. Hamsters, small burrowing animals, not unlike the guinea-pig, annoy BIRDS AND REPTILES. 73 the husbandman, by making havoc with his grain and vegetables.. The more harmless and graceful jerboas, the ¢ earth-hares” of the German colonists, divert the traveller by their frolics, feeding upon the bulbous plants of the steppe. Birds of prey are numerous, the eagle, vulture, falcon, kite, hawk, heron, crane, raven, and owl; with birds of song and of beauty, the nightingale, the lark, and the brightly- coloured bee-eater, hoopoo and oriol. The game birds include partridges, quails, snipes, ducks, wood- cocks, and bustards in abundance. The bustard is especially common through the whole region of the steppes, and is a standing dish at the Crimean hotdls, It is singular that the pheasant does not occur in the peninsula, though found on the opposite side of the narrow Strait of Kertch, and all over the Caucasus. The reptile world is largely represented. It includes the beautiful tree-frog, chiefly found on the south coast, so brightly green as to be scarcely distinguish- able from the leaves of the trees it haunts, and peculiarly interesting from its habits and bird-like note. This is a somewhat weather-wise creature, and is often kept in large glass jars, half filled with water, to answer the purpose of a barometer. A little ladder being inserted, the frog ascends it to the upper half of the jar in fine weather, and indicates an ap- 74 THE CRIMEA. proaching change by taking refuge in the water below. Except in the more thickly peopled dis- tricts, snakes are everywhere frequent, and find protection in the absurd superstition of the Russians who believe the slaughter of a serpent to be en of ill-luck. They are often found from five to six feet in length; but examples rivalling the size of the boa infest the reed-grounds of the Dnieper and Dniester. The bite of two species is venomous but not fatal, and these are of rare occurrence. The scolopendra or centipede, from six to eight inches long, and the tarantula spider, of huge size, are both common, and justly dreaded from the severe and sometimes fatal effects of their bite. The latter abounds in the vicinity of Sebastopol. The goat, camel, and buffalo, with herds of sheep, horses, and oxen, are the domesticated quadrupeds, Goats formerly ran wild upon the mountains in great numbers. But, owing to the injury done to the plantations by the nipping off the young shoots the local administration proclaimed a war i, nation against them; and they were destroyed in thoughtless haste ; for an important manufacture, that of morocco leather, was crippled by their destruction. A few domesticated are found in the steppes, gene- rally forming the vanguard of a flock of sheep. The DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 75 camels are large powerful animals, of the Bactrian species, or with two humps, employed to drag heavily laden waggons on long journeys through miry roads across the plains. They are of a pale brown colour, and have a fine mane falling down from the neck between the fore-legs. The hair is universally used as wool, being spun by the Tatar women, and manufactured into clothes. Though commonly gentle, they require to be approached with caution, having their capricious fits of spleen, and biting severely. Their utility secures for them careful attention from the owners. In the mountain dis- tricts, buffaloes are the animals of draught,—huge ungainly creatures, of great strength, fond of rolling themselves in the mud when at liberty. The sheep are of two species, the original Tatar, and the intro- duced Spanish or merino. The native sheep are distinguished by the enormous size of their tails, a feature common to other Oriental breeds. The fat of these tremendous appendages is as essential to a Tatar feast as turtle to a civic banquet. Large flocks are maintained at very little cost, being subject to few diseases, and able to care for themselves in all weather, unless deep snow is lying upon the ground. The horses are small, and somewhat inelegant; but 76 THE CRIMEA. great hardiness, and remarkable dexterity in passing over difficult ground are compensating qualities. The Crimean summer is a stable season, and remarkably uniform in its character from year to year. During the hot months, June, July, and August, the thermometer ranges from 85° to 100° Fahrenheit in the shade ; and except at high eleva- tions, all nature suffers from the fiery temperature. The nights are then oppressively sultry on the south coast, but comparatively fresh and cool on the northern plains, At the commencement of the season, the sky is of the brightest azure. As the heat increases, the pure colour disappears, and a milky haze clothes the concave, which gives a blood-red hue to the sun at the horizon. For weeks together, sometimes for months, not a drop of rain falls, except’ in the mountains, where an occasional thunder cloud discharges itself in torrents. The temperature is most unbearable when the wind blows from the direction of the hot deserts of Asia. It blisters the skin; and all plants which have not been parched, instantly hang their leaves, turn yellow, and frequently die. But the most trying feature of the climate is the sudden and extraor- dinary change of temperature, frequently expe- rienced in the autumnal and spring months, On a THE SEASONS. 7 November day, after cold in the morning sufficient to render warm clothing necessary, the hot wind will set in, and so raise the temperature that the thermometer has been observed to register 80° some hours after night-fall. In spring, splendid and warm weather, causing the vegetation to advance rapidly, will sometimes suddenly be followed by a cold below zero. The winter is the reverse of the summer, as the season fluctuates greatly in itself; and successive seasons are strikingly different in their character. The winter of 1795-6 was open and mild up to the 6th of February, when Pallas saw all the spring flowers out in abundance. Then the weather changed, and deep snow fell, but without any great severity of cold. On the contrary, in the years 1798-9, and 1799-1800, the cold began at the end of October, and lasted till the end of March, tremendous storms from the north alternating with sharp frosts. Not only were the Sea of Azof, and the Strait of Kertch strongly frozen, but the Bay of Kaffa, and other harbours of the Black Sea, which are commonly entirely open. In 1842-3, on the south coast, the weather was fine up to the 17th of March, the thermometer not having once descended to the freezing point. The next winter was gene- 78 THE CRIMEA. rally mild till April, when the mercury fell several degrees below zero. These late intervals of cold are styled by the Tatars the ¢“starling’s winter” and the ““hoopoo’s winter.” The birds are the harbingers of spring. Having accomplished their northerly migration from Asia Minor to the Crimea at the appointed time, they perish in great numbers, when the spring is of such an exceptional character that the rigour of winter is felt in it. Ordinarily the winter is harsh and ungentle, with intervals of severe cold and deep snow, most commonly expe- rienced in February. But the mean temperature of the season is 5° or 6° higher at Sebastopol than on the northern plains, and the sheltered region of the south coast has a difference of from 20° to 25° in its favour. When Dr. E. D. Clarke was in the peninsula, he met with a poor Tatar lamenting in his garden the havoc made among his fruit-trees by a severe spring frost. “ We never,” said he, “used to experience such hard weather; but since the Russians came, they seem to have brought their winter along with them.” Aged men of the race express the same opinion at present; and also affirm the summer droughts to have become longer and more intense. There is probably no foundation for this persuasion in fact. It seems rather to be an STORMS. 79 example of the favourable feeling with which the past is very commonly regarded, wholly irrespective of its merits, under the pressure of some present hardship. Storms of fearful violence, accompanied with rain, sleet, or snow, visit the Crimea, with the whole of Southern Russia, and the adjoining seas, in winter, and about the time of the equinoxes, one of which made havoc with the encampment of the allied armies before Sebastopol, and with the fleet on the neighbouring waters, towards the close of the past year. The Russians distinguish three classes of storms, and give them distinctive names. The mildest form, called the Miatjel, corresponds to the wildest weather to which we are accustomed, the snow, sleet, or rain simply descending from the clouds. The second and severer kind of storm, the Samet, occurs more rarely, though the winter seldom passes away without one. It raises the snow from the ground with its whirl in vast masses, and drives it forward horizontally, filling up ravines, and some- times burying men and cattle beneath the drift. In-doors, there is tolerable security from danger. Abroad, the traveller may protect himself by gaining the shelter of a forest; and a large number of men or beasts, forming a caravan, may withstand the 80 THE CRIMEA. blast in an open country by grouping together. But woe betide the solitary wayfarer with no shelter at hand. The driving shower of snow blinds him ; and no horse will move, though flogged and spurred to the utmost. But the third kind of storm, the Wiuga, far exceeds the second in violence, though still more rare, and always announcing its coming by unmis- takable indications. When these have appeared, no one sets out upon a journey, not even to the next village, though only a verst or two off, lest the dreaded monster should overtake him. Precautions are taken for the safety of the houses by protecting them on the north side with heavy stones, and propping them up on the south. Droves of cattle, flocks of sheep, and troops of wild horses in the steppes, gather in a compact circle to resist the gale, if no shelter is attainable. But entire groups have been driven before it with headlong speed, till blown over the edge of a precipice into a ravine, or swept from the cliffs into the Black Sea. There have been instances of men near the sea being surprised by the hurricane, and forced into the water; while roofs, trees, stones, and other objects in the path of the tempest, are taken up from the earth like chaff from the threshing-floor, and conveyed by the eddying air whole versts away. Government STORMS. 81 couriers are excused if, during the three days the Wiuga is abroad,—its usual duration,—they remain closely housed at the post stations. ‘ Teeming with storms ”—the phrase of Strabo in relation to the mountainous maritime district of the Crimea — is seasonally true. THE CRIMEA. CHAP. 1V. THE LEGENDARY, GREEK, AND ROMAN AGE. LEGEND OF THE ARGONAUTS. — WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. — THE CIMMERIANS AND TAURI. — LEGEND OF IPHI- GENIA. — FIRST MILESIAN COLONISTS. — KINGDOM OF BOSPHORUS. — TRADE. — COLONISTS FROM HERACLEA. — MITHRIDATES. —PHARNACES. — BOSPHORAN KINGS. — REPUBLIC OF CHERSON.— THEODOSIA AND PANTI- CAPEUM. — CHERSON AND EUPATORIUM. — INKER- MAN. — CAPE PARTHENIUM. THE story of the Crimea extends through an interval of more than twenty-four centuries; but there are many gaps in the narrative which cannot be filled up, and as many passages in which it is impossible to infuse the slightest interest, consisting chiefly of a meagre enumeration of names and dates. The pen- insula is associated with the early annals of Greece, and the proudest periods of Roman history. It was to Athens in the age of Demosthenes what Egypt became to Rome in the days of the Empire, the country upon which her citizens depended for the staff of life, a mart for her traders, and a nursery for her marine. To the date of at least six centuries LEGEND OF THE ARGONAUTS. ]3 1 prior to the Christian era, its connection with the world of civilisation authentically goes back,—a period when Britain and Gaul, the most popularly-known countries now on the face of the globe, were either abandoned to the bear, the wolf, and the beaver, overspread with forests of pine and oak, intermingled with impassable morasses, or scantily occupied by hordes of painted savages, who had no concern about anything beyond the bounds of, their sensible horizon, except the game or the fish that might be en- countered. Soon after that epoch, while the Thames and the Seine long remained with osier baskets on their waters, paddled by naked barbarians, and wig- wams formed of the branches of trees on their banks, the Crimea had its cities, temples, galleys, harvests, fisheries, export and import trade, and was the scene of events upon which the orators and tragedians of the Pireus expatiated. But a still more remote antiquity feebly glimmers, antedating the tale of Troy, if we hearken to poetry, fable, and mythology. The Phenicians resigned the commerce of the Euxine to the Hellenic races, probably deeming it of little value compared to their lucrative traffic with the western Mediterranean; and the celebrated story of the Argonauts, translated into historical lan- guage, seems to commemorate the first expeditions G2 84 THE CRIMEA. of enterprising Greeks to its shores. Jason and his companions, the adventurers in question, are called Minyans or olians, a branch of the nation whose attention was very early drawn by their position to maritime pursuits. They are said to have sailed to Colchis, situated on the eastern coast of the Euxine, in order to obtain the golden fleece. This has been ingeniously supposed to describe the metallic trea- sures of the country, with the method of collecting them,—the mountain torrents of the Caucasus bring- ing down particles of gold, which the natives de- tained by means of fleeces dipped in the streams. But the epithet is a very natural metaphor for the fine wool, and kindred products, which were objects of mercantile pursuit in the most ancient times. After realising the special object of their voyage, the Argonauts are represented as sailing up the river Tanais, or the Don, of course passing through the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and sighting the eastern shores of Taurica Chersonesus. The tale has its mythological associations and poetical marvels ; but it could hardly have arisen without historical foundation in some real voyages and adventures, either commercial or piratical. The time which the traditions assign to the enterprise is about a century before the siege of Troy. THE CIMMERIANS. 85 A celebrated traveller, Dubois de Montpereux, has endeavoured to transfer the wanderings of Ulysses from the Mediterranean to the Euxine. In the harbour of Balaklava he recognises the identical spot described in the tenth book of the Odyssey : — “ Within a long recess a bay there lies, Edged round with cliffs, high pointing to the skies ; The jutting shores that swell on either side, Contract its mouth, and break the rushing tide. Our eager sailors seize the fair retreat, And bound within the port their crowded fleet ; For here, retired, the sinking billows sleep, And smiling calmness silvered o'er the deep. I only in the bay refused to moor, And fixed, without, my hawsers to the shore.” Homer, indeed, or whoever was the writer, con- ducts his hero to the territory of the Cimmerians; but instead of having a particular locality belonging to it in view, he seems to use the name itself poetically for some remote region in another di- rection, beyond the bounds of the world’s know- ledge. The earliest inhabitants of the Crimea appear to have been the Cimmerians, a widely spread division of the human family, whose history is shrouded in complete obscurity. But clear traces of their exist ence on the soil remain in the name of Cimmeria, ¢ 3 86 THE CRIMEA. which designated a portion of the territory in the time of Herodotus, and in that of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, as well as in the modern names of Crimea and Crim-Tatary. The aborigines were intruded upon by the Scythians. This was long a generic denomination with the civilised world for all un- known, rude, and conquering nations. Upon the new comers taking possession of the country, they ex- pelled the old dwellers, with the exception of a remnant, who maintained themselves in the difficult highland region, just as the Cymry of our own annals, supposed by some to be a branch of this very Cimmerian stock, held their ground in the mountains of Wales, against Saxon and Norman aggressors. Next we read of the Tauri, not unfrequently called Tauro-Scythes, inhabiting the mountainous district. The name may have been derived from an old root “tau,” signifying a mountain, and referring to their locality. It very probably denotes the Cimmerian remnant, between whom and the invaders some amalgamation might ultimately take place, giving rise to a mixed community strictly answering to the title of Tauro-Scythes. They were reputed by the Greeks to be a savage race, using stones and clubs as weapons, fierce to strangers, and strangers them- selves to habitations, except holes in the rocks, or LEGEND OF IPHIGENIA. 87 caves on the shore hollowed by the dash of the storm-driven billows. Their habits originated the old denomination of the adjoining waters, the ¢¢ in- hospitable sea; ” and from their name the peninsula acquired its classical appellation of Taurica. Under the slightly altered form of Taurida, it now designates the Russian province in which the Crimea is included, and also a palace by the Neva at St. Peters- burg, presented by the Empress Catherine to Potemkin, as a recompense for adding the district to her empire. The legend of Iphigenia in Tauris, which the poetry of the ancient world loved to embellish, and Euripides made the subject of one of his dramas, relates to the barbarous Tauri or Tauro-Scythes, at a period when temples had been founded among them, at whose altars bloody rites were celebrated. The presiding priestess was a virgin, and men the victims sacrificed, commonly foreigners thrown by shipwreck on the shore. The most deadly and dreaded of these temples stood on a majestic headland of the south coast, afterwards called Cape Parthenium. It was dedicated to Diana Tauropolitana, whose image, according to Euripides, writing down the tradition, fell from heaven into its shrine. The same tale was repeated by the town-clerk of Ephesus, in relation G 4 88 THE CRIMEA. to the Ephesian Diana, five centuries after the age of the Agamemnon, doomed to an untimely death by a dramatist. ~~ Iphigenia, the daughter of father’s vow, was saved from it by the interposition of Diana,—so runs the legend,—and carried off to Tauris, in order to preside over the sanguinary worship of the goddess. The office was bewailed as a hideous destiny. “ Now a stranger,”—according to the lamentation invented by the bard,—¢ I dwell in an unpleasant home by the inhospitable sea, un- wedded, childless, without city, without a friend, not chanting Juno in Argos, nor in the sweetly hum- ming loom adorning with the shuttle the image of Athenian Pallas, and of the Titans, but imbruing altars with the shed blood of strangers, sighing forth a piteous cry, and shedding a piteous tear.” Two of her countrymen, Orestes and Pylades, bosom friends, plough the Euxine wave, commissioned to carry off the image of the goddess to the land of the Athenians. They entered a narrow inlet, on the fling of an enormous wave, near the temple, thinking to conceal themselves till some auspicious incident But being detected by the inhabitants, the strangers were occurred to favour their enterprise. conducted to the priestess as victims, to undergo the rites preparatory to their sacrifice. Iphigenia dis- | LEGEND OF IPHIGENIA. 89 covered her own brother in Orestes, the last pillar of her ancestral house; and, by a stratagem, the three effected their escape from the country, bearing away the statue of the Tauric Diana. There are descriptive touches of nature in the legend, as given by the tragedian, twenty-three centuries old, in which distinctive features of the Crimea may be recognised. Such are the nooks and crannies of the southern iron-bound coast, in one of which the two adventurers sought concealment from the natives,—the fishermen hunting the murex for its purple dyes, who discovered the foreigners in their retreat, — and the waters in a storm which was nearly fatal to their flight being placid in the land- locked inlets, while furiously raging at their narrow mouths—true of the harbours of Sebastopol and Balaklava. A superstition is also involved, which is still recognised in the locality, though changed in its outward aspect. There is no difference in principle between Iphigenia and her companions conveying away the image of the Tauric Diana to bless the shores of Greece, and a Russian empress forwarding the figures of St. Nicholas and Alexander Nevsky to Sebastopol, to protect the forts, arsenals, and fleet of the Czar. In both cases, a local influence is attri- buted to the presence of senseless objects; and the 90 THE CRIMEA. main distinction is, that the ancient tale refers to a long bygone polytheistic age, while the modern verity has been exhibited in the nineteenth century of the Christian revelation. A frigate in the Russian Black Sea fleet bears the name of Iphigenia, either afloat beneath the guns of Sebastopol, or one of the ships sunk to close the mouth of the harbour. The beginning of the seventh century before our era is fixed upon by Thucydides as the epoch of a considerable improvement in the art of shipbuilding among the Greeks, which enabled them to prosecute distant navigations with some regularity, and plant colonies for trading purposes on remote shores, Miletus, the mother of many and great cities, both in Pontus and Egypt, and in various other parts of the world” (the terms of an inscription), took the lead in establishing systematic communication with the Euxine, sending a number of her citizens to the east coast of the Crimea, the present Peninsula of Kertch. About the same period, the sixth century before Christ, their countrymen from Heraclea took pos- session of the south-western shore, which received the name of the Heracleotic Chersonesus, in memory of the parent city. The way being opened, and the fortunes of the first settlers prospering, adventurous fleets of fresh emigrants braved the tempests of the KINGDOM OF BOSPHORUS. 91 deep. They wrested whole tracts of the sea-board from the barbarian Tauro-Scythes, who withdrew into the interior, or to adjoining mountain strong- holds, where they were often hostile neighbours to the intruded civilisation. The Milesian Greeks founded two principal cities in the peninsula, Panticapeum and Theodosia, with several on the eastern side of the Cimmerian Bos- phorus, as Phanagoria, Hermonassa, and Tanais. These settlements were originally independent of each other ; but in process of time they were united in a monarchy, under the name of the kingdom of Bosphorus, of which Panticapeum was cventuslly the capital. From notices by the ancient historians, and from records on coins and inscriptions found on the coasts of the Black Sea, a list of forty-five kings is made out, extending for several centuries before and after Christ, or from about B.C. 502 to A.D. 344. The kingdom varied considerably in its limits; but in its palmiest days, those of Mithridates the Great, it controlled the whole of the Crimea, with the territory from the Kuban to the Dnieper. The fifth sovereign, Leucon, a wise and powerful prives, mentioned in the oration of Demosthenes agaist Leptines, cultivated close alliance with the mother country, and specially encouraged the Athenian 92 THE CRIMEA. trade, by taking off all duties on exports and imports. Athens, in return, enrolled him and his children in the number of her citizens. The prince ordered the decree to this effect to be engraved on three marble columns, one of which was placed in the Piraeus, another on the Thracian Bosphorus, and the third at the Cimmerian Strait, or at the beginning, in the middle, and at the termination of the course pursued by trading vessels. His subjects diligently tilled the soil, which is said to have been so produc- tive, that the earth, barely grazed by the plough- share, returned to the husbandmen thirty times the seed. Athens annually imported more corn from this territory than from all other places. It amounted, according to Demosthenes, to 2,100,000 medimni, in round numbers, nearly 400,000 quar- ters. It is somewhat curious, that the buck-wheat of Kertch, precisely the same region, carried off the prize at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, in 1851. Besides corn, the exports included wool, furs, salted provisions, and sturgeons for Greek gourmands. History is silent as to the imports, but they are indicated by the jewellery and ornaments excavated from tumuli on the Bosphoran shore, the cut marbles used in public and private buildings, and would naturally embrace whatever manufactured COLONISTS FROM HERACLEA. 93 goods luxury and wealth had brought into use at Athens. The southern seat of ancient civilisation, founded by Greek emigrants from Heraclea, had generally a republican form of government, for though a king is occasionally mentioned, the chief of the senate is intended. The little territory occupied by these colonists, now a world-renowned site, included the city of Chersonesus, often called Cherson, a name which the Russians have transferred to a town on the Dnieper. At a subsequent date, Eupatorium was built in the district. Its limits also comprised the temple-crowned Cape Parthenium, with the Portus Symbolorum and the Ctenus of Strabo. The former is undoubtedly the present inlet of Balaklava, so accurately described by the geographer, and the latter, the harbour of Sebastopol. The settlers connected the upper extremities of these two inlets with a trench and wall, as a protection from incur- sions of the barbarous natives, and the rude tribes from the north, who were repeatedly intruding into the peninsula. Very considerable remains of this fortification were extant between Inkerman and Balaklava at the commencement of the present century, and vestiges are still visible. In a similar manner, the Bosphorans defended their territory, and 94 THE CRIMEA. defined its limits. Traces of a wall extend from the neighbourhood of Kaffa to the Sea of Azof at Arabat. The boundary shifted as the kingdom declined and the people lost ground, till a rampart still existing near Kertch, separated a mere neck of land from the rest of the country. It now serves as a halting-place and shelter for the caravans in tempestuous weather, who take their stations to the east or west of the mound, according to the direction of the wind. The history of the Greeks in both parts of the peninsula is a complete blank through extended periods. But eventually, being pressed upon by the interior tribes, they were compelled to have recourse for help to Mithridates of Pontus. This monarch, commonly styled the Great, and a great man after the fashion of the Czar Peter of Russia, sent his general, Diophantes, with an army, to the assistance of the applicants, who fixed his head-quarters at Cherson. For its protection, after signally chastising the barbarians, the commander built a fortress, — the usual nucleus of a city,—probably selecting some advanced position towards the interior, and called it Eupatorium, in honour of his master, who had also the name of Eupator. Mithridates finally added the whole country to his hereditary dominions, having MITHRIDATES. 95 obtained possession of the Bosphoran crown by voluntary cession from Parysades II. It became his asylum in distress, and the scene of his death. The Pontic king, an indomitable foe to Rome, main- tained a contest of twenty-seven years with the forces of the Western Republic, in order to expel them from the Lesser Asia, and bring all the nations round the Euxine and Zgean seas under his own control. This object was pursued with unconquerable resolu- tion, in spite of repeated defeats. But, being over- come by Pompey, he fled into the wild mountain fastnesses between the Euxine and Caspian, and safely effected a passage through them to the Bos- phoran peninsula, establishing himself at Panti- capzum, a region too distant and little known for his antagonist to follow him. Here, though old and afflicted with an incurable ulcer, Mithridates bated not “a jot of heart or hope,” but conceived the daring project of marching westward round the shores of the Euxine, gathering the wild tribes of the Sarmatians and Get to his standard, and throwing these accumulated masses upon the frontiers of the Roman state, acting over again the part of Hannibal. An earthquake which destroyed whole towns and villages, interrupted his preparations ; and the disaf- fection of his followers, upon the design transpiring, 96 THE CRIMEA. terminated his own career. Pharnaces, his favourite son, to whom he had devised the crown, conspired against him; the whole army and people of Panti- capzum joined the rebel ; and Mithridates, who had fled for refuge to a strong tower, preferred the alter- native of death to dethronement and captivity. Poison failing to take effect, he called in the aid of one of his mercenaries, who despatched him with the sword, B.C. 63. The parricide, Pharnaces, in order to secure him- self upon the throne, sent an embassy to Pompey, with offers of submission and hostages for his fidelity. The general accepted his overtures, and granted him the kingdom, with the title of friend and ally of the Roman people. But, being tempted to invade the Lesser Asia, in order to recover the wide dominions of his father, he was routed by Cesar in the decisive action near Zela, the result of which was made known by the famous laconic sentence, «I came, I saw, I conquered.” Succeeding Bosphoran kings derived their regal authority from Rome, being either nominated or approved by the emperors. The dependence is acknowledged by their coinage and style. Polemon I., originally a priest of a temple in Rome, was indebted for the throne to Mark Antony and Augustus. The coins of Sauromates I. repre- THE CHERSONITES. 97 sent the regalia sent from Rome for his coronation. Rhescuporis I. adopted the surname of Tiberius, out of compliment to the contemporary emperor. Cotys, who reigned in the time of Nero, took the title of Neron-Cotys. A coin of Rhescuporis II., his suc- cessor, exhibits his own effigy on one side, the reverse having the head of Domitian. There are similar memorials of Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Com- modus, Severus, and Caracalla. But Roman influ- ence in the country was at all times limited, owing to its distance from the seat of authority and an isolated geographical position. The Chersonites, soon after the fall of Mithridates, became independent of his weak successors, though subject to Rome, and continued their republican form of government. This attitude seems to have been encouraged by the emperors as a check upon the neighbouring state. The members of the senate were styled ¢ Fathers of the city.” Their president had the title of ¢ Chief.” He was the high magis- trate in time of peace; the general in time of war. The people acquired importance by their industry, commercial spirit, and naturally strong position. Our own experience of Sebastopol illustrates the latter fact ; for the great fortress-town and war-port of modern times stands nearly upon the site of the H 98 THE CRIMEA. old Greek city. Diocletian, for signal services, exonerated the citizens from paying tribute; and Constantine, on the same account, granted a perpe- tual exemption from all duties to their mercantile marine. Forty towns on the coast claimed their protection and exemplified their enterprise. But the parent city and its dependencies, in common with the civilised world, had large experience of crippled fortunes and changing circumstances from the irrup- tions of barbarian tribes. Cherson survived every storm to a comparatively late period, gradually losing much of its former importance, and comprising a very mixed population. Its name will again occur. But we hear no more of the Bosphoran kingdom after the middle of the fourth century, when, having received a Sarmatian dynasty, the phantom sovereignty sub- mitted to the Chersonites, with whom hostilities had been provoked. Panticapeum, the capital, and Theodosia were desolated at an earlier date. Monuments of the old world in the Crimea are not numerous, if we except the tumuli. They perished largely in the stormy revolutions of the early Christian and the medieval age; and Russian Vandalism has contributed in no slight degree to complete the work of destruction. Theodosia, * the gift of God,” also called Ardanda, the © Seven Gods,” stood at or near ANCIENT REMAINS AT KERTCH. 99 the site of modern Kaffa, the « Infidel.” The Em- peror Alexander revived the ancient name, altered to Feodosia, the Russians pronouncing the Greek Th as F. Arrian, in his Periplus of the Black Sea, speaks of the old city as a deserted place in his time, the commencement of the second century. No remains of the Greek epoch are extant, except what have been brought from some distance by antiquarian zeal, collected in the museum of the present town. Panticapseum, a name probably compounded of two Greek words signifying ¢ everywhere a garden,” is represented in its locality by Kertch. ¢ Alas,” says Demidoff, « tell me the Greek for ¢ garden nowhere,’ and you will have named Kertch. We cannot charge our memory with having seen a single plant- ation of the most meagre description.” The town itself, almost entirely new, is handsomely built of the steppe limestone; and the traveller may have historic recollections stirred in it by putting up at the Bospheri Tractir, the Bosphorus Hotel. The environs are of special interest. Huge cones of earth stud the surface, the tombs of the wealthy and gay of the ancient capitol. For ages the mounds have been ransacked in the hope of discovering gold, silver, or other valuables. Funereal relics have been recovered in abundance, collections of which H 2 100 THE CRIMEA. are in the museum of Kertch, and the Hermitage Palace at St. Petersburg. They include male and female skeletons in a wonderful state of preservation, elegantly carved coffins of cedar wood, marble ceno- taphs, with inscriptions in every variety of idiom, from pure Greek to distantly related dialects, bronze lamps, glass vessels, vases more or less of the Etrus- can style, small statues, armlets, earrings, and other ornaments of gold, which attest the luxury of the old Milesian colonists. To a hill close to the town, and fronting the sea, popular tradition has assigned the name of Mount Mithridates, as the site of his palace, from which he gazed proudly upon his fleet on the waters. The Acropolis, the citadel of Pan- ticapeeum, may have stood upon the spot. The name of the Tomb of Mithridates is also applied to a tumulus in the neighbourhood, remarkable for its height and size, visible for many miles round. But history states, that his unnatural son, in order to conciliate Pompey, sent the body of his father to him, as the inveterate foe of Rome, who caused it to be buried at Sinope in the sepulchre of his ancestors. The site of Cherson, a little to the south of Sebastopol, had very considerable remains of the old city while the Tatars were lords of the soil, who regarded them with wonder and reverence. They REMAINS OF CHERSON. 101 included vestiges of the walls, the gates, the dwell- ings of the inhabitants, and their sepulchres, with three Byzantine churches, half buried in the soil, and shafts and capitals of columns strewn upon the ground. The walls were double, formed of two separate lines of thick masonry, the intervals between them being filled with a cement containing fragments of pottery and other coarse materials, Two strong towers were entire in 1794. The Russians, on coming into the country, remorselessly swept away these monuments of the past as ready- made materials for their own foundations. In 1818, the emperor Alexander, while on a visit to the peninsula, strictly enjoined the preservation of the remnants of ancient architecture. But the order came too late, as almost everything worthy of observation had previously been disposed of. Dr. Clarke saw an interesting memorial of a philosopher of Cherson, whose name, Theagenes, occurred in an inscription. This was a beautiful bas-relief of white marble, which had closed the entrance to his tomb, The sculpture represented the husband and wife ; the philosopher had in his left hand a scroll ; his feet were bound in sandals. The wife, in a Grecian habit, wore a long robe falling negligently in folds to the ground. From the style of the inscription, it H 3 102 THE CRIMEA. seemed to date at least two centuries prior to the Christian era. The traveller visited the tomb from which the marble had been abstracted, and found it a family vault, hewn in the rock, without the walls of the city. The interior had recesses for the bodies of the dead, and upon being first opened, the bones were still in a state of preservation. After an un- disturbed repose of two thousand years, the few remaining relics of Theagenes were cast out of the sepulchre, and scattered among the adjoining ruins. The old town of Eupatorium is not represented by the present Eupatoria. The latter is of compa- ratively modern date, and Tatar origin. While the Russians restored in some instances the names of ancient history to places which had lost them by change of masters, they transferred the names of others which had disappeared to fresh localities, giving that of Eupatoria to the maritime town of Koslof. The Tatars clung to the old denomination; and it is still most commonly used in ordinary language, though official documents only recognise the new title. Inkerman, at the extremity of the principal harbour of Sebastopol, answers to the situation assigned by historic notices to Eupatorium, founded by Diophantes, the general of Mithridates, CAVES OF INKERMAN. 103 for the protection of Cherson from the interior tribes. Here the remains of fortifications crown a platform of bold rock, the sides of which are crowded with excavated caves and chambers, as well as those of the rocks in the neighbourhood. The existing ruined towers and walls on the height are not indeed relics of the original citadel, but of some more recent fortress erected upon its site, a commanding military station. Neither are the caves and grots monuments of the Greek period. Some, perhaps, belong to a remoter age, having been commenced by the savage aborigines, who burrowed into the rocks for dwelling places; but the great majority are of later date, the work of exiles, refugees, recluses and monks of the early Christian epoch. Some of the pagan Roman emperors used the Chersonese territory as a place of banishment for persons who fell under their dis- pleasure. If we may believe ecclesiastical tradition, Clement of Rome was exiled to this district by order of Trajan, and doomed to work in the quarries. One of his converts, a niece of the Emperor Titus, is also said to have been banished to the Chersonese. The province probably invited many refugees from persecution to it by remoteness of position, while its rocky fastnesses offered a suitable retreat from the H 4 104 THE CRIMEA. world to voluntary recluses intent upon an ascetic life. The refugees to escape notice, and the recluses to indulge superstition, originated the peculiar features of the locality. After being known by the name of Theodori, while a religious establishment in regular connection with the Greek Church, it re- ceived that of Inkerman from Turkish conquerors, signifying the ¢ town of caverns.” The caves, small, plain, and without ornament, have evidently been the cells of monks. The sides still exhibit chisel-marks. Hollows for fires are traceable, and excavated recesses for nightly slumber. So numerously are they grouped in places, and united by narrow winding galleries, as to constitute entire subterranean monasteries. Other caves have served as sepulchres, stone coffins having been found in them, long since emptied of their human bones, and converted into drinking-troughs for cattle. Others more spacious, with semicircular vaulted roofs, and pillars from which spring arches forming aisles, exhibit the Greek cross, sufficiently pro- claiming their character as Byzantine churches or chapels. Altars, or any moveable sculptured blocks they might once contain, are gone, built up perhaps into some work at Sebastopol, or burnt into lime for LADY CRAVEN. 105 its erections. In recent times, Tatars, with their families and goats, occupied these rocky dwellings: They have since been used as powder magazines, or military storehouses; and more recently, Russian, British, and French soldiers have been engaged in ferretting each other out of them. One of the first English visitors to this spot, Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, thus wrote respecting it in 1786: « The Count Wynowitch commands here, and has a little farm at Inkerman, which must once have been a very considerable and extraordinary town: at present the only remains of it are rooms hewn out of the rock. Here is a large chapel, the pillars and altars of which are extremely curious: the stone is whitish, and not unlike marble. I climbed up a staircase, and crept into and out of very extraordinary spaces, large and commodious. 1 entered at the bottom of these singular habitations, and, like a chimney-sweeper, came out at the top; and though it cost me not a little trouble in turning and climbing up so high, I had no idea of having mounted so much, till on looking about me I turned quite giddy on seeing the Bay of Inkerman and all the Black Sea at least 250 feet beneath the place where I stood.” Lady Craven judged rightly of 106 THE CRIMEA. the capabilities of the adjoining roadstead at a period when no Sebastopol existed on its shores: « From the singularity of the coast, the harbour is unlike any other I ever saw. It is a long creek, formed by the Black Sea between two ridges of land, so high that ¢< The Glory of Catherine,’ one of the largest ships in the Russian navy, which is at anchor here, cannot be seen, as the shore is above the pendant. The water is so deep that this ship touches the land. All the fleets of Europe would be safe from storms or enemies in these creeks or harbours, for there are many. Batteries at the entrance of them, on one side, would be sufficient effectually to destroy any ships that would venture in, and placed towards the sea, must even prevent the entrance of a fleet.” Nature maintains its integrity after the lapse of ages, while the handiwork of man crumbles and perishes. The cities, temples, gates, and walls of the ancient Greeks have vanished from the sites they occupied on the Taurian shore, owing to the wear of the elements and human spoliation. But the storms they encountered, the inlets which sheltered their barks, and the majestic headlands on which they gazed, are still distinctive features of the Crimea. If Cape Parthenium cannot be certainly identified, CAPE PARTHENIUM. 107 it is because several bold towering cliffs in the in- dicated district, against which the waves fret and dash, answer to the description. Between Ballas and the monastery of St. George, a perpendicular and tremendous precipice, one of the loftiest on the coast, terminates abruptly at the sea, called by the Tatars Aja Biiriin, or the Sacred Promontory. THE CRIMEA. CHAP. V. THE MEDLEVAL AGE. THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. — ALANS, GOTHS, AND HUNS.— THE TURK FAMILY.— THE KHAZARS.— KHAZA- RIAN EMPIRE.— THE RUSSIANS IN THE SOUTH. — VLADIMIR 1. AT CHERSON. — THE PICHENGUES AND COMANES. — THE MONGOL TATARS. — CONQUESTS OF BATOU KHAN. — EMPIRE OF KIPTSHAK. — SUBJECTS OF THE EMPIRE. — THE TATARS CHIEFLY TURKISH TRIBES. — INTRODUCTION OF MOHAMMEDANISM, — THE GRAND KHANS BERKE AND MENGLI. — FOUNDATION OF KAFFA. —THE GENOESE, VENETIANS, AND PISANS, — COMMERCE BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. — COMMERCE OF THE GENOESE. — PROGRESS OF KAFFA. — DISSENSIONS WITH THE TATARS. — TIMOUR. — DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KIPTSHAK. — HADJI DEVLET GHERAL — OTTOMAN CON- QUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE. — FALL OF KAFFA. Durine the period of the great migration, or wandering of the nations, which broke up the Roman empire in the west, and shook it in the east, tribes of restless adventurers entered the peninsula —Alans, Goths, and Huns—off-streams of the grand current of population which rolled over Europe from the gloomy forests of its northern countries, tar OR - WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 109 and the vast steppes on its eastern frontier. The Alans, a fair-haired nomadic people, spending their days on horseback, and their nights in covered cars, ready for war and eager for pillage, appeared about the middle of the first century of our epoch. In the second century, having located themselves in settle- ments, they were displaced by the Goths, and for the most part withdrew to the foot of the Caucasus, where they were found a thousand years later. Towards the close of the fourth century, the Huns broke in upon the Goths, and drove them from the plains to the mountains. The new marauders, how- ever, did not attempt to retain permanent possession of the soil, but passed on to seek a wider field for the display of their adventurous passions, while a remnant of the Goths continued to hold the highland territory as an independent principality. They adopted a sedentary life and rural occupations, embraced the Christian faith, and received a bishop from the emperor Justinian; and Gothia or Goth- land long denominated their mountain home. Mean- while the dismayed Greek population on the coast held their settlements by an uncertain tenure, occasionally suffering devastation, purchasing immu- nity from attack, or obtaining aid from the Byzan- tine sovereigns. Justinian’ erected a line of forts on 110 THE CRIMEA. commanding points of the shore for their protec- tion, the remains of which are extant at Alushta, Koursuv, and the Great Lampas. But if these fortresses secured them from barbarian violence, they brought them into subjection to the Byzantine empire, to which the republic of Cherson became tributary. During the ‘reign of Justinian, Europe was first made acquainted with the name of Turk, the denomination of a great family of people, of which the Ottomans or Osmanlis are a modern divergent branch. Originally seated on the high plateau of Central Asia, or the country extending from the frontier of China Proper to the Altai mountains, they seem to have migrated westward long before the commencement of the Christian era, some tempted by the acquisition of better pasture grounds, and others led by warlike chiefs intent on spoil and empire. At the period mentioned, the middle of the fifth century, squadrons of cavalry, under the name of Turks, were heard of by the Byzantine court, encamped upon the shores of the Palus Meotis, which they passed upon the ice, displacing the tribes upon its borders. But though the term was new to Europe, branches of the stock had long before crossed its frontier, and had probably been European THE KHAZARS. 111 for centuries. There is strong reason to conclude, that the Scythians, who intruded into the Crimea before the time of Herodotus, the tribes known as Alans, Goths, and Huns, who did the same in the early part of our era, with the Khazars, Pichengues, and Comanes, who subsequently figure in its annals, are closely related nationalities, identical as to stock with the specifically called Turks, acquiring different names, historical importance, and an altered distribu- tion under varying circumstances, and at diverse epochs. Hence the unmixed character of the majority of the population in the peninsula at present, exclusively Tatar in name, Turkish in reality. The Khazars, a Turkish tribe, were first heard of on the northern shores of the Caspian, and then in the countries north of the Black Sea. They subjugated the plains of the Crimea at the com- mencement of the seventh century, and gave their name to the greater part of the peninsula. It was called Khazaria, while the south coast chain retained the designation of Gothia. For three centuries afterwards, Khazar is the great name in eastern Europe. It denominated a people who founded a vast and powerful empire, extending from the Caspian on the east to the Dniester on the west, 112 THE CRIMEA. from the Caucasus on the south to beyond Kasan on the north; thus including all the southern provinces of the present European Russia. The Khagans or Khans had their capital near the mouths of the Volga, probably on the site of Astrachan. The emperors of Constantinople cultivated friendly relations with them, and one wearer of the imperial purple contracted an alliance by marriage. -Con- stantine Copronymus, who died in 775, married Irene, daughter of one of the Khans ; and their son, the emperor Leo IV., was surnamed the Khazarian, on account of his maternal origin. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, while counselling amicable inter- course, severely reprehends the conduct of his predecessor, for ¢“ the Khazars,” he remarks, “so far from being orthodox Christians, are no Christians at all, but impious heathens.” But though Christianity was never adopted by the majority of the people, they were only partly heathens, and tolerant to all other professions, The Khans were Jews, as were also many of the great families; the law of Moses having been propagated by Jews expelled from the Byzantine empire. According to Ibn Haukal, the princes were obliged to be Jews; but the nine ministers of the Khan might be Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan, or Pagan. Singular as THE KHAZARS. 113 this appears, it is unquestionably true. In the later days of the Khazarian empire, some of the Khans were Christians. The Khazars, originally a wandering pastoral race, adopted settled habits, and developed consider- able civilisation. They founded villages, towns, and cities, some of which, erected by Arabic or Byzan- tine architects, had pretensions to splendour. Navi- gation, commerce, and manufactures were cultivated. The capital was celebrated for the fine carpets produced by its inhabitants. Honey, skins, leather, furs, fish, salt, and copper of the Ural were exchanged in the southern districts for silk, wines, spices, and jewellery, conveyed to the northern. The Volga, the Dnieper, and their affluents were the great commercial highways; and that system of water communication and carriage in Russia, which Peter the Great founded, was anticipated a thousand years before his time by the enterprise and sagacity of the Khazars. Their power was broken in the last half of the tenth century by that of the Russians and Pichengues, though the greater portion of the Crimea retained the name of Khazaria till it merged in the empire of Western Tatary. The impression is very common, that the con- nection of Russia with the Black Sea is entirely I 114 THE CRIMEA. of recent date. But, under the immediate successors of Ruric, the founder of the monarchy in the tenth century, they descended the Dnieper in fleets of canoes, passed to the Danube, and advanced, both by sea and land, towards the capital of the Greek empire. These expeditions had trading or hostile purposes in view, according as peace or war existed between the emperors and the grand-dukes. A pro- phecy was even then current, originated by menacing irruptions, that in the last days the Russians would become masters of Constantinople. The peninsula of Taman, east of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, was the seat of a Russian principality ; and in the year 998 the south-west corner of the Crimea became the temporary conquest of a grand-duke. Vladimir I., having determined to renounce idolatry, and enter the Greek Church, resolved to effect his object by force of arms, and command admission to the Chris- tian ranks instead of simply accepting it. At the same time, he aspired to the hand of Anne, a sister of the Emperor Basil ; and proposed to win the lady with the sword. Fixing upon Cherson, a dependency of the empire, as the place in which to inaugurate his own Christianity by baptism, as well as to cele- brate his marriage, he appeared before the city with a considerable fleet, and commenced the siege. Its THE RUSSIANS. 115 valiant inhabitants and strong fortifications withstood his army as vigorously, and nearly as long, as its successor, Sebastopol, has defied the Anglo-F rench. After assaults extending through six months, the candidate for the sacraments was in imminent danger of remaining a pagan, as no impression had been made upon the walls or their defenders. To raise the siege seemed his only alternative. At last the besiegers obtained information that Cherson, like Sebastopol, depended upon some distant springs for its supply of water, which an underground tunnel conducted into the heart of the city. Upon the supply being cut off, the inhabitants were compelled to capitulate. The conqueror was now master of archimandrites and priests sufficient to baptize his whole army, and obtained possession of sacred vessels, church-books, pictures of saints, and conse- crated relics. The rite was administered ; the Greek princess was given in marriage on being demanded, in order to ward off an attack on Constantinople ; and, having restored the city to the emperor, — now his brother-in-law, — Vladimir retired to his own territory. Upon reaching Kiev, he ordered the God of Thunder to be thrown into the Dnieper ; and the huge block of wood was dragged to its banks, tied to the tail of a horse, while soldiers were appointed to 12 116 THE CRIMEA. cudgel the log soundly on its transit to the water. He then issued a proclamation, commanding all the inhabitants to repair the next day to the river to be baptized. Thus Russia became Christian. The re- volution had its starting-point in the Crimea. In honour of the event, Vladimir was raised to the rank of a saint. He figures in the chronicles as the Apostle and Solomon of the country. The reason for the latter title is not apparent, unless it be the fact of his having had five wives and 800 concubines prior to his conversion. Catherine II. instituted, in 1782, the knightly order of St. Vladimir, further to commemorate ‘“ the holy apostle-like prince,” accord- ing to the inscription in initials on the insignia. On some plans of Sebastopol, St. Vladimir's church is marked, outside the town, a little to the south. This is one of the churches of old Cherson, now a ruin. Whatever designs of southerly dominion were entertained by Russian princes at this early period, they were doomed to lose sight of a southern sea- board for ages, and to be reduced themselves to the rank of humble tributaries to a superior power. But before this terrible passage in their history arrived, and while familiar with the coast, they were kept in check and often severely crippled by the victorious Pichengues. This Asiatic people of the Turk stock, THE PICHENGUES. 117 pressing westward and northward, had established themselves in the Crimea at the commencement of the tenth century, and brought the whole peninsula under their dominion, except the territory of Cherson, with a wide northern sweep of the old Khazarian empire. Laying aside barbarous manners and wan- dering habits for those of industry and civilisation, they displayed such a genius for commerce, and pursued it with such activity, as to wrest from the Chersonites the trade between Asia and Constanti- nople. Purple dye, fine stuffs, embroidered cloths, leopard skins, ermines and other furs, pepper and spices, were purchased from Asiatic traders, and re- sold at their ports to merchants from the capital. During the sway of this race, which lasted about a century and a half, the peninsula enjoyed great pro- sperity. It was terminated by the Comanes, who came flying before the Mongol Tatars. This brings us to the beginning of the thirteenth century. A new era now dawns for the greater part of eastern Europe. Its political complexion changes com- pletely. Pichengues and Comanes vanish from the page of history. The Russians are struck down to the dust, and enter upon a fatal period of servitude and oppression. The Crimea becomes a province of the great empire of Kiptshak ; and, for two centuries 13 118 THE CRIMEA. and a half, two people are alone conspicuous in its annals— the Tatars and the Genoese. In the year 1227, Genghis Khan terminated his career,— originally the disinherited chief of a tribe of the black Tatars, on the borders of the Chinese Wall — eventually the founder of the most gigantic dominion of the middle ages, and perhaps the most ruthless devastator the world has ever seen. One of his last acts was to appoint his grandson, Batou Khan, viceroy of his western conquests. They stretched to the Volga, and rapidly acquired European extension under the new ruler, who marched at the head of an army of 660,000 men. The Crimea, Russia, Poland, and Hungary were overwhelmed ; and Germany was entered. The battle of Leignitz in Silesia, fought April 9th, 1241, arrested the career of barbarism and conquest ; for, though victorious, the invaders were so struck with the bravery of the Teutonic knights, that they did not attempt to advance farther. Batou Khan chose for his enormous dominions the name of Kiptshak, the “hollow tree.” This was the title of a warlike people between the Volga and the Don, who derived it from the flat country they inhabited, called Deshti-Kiptshak, the «steppe of the hollow tree.” The name still designates one of the steppes of the Caspian. Another denomination for the empire was that of the Golden Horde, or the Golden THE TATARS. 119 Camp. The fierce conqueror fixed his capital, Great Serai, on a branch of the lower course of the Volga; and also founded Bakchi-Serai in the Crimea. At the former place, in his golden tent, Russian princes knelt as vassals before him; and he received con- ciliatory embassies from the western nations, who were apprehensive of another desolating inroad, and anxious to avert the calamity. John de Plano Carpini, an Italian, appointed to conduct one of these missions at a convocation held at Lyons in 1245, safely accomplished the hazardous enterprise. In the account of his adventures, he describes the melancholy monuments of exterminating warfare upon which he gazed,—large heaps of bones and skulls being strewed over the surface of the steppes. Eight years afterwards, in 1253, William de Rubri- quis, a Fleming, performed the same journey, as the delegate of Louis IX. of France, who wished to divert the hostility of the heathen Tatars from Chris- tendom on the west, and turn it against the Moham- medans on the south. In its present application, the term Tatar is very misleading, having long since lost all ethnographic signification, even before it was known in Europe, though popularly considered synonymous with Mon- gol. It originally denoted a few obscure tribes 14 120 THE CRIMEA. on the Chinese frontier, who, rising to inde- pendence and power under Genghis Khan, took the proud title of the Celestial Mongols, rejecting the old name of Zata, as it implied * subjec- tion” in their language, and was no longer appli- cable. But, upon the Mongols extending their dominion westward to the shores of the Caspian and the east of Europe, they applied the discarded name to the subjugated nations, as it etymologically ex- pressed their condition. Recruiting their ranks from them, the conquered populations at length acquired such a numerical preponderance in the armies of the conquerors, that western Europe confounded the two names of Mongols and Tatars as denoting the same people, and even gave the preference to the latter as the proper denomination, because it designated the great majority. Batou Khan's army of 660,000, with which he desolated eastern Europe, is said to have contained only 160,000 Mongols, the remaining 500,000 belonging to subdued Turkish, Sclavonic, and Finnish races. In the empire of Kiptshak, the khans, chiefs, nobles, and great men were true Mongols; and also Tatars, ethnographically, by descent from the tribes originally so called. But the great mass of the subjects were not Mongol at all, and only Tatar in a political sense, as subdued THE TATARS. 121 nationalities, being, ethnographically, Turkish, Scla- vonic, and Finnish,—chiefly the former,—represent- ing the people before known under the names of Pichengues, Khazars, and others. At the present day, in southern and eastern Russia, the so-called Tatars do not recognise the designation, but style themselves Turks, and are as much members of the great Turk family as the Osmanlis. It is, however, the established denomination with all foreigners, and there is no inconvenience in its use, carefully noting the purely political sense which it possesses. It is not to be imagined, from the preceding state- ment, that no mixture took place between the Mongol conquerors and the tribes they subjugated. The contrary seems to have been the case. When Genghis Khan deputed any of his sons or generals to govern conquered countries, he sent a Mongol tribe along with them, or the part of a tribe, to over- awe the conquered. In this policy he was imitated by his successors. ¢ The tribe so employed,” says Mr. Erskine, “received an allotment of country, and placed themselves, with their families and flocks, in the pasture-range of the tribes amongst whom they were sent. By the inevitable intercourse that takes place between persons living under the same govern- ment, near to and in habits of communion with each 122 THE CRIMEA. other,—by intermarriage, by traffic, and in other ways,—a considerable mixture of the two races took place, which showed itself both in their language, and in their features and bodily appearance.” Hence the physiognomical differences observable among the Tatar tribes of southern and eastern Russia. The Nogais, who inhabit the plains of the Crimea, and the steppes of the Sea of Azof, speaking a dialect of the Turkish language, display the facial outline and expression of the Mongol race. Monks and churchmen, struck with the affinity of Tatar to Tartarus, and with the devastations of the conquering hordes, as if agents sent from the infernal regions, seem to have originated the ortho- graphy, Tartar, still common, but incorrect. Louis of France writing to his queen, Blanche, remarks :— “ This divine consolation will always exalt our souls, that in the present danger from the Tartars, either we shall push them back into the Tartarus, whence they are come, or they will bring us all into heaven.” The report of their deeds, and the terror of their name, extended to the remotest inhabited corner of Europe. The hardy mariners of its northern and western shores, Scandinavians and Frisians, were restrained from putting out of harbour for customary distant’ voyages, lest the enemy should pounce upqn THE TATARS. 123 their cabins in their absence. No vessels on this account repaired as usual to the English herring ports in the season of 1238; and as there was no exportation, from thirty to forty fish were sold for a shilling. It is curious enough to reflect, that obscure hordes, wandering by the Chinese Wall, in little more than thirty years became a formidable power to western potentates, and affected prices in the fish markets of England. The new masters of the Crimea behaved in general with tolerance to the subjugated people, upon their authority being established ; and after the confusion incident to conquest and political change, commerce resumed its activity. Soldaia, the modern Soudak, an old Greek settlement, one of the off- shoots of Cherson, became for a time the most important port of the peninsula, retained its own administration, and was the capital of the Christian population till overshadowed and supplanted by the merchants of Genoa. About the year 1258, Berke, the third ruler of Kiptshak, embraced the religion of Islam; and from that period it took root in the Crimea and southern Russia. But the Tatars, as we must henceforth call the mass of the people, were never bigoted disciples of Mohammed, like the specifically called Turks, though there were displays FIFE a RO Ee es 124 THE CRIMEA. of fanatical violence; and generally lived on terms of toleration with the Greek and Latin Christians. The stern government of the sovereigns rendered Western Tatary accessible to foreigners; and many merchants and artisans from Western Europe pro- ceeded thither to trade, or to find employment at the courts of the princes. Thus the two brothers, Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, having sailed in a ship of their own from Venice to Constantinople, with a cargo of merchandise, determined to visit the country, on learning that they might there dispose of their goods to advantage. Accordingly, extending their voyage to Soldaia in the Crimea, they pro- ceeded from thence to the Golden Camp on the Volga, travelling on horseback ; and were received by Berke with many marks of distinction, residing a year in his dominions. Mengli Timur, his successor, granted the Crimea as an appanage to a nephew ; and it was governed by under-khans, as Crim or Little Tatary, subject to the grand-khans of Kiptshak. The vice-khans established themselves at Eski Crim or Old Crim, now a mere village near Karasu-basar, but exhibiting the ruins of a consider- able town, with the remains of a palace. It was during the reign of the grand-khan Mengli, and in the time of the first under-khan, that the Genoese, THE GENOESE. 125 after voyaging to the peninsula as merchant adven- turers, became conspicuous as settlers on its eastern shores. They craved permission to reside, doubtless cap in hand, bought a parcel of land, agreed to pay customs-duties, and founded Kaffa in the year 1280, on the site of ancient Theodosia, commanding a beautiful and convenient roadstead. But soon the character of humble factors was merged in that of military dictatorial commercialists. Much in the same way our own East India Company gained access to Bengal, and underwent a similar meta- morphosis after fastening upon its shores. Latin Christianity came with the Genoese to the Crimea. The great commercial republics of medieval times, Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, undertook the task of supplying the western world with the natural products and manufactured fabrics of the eastern; and were often in hostile collision, the two former especially, as each sought to monopolise the trade. In the middle of the twelfth century, they had established factories at Constantinople, the half-way house, acquired possession of lands and tenements, and were ultimately able to extort such important privileges from the feeble emperors as to become small independent republics in the capital of the empire. The Venetians had their quarters in the a SRE RN 126 THE CRIMEA. city ; but the Genoese, having ascendant influence, obtained the cession of the whole suburb of Galata or Pera, which they regularly fortified, and stored with the resources necessary to carry on trade and war. From this point, the keen commercialists, scenting rich prizes from afar, sent out their ships to explore the shores of the Black Sea; and planted settlements on the Crimean and Caucasian coast, in order to centralise in themselves all the traffic between Europe and Asia. Previous to the dis- covery of the passage from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean round the Cape of Good Hope, the productions of China, India, and other Oriental countries were brought by caravan across Asia to the shores of the Caspian, and thence transferred to the Black Sea, where they met the galleys of the Italians. Communication between the two seas was maintained either across the Caucasian isthmus by land carriage from the Cour to the Phasis, or over the less difficult country intervening between the Volga and the Don. The latter route seems to have been principally followed. It passed only through countries subject to Tatar sovereignty ; and great importance was always attached by the Genoese and Venetians to the possession of establishments at the mouth of the Don. The grand streams approximate THE GENOESE. 127 within the distance of forty miles, between Kaka- linskoia on the Don and Duborka on the Volga. Goods and barges, the latter taken to pieces, are now conveyed from the one to the other in bullock- carts, a transit which has existed for ages. Peter the Great proposed to substitute a canal for the wretched tram-road, and employed Perry, an English engineer, to survey the district, and prepare plans. But other designs interfered, and the engineer had no little trouble and vexation in obtaining remune- ration from the treasury. An Ottoman sultan anti- cipated the project, and actually commenced it, but Muscovite violence frustrated the scheme. At present a railway looms. While the Genoese fixed their head-quarters at Kaffa, they had a factory at Tana, the modern Azof, at the efflux of the Don, where the Venetians and Pisans had likewise commercial settlements. By means of these enterprising speculators, the silks, spices, and perfumes of the “gorgeous East,” aro- matic and medicinal drugs, rhubarb from Astrachan, with skins, furs, hemp, flax, and iron from Siberia, were despatched to the western markets. Fine white wax was one of the most valuable of the Oriental exported products, being in constant demand at a high price in all the great cities of Christendom, a 3 N x P RR a ———————————— eet ETT a FREE a Sr 128 THE CRIMEA. to be manufactured into candles, for the gorgeous ceremonials of Greek and Latin worship. Salt from the inexhaustible stores of Perekop was sent to Constantinople and the Archipelago, with salt-fish and caviar, through the domain of the Eastern Church, as allowed provender on fast-days. Little scruple had the traders in dealing in any commodity, provided they could make a profit by it; and one foul blot remains upon their ’scutcheon. The immense number of prisoners of war made by the grand- khans in Russia and Poland were sold as slaves to the southern nations; and persons in the Russian towns who did not pay the poll-tax imposed upon them were similarly disposed of as goods and chattels. Kaffa was the great slave-mart, Genoese the merchants. The sultans of Egypt were the principal purchasers, who recruited from this source the corps of the Mamelukes, and had express per- mission from the Greek emperors to send a ship annually through the gates of the Euxine for the purpose. So rapid was the rise of Kaffa, that in six years after the Genoese colonised the spot, nine galleys were sent from the port to the succour of Tripoli, at that time besieged by the Saracens. The Venetians looked with excessive jealousy upon the settlement; THE GENOESE. 129 and upon war breaking out between the rival re- publics in 1292, Morosini, the Venetian admiral, entered the bay with sixty galleys, and sacked the town, which happened to be without the means of defence. The victory was of no advantage to the spoilers. After wintering, sickness and want of provisions compelled them to desert the place, and also to leave behind some of their vessels, the crews being too much reduced to conduct them back to the Adriatic. Upon the return of the Genoese banner, the town quickly rose from its ruins. For a few years a civil war distracted the empire of Kiptshak, in which Noghai, a powerful chief, con- tended for the sovereignty, but was defeated, and died of a wound received in battle. He left his name to his followers, who are still known as Noghais, or Nogay Tatars, and have been con- spicuous in subsequent times in Bessarabia, on the Kuban, and in the Crimea. Early in the fourteenth century, Pope John XXII constituted Kaffa an episcopal see. The same pontiff, in 1323, interfered on behalf of the inhabitants of Soldaia, who had been driven from their homes during an outbreak of Mohammedan violence, probably not unprovoked, while their churches were converted into mosques. It is re- K 130 THE CRIMEA. markable that Usbeg Khan, on being appealed to by the ecclesiastical head of the West, yielded to the potent voice of Rome amid the steppes of the Caspian, and ordered the exiles to be reinstated in the possession of their dwellings, with the enjoyment of their ancient privileges. Some of the descendants of this khan ruled over the tribes in Turkestan, who have retained from him the name of Usbeg Tatars. The prelates and priests of Kaffa are not known to fame ; but the city has a place in the history of biblical literature. In the year 1341 a version of the Four Gospels in the Persian language was com- pleted by a resident, and printed three centuries afterwards in the fifth volume of the London Polyglot, from a manuscript in the possession of Dr. Pococke. The following note occurs at the end : — “ These four glorious gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were finished in the city of Kaffa, inhabited by Christians, prayers being said on the third day of the week, the ninth of the month Tamuz, in Latin called July, in the year of Christ the Messiah 1341, by the hand of the weakest of the people of God, Simon Ibn Joseph Ibn Abraham Al Tabrizi.” The translator —Simon with the long name—was evidently a convert from Judaism to Romanism. The version is interlarded with readings THE GENOESE. 131 from the Vulgate, from rituals and legends; and the note adds: — «“ May the God of those that fear him, by his grace and providence show mercy, that when they hear or read this book of the Gospels, they may say a Pater Noster and Ave Maria for the poor writer, that through the divine mercy he also may be forgiven. Amen.” Selfish and grasping, the merchant princes of Genoa not only endeavoured to exclude other western commercialists from the Black Sea, but even the Greeks of Constantinople, unless licensed by themselves, as the lords of its waters. ¢ They now,” says Nicephoras Gregoras, an eye-witness of their conduct, ¢ believed that they had acquired the dominion of the sea, and claimed an exclusive right to the trade of the Euxine, prohibiting the Greeks from sailing to the Mzotis, the Chersonesus, or any part of the coast beyond the mouth of the Danube, without a license from them. This exclusion they likewise extended to the Venetians; and their ar- rogance proceeded so far as to form a scheme of imposing a toll upon every vessel passing through the Bosphorus.” In support of these pretensions, they insulted the inhabitants of the capital from their quarters in the fortified suburb of Pera, braved a war with the Emperor Cautacuzene in alliance K 2 132 THE CRIMEA. with the Venetians, and gained a victory under their great admiral Doria over the combined squadron of the confederates. In the early period of their history, the Genoese of Kaffa acted with so much justice and integrity towards the Tatar population as to secure their con- fidence; and the latter frequently referred their internal disputes to their decision. But as wealth and numbers increased, they became purse-proud and domineering, while their neighbours, though comparatively poor, were independent; and both parties had hot blood in their veins. Squabbles, petty fights, and formidable wars arose. At Tana, in 1343, a Genoese trader was insulted by a Tatar. He slew the aggressor; and violence was repaid with violence. Djanibeg, Khan of Kiptshak, in his rage, ordered all the foreigners to quit his territory ; and upon their refusal, he invaded the colony of Kaffa. The city underwent a long siege; and so much alarm was excited in Europe for its fate, that Pope Clement VI. proclaimed a crusade for its deliverance. The country houses of the opulent merchants in the environs were desolated ; but Boccanegra, the consul or governor, successfully defended the place, till exhaustion on both sides led to a compromise, and the restoration of amicable THE GENOESE. 133 relations. The danger convinced the citizens of the need of stronger fortifications; and a formidable enclosure of walls was completed, flanked with strong towers, and surrounded with a broad deep fosse faced with solid masonry. These great works, extensive remains of which may still be admired by the traveller, were commenced by the governor Godfrey de Zoaglio, in 1353, and finished by his successor Grimaldi, in 1386. The most remarkable tower, forming part of the line of fortification, and commanding the whole city, was dedicated to Clement VI, in gratitude for the projected crusade. In possession of a strongly fortified capital, troops, and war-galleys, the colonists added to their terri- tory, either by force of arms, or by a cession which would have been extorted had it been refused. They obtained Soldaia or Soudak in 1365, and erected on a precipitous rock at the entrance of the valley, that formidable fortress crowned with the “ Maiden Tower,” whence the warders overlooked a wide stretch of sea and shore. At the same time, they acquired Cembalo, which obtained from its new masters the name of Balaklava, a corruption of bella chiave, the beautiful port. The heights of the inlet then received the fortifications, the ruins of which remain. These two points were united one K 3 134 THE CRIMEA. with the other in 1380, when Gothia, or the moun- tain region of the southern coast, which till that period had retained the title, was given up by treaty with the Khan of the Golden Camp. While the Genoese were thus extending their power, the empire of the Grand Khans was rapidly sinking into a state of hopeless confusion, owing to civil dissensions and the wars of contending candidates for the supremacy. At this juncture, the terrible Timour appeared upon the stage of the Eastern world, to overawe the nations wherever his presence was revealed. He asserted his mastery over Western Tatary by adopting the cause of a defeated claimant, and placing him on the throne. But upon his departure to pursue conquests elsewhere, Toktamish, whom he had raised to power, ventured to assume an independent and aggressive attitude. This provoked the return of his protector as an enemy, who scattered his forces to the wind of desolation.” The khan became a refugee in Lithuania, and renewed the struggle to fall upon the field of battle. Timour ravaged the empire to the neighbourhood of Moscow, burnt Great Serai, the capital, and assailed the Europeans in the south. Kaffa escaped his arms; but Genoese and Venetians were driven from Tana, while the city was desolated, and only re- FALL OF THE KIPTSHAK. 135 appears in history as Azof. After the death of Timour, one of his descendants placed himself upon the throne of the Khans, and endeavoured to secure it by causing all the branches of the stock of Genghis to be destroyed. The purpose failed; but the records of the period are not a little conflicting. This much is certain, that between the years 1400 and 1440, or thereabouts, the whole of Kiptshak was dismembered. On the western side, the Russians, Lithuanians, and Poles formed them- selves into independent states; on the eastern, the - Usbegs and other tribes were under the authority of their own chiefs ; while the central portion fell into the three khanates of the Crimea, Kasan, and Astrachan. For the space of two centuries, during which Russia had been in vassalage to Western Tatary, the princes paid tribute to the Grand Khans for their crowns, were summoned before them to give an account of their conduct as occasion required, and twelve underwent capital punishment in the Golden Camp. A Toktamish Khan slumbers in the royal ceme- tery at Bakchi-serai. Was he the hapless lord of Kiptshak whose fate has been mentioned? It is not unlikely, as in the last days of the empire some of the nominal Grand Khans took their stand against K 4 136 THE CRIMEA. competitors in the Crimea ; and the name, as far as our knowledge extends, does not again occur. A vine grows at the head of the grave, in order, as the inscription states, that * he, who in his lifetime had brought forth so little fruit, might at least in death be more productive.” This may have been an after- thought, on the part of some one anxious, as all Musselmen are, to abate the severities of the sepulchre, and lighten the gloom of the grave. At the neighbouring fortress of Tchoufout-Kaleh, once the capital of the Crimean khans, the tomb of the fair daughter of a Toktamish khan is pointed out. She forsook the Koran for the law of the Christians, in order to marry the Genoese Jefrosin, and died at the age of eighteen. Nothing further is known of either. But the intimation opens a wide field for romance. A dynasty of the house of Timour did not take root in Western Tatary. It was violently displaced ; and in the revolution, a prince of the line of Genghis was produced, named Devlet, who, while a boy of tender years, had escaped the ruin of his family, and was reserved to restore its fallen fortunes. Saved by a shepherd, and kindly nurtured in his humble home, he adopted his garb, habits, and occupation ; and in the obscure condition of a herdsman tended HADJI DEVLET GHERAL 137 the cattle, sheep, and goats of his foster-father. The child became a youth, and the youth a man, ignorant of his high lineage, and of the vast inheritance to which he had a claim. But in a favourable juncture of circumstances, his country- men placed him at their head, upon his identity being established ; and proclaimed him a Hadji, a title only given to those who have visited Mecca, but which the obscurity of his exile won for him. He did not forget in prosperity his friend in adver- sity. The latter, upon being asked what recom- pense he desired for having saved his life and protected him in indigence, replied, to his honour: — ¢“ Adopt my name in connection with your own, and let the name of Gherai be transmitted to your descendants, in memory of the poor shepherd by whom you were rescued.” Though this relation of events may not be very reliable, it is yet free from doubt that Hadji Devlet, who assumed the sove- reignty of the Crimea about the year 1423, had been trained in the school of misfortune, and adopted the name of Gherai, which was invariably joined with their other names by his successors to the last hour of the khanate, through an interval of three centuries and a half. For more than forty years, the peninsula was the 138 THE CRIMEA. centre of an independent monarchy under Hadji Devlet Gherai, who inaugurated a new era in its history, and whose authority was acknowledged over a wide extent of the adjoining continent. Born at Troki in Lithuania, of the line of Genghis, he proved himself a remarkable man, able to rectify confusion, and govern prosperously a people in- tractable by natural temperament, the absence of education, and rendered still more so by the license incident to repeated political revolutions. While friendly to the Genoese, whom he regarded as the importers of civilisation, and the producers of wealth among his subjects, he respected the terri- torial boundaries of the Poles and Russians ; and was the ally of both in times of invasion, against marauding hordes from the other khanates. He witnessed a great change in the political position of Eastern Europe, though not its full effect. In 1453, the Greek empire fell; Constantinople came under the dominion of the Ottoman Turks ; and the keys of the Black Sea passed into the hands of Mohammed II. Christendom, in its alarm, thought of a crusade against the “Father of Conquest;” and strangely enough, in 1465, Pope Paul II. sent an ambas- sador to the Tatar Khan to invite his aid in the project. The pontiff must have thought him in no FALL OF KAFFA. 139 slight degree a lax Musselman, to calculate upon his joining the Christian powers in a holy war against a co-religionist. But non-interference was a maxim with Hadji Devlet. The next year he died; and under his successor the khanate lost its short-lived independence, till the mock restoration of it in 1774. The power and resources of Genoa were at this time on the wane; and, to raise supplies for home wants, the mother-state made over her colonies in the Crimea to the bank of St. George. The probability of their loss owing to change of masters on the Bosphorus seems to have decided this step. The dates are remarkable. On the 29th of May, 1453, Mohammed made his triumphant entry into Constantinople through the gate of St. Romanus; and on the 15th of November following, the assignment deeds of the colonies went to the bank. No doubt the bankers were as wide awake to public events, and calculated contingencies as nicely, as the senators. Whatever was the advance, they had twenty-two years’ possession of the estate. The republic and the colonies had special cause to stand in awe of Mohammed. When the last of the Constantines, during the siege of his capital, could not find a single native competent to organise his THE CRIMEA, means of defence, Justiniani, the owner and master ~ of two Genoese trading vessels, lying in the Golden Horn, accepted the responsible office of commanding the garrison. Nobly did he discharge his duty to the no small detriment of the beleaguering host, till the case was hopeless, standing in the breach on the last day of the siege. But however the name of Genoese might be as gall and wormwood to the Sultan, it was mainly the folly of the colonists themselves that brought him into collision with them. The magnates of Kaffa, upon the death of Hadji Devlet, could not resist the opportunity to interfere in the internal affairs of the Tatar government. They had long been in the habit of dictating arrangements to their neighbours, whenever it was practicable and politic. The khan left eight sons, who disputed the succession among them. But the Genoese took the matter into their own hands; and by their aid Mengli Gherai, the sixth son, was raised to the government. He had been educated among them; and was likely to favour their views. At the same time they locked up his seven brothers in the fortress of Soudak, thus removing competitors out of his way, and keeping them as hostages for his good behaviour. The prince was not objectionable FALL OF KAFFA. 141 to the Tatars, but they could not brook the indignity of a rule imposed without their consent. While preparing to act upon the offensive, they sent an embassy to Mohammed, offering him the Genoese colonies as the price of his assistance; and even preferred to see their country dependent upon a Mohammedan power, than subject to the insolent dictation of Christian foreigners. The Sultan responded to the invitation. On the 1st of June, 1475, a Turkish fleet of more than 400 sail, with an army of 20,000 men, commanded by the celebrated grand-vizier Ahmed Pasha, appeared in the Bay of Kaffa, while the Tatars assisted by land in the reduction of the place. The modern artillery employed by the Turks having battered down the walls and ‘public buildings, the city surrendered on the 6th; and its inhabitants were doomed to the pillage and slavery which attended the Ottoman conquests of the age. After taking possession of the consular palace, the vizier disarmed the population, forbade indiscriminate pillage, but seized half the property of the people, and laid claim to all the slaves. 40,000 men, women, and children, were shipped on board the fleet, and carried to Constanti- nople, to fill up the waste places which had been made in the capital by the events of war. 1500 142 THE CRIMEA. youths were taken from their parents to be trained as members of the Sultan’s body-guard. The minor settlements, Soudak, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Mangoup, shared the fate of Kaffa, but held out longer, being naturally stronger places, and more bravely defended. From the Maiden Tower of the fortress of Soudak the banner of the republic last streamed to the breeze, its garrison only yielding to famine. The massive ruins of walls, bastions, forts, and watch-towers, — two churches, preserved by the Armenians and Catholics,—an entire street running parallel to the shore, with an arcade before the houses, as in the cities of Northern Italy, —slabs sculptured with the arms of the republic, of the great families, and of the Bank of St. George, sometimes appropriated to vulgar uses, are the chief memorials of Italian enterprise in the Kaffa or Theodosia of the present day. The name of the consul at the time of the Turkish conquest may perhaps be gathered from an inscription. It occurs beneath three coats of arms sculptured on a block belonging to the wall of the fortress. The date is only one year prior to the event, showing that the magistrates, in anticipation of an attack, had been strengthening or completing their fortifications. The error in the word tempore FALL OF KAFFA. 143 { is curious, but whether the blunder of a workman, or an evidence of accomplished Latinity on the part of his employers, it is impossible to say. TENPORE . MAGNIFICI . DOMINI . BATISTE JUSTINIANI . CONSULIS . MCCCCLXXIIIT. The museum has an epitaph from one of the churches dating in the year 1523. It proves that there were Genoese on the spot, who did not die unhonoured, forty-eight years after the fall of the colony. On the south coast of the Crimea, the use of such words by the Tatars as tas, cup; camera, chamber ; and mangia, to eat, is an existing relic of the connection of their fathers with the traders of the Mediterranean. The Lombardy poplars of the country form another memorial. The Venetians obtained the right of free naviga- tion of the Black Sea from the stern custodian of its gates, upon payment of the annual sum of ten thousand ducats; and maintained a fleet of twenty- four war-galleys to protect their merchant flag. Four vessels were stationed in the Sea of Azof, on the shore of which the modern town of that name rose on the ruins of Tana. But upon war breaking out between Venice and the Porte, in the time of the next sultan, Bajazet II., the communication was 144 THE CRIMEA. cut off ; and not renewed till the conclusion of the peace. His successor, Soliman the Magnificent, restricted the navigation to his own subjects; but at that period Europe no longer wanted it for the same purpose as formerly, the commerce with Southern and Eastern Asia having taken the route by the Cape of Good Hope. After a severance of upwards of three centuries and a half, the Sardinian con- tingent to the British army in the Crimea, recently arrived at Balaklava, renews the connection of the peninsula with Genoa the Superb. CHAP. VI, KHANATE AND KHANS OF THE CRIMEA. THE EARLY KHANS, — KHANATE OF KASAN — PRINCESS SOUYOUNBECKA. — THE EARLY SULTANS. — THE CZAR IVAN THE TERRIBLE. — SELIM II. — BURNING OF MOS- COW. — GAZI GHERAI — COSSACKS OF THE DNIEPER. — PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS. — THE ZAPOROGIANS., — COSSACKS AND TATARS. — SIEGE OF VIENNA. — SELIM GHERAI. — COMMERCE OF THE BLACK SEA. — THE PORTE AND THE KHANATE.—MILITARY SYSTEM.—OFFI= CERS OF THE GOVERNMENT.— NOBILITY. — LANDS, — REVENUE. — COURT PASTIMES. — BARON DE TOTT, — BAKCHI-SERAI. — PALACE OF THE KHANS. — FOUNTAIN OF MARIE. — TOMBS OF THE KHANS. THE sultan did not despatch his army to the Crimea merely to take possession of the settlements of the Genoese, and deliver the Tatars from their domi- nation ; but to constitute the country an appanage of his empire. The design was accomplished with- out difficulty. So far from feeling humiliated, it gratified the pride of the people to be associated with a religionist of their own creed on the throne of Constantinople, the most powerful chief of Islam, whose fame was European and Asiatic, and whose L 146 THE CRIMEA. name was the common terror of Christendom. They took themselves the initiative in rendering their khans dependent upon the sultans, inviting Moham- med to decide between the conflicting claims of the sons of Hadji Devlet, and receiving at his appoint- ment Mengli Gherai, whose nomination by the Genoese had provoked resentment. This prince, three years a captive at Constantinople, was easily induced by the prospect of a kingdom to take the oath of fealty to an Ottoman liege-lord. He proved the reverse of his father,—a recommendation perhaps to his wild subjects,—reviving that taste for rapine and bloodshed which his sire had discouraged. In fact, the history of the early khans is a monotonous detail of ruthless forays, without an instance of heroism, gallantry, or patriotic devotedness to lend a charm to the recital of them. It is also, to no inconsider- able extent, a tale of domestic crime, revolting even for the annals of an Oriental dynasty. Mengli sur- rendered himself to the most lamentable excesses of power, especially assailing the remnants of the Genoese in the peninsula, his former patrons, who were treated with infamous barbarity. He removed the residence of the khans from the hill-fort of Tchoufout Kaleh to the neighbouring town of Bakchi-serai ; and founded the fortress of Otchakow, KHANATE OF KASAN. 147 no the right bank of the mouth of the Dnieper, afterwards a considerable town, strongly garrisoned by the Turks. His successor, in 1515, Mohammed Gherai, if possible, surpassed his father in sanguinary deeds. Owing to confusion in the khanate of Kasan from the rising power of Russia, some of the in- habitants sent an embassy to the Crimea, with an offer of the crown to Mohammed for his brother Sapha Gherai. Marching out of Perekop at the head of an army of 80,000 men, he placed him upon the throne; and on returning penetrated to the gates of Moscow. The czar, Ivan Vassilievitch IV., abandoned the capital on his approach. The in- habitants crowded in such numbers to the Kremlin for refuge that many were suffocated. A heavy tribute purchased for them an exemption from a general pillage ; but the Tatars carried off upwards of 100,000 prisoners, who were sold in the slave- market of Kaffa, and bought by the Turks. The brigand career of the khan was cut short by a revolt of the Nogais in 1523, who attacked his encamp- ment, and slew him in his tent. His brother, thrice expelled from his acquired throne, and recalled, fell reeling against the wall of his palace, while in a fit of intoxication, and died upon the spot. But, in that L 2 148 THE CRIMEA. age, there was not a whit to choose between Tatar and Russian in point of brutality, predatoriness, and generally depraved manners. Upon the death of Sapha Gherai, the government of Kasan devolved upon his widow, during the minority of a son. Her chequered lot may be noticed. At the age of fifteen, the daughter of a Nogai chief, named Souyounbecka, celebrated in Tatar annals for her beauty and misfortunes, was taken from the steppes to Kasan, and married to the boy- khan Epaley. He was despatched by turbulent nobles. Fourteen or fifteen years were then spent in a forced wretched alliance with Sapha Gherai After his death, the widow had to contend with Ivan the Terrible, to preserve the crown for her son. But while making preparations, weak or traitorous grandees agreed to conciliate him, by receiving a khan of his nomination, at the same time delivering up into his hands the princess and her child. The painful event has been touchingly described by Karamsin: — > writes « Every inhabitant of Kasan shed tears,’ the Russian historian, ¢ when it was known that this unfortunate princess was to be delivered up as a prisoner to the Muscovite czar. Uttering no com- plaints against the grandees or the people, and PRINCESS SOUYOUNBECKA. 149 accusing her destiny alone, in her despair she kissed the tomb of her youthful husband, and envied the rest he enjoyed. The people stood by in mournful silence. The grandees endeavoured to console her. They told her that the Russian czar was kind and generous, that many Musselmen princes were in his service, that he would doubtless choose among them a husband worthy of her, and would give her some sovereignty. The whole population of Kasan ac- companied her to the banks of the Kazanka, where a magnificent barge was waiting for her. Souyoun- becka, slowly drawn in a car, left the town, taking her son with her, who was still in the nurse’s arms. Pale as death, and almost inanimate, hardly could she find strength enough to descend to the port. On entering the bark, and shedding tears of tenderness and affection, she bowed again and again to the people, who, prostrate before her, bitterly sobbed while they showered their blessings on their much loved sovereign.” The sacrifice of the princess was in vain. A few years afterwards, the Terrible was before the city, issuing the strange but characteristic order, that every soldier should purify his soul by prayer, and receive the holy communion, previous to drinking the general cup of blood,—the words of the Russian L 3 150 THE CRIMEA. annalists. Iasan was taken by storm in 1552; two years afterwards Astrachan was captured by an ex- pedition which floated on barks and rafts down the Volga ; and thus two of the three khanates, formed out of the old empire of Kiptshak, were absorbed by Russia. The memory of the hapless queen is still preserved at I asan,— that most Asiatic of European, or most European of Asiatic cities. A Tataric building, near one of the gates, bears the name of the Tower of Souyounbecka, being traditionally re- garded as part of the fortress-palace in which she resided. From the summit, at the height of 240 fect, an arrow of brass rises, supporting the Mohammedan crescent, surmounted by the Russian double-headed eagle. The same emblem of historic change soars over the palace of the Crimean khans; but more than two centuries elapsed before the khanate shared the fate of its early contemporaries. This expansion of the northern power was not un- noticed by the court of Constantinople; and the ultimate result to which it pointed seems to have been apprehended also. The sultans of that day were not the dolts, idiots, and mere debauchees they afterwards became, when cramped and effeminated by the completed discipline of the seraglio. They were men of vigorous capacity, sagacious views, and THE EARLY SULTANS. 151 active habits. But their relations with the Tatars of the Crimea were then too unsettled to admit of much interference. Indeed, in Von Hammer’s volu- minous history of the Ottoman empire, when the people of the peninsula are first noticed, under the reign of Selim I., or prior to 1520, he is made to speak of them as formidable enemies, though, at the same time, as tribes, more or less, acknowledging his suzerainty. His successor, Soliman the Great, en- deavoured, but ineffectually, to induce all the Tatar nations to unite, im order to save Kasan, as the bulwark of Islamism on the north. The practical co-operation of Tatars and Turks, as politically one power, dates from the next reign,— that of Selim I1., 1566—1574, when Devlet Gherai, named after the founder of the dynasty, was khan of the Crimea. The Russians, in acquiring possession of Astra- chan, had the Caspian Sea thrown open to them, and could readily extend their influence to the nations on its shores, and to the highlanders of the Caucasus. They were not slow to avail themselves of the ad- vantage. In 1561, Ivan married a Circassian princess, whose brother became one of his most ferocious bloodhounds. Anthony Jenkinson, the agent of an English mercantile company, and a L4 152 THE CRIMEA. diplomatist accredited from Queen Elizabeth, mate- rially furthered the views of the czar in the direction of Georgia and Persia, on travelling to those coun- tries from Moscow. He states :— 15th day of May, 1562, I took leave of his highness, who did not only give me letters as aforesaid (of commendation to divers princes), but also committed to me matters of importance and charge, to be done in those countries whither I intended to go.” On his route, he met with an Armenian envoy of the Georgian prince, who declared the lamentable estate of his master,— “ that, being enclosed betwixt these two cruel tyrants and mightie princes, — the said great Turke and the Sophie (shah of Persia), — hee had continual warres with them, requiring, for the love of Christ, and as I was a Christian, I would send him comfort by the said Armenian, and advise how hee might send his Ambassador to the sayd Emperour of Russia, and whether I thought he would support him or not, and with many other wordes required me to de- claire his necessitie to the same Imperour at my returne.” Jenkinson counselled Russian protection. Upon reporting the fact, on his return to Moscow, the czar was pleased to say that it was “ much to his » contentation ; 7 whereat the astute diplomatic com- mercial traveller, prompt to strike while the iron IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 153 was hot, humbly besought “ his grace to continue his goodness unto your worships, the society of merchants adventurers; and even,” says he, “at that instant I humbly requested his majestie to vouchsafe to grant unto you a new privilege, more ample than the first, which immediately was granted.” Jenkinson, doubtless, left the presence in high spirits ; and his masters, in due course, signified their satisfaction with him. Little thought either party what a bitter cup had been prepared for the nations of the Caucasus, not yet drained. The result was, that the Georgian prince, Alex- ander, was formally taken under Russian protection. He then assumed a high tone to the pashas of the neighbouring Turkish fortresses, while the czar took the title of * Lord of the Iberian country, of the Georgian Czars, of the Albardaks, and of the Circas- sian and Highland Princes,”— a truly comprehensive designation. Unfortunately for the prince, he adopted a protector without any guarantee of his ability to serve him; neither calculated the distance from Moscow to Tiflis, nor the dangers of the way ; and, when assistance was needed, there was none to be had. Advice was given him to “amuse the sultan,” — the language of the despatches. Priests and image-painters were sent to ornament his Tag ER piers 5 Eg eR IA SP ae Tr A ES A LWIA LT Br iy mr FE 154 THE CRIMEA. churches, instead of troops; and he was obliged to pay tribute to the ‘great Turke,” or the “ Sophie,” as either had the upper hand, till the latter crushed him. Yet upon these transactions the cabinet of St. Petersburg founds its original claim to the empire of the Caucasus. They are here ad- verted to, because they brought Tatars and Turks in conjunction into the field. In order to check the southerly extension of Russian influence, and more conveniently to attack Persia than by an overland march, Selim II. con- ceived, or rather revived, the idea of connecting, by an artificial canal, the two great streams of the Don and the Volga; thus opening a navigable passage from the Black Sea to the Caspian. He had also a commercial object in view,— that of restoring the trade between Eastern Asia and Western Europe to its old route, and thereby bringing it through his own dominions. Accordingly, in 1568, Turkish troops were despatched to commence this industrial operation, the superintendence of which was entrusted to Devlet Khan. But the soldiers were ill able to bear the fatigue of navvies, and suffered much from disease and exposure. The work, however, pro- ceeded, till a body of men of uncouth figures, strange features, and barbarous language, sallied out from a BURNING OF MOSCOW. 155 neighbouring town, surprised the enfeebled expedi- tion, and cut soldiers and workmen to pieces. They were the Muscovite subjects of Ivan; and this was the first encounter between the Turks and the Russians. Some traces of the canal are still visible. In consequence of this aggression, the following year a large Tatar army, aided by a Turkish contingent, invaded the province of Astrachan, and attempted the capture of the capital. But, by avoiding battle, and cutting off all means of supply, the Russians suc- ceeded in defeating the enterprise. Exasperated by failure, Devlet determined to have his revenge. He left Perekop in 1571, with his whole force, carrying fire and sword to the gates of Moscow; which was pillaged and burnt to the ground, May the 24th. Some members of the English factory in the city perished on this occasion. The khan died soon after this terrible episode in his history, leaving behind him, as a monument, the great mosque of Eupatoria, — the largest and most beautiful in the Crimea. His signature as the founder is attached to a deed de- posited in the sanctuary. It also bears the signatures of the eighteen sovereigns who, in succession after him, occupied the throne of Bakchi-serai till the Russian annexation. A bold cupola, surrounded by sixteen smaller domes, surmounts the edifice; and TRAN LN i EAE be OE 5 EERE I En ea Se pen ral Te 156 : THE CRIMEA. originally two minarets rose gracefully aloft, which the storms have levelled. The burning of Moscow inflamed the passions of the Russians to the highest pitch; and Mohammed Gherai, the next khan, was so hardly pressed, that Osman Pasha crossed the Caucasus from Georgia to his assistance. Having effected this object, the Turkish commander led his army over the Dnieper and Dniester into Bessarabia, and passed the Danube homeward to Constantinople. This expedition ter- minated in 1584. The standard of the Ottomans was then, for the first time, carried round the Black Sea; and the same year died Ivan, the self-styled Lord of the Circassian and Highland Princes. However rude and ruthless the majority of the Crimean rulers, some blended with the character of the soldier, administrative ability, a chivalric spirit, high breeding, and educational accomplishments. This was the case with Gazi Gherai, the greatest and best of his race. While engaged in war, he de- feated the army of the Czar Feodore, and laid siege to Moscow, from which, however, he was compelled to retire. But, in conjunction with the Turks, he conducted a campaign with success against Ru- dolph IL, emperor of Germany; and, from this period in the history of the Ottomans, their main GAZI GHERAI. 157 dependence in war was upon the Tatars of the Crimea. But his natural genius tended more to arts than arms; and he was better qualified for civil government than military command. In early life a prisoner in Persia, adversity taught him moderation ; while a residence in a country studded with monu- ments of ancient splendour, and among a people comparatively cultivated, gave enlargement to his views, and refinement to his manners. Gazi was not more brave than generous and just, and never broke the faith he pledged. He excelled in music, was fond of reading, and occupied himself with poetry. While in winter quarters at Fiinfkirchen, in Hungary, he versified a contest between coffee and wine; and was accustomed to clothe in verse his correspondence on important state affairs. Some of these poetical official documents are in manuscript in the Berlin library. After a stormy life, he died peacefully in 1608 ; or, as orientalism expressed it, “rendered up to the Treasurer of Heaven his soul, more beautiful than glorious.” At the commencement of the seventeenth century, the Cossacks of the Dnieper, the Ukraine, and the Don, made themselves terrible to the Tatars and Turks, visiting with destructive forays and piratical expeditions nearly all the shores of the Black Sea. 158 THE CRIMEA. The origin of these wild and celebrated tribes is obscure. It is probable, that they originally con- sisted of the wrecks of people displaced by the Mongol invasion, who took refuge in the marshes, islands, and osier-beds of the rivers, where they subsisted by the chase, fishing, and pillage. In- creased by the arrival of fugitives, deserters, and adventurers of various nations, they became organ- ised into formidable communities, extended them- selves over the adjoining steppes, and colonised the Ukraine, meaning the march, border, or frontier land, so long and hotly contested by Poles, Russians, and Tatars, extending eastward and westward of the Dnieper. Through the distance of a hundred and fifty miles below Kiev, the broad, deep, and beau- tiful river forms a series of thirteen rapids, caused by reefs of granite diagonally crossing its bed; and the navigation is impracticable to barges except during the spring floods. Above the rapids, the stream has ordinarily all the calmness of a lake. Rocky islands rise here and there out of the channel, haunted by wild-fowl; and huge blocks of granite lie on the banks, as if piled at random by the hands of giants. In this scene of stern grandeur the Cossacks of the Ukraine were cradled; and it re- mained their head-quarters, after spreading them- THE ZAPOROGIANS. ! 159 selves over the steppes. The islets of the river were kept as war establishments, comprising an arsenal, dockyard, and treasury, plentifully supplied with arms, provisions, stores, and ammunition. Women were rigorously excluded from these strong- holds; and death was the penalty of intrusion. They were entrusted to the care of a militia corps, selected from the bravest, most expert, and active of the race, who formed a kind of Cossack aristocracy. These men, among the wildest and strangest that ever lived, acquired the name of Zaporogians, from the Polish words za beyond, and porog waterfalls, alluding to their dwelling beyond the rapids of the Dnieper. In long light barks, capable of holding from thirty to seventy men each, furnished with a sail, oars, and arms, the Zaporogian Cossacks descended the stream, having selected a naval chief and a suitable season for a piratical expedition. They sailed by night, and concealed themselves by day in the beds of osiers along the banks, in order to elude the enemy and take the villages by surprise. To restrain these excursions, the Tatars and Turks fixed a strong iron chain across the river at Bereslav ; and lower down, the fortresses of Otchakow and Kinburn kept guard over the mouth. But, by felling a number of the 160 THE CRIMEA. largest trees in the neighbourhood, and setting them adrift upon the current, the bold adventurers broke the chain; and passed the fortresses, which were from four to five miles apart, under cover of the darkness. Pushing forward into the Black Sea, they landed upon its shores to pillage the towns, surrendering them to the flames after the booty had been collected, and visiting the inhabitants who resisted with unsparing slaughter. Sometimes from 6000 to 10,000 picked men were engaged in these inroads, who made the name of Cossack as terrible to the maritime population, as that of Dane once was to the people of our coasts. By dint of re- peated cruises, the corsairs became as bold and skilful in navigation as the Scandinavian Sea-kings ; and extended their voyages to remoter districts in successive years. The town of Sinope, of melan- choly celebrity in our own time, was plundered and destroyed. Trebisond and Constantinople did not escape. A fleet of 150 long boats, each with a crew of 70 men, appeared in sight of the capital, desolated the suburbs, defeated the forces of the sultan, and wrung from the fourth Amurath the exclamation: «« The whole of Christendom trembles at my nod, and yet a band of Cossacks causes me sleepless nights.” It occasionally happened, that a strong THE ZAPOROGIANS. 161 naval force having been collected between Otchakow and Kinburn, the marauders made their way home by the Strait of Kertch, the Sea of Azof, the Don, and the Donetz, carrying their light barks over land to the Samara, an affluent of the Dnieper, appearing at the rapids after an absence of five or six months. The Zaporogians, who figure in the subsequent history of the Crimea, eventually separated from the Cossacks of the Ukraine, and formed a distinct military body, remarkable for the combination of usages the most barbarian with traits of character worthy of respect. Compliance with severe con- ditions was required of every candidate for admission into the community. He had to pass in his boat the thirteen rapids of the Dnieper against the current, swim across the river several times in succession, and show himself able to hit a mark with a ball from his carbine, or transfix with an arrow a bird upon the wing. He must have killed ten of the enemy, have made a successful excursion to the Black Sea, be unmarried, and of the Greek faith. But though professing a religion, and attending the celebration of rites performed by missionary priests, the fra- ternity never allowed sermons to be preached, nor admitted any form of ecclesiastical exhortation. In later times, the preceding conditions were dispensed AM 162 THE CRIMEA. with, and desperate men of all kinds were received, till almost every language in Europe was spoken at the spot. Once a year, on the lst of January, a general assembly was held to decide upon the fate of the attaman, or supreme chief, and the subordinate officers. These functionaries remained standing till a decision was pronounced ; and either retained the insignia of office, or surrendered them to successors, returning to the rank of simple Cossacks, according as their conduct was approved or not. Upon a new attaman being chosen, the event was formally an- nounced to him by a deputation sufficiently elated by brandy to be riotous. He was expected to decline the office twice, as a point of etiquette; but woe be to him if the refusal was thrice repeated. He was seized, kicked, pitched, jostled, cudgelled, and tossed about in all directions, to the imminent hazard of his life. Upon the appointment being accepted, the kettle-drum announced the accession of the chief, and his installation commenced. A quantity of earth moistened with water or melted snow was plastered over his face by the oldest Za- porogian present amid vociferous shouts. A crane’s feather was stuck in his cap ; and the baton of com- mand placed in his hand. His subjects then forced him to swallow a mouthful of tar; and after allowing THE ZAPOROGIANS. 163 him to cleanse his throat, he was comforted with a glass of excellent mead, but required to gulp it down at a single draught. Such was the coronation of the King of the Rapids. Fierce and wunsparing destroyers as were the Cossacks of the Dnieper abroad, they were in many respects just and humane at home. Their cabins were never closed to the stranger, except to a Jew ; and the best fare in their possession was placed at the disposal of the guest. Lost money and valuables were set apart in places of public resort to be reclaimed by the owners. Severe punishment visited the criminal. The murderer was stretched out upon the body of his victim, and buried alive with the corpse. The thief was fastened to a post, by which a stick and a keg of brandy was placed. Every one who used the stick in thrashing him might taste the brandy. A rock in the river, named the Brigand, commemorates the rude race who were once lords of its waters. One of their chief establish- ments was on the island of Cortetz, a natural fortress, rising upwards of a hundred feet above the stream, and defended on all sides by masses of granite. It still retains the traces of fortification and intrenched camps ; and is now in the possession of peaceful and industrious German colonists. M 2 164 THE CRIMEA. Soon after the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the maritime excursions of the Cossacks ceased, both because the Ottoman navy became too strong for them, and sufficient employment was found for their swords on land. During the war between Turkey and Poland, in the middle of the century, the Cossacks of the Ukraine revolted from the Polish crown, to which they were nominally subject; and the Tatars of the Crimea, under their khan, Mohammed Gherai, took the field to support Khmielnitski, the leader of the revolt, who at one time seemed likely to subvert the entire monarchy. This event was mainly averted by the heroic courage of Andrew Firley, who undertook the defence of Zbaras, a small town of Lower Podolia, in 1649. With only 9000 men, he defeated twenty-nine attempts of the Cossacks and Tatars to carry the place by storm, and held it till the vast host was compelled to retreat, having inflicted upon the enemy a loss of 50,000 men. The slender garrison was reduced to the most painful extremities by hunger. After horses, dogs, cats, rats, frogs, snakes, and reptiles had been consumed, the bodies of the young Cossacks recently killed in the assaults were cut up, seasoned with gunpowder, and given to the famishing troops. Early one morning, an arrow REVOLT AGAINST THE POLES. 165 shot by an unknown hand, fell among the besieged. It bore an inscription announcing the approach of the royal army under John Casimir, who signally defeated the assailants in the battle of Zborof. The defence of Zbaras, which saved Poland, ranks as to historical importance with that of Vienna against Kara Mustapha, Saragossa against Moncey and Mortier, and Acre against Napoleon. As a military achievement it is equal to any on record. Firley was of English descent, but at the time ranked among the high Polish nobility. History is silent as to his career after this signal exploit. Khmielnitski, in alliance with the Tatars, made another effort to defy the Poles, but was foiled in the battle of Beresteezko, the greatest engagement as to numbers since the days of Tamerlane, in which Sobieski acquired distinction. Means being found to detach the Tatar khan from the Cossack alliance, their defeated chief, with his followers, threw himself into the arms of Russia, by a convention concluded with the Czar Alexy, father of Peter the Great, in 1654. The eastern part of the Ukraine was thenceforth a fief of Muscovy ; and soon became a stepping-stone on which the rising colossus of the North advanced towards the Crimea. Upon the last appearance of the Turks as an M3 166 THE CRIMEA. 4 aggressive power in Europe, when the army pene- trated to Vienna in 1683, the Tatars under Selim Gherai accompanied the incapable grand-vizier, Kara Mustapha, to the memorable siege. While the regular army prosecuted it, the cavalry of the khan scoured the country far and wide, occasionally encountering some rough handling, owing to in- cautious audacity. Abbot Kolbries, one of the last martial churchmen, surprised a detachment; and forty heads of Tatars, with which he returned to his abbey of Lilienthal, leaving their bodies on the road as a warning, signalised the vigour of the ecclesiastic. In the decisive battle before the walls of the capital, the military eye of Selim quickly discerned in the arrangements of the relieving imperial army the generalship of the redoubtable Sobieski, who had just arrived to take the command. “By Allah,” said he, “the king himself is among us.” The Turkish pashas gave way to panic; the grand-vizier fled to find a bow-string at home; and the Ottoman name ceased completely to be a word of fear to Europe. The khan, eulogised by his contemporaries, both Christian and Mohammedan, as not more brave than magnanimous, was the prop- of the empire under the joint attacks of Austria, Poland, and Russia. In a single campaign, he defeated their SELIM GHERAI. 167 united armies, saved the standard of the Prophet which had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and so captivated the Janizaries by his chivalrous bearing, that they entertained the design of placing him upon the throne of Constantinople. But Selim had no love for power or state; and several times resigned his own dignity, to be as often recalled by public emergencies. During one abdication he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, thus acquiring the name of Hadji; but died in the exercise of that authority to which he attached so little value. Over the chief entrance to the palace-mosque at Bakchi- serai, the following inscription occurs: — “ Who was Hadji Selim? The most illustrious of all the khans of Krim Tatary. The hero by God’s divine power. May the Almighty God, in his supreme kindness, recompense Hadji Selim, for it was he that commenced the erection of this beautiful mosque. Who completed the work? Schlamet Gherai Khan, the son of his love, the rose now in full bearing, who has become the padishah and lion of the Crimea.” Upon the cessation of the Cossack piracies in the Black Sea, commerce began to re-appear actively on its waters under the flag of the Western nations. This industrial movement was not without its good M 4 168 THE CRIMEA. effect upon the Tatars of the Crimea. Abandoning a nomadic pastoral life, many formed themselves into paternally-governed communal settlements in rural locations, skilfully cultivated the soil, and established elementary schools. Others, adopting artisan or trading life, changed the deserted aspect of the towns. Kaffa resumed a busy appearance, and again became a great mart. By treaty with the Porte, at the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the free navigation of the Ottoman waters was granted to English merchantmen; and specific articles nego- tiated in the time of Charles IL. formally defined the right. Thus the merchants were to be allowed, with. “all under their banner, to go by the way of the Tanais (Don) into Muscovia;” and the provision occurs, symptomatic of lawlessness, that, on returning, the vessels were not to be compelled to break bulk arbitrarily : — ¢ The English ships which shall come to this our city of Constantinople, if, by fortune of seas, or ill-weather, they shall be forced to Kaffa, or to such like port, as long as the English will not unlade or sell their own merchandise and goods, no man shall enforce nor give them any trouble.” Chardin, on his journey to Persia, soon after the middle of the seventeenth century, saw more than four hundred vessels in the Bay of Kaffa. The TILE PORTE AND THE KHANATE. 169 town contained 4000 houses, with a population ex- ceeding 80,000 souls, and the Turks gave it the name of Koutchouk Stamboul, or Little Con- -stantinople, also Krim Stamboul, the Constantinople of the Crimea. The dominion of the khans, at the height of their power, stretched from the Caucasus on the east to the Danube on the west, while northward it extended to the frontier of Poland and Lesser Russia. Tri- bute was received from Moldavia and Wallachia on the one hand, while the Lesghians and other tribes acknowledged a feudal relationship on the other. The authority of the Porte in the khanate varied from time to time according as the sultans were strong or weak; but generally speaking, though there were rebellions, the Tatars were zealously devoted to the Ottoman sovereigns, regarding them with reverence as the legitimate heads of Islam. Originally, the succession to the khanate was vested in the eldest male of the Gherai family, unless debarred by some natural incapacity, or by the interference of the people, which occasionally happened, when the dignity devolved upon the next to the right line of descent, subject in either case to the pleasure of the Grand Seignior. In process of time, the family became so numerous, that it was 170 THE CRIMEA. difficult to determine whose claim was the most valid. Election by the myrzas, or nobles, and chief men, then regulated the succession, though respect was paid to public opinion in the choice. But the court of Constantinople reserved to itself the right to confirm or depose, and to take the initiative in nominating, irrespective of legitimate claims and the voice of the nation. The right was commonly exercised in later times. The deposed khans were usually sent to Rhodes. None, however, but a Gherai could in any case succeed; and failing the house of Othman on the throne of Constantinople, the khans of the Crimea were the next heirs, as representing the line of Genghis Khan. They did not therefore think lightly of themselves, but adopted the style royal, and claimed perfect equality with the most powerful European sovereigns, only ex- cepting the padishah of padishahs, representative of the Prophet, and shadow of God. One of Gazi Gherai’s manifestoes, addressed to the King of Sweden and Poland, commences as follows : — “ Khan Gazi Gherai, unto the King of Polonia and Sweden, our Brother, one of the Great Lords among the Christians, humbly boweth his head. First, we signify unto you, that Aaron, Palatine of Moldavia, was a foresworn traitor, &c.” MILITARY SYSTEM. 171 The Tatars paid no tribute to the Porte. But in time of war, against what enemy soever, they were bound to join the Ottoman commanders with all their disposable troops, supplying themselves with provi- sions and accoutrements, for which service they had right and title to all the booty obtainable in the enemy’s country. In consequence of this impolitic arrangement, they usually separated from the main body of the army, and divided into large freebooting parties, plundering wherever they came. No war was to be engaged in by the khans, and no peace concluded, without permission from the sultans. The latter maintained at their own expense a regiment of four thousand men to serve as the life-guard of their vassals, a menace as well as a protection. Turkish garrisons were likewise stationed at Perekop, Koslof, Arabat, Yenikale, Azof, Otchakow, and Kinburn. The two last-named points, on opposite sides of the mouth of the Dnieper, were strongly fortified. The more powerful khans could bring armies of 200,000 men into the field. The Tatar cavalry usually formed the right wing of the Turkish army. In early times the sabre, bow, and arrow, were the principal weapons; in later, the lance, buckler, and pistol. The lasso was thrown with admirable precision. Horns of cattle served as 172 THE CRIMEA. substitutes for the bugle, and made an indescribable clang, owing to their number. The distant sound was recognised at once by Poles, Hungarians, and Germans, as betokening the approach of the wild Tatars. In peace, the military spirit was fostered by martial games, and popular war-songs. Sham fights and mock sieges were common pastimes. On these occasions, to guard against feuds arising from - inadvertent injury, the contending parties were pre- viously sworn on the Koran not to allow accident to give birth to resentment. The following has been given as the literal translation of a popular war- song: — “ Fling high! oh, fling high! To the bright blue sky, The banner that led Our forefathers dead. To battle! to battle! to battle! “Let the bones of the slain Make white the broad plain, And earth be thou red With the blood that’s shed. To battle! to battle! to battle! “ Bring here, oh, bring here, The sword and spear, The poniard and bow, We'll rush on the foe. To battle! to battle! to battle! MILITARY SYSTEM. “ Hope, like a bright star, Shines forth from afar; And leads on the brave Their country to save. To battle! to battle! to battle! “ May each glittering tear, On our heroes’ bier, Gem the deathless crown Of their bright renown. To battle! to battle! to battle!” The Turks have their sacred national flag, — the Sandjak Sheriffe, — said to have come down from the founder of Islam, and only brought out on great occasions. So had the Tatars. This was an old moth-eaten standard, preserved with care, and spe- cially venerated ; for, according to tradition, it had once been borne before the great padishah, king of kings, Genghis Khan. In the Russian war, the banner was conveyed to the frontier under a guard of imans, and floated to the breeze from the lines of Perekop. As the chiefs of Islam, guardians of the holy places, and of the sepulchre of the Prophet, the sultans appointed the Mufti, or expounder of the Koranic law, who took rank with the princes of royal blood. The chief Cadi, or judge, who pro- 174 THE CRIMEA. nounced sentence according to the fetvas or decisions of the Mufti; and the Diwan Effendi, the secretary of state, who had charge of communications with the Porte, and the foreign correspondence, were likewise named at Constantinople. In the country villages, petty offences and disputes were summarily decided on the spot by the municipal chiefs and elders; in the towns, by inferior cadis. But grave affairs were referred to the high court of judicature at the capital. The hall of justice, where the supreme judge pre- sided, remains in the palace at Bakchi-serai. This is a lofty circular apartment, with a gilt ceiling, and a sombre aspect, owing to a paucity of windows. Even these were closed when the judge had to decide upon an important case, to give greater solemnity to the proceedings; and the chamber was feebly illu- minated with artificial lights. Upon an accused person being found guilty, he was led out on the left hand to undergo summary punishment ; if acquitted, he departed on the right. Sometimes the khans were present to satisfy themselves that justice was duly administered. They occupied a kind of side- gallery, enclosed by lattice-work, so that neither judge nor criminal was aware of their presence. The family of a murdered man had the option of executing the murderer, or of accepting the price of OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT. 175 blood,—a sum as large as he was supposed to be capable of raising. Grievous bodily injuries might also be similarly compensated. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers had the same arrangement. All other officers of the court and government were appointed by the khans. First, in point of dignity, was the Kalga-sultan, or lieutenant of the khan, who represented him when absent with the army, conducted the government on his decease till a successor was confirmed by the Porte, and resided at Akmetchet. The office was usually filled by the presumptive heir. This functionary, at the time of the Russian occupation, as the first subject, was facetiously called by the new-comers, Cream of Tartar. Next was the Nour-ed-sultan, the lieute- nant of the Kalga, always a prince of the blood. The third dignitary was the Or-beg, who commanded at Or-Gapy, the Royal Gate of the peninsula, otherwise Perekop. This post was sometimes held by nobles of the Shirin family who had married princesses. Besides the ordinary ministers who constituted the divan, the khans retained professional astrologers in their service for state purposes, — a universal practice with the potentates of bygone times, whether Mo- hammedan or Christian,— wearing the turban, the crown, or the tiara. The office of these men made 176 THE CRIMEA. them acquainted with all political secrets, and their fiat determined the day and hour of giving battle. Hence the safety of the masters depended entirely upon their fidelity. When Kaplan Gherai lay en- camped upon the Pruth, and might have won an easy victory over the Russians, his astrologer pro- nounced the day unfavourable for an attack. Hence he suffered the opportunity to escape him; and the enemy having time to bring up reinforcements, he was himself routed. It was afterwards known, that Marshal Romanzow had gained access to the astro- loger, and bribed him to accommodate his reading the celestial signs to Russian purposes. The myrzas or nobles monopolised public offices and posts of honour. They embraced two classes,— the great magnates descended from the first con- querors, of whom the Shirin family ranked the highest, and could alone ally themselves by marriage with the khans. Ennobled families constituted a second inferior order. The land was chiefly divided into royal domains, either enjoyed by the sovereign, or attached, by way of salary, to certain offices; and into noble fields, the hereditary estates of the great families, which were not held of the crown, and subject to no quit rent. But, upon the failure of heirs of the seventh degree of affinity, the noble REVENUE. 177 fields lapsed to the khan, as lord-paramount. The land paid no tax to the state, except that each Kadilik, or district, had to furnish a waggon drawn by two horses, and a load of corn, when the princes went out to war. This was a mere temporary supply, the army being left to pillage for its permanent subsistence. The peninsula was divided into twenty- four districts, called after the chief towns situated in them, of which the most important were the kadiliks of Bakchi-serai, Akmetchet, Koslov, Inkerman, Kaffa, Kertch, and Perekop. Headed by notables, the people of the towns and villages presented the sovereign, on the occasion of a visit, with bread and salt, the emblems of peace and goodwill, and with sugar, the symbol of a mild and happy reign. The revenue of the crown was derived from the salt-works, generally farmed by Armenians or Jews, the customs, the annual tributes, and the booty obtained in mili- tary expeditions. Though considerable, the exche- quer was often empty, owing to lavish expenditure ; and forced loans are said to have been extracted from the Jews. Like many other royal personages, the Tatar princes were sufficiently improvident, and would reply to economical advisers, What good is it to hoard up wealth? Who ever knew a Gherai N 178 THE CRIMEA. to die of poverty ?” Calculations upon the profit of some future foray stimulated this spendthrift spirit. The Gherais were as fiery as they were lavish. Khan Krim, wishing to test the mettle of his second son,—a mere stripling, — ironically remarked upon his archery, that a distaff suited a coward better than a bow. ¢ Coward!” responded the child: «I fear no one,—not even you ; ” and immediately let fly an arrow at his sire, to demonstrate the truth of the ob- servation. The missive, more respectful than its projector, passed the living target, and entered, two fingers’ deep, some adjoining wood-work. Being generally dutiful, and a favourite, the boy’s passion- ate display was overlooked. Hawking and greyhound- coursing were the common pastimes of the court. On these occasions, the khans sometimes took the field with 500 or 600 horsemen, and remained camping out for several days. Baron de Tott, a French agent, sent to the Crimea by the Duke de Choiseul, en- larged the circle of amusements by the exhibition of fire-works and electrical experiments, to the no small astonishment of the people. Maksoud Gherai preserved his composure under a moderate shock, as a point of dignity ; but the courtiers, more severely handled, regarded the operator with not a little awe as a veritable magician. All Bakchi-serai resounded BARON DE TOTT. 179 the next day with the prodigies performed by the envoy. He was fully occupied for some time in gratifying curiosity. A deputation appeared at his dwelling, and thus addressed the secretary :—-« We are, Sir, Circassian myrzas, hostages with the khan. We have heard of the miracles performed by your Bey at his pleasure,—miracles of which no person before has ever had an idea since the birth of the Prophet, and which will never be known to man after his death. Beseech him to permit us to be witnesses to them, that we may one day testify them in our country ; and that Circassia, deprived of this wonder, may at least be able to record the memory of it in her annals.” Maksoud, according to the envoy, was fond of evening parties. The guests came after the prayer at sunset, and remained till near midnight. Supper was served upon two low round tables, one of which was placed before the khan, who always ate alone, while the other accom- modated the company. De Tott, on the day ap- pointed for his first audience, was waited upon by the master of the ceremonies, with a detachment of the guard, and some officers to serve as an escort. On arriving at the palace, the vizier met him in the ves- tibule to conduct him to the audience chamber. He found the khan seated on a divan, with some courtiers N 2 180 THE CRIMEA. standing near him. A chair was placed opposite the sovereign for his own use, after delivering his cre- dentials and paying the usual compliments. An in- vitation followed to visit the palace frequently; and, with the same escort, he returned to his house. Bakchi-serai, the capital of the khanate, Ak- metchet, now Simferopol, Koslov or Eupatoria, Kaffa, and Karasu-basar, were the principal towns in the peninsula during the period of the Tatar rule. The name of the capital is taken from the residence of the khans, and signifies the Palace of Gardens. It is still the most interesting town in the Crimea, by virtue of its romantic position, Tatar population, and oriental royal abode. Nothing is European,— nothing is even Russian,—except the few soldiers who keep guard over the deserted halls of the sons of Genghis Khan. All is Eastern and Asiatic. The site is a Matlock-like valley, the sides of which bristle with large cube-shaped blocks, as if a torrent had swept away the soil in which they were once embedded ; leaving them so nicely poised that, apparently, a touch would send them to the bottom of the ravine. A small stream flows through the dell, along which are the houses. They rise also on the slope of the hills, interspersed with gardens, vineyards, and clumps of trees, chiefly PALACE OF THE KHANS. 181 Lombardy poplars. In the days of its prosperity, the capital contained a considerable population; but the stated number of 200,000 souls must be an enormous exaggeration. Besides the palace and the mosques, all the other buildings were probably com- parative hovels. De Tott took up his abode at the house of the French consul. An open wooden staircase, the steps of which, rotted by the rain, threatened to give way under the weight of every person who mounted them, led to the only floor there was. This included a hall and two side rooms, which served for saloon and sleeping apartments. The whole was a compost of wood, lime, and hair, in such a rickety condition, that the ambassador had reason to fear bringing down the dwelling about his ears by the weight of his trunks. The Serai or palace, situated towards the centre of the town, restored as far as possible to its original condition by the Emperor Alexander, is a large col- lection of edifices, without any regular plan, enclosed by walls, and a small stream deeply entrenched. A bridge leads over the latter to the principal court, which is planted with poplars and lilacs, and adorned with a beautiful fountain shaded by willows. The buildings include the private apartments of the khans, the harem, the hall of justice, the stables, a fine } N 3 182 THE CRIMEA. mosque, and a cemetery, with offices, courts, gardens, fountains, baths, corridors, and halls, forming a perfect labyrinth of apartments, ornamented with devices and inscriptions. There is no grandeur, no beauty in the outward appearance, but something coquettish, romantic, and peculiarly eastern. In the interior, the ceilings and the doors are richly gilded, and the workmanship of the latter is very fine. The walls exhibit paintings of flowers, fruits, birds, beasts, stars, scrolls, villages, and landscapes, outraging per- spective, and of no artistic merit. Glaring tints of red and green are the prevailing colours. The khans seem to have been free-thinking Mohammedans ; for the Koran expressly prohibits the representation of living objects. But, as if to compensate for this trespass of the code, passages from the sacred book are plentifully distributed, written in gold upon a black ground. Other inscriptions are commemorative records of the old lords of the abode in the Tatar language, rife with the spirit of orientalism. One over the principal entrance states, The master of this door is the conqueror of the surrounding soil, the mighty lord Hadji Gherai Khan, son of Mengli Gherai Khan. May Allah vouchsafe unto the Khan Mengli, and to his father and mother, the gift of felicity in this world, and in that which is to come.” PALACE OF THE KHANS. 183 The rulers of Crim Tatary usually restricted themselves to four wives, the number allowed by the Koran, with greater exactness than the Ottoman sultans and pashas. Hence the harem is a small quiet-looking house of five rooms, to which a moderate-sized garden is attached, containing a pro- fusion of roses. A singular looking octagonal tower, of considerable height, overlooks the prin- cipal court of the palace. It is supposed to have been erected to enable the khan’s wives to witness unseen the martial exercises below. The Palace of Gardens might with equal pro- priety have been called the Palace of Fountains. There are more than twenty in the courts and plantations, all deriving their supply of extremely cool water from the adjoining mountains. One has an inscription closing with, “He that is tor- mented with thirst will raise his eyes across the stream that flows through pipes thin as his fingers, and read these lines.” But what is the inscription they bear? ¢ Come; drink ye of this limpid fount which flows from the purest of sources. It brings you health.” Another bears the name of the Foun- tain of Marie, and also that of Selsibil or Tears. Hereby hangs a tale, which the unhappy Russian N 4 184 THE CRIMEA. poet Pushkin has sung. But different versions of the story are given. The common tradition is, that "a beautiful Polish countess, Marie Pototsky, was carried off by one of the khans during an inroad into her country, who speedily made a conquest of her captor. But he attempted in vain to soothe her grief, and reconcile her to a new position. The best apartment in the palace was placed at her disposal, and all the delights that could be procured were unsparingly laid at her feet. The room is still shown, and bears the name of its occupant. In order fully to meet her views, a chapel was prepared, and priests provided to say mass. But the Christian declined the proposals of the Mohammedan, though his attentions conciliated regard. At last, the phrenzy of a jealous woman brought on a catas- trophe. A Georgian, to whom the khan had previously devoted himself, stabbed the Pole with a dagger, who expired upon the spot. The Fountain of Marie and of Tears commemorates the name of the victim, and the grief of the khan, the water overflowing the lower basin in the form of drops. The palace-mosque is a spacious edifice, indicated by two slender minarets. The cemetery behind it exhibits the art and care with which the Orientals TOMBS OF THE KHANS. 185 disguise the gloomy idea of death under images of life, beauty, and gladness, being planted with nut, mulberry, and poplar trees, lilacs, and violets, a spring trickling through the shrubs. Here the old rulers of the Crimea — restless spirits in their day— sleep the sleep of the grave, with their wives and kindred near them. Each tomb has a stone at the head either surmounted by a sculptured turban, or by the veritable turban of the deceased, dingy and tattered. Some of the more renowned khans repose in separate rotundas. A pavilion consisting of a gilded cupola supported by marble columns, marks the grave of the fair Georgian princess, Dilara Beke, the wife of Krim Gherai. However rude and fierce in life, the khans are singularly poetical in death, as monumental records testify. One, whose tomb is unenclosed, had it so arranged, because, says the inscription, “he considered the heavens so beautiful and sublime, that even from his grave he would wish to look towards the firmament, the abode of God.’ Another, who reposes under opposite circumstances, “did not feel himself worthy to be shone on by the least ray of God’s sun.” A third, buried beneath the eaves of the mosque, chose that resting-place, that as the rain dripped down upon him, the water = — x a - ER A KE TP ir TBP 186 THE CRIMEA. from heaven might wash away the foulness of his sins, which were as many as the drops falling from the clouds.” These are singular records of men who, in their day of power and pride, headed many a foray from the lines of Perekop, and made Moscow, Warsaw, Buda, and Vienna tremble. CHAP. VII THE RUSSIAN BATTLE FOR THE BLACK SEA. EARLY ATTEMPTS AGAINST THE CRIMEA. — MAZEPPA. — PETER THE GREAT. — CHARLES XII. AND THE ZAPO- ROGIANS, — DEVLET GHERAI. — PEACE OF THE PRUTH. — RUSSIAN PRETENSIONS TO THE KABARDAHS, — FIRST INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. — CAPTURE OF PEREKOP, — SUBSEQUENT INROADS. — MARSHALS MUNICH AND LACY. — OTHER FOREIGN OFFICERS EMPLOYED. — WAR OF 1768. — KRIM GHERAI. — HIS EXPEDITION TO THE UKRAINE. — DEATH OF THE KHAN. — CONQUEST OF THE CRIMEA. — CATHERINE TO VOLTAIRE. — INSCRIP- TION AT ARABAT.— PEACE OF KAINARDJIL ArTER losing sight of a southern sea-board for nearly six centuries, Russia formally attempted to recover command on the Pontic littoral in the early days of Peter the Great; but while his ambitious sister conducted the government, with Galitzin for her minister. At the height of their power, the Tatars had wrung from the Russians the annual tribute of 80,000 rubles, with the humiliating condi- tion, expressed in a treaty, that the ‘czar should hold the stirrup of their khan, and feed his horse with oats out of his own cap, if ever they chanced to meet. 188 } THE CRIMEA. This relative position was destined to be completely changed ; but the struggle was long, and its early events did not promise success to the northern power. The demand of tribute, which had not been paid for some years, led to hostilities in 1687, when Galitzin took charge of a great expedition against the Crimea, or, as the historian expresses it, *“ made war upon the Precops,” the lines of Perekop being commonly substituted for the peninsula. The army assembled in the Ukraine. But the summer being fiercely hot, and the drought long, the whole country was so burnt up that the troops could not proceed for want of forage and water. As some one must be blamed for the failure, it was uncere- moniously thrown upon Samoilovitch, the attaman or hetman of the Don Cossacks. This most puissant chief, the ordinary style of address, was seized at midnight, tried by court-martial in the morning, called the son of a , and sent off to Siberia, where he perished miserably, along with his son ; while generals, colonels, majors and privates, were not a little astonished at having medals with chains, medals without chains, half ducats, and copecks of gold, awarded to them for signal services, The attempt was renewed in the following year. Galitzin this time advanced as far as Perekop, but MAZEPPA. A 189 retired after some skirmishing and fruitless negotia-~ tion. The tribute, the whole tribute, and nothing but the tribute, 240,000 rubles, the arrears of three years, would satisfy the khan. The party making the demand could not enforce compliance, and the party resisting it failed to procure its renunciation. Mazeppa was engaged in both these expeditions, appearing on the last occasion as the new attaman of the Don Cossacks. This famous man, the hero of wild, romantic, and mysterious adventures, who passed through the world “like a gust of moaning wind in the desert,” has been immortalised by poetry, and often represented on the stage. Origi- nally a page of the Polish court, he was tied helplessly to the back of an untamed Ukranian horse, upon being caught in an intrigue, a punish- ment inflicted by an outraged husband. The steed being turned loose, after undergoing some prepara- tory torment, galloped off with his burden into the steppes, traversed torrents, rivers, and ravines, finally falling dead from exhaustion in a small town of the eastern Ukraine. Upon the rider recovering from the effects of his strange flight, his superior talents procured for him the chieftainship. They also attracted the notice of Peter, who, upon grasping the government, sent Galitzin to live on REE 190 THE CRIMEA. three-pence a day under the pole,” or in the northern province of Archangel, and patronised the attaman. Never did stricken deer pant more eagerly for the water-brooks, than did Peter for the lordship of an open sea. When urged to undertake an expedition against Persia, he replied, “It is not land that I want, but sea.” Master already of the greater part of the Don, he determined to possess himself of its mouth by the capture of Azof, a fortified town garrisoned by the Turks. Vessels of war built at Voronetz, on an affluent, were sent down the river, while a force under General Patrick Gordon, a Scotchman, marched along the stream. The czar accompanied the expedition as a volunteer. The first attempt was a signal failure. The second, in 1696, was crowned with success. Mazeppa, with his Cossacks, signalised himself in the capture. Regarding his prize as a key to the sovereignty of the Crimea and the Black Sea, the harbour was improved, the fortifications were strengthened, and the fleet increased. A few years later, in 1706, Taganrog was founded on the northern shore of the sea of Azof, as an outport for the produce of southern Russia, a place destined to witness the last moments of the Emperor Alexander. Peter’s sojourn CHARLES XII. AND THE ZAPOROGIANS. 191 at this spot is commemorated by an oak wood of his own planting, a peculiarly suitable monument in a country destitute of forests, and one more useful and durable than the pompous marble. But all his projects with reference to a southern maritime frontier were temporarily subverted by his own incautious generalship, A threat uttered in a moment of passion detached Mazeppa from the Czar, and rendered him for life the deadly foe of Russia. For some time he kept his altered disposition secret, and professed fidelity while meditating defection. During the war be- tween Peter and Charles XII. of Sweden, the latter was induced to carry it from Poland into the south of Russia, and penetrate the Ukraine, by the offer of the attaman to join him with his whole force. Mazeppa accordingly met him as an ally, but had mis- calculated his influence, only a few of the Don Cossacks following their chief, To compensate for this loss, the Zaporogians of the Dnieper voluntarily Placed themselves under his orders; and appeared at Dykanka, by their attaman and deputies, in order to be introduced to the great Swede. Duly to cele- brate the alliance, an entertainment was given to the deputies, for which a quantity of plate was borrowed from a noble in the Ukraine, the master of the ER i pa 192 THE CRIMEA. ceremonies, or maitre d’h6tel, being responsible for its return. The men of the rapids promised to behave themselves decorously in the presence of majesty, and were sworn on the Evangelists not to get drunk before dinner. They observed the com- pact, but abandoned themselves to uproarious hilarity upon the time expiring, and each appropriated to himself as much of the plate as possible. The alarmed maitre d’hotel interfered ; but was soon glad to scamper off. The Zaporogians resented the interference as an insult, demanded reparation at the hands of their attaman, and threatened to go over to the Russians unless the object of their wrath was given up to summary punishment. Upon the unhappy man being surrendered, he was jostled from one to the other, and perished in the fray. Charles reached the scene of riot too late to save him. The conduct of his wild allies in helping themselves to the property was in accordance with their own custom, every article in their habitations being at the disposal of a guest, with the exception of money and weapons. Mazeppa and the Zaporo- gians accompanied the Swedish king to the fatal field of Pultowa in 1708, and fled towards the Turkish frontier before the triumphant army of Peter. The czar made many attempts to induce PETER THE GREAT. 193 the Turks to surrender the attaman, offering large sums of money; but they refused to break the sacred laws of hospitality. The Zaporogians re- turned of their own accord, and henceforth appear in history on the side of the Russians. It was not without alarm that Devlet Gherai, the Khan of the Crimea, had found himself in such close neighbourhood to the czar, after the capture of Azof. The subsequent foundation of Taganrog, and the activity displayed in ship-building on the Don, awakened apprehension for the safety of his own dominions. After visiting Charles and Ma- zeppa at Bender, he proceeded to Constantinople to make representations upon the danger which threat- ened the Ottoman empire, from the hold which Russia had obtained of the Black Sea. The Porte accordingly declared war in 1711. It was short, but for the time decisive. Baltadji Mohammed, the grand vizier, crossed the Danube at the head of 100,000 men ; and the Khan of the Crimea joined him in Bessarabia with the same number. Peter, confident of victory, and rash in consequence, suf- fered himself to advance too far from his own sup- plies and reinforcements, deceived by the promise of aid from an auxiliary who had not the power to furnish it; and thus fell into the same error which oO BE ee EYE PRT 194 THE CRIMEA. Charles had committed in penetrating into the Ukraine. On the Pruth, near J assy, while destitute of provisions and forage, with clouds of locusts obscuring the sky, and eating up every green thing upon the ground, he was so completely environed by the immensely superior forces of the Turks and Tatars, that his capture, with that of the entire army, might easily have been effected. In this dilemma, his dexterous empress, Catherine, who was present in the camp, saved him by bribing the grand vizier, who allowed the noblest prize that the fortune of war ever presented to a general to slip through his fingers. It is curious to reflect what the destiny of Russia and Turkey would have been, had the czar, czarina, generals, soldiers, and baggage, been trooped off to Constantinople. In three days, the whole force must have been compelled by sheer hunger to surrender at discretion, or perish. The czar was not permitted to go free quite unscathed. He consented to surrender Azof, de- molish Taganrog, and allow the King of Sweden a free and safe passage to his dominions. Charles raved like a madman at this ignoble treaty being substituted for a splendid opportunity. But re- monstrance was useless. Upon upbraiding the grand-vizier for not taking Peter prisoner when he PEACE OF THE PRUTH. 195 had it in his power, the latter coolly responded, «“ Had I taken the czar, who then would have governed his empire?” adding, ¢ All kings should not leave their homes.” Charles stated, that if he would give him 20,000 of his troops, he would yet recover the opportunity. ¢ God preserve us,” said the vizier, from breaking a treaty of peace without any reason, and I have already accepted hostages for the performance of it.” The Swede turned short upon his heel, tore the vizier’s robe with his spur, mounted his horse, and rode off highly dis- pleased with the interview. Khan Devlet, equally indignant, bided his time to vent his wrath. Being at Adrianople a few years afterwards, attending a council of war, he was in the act of mounting his horse to return to the Crimea, when he suddenlv stood still with one foot in the stirrup. ¢ What,’ said Achmet III., ¢ can make Devlet Gherai tarry thus?” <1 am waiting,” he replied, ¢ that thou shouldest send me the head of Baltadji Mohammed.” In a few minutes the head came; and the sultan, being in a vein of complaisance, added to it the head of the reis effendi, and that of the aga of the janis- saries, as the khan had expressed himself displeased with them. Azof being surrendered by the Russians, and Taganrog abandoned, according to the terms of 02 196 THE CRIMEA. the treaty, the Black Sea again became a vast Ottoman Lake. The peace of the Pruth never ceased to rankle in the mind of the czar. It was his full intention to reverse its conditions himself. Though diverted from the object by other occupations, he left it as a traditional legacy to his successors to extend their southern frontier to the Black Sea, and grasp at the dominion of its waters. In 1735, ten years after his death, the cabinet of St. Petersburg, under the Empress Anne, commenced the attempt to fulfil the injunction. The pretext for hostilities deserves notice. In the course of a war between Turkey and Persia, the Khan of the Crimea, Feth Gherai, re- ceived orders from the Porte to march across the steppe of the Kuban, and pass the Caucasus, in order to operate against the enemy on the south of the mountains. The highlanders, especially the Tcherkesses or Circassians, though neither subjects of the sultans, nor vassals, had for centuries main- tained friendly communication with them, as the natural protectors of their independence and religion. So far, therefore, from opposing the march of the khan, they received him with distinction as repre- senting the head of Islam, and their chiefs proposed to join the expedition. This roused the THE KABARDAHS. 197 jealousy of the Russians, who immediately preferred a claim to the sovereignty of the Great and Little Kabardah, the chief provinces of the Tcherkesses, separated by the river Terek; and the khan was informed by the Russian commander in Daghistan, that he considered his march a violation of territory Upon Feth Gherai persisting, his troops were at- tacked; and thus actual war was commenced by Russia, respecting the sovereignty of the Kabardahs, without any declaration of hostilities. In the name of Allah, ye warriors of the Great and Little Kabardah, for the last time I send to remind you of your oaths, and to inspire you to war against the unbelieving Muscovites.” Thus wrote Schmayl, within the last quarter of a century. But the people, in the particular district named, had been so decimated and crushed by the rule of bayonets and cannon, that the fiery proclamation of the warrior-prophet was not responded to. The original grounds of the claim of Russia to the Kabardahs are not a little singular, as stated in a formal defence of the foreign policy of the czars by M. Fouton, knight of the orders of St. Anne and St. Vladimir, adopted, if not suggested, by authority. They are remarkable for ridiculous audacity and menacing import to those who accept the syllogisms, 03 198 THE CRIMEA, 1. Ivan the Terrible married the daughter of Temruk, a Kabardian prince, which goes to show that the Kabardians at that time were in amicable correspondence with the Russians. 2. An expe- dition undertaken by the Russians in 1717 against the Khan of Khiva was commanded by Bekovitch Tcherkaski, a Kabardian prince, a proof that, at that time, Kabardians fought under the Russian banner. This is absolutely all that could be adduced to support the alleged violation of territory. Woe be to Prussia and the German states, if nations resign their independence by sending princesses to St. Petersburg, or by permitting auxiliary troops to join the Russian armies. More recently, or since 1829, the claim has rested upon the cession, by the treaty of Adrianople, of the fortresses of Anapaand Soudjuk- Kale, erected by the Turks on the coast of Circassia. But it has been unanswerably shown, that the Circas- sian territory and people were never under Turkish authority either de jure or de facto; and could not therefore be included in the cession of these strong- holds. This point gave rise to warm debates in Parliament, owing to the seizure of the ¢« Vixen ;” and was practically decided in favour of Russia. That the sultans had no sovereign rights in the dis- trict to part with, even in the esteem of the northern »- INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 199 cabinet, till convenient to allow them, is clearly proved by the official map published at St. Peters- burg before the treaty of, Adrianople, in which Circassia is marked as independent." Determined on war, with or without a pretext, a Russian expedition was despatched against the Crimea in 1735, under orders to put everything to fire and sword. The opportunity was favourable, owing to the khan being absent, with his best troops, in the direction of Persia. But want of forage and provisions compelled the commander, General Leontew, to abandon the enterprise while on the march ; and he retraced his steps with the loss of ten thousand men, from disease, hardship, and privation. There was no efficient commissariat. In the following year, after immense preparations had been made, the attempt was renewed. Not till then did the Porte believe in the reality of war, for the Russian ambassador had remained at Constantinople, re- ceiving the courtesies of the grand vizier, as if nothing had occurred, or was likely to occur, to produce hostile relations. The sultan, Mahmoud : anxious to avoid a struggle, sought the mediation of Austria. But after professedly entertaining the proposal, that perfidious court entered the lists as an antagonist, formed a coalition with Russia, and both 04 200 THE CRIMEA. powers bore down with all their force upon the Ottoman frontiers. Early in the year 1736, the Russian troops as- sembled in the Ukraine, and marched towards Azof, while a flotilla under Admiral Bredale descended the Don. Leaving a division to conduct the siege, of which Marshal Lacy took the command, the grand army made for the Crimea, under Marshal Munich. It was more than 50,000 strong. The commander revived the use of pikes, which had been laid aside for some years as weapons of war. Each regiment was provided with a certain number eighteen feet long, and with chevauz de frise six feet high. Both were intended to defend the encampments. But they sorely embarrassed the soldiery on their march ; and two waggons for each regiment were necessary to convey the pikes of the invalids. On May the 28th, the army arrived within cannon shot of Perekop, where the khan, Feth Gherai, an old man, was posted, to defend the lines. The Russians broke through by outwitting the Tatars. An hour before daylight, a division made a false attack towards the extremity on the right. This succeeded in drawing the greater portion of the defenders to that point, while the main body of the army, which had been marching all night in profound silence INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 201 towards the left, passed the fosse and scaled the rampart with little difficulty. ~The fosse was seventy-two feet broad, and forty-two fect deep, but completely dry. The height from the bottom to the crest of the rampart was seventy feet. Finding the enemy within their lines, the panic- struck Tatars retired to lay waste the country, and harass the invaders on their march by skirmishing. Without the Turks, who were otherwise engaged, they had no chance against the Russians in a pitched battle, being ill-armed and without discipline. T he fortress of Perckop was given up June 2. But though the garrison had stipulated to be allowed to march away, the condition was violated, and the whole were detained as prisoners of war. Perekop itself contained 800 houses, almost all of wood. Munich directed his course to Koslov, and from thence to Bakchi-serai, plundering and burning the towns and villages, from which the inhabitants had previously fled. On June the 29th he encamped on the banks of the Alma. But by this time the army was in a deplorable condition from marching in the heat of summer, incessant harassment from skirmish- ing parties, and the difficulty of obtaining supplies. A speedy retreat northwards to the Ukraine was indispensable; and Munich quitted the peninsula 202 THE CRIMEA. having lost more than half his troops in the deso- lating inroad. Meanwhile, Lacy had been closely pressing the siege of Azof. The town was sur- rendered July 2nd, upon condition of the Turkish pasha and garrison being allowed to retire to the Crimea. In the campaign of 1737, Munich marched to the mouth of the Dnieper, and took Ochzakow by storm, disgracing his triumph by a barbarous massacre, in which not even women or children were spared. Lacy, at the head of another army, proved that the lines of Perekop, however successfully defended, offered no security to the Crimea against the intru- sion of an enemy. Finding the khan strongly posted there, he threw a bridge across the Channel of Genatch, and passed his troops over it from the mainland to the Peninsula of Arabat. Upon the Tatars hastening to intercept his march along the remarkable promontory, he caused the Putrid Sea to be sounded, and found a spot so shallow that both cavalry and infantry readily accomplished the passage. After laying the land waste, he returned by way of the headland of Tschongar on the north coast, which runs up close to the continent. In 1738, the khan occupied the three positions, Perekop, Tschongar, and the Arabat peninsula, to defend his INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 203 territories. But Lacy discovered a ford in fhe Putrid Sea between the two former points, easily passable when a west wind blew. He goseniesed the country, but quickly retreated to save his BA from perishing by famine on the dovasated sol : The war closed with disaster for its fruit to each of the parties engaged in’ it. Led by RA generals, the Austrians were worsted in the fie o nl purchased peace by ceding Belgrade, the key o Hungary, to the Turks. The Russians, ft & maintain the contest single-handed, were ws by circumstances to conclude a treaty, which on them to relinquish every rood of the land overrun by their armies. They agreed to restore Ochzakow, to abandon Azof, and its territory was to lie wasie und uncultivated, as a boundary between the two orice They consented also to remove their flotilla, ih resign all pretensions to navigate the waters, their merchants restricting themselves to the ue of Turkish vessels. Even the independence of the Kabardahs was recognised, but Russia obtained the right of building a fortress on the Kuban for the protection of her frontier. Such was he sole po important consequence of a war which cost " aggressing power the lives of more than a hundre 204 THE CRIMEA. thousand men, and completely drained the imperial treasury. The Russian armies engaged in this contest were chiefly officered by foreign adventurers, many of whom were our own countrymen. These gentlemen had either been out in the ’15, to use the polite phraseology for the rebellion of that year, and found their own country too hot for them; or quitted it voluntarily, as adherents of the exiled Stuarts, refusing to live under the rule of the Hanoverian dynasty. Lacy, Brown, Leslie, and others, appeared in the Crimea in 1737, respectively Irish, English, and Scotch, in the service of a power opposed in the same region in 1855 by the British army under Lord Raglan. Marshal Munich, a German, made his first appear- ance in the field under the renowned Marlborough, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Mal- plaquet. Strange adventures befell him. On a cold November morning in 1740, four years after forcing the lines of Perekop, long before daylight, he was the agent of a revolution in St. Petersburg, marching from the Winter to the Summer Palace, where he seized the regent Biron in his bed, and transferred the reins of government to the Princess Anne of Brunswick. The next year, he was in MARSHAL MUNICH. 205 disgrace. The year following, 1742, a fresh revo- lution having given an empress, Elizabeth, to the throne, he stood upon a scaffold in the capital, with Osterman, Golofkin, and some others, doomed to die. Besides politically adhering to the fallen party, he had imprisoned a lover of the empress. But all sorts of offences were imputed to him, especially, as stated in the imperial manifesto, that “in the first campaign in the Crim, he caused many Russian colonels, descended of ancient and noble families, to carry muskets to their utmost ignominy.” Munich was sentenced to be quartered, Osterman to be broken on the wheel, and the rest to be beheaded. The culprits had to listen standing and bareheaded to an enumeration of their crimes, which occupied five sheets of paper. Proceedings then commenced with Osterman, who, after being unrobed, was informed that the capital sentence passed upon the prisoners had been commuted to perpetual banish- ment. “ Pray,” said he, in reply, “ give me my cap and wig again.” So saying, he buttoned up, ar- ranged his long beard, and resigned himself to life. Munich, neatly shaved, and trimly dressed, as if at a review, heard of his reprieve in silence. He trod the well-worn road to Siberia, where twelve copecks a day were allowed for his maintenance. But he - Gah = on tears & E at TE LE — z —=3 = Tad x 3 To A ET rN Ss Ee aatal ai cut = eek Sar rast Tis a a TA o- 2 =z ——— A i oh ks LS 5 == & . i: sy ih = gh eae 206 THE CRIMEA. managed to eke out a subsistence through twenty long years by selling milk and teaching arithmetic. Recalled by Peter III, one son, and thirty-two grandchildren and great-grandchildren, met him as he approached the suburbs of the capital. In a few months the master who recalled him was deposed and strangled by the order of his wife. Munich managed to reconcile himself to the imperial murderess, Catherine II., and put into her head a scheme for driving the Turks from Constantinople, which he had meditated in his Siberian exile. He died at the advanced age of eighty-five, in 1767, the year previous to the commencement of the war which prostrated the Ottoman to the Russian Empire. Lacy was an Irishman. While quite a youth, he was at the siege of Limerick, and followed the fortunes of James II. abroad as an ensign. After serving in the army of Austria, he entered that of Russia as a major in the guards, and fought at the Battle of Narva. On that occasion, by causing the roads to be destroyed in the rear of the flying Russians, and encumbering the ground with felled timber, he was the means of preventing the Swedes from actively prosecuting the pursuit. He soon rose to distinction as a military man by skill and daring : and obtained his rank of field-marshal just before MARSHAL LACY. 207 marching to the siege of Azof. It was commonly said, that when in command of the army, he never fought a battle without being victorious, or conducted a siege which was not successful. Being a Roman Catholic, a Capuchin friar attended him in his expe- ditions as father confessor. Before going into action, he usually observed the rites of religion in his tent, and then took wine with the priests. Lacy finally became governor-general of the Baltic provinces, and died at Riga in 1751, rich in lands and money, a large amount standing to his credit in the bank of Amsterdam. The principal citizens put on mourn- ing for their governor ; and the bells of the churches tolled at intervals for eight days after his decease. Bredale, the admiral, was a Dane, but had received his naval education on board the British fleet. As commander of the flotilla on the Don and the Sea of Azof, he had to convoy stores, ammunition, and pro- visions to the army under Lacy. While entertaining exalted notions of his own dignity, he was sadly deficient in pluck, and on one occasion showed the white feather so unmistakeably, that his own officers called him a coward to his face. Fancying the Turks at a safe distance, he took a cruise, and upon a thick fog coming on, laid up his squadron in a bay. Upon the weather clearing, the fleet of the enemy 208 THE CRIMEA. was discovered at its mouth. The admiral was one of the first to get ashore. He then sent for his captains, and acquainted them that he was very ill, and as there were no proper medicines to be had in such a desert country, he must go by land to Azof to obtain them. So off he went in a bullock-waggon, leaving his subordinates to manage matters as they could. Some of them being British expressed their sentiments so freely that the admiral had them tried by a court-martial, of course consisting of his own friends. The offenders were sentenced to be dis- missed the service of the empress, and two were condemned to die ; but the Admiralty at St. Peters- burg quashed the proceedings. Many and warm were the bickerings between the foreigners in the fleet and the Russian officials. Smallman, an Englishman, serving as a lieutenant, happened to let slip that he had been bound apprentice to the coal- ships plying between Newcastle and London. At this, Mr. Pavelot sneered, upon which Cook, a testy Scot, interposed for the honour of the coal marine, and proceeded from words to blows in its vindication. Brown, another Irishman, expatriated by political causes, served with distinction as a colonel at the siege of Ochzakow. Being taken prisoner by the Turks in Hungary, he was sold as a slave, and THIRD TURKO-RUSSIAN WAR. 209 transferred to four different masters. At one time, he was bound back to back with another prisoner for forty-eight hours, and exposed almost naked in the various places where slaves are disposed of. Redeemed by the French ambassador, he returned to Russia, obtained promotion, and died as General Count Brown, at Riga, in 1789. During the butchery at Ochzakow, Innes, a lieutenant from Aberdeen, while passing through the streets, observed a Russian orenadier amusing himself by torturing a poor Turkish child. Upon interposing to save the child, the brute furiously rushed at him with his bayonet. A single stroke decapitated the grenadier; and upon a comrade stepping forward to avenge his death, he shared his fate. Innes captured the last post defended by the garrison; and was rewarded by being made a colonel of dragoons. Gray, an English officer, who figured in a court-martial for a duel with a Frenchman; and Sinclair and Leslie, north- countrymen, were conspicuous for their gallantry on many occasions. ILieslie, while foraging in the steppes, at the head of a small corps, was surrounded by a large body of the enemy; and obstinately refusing to surrender, the whole party perished. After twenty-eight years of peace, the third great war of the last century between the Turks and the P 210 THE CRIMEA. Russians broke out in 1768. Catherine II. then reigned at St. Petersburg, and Mustapha III. at Constantinople. The empress had become supreme in Poland, having placed, by arms, bribes, and intrigue, a discarded paramour upon the throne, as a step preparatory to the absorption of the greater part of that unhappy country in her own dominions, and its political erasure from the map of nations. Her attitude was menacing to the Ottoman empire, and actual aggression had occurred at Balta, a frontier town between the Tatar khanate and the Polish kingdom. She aspired to act the part of dictatress in the grand republic of Europe, while most of the cabinets slumbered and slept with refer- ence to the aggrandisement at which she aimed. Sweden and Denmark were entirely subservient. Great Britain was silenced by a favourable com- mercial treaty. Prussia was eager to share in the spoliation of the neighbouring state. The views of Austria pointed secretly in the same direction. France alone was awake to the dangerous augmenta- tion of power upon which Catherine was bent, and endeavoured to check it by involving her in a great war. “ None,” wrote the Duke de Choiseul to M. de Vergennes at Constantinople, “but the Turks are in a condition to render us that service;” and THIRD TURKO-RUSSIAN WAR. 211 accordingly the ambassador was instructed to adopt the most energetic measures to induce the Porte to decide upon hostilities. The decision was taken in an evil hour for the Ottoman empire, for the issue of the war wrested an immense extent of territory from it, and compromised its own independence. Yet strong political reasons favoured the step. It was intended to prevent Catherine from becoming a nearer neighbour by succeeding in her ambitious designs upon Poland. It fulfilled the spirit of treaties with the Poles, and complied with the urgent appeals for assistance from the nobles who formed the anti-Russian confederation of Bar. Unhappily, France vacillated with reference to Poland, out of deference to Austria, refusing that acknowledgment to the confederation of nobles, which would have nationalised the league, and thereby powerfully aided the arms of the Ottomans. The conduct of the cabinet of Versailles was simply weak ; that of the court of Vienna was infamously treacherous. At one period of the contest, Austria engaged by secret treaty to take up arms offensively on behalf of the Porte, upon condition of a subsidy to defray expenses, and certain cessions of territory when peace should be concluded. Faithful to the contract, the sultan began with an advance of five P 2 212 THE CRIMEA. millions of imperial florins, upwards of one million sterling. Austria immediately used the money in making preparations against him, and uniting with the czarina. The war is remarkable for the first appearance of a Russian squadron in the Mediter- ranean, sailing from the ports of Revel and Arch- angel ; and its great victory in the Bay of Tchesme, an engagement as fatal to the Turkish navy as the battle of Navarino. The triumph was mainly due to the skill and intrepidity of the British officers, Elphinston and Greig, the vice-admirals, and Dugdale, a lieu- tenaat. Considering existing political combinations, it is strangely true, that our countrymen have con- tributed more to the aggrandisement of Russia, and the depression of Turkey, than any other people. At the commencement of the war, Krim Gherai, the Khan of the Crimea, was regarded as the right arm of the sultan. He was a man of noble presence, easy manners, fluent speech, and extensive inform- ation for a Tatar prince, alike feared by his enemies, and beloved by his subjects. De Tott, who was his companion during a campaign, bears frequent testi- mony to his abilities. After the fatigues of the day, he commonly amused himself with a band of musi- cians, or a company of comedians, whom he kept in pay. Having heard of the plays of Moliére, he KRIM GHERAL. 213 inquired of the Frenchman concerning them ; and remarked, upon the character of Tartuffe being explained : — ¢ Every country has its hypocrites ; Tatary has hers: you will oblige me by getting this piece translated.” The secretary to the embassy performed the task. While strict in his government, Krim Gherai was considerate. Upon one occasion, when the ambassador was present in his tent, a Polish soldier rushed in, and began unceremoniously to undress himself by the fire. The man had fallen into the water, and as it was the depth of winter, his clothes were frozen hard. De Tott would have turned him out; but the khan interposed to prevent it.“ What are you going to do,” said he, ¢ with the poor fellow ? The man who is dying, is he not in- dependent? He knows nobody but the person who can assist him. Kings are no longer anything to him. Let us leave him the tent to himself.” While in Poland, some Nogays were convicted of having mutilated a picture of Christ in a place of worship, upon which the khan ordered them to receive 100 strokes of the bastinado at the gate of the church. “ We must teach,” said he, the Tatars to respect the fine arts and the Prophets.” By a levy of three horsemen from every eight families in the khanate, three armies were raised for P 3 i a vr ave oj re A, WR TR ee 214 THE CRIMEA. the war. One of 60,000 men, under the Kalga- sultan, was to file along the left bank of the Dnieper ; a second of 40,000, under the Noureddin- sultan, was to march to the Lesser Don; and a third of 100,000, commanded by the khan in person, was destined to penetrate into New Servia, a part of the Ukraine, between the Bog and the Dnieper. The general rendezvous was fixed at Kaouchan in Bessa- rabia, which place became for the time the capital of Krim Tatary. The khan made his public entry in great state. His cap was enriched with diamonds. His bow and quiver were slung across his body. A guard preceded, with several led horses, whose heads were ornamented with tufts of feathers. The stan- dard of the Prophet followed. De Tott, who had previously arrived, had received a message to prepare a supper for Krim Gherai. The messenger gave him a hint about the fare. ¢ Qur master,” said he, “loves fish. He knows that your cook dresses it very well. His own puts nothing but water in the sauces.” Acting upon this intimation, the host gave orders for the best fish of the Dniester to be drowned in excellent wine. In January 1769, while the ground was covered with hard snow, and the rivers were ice-bound, the troops were put in motion. They crossed the KRIM GHERAIL 215 Dniester and the Bog, and entered the province of New Servia, simply to denude it of resources. In the tent of the khan, sixty persons might conve- niently sit around the wood fire. It was decorated with crimson stuff in the interior, and furnished with a circular carpet, with some cushions. Twelve smaller tents placed around it accommodated officers and pages. The khan usually sat up till near mid- night, and then reposed in his fur pelisse for about three hours upon a cushion, two pages maintaining a good fire. Upon fresh provisions being exhausted, his table was supplied with biscuit, smoked horses’ ribs, and caviar, with raisins for a desert. One of De Tott’s horses becoming too exhausted to proceed, some of the Nogays came to beg him as a present. “ What would you do,” inquired he, “with a dead horse?” ¢ He is not dead yet,” they replied. “We shall be in time to kill him, and to regale ourselves on him, particularly as he is a white horse, whose flesh is always the most delicate.” Upon some « Turks, who accompanied the expedition, resorting to their usual practice of cutting off the heads of the slain, Krim Gherai strictly prohibited it, and had the offenders punished. “I would hang up,” said he, “a Tatar who should dare to present himself before me in the attitude of an executioner. How can p 4 SE RT TR TE eR a TR _ 4 2 Ar 8 i 4 i i] & i 216 THE CRIMEA. there exist so ferocious a people as to encourage barbarity by rewarding it, and can take a pleasure in such disgusting objects ?” The season proved so extremely rigorous, that men and horses perished of the cold, though accus- tomed to brave severe weather. Whole flocks were found frozen dead upon the plains, and partly buried by the hurricanes of sleet and snow. A single day’s march cost the army 3000 men, and 30,000 horses. “I cannot make the weather better,” observed the khan; “but I can inspire courage to bear it.” He mounted his horse, and rode through the ranks in a biting wind, strictly conforming to the custom which prohibits oriental sovereigns from wearing the shawls with which private persons protect their heads in the chilling wintry blasts. The expedition, intended to ravage New Servia, and cut off supplies from the Russians, having accomplished the object, retired to the Dniester, leaving the province in a horrible condition. The smoke of 150 villages destroyed by fire, the fine ashes caught up by the wind, and the vapour of the melted snow darkened the sky for twenty leagues. Soon after returning to Kaouchan, the career of Krim Gherai was suddenly brought to a close. Subject to hypochondriachal affections, a Greek of KRIM GHERAL 217 repute as a physician, and also a political agent, introduced himself, and offered the succour of his art. De Tott vainly remonstrated against its accept- ance. What, my friend,” said the khan, are you afraid ? 7“ Undoubtedly,” he replied ; reflect on that man’s situation and your own, and judge whether I am wrong.” ¢ What nonsense; ” said he, « what good can I derive from such an examination ? A single glance is sufficient; look at him,—look at me,—-and see whether the infidel would dare!” The next day the khan had scarcely strength to move, and went out of his harem no more. On De Tott entering the apartment where he was lying, he had just finished dictating some despatches to the secretary of his council. Pointing to the papers which were lying around him, ¢ See there,” said he, “my last work; and my last moments I have reserved for you.” But soon perceiving the grief caused by his situation, «Let us separate,” he added ; “ your sensibility would melt me, and IT will hy to go to sleep more gaily.” He then made a sign $0 six musicians at the bottom of his chamber to begin a concert; and about an hour afterwards, the unfortunate prince breathed his last to the sound of music. The symptoms of poison were soon apparent in the state of the body. In the general === Se TE TE, rit eer 7 fT a ri TTR NENT A, Tow 218 THE CRIMEA. confusion the Greek escaped into Wallachia. No one doubted his being a secret agent of Russia. A coach hung with mourning, and drawn by six horses, caparisoned with black cloth, conveyed the khan to the resting-place of his predecessors in the Crimea, attended by an escort of princes, nobles, and troops. The name of Krim Gherai occurs in an inscription on the fountain of Marie at Bakchi-serai; but it is quite doubtful if he was the party connected with her history. «Rejoice ! rejoice! Bakchi- serai! For the enlightened khan, Krim Gherai, ever benevolent, ever solicitous for the welfare of his children, discovered this excellent spring of the purest water, and through his own munificence erected this beautiful fountain. Glory to the most omnipotent! If there exists such another fountain in the universe, let it be found! Damascus and Bagdad have many glorious things, but so beautiful a fountain they have not beheld.” The most horrible severities were adopted by the Russian commanders in Poland against the Con- federates of Bar, in order to prevent a diversion from that quarter interfering with the war with the Turks. Soltikof formally announced to his army, that officers or soldiers should be rigorously punished who took prisoner a Confedirete, and KAPLAN GHERAI 219 granted him his life. Nine unhappy men of quality were seen in the capital, whose arms had been cut off at the wrists, by orders of General Drevitch, who superintended the execution of the execrable act. During the early part of the war, the Turks fought with fiery energy; and twice defeated their antago- nists in pitched battles. But upon Marshal Roman- zow taking the command of the imperial army in 1770, they met with severe reverses, courage not being supported by skilful generalship, and artifice being added to the force of arms by the enemy. The deceased khan of the Crimea was succeeded by his nephew. Being young and feeble, the Porte deposed him. Kaplan Gherai was substituted, a warlike prince, but more qualified to fight as a soldier, than lead as a captain. While encamped on the Pruth, at the head of a united army of Tatars and Turks, his astrologer betrayed his plans to Romanzow, lured by a bribe, and also induced his master to forego an opportunity favourable for an attack, by declaring the time unpropitious. This treachery contributed to two disastrous defeats, which laid open the whole frontier of the sultan to invasion, secured the fame of the Russian com- mander, and led Catherine seriously to contemplate obtaining possession of Constantinople. The villany A pee tr TR Er Sr EP Sn HR 220 THE CRIMEA. of the astrologer being discovered, the bow-string did its office, but the mischief was irreparable. While the great contest raged furiously on the Danube in 1771, between Romanzow and the grand vizier, Prince Dolgorouki led a strong imperial army against the Crimea, forced the lines of Perekop, and overrun the peninsula. The campaign was almost an unopposed march, for the Turkish commanders timidly retired before him, and abandoned the country, leaving the khan no alternative but to quit it also, or fall into the hands of the conqueror. In- trigue had previously been at work sowing disunion among the Tatars, and sapping the integrity of their Turkish allies. Indignant at the cowardice of Abbas Pasha and some other officers, the sultan sent them the fatal bow-string, and their heads were exposed at the gate of the Seraglio. The khan remained after their departure in the highlands, but, finding it im- possible to cope with his adversaries, he escaped to Constantinople. Catherine, in a letter to Voltaire, dated August 2nd, 1771, remarks : — Perhaps in a little time the Khan of the Crimea will be brought to me in person. I learn this moment that he did not cross the sea with the Turks, but that he re- mained in the mountains with a very small number of followers, nearly as was the case with the Pre- CONQUEST OF THE CRIMEA. 221 tender in Scotland after the defeat at Culloden. If he comes to me, we will strive to polish him this winter ; and, to take my revenge of him, I will make him dance, and he shall go to the French comedy.” The Russians evidently made no little booty; for the empress adds : —* If we take another Kaffa or two, the war is paid for.” The details of this easy triumph are recorded in one of the churches of Arabat on a slab of red marble ornamented at the top with a coat of arms. An inscription in gilt letters states : — In remem- brance of the glorious victories of Prince Dolgorouki, who arrived on the 23rd of June, 1771, at Perekop, at the head of the second imperial army, and by six in the morning of the 25th of June forced the lines of the first attack. The garrison of Perekop, con- sisting of 879 men, viz., 99 officers and 780 men, laid down their arms, and were carried by sea to Varna. 35,000 Turks and Tatars, supporting the garrison, on seeing the same surrender, fled in great disorder towards the south. Prince Dolgorouki then marched across the Crimea, and took the fortress of Kaffa on the 5th of July. The Seraskier and 1300 men were made prisoners; while Abbas Pasha, at the head of 22,000 Turks escaped in 160 vessels lying off Kaffa. About 8000 Tatars returned to their 222 THE CRIMEA. habitations. In the same month did Prince Dolgo- rouki take and destroy the three fortresses of Yenikale, Balaklava, Beiby, and the strong castle of Kertch. Within their walls were found 278 cannons, 17 mortars, and 40,000 stands of arms of various descriptions.” Thus weakly was the pen- insula surrendered to the invader, by cowardly or treacherous desertion on the part of the Turkish commander, together with feuds and panic among the Tatars. Though probably the most vigorous opposition of the combined parties would have proved unavailing against the superior discipline and arms of the Russians, it is scarcely possible to doubt that the hopelessness of the contest did not deter- mine events without bribes and guile. Dolgorouki, in accordance with ancient usage, acquired the sur- name of Crimsky, because he conquered the Crimea; though the name of conquest is scarcely applicable to what was mastered without a blow of importance being struck in its defence. His memory is pre- served at Simferopol by a quadrangular obelisk of greenstone, near the cathedral. On one side the portrait of the prince is carved; on another, his armorial bearings; on the third, the Russian eagle ; and on the fourth, the victory of Christianity over Islamism is represented by a Tatar baptism. The DISASTERS IN RUSSIA. 2a3 victory has yet to be gained, and the baptism to be desired. In command of the country, it was not the policy of the dominant power to abolish the old form of government, or national prejudices would have been offended and passions exasperated, leading to harass- ing local rebellions. The more prudent step was adopted of permitting the machine to continue in action, and take the management of it. Hence a new khan was appointed by the conquerors, Saheb Gherai, who was content to purchase his dignity by formally ceding to them the forts of Kertch and Yenikale; and every effort was made to form a Russian party among the people. The year of triumph to Russia was also one of the sorest trouble. Her armies, by penetrating into the Ottoman territories, met with the contagion of the plague, and transferred it into the heart of the empire. The towns of the Ukraine were ravaged, and Moscow lost three-fourths of its inhabitants. The folly of the generals and commandants extended the disaster by dealing with it as if subject, like a file of soldiers, to military command. Stofeln, at Jassy, issued peremptory orders that the name should not be pronounced; and required the medical officers to sign a certificate that no plague existed, while 224 THE CRIMEA. thousands were falling victims to it around him. A ukase also assured the people that the pestilence was a false alarm raised by evil-minded men. Such measures only tended to throw the population off their guard, render them incautious, and widen the range of the calamity. At Moscow, the populace, driven frantic by distress and terror, rose even against the religious authorities, and murdered the archbishop in the Donskoi monastery. Hence in 1772, both parties, Russians and Turks, were equally in want of peace; and a congress was held at Fokshiani, near Bucharest, to endeavour to arrange the terms. The plenipotentiaries met in the open air, pitched their tents, and conferred in a kiosk erected for the occasion. No contrast could be greater than that afforded by the representatives of the belligerents in their outward appearance. Orloff, the base minion of the empress, blazed with jewels; while Osman Effendi, the ambassador of the sultan, was simply distinguished by a gold-headed cane. The latter, the first to break silence, remarked, “that the Grand Seignior, his master, had recom- mended him to serve God, and to love peace.” But no arrangement could be effected; and the war raged wildly on till further reverses compelled a new sultan, Abdul Hamid, in 1774, to yield to the TREATY OF KAINARDJI. 225 demands of his antagonist, signing the disastrous treaty of Kainardji in Bulgaria. By this celebrated treaty Russia retained pos- session of Azof and Taganrog, with the fortress of Kinburn ; and the general boundary between the two powers was fixed at the river Bog. The Crimea was constituted a mock independent state. This was the most bitter part of the treaty to the Turks, as it terminated an alliance of three centuries ; and they must have perceived, that, in detaching the peninsula from the Porte, the real object in view was its Russian incorporation. The czarina also obtained the free navigation of the Ottoman waters for her merchant flag, specially including the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, subject to being visited. The glorious treaty of Kainardji,” as the Jmperor Nicholas styled it, had other articles, upon which he founded those demands upon the court of Constantinople which led to the present war. They supply a rich example of the old adage about giving an inch and taking an ell. “The Sublime Porte,” says Article 7., © promises constantly to protect the Christian religion, and the churches belonging to it; and also it permits the ministers of the imperial court of Russia to make, on all occasions, representations as well in respect of the new church at Constanti- Q 226 THE CRIMEA. nople (mentioned hereafter) as of those who belong to it — promising to take them into consideration as coming from a person in the confidence of a neigh- bouring and sincerely friendly power.” Article 14. states :— ¢* After the example of the other powers, it is permitted to the high court of Russia, besides the chapel erected in its house of embassy, to con- struct, in the quarter of Galata, in the street named Bey-Oglu, a public church of the Greek religion, which shall be always under the protection of the ministers of that empire, and held free from all inter- ruption and annoyance.” The articles together “permit” Russia to build a certain church at Con- stantinople, naming the quarter and the street, and place that church under its protection. They also “permit ” Russia to make representations at pleasure on behalf of the said church, and of those who belong to it, promising them due consideration. Such is the foundation for the demands of the late czar, haughtily delivered by Menzikoff. Turning per- missions into rights, and a particular case into a general rule, he required a document acknowledging his right of protection over all the members of the Greek communion, subjects of the sultan, and residing in his dominions. In support of this un- principled claim, the northern power practically TREATY OF KAINARDJI. 227 declared war by marching his battalions across the frontier ; and has hitherto been righteously punished for the aggression, by being humbled on the Danube, defeated in the Crimea, and terrified out of his seas, while condemned by the public opinion of Europe. The battle of Russia for the Black Sea was won, as far as Turkey was concerned, when the treaty of Kainardji was signed. The empire could hold direct communication with its waters through the strait of Kertch and the liman of the Dnieper, while intercourse might be main- tained with the Levant and the Mediterranean, through the Bosphorus, Propontis, and Dardanelles. By thus securing for her dominions a southern maritime outlet, Catherine realised the object which Peter the Great aspired in vain to achieve; and the grand inland basin, which had been for three centuries the privileged domain of the sultans, lost its integrity as an Ottoman lake. The empress was not slow in turning her mew position to account. General Hannibal, by her orders, founded Cherson in 1778, on the north bank of the Dnieper, as a military and commercial port. Five years later, in 1783, Richelieu, a Frenchman, afterwards ennobled by Louis XVI., established there the first foreign com- mercial house ; and contracted to supply the arsenals Q2 228 THE CRIMEA. of Toulon with the hemp and timber conveyed down the river from the interior. It rapidly became an important town, but as rapidly declined, upon the foundation of the rival ports, Nicolaief, Odessa, and Sebastopol. A feverish anxiety was displayed to create a fleet; and one, respectable as to numbers, was formed. But the ships, being ill-built, were not adapted for safe cruising on capricious and dangerous waters, besides being badly officered, and manned with unskilful erews. They had rough handling from the winds and waves; and several soon perished. The Slava Ekaterina, ¢ The Glory of Catherine,” one of the largest, was dashed to pieces on the rocks of the Crimea ; the Magdalene, of 66 guns, was driven by a gale of wind into the channel of Constantinople during the next war, and captured by the Turks; and the Crimea, of 40 guns, foundered in the same storm. ¢ The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” The Black Sea asserted its independence of the great Mother of Muscovy. CHAP. VIIL THE RUSSIAN ANNEXATION OF THE CRIMEA. CATHERINE II. — PRINCE POTEMKIN. — TREATY OF KAIN- ARDJI.—MEASURES OF RUSSIA.—THE RIVAL KHANS.— THE TURKS.—CHAHYN GHERAI.—THE BEY MANSOUR.— HIS EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER. — RUSSIAN INTER- FERENCE. — MANIFESTO OF THE EMPRESS. — SUMMER PALACE OF THE KHANS, — THE TAURIDA PALACE. — VISIT OF CATHERINE TO THE CRIMEA. — ITS DESIGN.— PROGRESS OF THE EMPRESS.—ALLIANCE OF RUSSIA AND AUSTRIA. — WAR WITH THE TURKS. — POTEMKIN’S FESTIVAL. — RESULTS OF THE WAR.— FATE OF THE GHERAIS.—FATE OF MANSOUR.—DEATH OF POTEMKIN.— SHIFTINGS OF POPULATION. — THE PROVINCE CONSTI=- TUTED. THE love of power and fame was the dominant sentiment in the mind of Catherine II. But it was by no means an exclusive passion, for she contrived to blend the grossest sensuality that ever dishonoured the name of woman, with the most daring ambition that ever marked the character of man. Three great political designs were contemplated during her reign : the partition of Poland, the possession of the Crimea, and the dismemberment of the Ottoman dominions. She failed in the latter object, but Q3 230 THE CRIMEA. succeeded in the two former, employing the means usually adopted by unscrupulous governments to compass an end,—the open law of the strong hand, when it was prudent or necessary to display it, and the hidden machinery of flagitious intrigue, when cheaper or more convenient. For success in the second of these schemes, the empress was indebted to Gregory Potemkin, the partner of her profligacy for a time, and afterwards its patron, taking tribute of his successors. To the end of his days, when no longer an object of personal interest, he maintained an extraordinary ascendancy over her mind, by flattering pride and nursing hope respecting the third design, that of being crowned, at Constan- tinople, the mistress of the East. This remarkable man was born in the neighbour- hood of Smolensko. His family came originally from Poland, but had long been settled in Russia, and included among the inferior nobility. One of his ancestors appeared at the court of London as an envoy from Peter the Great. Upon attracting the notice of the empress by a commanding figure and insinuating address, he rapidly rose from the lowest position in the horse guards, to the highest functions in the ministry and the army. Honours, posts, estates, and presents incessantly accumulated. He PRINCE POTEMKIN, 231 became commander-in-chief of all the Russian armies; grand admiral of the fleets of the Euxine, the Sea of Azof, and the Caspian; grand hetman of the Cossacks; governor-general of the south; and knight of all the orders of the empire. Foreign potentates sent him their dignities and pay to gain his interest. The badge of the Black Eagle came from Prussia, of the Elephant from Denmark, and of the Seraphim from Sweden. Everything about the imperial favourite was of colossal stamp —his person, abilities, emoluments, power, pleasures, vices, ostentation, meanness, and audacity. No man was ever more versatile. With equal facility he could plan a campaign, and conduct an intrigue ; act the general, the courtier, and the diplomatist; arrange a spectacle, and counter-plot an enemy; be the polished gentleman and the churlish boor ; revel like Sardanapalus, and fast like a monk; indulge the voluptuousness that marked the worst days of imperial Rome, and practice the hardy habits of an almost savage life. No difficulty deterred, no danger daunted, and no crime repelled him from his purpose; while the strangest contrarieties ap- peared in his character and projects. The dukedom of Courland, the crown of Poland, and the sovereignty Q 4 232 THE CRIMEA. of the Principalities, successively presented them- selves to his mind as objects of ambition, and were rejected as too paltry. But he proposed going into holy orders, administering the sacraments, and dying an archbishop. He was abjectly superstitious, while licentious in the extreme; and avaricious, though prodigal to excess. He squandered millions, resorted to the meanest artifices to extort trifling sums of money, haggled with his creditors, duped them when he could, and swindled the imperial treasury. Such was Potemkin: clever, bold, fertile, false, and thoroughly unprineipled, who for sixteen years was virtually the autocrat of Russia, appointed ministers, generals, and minions, and managed the conspiracy which eventually enclosed the Crimea in the meshes of the empire. The rise of Potemkin to power took place imme- diately after the treaty of Kainardji was concluded. The third article of that compact states : —< All the Tatar tribes, those of the Crimea, of Kuban, &ec., - without any exception, are recognised by the two empires as free nations, entirely independent of every foreign power (comme nations libres, entiere- ment indépendantes de toute puissance étrangere). They shall be under the immediate government of their own khan, of the tribe of Genghis Khan, who INDEPENDENCE OF THE CRIMEA. 2533 shall be elected and confirmed by the universal assent of the Tatar nations, and is bound to govern them after their original manners and customs, with- out ever being responsible to any foreign power (sans jamais rendre compte a aucune puissance étran- gére) ; in pursuance of which the Ottoman Porte will in no way interfere either in the election or confir- mation of the above-mentioned khan, or in his domestic, political, civil, and home affairs. It will, on the contrary, regard and recognise the said Tatar nation, in its civil and political relations, as equal to all other powers which govern themselves, and are only dependent on God (qui se gouvernent elles- mémes, et ne dependent que de Dien). The eccle- siastic ceremonies, as they are identical with those of the Moslem, and his highness the sultan is the sublime caliph of Mohammedanism, shall be regu- lated according to the decrees of their religion, with- out in any way restricting their political and religious liberty.” The article closes with the words: — The Sublime Porte binds itself, and solemnly promises, after the example of Russia, not to introduce or support any garrison or armed forces in the said towns, fortresses, countries, and dwell- ings; further, for the future, to appoint no governor or officer to those states, under whatever appellation 234 THE CRIMEA. it might be, but to leave the Tatars in perfect liberty and independence, as is done by Russia.” This language admits of no misconstruction. Both empires were definitively bound by its terms not to interfere in the affairs of the Crimea, but to leave it to self-government. The people were to be free from the control of every foreign power, and only dependent upon God. The Turks, with all their faults, have not been chargeable with faithlessness in private or public transactions. They fulfilled their part of the engagement with constancy, even after a flagrant breach of the treaty by the other contracting party had absolved them from the obligation to observe it. The Russians, with all their professional zeal for the orthodox religion, have never kept a treaty when it has been convenient to break it ; and scarcely had the ink dried with which the document was signed, when they violated the compact, and were actively at work to defeat its object. Access to the Black Sea was only the first instalment of the success desired by the northern power. The sovereignty of its waters was contemplated. In order to this end, the possession of the Crimea was obviously indispensable, comprising an extensive and favourably situated part of the coast-line, with splendid harbours, natural fortifications, and timber MEASURES OF RUSSIA. 235 for ship-building. It had the additional recommen- dation of being an advanced stepping-stone in the direction of Constantinople. Political agents entered the peninsula, intent upon corrupting the myrzas by bribes, flatteries, and pro- mises, fomenting faction and party strife, in order to weaken opposition, and acquire the country either by voluntary cession or under the guise of protecting its interests. Though Russia was prepared to brave a new war with the Turks rather than forego her object, yet, to reduce this risk as much as possible, the plan was adopted of placing a khan upon the throné, who might be induced to put himself under the protection of the empress, or be driven to it by revolts provoked among his own subjects. This ne- farious project was pertinaciously pursued, while, in anticipation of the course of events, large bodies of troops were collected on the frontier at Taganrog, in Taman, and near Perekop, ready to act immediately when required. In fact, a detachment remained in possession of the forts of Kertch and Yenikale, in open violation of the treaty of independence. This was with the consent of the reigning khan, Saheb Gherai, a pro-Russian, on which account the Tatars indignantly deposed him in 1776, and substituted his brother Devlet, an anti-Russian. But early in the 236 THE CRIMEA. next year the celebrated Suwarrow, then a rising officer, who had been in winter-quarters near Pere- kop, marched into the peninsula, dethroned the khan, and elevated Chahyn Gherai to the government. This prince was a well-meaning man, but luxuriously inclined, of feeble character, unsuspecting temper, easily led and duped, and, therefore, selected as a fit instrument to bring his country into foreign sub- jection. Wassilitsky, an unprincipled agent of Po- temkin, appeared at his court, dignified with the title of Elchi Bey, or ambassador, and at his sug- gestion six myrzas were despatched to St. Petersburg to invoke the friendship of Catherine. They were received with distinction ; shown whatever was cal- culated to give them exalted ideas of the wealth, power, and majesty of the empire ; and, previous to presentation for audience, were habited in magnificent caftans, each of the value of 4000 rubles. Irritated by these tendencies, the Tatars again revolted, and proclaimed Selim Gherai, a young, bold, and brave prince, their ruler. Again the Russians, under Prince Prozorofsky, marched into the country, and drove Selim to take refuge in the mountains of the coast-chain, where a murderous guerilla warfare was maintained. Thus were the people left to govern themselves, only dependent on God ! \ B AR Ye - OF TH £ ! Y'4 { Cel: § UNI Rp: 1 a THE TURKS. 237 The Turks were naturally exasperated by these gross breaches of faith, and might justifiably-have in- terfered in behalf of the patriot Tatars, ad'the “bond to the contrary had been annulled by the conduct of the Russians. But a foreign influence restrained them. One ambassador of France, M. de Vergennes, had instigated the preceding war. His successor, M. de St. Priest, now prevented a new one; and even brought about a convention, in 1779, by which the sultan consented to recognise the sovereignty of Chahyn Gherai, subject to the condition of the Rus- sian forces being withdrawn. The ambassador, no- toriously in the pay of the empress, received as a reward for his important services a present of her portrait, set with brilliants, and the order of St. Andrew, with bills of exchange for 50,000 rubles, and an annual pension. Potemkin also sent him donations, among which was a watch set with diamonds. But, even in this case, the condition was disregarded upon which the convention was con- cluded ; for, instead of the forts of Kertch and Yenikale being evacuated, they were made the nuclei of armies of occupation; and, with much courtesy, the disturbed state of the frontier was assigned as an excuse. Blind to the snare laid for his own ruin, and the 238 THE CRIMEA. subjection of his people to the imperial yoke, Chahyn Gherai entangled himself more and more in its web. Unmindful of his rank and independence, he sought an appointment in the Russian army, and became a lieutenant-colonel of the Preobraginsky guards, the uniform of which was sent him, with the order of St. Anne. His own body-guard consisted of Russian soldiers, and for a time Suwarrow was the general commander of his forces. Surrendering himself to the foreign influences around him, he became fond of European novelties, arts, and fashions. His taste was gratified, and incentives to effeminacy and voluptuousness were supplied. He soon learned to despise the habits of his own subjects, abandoned the ancient mode of living, obtained a Russian cook, and had his meals served up on plate. Instead ‘of mounting on horseback like his countrymen, he had a close carriage, of English manufacture, drawn by eight horses, in. which he took recreation, attended with servants in livery. Silver and copper monies were coined after the Russian fashion. One speci- men of the liberty enjoyed by his ministers will suffice. Two members of the divan strongly opposed a project which Suwarrow was ordered by his supe- riors to execute, upon which he placed a guard upon their houses, with cannon, until they yielded. THE BEY MANSOUR. 239 Proceedings of this kind excited the passions of a high-spirited race to a pitch of fury. The means employed by Russia to gain a party could only extend to the few, while the majority remained attached to the Ottomans, as co-religionists with whom they had been long united, and who had rarely interfered with their internal administration. A violent outbreak was, therefore, organised in order to expel the imbecile tool of the empress from the throne of the Crimea, and substitute the khan of the mountains, Selim Gherai, in his place. But it com- prised the Tatars of the Kuban, with the nations of the Caucasus, who had reason to be alarmed for their. own independence by the extension of Russian in- fluence, and was intended to form a general barrier against further encroachment. This movement was chiefly promoted and sustained by a remarkable and mysterious man, Elijah Mansour, who strenuously exerted himself to unite the several tribes of the highland isthmus in a common league, in order to cope with their northern antagonists with a greater chance of success. The Bey Mansour, as he was commonly called, like his successor, Schmayl, united the character of warrior, prophet, and priest, and elevated himself to the leadership of the Caucasian tribes by his intre- 240 THE CRIMEA. pidity as a soldier, eloquence as a preacher, and in- domitable enmity to the Muscovites. The mystery which invested him gave him influence, for no one knew precisely who he was, or whence he came, nor has it yet been ascertained. According to the Rus- sians, he was a renegade Pole in disguise,—one of the last of the Piasts, — for he spoke the Polish and Russian languages with fluency, and was intimately acquainted with the arts and sciences of Europe. His own followers, of course, considered him an Asiatic ; and the Turkish historians regard him as a descendant of the great warrior, Sultan Mansour. However this may be, he was far superior to Schmayl in capacity and power,—a perfect master of that style of eloquence which isadapted to inflame the oriental mind,—a man of burning words, un- daunted bearing, and rapid action. No one could anticipate his movements, so secret were his plans and sudden their execution. Mounted on a favourite black charger, he seemed to pass with lightning speed from the Caspian to the Euxine— from the narrow defiles of the Caucasus to the open plains of the Crimea, — appearing at the precise moment and the exact spot where an advantage was to be gained against the common enemy, — everywhere boldly exposing himself, and long escaping unscathed, MANSOUR BEY. 241 though foes tracked his passage with the tenacity of bloodhounds. "When not engaged in war, he retired to a dwelling in the mountains, where multitudes visited him to hear his discourses and profit by his skill in medicine. His doctrines were not strictly Mohammedan. “ We cannot,” says Halim Pasha, “but regard it as a singular trait in this remarkable man, that, though a professed iman of the Islamitish faith, he never in his exhortations, and while ex- pounding to his followers the great truths of Allah, alluded with the zeal of a true Mussulman to the divine mission of Mohammed.” He taught also a more tolerant form of Islam than that announced in the Koran ; and hence it was no uncommon thing to see Christian, Jew, and Moslem fighting under his banner. The fame of Mansour spread far and wide, from Ispahan and Constantinople to St. Petersburg. High station was offered to secure his services. The Ottoman sultan invited him to become his grand vizier ; the shah of Persia made similar advances ; but he despised all worldly grandeur. A magnificent seal he accepted, presented by the highland chiefs, bearing the inscription : — “ The victorious Mansour, Sheik and Imam! Conqueror of the Muscovs! 1199 of the Hegira.” R 242 THE CRIMEA. Protected in many hazardous encounters, and singu- larly escaping from imminent perils, while hailed by an enthusiastic people as the promised Imam of Allah, it is not surprising that he actually considered himself specially inspired by the Almighty, and commissioned to unite the races of the Caucasus against the Russians. “In addition to khans, sultans, and mighty chieftains,” says Klaproth, “sages and religious enthusiasts, celebrated for their piety, came from the remotest parts to see and salute this extraordinary man. They showed him the passage in their religious books in which he was mentioned, and where it was expressly said that the Iman Mansour would come from the Caucasus, that he would be a successful warrior and renown-d prophet, and through him alone the infidel invaders would be exterminated, and finally restore the general peace of the Caucasus, and re-establish the ancient empire of the Tatars. They also read to him the repeated assurance that he was the very imam promised to the faithful in the latter days, and by whom the true faith was to be preached to the whole world. In order to secure the person of so redoubtable an enemy as the prophet, the Russians sent a powerful army against him, commanded by experienced officers; but the mountaineers, in- CHAHYN GHERAIL 243 flamed by the wild bravery and predictions of their prophet, fell upon them in the narrow defiles of the Caucasus, and cut the greatest part to pieces, Colonel Tamara alone escaping with a part of his detachment. This unprecedented success excited the minds of the fierce hordes of the Caucasus and Tatary still more, augmented the power and influence of the prophet, and was productive of many disasters to the Russian armies.” Though eventually worsted, he caused the empire to expend mines of treasure and rivers of blood. Besides giving employment to generals, troops, and cannon, Catherine deemed it expedient to assail the bey with his own weapons, and fulmi- nated abroad by a ukase some stupid prophecies of old Greek patriarchs and ecclesiastics favourable to her ambitious designs. The old capital of the Crimea was not a safe place of residence for Chahyn Gherai. His foreign guard had once been almost entirely cut to pieces by the infuriated people, owing to an outrage. He esta- blished himself, therefore, at Kaffa, built a palace, and transferred the mint from Bakchi-serai. The town was conveniently near the outposts of the Russians ; and in 1782 a successful revolution com- pelled him to flee to them, while the rest of the country was held by his competitor Selim and the R 2 244 THE CRIMEA. Bey Mansour. The wretched fugitive proceeded to Taganrog, threw himself into the arms of Potemkin, and invoked the aid of the empire. The representa- tive of the empress had there established his head- quarters, as governor-general of the southern pro- vinces and grand admiral of the fleet. He had a considerable flotilla ready for the transport of troops. His pennon flew at the mast-head of a British-built cutter. His private barge was magnificently fitted up in imitation of that used by the Ottoman sultans on great occasions. The all-powerful favourite was not taken by surprise on receiving information of the insurrection. It was exactly the result all along an- ticipated, desired, and contrived for. It supplied a pretext for open and active interference, as another instance of disturbance on the frontier, and a case in which a rightful sovereign applied for assistance against his refractory subjects. Strong military forces, ready for the occasion, were forthwith poured into the country, to put down a usurpation, and restore to the people the blessings of legitimate government. General Balmaine, son of the Scotch peer of that name, an adherent of the Stuarts, took Kaffa by surprise. The Tatars poured out their blood like water ; but, fighting without order, plan, or artillery, they were onlv able to maintain them- UKASE OF THE EMPRESS. 245 selves against the invaders in the difficult highlands; and the recreant khan, re-entering his territory, reached Karasu-basar apparently in triumph, but was soon convinced how completely he had been be- auiled. These operations had been ordered by Potemkin, without being personally conducted by him; for, leaving the task to his generals, and certain of their success, he repaired in hot haste to St. Petersburg, accomplishing the journey in half the time required by an ordinary man. The result of his counsels in the imperial cabinet appeared in a manifesto dated April 8. 1783, but not made public till the summer, in which Catherine “by the grace of God, empress and sole monarch of all the Russias,” declared the Crimea annexed to her dominions, and relieved the Tatars from being solely dependent upon God. Thus within nine years, after assenting to a treaty which declared them free for all ages, she signed a ukase which forcibly converted them into her own victim subjects ; and had the audacity in the docu- ment to accuse the Turks of having infringed the treaty of Kainardij! A few salient passages may be cited from this remarkable manifesto: —¢ The sad experience of every day demonstrates more clearly that, if the sovereignty of the Ottoman Porte R 3 246 THE CRIMEA. in the Crimea was a perpetual source of discord between our two empires, the independence of the Tatars exposes us to subjects of contention no less numerous and important ; since the long servitude to which that people have been accustomed has ren- dered the greater part of the individuals incapable of valuing the advantages of the new situation procured for them by that independence, of which we sought to give them the enjoyment; and which, laying us under the necessity of being always armed, occasions not only great expenses, but also exposes our troops to inevitable and continual fatigues. The loss in men is not to be appreciated : we will not attempt to estimate it ; that in money, according to the most moderate calculations, amounts to upwards of 12,000,000 of rubles. Animated, therefore, with a sincere desire of confirming and maintaining the last peace concluded with the Porte, by preventing the continual disputes which the affairs of the Crimea produced, our duty to ourself, and the preservation of the security of our empire, equally demand our taking the firm resolution to put an end, once for all, to the troubles in the Crimea; and, for this purpose, we reunite to our empire the Peninsula of Crimea, the Island of Taman, and all the Kuban, as a just indemnification for the losses sustained, and the ex- UKASE OF THE EMPRESS. 247 penses we have been obliged to incur in maintaining the peace and welfare of these territories.” As an admirably cool expression of transparent hypocrisy this document has rarely been equalled. It is as- serted that Chahyn Gherai formally abdicated, and transferred his supposed right to the dominion of the country to the empress. But no mention of this is made in the manifesto. Anticipating an immediate rupture with the Porte, the armies of the south were reinforced, and every preparation made for vigorous war. But, though incensed to the utmost, the divan was divided, and the appropriation of territory only called forth for the present an indignant remon- strance. Armed with the ukase, Potemkin returned to the south and proclaimed the will of his sovereign. At Karasu-basar, July 29th, he summoned the clergy of the peninsula, the myrzas, as also the towns of Bakchi-serai, Akmetchet, Kaffa, Koslov, and other places, to take the oath of allegiance to the empress. According to our *Gentleman’s Magazine ” of that date, they obeyed the summons, “and with willing and gladsome hearts put themselves under the domi- nion of her sceptre for ever.” But good Mr. Urban was sadly imposed upon by his correspondent. The Tatars kept up a desultory warfare to prevent the R 4 248 THE CRIMEA. slavery of their country ; and as soon as the Russian troops were partly withdrawn, a new league was formed to throw off the yoke. Upon Potemkin, who had gone to St. Petersburg, receiving information of this design, he sent orders to Prince Prozorofsky to seize the principal persons concerned, and punish them with instant death. That officer had the noble firmness to reply that he was not an assassin. But Potemkin found a suitable instrument to execute a sanguinary deed in his cousin Paul, who caused 30,000 Tatars, men, women, and children, to be slaughtered in cold blood. Nothing contributed more to daunt the people in their last struggles than the destruction of the Summer Palace of the khans, — the existence of the building and of the state being indissolubly linked together by popular superstition. It was a light fairy-like place, with lofty windows of painted glass, commemorated in poetry as having descended from paradise. It stood on the banks of the Alma, in the neighbourhood of Bakchi-serai. All that could be imagined of oriental magnifi- cence,” says Halim Pasha of one of the apartments, —the Hall of Roses,—¢ was displayed. The walls were hung with purple velvet, carpets of the finest manufacture covered the floor, and richly embroidered silk cushions were the divans by which the room was SUMMER PALACE OF THE KHANS. 249 surrounded. This room was immediately connected with a small garden, blooming with roses, evergreens, and the choicest fruits of Asia and Europe, where, by artificial means, the temperature of autumn ever held its sway. In the centre of this miniature Eden, a marble fountain of the purest crystal water shed a delicious coolness; and the soft aromatic perfume exhaled from vases diffused a balmy fragrance through the air, while the rarest and most beautiful birds, either for song or plumage, were to be seen grouped on the velvet lawn, or perched on trees loaded with the golden fruit.” A celebrated in- scription in Arabic over the entrance gate of the building portentously linked the political fortunes of the Tatars with it, intimating that, if ever fired by a stranger’s hand, the event would be fatal to the state. It has thus been versified : — “ From fire protect my domes and walls ; When they shall crumble, Tatary falls ; And know, the destined fatal brand Can only blaze in stranger hand. The vivid lighting’s awful power Can harm nor minaret nor tower ; In vain the quaking earth may yawn, I'm charmed 'gainst Nature's deadliest storm; Fire! fire! is mine and Tatary’s doom, Fire! fire! is mine and Tatary’s tomb.” 250 THE CRIMEA. One night during the contest, an awful explosion, followed by a conflagration, destroyed the Summer Palace ; and so utterly did the stranger’s hand de- molish it, that the site is not to be identified without a guide. With it hope perished in the minds of the people, and the last fragment of empire passed away from the descendants of Genghis Khan. Upon the annexation of the peninsula, its ancient classical name of Taurida was restored, and the Kuban received its original appellation of the Cau- casus. The titles, employments, and estates of Po- temkin were augmented by his sovereign, the latter largely from the spoils of unhappy Polish nobles. He received the government of the new province, was honoured with the surname of the Taurian, and the Taurida Palace at St. Petersburg was expressly built for him by the empress. The edifice stands on the left bank of the Neva, towards the east end of the city. It is remarkable for the vast proportions of the grand hall, nearly 300 feet long and 80 feet wide, used as a ball-room and for great entertain- ments. In the centre hung a superb lustre, having sockets for 700 wax tapers. The apartment opens into a winter garden, six times larger than that con- nected with the Hermitage. Here nightingales might be seen and heard. Mirrors of immense value TAURIDA PALACE. 251 concealed the stoves, and the lamps represented fruits and flowers. In the middle of the garden rose a temple with eight marble columns, in which stood a bust of Catherine, with the inscription, ¢ To the mother of her country, and my benefactress.” Po- temkin fitted up his abode partly with furniture pur- chased of the Duchess of Kingston,— a personage too notorious to live in England. He bought a musical clock of her for 42,000 rubles. But, always in want of money, the empress resumed her gift by purchase for 460,000 rubles. The Taurida Palace has since belonged to the crown, and been commonly devoted to the reception of illustrious strangers, or used as a home for court favourites. Karamsin, the historian, spent his last days in it. The importance of the Crimea to the ambitious designs of the imperial court on Constantinople could not possibly be exaggerated. But, in order to make the most of his own services in acquiring the country, Potemkin placed before his sovereign highly coloured descriptions of its beautiful and romantic scenery, the fertility of the plains, the number of the people, the devotion of the myrzas, and the prosperity of the newly-founded Cherson ; whereas the vast proportion of the region is only remarkable for dreary monotony, and had been rendered horribly desolate by the 252 THE CRIMEA. ravages of war. Catherine, influenced by such re- presentations, determined to visit the provinces of the south lately added to her empire, and be crowned Queen of Taurida in the old capital of the khans. It was flattering to her pride and vanity to be able to approach so near to Constantinople, and show the sultan that she could have a bath if she chose in the Black Sea. But the project was suggested by an enemy to Potemkin; and the first mention of it startled him. He was not, however, the man to be baffled by a difficulty, and embarrassment was soon over. Fertile in resources, he became ‘one of the most ardent promoters of the journey, loudly pro- claimed its importance, treated it as his own scheme, and adopted a plan which converted into a triumph for himself what was designed for his damage. But it was necessary to make a mortifying disclosure and request in order to succeed. Confessing that the last 3,000,000 of rubles drawn from the imperial treasury for improvements in the conquered pro- vinces had been converted to his own private use, but protesting that he all along intended to refund the money, he asked permission to draw 3,000,000 more, and the whole should be repaid. Such was the extraordinary ascendancy of the minister, that his nefariousness was overlooked, and the request CATHERINE’S VISIT TO THE CRIMEA. 253 granted. In possession of the means, Potemkin hurried troops southward from the heart of the em- pire, and set thousands of agents to work to realise his object; and, by the time that Catherine was ready to travel, he was prepared to attend her through lands flowing with milk and honey. If ever genius and roguery combined in the character of man, they did in Gregory Potemkin. Catherine originally designed to go to the Crimea, accompanied by the metropolitan, six other arch- bishops, a great body of the clergy, and a numerous court, in order to have her coronation celebrated with a solemnity and splendour which might overawe all the nations around the Black Sea, and answer to the extent of her ambition in that quarter. It was also designed that her two grandsons should be of the party, Alexander, afterwards emperor, and Con- stantine, of unhappy notoriety in Poland. They were boys at the time, respectively ten and eight years of age. Nicholas was not then born. The empress looked forward to the time when the elder brother would be reigning over a Russian empire at St. Petersburg, and the younger over a Greek empire at Constantinople. The latter was carefully prepared by education for his anticipated position. Constantine, while an infant, was put into 254 THE CRIMEA. the hands of a Greek nurse, expressly procured from the Isle of Naxos. He was dressed in the Greek fashion, and placed in companionship with Greek children, in order to be able to speak the language with facility. The boys were left behind owing to illness ; and the real danger of the expedition, owing to the disturbed condition of the population in the south, especially the Tatars, led to an abridgment of the whole scheme. In the depth of winter, January the 18th, 1787, Catherine left St. Petersburg, with her suite, con- sisting of members of the court, official attendants, and the English, French, and Austrian ambassadors, Mr. Allen Fitzherbert, afterwards Lord St. Helens, Count Ségur, and Count Cobentzel. Previous to their departure, the ambassadors had each of them a present of a pelisse, a fur cap, and a muff. They alternately travelled in the sledge of the empress, where was Momonoff, her ninth officially recognised paramour, and the first maid of honour. Great fires were lighted along the road at the distance of every thirty fathoms. About forty miles were travelled each day. The repasts were generally taken at the post stations, fitted up for the occasion. They also served for night-quarters, along with the houses of the nobility ; and when no suitable dwelling occurred CATHERINE’S VISIT TO THE CRIMEA. 255 within convenient distance, small miniature palaces had been erected for the purpose. After some stay at Smolensko, the party went on to Kiev, where the spring was waited for to break up the ice of the Dnieper, and allow of the further prosecution of the journey by water. Potemkin here joined the empress, having gone on before, to see that his pan- tomime was in course of due preparation. Marshal Romanzow, and the Prince de Ligne were also in attendance. A general cannonade announced the liberation of the river from its wintry bonds. Catherine em- barked early in May. Fifty galleys, gilded and decorated, fitted with silks and sofas, were moored upon the stream. Each of the principal barges had a band of twelve musicians. The descent of the mighty Borysthenes commenced on a beautiful day, The sky was bright, the air calm, and the shores verdant ; and as the fleet sailed along, the spectacles prepared by the prolific genius of Potemkin were visible on either hand, though not in their true character. At greater or less distant intervals, pretty insulated dwellings were seen, so disposed with respect to the soil as to form picturesque points of view. Well-built villages appeared, the extent of which would lead the beholder to expect a 256 THE CRIMEA. numerous population, while their exterior aspect seemed to bespeak the comfort of the inhabitants. There were groups of men, women, and children, flocks of sheep and droves of cattle, shepherds and herdsmen. The houses were slender fronts hastily run up —the villages collections of them. Peasantry, flocks, and herds, had been brought from various parts of the empire; and were successively removed from one spot to another, often under cover of the night, so that a few thousands sufficed to produce the spectacle of a country teeming with people. The empress,” says the Prince de Ligne, “who cannot run on foot as we do, was made to believe that towns for the building of which she has assigned the neces- sary money, are finished, while they often are towns without streets, streets without houses, and houses without roof, doors, and windows.” Several of these mock towns, at which the imperial traveller was expected to touch, presented wharfs laden with goods, apparently sacks of corn, storehouses crammed with merchandise, and shops full of manufactured articles. The raw produce of the empire had been hastily collected for the purpose of show; fabrics had been sent for from Vienna, Warsaw, and other places ; but many of the ticketed bales and bags contained nothing but straw, shavings, or earth. PROGRESS OF THE EMPRESS. 257 There was much doubtless that was real connected with the artificial, for the merchants of St. Peters- burg, Riga, Moscow, Kasan, Astrachan, Poland and Germany, would naturally carry their wares to a district about to be traversed by a numerous and opulent court, to which an immense crowd of strangers would be attracted. Upon the fleet casting anchor against Kaniev, the puppet Polish king, Stanislaus Augustus, came on board, under his old name of Count Poniatowski. The sovereigns had not seen each other for three and twenty years, when the king was a noble, and the empress a grand-duchess, the two parties main- taining a scandalous connection. He had waited three months, and expended three millions of livres, which were repaid him, to see his old acquaint- ance three hours, and beg an augmentation of re- venue. After a narrow escape from perishing in the Dnieper during a violent storm, Catherine landed at Krementshuk, where she occupied a superbly ornamented palace just built, close to which a garden had been planted with exotic trees. On reaching Kaidak, the ancient capital of the Zapo- rogians, she received the stolid Austrian emperor, Joseph II., travelling as Count Falkenstein, and continued her route with him by land to Cherson, S 258 THE CRIMEA. the rapids rendering further navigation impracticable. The town appeared already opulent and populous, though but nine years old. Warehouses, shops, and merchandise, ships in the port, an admiralty and dockyard, announced the dawn of commerce and a navy. Though really a thriving place, the prosperity exhibited was chiefly adventitious. The wand of the enchanter had been busy, running up houses, and transporting goods from distant markets, at the expense of the state, while the crowds of people were not inhabitants, but foreigners from various parts of Europe, attracted by curiosity or interest to the spot. There was Leroux, a Frenchman, supposed to be a secret emissary of Calonne, with Dillon and Lameth; Miranda, a Spanish refugee; the English Lady Craven; Madame de Witt, a Greek, and a miscellaneous assemblage of Poles and Germans. While going through the town, Cathe- rine’s attention was called to an inscription upon a gate, on the side towards the east,— “ Tae Roap To Byzantium.” Potemkin thus reminded her of the ultimate object of their mutual ambition. The Porte, though in- formed previously of this visit to the south, stated to have simply a pacific purpose, readily divined its PROGRESS OF THE EMPRESS. 259 real import, and treated it as a menace. Four ships of the line were therefore sent to the mouth of the Dnieper. “Do you see?” said Catherine with scorn to her courtiers on observing them, ¢ one would suppose that the Turks had no recollection of Tchesme.” Continuing the journey, Catherine and the German emperor entered the Crimea at Perekop, and proceeded to Bakchi-serai, where she occupied the palace of the khans. Martial music and the discharge of artillery greeted her arrival. Banners waved in the air, inscribed with ¢ Catherine was born, and Russia was formed,” ¢ Catherine commanded, and the Taurida arose.” On the first night of her abode in the capital, Potemkin entertained her with the spectacle of a mountain artificially illuminated, which suddenly appeared in a blaze. Deputations of myrzas, beys, imans, and aghas, hailed their new sovereign, bowed humbly before her, took the oath of allegiance, and presented the offering of bread, salt, and sugar, as to their ancient khans. On one occasion, a troop of Tatars formed an escort around the royal carriages, and raised their national war cry, “Ya Illah! Ya Allah!” while natives were presented habited in rich pelisses and silk caftans, as if peace and prosperity abounded. But these were 5 2 260 THE CRIMEA. only skilfully contrived evidences of content and loyalty, provided by the prince of jugglers to conceal the real condition of the country. The devoted myrzas, beys, imans, aghas, and soldiers, were Gypsies, Jews, Armenians, and Cossacks, arrayed for the occasion in the costume of Tatar grandees, officials, and troops. Without being aware of the extent of the imposition, or caring to know it, in order to save appearances with her imperial guest, the empress must have been sensible that the public exhibitions around her were delusive, for her stay was short, and not without danger to herself. The Tatars menaced her life in the towns, while strong battalions surrounded her as a guard wherever she went, and Selim Gherai made many a furious foray from his mountain strongholds. She passed one night at Stara Crim, and visited Aktiar, or, according to its new name, Sebastopol, given to it in the pre- ceding year. If not now destroyed by the bombard- ment of the Anglo-French, a pleasant little house exists at the end of Catherine Street, near the harbour, where she resided during a brief sojourn at the spot, and which she hastily quitted in con- sequence of a conspiracy being discovered. The German emperor attended the empress on her return as far as Moscow. She reached St. Petersburg in DESIGNS AGAINST CONSTANTINOPLE. 261 July, after an absence of seven months, having expended seven millions of rubles upon the senseless journey. Besides admission to the waters of the Black Sea, and the command of the northern coast, Russia now aspired to keep the gate of the basin, by the pos- session of Constantinople. The potentates, during their fantastic tour, confirmed a compact previously made between them, to combine their forces in an attack upon the Turks, drive them out of Europe, and partition their dominions. The emperor was to have the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, with some other territory, for his portion of the spoil ; and the empress to take the rest—the share of the lioness. The supineness of the Western nations, while Poland was dismembered, seems to have encouraged the imperial confederates to plot this destruction of the Ottoman Empire, and the apportioning of its possessions. But France was expressly conciliated, and tempted to concur in the spoliation, by the offer of Egypt, though the bait was not accepted. There is not the slightest doubt respecting the existence of this gigantic scheme of plunder, or as to its having been finally decided upon during the visit to the Crimea, though the details may not be known with exactness. Greeks appeared 83 a 262 THE CRIMEA. at St. Petersburg to pay homage to Constantine as their future emperor. Potemkin passionately longed for war, and determined to force a quarrel, having completed the arrangement between the two powers. He calculated upon a triumphant march to the Bosphorus, and perhaps upon reigning there himself, as the viceroy of his sovereign, during the minority of her grandson. In the course of the year 1787, he took a fancy to have Plutarch read to him, to which he listened with great attention. Upon coming to the life of Agesilaus, and the account of his conquests, he interrupted the reader; and after remaining thoughtful some moments, he asked him, “ Think you that I could go, at some future period, to Constantinople ?” «If the sovereign please, was the reply, “there is no impossibility to prevent your going.” ¢ That is enough,” responded the prince, “and if any one should come to-day, and tell me that I could not go thither, I would shoot myself through the head.” Prepared, in conjunction with Austria, to attack the debilitated and tottering empire of the sultan, the Russian ambassador at the Porte received instructions to provoke hostilities. But warned by the insulting and menacing journey to the south, of the real intentions of their enemies, and sensible DECLARATION OF WAR. 263 of the impossibility of preserving peace, the Turks anticipated their wish for war, by declaring it, the month after the return of Catherine to her capital, assigning the infractions of the treaty of Kainardji as the ground. The step ought to have been taken before, or not at all, as the long interval of indecision had enabled the northern powers to mature their plans, and marshal their forces. In the manifesto issued upon this occasion, a passage occurs which subsequent events have justified,—* If the Russians remain masters of the Crimea, the Porte cannot hope to continue in security for the future, and they will always have some bad designs to fear.” This might have been written with the grim forts and vast magazines of Sebastopol in view. The Tatars of the peninsula rose on behalf of their ancient liege- lord; and the Bey Mansour summoned the moun- taineers of the Caucasus to assail the Russian out- posts. Catherine, on her part, besides armies and artillery, had recourse to spiritual weapons against the Ottomans and the warrior prophet. She caused him to be proclaimed a false prophet, rebel, and heretic alike to the faith of Christ and Mohammed ; and in support of her designs, some prophecies of the patriarchs Nicon and Jeremiah were published, pre- dicting the approaching ruin of Constantinople, the 84 264 THE CRIMEA. overthrow of Islam, and the success of the Greek religion. They were translated, and industriously circulated by her agents through Turkey, Persia, the Caucasus and the Crimea. ¢ These wonderful prophecies,” said the ukase, ‘are about to be ful- filled in our day, under the protection of that just God, who hath so long and so wonderfully supported the arms of Muscovy.” In the days of Peter the Great, a bishop of Jerusalem brought a prophecy to his aid, said to have been found in the tomb of Constantine, which announced the deliverance of Constantinople from the Turks, and its return to the Greeks. It was circulated among the latter to induce them to revolt. Russia has never failed to parade before the world her wars of ambition as acts of dutiful obedience to the intimations of Provi- dence, and clothe aggressive manifestoes with a pious verbiage. It was the boast of Potemkin that he would batter down the Ottoman Empire in two campaigns; but he miscalculated. Signal triumphs were achieved by the armies of the coalition; and never was hero of antiquity more a popular idol than the conqueror of Otchakow on his periodic returns to the capital from the scene of war. Elated by the successes of her troops, the empress ironically observed to POTEMKIN’S FESTIVAL. 265 Whitworth, the British ambassador, aware of the hostile disposition of his court, Sir, since the king, your master, intends to drive me out of St. Peters- burg, I hope he will permit me to retire to Constan- tinople.” All Europe rang with the magnificence of the governor of Taurida in his Tauridan palace, on the occasion of an entertainment given by the subject to his sovereign. A dark presentiment over- shadowed his mind, which proved to be correct, that he was about to leave the theatre of his grandeur for ever; and he determined to do it with a festival of unequalled cost and splendour. The preparations extended over a month. Artists of all kinds were employed ; shops and warehouses were emptied to supply the paraphernalia ; hundreds of persons were daily assembled to rehearse their respective parts; and each rehearsal was itself an imposing spectacle. The imperial family, the court, the foreign ambas- sadors, the nobility, and most parties of condition in the city were invited to the final execution, while for the populace without, high piles of clothes were provided, with lofty pyramids of eatables, and a competent stock of liquors, to be scrambled for upon the arrival of the empress. Potemkin handed her from the coach. He wore a scarlet coat, over which hung a cloak of gold lace, covered with gems and 266 THE CRIMEA. jewels. His hat was so loaded with diamonds that he was obliged to have it carried by one of his aides- de-camp. Upon the entrance of Catherine, the whole palace rang with music. Alexander and Constantine, the two grand-dukes, with forty-six of the young nobility, uniformly dressed, commenced a ballet. Seated upon a throne, grand processions paraded before the czarina, consisting of representa- tives of the various nations under her sceptre, arrayed in characteristic costume. There were Cossacks, Cheremisses, Voguls, Permians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Calmucks, and Caucasians. Upon this occasion, 140,000 lamps and 20,000 wax-tapers were lighted. At supper, the service at the em- press’s table was of pure gold. She stayed till midnight, and retired to the sound of a hymn in her praise, like a goddess. Potemkin, with nothing further in the way of honour to expect, exhausted by dissipation, and haunted by a presentiment, had no resource during his stay in the capital but to play with his diamonds like a child with peas, or to wander in moody abstraction about his palace, biting his finger-nails. : Though successful in the field, the conquests of the imperial armies were nearly as fatal to the victors as the vanquished. Upon the accession of a new PEACE OF JASSY. 267 sovereign at Vienna, the policy of that court changed ; and disturbances in the empire compelled the conclusion of a separate peace upon the basis of the status quo ante bellum. Russia continued the war alone, but found the burden of it too onerous. Men began to grow scarce. The wilds of Siberia had to be ransacked for exiles to recruit the forces. The expenditure was enormous, and the exche- quer empty, while credit was so low, that foreign capitalists required the guarantee of a private banker, or that of the next heir to the throne, before advancing to the imperial treasury. Great Britain menaced, and Poland was insecure. In these circumstances, while keeping up an attitude of haughty independence, Catherine inwardly sighed for peace; and concluded with the Porte the treaty of Jassy in 1792, closing a war in which Austria lost 130,000 men, Russia 200,000, and Turkey 330,000. Never was a scheme of ambition more completely frustrated than that which the royal travellers to the Crimea arranged in their gossip on the journey. Instead of gaining Bulgaria, Roumelia, Thessaly, Albania, the Peloponnesus, and the isles of Greece, the empress obtained Otchakow, a town of ruined desolate houses, soaked with blood, and the dreary steppes between the Dog and the 268 THE CRIMEA. Dniester. In vain had Constantine been Grazcised, and received the homage of deputies from the Archipelago. His lot was peculiar. Destined to sit upon a throne at Constantinople, to be obtained by violence, he did not ascend the one at St. Peters- burg to which he was legitimately entitled. When it fell vacant by the decease of Alexander, his younger brother Nicholas superseded him. The part of Catherine and her grandson Constantine in the last century, has been acted over again by Nicholas, and his son of the same name, in the present—that of harassing the sick man,” a next door neighbour, in order to kill him, and occupy his dwelling. So far the result of the last aggressive attempt has been more eminently retributive than the first. Russia aiming to keep the gate of the Black Sea, has now lost the basin, and can with difficulty catch a glimpse of its waters. The duped khan of the Crimea suffered griev- ously for his foolish confidence in the friendship of Russia, and submission to her councils. Chahyn Gherai was not in the peninsula when it was visited by the empress. He was treated with courtesy for a time upon being divested of power, promised a palace at St. Petersburg, a court, and a pension of eight hundred thousand rubles. But he was after- CHAHYN GHERAL 269 wards removed to Kaluga on the river Oka, a thousand versts from the capital, and at that time a wretched village. His pension soon began to be ill-paid. It then stopped altogether; and the charge was brought against Potemkin that he had turned it to his own profit. The unfortunate prince, being in extreme distress, insisted upon going in person to lay his case before the empress, and demand the fulfilment of the promises made to him. Upon being told that it could not be permitted, the wretched man exclaimed in his despair, “ Let me be delivered a victim to the Turks. They will not at least refuse me the privilege of choosing the manner of my death, since my enemies have resolved on my destruction.” With unparalleled barbarity he wad taken at his word. Being removed to the Turkish frontier, he was captured by the authorities, trgms- ported to Rhodes, where the exasperated poffiace put him to death, as the cause of the Russian seizure of the Crimea. His rival, Selim Gherai, finding further opposition to the invaders of his country useless, agreed to retire, and obtained a safe-conduct for his adherents to Circassia. He died there, in the shadow of the Caucasus, leaving a numerous issue. Collateral branches of the family distinguished themselves in the Turkish armies 270 THE CRIMEA. during the war. Maksoud Gherai was the governor of Ismail at the time of its dreadful capture by Suwarrow ; and Kaplan Gherai performed prodigies of valour in the battle with the Austrians at Schursch. A young prince, Krim Gherai, a lineal descendant of the khans, born in the Caucasus, renounced the Koran for the Christian faith, through the instru- mentality of the Scotch missionaries at Karass. Under the care of Dr. Paterson, he visited England, studied at Homerton Academy, and afterwards in the University of Edinburgh. He married a Scotch lady, and, about the year 1817, returned to the Crimea, settled at Simferopol, where the prince and his wife had the recognised style of sultan and shltand, “Being now,” says Dr. Lyall, who visited himg, “a Russian subject, and having necessarily relinguished the property in the Caucasus to which he was heir, the Emperor Alexander bestowed upon him a pension of six thousand rubles, which, with the addition of the small income of the sultana, enables him to live comfortably.” At Simferopol his home was arranged in the English style. Almost every portable article in it was of British manu- facture; and British customs and manners alone prevailed. One of his daughters married a German THE BEY MANSOUR. 271 Protestant. Strange destiny! for one of the last descendants of the Genghis Khanides, who were once the dread of all Christendom, and frightened western ecclesiastics into holding a general council, to have become Christian, and Protestant also, in the heart of the only beatific Russo-Greek Church. The fate of the Bey Mansour is not known with certainty. According to the Russian accounts, a prisoner answering to descriptions of the formidable chieftain came into their hands at the capture of Anapa in 1791, who was sent to end his days either in the convent of Solovetz, in the White Sea, or the. fortress of Schlusselburg at the outlet of the Ladoga. Other relations identify him with a venerable recluse who lived in a lonely glen of the Caucasus, with a strange assortment of articles in his dwelling,—maps and weapons, books in foreign languages, and ma- thematical instruments. A wild legend is current among some of the highland tribes that, because he was not a true Mussulman, the warrior-prophet has been condemned to one hundred years’ imprisonment in the bowels of a mountain as a kind of penance, at the expiration of which term he will reappear, and wave his conquering sword, to the terror of the Musco- vites. The only point positively known is, that he suddenly vanished from public notice, left behind him 272 THE CRIMEA. the memory of brave deeds and an unconquerable spirit, and that, next to that of Mohammed himself, his name is venerated in the defiles and valleys of Circassia. No change was ever more striking, or could well be more melancholy, than that which took place with reference to Potemkin a few months after his repe- tition of Belshazzar's feast. For sixteen years he had been almost omnipotent in the empire, ruling the empress, delighting to make the magnates feel his power, and putting no restraint upon his pas- sions, however costly or difficult the gratification. Generals trembled at his frown, and major-generals were happy to be his valets. In the city and the camp, his palace or tent, was a court, a harem, a den for swindlers, and a temple for bacchanals. In winter, he had cherries at his table from a greenhouse at the rate of a ruble each. From Cherson, officers were despatched to Riga, a thousand miles, to wait the arrival of the spring ships to bring him oranges, or to Moscow to fetch sterlet soup. Yet he was a man of grand conceptions and great sagacity, but utterly failing in details from negligence ; for, with abundance of champagne in his camp, he was often without a drop of water, and, with piles of petit patties, he had not a morsel of bread. Worn out, DEATH OF CATHERINE. 273 though not more than fifty-two years of age, he at- tended the congress of Jassy, but did not witness the conclusion of the treaty. One morning, in the autumn of 1791, a carriage left the town, conveying the governor-general of the Crimea and Southern Russia, on his way to Nicolaief, to recruit himself. It was long before dawn. The air was keen, and the wind moaned and sobbed as it swept over the steppe. Scarcely had a few versts been accomplished, when the carriage stopped, and its inmate was lifted out. Attendants laid him on the grass at the foot of a tree, and, without a covering for his head, he ex- pired. The body was temporarily placed in a church at Cherson. Catherine is said to have designed splendid funeral honours, but her sudden death pre- vented them. Paul, who succeeded, ordered the corpse to be thrown into the first hole that was met with, and it was buried, without ceremony, in the ditch of the fortress. No person can now point to the spot and say, Here lies Potemkin. The ambitious sovereign expired in the sixth autumn after the decease of the imperious minister. On the morning of November the 6th, 1796, she rose in usual health, chatted gaily over her coffee, and retired to her cabinet. In half an hour after- wards she was found stretched senseless upon the T 274 THE CRIMEA. floor, struck down by apoplexy. The obsequies of Catherine are unique in the history of funerals. The new monarch, Paul, ordered the remains of his murdered father to be exhumed from an obscure grave in the monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky, and placed by those of his mother in the winter palace. The two bodies, after a separation of more than thirty years, were then conveyed together to the imperial vaults of the Peter and Paul Church ; while Orloff and Baratinsky, the main instruments of the one in the assassination of the other, were compelled to walk in the procession behind them. Most of the buildings erected to accommodate the empress on her way to the Crimea, or to commemo- rate the visit, upon which immense sums were ex- pended, have gone to decay. In less than fifteen years afterwards, Dr. Clarke found the villa at Stara Crim crammed with heaps of liquorice root, collected for the use of the military hospitals from the neighbouring mountains. Ekaterinoslav, a town on the Dnieper, to which she gave her name, and founded in the presence of Joseph II., has not prospered. Though planned upon a gigantic scale, as if intended to be the abode of a million of souls, it has only gathered a population of a few thousands in the space of nearly threescore years and ten. FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 275 The palace provided at this spot for the imperial tourist was a splendid edifice, standing on a slope by the river, surrounded by an extensive park. The trees have grown up to be magnificent timber ; the stream flows on with undiminished majesty and might ; but the royal dwelling, spoiled by the pea- santry for materials to erect or repair their cabins, is a heap of shapeless fragments — a ruin without the interest of history or the dignity of age. Permanent shiftings of population in the southern part of her dominions marked the reign of Catherine. They were both voluntary and enforced, and involved enormous hardships. A horde of Kalmucks in the steppe between the Don and the Volga had long borne with patience the exactions of official in- spectors, who spoiled them of their cattle for their own private benefit, and tyrannically interfered with their national customs. Upon remonstrating, cor- poral punishment was offered to a chief, a venerable old man, respected by the whole people. This was an indignity not to be endured. Priests and elders proclaimed a fast, held a council, and proceeded from one encampment to another, passing from tent to tent. One determination inspired every breast. Suddenly they all vanished, old and young, strong and weak, tents and goods, flocks and herds. Not a T 2 276 THE CRIMEA. dog was left behind, and the country they had occu- pied was rendered a complete desert. So well kept was the secret of their flight, that it was not known to the Russians till two days after their departure, when regiments of soldiers were sent off in pursuit, to return without their prey. The fugitives made for the land of their fathers within the Chinese frontier, which had been left about a century before, —a weary journey of 2000 miles. They had to cross rivers, marshes, and sandy deserts; to fight their way through the nations that opposed their passage ; and they perished largely on the route, from slaughter, want, and fatigue. The cabinet of St. Petersburg sent a memorial to Pekin demanding the restitution of the runaways; but Kien Long replied, “I am neither so unjust a prince as to deliver my subjects to be despoiled by foreigners, nor so cruel a father as to banish my children, who have returned into the bosom of their family. I was not informed of their projected emigration till the moment of their arrival, and I then hastened to restore to the house- less wanderers the lands which had belonged to their ancestors from the remotest antiquity.” By this migration, one of the most extraordinary on record, which took place in 1770, Russia lost 60,000 hearths or tents, the lowest computation, which, according to REMOVAL OF THE GREEKS. 279 the ordinary average of numbers in a family, repre- sented 300,000 souls. The loss was sensibly felt. Soon afterwards, a population was needed for the vast solitudes acquired by conquest in the south, on both sides of the Dnieper, and from thence to the Don, in order to develope their resources, turn them to account, and provide a Russian commerce for the Black Sea. Immense sums were expended by the government in founding towns for which inhabitants were required. To supply this want, the barbarously despotic act was perpetrated of forcing the greater part of the Christian population of the Crimea to quit their ancient homes, — a measure executed in 1778. This was prior to the annexation of the peninsula, and when that event might never occur. It transpired in consequence of the last khan’s subserviency to the views of Russia. But there was strong opposition from his ministers, as the parties concerned — Greeks, Armenians, and Catholics—included the chief commercialists, and many persons of property, who paid a considerable revenue to the state. It was on this occasion that Suwarrow, who had orders to effect the expatriation, used his cannon to compel the refractory ministers to consent. The commander is stated to have obtained the sanction of the metro- T 3 278 THE CRIMEA. politan of the Greeks and the chief of the Arme- nians ; but nothing is said about his consulting the feelings of the people. He supplied the poorer class with a ducat each, provided some post-horses, with other conveniences for travelling, and in the space of a month their old dwellings were desolate, and they were in the dreary steppes of New Russia. Misery and death was largely the lot of the exiles, “X beheld,” says Eton, a contemporary writer, “the ex- pulsion of 75,000 Greek Christians from the Crimea by the Russians, nearly the whole of whom, exhausted by fatigue, worn out by hunger and privation, perished on the barren steppe formerly inhabited by the Nogai Tatars.” The survivors founded the ex- isting Greek colony of Marioupol, on the northern shores of the Sea of Azof, now including eighty villages, and the Armenian colony of Nakhitchevane, a flourishing town on the banks of the Don, in the heart of the country of the Cossacks. These colo- nists enjoy several privileges. They have their own magistrates and subordinate Judges, elected by them- selves, are exempt from military service, and are liable to fewer taxes than the rest of the people. Upon the peninsula becoming a province of the empire, it suffered a further reduction in its popula- tion from the sword, in the contests that followed, fo FOREIGN SETTLERS. 279 and from voluntary desertion. In the imperial ma- nifesto, the Tatars were promised perfect equality with the ancient subjects of the empress ; assured of defence with reference to their persons, estates, temples, and religion ; and, further to conciliate them, the Koran was printed at St. Petersburg, and some of the mosques received endowments. But those who preferred to place themselves under the governs ment of the Ottomans were allowed to depart to their dominions. Numbers embraced the alternative of breaking the ties of home and country, rather than live under the sceptre of an alien in race and iliglon, whose promises were accompanied with no sontity for the performance of them, and were grossly vio- lated, as the event proved. The total number who expatriated themselves is unknown ; but the evictions went on through ten years, and in 1784 alone not less than 80,000 Tatars abandoned the land of their fathers. Some joined their brethren on the steppes of Bessarabia, others went over to Asia Minor, and others withdrew to the Caucasus. To replenish with inhabitants the naturally waste places in the south, and fill up the gaps nade by ex- patriation and the sword, Catherine published a manifesto inviting foreigners to settle in those dis- tricts. It stated, * The protection which we habi- T 4 . nS ES a a A — ™ on By LE gt hh. pak Co om SE SAD 280 THE CRIMEA. tually grant to strangers who come either to carry on their commerce, or to exert their industry in our empire, is well known. Every one may enjoy in our dominions the free exercise of the religion of his fathers, a perfect security, and the protection of the laws and government. All the necessaries and ac- commodations of life, as well as the means of acqui- ring riches, there offer themselves, both from the fertility of the soil and the objects adapted to com- merce. The territory of Caucasus, in submission to our sceptre, affords all these resources in greater abundance than the other provinces of our empire. Foreigners who are willing to settle there, whether in the towns or in the country, will be sure to find a peaceful asylum, with many advantages. They shall be, for six years, exempt from all duties to the crown. If, at the expiration of that term, they shall signify their intention to leave our dominions, they shall be at full liberty to go, on paying only the value of the imposts of three years.” Though few foreigners were tempted by this missive to the wild Caucasus, yet many migrated to the southerly dis- tricts of the empire, and established themselves in the Crimea. The immigrants, chiefly Germans, subse- quently received grants of land, with advances of oxen, horses, implements, and a small sum of money, THE ZAPOROGIANS. 281 the amount of which became a debt due to the state, in order to practise, and thereby teach, skilled hus- bandry and handicrafts. They now form whole villages, intermarry among themselves, and still retain their language, dress, and manners, adhering cither to the Protestant or the Roman Catholic communions. Such are Neusatz, Rosenthal, and Friedenthal, between Simferopol and Karasu-basar. The names recall the memory of the Rhine, as do the habits of the people and the aspect of their locations. But, though tolerated in the free exercise of their own religious forms, no expansion of religious opinion is practicable. Proselytism in Russia, whether from Mohammedanism or Lamaism, is not allowed, unless it be in favour of the Russo-Greek Church. The singular confederation of the Zaporogians on the Dnieper was finally broken up in the days of Catherine. After using them in her wars, and having her name inscribed in letters of gold in their public registers, her policy changed; and their suppression was determined, on the ground of leading a debauched and licentious life—a remark- able charge to issue from such a source. Attacked and overpowered in their retreat by considerable forces, a number dispersed in various directions, some to lead a brigand life in the steppes, while the rest pA int Lo i ty 2 282 THE CRIMEA. surrendered at discretion. The final arrangement with reference to these wild men was planned by Potemkin, but not executed till after his death. By virtue of the ukase of June 30. 1792, they had the peninsula of Taman, and the country between the Kuban and the Sea of Azof, made over to them, and were removed to it, receiving the name of Tcherno- morski, or Cossacks of the Black Sea. They were attached to the army of the Caucasus, and designed to be a barrier against the independent highlanders. The land of the Tchernomorski, with the N ogai steppe, north of the Sea of Azof, and the Crimea, now constitute the province of Taurida, sometimes called the government of Simferopol. These dis- tricts were at first included in the province of Ekaterinoslav on the Dnieper, but were raised into a distinct government by the Emperor Alexander in 1802. One of the early governors, General Michelson, was an Englishman. To no man was Catherine more indebted than to this veteran officer, for when her throne was tottering, and universal anarchy threatened the empire, owing to the remarkable rebellion of Pugatchof, he was his most talented, indefatigable, and successful antagonist. The work of spoliation with reference to lands and buildings marked the first exercise of Russian RUSSIAN RAVAGES. 283 authority in the Crimea. Grants of lands from the crown were obtained by nobles and officials without attention to the rights of the natives; and in many cases, the mew proprietors vastly extended their allotments by gradual encroachment, regardless of the terms of the grant. In the valley of Baidar, 700 acres were assigned to a magnate, who suc- ceeded in enlarging his boundaries till they embraced 20,000 acres; and also laid claim to the labour of the peasants in his neighbourhood. The mosques were stripped of their lead to make bullets; and the buildings themselves, with the fine monumental remains of the Genoese, were ruthlessly ravaged for materials to run up barracks, storehouses, and government erections. “When I caused,” says Pallas, an awed eye-witness of these proceedings, referring to Kaffa, «the prospect of this town to be drawn, there were two minarets, sixteen fathoms high, and furnished with serpentine staircases leading to the top, though both structures have since been demolished.” «Had he ventured two syllables further,” observes Dr. Clarke, ¢ and merely added the word © Alas!” his grey hairs would not have saved . ih him from the air of Siberia. THE CRIMEA. CHAP. IX. SEBASTOPOL AND THE COAST. FIRST MAP OF THE CRIMEA. — EARLY NOTICES OF THE PORTS.—SUWARROW AT AKTIAR.—CHERSON, NICOLAIEF, AND SEBASTQPOL.—RUSSIAN WAR-FLEET.—HARBOUR OF SEBASTOPOL.— THE FORTIFICATIONS. —DOCKYARD AND CANAL. — THE ENGLISH ENGINEER, — THE TOWN. — ENGLISH BURYING GROUND. — BALAKLAVA. — GREEK ~ COLONY. — RAILWAY. — MONASTERY OF ST. GEORGE. — SUBMARJNE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. — SOUTH COAST. — ALOUPKA.— PRINCE WORONZOW.— THREE CELEBRATED WOMEN. — IMPERIAL DOMAIN. — YALTA. — BOTANIC GARDEN. — ALUSHTA, — SOUDAK. — KAFFA. — KERTCH. = VISIT OF NICHOLAS.—YENIKALE, —- EUPATORIA. A SPECIAL map of the Crimea, perhaps the first that was ever executed, appeared in connection with General Manstein’s Memoirs of Russia in the year 1764. That officer took part in the first invasion of the peninsula under Marshal Munich, and the map, a copy of which is here inserted, was prepared from the surveys of the engineers. It does not, as might be expected, accurately delineate the natural configura- Dechelads > o> PF Adschugla = = Koslow 08) KDuflackey wo Lag Bugapach % Sy §fploapad V4 MmanS>. aroi or Ts 7 dh SQ 3 + Achmetzet Oppdiwun WN R i I ; Sudorum Bachzisarai af NC ALS ! A . N a XA a a By A A A x en ; £ a DBotusnas ° . - run or > dtimacu 5 Ne J A ttmacderum a Me London Longman, &(° Insula Taman Jenicola Keret 5B o> NEW MAP OF CRIMEA by a draught of the Russian Engineers wn which are marked the Marches of the Russian Armies in the year 1736, under Marshal Munich. and wv 1737, under Marshal Lacy. + 15 German Miles 104% Russian Wersts. FIRST MAP OF THE CRIMEA. 285 tion of the country. Some features are exaggerated, while others are overlooked ; and, curiously enough, the very points which have been subsequently of the most importance to Russia, and are now of the greatest interest to the general public, are entirely omitted. Thus Balaklava is marked as a town, but its remarkable inlet is not denoted. Where nature has placed the magnificent roadstead of Sebastopol, with the peninsula extending to Cape Chersonese, a wavy line, drawn at random, defines the coast ; while a great arm of the sea is substituted for the salt lakes in the neighbourhood of Eupatoria. Baron de Tott, at a little later date, in a description of the country, thus refers to Balaklava : —¢ This harbour is situated on the most southerly point of the Crimea. The two promontories which form the entrance are the first land which appears to the north-east of the Thracian Bosphorus. This port, besides its extent, proximity, and security, is in the neighbourhood of forests, which might furnish ship-timber. At present, totally abandoned, the port of Balaklava preserves nothing but the traces of its ancient importance.” But the Baron had not a word to say about the in- comparably superior port a few miles off, as though quite ignorant of its existence. Upon the incorpo- ration of the peninsula with the empire, a series of 286 THE CRIMEA. letters appeared in the * Gentleman’s Magazine ” from a writer at Azof, giving an account of the an- nexed territory. He states, * The other remarkable places are, Balaklava, where there is a fine harbour, and perhaps the only one on the Black Sea, containing ample room for a very good fleet. Inkerman ity be noticed for its commodious, though not very large, haven, called Aktiar.” Evidently the great war- port of the present day was not then known to fame as a natural harbour. “Our own Correspondent,” after this specimen of accuracy, apologised for the length of his communication, as the only account of the Crimea ever given to the public, and closed with the hope of living to quaff a bottle of Burton ale with the renowned Sylvanus Urban. Eighty years ago, two humble villages occupied the shores of the noble inlet,— Inkerman at the flat upper extremity, and Aktiar on one of the creeks of the southern side. Ruins in various directions, Byzantine and Genoese, spoke of bygone days of animation; but existing symptoms of it were few. Smoke rose from the dwellings of the natives, goats clambered about the rocks, herdsmen, cattle, and sheep passed along the valley of the Tchernaya, and game birds nestled in the reeds of the river. While these were the chief signs of life upon land, the SUWARROW AT AKTIAR. 287 waters were seldom ruffled, except by the wind, the Tatars not being a maritime people. The scene began to change in the year 1778, and soon after~ wards the change was total. At that time, the Crimea was still nominally independent, but occupied or protected, as it was called, by Russian troops. It was in the morning of a hot July day, that a consi- derable body marched out of Bakchi-serai, and ap- peared at the head of the bay, to reconnoitre a small Turkish fleet which had cast anchor off Aktiar. Though peace subsisted between the two empires, there was suspicion, mistrust, and rancour on both sides. The officer in command of the detachment looked out upon the fine expanse from the summit of a cliff ; and, for the first time, its capacities caught a competent military eye. It was Suwarrow. Deter- mined to compel the Turks to quit the offing, in order to prevent communication with the Tatars and interference with Russian designs, he observed the most commanding positions; and, extending his troops during the night along the two sides of the basin, began to fortify the mouth of the port. Day put a stop to these labours, but they were resumed the night following. Upon being challenged as to the cause of his preparations, when they were per- ceived, Suwarrow alleged that the Turks, having 288 THE CRIMEA. disembarked to procure supplies, had killed a Cossack who approached them, and that a packet had been detained at Constantinople. Perceiving themselves in danger of being entrapped, the ships weighed anchor in the night and stood out to sea. The bat- teries hastily erected on this occasion antedated pro- bably, on the same points, the existing grim forts of Alexander and Constantine. The advantages of the site having been discovered, and the Crimea annexed, the foundation of a naval and military station commenced in the year 1786, and took the ambitious name of Sebastopol, signify- ing the august or imperial city. The infant fleet from Cherson visited the port. Its value was illus- trated in the war which speedily broke out with Turkey. The renegade, Paul Jones, celebrated for his daring during the American war, and the injury he inflicted upon the mercantile marine of his coun- trymen, commanded for a short time a detachment of the squadron. Priestman, another Englishman, served as a captain, and energetically remonstrated with Voinovitch, the rear-admiral, upon his declining an engagement with a superior force of the enemy, retiring under the cannon of Sebastopol. The com- mander was cashiered for his timid prudence, and Priestman rose to the rank of admiral. He wit- NICOLAIEF AND SEBASTOPOL. 289 nessed the last moments of the philanthropic Howard at Cherson, and read the service of the Anglican Church at his funeral. How often, alas! has the same service been read within the last nine months in the neighbouring peninsula! After the founda- tion of Nicolaief in 1791, the head quarters of the navy were removed to it from Cherson, and the prosperity of the latter place was transferred to the new site, near the mouth of the Bog. Showy structures sprung up, vast dockyards were formed, and a handsome town was created, with an observa- tory, founded by Admiral Greig—an Englishman again—and a relative of the well-known Mrs. So- merville. The glory of Nicolaief was not destined to be permanent. It declined upon the tide of im- perial favour turning to Sebastopol, as the true ruling point of Russia in the Black Sea, making it the chief station of the fleet and the great arsenal of the navy. But this was not till the reign of the Emperor Nicholas commenced ; nor did the appear- ance of the place till that time answer in the least to its proud title. In fact, all the chief fortifications, the dockyard and great works, with the theatre, library, and other public buildings, arose while the late czar held the sceptre, and Woronzow was viceroy in the south. U 290 THE CRIMEA. In the year 1793, the war-flect at Sebastopol, under the orders of Admiral Utschakof, consisted of eight ships of the line, of from 66 to 74 guns, and twelve frigates, of from 36 to 40 guns, almost all brass cannon. There were a number of small vessels stationed in the limans of the Dnieper and Dniester. Previous to the commencement of exist- ing hostilities, the squadron was composed as follows : — Ships of the line - Frigates (2 building) Corvettes - - Brigs » Cutters - Tenders - Yachts - Transports Steamers - Guard-ships Bomb-ship - Total - How many of these have been sunk, in order to block up the mouth of. the port, is unknown. The Paris, of 120 guns, was the finest vessel down to the year 1829, when, becoming unserviceable, it was laid up in the harbour for the reception of convicts em- ployed on the public works. The Warsaw, a three- THE GREAT HARBOUR. 291 decker, of 120 guns, followed. At piso, the Twelve Apostles, 120, is the crack ship, built by a Russian educated in one of the English dockyards, after the model of the Queen. The crews of the vessels are sailors and soldiers at the same time, und are drawn from the recruits of the army. Each ship has its own barrack on shore ; and, while in harbour, which is for the greater part of the year, the majo- rity of the crew become landsmen, variously em- ployed by the government. When at sea, they are strangers to hammocks, sleeping on the open deck. The roadstead or great harbour, entirely scooped by the hand of nature, is one of the most remarkable in Europe,—a repetition of Malta upon a larger scale, and of Sydney upon a smaller. It extends east and west upwards of four miles, by an average breadth of more than half a mile. The shores are naked, barren, and steep, but gradually flatten towards the upper extremity. There are no dan- gerous rocks or reefs, and good holding-ground every- where, with a nearly equal depth of water up to the edges of the basin. The entrance, shot 1100 yards across, is wide enough to facilitate navigation, and allow vessels to tack, yet sufficiently narrow to break the force of the sea and admit of easy defence. The northern side consists of a line of acclivities un- v2 292 THE CRIMEA. broken by an inlet; the southern, on which the town is planted, has three creeks, forming inner havens, two of which run up into it. These lesser harbours are admirably adapted for the requirements of a naval station and commercial port, being com- pletely sheltered by high limestone cliffs, and having at their extremities a depth of nearly forty feet of water, sufficient for vessels of the largest draught. First, after passing the entrance of the roads,—a difficult matter in these days,—is Artillery Bay, the ordinary merchant haven. Next is the Admi- ralty or South Bay, the largest of the three, appro- priated to men-of-war, the dockyard, and other naval purposes, crossed by a bridge of boats. Last, to- wards the east, is Careening Bay, which is not de- voted to any particular object. The town lies prin- cipally between and behind the first and second of these bays, on the slope of a hill rising from them, intersected by deep ravines. Outside the entrance of the great inlet, on the same side, is the Quaran- tine Bay; and five creeks occur between it and Cape Chersonese, the extreme point of land jutting out from the Crimea into the Black Sea. They were all deserted, or used only by vessels driven by stress of weather to seek shelter in them, till the arrival of the allied armies, when the French made THE FORTIFICATIONS. 293 Kamiesch Bay their port for the landing of stores and troops. The seaward defences of the port consist of eleven or twelve forts and batteries, mounting altogether from 800 to 1200 guns, for accounts of the number vary to this extent. Fort Constantine guards the entrance of the great inlet on the northern side, and Fort Alexander on the southern, while Forts Nicholas and Paul protect the mouth of the central inner haven. These are the strongest points, con- sisting each of three tiers of batteries. They were erected soon after the revolution of 1831 in Paris, in consequence of an article in a London journal on the Black Sea, in which it was stated, that nothing could be easier, than for a few well-appointed vessels to force the passage of the Sebastopol roads, and set fire to the imperial fleet. The article attracted attention at St. Petersburg, and so alarmed the emperor, that orders were immediately given for the construction of these defensive works. It is remark- able, considering recent experience, that most travellers have concurred in deeming them more formidable in appearance than in reality, stating either the result of their own observations, or adopt- ing the impressions of others on the spot. ¢ No- ” says Oliphant, can be more formidable than ~ Uo thin o >? 294 THE CRIMEA. the appearance of Sebastopol from the seaward. Upon a future occasion, we visited it in a steamer, and found that at one point we were commanded by 1200 pieces of artillery. Fortunately for a hostile fleet, we afterwards heard, that these could not be discharged without bringing down the rotten batteries upon which they are placed, and which are so badly constructed that they look as if they had been done by contract.” What he states from report, Hommaire de Hell, who had ample oppor- tunity for close inspection, had previously affirmed of his own knowledge. ¢ All these rooms,” says he, “in which the guns are worked, are so narrow, and the ventilation is so ill-contrived, that we are war- ranted by our own observation in asserting that a few discharges would make it extremely difficult for the artillery-men to do their duty. The works too have been constructed with so little care, and the dimensions of the walls and arches are so insufficient, that it is easy to see at a single glance, that all these batteries must inevitably be shaken to pieces, when- ever their numerous artillery shall be brought into play. The trials that have been made in Fort Constantine, have already demonstrated the cor- rectness of this opinion, wide rents having been there occasioned in the walls by a few discharges.” THE DOCKYARD. 295 But Fort Constantine, during the present siege, as Sir Edmund Lyons knows, has blazed away without its walls crumbling, or its gunners being stifled. So possible is it to be dogmatic in opinion, and clearly wrong. The docks for fitting and repairing vessels, on the east side of the central haven, are the most consider- able works of the port, and involved immense difficulties in their execution. They consist of a spacious basin, 300 feet by 400, lined with masonry, sunk at some distance from the sea, and at the higher level of thirty feet above it. Connected with this are five dry docks, capable of accommodating three ships of the line and two frigates, while simulta- neously undergoing repairs. To fill and drain these basins was the difficult part of the problem to be solved, owing to the absence of tides, and the abrupt contour of the shore. It was accomplished by taking possession of some springs connected with the Tchernaya river, at a level of suitable height, and conducting the waters by an artificial channel to the grand basin. They are let off from this into the other basins, and finally into the sea, by an ingenious combination of locks; and by the same means, vessels are readily brought up from the port, and returned to it. The water-course passes over uv 4 296 THE CRIMEA. ravines by aqueducts of eight and sixteen arches, and through a formidable mass of rocks by a tunnel at Inkerman, 900 feet long, ten feet high, and suf- ficiently wide to allow of a footway being left on each side of the canal. Gangs of labourers working day and night, and relieving each other every four hours, were employed fifteen months upon this part of the work, from July 1832 to the October of the follow- ing year. It was quite a novel performance in the Crimea, and regarded in the light of a marvel. The excavation being commenced at the same time at both extremities, the workmen were not a little astonished upon accurately meeting each other in the middle. The canal extends about eighteen versts, nearly twelve miles; and has eleven octagonal pavilions on its banks, serving as guardhouses. A whole army of military labourers, 30,000 in number, was em- ployed upon these magnificent works, the execution of which commenced in 1832, and was to be com- pleted in five years, at the cost of 2,500,000 rubles. But twice that time was required, and the outlay was quadrupled. Dreadful sufferings were endured by the workmen from ophthalmia of the most malig- nant kind, caused by exposure to the glare of the white limestone rocks in summer, and to clouds of THE ENGLISH ENGINEER. 297 dust. The supply of water being inadequate to fill the basins and locks, especially in the hot months, a pumping engine was erected to assist with water from the port. This was sent out from the manu- factory of Messrs. Maudsley and Field in London. It was originally intended to construct the gates of the docks with timber, but on account of the ravages of the worm, which infests the waters, it was resolved to make them with cast iron frames covered with wrought iron plates. Nine pairs of gates were manufactured by the Messrs. Rennie, in a building expressly fitted up for the manipulation of the immense masses of metal required. The original plan for the dockyard was devised by M. Raucourt, a Frenchman; but its execution was committed to Mr. Upton, an English engineer. He super- intended the whole work, as well as many of the forts of Sebastopol, which his countrymen have been so long engaged in battering. His career in England had made him known as a man of talent, but devoid of integrity, for he left it to escape the punishment of the law. Between thirty and forty years ago, Mr. Upton resided at the small market town of Daventry, in Northamptonshire, as a surveyor of roads. He held the post-office there for a year, and lost it through 298 : THE CRIMEA. being a defaulter. His name frequently appears in the parliamentary reports of the commissioners of the Holyhead road, between the years 1818 and 1826. The great improvements effected on that line of road were made under his superintendence, as the subor- dinate of Mr. Telford, the head engineer, who had the highest opinion of his acquirements. But his habits being more expensive than his means allowed, he committed many gross frauds on the trustees. Upon their discovery in April 1826, he was held to bail to appear at the July assizes following at North- ampton. He accordingly appeared, and answered when called upon to plead. But the trial did not come on the first day of the assize. Meanwhile, in- formation was obtained that, instead of a charge of fraud, one of forgery would be brought against him, —an offence which was then capital. He slept at Northampton, rose early in the morning as if for a walk, and stated that he should return for breakfast. But he took the road to London ; and, having some knowledge of the Russian authorities there, received an appointment, and was speedily on his way to the Crimea. Mr. Upton was for some years the chief engineer at Sebastopol, and was engaged in various fortifications on the Black Sea. The Emperor Nicholas gave him the rank of licutenant-colonel in THE TOWN. 299 the army, and received him at the imperial Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. ; Sebastopol extends more than a mile in length, in the direction of the port, by about three-quarters of a mile inland. On the land side it was an open town, being only partly defended by a Joopholed wall, entirely useless. The government only highs ing of attacks by sea, confined its stiention to asking that quarter invulnerable. The public buildings include the admiralty, vast barracks for troops and magazines for stores, a cathedral and numerous green-domed churches, an Italian opera, a dol house, a library, and several hotels, with the sfusple monument of Kosarsky, a naval officer who distin- guished himself in the last Turko-Russian war. These, with the private houses, being mostly new, and built of the limestone of the neighbourhood, gave a neat and substantial appearance to the place. : But a few years would have impaired this aspect without a siege, the limestone being weal and friable. Trees were seen before many of the houses, and arcades, generally formed of vines,— an attempt to relieve the natural desolation of the site, which was only very partially successful ; clouds of fine white unt in summer, raised by the slightest breeze, disguising all verdure. The town ordinarily reckoned a population 300 THE CRIMEA. of 40,000 souls, civilians, soldiers, and sailors. 'l'atars rarely appeared in its streets, and Jews were ex- pressly excluded by an imperial ukase. The Mus- selmen inhabitants of the interior brought supplies for the market, consisting of firewood, provender for cattle, fruit, and other provisions, to Severnaia, or the northern village, situated on that side of the port, and disposed of them there to traders. Life was as methodical as in a prison, reserved and some- what sombre. A system of rigorous supervision seems to have checked a taste for those pleasures to which nature invited. After a hot summer's day, the splendid sunsets and the cool evening breeze tempted but few boating parties to enjoy them on the waters of the magnificent port. By ten o’clock at night all company had usually broken up, and silence reigned, uninterrupted save by the tinkling of the ships’ bells striking the watches, and the chal- lenges of sentinels in the harbour, answered by the barking of dogs upon the shore. The battle of the Alma, September 20. 1854, in- troduced a new and terrible era in the history of the town. Upon the appearance of the allied armies on the heights commanding a view of the port, the in- habitants were seen in panic. Steamers and boats of every description were passing to and fro upon ENGLISH BURYING-GROUND. 301 the waters. Long lines of carts, carriages, ladies on horseback, and a crowd of persons on foot, were ob- served hurrying along the road leading into the in- terior, and property of various kinds was in course of removal, an immediate attack being expected. What Sebastopol has become, after its eight months’ siege, under the tremendous rain of shot and shell to which it has been exposed, cannot be detailed, and only very feebly conceived. The theatre is no more. 500 houses are said to have been totally demolished, and grass is growing on their ruins. Not a single dwell- ing is to be seen which does not bear manifest traces of the bombardment. Streets and pavements are rooted up as with the ploughshare, and lined with pyramids of balls and exploded shells from the bat- teries of the besiegers, collected by the besieged. Whatever may be the fate of the place, it will be renowned in history as having been attacked with indomitable resolution, and defended with incompar- able skill and courage. Fine views of it are ob- tained from various points of the environs, one of which is the English burying-ground. This is a gentle acclivity on the Woronzow road, where a neatly-cut verst-stone marks the distance of five versts, upwards of three miles, from Sebastopol. From this point, where earth to carth, dust to dust, 302 THE CRIMEA. ashes to ashes ” has been often repeated, the roadstead is seen, with the hiils on the northern side, a vast expanse of the sea, the Chersonese Cape and its lighthouse, the long line of ships from Kamiesch Bay to the mouth of the great harbour, the beleaguered town, the serried lines dividing the combatants, and the scattered encampments of the armies. Leaving the naval capital, a southerly journey of about eight miles leads to Balaklava, remarkable for its harbour, bold heights, medieval ruins, modern Greek colony, and recent military occupation, which has made it the starting point of a railway, and brought the neighbourhood within a few hours’ distance of London and Paris by the electric tele- graph. The harbour, about three-quarters of a mile long, by from 300 to 400 yards wide, and very deep, is one of the most completely landlocked that nature ever made. Lofty promontories at the mouth approach each other so closely, that two large vessels can scarcely pass in the intervening channel. These heights are the first land of the Crimea descried by ships sailing from Constantinople. Two towers in a tolerable state of preservation on one of them, that to the right on entering, and traces of an immense outer wall, are the remains of a fortress, from which the Genoese, the former lords BALAKLAVA. 303 of the shore, scanned the sea, and commanded the port. The enclosing cliffs are not of the white nummelite limestone common about Sebastopol, but of a bluish grey or light red Jura rock. They rise precipitously from the water’s edge to a considerable elevation, except at the upper extremity, where the town or village is situated, on the western shore, now so completely transformed as scarcely to retain a vestige of its appearance nine months ago. Balaklava, previous to the arrival of the allied armies, about a week after the battle of the Alma, consisted of some neat white houses and a few shops, shaded by poplars and inhabited by Greeks. It was the capital of a Greek colony, the founders of which, to the number of 8000, were piratical seamen from Mistra, Corinth, Zante, and Cephalonia, whom Catherine II. employed on board her fleet, during her last war with the Turks. At its close, not being in circumstances to return to Turkish dominion, they were rewarded with grants of land on the south coast of the Crimea, and invested with certain privileges, to be held upon a military tenure. Thus, they were made free from the conscription law, allowed their own courts of judicature, and had an independent magistracy, the president being alone responsible to the Russian authorities. But in Hi i ig A A i i geek Sp 304 THE CRIMEA. return, they were under obligation to maintain a body of 500 men, to perform coast-guard duties along the entire southern coast. Each colonist was only liable to be called out for this duty during four months of the year; the other eight he had at his own disposal for the cultivation of his lands. The corps received the name of the Greek battalion of Balaklava, from that place being the head-quarters. Under no pretence whatever was any vessel to enter the waters of the secluded inlet, as a precaution against smuggling, for which the harbour had been largely used. A chain was drawn across its mouth, and small pieces of artillery were stationed on the heights to prevent ingress. But Woronzow, while governor-general, so far relaxed this prohibition as to admit ships in distress—a needful concession on an iron-bound shore. Nine months ago these arrangements were in full force; and thus, by the laws of the empire, the beautiful port,” bella chiare, was doomed to be an unvisited and uncommercial haven. How has the world been turned upside down at Balaklava! Two thousand years ago it was Greek, and remained so for ages. It then became (renoese, next Tatar, then Greek again; and now the place is English, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, French, Turkish, and Sardinian, familiar with the RAILWAY. 305 shout of crews, the hiss of steam, the arrival of troops, the landing of stores, and the labour of navvies. The railway, commenced on the 8th of February, 1855, conveyed commissariat stores to Kadikoi on the 23rd, and took up sho and shell to head-quarters on the 26th,—a marvellous instance of despatch. The construction of the Balaklava and Sebastopol Grand Junction Railway, as it has been somewhat facetiously called, is the first instance of the appli- cation of that branch of civil engineering to siege operations. The perfect arrangements made for the work in a brief interval at the distance of 3000 miles from the spot, and its rapid accomplish- ment, remarkably illustrate the skill and energy with which industrial enterprises are conducted. Seven steam and two sailing ships transported the material to the seat of war. It consisted of 1800 tons of rails, 6000 sleepers, 600 loads of timber, and about 3000 tons of fixed engines, cranes, trucks, waggons, barrows, blocks, chains, picks, bars, and tools in endless variety. The vessels conveyed 500 navvies, in parties of fifty or eighty, each party under the charge of a foreman and assistant. Every man was furnished with clothing suitable for the voyage, and also for the service he would have x ESE i i i El af! b | i) i id & i ¥ i E 6 . 306 THE CRIMEA. to perform on arrival. Huts, coals, coke, and fire- wood, were provided, with a portable cooking-stove to each party of ten, so constructed as to admit of boiling, baking, and frying in the open gir, A surgeon and four assistant-surgeons, with four nurses selected from the hospitals, formed the medical staff. Two missionaries accompanied the men, with a stock of books for their use. Revolvers also formed part of the outfit, in case defence should be needed. The siege not being concentrated against a certain point, but consisting of a series of detached batteries and attacking works ranging over sixteen miles, a trunk with branches, involving many miles of rails, was required to give accommodation to the army. The undertaking, completely novel under the circum- stances, relieved troops and horses of killing toil. It has shown generally, that the most improved methods of transport may be laid over an ordinary country as quickly and easily as a common road ; and that without infringing upon the province of the military, the navvie may essentially aid the soldier, and the civil engineer assist the field-marshal. This is not the whole moral of the enterprise. It strongly hints at the importance of taking a comprehensive view of possible contingencies at the outset of any expedition. The idea of the troops wintering in the MONASTERY OF ST. GEORGE. 307 Crimea, and needing a railroad from port to camp, was as foreign to every mind, when the campaign opened, as that of their proving faint-hearted, and flying helter-skelter before the enemy. Westward on the coast, between two and three miles, is the monastery of St. George, consisting of a green-domed church, and the habitations of the monks, who have neatly laid out gardens arranged on terraces facing the sea. The situation is wild and striking, at the height of from 300 to 400 feet above the beach, to which there is a steep and difficult descent. Magnificent volcanic rocks form the shore, with boldly projecting points hollowed and rent at the base by the dash of the billows, and tenanted by flocks of marine birds. The monastery dates from the tenth century, when a few Greek monks who refused to join in the heresy of Photius retired to the spot. It remained Greek till the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, who introduced Russians ; and the Sclavonic language was substi- tuted in the service of the church. The monks, according to De Hell, are ignorant, indolent, and sottish, as are the majority of the Russo-Greek ecclesiastics. ¢ They received us,” he remarks, “not like Christians, but like downright pagans. The bishop, for whom we had letters, happening to x 2 x re eS tt tee 308 THE CRIMEA. be absent, we fell into the hands of two or three surly-looking friars, whose dirty dress and red faces indicated anything but monastic. They confined us in a disgustingly filthy hole, where a few crazy chairs, two or three rough planks on tressels, and a nasty candle stuck in a bottle, were all the accommo- dation we obtained from their munificence. When we remonstrated, their invariable answer was, that they were not bound to provide us with anything but the bare furniture of the table. With our bones aching, we were obliged to lie down on the execrable planks they had the assurance to call a bed. Fortu- nately, the bishop returned next day, and we got a cleaner room, mattresses, pillows, plenty to eat, and more respectful treatment on the part of the monks; but all this could not reconcile us to men who had such a curious way of practising the precepts of the Gospel. The few days we spent among them were enough to enable us to judge of the degree of ignorance and moral degradation in which they live. Religion, which, in default of instruction, ought at least to mould their souls to the Christian virtues, has no influence over them. They do not under- stand it; and their gross instincts find few impedi- ments in the statutes of their order. Sloth, drunken- ness, and fanaticism stand them instead of faith, SUBMARINE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 309 love, and charity.” Chaplains for the fleet at Sebastopol are supplied from this establishment, whose duties on board the ships are rigorously pre- scribed by the commanders. They are even directed respecting the points to be treated in their religious instructions to the seamen and marines; and an officer attends their services to ascertain if the orders of the commander are obeyed. Seventeen monks, besides the superior, occupied the monastery, when the Anglo-French arrived in the neighbourhood. The remainder, about twenty more, were engaged with the cooped-up fleet. Father Guerondi, the archimandrite, distinguished from the rest of the fraternity by a gold cross upon his breast, was immediately assured of freedom from all disturbance by a general order, the execution of which was committed to a corps of Zouaves ; —* The convent of St. George is placed under the protection of the allied armies. Military men and other persons following the armies are forbidden to enter it by force, or to disturb in any way the security of its inhabitants, or violate the rights of property. At the Camp of Chersonesus, Oct. 2. 1854.” The site of the monastery is now a point of great interest and importance. Immediately at the base of the grand cliff on which it stands, the wire of the electric x3 ; i 's os oh Ba & ie Yo: a ia = i to SRE EAE ORRET 310 THE CRIMEA. telegraph enters the sea, and passes along its bed to the bold headland of Kalaakri, on the Bulgarian shore. This is the longest submarine cable that has yet been made, the distance considerably exceeding 300 miles. : Eastward of Balaklava, the undercliff region of the Crimea commences. This favoured portion of the coast is largely occupied by Russian nobles, either statesmen and generals in active service, or retired officers, with some women of rank, who have esta- blished Gotho-Moorish palaces, Turkish kiosks and fountains, Italian villas, parks, and ornamental gardens, in connection with the simple villages of the Tatars, and the natural scenery, which is alternately savage, wild, grand, and beautiful. Posts bearing the blazonry of the proprietors mark the limits of their estates. Few are in residence for any lengthened interval, chiefly in the autumnal months the finest part of the Crimean year. Many a absent for years together, leaving their domains to the care of bailiffs. The ambition of having an establishment on the “ south coast ” — a well anid stood phrase, without any further definition, in the saloons of St. Petersburg — was once as strong a passion with the grandees of the capital as the rage for railway scrip nearer home. The undercliff on THE SOUTH COAST. 311 strip of land, seldom more than half a league wide, often less, stretching between high mountains and the sea. It was originally a perfect chaos of rocky fragments— the detritus of the highlands—traversed by deep ravines, and here and there interspersed with patches of the natural forest, but possessing very little verdure besides. The more savage and stern spots have been toned down by art covering them with ivy and other creepers; while the vegetation of a southern clime has been introduced with remark- able success. Protected by the mountains from the cold blasts of the north, and open across the sea to the warm winds of Asia, the almond, the cythesus, the wild-chestnut, the Judas-tree, the arbutus, the olive, and the cypress, thrive with great luxuriance ; and form a fine contrast with the dark Taurian pines waving at the height of several thousand feet on the highlands. The more celebrated properties, either from their external features, owners, or associations, are Aloupka, the seat of Prince Woronzow ; Gaspra and Koreis, connected with the memory of Madame de Krudener and the Princess Galitzin; Orianda, an imperial domain ; and Livadia, belonging to Count Potocki. Aloupka, the Alhambra of the Crimea, is situated in solemn grandeur near the south-east angle of the X 4 A pS A Lt pp gh ES 312 THE CRIMEA. peninsula. Tt stands at the base of the Ai Petri, a stern towering and precipitous mountain, which seems to threaten the stately abode below with instant destruction, though really at some distance. The site has the disadvantage of being within a stone’s-throw of the sea, so that no proper view of the fagade of the building can be obtained without leaving the shore in a boat. The material also, a rich greenstone, abundant in the neighbourhood, offers no contrast to the masses of foliage around it. The structure is therefore without a strongly defined outline at the point of sight which comprehends the whole. It forms a massive square. Almost all styles are represented in its architecture and embel- lishments, but the Gothic and Saracenic predominate. However apparently incongruous the combination, it somewhat happily represents the position, on the confines of Europe and Asia, the west and the east, the land of the feudal baron and the Oriental satrap. Solid gateways, a spacious courtyard, a huge square tower and belfry, lofty walls, vaulted passages, and long galleries, appear in connection with a profusion of gay domes, graceful pinnacles, and tapering minarets. The plans for this chateau were prepared in England; and upwards of two millions of dollars had been expended upon it, while yet incomplete, THE CRIMEAN ALHAMBRA. 313 Nature has supplied abundant resources to form cascades and grottoes in the finely planted rons, upon the arrangement of which, Jamie Stanton a Scotch gardener, well known in Morayshire, was . . . a A employed, residing thirteen years on the estate walk covered in with vines extends two miles along the sea. The park includes an inn, where guests are lodged, when the house is full. It bears the sign of the Two Cypresses, in allusion to the to trees planted by Potemkin. A Tatar village adjoins the domain; and from the top of the minaret of the mosque, the daily call of the muezzan, sushmoning the faithful to prayers, may be heard at the Crimean Alhambra. No individual has been so conspicuously connected with the peninsula for such a lengthened inerval the possessor of this princely abode, Michae Woronzow. He was born at St. Pelershary in 1782, but educated in England, where his father died, while holding the office of ambassador. Upon the accession of the Emperor Alexander, he sum- moned the young count to his own country, and appointed him one of his pages. But preferring fs camp to the court, he joined the. army of 4 e Caucasus as a lieutenant, and served in the Russian ns ¢ wars with Turkey and France, rising to the rank o 314 THE CRIMEA. major-general. After again residing some years in England upon the general peace, he commenced the distinguished part of his career in 1823, receiving the governor-generalship of New Russia, which includes the Crimea, the capital being Odessa. That city is indebted to Woronzow for its splendid buildings, and the great extension of its commerce. The peninsula he improved with roads, reduced the southern slope of the coast-chain to cultivation, built himself a villa upon it near the site of the present palace, attracted other noble residents to the district, established steam communication between Kertch and Odessa, and exerted himself, though not with much success, to render the culture of the vine a profitable speculation. The active and talented governor was supposed to be personally disliked by the Emperor Nicholas. It was rumoured in the Crimea, that he was surrounded by spies in his suite, his staff, his palace, and even at his table, who were enjoined to report his every word to St. Petersburg. However this may be, his services were too im- portant to be dispensed with; and in 1845, his sphere of command was enlarged, a ukase appointing him viceroy-general of the Caucasian provinces, and commander-in-chief of the corps of the Caucasus. At the same time, he was invested with powers “BRARY “Yor THE CaLIFORL” a PRINCE WORONZOW. 315 which “no Russian subject ever wielded, since Potemkin. His government extended from the Pruth to the Araxes; and he had absolute authority overit. He could punish all the natives with death ; appoint and remove officials to the sixth class at pleasure ; give rewards and distinctions to the army without imperial sanction; and bring officers and officials of every class to trial by court-martial. Paskievitch, as governor of Poland, never possessed such power. Woronzow did not commence his administration in the Caucasus auspiciously. Ordered by the em- peror to capture Dargo, one of Schamyl’s residences, at all hazards, he penetrated to it. The mountain chief did not defend his stronghold, but reserved himself for a successful exploit. Upon the Russians retiring, he suddenly fell upon them with all his force in the forest of Itchkeri, and the whole army narrowly escaped destruction. All must have pe- rished, or been captured, but for the timely arrival of a division under Freitag. Three generals and 4000 men fell in this defeat. The survivors are said to have wept for joy, when they saw the division come up to save them. Woronzow was not visited with displeasure by the emperor for this disaster, having ventured upon the hazardous expedition in 316 THE CRIMEA. obedience to his will, and contrary to his own judg- ment. At Sebastopol, in an interview between them, he submitted a plan for the reduction of the moun- teineens, which was approved, and immediately put in action. This was to maintain a net-work of forts, and a strong cordon of troops round them, and to make sudden attacks simultaneously at different points, so as to divide their forces. By this means, the cordon might continually be made a smaller circle, and the highlanders be gradually subdued by dispersion and exhaustion. The system has been vigorously carried into effect. But, fortunately for the independent Caucasians, the present war has in- terposed to bring them a reprieve from systematic assaults, and compel the enemy to retire in one di- rection from their borders, the Russians having abandoned their forts on the Circassian coast. Pring Woronzow practically kept regal courts at Odessa and Tiflis, and enjoyed the sovereignty of a territory more extensive than any empire in Europe, except his master’s. Three remarkable women, Madame de Krudener, the Princess Galitzin, and a so-called Countess Guacher, ended their days at the undercliff of the Crimea. They were an intimate trio for a time. Each was honoured with the friendship of the Em- THREE CELEBRATED WOMEN. 317 peror Alexander; but his hand signed at last the decree which exiled them from the court, and fixed their residence in the peninsula. It is well known that Alexander had religious impressions more in harmony with the Protestantism of Western Europe than with the mummeries of the Russo-Greek Church; and, having heard of Madame de Kru- dener, he sought an acquaintance with her as a spi- ritual guide. She was of an ancient Livonian family, remarkable for brilliancy of wit at one period of her life, and for religious zeal in declining years, blended with no inconsiderable amount of mystical enthu- siasm. Circumstances forbade an interview, till, in the memorable campaign of 1815, consequent on Napoleon’s escape from Elba, the emperor had reached Heilbronn, on his way to head-quarters at Heidelberg. Late one evening, while loaded with anxiety, he sat alone in an apartment, when his aide-de-camp, Prince Wolkonski, entered, saying, «I beg your Majesty’s pardon for disturbing you at so unseemly an hour, but there is a woman who is determined to see you, and I cannot get rid of her.” «What is her name?” ¢ Madame de Krudener.” « Madame de Krudener!” exclaimed the emperor ; «let her enter instantly.” She came; and with the boldness of a prophetess addressed the sovereign, 318 THE CRIMEA. after he had disclosed his mental distress. ¢ No, Sire, you have not yet approached the God-Man, as a criminal coming for pardon. Hearken to the voice of a woman, who has also been a great sinner, but who has found the pardon of her sins at the foot of the cross of Christ.” At these words the Emperor of all the Russias buried his face in his hands, and wept bitterly. At Heidelberg, they communed in a little farm-house on the banks of the Neckar every alternate evening for three weeks, in a chamber with three cows in the adjoining apartment; and there Alexander, with his spiritual instructress, and a few friends like-minded, returned thanks for the battle of Waterloo. Time passed on. The emperor devoted himself to the good of his vast dominions, meeting with many obstacles, which defeated his designs and crushed his spirit. Madame de Krudener, in the possession of means of her own, and backed by im- perial munificence, applied herself to works of charity, and was popularly known in St. Petersburg as the mother of the poor. She was the Russian Countess of Huntingdon. Upon making the ac- quaintance of the Princess Galitzin and the Countess Guacher, the three contemplated no less a task than the universal renovation of society, and were san- THREE CELEBRATED WOMEN. 319 guine enough to expect success: The last named lady was French, but nothing was known of her beyond what she allowed to transpire. It simply amounted to the fact of having long resided in Eng- land as a refugee from revolutionary troubles. No persons of her own country, whom she generally shunned, were acquainted with the name she as- sumed. However, her appearance and manners justified the conclusion, that she was entitled to respect as one of the unfortunate noblesse. At first the courtiers laughed at the ladies and their scheme. By and by, they became incensed on account of the influence they had with the emperor ; and church dignitaries were alarmed for his ortho- doxy. At last, Alexander’s own fervour cooled ; and, under some irritation at being represented in a foreign journal as the pupil of three crazy women, he ordered them to retire from court, and spend the rest of their days in the Crimea. The exiles submitted patiently to their lot, and looked forward to propagating the faith in a Mo- hammedan country. They reached their destination in the autumn of 1822, and established themselves in close neighbourhood on the south coast, — Madame de Krudener at Gaspra, the Princess Galitzin at Koreis, and the Countess Guacher in a small house a. 320 THE CRIMEA. by the shore. Habited in a kind of monastic cos- tume, they began to explore hills, mountains, glens, and valleys, in order to evangelise the natives, and are said even to have preached in the open air to the astounded Musselmen. But the authorities inter- fered ; and the Tatars not being inclined to renounce the religion of their fathers, in little more than two months the missionary scheme was abandoned. Madame de Krudener, already aged, died in the fol- lowing year, 1823. The Countess Guacher was consigned to an unmarked grave in her own garden, in 1824. Alexander met his death, while on a southerly journey, of the fever of the Crimea, at Taganrog, in 1825. The Princess Galitzin, remark- able for her talents and eccentricity, survived till 1839, leading a life somewhat resembling that of Lady Hester Stanhope in the Lebanon. The strange part of the story is, as afterwards ascertained, that the Countess Guacher was the veritable Coun- tess de Lamothe, who had been whipped and branded in the Place de Greve at Paris, as an accomplice in the scandalous affair of the diamond necklace. Im- GREAT ORIANDA. 321 careful search, by the police, and forwarded to St. Petersburg. But its valuable contents, whatever they were, for which 4000 versts were traversed, had evidently been abstracted, as nothing was found upon the casket being opened but a pair of scissors! A gilded dome, surmounted by a colossal cross, visible to a great distance, remains upon one of the mountains, which the Princess Galitzin erected to the memory of Madame de Krudener. Following the coast-line to Yalta, one beautiful estate succeeds another, generally under high culti- vation, while thickly-wooded mountain declivities, groups of fantastic rocks, fine views of the sea, at- tractive dwellings, hedges of cypress and olive, pomegranate and myrtle, claim the admiration of the traveller. The imperial domain of Great Orianda, washed by the waves on the one hand, and bounded by a rocky wall nearly 2000 feet high on the other, is the property of the present dowager empress, having been formally given her by the late czar. Stags and roebucks were transported from the heart of the empire to stock the park; and nearly twenty HA LE years ago Mr. Hunt, an English architect, received a commission to erect a palace, designed to be the most magnificent building in South Russia. Only a very small portion of it has been executed. An mediately upon hearing of her decease, Alexander a. sent a courier express to the Crimea, to bring him a casket from her dwelling, which was minutely de- scribed to the messenger. It was found, after a Y LE Rl ER ht TTR et 7 le. x! he x hee Va ER eT ETC a 322 THE CRIMEA. arbutus in a rocky chasm, three feet in diameter near the ground, is shown as a magnificent specimen of the vegetation. Beyond the property of the empress are the exquisite grounds of Count Potocki, bearing the name of Livadia, from a town that formerly oc- cupied the site. Still further is Yalta, raised to the rank of a town by Woronzow, but only a village of some forty white houses, forming a single street. It was intended to be the Cowes of the Crimea, as a station for the yachts of the nobles, and a fashionable bathing-place ; but the design has not prospered. Once a fortnight the summer steamer between Odessa and Kertch touches here; but will intermit its visits during the present season. The embryo port is most charmingly situated. A deep fissure occurs in the hitherto uninterrupted line of moun- tains in the background, through which a merry stream descends, and leaps over rock and stone to the sea. Though its course is little more than three miles, it has formed, in the lapse of many centuries, a small alluvial plain, on which the town has been planted, to serve as an entrepdt for the estates and villas in its neighbourhood. The principal building is an hotel, the Cittd di Odessa, where the weary wight who puts up at it will have scant accommoda- tion and a heavy bill. BOTANIC GARDEN. 323 The natural features of the entire south coast have very commonly a nomenclature derived from the Byzantine Greeks. They attached the names of saints to the remarkable promontories and bold heights, though no monastery or church might be planted on them, with the prefix daryios, sacred or holy, of which Ai is the existing corrupt form. Thus Ai Petri, or St. Peter, denominates the mountain behind Aloupka; Ai Todor, or St. Theodore, de- notes the promontory which bounds the bay of Yalta on the west; and Ai Danil, or St. Daniel, is the name of the headland on the east. Within a short distance of -the latter point appears Nitika; a fine village overshadowed by walnut-trees, celebrated for its botanical garden, situated between the houses and the sea. This is a government establishment, where the best kinds of fruit, forest, and other trees, as well as plants, may be bought, and where young men are trained as gardeners. It was founded in the year 1812, at the suggestion of Herr Von Steven, the distinguished botanical traveller, who was appointed to preside over it. Though primarily intended to benefit merely the unwooded provinces, the nursery has long supplied the empire in general with the cultivated varieties of fruits and vines, ornamental shrubs, timber trees, and flowers; and has obtained Y 2 324 THE CRIMEA. a European reputation. The decayed and moulder- ing trunks of some olive-trees are shown in the grounds, as a venerable vegetable ruin, over which many centuries must have passed. Beyond the Bay of Yalta the undercliff becomes less and less aristocratic in its aspect ; and at Alushta the appearance of dashing four-horse equipages ends. Here the Woronzow road ceases to follow the coast ; and passes inland through a grand break in the long mountain wall to Simferopol. Further travelling eastward is over rough trackways, performed by the proprietors and villagers in the primitive style of their forefathers, either on horseback, or in arabas, small waggons on two wheels, generally drawn by buffaloes. Alushta, in a vale of luxuriant loveliness, consists of some Tatar dwellings grouped around the remains of a fortress, with neat white houses in the suburbs, surrounded with verandahs, belonging to vineyard owners. It was formerly a place of im- portance, an episcopal city in the Byzantine period, and a strong military position fortified with a citadel by the Emperor Justinian. Three towers are the principal vestiges of the fortress; remarkable for the thickness of their walls, upwards of six feet, and their different forms, one being round, another quad- rangular, and the third sexagonal. SOUDAK. 325 The great break in the mountains at Alushta divides the coast-range into two natural portions; the one western, already noticed, the other eastern, stretching to beyond Soudak. They are of nearly equal extent; but in the eastern portion the high- lands are at a greater distance from the sea, and have a lower average elevation. This latter district, though not less beautiful than the former, has not been favoured by aristocracy at all; but is chiefly held by vineyard proprietors and Tatar peasantry. Soudak, the name of a hamlet, also denotes a wine country, one of the most considerable in the Crimea; from which Moscow receives annually a large supply of grapes. This is a spacious valley, overspread with vine-growing establishments, interspersed with orchards, renowned for its fine appearance in spring, when the almond, apricot, and peach trees show their rich blossoms. The site of the once flourishing Greek and Genoese settlement is an immense adjoin- ing promontory, on which stately fragments still stand erect. They were far more important when the peninsula came under the sway of Russia, em- bracing beautiful public and private buildings, which Pallas saw and admired. Great, useless barracks were constructed out of their materials, which, having been long since abandoned, have added their Y 3 326 THE CRIMEA. unmeaning ruins to the ancient remains. About twenty miles further the sombre headland of Kara- dagh terminates the bold scenery of the Crimea ; and towards Kaffa the country blends with the steppes, which form all the northern part of the peninsula, and stretch eastward to the shores of the Strait of Kertch. Kaffa, or Theodosia, according to its Russian name, stands on the shore of a spacious roadstead. This is the safest of the Crimean harbours, after those of Sebastopol and Balaklava; being only affected by the east and south-east winds, which are seldom perilous. The site of the town slopes gradu- ally upwards from the sea into hills, which form a crescent around it. They were once well clothed with plantations and gardens; but are now entirely naked, with the exception of being dotted with wind- mills. Two Russian regiments swept away the cultivation for fuel so completely in a single winter, as not to leave a bush behind. In the principal street, facing the sea, the houses are built after the Italian model, having covered passages or balconies in front, and flat roofs. The population, about 6000, consists of Greeks chiefly, with Armenians, in the next proportion, Jews, Tatars, and Russian officials. The Greek families occupy separate dwellings; several of which have pretensions to some degree of KAFFA. 327 elegance. The Armenians are grouped in khans of considerable magnitude, or lodge in apartments above their warehouses. The Tatars, who are devoted to various handicrafts, form a suburb by themselves, consisting of houses of clay and thatch. In the summer the arrival of visitors from Simferopol and other inland places, for sea-bathing purposes, renders the town lively, and the boulevard gay. The inns and every place of accommodation are then frequently so full, that a lodging of any kind can scarcely be obtained. Among the former, the Hotel de Con- stantinople revives the memory of the time when Kaffa was so prosperous, as to be popularly called Little Stamboul. Two vast squares, separated by a single row of houses, are connected with the Italian street. One is a busy scene, being the market-place, well supplied with varieties of fish from the Black Sea, and with dairy produce brought in from the villages of the German colonists. The other is a melancholy waste. Not long since it contained the finest mosque in the town, an exact model of St. Sophia in Constanti- nople ; and the great Turkish baths, an admirable monument of oriental architecture, the interior of which was lined throughout with marble. Both piles of masonry have now disappeared. They were Y 4 328 THE CRIMEA. taken down by order of the local administration ; ostensibly to find employment for the poor during a severe winter, but really for the profit of the officials by the sale of the materials. At present almost every remaining trace of the old city is devoted to a purpose foreign to its original design. The mosques are either churches, or applied to secular uses; one having been converted into a museum, while marble pilasters ornamented with arabesques serve as door- steps to taverns. The beautiful Armenian church was once a Mohammedan temple; but by way of purification its features have been somewhat altered and added to. It has now a multitude of crosses sculptured in the stone of the building; while the minaret has been transformed into a steeple, where a bell takes the place of the muezzin addressing his summons to the four cardinal points. In the cemetery the stone or marble slabs upon the graves exhibit some emblem denoting the profession of the deceased. There are scales for the merchant, a pair of scissors for the tailor, a hammer for the smith, and other tools of their craft for the various artizans, A Greek church, a mosque, two synagogues, a large lazaretto, and several ancient fountains, complete the public buildings of the town. Some years ago a party of Russian capitalists KERTCH. 329 proposed to connect Kaffa with Moscow by a rail- way passing along the tongue of Arabat, in order to facilitate the transport of the wines, fruits, and salt of the peninsula into the heart of the empire. The scheme did not obtain the sanction of the government ; and was opposed by Woronzow, lest it should injure his pet town of Kertch. In fact, the authorities formally doomed Kaffa to decay by transferring to Kertch its commercial privileges of being a first-class port, with a custom-house of entry and exit. The arrangement is at variance with the ordinances of nature ; for while its capacious bay is open all the year round, and has convenient anchor- age ground, the Kertch roads are annually blocked up with ice through three or four months, and are unsafe, both from the want of shelter and the shallowness of the water. But commerce and loco- motion in the empire, with every measure of social policy, must be regulated to suit the views of the imperial government, without public prosperity and convenience being consulted. After passing eastward over arid and uninteresting plains, without a habitation for miles, or any signs of life but what are afforded by hares, bustards, and enormous flocks of sea-fowl, Kertch appears. It ctands at the eastern extremity of the Crimean pen- 330 THE CRIMEA. insula, on a deep bay of the strait leading into the Sea of Azof, and occupies a ly space The lofty headland of Ak Bouroun, the « Tr Cape,” in the language of the Tatars, rises at th southern extremity of the bay, and commands a oy of the whole strait, with a portion of the two seas it connects, and the distant blue summits of the Cau- casus. Thirty years ago there was only a miserable hamlet on the shore. But the site coming into favour with the government, the late emperor caused the present handsome town to be built, — one of the few in the empire entirely of stone. The material i the steppe limestone, remarkably white, quarried mm the neighbourhood. A broad principal street ranges close to the haven, along which a stone qua of spacious dimensions extends. On the quay oo governors house, the custom-house, and large maga- zines are situated. The Museum, an imitation of hi Temple of Theseus at Athens, is a conspicuous object from the roadstead. It stands half-way up the Hill of Mithridates, an eminence close to the town and 1s ascended by a splendid flight of steps, Sine five terrane, with decorated balustrades. Autiqies of Panticapeum, the old Milesian capital, are deposited in this edifice. Some relics are in the British Museum ; part of a collection brought to this country KERTCH. 331 by Mrs. Cattley, whose husband was the English consul at Kertch. They include personal ornaments, mouldings, carvings, and a copper coin of Mithri- dates. A small temple crowns the summit of the hill. This is a monument to the memory of Stam- kofsky, a former governor, under whose superin- tendence the most important memorials of the past were brought to light by excavations of the sur- rounding tumuli. His collection of coins was pur- chased by the Emperor Nicholas, and is now among the treasures in the Hermitage. A considerable trade in antiquities has been carried on, chiefly by Jews; but more in private than public, for formerly it was most strictly prohibited. Though now thrown open, all objects are required, in the first instance, to be offered for sale to the Museum. Kertch contains a population of 10,000 inhabitants, many of whom are wealthy merchants. The chief trade is in fish, obtained in vast quantities from the adjoining seas, principally sturgeons ; and salt, procured from some ‘small lagunes in the vicinity. Both are bartered for corn in the northern ports of the Sea of Azof. The bay of Kertch was splendidly illuminated a whole night in the year 1837. Nicholas then paid his first. visit to it, accompanied by the heir-apparent, the present czar. They arrived on board the Sever- 332 THE CRIMEA. naia Zvesda, the ¢ Star of the North” steamer. A heap of bituminous material collected on Ak Bou- roun blazed aloft, and threw a bluish light over the Cimmerian Bosphorus. The historic Hill of Mithri- dates sparkled with lamps; and glaring fires, kindled along the shores, rendered the margin of the bay an immense zone of light around the potentate, who remained till day-dawn in the steamer. He was on his way to join the empress at Aloupka, the only time she ever visited the Crimea; and had been making his first tour in the Caucasus. On that oc- casion the Russian sultan, as the Highlanders styled him, told some of the Circassians, that he had powder enough to blow up all their mountains. Little did he anticipate, when witnessing the illumination of 1837, the fiery glow of the coast, and the striking reverse of circumstances in 1855. The Caucasus stands firm, notwithstanding his stores of powder ; while the strongholds of Russia on the shore are in the hands of the Circassians, and the czar lies help- less in the vaults of the Peter and Paul Church at St. Petersburg. The forts of Kertch have been blown up by their occupiers, incapable of maintaining them ; and its vast magazines converted into bonfires ; while English, French, and Turks have paraded its streets as the masters. YENIKALE. 333 Yenikale, similarly treated during the recent Anglo-French expedition, stands on the channel im-~ mediately leading into the Sea of Azof, about six miles from Kertch. The intervening country, a grassy, undulating steppe, is studded with tumuli ; from some of which the soldiers of the western nations have surveyed the landscape. At various points of the shore curious rocks of the madrepore class appear,—the work of a small molluscous animal, — assuming fantastic shapes, and swarming with the black cormorant, which nestles in the cavi- ties of the sponge-like structure. Yenikale is a small dilapidated town, entirely occupied by Greeks and Tatars engaged in the sale of ships’ stores and fish. The name signifies the New Fort, and refers to an old fortification erected by the Turks, repaired and strengthened by the Russians. At the base of one of the towers a fine sarcophagus of white marble dug out of a tumulus, after accommodating the dead, now serves the living, by receiving the water of a spring. Memorials of the ancient Greek colonists of the district are numerous in the neighbourhood. The whole west coast of the Crimea, from Sebas- topol to Perekop, is without natural interest, and has no town of the slightest consequence upon its shores, except Eupatoria. The mouth of the Alma, 334 THE CRIMEA. where the high ground in the south of the peninsula subsides into the northern steppe, will be historically memorable as the scene of the first great battle ever fought by British troops on Russian soil ; as well as Old Fort, in Kalamita Bay, the site where the troops disembarked and passed their first night within the empire of the czar, exposed to drenching rain. Eu- patoria, nearly forty miles from Sebastopol, is situ- ated at the northern extremity of the bay. Under the name of Koslov it was one of the most flourish- ing cities of the Tatars; exported large quantities of wool, butter, hides, fur, and corn; and rivalled Bakchi-serai in the number of its mosques, baths, and bazaars. But the port being inconvenient at all times, owing to shallow water, and without a shelter in rough weather, commerce left it upon the rise of Sebastopol and Odessa. The town covers a large extent of ground with narrow, irregular streets, waste enclosures, and low-built houses ; above which rises the mosque of Djouma-Djamai, the largest in the Crimea. The population, composed of Arme- nians, Karaim Jews, and Tatars, are engaged in jewellery, embroidery on morocco leather, and the manufacture of a particular kind of felt. War has almost entirely changed the aspect of the place. Held by the allied forces, and formerly unprotected, - EUPATORIA. 335 strong fortifications have been thrown up around it, in defence of which the Turks signally defeated the Russians. The bloodiest part of the action was fought in the Jewish and Armenian cemeteries, where the fine old tombs, covered with curious in- scriptions, were shattered by artillery, and displaced to find room for the dead. The defeat of his troops was a severe blow to the pride of the late emperor, and it hurried him to the grave. Two czars have died of the Crimea,— Alexander of its fever, and Nicholas of the battle of Eupatoria. THE CRIMEA. CHAP. X. SIMFEROPOL AND THE INTERIOR. THE CIVIL CAPITAL, — AKMETCHET AND SIMFEROPOL. — PROFESSOR PALLAS. — VALLEY OF THE SALGHIR. — BAKCHI-SERAL—CHARACTER OF THE#TOWN.—TRADERS. — HOWLING DERVISHES. — A GIPSEY VILLAGE. — THE GIPSEY DOG-KILLER. — MONASTERY OF THE ASSUMP- TION. — TCHOUFOUT KALEH. — VALLEY OF JEHOSHA- PHAT. — THE KARAIM JEWS, — TALMUDICAL JEWS. — KARASU-BASAR. — POPULATION OF THE CRIMEA.— THE TATARS OF THE STEPPE. — THE HILL DWELLERS, — THE NOGAIS. — GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE TATARS. THE civil capital of the Crimea, the residence of the governor, and the seat of the government offices and tribunals, Simferopol, is situated in the heart of the peninsula, on the hilly tract which forms the bound- ary between the mountains and the steppe. The site renders it a kind of rallying point for the inha- bitants of both regions. On the one hand, to the south, the well-defined form of the Tchadir-dagh is seen to advantage, and, in the opposite direction, the apparently interminable plain. The city stands on SIMFEROPOL. 337 the banks of the Salghir, which has here cut for itself a deep channel in the shelly limestone, and flows through a valley filled with masses of trees, irrigating meadows, vineyards, and beautiful or- chards. It consists of two portions, old and new, Tatar and Russian, closely connected, yet quite dis- tinct, and thus answers to the meaning of its Greek name, the “double city.” Simferopol is about 40 miles from Sebastopol, 90 from Perekop, 950 from Moscow, and 1400 from St. Petersburg. The old Tatar portion of the town, formerly the residence of the Kalga-sultan, or vice-khan, still re- tains its ancient name of Akmetchet, the ¢ white mosque,” referring to an edifice of that description erected by Ibrahim Bey. All courtly buildings, if ever there were such, have entirely disappeared. Nothing remains but a collection of irregular streets, so narrow that two vehicles cannot pass, and so in- volved that, without a guide, the stranger who gets into the maze may experience some difficulty in finding his way out. The houses being almost in- variably enclosed in court-yards, little more than blank walls meet the eye of the passenger. Shops are confined to a quarter monopolised by Jews and Greeks. No contrast can be greater than that pre- sented by the new Russian town, with its white Z 338 THE CRIMEA. houses, painted roofs, broad streets, and large squares. But these extensive spaces appear to dis- advantage, as the generally one-storied dwellings are disproportionately low, and the comparative paucity of population gives them an empty and deserted aspect. The residence of the governor is a handsome substantial mansion, overlooking the public prome- nade,—a series of shady walks and gardens extending down to the river, where a military band plays on summer evenings. The Novy Zabor, or new cathe- dral, is also a fine edifice, built in the usual style of Russian ecclesiastical architecture. It forms a square, with a large dome in the centre, and a smaller one at each of the four corners. The interior is gay with pictures of saints in richly-gilt frames, around which ladies are fond of hanging specimens of their own needlework as votive offerings. A Greek, Ar- menian, Catholic, and Lutheran church, a Jewish synagogue, several mosques, with large ungainly barracks and hospitals, are the other public buildings. The inhabitants number about 12,000, of whom one half are Tatar, a quarter Russian, and the rest Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Gipsies. Pallas, the emi- nent naturalist and traveller, was long connected with Simferopol. Having published his ¢ Tableau de la Tauride” at St. Petersburg, in the reign of VALLEY OF THE SALGHIR. 339 Catherine, in which he indulged in highly-coloured descriptions of the beauty and fertility of the country, —perhaps to flatter her vanity,—she sent him to reside there, and gave him an estate as a reward for his long services. He suffered for his obsequious- ness, and had to deem the recompense a misfortune. However agreeable to visit, the remoteness of the peninsula from the highways of science rendered it excessively disagreeable as a place of residence to the savan. Its unsettled state at that time, together with the absence of many of the comforts of polished life, exposed him to frequent inconvenience; while the summer fever of the Crimea, especially prevalent on the banks of the Salghir, impaired his health. At an advanced age, he had to complain in one of his works of the disquietude and hardships which op- pressed and embittered his declining days, in the region formerly pictured as a kind of terrestrial paradise. There was some poetical justice in this experience. The finest orchards and gardens of the Crimea are in the valley of the Salghir; hence a profusion of flowers and fruits renders the market-place of the capital a gay and tempting scene in the summer season. There are piles of cherries, apricots, plums, and peaches, followed, at a later date, with loads of z 2 340 THE CRIMEA. melons and water-melons, and heaps of grapes. This produce arrives at the early dawn, chiefly in the madgiars of Tatar cultivators, many of whom come from a considerable distance, and travel all the night. These primitive vehicles are of oblong shape, mounted on four wheels, drawn by oxen or camels. Grease never being applied to the axles, they unmistakeably announce their approach by discordant notes. The combined creak, scream, and groan of a caravan of thirty or forty heavily laden madgiars, along with the pitiful moaning of the jaded camels, echoes far and wide over the steppes, and makes insupportably horrible music to European ears. More than one reason is assigned for the retention of these easily- obviated dissonant sounds. The Tatars seem to consider it the duty of honest people to proclaim their locomotion, and not move about silently, as if intent on some felonious purpose. Besides, Mo- hammedanism teaches them to look with disfavour upon pig’s grease, while sheep or ox fat is too enjoy- able an article for themselves to be wasted upon wheels and axles. A variety of costume arrests at- tention on the Simferopol market-days, but is espe- cially obvious at the great annual fair, in the early part of October, when red-bearded Russian mujiks, black-bearded Jews, gaily-dressed Tatars, green BAKCHI-SERAIL 341 turbaned Hadjis, wild-looking Nogais, smart Greeks, sober Armenians and Germans, and Cossack soldiers, mingle in the enormous square. Nearly midway between the civil and military capitals, Simferopol and Sebastopol, but apart from the direct road, is Bakchi-serai, the old metropolis of the khans. It lies in a narrow, deep, and highly picturesque fissure of the limestone, through which the Djourouk-su runs, a rapid rivulet. The sides of the fissure are somewhat sloping at the entrance, but become very steep farther up, and are perfectly pre- cipitous at various points. Owing to the situation, the place is not observed till the visitor is close upon it. The view embraces a long line of closely- grouped houses at the bottom of the dell, and some on terraces at the sides, with a profusion of turretted chimneys and minarets, intermingled with the foliage of gardens and clumps of Lombardy poplars. Everything is primitive in the aspect of the build- ings, and in the appearance, manners, and customs of the inhabitants. They exclusively consist of the old races in the country, no Russians being allowed by the government to reside there, except a few officials, and a small military guard. The place and people are almost precisely as they were centuries ago. ¢« There is no visible evidence of the great change 342 THE CRIMEA. which has passed over the condition of the Tatar — nothing significant of the power to which he now owes allegiance. The crescent and the cross do not here compete with one another; venerable mosques are not jostled by green domes bespattered with stars ; nor is the cry of the muezzin drowned in the clang of unmusical bells; — no reckless drosky threatens the foot-passenger with instant destruc- tion ; no reeling mujik overwhelms him with besotted caresses ; no importunate shopkeeper bawls loudly after him. Were it not for the Cossack who stands sentinel in the archway of the palace of the khans, those deserted halls might yet be filled with the turbaned retinue of former years, and the empty harem still occupied by dark-eyed houris.” But in addition, a quadrangular monument before the entrance, of no great height, informs the passer-by that Catherine was here in the summer of 1787. A single narrow street extending along the streamlet, about a mile in length, with a few very short lateral branches, constitutes the entire town. The main street is lined throughout with the shops of trades- men and artificers, in which Tatar industry is exhibited in its pristine simplicity, producing daily the same articles as were fabricated in generations past, unaltered in their make by caprice or fashion. - BAKCHI-SERAI 343 The shops and stores have no front walls, but are furnished with wooden flaps, which are closed up at night, and let down by day, exposing the whole of the interior to the view of the passenger, and forming a kind of counter upon which the owner exhibits his wares, or sits cross-legged, pursuing his craft. The women are concealed from the public eye in apart- ments behind. Commonly the same trades are grouped together. There are rows of cutlers famed for the excellent knives they manufacture; sheep- skin cap makers; workers in leather, employed upon saddles, whips, belts, and tobacco-pouches; turners, patiently boring cherry or jessamine stocks into the long pipes so much in request abroad; tailors, cotton cleaners, barbers, butchers, bakers, and cooks. The dealers in stuffs, mercery, and foreign produce, are chiefly Karaim Jews. Some of the inhabitants are millers, grinding grain into flour by mills set in motion by the Djourouk-su. Others cultivate orchards, the only labour of the field which the site admits of being followed. The high street of Bakchi-serai is a scene of bustle and noise by day, owing to the number of passengers, and the creak of the madgiars; but at an early hour of the evening the stillness is perfect. It is remarkable for the numerous fountains which, at short intervals, gush Zz 4 344 THE CRIMEA. out of the surrounding rocks in copious streams. The population amounts to about 14,000. The town has ten khans or caravanserais, and thirty-two mosques. Four times a-day the muezzins ascend the steep staircases leading to the top of the minarets, and call the faithful to prayers. Besides several schools for children, there are three medresses, or collegiate establishments, in which about 300 young Tatar students are qualified for the service of the mosques, and other offices. They are taught the dogmas of their religion, and receive instruction in history, arithmetic, and other branches of knowledge, not forgetting astrology. These institutions were founded by the khans, two of whom, Achmet-Aga and Mengli-Gherai, prized them so highly as to direct their remains to be deposited in sepulchres prepared within their precincts. Among the mosques, there is one appropriated to the dancing or howling dervishes, a strange fra- ternity found in most Mohammedan countries, whose gyrations and chants admit of no rational explanation. Their performances take place chiefly at night, and are most in vogue during the Ramazan the great annual fast of the Mohammedans. The European may readily gain admission, but will not be edified by the ceremony, which is simply gro- GIPSEY VILLAGE. 345 tesque or revolting. A number of bearded old men place themselves in the centre of the mosque, stand- ing upright, and forming a circle around a venerable moullah; this chief commences the service by chanting monotonously a prayer out of a book, In which the others join. Each old man then turns round on his own axis with moderate rapidity, the moullah in the centre turning in an opposite direc- tion to the rest, and raising his voice above them. By degrees the motion increases, — faster and faster twirl the human spindles, and louder and louder grows the nasal chant. At certain intervals the performers in the circle bow down with mgelioe nical precision before the moullah, repenting with stronger accentuation, Allah! Al-lah! till the twirling, bowing, and howling exhaust the group, and the absurd exhibition closes. Quitting the town to explore the upper part of the valley, the abodes of the living are left for the burial-places of the dead, the cemetery of Bakchi- serai lying in that direction, with innumerable tomb- stones, among which the inhabitants often wander, visiting the graves of relatives or friends. The valley contracts on advancing, sometimes to a mere gorge. In one of the narrower parts, a village of 5 : Gripsies occurs, locally called Tsigans. They 1n- 346 THE CRIMEA. habit holes in the rocks hollowed out by the hand of nature, or wretched sheds of mud and reeds plastered up against them. Towards night, the light of their fires in the gloomy glen, and the dark figures of men and women moving about, with tattered garments and dishevelled hair, render the scene, wildly savage, fit for the pencil of a Salvator Rosa. Small groups of this outcast people are scattered over the Crimea, and have occupied it for ages. They have the same love for a free unfettered life as their brethren else- where, but are far more dirty, poor, and miserable, rejecting scarcely anything in the shape of food,— rats, mice, crows, entrails, refuse, and specially prizing hedgehogs. In the coldest days of winter, as in the hottest of summer, their children run about without a scrap of clothing till they are quite grown up, and then only hang round their limbs a few scanty rags. Some exhibit a better appearance, having been induced to take to regular employment, still retain- ing their peculiar customs, language, and garb. The men are chiefly smiths, and have the reputation of being clever at sharpening implements ; hence their tents or wigwams are pitched wherever there is a large concourse of horses and waggons. At Kertch the services of the Gipsies are in requisition at intervals to keep down a superfluous population MONASTERY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 347 of dogs, with which the town is infested, like Sy all other cities in the east. The Tsigan executes is office in a peculiar manner. Invested on the ceossion with the character of a public officer, and arrayed i some cast-off military garb, he parades the streets 1n the early morning, dragging behind him the ey of a dog clubbed to death the night before, an carrying beneath his garment a heavy inte His appearance is the signal for a general out re of the living dogs, who follow ti with fotos barking. The dog-killer bides his lire for one o the brutes to come within reach of his Hiudgeon, when quick as lightning a deadly blow is dealt. After a day’s work, the executioner goes before a magistrate, with some canine relive as evidence 9 the number destroyed, and receives a stipulate amount for each of his victims. : Further up the valley, the sides are more prec and the upper stratum overhangs. High on on the perpendicular face of a cliff, sole light wooden galleries appear, fring a communica- tion between several caves. This 1s the Honsery of Uspenskoi, or of the Assumption of the Vien occupied by a few Greek priests. It ow chapel and adjoining chambers, natural ho ne , the limestone, enlarged and shaped by the chisel. 348 THE CRIMEA. The aerial abode is reached by a staircase cut in the rock. According to tradition, some refugees fled to this secluded spot centuries ago, during a time when the disciples of the cross were persecuted by the followers of the crescent. They found in one of the caves a picture of the Virgin. It was hailed as a heaven-descended object symbolising protection ; and superstition soon invested it with the power of working miracles. In calmer times, its reputation was noised abroad, and crowds came to pay honour to the blessed image. Hence arose the present religious establishment at the spot, the credit of which has not at all abated. Annually, on the 15th of August, the Christian population of the Crimea, gaily dressed Greeks and Armenians, men, women, and children, flock to the holy place; and as many as 20,000 pilgrims sometimes enliven the sequestered valley, to the no small emolument of the monks and of the innkeepers of Bakchi-serai. On the opposite side of the valley, towards the farther extremity, is Tchoufout Kaleh, or the Jews Fort, a town perched on the summit of an isolated and perpendicular rock, which has been for several centuries the exclusive abode of Karaim Jews. The town is surrounded by a wall, and entered by a gate closed at nightfall, the ascent to which is by ol TCHOUFOUT-KALEH. 349 flights of steps. Many of the houses are on the very verge of the precipice. Thus situated, the place appears impregnable: yet it could not possibly be defended long against an enemy, as the whole supply of water is derived from a spring in the valley below, and has to be carried up in skins to the inhabitants. In the time of the khans, the people were rigidly restricted to their rocky abode, being only allowed to spend the business hours of the day in the Tatar capital, returning every evening to the mountain. On arriving on horseback opposite the palace, they were bound to alight, and proceed on foot till out of sight. These restrictions ceased upon the Russian conquest; but though free to reside in the neighbouring city, the old usage of passing to and fro between their homes and shops is still maintained. The population of the singularly situated town consists at present of only a few families, as the greater facilities for trade offered by Eupatoria, Simferopol, Kaffa, and Kertch have induced numbers to migrate thither. Hence there is an almost sepulchral silence in the place by day, for most of those who have remained are then down at their warehouses and stores in Bakchi-serai; and the desolation of the dilapidated streets makes a painful impression upon the mind. In two unpre- 350 THE CRIMEA. tending synagogues there are very valuable vessels of the purest silver, and some manuscript copies of the Old Testament on vellum, rolled up in velvet cases covered with brilliant ornaments. It is common for the richer Karaim dispersed in the towns of the Crimea, when sensible of the in- firmities of age, to return to die at the old seat of their forefathers, in order to be buried by their sepulchres. The cemetery of Tchoufout Kaleh is a dell-like site at a little distance, closely packed with irregularly ranged gravestones, shaded with fine oaks, elms, and beech trees. The green foliage pleasingly contrasts with the white limestone tombs. The spot bears the name of the Valley of Jeho- shaphat. Here are the sepulchres of generations long since past away, simple sarcophagi, with a high stone to indicate the head, covered with Hebrew in- scriptions, some of which are of very remote date. Though the town on the rock, during the first years of the Tatar dynasty in the Crimea, was the capital of the khans, it had been previously occupied by the Karaim, who returned to it when the sovereigns selected a new site for their residence in the valley below. In former days, when pinched for money, the khans are said to have extracted it from their Hebrew subjects by simply threatening to cut down VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 351 the trees in the cemetery, under the pretext of wanting timber and fuel. The threat never failed to replenish the exchequer. The older tombs are mostly very much out of position, either from the sinking of the soil or earthquake shocks. A visitor to the valley of the dead, not many years ago, while treading its tortuous paths, looking out for objects of interest among the monuments, met with a singular personage who had long been connected with them. He stumbled upon alittle old man, half hidden by the brushwood, who was intent upon the task of cutting out on a recent tomb the letters of a Hebrew inscription. His costume was of the most grotesque character, and a long white beard added to its effect. An enormous balloon- shaped blue cap rested upon his head; a pair of large round spectacles, fastened behind with a piece of string, protected his eyes from the glare of the sun and the dust; and a kind of parasol shaded the shrivelled artist as he crouched at the foot of the tomb upon which he was operating. For forty years,” said he, in answer to inquiries, «there has not been a gravestone set up here but my chisel has carved the epitaph upon it. All those to whom I have rendered this last honour have been either friends or relations, so that I do not work only for the glory 352 THE CRIMEA. of my art. There is, in the art I have exercised and lived by for forty years, something more than mechanical labour. There are the pleasures and pains of memory. I knew and loved the greater part of those who sleep here, before I engraved their names in the great stone book of Jehoshaphat. I too am approaching the spot I have reserved for myself beneath the trees yonder, and I know not what un- skilful hand may be employed to perform that task for me which I have performed for others.” The artist of death plainly magnified his office. By this time he sleeps with his fathers, and little matters it to him whether his name is well or ill cut among the thousands in the solitary Valley of Jehoshaphat. The Karaim Jews, a most interesting people, differ from the race scattered in such numbers throughout Europe in appearance, opinions, habits, and character. The expression of the countenance is in general open and prepossessing ; and the minute attention they pay to personal cleanliness distin- guishes them from their brethren. They are polite and obliging, without the least approach to servility. In religion, they repudiate the Talmud, and the rabbinical commentaries, adhering to the letter of the Old Testament. Hence some derive their name from the word kara, scripture. Besides this funda- THE KARAIM JEWS, 353 mental doctrinal difference, there are certain varia- tions in the liturgy, in the mode of circumcision, in the rules relative to diet, and in the degrees of relationship within which marriages are allowed or forbidden, which form a broad line of distinction between the two sections of the Hebrew race. In contrast also with the Talmudical Jews, while equally expert and enterprising as commercialists, the Karaim are renowned for their strict probity, and are universally esteemed in the peninsula on this account. The word of a merchant or trader is regarded with perfect confidence. The respect in which they are held leads artisans and shopkeepers among them at Eupatoria, Kaffa, and other towns, to signify on their sign-boards that they are Karaim. They speak the Tatar language, have very nearly the same costume, and the same customs, with the exception of those which difference of religion com- mands. The Russian government, some years ago, ap- pointed a special commission to inquire into the condition and origin of the Karaim. It generally confirmed the account they give of themselves. According to this, they are descended, pure and unmixed, from the tribe of Judah, which was led to Babylon. They assert, that while many returned AA 354 THE CRIMEA. to their native country, when the captivity termi- nated, many remained behind; and that the de- scendants of these last penetrated further north, settled in Armenia, extended themselves to the Caucasus, and passed over into the Crimea, from whence a few colonies proceeded into Poland. Not being in Judea in the time of Christ, they have no prejudices against Christians ; and appear generally to have lived in harmony with them and with the Mohammedans. Members of this community are found in small numbers in Lithuania, Volhynnia, the Caucasus, Egypt, and at Jerusalem. The latter, at stated times of the year, assemble on the west side of Mount Moriah, to pour forth songs of lament- ation for the destruction of the temple, and the dis- persion of the race. The following specimen of these litanies resembles the elegies of the prophets. The rabbi intones the prayer, and the people chant the responses : — FIRST CHORUS. « Lit. For the Palace that lieth in ruins, Resp. We sit here alone and weep! L. For the Temple that is destroyed, R. We sit here alone and weep! L. For the walls which are broken down, R. We sit here alone and weep! L. For our majesty. which is departed, THE KARAIM JEWS. . We sit here alone and weep! For the costly jewels consumed by fire, We sit here alone and weep! . For our Priests, who have sinned, . We sit here alone and weep! . For our Kings, whom Jehovah hath contemned, . We sit here alone and weep!” NNR NNR SECOND CHORUS. « I. We beseech thee to have compassion upon Zion! . Gather together the children of Jerusalem ! . Hasten and tarry not, O Saviour of Zion! . O speak to the heart of J erusalem ! . Oh that beauty and majesty may once more encompass Zion! . Turn Thou thy face graciously towards J erusalem ! . May the royal sceptre soon reappear over Zion ! . Comfort the mourners of Jerusalem ! . May peace and joy once more abide in Zion! . And the branch sprout forth at Jerusalem 9 Ten of the Karaim found their way from the Crimea to Hyde Park in the summer of 1851, inspected the wonders of the Great Exhibition, and returned with purchases for their shops. ' The Talmudical Jews form part of the population of the peninsula. This class consists, toa considerable extent, of new-comers, deported by the government from the interior of Russia. They were taken chiefly from the Polish provinces, in order to weed AA2 356 THE CRIMEA. them of a race of unscrupulous dealers, and reclaim the migrants to honest industry by agricultural em- ployment. The expatriation involved much practical injustice, and many cases of personal hardship. But, as might have been expected, the experiment of compelling a people by law to renounce old habits and customs did not succeed. Holding every kind of manual labour in abomination, and never taking to field-work wherever there is the slightest chance of driving a trade, the children of Abraham have gradually slunk off from the rural locations, and crept into the towns, hanging themselves on the better class of the inhabitants till a subsistence can be gained by traffic in all sorts of trifles. Koch met with one of these absconded worthies in the market- place of Simferopol. He had been forcibly removed, with many others, from Courland, and doomed to husbandry in the Crimea. The work was not in accordance with his predilections; and, being wholly unaccustomed to it, his hands were very speedily in a blistered condition. After a little experience of the toil, it became unendurable; and, upon field- labour recommencing with the spring, he bolted from the farm, to try his chance of an easier livelihood in the city. Thirty-five miles from Simferopol, on the road to KARASU-BASAR. 35% Kaffa, is Karasu-basar, black-water market.” This is the largest town after Sebastopol, containing about 15,000 inhabitants ; and the most exclusively Tatar next to Bakchi-serai. It occupies a semicircular valley, through which the Karasu flows, and its affluent the Tunas, on their way to join the Salghir, and debouch through its channel into the Putrid Sea. Lying between two rivers, which sometimes overflow their banks, the town is nightly enveloped in white mists through a considerable portion of the year, said to be pernicious to the health, engendering epidemic fevers. Situated also close to the northern base of the Crimean highlands, another evil to which the inhabitants are subject, is the reflection from Ak-kaya, the White Rock of Shirin, an enormous mass of limestone, which forms a wall on one side of the valley. In summer, when the rays of the sun strike upon this ridge, they are reflected with such intensity as to raise the temperature to a very high range, while the excessive glare affects the eyes, and produces virulent ophthalmia. The summit of the ridge is, however, a favourable vantage-ground for viewing the town. It lies before the spectator with all its details exposed,—a labyrinth of narrow streets—above which twenty-two mosques raise their minarets, with the green dome of a Russo- AAS B a EE 5 segs 358 THE CRIMEA. Greek church, several Armenian and Catholic eccle- siastical edifices, and a vast quadrangular fortified khan and bazaar, erected in the seventeenth century. Karasu-basar is the great corn-mart of the Crimea, and a place of considerable manufacture. Articles in leather, from slippers to saddles, coarse earthen- ware, cutlery, bricks and tiles, are the chief crafts. The streets are crowded with shops, not scattered miscellaneously, but ranged according to the oriental fashion of allotting separate districts to different kinds of merchandise. The dealers in leather, wool- len goods, woven fabrics, and pottery, the cooks, the bakers, and the coffee-houses, have each a distinct quarter. Each coffee-shop is divided into square compartments, surrounded by a divan, with a chafing-dish in the centre. Squatted in these enclo- sures, Tatars, Armenians, and Karaim may be seen for hours together, sipping coffee, smoking in silence through long pipes of cherry-stick, but sometimes transacting business, or playing at backgammon. East of the town, in a large cemetery, an octagonal monument, surrounded by an arcade, marks the resting-place of a Turkish pasha. The summit of a neighbouring hill is occupied by the residence of a wealthy Greek,—one of the houses erected to ac- commodate the Empress Catherine. THE POPULATION. 359 The total population of the Crimea has been stated as follows : — By Montaubon, in 1834 - » - 187,216 By Demidoff, in 1839 » - - 190,063 By Hommaire de Hell, in 1840 - - 200,000 According to the last estimate there are about twenty souls to one square mile. Demidoff gives an estimate of numbers in different classes, of which the following is a summary —the figures relating solely to males : — Nobles and gentry, Tatar and Russian - 1,123 Moullahs - - - 5,368 Greek Priests - - 20 Tatar peasants - - 90,678 Russian peasants - - 2,851 Foreign settlers, chiefly German 2,883 Greeks and Armenians - 2,589 Karaim Jews - - 1,383 Talmudical Jews - - - 325 Total - 107,220 There must now be temporarily in the Crimea an additional 400,000 souls at the least, including Rus- sian, French, British, Turkish, and Sardinian mili- tary, with the civilians connected with the armies. This is an astounding addition to the regular popu- lation of 200,000, rapidly poured into a small penin- AA 4 360 THE CRIMEA. sula, which scarcely grows corn enough for its own consumption. The Tatars, who form the great majority of the stated population, are commonly divided into three classes,— the inhabitants of the steppe, the hill- dwellers, and the Nogais. The differences between them are not very important, and have evidently been produced by diverse local circumstances. The first class are scattered at intervals over the northern plains, and are either grouped in villages, or occupy detached homesteads. They are of rougher manners and more Asiatic aspect than their brethren on the southern highlands, the latter having been more in contact with civilised life, and with the nations of Western Europe, when the Genoese held their coast. At the same time, they are more simple and hospitable, and will receive the stranger without expecting an exorbitant fee for the entertainment, often declining even the least gratuity. Their houses are flat-roofed, rudely constructed of the nearest stones, and occasionally of unbaked clay. They are herdsmen and agriculturists. In rigorous and pro- longed winters they frequently endure great hard- ships for want of fuel, the steppe supplying no tiniber, and the stock of dry weeds and straw being exhausted. The herds also suffer severely, owing to LNHABITANTS OF THE STEPPE. 361 their supply of hay failing. The poor animals, re- duced to skeletons, have been known to eat away the hair from each other's manes and tails, and many perish. In tilling the soil, the cultivators display ad discreditable amount of industry. But their condi- tion under the Russian government, exposed to in- cessant petty depredations from its inferior agents, has tended to repress energy and prevent forethought ; while the difficulty of obtaining redress by appeals to the supreme authority, owing to difference of lan- guage and religion, has rendered the offers of local administration more than ordinarily rapacious. Some humane and enlightened governors have taken the Tatars under their special protection, in order to prevent oppression; but even Woronzow, with a his energy and power, was constantly thwarted 1n this design by the knavery of underlings. In al sequence of this unfortunate position, the head of a family seldom thinks of raising a crop more dan sufficient for subsistence during a single year, lest it should excite cupidity ; and hence, if the next harvest is delayed, or fails, absolute want is experienced. The year 1833 was one of famine. Whole families i J remar lifying perished of hunger, after remarkably exemplifying their distrust of the government by the general re- fusal of proffered succour. This was rejected in an- 362 THE CRIMEA. ticipation of the pretext which its reception would afterwards afford the subordinate officials for increased exaction. The second class, the Tatars of the hills, have less of the East, and more of the West, than those dis- persed on the plains. Their speech is interlarded with Italian words ; their veins have a proportion of Italian blood; and their manners are tinged with Italian polish and cunning. But in the more se- cluded parts of the highlands such characteristics are not observable. Some of these hill-dwellers are magnates, descended from the old Russianised myrzas, who possess extensive properties around their dwellings, and in the steppe, with large droves of buffaloes and cattle. The peasantry are herdsmen, at the same time cultivating orchards, tending the vine, and raising a small quantity of flax and tobacco. Their villages are usually planted on the steep slopes of the mountains, along which the houses are ranged in terraces, rising one above the other like the seats of an amphitheatre. Three walls, of no great height, form the sides of these humble dwellings: the fourth, at the back, is made out of the hill itself. This renders them warm, and less liable to be injured by the furious gusts of wind which visit the district. The flat roof consists of several beams supporting a THE NOGAI TATARS. 363 covering of turf and other materials, so firmly kneaded together as to be impervious to the wet. On this terrace, which is generally kept clean and trim, the peasant lays out his fruit and seeds to dry: Here, too, he breathes the cool evening wr in summer, chats with his neighbour, and soraeiimes sleeps when the weather is very hots From this post of command, he can see what is going on around, and who is approaching, when his faithful dogs rush barking at the stranger. One of these platforms in particular, that of the ombachi, or municipal chief of the locality, is the public place or forum, where news is exchanged, and the affairs of the village are discussed. The third class—the Nogai Tatars-—so called after a prince of that name, are the least numerous, but the most Asiatic and primitive. They are entirely of modern origin in the Crimea, having been introduced by the Russian Government from he steppe north of the Sea of Azof, the land of their fathers, still occupied by their brethren. Down to a recent date, they led the life of the true nomade, inhabiting circular black tents of felt in summer, and constructing earthen huts in winter. They sider remained many months in one spot. Upon changing their locality, an hour sufficed to pack up wife, 364 THE CRIMEA. children, and goods in their arabas, and move at random to some other point of the steppe. Averse to steady toil, they only cultivated the ground for a little millet, devoting themselves chiefly to tending cattle, and assembling for pastime to sit in a ring upon the ground, smoking and hearing traditional accounts of their forefathers. These habits have been abandoned. At first, when invited to become stationary, and till the soil, they would reply, My father led a wandering life, and was happy ; and I will do the same.” — Such is the order established by God himself; to us he has given wheels, to other nations fixed dwellings and the plough.” Owing to the judicious and persevering efforts of Count Maison, a French emigrant, Governor of the N ogais in the in- terval from the year 1808 to 1821, they were gradually induced to renounce a nomadic life, settle in villages, build permanent dwellings, and practise agriculture. They are principally found in the peninsula of Kertch; and frequently display in a very marked manner the Mongolian type of conformation, both in features and person. N otwithstanding this, and the general yellow hue of the skin, the women, from seventeen to twenty years of age, have often preten- sions to beauty ; but become excessively ugly as they advance from thirty to forty. The men, on the THE TATARS IN GENERAL. 365 contrary, rather improve in personal ApneymGe with the flight of time, acquiring an amplitude of heard, which hides to some extent an unpleasing physiog- nomy, and gives patriarchal dignity to the counte- nance. In the more secluded districts, the Tatars are generally a very creditable people, not having been exposed to the contaminating influence of by Russian life. They are sober, honest, generous mn the extreme, and remarkably domesticated. Though polygamy is allowed by law and the Mebosassetn religion, it is very rarely practised. Kohl hupiized of one in possession of some wealth, how many wives he had, and the answer was, “Of course only one ! No Tatar has more than one wife, except such as are rascals.” Their family life is said by all travellers to be almost unexceptionable, marked by union among the different members, the love of regularity, the industry of the females, and the home attachments of the men, who seldom spend a copeck away from their households. On entering one of their villages, remote from general society, the first thing Hit attracts the attention of the stranger is the cleanli- ness of the streets and houses. Naked, ragged, and dirty children are never seen running about, ol i sO frequently case in both Mohammedan and Christian 366 THE CRIMEA. countries. Though the women are considered inferiors by the men, in accordance with Eastern notions, they are far from being treated as drudges or merchandise ; and the respect which the wife pays to the husband is only equalled by the honour which the children pay to the parents. They never think of sitting down in their presence until permission has been asked and obtained ; and every opportunity is seized to kiss the hands of father, mother, and rela- tives, and implore their benediction. The women are chiefly engaged in spinning; and constantly carry the distaff about with them. They esteem red hair an ornament, and use a dye to produce the colour. They join the eye-brows also with paint by way of personal decoration. In public, they wear a long white veil, the two ends of which hang over their shoulders ; and are remarkably free from every appearance of vulgarity. While prone to be indo- lent—the usual failing of orientals—and fond of listening in a lounging attitude to a tale of wonder, the men will cheerfully address themselves to extreme fatigue and hardship, as occasion may require. They are admirable equestrians. Their small steeds nimbly scale the most difficult ascents, cautiously descending the slopes. They still retain the custom of their ancestors, of eating the flesh of colts, and esteem it THE TATARS IN GENERAL. 367 a delicacy. A young mare is the fatted calf” killed to greet the arrival of a welcome guest; and this is deemed the greatest mark of attention that can be shown to a stranger. Their language is a dialect of the Turkish, spoken in its greatest purity at Bakchi-serai. The preceding remarks refer to the more isolated Tatars. Under other circumstances, they have suffered in manners and morals by contact with the knavish and notoriously sottish Russian peasantry. The Tatars are a rapidly diminishing race; and failing numbers is accompanied with declining moral energy. This melancholy fact is referable to their position as a conquered people, spoiled of territorial wealth, social and political importance, and exposed to the harassing peculations of subaltern agents of government. It is painful to reflect, that the present war must be an additional disaster to them, arresting industrial employment, taking away their substance to support the troops of their master, and conferring upon them no boon, however successfully closed by the allied armies. Turkey could not keep the Crimea if it were entirely conquered; and for the Anglo-French to burden themselves with maintaining it, is out of the question. With the capture of Sebastopol, and the demolition of its forts and 5 rp SRE REE - | g i k * 5 | A EE 368 THE CRIMEA. arsenals, the Western Powers must be content. But an instance of righteous retribution it would be, if possible, to render the port unserviceable for military purposes, by closing up its mouth with the masonry of the citadels erected to be a terror, a menace, and an instrument of aggression. Nias. RALIFORNA SL ORN THE END. LoNDoN: A. and G. A. SPOTTISWOODE, New.-street-Square. END OF REEL PLEASE REWIND.