South of the Terek and Kuban rise up the mighty precipices of Caucasus. Its highest ranges are clad in perpetual snow; beneath is the black region of rocks and precipices; while the lower declivities contain a number of well-watered valleys, forming fine pastoral districts; and, though not capable of high culture, yielding plentifully the inferior products, maize and millet. In these mountain valleys dwell the Circassians. This race have been peculiarly celebrated for their physical qualities. The men, though spare, are tall, handsome, and athletic. But it is the fine form and delicate complexion of the female Circassians, which form so wide a theme of Eastern panegyric.

The distinctions of rank and birth are observed in Circassia with all the strictness of Highland pride. Under the prince or sovereign, are the uzdens or nobles, who attend him in war or foray, but exercise a sway almost absolute over their own immediate vassals. They are of two kinds; bondsmen, who cultivate the glebe, and armed retainers, who attend him to the field; which last have often been raised, on this condition, from the inferior rank.

The noble Circassians lead that sort of life which is usual with independent chiefs on their own estates, and surrounded by their vassals; a round of war and feasting, of hunting and jollity.

Kabardia, though sometimes described as a distinct territory, is, more properly speaking, a district of Circassia, of which the inhabitants form the principal tribe, and that which approaches nearest to civilization.

The Russian territories everywhere border upon, and inelose, Circassia; yet the valour of its inhabitants, and the rapid movements of the light cavalry of which its bands are composed, have set at defiance every effort to reduce it to a state of regular subjection. The Russians, on the contrary, are only able, and that somewhat imperfectly, to protect their own confines from inroad by a chain of strong fortresses. These are chiefly erected along the Terek and Kuban, two considerable streams, which, rising among the loftiest heights of Caucasus, flow for about 400 miles, first north, then the former east till it falls by numerous mouths into the Caspian, the latter west into the Black Sea. Mozdok, on the Terek, is the centre of this line of defence; a town of 3000 people, with a strong garrison. Georgievsk, on the Kooma, is a fortress of smaller magnitude. Near the sources of the Terek is Vladi-Kaukas, a fortress built for the purpose of keeping open the intercourse with Georgia, &c. In this vicinity is the Scots colony of Karass, which is in a flourishing state; though the missionary station estab lished there has not answered expectation.

The lower course of the Terek, through a fertile country, presents some interesting objects. Its commerce is chiefly carried on by Kislar, or Kisliar, a town. described as containing 2000 houses, and about 10,000 inhabitants, of whom 8000 are Armenians. This race, sober and industrious, founded the city in 1736, and carry on all its trade, by which they place themselves in easy and even opulent circumstances.

On the extreme heights of Caucasus, amidst a region of barren rocks and eternal snows, are found the Ossetes and Lesghis, formidable and determined robbers, who are the scourge and terror of all the surrounding countries. Their habitations, perched on the summits of the loftiest cliffs, and on the edge of the steepest precipices, have a most fearful appearance. There are various little tribes, and septs of greater ones, scattered through all the corners of this mountainous region. Some of these are the Kistes, Jugouches, the Tusches, Karabulaks, &c. To the south, stretching along the western coast of the Caspian, lies the mountainous province of Daghestan. Its fertile soil is but imperfectly cultivated, and its long coast presents but few harbours. Tarki is favourably situated on the sea, but the principal place is Derbent, an old town, long the bulwark of the Persian empire, and still exhibiting imposing military works. It is now much sunk, having only a population of about 4000 families.

On the opposite, or southern declivity of the Caucasus, extends the famous and once powerful kingdom of Georgia. The world, perhaps, does not contain a region more profusely gifted both with richness and beauty. On its successive mountain stages are raised all the varieties of fruit and grain, both of the tempe

rate and tropical climates. The woods abound with game; and the mountains contain in their bosom mines of considerable value.

The human race flourishes in an equal degree: the men are distinguished for vigour; and the females, with the single exception of a darker complexion, are as famed for beauty as those of Circassia. All these bounties of nature, however, have been rendered unavailing by the oppressions of a feudal government, and by the continual wars between the Russians and Persians which have desolated Georgia for more than a century. Through the pressure of these evils, the population of this fine region is supposed to be reduced to a number not exceeding 320,000 souls. The greater number are not Mahometans, but Greek Christians, with a large proportion of Armenians, who have in their hands all the traffic of the country. The Russians draw from it a revenue of 800,000 rubles, not nearly sufficient to defray its expenses. The waters of Georgia are chiefly collected by the Kur or Cyrus, which flows first northward, along the foot of a chain of lofty mountains; but afterwards turns to the east and south, passes by Teflis, and falls into the Caspian on the borders of Ghilan. It has previously received the Araxes, from Ararat.

The only city of Georgia, of any importance, or worthy of the name, is Teflis, the capital. It is boldly situated on the precipitous banks of the Kur, which flows here through a deep and gloomy defile covered with immense forests. The Russians make Teflis their head-quarters, and keep there a large military force, which is quartered upon the inhabitants. This is considered a serious grievance, being wholly inconsistent with the habits of oriental seclusion, particularly in regard to the female sex, whose virtue, made hitherto to depend chiefly on the jealous guard kept over it, is said to have suffered materially from this intrusion. The population of Teflis, in consequence of the evils under which it has suffered, has declined, in the course of the last twenty years, from 22,000 to 15,000.

Shirvan, Nakshivan, and Erivan, are districts now merged in Georgia, which formerly belonged to Persia, from whom the two last were wrested during the late contest. They are, however, much dilapidated by the effects of almost constant warfare. Erivan is a strong fortress, not far from the lake of that name, now greatly impaired. Nakshivan was an ancient and magnificent city, but is at present in ruins. Shirvan has a fertile soil, which produces rice, wheat, and barley. At the eastern extremity of this district, on the Caspian Sea, is the town of Bakau, or Baku. Near this place is the fire worshipped by the Guebres, or fire-worshippers, who affirm that it has been burning ever since the flood, and will continue to the end of the world. It is said to proceed from the inflammable nature of the soil in certain spots, which, if dug into for a few inches, and a live coal applied, will take fire and continue to burn.

Proceeding westward from Georgia to the shores of the Black Sea, we find Mingrelia and Imiretta. The interior tracts are mountainous and rugged; but Caucasus here slopes downward, and allows to intervene between it and the sea a large plain, moist, fertile, but unwholesome. Floods descending from the heights inundate this watery region. Communicating by the Black Sea with Asia Minor and Constantinople, it supplies them with silk, honey, and, unfortunately, above all, slaves; the obtaining of which, by purchase, seizure, and every sort of nefarious process, forms the principal occupation of the chiefs of Mingrelia. It is calculated that Turkey receives annually from thence about 12,000 of these unfortunate beings. As the port of Poty, however, at the mouth of the Rione, or Phasis, has by the last treaty been ceded to Russia, that power will henceforth command the trade of Mingrelia. Poty contains about 1000 inhabitants.

Redoutkale, Kopi, and Anaklia, partake also of the trade of the country. Proceeding northward along the Black Sea, after an almost impassable range inhabited by a wild race called the Suanes, appears an extended and wooded region, the country of Abasia. The people are a rough variety of the Circassians. They resemble, without equalling, that race in their handsome persons and dignified manners. Secured from foreign invasion by the poverty of their country, and by its immense and entangled forests, they are wasted by intestine contests; and to the various forms of plunder, their situation has tempted them to annex that of

Of

piracy. It has also, however, enabled their country to become the theatre of some commerce in the usual Caucasian commodities, that of slaves not excepted. this trade, Phanagoria, or Taman, at the mouth of the Kuban, forms a sort of entrepôt. Anapa, farther to the south, a considerable port, with a good harbour, was in possession of the Turks till the last treaty, when it was transferred to Russia. The other ports along the coast are Souchukale, Ghelintchik, Mamach, Soukoum-kale, and Isgaour.

TURKEY.

ASIATIC TURKEY extends over some of the fairest and finest regions of Asia: no countries in the world are more favoured by nature, or more marked by grand historical features; and it consists not so much of any one single country, as of several detached and dissimilar states, which the sword, wielded by fanaticism, has I combined into one vast heterogeneous mass. This extensive region is bounded on the west by the Archipelago and the Straits of the Dardanelles north of the Black Sea; east, by Asiatic Russia and Persia; and south, by Arabia, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea. This region extends from east to west about 1200, and from north to south from 400 to 800 miles, forming an area of about 430,000 square miles.

This wide extent of country presents a peculiar variety of culture and aspect. Its ranges of mountains are of great celebrity and of considerable magnitude; the principal is the extensive chain of Mount Taurus, ranging from the Mediterranean coasts to those of the Caspian Sea, which, with its numerous branches, extends through all the northern portions of this region. Near the north-eastern frontier, the primeval Ararat rears its snowy peaks, reminding mankind of the most memorable event in the physical history of the globe.

The chief rivers are the celebrated Euphrates and Tigris, which, commencing in the same region, unite their streams a short distance above their common estuary, and forming the Shat ul Arab, enter the Persian Gulf about 75 miles below Bussorah. The other streams are of smaller magnitude: they are the Sakharia and Kizzil Irmak, flowing into the Black Sea; and the Meinder, Koduschay and others, running into the Mediterranean.

Turkey in Asia has but few lakes, and those are nearly all saline. Lake Van, near the eastern frontier, is the most extensive: its waters are so brackish, as to be unfit for use. Lake Nasook, to the north of it, is much smaller. Chains of salt lakes extend through some of the interior parts of Asia Minor, though none of them are of much magnitude. The sea-coasts of this region from the Black Sea, including Syria and Egypt, to Alexandria, are often denominated the Levant,-a term which signifies the quarter where the sun rises: in a more extended sense, it includes also the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Archipelago.

The principles and mode of government are exactly the same in Asiatic as in European Turkey. The pachas, invested with the command of extensive territories, receive entire the power of the original despot from whom they derive their appointment. Their distance, indeed, affords them much more ample opportunities of acting independently, and of merely transmitting to the Porte such an amount of tribute and military aid as they can conveniently spare.

This imperfect and precarious independence is, generally speaking, the reverse of an improvement in the condition of the unfortunate people. The pacha rules with as complete and tyrannical a sway as the sultan: he is rendered cruel by the dangers by which he is surrounded; and careless of the welfare of his district by the precarious tenure on which his place is held. In order to maintain his power, he takes into pay the brave but fierce and predatory inhabitants of the mountains, and must secure their attachment by allowing them liberty to commit plunder and outrage.

These countries have, from the earliest ages, been distinguished rather by agricultural industry, and the rearing of cattle, than by the finer manufactures,

which they have been accustomed to receive by caravans from the great empires of the east. In most of its districts, however, culture is rendered insecure by the oppression of the pachas, and the ravages of the Arabs, against which the government cannot, or at least does not, afford protection. Hence, in many parts, which were formerly covered with the richest harvests, no trace of fertility remains, except only in their overgrown and deserted pastures. The upper tracts of Asia Minor and Armenia, where horses and cattle are reared, are both less exposed to inroad, and better able to defend themselves, though they too often abuse their strength to plunder the inhabitants of the neighbouring plains. Here, however, is produced the fine goat's hair or Mohair of Angora, which is sought in Europe as a material of some valuable manufactures.

The manufactures of Asiatic Turkey are chiefly of an ordinary kind, coarse, and for internal consumption only. Yet silk, cotton, leather, and soap are staples of the Levant; and the two latter find a place in the markets of Europe. At Tokat there is a great fabric of copper vessels. The women among the wandering tribes in the upper districts weave the admired Turkey carpets; but the finest are made in the mountain districts of Persia.

No part of the world appears more expressly destined to be the seat of an extensive commerce. The command of the Mediterranean, the numerous coasts and islands by which it is surrounded, its position at the connecting point of the three continents, and its contiguity to countries whose dissimilar tastes and productions peculiarly fit them to supply each other's deficiencies, are advantages which naturally rendered it the earliest and most favoured seat of commerce. The splendour of its ancient emporia excited the astonishment of the world; and they continued for a lengthened period, notwithstanding the hostile influence of revolution and oppression, to preserve a considerable portion of their early commerce and magnificence. These, however, have at length almost totally disappeared. Since the discovery, of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian trade has taken almost wholly a different route. The internal distractions which agitated Persia for half a century rendered the intercourse with that empire both dangerous and unprofitable.

The state of social existence, religion, learning, and manners, so far as respects the ruling people, is precisely the same in Asiatic as in European Turkey. They present that austere, uniform, and gloomy character, which the precepts of Mahomet tend to form, and which is produced in its utmost purity in the cities of Turkey. The native and subject races, however, exhibit marked distinctions. The Greek population, which in Europe makes the prominent feature among the conquered people, exists only to a limited extent on the coasts and islands of Asia Minor. In its room all the mountainous Asiatic tracts contain bold and hardy tribes, who, availing themselves of their distance and the declining power of the pachas, admit little control over their internal proceedings, and establish independent and sometimes almost republican governments.

The high and uncultivated table-lands in the interior of Asia Minor are occupied by a wandering and pastoral race called Turcomans. All their habits are decidedly Tartar; and with the domestic simplicity of this race they combine its love of war and booty, with no nice consideration how this latter may be obtained. When summoned, however, to fight under the banner of the empire, and to unsheath the sword against the infidels, they are prompt in obeying the call, and form the main military strength of Turkey. They serve a short campaign without pay, but with little ardour, and with full license of plunder. Though they cannot meet disciplined troops in the shock of battle, they make excellent irregular cavalry.

The mountains of the eastern frontier of Turkey produce races exhibiting decided peculiarities. The ancient kingdom of Armenia, situated in a mountainous corner of Western Asia, has remained comparatively little affected by that mighty train of revolution which has swept over that region. Their course of life much resembles that of the Jews, with whom they are often found in conjunction. But what in the latter is sordid and grasping parsimony, appears scarcely in the Armenian to exceed the limits of steady and meritorious industry. This people, in

fact, carry on all the trade, and many of the manufactures, of Persia and Turkey. They have penetrated into India, central Asia, Africa, and the east of Europe; and have been sometimes, though not often, seen in France and England. In general they lead a peaceable and orderly life, under the government of heads of families. The court of Rome, by indefatigable efforts at conversion, has succeeded in effecting a species of schism, by drawing over to her communion 20,000 out of the 170,000 families of whom the nation consists. The great remaining majority adhere to the Eutychean creed, and revere, as their head, the patriarch of Erzerum. They admit the marriage of priests, and are free from other Catholic regulations; but in return they carry fasting and ablution to a pitch unknown to any other Christian sect.

The Kurds inhabit a long and rugged chain, stretching south-east from the mountains of Armenia, parallel to the Tigris, along the frontier of the Turkish and Persian empires. Those pastoral pursuits which, on the high table plains of Tartary and Persia, vary and soften the habits of war and plunder, are impracticable in a region which presents nothing but rugged steeps, frightful ravines, and narrow valleys. Here every chief is seated in his castle, where he meditates, and whence he attempts, the plunder of the rich plains which lie beneath him. The Kurds have, however, the characteristic virtue of barbarians, a frank hospitality, and also a pride of pedigree, founded on a national existence which may be traced to a high antiquity.

These regions contained in ancient times some of the most fertile, populous, and powerful states in the world; here flourished the mighty empire of Assyria, and the cities of Babylon and Nineveh, the kingdoms of Pontus, Lydia, Ionia, Pergamus, &c., and in later times these countries constituted one of the fairest portions of the Roman empire. The ancient division was Assyria, which included the countries through which the Euphrates and Tigris ran, and of which Nineveh was the chief city; Chaldea, containing the splendid city of Babylon; Mesopotamia, whose chief city was Edessa. Armenia had the city of Arsa, and Asia Minor contained Smyrna and many other beautiful and populous cities, nearly all of which exhibit nothing at the present day but ruined temples, churches, and amphitheatres, and some are so decayed that even the places which they occupied cannot be recognised. The chief Turkish divisions are Anatolia, Caramania, Roum, Armenia, Kurdistan, Al Jesira, and Irak Arabi; these are divided into twelve Pashalics, which are subdivided into smaller parts, called Sangiacats. The population of Asiatic Turkey has been variously estimated by different writers, and probably does not exceed 8,000,000, composed of Turks and Turcomans, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Kurds, and Arabs.

Though many of the islands of the Archipelago have been wrested from the grasp of the Turkish monarch, still a number of them remain under the control of that sovereign. These isles, once celebrated for wealth, beauty and power, are now reduced to a more complete state of barbarism than even the continent. Rhodes was renowned at an early period as a great commercial state; it extended its trade to the most distant regions, and rivalled the splendour and power of the greatest kings, when after several vicissitudes it was merged in the Roman empire; her commercial code was adopted by that wise people; in after times it acquired a high military renown, when the knights of St. John, expelled from the Holy Land, made Rhodes one of their last retreats, where they long baffled the arms of Mahomet and Solyman. The city of Rhodes presents no longer a fragment of its colossus, one of the wonders of the world, or any trace of the numerous fine edifices with which it had been adorned by the taste and wealth of its inhabitants. It is now a mean town, with a population of 6000; that of the whole island is about 14,000. North of Rhodes is Stanco, the ancient Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates and Apelles; Stampalia, Amorgo, and Patmos, where St. John wrote the Apocalypse. Samos, a larger and more important island, which gave birth to Pythagoras. Scio, which has acquired a melancholy celebrity from the barbarous massacre of its inhabitants by the Turks in the late war, 25,000 of whom perished by the sword; the rest, including opulent citizens and ladies of high rank, were sold as slaves, and the island reduced to a desert. Metelin, the