Account of a Journey to Choy in Verfia. 23 £ 



with the plate was brought to us at Teflis, and all the plate 

 which had fallen from the broken one was again found, ex- 

 cept fix gilt filver diHics, with one large and two dozen of 

 fmall (ilver fpoons ; of the gold defTert fcrvice, feven knives 

 and fomc fniall di{lu.'s were recovered ; and, of the gilt, thir- 

 teen knives and fome forks *. 



Having again proceeded on our journey, we at length, 

 about one o'clock in the morning, after great pain and diffi- 

 culty, on account of the fnow, wliich was continually rolling 

 down from the mountain, arrived without further accident 

 at a village at the bottom of the ridge diilant about eighteen 

 werlls^ which had coft us eighteen hours labour from the village 

 where we had fpent the preceding night. Tliis village was 

 one of the poorell and moli wretched in all Georgia; but to 

 us it v/as a welcome j)lace of refrelhment, where we remained 

 during our twentieth refting day, and, after three davs journey 

 more, arrived in fiifetv on the; a3d of January at Teflis, the 

 capital of Georgia. This place we reached at midnight; and 

 though it was iodark that we could not fee a yard before us, 

 we concluded from the dirt and narrownefs of the ftreets, 

 and from the difagrceable effluvia which affailed us froni 

 every comer, that, when day-light appeared, we fhould find 

 ourleKcs neither in a Etrlin nor a Drcfdcu : and this indeed 

 was the cafe, as will appear from the following dcfcription. 



But we fhall here firfc give a fhort view of the province of 

 Tuoletti, which we Iraverfed in our way from the fnow moun- 

 tains to Teflis. Al about the diltance of twenty-five werfts 

 from the fnow mountains the country begins to be exceed- 

 ingly pleafimt, as tiie mountains gradually become lower, and 

 are covered with wood to the tops, 'll^ic valley alono- thii 

 river, which forms the principal pafTiige from Ruflia to 

 Georgia, (till grows wider the nearer it approaches the ca- 

 pital} fo that, where the Aragui difchargcs Llfelf into the 

 Kur, which runs through Teflis, about twenty werfts from 

 that city, the breadth of the valley is from five to fe\en 

 werils. In other places its breadth varies from a half to a 

 whole werll, and is every wlierc iuterliierfed with the mo(l 

 beautiful groves of beeches, cheltnut, apple, and pear-trees. 

 Between thefe fruit-frees vines fltoot up, cuid the brurti-wood 

 is of that kind generally feen in Europe. Through this. 

 ■woody vale tlie Aragui flows in different branches, and the 

 route in winter and the end of fumnier goes through the 

 woods. No profpecl nurc beautiful can b':; conceived than 



* Al tlicCc nrticlcs were dcftiiied as a prtrc-uc lo an caftcrn princavvli© 

 arc rice wih his hand, i: docs not appear that ttipy would b.tvt bjen of 

 mucii ui'i; to hjin. 



that 



