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in large quantities. Private individuals maintain studs oi 

 great extent, and the districts of Yassy and Khotin are cele- 

 brated for the number of horses they rear, no less than the 

 excellence of the breeds. The buffalo is not uncommon in 

 Bessarabia. Cattle and sheep from parts beyond the border 

 are brought to be fattened on its rich soil, at the expense 

 of their owners. All kinds of game are found to the north 

 of the Budjak; the steppes in the south are frequented by 

 numerous flocks of waterfowl, by storks, bustards, herons, 

 &c. The fisheries, particularly on the Danube, afford pro- 

 fitable employment to the inhabitants ; and Vilkoff, at the 

 mouth of that river, carries on an extensive trade in salted 

 and dried fish, caviar, and herrings ; the herrings are pre- 

 pared with Moldavian rock-salt, accounted nearly equal in 

 quality to the Dutch. Much honey and wax are also pro- 

 duced. 



The principal mineral product of this province is salt, 

 which is obtained in considerable quantities from the lakes 

 in the Budjak. The neighbourhood of Akerman, for in- 

 stance, produced upwards of 112,000 tons (7,000,000 poods) 

 in 1826, and the directors of the salt-works in that quarter 

 estimate that the yearly produce might be raised to seven 

 times that quantity. Much saltpetre is found in the envi- 

 rons of Saroka on the Dniester, where it is procured with 

 little labour and at a trifling expense, and coals have recently 

 been discovered in the north of the province, whose mineral 

 resources remain to be much more diligently explored. It 

 produces likewise bay-salt, Glauber-salts, alabaster, marble, 

 lime, and stone of various kinds. Much charcoal is also 

 made, and part of it is exported to Odessa. 



Under the Russians, Bessarabia has been divided into 

 six districts, in the north, Khotin, the capital of which is 

 the town' and fortress of the same name, lying on the 

 Dniester, with 8000 inhabitants; to the south of this is the 

 district of Yassy, chief town Beltzy, 3200 inhabitants ; 

 next lies Orkhei or Kisheneff, the capital of which, Kish- 

 eneff, on the little river Byk, with 18,500 souls, is also the 

 capital of the whole province : the district of Bender, chief 

 town of that name on the Dniester, with a population 

 of 13,000 ; that of Akerman or Akkyerman, the chief town 

 of which now bears the same name, and was called Alba 

 Julia in the time of the Romans, a strong fortress with a 

 considerable town and 12,600 inhabitants, on the liman of 

 the Dniester ; and lastly the district of Ismail, whose ca- 

 pital of the same name lies on the Kile channel, and was 

 the scene of SuwarofTs bloody assault in 1789 ; it contains 

 a population of 9000 souls, and has a fine harbour. 



With respect to the population of Bessarabia, we find very 

 different statements: Professor Berghaus, on apparently 

 good authority, estimates it at 600,000, whereas Weyde- 

 meyer, in his tables of the Russian empire, on the authority 

 of Count WoronzofFs census in 1827, reports it to be up- 

 wards of 800,000 ; Cannabich, on the other hand, affirms 

 that in 1828, the number of inhabitants paying taxes was 

 409,120, and that in 1831 they had increased to -169, 783. 

 The last amount agrees with that given by Professor Hb'r- 

 schelmann in his new edition of Stein's Manual. It seems 

 probable, that as the last-mentioned writers do not give 

 the number of individuals exempt from taxation, Berghaus's 

 estimate of 600,000 is not overrated. It is known that the 

 population includes 8000 gypsies, and is composed of a 

 motley race of Moldavians, Russians, Greeks, Jews, Ar- 

 menians, and colonists, the last of whom are said to com- 

 prise 40,000 souls. The Saporoga Cossacks, who migrated 

 hither from the Turkish side of the Danube in 1828, have 

 also founded several colonies. The peasantry are exempted 

 from all military levies, and there are no serfs or bondsmen 

 in the whole province, with the exception of the gypsies, 

 and in a few cases of household servants. 



Bessarabia contains eight towns, sixteen villages with 

 markets, and 1030 without them. These towns and villages 

 contain 134 churches of stone, and 719 of wood, sixteen 

 chapels, twenty-two monasteries and convents, one eccle- 

 siastical scminavy, nine district schools, and two asylums 

 for the sick. The villages (Bordie) have in general a mise- 

 rable appearance, the greater part of them consisting of 

 huts concealed underground; they are seldom without a 

 place of worship. The majority of the Bessarabians are 

 Moldowans or Moldavians, numbers of whom have emi- 

 grated to the Budjak, where they have settled on the 

 crown lands. Their language is the Moldavian, a singular 

 medley of a Sclavonian dialect with Latin and Italian ; it 

 is full of diphthongs, and has hence acouired a certain degree 



of richness and euphony. They profess the orthodox or 

 Russo-Greek faith, and are a tall, handsome, slim race of 

 men ; the women on the whole have much beauty, surpass 

 the men in industry, make their own and their husbands' 

 and children's clothing, and are diligent at the distaff; 

 they also manage all household concerns, for the Moldavian 

 is so indolent that he prefers the roaming, sluggish life of a 

 herdsman to any agricultural employment. He is sunk in 

 ignorance, and at present has no means of improvement, 

 as there is no village school in the whole country. The 

 Russian part of the population is a far more active and 

 industrious class of men ; numbers of them have settled in 

 the Budjak Steppes, where they employ themselves in fish- 

 ing, roaring bees, and making cordage, sail-cloth, &c. The 

 Greeks are principally established in the towns as mer- 

 chants and dealers. The Rirsso-Greek is the predominant 

 religion of the province ; its ecclesiastical affairs are super- 

 intended by a bishop, who resides at Kisheneff. The 

 farmer or peasant pays the landowner a portion of his pro- 

 duce, and twelve days' labour in the course of the year. 



There is scarcely a single manufactory in all Bessarabia, 

 unless such establishments as sixty-four tanneries, fifty- one 

 candle manufactories, twenty-three houses for boiling soap, 

 as many brandy distilleries, and three linen and woollen 

 manufactories of no great extent, deserve to come under the 

 designation. The situation of the country, with reference 

 to the Turkish, Russian, and Austrian markets, and the 

 facilities of communication which the Danube, Pruth, and 

 Dniester afford, give it no inconsiderable advantages for the 

 exportation of its produce ; this consist^ of wines, principally 

 sent to Russia, dried plums, ox-hides, sheep-skins, wool, 

 wax and tallow, maize, fish, and salt. In the year 1828, 

 their value amounted to 9560A (208,596 roubles), forwarded 

 by sea, and 232.077/. (5,063,480 roubles) by land, in all 

 241.637J. ; on the other hand, the importations in the same 

 year amounted io 43.007/., viz. 10.124/. (220,896 roubles) 

 by sea, and 32,878^. (717,332 roubles) by land. (Berghaus's 

 Annals ; Cannabich's European Russia; Hassel ; Vscvo- 

 loysky, &c.) 



BESSA'RION, JOHN, was born at Trebizond, on the 

 south-east coast of the Euxine, A. D. 1389, or, according to 

 Bandini, who has written his life (4to. Rome, 1777), A. D. 

 1395. The former time rests on an inscription written by 

 himself and designed for his monument, which bears the 

 date ' Anno salutis 1466, setatis 77,' but the latter words are 

 jmitted in some copies. Having removed to Constantinople 

 be devoted himself to study under George Chrysococces 

 and other eminent teachers, and while yet quite young 

 entered the strict monastic order of St. Basil. He passed 

 ;wenty-one years in a monastery in the Peloponnesus, whero 

 ae studied under the philosopher George Gemistus Pletho, 

 "rom whom he acquired that admiration for Plato which he 

 retained to the end of his life. In 1438 was held the 

 council of Ferrara, for the purpose of effecting a union of 

 ;he Greek and Latin churches, and so great was the repu- 

 ;ation of Bessarion for learning and talent, that he was se- 

 ected by the emperor John Palseologus to accompany him 

 as one of the conductors of the conference on the part of the 

 Greeks, and before he set out was raised to the dignity 

 of archbishop of Nicxa. Both at Ferrara and after the 

 council had, on account of the plague, been removed to 

 Florence, Bessarion earnestly exerted himself in promoting 

 the union, which was agreed to in the year 1439. After 

 the close of the council he returned to Constantinople, but 

 [hiding himself an object of popular enmity on account of 

 bis conduct at Ferrara and Florence, and having in the end 

 of the same year been raised to the cardinalate by Eugenius 

 IV., he settled in Italy. Here he devoted himself to study, 

 the patronage of learned men, and the collecting of books 

 and manuscripts, which he afterwards, in the year 1468, 

 presented to the Venetian senate, and which formed the 

 basis of the celebrated library of St. Mark. Among his 

 contemporaries and associates were Valla, Theodore Gaza, 

 Philelphus, Argyropulus, Calderino, and George of Trebi- 

 zond. He was raised by Nicholas V. to the archbishopric 

 of Siponto. In 1449 that pontiff created him cardinal bishop 

 of Sabina, and in the same year translated him to the seo 

 of Tusculum or Frascati. In 1463 Pius II. conferred on 

 him the empty title of Patriarch of Constantinople. 



In 1455, on the death of Nicholas V., it is thought that 

 he would have been raised to the pontificate but for the 

 intrigues of Cardinal Alain, who represented that it would 

 be a deep disgrace to the Latin church if the holy see should 



