398 TRAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPORT. 



crowns of Georgia and Abkhasia became united in 

 the family of the Bagrats. Its history is, therefore, 

 identical with that of Georgia until 1442, when the 

 reigning king (Alexander) died, leaving his kingdom 

 divided between his three sons. Abkhasia and the 

 rest of the seaboard provinces fell to the share of one 

 of these, but his successors failed to preserve the 

 allegiance of several of the principal families, who, 

 finding their influence almost as great as that of their 

 sovereign, successively threw off his yoke, so that 

 very soon the kings ceased to exist, and their former 

 territory was divided amongst themselves by the most 

 influential families, whose authority is to this day 

 recognised by Eussia in the different provinces which 

 res-ulted from this separation. Meantime these petty 

 principalities became once more the theatre of Avar 

 between Persia and the empire of which Constan- 

 tinople was the capital, now no longer Christian. 

 Abkhasia with its neighbours was placed finally under 

 the suzerainty of the Porte ; and, in 1578, Souchoum 

 Kaleh and Poti at the mouth of the Ehion were built 

 and garrisoned by Turkish troops. For the next two 

 hundred years Abkhasia was a Turkish province, but 

 about the middle of the last century the Abkhasians 

 revolted, and the Turks abandoned Souchoum Kaleh, 

 still, however, retaining the suzerainty. Keliche Bey, 

 the Prince of Abkhasia, then living at Souchoum 

 Kaleh, soon after, by refusing to give up a Turkish 

 refugee, brought matters to a crisis, and called in 



