ETCHMIADZIN. 1G7 



Armenians were than tlie Greeks, and how mncli they 

 sympathised with the English in ecclesiastical matters. 

 Toleration is a virtue often found in the weaker part}^ and 

 the poor Armenians need at present all the sympathy they 

 can get, as their Church is divided against itself — one party, 

 headed hj the Patriarch, acquiescing in Russian supremacy 

 and interference ; while the other resents it, and urges the 

 removal of the seat of the patriarchate to some spot 

 outside the Czar's dominions. The room in which we 

 were received was hung with a long series of portraits of 

 (to us) unknown Kings of Armenia, headed by the present 

 Czar of All the Russias. On our departure the Patriarch 

 presented each of us with his * carte-de-visite.' After we 

 had returned to our room, a secretary appeared with an 

 English document, which he wanted me to copy ; it was the 

 receipt of a Calcutta firm for some money paid in to the 

 Patriarch's account by an Armenian missionary in 1814. 

 The man was very anxious to know if he could get the 

 money now by sending to London, but we thought it best 

 to decline giving an opinion on that delicate point. 



June 14th. — In the morning we were shown the convent 

 library, which is small, but contains some magnificently- 

 illuminated manuscripts. A Bible, with numerous and 

 quaint pictures of Old Testament history, was I think the 

 handsomest I ever saw. Our day's ride lay up the valley 

 on the eastern side of Alagoz ; the country in general is 

 distressingly bare, and the track led us over stony downs, 

 until it came suddenly to the brow of a cliff, under which 

 flowed a stream in a verdant trough, with the village of 

 Oschagan on the oj)posite side. An old biidge formed 

 the foreground to a picture which perhaps struck us more 

 than it would have done in a country less generally mono 

 tonous. The long gentle slope from here up to Aschtarak 

 was a perfect Eden contrasted with the bare wastes 



