1834.] A Sketch of the present state of Georgia. 233 



although thus by turns overrun and pillaged by Turks, Tartars, and 

 Persians, it never wholly lost its independence, but preserved itself as a 

 kingdom nearly two thousand years ; and what is still more to its ho- 

 nor, it preserved its ancient faith in Christianity for fourteen hun- 

 dred years, in the very midst of countries enthusiastically devoted to the 

 Mahommedan religion. The ruins of walls and fortresses, commanding 

 its passes, and perched on the summits of its mountain ridges ; the 

 remains of bridges in its streams ; the ruins of palaces, churches, and 

 baths, in the midst of which are frequently discovered coins and medals 

 of Media, Parthia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, attest the various nations 

 that have been in possession of Georgia in ancient times. 



Towards the close of the last century, the aged Prince Heraclius, who 

 had proclaimed himself King of Georgia, took advantage of the anarchy 

 and confusion which existed in Persia, after the death of Kureem Khan, 

 and by formal act renounced his dependence upon Persia, after having 

 struggled against the depredations of its inhabitants during his whole 

 reign, and placed himself under the protection of the Russian empress. 

 Subsequently, however, he was obliged to abrogate his alliance with 

 Russia, and to acknowledge himself tributary to Turkey. 



At the peace in 1791, Georgia was declared independent, and in 1795, 

 Aga Mahommed Khan, the late king of Persia, advanced to its capital. 

 His first act was an order for the slaughter of every human being in 

 this large and flourishing town — his next was, to set fire to it ; and it 

 was totally burnt down. Every brutal excess of cruelty that national 

 hatred, inflamed by bigotry and infernal policy, could dictate, was com- 

 mitted. Pillage, murder, and conflagration met the eye on every side. 

 While some were occupied in plundering the villas of rich merchants, 

 and others in setting fire to the hamlets, the air was rent with the 

 mingled groans of men, women, and children, who were falling under 

 the daggers of the Moslems. The only exception made during the 

 massacre was of the young women and boys, who were preserved only 

 to be sold as slaves. Many of the women, whose husbands had been 

 butchered, were running to and fro frantic, with torn garments and dis- 

 hevelled hair, pressing their infants to their breasts, and seeking death 

 as a relief from still greater calamities that awaited them ! The number 

 of those slain or dragged into slavery on those dreadful days was not 

 less than twenty thousand. 



In the following year, this brutal eunuch determined again to visit 

 Georgia, but he had only reached the town of Sheesha, in the fertile dis- 

 trict of Karabagh, when his career was arrested by the hand of violence. 

 Two servants, whom he had sentenced to death for a very trivial offence, 

 entered his tent at night, and with their daggers put an end to one of the 



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