234 A Sketch of the present state of Georgia. [Mat", 



most cruel tyrants that ever ruled in Persia. It is beyond the limits of 

 this paper to particularize his cruelties. In the first year of his govern- 

 ment he deprived seventy thousand people of their eyes, and massacred 

 at least a hundred thousand. In Persia (as we all know), they think 

 no more of plucking out an eye, than we do of extracting a tooth. 



On the death of Heraclius.hi 1798, his eldest son, George Heracli- 

 vitz, unable to withstand the attacks and intrigues of foreign and domes- 

 tic enemies, ceded his states (under a stipulation of being handsomely 

 provided for) to the Emperor Paul, who, deeming it safer to remove the 

 queen and her children to Moscow, commanded that her supposed 

 lover should make the proposal. Fixing her eyes steadily upon him, she 

 said, " Forget not that thou art my subject — repeat not so hateful a 

 proposal, or I shall know how to punish your audacity." Her lover 

 persisted in his entreaties, and in an instant she drew her dagger, and 

 laid him dead at her feet. She was, however, forcibly conveyed along 

 with her two daughters and two sons to St. Petersburg, where they had 

 precedence next to the imperial family, and though deprived of liberty, 

 were liberally treated. Her youngest son, Alexander, possessing an in- 

 dependent spirit, together with an ardent love of country, preferred 

 liberty, although accompanied by every privation ; and vowing eternal 

 enmity to Russia, he became a wanderer in the adjacent mountains. 

 His hatred has increased by time, although any thing like resistance to 

 the colossal power of Russia must be perfectly hopeless, even if support- 

 ed by Persia, with the ruler of which kingdom he is still in constant 

 communication, and watching a favorable opportunity of making the 

 endeavour to recover his lost territory. 



The late Emperor Alexander found it expedient to grant to the Khans, 

 or Princes of Daghestan and Shirwan (the ancient Albania), the enjoy- 

 ment of their former privileges, and indeed, to change little of their 

 ancient customs — except that they were prohibited from selling their 

 children to the Turks and Persians, and of executing summary ven- 

 geance on their subjects by mutilation or death. Several examples of 

 severity did not prevent vast emigrations into Georgia. In the year 

 1820, alone, not less than ten thousand Persian families crossed the 

 boundary, to whom it was intended to assign lands ; and both Turks 

 and Armenians are continually placing themselves under the Russian 

 government. The Circassians, however, on the northern frontiers of 

 the Caucasus, still bring up their children for the market of Constanti- 

 nople. This is done by stealth, for the Russians use every means in 

 their power to prevent the inhabitants quitting the country. In the 

 year 1828, when I crossed the Araxes, the influx had been so great 

 that I met thousands of both sexes, and all ages, returning again to 



