$80 Journal of a Tour through Georgia, $c. [Junk, 



during the age of the Crusades ; and it is not surprising that the graver 

 considerations of policy should have been neglected under the excite- 

 ment of religious enthusiasm. The Syyud, I have little doubt, found 

 reasons for combining motives of probable worldly advantage with the 

 promise of heavenly favour. 



The result of the campaign is already known to every one. Persia 

 lost more of her territories, and was obliged to make peace on any 

 terms ; while Russia interferes with Persian affairs ad libitum — and 

 England, who might have prevented the aggressive and unjust scheme 

 of the autocrat, looks placidly on the scene, and is satisfied with her 

 own innocence and fidelity ! A few more years, and she will bitterly 

 reproach her blind and irreparable policy. Having considered it expe- 

 dient to bring these interesting circumstances into view, I shall now re- 

 sume my narrative. Before however proceeding to this, I may be perr 

 mitted to advert for a momentto the" arrowthat flieth by day ;" namely, 

 the plague, which always creates so much alarm to the traveller. 



It would appear that this disease is endemial to the Russians, for it 

 is a singular fact, that previous to their occupation of Georgia, the 

 whole country was exempted from this pestilence. It made its appear- 

 ance at Ganja in 1 805 ; at Tiflis in 1 806, and at Erivan, in 1 825, and from 

 that time down to the period I was in Georgia, the country had ( with 

 the exception of the mountainous districts, which are rarely visited 

 •with it) been regularly afflicted. This scourge is generally checked 

 by the summer heats and winter frosts. But I may further observe, 

 that among the anomalies of this extraordinary disease, there is one 

 fact, viz. that it raged unchecked in the severe winter of 1829, 

 throughout the Caucasian villages. Its consequences were of course 

 fatal in a country where no medical practitioners, and consequently no 

 means to lessen the mortality of the disorder, are to be found. When 

 I was last at Annanour, in the recesses of Mount Caucasus, a peasant 

 came to the commandant, and said, " My father, mother, wife, and 

 sister, are lying dead in the next village ; I am afraid to bury them." 

 The Russian instantly despatched a party of soldiers to set fire to all 

 the hamlets they could meet with, and turning to me, said — " 'Tis my 

 Vocation!" To administer relief, as far as human means could accom- 

 plish, to the suffering villager, would with us have been the primary 

 feeling : but this barbarian could only ridicule the concern I expressed 

 for this unfortunate creature. I afterwards mentioned this to Count 

 Paskewitch at Tiflis, who laughed heartily, and exclaimed, " You 

 English are always inclined to regard with seriousness the veriest 

 trifles:* 



[To be continued.] 



