TO CAFFA. 
123 
the ground, or among the stones used in building c hap. 
the walls. Within this fortress stands the ■■ — y — / 
church, a small building of considerable anti- Church, 
quity. The pictures there suspended are 
among the earliest productions of Grecian art 
which came with the Christian religion into the 
Russian empire, and they are probably coeval 
with its introduction. Four marble pillars, of 
the Corinthian order, support the root ot this 
building. According to an inscription upon one 
of them, the church was erected in the year 
after Adam 6265, answering to 757 of our sera. 
It is a building, therefore, of high antiquity in 
the history of Christianity, and it proves the 
extent of its propagation in that early period. 
There are two smaller pillars of the same kind 
placed above the others. The priests shewed 
to us a copy of the Gospels, written in capital 
letters, upon coarse parchment, quite black with 
age and with use. It had been long excluded 
from the service of the church, and a printed 
version had supplied its place. The priest 
would gladly have sold it; and we should 
with equal pleasure have purchased it; but, 
as soon as the Russian police heard of 
our intention, its removal was prohibited, 
although its destruction was inevitable where 
it lay; and perhaps, at this time, it is no 
longer in existence. 
