124 
FROM THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS, 
chap. The havoc made in all the towns of the 
■ n ~ ; Crimea, during the various revolutions and 
made b y the frequent change of inhabitants which the 
liunf" 4 " country has sustained, has almost annihilated 
every document likely to illustrate its antient 
history. But among all the devastators who 
have hitherto scourged this devoted land, none 
have proved so injurious to the interests ot lite- 
rature as the Russians. We dare not to mention 
the high authority upon which these facts were 
communicated : it is sufficient to say, that an 
individual, of all others the best qualified to 
afford the information, repeatedly assured us, 
that there is no characteristic of a Russian more 
striking, than that of wantonly destroying 
monuments which are the most prized by 
enlightened nations. In Kertchj, after levelling 
to the earth five hundred houses, they left 
about thirty poor shops in the midst of ruins, 
whose present owners it is their daily practice 
to defraud. False in all their public engage- 
ments, as well as in their private treaties, they 
issued an ukase, inviting Greek merchants to 
settle in the town; but no sooner had these 
deluded people fixed there with their families, 
than the soldiers pulled down the houses about 
their ears, using, at the same time, other inti- 
midating measures to compel them to higher 
duties, than any even of the Russians themselves 
