TO CAFFA. 
12 .) 
have paid, to whom no exemptions had been 
granted. Thus insulted and plundered, the 
Greek settlers demanded permission to leave 
the Peninsula : this was positively refused. It 
may be asked, why so little has been hitherto 
made public concerning the real character of 
this very profligate people ? The answer is, 
that there is no country where such pains 
have been used to prevent it. There was no 
instance of circumspection and of caution 
in which the late Empress Catherine em- 
ployed so much artifice, as in concealing 
from external observation the true history 
of her own people, and the wretched state 
of her vaunted empire. This is evident in all 
her correspondence with Voltaire; in all her 
instructions to her ministers ; in the glaring 
falsehoods published by her hired writers ; but 
particularly in the work which she with her 
agents composed, in answer to the writings of 
the Akhb Chappe. A party of her Savans were 
engaged to accompany her in a voyage down 
the Volga : as they sailed along, she caused the 
Ahbe\ account of his Travels in Russia to be 
read, every one present being enjoined to 
contribute something, either of smart criticism, 
or of contradictory remark : the notes, so 
collected, were afterwards arranged by the 
CHAP. 
HI. 
