3/6 
O D E S S A. 
chap, exposed to winds'. The air is reckoned pure, 
— ^ — > and remarkably wholesome. Corn is the prin- 
cipal article of exportation. The imports are, 
dried and conserved fruits from Constantinople, 
Greek wines, tobacco, and other Turkish 
** 
(l) “ Odessa is a very interesting place ; am] being the seat of go- 
vernment, and the only quarantine allowed, except Caffa and Taganrog, 
is, though of very late erection, already wealthy and flourishing. 
Too much praise cannot be given to the Duhe of Richelieu, to whose 
administration, not to any natural advantages, this town owes its 
prosperity. The Hay is good and secure, hut all round is desert; and 
it labours under the want of a navigable river, and a great scarcity of 
fresh water. There are two wells in the town, both brackish ; and a 
third, a very fine one, on the opposite side of the bay: a fourth had 
been just discovered when I was there, in the garden of an Italian 
merchant, and was talked of like a silver mine. All commodities are 
cither brought in barks from Cherson, or drawn over t he steppe by oxen, 
who were seen lying in the streets and on the new quay, greatly ex- 
hausted with thirst, and almost furious in their struggles to get at the 
water, when it was poured into the troughs. The situation of the 
town, however, is healthy and pleasant in other respects. The qua- 
rantine is large, and well constructed. 
“ As far as I could learn, (and 1 made many inquiries,) it was very 
bad policy to hx their quarantine at Odessa, iustead of Otchakof, 
where was a city and fortress ready built, in a situation perfectly 
secure from the Turks, aud which, lying at the junctions of the Bog 
and Dnieper, is the natural emporium of these seas. The harbour, 
I understand, is perfectly secure ; and, even if the Liman were unsafe, 
the Bog affords a constant shelter. The observation generally made 
was, the necessity of a secure quarantine ; to which it was answered, 
that the Poiut of Kinburn afforded a situation even more secure than 
Odessa. If these facts are true, a w ise Government would probably, 
without discouraging Odessa, restore the quarantine to Otchakof, ainl 
allow them both to take their chance in a fair competition. This 
however seems little understood iu Russia ; Potemkin had no idea of 
encouraging Cherson, hut by ruining Taganrog; and at present CbcrsoH 
is tu be sacrificed to the new favuuritc, Odessa.” Ilcber's MS. Journal 
