ODESSA. 
391 
documents therein comprised we know to be chap. 
derived from records kept in the Chancery ' - 
Office of the British Legation at Constantinople ; 
and to these the writer, as a member of the 
Levant Company, could of course command 
access. We may venture indeed to pledge 
ourselves for the authenticity of the papers in 
question ; and we are glad to be instrumental 
in bringing under the public eye such valuable 
materials for history, in a way more calculated 
to perpetuate the recollection of them, than the 
fugitive manner in which they were originally 
published 5 . 
The fortress of Odessa is small, but kept 
in good order: it has, like that of Cherson, a 
double fosse. We paid one visit to the Com- 
mandant, a genuine Russian, living in ‘a little 
hole, among bundles of official writings, sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere powerfully affecting 
our olfactory nerves. In answer to a very rude 
interrogation concerning our business, we said, 
with palpitating hearts, that we begged to have 
our passports signed. After keeping us in a state 
of most painful suspense for about half-an-hour, 
the expected rouble being paid, and the hums 
and haws, and difficulties of office, thereby 
(3) Sea the Appendix to this Volume, No. II. 
