TO AZOF AND TAGANROG. 
the autumnal season. The Empress ordered 
proper buildings and accommodations to be 
prepared for their reception upon the Don ; but 
the Russian commissaries took especial care to 
convey into their own pockets the money 
allowed to complete the work according to the 
intentions of their sovereign. When the Arme- 
nian colony arrived, they found a parcel of 
miserable huts, constructed in the most expe- 
ditious and most wretched manner. These 
have since been converted into neat and 
comfortable dwellings : many of them are of 
limestone, and they are covered with tiles : in 
the manufacture of these tiles, as well as of 
earthenware in general, the inhabitants are very 
skilful. Other Armenian settlements, belong- 
ing to the same district of Rastof, are in the 
neighbourhood, and all of them in a flourishing 
state. The Armenians are much respected in 
the country; their industry, their sobriety, 
and their general moral conduct, render them a 
most important acquisition to the Russian em- 
pire. Their whole population, however, in- 
cluding persons of both sexes, and all the 
Armenian settlements in the district, does not 
amount to eight thousand 3 . 
40; 
CHAP. 
XIV. 
' * 1 
(3) Pallas estimates it at 7000. Ibid. p. 480. 
