390 
THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 
while the next ridge between the Adkova and the Kintrishi was 
occupied by the Turks, whose outposts were in a thick wood on the 
right bank of the Adkova. 
General Oklobjio employed the time till the 10th May in the fortifi¬ 
cation of the camp, arranging his lines of communication, provisioning 
his camp, and pacifying the inhabitants, who gave in their sub¬ 
mission in the beginning of May. From the 8th May there were 
indications of a constant strengthening of the Turkish forces, and of a 
levee en masse of the inhabitants, whose head-quarters were in the village 
of Khotzubani. This lies on the ridge between the Adkova and the 
Kintrischi, called the Perang Hills, and commands the slopes on the 
left bank of the Adkova, which the Turks had fortified. 
The focus of insurrection was to be taken by the Russians on the 
11th May. General Denibekoff was to attack Khotzubani from the 
front with five battalions and a mountain battery, while General 
Schelemetieff was to march with a smaller force down the right bank 
of the Adkova, cross it, and attack the enemy's position on its left flank. 
Before this turning movement had developed itself, General Denibekoff 
met with an unexpectedly stout resistance in the Adkova valley, which 
he overcame by bringing his artillery into action and advancing with 
the bayonet; a further advance on the slopes over the stream was, 
however, impossible. In the meantime, General Schelemetieff had 
completed his flank march and driven the Turkish advanced troops 
opposed to him over the Adkova; but his own advanced troops, which 
were advancing on the first terrace above the left bank, were, in turn, 
driven back to the river, till towards mid-day this detachment had to 
remain on the defensive, and repulsed several attacks on its right 
flank. The last of these was driven back by the centre of the detach¬ 
ment with such loss to the Turks that the offensive was resumed, and 
the first terrace on the left bank was captured. Till then Denibekoff 
had only been able to gain ground very slowly, but being reinforced by 
three fresh battalions from the camp, he made an attack on Khotzubani 
which the much-weakened enemy could not resist. The latter therefore 
drew off unpursued towards his left flank. Two sotnias detached on 
the extreme right flank during the action were shelled by the heavy 
guns of a frigate, but suffered no loss. The total Russian loss was 
10 officers and 160 men; that of the Turks is unknown. 
In spite of the blockade of the Black Sea, declared by the Turks on 
the 5th May, which during the whole campaign remained a dead letter^ 
the Russian steamer “ Constantine," from Sebastopol, appeared before 
Batoum on the 13 th May, to attack the Turkish frigate lying in the 
roadstead with torpedoes. The four launches sent out for this purpose 
did not, however, succeed; some of them retired to the roadstead of 
Poti, the rest returned with the “ Constantine " to Sebastopol on the 
14th. This courageously-undertaken but unsuccessful attempt to 
weaken the Turkish fleet, which barred the coast road, failed to open it 
for the Rion army, and therefore General Oklobjio remained confined 
to the difficult uplands, in which it was all the more difficult for him to 
operate successfully, as the enemy's army was being constantly rein¬ 
forced by regular and irregular troops, and the rising in Abchasia in his 
