258. Mr. Bell on the growing power of Russia. 
sion of Georgia by an army of 60,000 Persian cavalry, under that: 
active but cruel tyrant, Aga Mohammed Khan,—the sack of Te- 
flls,—the return and death of Heraclius, rendered it necessary for 
Russia to interpose. A Russian army of 50,000 men, under Zu- 
boff, was sent across the Caucasus, to defend a people unable to 
protect themselves. The Persians had retreated, and on the death 
of Aga Mohammed Khan, his imbecile successor, the reigning mo- 
narch, made a peace with the Russians, to secure his own succession to 
a disputed sceptre, in 1797, by which the Russians gained all Dag- 
histan and Schirwan, to the mouth of the Kur. In the meantime, 
the Russians seized Georgia, and partly by intrigue, and partly by 
force, obtained from the family ef Heraclius, and from the sove-: 
reigns of Immeretia, a renunciation of all regal authority, and thus 
deprived the Georgians even of nominal independence, a boon 
wbich they had enjoyed even under the ‘Turkish and Persian yoke. 
In 1801, the pass from Mosdok to Mskett, at the junction of 
the Aragwi and Kur, was, for the first time, occupied by a mili- 
tary force, the present road planned, and ultimately executed. By 
the peace of 1813, Russia obtained a legal and political sanction to 
the countries she had already seized and maintained in despite of 
Persian power, and a further extension of her southern frontier, 
namely, all Georgia, Immeretia, and Guriel, the whele of Mingre- 
lia, or the valley of the Phasis, the khanates of Gandscha and Kar- 
rabagh, the step of Mogan, and the district of Talish, from the 
mouth of the Kur south to Astara. In the subsequent peace of 
February 1828, the remaining portion of Persian Armenia, north 
of the Aras, containing the khanates of Naktschivan and Erivan, 
were yielded to Russia ; so that Russia has gained, on the side of 
the Caspian, a maritime tract of 5 degrees of latitude, from the 
Sulak river south to Astara, a space of 400 miles and upwards, 
including the windings of the coast ; whilst inland, it extends from 
the summit of the Elboors and the Pass of Darial, south to the’ 
Araxes, a meridional extent of more than 3 degrees, by 5 of longi- 
tude, exclusive of Mingrelia, Immeretia, and Guriel. This extent 
of territory, gained from Persia successively in 1797, 1813, and 
1828, comprehends a surface of 60,000 British square miles, and 
the three latter 20,000 more, or a total of 80,000 square miles. 
_ What is the entire population of these districts, taken in whole, is 
unknown. According to a recent census, the population of Geor- 
gia is 2,375,487 persons, unequally scattered within the five prin- 
cipalities, which, under the name of Modern Georgia, extend 50 
leagues from Ntos, or from the cross on the summit of the Darial 
Pass, to the mountains of Pembek, or from 42° 25’ north lat. to: 
40° 35’ north lat. and 125 leagues from the mouth of the Enguri 
into the Black Sea, to the junction of the Alayan with the Kur ; 
that is, from west to east in its greatest length. See Tableau de 
Caucase, par M. Klaproth, 1827, p. 93. and the Nouveau Jour- 
nal Astatique, No. VI. Juin 1828, p. 435. 
But who can enumerate the numberless tribes of the mighty Cau- 
