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ARMENIA:
A YEAR AT ERZEROOM,
AND ON THE FRONTIERS OF RUSSIA,
TURKEY, AND PERSIA.
BY THE HON. ROBERT CURZON,
AUTHOR OF "VISITS TO THE MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT."
MAP AND WOODCUTS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
82 BEEKMAN STREET.
1854.
PREFACE.
Almost from time immemorial a border warfare has been carried on
between the Koordish tribes on the confines of Turkey and Persia, in
the mountainous country beginning at Mount Ararat toward the north,
and continuing southward to the low lands, where the Shat al Arab,
the name of the mighty river formed by the junction of the Tigris
and the Euphrates, pours those great volumes of water into the
Persian Gulf. The consequence of the unsettled state of affairs in
those wild districts was, that the roads were unsafe for travelers;
merchants were afraid to trust their merchandise to the conveyance
even of well-armed caravans, for they were constantly pillaged by the
Koords, headed in our days by the great chieftains Beder Khan Bey,
Noor Ullah Bey, Khan Abdall, and Khan Mahmoud. The chains of mountains
which occupy great part of the country in question are for months every
year covered with snow, which even in the elevated plains lies at the
depth of many yards; the bands of robbers constantly on the watch for
plunder of any kind prevented the mountain paths from being kept open,
so that those who escaped from the long lances of the Koords perished
in the avalanches and the snowdrifts by hundreds every year.
To put a stop, or at least a check, to so lamentable a state of
things, the governments of Turkey and Persia requested the assistance
of England and Russia to draw up a treaty of peace, and to come to
a distinct understanding as to where the line of border ran between
the two empires; for hitherto the Koordish tribes of Turkey made it a
virtue to plunder a Persian village, and the Persians, on their side,
considered no action more meritorious, as well as profitable, than
an inroad on the Turkish frontier, the forays on both sides being
conducted on the same plan. The invading party, always on horseback,
and with a number of trained led horses, which could travel one hundred
miles without flagging, managed to arrive in the neighborhood of the
devoted village one hour before sunrise. The barking of the village
curs was the first notice to the sleeping inhabitants that the enemy
was literally at the door. The houses were fired in every direction;
the people awoke from sleep, and, trying in confusion to escape, were
speared on their thresholds by their invaders; the place was plundered
of every thing worth taking; and one hour after sunrise the invading
bands were in full retreat, driving before them the flocks and herds
of their victims, and the children and girls of the village bound on
the led horses, to be sold or brought up as slaves; the rest having,
young and old, men and women, been killed without mercy, to prevent
their giving the alarm: their victors frequently coming down upon
them from a distance of one hundred to three hundred miles.
In hopes of remedying these misfortunes, a conference was appointed at
Erzeroom, where a Turkish plenipotentiary, Noori Effendi; a Persian
plenipotentiary, Merza Jaffer Khan; a Russian commissioner, Colonel
Dainese; and an English commissioner, Colonel Williams, of the Royal
Artillery, were to meet, each with a numerous suite, to discuss the
position of the boundary, and to check the border incursions of the
Koordish tribes, both by argument and by force of arms, the troops of
both nations being ordered to assist the deliberations of the congress
at Erzeroom by every endeavor on their part to keep the country in a
temporary state of tranquillity. The plenipotentiaries on the part
of Turkey and Persia, and the English and Russian commissioners,
entered upon their arduous task at the beginning of the year
1842. Colonel Williams, to whom the duties of the English commission
had been intrusted, was too unwell to proceed to Erzeroom, and I was
appointed in his stead, being at that time private secretary to Sir
Stratford Canning, her majesty's embassador at Constantinople. Colonel
Williams afterward recovered so much that he was able to set out, and
we started together as joint commissioners, in company with Colonel
(afterward General) Dainese, on the part of Russia, a gentleman of
very considerable talents and attainments. The discussions between
the two governments were protracted by every conceivable difficulty,
which was thrown in the way of the commissioners principally by the
Turks. At length, in June, 1847, a treaty was signed, in which the
confines of the two empires were defined: these, however, being
situated in places never surveyed, and only known by traditional
maps, which had copied the names of places one from another since
the invention of engraving, it was considered advisable that the
true situations of these places should be verified in a scientific
manner; consequently, a new commission was named in the year 1848,
whose officers were instructed to define the actual position of the
spots enumerated in the treaty above mentioned. These commissioners
consisted of Dervish Pasha for Turkey, Merza Jaffer for Persia,
Colonel Williams for England, and Colonel Ktchirikoff for Russia.
This party left Bagdad in 1848, surveyed the whole of that hitherto
unexplored region, among the Koordish and original Christian tribes,
which extends to the east of Mesopotamia, till they finished their
difficult and dangerous task at Mount Ararat, on the 16th of September,
1852. The results of this expedition are, I hope, to be presented to
the public by the pen of Colonel Williams, and will, I trust, throw
a new and interesting light upon the manners and customs of the wild
mountaineers of those districts, and give much information relating
to the Chaldeans, Maronites, Nestorians, and other Christian Churches
converted in the earliest ages by the successors of the Apostles,
of whom we know very little, no travelers hitherto having had the
opportunities of investigating their actual condition and their
religious tenets which have been afforded to Colonel Williams and
the little army under his command.
Armenia, the cradle of the human family, inoffensive and worthless
of itself, has for centuries, indeed from the beginning of time,
been a bone of contention between conflicting powers: scarcely has
it been made acquainted with the blessings of tranquillity and peace,
through the mediation of Great Britain, than again it is to become the
theatre of war, again to be overrun with bands of armed men seeking
each other's destruction, in a climate which may afford them burial
when dead, but which is too barren and inhospitable to provide them
with the necessaries of life; and this to satisfy the ambition of a
distant potentate, by whose success they gain no advantage in this
world or in the next.
It is much to be deplored that the Emperor of Russia, by his want
of principle, has brought the Christian religion into disrepute; for
throughout the Levant the Christians have for years been waiting an
opportunity to rise against the oppressors of their fortunes and their
faith. The manner in which the Czar has put himself so flagrantly in
the wrong will be a check to the progress of Christianity. That the
step he has now been taking has been the great object of his reign,
as well as that of all his predecessors since the time of Peter the
Great, will be illustrated in the following pages.
The accession of a Christian emperor to the throne of Constantinople
will be an event of greater consequence than is generally imagined;
for the Sultan of Roum is considered by all Mohammedans in India,
Africa, and all parts of the world, to be the vicegerent of God
upon earth, and the Caliph or successor of Mohammed; his downfall,
therefore, would shatter the whole fabric of the Mohammedan faith,
for the Sultan is the pride and glory of Islam, and the pale Crescent
of the East will wane and set when Kurie Eleison is chanted again
under the ancient dome of St. Sofia.
What an unfortunate mistake has been made in not waiting for a real
and just occasion for pressing forward the ranks of the Cross against
the Crescent! Then who would not have joined a righteous cause? who
would not have given his wealth, his assistance, or his life, in the
defense of his faith against the enemies of his religion?
I feel that, in laying this little book before the public, I am
committing a rash act, for I am perfectly aware that it has many
imperfections. I was prevented from visiting several important places
in Armenia by an illness so severe, brought on by the unhealthy
climate, that I have not been able to take an active part in life
since that time. The following pages were written in a very few days,
at a time when other occupations prevented me from giving them that
attention which should always be afforded to a work that is intended
for the perusal of the public.
Nevertheless, I consider that, as the countries described are so little
known, and as it is not improbable that events of great importance may
take place within their boundaries, I should be open to greater blame
in withholding any information, however humble, than in presenting to
the reader a meagre account of those wild and sterile regions, whose
climate and manners are so different from those which are generally
described in the works of Oriental travelers.
These sketches, slight as they are, may perhaps be found useful to
the members of any expedition which the chances of war may occasion
to be sent into those remote countries, by giving them beforehand
some intimation of the preparations necessary to be made for their
journey through a district where they would encounter at every step
difficulties which they might not have been led to expect in a latitude
considerably to the south of the Bay of Naples.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The "Bad Black Sea."--Coal-field near the Bosporus.--Trebizond
from the Sea.--Fish and Turkeys.--The Bazaars.--Coronas.--Ancient
Tombs.--Church of St. Sofia.--Preservation of old Manners and
Ceremonies.--Toilet of a Person of Distinction.--Russian Loss in
1828-9.--Ancient Prayer.--Varna.--Statistics of Wallachia.--Visit
to Abdallah Pasha.--His outward Appearance.--His love of medical
Experiments.--Trade of Trebizond Page 17
CHAPTER II.
Departure from Trebizond.--A rough Road.--Turkish
Pack-horses.--Value of Tea.--The Pipe in the East.--Mountain
Riding.--Instinct of the Horse.--A Caravan overwhelmed by
an Avalanche.--Mountain of Hoshabounar.--A Ride down the
Mountain.--Arrival at Erzeroom 35
CHAPTER III.
The Consulate at Erzeroom.--Subterranean
Dwellings.--Snow-blindness.-- Effects of the severe Climate.--The
City: its Population, Defenses, and Buildings.--Our House and
Household.--Armenian Country-houses.--The Ox-stable 45
CHAPTER IV.
Narrow Escape from Suffocation.--Death of Noori Effendi.--A
good Shot.--History of Mirza Tekee.--Persian Ideas of the
Principles of Government.--The "Blood-drinker."--Massacre at
Kerbela.--Sanctity of the Place.--History of Hossein.--Attack
on Kerbela, and Defeat of the Persians.--Good Effects of
Commissioners' Exertions 61
CHAPTER V.
The Boundary Question.--Koordish Chiefs.--Torture of
Artin, an American Christian.--Improved State of Society in
Turkey.--Execution of a Koord.--Power of Fatalism.--Gratitude of
Artin's Family Page 81
CHAPTER VI.
The Clock of Erzeroom.--A Pasha's Notions of Horology.--Pathology
of Clocks.--The Tower and Dungeon.--Ingenious Mode of Torture.
--The modern Prison 99
CHAPTER VII.
Spring in Erzeroom.--Coffee-house Diversions.--Koordish
Exploits.--Summer Employment.--Preparation of Tezek.--Its
Varieties and Uses 105
CHAPTER VIII.
The Prophet of Khoi.--Climate.--Effects of great Elevation
above the Sea.--The Genus Homo.--African Gold-diggings.--Sale
of a Family.--Site of Paradise.--Tradition of Khosref
Purveez.--Flowers.--A Flea-antidote.--Origin of the Tulip.--A
Party at the Cave of Ferhad, and its Results.--Translation
from Hafiz 110
CHAPTER IX.
The Bear.--Ruins of a Genoese Castle.--Lynx.--Lemming.--Cara
Guz.--Gerboa.--Wolves.--Wild Sheep.--A hunting
Adventure.--Camels.--Peculiar Method of Feeding.--Degeneration
of domestic Animals 125
CHAPTER X.
Birds.--Great Variety and vast Numbers of Birds.--Flocks of
Geese.--Employment for the Sportsman.--The Captive Crane.--Wild
and tame Geese.--The pious and profane Ancestors.--List of Birds
found at Erzeroom 132
CHAPTER XI.
Excursion to the Lake of Tortoom.--Romantic Bridge.--Gloomy Effect
of the Lake.--Singular Boat.--"Evaporation" of a Pistol.--Kiamili
Pasha.--Extraordinary Marksman.--Alarming Illness of the
Author.--An Earthquake.--Lives lost through intense Cold.--The
Author recovers Page 145
CHAPTER XII.
Start for Trebizond.--Personal Appearance of the Author.--Mountain
Pass.--Reception at Beyboort.--Misfortunes of Mustapha.--Pass of
Zigana Dagh.--Arrival at Trebizond 155
CHAPTER XIII.
Former History of Trebizond.--Ravages of the Goths.--Their
Siege and Capture of the City.--Dynasties of Courtenai and
the Comneni.--The "Emperor" David.--Conquest of Trebizond by
Mehemet II. 166
CHAPTER XIV.
Impassable Character of the Country.--Dependence of Persia
on the Czar.--Russian Aggrandizement.--Delays of the Western
Powers.--Russian Acquisitions from Turkey and Persia.--Oppression
of the Russian Government.--The Conscription.--Armenian
Emigration.--The Armenian Patriarch.--Latent Power of the
Pope.--Anomalous Aspect of religious Questions 178
CHAPTER XV.
Ecclesiastical History.--Supposed Letter of Abgarus, King
of Edessa, to our Savior, and the Answer.--Promulgation
and Establishment of Christianity.--Labors of
Mesrob Maschdots.--Separation of the Armenian Church
from that of Constantinople.--Hierarchy and religious
Establishments.--Superstition of the Lower Classes.--Sacerdotal
Vestments.--The Holy Books.--Romish Branch of the Church.--Labors
of Mechitar.--His Establishment near Venice.--Diffusion of the
Scriptures 194
CHAPTER XVI.
Modern division of Armenia.--Population.--Manners and Customs of
the Christians.--Superiority of the Mohammedans Page 209
CHAPTER XVII.
Armenian Manuscripts.--Manuscripts at Etchmiazin.--Comparative
Value of Manuscripts.--Uncial Writing.--Monastic
Libraries.--Collections in Europe.--The St. Lazaro Library 213
CHAPTER XVIII.
General History of Armenia.--Former Sovereigns.--Tiridates
I. receives his Crown from Nero.--Conquest of the Country by the
Persians and by the Arabs.--List of modern Kings.--Misfortunes
of Leo V.: his Death at Paris 218
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Map of Armenia To face title-page.
Ruined Armenian Church near Erzeroom In title-page.
General View of Erzeroom To face page 45
Erzeroom. View from the house of the British
Commissioners. To face page 50
Koordish Gallows In page 95
Fundook ,, 120
Ruined Tower in the Castle of Tortoom To face page 145
Boat on the Lake of Tortoom ,, ,, 149
Quarantine Harbor, Trebizond ,, ,, 165
ARMENIA.
CHAPTER I.
The "Bad Black Sea."--Coal-field near the Bosporus.--Trebizond
from the Sea.--Fish and Turkeys.--The Bazaars.--Coronas.--Ancient
Tombs.--Church of St. Sofia.--Preservation of old Manners and
Ceremonies.--Toilet of a Person of Distinction.--Russian Loss in
1828-9.--Ancient Prayer.--Varna.--Statistics of Wallachia.--Visit
to Abdallah Pasha.--His outward Appearance.--His love of medical
Experiments.--Trade of Trebizond.
Fena kara Degniz, "The Bad Black Sea." This is the character that
stormy lake has acquired in the estimation of its neighbors at
Constantinople. Of 1000 Turkish vessels which skim over its waters
every year, 500 are said to be wrecked as a matter of course. The
wind sometimes will blow from all the four quarters of heaven within
two hours' time, agitating the waters like a boiling caldron. Dense
fogs obscure the air during the winter, by the assistance of which
the Turkish vessels continually mistake the entrance of a valley
called the False Bogaz for the entrance of the Bosporus, and are
wrecked there perpetually. I have seen dead bodies floating about in
that part of the sea, where I first became acquainted with the fact
that the corpse of a woman floats upon its back, while that of a man
floats upon its face. In short, at Constantinople they say that every
thing that is bad comes from the Black Sea: the plague, the Russians,
the fogs, and the cold, all come from thence; and though this time we
had a fine calm passage, I was glad enough to arrive at the end of the
voyage at Trebizond. Before landing, however, I must give a passing
tribute to the beauty of the scenery on the south coast, that is, on
the north coast of Asia Minor. Rocks and hills are its usual character
near the shore, with higher mountains inland. Between the Bosporus and
Heraclea are boundless fields of coal, which crops out on the side of
the hills, so that no mining would be required to get the coal; and
besides this great facility in its production, the hills are of such
an easy slope that a tram-road would convey the coal-wagons down to the
ships on the sea-coast without any difficulty. No nation but the Turks
would delay to make use of such a source of enormous wealth as this
coal would naturally supply, when it can be had with such remarkable
ease so near to the great maritime city of Constantinople. It seems
to be a peculiarity in human nature that those who are too stupid to
undertake any useful work are frequently jealous of the interference
of others who are more able and willing than themselves, as the old
fable of the dog in the manger exemplifies. I understand that more
than one English company have been desirous of opening these immense
mines of wealth, on the condition of paying a large sum or a good
per centage to the Turkish government; but they are jealous of a
foreigner's undertaking that which they are incapable of carrying out
themselves. So English steamers bring English coal to Constantinople,
which costs I don't know what by the time it arrives within a few
miles of a spot [1] which is as well furnished with the most useful,
if not the most ornamental, of minerals, as Newcastle-upon-Tyne itself.
Beyond Sinope, where the flat alluvial land stretches down to the
sea-shore, there are forests of such timber as we have no idea of
in these northern regions. Here there are miles of trees so high,
and large, and straight, that they look like minarets in flower. Wild
boars, stags, and various kinds of game abound in these magnificent
primeval woods, protected by the fevers and agues which arise from
the dense jungle and unhealthy swamps inland, which prevent the
sportsman from following the game during great part of the year. The
inhabitants of all this part of Turkey, Circassia, &c., are good
shots with the short, heavy rifle, which is their constant companion,
and they sometimes kill a deer. As their religion protects the pigs,
the wild boars roam unmolested in this, for them at least, "free and
independent country." The stag resembles the red deer in every respect,
only it is considerably smaller; its venison is not particularly good.
Trebizond presents an imposing appearance from the sea. It stands upon
a rocky table-land, from which peculiarity in its situation it takes
its name--trapeza being a table in Greek, if we are to believe what
Dr. ---- used to tell us at school. There is no harbor, not even a bay,
and a rolling sea comes in sometimes which looks, and I should think
must be, awfully dangerous. I have seen the whole of the keel of the
ships at anchor, as they rolled over from one side to the other. The
view from the sea of the curious ancient town, the mountains in the
background, and the great chain of the Circassian Mountains on the
left, is magnificent in the extreme. The only thing that the Black
Sea is good for, that I know of (and that, I think, may be said
of some other seas), is fish. The kalkan balouk, shield-fish--a
sort of turbot, with black prickles on his back--though not quite
worth a voyage to Trebizond, is well worth the attention of the most
experienced gastronome when he once gets there. The red mullet, also,
is caught in great quantities; but the oddest fish is the turkey. This
animal is generally considered to be a bird, of the genus poultry,
and so he is in all outward appearances; but at Trebizond the turkeys
live entirely upon a diet of sprats and other little fish washed on
shore by the waves, by which it comes to pass that their flesh tastes
like very exceedingly bad fish, and abominably nasty it is; though,
if reclaimed from these bad habits, and fed on corn and herbs, like
other respectable birds, they become very good, and are worthy of
being stuffed with chestnuts and roasted, and of occupying the spot
upon the dinner-table from whence the remains of the kalkan balouk
have been removed.
On landing, the beauty of the prospect ceases, for, like many Oriental
towns, the streets are lanes between blank walls, over which the
branches of fig-trees, roofs of houses, and boughs of orange and lemon
trees appear at intervals; so that, riding along the blind alleys,
you do not know whether there are houses or gardens on each side.
The bazaars are a contrast, by their life and bustle, to the narrow
lanes through which they are approached. Here numbers of the real
old-fashioned Turks are to be seen, with turbans as large as pumpkins,
of all colors and forms, steadily smoking all manner of pipes.
I do not know why Europeans persist in calling these places bazaars:
charchi is the Turkish for what we call bazaar, or bezestein for
an inclosed covered place containing various shops. The word bazaar
means a market, which is altogether a different kind of thing.
The bazaars of Trebizond contain a good deal of rubbish, both of the
human and inanimate kind. Cheese, saddles, old, dangerous-looking arms,
and various peddlery and provisions, were all that was to be seen. Many
ruined buildings of Byzantine architecture tottered by the sides of
the more open spaces, some apparently very ancient, and well worth
examination. In the porches of two little antiquated Greek churches
I saw some frescoes of the twelfth century, apparently in excellent
preservation; one of portraits of Byzantine kings and princes, in their
royal robes, caught my attention, but I had not time to do more than
take a hasty look at it. The tomb of Solomon, the son of David, king
of Georgia or Immeretia, standing in the court-yard of another Greek
church, under a sort of canopy of stone, is a very curious monument;
and in two churches there are ancient coronas, which seemed to be of
silver gilt, eight or ten feet in diameter, most precious specimens
of early metal-work, which I coveted and desired exceedingly. They
were both engraved with texts from Scripture, and saints and cherubim
of the grimmest aspect, so old, and quaint, and ugly, that they may be
said to be really painfully curious. While on this subject I may remark
that I am not aware where the authority is to be found for introducing
the quantities of coronas which are now hung up in modern antique
churches in England. I never saw one in any Latin church, except at
Aix-la-Chapelle; there are, I presume, others, but they certainly
never were common nor usual any where in Europe. All those I know of
are Greek, and belong to the Greek ceremonial rite. I have never met
with an ancient Gothic corona, and should be glad to know from whence
those lately introduced into our parish churches have been copied.
On the other side of the town from the landing-place, a mile or so
beyond the beautiful old walls of the Byzantine citadel, is a small
grassy plain, with some fine single trees. This plain is situated on
a terrace, with the open sea on the right hand, on a level of fifty
or more feet below. The view from hence on all sides is lovely. The
glorious blue sea--for it is not black here--on the right hand; the
walls and towers crumbling into ruin behind you, the hills to the left,
at the foot of which, built on the level grass, are several ancient
tombs, whether Mohammedan or Christian I do not know; they are low
round towers, with conical roofs, like old-fashioned pigeon-houses,
but rich in color, with old brick, and stone, and marble. Parasitical
plants, growing from rents and crevices occasioned by time, are left
in peace by the Turks, who, after all, are the best conservators
of antiquity in the world, for they let things alone. There are
no churchwardens yet in Turkey; there are no tasty architects,
with contemptible and gross ignorance of antiquity, architecture,
and taste, to build ridiculous failures for a confiding ministry in
London, or a rich gentleman in the country, who does not pretend to
know any thing about the matter, and falls into the error of believing
that if he pays well he will be well served, and that a man who has
been brought up to build buildings must know how to do it: and this
knowledge is displayed in the production of the British Museum,
the National Gallery, and other original edifices.
The spleen aroused in writing these words is calmed by the recollection
of the ruins of the fortified monastery, as it would appear to have
been, before my eyes at the further end of this charming open plain;
a Byzantine gate-house stands within a ditch surrounding a considerable
space, in which some broken walls give evidence of a stately palace
or monastery which once rose there; but there still stands towering
to a great height the almost perfect church of St. Sofia--the Holy
Wisdom, not the saint of that name, but the deity to whom the great
cathedral of St. Sofia is dedicated at Constantinople. This church
is curious and interesting in the extreme; it is most rich in many of
the peculiarities of Byzantine architecture outside, and within there
are very perfect remains of frescoes, in a style of art such as I have
hardly seen equaled, never in any fresco paintings. The only ones equal
to them are the illuminations in the one odd volume of the Mênologia
in the Vatican Library, and some in my own. There are several half
figures of emperors in brilliant colors, in circular compartments,
on the under sides of some arches, and numerous other paintings,
of which the colors are so vivid that they resemble painted glass,
particularly where they are broken, as the sharp outlines of what is
left betoken that they would be still as bright as jewelry where they
have not been destroyed by the plaster, on which they are painted,
giving way.
The position, beauty, and antiquity of this Christian relic in a
Mohammedan land, give a singular interest to the Church of St. Sofia at
Trebizond. I longed to give this place a thorough examination. Perhaps
a portrait of some old Comnenus would present itself to my admiring
eyes. Many likenesses of by-gone emperors, Cæsars, and princesses born
in the purple, might be recovered in all the splendor of their royal
robes and almost sacred crowns and diadems, to gladden the hearts
of antiquarians enthusiastic in the cause, and who, like myself,
would be ten times more delighted with the possession of a portrait,
or an incomprehensible work of art of undoubted Byzantine origin,
than with the offer of the hand, even of the illustrious Anna Comnena
herself. Her portrait, after the lapse of 600 years, would be most
interesting; but I do not envy the Cæsar who obtained the honor of
an alliance with that princess of the cærulean hose.
At this point, feeling myself entangled with the reminiscences of
Byzantine history, I must branch off into a little episode relating
to the singular preservation of ancient manners and ceremonies still
in use, or, at least, remaining in the year 1830 in Wallachia and
Moldavia. The usages and the etiquette of those courts, together
with the names and the costumes of the great officers of state,
are all derived from those of the Christian court of Constantinople
before the disastrous days of Mohammed the Second. Now that those
fertile lands are overrun by the descendants of the Avars, and the
fierce tribes of northern barbarians, who so often in the Middle Ages
carried fire and sword, tallow and sheepskins, almost to the walls
of the city--tên bolin· eis tên bolin--from whence comes Stamboul,
I may be, perhaps, excused if I put in a few lines relating to another
country, but which, I think, are interesting during the present state
of the affairs of the Turkish empire.
In the year 1838 I left Constantinople on my way to Vienna. I went to
Varna, and from thence proceeded up the Danube in a miserable steamer,
on board of which was a personage of high distinction belonging to
a neighboring nation, whose manners and habits afforded me great
amusement. He was courteous and gentlemanlike in a remarkable degree,
but his domestic ways differed from those of our own countrymen. He
had a numerous suite of servants, three or four of whom seemed to be
a sort of gentlemen; these attended him every night when he went to
bed, in the standing bed-place of the crazy steamer. First they wound
up six or seven gold watches, and the great man took off his boots,
his coat, and I don't know how many gold chains; then each night he
was invested by his attendants with a different fur pelisse, which
looked valuable and fusty to my humble eyes. Each morning the same
gentlemen spread out all the watches, took off the fur pelisse, and
insinuated their lord into a fashionable and somewhat tight coat,
not the one worn yesterday; but on no occasion did I perceive any
thing in the nature of an ablution, or any proof that such an article
as a clean shirt formed a part of the great man's traveling wardrobe.
Varna is situated on a gentle slope a short distance from the shores
of the Black Sea, and three or four miles to the south of a range
of hills, between which and the town the unfortunate Russian army
was encamped during the war of the year 1829. I say unfortunate,
and all will agree with me, if they take into consideration a fact
which I write on undoubted authority. When the Russians invaded
Turkey in 1828, they lost 50,000 men by sickness alone, by want of
the necessaries of life, and neglect in the commissariat department:
50,000 Russians died on the plains of Turkey, not one man of whom
was killed in battle, for their advance was not resisted by the Turks.
In the next year (1829) the Russians lost 60,000 men between the Pruth
and the city of Adrianople. Some of these, however, were legitimately
slain in battle. When they arrived at Adrianople, the troops were in
so wretched a condition from sickness and want of food that not 7000
men were able to bear arms: how many thousands of horses and mules
perished in these two years is not known. The Turkish government was
totally ignorant of this deplorable state of affairs at Adrianople
till some time afterward, when the intelligence came too late. If
the Turks had known what was going on, not one single Russian would
have seen his native land again; even as it was, out of 120,000 men,
not 6000 ever recrossed the Russian frontier alive. Since the days of
Cain, the first murderer, among all nations, and among all religions,
he who kills his fellow-creature without just cause is looked upon
with horror and disgust, and is pursued by the avenging curse of God
and man. What, then, shall be thought of that individual who, without
reason, without the slightest show of justice, right, or justifiable
pretense, from his own caprice, to satisfy his own feelings, and lust
of pride, and arrogance, destroys for his amusement, in two years,
more than 100,000 of his fellow-creatures? Shall not their blood cry
out for vengeance? Had not each of these men a soul, immortal as their
butcher's? Had not many of them, many thousands of them perhaps, more
faith, more trust in God, higher talents than their destroyer? Better
had it been for that man had he never been born!
The following prayer is translated from one at the end of an ancient
Bulgarian or Russian manuscript, written in the year 1355: "The Judge
seated, and the apostle standing before him, and the trumpet sounding,
and the fire burning, what wilt thou do, O my soul, when thou art
carried to the judgment? for then all thy evils will appear, and all
thy secret sins will be made manifest. Therefore now, beforehand,
endeavor to pray to Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, do not thou reject me,
but save me."
The fortifications of Varna are very flat and low, though they are
said to be of great strength; but, as the town is built of wood, I
should think there would be little difficulty in setting it on fire
by the assistance of a few shells or red-hot shot, from ships at sea
or batteries on the land. From all such fortresses I am delighted to
escape: the bastions, ditches, and ramparts keep me in, though they
are intended to keep others out. There is nothing picturesque in a
modern stronghold, as there are no battlements and towers, or any
thing pleasing to the eye; only, whichever way you turn, you are sure
to be stopped by a green ditch with a frog in it; I therefore only
remained long enough at Varna to see that there was nothing to be seen.
The principality of Wallachia contains 1,500,000 inhabitants liable to
taxation, 800 nobles, and 15,000 strangers, subjects of various powers.
It is governed by a prince (gika), who reigns for life. The civil
list amounts to--
50,000 Austrian ducats yearly.
All the officials are paid by the government.
The revenues of the principality are derived
from tribute, which amounts to 300,000 ducats yearly.
The salt-works, which yield 150,000 ,, ,,
Domains of the prince 30,000 ,, ,,
The customs 70,000 ,, ,,
-------
Total 550,000 ,, ,,
The expenses are, yearly:
Ducats.
Civil List of the prince 50,000
The Ottoman Porte for tribute 30,000
Salaries of officials 150,000
Troops, 4000 men 100,000
Ten quarantine stations on the Danube 20,000
Hospitals 5,000
Schools 12,000
Post 30,000
Repair of roads 8,000
-------
Total 405,000
The capital of Wallachia is Bucharest, containing 12,000 houses and
80,000 inhabitants, of whom 10,000 are strangers.
There is one metropolitan, who lives at Bucharest, and has a revenue
of 10,000 ducats; and three bishops, of Rimnik, Argessi, and Buzeo,
who have 8000 each. The salary of the first minister is 3600 ducats
yearly. There are three ranks of nobles. The highest consists of sixty
individuals, who have the right of electing the prince; the second
numbers 300, and the third 440. The prime minister is called the
bano; the commander-in-chief, spathar; the minister of the interior,
the great dvornic; the minister of justice, the great logothete. The
greatest family is that of Brancovano, the revenue of its chief being
12,000 ducats. The titles of the great officers of state, and the
principal people about the court of the Hospodar, are derived from
the institutions of the Byzantine emperors. These nobles are divided
into three classes. The following is the order of their precedence:
1st Class.
1. Bano Marshal of the Palace.
2. Dvornic Lord Chamberlain.
3. Spathar Commander-in-Chief.
4. Logothete Chief Secretary.
5. Postemic Foreign Minister.
6. Aga Inspector of Police.
2d Class.
1. Clochiar Commissary General.
2. Paharme Cup-bearer.
3d Class.
1. Serdar Commander of 1000 men.
2. Pitar Inspector of the Ovens.
3. Consepist Registrar General.
It is in the power of the government to raise any of these nobles
a step after a service of three years. Before the year 1827 these
officers were paid by contributions raised on the subjects of the
Prince, who were then exempted from any other taxes. The Bano had
one hundred and twenty men, the Dvornic one hundred, the Paharme
twenty-five, and so on; from these they took as much as they could,
one man averaging three ducats a year in value to his lord.
The treaty of Adrianople contains an article insuring the independence
of the interior administration of the country. On the 18th of May,
1838, an order was brought from Constantinople by Baron Rukman,
in which it was stated that the General Assembly are to insert a
clause in the Constitution, which obliges them to have leave of the
Russians before any alteration whatever is made in the regulation of
the interior. The army can not be increased, or any differences made
in the administration of the quarantine, &c., without permission
from Russia, which is in direct contradiction to the Treaty of
Adrianople. Sentence of death is abolished by the Constitution,
but great offenders are sent to the mines for life.
Having accomplished our little tour to Wallachia, we will recross the
sea to Trebizond, and return to the inspection of that ancient city,
so famous in the romance of the Middle Ages. The Pasha and Governor,
Abdallah Pasha, resides in the citadel, a large space of ruinous
buildings, surrounded by romantic walls and towers, in the same style
as those of Constantinople. As in duty bound, we proceeded in great
state to pay a visit of ceremony to the viceroy. As our long train of
horsemen wound through the narrow streets, and passed under the long
dark tunnel of the Byzantine gateway, we must have looked quite in
keeping with the picturesque appearance of that ancient fortress. From
the gloomy gate we emerged into a large, ruinous court or space of no
particular shape, but surrounded by tumble-down houses, with wooden
balconies festooned with vines. I was struck with the absence of
guards and soldiers, who are usually drawn up on these occasions in
a wavy line, to do honor or to impose upon the awe-stricken feelings
of the Elchi Bey.
We passed through another court, if I remember right, till we found a
number of servants and officials waiting our arrival at an open door,
and, having dismounted, with the assistance of numerous supporters
we scrambled up a large, dark, crazy wooden stair, at the top of
which, on a curtain being drawn aside, we were ushered into a large,
lofty room, where we beheld the Pasha seated on the divan, under
a range of windows, at the upper end of the selamlik, or hall of
reception. Then commenced the regular exercise of formal civilities,
bows, and inquiries after each other's health, carried on in a
thorough mechanical manner, neither party even pretending to look as
if he meant any thing he said. We smoked pipes, and drank coffee, and
made a little bow to the Pasha afterward, in the most orthodox way,
till we were bored and tired, and wished it was time to come away;
but this sort of visit was a serious affair, and I don't know how
long we sat there, with the crowd of kawasses and chiboukgis staring
at us steadily from the lower end of the hall.
What the Pasha looked like, and what manner of man he was, it was
not easy to make out, seeing that to the outward eye he presented the
appearance of a large green bundle, with a red fez at the top, for he
was enveloped in a great furred cloak; he seemed to have dark eyes,
like every body else in this country, and a long nose and a black
beard, whereof the confines or limits were not to be ascertained, as I
could not readily distinguish what was beard and what was fur. Every
now and then his excellency snuffled, as if he had got a cold, but
I think it was only a trick; however, when he lifted up his voice
to speak, the depth and hollow sound was very remarkable. I have
heard several Turks speak in this way, which I believe they consider
dignified, and imagine that it is done in imitation of Sultan Mahmoud,
who, whether it was his natural voice or not, always spoke as if his
voice came out of his stomach instead of his mouth. Abdallah Pasha
paid us his compliments in this awful tone, and, till I got a little
used to it, I wondered out of what particular part of the heap of
fur, cloth, &c., this thoroughbass proceeded. I found, to my great
admiration, that the Pasha knew my name, and almost as much of my
own history as I did myself; where he had gained his very important
information I know not, but an interest so unusual in any thing
relating to another person induced me to make inquiries about him,
and I found he was not only a man of the highest dignity and wealth,
possessing villages, square miles and acres innumerable, but he was a
philosopher; if not a writer, he was a reader of books, particularly
works on medicine. This was his great hobby. In the way of government
he seemed to be a most patriarchal sort of king: he had no army or
soldiers whatever; fifteen or sixteen kawasses were all the guards
that he supported. He smoked the pipe of tranquillity on the carpet
of prudence, and the pashalik of Trebizond slumbered on in the sun;
the houses tumbled down occasionally, and people repaired them never;
the Secretary of State wrote to the Porte two or three times a year, to
say that nothing particular had happened. The only thing I wondered at
was how the tribute was exacted, for transmitted it must be regularly
to Constantinople. Rayahs must be squeezed: they were created, like
oranges, for that purpose; but, somehow or other, Abdallah Pasha seems
to have carried on the process quietly, and the multitudes under his
rule dozed on from year to year. That was all very well for those at
a distance, but his immediate attendants suffered occasionally from
the philosophical inquiries of their master. He thought of nothing
but physic, and whenever he could catch a Piedmontese doctor he would
buy any quantity of medicine from him, and talk learnedly on medical
subjects as long as the doctor could stand it. As nobody ever tells
the truth in these parts, the Pasha never believed what the doctor
told him, and usually satisfied his mind by experiments in corpore
vili, many of which, when the accounts were related to me, made me
cry with laughter. They were mostly too medical to be narrated in
any unmedical assembly.
Trebizond is not defensible by land or sea, nor could it be made
so from the land side, as it is commanded by the sloping hills
immediately behind it. From there being no bay or harbor of any kind,
its approach is dangerous during the prevalence of north winds, which
lash the waves against the rocks with fury. Inns are as yet unknown;
there are no khans that I know of, of any size or importance as far as
architecture is concerned; but large stables protect the pack-horses
which carry the bales of goods imported from Constantinople for the
Persian trade, the bulk of which has now passed out of the hands of
the English into those of the Greek merchants. The steamer running
from Constantinople is constantly laden with goods, and much more
would be sent if additional steamers were ready to convey it.
Our party was received under the hospitable roof of Mr. Stephens,
the Vice-Consul, whose court-yard was encumbered with luggage of
all sorts and kinds, over which katergis or muleteers continually
wrangled in setting apart different articles in two heaps, each two
heaps being reputed a sufficient load for one horse. This took some
days to arrange, and our time was occupied with preparations for the
journey through the mountains.