PRESENT CONDITION OF ARMENIA.
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.
The description of Armenia and the adjacent districts in the
foregoing pages will have sufficed to give a general idea of the many
difficulties to be encountered by those whose business leads them
through this inhospitable region, where they meet with impediments at
every step, from the lofty mountains traversed by roads accessible
only to mules and horses, the extreme cold of the high passes
and elevated plains, the impossibility of obtaining provisions,
and the savage character of the Koords and other wandering tribes
who roam over this wild country. If a traveler, accompanied by a
few followers, and assisted by firmans from the Sultan, finds this
journey arduous in the extreme, how much more so must it prove to
the general in command of an army, with many thousand men to provide
for, with artillery and heavy baggage to encumber his march, on roads
inaccessible to carriages or wheeled vehicles of any kind! and if to
these is added an enemy on the alert to cut off supplies, to harass
the long, straggling line of march, and to attack the passing army in
narrow defiles from behind rocks, and from the summits of precipices,
where they are safe from molestation, it will be understood that the
difficulties presenting themselves to military operations in these
regions are almost insuperable. It is the inaccessible nature of
Circassia, even more than the bravery of its inhabitants, which has
enabled them to resist the overwhelming power of Russia for so many
years. On the approach to Erzeroom these difficulties increase. From
Georgia, Persia, and Trebizond, there is no other city or entrepôt
where an army could rest to lay in stores and collect supplies for a
campaign, with the exception of Erzeroom, which is the centre or key
to all these districts. If it was strongly fortified, as it should
be, or was, at any rate, in the occupation of an active, intelligent
government, the power who possessed it would hold the fate of that
part of Asia in its hands.
No caravans could pass, no mercantile speculations could be carried on,
and no large bodies of troops could march without its permission. They
would, in all probability, perish from the rigors of the climate if
they were not assisted, even without the necessity of attacking them
by force of arms. At this moment, the greater part of the artillery
of the Turkish army is, I believe, buried under the snow in one
of the ravines between Beyboort and Erzeroom, from whence it has
no chance of being rescued till next summer. It was the impassable
character of this country, and the treacherous habits of the robber
tribes of Koordistan, which made the retreat of Xenophon and the
Ten Thousand through the same regions the wonderful event which it
has been always considered. While this is the nature of the elevated
lands and mountains, the valleys which surround the snowy regions are
absolutely pestiferous: in many of them no one can sleep one night
without danger of fever, frequently ending in death. The port, or
roadstead, of Batoum is so unhealthy as to be utterly uninhabitable
to strangers during all the hot season of the year. I wish to draw
attention to these circumstances, in order to explain the almost
impossibility of dispossessing any power which had already obtained
a firm footing in this district; and it is in order to fix herself
firmly in this important post that Russia is now advancing in that
direction, with a perfect knowledge of the advantages to be derived
from this barren and unfruitful region, while she has the advantage
of being able to send supplies to her forces by the Caspian Sea;
for, once within her grasp, Persia is no longer independent; and,
fettered as she is by her Russian debt, and what, in private affairs,
would be called her heavy mortgage on her only valuable provinces on
the shores of the Caspian--Geilaun and Mazenderaun--she must sink
into the state of a vassal kingdom, subject to the commands of her
superior lord the Czar.
The sum she owes to Russia is said to be about two millions sterling;
far more than she could ever raise at a short notice, while she
would receive no assistance in war from any of the neighboring Sooni
tribes, whose religious feelings are so much opposed to the Sheahs;
therefore, unless supported by Great Britain, Persia is now almost
at the mercy of Russia. Russia is altogether a military power, and,
as in the Dark Ages, the Czar and his nobles affect to despise the
mercantile class, and, instead of doing what they can to promote
industry and commerce, by opening communications, making roads and
harbors, establishing steamers on rivers, and giving facility to
the interchange of various commodities, the productions of distant
quarters of her own enormous empire, she throws every obstacle in the
way of her internal trade, and by heavy import duties, exactions of
many oppressive kinds, and the universal plunder and cheating carried
on by all the government officials in the lower grades of employment,
she has paralyzed both her foreign and domestic resources. The Czar
prefers to buy his own aggrandizement with the blood of his confiding
subjects, to the more honorable and less cruel course of enriching
his empire by the extension of his commercial relations abroad, and
the development of the peaceful arts, industry, science, and general
improvement of the nations subjected to his rule. If it was not for
this utter disregard of commerce, and the undivided attention of the
Russian government to every thing connected with military glory, the
navigation of the great rivers would have poured many more roubles
into the treasury of St. Petersburgh than will be gained by any
territorial accessions previous to the taking of Constantinople. Even
under present circumstances, it is wonderful that a canal has not
been made from Tzaritzin, on the Volga, to the nearest point upon the
Don, a distance of not more than thirty miles, for by this means the
silk of the northern provinces of Persia would be brought with the
greatest facility into the Black Sea. In a mercantile point of view,
Russia would gain more by the construction of that canal than by the
conquest of Armenia, for it would enable her to develop the great
resources of Geilaun and Mazenderaun, virtually belonging to her
at this moment. The trade which in former times enriched the famous
cities of Bokhara and Samarkand would be carried by caravans through
Khiva, either now, or soon to be, the head-quarters of a Russian
governor; from thence they would, with any encouragement, pass on
their rich bales of merchandise to the Russian posts of Karagan, or
Krasnovodsk, on the eastern shores of the Caspian, or to Asterabad
on the south, and at these ports, now unknown to European navigators,
ships might be laden which would discharge their cargoes at Liverpool,
St. Petersburgh, or New York.
I have said above that Russia has but little to gain by her territorial
conquests in Asiatic Turkey until she takes Constantinople. I say this
because, if things are permitted by the Western Powers to continue
as they have done for some years, the Czar will most certainly be
enthroned in the capital of the Byzantine emperors, principally by
the assistance of England and France. It is a question only of time:
for that the Patriarch of Constantinople will give his blessing to
the Christian emperor under the dome of St. Sofia sooner or later,
and before many years have passed, I have hardly any doubt; and when
once fairly seated on that throne, the Powers of Europe will not
shake him in his seat. The acquisition of the Crimea, with the strong
naval arsenal of Sevastopol, gave the Czar the command of the Black
Sea. The wonderful business of Navarino, where the English and French
admirals fought his battle for him, and crippled his enemy and their
own ancient ally for many a year, was the next important step. The
third seems to be taking place at this moment, if indeed sufficient
advantages have not been gained already to suffice for the present
emergency. It matters little whether Russia does or does not retain
the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia, which she has several times
occupied before; she has almost drained the treasury of her enemy, now
straining every nerve to avert the impending evil. Turkey will hardly
be able to support the expenses of the war for any length of time from
her own resources. Even if a diplomatic peace is concluded, it will, in
fact, amount only to a truce, during which the Czar will have time to
strengthen his position, and prepare his forces for another and a more
vigorous assault on the first convenient opportunity which occurs, from
any dissension which may arise between the leading powers of the West;
and the Sultan, having received nothing from his ancient allies but
fair words, will be less able to defend himself than he is at present.
The greatest of blessings in this world is peace, and every thing
should be done to avoid the breaking out of war, with all the
horrors and sufferings which are brought upon mankind by that dreadful
scourge. I think it was the Duke of Wellington who said that, next to a
defeat, the most awful of all calamities was a victory. Every endeavor
should be made to secure the happiness of peace. To those, however,
who have no further means of information than what they read in
newspapers, it would seem that, while we might have put out the candle,
we have waited till the chimney is on fire, if not the house itself,
and then who can tell how far and wide the conflagration may extend?
If England and France had shown a determined front, and informed the
Czar that, being bound by treaty to preserve the integrity of the
Turkish empire, they should consider the passage of the Pruth by one
Russian armed man as a violation of that treaty and a declaration
of war, and that they should act accordingly without delay, in
all probability no war would have commenced, no blood would have
been shed, no ruinous expenses would have been incurred. War having
commenced, heavy and exhausting sums of money have been drawn from
the treasury of the Sultan. When the ice set in upon the Baltic, what
was to prevent the allied fleet from taking possession of the stores
of corn, and occupying or destroying the city of Odessa? Sevastopol,
impregnable by sea, is not--or was not two years ago, and, I believe,
at this day is not--defensible on the land side. The Bay of Streleskaia
offers a convenient landing-place about three miles in the rear of
the fortifications of the arsenal, where a Turkish army might be
brought in two days from Constantinople to try its fortunes with the
Russian force; or, if that was not judged expedient, Sevastopol could
have been blockaded till some advantageous terms were gained for our
ally. Failing this, a French army, convoyed and assisted by their
own and our fleets, would have settled the question without doubt,
and may do so still; but, unless an indemnity for the expenses of
the war is exacted from Russia for her most unjust and unjustifiable
aggression, very little advantage will be gained for Turkey, a great
step will have been accomplished by the Czar, and the possession
of the Crimea almost insures him the possession of Constantinople
some day, perhaps at no very distant period. The restoration of the
Crimea to the Turkish empire would, I imagine, be the only means of
checking the advance of Russia in that direction. This, accompanied
by a forced treaty, releasing Persia from her usurious debt, would
restrain the encroachments of the Czar within certain bounds for some
years to come. The present aspect of affairs in the East becomes more
alarming every day. If negotiations are protracted till the ice of
the Baltic melts in the spring or early summer, things will assume a
much more grave appearance, and it will depend on many circumstances
over which we have no control where the conflagration then may spread
and where the war will end.
It is impossible to look back upon the history of Russia for the
last 150 years without admiration and astonishment at the enormous
strides which have been made by the giants of the north since that
period. When Peter the Great acceded to the throne of Muscovy,
there was no maritime outlet to his empire excepting in the icy
shores of the Northern Ocean. The ground on which the metropolis of
St. Petersburgh now stands was not in the possession of Russia till
the year 1721. Since the year 1774 Russia has acquired, quite in the
memory of man, a territory from Turkey equal in extent to the whole
empire of Austria, and much larger than the present possessions of the
Turks in Europe. The following table of the progress of the Russian
arms in the East will show at a glance how rapidly and steadily she
has extended her power, her grasping hand, and her outstretched arm
in that direction; and it can not be expected that, when she has
rested and strengthened herself, and consolidated her resources in
her newly-acquired territories, she will be prevented by any slight
obstacle from further aggrandizement.
Russian Acquisitions from Turkey.
Country to the north of the Crimea 1774
The Crimea 1783
Country round Odessa 1792
Country between the Sea of Azof and the Caspian,
at the same period as the Crimea 1783
Besarabia 1812
Russian Acquisitions from Persia.
Mingrelia, on the Black Sea 1802
Immeritia, the same year 1802
Akalzik 1829
Georgia 1814
Ganja 1803
Karabaugh 1805
Erivan, Mount Ararat, and Etchmiazin 1828
Sheki 1805
Shirvan 1806
Talish, on the Caspian 1812
Few of these conquered or deluded nations have been able to bear the
intolerable oppression of the Russian government, arising from the
insolence of the petty employés, and more particularly the dreadful
scourge of the conscription, by the aid of which, at any moment,
children are remorselessly torn forever from their parents, whose sole
support they were; families are on a sudden divided; one half sent
off no one knows whither, never to meet again; none of these unhappy
slaves knowing whether it will be their lot to become soldiers or
sailors, but, in either case, they are driven off, like beasts, in
flocks, by cruel, savage tyrants, who steal, as a matter of course,
the money provided by the superior government for the food of the
despairing conscripts, while they--brutal and drunken though they
may be--are distinguished for their love of home, and the affection
and respect they bear for their parents.
The Nogai Tatars abandoned the Christian religion, and took refuge
in the territories of the Khan of the Crimea, becoming Mohammedans
in hopes of obtaining the protection of the milder rule of Turkey.
In 1771 a still more extraordinary event took place. The Kalmuks,
a people who had emigrated from the frontiers of China, unable to
endure the insults and oppressions of the Russian tyranny, made up
their minds to return to the dominions of the Celestial Empire, from
whence their ancestors had originally come. They fought their way
through all the hostile tribes intervening between them, and their
whole nation arrived safely under the wing of the Emperor of China,
who afforded them protection, and gave them great tracts of land for
the pasture of their flocks and herds. The embassador of the Empress
Catharine, who had been dispatched to desire the surrender of the
fugitive tribe, and--as at this day in Turkey--to demand a "renewal
of treaties" between the two countries, received the following
answer from the court of Pekin: "Let your mistress learn to keep
old treaties, and then it will be time to apply for new ones;" an
answer which might have been given in our day to Prince Menschikoff,
who was lucky in meeting with a milder reception at Constantinople
than his predecessor received from the stout old mandarin at Pekin.
In the year 1829, Kars, Bayazeed, Van, Moush, Erzeroom, and Beyboort
(which is coming very near) were occupied by the Russians, who
evacuated that portion of the Turkish empire on the conclusion of the
treaty of Adrianople. Trusting to the protestations of a Christian
emperor, sixty-nine thousand Christian Armenian families were beguiled
into the folly of leaving Mohammedan dominions, and sitting in peace
under the paternal protection of the Czar. Over their ruined houses I
have ridden, and surveyed with sorrow their ancient churches in the
valleys of Armenia, desecrated and injured, as far as their solid
construction permitted, by the sacrilegious hands of the Russian
soldiers, who tried to destroy those temples of their own religion
which the Turks had spared, and under whose rule many of the more
recent had been rebuilt on their old foundations. The greater part of
these Armenians perished from want and starvation; the few who survived
this sharp lesson have since been endeavoring, by every means in their
power, to return to the lesser evils of the frying-pan of Turkey,
from whence they had leaped into the fire of despotic Russia.
By the treaty of Turkomanchai, 1828, the Czar became possessed of
Persian Armenia, of which the capital is Erivan. In this district are
contained the two great objects of Armenian veneration, Etchmiazin
and Mount Ararat. This noble snowy mountain takes the place, in the
estimation of the Armenians, that Mount Sinai and Mount Zion do among
the followers of other Christian sects. The foolish legends which
disgrace the purity of true religion usually relate to the object
of local tradition which may be met with in the neighborhood of the
monastery; consequently an attack of indigestion in an Armenian monk
generally produces a vision of some nonsensical revelation about
Noah's ark, which is still supposed to remain, hidden to mortal eye,
under the clouds and snows of Mount Ararat.
Etchmiazin is an ancient fortified monastery, within whose walls
resides the Patriarch of the Armenian Church, the spiritual head of
that body, and who is looked up to indeed as the temporal chief of
that scattered nation whose industrious children are settled in India,
Constantinople, and in many other parts of the world, so that those
who live and thrive abroad are much more numerous and more wealthy than
those who reside in Armenia itself. The possession, therefore, of the
person and residence of the Patriarch is a fact of no small importance
in the history of Russian advancement. To undertake a pilgrimage to
Etchmiazin is a meritorious act among the professors of the Armenian
faith; and the influence exercised over the Patriarch is diffused,
through the obedient medium of bishops, priests, and deacons, through
all parts of Turkey, and many of the cities of India, to an extent
which would surprise those who never have troubled themselves with the
affairs of the Armenian jeweler or silversmith in an Eastern bazaar,
for they are almost invariably dealers in jewels and precious metals;
or serafs, bankers, among the native population; a position which
renders their influence of no small consequence in every city where
they reside. By these means, among others, the political interest of
the Czar is nourished and extended on the Persian Gulf, at Bombay,
Bushire, Madras, and many another place, in the same manner as the
sway and power of the Roman pontiff is upheld, and that by no weak
and trembling hand, in Ireland, England, London, and the House of
Commons. And yet we pretend that there is no such power as the See
of Rome; we ignore the existence of the Pope, and sneer at the prince
of a petty Italian state supported by French bayonets, who is in that
rotten and decaying state that we or our children are to see his end.
But my belief is, that the power of Rome is by no means in a falling
state, nor would it be so even if the rule of some band of miscreants
usurped for a little while the misgovernment of the Eternal City. The
power of the Pope is now, at this moment, one of the greatest upon
the earth; and as irreligion and dissent increase, so will the most
wonderfully clever institution of the temporal power of the Roman
Church increase. Its minute and marvelous organization, the perfect
understanding and subordination of the inferior to the superior
officer, its fixed and certain purpose, give the Pope the command
over such a united and well-disciplined army of trained and fearless
soldiers as never could be brought together by Cæsar, or Napoleon, or
our own old Duke. The peace of Europe in this direction arises not from
the slightest want of power or means on the part of the See of Rome,
but from the jealousy of the body in whose hands the election of the
Supreme Pontiff lies. For many years they have elected a good old monk,
who has passed his whole life in a state of supreme ignorance of the
world in general, and the whole art of government in particular. In
his hands the mighty power at his command remains inert--a slumbering
volcano. But should the ivory chair of St. Peter ever sustain the
weight of a young and energetic man of genius, with some years of
life before him, no one would laugh at the tottering state of Rome.
As for the petty principality of a state in Italy, I have been told,
in the Pope's own ante-room, that it is a burden to him. His extended
sway does not depend on the doubtful loyalty of half a dozen regiments
of Italians, or on the more honest obedience of two or three thousand
Swiss guards, but on the hearts and hands of many millions, who
look up to him as their spiritual superior at all times, and their
temporal superior, whom they are bound to obey in opposition to all
other sovereigns, when any thing occurs "ad majorem Dei gloriam,"
and for the advancement of the Church of Rome.
A power such as this, which in our trafficking and money-making
country is thought little of--a power such as this lies dormant in
the hands of the Grand Lama of Thibet, whose followers form almost
half of all mankind--in those of the Patriarch of Constantinople--and
to an inferior degree in those of the Patriarch of Etchmiazin. They
are all paralyzed and quiescent from the same cause, namely, that the
chiefs of these mighty institutions are old, ignorant men, whose minds
have not the energy, or their hands the power, to work the tremendous
engine committed to their care. That the Czar is perfectly aware of
the uses to be made of the religious feelings of the inhabitants of
other governments to further his own ends, we see from the numerous
magnificent presents ostentatiously forwarded by him to churches in
Greece and Turkey, where the monks and priests by these means are
gained over to his interests. From his generous hand, extended to
the borders of the Adriatic, about £5000 are annually dropped into
the poor-box of that truculent specimen of the church militant,
the Vladica of Montenegro. But the Czar is not an aged monk; he is
not wanting in energy or strength; and he will not fail to pull the
strings which hang loosely in the hands of the Armenian patriarch. If
he pulls them evenly and well, he will advance his interests far
and wide, even in the dominions of other princes, who may hardly be
aware of the influence exercised in their states from a source so
distant and unobtrusive. The danger in his case is, that he may use
too great violence, and break the strings from too severe a tension,
raising the storm against himself which he intended to direct against
others. However this may be, the power of which he holds the reins
is one which may be used for the advancement of the greatest or the
most ignoble ends. For the most sublime and glorious actions, the most
heroic and the most infernal deeds that have ever been accomplished
by mankind, have been occasioned by the awakening of religious zeal,
or by the fanaticism of religious hatred, from the earliest days,
when the pen of history was first dipped in blood.
Nothing can be more anomalous than the present aspect of religious
questions. The Christian Emperor of Russia is at this moment exciting
the minds of his subjects to make war upon the infidel; and his armies
march under the impression that they undertake a new crusade. Yet
this crusade is carried on in direct contradiction to truth, justice,
honor, and every principle of the Christian religion, whose pure
and sacred precepts are violated at every turn. On the other hand,
the Mohammedan, or infidel, as he is called, displays, under the most
difficult and insulting circumstances, the highest Christian virtues
of integrity, moderation, and strict adherence to his word in treaties
granted by himself or his predecessors; at the same time, the armies
of the upright Sultan are commanded by a Christian renegade who has
abjured his faith, and yet he fights against the Christian power in
a righteous cause.
The terrible revolution which is the cause of such awful scenes of
bloodshed and atrocities in China is carried on under the name of our
merciful and just Savior, whose mild religion these rebels against
their sovereign affect to follow.
The savage atrocities of the Holy Inquisition, the cruel massacres
by the Spaniards in America, were perpetrated by men who made a cloak
of the benevolent precepts of the Gospel for the perpetration of the
most brutal crimes.
Those times we thought were past, but human nature is the same;
and where the light of true Christianity has penetrated, we find a
period of wonderful intelligence and appreciation of the truths of
the doctrines of our Lord in some places; in others, where a nominal
Christianity alone prevails, actions are committed by men in the
highest stations which would disgrace the records of the Dark Ages.