Journal of a residence in Circassia during the years 1837, 1838, and 1839.

Preface

Those of my readers who happen to have heard of the "Affair of the Vixen," will be already aware that my first visit to Circassia was induced by mercantile objects — the establishment of trade with the natives.

On my second visit to that country I had the same objects in view, in consequence of the expectation then generally prevalent, that our Government would have enforced reparation for the seizure of the Vixen, thereby affording an opening for trade ; but the expedition was undertaken at the desire (as I was led to suppose) of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, intimated by the Under- Secretary, Mr. Strangways, to Mr. Urquhart, then Secretary of Legation at Constantinople, who communicated it to and made arrangements with me.

The inducement for my remaining in Circassia — after I had ceased, from unexpected change in the councils at home, to have much hope that the polivi PREFACE.

tical information I was acquiring would be made available to my country— was the expectation which I entertained, and was encouraged in, from time to time, by the letters received from my countrymen, of succeeding in the accomplishment of my original object — the establishment of a direct trade between Circassia and Great Britain. These subjects are adverted to in the course of the Journal ; but it cannot fail to be observed that, from first to last, expectations were held out to me which, from various causes still open for discussion, were not realised.

My own private matters necessarily left much of my time unoccupied ; and in a country so little known, and yet so singularly interesting, as Circassia is in many respects, I felt that I could not spend the leisure time on my hands with more pleasure to myself, and perchance profit to my country, than in gaining such a thorough acquaintance, as opportunity would afford, with the habits, manners, and genera] character of the natives, and of their political and civil institutions.

My information upon these subjects I have given the reader just as it was acquired, without attempts ing to reduce it into method or arrangement. Circassia is a country wholly devoid of any literature

PREFACE. Vii

whatever; the knowledge I have to communicate has therefore had ocular and auricular observation for its principal source, and has necessarily been acquired in a very desultory and unconnected manner. To have reduced this information into form and connexion, might have led me to interweave with actual facts my own theoretical conclusions from them ; for notwithstanding the length of my residence in the country, and the intimate and familiar footing I enjoyed with the natives, I by no means feel assured that in attempting to give a connected or systematic account of the people, and of the social institutions of the country, I should not have presented to the reader something less true, and certainly less graphic, though perhaps more symmetrical, than the Journal of every day's observation and experience, which I now lay before him just as it was compiled for the purpose of private correspondence.

While prosecuting these inquiries, it would have required a more phlegmatic temperament than I can boast of to have refrained from taking,— in like manner as two of my countrymen who were with me for some time took, — not an interest merely, but a warm and enthusiastic interest, in arresting the progress of the cruel and unprincipled warfare which Russia

Viii PREFACE.

has been carrying on, for the last twelve years especially, in this interesting country.

When we viewed the desolation of whole districts — the crops burned and the hamlets destroyed — and continually heard the account of families, once happy and prosperous, reduced to indigence and misery by the destruction of their young men — and when we reflected that all this disturbance of the peace of a country every way fitted for the enjoyment of its inhabitants, was occasioned solely by the ambition and insatiable thirst for dominion of one individual, the Emperor of Russia, we could not restrain our indignation ; we therefore freely took part in the councils of the natives, and gave them the benefit of such knowledge as our experience and reading had afforded us, in counselling them as to the particular species of warfare which seemed best suited for the troops they could bring into the field, and most likely to defeat the tactics of their enemies ; and I believe we may not unreasonably take partial credit to this advice for the heroic achievements which had begun before I quitted the country, and have since been so admirably accomplished in the capture of almost all of the forts which Russia had erected in the country.

I trust I do not require to make any apology for

PREFACE. ix

this interference in the military affairs of another country, so foreign certainly to the pursuits of a British merchant. However inconvenient it may be for the Government of Great Britain at the present moment to bring to solution the question, whether Russia has any claim whatever over the territory of Circassia, there cannot be a doubt that such a claim has no existence, in right or in fact, and that the independence of that country, not only as a fertile source of commerce^ but as a check upon Russia's movements, is of vital importance to Great Britain.

These considerations alone would have been sufficient inducement to give such insignificant aid as was within my power to defeat, or at least retard, the aggressions of Russia, independently altogether of my sympathy for the inhabitants, for whom I had insensibly contracted an affection, as well as enthusiastic admiration.

Before introducing the reader to my Journal, I wish to premise a few observations in regard to the history of the tribes of the Caucasus.

More than one writer has expressed, in a confident tone, his own notions upon this subject. I trust it will not be esteemed presumption on my part (for presumption consists, not in refusing

X PREFACE.

a blind confidence to the statements of any man, however distinguished, but in an over-estimate of one's own knowledge and abilities, and an underestimate of those of others), should I, after much consideration, give it as my opinion that the necessary preliminary inquiries are yet to make in regard to the history of this singular and interesting people.

That considerable materials for a history of the Caucasian tribes in general do exist in the literatures of Greece and Rome, of the Turks and Arabs, I firmly believe ; but I doubt whether these sources have yet been exhaustively investigated, or their value as evidence critically examined.

The most cursory view, however, of the past and present history of the Caucasian Isthmus leads to the conclusion that the mass of the Caucasian tribes, in comparison with those of the tribes by which they are surrounded, is what may be called aboriginal or indigenous. Their languages differ materially from those of the Indo-Germanic, Semitic, Mongol, and Slavonic nations, by whom their frontiers have been successively encroached upon. The state of society (at least in the parts which I have visited) seems to indicate a people independently engaged in the process of developing home-born laws and institutions, which

PREFACE. Xi

have contracted a slight colouring at times from the reflected light of more advanced neighbours. And turning to those great tides of national conquest, which alone history in early times attempted to portray — -

they seem all to have swept past the central mass of the Caucasus, wetting it at most in a transient manner, by some chance billow which rose higher than its fellows.

The northern limits of Persian and Assyrian conquest are pre-eminently vague, but they do not appear to have done more at the utmost than to have reached the Caucasus. The legislation of the Byzantine empire sufficiently attests that neither Greeks nor Romans conquered or dislodged the tribes of the central Caucasus. The Arabs were engaged in inroads on the eastern and southern bases of this great mountain-range, when their progress was arrested by the growing ascendancy of the Turks. The great Turkish immigration swept past the base of the Caucasus on the south ; that of the Tatars or Mongols on the north. The substitution of a Slavonic rival of Turkish ascendancy for a Tatar or

Xii PREFACE.

Mongol rival has not yet altered this state of affairs. The struggles of the domesticated nations have been confined to the plains ; the mountain-range is still occupied by the aboriginal tribes.

Some scanty traces of antiquity which I have noted, seem to point out the portions of the Byzantine, Arabian, Turkish, Mongolian, and Slavonic records, in which notices of the Caucasian tribes may be sought, with the greatest probability of success. Some interesting particulars might be discovered in the records of the Republic of Genoa, and perhaps also in the annals of the Kingdom of Georgia. The subject is worthy of being followed up (by some one better fitted to the task than I can pretend to be), both as a contribution to the history of human society, and as bearing directly upon the great practical questions which at present engage, or ought to engage, the attention of the civilised world.

One great inducement to publication having been my desire to draw attention to the existing condition and prospects of the Circassian tribes, while circumstances so greatly conduce to give these subjects an exciting interest, I should have let a valuable opportunity pass by, if I had waited to make the investigations necessary, in order to entitle

PREFACE.

xiii me to express fully my own opinion of the history of Circassia. And apart from all personal considerations, I cannot but look upon it as advantageous to the public — to the nation, that I should thus early communicate such information as I possess in regard to the present situation of that country. I have therefore remained satisfied with telling what I saw, and what I thought while it was passing before my eyes. My facts are, I believe, candidly narrated ; my opinions are my own, and liable to error ; but I have endeavoured that they should not be so confounded with my narrative of events as to falsify it, should they themselves prove inaccurate. The facts which I have stated seem to me to warrant the opinion I have intimated above, that the Circassians are an aboriginal race, and that, although their modes of thought may have occasionally received a tinge from their Christian and Mussulman neighbours, they are essentially a self-educated people.

On revising the following journal, which, as has been hinted, was written in the freedom and confidence of private communications, during leisure from my private avocations, and without any definite views as to the future, I have deemed it best, for the reasons above specified— while merely blending together, for the sake of greater consistency, the letters

XIV PREFACE.

written to various individuals — to give the sketches as they were originally taken, in the hope that, however deficient in delicacy of touch, they may at all events be allowed to possess some claim to the more valuable characteristic of truth ; and that, in not attempting a finish beyond my power, nor an advocacy of the merits of the subject beyond what its merits warrant, I may at least escape having applied to me,

At all events, without presuming to institute any comparison between the accomplished author of the " Sketches of Persia " and myself, I may be permitted to say, in his words : " I can truly affirm that the sense and the nonsense ; the anecdotes, the fables, and the tales — all, in short, which these volumes contain, with the exception of a few sage reflections of my own, do actually belong to the good people amongst whom they profess to have been collected.*"

* Since writing the above, I have seen the advertisement of a publication by my friend Mr. Longworth, viz., " A Year among the Circassians." I am glad to catch this opportunity of asserting for his work the same titles derived from actual experience as I have claimed for my own, and of giving my humble testimony as to the pleasure and profit that may be expected in perusing Mr. Longworth's narrative ; for although I have not yet read it, I think that the experience of nearly a year (during which we were associated intimately and most amicably)

PREFACE. XV

If the same general impression with regard to the character of the Circassians shall be made upon the minds of my readers as has been made upon my own, I shall have attained all I wish, and all I have any right to expect. The egotism, which has annoyed me, I believe to be almost inseparable from a personal narrative : on this account I hope it will be forgiven.

The fate of Turkey I believe to be intimately connected with that of Circassia. The destruction of one Mussulman state in the Crimea, first put Turkey in imminent jeopardy : the destruction of another in Circassia will in all human probability precipitate her doom.

No one who has studied the history of Russia (meagre though it be), and has watched the general tendency of her policy and transactions in the East, can well doubt of a resolution having been formed when the Crimea was captured, and having been ever since acted upon by her government, to make of Constantinople the southern capital of the empire — and all doubt would be removed by his visiting

warrants me in anticipating, and leading others to anticipate, that his highly classical acquirements, fervid imagination, and generous disposition, must have shed much light over that terra incognita — the Caucasian world. On this subject the public will now have the evidence of two eye-witnesses.

Xvi PREFACE.

Turkey, and becoming more intimately acquainted than he can be at a distance with the vast yet wellorganised agency the Russian Government has established, and keeps in constant operation, for the gradual disruption of all the social bands that have hitherto constituted the strength of the fabric of Ottoman power. From the complacency, however, with which the public journals— almost without exception— view a recurrence to the ultima ratio of England's force as an eventual and effectual remedy for any errors in our Eastern policy into which the present Government may be leading us, it would appear that no suspicion is entertained of anything materially wrong being actually in progress ; while the fact is, that the whole moral and political machinery necessary for the accomplishment of Russia's designs is at this moment, as it has long been, in full and effectual operation ; and any disagreement that could lead to our effectual remedy must therefore be carefully avoided* To promote these designs are rebellions in Turkey excited ; her territory invaded and curtailed ; her fiscal regulations interfered with ; her Christian subjects taken under protection ; the navigation of the Danube impeded ; and the Black Sea closed against the war-ships of other countries. To these ends separation

PREFACE. XVII

of interest and of policy is caused between England and France — to the hastening of the desired crisis in the affairs of Europe when Constantinople may be taken possession of, without the risk of any of the distracted states of Europe interfering, amid dangers still greater and more imminent ; and England may yet find, when too late, that she has been even more fatally duped in the Convention of London of 1840, for the strengthening of Turkey, than she was in the Treaty of London of 1827, for " the pacification of the East "—resulting in the destruction of the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Navarino ; the invasion, bankruptcy, and dismemberment of Turkey ; and the appropriation of Circassia !

A few remarks may be required in explanation and defence of the system of orthography adopted in writing Circassian words and proper names. Various attempts have of late years been made to introduce one general standard of geographical orthography. Whoever adverts to the necessity of expressing in European characters (characters which to a certain extent indicate different sounds to each of the different European nations) articulate sounds applied to designate localities, by tribes, either destitute of the art of writing, or employing systems

XV111 PREFACE.

of writing materially different from ours, must see the importance of these attempts. Without entering into specific criticism of the numerous systems which have been submitted to the public, two reasons have prevented me from adopting any of them. In the first place, none of them rests upon a sufficiently accurate and extensive analysis of articulate sound to be universally applicable : in the second, none of them has yet received any degree of general currency. The attention of literary men has been turned to the subject, and several creditable efforts have been made — that is all. At this stage a plain man can do no more than adhere in his own writings to one system, and tell the public what that system is : and this accordingly is what I have done in my attempts to represent in English characters the articulate sounds of the Circassian language. That language being an unwritten one, has on the one hand left me free from the difficulty of attempting to express in one set of characters sounds habitually associated with another set, not exactly the counterparts of the former ; but it has, on the other, left me to learn the sounds from oral sources alone, exposed to all the mistakes arising from defects which may exist in the speaker's organ of speech, or the hearer's organ of hearing, and from the want of fixity necessarily existing in unwritten languages.

PREFACE. Xix

I have employed the English consonants to express the elementary sounds which they express in our own language. I have refrained from using the equivocal c (sometimes equivalent to s, and sometimes to k); and I have written instead dj 9 the prefixed d being unnecessary to an Englishman, although necessary to a Frenchman. I have used tsh instead of ch 9 as the use of the latter combination in the patois of the northern part of the island, and in the language of Germany (now so generally cultivated) to express the aspirate x> might lead to confusion : and I have employed Mi instead of cli to denote that aspirate, for the same reason that induced me to substitute k or s in all cases for c. In regard to the vowels, I have used the five principal — a, e 9 i, o 9 u — to express the sounds designated by them in Italian — a sufficient minuteness of division for all practical purposes. In regard to e, i, and u 9 however, which in most languages are pronounced sometimes with their full power and sometimes muffled (if I may use the phrase), I have expressed the muffled sound by the simple letters e, i 9 u 9 the full rich sound by the accented letters e 9 t 9 u. In the termination of a word, e denotes a half-syllable destitute of any specific vowel sound ; eh the full sound of the vowel, The result of the observance

XX

PREFACE.

of these rules is the adoption of the following system of vowels, and of the English simple consonants, with the modifications indicated in the annexed table : —

VOWELS.

a—- as in hard, p — as in bed. e — as a in bate. i — as ee in been i — as ea in pea. o — as in bold. u — as in but. u — as oo in boot.

Diphthongs (where they occur) really combine the powers of the two characters written, and in the order of sequence in which they are written : ai, m, au.

When two vowels are placed •together, with a diaeresis over either, each must be distinctly articulated, as if an imperceptible breathing (the spiritus lenis of the Greeks) intervened.

CONSONANTS.

g — always hard, like the Italian gh.

j — The English sound, equivalent to dsk,

tsh — standing in the same rela. tion to j that t does to d.

kh — the Greek %, the German

ch.

gh — standing in the same relation to kh that g does to k.

London, 17th August, 1840,

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I,

Letter X."

Russian Plot — Another Congress — The Kuban — Return to Semez —

Another Congress— An Envoy at a loss . 233

LETTER XL

A Circassian e< Like- Wake " — Arrival of another Englishman — The Emperor at Ghelenjik — The Russian Army recrosses the Kuban — Detection and Punishment of Spies — Predicament of the Eastern Provinces — Antiquarian Research— Feast of Merem — Geology . 262

Letter XV

A Man without a Gun — Circassian Prayer-Meetings — The Mrs. Glasse ofCircassia — Mensur and his War-Stories — Mohammedans the Radicals of Circassia — The Twelve Confederate Provinces of Circassia — Strange Conduct of Shamuz — Modes of Emancipating Serfs— Doubts and Difficulties— History and Productions of Shapsuk . ' , '. L -. 349

C0N1ENTS.

xxiii

Letter XVI. Pa«k

Return to Semez — Difference of the Winter Temperature at Semez and to the North of the Hills — Medical Practice and Circassian Prejudices — Military Movements — Mensur's Oration — Disappointed Volunteers — More Disappointments .... 376

LETTER XVI I.

Weakening of the Aristocracy in Circassia — Conjectures regarding the Origin of the Circassians— Serfs, or Pshilt — Thfokotl, or Freemen — Pshe, or Princes — Vork, or Noblemen — Departure of Nadir Bey — More Russian Aggression 402

LETTER XVIIL Journey to the South — Ancient Fortress — Extraordinary conduct of Shamuz— Wine — Languages spoken on the Coast — A Congress in the South . . 425

LIST OF PLATES IN VOL. I.

1. Frontispiece — Hadji Ghuz Beg

2. Ancient Tomb in the Valley of Pshat

3. Portrait of Three Circassian Notables

4. Map of Circassia

NARRATIVE

OF A

RESIDENCE IN CIRCASSIA.

Letter I. Journal Of A Voyage From Sinope To The Coast Of Circassia

At Sea. Friday, Utk April, 1837.

My dear . My resolution to return to

Circassia, in order to complete the researches which had been so unseasonably interrupted, was formed the day after my arrival at Constantinople 9 subsequent to the capture of the Vixen.

Preparation having been made for the expedition in the form of a plentiful assortment of presents : guns, sabres, and telescopes, for the chiefs ; necklaces and bracelets for their ladies ; and other articles for their dependants ; I sailed on the 1st of April by the steamer for Trebizond. The information, however, which I received during the voyage, relative to the interruption of communication between that port and Circassia, by the agency of the Russian consul, induced me to land at Sinope. Samsun and Sinope are the ports on the coast of Asia Minor most frequented by the Circassians ; and while I was inquiring in person after a vessel at the latter, I sent my servant,

VOL. I. B

Luca, to the former, to see what could be done there. Luca had shared in my captivity, and yet had joyfully reimbarked with me. His orders were to return without delay, by land or water ; but some difficulties, which arose out of his neglect to provide himself with a tishkerreh, or pass, prevented his rejoining me before the 8th.

As soon as I became known, the Circassians seemed to take me under their especial charge. The first proof I had of their good-will was the alacrity with which they set themselves to transport my luggage to the quarters assigned to me, and to put the apartment in order. But, for various reasons, I preferred accepting from Captain Watson, of the English ship Arundel, a kind invitation to live on board his vessel till my servant's return. I half regretted having come to this determination when I saw the evident mortification it gave the Circassians. One of them in particular, a young man with a fine intelligent expression of countenance, who had from the first declared he would bear me company to his own country, objected vehemently to my going on board the English vessel, — saying, he was afraid they would not use me well. This fear was excited, as I afterwards learned, by a drunken exhibition which the sailors (English sailor like) had made on the only day they were permitted to go on shore.

I turned the time of my servant's detention to the best account I could, by making a conditional arrangement for our passage with the master of a small schooner — of some 25 tons burthen— which was about to sail, and getting prepared on board the Arundel a

TO CIRCASSIA.

chart, reel-log, &c. — articles seldom found on board a Turkish coaster. As soon as Luca returned, I concluded the bargain definitively, appointing the evening of the next day for sailing, and the forenoon for making payment of the passage-money. While counting it out, the captain demanded double the sum agreed upon, under pretext that he had, on my account, forborne taking any more cargo. As I had made no stipulation to that effect, and was of opinion that the two thousand piasters I had agreed to give w r ere sufficient remuneration, I put an end to the conference by pocketing my money, and asked the Bey of Sinope, whom I had invited to witness the payment, to procure me a boat to carry me to Sam sun. He readily promised to give me the use of his own for nothing, and reproached the captain for his conduct, although — on account of my having omitted to ratify the bargain by paying a small sum to account, as is the Turkish custom — he could afford me no redress.

While they were getting ready the boat for Samsun, I went on board the Arundel, and was pleased to find, when I returned to the shore, that Luca had succeeded in bringing Captain Khader of the schooner to reason. In this he had been materially assisted by Sheriff — a fat old Turkish merchant, much engaged in the Circassian trade — and by the Circassians. Several of the latter said, that if he did not come to terms with me, instead of sailing with him, they would accompany me to Samsun. Their weight thrown into my scale induced the captain to promise that he would abide by his original terms, provided I would wait two days for the completion of his cargo. A couple of days' delay was preferable to a voyage to Samsun, and all the tracasserie of a new bargain : accordingly I consented to stay, and paid my earnest-money. Nor have I had any cause to regret this arrangement ; for on Sunday and Monday the wind was foul ; and although on Tuesday it was favourable, it changed again on Wednesday, and blew a heavy gale at night. On Thursday it was again favourable ; but I deemed it politic to yield to the urgency of Sheriff and Captain Khader, to allow Friday (the Mahomedan Sabbath) to be fairly begun before we sailed, in order that prayers for a prosperous voyage might be offered up in the Mosk. Accordingly, it was half-past eight this morning before we got under weigh.

The morning was calm and lovely ; and as we towed our little schooner (with a Circassian flag flying which I had procured from the Captain of a vessel lately arrived) under the stern of the huge Arundel, that ship fired a salute and hoisted the union-jack, to greet a new sister on the ocean, and in token of the lively interest all on board felt in my enterprise. We were not behindhand in acknowledging the honour, with a rusty little two-pounder, which was so well charged, that it waked the echoes of the hill above us in fine style.

This hill, about 300 feet high, is the termination of a peninsula, on the narrowest part of the neck of which Sinope is built. The magnificent old walls of the city are of great height, and studded with lofty towers, and extend from the south-eastern to the north-western bay, and along both shores. They encompass the Turkish portion of the town, which is

TO CIRCASS1A.

thus entirely separated from that inhabited by the Greeks and Armenians. Towards the land these walls are double, and their security was formerly further increased by a deep fosse. Wandering round them, and indulging in the thoughts they were calculated to inspire, formed my chief amusements ; for although Turkish inscriptions, inserted in many places, indicate who are their present masters, in others are to be seen Greek and Latin inscriptions, numerous fragments of beautifully executed altorelievos, friezes, capitals, entablatures, fluted marble columns, &c. &c, which attest their age and real parentage, as well as the revolutions that have occurred here. Over a gate on the northern side I observed a long and very distinct Greek inscription, although its height prevented my reading and copying it ; and on part of a column, with its capital reversed, and now hollowed out and used as a mortar, there was inscribed, " Divo Antonino, Divi Antonini," &c. An antiquary would find this town worthy an examination. It is, however, a confusedly ill-built place, and has nothing interesting about it but these antique walls and its picturesque situation.

The adjoining country presents a continuous range of hills, increasing in elevation as they recede from the coast, and of infinite variety of form, — many being conical, and probably volcanic, as are those which occupy the greater portion of the coast towards the west, in which direction I feel assured that a geologist would find his labours richly compensated. An excursion to the southward of Sinope brought me among some pleasant little hills, with lanes among them bordered by luxuriant evergreens — under which were nestled most fragrant violets — and to many snug-looking farmsteads, with vineyards and orchards adjoining, where ploughing and other agricultural operations were now in busy progression.