recourse to menaces, which he was prepared to execute upon the spot, he forced the traveller to make oath on the Gospel that he bestowed the money freely, and would disclose the real nature of the transaction to no one. This being done, he was allowed to retire.
Next morning the custom-house officer, who, in inviting him to pass the night in his house, had intended to protect him from this species of robbery, furnished him with a guide, and two men to carry his luggage; and with this escort, in addition to his hopeful valet, he departed for Akalziké. The road at first lay through a plain, but at length began to ascend, and pierce the defiles of the Caucasus; and as he climbed higher and higher among the precipitous and dizzy heights of this sublime mountain, among whose many peaks the ark is supposed to have first taken ground after the deluge, and from whence the stream of population flowed forth and overspread the world with a flood of life, he felt the cares, solicitudes, and sorrows which for many months had fed, as it were, upon his heart, take wing, and a healing and invigorating influence spread an exquisite calm over his sensations. This singular tranquillity, which he experienced on first reaching these lofty regions, still continued as he advanced, notwithstanding the rain, the hail, and the snow which were poured on him by the tempest as he passed; and in such a frame of mind he attained the opposite side of the mountain, upon whose folding slopes he beheld numerous villages, castles, and churches, picturesquely scattered about, and at length descended into a broad and beautiful valley, cultivated with the greatest care, and fertilized by the waters of the Kur.
Arriving without accident or adventure at Akalziké, and remaining there four days to repose himself, he departed for Georgia. The route now presented nothing extraordinary. A castle or a ruin, picturesquely perched upon the crest of a rocky eminence,
