DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0218
Chap, xii.]
RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.
189
having been built by a Sultan of that name, and commands
the pass and bridge across the river, which flows in a general
direction from E.S.E. to W.N.W. We had here a specimen
of the authority which chavasses exercise over the peasants,
hy seeing Muchtad laying his whip on an old Imaum, who,
under pretence of procuring us a better lodging, enticed us
out of the clean Oda, where we were comfortably established,
mto his own filthy stable. The town is said to contain 300
houses, all of which belong to Turks, whose principal occu-
pation in this elevated district is the manufacture of wooden
bee-hives out of the fir-trees from the forests of Soghanli
Dagh.
This forest range is an important and interesting feature
in the geography of this part of the country. It supplies
both Erzeroum and Kars with fire-wood, although upwards
of seventy miles distant from the former place, being the
only district in which forests of any extent are to be found
for many miles round; it is also famous as being the spot
where Eyoub Pacha, the Turkish commander-in-chief, en-
trenched himself with the advanced army of 50,000 men,
to oppose the progress of the Russians in 1828, while the
reserved army of 150,000 irregular troops was collected at
Erzeroum. But however impregnable Eyoub Pacha had
made his camp, it did not cover the Bardes road, by
which the Russians pushed on their advanced cavalry, who
fell in with Caber Valesi Salik Pacha, the seraskier of
Erzeroum, who had advanced to reconnoitre, with about 500
ho
rsemen; these were completely routed, and flying with
exaggerated reports of the Russian force to Eyoub Pacha's
army on Soghanli Dagh, spread alarm on all sides. Each
man thought of himself, and an universal and disgraceful
flight was the immediate consequence; the panic-struck
army disbanded, and the unfortunate pacha remained with
only 200 men. He of course was made to suffer for the
faults of others, was recalled by the Porte, and reduced
to the post of Agha of the small town of Kirmasli, in Mysia,
RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.
189
having been built by a Sultan of that name, and commands
the pass and bridge across the river, which flows in a general
direction from E.S.E. to W.N.W. We had here a specimen
of the authority which chavasses exercise over the peasants,
hy seeing Muchtad laying his whip on an old Imaum, who,
under pretence of procuring us a better lodging, enticed us
out of the clean Oda, where we were comfortably established,
mto his own filthy stable. The town is said to contain 300
houses, all of which belong to Turks, whose principal occu-
pation in this elevated district is the manufacture of wooden
bee-hives out of the fir-trees from the forests of Soghanli
Dagh.
This forest range is an important and interesting feature
in the geography of this part of the country. It supplies
both Erzeroum and Kars with fire-wood, although upwards
of seventy miles distant from the former place, being the
only district in which forests of any extent are to be found
for many miles round; it is also famous as being the spot
where Eyoub Pacha, the Turkish commander-in-chief, en-
trenched himself with the advanced army of 50,000 men,
to oppose the progress of the Russians in 1828, while the
reserved army of 150,000 irregular troops was collected at
Erzeroum. But however impregnable Eyoub Pacha had
made his camp, it did not cover the Bardes road, by
which the Russians pushed on their advanced cavalry, who
fell in with Caber Valesi Salik Pacha, the seraskier of
Erzeroum, who had advanced to reconnoitre, with about 500
ho
rsemen; these were completely routed, and flying with
exaggerated reports of the Russian force to Eyoub Pacha's
army on Soghanli Dagh, spread alarm on all sides. Each
man thought of himself, and an universal and disgraceful
flight was the immediate consequence; the panic-struck
army disbanded, and the unfortunate pacha remained with
only 200 men. He of course was made to suffer for the
faults of others, was recalled by the Porte, and reduced
to the post of Agha of the small town of Kirmasli, in Mysia,