men. Wherever I
mentioned his name, people spoke of him with true respect. He had
just received a decoration from the Russian government, although he
was not in their service.

Herr Salzmann has built a very handsome house, with every possible
convenience for the reception of travellers; besides this he owns a
large fruit-garden, ten wersti distant from the town, in the
neighbourhood of which are some naphtha springs. When he found that
I wished to see these he immediately invited me to join a party to
visit them. The springs are situated very near to the Kurry.
Square pits, about twenty-five fathoms deep, are dug, and the
naphtha is dipped out by means of wooden buckets. This naphtha,
however, is of the commonest kind, of a dark brown colour, and
thicker than oil. Asphalte, cart-grease, etc., are made from it.
The fine white naphtha, which can be used for lighting and fuel, is
peculiar to the Caspian Sea.

A walk to the Chapel of David, which lies upon a hill immediately in
front of the town, repays the trouble. Besides the lovely country,
there is to be seen here a fine monument erected in memory of the
Russian ambassador, Gribojetof, who was murdered in Persia on the
occasion of a revolt. A cross, at the foot of which lies his
mourning wife, is very artistically cast in metal.

On Monday, the 5th of September, I received my passport, about 11
o'clock; I ordered the post carriage an hour afterwards. Herr
Salzmann proposed that I should visit some German settlements, which
were situated at about ten or twenty wersti from Tiflis, and offered
to accompany me there; but I had not much inclination to do so, more
particularly as I had heard everywhere that the settlers had already
much degenerated, and that idleness, fraud, dirt, drunkenness, etc.,
was not less frequent among them than in the Russian colonies.

I left Tiflis about 3 in the afternoon. Just outside the town
stands, by the roadside, a cross cast in metal, with the eye of
Providence upon a pedestal of polished granite, surrounded by an
iron railing. An inscription states that, on the 12th of October,
in the year 1837, his imperial majesty was upset here, but that he
had escaped without injury. "Erected by his grateful subjects."

This incident appears, therefore, to have been one of the most
remarkable in the life of this powerful ruler, as it has been
commemorated by a monument. It has, certainly, not been erected
without the approval of th