of Kondapalli was seized by the British, and on the 12th of November
1766 a treaty of alliance was signed with Nizam Ali by which the
Company, in return for the grant of the Circars, undertook to maintain
troops for the nizam's assistance. By a second treaty, signed on the 1st
of March 1768, the nizam acknowledged the validity of Shah Alam's grant
and resigned the Circars to the Company, receiving as a mark of
friendship an annuity of L50,000. Guntur, as the personal estate of the
nizam's brother Basalat Jang, was excepted during his lifetime under
both treaties. He died in 1782, but it was not till 1788 that Guntur
came under British administration. Finally, in 1823, the claims of the
nizam over the Northern Circars were bought outright by the Company, and
they became a British possession.

CIRCASSIA, a name formerly given to the north-western portion of the
Caucasus, including the district between the mountain range and the
Black Sea, and extending to the north of the central range as far as the
river Kuban. Its physical features are described in the article on the
Russian province of KUBAN, with which it approximately coincides. The
present article is confined to a consideration of the ethnographical
relations and characteristics of the people, their history being treated
under CAUCASIA.

The Cherkesses or Circassians, who gave their name to this region, of
which they were until lately the sole inhabitants, are a peculiar race,
differing from the other tribes of the Caucasus in origin and language.
They designate themselves by the name of Adigheb, that of Cherkesses
being a term of Russian origin. By their long-continued struggles with
the power of Russia, during a period of nearly forty years, they
attracted the attention of the other nations of Europe in a high degree,
and were at the same time an object of interest to the student of the
history of civilization, from the strange mixture which their customs
exhibited of chivalrous sentiment with savage customs. For this reason
it may be still worth while to give a brief summary of their national
characteristics and manners, though these must now be regarded as in
great measure things of the past.

In the patriarchal simplicity of their manners, the mental qualities
with which they were endowed, the beauty of form and regularity of
feature by which they were distinguished, they surpassed most of the
other tribes of the Caucasus. At the same time they were re