In 1817, John Johnson, a lieutenant colonel in the British East India Company, decided to return from India to Britain and undertook a lengthy overland journey across Iran, Georgia, south Russia, Poland and Germany. During his long travel, Johnson maintain a journal which he published shortly after returning to London in 1818. Below is an excerpt describing Johnson's brief sojourn in Tiflis.
Our next journey was to Sholavera [Shulaveri], distant thirty-four miles. We departed at day-break, accompanied by the Cossack officer; and after passing through the village, and a cultivated plain beyond it for about three quarters of a mile, we began to descend along the side of a mass of perpendicular basalt by a road constructed of stone. We of course dismounted and led our horses, proceeding in this manner for a mile, with the river before mentioned on our right. About half a mile farther we crossed a rivulet by a bridge, and afterwards ascended a high mountain. At the sixth mile we crossed the river by a bridge of Armenian structure, and then continued along its right bank to sixteen miles; here we forded it with some difficulty, as the stream was deep, rapid, and one hundred and fifty yards in breadth. We ascended an eminence, and at eighteen miles arrived at the post of Cheechkaun [?] in an elevated situation.
There were silver mines about six wersts distant, which were worked by contract and were not found very productive. Mines of lead have also been opened in this district. The country is covered with wood, and among the trees are those of the wild walnut, the hazelnut, plums, cherries, and pears. On this march I had an opportunity of observing the great difference in form between the hills of granite and those of basalt. The first were almost in every instance conical and acuminated; the others consisted of horizontal strata in steps or terraces, with sides nearly perpendicular. It has been already stated, that at Oozunlar one side of the chasm of the river was perpendicular and of basalt, and that the other which sloped to the water's edge was of granite: this slope was covered with verdure. Over these heights it was impossible to travel at a quicker rate than three miles an hour. At six miles farther the hills terminated, and the road became much better. Near this post we found superior accommodations at a large village, which had a bazar where articles of provision were to be had in great plenty of good quality.
In Armenian villages, the houses are built with their floors two or three feet below the level of the street, with roofs of earth either flat or rounded; and as they are open on one side, it is the custom to keep a number of fierce watch-dogs, whose barkings do not tend much to soothe the repose of persons who are not accustomed to them.
The carts of this country are of a peculiar construction. They are about twelve feet long, broad behind, and narrowing to a point in front. They have wooden wheels about four feet in diameter, without iron tires; the spokes and naves are large, and the axle-tree, which is of wood, is made fast to the wheel and turns with it. The naves are girt with wooden hoops.
The vessels of earthen-ware still used by these people, and borne on the shoulder by many of the women, are of very elegant design, and resemble those antique specimens which are from time to time dug up from ruins. The substance of the ware is white, and of a very good kind.
The men and the women when grown up, or after twenty years of age, become coarse-featured, and their skins are much shrivelled. The necks of the women are thin, like those of the Hottentots; they paint their faces red and white, and puncture their skins in various figures; but their children, to the age of seventeen or eighteen, are beautiful to a great degree, and have a fine bloom on their cheeks. The shepherds who tend their flocks on the wilds carry their draught-water in wooden flasks on their backs.
As the Cossacks are not accustomed to travel by night themselves, they cannot be depended upon when they undertake to wake a traveller at an appointed hour. We tried them several times and they failed us. If left to themselves they never brought the horses until broad day-light in the morning.
July 9th [1817]. Teflis, the object of our next march, was distant thirty-seven miles. We proceeded eighteen miles and a half to Kodi, which we reached in four hours; and as there was only a non-commissioned officer at this station, we found very little accommodation, and breakfasted in a garden. We again set out, and within about half a mile from this post we descended to a natural basin or lake that appeared to be of salt, having water only at one end. It was entirely encompassed and shut in by hills, and was in length eight miles, and in breadth four. After crossing it we ascended uncultivated heights destitute of trees, and at nine miles further came to the post of Soganlook, close to the river Koor [Kura/Mtkvari]. This place has no accommodation for travellers. The road led hence along the right bank of the Koor, and between it and some high hills to Teflis. About one mile from that town we were detained for forty minutes at a quarantine station. The distance from Soganlook to Teflis we found to be eight miles and a half; the road throughout this short march proved to be uncommonly good.
Passing through the town we were met by the servant of the principal Armenian resident, who conducted us to the house of his master, at which, by invitation, we put up. He was the son of Arratoon Issaya Khaun, a man particularly well disposed toward the English, to whom we had letters, and who, we were shocked to learn, had been recently killed by lightning.
The house was excellent, and was situated in the quarter inhabited by the General and the Governor, being near both their residences. As we were now in the capital of Georgia, we sent our letters to General Koutousoff [Kutuzov], who received us most politely next morning, and gave us an invitation to dine with him, which we accepted. It is gratifying to add, that from respect to us simply as British officers, he showed us every possible attention; and began immediately by enquiring our wishes, which he promptly assisted us to realize. Indeed I have very rarely experienced such disinterested urbanity, and so evidently proceeding from a sincere wish to be of service to us as Englishmen. Every day during our halt at Teflis, he gave us some fresh mark of his goodness of heart, and of his obliging disposition. In the evening, on this first introduction, the General, imagining that we were not sufficiently well accommodated with our Armenian host, offered us a house which was then fitting up for himself, which he very kindly took us with him to view, and walked with us through the bazars, and through the best part of the town, pointing out every thing worthy of our notice. We could not, however, accept this hospitable offer of a house, from respect to our Armenian host, who had ever shown himself favourable to Englishmen, and testified a particular solicitude for our welfare.
July 11th. We were again invited to dinner by General Koutousoff, who told us he expected we should consider ourselves as his guests. In the evening we visited the Governor, who was just then returned from the country. At six we went to pass the remainder of the evening at the house of Prince Baiboodoff [Bebutashvili/Bebutov], a Georgian Prince, where we saw his family of ladies, and were entertained with observing a variety of dances peculiar to the different tribes inhabiting the region of the Caucasus. Some of these dances were performed by Georgian young men; and among them there were two ladies, who, to a slower measure, executed a sort of formal stately movement of no interest. These exercises were performed by the ladies and gentlemen merely at General Koutousoff's request, in order to show us the Georgian style of dancing.
The dress of the ladies was unbecoming to a very great degree; it was much in the style of our very oldest fashions, exhibiting long waists and flat chests; and in fact displaying none of the contour of the female form, except by a kind of narrow shawl tied round the loins. Their countenances were much disfigured by the formally arched eye-brows, and their head-dresses were utterly ungraceful, being somewhat in the shape of an inverted bowl or mortar, a mere truncated cone. Their raiment was of silk, and their slippers, with high heels, were painted green and blue. In the deportment of these ladies there was altogether an extreme coldness, amounting to more than mere reserve, purposely assumed no doubt for the occasion, which they thought would not allow of any degree of ease and freedom of manner; nor was it unlikely that they would rejoice to divest themselves of so much formal restraint. This adherence to Moorish customs is to be expected among the inhabitants of a country so long under the yoke of the Mahomedans.
Four or five men with musical instruments of a construction resembling the guitar or violin, and with a double drum, played for the dancers, and sung at the intervals when the dancing was suspended. All the bystanders clapped their hands in accord with the movement, and seemed entirely to relish the music. Drams and wine were freely drank by the whole company, and a long table loaded with fruits and sweetmeats, was brought in for the refreshment of the guests. The General and all the principal officers of Teflis, were invited to this Georgian route, which, from the display it gave of the costume and manners of the country, was to me a very novel and interesting spectacle. Respecting the beauty of the Georgian women, which oriental fabulists and poets, as well as their imitators, by common consent extol, I had been led to form a less exaggerated notion; and therefore was not much disappointed on finding that those we saw had no pretensions to it at all.
A perpetual bar to our enjoyments was the anxiety which we felt to prosecute our journey with as little delay as possible, and which here urged us to take advantage of the post which was to leave Teflis on Sunday the 13th. As the post is always dispatched under a strong guard of Cossacks, our wish was to avail ourselves of their protection, and thus avoid giving the trouble of furnishing us with a separate guard. We had also some hopes of overtaking Mr. Stracheyr who having quitted us at Kara Klissia, arrived at Teflis a few days before us, obtained his passports, and two days afterwards, being provided with a separate escort, departed for Mosdok.
In order to make the necessary arrangements, we took the intervening day, the 12th, to ourselves, applied for our passports, and got as many of our ducats changed into paper-money as would be necessary to carry us through Russia. The ducat was here worth twelve roubles, while in other parts of the empire, where paper is more in demand, it is said to obtain no more than ten roubles sixty copecks. In order to be entirely at our ease we dined at the tavern, where we had an excellent repast in the French style, for two roubles two copecks (or about five shillings) a head, including jellies, fruit, and two bottles of wine.
Being led to expect better accommodations at the Russian posts than we had found in travelling through Persia, we determined to disencumber ourselves of beds and every other article of baggage not absolutely requisite on the road, and therefore gave them as a perquisite to our servants. We procured cases to be made for the carriage of our trunks on the horse-saddles of the Cossacks; took out certificates of health for ourselves, and passes for the return of our servants to Persia. We also laid in a small supply of sugar, tea, and other provisions for the ensuing journey.
It is here necessary to remark, that as in Persia the severity of the preceding winter was indicated by deeper snow than had been known for many years, so in Georgia and on the Caucasus, from the same cause, the meltings of the snows had swollen the rivers to a greater height than they had reached within the last forty years. We were informed that many gentlemen had come thus far in carriages, and we were very desirous to purchase one for ourselves, as we had now travelled on horseback with the same horses nearly two thousand miles. Several carriages of different constructions were offered to us, and we had agreed for an excellent barouche, bought at Petersburg, and now in good condition, for two thousand roubles, when intelligence was brought that one half of the stone bridge over the Terek at Vladi Kaukass [Vladikavkaz] was carried away by the torrent, which had likewise so broken up and destroyed the roads, as to render traveling in carriage at that time impracticable; and as the necessary repairs upon them would require two or three months to complete them, we determined to continue our route on horseback. We considered this the more expedient, as it would tend to our greater security against the Ossetian banditti, who committed depredations on the road through the region of the Caucasus.
The town of Teflis has been undergoing many improvements, which commenced under the government of General Yermolof and are ably continued under his worthy successor, General Koutousoff, who on all occasions exerts his influence for perfecting the streets, introducing regulations respecting the fronts of houses, and the erection of new buildings. The site is very favourable, being on the side of a large hill, and having the river Koor on the lowest part. The general direction of the streets is N. W. and S. E. Its celebrated hot springs produce a stream which runs through one side of the town, and there supplies several baths erected in the Georgian style. The water, after flowing from them, is used by almost all descriptions of people for washing their persons and their clothes. The hot stream is allowed to pass continually through the baths, and therefore there is a constant supply of tepid water. We went early in the morning to these baths, and found them very delightful; the water however is sulphuric, and in smell resembles that of Cheltenham. It was lamentable to observe that the buildings of the baths were in a state of neglect and decay. The windows had been broken, which admitted fresh air, and this is inconvenient to bathers as it occasions them to cool too soon. The principal cistern of the waters is below the level of the floor; the bather descends into it, and after staying a short time, he quits it, and is rubbed down by the attendants in the manner practised at Tehraun [Tehran], in Persia. He then enters another rather cooler bath, and at last returns to that which he began with. The water, each time a person enters, feels at first rather hotter than the body can agreeably bear.
In the summer season the town of Teflis is very hot; the water for drinking is neither clear nor very good tasted; it is procured from the river Koor, and is doubtless impregnated by the mineral springs which fall into it above the town ; and of these it is said there are many.
On the opposite bank of the river are the suburbs, consisting of the houses of the poorer sort of Mahomedans or Tartars. They are connected with the town by a wooden bridge, at a very considerable height over the river.
The great attention which is now paid to the improvement ofGeorgia will no doubt add many articles of manufacture to its exports; among others those of glass and leather are in contemplation. At present it furnishes wines in abundance, embroidery, steel arms and armour, horse furniture; and it is particularly noted for fine furs, of which I believe the black fur forms one, and for yapoonchees, a species of cloaks of black felt, with an external nap of long black hair; these sell, according to the fineness of their texture and finish, from five to ten roubles each.
As Georgia affords abundance of copper from the many mines now working, it is the intention of the government to encourage the manufacture of copper ware at Teflis, as an article of commerce. In fact, so large is the quantity of copper now on hand that they are casting statues with it, under the superintendence of an Italian artist, of considerable merit, who receives a salary from the government. I believe they have also begun to cast small field-pieces.
I remarked in these districts a breed of goats, bearing a long silky fleece, and having nearly the same characteristics with the goats of Kermaun, and, I believe, the same with those of Cashmere. As the climate and pastures of the mountains of Caucasus will no doubt be found congenial to these animals, the woollen manufacture will of course be an object deserving the care and cultivation of this wise and attentive government. Coarse woollens are manufactured even at present, so that the fabric is already introduced, and needs only to be perfected as to quality and texture.
The views of Russia, with regard to this country, seem to tend towards establishing it as an entrepot for European commodities; as a mart for the produce of the surrounding countries, and in particular for the supply of Persia and Turkey. To prepare for realizing these views, men of abilities have been employed in traversing the country, and in ascertaining the most eligible lines of communication between Georgia and the Black Sea on one side, and the Caspian on the other, availing themselves, as far as may be practicable, of the course of the rivers.
The grand obstacles to the speedy success of these schemes of improvement appear to be the local situation and the present lawless manners of the different tribes of inhabitants. Possessing as they do a region bordering on Turkey and Persia, and backed by the mountains of the Caucasus, they are likely to remain long unsubdued, particularly as they are surrounded by the Khords, Lesguays, Circassians, and other tribes who are as free, lawless, and warlike as their ancestors in the time of the Romans, twenty centuries ago.
The first effort of Russia may perhaps be to obtain possession of as much of Persia and Turkey as will cause their boundaries to recede, in consequence of the appropriation of an intermediate tract of country. The next step may be that of ensuring a preponderance of a population of Christians of the Greek church, that is of Armenians and Georgians, from both countries, Persia and Turkey. If in doing this the Russians establish free seminaries for instruction, they may in time succeed in inducing the Circassians to send their youth thither to be instructed in reading and writing, and thus be rendered Christians and friends, instead of Mahomedans and inveterate enemies.
The Georgian roads are now much exposed to the predatory irruptions of the Lesguays, a hardy tribe, who as they scorn the refinements and luxuries of domestic life, and disdain the questionable enjoyments of wine and liquors, are unfettered by the influence of those seductions which operate so powerfully on other children of nature.
To the credit, and no doubt also tending to the internal peace and unanimity of the Russian government, several Georgian officers of distinction are promoted to the rank of general officers in the Russian service, and employed in commands and situations of trust in that empire. There are actually several young boys, the children of the principal families of the Caucassian tribes, now living under the protection of the officer commanding at Teflis, who employs them about his person as subalterns in order to attach them to him. The career of preferment is fully open to them, and they may aspire to the highest commands with the same degree of hope as if they were Russians by birth and descent.
It has been already intimated, that the paper money of Russia is to be bought here on rather favourable terms; and here therefore the traveller ought to provide himself with a sufficiency for his journey to the opposite frontier. We received for each ducat after the rate of three roubles of silver or twelve of paper; or rather 26 silver roubles were worth 100 roubles in assignats. But it must be remembered that Georgia requires money of Persia, and therefore bills on that country are always acceptable, and somewhat advantageous. Persia in like manner requires cash in India, and of course Indian bills sell generally to advantage in Persia. In the latter country the Venetian ducat passes for six reals or Persian rupees, whereas that coin may be frequently bought in the Indian markets on much lower terms, generally at about 4 J Bombay rupees.
On entering Georgia, a passport is required from the British resident in Persia: at Teflis this document is examined, and another is given to the traveller in Russian; if he be desirous that his clothes or valuable effects should not be fumigated at the quarantines, it will be necessary for him to have them examined at the nearest principal town or here, and then sealed. A padrojna, or road-pass and order for posthorses, is also to be taken up here, for all that part of the route which extends through the Russian dominions. That which we procured was to serve from Mosdok to Lemberg, for which payment was made at once, at the rate of 2 copecks (paper money) per werst, for each horse. For 1902 wersts, we paid 152 roubles, 20 copecks.
