Gottfried Geissler, Abbildung und Beschreibung der Völkerstämme und Völker..., 1803

At the end of the 18th century, Prussian scholar Peter Simon Palas led several expeditions across the Russian Empire, in search of new plants and animals. On one of these expedition, in 1790s, he was accompanied by Gottfrid Geissler, the talented German artist who made numerous sketches that later, with the help of Friedrich Hempel, were published in a book "Depictions and Descriptions of Tribes and Nations under the Russian Emperor Alexander's Benevolent Governance" [Abbildung und Beschreibung der Völkerstämme und Völker unter des russischen Kaisers Alexander menschenfreundlichen Regierung] in 1803. The book features dozens of sketches of various peoples and short descriptions of their customs and traditions. Below are several drawings related to Georgia and the Caucasus.

 

Franz Caspar Schillinger, Persianische und Ost-Indianische Reis, 1707

In early October 1699 young Badenese – he just turned twenty years old – Franz Caspar Schillinger got bored with his life, packed his things and embarked on a journey to see the world. He had met a Jesuit missionary traveling to India and the thought of seeing that fabulous land so captivated him that he left everything behind and went along. Schillinger first travelled to Venice, then to Livorno, Malta, Alexandria, and Aleppo, where he arrived on December 15, 1699. After spending almost five weeks in Aleppo, he decided not to venture across the dangerous Syrian desert and took a more circuitous route, travelling north to Erzerum, then to Kars and Yerevan before heading south to Isfahan. After enjoying the delights of the Safavid capital, he proceeded to Bandar Abbas and departed for India in April 1701. He spent almost a year exploring India before boarding a ship to Europe, which took him around the tip of Africa to France. By December 1702, he was safely back home. One can only imagine stories he shared at a local tavern. We can glimpse some of his experiences in an interesting travelogue that he published in 1707 recounting his travels. 

In his travelogue, Schillinger frequently mentions Georgia and Georgians. He noted that "once Georgia was such a mighty kingdom that it was able to field more than 100,000 soldiers and take on Persians, Turks and Tatars" and that "on almost all church and war banners they show the image of the holy martyr George." Describing Georgians whom he had encountered in Persia, Schillinger observed the following:

"The inhabitants are white like we Europeans. They proudly dress in luxurious clothes, in particular the women. The men wear a cotton or silken binding that in layers encircles the head, and likewise with a bulge over the forehead. The women's main decoration over their hair almost looks like a double ship in the midst of which arises a small pointed turret. The lower robe reaches below the calves and almost to the feet and is turned crosswise over their body (just like in Germany some travel robes are made) and then girded with a sash. The upper robe does not have particular sleeves, but it is like a shortened gown, which open in front, lined with fur, and from the neck until the belt, the lapels, a hand wide, are lined with the same fur. The women wear trousers like the man, which hand down to the feet and slippers, but in such a way that the lower robe can be seen. Almost everyone wears slippers." 

Schillinger's travelogue contains several plates including one showing the appearance of the Georgians residing in Persia.

George Ellis,Memoir of a Map of the Countries... between the Black Sea and the Caspian

George Ellis (1753-1815) was an occasional poet, historian, diplomat, member of parliament, and co-founder of the Anti-Jacobin, who published several popular books, including Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances and History of the Dutch Revolution. Born in Jamaica, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. While serving with a legation attached to the British ambassador Sir James Harris in St. Petersburg in 1782-1783, he wrote "Memoir of a Map of the Countries... between the Black Sea and the Caspian" which was published in London in 1788. Ellis never visited Caucasus and instead relied on existing travelogues and other literature to produce an accessible overview of the region for an average British reader. The first edition of the book featured several illustrations and a large map of the Caucasus.

Map of the Caucasus included in Ellis' book
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 Georgia, called by the Perfians Gurgiftan, and by the Turks Gurtchii [Gurji], comprehends the ancient Iberia, Colchis, and perhaps a part of Albania, as the province of Caket [Kakheti] is said to be distinguished, in the old Georgian language, by the name of Albon. The inhabitants are Christians of the Greek communion, and appear to have received their present name from their attachment to St. George, the tutelary Saint of these countries. 

Georgia is divided into nine provinces: 1. Semo Kartveli, or upper Carduel; 2. Kuemo Kartveli, or lower Carduel; 3. Somgheti; 4. Kakheti; 5. Tshina-Kartveli, or inner Carduel; 6. Imereti; 7. Guria; 8. Suaneti; and 9. Mingreli. Of these, the five first are subject to Heraclius [King Erekle II of Kartli/Kakheti, 1745-1798], and form what is commonly called the kingdom of Georgia; as the four last, which are subject to David [King David II of Imereti, 1784-1789, 1790-1791], form the kingdom or principality of Imeretia. 

This whole country is so extremely beautiful, that some fanciful travellers have imagined they had here found the situation of the original garden of Eden. The hills are covered with forests of oak, ash, beech, chestnuts, walnuts, and elms, encircled with vines, growing perfectly wild, but producing vast quantities of grapes. From these is annually made as much wine as is necessary for the yearly consumption; the remainder are left to rot on the vines. Cotton grows spontaneously, as well as the finest European fruit-trees. Rice, wheat, millet, hemp, and flax, are raised on the plains, almost without culture [cultivation]. The valleys afford the finest pasturage in the world; the rivers are full of fish; the mountains abound in minerals, and the climate is delicious; so that nature appears to have lavished on this favoured country every production that can contribute to the happiness of its inhabitants. 

On the other hand, the rivers of Georgia, being fed by mountain torrents, are at all seasons either too rapid or too shallow for the purposes of navigation: the Black Sea, by which commerce and civilization might be introduced from Europe, has been 'till very lately in the exclusive possession of the Turks: the trade of Georgia by land is greatly obstructed by the high mountains of Caucasus; and this obstacle is still increased by the swarms of predatory nations, by which those mountains are inhabited. 

[... Brief discussion of Georgian history follows...]

The capital of Georgia, and place of residence of prince Heraclius, is Tifflis, called by the inhabitants Tbilis-Cabar (Warm Town) from the warm baths in its neighbourhood. It was founded, as appears by an old inscription in the citadel, by a certain certain prince Lievang in the year 1063 [Tifliss was founded in the fifth century by King Vakhtang]. Though its circumference does not exceed two English miles, it contains twenty thousand inhabitants, of which more than half are Armenians: the remainder are principally Georgians, with some Tartars. It has twenty Armenian, and fifteen Greek churches, and three Metcheds [mosques]. The streets seldom exceed seven feet in breadth, and some are so narrow as scarcely to allow a passage for a man on horseback: they are consequently very filthy. The houses have flat roofs, on which the women occasionally walk in fine weather: they are neatly built, the walls of the rooms are wainscoted [lined with wooden paneling], and the floors spread with carpets. At Tifflis there is a foundry, at which are cast a few cannon, mortars, and balls, all of which are very inferior to those of the Turks. The gunpowder made here is very good. The Armenians have likewise established in this town all the manufactures carried on by their countrymen in Persia; the most flourishing is that of printed linens. The common coins of Georgia are the abasses, of about fifteen-pence value, and a small copper coin, stamped at the mint at Tifflis. Besides these, a large quantity of gold and silver money is brought into the country from Persia and Turkey, in exchange for honey, butter, cattle, and blue linens. 

The subjects of Heraclius are estimated at about sixty thousand families; but this, notwithstanding the present desolated state of the country, is probably an under valuation. The peasants belonging to the queen, and those of the patriarch, pay no tax to the prince, and therefore do not appear on the books of the revenue officers. Many similar exemptions have likewise been granted by the prince to his sons-in-law, and his favourites. Besides, as the impost on the peasants is not a poll-tax, but a tax on hearths, the inhabitants of a village, on the approach of the collectors, frequently carry the furniture of several huts into one, and destroy the remainder, which are afterwards very easily replaced. It is probable, therefore, that the population of Georgia does not fall short of three hundred and fifty thousand fouls. 

The revenues of this country may be estimated at about 150,000 roubles, or 26,250 £. They consist of, 1. the customs, farmed at 1,750£. 2. Rent paid by the farmers of the mint at Tifflis, 1,750£. — 3. The tribute paid by the Khans of Erivan and Gansha[Ganja], 7,000£. — and 4. The hearth money levied on the peasants, amounting to 15,750£. 

The government of Georgia is defpotic, but, were it not for the assistance of the Russian troops, the prince would be frequently unable to carry his decrees into execution. The punishments in criminal cafes are shockingly cruel, fortunately they are not frequent, because it is seldom difficult to escape into some of the neighboring countries, and because the prince is more enriched by confifcating the property of the criminal, than by putting him to torture. Judicial combats are considered as the privilege of nobility, and take place when the cause is extremely intricate, or when the power and interest of two claimants are so equal, that neither can force a decision of the court in his favour. This mode of trial is called an appeal to the judgment of God. 

The dress of the Georgians nearly resembles that of the Cossaks; but men of rank frequently wear the habit of Persia. They usually dye their hair, beards, and nails with red. The Georgian women employ the fame colour to stain the palms of their hands. On their heads they wear a cap or fillet, under which their black hair falls on their forehead; behind, it is braided into several tresses. Their eye-brows are painted with black, in such a manner as to form one entire line, and their faces are perfectly coated with white and red. Their robe is open to the girdle, so that they are reduced to conceal the breasts with their hands. Their air and manner are extremely voluptuous. Being generally educated in convents, they can all read and write; a qualification which is very unusual among the men, even of the highest rank. Girls are betrothed as soon as possible, often at three or four years of age. In the streets the women of rank are always veiled, and then it is indecent in any man to accost them. It is likewise uncivil in conversation to inquire after the wives of any of the company. These, however, are not ancient customs, but are a consequence of the violences committed by the Persians, under Shah Nadir 

Travellers accuse the Georgians of drunkenness, superstition, cruelty, sloth, avarice, and cowardice; vices which are every where common to slaves and tyrants, and are by no means peculiar to the natives of this country. The descendants of the colonists, carried off by Shah Abbas [in early 17th century], and settled at Persia, near Ispahan, and in Masanderan, have changed their character with their government; and the Georgian troops, employed in Persia against the Affghans, were advantageously distinguished by their docility, their discipline, and their courage. 

The other inhabitants of Georgia are Tartars, Ossi, and Armenians, called in the Georgian language Somakhi. These last are found all over Georgia, sometimes mixed with the natives, and sometimes in villages of their own. They speak among themselves their own language, but all understand and can talk the Georgian. Their religion is partly the Armenian, and partly the Roman Catholic. They are the most oppressed of the inhabitants, but are still distinguished by that instinctive industry which every where characterizes the nation. 

Besides these, there are in Georgia considerable numbers of Jews, called, in the language of the country, Uria. Some have villages of their own, and others are mixed with the Georgian. Armenian, and Tartar inhabitants, but never with the Ossi. They pay a small tribute above that of the natives. 

[...Another discussion of Georgian history follows...]

The capital of Imeretia, and place of residence of prince David, is Cutais [Kutaisi]. The remains of its cathedral seem to prove that it was once a considerable town, but at present it scarcely deserves the name of a village. Solomon, father of the present prince [ David was the son of Giorgi IX and cousin of Solomon I], very wisely ordered the walls and the citadel to be destroyed, observing, that the rocks of Caucafus were the only fortifications which were capable of being defended by an undisciplined army of six thousand men, unprovided with artillery. 

The inhabitants of Imeretia, eflimated at about twenty thousand families, are not collected into towns or villages but scattered over the country in small hamlets. They are less mixed with foreigners, and handsomer than the other Georgians. They are likewise bolder, and more industrious: they send yearly considerable quantities of vine to the neighbouring parts of Georgia, in leather bags, carried by horses: but they are without manufactures, very poor and miserable, and cruelly oppressed by their vexatious landlords. 

The ordinary revenues of Imeretia, like those of Georgia, arise from a contribution of the peasants in wine, grain, and cattle, and from the tribute of the neighbouring princes. Among the extraordinary sources of revenue, confiscations have a considerable share; but as all this is by no means sufficient for the subsistence of the prince, he usually travels from house to house, living on his vassals, and never changing his quarters till he has consumed every thing eatable. It will of course be understood, that the court of Imeretia is not remarkable for splendour, nor the prince's table very sumptuously served. His usual fare consists of gom (a species of millet, ground, and boiled into a paste), a piece of roasted meat, and some pressed caviar; these he eats with his fingers; forks and spoons being unknown in Imeretia. At table he is frequently employed in judging causes, which he decides at his discretion, there being no law in his dominions but his own will. His new ordinances are publicized to the people on Fridays, which are the market days, by a crier, who gets up into a tree, and from thence issues the proclamation. 

The Imeretians are of the Greek religion. Their Catholicos, or patriarch, is generally of the royal family, and can seldom read or write; and the inferior clergy are not better instructed. Their churches are wretched buildings, scarcely to be distinguished from common cottages, but from a paper cross over the principal door, and some paintings of the Virgin and the saints. 

The Dadian, or prince of Mingrelia and Guriel, though possessed of a country far more considerable than Imeretia, is tributary to prince David, who is, therefore, a very formidable neighbour to the Turks of Achalziche [Akhaltsikhe]. He is, however, very much fettered in his operations by the disobedience of his numerous barons, who, like those of Georgia and Mingrelia, have power of life and death over their vassals. 

SPECIMEN OF THE CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES

[In this section, Ellis compiled examples of words from several key Caucasian languages, including Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Kist, Lezghian and Georgian. Ellis noted that the words came from a general vocabulary that was created by the order of Empress Catherine II of Russia]

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Pieter van der Aa - La Galerie Agreable du Monde (1729)

At the start of the 18th century Pieter van der Aa (1659 - 1733) was the leading printer in Leiden. Perhaps the most ambitious European publisher of his day, he conceived a remarkable project - to publish an illustrated atlas of the world. Utilizing available sources and prints, he produced "La Galerie Agreable du Monde," a vast set in 66 parts that contained some 3,000 plates covering customs, religion and history of the peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Upon its completion "La Galerie..." presented for the 18th century reader's pleasure and edification a stunning array of images - maps of various regions, city-views, port perspectives, landscapes, architectural plans of famous sites, landmarks, as well as numerous pictures pertaining to world history and ethnography, depictions of religious practices, social ceremonies and sumptuary clothing from around the globe. This was a veritable pinnacle of the field of "exotic geography" that flourished in Europe between 1660s and 1730s. Interestingly, van der Aa included a few plates on Georgia. The volume on "China and Grand Tartary" features two sketches on Mingrelia while the volume on Persia contains a plate with partial Georgian alphabet. 

Caption: "The clothing and feasts of the Mingrelians"

Caption: "How Mingrelians determine truth"

Caption: "The Georgian ABC"

Georgians in Afghanistan, 1709-1711

Georgian involvement in Afghanistan began in the 16th–17th centuries when they became integrated en masse in the Persian army and participated in the Safavid campaigns in Afghanistan. At the start of the 18th century Shah Sultan Husayn gradually lost his grip on the political situation in Afghanistan, where he faced both local insurgency and growing interests from the Moghul India. To address this situation, Sultan Husayn turned to his Georgian allies: King of Kartli Giorgi XI (Gurjin-Khan/Gorgin Khan), who served as the governor (beglarbegi) of Kirman, his brother Levan (Šāhqoli Khan) , the chief justice (divan-begi) of Persia, and his nephew Kaikhosro (Kay-Ḵosrow Khan / Khusrau-Khan) as the prefect of police (darugha) of Isfahan. 

The Georgian commanders successfully campaigned in 1700, driving the Afghani tribesmen out of the eastern Persian provinces. In 1703, Gurjin-Khan, now commander-in-chief (sipah-salar) of the Persian army was given the task of delivering Qandahar and subduing the Afghans. He led his corps of some 4,000 Georgians and 20,000 Persians in May 1704 and quickly subjugated the country. However, his soldiers proved to be unforgiving toward the local population, sequestered goods, and raised taxes. Georgian heavy handed treatment of the Afghan population prompted Mir Vays (Mir Weis/Mir Ways), a leader of the Hotaki Ghilzay tribe, to lead a rebellion, but he was quickly arrested by the Georgians. Gurjin-Khan then committed the crucial mistake of sending Mir Vays to Isfahan, although he urged the shah to get rid of him or at least never to allow him to return to Qandahar. A Persian faction hostile to the Georgians existed in the Persian capital, and it took advantage of Mir Vays’ accounts to paint the Georgian actions in the worst possible light. According to a contemporary Ottoman report (preserved at the Glasgow University's Hunter Collection), prepared by Joseph the Georgian who accompanied a French embassy to the Safavid court, the chief vizier and the chief eunuch, both hearty enemies of the Georgians, helped Mir Vays to lull the suspicions of the shah, who ordered Gurjin-Khan to show moderation and cooperate with the Afghans. The Ghilzay leader was set free, and sent to Kandahar to watch Gurghin Khan 

Gurjin-Khan clearly underestimated the danger he was facing since he failed to notice Mir Vays’ schemes. According to Joseph's account, In 1709, one of the Afghan tribes refused to pay taxes. Mir Vays urged the Khan to subdue them at once and thus got the Georgian soldiers out of the way. He then invites Gurjin-Khan to his estate outside Kandahar in order to receive the submission and gifts of two recalcitrant but now penitent beys. Gurjin-Khan fell into the trap, and in the banquet that followed he was slain with all his retinue. Mir Vays then put on Gurjin-Khan' uniform and had his men do the same. Thus disguised, and moving in, what Joseph describes as, "Georgian formation" they appeared at sunset before the citadel of Kandahar. The Georgian garrison, thinking their compatriots were returning, opened the gates to let them in. They were cut to pieces and the place taken. The inhabitants were warned to stay within doors until morning.  

Upon their return the Georgians troops, who had been sent to subdue a rebellious tribe, found Kandahar in the Afghan hands. They commenced a fighting retreat that was later described by Jonas Hanway, an English merchant who traveled to Persia in 1740s, stayed at the court of Nadir Shah and published an interesting travelogue that recounted his experiences as well as stories he had heard during his voyage. Among these stories was the account of the Georgian retreat from Kandahar:

"Three days had elapsed since the governor's [Gurjin-Khan] death, when the sentinels descried from the ramparts a considerable body of cavalry; this was the detachment of Georgians, who, ignorant of what had passed, were coming to the city, loaded with the spoils of the rebels. As their return was expected, proper orders were given for their reception; they were suffered [allowed] to advance within musket-shot, when the cannon of the town was discharged at them so that they immediately conjectured that the place had changed masters. Mir Vays thought this a good opportunity for establishing the reputation of his arms; he accordingly marched out at the head of five or six thousand horse, intending to cut off the retreat of the Georgians; but he soon perceived, that he had to do with troops better disciplined, and more inured to war, than his Afghans.

The Georgians, quitting their booty, forced their way sword in hand, and passed the defile of Zebil. After fighting their way through the country for the space of eight days, with an amazing intrepidity, they marched out of the province. What the Georgians suffered in this retreat, as well through want of provisions and forage, as the frequent attacks of their enemies, is hardly credible; but their courage was invincible. The Afghans made five different attacks upon them in one day, and notwithstanding the great superiority of their numbers, they were always repulsed; insomuch that they lost above two thousand men in these different engagements. 

As an instance of the resolution of the Georgians, it is related, that they swam their horses over a considerable river, within three leagues of the defile of Zebil, on the side of Kandahar: one of them [Georgians], who was dismounted seeing an Afghan riding towards him in full speed, turned back to meet him, and holding out to him, with one hand, his sabre, as if he intended to surrender, with the other, he shot him through the head, with a pistol, then leaping upon the dead man's horse, he plunged into the river, which he crossed under the incessant fire of the enemy, who were amazed at his resolution. 

All the advantage that Mir Vays reaped from this expedition was the making himself master of the defile of Zebil. This [pass] is on the side of Persia, as that of Kabul is towards India, and these are the only passes through the mountains with which the province of Kandahar is surrounded. The Afghan chief, who had now so lately experienced that valour alone is not sufficient in carrying on a war, left troops to guard these narrow passes, and applied himself to discipline his men, and also to gain the other towns of the province; in hopes, that by their means, together with the alliances which he intended to conclude With his neighbours, he should be able to withstand the forces that might be sent against him.

After learning about this disaster, Shah Sultan Husayn dispatched Kaikhosro, who succeeded Gurjin Khan as the king of Kartli, with 30,000 Persians and 1,200 Georgians to suppress the uprising in November 1709. However, this expedition was suffered from food shortages and low morale among the Persian (qezelbāš/qizilbash) troops, as well as from intrigues of the Persian grand vizier who sought to weaken the Georgian faction. Kaikhosro initially defeated the Afghan detachments and besieged Kandahar, which resisted for five months. This gave Mir Vays sufficient time to rally tribes, gather reinforcements and counterattack. The excerpt below is from Judasz Tadeusz Krusinski, missionary and Procurator of the Jesuits at Ispahan, who lived in Persia from 1704 to 1729. An acute observer and a good judge of contemporary events, he published History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, an important source on the history of the early 18th century Iran.  

[As the Georgian/Persian siege of Kandahar failed] Mir Weis [Mir Vays] who had only waited for this Moment, immediately took the Field at the Head of a great Body of Troops, all fresh Men, who having an Enemy [Georgians and Persians] to oppose that was already fatigued by Heat, and weakened by Poverty [lack of supplies], went to the Battle as to a certain Victory, of which they could not fail. 

Being mounted upon fresh Horses, and having no other Incumbrance but their Arms, they were soon up with the Rear-Guard of the Enemy's [Persian] Army. At first they only harassed it by a few Skirmishes, to give Time for the Arrival of a Reinforcement that Mir-Weis expected, which could not march so fast as the Horse, viz. a Body of eight hundred Camels, which carried two Soldiers each, Back to Back, armed with great Carbines. This Reinforcement was no sooner arrived, but they fell on all Sides upon the [Georgian] Rear Guard, which was all cut in Pieces, with the General [Georgian prince Kaikhosro who was killed]. Mir-Weis immediately after this first Expedition, went and fell upon the Persian troops that were retiring with the less Apprehension or Precaution, because they thought themselves secured by the Rear-Guard, of whose Defeat they were not informed. He made a bloody Slaughter of them, and carried away all their Baggage. One would have imagined, that Mir-Weis would have thought two Victories enough for the Work of one Day; however, he did not stop there, but resolved to attack the Body of the Georgian Army, which was marching homewards the other Way. But he was checked in his Progress, by a Troop of five hundred Georgians, who, though surrounded on all Sides, defended themselves with so much Resolution and Courage, that they cut their Way through the Enemy Sword in Hand, and went and joined the Body of their Army, which perhaps would have been surprised in their March, and defeated as well as their Rear-Guard, had it not been for this timely Intelligence. 

The Resistance which Mir-Weis met with from those five hundred Georgians made him give over the Thoughts of pursuing the main Body of an Army consisting of such good Troops, and he returned with his Afghans laden with Booty, to Kandahar being followed into the Town with all the Baggage of the Enemy's Army; and though they had been twice victorious, they could not help doing Justice, even at their own Expense, to the Bravery of the Georgians, saying that the Persians were but women compared to the Afghans and the Afghans but women compared with the Georgians.

The defeat of the Georgian/Persian expeditionary force allowed Mir Vays to free all of southern Afghanistan from Safavid control, thus establishing the basis of a state which would extend westwards into the heart of Persia in 1722.

Johann Anton Güldenstädt, Letter from Georgia (1772)

Johann Anton Güldenstädt was a Baltic German naturalist and explorer in Russian service, who, in 1768,  joined the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences' expedition to explore the Russian empire's southern frontier. Güldenstädt traveled through Ukraine and southern Russian steppes to reach the northern Caucasus, from where he visited Georgia. In March 1775 he returned to St Petersburg. The results of the expedition and Güldenstädt's edited expedition journal were published after his death by Peter Simon Pallas in Reisen durch Russland und im Caucasischen Gebürge (Travels in Russia and the Mountains of the Caucasus) (1787–1791). Below is an extract of a letter that Güldenstädt wrote to a friend from Tbilisi on 28 December 1771, which was published in the "London Magazine" (Vol. 41, p. 285) in 1772.

I am now travelling round about Georgia; the 15th of last month I arrived at the camp of King Heraclius [Erekle II]; as soon as he was acquainted with my arrival, the very same day I was called to an audience; he himself came to receive me out of the door of hit tent, embraced me, led me into the tent, and made me sit down upon the couch on his right hand; I was so moved with this uncivilized Asiatic Prince, when I saw his thirst after knowledge, his love towards his subjects, his care and solicitude for increasing the interest of his subjects, and to enrich the produce of their land, that I really thought it were to be wished that our civilized and christian princes would only be half as careful in minding their duties towards their subjects, and inform themselves of but half at much of the consequence of their office as I found by this infidel. Certainly, my dear friend, thought I, it is not religion which ought to make a prince respectable, but rather his affection towards his country and subjects. 

This good infidel then told, with tears in his eyes, that he curses the occasion which, gave into his hand the care of more people than he can make happy; he rather would be born a beggar than enjoy all the pleasure possible in having every minute a trial for the severe judge his conscience. Poor people (said he) they provide for me the finest tent, the finest sheep, the best wines for my table, the best horses and mules, and so many young lads at my service, and all at their expense; it is their hard labour which gives me all these conveniences, and when my conscience asks me, wretch! what benefit have these poor creatures of it? Are thou born to rob all these people? Has nature produced thee to enjoy all these pleasures only to suck the blood of all the poor subjects?  O! I must blush, I am ashamed, my conscience has not a single word to answer. I am surprised (adds he) how your crowned heads in Europe, who have the care of many millions of people, how they can clear their conscience; certainly if they have the least humanity of sensation, they are the most unhappy creatures in the world; I have only the care of about 160,000, and yet I feel the most heavy load. What must that monarch feel, who hath as many hundreds? And if he has no sense of his duty, I own I cannot conceive the way of providence; in short, I am constrained to conclude, there must be such a superintendent being that delights in evil, and in creating such miserable beings under a government of a senseless monarch! 

He then told me that in the course of one hundred years, his subjects and the rest of the province had been obliged to swear obedience to the Persians, then to the Turks, and now at last to the Russians; but with the last-mentioned sovereign he is quite satisfied as he is acquainted with the noble mind of our gracious Empress, towards her country and subjects; and to demonstrate his zeal, he fought three successful battles against the Turks, to the last of which, my dear friend, I have been a witness. This his last battle was fought in the province of Carduce, on the river Cur (or in the ancient language, in Iberia, on the river of Tyrus.) After this battle, I went with the said King Heraclius to his capital city of Teflis, where I and my suite are to remain during the short winter season. In November the leaves of the trees begin to fall; and in January they begin to grow green again. About that time I propose to go towards Armenia, to the mountains of Ararat, and to Kislar; so that I shall not be able to return home till October next year. I am now to travel through all the provinces of Carduel [Kartli], Cachetire [Kakhetia], and Georgia, and then to Emeratia [Imereti], and Mingreloa, to the King Salom's [Solomon I], where at present is the remainder of Count [Gottlob Curt Heinrich Graf von] Tottlieben's, and major general Suchoten's two corps consisting of 5,000 men, which little army makes a great progress by the assistance of the Georgians at the Black Sea, and they expect every minute assistance of our fleet upon the Esov [Azov] Sea, or Marotic Gulph. 

I am sorry that we in Europe have so imperfect an account of these Eastern Asiatic provinces; our geography of them is nothing but a chain of blunders and defects, and the natural history of these provinces is totally defective. I must conclude and tell you, that all circumstances of the present war are in such situation, just as they are to be wished in such a happy epoch, in which Catherine the Great is the Empress of such a numerous nation.

Dutch description of Georgia, late 18th century

In 1785, James Sibbald, Scottish bookseller and writer, established a new monthly periodical The Edinburgh Magazine or Literary Miscellany that offered its readers an eclectic selection of articles. In July 1790, the magazine (volume XII, no. 67) featured a translation of a short account of Georgia by an anonymous Dutch writer.  It is unclear if the author himself was Dutch or whether the article was in itself a Dutch translation of some travelogue. The article should have been written shortly before its publication in July 1790 since the author mentions the reigning kings of Kartli-Kakheti and Imeretia as Erekle (Heraclius) and David; the latter ruled in Imeretia in 1784–1789 and 1790–1791.

GEORGIA, which the Persians call Gurgustan, and the Turks Gurtshi, contains the ancient Iberia, Colchis, and perhaps a part of Albania, since the country of Kacketi ;Kakheti], in the ancient Georgian language, was known by the name of Albon [Albania].

The inhabitants are Christians of the Greek church, and it is probable that they were called Georgians, on account of the great veneration which they entertained for St George, the tutelary saint of the country.

Georgia is divided into nine provinces, five of which are subject to Heraclius, and compose that part commonly named the kingdom of Georgia. The other four provinces are under the dominion of David, and form the kingdom, or rather principality of Immeretta [Imereti].

All these countries are in general so beautiful and fertile, that some enthusiastic travelers have imagined that the ancient garden of Eden was situated in the middle of them. The mountains are covered with oaks, chestnut and walnut-trees, birches, and an immense number of trees, of every kind, intermixed with vines, which, though little cultivated, do not fail to produce abundance of grapes. The inhabitants make as much from them as is sufficient for their annual consumption, and suffer the rest to perish. Cotton grows here without any care, and great plenty of our European fruit trees may be seen, which thrive much better than among us. Rice, hemp and flax are easily cultivated.

It is impossible to find better or more beautiful pastures - the rivers teem with fish, the mountains contain rich treasures of minerals, and the climate is pleasant and mild; in short, nature seems to have poured forth her richest gifts on this fortunate country, and to have entertained a peculiar favor for its inhabitants.

The rivers of Georgia are not proper for navigation, sometimes on account of their rapidity, occasioned by torrents which fall from the mountains and often on account of their shallowness. The navigation of the Black Sea, which might have introduced commerce and European manners into these countries being still exclusively in the possession of the Turks, the internal trade of Georgia is very much limited by the mountains of Caucasus, and this inconvenience continues daily to increase, on account of the numerous bands of plunderers who inhabit them.

[...a brief discussion of the Turkish and Persian invasion follows...]

The capital of Georgia, and the residence of prince Heraclius [King Erekle of Kartli-Kakheti] is teflis; the inhabitants call it Tyblis-Cahar or the Warm City, on account of the warm baths which are found in its neighborhood. This city was built in the year 1063 by Prince Lierang [?] according to an inscription seen on the front of the castle.

The city of Teflis is no more than two English miles in circumference; it contains 20,000 souls, the greater part of whom are Armenians, and the rest Georgians and Tartars. There are reckoned to be in this city twenty Armenian churches, fifteen Greek, and three Metscheds [mosques]. The widest streets are only seven feet in breadth, and some of them are so narrow that a man on horseback can scarcely pass along them. It may therefore be readily imagine that they are far from being clean.  The houses are built with flat roofs, upon which the Georgian ladies walk to enjoy the fresh air when the weather is fine. These houses are all regular, the greater part of the walls are wainscotted [covered with wooden panels] in the inside and the floors are covered with carpets. There is an iron foundry at Teflis, in which a considerable quantity of mortars, bullets, and cannons are cast every year; but the cannon, which are all of the same calibre, are inferior to those of the Turks. The [gun-]powder made here is excellent. 

The Armenians, naturally industrious, have established here the greater part of the manufactories established by their countrymen in Persia: the most flourishing of all is that of printed cottons. Teflis has a mint of its own; but besides the money which is coined there, Persian and Turkish pieces employed for purchasing honey, butter, cattle, and cloth, are also current. 

The subjects of Prince Heraclius are said to amount to 60,000 families, but notwithstanding the depopulation under which the country the languishes, it is proved that the third of that number are omitted in collecting the taxes. The peasants, who are vassals to the queen, as well as those of the patriarch, pay no taxes to the prince, and are consequently not enrolled among those who pay subsidies [taxes]. The prince has permitted his sons in law, as well as his favourites, to free their vassals from every burden whatever. It is to be observed that, as the peasants are taxed by fires [hearth], and not by the head, it often happens (and this consequently tends to diminish the revenues of the sovereign) that they carry the most valuable effects of several huts into one, and burn the rest; so that they pay no tax, and the money which they thence save, enables them to acquire more. The whole population of Georgia is reckoned to be about three hundred and fifty thousand souls.

The government of Georgia is despotic, and notwithstanding this, the prince would be very much embarrassed to get his orders executed without the assistance of the Russian troops. Corporal punishments here are barbarous, but fortunately executions are rare; for criminals find it extremely easy to escape, as they are so near foreign powers; besides, the prince is sensible that it is more advantageous to confiscate the wealth of the guilty; and on that account, he is not too strict in enforcing the laws against them. Regular processes form a part of the privileges of the nobility, and are never employed except when the case is very complex, or when the power and influence of the parties are equally great, or rather when the court is afraid of embroiling itself with one of the parties. This manner of proceeding is called the judgment of God.

The Georgian dress has a great resemblance to that of the Cossacks: people of any consequence dress, however, after the Persian manner. The greater part of them dye their hair, beard, and nails red. The Georgian women rub over their hands with the same colour, and they wear a kind of bandage round their heads, from which their black hair falls over their forehead: their hair behind is formed into tresses. They paint their eye-brows black, in the form of a semi-circle, and their faces are daubed over with red and white. Their tunics are open as far as the girdle; so that when they wish to conceal their breasts, they are obliged to cover them with their hands. Their carriage is noble, their conversation easy and voluptuous, and the greater part of them can read and write, which are qualifications rarely to be met with, even among those Georgians who are of the first distinction. The Georgian women are indebted for their instruction to the cloisters in which they are educated. The greater part of the marriages here are a kind of bargains; and girls are often betrothed at the age of four or five. Women of rank never go [out] without veils, and a man would be accused of rudeness [if] he accost them in the street; the case would be the same [if] he in company inquire after the wife of another. Though this kind of etiquette seems to be in some measure a prejudice, it is excusable. The cruelties which the Persians committed against the Georgians, under the reign of Nadir Shah are still too fresh in their memory, though handed down from father to son, not to make us forgive them for being very suspicious of strangers.

Many travelers have accused the Georgians of cruelty, laziness, avarice and cowardice. These vices, which generally belong to slaves and tyrants, are abhorred in Georgia. The vassals of the colonies established by Shah Abbas at Perea, near Isphahan, as well as the inhabitants of those of the Mesendran [Mazandaran province of Iran], have gained much by their new constitution; and the Georgian cohorts, whom the Persians employed to expel the Afghans, distinguish themselves in an eminent degree by their application, good discipline, and bravery. 

The other inhabitants of Georgia are Tartars, the Ossi [Ossetians] and the Armenians, whom the Georgians call Semaki [Somekhi]. The latter are dispersed throughout the whole country, sometimes mixed among the natives, and sometimes living with them in some remote village. Among their countrymen, they speak their language, but this does not prevent them from being all thoroughly acquainted with that of Georgia. They profess the Armenian religion; yet many of them follow that of the Roman Catholics. They are the most oppressed subjects of the country, but they however display great zeal and activity, for which these laborious people are eminently distinguished.

There are found also in Georgia a considerable number of Jews, called in the language of the country Seria [uria]. The greater part of these have retired to the villages, and live entirely by themselves; the rest are mixed among the Armenians and Tartars but they have never been observed to form any connections with the Ossis. The Jews pay some taxes from which the other inhabitants are exempted. 

The capital of Immeretta [Imereti], where prince David resides, is called Qurtays [Kutaisi]. The remains of a church announce that [Kutaisi] was formerly a large city but at present it can scarcely be accounted a village. [King] Solomon, the father of the present sovereign, ordered the citadel to be destroyed as well as the ramparts of the city; for he thought, and very wifely, that Caucasus was the only fortification capable of being defended by an army of six thousand men undisciplined and destitute of artillery.

The number of the inhabitants of [Imereti] is reckoned to be twenty thousand families; but the greater part of them live neither in towns nor villages, but are dispersed throughout the level country, each of them possessing a small hut or cottage. These people have fewer strangers among them, and they are more engaging in their appearance than the Georgians. They are of a milder and less pusillanimous character, and the principal branch of their commerce consists in wines, a considerable quantity of which they export in skins as far as the confines of Georgia. They are acquainted with no other trade, for they are poor and miserable, and greatly oppressed by their lords.

The ordinary revenues of [Imereti], like those of Georgia, arise from a tithe which vassals are obliged to pay in wines, cattle, and corn, and some subsidies [tributes] furnished annually by neighboring princes. The extraordinary revenues for the most part arise from confiscations of every kind; but notwithstanding this, the finances of the prince are so limited that he is often under the necessity of going from house to house, to live at the expense of his vassals, never quitting their habitations until the pressing wants of his hosts absolutely compel him. It is therefore that the court of the sovereign of [Imereti] is as deficient in brilliancy as his table is in splendour when he dines at home. His principal duties consist of a certain food called gam [ghomi], which is a kind of millet boiled, and a piece of roast meat, with some high seasoned sauce. He never eats but with his fingers, for forks and spoons are unknown in [Imereti]. At table, he generally gives audiences respecting affairs of the first consequence, which he determines as he thinks proper; for in every country subject to his dominions, there is no other law but his will.

On Friday, which is the market day, all his new edicts are published by a kind of herald, who climbs up into some tree, in order to proclaim the will of his sovereign. The [Imeretians]  profess the religion of the Greek church. Their patriarch must be of the royal family; but it is seldom that he can either read or write: the priests who compose the rest of the clergy are not much more enlightened. The greater part of their churches are pitiful edifices, which can scarcely be distinguished from the common huts of the inhabitants but by a pasteboard crucifix, and a few coarse paintings of the Virgin, which are seen in them.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort - Relation d'un voyage du Levant fait par ordre du Roy (1717) - Part 2

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656 – 1708) was a talented French botanist and traveler who, between 1700 and 1707, travelled through Greece, Ottoman Empire and Georgia. Although his chief interest lay in botany, Tournefort still made interesting observations on peoples that he had encountered on his journey. This translation is derived from the 1741 English edition published in London.

The King of Persia is forced to be at more charge in Georgia, than the Profits arising to him from thence will pay. To make sure of the Georgian Nobility, who are the Masters of the Country, and might give themselves up to the Turks, he bribes them with handsome Pensions. The Turks would receive them with open Arms, and the Georgians, who are a well-made People and very fit for War, are not a little inclined to change their Lord. Before the Court of Persia could be informed of their Revolt, they might not only join themselves to the Turks, but also to the Tartars and Kurdes. 

There are in Georgia a dozen considerable Families that live in a good Understanding, with relation to their common Interests. They are divided into several Branches, some have two hundred Fire-hearths [households], others from five hundred to a thousand or two thousand; nay, there are that possess even to seven or eight thousand Fire-hearths. These Fires are so many Houses, which makes Villages, and each Fire pays a Tenth to its Lord. Each Fire sends a Man in time of War; but the Soldiers are not obliged to march more than ten Days, because they can carry Provisions for no longer Term; and they retire when these grow short, supposing care has not been taken to lay in Stores to furnish them.

Any Man may make Gun-powder at Teflis for his own Use: they bring the Sulphur from the Gangel, and the Nitre is found in the Mountains near 'Teflis. Fossile Salt is very common in the Road of Erivan. Olive-Oil is very dear here: the People eat and burn nothing but Linseed Oil; all the Fields are covered with this Plant, but they cultivate it only for the Seed, for they throw away the Stalk without beating it to spin: What a Loss is here? it would make the finest Stuff's in the world; perhaps indeed those Stuffs' might prejudice their Trade of Cotton-Stuffs. 

[...]

To finish this Epistle, my Lord, it remains only that I give you an Account of what I have gathered in this Country, touching [upon] the Religion of the Georgians, if we may do them the honour to say they have any Religion at all. Ignorance and Superstition are so general among them, that the Armenians know no more of the matter than the Greeks, and the Greeks are as ignorant as the Mahometans [Muslims]. Those whom they here call Christians, place the whole of their Religion in fasting stoutly, and above all, in observing the great Lent so strictly, that the very Monks of Trappe would go near to be starved in it. Yet not only for the sake of Example, but also to avoid Scandal, the poor Italian Capuchins fast without Necessity as often and as severely as the Natives. The Georgians are very superstitious, that they would be christened anew, if they had broken but one of their Fasts. Besides the Gospel of Christ, they have their little Gospel, which is spread among them in Manuscript, and contains nothing but Extravagances: for instance, how that Jesus Christ, when a Child, learnt the Trade of a Dyer; and that being commanded by a Lord to go on an Errand, he staid too long before he came back; whereupon this Lord growing impatient, went to his Master's to inquire for him. Jesus Christ returning soon after, was stricken by this Man; but the Stick with which he did it, blossomed immediately: this Miracle was the Cause of the Conversion of this fame Lord, etc.

When a Georgian dies, if he does not leave a good deal of Money behind him, which they seldom do, the Heirs take two or three of their Vassal's Children, and sell them to the Mahometans, to pay the [Orthodox] Bishop, who has a hundred Crowns for one Mass for the Dead. The Catholicos or Armenian Bishop lays on the Breast of those that die in his Communion a Letter, whereby he desires St. Peter to open them the Gate of Paradise; and then they put him into the holy Linen. The Mahometans do the like for Mahomet. When a Man of Note is sick, they consult consult the Georgian, Armenian, and Mahometan Diviners: these Fellows commonly say that such a Saint or such a Prophet is angry and that to appease his Wrath, and cure the Patient, they must slay a Sheep, and make divers Crosses with the Blood. After the Ceremony is over, they eat the Flesh of it, whether the sick Person recovers or not. The Mahometans [Muslims] have recourse to the Georgian Saints, the Georgians to the Armenian, and sometimes the Armenians to the Mahometan Prophets: but they all hang together to create Costs for the Patient, and usually choose their Saints, according to the Inclination or Devotion of the Kinsfolk.

The Women and Girls are deeper instructed in their Superstitions than the Men. They breed up most of the Georgian Girls in the Monasteries, where they learn to read and write. They are first received Novices, and then profess themselves; after which they may perform the Aurial Functions, as baptizing and applying the holy Oils. Their Religion is properly a Mixture of the Greek and of the Armenian. There are some Mahometan Women at Teflis, who are Catholics in their Hearts, and are better Catholics than the Georgian Women, being well instructed. The Visier's Daughter, at the time we were there, the Wife of the Prince's Physician, and some others, as we were assured by the Capuccins, had been baptized in secret Those Religious confess them, and give them the Communion, visiting them under pretense of prescribing them Remedies for some feigned Distemper; and they sometimes come to their Church, where they keep standing, not daring to give any Token of their Faith. In the last Revolt of Prince George, who stirred up the whole Country against the King of Persia about twenty Year ago, the Soldiers took up up their Lodgings in the Houses of the Citizens of Teflis, and even in the Greek and Armenian Churches; but paid great Respect to the Latin Church, where the Mahometans themselves begged entrance as a Favour.

There are five Greek Churches in Teflis, four in the City, and one in the Suburb; seven Armenian Churches, two Mosques in the Citadel, and a third which is deserted. The Metropolis of the Armenians is called Sion; it is beyond the Kur upon a steep Rock; the Building is very solid, all of hewn Stone, terminated by a Dome, which is an Honour to the Town. The Tibilcle (as they call the Bishop of Teflis) dwells close to it. The Christian Churches have not only Bells, but even Crosses upon the tops of the Steeples, This is wonderful in the Levant. On the contrary, the Muezins or Mahometan Chanters dare not give out their times of Prayer in the Minarets of the Mosques of the Citadel, for fear of being stoned by the People. The Church of the Capuchins is small; but 'twill be pretty enough when completed.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort - Relation d'un voyage du Levant fait par ordre du Roy (1717)

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656 – 1708) was a talented French botanist and traveler who, between 1700 and 1707, travelled through Greece, Ottoman Empire and Georgia. Although his chief interest lay in botany, Tournefort still made interesting observations on peoples that he had encountered on his journey. This translation is derived from the 1741 English edition published in London.

This Georgia is an excellent Country - the Moment you [enter] the King of Persia's Dominions, People come and present you with all manner of Provisions, Bread, Wine, Fowls, Hogs, Lambs, Sheep. They especially accost Franks with a smiling Countenance, whereas in Turky you meet with none but serious Fellows that survey you gravely from head to foot. What surpriz'd us most, was, that the Georgians despise Money, and will not sell their things: Neither indeed do they give them; but they [trade] with you for Bracelets, Rings, Necklaces of Glass, little Knives, Pins or Needles. The Girls fancy themselves finer than ordinary, when they have five or fix Necklaces round their Neck and hanging down to their Breasts; their Ears also are set off with them: and yet all this together makes a very queer Show. 

[...]

[Georgians]... are larger and handsomer than the rest of Mankind, but their Manners are very simple. They use no kind of Money, no Weight, no Measure, scarce can they count above a hundred: All their Traffick [trade] is by Exchange. We therefore trusted our little Treasure to these honest People; they took what they pleas'd, but it is very certain they did not abuse the Confidence we repos'd in them. They gave us a Hen as fat as a Turkey, for a Necklace that cost but six Blancs, (Farthings) and a great Measure of Wine for Bracelets of eighteen Deniers. The Hogs run about freely, whereas in Turky they hunt them as unclean Animals: it is said they are much better in Georgia than any where else; but the reason I believe is, because most Travelers, who have generally coming Stomachs, think every thing excellent: indeed their Gammons seem'd to us a new kind of Food, for we had eat none since our Departure from the Archipelago. The Georgians look upon the Turks to be ignorant, and ridiculous in their abstaining from Hog's Flesh: the Turks, on the contrary, call the Persians Schismatics, and the Georgians Infidels, because they eat it without any scruple.

As to the Georgian Women, they did not surprise us, because we expected to find them perfect Beauties, according to the Description commonly given of them. The Women with whom we exchang'd our Enamels were not at all disagreeable; nay, they might be counted Beauties in comparison to the Kurdes, whom we had seen towards the Sources of the Euphrates. Our Georgians had however an Air of Health that was pleasing enough; but after all, they were neither so handsome nor so well shap'd as is reported. Their Skin is often perfum'd with the Vapour of Cow-dung; neither are those that live in the Towns any thing extraordinary, more than the others : so that I think I may venture to contradict the Descriptions that most Travellers have made of them. We brought the Capuchins of befits to be of our Opinion; they know the Country better than Strangers, and have not yet been able to persuade these Women to lay aside the use of the nasty Paint with which they spoil their Faces, to keep up the ancient Customs of the Country. We were told that they stole the most beautiful Girls about six or seven Years old, to carry them to [Isfahan, capital of Persia] or into Turky; the Parents of the Children and their nearest Friends often have a hand in these Doings. To avoid this Inconvenience, they marry them at seven or eight Years old, or shut them up in Nunneries; so that the Art of Ogling we had learnt at Paris was of no manner of use to us, for in all probability they had lately carried away all the Girls that were pretty to other Places...

[...]

We march'd all night the 20th of July and arriv'd not at Teflis till about Noon, and after having rested for about an hour, three Miles distance from the City, upon a good agreeable Mountain. The Carriers generally set out in the Night-time, to avoid the Couriers of the Persian Princes, who have a Privilege of taking any Horses they find upon the Roads, except those of the Franks; for they think they should violate the Duties of Hospitality, if they treated them as they do the Natives. As there are no settled Posts, and these Couriers are supposed to be riding about Affairs of Consequence, nobody grumbles at their using the Horses of private Persons; so that the dismounted Traveler is forced to walk afoot till he has caught his Horse again. This Fashion is a little uncivil; but 'tis the Custom of the Country, and it would be dangerous to resist.

After having pass'd several flat Countries, you enter into steep Passes as you approach 'Tefiis. This City is upon the Declivity of a Hill which is quite bare, in a pretty narrow Valley, five days Journey from the Caspian, and six from the Black Sea, though the Caravans reckon it double the Way. Teflis or Tiftis is at present the Capital of Georgia, known to the Ancients by the Names of Iberia and Albania...

[After discussing ancient history of Georgia, Tournefort turns to its present state]

There is a dismal Alteration in this Point now. The Prince of Georgia, who in reality is no more than Governour of the Country, must be a Mahometan; for the King of Persia will not give this Government to a Man of a Religion different from his own. The Name of the Prince of Teflis was Heraclea [Erekle I, or Nazar Ali Khan, r. 1688-1703], while we were there; he was of the Greek Rite, but they obliged him to be circumcis'd. They say this Wretch profess'd both Religions, for he went to the Mosque, and came to Mass too at the Church of the Capuchins, where he would drink his Holiness's Health. 

'Twas the most inconstant, irresolute Prince in the World; the People about him would turn his Opinion several times in an Affair as clear as the Day: here is an Instance of it which related to a Rascal, that in the Judgment of every Mortal deserv'd more than Death, were it possible to deprive a Man of any thing more precious than Life. A Nobleman came and represented to him the Enormity of the Crimes committed by this Villain; the Prince immediately commanded that the Hand should be cut off with which he had committed his Murders but a Lady, having having besought his Clemency, and assur'd him that the poor Man's Children must starve, if he lost the Hand that got them Bread, the Order was presently revers'd. A Courtier after this told the Prince, that the Man really ought to have suffer'd Death for the Good of the People. Let him be executed then, says Heraclea. The Criminal's Wife throws herself at his Feet: Suspend the Execution, cries he. After the Wife was gone, one of the Prince's Favourites put him in mind that he would lose the Respect due to him, if he pardon'd such Crimes: Let him be punish'd, says he; and then the Executioner took him at his word, and cut off the Criminal's Hand: but the Prince, at the Solicitation of another Favourite, who had receiv'd a Present from the Rogue's Relations, dispossess'd the Executioner of two Towns, which he own'd, for not having waited his last Pleasure. The Executioner in Georgia is very rich, and People of Quality exercise the Office: it is so far from being counted infamous, as in all other parts of the World, that here it reflects Glory upon a whole Family. They will boast what a number of Hang-men they have had among their Ancestors; and they build upon this Principle, that nothing is so noble as executing Justice, without which no Man could live safe. A Maxim worthy the Georgians!

Georgia is at present entirely at peace; but it has often been the Stage of the Wars between the lurks and Persians. [...] The Prince of Georgia has above six hundred Tomans [tumans] in Lands, according to the way of reckoning in this Country; one Toman is worth twelve Roman Crowns and a half, which make eighteen Aslanis or Abouquels, which are a sort of Crowns in Holland for the Levant. The Eastern People call them Aslanis, from the Figure of a Lion, which they call Aslan. This Coin is known in Egypt by the Name of Abouquel. 

The Prince's Revenues consist in a Pension of three hundred Tomans, which the King [Shah of Persia] allows him, and in the Customs of Teflis, and the Entries of Brandy and Melons; the whole amounts to near five hundred Tomans, without reckoning what he exacts under pretense of treating such great Men as pass through Teflis. The Country provides him with Sheep, Wax, Butter, and Wine. As to the Sheep, he has one every Year for every Fire-hearth, which amount to forty thousand Sheep; for though there are sixty thousand Houses in Georgia, there are Sheep bred but in forty thousand. Of Wine they give the Prince forty thousand Load; one Load weighs forty Batmans, and the Batman is six Oques.

The Sequins of Venice, which are current all over the East, are worth at Teflis six Abagis [abbassi] each, and three Chaouris or Sains. The Sequin is worth seven Livres ten Sous French Money, so that the Abagi is worth about two and twenty Sous: four Chaouris make one Abagi. This Coin seems to have retain'd the Name of those ancient Inhabitants of Iberia that were call'd Abasgians. 'Tis true, they write it Abassi, though it is pronounced Abagi, that is to say, Money coin'd in the Name of King[shah] Abass. Thus the Chaouri comes to five Sous six Deniers: An Usalton is worth half an Abagi or two Chaouris, that is to say, eleven Sous. A Chaouri or Sain is worth ten Aspers of Copper or Carbequis, forty of which make an Abagi. Lastly, a Piaster is worth ten Chaouris and a half.

The Georgians and Armenians pay Capitation to the King of Persia at the rate of six Abagis a head. This Capitation is farm'd out at three hundred Tomans. They present the King, by way of Homage, four Hawks every Year, seven Slaves every three Years, and four and twenty Loads of Wine: but much more than this is sent him and besides, most of the handsome Girls are set apart for his Seraglio. The Georgians are great Sots [habitual drunkards], and drink more Brandy than Wine; the Women carry this Debauchery even further than the Men, and when I have said thus much, I'll leave any body to judge whether they have cruel Hearts. This Excess is perhaps what has spoil'd the fine breed of Georgia, for nothing more contributes to the Procreation of handsome Children than a regular Life, for which reason the Turks are generally handsome. Very few among them are lame and crooked, especially in those Countries that lie a little distant from the Sea-Coast, where the Franks have little to do; for these Gentlemen are accus'd of being very incontinent where-ever they find an Opportunity.

There is great Debauchery in Teflis among the Christians: 'tis true they have nothing but the Appellation of Christians; and indeed the Jews and Mahometans live not a whit more soberly. Wine is the Source of all these Disorders; it would be good Policy to forbid the Use of it to those who are well in health, and to allow it only to sick People. [French traveler Jean] Chardin justly observ'd that there is hardly any Nation where they drink so much Wine as in Georgia; rich and poor, all in general, swallow it without any Moderation: this stupefies their Senses, and makes 'em the more patient under the Yoke of their Lords, who treat them tyrannically. They not only stand over them with Sticks, to force them to work, and take their Children from them, to fell them to their Neighbours, when Money runs low with them; but even pretend to have Power of Life and Death over their Subjects. The white Wine of Georgia is tolerably good; that which they send to the Court of Persia is a red Wine that has somewhat of the taste of Côte-Rôtie [French red wine appellation], but it is stronger and more heady. The Vines in this Country grow round Trees, and creep up them as in Piemont and several Parts of Catalonia. The Mahometans drink Wine, or let it alone, according to the taste of the King. If their Prince does not love it, they are forbid to touch it: but in this case 'tis with great regret, that they follow the Fashion of the Court.

Teflis is a pretty large Town, and very populous; the Houses are low, dark, and for the most part built of Mud and Bricks; and even these are superior to the Houses in the rest of the Province, where they are very far now-a-days from keeping up to the Description given us of them by Strabo... At present present the Walls of Teflis are hardly higher than those of our Gardens, and the Streets are ill pav'd. The Citadel is in the highest part of the Town, upon a fine Situation, but the Inclosure is almost [completely] ruined, and defended by very sorry Towers. The whole Garrison consists in a few wretched Mahometan Trades-people, who are paid for keeping Guard in it. There they lodge with their whole Families, and know nothing in the world of the Management of their Arms. The Place serves for a Refuge to People deep in Debt, or in fear of Prosecution for their Villanies [crimes]. The Place for Exercise, which is before it, is handsome and spacious, and serves for a Market-place, where you may buy the best Wares that the Country produces. When you come from Isfahan to Teflis, you must pass through the Citadel; so that the Prince of Georgia, who, according to the Persian Custom, must go without the City to receive the King's Orders or Presents, is forced to go through that Citadel, where the Governour might easily seize him, if he had Orders for that purpose.

The City stretches from South to North. The Citadel is in the middle. It might be made a considerable Place; for the side of the Mountain on which it is situated is very steep, and the River Cur [Kura/Mtkvari], which runs along it, is not fordable. The Circuit of the Town takes up the side of this Mountain, and makes a kind of Square, the sides whereof descend to the very bottom of the Valley ; but half the Walls are ruin'd, and scarcely so good as those of the Bois de Vincennes, whatever M. Chardin may say to the contrary. The Prince's Palace, which is below the Citadel, is very ancient, and tolerably well laid out, considering what Country it is in. The Gardens, the Volaries, the Dog-Kennel, the Falconry, the Square and Bazar, which are before it, are worth seeing. They carried us into a new Hall, which was agreeable enough, though built of nothing but Wood. It has Windows on every side, which are glaz'd with great Squares, of blue, yellow, grey, and other colour'd Glasses. There is also some Venice-Glass among the rest; but the Pieces are but small, and not comparable in Beauty to those of Paris. The Ceiling consists of Compartments of gilded Leather. The Women's Apartment, we were told, was much finer even than this... The Court was then out of Town. The Prince was said to be a little out of Order, and this was one of the chief Reasons of our leaving Teflis, for fear he should take it in his head to detain us with him, to take care of his Health, which would be nothing uncommon in the Levant,

From the Palace we went to see the Baths, which are not far from it. They are very fine Springs, and about as hot as those of the Waters of Elija near Erzerum. In the Baths of Teflis there are Waters both lukewarm and cold, besides these hot. These Baths are well kept up, and are almost the only Diversion of the Citizens of the Town. Their Trade consists mostly in Furs, which they send into Persia or to Erzerum, for Constantinople.The Silk of the Country, and that too of Shemakha and Ganja, do not pass through Teflis; which they forbear, to avoid the excessive Imposts that would be laid upon them. The Armenians go and buy it upon the spot, and have it carried to Smyrna, or some other Port of the Mediterranean, to sell it to the Franks. They send every Year, from the Country about Teflis, and other Parts of Georgia, about about two thousand Camel-load of the Root call'd Boia to Erzerum ; from thence it goes to the Diyarbakır, where it is used in dying the Stuffs which they make there for Poland. Georgia also remits great quantities of the same Root to Indostan [India], where they make the finest painted Stuffs. 

We fail'd not to take a Walk in the Bazar of Teflis, where you see all manner of Fruits, and especially Plums and excellent Summer Bon-Chretien Pears. We also went to see the Prince's Country-House, which is in the Suburb as you come from Turky. This House is distinguished by an Estrapade that is before the Door ; the Gardens are much better planted, and more artfully laid out than those in Turky. In these Gardens it was that we saw with admiration that fine Species of Persicary or Arse-smart, with Tobacco Leaves, whereof I have given a Figure and Description in one of the Volumes of the History of the Royal Academy of Sciences...

The Grand Visier's House is the finest in the City. It was hardly finish'd when we arriv'd at Teflis. The Apartments are upon a line, but low, according to the Fashion here, with Frizes of Flowers very sadly done, as also the History Paintings, in which the Figures are ill drawn, ill colour'd, and worse group'd. The Persians, tho Mahometans, are pleas'd with Pictures, and they paint in Fresco at Teflis upon beaten Plaster, in a manner agreeable enough. Plaster is very common here, and Wood too, tho their ordinary Fuel is Cow's Dung. 'Tis believ'd there are about twenty thousand Souls in the City, to wit, fourteen thousand Armenians, three thousand Mahometans, two thousand Georgians, and five hundred Roman Catholics. These last are converted Armenians, declar'd Enemies to the other Armenians; the Italian Capuchins could never reconcile them.

Emin Joseph Emin, Life and Adventures of Emin Joseph Emin (1792)

Joseph Emin (1726 - 1809) was an Armenian merchant and writer who spent most of his life trying to achieve the liberation of Armenia. 

Born into an Armenian merchant family in Iran, he followed in his father's footsteps in pursuing a career in trade. In 1744 Emin moved to India where he settled in Calcutta and successfully traded across much of Western Asia. 

An Armenian patriot, he desired to see his compatriots free from the Iranian and Ottoman yoke. While in Calcutta that Emin came into direct contact with the British and embraced European way of life. He was convinced that the Armenian path to freedom lay in the pursuit of Western education and practices. 

To facilitate this process, Emin travelled to Europe throughout the 1750s and 1760s, seeking support for the liberation of Armenia.  While in Britain, Emin befriended Lord Northumberland and other aristocrats, and, with their help, was admitted to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. After graduating, he briefly served in the British army during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) in order to gain practical experience. 

Emin left Britain in 1759. He first visited Prussia, where he tried to secure Frederick the Great's support, before proceeding to Eastern Anatolia, where he intended to launch a movement to liberate Armenia. He visited the courts of the Armenian meliks of Karabagh and King Erekle II [Heraclius] of Kartli-Kakheti, seeking their support for his liberation plans. But neither party supported him at the time. So in 1761 Emin returned to Europe where he spent two more years trying to get support, including contacting the Russian imperial court. Emin's dream was to establish an independent kingdom of Armenia in alliance with Georgia and under Russian protection. 

In 1763 Emin returned to Georgia and met King Erekle II whom he urged to support Armenian liberation. Unable to convince the king, Emin travelled to the North Caucasus where spent four years among the tribes of Daghestan. 

In 1767, he traveled to Karabagh and Zangezur to incite a rebellion but could not overcome Armenian Catholicos Simeon who was staunchly opposed to any rebellion and refused to provide any support for Emin's schemes. Thus, Emin once again chose to solicit King Erekle's support. After another failed attempt at the Georgian court in 1767-1768, Emin decided to return to India and he spent years trying to convince Armenian merchant communities in India and Iran to raise funds for the Armenian liberation movement. Yet again, he failed again. 

Bitterly disillusioned, Emin remained in India for the rest of his life, and devoted his time and energy to keeping the idea of the liberation of Armenia alive. He wrote, in English, his two-volume autobiography where he described his numerous adventures. Entitled "Life and Adventures of Joseph Emin, 1726-1809," the book was first published in London in 1792 and was later expanded (with Emin's letters) and reprinted by Emin's great granddaughter in Calcutta in 1918.

In his autobiography (written in third person), Emin devoted several chapters to discussing his visits to the Georgian court, meetings with King Erekle and interactions with the Georgian nobility. He has little good to say about the Georgians, frequently accusing them of treachery and cowardice, and comparing them unfavorably to other peoples, above all the Armenians. Below is the passage from the book describing a battle between the raiding Lezgin party and the Georgian troops led by King Erekle II in 1767.

It was then the beginning of autumn [1767]; and, in the latter end of December, Shaverdy Khan of Ganja began again his undermining politics, writing letters to the Lazguis [Lezgins, residing in present-day Daghestan] for troops to reduce the great tribe of Shamsadin, who had put themselves under the prince’s protection; but Heraclius [Erekle II], fearing some ill consequence, sent five hundred Georgian horse[men] to Ganja, in order to keep the khan quiet. He, not minding them much, laid a scheme, on the arrival of the Lazguis, to put them all to the sword in cold blood. Since the Shamsadin tribe, like others, was divided into two parties, one for the prince, and the other for the khan, one party would have joined to put the design into execution; but, luckily for the Georgians, a young Armenian mountaineer, a new apostate to the Mohamedan faith, had been a few days before made a servant to Shaverdy; who being in bed and asleep, the young man, not contented with his new religion, took the gun hanging in the same room, and shot the khan to death, which ended all the mischief, and saved the lives of many thousands. The young man was put to the sword by the khan’s son, called Agajar Beg ; and from that time Ganja by degrees became a province under Heraclius.

[...]

It may not be improper to recapitulate here three remarkable circumstances in regard to the Armenian nation, which were of service to Heraclius. The first was, David his subject, discovering the horrid conspiracy of thirty-two Georgian noblemen, headed by Heraclius’s own uncle by his mother’s side, Prince Pala; the second, that Emin, when commanding the Lazguis, discomposed Shaverdy Khan’s government, by freeing the Colan Curd tribe mentioned before; the third, that the young mountaineer put an end to the khan’s life, when he was near recovering his dominions from disorder, and preparing to overset the prince’s power, who being just on the brink of downfall, was fortunately saved from one of his greatest rivals.

The Armenian merchants or tradesmen of Tiflis have served the prince and his family, on all occasions, with troops, money, quarters, provisions, and forage, for forty years last past, most truly and affectionately; yet the prince [Erekle II] was never mindful of them, nor showed them any regard. Emin cannot in conscience blame the poor prince on that head; he is rather to be pitied; since the force of his religion, and the holy ministers of the sacred Greek church, being predominant in his mind, he was not endowed with probity sufficient to shake off its spiritual influence; not resembling those great-souled heroes, who disdained partiality, and rewarded merit wherever it was found. Such has been the chief curse to some Christian powers, for the vengeance of the Almighty falling upon them, when Mahomed mounted on a camel from Arabia came to scourge them; and they are treated with indignity by all nations.

Emin, from day to day, flattered himself, through the smooth words of the prince, that he would assist him, by giving the command of a detachment to him. In this manner full nine months passed; but Heraclius could not afford to bestow on him a single abasy, nor any thing else, except half a Tabriz maund, or pound, of bread, (little ‘more than three English penny loaves,) half a maund of mutton, and half a maund of weak wine, for the allowance of two hungry persons. Emin and his relation Mussess, who through necessity were thankful for being taught economy by His Highness. Emin did not much mind it, having inured himself to living by that rule all his lifetime. Poor Mussess persevered as well as he could; but it must be supposed that he sufiered greatly. This way of victualling was on feast days; but on fast days they had no more than half a maund of bread and half a maund of wine: for the Armenians feast six months in the year, and fast six months without eating either fish or flesh. Those who can afford it, may have all sorts of fruits, fine olives, and pilau with oil; but God help those that are poor; they can enjoy nothing. In any part of Armenia they may have plenty of fruits, but not at Tiflis where everything is proportionably dear; it being in some sort a metropolis. 

In one of the last battles against the Lazguis, in the depth of winter, they were no more than a hundred men, each having an Emeral: the Lazghis were commanded by Michael the Centurion, an Armenian by birth, who had been taken captive when an infant, and brought up in Daghestan. This brave man happened to be one of the captains of the Lazguis sent to Solomon, prince of Emeral, as auxiliary troops. He came from Daghestan, joined his troops, and defeated 4o,ooo Turks and Dadians [?] belonging to a petty Georgian prince of the Turks party, whose country the Lazguis ruined and took slaves for their pay, to the number of one hundred, chiefly females. Others, more prudent, staid where they were, in Emeral Georgia, till the melting of the snow, knowing that prince Heraclius would not keep his covenant, made when they were invited by his son-in-law prince Archil, brother to Prince ‘Solomon. 

But this Michael being originally an Armenian, and credulous by nature, trusted to prince Heraclius’s honour, who having intelligence before of his intention to march through the snow on the Plain of Samigory (or the Three Miles) lay in his way near a forest, half a mile’s distance from the river Chabry, one the branches of the Cur. There he remained a fortnight, with four thousand chosen Georgians, cavalry and infantry. In the afternoon the Georgian sentries brought word that the Lazguis were coming, upon which every man mounted readily, but without any order, making a confused effeminate noise, with the sound of a long "i", as far as their breath could go. 

The Lazguis not apprized of the prince’s hostile intention, took it to be a hunting party. Before they came up, prince Heraclius’s eshikagesies, or aides-du-camp, said to Emin, “It is his Highness’s express command that you go out of his band to charge the enemy before.” 

[Emin] instantly obeyed, spurring and whipping his horse; but he was hardly gone ten yards, when the Georgians began firing behind him, and the Lazguis scarce fifty yards from him in front; so that he was between two fires, both taking aim at him. The Lazguis took him to be a Georgian, and the Georgians were glad of the opportunity to make an end of a poor single Armenian, whose great faith was his armour and shield. [Emin] called upon God, and rushed through the enemy without being hurt, so that he went round and stood at some distance to see the operation. While he was between, those two savages fired balls that flew close to his ears, and killed fifty Georgians, with some men of note, and as many of the Lazguis. 

Being opposite, Emin then fell upon them sword in hand, surprising them in close quarter; while the Lazguis, fighting like tigers, laughed and spit in the Georgians faces, calling them treacherous Caffirs [Infidels], for not keeping true to their word. Michael the Centurion signalized himself in a most surprising manner, as he was surrounded by three hundred Georgians for his share, and firing his piece, he killed one first, and not having time enough to load again, he clubbed it, and holding it by the muzzle, fell among the Georgians, and knocked down six or seven of them. When his firelock was broken, he drew his sword, and with his dagger in his left hand, defended himself, fighting and calling Heraclius by all manner of bad names. The prince took care to go upon a high eminence. Michael received nine balls through his body before he fell, pronouncing, "Lallah, Ilalah, etc."; then he laid himself down with as much composure as if he was going to sleep, and with his right hand under his head, looked as fresh as a rose. 

The Georgians behaved like savages; for when [Michael] was dead and gone, some of them came and took his head off, some his hands, some his feet, and others ripped open his chest to see his heart, which was amazingly large, and his liver was as black as jet; which puts me in mind of an expression of the sailors as a rebuke to a cowardly man, "Go your way, you white-livered fellow!" The appellation signifies that a black liver belongs to a brave man. When his son was taken he said that his father was seventy-two years of age. 

Forty of the Lazguis fought retreating composedly till they got to the top of an eminence, the ground being soft and mixed chiefly with saltpetre. In five minutes they dug holes with their daggers deep enough to entrench themselves; in the mean time the whole army of Georgians formed a circle round them. The Lazguis fought desperately. When any of them had exhausted his ammunition, he left his post, drew his sword, or clubbed his firelock like Hercules, came out of the entrenchment, rushed among the Georgians, and fought till he was destroyed. This continued till eleven o’clock at night, when the snow began to fall very thick, each flake being as big as an English shilling. Both sides were tired, partly by the cold, partly by the fatigue; those left in the entrenchment having no more powder or ball, cried out, Barish! (or peace,) on condition that the prince would grant quarter, and not molest them, to which his Highness consented; but after they came out, they were stripped stark naked; and after the army had marched back to the camp seventeen of them were put to the sword, and three only left, whom the prince ordered to receive a Tabriz maund of flour for four or five days journey, through snow half a yard deep, to the foot of Daghestan. 

Among them an Armenian boy, sixteen years of age, was taken prisoner and preserved. Emin had the curiosity to ask him, “Who were those twenty-four men among the dead, and not circumcised?” He said, “They are Armenians, brought from Armenia when children, and brought up as Lazguis in Daghestan; for the Lazguis seldom sell the Armenian boys to the Turks as they do the Georgians. The Armenian infants brought up by the Lazguis, turn out brave, and faithful to their masters; whereas the Georgians are not so, but false and treacherous. There is no occasion to say more; you have been in Daghestan, where you hardly saw a Georgian male slave made free, as we emancipate the Armenians, who live there like princes, and when they descend from Daghestan into Georgia for plunder, a few of them stand against thousands of Georgians. You have seen a proof of their behavior to-day, by Michael our leader; who, trusting to Heraclius’s false word, lost his life bravely." Emin then said, “Why did not those Lazguis keep the grown men and women as well as the children?” Then he said, “O, good Sir, how can you be so ignorant of the world. The Armenians will never turn Mahomedans, if they were cut to pieces; nor are their women so beautiful as the Georgians; and in their slavery they are most unhappy; they are therefore ransomed by their own countrymen, and become free again.”

That very night [King Erekle II] asked Emin the reason of his not bringing the heads of two Lazguis, which, as he had been told, he killed in the action. Emin swore by his honour that it was not true; and declared honestly, that he did not even fire his piece at them; when he had an opportunity, showing the pan of it to the prince, that it was fresh and the muzzle not at all dirty. The prince said, “ Why so, my, Emin Agha?" Emin said, “May it please your Highness, they are my best friends. I have been treated by them like their own eyes, as it is known to all men; it would be dastardly for any man of the least principle, to hurt his friends without provocation; especially as it is against the law of nations, to attack these brave men who were called at the desire of prince Solomon and your son-in-law prince Archil his brother, and became the chief instruments of rescuing their principalities out of the hands of the cruel Turks.”

 The prince, at this reasonable answer, hung his head, and after casting his eyes five minutes on the ground, said to him, “May God reward you according to your heart!”