Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/107

Rh bags, and which we called, with Fischer, the riches of the nation.

We entered then the White Poland, a province seized from Poland at the first partition in 1773. From Homell we passed a country of twenty miles in extent, belonging formerly to Prince Radziwill, but now confiscated by the magnanimous Catherine, who took almost as much from General Oginski. The greater part of those domains belonged to the Russian Crown, some estates were given to Russians, and amongst them Romanzow. At Mohilew, formerly a royal domain, and now the seat of the government of the same name, we crossed once more the Dnieper. When we were changing horses before the post-house, a large crowd gathered around our carriage; it was more interest and compassion than vain curiosity that had brought them there to see us. I noticed an old Pole, wearing the national dress, whose countenance I shall never forget. He was a tall, thin looking man, about seventy years old, with an aquiline nose; his