Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/105

Rh Returning in a south-west direction towards the neighbourhood of the Palus Mæotis and the Black Sea, we come to the people of the Aphgasi, who dwell on the river Cupa, which flows into the said marshes [the Palus Mæotis] at the point where the mountains, inhabited by the Circassians or Ciki, meet the river Merula, which flows into the Black Sea. These people, relying on their mountain fastnesses, yield no obedience either to the Turks or the Tartars. The Russians assert that they are Christians, that they live under their own independent laws, conform to the Greek ceremonials and ritual, and perform their sacred service in the Sclavonic language, which, indeed, they use in general. They are most audacious pirates, and sail down to the sea by the rivers which flow from their mountains, and plunder whomsoever they can, especially those merchants who take the route from Caffa to Constantinople. Beyond the river Cupa is Mengarlia, which is washed by the river Eraclea, and after it comes Cotatis, which some think to be Colchis. After it we come to Phasis, which, before it meets the sea, but not far from its mouth, forms the island of Satabellum, where report states that the fleet of Jason once anchored. Beyond Phasis is Trapezus.

The marshes of the Taurica Chersonesus, which are said to extend three hundred Italian miles in length, from the mouths of the Don up to St. John's Headland, measure in the narrowest part only two Italian miles. There stands the city of Krim, formerly the seat of the kings of Taurida, from which they received the name of Krimskii. The whole isthmus being hollowed out in the form of an island, to the extent of a mile and a fifth, the kings took the name of Precopskii instead of Krimskii, deriving the term from that hollowing out; for precop in the Sclavonic language signifies "dug through", whence it is evident that a certain writer was in error, when he said that one Procopius had reigned