CHAPTER VII.

THE RUSSIANS AT BATOUM.

Batoum at Night-More Tame than Heroic-Difference between the Caucasus Army and the Army in India-Poti versus BatoumDrawbacks of Poti-A Costly Mole-History and Future of the Port-Its Rival, Batoum-Extraordinary Development of the Place The Turkish Defences-Secret Russian Armaments-New Batoum-Russian Improvements-The Bay of Batoum-New Harbour Works in Progress-Mr. Peacock, the British ConsulBenefit conferred on Russia by Europe in making Batoum a Free Port-The Contraband Trade at Batoum-The Caucasus Transit -How Smuggling is Carried on-The Petroleum Export Trade at Batoum-Export of Oil in 1883-Future of Batoum.

Ir was about nine o'clock at night (Aug. 24) when the Grand Duke Michael entered Batoum harbour, and took up a station alongside the wooden jetty. Up to that moment we had had excellent weather, but the rain now fell in torrents. "At Batoum," said a resident to us, putting on his macintosh, "it always rains, just as at Baku rain never falls at all." This was a somewhat exaggerated way of putting the case, but, generally speaking, for the greater part of the year, wet weather prevails in the Batoum corner of the Black Sea, while extreme dryness is the characteristic of the Caspian at Baku. The backbone of the Lesser Caucasus, running south-west of the Great Caucasus range, divides the Transcaucasian region into two wholly different climates -as widely diverse in their characteristics as Devonshire and Sahara. Batoum catches the rain from the heavily

laden clouds from the Black Sea striking against the mountains at its rear, while Baku lies entirely open to the desiccating effects of the heat radiating from the sands of Central Asia.

The captain wanted us to stop on board the vessel all night; but we had been cooped up from Monday till Friday, and were only too glad to get ashore. Selecting some of the bare-legged, ragged, Turkish-looking mushirs, or porters, crowding the head of the pier, we made them shoulder our luggage, and filed off in the direction of the Hôtel de France, situated [about three minutes' walk from the landing-stage. In any other country the train for Tiflis and the interior of the Caucasus would have been arranged to leave immediately after the arrival of the steamer, but in Russia time is a commodity of no value. Hence the steamer arrives at Batoum at nine at night, and the train leaves at eight or nine the next morning. On this account, passengers are compelled to pass a night at Batoum, and this circumstance has given rise to two hotels, the Hôtel de France and the Hôtel d'Europe. The former is the larger establishment, and is located in an extensive and commodious building close to the station. The] rooms are well furnished; the charges are high, but not exorbitant; and a decent dinner can be had any time up to midnight. The chief drawback is a want of civility, arising probably from the fact that the majority of travellers only pass a night there, and never repeat their visit. In course of time the break at Batoum will no doubt be done away with, and the journey to Baku will then be shortened by half a day.

From what we had heard, we considered ourselves in jeopardy from attack on our persons and property the moment we got ashore. Revolvers were disposed in our pockets ready for action, and with a stout oak cudgel apiece we mounted guard over the mushirs, keeping one

eye on them, that they did not bolt into the darkness with our effects, and the other on the black expanse around us, in case ferocious footpads should suddenly start up and bar the way. These exaggerated precautions, we afterwards found, were altogether unnecessary. Batoum is as tame as any ordinary foreign port, and the traveller who lands there is safer with the mushirs than the foreigner usually is who confides himself to the tender mercies of wherrymen and waterside porters on the river Thames. Outside Batoum, in the savage and inaccessible mountains, robbers exist and frequently attack the sportsman or the traveller on the post-road; but, although street robberies and burglaries are not unknown at Batoum, the place is probably quite as safe to live in as any port on the Continent.

Arrived at the hotel, we secured our rooms, gave up our passports to be registered, and adjourned for supper to the dining saloon, where we found about a score of officers and officials assembled and boisterously enjoying themselves. Only a battalion or so of troops is maintained inside the free port of Batoum; the rest of the garrison is established in force outside, where it guards the arsenal of eighteen and twenty-five ton guns and other weapons lying ready to be despatched into the place the moment Russia declares war next time against Turkey, or tears up the Berlin Treaty. Close to the pier are corrugated iron barracks for several thousand troops. These were almost entirely unoccupied while I was there, but late in the autumn they are crowded with recruits arriving at Batoum from Russia to join the army of the Caucasus, and in winter by timeexpired soldiers on their way home. The army of the Caucasus is very different in one important essential from our own in India-excluding the irregular cavalry, the whole of the troops are Russians. The Caucasus contains no Sepoys. On the other hand, while we in