The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-05 00:00:00

THE AFRICAN MAILS.

PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY EVENING.
The American mail steamer Candace arrived
here this evening with the mails from the West.
Coast of Africa. She left Cameroons August 10,
Largos 17, Liberia 27, Sierra Leone Sept. 3, Tene-
rife 17, and Madeira 26.
Her freight consists of palm oil, gum, pepper,
cochineal, ivory, and 8,000 ounces of gold. The
Candace brings 20 passengers, among whom are the
President of Monrovia and secretary, the Hon.
Thomas Brown, &c.
There have been disturbances in the River
Bonny ; the chiefs are endeavouring to settle
matters. Trade had been suspended there in
consequence for five weeks.
The Hero, of and for Liverpool, struck on Bonny
Bar on the 9th of July, and foundered on the 11th,
50 miles off Fernando Po ; crew saved.
The American ship Hart went ashore in Monro-
via roads on the 31st of July, and became a total
wreck ; crow saved, but cargo partly damaged.
The barque Wellington, from London to Hobart
Town, was lost on the 29th July, on the Sanguin
coast of Monrovia ; crew saved ; master and mato
arrived here by the Candace.
The Sophia Moffatt, of London, from Singapore
for London, with a general cargo, took fire, and
was consumed on the 21st July, 150 miles off Sene-
gal ; crew saved.
Tier Majesty's ship Pluto was at Fernando Po.
A large number of her crew, including officers, were
sick.
The Britomart and Ferret were off Sierra Leone.
The mail steamer Forerunner was at Bathurst.
Two French war-steamers were at Goree.
The United States sloop of war Palo was at Ma-
deira.

AQUATIC FEAT.—On Saturday evening last two un-
dergraduates of Cambridge arrived in this city in a
couple of funnies or wager boats, having successfully
performed the unprecedented feat of rowing" across Eng-
land, viz., from Cambridge to Chester, in these fragile
and apparently unsuitable vessels. We are assured that
the difficulties and dangers of the expedition, arising
from mills, sluices, and rushes in the rivers (the last-
named occasionally blocking up the entire water course),
and from boats and locks in the canals, are not unwor-
thy in comparison with the cataracts of the Danube and
the whirlpools of the Rhine. The distance traversed
proved about 270 miles. One of the gentlemen, we may
remark, is a Cestram,—aelter COUMItt.

AKEZOUGUY ON THE SCHAIMA, July 4.—The Üboukh,
or Übiche, have leng enjoyed, among the Russians, and
those who have derived their- information from them,
the reputation of being the most ferocious mountaineers
of the Caucasus. Certain it is that they have shown
great bravery and perseverance in defending themselves
against Russian aggression, and this is probably why
they have been hitherto considered such savages. We
are the first Europeans who have ever penetrated to the
heart of their country, and we have only experienced
kindness and hospitality from them.
The geography of the Caucasus is very little under-
stood. The name " Circassia," from the Turkish
"Tcherkesse," is very generally, though most impro-
perly, applied to the whole of that very extensive
tract of country lying between the Black Sea and the
Caspian on the one hand, and the southern steppes of
Russia, and her Georgian provinces on the other ;
but it is only a portion of this territory—that near
the Black Sea, and inhabited by the Tcherkesse, or
Circassians—that is Circassia. But the ignorance in
these matters is so great that even Schamyl Bey is
unusually styled a great Circassian Chief ; and one of
your wise morningscontemporaries not long ago, actually
gave the news-that Schamyl had had an interview with
some English officers, somewhere on the shores of the
Black Sea ! Now Schamyl is not a Circassian ; it is
not certain that he has ever been in Circassia, and there
is probably not one Circassian in his army.
The chain of the Caucasus, which rises by a gentle
and gradual slope in the neighbourhood of Anapa, and,
stretching to the south-east, ends near Derbent, on the
Caspian, offers in its range numerous peaks of the
greatest altitude. Of these, the two most remarkable
are Mount Elbeuz, the highest, which attains 17,500 feet
above the sea ; and Mount Kazbek, the most central.
To the east of Mount Kazbek the hain is divided from
north to south by a narrow defile, known to the ancients
as the Caspian Gate, and in the present day as the
Terek Bogaz, or Dariel Pass. Through this pass runs
the great Russian military road which unites Mozdok to
Tiflis, and which is guarded by a numerous line of forts,
placed at a distance of from six to sixteen versts from
one another.
At the foot of Mount Elbeuz the Kuban takes its
origin ; at the foot of Mount Kazbek the Terek. Both
rivers are equally famous in the annals of the Caucasus.
They both run to the north for some distance, the Ku-
ban more so than the Terek ; then, both bending almost
at right angles, but in contrary directions, one shapes
its course to the west, to lose itself in a vast lake near
Anapa, on the Black Sea ; the other, flowing eastwards,
carries its waters to the Bay of Agrachanskoi, in the
Caspian. The Kuban and the Terek, with the help of
the mountains, thus circumscribe two portions of terri-
tory, respectively situated near the Black Sea and the
Caspian, and have between them a tolerably large tract
of country, resting on the central portion of the chain of
the Caucasus, and limited to the north by the Malka,
tributary of the Terek. From Mount Elbeuz to the
Black Sea at Soukum Kald, with the Kuban to the
north and east, the sea and the mountains to the west
and south, is Circassia ; from the Kazbek to the Cas-
pian, with the Terek to the north and west, the moun-
tains and the sea to the south and east, lies Daghestan ;
lastly, between Mount Elbeuz and the Kazbek, between
the Kuban and the Terek, where they are parallel, is
Kabarda in the plains, and the Karatzai, Baksan,
goner, Ourouspi, and other territories on the higher
grounds.
Toe Russians are masters of the entire course of the
Terek and of the Malka ; they also occupy both banks
of the Kuban and the east bank of the Laba, a branch
of the Kuban. They have made military roads and
built forts along these rivers, driving before them such
of the inhabitants as preferred exile to the loss of their
liberty. The country between the Laba and the Kuban,
and between the Kuban and the Terek, inhabited by the
Kabardas, Karatzai, &c., has thus been forced into en-
tire submission, and a military road driven right through
it, and over the mountains into Georgia by the Dariel
Pass. But the Russians have never been able to ascend
the other branches of the Kuban or of the Terek ; on
these, and on the hills where they spring, the inhabi-
tants have been able to defend themselves, and have
remained free, although hemmed in on all sides, and con-
stantly exposed to the attack of expeditionary columns.
There exist, therefore, at present, in the Caucasus,
two centres of independence—Daghestan, to the east of
the Razbek aid of the Russian military road ; and Cir-
cassia, to the west of Mount Elbeuz; separated from
each other by a line of forts and a broad tract of con-
quered country, Kabarda, Karatzai, &b. But Daghes-
tan and Circassia do not only differ because they are
geographically disconnected ; their inhabitants are also
essentially different. In Daghestan the tribes are all of
Tartar origin, talking a Tartar or Turkish dialect. The
principal are Tchetchen, the Lesghis, the Kisty, and the
Keumouk. They were converted early to the Mahome-
tan faith, and are rigid observers of its ordinances ; their
mollahs have al ways enjoyed among them a high repu-
tation for piety and learning ; and at various times they
have been united under leaders claiming a holy mission,
and exercising a religious as well as a military authority.
Of these, by far the most illustrious and successful is the
present Scheik, Schamyl.
In Circassia, Tartars are certainly to be found ; the
Nogai between the Kuban and the Laba, and towards
the bend of the former, are Tartars. But the majority
of the people belong to a peculiar race. They are Adighe,
Tcherkesse, or Circassians. Tcherkesse is a Turkish
word, of which we have made " Circassian." " Adighe"
is what the people call themselves. The Adighe are
spread all over Circassia ; they have probably lived here
from a very remote period ; they have no tradition of
the time they came here, nor of the place they came
from. Bnt they say that the Franks once lived among
them, and point to certain artificial mounds, scattered
over the country, as their burial places—a curious tradi-
tion, if compared with the opinion advanced by the cele-
brated Dieffenbacb, that most of the races living in
Europe in the present day originated in the Caucasus.
The Adighe are divided into several tribes. It would
be more proper to say that the Adighe country, Circas-
sia, is divided into several provinces, each of which
gives its name to the people who live in it ; for a Circas-
sian tribe is not a collection of people, followers of one
chief; and originally descended from one common ances-
tor ; it is simply the inhabitants of one or more valleys
brought in contact by the circumstance of neighbour-
hood or the geographical conformation of their country ;
and when predatory habits were common to all the
inhabitants of the Caucasus, they linked together to
plunder with greater success, or to defend their per-
sons or their property. In general they recognised
no chief, hereditary or other, but always selected one
for every expedition, Living in a country where there
are many and great natural obstacles to frequent inter-
course, it is not strange that the ties of a common origin
should have been forgotten amongst such members of
the great Adighe family as were settled at a distance
from one another, and that predatory habits amongst a
warlike people should give rise to implacable feuds that
made the separation still greater. Thus the Üboukh, or
Übiche, on the inaccessible hills sloping towards the
Black Sea between the valleys, or rather ravines of the
Soubeshe and Sotcha rivers, isolated by their position
for years carried on war for the sake of plunder and
making prisoners,
with the Adighe furthest from them,
the Mochon on the Laba, and the Besline on the Ku-
ban.

The most remarkable fact in the history of the Cau-
casus is, that all these tribes, after having been so long
hostile to ono another, seeing their country become an
easy prey to the Russians from their division, have at
last, with one accord, laid aside their own quarrels, and
even their plundering habits, to fight against their com-
mon enemy ; and this has been effected by the influence
of Schamyl and his emissaries, and by the more general
conversion of the Adighe to the Mahometan faith.
It is a great many years since Scheik Schamyl first
attempted to unite the Adighe, and bring them to co-
operate with him against the Russians, and for this
purpose he sent among them one of his followers, Hadgi
Mahmoud ; but Hadgi Mahmoud died soon after his ar-
rival in Circassia, and does not seem to have had time
to do much. Scheik Schamyl is not easily disconcerted,
and in 1844 he sent another envoy, in the person of Mo-
hammed Ervin Effendi, one of his most distinguished fol.
loweri, and a man every way fitted to become the worthy
coadjutor of Schamyl in Western Caucasia. He is the
present Naib. But in the interval the Russians had
conquered the plains of Kabarda, and were masters
also of the hills of the Karatzai ; and it became a diffi-
cult and perilous task to penetrate into Circassia from
Daghestan. A Kabradal promised his assistance, and
the Naib first proceeded stealthily to his house, and was
concealed there some time. At last an opportunity
presented itself, and the Naib, with the Kabardai and
all his family, fled together, and reached safely the other
side of Kuban. The Kabardai could not have safely re-
mained in his country after sheltering an envoy of
Scheik Schamyl ; so that his hospitality cost him his
home.

One would have scarcely believed that the Nalb,
arriving a fugitive in a country where he was a perfect
stranger, could ever have acquired the influence he now
possesses. He brought with him proclamations from
Schamyl, whose reputation and successes were well
known in Circassia. The Abezacks, among whom he
first arrived, were the first to recognise him as their
governor, and all the Adighe race soon followed their
example. The Natl.) introduced into the country
Mahometan institutions, and the Government of the
Koran. The Circassians were already Mussulmans by
name, but they were very ignorant of their religion,
and very lax in its forms. But now mosques and
mehkemes rapidly appeared all over the country.
Civil warfare soon stopped, all quarrels being amicably
arranged by the interference of the Nail). Such
of the tribes as would not give up their predatory habits
were compelled to do so vi et armis ; individual robbers
were severely punished, and forced to pay a good deal
more than the value of the stolen goods. A regular
police was appointed—two policemen for every hundred
houses ; and a salary of a hundred roubles, nearly 161.
per annum, payable in kind, was assigned to them. To
cover the public expenses, the tenth part of the produce
(according to Mohometan custom) was set aside, and
this was divided into three portions ; one third was as-
signed to the mollahs and kadis, one-third to the poor
and to the students at the mosques, and one-third to
the Naib for hie own maintenance, and every other

On the coast from Anapa to Touabs, extending inland
to the Pzass branch of the Kuban, live the Netconage
and the Shapsough ; this will bo the Shapsough pro-
vince. Between the Pzass and the Laba, in a succession
of the richest and most fertile plains, rising gradually to
the mountains towards the south, are the Abezack.
Their territory formerly reached the Kuban, but they
have been forced to abandon the ground between the
Kuban and the Laba, and indeed territory several miles
broad to the west of the Laba. Blended with the Abe-
zack are a number of less important tribes—the Bza-
douh, the Kemgouy, the Hatookoy, the Mochon—which
are scarcely as distinguishable now—as well as a number
of fugitive Nogoi, Kabardai, and others, who have pre-
ferred leaving their country to submitting to the Rus-
sians. The Abezack province is by far th richest and
most important part of Circassia. To the south of
Touabs, and as low down as Gagri, on the southern de-
clivity of the mountains, are the Üboukh, with whom
may be included several less important fractions of the
Adighe race. The Üboukh is the most mountainous in-
habited country in Circassia.

The people -I
have just enumerated—Netconage,
Shapsough, Abezack, Üboukh, &c., all, speak one
language, the Adighabza ; there certainly are a few
occasional particulars in each country, but they are
not important—they all understand each other. In some
of the valleys there exists also a patois, spoken almost
entirely by the serfs, and which is,probably Adighabza,
corrupted and mixed with the language of serfs, all ori-
ginally prisoners of war, and of various origin.
Besides the above-mentioned tribes, the Kabardai
between the Terek and the Kuban, and the Beslinei
between the Kuban and the Laba, are also Adighe,
speaking Adighabza ; but, as they have been conquered,
they cannot be counted among the free Circassians.
There is another race besides the Adighe, which has
also given inhabitants to Circassia—it is the Abaza or
Abktaze. Where these people came from, and what
relationship they bore originally to the Adighes, I can-
not say ; but there certainly exists in the country tribes
so called, and so calling themselves, and talking a pecu-
liar language—the Ezrabza. The Alma tribes live to
the south of the Üboukh, on the coast between Gagri
and Soukum Kald. The Üboukh despise them supremely,
and say they are great cowards. The Abaza in general
have shown themselves friendly to the Russians.
There are some Abaza also on the north slope of
the mountains, near the source of the Laba ; these are
the Bengh, Baraki, Chegirei, Kisbekonage ; they are
independent, and the Naib has sent among them a de-
puty in the person of Degonary Effendi, who has esta-
blished a mehkem4 there, and governs them. The Naib
has not yet attempted to do anything with the A.baza,
on the coast.

There are few Tartars in free Circassia, and these aro
almost all Nogoi fugitives. The Karatzai who live be-
tween Mount Elbeuz and the Kazbek seem to be Tar-
tars, but their language offers a curious peculiarity—it
contains a great many Persian words. Whether this is
to be traced to the passage of Nadir Shah in the Cau-
casus during the last century, or to the presence of the
Persians here at an earlier period, I must leave for
others to decide.