The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-03-26
suasrings of Russian Spy In oircassia.

Dr. Wagner's book upon Caucasus and the Cos
sacks, among other interesting information, con
! taIns the following narrative of the adventures
RUSSIAN officer who went as a spy into Circassia
By the Emperor's command, Russian officers ac-
| qnanted with the language are sent, from time to
time, as spies into Circassia more particularly to
the land of the ubches and Tchigstes, two tribes
| that abide south of Circassia Proper, and whose
| language differs from those of the Circaisans and
Abchasans, their neghbors to the north and south
partly to make typographical surveys of districts
| previously unknown partly to ascertain the nhm-
bers, mode of life and disposition of those tribes,
with whom no intercourse is kept up. These mis-
siOns extremely dangerous, and seldom succeed.
Shortly before my arrival at Terek, four Russian
sta-officers were sent spies to various parts of
Lesghstan. They assumed the Caucasian garb,
and were attended by natives in Russian pay
Only one OF them ever returned: the three others
were recognized and murdered. Baron Turnau
prepared himself long beforehand for his dangerous
mission. He gave his complexion brownish tint
and to his beard the form affected by the aborgines
lie also tried to learn the language of the Ubiches,
but, finding the harsh pronunciation of certain
words quite unatanable, he agreed with his guide
to pass for deaf and dumb during his stay in the
country la this guise he set out upon his perilous
Journey, and for several days wandered undeteced
from tribe to tribe. But one of the yOrks noblesj
under whose roof he passed night, conceived sus-
piclons, and threatened the guide, who betrayed
oner, and the Ubiches demanded cap full Of silver
for his ransom from the Russian commandant of
Fort Ardler. When this officer declared himself
ready to pay, they increased their demand to a
bushel of silver rnbles The commandant referred
the matter to Baron Rosen, then COMMANDMENTS
chief of the army of the Caucasus the baron re-
ported it to St. Petersburg, and the Emperor con-
sented to pay the heavy ransom. But Rosen rep,
resented it to him as more for the Russian interest
to leave Turnau for while in the hands of the!
70 -, - e. -. H. -,
large sum was bad precedent, likely to encour-
age the mountaineers to renew the extortion instead
OF contentng themselves, as they previously had
done, with few hundred rubles and, secondly,
as prisoner, Baron Turnau would perhaps have
opportunities of gathering valuable information
corning country and people of whom little or
nothing was known. The unfortunate young Off
Ger was cruelty sacrificed to these considerations
and passed long winter in terrible captivity tor
tured by frost and hunger, compelled, as slave to |
The seyerest labor, and often greatly illtreated.
Several attempts at flight failed and at last the
chief, III whose hands he was, confined him in a |
cage half buried in the ground, and withal SO mar
row that its inmate could neither stand upright nor
lie at length. 4
Thus immured, prey to painful maladies, his |
clothes rotting on his enacated limbs, the unhappy
man moaned through his long and sleepless nights,
and gave up hope Of rescue. No tender-hearted \
Clrcassan maiden brought to him, to the hero of
Pushkin's well-known Caucasian poem, deliver |.
luce anu love- Sucn luck mad been that OF more /
than one Russian captive but poor Turnau, in his
state of filth and squalor, was no very seductive
object: He might have pinned away his life in his
cage, before Baron Rosen, or his paternal Majesty
he Gar, had recalled his fate to mind, but for an
injury done by his merciless master to one of his
iomestcs, who vowed revenge. Watching his op-
'ortunity, this servant one day that the rest of the
household were absent, murdered his lord, released
he prisoner, tied him with thongs upon his saddle,
lpon which the Baron, covered with sores and ex.
lausted by illness, was unable to support himself,
md galloped with him towards the frontier. In
me day they rode eighty uersts about fifiy-four
English mes,l outstripped pursuers, and reached
Fort Ardler. The accounts given by Baron Tur-
lau of the land of his captivity could be but slight
le had seen little beyond his place of confinement.
What he did relate was not very encouraging to
Russian invasion. He depicted the country as one
mass of rock and precipice, partially clothed with
'ast tracts of aboriginal Forest broken by deep
avines and mountain torrents, and surmounted by
he huge ice-clad pinnacles of the loftiest Cauca-
ian ridge. The villages, some of which nestle in
he deep recesses of the woods, whilst others are
erched upon steep crags and on the brink of giddy
recipces, are universally of most difficult access.