'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎60] (91/714)

GO
PERSIA
as do nearly all the passenger steamers, at the Turkish ports of
Ineboli, Sinope, Samsun, and Trebizond, but ply direct to Batum,
which at the easv rate of nine knots can be reached in less than
three days from Constantinople.
1 was at Batmn for five days about a year before, detained by
one of those tremendous storms for which the Euxine has always
been famous (we all remember, though we may be ex-
popTiation cused from quoting, Byron's celebrated, if unsavoury,
of Batum r } lvme U pon that sea), 1 but little expected so soon again to
behold its beautiful but unattractive features. In the year's interval
I found that immense progress had been made by the Russians
in the development and strengthening of the place. It was only
eleven years since, by the Treaty of Berlin, they had first gained a
footing in Batum; and only three and a half years since, in violation
of that instrument, they had unceremoniously annexed what had,
till then, been nominally a free port. Batum is now a large and
increasing town, with an estimated population (though accurate
statistics, as is to be expected in Russia, are not forthcoming) of
30,000 persons, 2 of whom probably one-third are Russians, and
the remainder a motley congeries of Turks, Georgians, Circassians,
Mingrelians, Persians, Armenians, Greeks, Levantines, Jews,
English, Germans, French, Austrians, and, indeed, every nationality
in Europe. The town has that inchoate and adventitious appear
ance which is ordinarily associated with a new American settle
ment in the Far West. Palatial buildings alternate with hovels,
and broad streets terminate in quagmires and dust-heaps. The
sanitary conditions of the place are abominable, and the bulk of
the dwelling-houses are flimsily and wretchedly constructed.
During the hot season of the year 50 per cent, of the labouring
population are said to be disabled by sickness, and few residents
1 This is how, 200 years ago, Sir John Chardin, the great traveller, accounted
for the horrors of the Black Sea navigation : ' Now the reason why the storms
are more violent and dangerous in that than in other seas is because the waters
are contracted within a narrow channel and have no outlet; the Bosphorus not
being to be accompted for an outlet by reason it is so very straight. And there
fore, the waters being violently agitated by a storm, and not knowing where to
have room, and being strongly repelled by the shoar. they mount and rowl aloft
and beat against the ship on every side with an invincible swiftness and force.'
Travels into Persia, p. 156.
2 Contrast this with what Mr. Mounsey saw when touching at Batum in
18fi5 on his way to Persia : ' At present Batum contains nothing but some squalid-
looking huts.'