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There was indeed a canal leading from the one to the other, but it can only be passed at very high water, as it is much filled with drift sand. In Redutkale, a speculating Cossack host also received me, who had three little rooms for guests. According to the Russian calendar, this was the last day of August. On the 1st of September, the steamer was to come, and sail again after two hours.
But the most provoking thing of all is, that they stand still before every church they pass, bow half a dozen times, and cross themselves without end. When they are travelling, they stop their carriages to perform this ceremony. While I was at Redutkale a vessel sailed.
This was done, as I was told, less on account of nursing them than as a measure of safety. The former they would have received at the place they came from; but all the small villages between Redutkale and Anapka are still frequently disturbed by the Circassian-Tartars, who undauntedly break out from the mountains and rob and murder.
The passage from Redutkale to Kertsch, I was told, then frequently occupied twenty days. The sea is so rough that it is difficult to reach the stations, and sometimes the ship lies for days opposite them. If it should happen that a poor soldier has to proceed the whole distance, it is really a wonder that he should reach the place of his destination alive.
I therefore hastened to the commandant of the town to have my passport signed, and to request admittance to the ship. Government steamers ply twice every month, on the 1st and 15th, from Redutkale to Odessa, by way of Kertsch. Sailing vessels rarely offer an opportunity of passage.
From Tiflis our traveller proceeded across Georgia to Redutkalé, whence she made her way to Kertch, on the shore of the Sea of Azov; and thence to Sevastopol, destined a few years later to become the scene of a great historic struggle. She afterwards reached Odessa, one of the great European granaries, situated at the mouth of the Dniester on the Euxine.
If I wanted bread, or anything that my hosts had not got, I might seek for it myself. As I have said before, it is only for an officer that they will make any exertion. I call that a respectable Russian post! The boat did not start for Redutkale, a distance of eighty wersti, until the morning of the 11th.
I had two stages to reach the village of Marand, which lies on the river Ribon, where the post-cars are changed for a boat, by which the journey to Redutkale, on the Black Sea, is made. The first stage passes chiefly through fine woods, the second presents an open view over fields and meadows; the houses and huts are quite buried beneath bushes and trees.
12th September. Our boat did not go far. There was a smart breeze, and as we were already near the Black Sea, we were obliged to remain at anchor. 13th September. The wind had dropped, and we could, without danger, trust ourselves on the sea, upon which we had to sail for some hours, from the principal arm of the Ribon to that on which Redutkale was situated.
The little town of Redutkale may contain about 1,500 inhabitants. The men are so indolent that, during the five days that I passed here, I could not procure a few grapes or figs for love or money. I went daily to the bazaar, and never found any for sale.
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