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P Bohopol Jan:y 16: 1786
I have within this hour my dear Father, received
your letter of the 4th of Nov:r and though
I hope to be the bearer of this it myself as far
as Crichoff which will be its most expeditious
if not nearest-route, yet having a few hours,
if not days, of necessary leisure, I can not employ
the present moment better than by sitting down
under the first impressions to acknowledge the
pleasure d which yours afforded me. The letter that puzzled
you never passed through the hands of
Mr Milford. I mention this that you may
let him see it by the first opportunity:
As the time of its reaching you would be uncertain,
I made use of a 3d person to
convey to my Brother with speed, such part
of its contents as it might be material he should
be informed of.
You do not mention your having received
the parcel I sent you from Paris by
Capt. Brook, it contained Stockings, gloves
&c of Beaver & Vigugna wool. I thought I
had mentioned it in one of my letters by
post, besides one which was to accompany
the parcel.
As to the news about Prince's appointment
it might have been good, had it
been true: it might have been true, and may at
any time if he pleases, but was not then
whatever it may be. So sayd a person
at Constantinople who if it had been true
could not but have known. [P.S. After all it
actually is true the reason of it being denied to me so late
as Dec:r by the Russian Envoy at Constantinople is perfectly inconceivable. Feb: 16th
Against you revisit Bath, the seat of
chitchat and gambling, I will give you an
instruction by which you may make a fortune.
Whenever you see in a newspaper an article from Petersburgh,
lay 2 to one if from Constantinople, 5 to one;
that it is not true. At the latter place I amused
myself with reading accounts of I know
not what commotions at a time when they
were as quiet as Lambs: and every body concurred
in assuring me that it was rare to find
an article purporting to come from that capital
that had a syllable of truth in it. If such be
the case in this enlighten'd age when correspondences
are so abundant and so publick &
where
where Falshood as it should seem could not
tread a step without feeling Detection at its
heels, how must it have been in days of yore
when printing was unknown, and how uncertain
must be the lights that can be derived
from even the most rational and best attested
histories?
All this while you are wondering where I
am — You must have some patience before
you can collect the first intelligence which
a man usually obtains from his correspondent
From Maps and Gazetteers, even the freshest
and most particular you would look for it
in vain. Know then that Bohopol, the
place village from whence I date is in that part
of the Ukraine (as we choose to term it, though by
the inhabitants themselves it is termed Granik)
which remains in Poland: yet so that
into Turkey could I cast forth one shoe,
and into Russia the other. Spread out before
you your map of Europe, as I do mine which
is its fellow. In Little Tartary you will find
a river named Bog, joining the Dnieper
at Oczakow. We call it here the Booh,
but you in England being free may stile it
as you please. To the right of this river you
will find one without a name running into
it near a place called Ponowa: it is almost
eclipsed by the daubing which is intended to
mark the division between Little Tartary and
the Polish province stiled in the Map Poldolia.
This river is called here the Sinyuka
or Shinyuka. Bohopol is situated in one of
the angles formed by the junction of these two
rivers. By the Bog, it is separated from
the Turkish territory: by the Shinyuka from
the Russian. On the Russian side stands a
a little village, or to speak by curtesy a town,
called Olviopol or Olviople: on the Turkish side
another called Holsa ..... The Russian [+]
may contain about 150 or 200 houses, the Polish
about threescore; the Turkish about as many.
The Russian town is compact; the Polish, scatter'd the Turkish
Olviopol is seems to have been the parent of the other still more so.
In the Russian post there is a Colonel with 200 men, in
the Polish a Lieutenant with 12: in the Turkish no sign.
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Identifier: | JB/540/240/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1786-01-16 |
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540 |
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240 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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