It is obvious how very formidable this people would become, were they ever to be united under the govern ment of one chief. A nation of mountaineers, however, it is to he observed, who are forced, for the sake of pas ture and water, to fix themselves upon the banks of the detached rivers, soon forget their origin, and are divided into separate and hostile tribes. This is so much the case with the Circassians of the Kuban, and their power is therefore so inconsiderable, that they are scarcely known even to the Russians but by the general appellation of Kuban Tartars, in which they are confounded with their neighbours the Archaseans and the Nagair.
The branch of this nation most interesting to the his torical enquirer, is that usually called the Great and the Little Kabarda ; and this, both in respect of its own importance, and of its varied intercourse of war or peace, particularly with the adjoining great empire of Russia. The Kabardines, It is to be observed, hold themselves to be of Arabian origin; and not improbably they are the remains of the armies formerly sent by the caliphs against Caucasus ; others deduce them from the Mamelukes. General tradition, confirmed by still sub sisting names, skews, that they formerly inhabited the Crimea. At what period they extended their posses sions along the banks of the Kuban, and in the country of the Bcshtan, cannot, at present, be easily discovered. Is is probable that they were first subject to the rulers of Georgia, together with a considerable part of the Cau casus. After the separation of that kingdom in the six teenth century, and particularly after the defection of the provinces of Mingrelia, Guriel, and Abassa, they be came subject to the Khan of Crhnea. In the same cen tury they submitted to the protection of the Czar, Ivan Vassilizvitch, who, about the year 1560, married a princess of their country. In the 17th century they again acknowledged the sovereignty of the Crimea ; and when, in the beginning of the 18th century, they at tempted to shake off this yoke, the Khan penetrated in to their territory, and drove them before him to the mountains extending towards the source of the Baksan, where. they fortified themselves with stone mounds erect ed in the defiles, which, to this day, have retained the name of the Crimean walls. Having, by a piece of the most nefarious treachery, extricated themselves from the dangerous situation in which they were thus placed, they felt the necessity, in order to avoid the consequences, of soliciting anew the protection of Russia. While they re cognise the superior authority of this power, the Kabar dines have continued to live in a state of immediate sub mission to their native princes, the three families of which rank acknowledged amongst them, they pretend have all been derived from the same source. The nobles, or usdens, are divided into the ancient equestrian nobility, and such as hold that dignity from others, or the usden of usden.. The third class is that of the vassals, or peo ple, some of the circumstances in whose condition have already fallen under observation. A certain number of these is allotted to, and placed under the jurisdiction of each princely family. In these divisions respectively, the eldest individual is considered as chief of the family, judge, protector, and father of all the vassals attached to it. Out
of this order, the princes have the privilege of raising whom they please to the rank of nobility, but they are equally empowered to deprive them, if they see fit, even of every thing that they possess.
The Circassians arc understood to have been descend ed from the Alanians, who settled on the northern side of the Caucasus soon after it had been occupied by the Yazamates. By them, or by races collaterally related to them, possession was gradually taken of the southern re gions adjacent to the Kuban. During the empire of the Chazares, the Byzantine emperors appear to have exer cised a sort of paramount supremacy over this nation. The Circassians, however, remained truly independent in the upper regions of the mountains, and were still in pos session of the whole eastern coast of the Sca of Azof as far as the Don. They rendered themselves masters of Kertsch in the Crimea, made frequent incursions into that peninsula, and into other European countries, formed the basis of the then rising Caucasian tribes, and founded a famous dynasty in Egypt. They continued equally un subdued, amidst the mighty changes every where effect ed about the close of the 14th century by the arms of the great Timur, and afterwards in face of the incursions of the Ottomans. While in the middle of the 16th century, as has been already stated, they, or a principal part of them, acknowledged for a short time the authority of the Czar Ivan II. of Russia, they yet about the same period formed, in conjunction with some of his native subjects, the state of the Don Cossacks, retaining possession of all the islands of the Lower Kuban, the whole of its south ern banks, and the regions contiguous to the Euxine. Subsequently to that era, this people, or portions of them, have, in respect to dependence, been in the state of vi cissitude, of which some of the steps have been already noted, holding at one time of the khan of the Crimea, at another of the Porte, at another of Russia. Ever since the conquest of the Upper Kabarda by Ivan IL, the sove reigns of the latter empire have been accustomed to style themselves lords of the Kabardinian countries of the Cir cassians and mountain princes. The reality of pow., which has been far from being ever since connected with this sounding title, has, in recent times, been in some de gree attached to it. Between the years 1740 and 1750, the princes of the Great and Little Kabarda several times took the oaths of fealty to Russia. And the separation of the Asiatic territories, usually comprehended under the general appellation of Circassia, having in 1783 been recognised to be made by the river Kuban, all the dis tricts and stems in those parts, situated in the islands of the Lower Kuban, along the whole southern shore of that river up to its source, and in the regions bordering on the Euxine as far as Auchasia, have, since that period, been held to be in a state of proper subjection to the Rus sian empire. The Circassians, in both the Great and Lit tle Kabarda, are reckoned among the vassals of that power.