“Omer Pacha, gradually overcoming the difficulties of that deficiency in transports found himself at the head of about 15,000 troops in Abasia, a good many of these being his own trustworthy veterans. He had gradually edged them down towards redoubt Kaleh, which he fixed on as his basis of operations. On the 30th Shemserai was secured, and, having driven in the Russian outposts from Sogdidi and endeavoured to open relations with Schamyl, while conciliating the Princess Dalian and the Christian population in his own neighbourhood, he moved inland in a south-eastern direction. But, owing to the difficulties of the country, which is an entanglement of woods interspersed with very rich but neglected farm lands, and owing still more to the precariousness and uncertainty of any supplies from the inhabitants, his progress was extremely slow. He did all that lay in his power, purchasing provisions in every direction, and organizing, as his principal resource, a regular commissariat at Redoubt Kaleh. The river Phasis, which flows from the Caucasus to the Euxine, is navigable for nearly a hundred miles from the sea; and he had hoped to have availed himself of this channel for important manœuvres. His plan was this:--The first strong Russian post was at Kutais, where the great high road--by Gori, into Georgia, and down to Tiflis--would take his advancing columns over the celebrated Soorem Pass. Once master of Kutais, and with his communications well secured upon the Black Sea along his rear line, he hoped either to be able to defeat all the local Russian garrisons and posts between Soorem and the capital of the fertile province lying beyond and below it, or else to recall by the terror of his progress the army of General Mouravieff, then menacing Armenia, and beleaguering Kars. In either case a great blow would be struck, and the hard-pressed troops of General Williams relieved. Then, should it even prove too late to advance permanently that year beyond Mingrelia, he could at least strengthen himself in Kutais, make it his new centre for future operations, and call up, meantime, additional forces for the campaign of spring. General Mouravieff would then be pressed from the side of Armenia, where he was now acting offensively, and from the side of Imeretia, on which he would be thrown also upon the defensive. But it was already too late; and the Russian chief knew it. Well informed of the true state of the Kars garrison, he never disquieted himself, or in the slightest altered his plans, in consequence of Omer Pacha’s diversion. Should the Muchir even beat the militia which now guarded the northern gorges of Georgia, he felt sure that it would all come to the same result. The season, the floods, scarcity, would compel the victor to retreat; much more would such become his necessity if, in the interim, he, General Mouravieff, should succeed in reducing Kars, and, while thus liberating his own army for an encounter with the Ottoman, should