Next morning the custom-house officer, who, in inviting him to pass the night in his house, had intended to protect him from this species of robbery, furnished him with a guide, and two men to carry his luggage; and with this escort, in addition to his hopeful valet, he departed for Akalziké. The road at first lay through a plain, but at length began to ascend, and pierce the defiles of the Caucasus; and as he climbed higher and higher among the precipitous and dizzy heights of this sublime mountain, among whose many peaks the ark is supposed to have first taken ground after the deluge, and from whence the stream of population flowed forth and overspread the world with a flood of life, he felt the cares, solicitudes, and sorrows which for many months had fed, as it were, upon his heart, take wing, and a healing and invigorating influence spread an exquisite calm over his sensations. This singular tranquillity, which he experienced on first reaching these lofty regions, still continued as he advanced, notwithstanding the rain, the hail, and the snow which were poured on him by the tempest as he passed; and in such a frame of mind he attained the opposite side of the mountain, upon whose folding slopes he beheld numerous villages, castles, and churches, picturesquely scattered about, and at length descended into a broad and beautiful valley, cultivated with the greatest care, and fertilized by the waters of the Kur. Arriving without accident or adventure at Akalziké, and remaining there four days to repose himself, he departed for Georgia. The route now presented nothing extraordinary. A castle or a ruin, picturesquely perched upon the crest of a rocky eminence, a church, or a village, or a forest—such were the objects which met the eye. He at length reached the Capuchin convent in the vicinity of Gory, whence, after mature consultation with the monks, who, for strangers, entered with extraordinary earnestness into his views, he set out, accompanied by a lay-brother of the order, for Tiflis, partly with the design of demanding aid from the Prince of Georgia, and partly to obtain the advice of the principal missionary respecting the steps he ought to take in order to deliver his partner and property from the avaricious hands of the Mingrelians. The opinion of the monks was, that since the Prince of Georgia entertained rather loose notions respecting his allegiance to the King of Persia, whose servant Chardin was to be considered, and, like all petty potentates, was possessed by extreme cupidity and laxity of principle, there would in all probability be as much danger in being aided by him, as in depending on the uncertain will of fortune and his own prudence and ingenuity; that he ought to return secretly to Mingrelia; and that, for the greater chance of success, he should take with him one of the brotherhood, who was deeply versed in the small politics of those countries; and a native dependent on the monastery, who