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SUANETIA 227
to resist in force their relief over the Latpari Pass from Mingrelia.
The Russians thi-ew 300 Kabardan Militia into the valley by the
Betsho Pass. Captain Telfer has related from Russian sources the
story of the disturbance and its suppression, which was effected
without any fighting, except in the dislodgment of an obstinate
ringleader from his tower, where he had to be formally bombarded
with a howitzer.
Even this warning, however, did not suthce to convince the
Government of the expediency of impressing its strength on the
handful of unruly mountaineers. Temporary tranquillity was j)nr-
chased by concessions, and no force adequate to overawe the tur-
bulent communities was left in the district. Tlie result was
lamentable. During
the summer of 1876 a small detachment of
soldiers was sent to Kala, a group of villages at the northern foot
of the Latpari Pass, to arrest a fugitive criminal. The Suanetians
fled to their towers and took up arms in defence of the right of
asylum.
At nightfall the Russian force retreated from the hamlet,
having lost its three officers, and leaving dead Colonel Hrinevsky,
'the Chief of Captain Telfer's narrative, and his intei'preter, who
were shot through the roof of a barn. Such an outrage was too
much even for the patience of the Caucasian authorities. The
Government inflicted an adequate, but by no means excessive
retribution, made a great many good resolves as to new roads and
other measures, and tightened to some extent, as it might well
have done earlier, the reins of administration. Troops
and moun-
tain-guns crossed the Latpari. At first the Suanetians from their
towers defied the invader, after the manner of Orientals ; but they
had reckoned without artillery.
the stones about their ears.
The mountain-guns soon brought
Iprari
is now a collection of barns
without towers ; its teeth are drawn. A certain number of its
inhabitants have had experiences of Siberia, and, strange to say,
returned to tell them. The authorities at Vladikavkaz are less
lenient than those of Tiflis. A late connnandant of Ciscaucasia
justified the capital punishment of brigands by the judicious remark
that to send men from the climate of the mountains to Siberia
would be to put a premium on crime !