Bender and Ackerman likewise possess two castles of Genoese and Turkish construction: the latter situated on the liman of the Dniestr, has been abandoned; the former, which stands on the main road to Turkey, has a garrison. Between Bender and Khotin, on the banks of the Dniestr, are the ruins of a fourth fortress called Soroka, which merits a special description, inasmuch, as it is altogether different from the other edifices we have noticed in Southern Russia. It forms a circular enclosure of thirty-one metres, interior diameter. At four equidistant points of the circumference, stand as many towers, projecting externally in a semi-cylindrical form, whilst on the interior they are prismatic. Between the two towers on the river side, there is a fifth which commands the single gate of the castle. The interior diameter of the towers is 5.5 metres; the thickness of the walls is 3.8 metres. They have embrasures in the upper parts, and a few openings at various heights. All round the walls in the inner court there is a circular range of apartments on the ground, in tolerable preservation, and consisting of ten casemates seven metres deep, lighted only from within. They formed probably, the stables of the fortress. Above this range are the remains of an upper story, which, of course, served with the towers for lodging the garrison. The whole building exhibits the greatest solidity, and the mortar is wonderfully hard. But it is a bitter disappointment to the traveller that there are no inscriptions on the walls, or sculpture of any kind to fix the date of the edifice. The fortress never had ditches; its strength consists only in the height and thickness of its walls. The only entrance is towards the Dniestr, four or five yards from the scarp that flanks the river. This arrangement was probably adopted in order to secure a means of retreat, and of receiving provisions by way of the river.--The general appearance of the castle reminded me of the Roman fortresses erected against the barbarians, remains of which exist in many parts of Europe.
Bessarabia was justly considered, at the period referred to above, as one of the most fertile and productive provinces of the Black Sea. Ismael and Remy were its two great export markets for corn; Ackerman sent numerous cargoes of fruit and provisions of all kinds yearly to Constantinople; the magazines of the fortresses were profusely filled with wheat and maize; the countless flocks of the Boudjiak steppes supplied wool to the East and to Italy; and Austria alone drew from them annually upwards of 60,000 heads of cattle. Such were the circumstances of Bessarabia at the time when the Russians, in the worst moment of their disasters, at the very time when Napoleon was entering their ancient capital, had the courageous cleverness to obtain the cession of that province, and advance their frontier to the Danube, at the same time securing the inestimable advantage of being free to withdraw their troops from it, and march them against the invader.
When the Russians took possession, the Nogais, many tribes of whom had previously emigrated, completely forsook their old possessions, and withdrew beyond the Danube, and thus there remained in Bessarabia only the Moldavian population, who were Greek Christians, like the Russians. The conduct of the government towards the Bessarabians was at first as accommodating and liberal as possible. Official pledges were given them, that they should retain their own language, laws, tribunals, and administrative forms of all kinds. The governors of the country were chosen from among the natives, and the province remained in the full enjoyment of its commercial immunities and franchises, which were the grand bases of its agricultural prosperity. But these valuable privileges soon begot jealousies; the old administration fell into discredit through its own injudicious pretensions, and perhaps also in consequence of political intrigues against it, and it became exposed to the incessant hostility even of the boyars. The outcry was so great, that the Emperor Alexander, wishing to satisfy the population, determined that a new constitution should be framed, which should be more in harmony with the habits, the wants, and the state of civilisation of the country.