Page 48: "...The German colony established by Catherine the Great* at Ekaterinenfeld," [Katharinenfeld], "was utterely destroyed and the surviving inhabitants carried off to be sold as slaves in Istanbul."
Page11: "Here, in the magic land of Colchias, Medea cast her spells. Here Prometheus was chained by the gods to Mount Kazbek and an eagle sent to tear out his heart. Here gold-guarding griffins and one-eyed Arimaspains carried on their perpetual war....'I will transport the city beyond Mount Kaf," cried the magician in the Arabians Nights, 'and turn all its people into stones.' "
NOTES:
*Katharinenfeld was not founded by Catherine II "the Great", however, many of the Volga colonies were. Perhaps this is why Maclean thought it was. Katharinenfeld was not founded by Wurttemberg Germans until 1818 under the reign of Tsar Alexander I who died in 1825 and was preceeded by his brother Nicholas I.