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LETTERS FROM THE ^GEAN. 
 
 VOL. ]. 
 
 V 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street. 
 
^ Y. m .A. 
 
LETTERS FROM THE .EGEAN. 
 
 BY JAMES EMERSON, ESQ. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1829. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Getty Research Institute 
 
 https://archive.org/details/lettersfromaegea01tenn 
 
TO 
 
 THE REV. JOHN O. OLDFIELD, a.b. &c. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF ELPHIN, 
 
 RECTOR OF ARDCARN, &c. 
 
 AND 
 
 CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF ELPHIN, 
 
 IN RE3IEMBRANCE OF EARLY FRIENDSHIP, 
 
 THESE VOLUMES ARE DEDICATED 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 London^ Lincoln's Inn^ 
 Dec. 1828 . 
 

 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 In the publication of the following pages, 
 I am to be looked upon in the light of an 
 Editor rather than an Author; since, though 
 their composition is my own, I am indebted to 
 some of my friends for a portion of the matter 
 which they contain. In a former work,* to 
 which I was a contributor, I had endeavoured 
 to convey an idea of the situation of Greece 
 and the Islands, at an interesting period of 
 
 * A Picture of Greece in 1825, as exhibited in the narra¬ 
 tives of James Emerson, Esq., Count Pecchio, and W. H. 
 Humphreys, Esq., 2 vols. 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 their present struggle for liberty. Lately, 
 however, on coming to look - over my notes, 
 I found that I had still remaining many cha¬ 
 racteristic sketches of manners and scenery, 
 which, though perhaps amusing in themselves, 
 were properly omitted in a work, whose object 
 was less picturesque than political, and whose 
 details were confined almost exclusively to the 
 Morea and Roumeli. These I employed some 
 leisure hours in collecting into their present 
 form, and a portion of them has already ap¬ 
 peared in the pages of the New Monthly 
 Magazine, under the title of “ Letters from 
 the Levant.” Here the share of attention 
 which they have attracted has been highly 
 gratifying; and amongst other flattering tri¬ 
 butes which they have received, I cannot avoid 
 particularizing a very beautiful translation of 
 a portion of them into Spanish, by Don Pablos 
 de Mendibil. At the suggestion of Mr. Col¬ 
 burn, I have now completed the series; and 
 although the information contained in the letters 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 was collected at various periods, and during 
 several excursions on the shores of the ^gean 
 and the isles of the Archipelago, I have preferred 
 uniting them in one connected narrative; taking 
 advantage occasionally of the remarks of those 
 who have visited the Levant before me, and 
 inserting the suggestions of my travelling 
 companions;, as well as availing myself of 
 their journals to supply me with descriptions 
 of those points which had not come under my 
 own observation. For this permission, I have 
 to acknowledge my obligations to J. J. Scoles, 
 Esq., whose name I have already mentioned 
 in the body of the work; to R. J. Tennent, 
 Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn, and Belfast, Ireland, 
 and to my late esteemed and unfortunate 
 friend Edward H. Thomson, Esq., of London, 
 who, in the too eager pursuit of knowledge, 
 fell an early victim to the climate of the 
 Levant. 
 
 As to those portions of the narratives intro¬ 
 duced in the letters to which I was not myself 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 an eye-witness, I have had them from autho¬ 
 rity on which I could depend, and my own 
 observation has fully served to corroborate the 
 reports of others. 
 
 J. EMERSON. 
 
 Lincoln’s Inn, 
 
 Dec. 1, 1828. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 SUNIUM—THE CYCLADES—SCIO, &c. &c. 
 
 Temple of Minerva Sunias at Cape Colonna.—Singu¬ 
 lar effects of the Sirocco Wind.—Temple of Sunium, 
 splendidly situated.—Sunset in Greece.—Comparative 
 impressions of Dawn and Sunset at Sea. Zeao—Cyth- 
 nos.—A Sabbath at Sea.—The Island of Syra.—Greek 
 Merchant and Family.—Destruction of a Turkish Cor¬ 
 vette.— Political condition of the Syriots.—A Greek 
 Dessert. — Straits of Scio.—-Sciot Refugee.—Town of 
 Seio.—Massacre on the Island, in 1823.—Story of Phro- 
 sine Kalerdji .... 1 27 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 SMYRNA. 
 
 The Bay of Smyrna.— Shipping.—Fruit.—View of the 
 City.—Crowd on the Beach.—The British Consul.— 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Bond-street, &c.—Fruit-market.—Bazaars.—Populace. 
 
 — Turkish honesty— Paras-Armenians_Arrival of 
 
 his Friend.—Singular story of the former.— 
 Evening Party.—Greek Ballad, The Mother of the 
 
 Kleft.”—Death of W-.—Imposition of the Officers 
 
 of the Harbour.—A Fire.—Funeral of W - 28—62 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 THE SiMYRNlOTS. 
 
 Smyrna scarcely done justice to by European Tra¬ 
 vellers.—Its remains of Antiquity_River Meles_Mo¬ 
 
 dern Town.—Important change going on in the Bay.— 
 Singular effect of the Rivers of Asia Minor, on the tracts 
 through which they pass.—Dr. Chandler s Theory of the 
 Hermus—A Greek Family of Smyrna—their House, 
 Story of Young Lallaho.—The Greek Girls.—Castle of 
 Smyrna—View from the Castle Hill.—Turkish Bury- 
 ing-ground.—Different treatment of Females by the 
 Greeks and Moslems.—Traits of character in the Mo¬ 
 dern Greeks.-^Ancient zone referred to in the New 
 Testament—Personal appearance of the Turks.—Da¬ 
 mascus Sabres.—Inscription on the Cymetar of Kon- 
 toghianni the Kleft.—Fragment of a Greek Song, ^‘^The 
 Dreamof Demos.”—Turkish Mosques at Smyrna.—Iden¬ 
 tity of the Pillar-tower of Ireland, and the Muezzin- 
 towers of the East.—Form of Turkish worship.—Hour 
 of Prayer in Scriptures.—Turkish cleanliness.—Climate 
 of Smyrna— The Inbat. — The Cascino. — Evenings at 
 Smyrna—Oriental custom of sitting at the Door alluded 
 
CONTET^TS. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 to in Scripture.—Turkish Toleration.—Hostility of the 
 Latin Church to the Ikonoclasts. — Excursion in the 
 Bay. — Death of Young Lallaho . 63—lOi 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 EPHESUS. 
 
 Departure from Smyrna.—Our Equipage.—Tumulus 
 of Andremon.—Sedicus.—Sacred fountain of St. John.— 
 Scenery.—Terenda.—Turkish Coffee-house.—Introduc¬ 
 tion of Coffee into Europe.—Manner of preparing it in 
 the Levant.—A Karavan Serai.—Mahometanism.—Tour- 
 bali.—Turkish Fanatics.—Signs of the Destruction of 
 the World.—Road to Ayasalook.—Ayasalook.—Cave of 
 the Seven Sleepers.—Castle.—Mosque.—Sarcophagus.— 
 Ephesus.—Stadium.—Theatre.—A Shepherd. — Temple 
 of Diana.—Solitude of the Scene.—Verses from Que- 
 vedo . . . 108—142 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 LAODICEA. 
 
 Character of the general Scenery of Asia Minor.— 
 Pygela— Skala Nuova. — Sirocco wind — Illustrated 
 from the Bible—Gipsies.—Meander.—Inek-Bazaar, the 
 ancient Magnesia adMeandrum.—Sufferings from thirst. 
 —^Turkish Fountains similar to those in the Old Testa¬ 
 ment. — Guizel-hissar.—Scenery between Guizel-hissar 
 and Sultan Hissar.—History of Spiro.—Asian meadow of 
 Homer.—Greek bullets—Denizli.—Our Greek host.— 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Situation of Females in Turkey.—Influence of Climate 
 on the situation of Women in Society.—Laodicea—Sin- 
 g-ular fulfilment of the Scriptural denunciations against. 
 —A Storm . . . 143—181 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, SARDIS, &c. 
 
 Ruins of Hierapolis.—Petrified Cliffs.—A Renegade_ 
 
 An Earthquake.— Scenery.—Turcomans—Their Iden¬ 
 tity with the tribes of Kedar in the Old Testament.— 
 History of Philadelphia—Description of her situation 
 and remains.—Wall of Petrified Reeds.—River Coga- 
 
 mus.—Interior of a Greek Church.—Road to Sardis_ 
 
 Tartar Keuy—-Kara Osman Oglou.—Sardis—A Cara¬ 
 van.—Temple of Cybele.—Greek Cookery.—Adventure 
 at the Pactolus.—Barrows of Halyattys and Gyges.— 
 Pergamus and Thiatyra.—Remarkable fulfilment of the 
 prophecies in the Revelations concerning Ephesus, 
 Smyrna, Pergamus, Thiatyra, Sardis, Philadelphia, and 
 Laodicea.—The Golden Sands of the Pactolus.—Turgutli. 
 —Want of wheel carriages a main cause of the filthiness 
 of Turkish towns—Magnesia ad Sipylum—Amurath 
 
 the Second.— Magnets on the Mountain_Return to 
 
 Smyrna. .... 182—227 
 
 LETTER VIl. 
 
 PHOCCEA, PATMOS, SIME, &c. 
 
 Affected exterior poverty of the Smyrniot Greeks.— 
 Turkish love of Comfort.—Treatment of their Women. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 —Beauty of Turkish Women.—r Story of a Turkish 
 Lady at Napoli di Romania—Opinion of Dr. Clarke of 
 Smyrna. — M. Fauvel, the former French Consul at 
 Athens.—A Turkish Regiment.—Punishment for pass¬ 
 ing forged Money.—Fete on board the Cambrian.— 
 Manufactory of base Money at Hydra and Spezzia (note.) 
 —Diplomatic Phrases of a Consul.—An Emir . 228 
 
4 
 
 
 
LETTERS FROM THE ^GEAN. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Linquitur Eois longe spectabile proris 
 Sunion, unde vagi casurum in nomina ponti 
 Cressia decepit, falso ratis --Egea velo. 
 
 Statii Thehais, lib. xii. v. 625. 
 
 SUNIUM—THE CYCLADES—SCIO, &c. &c. 
 
 Temple of Minerva Sunias at Cape Colonna.t- Singular 
 effects of the Sirocco Wind.—^Temple of Sunium, splendidly 
 situated.—Sunset in Greece.—Comparative impressions of 
 Dawn and Sunset at Sea.— Zea.—Cythnos.— A Sabbath 
 at Sea.—The Island of Syra. —Greek Merchant and Fa¬ 
 mily.—Destruction of a Turkish Corvette.—Political con¬ 
 dition of the Syriots.—A Greek Dessert.—Straits of Scio. 
 —Sciot Refugee.— Town of Scio. —Massacre on the 
 Island, in 1823.— Story of Phrosine Kalerdji. 
 
 The sun was slowly sinking behind the 
 range of Hymettus and the hills of Attica, as 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 we weighed anchor from Cape Colonna, and 
 steered for the narrow strait between Zea and 
 Cythnos. The morning we had passed in wan¬ 
 dering through the groves of lentiscs and 
 mastic, which cover the promontory of Sunium, 
 and in lingering among the fast-fading re¬ 
 mains of the tem})le of Minerva. Around the 
 base of this majestic ruin, the debris of its 
 fallen fragments have almost obliterated the 
 outline of the platform on which it was erected 
 on the verge of the cliff, and the overthrow of a 
 number of its 'columns a short time previous to 
 our visit, has not only added to the heap of 
 decay, but must soon weaken the tottering 
 foundation of the remainder. 
 
 The destructive effects of the Sirocco wind 
 were here most singularly displayed : the sides 
 of the columns fronting the south-east were 
 eaten away and corroded from base to capital 
 for the depth of two or three inches ; whilst on 
 the other portions of the shaft the fluting was 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 3 
 
 as sharp and perfect as at the first hour of its 
 erection. 
 
 The town and temple of Sunium were built 
 during the brightest days of Greece—the age of 
 Pericles; of the one not a vestige is left, and 
 all that remains of the other are a few shattered 
 columns supporting a frieze which fronts the 
 Island-gemmed ^gean.”* 
 
 I had seen nearly all the temples now remain¬ 
 ing in Greece, but none, not even Athens itself, is 
 
 * This beautiful velique at present affords an instance of 
 the barbarous taste of tlie Austrian commodore Accourti. As 
 if at once to commemoiate to future travellers, and keep 
 fresh in the memory of the miserable Greeks, his frequent 
 arbitrary infractions of the law of nations, as regards their 
 present glorious, but unfortunate struggle for liberty ; he has 
 been at some pains to disfigure the entire front of the temple, 
 by inscribing on it, in massy black letters, the name of his 
 detested vessel, the BELLONA AUSTRIACA. This affec¬ 
 tionate memorial is now legible at a considerable distance from 
 sea, but it has not passed without a comment, as a midship¬ 
 man of one of the English ships of war has inscribed near it, 
 in almost equally conspicuous characters, “ Buy Warrens 
 Blacking** 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 calculated to produce such vivid emotions as that 
 of Sunium. The greater number of them are 
 seated in frequented spots, and surrounded by 
 the bustle of the crowd; Sunium stands alone, 
 its crumbling columns look but on the blue hills 
 of Attica, or the azure billows of the JEgean : 
 all 'is solitude around it, save the whirl of the 
 sea-bird towards its summit, or the waving of 
 the olive-groves at its base, and the only sound 
 that awakes its silence is the sigh of the summer 
 wind, or the murmur of the waves that roll into 
 the time-worn caves beneath it. 
 
 Far removed from every human habitation, 
 it is seldom visited, except by the mystic of the 
 Mainote corsair, the caique of the passing tra¬ 
 veller, or the fowler in search of the wild doves 
 which frequent it. Its prospects are the most 
 extensive and interesting in Greece:* from its 
 
 * The practice of building sacred edifices on lofty situa¬ 
 tions, which has obtained in all ages, was most scrupulously 
 observed by the Greeks and Romans; nor do I remember any 
 one temple in Greece or the Islands, which is not situated on 
 
the jsgean. 
 
 5 
 
 brow the eye wanders over the mountains of 
 Argolis,and the hills that circle Athens; to 
 the east are the purple plains of Helena and 
 Eubcea; and, to the south, the endless mazes 
 
 of the Cyclades, separated by narrow channels, 
 
 whose glittering and intricate passages form 
 the labyrinths of the Archipelago, the naviga¬ 
 tion of which is known almost exclusively to 
 the pilots of Milo and Argentiera. 
 
 a hill The castcu seem, of most remote antiquity, and the 
 freqnentins of “high places,” even before the erection of 
 temples, nndonbtedly originated in the same feelings wi 
 which the devont inhabitants of every country, f™” 
 
 India, still select the most lofty and delicious situations 
 
 their sacred buildings. Kaetnofer 
 
 Strabo instances the fact in the Persians, 
 mentions it among the inhabitants of Japan. (Vol ^ •) 
 Hector sacrificed on the top of Ida. (Homer s 11. xv- ITO.) 
 
 ■ Balaak the King of Moab, took Balaam to the .mmU of a 
 in’order that he might curse Israel and sendee to Jre 
 ,, . 1). Abraham was commanded to offer 
 
 ::ar;:ehii.s Of Moriah (aen.x.^^ 
 
 seeing the mnltitnde, went up into a mountain to preacl. 
 (Matt. V. 1.) 
 
 B 3 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
6 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 It is seldom that the view of the ^gean pre¬ 
 sents any thing but a picture of calm repose; 
 its blue unruffled waters sleeping undisturbed 
 beneath the equally unvaried sky^ or gently 
 curling their rippling surface to catch the danc¬ 
 ing sunbeams, and flash them back in mimic 
 splendour. Sometimes a group of the white 
 sails* of the Levant are seen gliding from isle 
 to isle, “ like wild swans in their flight,” or 
 lagging lazily on the breathless tide to await 
 the breeze of evening ; earth, air, and sky, are 
 all in unison, and their calm still repose belongs 
 alone to the clime of the East. 
 
 We descended the cliff’, and regained our . 
 vessel as the line of the ruined temple was 
 thrown into fine relief against a sky now crim¬ 
 soned with the dyes of sunset. There was no 
 filmy cloud to break the softness of the west. 
 
 * From being made, almost universally, of cotton, the 
 sails of the Levantine vessels are invariably of a brilliant 
 white ; contrasted with those of the northern nations, whicli 
 are woven from liemp. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 7 
 
 where the sun sank like a globe of molten gold, 
 his rays spreading gently over the heaven, not 
 flashed and caught from cloud to cloud, but 
 blending in one massy sheet over the vast and 
 glowing concave. 
 
 The dawn of morning at sea is perhaps the 
 most sublime sight in nature: sunset on land 
 is more reposing and lovely, but sunrise on the 
 ocean is grandeur itself. At evening, he sinks 
 languishing behind the distant hills, blushing 
 in rosy tints at his declining weakness; at 
 morn, he rises all fresh and glowing from the 
 deep, not in softened beauty but in dazzling 
 splendour. With the weary pace of age, he 
 glides, at eve, from peak to peak and sinks from 
 hill to hill; at morn, he bursts at once across 
 the threshold of the ocean with the firm and 
 conscious step of a warrior. His decline con¬ 
 veys the idea of fading brightness, his rise the 
 swelling effulgence of mounting and resistless 
 light. 
 
 The succeeding day was calm, and we lay 
 
8 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 almost motionless in the narrow strait which 
 separates the islands of Zea and Cythnos. The 
 former contains now no objects of attraction 
 amidst its sun-burnt hills and barren valleys, 
 except the snowy walls of its villages, and the 
 vestiges of a temple once dedicated to Minerva, 
 and built, as our pilot said, by Nestor, on his 
 return from Troy. Cythnos is a hilly, fertile 
 mound, rising gently from the sea, and remark¬ 
 able for nothing but its warm springs, from 
 which it takes the modern name of Thermia. 
 We slowly passed the strait, borne along solely 
 by the current, and about mid-day lay totally 
 becalmed in a little bay formed by the islands 
 we had left, and those of Cryarus* and Syra. 
 
 It was Sunday, and if that day be possessed 
 of peculiar stillness and repose on land, it must 
 
 * Rats, according to Pliny, were once so numerous as to drive 
 off the inhabitants of Gyarus, an island which is referred to by 
 Juvenal and Ovid as a place of banishment for exiled Romans, 
 Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum.” 
 
 Juvenal Sat, 1. 
 
 It is now a desert. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 9 
 
 be doubly more so at sea, and among the Cy¬ 
 clades. The day was an Oriental one : not a 
 wandering vapour to stain the deep blue hea¬ 
 ven, and not a breath to warp the mirror of the 
 sea; no passing bark gave life or motion to the 
 scene, the sails hung in lazy folds upon the 
 mast, and not a sound disturbed the ocean’s 
 silence. The crew were assembled on the 
 quarter-deck, and I never listened to the Li¬ 
 turgy with such interest and attention,—every 
 sound was solemn, and every line awoke some 
 recollection of home and of England. 
 
 It was a new feeling, in such a situation, to 
 hearken to the same accents we had so long 
 heard only in the village church, repeated amid 
 scenes rich in all the sublimities of nature, and 
 hallowed by the brightest associations of history 
 and time : to listen to the precepts of Christian¬ 
 ity almost amidst the very scenes where they 
 were first delivered, and to trace the wander¬ 
 ings of its Apostles on the same waves their 
 barks had traversed. 
 
10 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 Tliere is no spot, not even the very seas of 
 Greece, wliich wants its peculiar attractions; 
 every valley has its ruin, every hill its history, 
 and every wave is associated with the naval 
 enterprizes and martial spirit of the mighty 
 dead. Even those scenes unmarked by earlier 
 memorials of her fame, are rendered interesting 
 by after-recollections of her fall. Age has suc¬ 
 ceeded age, but to leave the impress of their 
 events on the shore where true greatness first 
 burst to light. The same soil once trod by the 
 bard and the warrior, was again pressed by the 
 feet of those who bore over the earth the pure 
 precepts of the Gospel and of Christianity, and 
 where even these have left no traces of their 
 path, the immortalizing hand of Liberty is now 
 raising on every hill a trophy, and inscribing 
 on every rock a triumph. 
 
 In the evening, as there was still no appear¬ 
 ance of wind, a few of the officers landed at 
 Syra, within a very short distance of which 
 we were floating on an almost breathless sea. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 11 
 
 The town is by no means so well built as those 
 of some of the other islands less equivocally 
 Greek. Its streets, owing to their situation on 
 the sides of a steep and conical hill, are irre¬ 
 gular, narrow, and infamously filthy,—while its 
 little harbour is crowded with vessels of various 
 flags from Hydra, Malta, and Marseilles, as 
 Syra is now the only neutral port of the em¬ 
 pire equally respected by Turk and Greek, and 
 permitted to carry on the trifling remnant of 
 commerce which remains to the Cyclades. 
 
 On the beach we were met by a Greek mer¬ 
 chant with whom I had formerly made the 
 voyage from Hydra to Napoli di Romania. 
 His house, to which he conducted us, after 
 visiting the town, was situated at a short dis¬ 
 tance from the suburbs, in the midst of a gar¬ 
 den cultivated in the Eastern style. 
 
 Its furniture was of that kind generally found 
 in the houses of the Greek Islanders, half Ori¬ 
 ental and half European, combining the lux¬ 
 urious comforts of the one, with the taste and 
 
12 
 
 JiETTERS FROM 
 
 durability of the other. Our pipes and cojfFee 
 in china cups placed in little vases of filigreed 
 silver were presented by his daughters, two 
 ratlier handsome girls, dressed in a costume 
 between Grecian and Frank, and possessed of 
 an ease of manner much superior to those of 
 the same class whom we had left in the Morea. 
 
 The old gentleman seemed deeply to regret 
 the ruin of his trade in the islands, occasioned 
 by the convulsion of the war. A few weeks 
 before our arrival, Syra had been thrown into 
 the utmost commotion by the arrival of a Turk¬ 
 ish corvette, escaping from the general rout 
 the Ottoman fleet had suffered at Andros, and 
 Capo d'’Oro. She was pursued by a few Greek 
 cruisers, with whom she capitulated on the 
 terms of giving up the vessel: as soon, how¬ 
 ever, as the Turks were landed, the treaty was 
 broken, by the captain blowing up the corvette: 
 an attempt was immediately made to secure 
 the crew, and after some rioting, and the death 
 of a few of the unfortunate wTetches, they were 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 13 
 
 secured, and to the number of a hundred and 
 fifty, sent to Rydra as prisoners of war, where 
 a few days after, they were massacred by the 
 Islanders. The wreck of their vessel, and the 
 unburied corpses of the Turks, were still lying 
 on the beach as we passed. 
 
 Of the present war, and its prospects of 
 success, our host spoke with that disinterested 
 enthusiasm which characterises every class of 
 the Islanders, whose lot, before the revolution, 
 was sufficiently happy to render them contented 
 with their submission to the Sublime Porte,* 
 
 * I do not remember to have any where seen an allusion to 
 the coincidence between this title of the Grand Seignior, or 
 rather the Turkish Government, and the constant application 
 of the term Gate, throughout the Sacred writings. The Baba 
 Hoomajun, the Sublime Porte, is one of the gates of the Se¬ 
 raglio, and from it, the Ottoman Emperor derives his singular 
 appellation. 
 
 In the same manner, the word gate” in its various appli¬ 
 cations throughout the Scriptures, signifies power, as in the in¬ 
 stance when God promises Abraham that his posterity should 
 possess the gates of their enemies,’’ Gen. xxii. v. 17. And, the 
 gates of Hell (shall not prevail against the Church), Matt. 
 
14 
 
 LETTERS PROM 
 
 had not a feeling of patriotism impelled them 
 to ruin their own tranquillity, in order to assist 
 the noble efforts of their less fortunate country¬ 
 men. 
 
 Governed by their own laws, and in the full 
 
 xvi. V. 18 ; the gates of Death (Psalm ix. v. 13) ; the gates of 
 the grave (Isaiah, xxxviii. v. 10) ; the gates of righteousness 
 (Psalm cxviii. v. 19) ; and various other passages, convey the 
 same import. 
 
 Again, gate signifies in another sense, justice and judica¬ 
 ture, or the place of assembly where judgment is pronounced; 
 for example,—the gate of Bethlehem, where judgement was 
 given between Boaz and Naomi’s relation, in the matter of 
 Ruth’s marriage. (Ruth, iv. v. 1.) And in Lamentation, v. v. 14, 
 it is mentioned thus: “ the elders have ceased from the gate,^ 
 that is, from frequenting the council-chamber. 
 
 Another, amongst many significations, is a multitude or a 
 family; thus when Boaz tells Ruth (chap. iii. v. 11.) that all 
 the gate of his house know she is virtuous ; it means literally, 
 the persons of his household. 
 
 Influenced by that unchanging tone of habit and feeling 
 which characterizes the Orientals, it is easy to account for the 
 assumption of this poetical and patriarchal epithet by the Sul¬ 
 tan; and the passages I have quoted, assigning to it joower, 
 justice^ and multitude, render it expressive, as well as tasteful 
 and magnificent. 
 
THE iEGEA^N. 
 
 15 
 
 exercise of their own religion, a trifling yearly 
 Karatsch to the Porte purchased them permis¬ 
 sion to elect their governors and senate from 
 among themselves, and freed them from the 
 presence or residence of a Turk in the Islands. 
 Syra was once the happiest spot of the Archipe¬ 
 lago, its plains f the richest of the Cyclades, and 
 its merchants the most enterprising in the Le¬ 
 vant ; its only political grievance the necessity 
 of sending an annual number of sailors to the 
 Ottoman fleet, and its only tax about 8,000 pias¬ 
 tres a year paid to the reigning favourite of the 
 imperial Harem, on whom the revenue of the 
 island was usually conferred by the Sultan. 
 
 . After a protracted and gratifying visit we rose 
 to depart, but were pressed by our hospitable 
 host to partake of a dessert preparing in another 
 apartment. It was the sole produce of his own 
 immediate household, consisting of sweetmeats, 
 oranges, fresh figs, peaches, melons, apricots, 
 
 * It is thus characterised by Homer, Odyssey. B. 15. 1. 45. 
 
 EyjSoros, eil/HTjAos, olyoirArjdijf, 7ro\vvirpog, 
 
16 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 and grapes, such as I have never seen equalled, 
 not even in Smyrna; some of the bunches 
 weighing from five to eight pounds, of the 
 purest amber sprinkled with red spots, and a 
 skin so delicate as to ruffle off with the slightest 
 touch of the finger. His wine was delicious, 
 and, after pledging our host, and speedy free¬ 
 dom to Greece, we reached our boat and again 
 regained the frigate. 
 
 As usual, the breeze freshened at sunset, and 
 at night we were again swiftly cleaving the 
 iEgean, its phosphorescent waves leaving a 
 long line of light in our vessel’s wake, that 
 tracked her course along the pitchy deep. We 
 , drove rapidly through the straits of Tenos, 
 whilst the landmarks of our pilot were the 
 watchlights and fires that blazed from the cliffs 
 of Myconi and the distant hills of Delos. 
 
 The following day a strong head-wind de¬ 
 tained us till evening, beating through the 
 straits of Scio, and alternately tacking from its 
 wooded shore to the opposite coast of Chesme 
 
THE .EGEAN. 17 
 
 and Asia Minor. This beautiful arm of the 
 sea, once celebrated as the scene of the de¬ 
 feat of Antiochus, has in later days been ren¬ 
 dered doubly interesting by the struggles of 
 Greece; it was at Chesme that in 1770 the 
 Russian Admiral Orlow destroyed the Ottoman 
 fleet; and it was in this same strait that in 1822 
 the modern Themistocles* consigned to de¬ 
 struction the author of the Sciote Massacre. 
 
 The view on either shore is splendidly beau¬ 
 tiful ; but on both, the associations of memory 
 cast a feeling of disgust over every object: 
 we could not look on the verdant hills of Scio 
 without a shuddering recollection of the slaugh¬ 
 ter that had so lately stained them, whilst the 
 opposite and equally beautiful coast was alike 
 detestable as the home of its perpetrators. 
 
 But whilst to us the scene was any thing but 
 a pleasing one, there was one individual on 
 board our vessel to whom the sight of this 
 devoted island served to summon up the most 
 
 * Canaris. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 heart-rending reflections. This was a young 
 Greek lady of twenty-two or twenty-three years 
 of age, a native of the island, a witness to its 
 massacre, and a destitute exile in consequence 
 of the murder of her family. She was now on 
 her way with us to Smyrna, in order to place 
 herself under the protection of a distant rela¬ 
 tive ; whom she hoped, though faintly, to find 
 still surviving. She sat all day upon the deck, 
 watching with wistful eyes the shores of her 
 native island; at every approach which our 
 vessel made towards it, she seemed straining 
 to recognize some scene that had once been 
 familiar, or perhaps some now-deserted home 
 that had once been the shelter of her friends: 
 and when, on the opposite tack, we again neared 
 the Turkish coast, she turned her back upon its 
 hated hills to watch the retreating shores of 
 her desolated home. 
 
 I had not been aware of her being on board, 
 as her national retiring habits had prevented 
 her appearing upon deck during the early part 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 19 
 
 of the voyage; but as she drew near Scio, 
 feeling seemed to overcome education and pre¬ 
 judice, and she sat all day beneath the awning 
 to satiate herself with gazing and with recol¬ 
 lection. Towards evening we drew near the 
 ruined town, built on the sea-shore at the foot 
 of a wooded hill, which had been the site of 
 the ancient city of Scio. Its houses seemed 
 all roofless and deserted, whilst the numerous 
 groups of tall and graceful cypresses which rose 
 amidst them, contrasted sadly with the sur¬ 
 rounding desolation ; all was solitude and si¬ 
 lence; we could not descry a single living 
 creature on the beach, whilst from the shat¬ 
 tered fortress on the shore, the blood-red flag 
 of Mahomed waved in crimson pride above the 
 scene of its late barbarous triumph. 
 
 At sunset the wind changed; we passed the 
 Spalmadores and Ipsara, and, rounding the 
 promontory of Erythrae, entered the bay of 
 Smyrna. As we caught the last glimpse of the 
 ruins of Scio, the unfortunate lady pointed out 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 the remains of a house to the north of the 
 town, which had been her father’s : it was now 
 in ruins, and as clearly as we could discern, 
 appeared to be of large dimensions, and situ¬ 
 ated on one of the most picturesque points of 
 the island. 
 
 Her name, she said, was Kalerdji, and her 
 father had been one of the commissioners for 
 collecting the revenue of the Sultana from the. 
 gum-mastic of the island. On the breaking 
 out of the revolution in the Morea, strong 
 apprehensions of a similar revolt in Scio were 
 entertained in the Divan, and a number of the 
 most distinguished Greeks of the island were 
 selected to be sent to Constantinople as hos¬ 
 tages for the loyalty of the remainder. amongst 
 these were her father and her only brother; 
 herself, her mother, and two elder sisters being 
 left alone in Scio. Tranquillity continued un¬ 
 disturbed in the island for more than a year, 
 though the accounts of the reiterated successes 
 of the Moreots were daily stirring up the ener- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 21 
 
 gies of the inhabitants, whose turbulence was 
 only suppressed by the immediate dread of the 
 Turkish garrison in the Genoese fortress on the 
 beach, the only strong hold in Scio. 
 
 One evening, however, a squadron of three 
 vessels, manned with Samians, entered the har¬ 
 bour, attacked the unsuspecting garrison, and, 
 aided by the lowest rabble of the town, suc¬ 
 ceeded in dispatching the guard, and taking 
 possession of the fortress. But the deed was 
 done without calculation, and could be pro¬ 
 ductive of no beneficial result; the fort was 
 untenable, and on the almost immediate arrival 
 of the Ottoman fleet, a capitulation, without 
 a blow, ensued. 
 
 The news brought by the hostile armament 
 was of the instant execution of the ill-fated 
 hostages, the moment the accounts of the revolt 
 had reached the Porte. Overwhelmed with 
 grief for the loss of their only and dearly-loved 
 protectors, the family of Kalerdji spent the 
 few intervening days in poignant but vain 
 
22 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 regret, and in the seclusion of their bereft man¬ 
 sion knew nothing of what was passing at the 
 town; where, whilst the Greeks were occupied 
 in supplications and submission to the Capitan 
 Pacha, and'the Turks in false p'rotestations of 
 forgiveness and amity, the troops of the Sultan 
 disembarked at the fortress. At length the 
 preparations for slaughter were completed, and 
 the work of death commenced. 
 
 It was on the evening of the third day 
 from the arrival of the Turkish admiral that 
 the family of the wretched being who lived to 
 tell the tale, descried the flames that rose from 
 the burning mansions of their friends, and 
 heard, in the calm silence of twilight, the dis¬ 
 tant death-scream of their butchered townsmen, 
 whilst a few flying wretches, closely pursued by 
 their infuriate murderers, told them but too 
 truly of their impending fate. As one of the 
 most important in the valley, their family was 
 amongst the first marked out for murder, and, 
 ere they had a moment to think of precaution. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 23 
 
 a party of Turkish soldiers beset the house, 
 which afforded but few resources for refuge or 
 concealment. 
 
 From a place of imperfect security the dis¬ 
 tracted Phrosine was an involuntary witness to 
 the murder of her miserable sisters, aggravated 
 by every insult and indignity suggested by bru¬ 
 tality and crime, whilst her frantic mother was 
 stabbed upon the lifeless corpses of her violated 
 offspring. Satiated with plunder, the mon¬ 
 sters left the house in search of farther victims, 
 whilst she crept from her hiding-place to take 
 a last farewell of her butchered parent, and 
 fly for refuge to the mountains. She had 
 scarcely dropped a tear over the immolated re¬ 
 mains of all that was dear to her, and made a 
 step towards the door, when she perceived a 
 fresh party of demons already at the threshold. 
 Too late to regain her place of refuge, death, 
 with all its aggravated horrors, seemed now 
 inevitable, till on the moment she adopted 
 an expedient. She flew towards the heap of 
 
24 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 slaughter, smeared herself with the still oozing 
 blood of her mother, and falling on her face 
 beside her, she lay motionless as death. 
 
 The Turks entered the apartment, but, find¬ 
 ing their errand anticipated, were again depart¬ 
 ing, when one of them, perceiving a brilliant 
 sparkling on the finger of Phrosine, returned 
 to secure it. He lifted the apparently life¬ 
 less hand, and attempted to draw it off; it 
 had, however, been too dearly worn ; it was 
 the gift of her affianced husband, and had 
 tarried till it was now only to be withdrawn 
 from the finger by an effort. The Turk, how¬ 
 ever, made but quick work: after in vain twist¬ 
 ing her delicate hand in every direction to 
 accomplish his purpose, he drew a knife from 
 his girdle and commenced slicing off the flesh 
 from the finger. This was the last scene she 
 could remember. It was midnight when she 
 awoke from the swoon into which her agony 
 and her effort to conceal it had thrown her ; 
 when she lay, cold and benumbed, surrounded 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 25 
 
 by the clotted streams of her last loved 
 friends. 
 
 Necessity now armed her with energy; no 
 time was left for consideration, and day would 
 soon be breaking She rose, and, still faint 
 with terror and the loss of blood, flew to a spot 
 where the valuables of the house had been 
 secured; disposing of the most portable about 
 her person, she took her way to the mountains. 
 She pointed out to us the cliff where she had 
 long lain concealed, and the distant track by 
 which she had gained it, through a path at 
 every step impeded by the dead or dying re¬ 
 mains of her fellow-countrymen. 
 
 By the time she imagined the tide of terror 
 had flowed past, when she no longer observed 
 from her lofty refuge the daily pursuits and 
 murder of the immolated Sciots, and when she 
 saw the Ottoman fleet sail from the harbour 
 beneath its crimson pennon, now doubly tinged 
 with blood, she descended with her fugitive 
 companions, to the opposite shore of the island- 
 
26 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 Here, after waiting for many a tedious day, 
 she succeeded in getting on board an Austrian 
 vessel, the master of which engaged to land 
 her at Hydra, in return for the quantity of 
 jewels and gold she had been able to reserve. 
 
 She reached the island in safety, where she 
 had now remained for nearly two years, but, 
 finding or fancying her various benefactors to 
 be weary of their charge, she was now going to 
 seek, even in the land of her enemies, a relative 
 who had been living at Smyrna, but whom she 
 knew not if she should still find surviving, or 
 fallen by the sabre of their common enemy. 
 
 Her tale was told with the calm composure 
 of oft-repeated and long contemplated grief; 
 she shed no tear in its relation; she scarcely 
 heaved a sigh over her sorrows ; she seemed, 
 young as she was, to have already made her 
 alliance with misery. She had now, she said, 
 but one hope left; and if that should fail, she 
 had only death to look to. It is a melancholy 
 reflection, that this is but one instance from 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 27 
 
 thousands, of woes perhaps doubly aggravated, 
 arising from the fall of Scio. The inhabitants 
 were the most delicate, refined, and luxurious 
 of the East, and it is calculated that from 
 thirty to fifty thousand fell during the three 
 days’ massacre. The remnant of its population 
 are now fugitives over the provinces of libe¬ 
 rated Greece; and though but four years have 
 elapsed since they could boast of the inviolation 
 of what is asserted by Plutarch,"^ ‘‘ that in 
 seven centuries no instance of female infidelity 
 had occurred in Scio,” its wandering and des¬ 
 titute daughters are now the only class that 
 have disgraced the name of their country. 
 
 * Pint, de virtu. Mulier. 
 
28 
 
 LKTTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER 11. 
 
 -Smyrnsei—lepetita vetustate, seu Tantalus Jove ortus 
 
 illos, sive Theseus et ipse divina stirpe, sive Amazonuui una, 
 condidisset- 
 
 Taciti Annul, lib. iv. c. 56. 
 SiMYIlNA. 
 
 The Bay of Smykna. —Shipping.—Fruit.—View of the City. 
 — Crowd on the Beach.—The British Consul.—Bond- 
 street, &c.—Fruit-market. —Bazaars. —Populace.—Turk¬ 
 ish Honesty.—Paras.—Armenians.—Airival of W-and 
 
 his Friend.— Singular story of the.former. —Kvening 
 Party.—Greek Ballad, “ The Mother of the Kleft.” 
 
 — Death of W-.—Imposition of the Officers of the 
 
 Harbour.—A Fire.— Funeral of W-. 
 
 In the night of the 6th of August we came 
 to anchor in the Bay of Smyrna, and on 
 waking in the morning were calmly riding 
 
THE .EGEAN. 
 
 21) 
 
 within a short distance of the landing-place. 
 The dashing of the waters along our side had 
 ceased, the foam was no longer twining its 
 snowy wreath around our prow, the mighty 
 moving mass was again at rest, and we should 
 have almost forgotten we were still at sea, were 
 it not for the presence of the ponderous gun 
 which half filled the little state-room on the 
 middle deck where our cots were slung, and the 
 tremulous reflection of the sunbeams from the 
 water, which flashed in quivering and undu¬ 
 lating eddies, through the port-hole on the roof 
 of our temporary cabin. 
 
 On coming upon deck we were involuntarily 
 struck with the beauty of the splendid pano¬ 
 rama in the midst of whicli ’ we were placed: 
 behind us was the Gulf of Smyrna by which 
 we had entered, its then turbulent waters now 
 placid as the brow of infancy, and glittering in 
 the beams of the morning sun like plates of 
 silver on a warrior's mail, whilst the snowy 
 sails of the Levantine barks, which glided along 
 
30 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 them, were scarcely to be distinguished from 
 their own dazzling whiteness. On every side 
 around us the boats with gilded sterns, peculiar 
 to the bay, were passing and repassing amidst 
 ships, on the masts of which floated the flags 
 of every trading nation, a crowd of hardy 
 Greeks tugging at the oar, and a stately Turk, 
 with graceful turban and flowing robes, smok¬ 
 ing in haughty ease at the stern. 
 
 The gangways of the frigate were surround¬ 
 ed by shoals of little trafficking barks, laden 
 with all the produce of the country: baskets 
 of blushing peaches; pears, the amber hue of 
 which was streaked with tints like the rose, and 
 heaps of purple grapes flung down in such 
 luxuriant profusion, that their luscious bunches 
 were hanging in the rippling water. 
 
 Around us were the sunburnt hills of Asia 
 Minor, their sloping and rugged sides studded 
 with white cottages, and variegated with plan¬ 
 tations of olives and fig-trees, which stretched 
 to the rich gardens at their base, washed by the 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 31 
 
 waters of the bay. Before us rested in calm 
 repose The birth-place of Homer,” “ The 
 ornament of Asia,” ‘‘ Izmir the lovely,” “ The 
 crown of Ionia;” and well do its splendid 
 situation and commanding prospects merit 
 those impassioned epithets of its ancient 
 chroniclers. 
 
 At the foot of. a steep hill, the summit of 
 which is crowned by the ruins of a castle of the 
 Lower Empire, the city stretches along the 
 sloping beach, its flat-roofed houses mingled 
 with the domes of marble mosques and lofty 
 groups of minarets and muezzin towers; whilst 
 its outskirts are bordered by the waving groves 
 of funereal cypress, which mark the last rest¬ 
 ing-place of the followers of the Prophet. 
 
 The long line of the Marino is bordered by a 
 train of consular residences, over each of which 
 floats the flag of its respective nation. The 
 quay presented a novel spectacle, crowded with 
 the inhabitants of every quarter of the globe; 
 —the swarthy Nubian and the homeless Arab 
 
32 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 mingling with the fair-browed sons of Europe 
 and the West, whilst the “ phes””* of the 
 Greek and the crimson bonnet of the Armenian 
 were grouped with the varied turbans and glit¬ 
 tering costumes of the children of Mahomet. 
 The Turk was lounging with his long chi¬ 
 bouque on the beach; the Drogueman, in his 
 enormous white head-dress and brown jubee, 
 was leaning against the gate of his consulate; 
 and the cry of the itinerant vender of sherbet 
 and iced orgeats on the shore blended with the 
 capstern song of the British sailor in the offing, 
 or the ballad of the merry Greek, as he gaily 
 trilled in his caique the deeds of Boukovallos 
 and his Kleftis. The scene was altogether 
 Oriental; and our only regret was that we had 
 not dropped into the midst of it at once from 
 Europe, instead of becoming partially fami- 
 
 * The phes (rb <pef) is the little red cap worn by the inha¬ 
 bitants of the Levant ; the Albanians, and the majority of the 
 Moreots, wear no other head-dress ; whilst the Turks conceal 
 it by the ample folds of their turbans. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 33 
 
 liarised to its objects through the gradual me¬ 
 dium of Greece and the islands of the ^gean. 
 
 About noon we went on shore, and took up 
 our quarters in the Italian locanda, on the 
 beach, close by the residence of the Consul for 
 the Low Countries, where our windows com¬ 
 manded a prospect of the bay and the shipping, 
 and extended as far as the entrance of the Gulf 
 of Smyrna and the brown hills of Clazomene. 
 The residence of Mr. Wherry, the British 
 Consul, to whom we paid our landing visit, is 
 one of the most extensive in the city, and was 
 built but a few years since by the Levant Com¬ 
 pany, on the destruction of the late building 
 by fire or an earthquake, I do not remember 
 which. The accommodations are admirable, 
 and to one who had been sojourning in Greece, 
 seemed a paradise of comfort, whilst the emolu¬ 
 ments of his office afford ample scope to the 
 hospitality of the proprietor. 
 
 A passage through his court-yard brought us 
 into the principal street of the Frank quarter, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 which, either from its miserable appearance, 
 though the best in Smyrna, or the number of 
 loungers who frequent it, is usually denomi¬ 
 nated Bond-street’’ by the British officers, 
 and a wretched opening at a little distance, 
 planted with a few stunted trees, is dignified 
 with the title of Hanover-square. ‘‘ Bond- 
 street” usually presents the same motley picture 
 as the quay, thronged with the straggling wan¬ 
 derers of every nation under heaven; but at 
 this moment it was deserted, the sun was at its 
 meridian, the shops were closed, and the in¬ 
 habitants were enjoying their mid-day sleep in 
 the shade : all was quiet, except a few strolbng 
 foreigners, or the echoing whips and clamorous 
 voices of the Tartar and Janissaries, who dash¬ 
 ed at full canter through the narrow passage, 
 escorting a party of English travellers on their 
 way to Constantinople. 
 
 Passing along the rows of tumble-down mud 
 houses, which form this lounge of fashion, we 
 arrive at the most attractive part of the city,— 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 35 
 
 the fruit-market and the bazaars, in which no 
 traveller will be disappointed. The avenues of 
 the former are the true temple of Pomona, the 
 luscious melons of Cassaba are piled in heaps 
 with the peaches and apricots of Sangiac and 
 Vourla, whilst pears, pomegranates, almonds, 
 golden apples, tomatas, and a thousand others, 
 are built in fragrant pyramids, embedded in 
 clusters of purple and amber grapes ; and in¬ 
 terspersed with these, at every turning, are the 
 tinkling* fountains of the venders of cooling 
 sherbets, and draughts of every flavour and of 
 icy chillness. 
 
 . But the bazaars form the grand attraction: 
 their long lines of arched arcades contain on 
 every side ranges of little square apartments, 
 entirely open in front, and raised about two feet 
 from the ground. Their shelves on every side 
 are well stored with the goods of the merchant, 
 
 * A small reservoir is allowed to fall drop by drop on a 
 little tin wheel beneath it, which being thus propelled at a 
 quick rate, makes the noise alluded to, for the purpose of 
 attracting purchasers. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 who reclines on a cushion in the centre to smoke 
 his amber pipe, or count over and over the 
 polished beads of his combolojo. Here again 
 all is variegation and contrast: in one box squats 
 the Jew in his dark vest and turban of spotted 
 cotton, employed in the intervals of rest in 
 plaiting with nimble fingers braiding for the 
 jackets of the Greeks, or embroidering the fronts 
 of papoushes for the Turkish ladies : in another 
 the Mussulman, to whom traffic seems an effort, 
 gladly seizes a moment of quiet to lounge on his 
 crimson carpet, or sip his transparent decoction 
 of the berry of his Mocca: in a third a group 
 of merry Greeks are chattering and screaming 
 over a pack of cards, whose dingy hue is scarcely 
 contrasted with the colour of the boards on 
 which they are flung, and who laugh as loud, 
 and smile as thoughtlessly, as if in the very bo¬ 
 som of security, whilst every day is witness to 
 the immolation of their companions, and tlie 
 glittering sabre hangs by a single thread over 
 their own devoted necks. Arabs and Egyptians, 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 37 
 
 French, English and Italians, crowd the pas¬ 
 sage, amongst whom the Turk, in his flowing 
 garments and shuffling slippers,* imperiously 
 demands an ample space for his orthodox 
 person. 
 
 In our transactions here we could not avoid 
 being struck with the straightforward and ho¬ 
 nourable manner in which the Turk disposed of 
 his wares, for which it was no easy matter to drive 
 a bargain, when we knew not a word of Turkish, 
 nor he understood one English sentence, and 
 the article was to be paid for in money of every 
 -coinage, British sovereigns, Spanish dollars, 
 and Turkish Mahmouds and paras; but the 
 
 * The slipper of a Mussulman consists of two pieces, in 
 one of which the sole and the upper slipper are both made of 
 soft leather, generally yellow morocco ; these are worn in the 
 house, and when the owner is sitting with his legs doubled 
 under him : the other piece consists merely of a sole, and a 
 front of the same leather as the inner one, pointed at the toe, 
 and these he puts over the first when moving out of doors, but 
 as they want a heel it requires some management to keep them 
 on the foot, and at the same time preserve the stateliness of a 
 Mussulman’s carriage. 
 
38 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 grand difficulty lay in the latter, of which we 
 sometimes received four or five hundred in 
 change. 
 
 A para being about the eighth part of a 
 penny, it requires long practice to be able to 
 use these little pieces correctly. They are of 
 impure silver, and as thin as a cobweb; the 
 Turk counts them down, in little heaps of five 
 at a time, on a board with a raised border, and 
 sloping at the one end to' a point, through 
 which he pours them into his own bag, or the 
 hand of his customer, whilst the rapidity, and 
 at the same time the exactness, with which 
 he spreads down a handful in fives, almost 
 creates a smile at first sight: but never could 
 we detect an error of a single one in his favour, 
 nor was a different price at any time asked from 
 our servants and ourselves. It is needless, how¬ 
 ever, to say that this equity of principle seemed 
 confined to the Mussulman dealers alone. 
 
 Numbers of Armenians are constantly to be 
 found in the bazaar, where they make off a 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 39 
 
 living by acting as interpreters, or brokers, 
 between the Turks and the foreigners, and are 
 to be known by the scarlet bonnet, which they 
 wear to distinguish them from the Greeks, and 
 preserve themselves from murder in mistake, as 
 has not unfrequently occurred in some of the 
 popular insurrections; and they are of too 
 much value to the Turks as interpreters to be 
 thus uselessly butchered like fugitive Greeks. 
 
 On our return to the hotel, we found the 
 landlord in a fiery dispute %vith two English 
 gentlemen, who had just landed from a French 
 brig in the bay. One was a fine-looking young 
 man of about four or five and twenty, but ap¬ 
 parently in the last stage of emaciation and 
 disease; and his companion, rather more ro¬ 
 bust, was endeavouring to persuade the Italian 
 host to give him quarters in the locanda. This, 
 however, he obstinately refused, oh the plea of 
 the young gentleman’s illness, who was reclin¬ 
 ing, as we entered, on a sofa, in a state of 
 enfeebled exhaustion, with sunken cheek and 
 
40 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 lustreless eye, whilst the debate was proceeding ; 
 and the landlord with expressive shrugs unfeel¬ 
 ingly pointed to his miserable appearance, and 
 urged that as a few days must terminate his ex¬ 
 istence, he should not only have the annoyance 
 of his death and interment, but his establish¬ 
 ment would lose its character, in the suspicious 
 climate of Smyrna, by an inmate having ex¬ 
 pired in it. 
 
 It was with difficulty that the elder gentle¬ 
 man procured permission for him to remain on 
 the sofa whilst he went to seek more hospitable 
 quarters for him; he succeeded, however, and 
 in the evening the invalid was removed to a 
 house near St. Catherine’s Gardens, where he 
 stretched himself on the bed from which he 
 was never destined to arise, as he expired on the 
 following day. The particulars of his story, as 
 they were related to us by his companion, com¬ 
 bined with the circumstances of his death, 
 contained something peculiarly melancholy and 
 romantic. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 41 
 
 His name was W-, and his father, a gen¬ 
 
 tleman in opulent circumstances, is still resident 
 in Dublin, where he was originally destined for 
 the profession of medicine, in the preparatory 
 studies for which he had made considerable 
 advancement. It happened that the hospital 
 in which he was in the habit of attending cli¬ 
 nical lectures, and where a considerable portion 
 of his time was spent, adjoined a private es¬ 
 tablishment for the care of insane patients, and 
 the garden of the one was separated from the 
 grounds of the other by a wall of inconsiderable 
 height. One day, whilst lingering in the walks 
 in the rear of the hospital, his ear was struck 
 with the plaintive notes of a voice in the ad¬ 
 jacent garden, which sang, with peculiar sweet¬ 
 ness, a melancholy Irish air ; curiosity prompt¬ 
 ed him to see who the minstrel was, and, clam¬ 
 bering to an aperture in the dividing wall, 
 he saw immediately below him a beautiful girl, 
 who sat in mournful abstraction beneath a tree, 
 plucking the leaves from a rose-bud as she sang 
 
42 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 her plaintive ditty. As she raised her head 
 and observed the stranger before her, she smiled 
 and beckoned him to come to her ; after a mo¬ 
 ment’s hesitation, and reflection on the con¬ 
 sequence, he threw himself over the wall and 
 seated himself beside her. Her mind seemed 
 in a state of perfect simplicity; her disorder 
 appeared to have given her all the playful gen¬ 
 tleness of childhood, and, as she fixed her dark 
 expressive eyes on his, she would smile and 
 caress him, and sing over and over the song 
 she was trilling when he' had first heard her. 
 Struck with the novelty of such a situation, and 
 the beauty of the innocent and helpless being 
 
 before him, W- stayed long enough to 
 
 avoid detection, and then returned by the same 
 means he had entered the garden, but not till 
 she had induced him to promise to come again 
 and see her. 
 
 The following day he returned and found 
 her at the same spot, where she said she had 
 been singing for a long time before, in hopes 
 
THE yEGEAN. 
 
 43 
 
 to attract his attention again. He now endea¬ 
 voured to find out her story, or the cause of 
 her derangement, but his efforts were unavail¬ 
 ing, or her words so incoherent as to convey no 
 connected meaning. She was, however, more 
 staid and melancholy while he remained with 
 her, and smiled and sighed, and wept and sang, 
 by turns, till it was time for him to again bid 
 her adieu. With the exception of those child¬ 
 like wanderings, she betrayed no other marks^ 
 of insanity ; her aberrations were merely play¬ 
 ful and innocent: she was often sad and me¬ 
 lancholy, but oftener lively and light-spirited. 
 
 W- felt an excitement in her presence 
 
 which he had never known before; she ap¬ 
 peared to him a pure child of Nature, in the 
 extreme of Nature’s loveliness. She seemed 
 not as one whom reason had deserted, but as 
 a being who had never mingled with the world, 
 and dwelt in the midst of its vice and deform¬ 
 ity in primeval beauty and uncontaminated 
 innocence and affection. 
 
44 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 His visits were now anxiously repeated and 
 as eagerly anticipated by his interesting com¬ 
 panion, to whom he found himself, almost 
 involuntarily, deeply attached, the more so, 
 perhaps, from the romantic circumstances of 
 the case, and the secrecy which it was ab¬ 
 solutely necessary to maintain of the whole 
 affair, so that no ear was privy to his visits, 
 and no eye had marked their meetings. At 
 length, however, the matter began to effect a 
 singular change in the mind of the lady, which 
 became every day more and more composed, 
 though still subject to wanderings and ab¬ 
 straction ; but the new passion, which was daily 
 taking possession of her mind, seemed to be 
 eradicating the cause, or, at least, counteracting 
 the -effects of her malady. 
 
 This alteration was soon visible to the in¬ 
 mates of the house, and the progress of her 
 recovery was so rapid as to induce them to 
 seek for some latent cause, and to. watch her 
 frequent and prolonged visits to the garden ; 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 45 
 
 the consequence was^ that at their next meeting 
 an eye was on them which reported the cir¬ 
 cumstance of W-’s visit to the superior of 
 
 the establishment; an immediate stop was then 
 put to his return, and the lady’s walks confined 
 to another portion of the grounds. The con¬ 
 sequences were soon obvious ; her regret and 
 anxiety served to recall her disorder with re¬ 
 doubled vigour, and in the paroxysms of her 
 delirium she eagerly demanded to be again 
 permitted to see him. 
 
 A communication was now made to her 
 parents, containing a detail of all the circum¬ 
 stances,—her quick recovery, her relapse, and 
 the apparent cause of both; and, after some 
 
 conferences, it was resolved that W-should 
 
 be invited to renew his visits, and the affair 
 be permitted to take its natural course. He 
 accordingly repaired to the usual rendezvous, 
 where she met him with the most impassioned 
 eagerness, affectionately reproached his absence, 
 and welcomed him with fond and innocent ca- 
 
46 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 resses. He now saw her as frequently as before, 
 and a second time her recovery was rapidly 
 progressing, till at length she was so far re¬ 
 stored that her parents resolved on removing 
 her to her own home, and she accordingly bade 
 adieu to the asylum. 
 
 There were here some circumstances which 
 W-’s companion, Mr. R-, related in¬ 
 
 distinctly, or of which I retain but an imperfect 
 recollection; and he who could alone have in¬ 
 formed me of them was gone to his long home 
 before I heard his singular story. It appeared, 
 however, that, after some farther intercourse, 
 he was obliged to be absent from Ireland for 
 some time, and during that interval, the pro¬ 
 gress of her mind to perfect collectedness con¬ 
 tinued uninterrupted ; but her former memory 
 seemed to decay with her disease, and she gra¬ 
 dually forgot her lover. 
 
 Long protracted illness ensued, and her 
 spirits and constitution seemed to droop with 
 exhaustion after their former unhealthy excite- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 47 
 
 merit, till at length, after a tedious recovery 
 from a series of relapses, her faculties were per¬ 
 fectly restored; but every trace of her former 
 situation, or the events which had occurred 
 during her illness and residence in Dublin, had 
 vanished like a dream from her memory, nor 
 did her family ever venture to touch her feel¬ 
 ings by a recurrence to them. 
 
 In the mean time W- returned, and 
 
 eagerly flew to embrace, after so long a sepa¬ 
 ration, her who had never passed from his 
 thoughts and his remembrance. Her family 
 felt for him the warmest gratitude and affection, 
 from the consciousness that he had been the 
 main instrument in the restoration of their 
 daughter, but the issue of this interview they 
 awaited with the most painful suspense. She 
 had long ceased to mention his name, or betray 
 any symptom of recollecting him ; he seemed 
 to have passed from her remembrance with the 
 other less important items of her situation, and 
 this moment was now to prove to them whether 
 
48 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 any circumstance could make the stream of me¬ 
 mory roll back to this distracted period of her 
 intellect. 
 
 From the shock of that interview W- 
 
 never recovered. She received him as her fa¬ 
 mily had anticipated ; she saw him as a mere 
 uninteresting stranger; she met him with calm, 
 and cold politeness, and • could ill conceal her 
 astonishment at the agitation and despair of 
 his manner, when he found too truly that he 
 was no longer remembered with the fond affec¬ 
 tion he had anticipated. He could not repress 
 his anxiety to remind her of their late attach¬ 
 ment, but she only heard his distant hints with 
 astonishment and haughty surprise. He now 
 found that the only step which remained for 
 him was to endeavour to make a second impres¬ 
 sion on her renovated heart; but he failed. 
 There was still some mysterious influence 
 which attached their minds, but the alliance on 
 her part had totally changed its former tone, 
 and when she did permit her thoughts to dwell 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 49 
 
 upon him, it was rather with aversion than 
 esteem ; and her family, after long encouraging 
 his addresses, at length persuaded him to forego 
 his suit, which with a heavy and a hopeless heart 
 he assented to, and bade her adieu for ever. 
 
 But the die of his fortune was cast; he 
 could no longer walk heedlessly by those scenes 
 where he had once spent hours of happiness, 
 and he felt that, wander v/here he might, that 
 happiness could never return. At length, to 
 crown his misery, the last ray of hope was 
 shortly after shaded by the marriage of his mis¬ 
 tress. W- now abandoned every prospect 
 
 at home, and, in order to shake off that melan¬ 
 choly which was gathering like rust around his 
 heart, went to the Continent; but change of 
 scene is but a change of ill to those who must 
 bear with them the cause of their sorrow, and 
 find within that aching void the world can 
 never fill.” He hurried in vain from one scene 
 of excitement to another; society had no spell 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 to soothe his memory, and change no charm to 
 lull it. 
 
 “ Still slowly pass’d the melancholy day. 
 
 And still the stranger wist not where to stray.” 
 
 At length he joined the cause of the sturg- 
 gling Greeks, and his name has been often and 
 honourably mentioned amongst the companions 
 of Lord Byron at Missolonghi. After his Lord¬ 
 ship’s death he still remained in Greece, but his 
 constitution was too weak to permit him to be 
 of active service as a Palikari. He had, there¬ 
 fore, taken a post in the garrison, which held 
 possession of the castle and town of Navarino, 
 in the Morea, and was wounded in the action at 
 Sphacteria, in the summer of 1825. 
 
 The unskilful management of a native sur¬ 
 geon during his confinement in the fortress, pre¬ 
 vious to its surrender to Ibrahim Pacha, and 
 a long and dangerous fever from the malaria 
 of Pylos combined with scanty diet and bad 
 attendance from his Greek domestics, united 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 51 
 
 with his broken spirit to bring on a rapid 
 consumption. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Mr. 
 
 R--, who now accompanied him, had found 
 
 him at a village in the district of Maina, and 
 had since paid him every attention in his power. 
 By cautious management and gentle voyages 
 he had brought him to Hydra, where he was 
 enabled to procure him a passage in a French 
 vessel, from whence he hoped to find a Bri¬ 
 tish ship to land him in England, where his 
 last moments might be watched by friendly 
 eyes, and his bones rest with his fathers. The 
 particulars of his inhospitable reception here I 
 have already recounted; but we at last saw 
 him fixed under the care of an old French 
 officer at Smyrna, who engaged to pay him 
 every requisite attention, till he should depart 
 for Europe, or for another world. 
 
 We dined at the locanda with a number of 
 Greeks and Austrians, and officers of the French 
 and English navy ; and in the evening engaged 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 a boat to row us across the bay to the Turk¬ 
 ish gardens on the northern shore. It was a 
 delicious night; the twinkling stars were 
 scarcely visible in the blue silvery sky, and 
 the ocean lay calm as the heavens. There was 
 no noise along the dusky shore, and the voice 
 of a Greek musician, who accompanied us with 
 his guitar, alone disturbed the solitude of the 
 scene. He sang with great taste and feeling 
 the songs of his native mountains, and his 
 tones were more musical than the generality of 
 the Greeks I have heard in the Morea, whose 
 nasal notes are any thing but harmony. He 
 had a vast number of the amatory songs of 
 Christopoulo, the Cretan, and the martial ly¬ 
 rics of the Patriot Riga; and it was a curious 
 sensation to hear the wild airs of Greece sung 
 almost beneath the windows of her insatiate 
 murderers. 
 
 Of one of the most dramatic of his ballads, 
 the following is a literal translation :— 
 
THE /EGEAN. 
 
 53 
 
 THE MOTHER OF THE KLEFT. 
 
 Slie stood where the flood through the valley was toiling, 
 
 And she mark’d where its current was foaming and boiling; 
 And stones in its waters indignantly throwing, 
 
 She chided the stream that so swiftly was flowing. 
 
 “ Flow back to thy mountains, oh, ill-fated river ! 
 
 Dry up all thy waters and vanish for ever ; 
 
 A mother implores, of her child who bereft is. 
 
 Oil leave her a path to the home of the Kleftis ! 
 
 She is hasting to tell them her desolate story. 
 
 Where on CEta they rest in their strong Kleftochori.” * 
 
 Her son, the brave Kitzos, the Turks have surrounded. 
 
 And they bear him in triumph, bound, wearied, and wounded, 
 fTwo thousand behind, and a thousand before him. 
 
 And last, last of all, the sad mother who bore him. 
 
 With the tears of a parent her eyes are o’erflowing. 
 
 And she calls, as sad looks on her child she is throwing— 
 
 “ Of thy arms, my loved Kitzos, the foe has bereft thee ; 
 
 No sword and no clasps of bright silver are left thee.’’ 
 
 “ Ah mother, weak mother, why weepestthou still for 
 My embossed yataghan and my cuisses of silver ; 
 
 * An encampment of Klefts. 
 f In the original— 
 
 Xi'Kioi Tov TTtiyouv e/UTrpoa-ra, xai Bvl y^tKtdBeg Trliau) 
 
 K 6\o|o7r/o'w TT^fyutvsVf yj fxoL^pa too [xolwoOKo.. 
 
54 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 The deeds of niy valour and fame thou forgettest, 
 
 ' Nor the end of my youthful career thou regrettest; 
 
 But ill tears /w my armour my mother is mourning, 
 
 Is-it thus, wretched parent, my love thou ’rt returning ?” 
 
 “ No, no !’’ she exclaim’d, while with arms twined around 
 him. 
 
 She sever’d the cords where the infidel bound him ; 
 
 And darting like hawks to the brink of the river. 
 
 They cross’d, and escaped from the Moslem for ever.” * 
 
 It was late when we returned; and after 
 answering the salute of the Turkish night- 
 guard at the landing-place, we reached our 
 hotel, and for the first time for many months, 
 I stretched myself on an European bed, the 
 yielding softness of which was an agreeable 
 contrast to the hard carpets, and harder boards 
 of the Morea and Attica. 
 
 The following day we called to see W-, 
 
 but we found that human sympathy would 
 soon cease to avail him ; the step of death was 
 , already on his threshold. The surgeon of one of 
 the ships of war had been to see him, but all 
 
 * Fauriel, Chants Pop. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 55 
 
 prospect of his surviving had fled. The fa¬ 
 tigue of his removal from the vessel, his ex¬ 
 posure to the sun in the boat whilst landing, 
 and his annoyance at the inn, seemed to have 
 hurried down the few remaining sands of his 
 glass; and he felt himself that time was draw¬ 
 ing to a close with him. 
 
 He was perfectly collected, and, as fully as 
 he could, was giving his last directions to his 
 friend, who had so generously attended him ; 
 he spoke much of his family, and gave parti¬ 
 cular messages to each, pointing out to R- 
 
 the various little trinkets he wished to send 
 them as dying memorials of himself; a ring, 
 which he still wore on his finger, and which 
 bore the inscription “ To the memory of 
 my dear mother,” he desired might be buried 
 with him, together with a locket which was 
 suspended from his neck, and contained a lock 
 of raven hair: he did not mention whose. 
 
 But words could not paint the expression 
 of his countenance, nor the sad sublimity of 
 
56 
 
 'LETTERS FROM 
 
 his voice, when, for the last time, he feebly 
 grasped the hand of his affectionate friend, 
 thanked him for. all his former kindness, and 
 bade him his last mortal farewell; he shortly 
 after sank into an apparently painless lethargy, 
 from which he never aroused himself. 
 
 It was evening before he died; there was 
 not a breath of wind to wave the branches of 
 the peach trees around his window, through 
 which the sun-beams were streaming on his 
 death-bed, tinged with the golden dyes of 
 sunset. It was in a remote corner of Smyrna, 
 and no sound disturbed the silent progress 
 of death; the sun went down at length 
 behind the hills; the clear calm voice of the 
 Muezzin from his tower, came from the dis¬ 
 tant city, and again all was repose. We 
 
 approached the bed of W-, but his soul 
 
 had bade adieu to mortality ; he had expired 
 but a moment before, without a sigh and 
 without a struggle. 
 
 We returned at night to our hotel, but the 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 57 
 
 quantities of mosquitoes with which it was 
 swarming, from its vicinity to the oozy beach, 
 and the hordes of tormenting insects with which 
 our beds were infested, obliged us to sleep on 
 board the frigate in which we came. It was 
 pretty late when we were ready to go onboard ; 
 but we found on coming to the beach, that, by 
 a regulation of the port, no boats were allowed 
 to put off after a certain hour, principally with 
 a design to prevent the escape of the Greek 
 inhabitants in European vessels. 
 
 A bribe was, however, suggested to the 
 officer on duty, and he agreed for three piastres 
 (at that time about eighteen-pence) to allow the 
 boat to go out; and we were on the point of 
 starting, when, finding us more pliable to his 
 terms than he had calculated, he sent to say 
 that he must have three piastres more; to this 
 second exaction, we did not so readily submit, 
 and the old gentleman shuffled down himself 
 to the beach to detain us, threatening that he 
 would fire into our boat if we attempted to 
 
58 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 leave the shore till he had the six piastres. 
 We were handing him the money, when the 
 barge from the frigate rowed alongside; we 
 stepped on board it, to the infinite mortification 
 of the old knave, who thus lost his bribe and 
 his temper together. This, with one excep¬ 
 tion, is the only instance of imposition or inso¬ 
 lence which we met with in Turkey, at leak 
 in Smyrna, though I am aware that other tra¬ 
 vellers have been less fortunate. 
 
 We had scarcely reached the vessel and 
 turned in to our cots, when we heard a distant 
 murmur of voices from the city, and the watch 
 on deck announced that a large body of flame 
 was rising above the Frank quarter of Smyr¬ 
 na ; the gong was' immediately sounded, the 
 boats lowered, and the officers, with a party 
 of marines and sailors, hurried with an engine 
 to the spot, where the fire was raging in a few 
 narrow streets at the rear of the British Con¬ 
 sulate. It had originated in the house of a 
 Jew, who had been employed in the manufac- 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 59 
 
 ture of false money, and it was at first con¬ 
 jectured that accident had caused the confla¬ 
 gration ; but when the body of the unfortunate 
 wretch and that of his daughter were found 
 covered with the stabs of a yataghan, it was 
 evident that the act was perpetrated by some 
 incendiary, for the purpose of concealing the 
 plunder and murder of the Jew. When we 
 arrived at the scene, the street was so narrow, 
 that it was utterly impossible for the engines 
 to approach, and the passage was impeded by 
 the ruins of the burning houses, and the rem¬ 
 nants of their property, which the unfortunate 
 inmates had flung down with the hope of saving 
 them from destruction. 
 
 A crowd of Turks, and other sluggish Smyr- 
 niots were standing idly by, whilst the British 
 sailors formed a line to carry water in buckets 
 to the fire ; but it was evident that no resources 
 would be available till the flames had wrought 
 their way to some open space where the engines 
 could be brought to master them. 
 
60 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 The scene was truly terrific; the night so 
 calm, that the tall pyramid of flame and smoke 
 was rising perpendicularly above the city, scat¬ 
 tering on every side its bright volcano of sparks 
 and burning wood ; whilst beneath every other 
 sound was drowned in the crackling and roar¬ 
 ing of the fire, the hissing of the water, and 
 the cries of the miserable wretches, who were 
 obliged to view in motionless agony the de¬ 
 struction of their homes, which no efforts could 
 rescue. Such was the temporary construction 
 of the buildings, that the fire made quick work 
 in its progress ; house after house we saw, its 
 windows whitening with the rolling smoke, till 
 with a burst the flames found vent for their 
 fury; floor after floor sank down, and in a few 
 moments the crash of the roof announced the 
 completion of the ruin. The remorseless ele¬ 
 ment sped onward to another, where the slight 
 framework of wood and mud opposed no bar¬ 
 rier to its destructive career. 
 
 During the entire course of the conflagration, 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 ()1 
 
 scarce a hand was seen in motion save that of 
 the British sailor; wherever danger was most 
 threatening, he was in the midst, now mounted 
 on the crackling beams, and now dragging the 
 fire-engine of the Consulate over the smoulder¬ 
 ing ruins. A few lives were lost of those whom 
 infirmity prevented from flight; about sixty 
 houses were reduced to ruins,—but the whole 
 scene was in a few days forgotten; a week or 
 two suffices to re-erect the fallen edifices, and 
 similar conflagrations are occurring from month 
 to month, arising equally from the inflammable 
 nature of the buildings and the carelessness of 
 the inmates ; whilst in the T urkish quarter of 
 the city, such events are scarcely less frequent 
 or less destructive. 
 
 The following day the remains of poor W- 
 
 were interred in the English burying-ground. 
 The few travellers at the moment in Smyrna 
 attended, and the Janissaries of the Consul 
 preceded the coffin, which was borne by four 
 sailors, and covered with an English ensign. 
 
62 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 In a solitary corner of the cemetery, beside a 
 group of cypresses, his grave was dug by the 
 attendants of the British hospital; and his last 
 remains rested by those of his countrymen who 
 have fallen victims to the climate of the Levant. 
 
 Mr. Arundel, the chaplain to the factory, 
 read the service of the church over his tomb; 
 and perhaps it never was pronounced under 
 more melancholy circumstances, beneath the 
 calm bright sky of Asia, on an eminence which 
 looked down on the bustle of the city, but was 
 far removed from its din and clamour, and 
 disturbed by no sound save the sigh of his 
 friend, the hum of the glittering insects flutter¬ 
 ing in the sunshine, and the hollow rattle of 
 the clay on the receptacle of the wanderer's 
 dust. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 63 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 -ducimus autem 
 
 Hos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vitae 
 Nec jactare jugum vita didicere raagistra. 
 
 Juvenal. 
 
 THE SMYRNIOTS. 
 
 Smyrna scarcely done justice to by European Travellers.— 
 Its remains of Antiquity.— River IMeles. —Modern Town. 
 —Important change going on in the Bay.—Singular effect 
 of the Rivers of Asia Minor, on the tracts through which 
 they pass.—Dr. Chandler’s Theory of the Hermus.—A 
 Greek Family of Smyrna, —their House.— Story of 
 Young Lallaho. —The Greek Girls.—Castle of Smyrna.— 
 View from the Castle Hill.—Turkish Burying-ground.— 
 Different treatment of Females by the Greeks and Mos¬ 
 lems.—Traits of character in the Modern Greeks.—An¬ 
 cient zone referred to in the New Testament.—Personal 
 appearance of the Turks.—Damascus Sabres.—Inscription 
 on the Cymetar of Kontoghianni the Kleft.—Fragment of 
 a Greek Song, “ The Dream of Demos.” —^Turkish Mos¬ 
 ques at Smyrna.—Identity of the Pillar-tower of Ireland, 
 and the Muezzin-towers of the East.—Form of Turkish 
 worship.—Hour of Prayer in Scriptures.—Turkish cleanli¬ 
 ness.—Climate of Smyrna.—The Inbat.—The Cascino.— 
 Evenings at Smyrna.—Oriental custom of sitting at the Door 
 alluded to in Scripture.—Turkish Toleration.—Hostility 
 of the Latin Church to the Ikonoclasts.—Excursion in the 
 Bay.— Death of Young Lallaho. 
 
 Smyrna is a part of Turkey of which less 
 information has been given to the public than 
 
64 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 almost any other portion of the empire, from 
 the circumstance of its being generally visited 
 as a mere baiting-place for travellers: those 
 on their way to Constantinople, or the South, 
 seldom allow it to arrest their attention, which 
 is occupied by anticipations 'of more interest¬ 
 ing attractions at the extremity of their jour¬ 
 ney ; and those on their return fancy they 
 have already seen so much of Turkey, that 
 Smyrna can present no additional charms to 
 delay their progress towards home. To me 
 it was the first scene of Ottoman life and 
 Orientalism, and though anxious to get on 
 to the more celebrated spots of Asia Minor, 
 it possessed sufficient allurements to induce to 
 prolong my visit to a period considerably be¬ 
 yond that usually devoted to it by others. 
 
 Besides the charms of its situation and the 
 luxuries of its living, I had more interesting 
 motives for delay, in the society of the city. 
 I was fortunate enough to see a good deal of 
 the domestic life of the Turks, as well as of 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 65 
 
 the Greeks and Europeans, which alone can 
 form a lasting charm, as the town and its an¬ 
 tiquities require but a short investigation. 
 The latter are, in fact, very imperfect, nor is 
 much known with certainty concerning them. 
 
 We went to see the site of the Temple of 
 Homer,* and the Baths of Diana, near the 
 river Meles, which flows to the north-east of 
 the city. Nothing remains of either save the 
 
 * From the circumstance of Homer being supposed to have 
 been born on the banks of this river, he had given to him the 
 name of Melesigenes, (by which he is mentioned by Tibullus, 
 I think,) and which Herodotus says he retained till, whilst 
 begging at Cumse, he received the name of Homer, signifying, 
 in their language, “ a blind man,’’ His works have likewise 
 been called “ Meleteae chartae.” The claims of Smyrna to 
 his birth are better attested, or at least more strenuously 
 urged, than those of her rival competitors in the proverbial 
 dystich,— 
 
 Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, 
 Athenae, 
 
 Orbus de patria certat, Homere tua,” 
 though it is remarkable that Homer nowhere mentions either 
 Smyrna, the Melos, or the nymph Critheis, assigned him as 
 his mother. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 echo of a distant tradition, whilst the ruins of 
 her aqueduct, the mouldering and almost 
 illegible inscriptions of her sepulchres, and 
 the vestiges of her paved highway to Ephesus, 
 afford but vague testimonies of the extent 
 and importance of Smyrna. 
 
 In fact, of the ancient city nothing now 
 exists: the modern town is supposed to occupy 
 its site, but the opinions of almost all its 
 annalists are at variance. Frequent earth¬ 
 quakes and conflagrations, and the invasions 
 of time and its enemies, have so often re¬ 
 duced the city to ruins, that eight or nine 
 periods of its being rebuilt are on record; 
 whilst from each successive menace of annihi¬ 
 lation, the beauty of its situation, and its im¬ 
 portance to commerce, have protected it. 
 
 From the effects of such vicissitudes it may 
 naturally be concluded that the appearance of 
 Smyrna is as incongruous as her annals. The 
 remnants of all ages are strewn around her: 
 a castle of the middle empire crowns a hill 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 67 
 
 which looks down upon the aqueducts and 
 ampitheatre, relics of more remote and flourish¬ 
 ing epochs, while at its base the modern city 
 is a mass of all architectures and all ages, 
 built as the varying taste of every period and 
 of every nation prompted; nothing is harmo¬ 
 nious ; antiquity and modernism are blended 
 in every quarter, whilst its muddy, narrow 
 streets are traversed by a population as varied 
 as the differences of costume, language, man¬ 
 ners, and country can render them. 
 
 But another and a more important change 
 is still going on in the vicinity. The great 
 rivers of Asia Minor, the Cayster, the Mean¬ 
 der, and the Hermus, have all been celebrated 
 for the singular alterations which, in their 
 course, they have effected on the appearance 
 of the Mnds through which they pass. The 
 Cayster, by the soil which it has carried along 
 during successive ages, has formed a plain in 
 the vicinity of Ephesus, from which the sea 
 has gradually retreated till it is now firm land, 
 
LETTERS FROM 
 
 f)8 
 
 and called by the name of the river which 
 produced it. The operations of the Meander, 
 still farther south, have been more widely ex¬ 
 tended, though less beneficial in their results, 
 its channels tearing up for miles around it the 
 sandy plains through which it flows, as it 
 forms for itself fresh channels on every new 
 inundation. ^ 
 
 But the effects of the Hermus, or as it 
 is now called, the Sarabat, which discharges 
 itself into the bay of Smyrna, on the northern 
 side, are likely to prove more important than 
 either. The soil and sand, brought down 
 from time to time by the stream of the river, 
 have formed several banks and bars at its 
 mouths, which are daily growing larger, and 
 from which the. sea is gradually withdrawing 
 as they shoot forward across the Gulf. These 
 have already extended so far, that the retreat 
 of the waters in various quarters of the bay, 
 and the visibly progressing changes in the 
 entire, have given grounds to some curious 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 69 
 
 speculations on the result, and the following 
 sweeping, but at the same time reasonable, 
 calculation of Dr. Chandler, who examined the 
 spot in 1764-5, is gaining daily though silent 
 and almost imperceptible confirmation ;— 
 
 The river Hermus, by its influence on the 
 gulf, has already effected great changes, and 
 wilb^radually accomplish some signal altera¬ 
 tions, of which the progress deserves to be 
 accurately marked. The flats before Smyrna 
 will mutually approach, and leaving only a 
 narrow ingress, the city will be on a lake. 
 This will be fed by the Meles, and by torrents, 
 and in time become fresh. The plague of 
 gnats will then, if possible, be multiplied at 
 Smyrna. 
 
 “ The land will continue to increase, until 
 it is in a line with the mouth of the gulf, 
 when the site of Clazomene, and the islets 
 within Karabornou, will be encompassed with 
 soil, and, if no current intervene, Phocaea be 
 deprived of its harbour; the sea within the 
 
70 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 gulf will by degrees give place to a noble 
 plain, created and watered by the Hermus; 
 commerce will have then removed to some more 
 commodious mart, and Smyrna - be, if not 
 utterly deserted, desolate and forlorn.” 
 
 A few days after our arrival, we were 
 invited to dine with a Greek merchant, with 
 whom the young Sciote lady, who accompanied 
 us to Smyrna, had taken up her abode. His 
 house was situated in one of the best streets 
 in the Frank quarter, with spacious rooms, 
 and a shady garden in the rear. The fitting- 
 up of the entire was really splendid ; and the 
 repast, combining all the luxuries of the coun¬ 
 try, was conducted with the elegance of Eu¬ 
 ropean style. 
 
 Our entertainer had been married to a lady, 
 a native of Florence, who died early, leaving 
 him a son and two daughters. The former had 
 been, at the commencement of the Greek re¬ 
 volution, engaged in business with his father; 
 but his ardent patriotism having induced him 
 
THE iEGE4N. 
 
 71 
 
 to take an active, though concealed part, in 
 forwarding the efforts of his countrymen, he 
 was denounced to the Pacha of Smyrna, by 
 one of his companions who had been detected, 
 but whose fortitude could not withstand the 
 tortures which were applied to wring from him 
 the secret of his associates; and whilst at slow 
 intervals his teeth were one by one extracted, 
 and the nails slowly torn from his toes and 
 fingers, he delivered up the names of his accom¬ 
 plices, in order to purchase a speedy death in 
 lieu of the agonies he was enduring. Young 
 Lallaho had, however, sufficient time to make 
 his escape, and flying to the mountains above 
 Karabornou, he lay concealed, till getting on 
 board a British vessel in the straits of Scio, 
 he was landed at the Ionian islands, and had 
 thence reached the Morea, and openly espoused 
 the cause of the struggling insurgents. 
 
 Nearly five years had now elapsed since his 
 flight, and, with the exception of vague ru¬ 
 mours, no news of his situation or fortunes had 
 
72 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 ever reached his family, till one night, about 
 a month previous to our arrival, he entered the 
 house of his father by a back passage from the 
 garden. The joy of his return was, however, 
 quickly clouded by the consciousness that his 
 discovery by the Turks would ensure not only 
 his own immediate slaughter, but the destruc¬ 
 tion of his entire family for having dared to 
 give him shelter or protection; he was accor¬ 
 dingly concealed, even from the domestics, in 
 one of the most secluded parts of the house, 
 and his society only enjoyed at intervals and 
 by stealth. 
 
 Almost from birth, and frequently previous 
 to it, the children of the Greeks are contracted 
 in marriage by their parents; nay, such be- 
 trothings have been known to exist even before 
 the parents themselves have been introduced 
 into the world. From infancy, those destined 
 for each other are brought up and educated in 
 the anticipation of their future union, till custom 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 73 
 
 and duty have strengthened mutual affection 
 by long habit and association. Instances of 
 such contracts being dissolved by common 
 consent of the parties are seldom heard; but 
 were one individual, even under the most un- 
 propitious circumstances, to break the long 
 cherished affiance, the act would stamp him 
 with cureless infamy. 
 
 A motive of this kind had caused the re¬ 
 turn of the young patriot: he had long been 
 betrothed to the dauo-hter of a merchant of 
 Smyrna, and a sentiment of fond affection had 
 sanctioned the choice of his parents: his flight 
 from his home had not been with so much pre¬ 
 cipitation as to prevent him taking adieu of 
 his bride, and giving her assurances of his fu¬ 
 ture return to claim her, and fly to some 
 more peaceful home, beyond the reach of 
 their tyrants. He had now redeemed his pro¬ 
 mise, and was about to conduct her to Leg¬ 
 horn, where he had made arrangements for 
 
LETTERS FROM 
 
 74 
 
 opening a mercantile house in conjunction with 
 a countryman and correspondent of his father, 
 long resident in Tuscany. 
 
 He had arrived several months before in an 
 European vessel, under the disguise of a sear- 
 man ; but, fearing to land during the commo¬ 
 tions then reigning in Smyrna, he was forced to 
 remain during some weeks in hourly danger on 
 board, witliin sight of his dearly-loved home, 
 but unable either to give notice to his friends 
 of his presence, or to set a foot on its treache¬ 
 rous shore, and at last, after tedious watching 
 and anxious delay, he was obliged again to put 
 to sea, and bid it a second reluctant farewell. 
 The vessel now carried him to Beirout, Jaffa, 
 and finally to Alexandria; from whence he was 
 obliged to beg his way in one vessel after ano¬ 
 ther, to Leghorn, Malta, and the Ionian islands, 
 where he once more embarked for Smyrna. 
 
 After many a narrow chance, he at last 
 landed during a stormy night at an obscure part 
 of the bay, and by the utmost caution and 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 75 
 
 concealment at length succeeded in reaching 
 his father’s house. He had now made all 
 his arrangements, and was to sail in a few 
 days with his bride in an Austrian vessel for 
 Trieste, should he be enabled to elude his 
 enemies till the time of his departure. 
 
 The daughters of the old gentleman were 
 two of the most beautiful girls I had seen in 
 the Levant: their costume was rather of the 
 Italian than Greek taste, but combined the 
 elegancies of both; their light silk dresses 
 were made to suit accurately to the figure, 
 instead of flowing loosely and ungracefully as 
 in the Morea. A slipper with a high heel, 
 such as are generally worn in the north of 
 Italy, richly embroidered, and covering only 
 the front of the foot, showed to full advantage 
 a delicately turned ankle, through a stocking 
 of netted silk fine as a gossamer; whilst 
 their turbans of transparent gauze, ornamented 
 with a glittering aigrette and a wreath of gol¬ 
 den flowers, rather enhanced than shaded the 
 
76 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 glossy ringlets which flowed over a brow fair 
 as polished marble. 
 
 Their accomplishments too had not been 
 neglected, and I never heard the songs of 
 Greece sound so enchantingly as when breathed 
 by their sweetly-toned voices, accompanied 
 by a guitar, to some of the native airs of 
 Britain, and especially to Mozart’s delicious 
 one of ‘‘ Life let us cherish,” which seems an 
 universal favourite with the Greeks. Their 
 manners appeared to be a combination of the 
 three classes with whom they had associated,— 
 the grace of the Italian, the sprightly vivacity 
 of the Greek, and the stately tournure of the 
 Ottomans ; whilst all three were enhanced and 
 blended by an air of fixed and interesting 
 melancholy. 
 
 The dress of the male portion of the company 
 was European, their national costume being 
 laid aside, either from choice, or for protec¬ 
 tion against the casual insults of the Turks. 
 The son of our host did not make his appear- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 77 
 
 ance, nor was his name mentioned by any ; and 
 in fact it was only on a third visit that we 
 learned his tale. The conversation during the 
 day presented a fair specimen of the varying 
 and cameleon-like character of the people, 
 taking a tinge from every topic, and verging in 
 an instant “from grave to gay, from lively to 
 severe,’** whilst every change of temperament 
 was carried to an extreme of gaiety or sadness, 
 though the former generally prevailed. 
 
 The females seemed to monopolize all the 
 melancholy of the party: continued terror and 
 reiterated scenes of horror and of dread ap¬ 
 peared to have damped their natural sprightli¬ 
 ness : they spoke often of their awful situation; 
 in the midst of an infuriated enemy, where the 
 moments of rejoicing for the successes of their 
 countrymen were those when they had most to 
 dread from the brutality of their masters. They 
 knew not the hour when the caprice of their 
 governors might consign them to the fate of 
 Scio, which hundreds of their friends and rela- 
 
78 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 tives had already shared, whilst the orders 
 of the Divan and the vigilance of the guards 
 rendered escape from Smyrna almost an impos¬ 
 sibility, which nothing but despair could urge 
 them to attempt, and in which detection, with¬ 
 out another crime, would itself condemn them 
 to slavery or slaughter. The intervals in such 
 accounts as these and the freezing tales with 
 which they were illustrated, were filled up with 
 amusements as lively as they were depressing, 
 and songs and music served to pass the time till 
 a late hour, when we took our departure, and 
 put off, to spend the night in our births on board. 
 
 A steep passage from the town leads to the 
 castle of Smyrna, on the summit of Mount Pa- 
 gus at its rear; its remains present little more 
 than a ruinous wall encircling its court-yards, 
 and the remains of dilapidated buildings, cover¬ 
 ing an immense space of ground. The original 
 structure, massive remains of which are still to 
 be traced, is said to have been the work of 
 Alexander; but the modern building owes its 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 79 
 
 origin to John Angeliis Comnenus, about the 
 year 1220 Near the gate by which we entered 
 lies a colossal head, said by some to be that of 
 the Amazon Smyrna, by others of Apollo; but 
 no evidences now remain by which to aid recog¬ 
 nition or trace the obliterated lines of beauty. 
 
 This hill is said to have been the scene of the 
 martyrdom of St. Polycarp, who was born at 
 Smyrna during the reign of Nero, created 
 bishop of his native city by St. John, and sup¬ 
 posed to be the ‘‘ Angel of Smyrna,’’ to whom 
 the epistle in the 2d chapter of the Revelations 
 is directed. He was burnt (or torn by wild 
 beasts,) as tradition says, in the amphitheatre, 
 during the persecution of the Christians, A. D. 
 169, by Marcus Aurelius, and his tomb is said 
 to have been long frequented on the summit of 
 the mountain; but no traces of it are now to 
 be found, and even the fact of this being the 
 scene of his martyrdom is doubted. 
 
 The view from the walls of the castle is 
 
 I 
 
 splendid in the extreme, extending 
 
 over a su- 
 
80 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 perb country as far as the eye can reach, and 
 taking in at one glance the hills of Erythrae, 
 the waters of the distant bay, the course of the 
 Hermus, and the country stretching up to Cas- 
 saba and Mount Sipylus. 
 
 Our return was through the Turkish ceme¬ 
 tery, which is situated nearly at the top of the 
 hill : it is marked by peculiar neatness rather 
 than by great extent, and its groves of lonely 
 cypresses, each at the head of its marble-tur- 
 baned tomb, produce an effect of melancholy 
 sadness and repose, much more affecting than 
 the gaudy monuments and frippery decorations 
 of Pere la Chaise, or the “ storied urn and ani¬ 
 mated bust” of Westminster and Santa Crooe. 
 It is in these spots that one feels truly in the 
 East, where all around reigns the stillness of 
 death, and the only gaudy objects to allure the 
 eye are the calm cloudless heaven and the glit¬ 
 tering sea, where the hum of the bee amid the 
 thyme-covered graves, and the stately waving of 
 the funereal cypresses, alone disturb the solitary 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 81 
 
 grief of the mourners who frequent them, and 
 who are seen in melancholy groups seated in 
 tears beside some fresh-made grave, or watering 
 with friendly hand the flowers which spring 
 above some earlier tenant of the tomb. 
 
 These scenes, too, afford another proof of the 
 superior gentleness of heart and fervent affection 
 of woman. It is seldom they are visited by 
 men, and I never remember to have entered one 
 of them without seeing some sorrowing female 
 seated by the green mound or marble shrine, 
 which sheltered some once loved and still dearly 
 cherished being, to whom she fancied she had 
 already bade an eternal farewell; the precepts 
 of j^er religion .debarring her from any hope 
 of a reunion in another world with those on 
 whom the portals of the tomb had closed in 
 this. 
 
 Nor are the Turks by any means divested of 
 domestic affection either; but national custom 
 and a fostered feeling of male superiority have 
 taught them that it is unmanly to make a wo- 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 manish display of sentiment. With a Greek, 
 who seems to copy all the gaudy exterior with¬ 
 out the solid virtues of the Mussulman, this idea 
 of male superiority surmounts every suggestion 
 of love or lasting attachment. The Osmanlee 
 teaches the inferiority of woman in another 
 world, yet grants her what appears to him her 
 due sphere in this; the Greek, on the contrary, 
 inflicts present degradation, as if inculcating 
 submission here as the purchase of happiness 
 hereafter : with the one it is an error of the head, 
 with the other a tyrannical theory of the heart. 
 
 I have frequently heard even the Hydriots 
 talk in rapture of their little sons, praise them 
 as blooming cupids, and boast of the promising 
 manliness of their infant forms, whilst their 
 equally lovely daughters or affectionate wives 
 are never mentioned, or, if referred to by ano¬ 
 ther, dwelt on for a moment, and the conversa¬ 
 tion reverted to their boys. On more than one 
 occasion. Captain Hamilton, of the Cambrian, 
 the well-known friend of‘the Greeks, has been 
 
THE .EGEAN. 
 
 83 
 
 solicited, during periods of threatening danger, 
 to receive the sons of the chiefs on board his 
 vessel for protection, whilst the daughters and 
 wives were left to await their fate amongst the 
 lumber of the houses.* 
 
 In like manner, whilst imitating in less im¬ 
 portant matters the customs of their masters, 
 the Greek almost invariably abandons the sub¬ 
 stance for the shadow. His embossed and 
 richly-gilded pistols are splendid only in the 
 stock, the barrel and other important items 
 being generally worthless; the hilt of his sabre 
 is often set with jewels, whilst the blade is 
 gnawed with rust; the light flowing dresses of 
 the Mussulmen, so admirably combining grace 
 with convenience, are rejected by the Greek, 
 since they cannot be covered with lacing and 
 golden braid like his tight and inelegant jacket; 
 and the cool silken sash,-|* which confines the 
 * For a similar story, see Game’s Letters from the East, 
 
 p. 62 . 
 
 t I bought to-day in the Bazaar a woollen girdle, whose 
 construction amply explains the phrase so often occurring in 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 garments of the‘Turk without adding to the 
 oppressive heat of the climate, is laid aside for 
 the hard leathern pistol belt of Albania, which 
 admits of more ornament, but at the same time 
 keeps the wearer in a fever of heat. 
 
 But it is needless to prolong the list of the 
 thousand instances in which the spirit of imita¬ 
 tion has made him grasp merely at the glaring 
 and more imposing points of the Mussulman 
 character, whilst by caprice or contempt he 
 rejects the solid advantages it may possess. 
 
 Oriental tales of the heroes “ carrying their money in their 
 belt.” On one end being passed once round the waist it is 
 fastened by a buckle, and this entire portion being sown double 
 all round contains the paraSy which are extracted by means 
 of a small opening in the front, closed with a leathern cover 
 and strap. This being secured, the remainder of the zone is 
 folded round the body till the successive envelopements take up 
 all the cloth, the end of which is then tucked in at the side so 
 as to secure the folds. 
 
 The word translated purses in the 9th verse of the 10th 
 chapter of Matthew, signifies literally girdles; and from their 
 adaptation to the use pointed out by our Saviour, “ Possess not 
 gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,** they were undoubt¬ 
 edly of the same fashion with that which I have described. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 85 
 
 Taken en masse, the Turks are the finest- 
 looking race of men in the world : their oval 
 heads, arching brows, jetty eyes, and aquiline 
 noses, their lofty figures and stately mien, are 
 all set off to full advantage by their ample robes 
 and graceful turbans; all is ease and pro¬ 
 portion about a Turk; there are no angles or 
 straight lines in his features or person; in all 
 we find the pure curve of manly beauty and 
 majestic grace. 
 
 It is inconceivable what a miserable figure an 
 Englishman or an European makes beside him ; 
 his black unmeaning hat, harlequin pantaloons, 
 and hard-collared, straight-cut coat, (which will 
 one day puzzle those of posterity who shall be 
 antiquaries in costume,) contrast so villainously 
 with the picturesque head-dress, ample trow- 
 sers, and floating pelisse of the Ottoman, whilst 
 his glossy beard flings contempt on the effemi¬ 
 nate chin of the clipped and docked European. 
 His arms, for in the East all arm,” usually 
 consist of a pair of superbly chased pistols. 
 
86 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 stuck in a silken sash; a yataghan, with a jewel¬ 
 led handle; a larger and more clumsy knife, 
 called a hanjar, and a scymetar swinging in a 
 scabbard, covered with green or crimson velvet, 
 (as the owner, being an Emir or otherwise, is 
 entitled to carry it,) and ornamented with bosses 
 of gold. The latter is, in general, the most 
 important and valuable portion of his arms, or 
 even of his property. I have seen some blades 
 which were valued at 200 or 300 dollars, many 
 are said to be worth triple that sum, and all 
 retain the name of Damascus, though it is by 
 no means likely that they have been manufac¬ 
 tured there. The twisting and intermingling 
 of the fibres of the metal are considered as the 
 tests of excellence, but I have never seen any 
 possessed of the perfume said to be incorporated 
 with the steel in the real Damascus sabres.* 
 
 * The Turks have one cut with a bent sabre said to be pe¬ 
 culiar to themselves ; it is in drawing the weapon from the 
 scabbard, when the same motion bares the blade and draws it 
 across the body of the enemy. These sabres were probably 
 first used in naval engagements, their shape giving them a de- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 87 
 
 On the blade of each is usually inscribed a 
 verse from the Koran, either sunk in the steel, 
 or embossed in letters of gold. The same cus¬ 
 tom is likewise observed by the Albanians and 
 by the Greeks, the lines on the sword of Konto- 
 ghianni the Kleft being often copied on the 
 sabres of his descendants. 
 
 'OTrmg rOpavvovg 
 
 K* i\i6$£pog V Tov H6fffiov 
 
 TOV, 
 
 Efy’ fjLOvov tS (TiroSt tow.* 
 
 To him who dreads no tyrant’s frown, 
 
 Who treads the earth its free-born lord. 
 
 Whose life is glory and renown. 
 
 To him be Kontoghianni’s sword. 
 
 Among the Greeks, a sabre of superior value 
 is kept as the heir-loom of the family ; and in 
 almost all their songs the Aajxacrxl makes 
 
 a prominent allusion; thus in the following 
 
 cided advantage amidst ropes and cordage, where a straighter 
 weapon would be useless or entangled ; beauty is evidently 
 not the only object or advantage aimed at. 
 
 Fauriel. 
 
88 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 fragment of a Kleftic ballad the grand climax 
 of sublimity with which the vision ends, is the 
 bloody sabre of the chief. 
 
 TO ONEIPON TOT AHMOT.* 
 
 AaXouv 0 / xouxxo/ ara j8ouv«, x’ rj Triplixtg arx 7r\iyta 
 A(xKe7 K t»a fjLixpov ttovK) 'c toD xt<pdcX<* 
 
 Afv iKxKoutre (Tolv ttouX), euh\ erav y^eh.tB6vt, 
 
 Mov eXaXoyo'e m tKiytv av^pwTrivr^v KaKircoiv' 
 
 “ Arj/no fiOVf T eiaoLi xhpivoSf xai reia-' oLpayyioLff/xivog J*’— 
 
 ** IlouXdexi, X fx epwriicig, va crou t 6fxo\oy^(ru>' 
 
 'Eyvpa V a7roxo<yu>)9(5, \l 7 rv 0 v v» rckp oA/yov* 
 
 K«i fT$a tig rl vttvov jjlov, V tov vttvov ttov xo/yuou/touv 
 ElSa rlv oopavlv Oo\lv, xou t aa-rpoc /xaTW/zeva, 
 
 TO AAMAZKI IHAOAKI /xou jSa/x/ievov /xef to 
 
 THE DREAM OF DEMOS. 
 
 The cuckoo sings upon the hills, the partridge in the plain, 
 
 A little bird trills o’er ’ is head, where Demos down hath 
 lain ; 
 
 He chirps not as his fellow mates, nor as the swallow sings. 
 But sweetly utters gentle words, with lightly fluttering wings. 
 
 “ Why, Demos, art thou deadly pale, why is sadness on thy 
 brow ? ’’— 
 
 If thou dost ask, ray little bird. I’ll quickly tell thee how. 
 
 I laid me down in balmy sleep, ray wearied limbs to rest. 
 
 But I have had a dream that fills with boding fears my 
 breast. 
 
 * Ari/iog, a contraction for Arj/iitTptog. f Fauriel. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 89 
 
 “ I saw within my hideous dream strange troubles in the sky, 
 And all its ebon bosom gemm’d with stars of crimson dye : 
 
 I saw—I shudder while I speak—before me as I stood. 
 
 My bright Damascus Cymetar bedimm’d with gouts of blood.” 
 
 The Mosques in Smyrna are very numerous, 
 and plainer than in any other part of the em¬ 
 pire, with the exception of the chief one, which 
 is lately built, and extremely handsome of its 
 kind, the materials being chequered with white 
 and black marble, as in the Campanile and 
 Duomo of Florence and Parma.* The number 
 of small towers for the muezzins attached to 
 
 * It is confidently asserted in Smyrna, and I believe with 
 truth, that the headstones and mon ^ments of the old English 
 burying-ground were employed by the Pacha in the erection 
 of this new mosque. This arbitrary act on the part of the 
 Turks must have been highly tyrannical, if done against the 
 willoi the English residents ; and otherwise betrays wonder¬ 
 ful apathy in them and the Consul, if they did not attempt 
 to prevent it, which a remonstrance might have accomplished. 
 Some of the monuments are said by Dr. Chandler to have been 
 “ of extremely elegant workmanship, and executed by Italian 
 artists—their merit at leasts if not their associations, 
 might have induced the Factory to protect them. 
 
90 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 each varies considerably they are all of deli¬ 
 cate architecture, and have the door facing 
 Mecca, by which the muezzin ascends at sun¬ 
 rise and sunset to proclaim to the faithful the 
 hour of prayer. 
 
 Considerable affinity seems to subsist between 
 these sacred little edifices and the celebrated 
 “ pillar towers” of Ireland; the diameter and 
 height of both are nearly alike, and each is 3 
 crowned with a conical covering ; the only dif¬ 
 ference seems to be in the external gallery of ' 
 the Turkish tower, and in the doorway of the 
 Irish, which is usually placed at a considerable 
 height from the ground ; but the object of both 
 seems to be undoubtedly the same, devotional, 
 and each is found in the vicinity of the respec¬ 
 tive church to which it had been attached. 
 
 The interior of the Mosque is extremely 
 plain; the walls being inscribed with a few 
 verses from the Koran, but divested of all other 
 ornament, save a niche, called a Kible, which 
 
 * See Letter VI. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 91 
 
 points the direction of Mecca, and towards 
 which the Mussulmen prostrate themselves in 
 prayer. The hours of devotion adopted by the 
 Mahometans are undoubtedly borrowed from 
 the Jews, and the three daily prayers of Daniel 
 (chap. vi. 10), and the morning, noon, and 
 evening worship of David (Psalm iv. 17) are 
 still observed, though with some additions, by 
 the Turks. The call of the muezzin too, in the 
 evening, accords with the later ceremonies of 
 the Christian Church, as when Peter and John 
 went up together into the temple at the hour of 
 prayer^ being the ninth hour (Acts chap. hi. v. 1. 
 The ceremonies of worship are very simple : 
 each devotee, leaving his pappouches at the 
 door as he enters,^ performs a number of pros¬ 
 trations and genuflections, touching the matted 
 
 * The custom of uncovering the feet still holds good 
 throughout every quarter of the East, and in this portion of 
 the religious ceremonies of the Mahometans and Hindoos, 
 we may trace the continuance of the practice from the days of 
 Moses. “ Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place 
 whereon thou standest is holy ground.’^ (Exodus iii. 5.) 
 
92 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 floor with his forehead, and placing his .hands 
 behind his ears; the frequent observance of 
 these duties is supposed to leave a mark on the 
 brow, which is to be rigorously scrutinized by 
 the visiting angels, Monkir and Nakir, as soon 
 as the body is laid in the grave, by whom his 
 intermediate probation, till the resurrection, is 
 to be decided, either to be gently fanned by the 
 airs of Paradise, or, after chastisement with 
 their iron maces, to be gnawed till the hour of 
 judgment by his sins, which, for that purpose, 
 are to be transformed into scorpions and venom¬ 
 ous reptiles, according to their degree of enor¬ 
 mity. : 
 
 The ablutions so wisely ordained by the Pro¬ 
 phet, and so indispensable to cleanliness in the 
 East, are either performed adjoining to the 
 Mosque, or in the respective dwellings of the 
 faithful; and form one of the most material 
 points of his worship, for the comfort of both 
 soul and body. This practice, so important in 
 Oriental countries, is carried to a still greater 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 93 
 
 length by the Arabs than the Turks, and I do 
 not know if the ablutions of the Hindoos may 
 not be traced to the influence of their Mahom- 
 medan neighbours. No being can possibly 
 have a finer sense of personal neatness than a 
 Turk, and no instance more strongly depicts 
 the hatred of the Greeks to their oppressors, 
 than the fact that in the Morea they abstain 
 almost entirely from washing or purifying their 
 persons, on the plea that it is a Turkish effemi¬ 
 nacy. 
 
 If, as Wesley says, cleanliness be akin to 
 godliness,’’ the Mussulman has a large propor¬ 
 tion to claim; for, connected with his devo¬ 
 tions, or perhaps arising from them, is his fre¬ 
 quent use of the bath, which to those of every 
 rank is esteemed a necessary of life; and there 
 is probably no sensation in existence more 
 luxurious than that which one feels when re¬ 
 clining in the saloon of the public bath, after 
 having passed its ordeal of steaming, perspiring, 
 purifying, and shampooing, wrapped in a light 
 
94 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 silk gown, seated on a delicious sofa, and 
 taking alternate draughts of his chibouque 
 and transparent coffee : the mind seems equally 
 purified with the body, he feels as if he had 
 driven off all the cares of humanity, he is con¬ 
 scious solely of ease and delicious luxury, and 
 he rises to depart with every joint so free, and 
 every limb so lithe, that his step has all the 
 firmness and grace of an Apollo. 
 
 The weather, during our stay at Smyrna, 
 was tremendously warm, the thermometer 
 ranging from 80° to 95°; and in those spots 
 which were shaded from the sea-breeze, the 
 sultry breathless air was suffocating. Notwith¬ 
 standing this the nights were bitterly cold, 
 and every evening after sunset there came a 
 weighty chilness through the air, which was 
 sometimes absolutely benumbing. It is this 
 fact of the extreme variations of heat and cold 
 during the course of twenty-four hours which 
 induces the Turks to employ so much fur in 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 95 
 
 the linings and decorations of their dresses; as 
 the sultry heat of the day forces them to keep 
 those chambers light and airy during the morn¬ 
 ing, which are consequently chilly and comfort¬ 
 less at night. 
 
 Without a visit to the Levant, one would be 
 at a loss to fully understand the force of 
 the expression in Genesis, xxi. 40. In 
 the day the drought consumed me, and the 
 frost by nightbut he who has passed a 
 spring in the Ionian Islands, or a summer at ' 
 Smyrna, can readily comprehend their full 
 import. The light wind, called by the natives 
 the ‘‘ Inbat,” blows generally from the bay dur¬ 
 ing the day, setting in from the north-west ; 
 its faint refreshing airs are the most delicious 
 conceivable, and these alone render Smyrna in¬ 
 habitable, the insects and the heat being other¬ 
 wise completely intolerable. Our short excur¬ 
 sions in the vicinity we generally made in the 
 morning, ere the sun had gained his height; 
 
96 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 the noon we spent in the cool shade of the con¬ 
 sulate, or in reading at the Frank assembly- 
 rooms, called the Cascino. 
 
 These apartments contain a suite of ball¬ 
 rooms, cabinets of journals, and European 
 newspapers. They are fitted up in very ex¬ 
 cellent style, and when the season permits danc¬ 
 ing, are well attended by the French and Bri¬ 
 tish residents; at present all except the news¬ 
 room are vacant. 
 
 Some introductions from Athens and Hydra 
 to a few Greek residents enabled us to spend 
 our evenings more agreeably than we had an¬ 
 ticipated. About sunset we generally went to 
 an open street in the west of Smyrna, where 
 they chiefly resided, and where, in the clear 
 twilight, the families usually seated themselves 
 by the doors to enjoy the cool breath of eve¬ 
 ning. Such meetings used to remind us of the 
 days of the patriarch, when Abraham received 
 the angels as he sat by the door of his tent, 
 and when Eli, in his ninety and eighth year, as 
 
THE .EGEAN. 
 
 97 
 
 lie reclined at sunset on his seat by the way- 
 side, was told by the fugitive soldier, that 
 Israel had been vanquished in battle, that his 
 sons Hophni and Phineas were no more, and 
 that the Ark of God was taken. The stone 
 benches, too, at every door explain the excla¬ 
 mation of Job: ‘‘ Oh, that I was as in months 
 past, in the days of my youth, when my child¬ 
 ren were about me, when I went up to the 
 gate in the city, when I prepared my seat in 
 the street.''"' (Job, xxix. 19.) Here, mingling 
 with their social groups, we Have passed many 
 a delicious evening, and listened to many a tale 
 which made our blood creep, from lips which 
 were shortly doomed to share the fate they 
 were recounting. The situation of this un¬ 
 fortunate people in the large towns of Turkey, 
 where they are forced to reside, is singularly 
 precarious. It is probably as a kind of host¬ 
 age for their countrymen in Greece that they 
 are forbidden by the Sublime Porte to leave 
 the empire, and the restrictions to prevent 
 VOL. 1. H 
 
98 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 them embarking in foreign vessels are rigo¬ 
 rously enforced. 
 
 Their present existence is one continued 
 struggle with terror; liable at every turning 
 to the insults of the lowest rabble, and un¬ 
 conscious of the moment when the caprice or 
 irritation of their masters may vent itself in 
 their massacre. ' The volatility and buoyancy 
 of their spirits, in which they seem to excel 
 every other nation in Europe, alone preserves 
 them from despair or self-destruction. But the 
 same feeling never reigns long at a time in the 
 breast of a Greek; sadness will vanish in a 
 moment, and the most melancholy events leave 
 but a transitory impression on the mercurial 
 surface of their temperament, which is no 
 sooner ruffled by some external movement than 
 it smooths itself by its own elasticity. Tears 
 with them are but the dewdrops which form 
 the rainbow of hope, when struck by the after 
 sunshine of smiling gaiety; and days spent in 
 terror or concealment are concluded by nights 
 
THE yEGEAN. 
 
 99 
 
 of revelry and mirth, when the veil of terror 
 is for a moment withdrawn. 
 
 Their trades, their merchandise, and the ex¬ 
 ercise of their religion, however, • suffer little or 
 no suspension; for the Turk, though the prince 
 of bigots, is the most tolerant of professors. 
 Provided he suffer no injury from his neigh¬ 
 bour’s creed, in property or person, he neither 
 punishes him for his opinions, nor attempts to 
 dragoon him out of them; and, consequently, 
 Roman Catholics and Protestants, Armenians, 
 Jews, and Greeks, have all their respective 
 temples and religions, equally protected by the 
 Sultan with the mosques of Mahomet. 
 
 Proselytism is neither sought after nor en¬ 
 couraged ; and though the Prophet of Mecca 
 may have used a sword to establish his religion, 
 he seems to have handed it over to his Christian 
 brethren when once a footing was obtained, 
 from whence Islamism could in future be up¬ 
 held by gentleness and not .by slaughter. Pro¬ 
 selytes in the West are often made by blood; 
 
100 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 in the East a more salutary method is pursued : 
 the Turk lays hold of the neophyte'^s purse, 
 who, finding himself thus deprived of conse¬ 
 quence in the eyes of others, and of wealth in 
 his own, is glad to fall into the fold of the 
 faithful, to restore his honour and protect his 
 property. 
 
 At the same time, a renegade, however for¬ 
 tunate, is by no means an enviable character 
 amongst the Osmanlees: the tenacity with 
 which a Mussulman clings to his own religion 
 induces him to despise those who can from any 
 motive abandon theirs; and a recusant Chris¬ 
 tian, though received with readiness, is ever 
 watched with suspicion; and a profession of 
 the Prophet’s creed, without a demonstration 
 of conviction of its truth, is not in every case 
 a passport to the gardens of Paradise. A large 
 body of infidels having on one occasion pro¬ 
 fessed to Mahomet the Second their readiness 
 to embrace Islamism, he asked their motive, 
 and, obliging them to confess that it was to be 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 101 
 
 rid of taxation, dismissed them unreceived with 
 the wise reply, that he preferred sterling 
 metal in his coffers to false professors in his 
 church.” 
 
 It is not the Turk alone, however, who is 
 honoured with the hatred of the Greek ; to him 
 his aversion bears only political inveteracy; 
 but it is the members of the Church of Rome 
 who feel the full bitterness of his soul’s aver¬ 
 sion. With them, as with every other sect, 
 it is the most trifling discrepancy of faith which 
 makes the widest breach of friendship; and 
 as the Latin dissents only in a few points of 
 church government, he is treated with a dou¬ 
 ble portion of religious hatred. The Turk 
 differs too widely in his faith to produce any 
 collision; but the texture of Catholicism and 
 the Greek Church come so closely in contact as 
 to produce incessant eruptions, attended with 
 all the fulmination and flames of polemic com¬ 
 bustion. In the Islands, at one time, no in¬ 
 tercourse was held with the apostates, and at 
 
102 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 the present moment Christian burial is denied 
 them, unless performed by their own sect; and 
 absolution in his dying moments has been re¬ 
 fused to an orthodox Greek because in the 
 service of a heretic Romanist. 
 
 The hatred, however, is not confined to one 
 side the house; it is returned with ardent 
 fervour by their Vatican brethren. Father 
 Jerome Dandini, the Pope’s envoy to the Ma^ 
 ronites of Mount Libanus towards the end of 
 the seventeenth century, thus characterises the 
 Greek Christians of Crete, amongst many others 
 to whom he pays like compliments. 
 
 “ I should have work to do to reckon up all 
 the impurities of the prelates, priests, and other 
 ecclesiastics of this nation, their separation from 
 the Latin church, the maledictions and excom¬ 
 munications they fulminate upon the most 
 sanctified days against it, when we pray for 
 their welfare. I shall also say nothing of their 
 pride, obstinacy, defection of faith, of the dif¬ 
 ficulty to treat with them, of their enchant- 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 103 
 
 ments, superstitions, horrible and continual 
 blasphemies, which cannot be heard without 
 horror. Finally, St. Paul had reason to say 
 according to. one of their own poets, ‘ those of 
 Crete are always liars, they are wicked beasts, 
 gluttons, and lazy.’*” So much for Christian 
 charity ! 
 
 A few evenings before our departure from 
 Smyrna, we had gone out in a boat, after sun¬ 
 set, to observe a curious method of fishing at 
 night, practised by the Smyrniots in the shal¬ 
 lows of the bay. A small vessel of charcoal 
 and burning sticks is suspended over the prow 
 of the boat, and, by striking the water with 
 a hollow stick from the stern, the fish, at¬ 
 tracted by the light, are driven into the net 
 attached to the boat. Induced by the calmness 
 
 * Titus, i. 12. One of themselves, even a Prophet of their 
 own, said, “ The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow 
 bellies.” 
 
 - non hoc centum quae sustinet urbes 
 
 Quamvis ^\i mendacC, Greta negare potest. 
 
 Ovid de Art. Amand. 1. 1., v. 297. 
 
104 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 of the night, and the numerous fires which 
 were floating on every side around us, we had 
 passed to about two or three miles distance 
 from the beach, and were rowing about to 
 enjoy the cool breeze which set in at sunset, 
 and by the help of which a little vessel was 
 lying off* and on in the roads, apparently await¬ 
 ing the arrival of something from shore to put 
 to sea. 
 
 It was nearly midnight when we returned to 
 our vessel in the bay, and were quietly pulling 
 towards her, when we heard through the gloom 
 the noise of oars and the foaming of a boat 
 through the waters: in a moment it shot past 
 us like a dolphin, but the next the oars were 
 backed, with a hissintj swirl she drew along;- 
 side us, and a few Turkish soldiers bounced on 
 board as we were starting up to our defence, 
 when, finding we were not the persons they 
 sought, they uttered a few words of Turkish 
 in apology, and withdrew; their boat again 
 shot across the water with the rapidity of an 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 105 
 
 arrow, whilst we reached our vessel, busied with 
 vague conjectures as to the cause of this ab¬ 
 rupt and singular interruption. 
 
 Morning, however, brought its explanation. 
 On going on shore, we learned that information 
 had been received by the Pacha of the intended 
 flight of a party of Greeks from the city, and 
 the officers in the Turkish boat had been sent 
 to intercept them. It appeared that the com¬ 
 mander of an Austrian vessel, in which they 
 were to sail, had given notice of their intention 
 
 t 
 
 to the Government, for the sake of a trifling 
 reward, after having already been paid a con¬ 
 siderable sum for their passage, and received 
 on board the little portion of their property 
 which they had been enabled to secure. The 
 fugitives had been concealed in an obscure part 
 of the bay when his boat had been sent to take 
 them off; but instead of bearing them on board 
 his own brigantine, he carried them in the 
 course of the Turkish barge, as had been pre¬ 
 viously arranged. 
 
106 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 As the Moslems, however, drew near, the 
 young man who was the chief of the party, 
 perceiving that they were betrayed, and that 
 escape was impossible, started from his seat, 
 and, plunging his yataghan in the breast of the 
 treacherous Austrian, sprang with a girl who 
 sat beside him into the waves. He sank in¬ 
 stantly ; but, unfortunately, the dress of the 
 lady kept her above the water till drawn out 
 by the Turks, and reserved to a deadlier fate. 
 From all the circumstances of the affair, it 
 immediately struck us that the individual who 
 had perished was the unfortunate son of our 
 amiable Greek friend, who had been thus at¬ 
 tempting his flight with his bride; and our 
 anticipations received a melancholy confirma¬ 
 tion, when, on hasting towards their dwelling, 
 we found it surrounded by Turkish soldiers; 
 but, apparently, the inmates had fled : whither 
 they had directed their wandering steps, we 
 never learned. 
 
 But such is the life of the Smyrniot Greek. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 107 
 
 A few evenings before we had been with them 
 in their garden, amidst songs and smiles of joy 
 and merriment; they had now gone from that 
 happy home for ever, with the consciousness 
 that their return, even at the most distant pe¬ 
 riod, must be to indignity and death. 
 
108 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 ’AX\’ xara aoS on Trjv aydcTrrjv cov t»)v npoirriv a^prjxoig- 
 Mvri/jL6vevE ivv 7rd$£v TrsTrruJxag, xtx) /xerai/o'rjo’ov, xa) rot TrpwTOi epyot 
 TroiYio’Ov’ el Si tpyo/xo-l trot Tciypy xu\ xiv^ffuj rrjv Kvyyfuv ffou 
 ix TOO T^TTOu aoTrjg, lav /xri /meravo^ff^g. 
 
 AnOKAA. mANNOT. cap. 1. vv. 4, 5. 
 
 EPHESUS. 
 
 Departure from Smyrna. —Our Equipage.—Tumulus of 
 Andremon.— Sedicuu —Sacred Fountain of St. John.— 
 Scenery.— Terenda. —^Turkish Coffee-house.—Introduc¬ 
 
 tion of Coffee into Europe.—Manner of preparing it in 
 the Levant.—A Karavan Serai.—Mahometanism.— Tour- 
 BALi. —Turkish Fanatics.—Signs of the Destruction of the 
 World.—Road to Ayasalook.— Ayasalook. —Cave of the 
 Seven Sleepers. — Castle — Mosque. — Sarcophagus.— Ephe¬ 
 sus. — Stadium.—Theatre.—A Shepherd. — Temple of 
 Diana. —Solitude of the Scene.—Verses from Quevedo. 
 
 After remaining a few days at Smyrna, 
 we set out to pay a visit to the ruins of 
 Ephesus, which are situated on the shore of 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 109 
 
 the Gulf of Skalanova, about thirty-five miles 
 south of Smyrna. Our equipage consisted of 
 a Greek servant, Spiridion, or, as he was 
 usually called, Spiro; Achmet, a janissary; 
 and an old Smyrniot, proprietor of the horses 
 which we rode. 
 
 We left the city by the Karavan bridge, 
 and took the road to Sedicui, a village about 
 eight miles distant. The weather was, as 
 usual, so parchingly warm as to be only 
 tolerable during the prevalence of the Inbat 
 breeze, which blows from the bay ; and even 
 this we were shortly deprived of by the inter¬ 
 vention of a chain of low hills between us and 
 the beach. About two miles from the village, 
 near the road, is a tumulus of considerable 
 dimensions, which is commonly, though, I be¬ 
 lieve, erroneously, pointed out as the bu- 
 rying-place of Andremon, the leader of the 
 Ionian expedition which colonized this portion 
 of Asia Minor. Sedicui is a prettily situated 
 village, containing about two thousand inha- 
 
110 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 bitants, seated at the foot of Mount Chorax, 
 and governed by an Aga under the Pachalic 
 of Smyrna. It possesses a mosque of very 
 ordinary construction, and, as usual, a foun¬ 
 tain beneath an arched wall raised above it, 
 and ornamented with a marble slab containing 
 a verse from the Koran. 
 
 The inhabitants seem miserably poor, though 
 the grounds in the vicinity are richly culti¬ 
 vated, and produce a large proportion of the 
 delicious fruit so abundant, and forming such 
 a prominent characteristic in the streets of 
 Smyrna. On this account, and the excellence 
 of the situation, several of the English and 
 Frank merchants have fixed their country 
 residences in the vicinity. Near the village we 
 passed a sacred fountain dedicated to St. John. 
 Its waters are probably impregnated with mi¬ 
 nerals, and it has hence acquired the charac¬ 
 ter of performing miraculous cures, in gra¬ 
 titude for which each devotee hangs a ribbon, 
 or a stripe of cloth, on the trees around it, 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 Ill 
 
 which were covered with as many pennons 
 and streamers as a Maltese galley on the 
 festival of the aforesaid saint. 
 
 A great number of camels, laden with a va¬ 
 riety of produce, were winding along the path as 
 we left Sedicui; their monotonous bells, lazy 
 measured pace, and lethargic countenances, being 
 accurately in unison with the listless heat of the 
 climate. The scenery was reposing and magni¬ 
 ficent ; the calm cultivated valley, and hills of 
 graceful shape, the sun-scorched summits of 
 which contrasted with the green verdure at 
 their base. Occasionally a brawling stream, 
 crossed by an arch of the most primitive con¬ 
 struction, ran through long plains of aromatic 
 shrubs, where armies of locusts and beautiful 
 grasshoppers were chirping and leaping in the 
 sultry heat. In some of the most romantic 
 spots a Turkish hamlet gave life to the scene, 
 surrounded by gardens where the humble but 
 superb roses were blushing beneath the flowery 
 branches of the peach and almond, and em- 
 
112 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 bedded in groves of myrtle and of olive trees.* 
 One who has formed his ideas of the Oriental 
 myrtles from the weak and unhealthy plants 
 which spring in the gardens and hot-houses of 
 the North, must have but a faint idea of their 
 real beauty. Even in Italy they are much su¬ 
 perior to ours; and I remember to have seen 
 one in the court-yard of the Academia dei Belle 
 Arti, at Florence, whose stem was at least nine 
 inches in diameter. 
 
 But in Greece and in the Levant they are 
 really magnificent. In the Morea I have tra¬ 
 velled for hours through an uncultivated track, 
 whilst the groves of myrtle formed an almost 
 
 * The almond-tree with white flowers blossoms on the 
 bare branches.— Hasselquist. See Moore’s beautiful song. 
 
 “ The hope in dreams of a happier hour. 
 
 That alights on Misery’s brow. 
 
 Springs cut of the silveiy almond flower 
 That blooms on a leafless bough: 
 
 Then hasten we, maid. 
 
 To twine our braid. 
 
 To-morrow both dreams and flowers will fade.” 
 
 Lalla Rookhy p. 315. 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 113 
 
 continuous arbour above our heads, covered 
 here and there with its delicate white flowers, 
 and exhaling at every motion the most delicious 
 perfume, whilst its dark polished leaves com¬ 
 bined coolness with beauty. 
 
 It is such a scene as this that explains the 
 phrase of Zachariah, I saw by night, and be¬ 
 hold a man riding upon a red horse, and he 
 stood among the myrtle trees at the bottom of 
 the valley (c. 1. v. 8.) And they are trees of 
 dimensions such as I refer to, that preserve the 
 consistency of the phrase of Isaiah : I will 
 
 plant in the wilderness the cedar, the myrtle, 
 and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the 
 fir-tree, the pine and the box.” c. xli. v. 19- 
 
 Shortly after sunset we reached a little vil¬ 
 lage called Terenda, where we halted for the 
 night in a miserable coffee-house, which could 
 barely afford us accommodation for our horses, 
 and carpets and cushions for ourselves. We 
 had, in the course of our ride, passed many of 
 these coffee-houses, which seem as numerous, in 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
114 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 proportion, in the country, as in the crowded 
 alleys of the town, and in which we always 
 found numbers of visitors. The haughty and 
 lethargic Turks were crowding round some 
 amusing story-teller in one corner, and puff¬ 
 ing long curling clouds from their amber 
 chibouques; whilst, in the other, a group of 
 noisy Greeks, over a pack of cards, were scream¬ 
 ing and chattering like a cage of monkeys. 
 
 The prohibition of wine is, no doubt, the 
 main cause of the prevailing passion for this 
 exhilarating beverage among the Mussuhnen; 
 but its own merits must recommend it to the 
 Greeks, who are equally attached to it, and 
 who labour under no such penal restrictions. 
 Three centuries have scarcely elapsed since its 
 introduction into Turkey from Arabia Felix ; 
 and our earliest accounts show it to have be¬ 
 come almost at once what we find it to-day, an 
 absolute necessary of life to those of every 
 rank; the morning, meridian, and nightly be¬ 
 verage of the luxuriously abstemious Islamite. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 115 
 
 The manner of preparing it in the Levant 
 differs materially from ours. The coffee is 
 never roasted nor ground till about to be used, 
 and is then considerably more burned and re¬ 
 duced to a finer powder than with us. In pre¬ 
 paring it, a small tin vessel, holding exactly the 
 quantity to be used, (generally about a wine¬ 
 glass full,) is placed upon the fire, containing at 
 the same time the coffee and sugar, all which 
 are boiled together, poured into a little china 
 cup, and, when the sediment has fallen to the 
 bottom, drunk without any admixture of cream 
 or milk.* 
 
 * One of the earliest, if not the firsts account of coffee 
 published in England was given by Henry Blount, who tra¬ 
 velled in the Levant in 1634, who thus describes it, in his 
 own quaint style, in speaking of the beverages of the Turks. 
 
 They (the Turks) have another drink, not good at meat, 
 called coffee, made of a berry as big as a small bean, dried in 
 a furnace, and beat to a powder of a soot colour, in taste a 
 little bitterish ; that they seethe and drink as hot as may be 
 endured. It is good all hours of the day, but especially 
 morning and evening, when to that purpose they entertain 
 themselves in ‘ cqfee-houses^ which in all Turkey abound 
 
 I % 
 
LETTERS FROM 
 
 IIG 
 
 Early the ensuing morning we started for 
 Ayasalook, by the way of Hortena and Tour- 
 bali. The road was, as the day before, pic- 
 
 more than inns and ale-houses with us. It is thought to be 
 the old black-broth used by the Lacedemonians, (! ! !) and 
 drieth ill humours in the stomach, comforteth the brain, 
 never causeth drunkenness nor any other surfeit, but is a 
 harmless entertainment of good fellowship .*’—Vide Pinker¬ 
 ton, vol. X. p. 263. 
 
 About ten years after this, a Greek servant introduced its 
 use in England, and the first coffee-house was established in 
 George-yard, Lombard-street, in 1652. The taste for this 
 “ black broth” seems to have gained ground amongst us as 
 quickly as in Asia, since it was soon so universally consumed 
 as to become an object of extensive importation, and a duty 
 of Ad. per gallon on all that was manufactured, was laid on 
 by Parliament in 1662. 
 
 At length the mania for it increased to such a degree, and 
 the houses in which it was sold were so numerous, that the 
 meetings at them became an object of suspicion to the un¬ 
 settled Government of that period, and in 1672 we find an 
 order of the Parliament, that all “ coffee-houses shall be 
 closed up, as affording a rendezvous for discontented factious, 
 and becoming dangerous encouragers of sedition.” How 
 firmly it has held its ground we all know; though in the 
 manner of using it we do its flavour by no means that justice 
 of which it is capable. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 117 
 
 turesque in the extreme: traversing plains 
 covered with thyme and aromatic shrubs, where 
 myriads of golden insects were sporting and 
 sparkling in the sunbeams; occasionally wind¬ 
 ing through groves of myrtle and mastics, or 
 passing by cottages situated in gardens of olives 
 and cypresses. Throughout the entire route, 
 vestiges of former edifices were visible at every 
 step; and the walls of every modern building 
 contained portions of wrought marble and 
 mutilated inscriptions, evidently brought from 
 some neighbouring ruin. Every incident 
 seemed to speak the former extensive popula¬ 
 tion of the district, and to contrast it with its 
 present scattered habitations and impoverished 
 resources. 
 
 Near Terenda (and in some other quarters 
 of our route) we passed the ruins of a Khan, or 
 Karavan Serai. The erection of such edifices 
 of gratuitous accommodation are strictly enjoin¬ 
 ed by the edicts of Mahomet, and encouraged 
 by the belief that alms-giving is the only 
 
118 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 means of deprecating the vengeance of the 
 Mussulman purgatory, that is, the torments 
 inflicted by the angels Monkir and Nakir, who 
 take penal possession of the body as soon as it 
 is committed to the earth. 
 
 It is in such items as this that the advantages 
 of the religion of the Prophet are contained ; 
 and, though its practice has been corrupted by 
 a long series of ages, its theory abounding with 
 such traits as these, renders it second to Chris¬ 
 tianity alone in the inculcation of precepts for 
 the advantage and happiness of society ; and 
 Mahomet, however after-acts may have debased 
 his progress, has certainly the merit of restoring 
 the true worship of one undivided Godhead, 
 and purifying the Kaaba from the defilements 
 of idolatry. 
 
 His two grand institutes, polygamy and tem¬ 
 perance, were admirably calculated, according 
 to the information of the day, to advance the 
 interests of Turkey : the first, by acconlplish- 
 ing the now exploded theory of political econo- 
 
THE /EGEAN, 
 
 119 
 
 my, that the wealth of a nation consisted in a 
 numerous population ; and the second, by pre¬ 
 serving vigorous and uncontaminated that 
 national opulence, when once produced. It is 
 vain, however, to deny that Mahometanism 
 contained within itself the seeds of its own 
 destruction ; and, amidst a horde of others, the 
 doctrine of predestination may alone be singled 
 out as the main cause of the present decay of 
 the Ottoman empire : its districts periodically 
 ravaged by the plague, against which religion 
 forbids them to take any preventive measures; 
 its internal affairs neglected, from an over-con¬ 
 fidence in the unassisted operations of Provi¬ 
 dence ; and its commerce abandoned to stran¬ 
 gers by the all-relying servants of an all-suffi¬ 
 cient God. 
 
 The Karavan Serai consists of a square court¬ 
 yard of ample dimensions, generally inclosing 
 a fountain, or built convenient to it: it is sur¬ 
 rounded on all sides by an arcade, divided into 
 distinct apartments, where the traveller is per- 
 
120 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 mitted to stable his horses, or the camel-driver 
 his . team, spread his carpet, and eat whatever 
 provisions he may have brought, as neither 
 wine, food, nor bedding is furnished him; 
 and, on departing in the morning, a trifling 
 gratuity to the gate-keeper of the Serai is 
 all that is required of him, nor is even this 
 compulsory. 
 
 The hamlet of Tourbali presented no objects 
 of interest, save a few of the same imperfect 
 fragments we had been encountering during 
 the previous route. The road, for a few miles, 
 continued wild, but highly picturesque, con¬ 
 taining solely a few miserable huts. Here and 
 there browsed over by flocks of goats and sheep, 
 the level bushy plains stretched onward to the 
 foot of Mount Galessus, or Aleman, the woody 
 summits of which were long visible towering 
 above them. Traversing these, we passed a 
 bridge thrown across a branch of the Cayster, 
 and entered upon a low narrow valley at the 
 foot of the mountains; on one of the craggy 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 121 
 
 summits of which was perched the grey dilapi¬ 
 dated castle of Kezelhizzar- 
 
 The tedium of this day’s journey was, in a 
 great degree, lightened by the sprightly sallies 
 of our volatile domestic Spiro, who had by 
 some means discovered that Achmet, our ja¬ 
 nissary, was one of a party now gaining ground 
 in Turkey, who, calculating from the decay of 
 their empire, and the daily fulfilment of the 
 predictions of Mahomet with regard to the final 
 resurrection, have come to a conclusion that 
 the end of the world is nigh at hand. 
 
 Achmet had not long joined this sect, and 
 had still about him all the freshness of a 
 Neophyte; a long-drawn sigh would often 
 put a period to intervals of total abstraction 
 and reveries of active thought, which, how¬ 
 ever, were oftener broken in upon by the 
 sarcasms of the mischievous Greek, all which 
 the poor fellow took in good part, and seemed 
 much more inclined to make a proselyte than 
 to lose his temper. As we appeared to dis- 
 
122 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 approve of the conduct of Spiro, and to sym¬ 
 pathise with this new convert, he took consi¬ 
 derable pains to explain to us, as far as a 
 little knowledge of Lingua Franca went, the 
 principles of his doctrine ; and the quiet style 
 in which he did so, and the deep concern with 
 which he mentioned past and approaching 
 events, bore ample testimony to his sincerity ; 
 and, in good truth, to an orthodox Islamite, 
 his arguments would be likely to afford con¬ 
 siderable evidence of the proximity of the 
 world’s overthrow, though to us they were 
 not quite so satisfactory. 
 
 The Mahometans, it appears, admit that 
 the exact period of the resurrection is a se¬ 
 cret to which Allah alone is privy; and even 
 Gabriel, when interrogated by Mahomet, ac¬ 
 knowledged his total ignorance on the point. 
 The Prophet, however, contrived, through 
 some less official channel, to obtain a slight 
 acquaintance with the matter, and has fur¬ 
 nished a table of signs by which its advent 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 123 
 
 may be prognosticated. These are pretty 
 numerous, and divided into two classes, the 
 higher and the lower; the exact proportion 
 of each I do not remember, but I think they 
 amount altogether to about thirty. 
 
 Of course it is impossible to recollect each 
 severally, but many of those which our in¬ 
 structor mentioned have been accurately ful¬ 
 filled, and, according to his account, very few 
 now remain to complete the fulness of time. 
 I can only recollect three of the lower signs, 
 one of which was the appearance of tumults 
 and popular convulsion throughout the world f ’ 
 this, Achmet said, was now in full operation, 
 and had lately been instanced in the revolu¬ 
 tions of Naples, Piedmont, Spain, and South 
 America. 
 
 The other two were fulfilled by'various in¬ 
 dividuals, but chiefly in the person of Mech- 
 met Ali, the present Pacha of Egypt. The 
 signs are the elevation of mean individuals 
 to exalted situations,’’ and the maid-servant 
 
124 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 becoming the mother of her master.’’ ‘‘ Now 
 M^chmet Ali,” said he, was a man of the 
 most obscure extraction, and he married a 
 woman who had been a slave (I think) at 
 Salonica, and is now of course mother to 
 Ibrahim Pacha.” The others of this class 
 are less distinct and important; they refer, 
 as well as I can recollect, to general apos¬ 
 tasy throughout the world,” (that is, of course, 
 the Ottoman world,) now instanced by the 
 Waahabees and others, and to the revolt of 
 the provinces of Irak and > Syria,” which have 
 been actually in a state of partial insurrection, 
 at intervals, for years back. 
 
 Of the higher signs, some are so ridiculous 
 as to be morally impossible, and are solely 
 characteristic of the egregious fancy of the 
 Arab Prophet; such as the rising of the 
 sun in the West,” (by which, however, Achmet 
 contrived to typify the late independence of 
 South America) ;• “ the advent of the beast 
 which is to issue from the ground near the 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 125 
 
 Kaaba, or temple of Mecca, and is to be of such 
 stupendous size that its head alone, when pro¬ 
 truded from the ground, shall reach to'heaven 
 these, “ together with the speaking of beasts 
 and birds,” and several others, equally prepos¬ 
 terous, yet remain unaccomplished ; but one of 
 the most important, and to which all eyes are 
 now eagerly bent, is “ a war with the Greeks, 
 and the consequent capture of Constantinople.” 
 
 This item of Mahomet’s creed I had often 
 heard recounted in the Morea, and is, I think, 
 the only portion of Islamism in which the 
 Greeks place any confidence. A vast number 
 of others regard the coming of Christ and anti¬ 
 christ, high winds, conflagrations, and eclipses, 
 for all which Achmet had an anticipation or a 
 legend; and he said he was now daily looking 
 out for the destruction of the Kaaba, and the 
 return of the Arabians to the worship of Allat 
 and A1 Uzza, and the idolatry from which Ma¬ 
 homet had purged them. 
 
 Altogether his theory was a most remarkable 
 
* 126 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 one, and its accomplishment in many points 
 served to give him complete confidence in the 
 speedy fulfilment of the residue. His doctrine 
 was less mysterious and fanciful than that of 
 some of our modern expounders of “ the Re¬ 
 velations and its obvious simplicity and total 
 independence of chronology, are likely to pro¬ 
 duce for it numerous and ready converts. 
 
 He was a fine good-humoured fellow, and, 
 as the impudent Greek rallied him on each item 
 of his creed, every step of which seemed tend¬ 
 ing to the downfal of the Crescent, and the re¬ 
 ascendency of the Cross, he merely replied by 
 an easy smile, or with a sigh exclaimed, Allah 
 Kierim!” “ God is great, and His will be 
 done !” I regret much that I cannot recollect 
 more of his details, which were in many points 
 highly curious, as illustrative of the doctrines 
 of the Koran. 
 
 , It was long after sunset ere we reached 
 Ayasalook, the modern Ephesus: the last few 
 
THE .EGEAN. 127 
 
 hours of our route were wild in the extreme, 
 and strongly reminded me of some of the minor 
 passes of the Alps of Savoy. It was evening 
 ere we entered a narrow valley, at the base of 
 the Aleman, where the road threaded through 
 defiles of the most romantic description, and 
 wound through woody glens almost impervious 
 from the rich intertwining of myrtles and aro¬ 
 matic shrubs. 
 
 We crept along beneath cliffs, whose-fan- 
 takic and giant forms were magnified by the 
 dimness of twilight, and from which we heard 
 the screaming of the hawks, that were soaring 
 round their summits. At length we descended 
 the extremity of the mountain to the plain of 
 Ephesus, and crossed the main stream of the 
 Cayster, on a bridge built partly, as usual, 
 with fragments from the neighbouring ruins. 
 A mill was constructed a short distance below, 
 and a natural fall in the river, formed into a 
 reservoir by a low weir of stones and reeds. A 
 
.128 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 narrow and dangerous path winding round the 
 hill brought us to Ayasalook, where we halted 
 for the night in a miserable coffee-house. 
 
 After a sleepless night, we rose to commence 
 our survey of Ayasalook and Ephesus ; the 
 former now consists of about thirty or forty 
 wretched houses, chiefly built of mud and muti¬ 
 lated marble, or fragments from the wrecks of 
 Ephesus. Around it in every direction spread 
 extensive ruins of former edifices, prostrate 
 columns, and desolated walls, whilst its castle 
 in mouldering pride crowns the summit of a 
 neighbouring hill; and these, together with 
 the vestiges of a church dedicated to St. John, 
 and the remaining arches of its splendid aque¬ 
 duct, bespeak the former extent and importance 
 of the widowed city. Ayasalook may date its 
 origin, or at least its former greatness, from 
 the termination of the fourteenth or the begin¬ 
 ning of the fifteenth century, when, Ephesus 
 being destroyed by the ravages of Mantakiah 
 and Amir, its inhabitants retired hither from 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 129 
 
 tlieir desolated and irreparable city, to which 
 the progressive stagnation of the plain, from 
 the overflowings of the Cayster and the Seli- 
 nnsian lakes, prevented their returning; and 
 to this cause principally may, I think, be 
 attributed the fact, that not one individual 
 now inhabits the solitary valley and ruins of 
 Ephesus. 
 
 After that period, Ayasalook suffered nume¬ 
 rous vicissitudes during the wars of Timourlane 
 and Solyman ; but as its importance gradually 
 died away with the departure of commerce and 
 other causes, it at length fell to Time, the re¬ 
 sistless conqueror of all, and now retains but a 
 faint inscription on the page of history, and a 
 mutilated skeleton of its edifices entombed in 
 a sepulchre heaped around them by their own 
 decay.* 
 
 * Near Ayasalook the inhabitants still show in the side of 
 the hill the cave of Adolius, in which the seven youths, 
 usually known by the name of the seven sleepers,’’ enjoyed 
 that slumber which lasted 187 years, or, according to the Ma- 
 homedan tradition, between 300 and 400 years. The legend 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 The present inhabitants of Ayasalook are 
 chiefly Turks and a few miserable Greeks, who 
 have long forgotten the language of their na- 
 
 goes to state, that during the persecutions of the Emperor 
 Decius, these scions of the nobility of Ephesus retired to this 
 cave for protection, where the tyrant immediately inclosed 
 them with a barrier of ponderous stones. 
 
 They however, instead of starving, resorted to the Irish 
 expedient for deafening the calls of hunger by sleep, and com¬ 
 menced a slumber which lasted till the reign of the Emperor 
 Theodosius, during which, according to Mahomet,- they were 
 prevented from putrefying by Allah taking the trouble to 
 turn their bodies occasionally and keep them fresh. At length 
 Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the cave descended, re¬ 
 moved the stones for the purpose of building, and their curtain 
 being thus drawn aside, the seven gentlemen were awakened 
 by the light of the sun in their eyes, and imagining, like Rip 
 Van Winkle, that they had had merely an ordinary nap, one 
 of the party set off to Ephesus, in order to procure something 
 for dinner, when the length of his beard, the antiquity of his 
 dress, and the age of the coin which he presented to the baker, 
 led to a question and discovery of their adventures. 
 
 The items of this relation (which has found its way into all 
 the legendary repositories of Christendom, and is to be traced 
 among the wonderful tales of the Hartz Mountains,) are given 
 by Gibbon with almost as much naivete and elegance as the 
 mor 9 eau already alluded to in the “ Sketch-book.’’ 
 
THE .EGEAN. 
 
 131 
 
 tioii, but retain the name of its religion, and 
 earn a wretched subsistence by tilling the un¬ 
 heal thly plains beneath. The castle, erected 
 about the year 1340, is now in total ruin, its tot¬ 
 tering buttresses encompassing merely a mass 
 of overthrown buildings and heaps of decayed 
 walls, embedded in high rank weeds, where 
 the cameleon and the green metallic lizard 
 lie basking in the sun, and where the snake 
 and the jackal find a secure and seldom dis¬ 
 turbed retreat. Its summit commands a superb 
 and extensive view of the plains of the Cayster, 
 the site of Ephesus, the windings of the river, 
 and the distant hills of Galessus and Pactyas. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a more de¬ 
 pressing or melancholy prospect; on every side 
 the speaking monuments of decay, a moulder¬ 
 ing arch, a tottering column, or a ruined tem¬ 
 ple. Solitude seems to reign triumphant; the 
 wretched inhabitants of the village are seldom 
 to be seen, save in early morning, or in the 
 cool of evening, when they sally from their 
 K 2' 
 
132 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 muddy habitations to labour in the plain, 
 which would be impossible during the burning 
 meridian heat. Neither motion nor sound is 
 discernible, save the cry of the sea-bird on the 
 shore, or the tinkling of a sheep-bell amid the 
 ruins: all, all is silence and decay. 
 
 Ayasalook possessed no object to interest us: 
 a large building at some distance from the 
 town, formerly a Christian church dedicated 
 to St. John, and latterly a Turkish mosque, is 
 now a heap of rubbish and grass-grown walls ; 
 its halls deserted, its doors and windows torn 
 out, rank weeds springing in its isles, while in 
 its courts a few lofty trees add by their mourn¬ 
 ful waving to the solemnity of its desertion. 
 Some large columns of granite are still left 
 standing, and are said to have once belonged 
 to the temple of Diana. In the walls are in¬ 
 serted certain inscribed marbles taken from a 
 former building, which are now hasting to that 
 destruction from which they had before been 
 snatched; and the interior, after having served 
 
THE .EGEAN. 
 
 133 
 
 Diana, Christ, and Mahomet, is now abandoned 
 to the owl and the jackal. 
 
 A marble sarcophagus, almost shapeless from 
 the effects of time, stands in the town, near the 
 door of the coffee-house; its inscription and or¬ 
 naments are obliterated, and from once enshrin¬ 
 ing the dust of some warrior or chieftain, it is 
 now degraded into a watering-place for cattle. 
 Sic transit gloria! Ephesus is no more, and 
 such is its modern successor. Thus all the 
 wealth of Croesus, the genius of Ctesiphon, the 
 munificence of Alexander, and the glory of 
 Lysirnachus, (to each of whom Ephesus was in¬ 
 debted,) have no other representative than the 
 mouldering castle and mud-walled cottages of 
 Ayasalook ! 
 
 After breakfasting we set out for Ephesus, 
 the ruins of which commence about half a 
 mile from Ayasalook. We passed over to 
 the foot of Mount Prion, or Lepre, at the 
 base of which it was situated, and at every 
 step we encountered some scattered fragment 
 
134 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 of antiquity. The plain on which it once 
 stood has now been extended to the distance 
 of two or three miles, by the effects of the 
 Cayster, and the portion formerly the harbour 
 is now a mere marsh, from whence the sea 
 has long since retreated. 
 
 The ground, in consequence of its frequent 
 irrigations, is highly' productive, and at the 
 time of our visit was covered in many places 
 with luxuriant crops. On the hill above, 
 some traces of the former walls and a solitary 
 watch-tower mark the extent of the city ; 
 and, amidst the scene of desolation far below, 
 a ponderous pillar, or a shattered arch, serve 
 faintly to indicate the giant grandeur of Ephe¬ 
 sus, as the fossil remains of the mammoth 
 give a dim idea of the stupendous beings of a 
 former and a faded world. 
 
 On approaching the site of the ancient 
 city from Ayasalook, one of the first objects 
 of interest is the Stadium, portions of the 
 remains of which still occupy its situation at 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 135 
 
 the base of Mount Prion ; being built like the 
 amphitheatre at Milo, Fiesole, and others, on 
 an acclivity, so that natural seats were already 
 raised for one-half the spectators. Here, the 
 arches which supported the lower side still 
 remain, together with some walls of consider¬ 
 able height, and a gate at-the west end. Its 
 immense area, of six hundred and eighty- 
 seven feet, was under a crop of wheat, which, 
 as it bent in graceful waves beneath the faint 
 breeze from the valley, seemed to heave a 
 long-drawn sigh over the surrounding scene 
 of departed grandeur. When reclining on 
 one of its mouldering seats, one cannot avoid 
 feeling that there is a voice in its solitude 
 and silence, which speaks louder to the heart 
 than the congregated shouts of the multitude 
 that once 'filled its benches ; whilst the mental 
 comparison of what it ivas^ adds double lone¬ 
 liness to the consciousness of what it is. 
 
 North of the Stadium is an immense mass 
 of confused ruins, intersected by a street. 
 
136 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 parts of the ancient pavement of which may 
 be distinctly traced, and are formed of im¬ 
 mense blocks of stone, such as are still used 
 in Florence and northern Italy for similar 
 purposes. 
 
 , At some distance from the Stadium are the 
 remnants of the theatre in which Demetrius 
 and the silversmiths of Ephesus raised the 
 tumult against St. Paul, recorded in the Acts 
 of the Apostles.^ Its remains are pretty ex¬ 
 tensive, and cover a considerable space; a 
 few straggling sheep were browsing within it, 
 tended by an old man who seemed well versed 
 in the antiquities of the spot. He was a na¬ 
 tive of a village two leagues distant, and had 
 his ears cut off by Djezzar Pacha, of Acre, 
 for some honourable service which he did not 
 think proper to boast of. He seemed proud 
 of his statistical knowledge, and was anxious 
 that we should go round Mount Prion, in 
 
 * Chap. xix. V. 19, ct seq. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 137 
 
 order to see the tomb of Timothy, the com¬ 
 panion of St. Paul. 
 
 He had got a Testament in modern Greek 
 from an American missionary at Smyrna some 
 time before, and was pretty familiar with its 
 contents; but all the glory of Ephesus was, 
 in his estimation, nothing in comparison to its 
 possessing the tomb of this saint. He seemed 
 very jealous of the Smyrniots claiming the 
 honour of possessing the remains of St. Poly¬ 
 carp, whose tomb, he said, they could not 
 have, as Polycarp was burned, and his ashes 
 scattered to the winds. He was, however, 
 wrong in both points, as the bones of Timothy 
 were transferred to Constantinople, and there 
 reinterred ; and the body of Poly carp was not 
 consumed. Irenaeus 'states, that the flame, 
 forming the appearance of an arch, or the 
 sail of a vessel filled with wind, was as a 
 wall round the body of the martyr, which 
 was in the midst, not as burning flesh, but 
 
138 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 as burnished gold,* and he was finally stabbed 
 to death by the Confector in the Stadium.” 
 
 Passing the theatre, we reached the narrow 
 valley between Prion and Mount Corissus, 
 which, like all the surrounding spots, is strewn 
 with the ruins of Paganism, Christianity, and 
 Islamism : one of its most melancholy objects 
 is the vestige of the city gate, which stands 
 within it like a mouldering bridge above a 
 streamless ravine; the living current that once 
 rolled beneath it, has long since swept past to 
 the sea of eternity. A temple of the Corinthian 
 order lies at the opposite side of the valley, 
 which was once dedicated to the God Julius: 
 scarce a pedestal is now standing: the temple 
 has faded with the worship of its patron. At 
 some distance round the base of the hill is an 
 almost deserted burying-ground, with a few 
 cypresses and monuments. 
 
 After wandering over the plain, amid heaps 
 of incongruous and unsatisfactory ruins, we 
 * Eusebius, book iv. chap. 15. 
 
THE tEGEAN. 
 
 139 
 
 ascended the side of Mount Prion, from whence 
 we had the scene beneath us like a map. The 
 hill retains in many places the inequalities oc¬ 
 casioned by carrying off its materials for build¬ 
 ing;, and in others is hollowed out into ce¬ 
 meteries and tombs, said to possess an anti¬ 
 septic quality. A faint wind was waving the 
 few solitary trees that grew near us, and the 
 sound of their branches appeared like an in¬ 
 trusion on the scene—it seemed to mock its 
 silence. 
 
 Of the Temple of Diana not a stone remains; 
 some arches in the morass are conjectured to 
 have once supported it, as it was built in this 
 situation to avoid the effects of earthquakes. 
 This enormous edifice, of four hundred feet in 
 length, supported by one hundred and twenty- 
 seven pillars of sixty feet in height, and only 
 finished in two hundred and twenty years after 
 the commencement of its erection, has vanished 
 like a temple of ice. Its site was formerly 
 on the edge of the sea; it is now nearly three 
 
140 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 miles removed from it, by the intervention of 
 banks formed by the stream of the Cayster. 
 Its singular disappearance is in some degree 
 accounted for, by the sea having afforded a 
 ready means for the removal of its materials in 
 the early stages of its decay, and by the por¬ 
 tions not used for later erections, or thus trans¬ 
 ported, having been since buried by the en¬ 
 croachments of the plain. 
 
 A more thorough change can scarcely be 
 conceived, than that which has actually oc¬ 
 curred at Ephesus. Once the seat of active 
 commerce, the very sea has shrunk from its 
 solitary shores; its streets, once populous with 
 the devotees of Diana, are now ploughed over 
 by the Ottoman serf, or browsed by the sheep 
 of the peasant. It was early the strong-hold 
 of Christianity, and stands at the head of the 
 Apostolic Churches of Asia. It was there that, 
 as St. Paul says, “ the word of God grew 
 mightily, and prevailed.” Not a single Chris- 
 
THE .^GEAN. 
 
 141 
 
 tian now dwells within it! Its mouldering 
 arches and dilapidated walls merely whisper 
 the tale of its glory ; and it requires the acumen 
 of the geographer, and the active scrutiny of 
 the exploring traveller, to form a probable 
 conjecture as to the very site of the ‘‘ First 
 Wonder of the World.” 
 
 Nothing remains unaltered save the “ eternal 
 hills,” and the mazy Cayster, the stream of 
 which rolls on still changeless and the same. 
 Whilst gazing over the solitary plain, one can¬ 
 not avoid applying to Ephesus the apostrophe 
 of Quevedo to the ruins of Rome. 
 
 Solo el Tibre quedo, ciiya coniente 
 Si Ciudad la rego, ya sepultura 
 La Iloia con funesto sou dolieiite. 
 
 O Roma, en tu grandeza, en tu hermosura, 
 
 Huy6, lo que era firme, y solamente 
 
 Lo fugitivo pennauece y dura. Quevedo. 
 
 Tlie Tyber’s rushing stream alone endures. 
 
 And, as unchanged its golden tide it bears, 
 
142 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 Round busied Rome a murmuring wave it pours. 
 And bathes her tomb with tributary tears. 
 
 Rome, of thy grandeur and thy pride, to-day 
 Nought but a name thy mouldering corse retains 
 What seemed eternal long hath pass’d away. 
 
 And what was fugitive alone remains. 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 143 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Celeberrima urbs Laodicea imposita est Lyco fluniiui, 
 latera alluentibus Asopo et Capro ; appellata prime Dios- 
 polis: dein Rheas. 
 
 Pliny, lib. 5, cap. 29. 
 LAODICEA. 
 
 Character er the general scenery of Asia Minor.— 
 Pygela. — Skala Nuova —Sirocco wind. — Illustrated 
 from the Bible.—Gipsies.— Meander. — Inek-Bazaar,the 
 ANCIENT Magnesia ad Meandrum. —Sufferings from 
 thirst.—Turkish Fountains similar to those in the Old Tes¬ 
 tament.— Guizel-hissar. —Scenery between Guizel-hissar 
 and Sultan Hissar. —History of Spiro.—Asian meadow 
 OF Homer. — Greek bullets. — Denizli. — Our Greek 
 host—Situation of Females in Turkey_ Influence of 
 
 CLIMATE ON THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY.— 
 
 Laodicea. —Singular fulfilment of the Scriptural denun¬ 
 ciations against_A storm. 
 
 There are few spots of earth visited by 
 the traveller calculated to excite emotions more 
 
144 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 melancholy than those experienced by such as 
 have passed over even the most frequented 
 portions of Asia Minor. Except in the imme¬ 
 diate vicinity of its cities, he encounters few 
 traces of life or civilization ; all beyond is “ bar¬ 
 ren and unprofitablehis path lies across 
 plains tenanted by the stork and the jackal, 
 or over hills whence the eye wanders along 
 valleys, blooming in all the luxuriance of neg¬ 
 lected nature, or withering in loneliness and ste¬ 
 rility. Throughout lands once adorned with 
 the brightest efforts of genius and of art, and 
 rife with the bustle and activity of a crowded 
 population, his footstep will light upon nothing 
 save the speaking monuments of decay, and his 
 eye meet no living forms except those of his 
 companions, or by chance a dim prospect of 
 the weary caravan, that creeps like a centipede 
 across the plain, or winds amidst the mazes of 
 distant hills. 
 
 There are few scattered hamlets, and no 
 straggling abodes of mankind; danger and 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 145 
 
 apprehension have forced the remnant of its 
 inhabitants to herd' together in towns for mu¬ 
 tual security, and to leave the deserted coun¬ 
 try to the bandit and the beast of prey. The 
 wandering passenger pursues his listless route 
 surrounded by privations and difficulties, by 
 fatigue and apprehension, few beaten tracks to 
 guide his course,' and few hospitable mansions 
 to shelter his weariness. By night he rests 
 beside his camel in the karavan-serai; and by 
 day he hurries along with no comforts save 
 those which he carries with him, and no com¬ 
 panions but his thoughts. But these are suf¬ 
 ficient, and they spring up with every breath 
 and at every turning: his very loneliness is 
 sublimity ; his only prospect, beauty; he re¬ 
 clines upon earth, whose every clod is a sepul¬ 
 chre of greatness, and he is canopied by a sky 
 
 “ So cloudless, pure, and beautiful, 
 
 That God alone is to be seen in heaven.’’ 
 
 Our route towards Laodicea, on leaving 
 Ephesus, lay along the plains that separate 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 Mount Pactyas from the Gulf. Having passed 
 the extremity of Coryssus, we entered on a 
 valley partially cultivated, and sunk amidst 
 hills, on which we could trace the frequent 
 remains of an extensive aqueduct; and in about 
 an hour from leaving Ayasalook we came in 
 sight of the few vestiges of buildings which 
 are pointed out. as occupying the situation of 
 the ancient Pygela, but which are now too faint 
 to give any idea of their former extent: from 
 hence a few miles brought us to Skala Nuova. 
 
 This shore, like all in the vicinity of the 
 - Cayster, has undergone most important changes 
 during the lapse of time. Many of those spots 
 the most memorable in ancient mythology, are 
 sought for in vain along it. Pygela is no lon¬ 
 ger a sea-port;* Marathesium and Neapolis are 
 
 * Polyxenides, satis omnibus coraparatis, nocte remigio 
 k Magnesia arcessito, deductisque raptim quae subductae erant 
 navibus ; quum diem non tarn in apparatu absurapsisset, 
 quam quod conspici proticiscentem classem nolebat, post 
 solis occasum, profectus septuaginta navibus tectis, vento 
 adverso, ante lucem Pygela portum tenuit.’’—Liv. lib. xxxvii. 
 
 cap. 11 . 
 
THE AEGEAN. 147 
 
 no more; and even the favourite haunt of 
 Diana, Ortygia, on the groves and shrines of 
 which the wealth of Ephesus was lavished, is 
 but conjectured to be the valley I have men¬ 
 tioned at the extremity of Coryssus. Skala 
 Nuova, called by the Turks Kushadasi (“ The 
 Island of Birds”), is a town of modern con¬ 
 struction, situated on a declivity above the sea; 
 of which, and of the mountains of Samos, it 
 commands a splendid prospect, and from which 
 it must itself form an object of extreme beauty ; 
 its graceful minarets and waving cypresses 
 rising at intervals amidst its whitened houses, 
 and its dilapidated castle towering gloomily 
 above them. 
 
 It was formerly the grand depot of trade be¬ 
 tween Samos and the adjacent towns of Ayasa- 
 look, Inek-bazaar, and Guizel-hissar: but since 
 the commencement o7 the Greek revolt, it has 
 suffered considerably in its commerce. The 
 Samians, too, have lately committed frequent 
 ravages within it, and on the lands in the 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 vicinity, when forced from their mountain 
 fastnesses by hunger or oppression ; but 
 still its situation and harbour (partially shel¬ 
 tered by an opposite island in the bay) must 
 continue to render it a place of material im¬ 
 portance. 
 
 Skala Nuova was formerly the residence of 
 the Archbishop of Ephesus, but he has lately 
 removed to Vourla, on the Gulf of Clazomene ; 
 the decay of Christianity in this district being 
 probably the motive of his transfer; the town, 
 however, contains one church, dedicated to St. 
 Elias, whilst the turrets of the Prophet rise 
 in every direction around it. The irregular 
 conformation of the grounds in the neighbour¬ 
 hood is admirably adapted to the cultivation 
 of vines; and the wine of the country has 
 acquired considerable celebrity throughout the 
 Archipelago; but to our taste it possessed 
 few attractions, its excellence having, I sup¬ 
 pose, declined with the encouragement for its 
 manufacture. 
 
THE /EGEAN. 
 
 149 
 
 We spent the night in the house of a Greek 
 family, where our servant procured us quar¬ 
 ters; and the following morning set out for 
 Guizel-hissar, the ancient Tralles, situated 
 about eight or nine hours to the eastward. 
 The first few miles lay across a hilly and irre¬ 
 gular country, intersected by precipitous stream¬ 
 lets and gloomy ravines, and traversed by a 
 road which was passable, and little more. 
 
 Our spirits, too, were nothing lightened by 
 the oppressive breath of a hot Sirocco, which 
 commenced blowing during the night: this cor¬ 
 roding wind * is no doubt the same which is 
 referred to in the 19th chapter of 2nd Kings; 
 which the Lord was to send for the destruction 
 of Sennacherib. ‘‘ Behold I will send a blast 
 upon him, and he shall hear a rumour and re¬ 
 turn to his own land.^’ Its depressing effects can 
 only be conceived by those who have suffered 
 from them ; the unwonted dulness with which it 
 overcasts even the most active mind ; the deep- 
 * See Letter I., p. 2. 
 
150 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 drawn sighs it will elicit; and if there be one 
 melancholy feeling which presses on the heart 
 more heavily than another, the ample deve- 
 lopement which it enjoys during the prevalence 
 of this enervating breeze. 
 
 It seldom, however, blows with force; it is 
 rather an exhalation than a wind. It scarcely 
 moves the leaves around the traveller, but it 
 sinks heavily and damply in his heart. A 
 stranger is at first unaware of the cause of the 
 mental misery he endures; his temper sours as 
 his spirits sink; every person, and every cir¬ 
 cumstance, annoys him; it effects even his 
 dreams, and sleep itself is not a refuge from 
 querulous peevishness; every motion is an irri¬ 
 tating exertion, and he trudges along in dis¬ 
 content and unhappiness, sighing, and thinking 
 of home, and attempting to philosophise on the 
 arrant folly that could induce him to leave 
 England for an hour to come to such a dis¬ 
 mal, miserable, uninteresting banishment as the 
 Levant. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 151 
 
 Our route was one of the most frequented in 
 the Pachalic, as it leads from the principal port 
 to the principal town, and is thence the high 
 way which the caravans take to Konia and 
 Kesaria. 
 
 A little beyond a hamlet, the name of which 
 I forget, where we halted about mid-day to rest 
 for an hour in the shade, we were overtaken 
 by a small troop of Zingari, or gipsies, whom 
 we afterwards encountered in a recess of the 
 valley a little farther on, where they had 
 pitched their goat-skin tent. 
 
 A few wretched ponies were fastened near a 
 fountain, and numbers of fierce-looking red 
 dogs were prowling about; but only the wo¬ 
 men of the party were visible, who were cook¬ 
 ing their meat a temporary fireplace ; whilst 
 the men were enjoying the seldom omitted 
 luxury of a mid-day sleep in the shade. 
 
 About noon we gained a view of the Meander 
 from the top of an adjacent hill; its tortuous 
 current winding like a silver thread amidst 
 
152 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 plantations of olives and vines, for the culture 
 of which, and of figs, the country is celebrated. 
 We had left to our right the modern town of 
 Inek-bazaar, on the site of the ancient Magnesia 
 ad Meandrum. Our limited time did not 
 permit us to visit it. It would have been 
 an equally • good route to Guizel-hissar from 
 SkalaNuova, as we afterwards learned, but our 
 servants had been otherwise directed : I should, 
 .however, have anxiously desired to see it as the 
 last estate of Themistocles, and the spot which 
 afforded a death-bed to the hero of Salamis and 
 Corcyra; and in whose forum, according to 
 Cornelius Nepos, Artaxerxes raised a statue 
 to the memory of him, his most determined 
 enemy.* 
 
 It was night ere we reached our destination, 
 and never did we descry a resting-place with 
 more satisfaction; as, in addition to the in¬ 
 tolerable depression of spirits which we had 
 been labouring under during the day, we had 
 
 * Vide Cor. Nep. vita Tliemist. cap. x. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 153 
 
 in the afternoon to struggle with all the agonies 
 of excruciating thirst. Our dinner had been 
 helped out by the aid of some salt-meat which 
 we had brought from Skala Nuova, and washed 
 down with draughts of fiery wine, which soon 
 produced an effect far from composing or 
 agreeable. 
 
 The sun was setting as we ascended the last 
 chain of gently sloping hills, and with the de¬ 
 parture of daylight our tortures commenced, as 
 it was too dark to see any of the fountains 
 charitably erected by the Turks along the 
 road,* and not one friendly stream now crossed 
 
 * These fountains are to be met with every twa or three 
 miles throughout Turkey. The water gushes from the centre 
 of a square wail, generally six or eight feet in height, and 
 falls into a stone trough below, whence it is drank by the 
 cattle. Above, a slab inscribed with a verse from the Koran, 
 is the only ornament, with the exception of some marble 
 facings, occasionally added at the sides of the wall. The 
 construction of these edifices seems to have undergone no 
 alteration from the earliest periods ; and the description of 
 the interview between Rebecca and the servant of Abraham 
 
154 
 
 LETTERS FRQM 
 
 our path, though we had hurried over hun¬ 
 dreds disregarded in the morning. In vain we 
 looked abroad for some welcome light which 
 might give a promise of relief; but not 'an 
 object met our eye, except the gloomy ravine 
 around us, and the bleak hills which threw 
 their giant shade across the starless sky. To 
 add to our sufferings, the road was execrable, 
 formed of loose stones, which had fallen from 
 the banks on either side. Over this we were 
 forced to pass, every second step a stumble, 
 
 at the well is perfectly characteristic of the customs of the 
 East at the present day. 
 
 “ And the servant ran to meet her, (Rebecca,) and said, 
 ‘ Give me a little water to drink of thy pitcher.’ 
 
 “ And she answered, ‘ Drink, my lord and quickly she 
 let down the pitcher on her arm and gave him to drink. 
 
 “ And when he had drank, she said, ‘ I will draw water 
 for thy camels also, till they all drink.’ 
 
 And pouring out the pitcher into the troughs, she ran back 
 to the well to draw water, and, having drawn, she gave to 
 all the camels.” 
 
 Genesis, xxiv. 17, 18, 19,20. 
 
THE tEGEAN. 
 
 155 
 
 from which weakness almost prevented our re¬ 
 covering, and our tongues absolutely rustling 
 against our parched palates. At last we reach¬ 
 ed the town of Guizel-hissar, and, without wait¬ 
 ing to arrive at our khan, attacked at once the 
 muddy stream which flows through the centre 
 of it; and having luxuriated in its impure 
 but invaluable waters, hastened to stretch our 
 weary limbs on a heap of wool in the karavan- 
 serai, and await the morning light to pursue 
 our march. 
 
 As this was one of the longest day'^s journeys 
 we had made, our fatigue the succeeding day 
 was proportionate. The town contains few 
 objects to arrest our attention, more than are 
 usually presented by those of equal extent in 
 Turkey. Some antiquities are said to remain 
 of the ancient Tralles, the scite of which it oc¬ 
 cupies, but we did not see them. The streets 
 are wide and well laid out, and an unusual 
 number of stately trees and cypresses wave 
 
156 
 
 .ETTERS FROM 
 
 amidst the gardens with which they are 
 lined. 
 
 Having taken a cup of delicious coffee, we 
 started early for Sultanhissar and Nosli, by a 
 path lying along well-cultivated plains, and 
 occasionally traversing' the base of the slight 
 hills which shoot down from Mount Messogis 
 on our left towards the Meander. Some bub¬ 
 bling streams crossed our route, and in the 
 more secluded points we met with several foun¬ 
 tains erected by the Turks for their own ablu¬ 
 tions or the convenience of the traveller, while 
 frequent fragments of antiquity marked the de¬ 
 cay of population and importance. In about 
 four hours we reached the old fortress and vil¬ 
 lage of Sultanhissar, the ancient Nysa, which 
 had the honour of affording a school for the 
 studies of Strabo the geographer. 
 
 It now contained no objects of importance to 
 detain us; and having crossed the mountain 
 torrent which flows through the town, we pur¬ 
 sued our route to Nosli, where we proposed 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 157 
 
 halting for .the night. Our road was equally 
 delightful with that in the morning, lying along 
 the plains of the Meander, and passing through 
 a country abounding in vineyards and olive- 
 groves, which continued to the village, where 
 we, as usual, got apartments in a miserable hut, 
 and slept upon our cloaks spread over straw, 
 our own canteen furnishing our supper, and 
 our servant Spiro never failing to discover 
 where the best wine was forthcoming. 
 
 This genius was a perfect illustration of his 
 class: to us I believe he was undeviatingly 
 faithful; but of too scrupulous honesty towards 
 others we had certainly no reason to impeach 
 him, as there were few of the hamlets we passed 
 through in which he did not levy a contribution 
 of fowls or other portable forage which fell within 
 his reach. These he never failed to produce on 
 the most urgent and least expected occasions: 
 his good humour was unfailing, and his vivacity 
 sufficient to enliven a whole caravan. 
 
158 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 His name was Demetraki, and his father an 
 inhabitant of the barren island of Seriphos,,one 
 of the most susceptible and least productive 
 spots of the Cyclades. Here he spent the first 
 years of his life, till, in consequence of an agree¬ 
 ment between his father and a Hydriot Reis, 
 he was to have been sent with the levy of sea¬ 
 men for the Turkish fleet, annually furnished 
 by that island and others, in order to purchase 
 immunity from the presence of the Moslemins 
 ^ among them. This arrangement did not, how¬ 
 ever, suit Spiro; the narrow compass of a kir- 
 langitsch or caravella was too confined a ^sphere 
 for his enlarged ideas, and a sneaking affec¬ 
 tion for a young black-eyed Serphiot served to 
 heighten his aversion to the naval honours 
 destined him by the Sultan. Accordingly, when 
 the period of his departure approached, a vio¬ 
 lent and sudden contraction of the sinews of his 
 leg incapacitated him totally from active exer¬ 
 tion by sea or land. 
 
 Unfortunately his name had been entered in 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 159 
 
 the list, and when the Tshawoosh of the Capi- 
 tan Pacha arrived to convey him to the Dar¬ 
 danelles along with his comrades, the keen eye 
 of the Byzantine saw through the deception in 
 spite of his lusty yells as often as they attempt¬ 
 ed to straighten his limb or feel for the con¬ 
 tracted sinew. Spiro had some suspicions of his 
 shrewdness from his manner, and was resolved 
 not to await the result of his deliberations. 
 Accordingly, when he had learned that the boat 
 had put off with the Tshawoosh towards the 
 caravella in the offing, he sprang from his bed 
 with an agility that highly astonished his afflict¬ 
 ed mother and his anxious sisters, and flew to 
 bid farewell to his innamorata, and make his 
 escape to some neighbouring island till the 
 storm should blow ptist. Full of these affec¬ 
 tionate resolutions, he was skipping down from 
 the lofty rock, on which the town of St. Nicho¬ 
 las is perched like a dovecote, when in one of 
 the narrow passages he encountered the Nos- 
 truomo’’ of the vessel, who was returning in order 
 
160 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 to make trial of the efficacy of the bastinado in 
 drawing down the painful malady from his knee 
 to his sole. 
 
 Spiro sprang backwards with an activity 
 commensurate with his late miraculous reco¬ 
 very, and was quickly followed by the posse 
 comitatus of his affectionate shipmates: his 
 superior topographical knowledge, however, - 
 gave him an infinite advantage, and, having 
 eluded his pursuers, he succeeded in gaining 
 the beach, and at nightfall set sail in a fishing 
 boat for the' adjacent island of Milo, where a 
 relative of his father had realized a considerable 
 property by piloting European vessels through 
 the Arches. By the assistance of his cousin 
 he was stowed on board a Maltese brig, which 
 conveyed him to Naples, where he commenced 
 the profession of courier to travellers, in which 
 occupation he contrived to make the “ grand 
 tour” ere he again returned to Seriphos and 
 exchanged his gilt waistcoat and varnished cap 
 for his native phes and cotton shaksheer. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 161 
 
 The cliffs of the island, however, were soon 
 too uninteresting to satisfy his unsettled dis¬ 
 position, and though he daily wandered over, 
 the rocks which had been immortalized by the 
 exploits of Perseus and the head of Medusa,' 
 and strolled through the haunts of Cassius 
 Severus, and many a banished Roman,^ what 
 were these to one whose travels had exceeded 
 even those of Perseus, and to whom Imperial 
 Rome itself had been but a halting-place from 
 more remote excursions ! So thought Spiro; 
 and without taking long to deliberate, he sailed 
 by the first vessel which touched at Corfu, and 
 entered into the service of the Venetians, who 
 then held possession of the Ionian Islands. 
 
 During the few succeeding years he had, 
 without^ once changing his residence, served 
 
 * Seriphos was one among the numerous places of banish¬ 
 ment which the Archipelago supplied to the victims of the 
 Roman emperors. C. Severus was sent hither by Augustus, 
 according to Tacitus ; and Strabo and Juvenal both mention 
 the island among the list of state prisons. 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 successively under the standard of St. Mark, 
 the tricolour of the French Republic, and the 
 eagle of the North, till, finding Corfu too hot 
 for him, he crossed over one night, with a few 
 of his comrades from the guard-room, to Bu- 
 trinto, and thence making his way to Yannina, 
 enlisted under the horse-tails of “ Aslan the 
 Lion,” who in a few months rewarded him for 
 his flattering preference, by taking off* his right 
 ear and pulling out a few of his superfluous 
 teeth. Not finding Ali quite so congenial a 
 master as he had hoped, he contrived to be one 
 of a party who were sent on a private mission 
 to Saloniki; but from thence Spiro forgot to 
 return with his answer. 
 
 The scene of his after-exploits comprised the 
 greater portion of Turkey and Egypt;—but 
 it would be endless to attempt following him 
 through • the varied employments in which he 
 subsequently embarked. These he himself re¬ 
 counted with infinite humour, when at night he 
 gathered in his companions round the wood- 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 163 
 
 fire in our quarters. During his sojourn among 
 the Franks, he had conceived an affection for 
 
 f 
 
 the cigar above the chibouque, and he never 
 commenced his details without one.’ With it 
 his action was a perfect counterpart to his elo¬ 
 quence, as he was complete master of all the 
 puffs, elevations, and suspensions adequate to 
 give due force and effect to his recital. He 
 was an admirable proficient at all manly ex¬ 
 ercises—leaping, wrestling, rowing, riding, and 
 throwing the djereed; and with a pistol, even 
 in spite of his ill-shaped bullets,^ he was an 
 unerring aim. 
 
 In point of orthodoxy he was unusually 
 liberal: he was totally undecided, he said, be¬ 
 tween the Ikonoclasts and the Latins. He had 
 known so much villany of the one, and seen so 
 
 * The Greeks are, in general, wretchedly bad shots, as well 
 from the quality of their weapons as from an absurd custom 
 of never cutting off the tag left by the mould on the bullet, 
 which they preserve in order to fasten the end of the paper 
 to it in making a cartridge; and of course this appendage 
 must render irregular the direction of the shot when fired. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 much that was amiable attached to the other, 
 that practice alone kept him a Greek, although 
 prejudice had considerable influence in prevent¬ 
 ing him becoming a Romanist. For the Turks, 
 and for Achmet, our janissary, in particular 
 (with a bow,) he entertained a most honour¬ 
 able predilection. But there was one point 
 that must ever deter him from a profession of 
 Islamism—the Fast of the Ramadan, which he 
 said he might support well enough during the 
 short winter-days, but when it verged towards 
 the summer solstice,* his stomach could never' 
 endure such protracted inanition; and Para¬ 
 dise, with all its Houries, could yield but slight 
 compensation for such lengthened privations. 
 As to his ultimate happiness, he was, however, 
 perfectly easy; as the last time he had been 
 to Seriphos he had gone to Bello Paulo, a 
 small island in the .^gean inhabited by a holy 
 
 * The Arabian year being lunar, each month runs through 
 the course of the four seasons in the space of thirty-three years. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 165 
 
 hermit, from whom he purchased the virtue of 
 seven years’ penance by a gift of tobacco and 
 rosoglio. 
 
 In order to get on as far as possible towards 
 Denizli before sunset, we started from Nosli 
 before the dawn of morning. For some hours 
 we hurried on in darkness, watching the gra¬ 
 dual breaking-up of night; at length the mists 
 which wreathed around Taurus and Tmolus 
 ‘‘ melted into morn,” and light awoke the 
 ^orld. The broad crimson sun burst above 
 them, and lighted up the valley through which 
 we were winding, gilding the heights of Mount 
 Messogis on our left, and on our right glancing 
 in the glittering stream of the Meander, which 
 rolled along its serpentine current between 
 banks blooming in Eden-like verdure. 
 
 This portion of the country seemed more 
 populous than hitherto: hamlets and villages 
 were more frequent, and large flocks, princi¬ 
 pally of bkck sheep, were browsing around the 
 
166 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 hills. The scenery all the day was diversified 
 and romantic in the extreme: the ponderous 
 range of mountains now advancing boldly to¬ 
 wards the plain and the river, and now open¬ 
 ing out into long vistas of luxuriant valleys. 
 In one of these recesses, but far to the north 
 of our march, is a plain, supposed to be the 
 Asian meadow of Homer and'Virgil. 
 
 At length we crossed the Meander at a ferry, 
 about three hours from Carura, and put up for 
 the night at a hamlet on the track to Denizli. 
 We were now on the borders of Caria and 
 Phrygia, and in a district so subject to subter¬ 
 ranean fires and motions of the earth as to be 
 denominated the Calabria of Asia Minor; most 
 of its streamlets possess the quality of petrifac¬ 
 tion, and of leaving in their course a strong 
 calcareous or earthy deposit; and throughout 
 the entire district hot springs are frequently to 
 be met with. We reached Denizli the follow¬ 
 ing day, and took up our lodgings with a 
 Greek, who volunteered the kindness to us. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 167 
 
 Denizli, which originally sprang from the 
 ruins of Laodicea and Colosse, both which are 
 at a short distance from it, is now hurrying to 
 the same decay in which they are merged. 
 Nearly seventy years have elapsed since twelve 
 thousand of its inhabitants were destroyed by 
 an earthquake, and the remnant of its popu¬ 
 lation seems to have chosen rather to settle at 
 a distance, than again to tempt its treacherous 
 shelter. It contains at present a greater num¬ 
 ber of Christians than any other quarter of the 
 Pachalic, upwards of seven hundred Greeks 
 and Armenians having their churches within 
 its walls, but all seem miserably poor and 
 wretched. 
 
 Our host, who lived in one of the leading 
 streets, supported himself and a brother by the 
 sale of leather and the manufacture of pa- 
 pooshes. He felt extremely interested in the 
 success of his countrymen in the Morea; and 
 it appeared that his object in proffering us his 
 hospitality was to learn some news from Greece, 
 
168 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 and to solicit our advice (as having probably 
 visited the country) as to the propriety of aban¬ 
 doning his home and joining their cause. It is 
 remarkable that this enthusiasm I have always 
 found merely at a distance from the seat of 
 war; in Greece itself such patriotism is rare. 
 Our host, however, allowed himself to be per¬ 
 suaded of the inefficiency of his proffered 
 service, and the truth of the fact, that in the 
 Morea there were more soldiers than the Go¬ 
 vernment can well make use of. 
 
 ■ His house was situated in a court-yard, the 
 opposite side of which was occupied by the 
 dwelling of a Greek lady and her daughter: 
 the latter was said to be extremely beautiful, 
 but, though she had lived for five years beside 
 him, our entertainer had never yet seen her, 
 nor did she ever cross the threshold. This 
 rigid regulation of society, which he. assured 
 us was common enough here, is much more 
 severe than any that I had met with among 
 Greeks before. He attributed it, however, to 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 169 
 
 the tyranny and turbulence of the Turks, which 
 being infinitely more galling and oppressive 
 here, and in the interior, than at Smyrna, or 
 along the coast, obliges the Christians to resort 
 to such extraordinary precautions to ensure the 
 honour and security of their families. 
 
 Perhaps, too, the feeling may have in it as 
 much of inclination as necessity on the part 
 of the Greeks; for I have invariably observed, 
 that the farther we progress towards the south 
 in any country, the situation of females be¬ 
 comes more deplorable and unhappy. In 
 northern latitudes alone woman is the better- 
 half of creation; as we draw towards more ge¬ 
 nial climes she gradually merges into equality, 
 inferiority, a deprivation of her rights and dig¬ 
 nity, and at last, in the vicinity of the line, a 
 total denial of a reasoning principle or an im¬ 
 mortal essence, which might enjoy in another 
 world those privileges of which she is tyranni¬ 
 cally debarred in this. 
 
 In countries north of our own, the absence of 
 
170 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 1 
 
 refinement lias deprived affection in some degree 
 of its polish ; but still its details show it to be 
 like the phosphorescent stone of Bologna, rude 
 but glowing. Our accounts of our Scandina¬ 
 vian neighbours, for instance, place their females 
 even above our own: in Norway, they occupy 
 that distinguished place in society for which 
 Nature has clearly intended them: in every 
 situation they are the companions and ‘‘ help¬ 
 mates” of man, and share alike in his amuse¬ 
 ments and his intellectual pursuits. “ In con¬ 
 versation,” says Dr. Clarke^ ‘‘ they take the 
 lead; nor has the odious custom of ladies re¬ 
 tiring into solitary seclusion after dinner been 
 introduced among them; *—and in Sweden,” 
 he observes, in speaking of the family with 
 which he was domesticated, that “ the happi¬ 
 ness of his host seamed to consist entirely in 
 the education of his children and the conversa¬ 
 tion of his amiable wife.”*|* 
 
 Again, “ The Fins,” says the same author, 
 
 * See vol. X. p. 235. f See vol, ix. p. 298, 322, &c. 
 
THE iEGEAN. I 7 I 
 
 are superior to the Russians, in every ami¬ 
 able qualification and even the rough ex¬ 
 terior of the Russian, I speak of the northern 
 provinces, is superior to their southern neigh¬ 
 bours in Prussia and in Germany. Of this 
 two instances may suffice. In Germany wo¬ 
 men, in mixed society, are never permitted 
 even to sit along with men ; and in Prussia, 
 during one of the late years, there were three 
 thousand divorces out of a population of ten 
 millions !“[* 
 
 The ladies of France would, perhaps, come 
 nearest to our own in point of domestic govern-^ 
 ment; but even here it must be admitted, that 
 the exterior of affection is too highly gilded to 
 be real; that love is rather a foppery than a 
 feeling, and domestic enjoyment almost a tale 
 of a foreign land in fact, their language con¬ 
 tains no word expressive of the ideas which 
 an Englishman attaches to the monosyllable 
 
 * See vol. X. p. 47. 
 
 •f See Russell’s Germany, vol. ii. p. 72. 
 
172 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 ‘‘ home.” Proceeding along the map a little 
 farther towards the south, the ladies of Spain 
 and Italy would probably come upon a par 
 in point of importance, though widely distinct 
 in their several modes of life. But does not the 
 grim tyranny of the duenna over the one imply 
 as much degradation in its institution, as the 
 cavalier servente of the other involves levity 
 and contempt in the toleration permitted to 
 him ? 
 
 It is scarcely needful to mention Greece, but 
 it is a link of the chain ; and here even beauty 
 seems to have shrunk beneath the withering 
 touch of slavery, and woman, too, to have faded 
 with the crumbling wreck of her greatness. 
 From the babits of seclusion to which they are 
 subjected by the tyrannized slaves who possess 
 them, every trace of what we call ‘‘ Grecian 
 beauty” has departed. I never saw a striking 
 figure, and scarce a lovely face, throughout the 
 country; and their servile occupations, and the 
 domestic despotism to which they are subjected. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 173 
 
 differ but in A shade from those of their Mos- 
 lemin lords, from whom they have been imi¬ 
 tated. 
 
 In Turkey, female degradation is prover¬ 
 bial ; woman possesses there beauty alone, 
 without the attributes of intellect, and be¬ 
 comes the footstool, in place of the companion 
 and supporter, of her lord. Still farther south, 
 in Palestine and Syria, the disgusting series 
 attains its acme of abhorrent developement; 
 and the situation of females is in no degree 
 removed from the classification originally made, 
 by which a man’s wife, and his slave, his 
 maid-servant, his ox, and his ass,” are equally 
 defended from the covetousness of his neigh¬ 
 bour.* To conclude, the ancient form of 
 
 * The words (gnebed) and (amah) in the 
 
 seventeenth verse of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, above 
 alluded to, which are rendered in our version man-servant 
 and maid servanty* signify, literally, bondsman or slave, and 
 bondswoman; in which sense they are applied in the forty- 
 fourth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus, in con¬ 
 tradistinction to (sakir), which signifies a‘ hired ser- 
 
174 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 salutation among the Arabs, was one which 
 totally deprecated the birth of females as a 
 misfortune, and prayed for male children only 
 as the descendants of its errant warriors, 
 Felix agas, maresque parias^ non femellas^ 
 “ May you be happy, may your children be 
 boys, and may the evil tidings of an infant 
 daughter never meet your ear.” In the mass, 
 this estimate is correct; and in the details, it 
 is equally consistent with itself. Compare, for 
 example, the situation of females in the north 
 of Germany, with the account of Vienna 
 given by Mr. Russell in his “ Germany,” 
 vol. ii. p. 280 , which presents us with a pic¬ 
 ture of depravity too disgusting to be quoted, 
 and almost too hideous to obtain even a par- 
 
 vant, not a slave by possession. But innumerable instances 
 occur throughout the Old and New Testaments, of passages 
 which depict the subordinate situation of women, and incul¬ 
 cate the superiority of male children above females. Ex. gr. 
 Gen. iii. 16 ; Jer. i. 37 ; Levit. xii. 4, 5; John xvi. 21 ; 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 8, 9 ; xiv. 34 ; 1 Tim. ii. 11 ; and a thousand 
 others. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 175 
 
 tial credence. Compare the light and grace¬ 
 ful contadina of Tuscany with the wretched 
 peasantry of Naples or Calabria. Contrast 
 the Spaniards of Leon or Galicia with those 
 of Seville or Grenada ; or the daughter of an 
 Albanian Kleft with the child of a Messinian 
 or Mainote.* I remember, too, that Captain 
 Cochrane, in his singular tour through Sibe¬ 
 ria, mentions, in speaking of the Rascolnics 
 of Yaldimir, that they are kind and friendly 
 people^ and excellent husbands’’ (vol. i. p. 91) ; 
 but he scarcely proceeds many versts farther 
 to the south till at Semipalatinsk he meets 
 with a husband correcting his spouse with a 
 stick the thickness of his thumb !” (vol. i. p. 
 118 .) 
 
 This feeling, too, seems to have given a 
 
 * “ Les voyageurs qui parcouraient La Messenie avaient 
 lieu de s’^tonner de son indolence et de son apathie. Si les 
 femmes s’acquittaient avec plus d’activite de travaux du menage 
 et des champs (!) ce pesant fardeau impose au sexe le plus faible 
 paraissait n’attester ^galement que les malheurs de la nation.^’ 
 —La Grece par M. Depping^ vol. ii. p. 121. 
 
176 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 tinge to the various casts of religion. The prin¬ 
 ciples of our own mild creed inculcate a sub¬ 
 jection in females, much more rigorous than 
 that which we usually exact from them; * 
 and it is an undisputed fact, that in northern 
 climates the favourite saints are selected from 
 the female side of the calendar, whilst in the 
 south the share of popularity is monopolized 
 by St. Peter, St. Paul, or St. Nicholas. This 
 theory, which I might illustrate by a thousand 
 
 * Does not Lord Byron somewhere assert that the Scotch 
 and Irish make much better husbands than the English ? Now, 
 two-thirds of England lie to the south of the latter, and it is 
 altogether lower in_ this scale of affectionate geography than 
 the former. I trust that our young ladies will be inclined to 
 take a useful lesson from these undigested hints, not only as 
 to a proper topographical choice in their selection of their 
 husbands, but as to the due qualifying study of their maps ; 
 which may prove as advantageous as the knowledge of gram¬ 
 mar, inculcated by the Arabian tale of M. G. Lewis. By the 
 same standard, too, they must be as choice in their counties 
 as their countries, never failing to prefer a Northumbrian to 
 a Kentish or Cornish man ; a native of Orkney to one from 
 Dumfries ; and never to look at a lover from Cork, as long 
 as they can have one from the Causeway ’ 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 177 
 
 instances, (not in one solitary line, but from 
 east to west of the globe,) can, in my opinion, 
 be accounted for solely on the grounds that, 
 in the south, Nature has done so much for 
 man, that little of his happiness is to be 
 sought beyond her ; while, in the north, her 
 gifts have been comparatively so scanty that 
 to complete the measure of * his comforts, he 
 is forced to invoke the aid of 
 
 “ Heaven’s last but kindest gift.” 
 
 The remains of Laodicea, which are about 
 three miles distant from Denizli, are situated 
 on a low hill at the extremity of a plain, on 
 either side of which flow the Asopus and 
 Caprus* to join the Lycus a short distance from 
 the ruins. The remains of an aqueduct are 
 the first which meet the eye on approaching 
 from Denizli; but around the hill, in every 
 
 * The course of the Caprus seems to have been changed, 
 as Dr. Pococke mentions four piers of a bridge standing in 
 the plain to the east of the present river, under which it had 
 probably flowed. 
 
 . VOL. I. N 
 
17B . 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 direction, are remnants of theatres, an amphi¬ 
 theatre, an odeum, &c.; all which, from the 
 solidity of their materials, or the circumstance 
 of their being sunk into the hill, have been 
 enabled to resist the shocks of earthquakes or of 
 time. Interspersed with these are the vestiges 
 of ruined walls, arches, inscribed slabs of stone, 
 fallen columns, and sarcophagi; but not one 
 perfect or very striking object meets the eye, 
 all is alike desolate and decayed. The hill 
 appears one tumulus of ruins, from which the 
 masses of faded buildings that present them¬ 
 selves seem bursting above the surrounding soil. 
 No wretched outcast dwells in the midst of it; 
 it has long been abandoned to the owl and to 
 the fox. 
 
 Alternately under the dominion of the Ro¬ 
 mans and the Turks, and ravaged by the suc¬ 
 cessive wars and invasions of the generals of 
 the Lower Empire, and the sultans who suc¬ 
 ceeded them, the history of Laodicea is a mere 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 179 
 
 alternation of vicissitudes; earthquakes and 
 internal commotions have conspired to aid the 
 ravages of man,* and centuries have perhaps 
 elapsed since its total abandonment. Eski- 
 hissar,' a miserable village which has sprung 
 from its ruins, contains about fifty inhabitants, 
 of whom two only are Christians, and possess a 
 small mill in the hamlet. 
 
 It is a melancholy and repulsive scene; and 
 our only anxiety, after wandering for a few hours 
 amidst the unsatisfactory ruins, was to hurry on 
 towards Allah Shehr, the modern Philadelphia, 
 and if possible, to visit the Seven Churches of 
 Asia before the expiration of our limited time 
 forced us to return to Smyrna. To Laodicea 
 the most summary of the denunciations con¬ 
 tained in the messages to the Apocalyptic 
 churches is directed—that of total subversion.*|- 
 
 * “Eodem anno ex illustribus Asiae urbibus, Laodicea, tre- 
 more terrae prolapsa, nullo k nobis remedio, propriis viribus 
 revaluit .”—Tacitusy Ann. 1. xiv. 
 
 f I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.' 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 It has been awfully acomplished. The name 
 of Christianity is forgotten, and the only sounds 
 that disturb the silence of its desertion are the 
 tones of the Muezzin, whose voice from the 
 distant village proclaims the ascendency of 
 Mahomet. Laodicea is even more solitary than 
 Ephesus: the latter has a prospect of the 
 rolling sea, or a whitening sail, to enliven its 
 decay; the former sits in widowed loneliness, 
 its walls are grass-grown, its temples desolate, 
 its very name has perished. 
 
 Whilst we sat upon the bank of its amphi¬ 
 theatre, the dense, waxy clouds seemed gather¬ 
 ing for a storm, and hurried past us swollen 
 with their tempestuous burthen; a gloomy sha¬ 
 dow enveloped the summits of Mount Cad¬ 
 mus, that had a moment before been glittering in 
 the sunshine; and at length a distant muttered 
 thunder warned us away, and we hurried on 
 
 I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art 
 lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of 
 my mouth.’’— Rev. iii. 15, 16. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 181 
 
 to the village where we had sent our horses. 
 When the storm had passed, we left Eski- 
 hissar amidst lowering clouds and misty rain; 
 but we preferred hastening on, to a further 
 delay in that melancholy spot, where every 
 thing whispered desolation, and where the very 
 wind that swept impetuously through the 
 valley, sounded like the fiendish laugh of Time 
 exulting above the overthrow of man and his 
 proudest monuments. 
 
182 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Oux arrw^ev 8e roCrwv roSv jroXlwv, ou8’ ^ Maywifffa larh f) iirl 
 ^tTrCXcftf i\eC$epoi 7r6Kig vttI Pw/xa/wy Kfxpt/nevri' xoc) xadTijvS’ 
 inaxcoffotv 0 / vewo’r) yevo/JLsvoi a'tta‘fj.6i> Straboy lib. 13. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, SARDIS, &c. 
 
 Ruins of Hierapolis. —Petrified Cliffs.—A Renegade.—Au 
 Earthquake.—Scenery.—Turcomans.—Their Indentity with 
 the tribe.s of Kedar in the Old Testament.—History of Phi¬ 
 ladelphia. —Description of her situation and remains.— 
 Wall of Petrified Reeds.—River Cogamus.—Interior of a 
 Greek Church.—Road to Sardis.— Tartar Keuy. —Kara 
 Osman Oglou.— Sardis. —A Caravan.—Temple of Cybele. 
 —Greek Cookery.—Adventure at the Pactolus.— Barrows 
 OF Halyattys and Gyges.—Pergamus and Thiatyra. 
 —Remarkable fulfilment of the prophecies in the Revela¬ 
 tions concerning Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thiatyra, 
 Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.—The Golden Sands of 
 the Pactolus.—Turgutli. —Want of wheel carriages a 
 main cause of the filthiness of Turkish towns.— Magnesia 
 AD SiPYLUM. —Amurath the Second. — Magnets on the 
 Mountain.—Return to Smyrna. 
 
 Leaving Laodicea on the right, we recross¬ 
 ed the tributary streams of the Lycus, and re- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 183 
 
 turning, for a short distance, in the same direc¬ 
 tion by which we had approached the ruins, re¬ 
 gained the bank of the Maeander, the turbulent 
 current of which now dashed with impetuosity 
 along its shallow channel, swollen by the recent 
 tempest. We passed the river and took the 
 road to Bullada, through a romantic valley 
 which wound between the towering heights of 
 Messogis. The storm had ceased, and the dark 
 curtain of gloomy clouds rolled back from hill 
 to hill, save a few filmy vapours which hung 
 motionless in the upper sky, apparently beyond 
 the influence of a sharp wind which rushed 
 impetuously from the recesses of the mountain. 
 
 Our time did not permit us to visit the re¬ 
 mains of Hierapolis, though at a very few miles 
 distance from our route, but we had a distinct 
 view of the celebrated petrified cliff; its snowy 
 whiteness contrasted vividly with the dark 
 brown hills around it,* and now forming the 
 
 * Of this singular phenomenon, which is either a stalac- 
 tytic deposit, or is formed by the precipitation of the salts 
 
184 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 main attraction of what was once the “ Bath” of 
 Asia ; the town, however, is still interesting on 
 account of architectural as well as picturesque 
 remains; but necessity combined with fatigue 
 obliged us to hurry onwards. 
 
 Leaving the ruins of Tripolis, in the distance 
 on our right, and passing through numerous 
 hamlets scattered amongst the hills, we arrived 
 late in the evening at Bullada, a Turkish town 
 of considerable extent, and built like almost all 
 through which we had passed, on either side 
 of a stream, the current of which might have 
 
 contained in the streams of the mountain, Dr. Chandler gives 
 the following description: “ Our tent stood on a green dry 
 spot beneath the cliff. The view before us was so marvellous, 
 that a description of it, to bear even a faint resemblance, 
 ought to appear romantic. The vast slope, which at a dis¬ 
 tance we had taken for chalk, was now beheld with wonder, 
 it seeming an immense frozen cascade, the surface wavy as‘ 
 of water, at once fixed, or in its headlong course suddenly 
 
 petrified.The hot waters of Hierapolis 
 
 have produced this most extraordinary phenomenon, which is 
 one entire encrustation.’’—Vide pp. 299, 230, Chand. Tr. 
 Asia Min. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 185 
 
 served for the purification of its streets, but its 
 stagnation only added to their filth. We, as 
 usual, rode to the Karavan Serai, and prepared 
 our accommodations for the night. 
 
 It was still duskish, and as we were discus¬ 
 sing our supper of baked lamb and coffee, we 
 observed a miserable-looking Turk prowling 
 about the court-yard of the khan, and evi¬ 
 dently keeping a look-out upon us; we were 
 rather suspicious of his intentions at first, but 
 were quickly undeceived, when, after the last 
 few loiterers in the Karavan Serai had lain down 
 to sleep, or retired to the town, he approached 
 our shed and inquired in good English, but 
 with a Scottish accent, “ whether we were Eng- 
 glishmen.” On being answered in the affirma¬ 
 tive, he expressed his satisfaction; and having 
 cast a cautious look around him, seated himself 
 on the ground beside us, and gave the following 
 particulars of his story. 
 
 His name was Angus Mac Donnell; he was 
 born in Glasgow, and had been now upwards of 
 
186 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 five years in Turkey, during three of which, 
 since his abjuration of Christianity and his 
 adoption of Islamism, he had been existing in a 
 state of the most abject poverty and hardship, 
 in the midst of privations and apprehension. 
 He had been a seaman on board one of His 
 Majesty’s vessels, from which the harsh treat¬ 
 ment of some of his superior officers induced 
 him to desert, whilst taking on board fresh 
 water in the offings of Vourla. He returned 
 to Smyrna, and had for a considerable time 
 obtained employment in the stores of a Frank 
 merchant under a feigned name, till, through 
 the persuasions of a renegade in the service of 
 the Pacha, he resolved on becoming a Maho¬ 
 metan in order to further his views of advance¬ 
 ment. 
 
 He accordingly gave notice to the Mufti at 
 the mosque, and having in due form trampled 
 upon the Cross and denied his Saviour, he un¬ 
 derwent the usual formalities, and was, under 
 the new name of Hussein, admitted into 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 187 
 
 the bosom of Islamism. The change had not 
 proved advantageous ; but the unfortunate 
 wretch seemed merely to regret that his apos¬ 
 tasy had entailed on him the contempt of his 
 most efficient friends the Europeans, without 
 in any degree recommending him to the kind¬ 
 ness of the Osmanlees. Instead of the lucrative 
 post he had enjoyed in anticipation, he was 
 forced to drudge from one menial occupation 
 to another, an object of disgust and abhorrence 
 to his former friends, and of suspicion and con¬ 
 tempt to his adopted co-religionists. 
 
 He had, at length, hired himself , as an at¬ 
 tendant on the horses, to a traveller from Smyr¬ 
 na to Konia, about eighteen months back ; but 
 as the unfortunate gentleman was murdered by 
 the Turcomans between Allah-shehr and Mount 
 Tmolus, Hussein found himself again adrift, 
 and, having made his way hither, he had re¬ 
 mained till the present in the employment of 
 the shepherds, or as a labourer obtaining merely 
 a wretched subsistence, and, as he said, point- 
 
188 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 ing to his filthy rags, without either comfort, 
 clothes, or money. 
 
 In addition to his more tangible misery, he 
 had to undergo the hourly tauntings of the 
 peasantry on his former infidelity ; and when 
 their insults had spurred him to exasperation, 
 his expressions of wrath had been construed 
 into* longings for a return to his abandoned 
 faith; so that, although his almost sole depen¬ 
 dency for support was on the gratuity of the 
 caravans, he dared only to approach his Frank 
 benefactors by stealth and privacy, lest his de¬ 
 tected intercourse should draw down on him 
 the chastisement of his associates. 
 
 Totally disgusted with the loathsome indif¬ 
 ference with which he spoke of his apostasy, 
 and the reckless brutality of his manner and 
 conversation, we were glad to rid ourselves of 
 his presence by granting him the few piastres 
 for which he servilely entreated; but were 
 again annoyed by his return in about an hour, 
 beastly intoxicated with Raki, and renewing 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 189 
 
 his solicitations for money, till well trounced 
 and dragged beyond the gates of the khan, by 
 attendants of the Karavan Serai. 
 
 We had resolved on starting early the fol¬ 
 lowing morning for Allah-shehr, the modern 
 Philadelphia, but our departure was expedited 
 by a rather unceremonious disturbance. On 
 lying down to sleep, we had piled our luggage 
 and canteens around us, as well for the purpose 
 of sheltering us from the wind, as for a specious 
 protection against intrusion ; about two hours 
 before sunrise we were aroused by the fall of 
 some of the uppermost packages, which came 
 rattling about us: we immediately started up, 
 but were for a few minutes almost unable to 
 keep our feet, during a second tremulous shock 
 of the earthquake which had alarmed us. All 
 the travellers in the Karavan Serai instantly 
 hurried out to the court-yard, and a scene of the 
 most ludicrous, though at the same time fearful 
 confusion, ensued, whilst each terrified indivi¬ 
 dual was seeking to secure the safety of his per* 
 
190 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 son or property; but as the motion was not 
 again repeated, their panic quickly subsided. 
 
 A circumstance of this kind need hardly 
 have been unexpected in any quarter of Asia 
 Minor; but we were now in a district of Lydia, 
 which from its liability to convulsions of this 
 nature, and its frequent destruction by the 
 action of subterraneous fires, has obtained the 
 appellation of Kata-ke-kaumene, or ‘‘ the flame 
 destroyed.” Day was nearly breaking ere the 
 requisite discussion of the various feelings of 
 our fellow-travellers had ceased; and as we did 
 not feel inclined to tempt again such treacher¬ 
 ous repose, we ordered our horses, and having 
 given two piastres (the usual gratuity) to the 
 guardian of the khan, we again set out on our 
 march, as the broad disc of the morning sun 
 was swelling above the heights of Messogis. 
 
 The district through which we travelled 
 during the entire course of the day continued 
 highly cultivated, and gracefully shaped; se¬ 
 cluded hamlets seated in the most romantic or 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 191 
 
 delightful retreats ; hills dotted with countless 
 herds of snowy sheep; and glens traversed by 
 babbling streamlets, whose banks were over¬ 
 arched by the hanging branches of myrtles 
 and lentiscus. Hundreds of green glittering 
 lizards lay upon the rocks luxuriating in the 
 sunbeams, and birds of the most brilliant plu¬ 
 mage were perched upon the branches of the 
 olives and wild fig-trees. 
 
 About noon we passed close by an encamp¬ 
 ment of Turcomans, by whom this district, and 
 indeed almost all the secluded or inland por¬ 
 tions of Asia Minor, are annoyingly infested. 
 Without houses or permanent homes, and pos¬ 
 sessing all. the wandering habits of the Arab, 
 they seem to have inherited his predatory and 
 savage propensities, without any combination 
 of his hospitality and distinguishing virtues. 
 The figure of the Turcoman retains all the dull 
 and ungraceful traits of his Tartar origin ; and 
 his habits of sloth and cruelty render him at 
 once an object of disgust and apprehension to 
 
192 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 his peaceable and industrious neighbours. His 
 sole ostensible occupation is the breeding of 
 horses for the service of the adjoining Pacha- 
 lics; whilst, by a singular reversion of taste, 
 his own beasts of burden are his cows and 
 oxen, and his chief diet the flesh of his super¬ 
 annuated horses. Though by no means to be 
 identified with them, the habits of the Turco¬ 
 mans of the present day are precisely those of 
 the wandering hordes of Kedar as described in 
 the books of Old Testament, and their black 
 tents would fully suit the simile of Solomon, 
 I am black but comely, as the tents of Kedar, 
 as the curtains of Solomon.” (Sol. Song, c. i. 
 V. 5.) Whilst their pastoral traffic is in every 
 respect that adverted to by Ezekiel in his de¬ 
 nunciations of destruction against Tyre: Ara¬ 
 bia, and all the princes of Kedar they occupied 
 with thee in lambs and rams and goats; in these 
 were they thy merchants, (Ezek. xxvii. 21.) 
 The whole tribe are the most tasteful connois¬ 
 seurs in arms and sabre blades; and an ill-clad 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 193 
 
 wretch of whom our servant (to bespeak civili¬ 
 ty) asked some unimportant question, wore a 
 handjar, whose hilt was ornamented with a 
 jewel of no ordinary size and brilliancy. 
 
 Like the other individual churches of the 
 sacred Heptarchy of the Apocalypse, the an¬ 
 cient history of Philadelphia, down to the con¬ 
 clusion of the thirteenth century, is contained 
 in a series of devastating wars and ruinous 
 vicissitudes, though its opposition to the esta¬ 
 blishment of the Ottoman empire was more firm 
 and energetic than that of almost any of its 
 contemporaries.^ But its final political over¬ 
 throw was completed by its surrender to Baja- 
 zet in 1391, when the exhaustion of their pro- 
 
 * At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, 
 encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her (Philadelphia’s) 
 valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above 
 fourscore years, and at length capitulated with the proudest 
 of the Ottomans. Among the colonies and churches of Asia, 
 Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of ruins, a 
 pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may 
 sometimes be the same— Gibbon, vol. xi. pp. 437, 438. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 O 
 
194 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 visions obliged the garrison to succumb to the 
 conqueror. Subsequent oppression has dimi¬ 
 nished its impoverished population, and left it, 
 in the widowhood of its greatness, a prey to the 
 overthrow of earthquakes, and the unrestored 
 dilapidations of time. 
 
 In spite, however, of the conspiring efforts 
 of her natural and political enemies, Philadel¬ 
 phia still survives, and when all her sister 
 cities have crumbled to decay, she alone re¬ 
 mains, whether saved by prophecy or by 
 courage;*”* long lines of her shattered walls 
 still stretch along her sloping hills, and the rem- 
 I nants of her Christian temples rise amidst the 
 waving olive-groves which surround the modern 
 representative of the sixth seminary of Chris¬ 
 tianity. Her situation has still many charms 
 to interest her visitor; her widely-scattered 
 buildings, spreading over an eminence at the 
 base of Mount Tmolus, are thrown into the 
 most picturesque- points of view, to which her 
 
 * Gibbon, ibid. 
 
THE iEGE4N. 
 
 195 
 
 minarets and cypresses give the usual charac¬ 
 teristics of Orientalism, whilst the remnants of 
 her churches, and her associations with time 
 and history, confer on her an interest beyond 
 the power of modern incident or adornment 
 to bestow. * 
 
 The number of Christian inhabitants may 
 probably amount to one or two thousand, whose 
 language, however, is chiefly Turkish, though 
 divine service is performed in their original 
 tongue. This superabundant community, and 
 the existence of upwards of twenty churches 
 
 About one mile westward of the city there still exists 
 a portion of the wall once fabled and still believed to have 
 been built by Bajazet Ilderim, with the bones of a Christian 
 community, whom he massacred whilst engaged in the cele¬ 
 bration of their worship in an adjoining church, dedicated 
 to St. John. The first glance of the material used in this 
 erection (which has obtained the name of “ Philadelphian 
 stone”) would seem to countenance the tradition; but on a 
 closer examination it proves to be portions of extraneous 
 substances, principally vegetable, cemented into a congeries, 
 by a calcareous deposit, similar to that at Kuaresborough and 
 other parts of England. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 in the city, have rendered Philadelphia the 
 residence of an Archbishop in preference to 
 Sardis and Laodicea, both which are included 
 in his diocese. The waters of the river Co- 
 gamus, on which the town is built, though 
 now dwindled to a mere brook, still retain their 
 distinguishing qualities so admirably adapted 
 for dyeing; and the tints of the cottons manu¬ 
 factured in Allah-Shehr are esteemed superior 
 to those of any other quarter of the Levant. 
 From their distance from the more frequented 
 portions of Asia, the inhabitants of the city 
 are less impregnated with the vices of society 
 than their commercial neighbours, and the pro¬ 
 duce of their pastoral pursuits is only aug¬ 
 mented by the barter of their trifling manu¬ 
 factures for more luxurious wares, with the 
 caravans which traverse their city on their 
 periodical visits to Iconium and Smyrna. 
 
 On our arrival, after enjoying the luxury of 
 an excellent bath in one of the principal streets, 
 we took up our lodgings in a miserable khan ; 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 197 
 
 and Spiro procured for our supper a quarter 
 of one of the country's sheep, which, with a 
 few additions, afforded an ample repast for the 
 whole party. The following morning, ere start¬ 
 ing for Sardis, we attended early service in the 
 episcopal church, the largest edifice of the kind 
 in the city. 
 
 Its walls were profusely decorated with the 
 paltry paintings, for which the stupidity of the 
 Ikonoclasts has sacrificed all the graces of 
 ancient sculpture, their sottish superstition 
 permitting them to adore the daubings of paint 
 and canvass, whilst they reject the graces of the 
 speaking marble. Smirking madonnas smiled 
 benignantly on the swathed package on their 
 laps, from which protruded the gloried brow 
 of the infant Godhead. St. George, on a charger 
 which might rank with the most ponderous of 
 Meux's carters, valorously slew' for the thou¬ 
 sandth time his writhing dragon, surrounded 
 by the applauding looks of St. Nicholas and a 
 legion of others, whose crimson countenances 
 
198 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 shone brilliantly on the gilded grounds on which 
 they were emblazoned. The doors of the sa¬ 
 cred gate, which in the Greek churches separates 
 the audience from the sanctuary, were covered 
 with plates of embossed silver and pannels of 
 gaudy workmanship; and from behind these 
 resounded in full cry the nasal notes of the 
 bishop and his choristers, in a strain sufficiently 
 barbarous to correspond with the decorations 
 of his temple. 
 
 After breakfasting in a comfortable cafft^ we 
 remounted our steeds, and riding along gar¬ 
 dens, on whose walls and trees were perched 
 myriads of storks and pigeons, we regained the 
 sandy plain, and took the path to Sardis, or 
 Sart, about thirty miles distant to the west¬ 
 ward. As the road lay along a continuous level 
 plain, we gained ground rapidly in spite of the 
 numerous streams which we were forced to 
 pass, and reached Sardis early in the afternoon, 
 having made no delay except halting about 
 
THE yEGEAN. 
 
 199 
 
 mid-day to dine and repose in the shade near 
 a fountain. 
 
 The scenery in this part of the route was 
 equally interesting with that of the day before: 
 on one hand the towering and often snow- 
 crowned heights of Mount Tmolus were glit¬ 
 tering in the sunshine, and on the other the 
 fair level plain stretched away, far as the eye 
 could reach, towards the course of the Hermus. 
 We left numerous villages behind us, but none 
 of any particular moment, save the little mo¬ 
 dern hamlet of Tartar Keuy, which has sprung 
 up within the last twenty years, at about three 
 miles distance from the wreck of Sardis, the 
 remnants of its Christian population having 
 retired hither to seek protection for themselves, 
 and a refuge for the unmolested exercise of 
 their persecuted faith, from which they had 
 been unceasingly prohibited by the tyranny of 
 Kara Osman, or Karasman Oglou.* The little 
 
 * Lately one of the richest landed proprietors of Turkey, 
 
200 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 community now consists of about one hundred 
 members, who maintain for themselves a priest, 
 and contrive to keep in repair the unadorned 
 walls of their primitive church. 
 
 The melancholy city afforded us no other 
 accommodation than the shelter of a mud-wall 
 hut, on the floor of which we spread our car¬ 
 pet, stowed away our luggage, and leaving it 
 
 and governor of the neighbouring district of Magnesia, of 
 which the family have through many generations contrived, 
 by powerful bribes, to retain the Agalic. Mr. Hope, in his 
 Anastasius, (vol. iii. p. 5.) declares him able to “ bring into 
 the field 20,000 sturdy horsemen, as well mounted as armed, 
 for the defence of the empire—or his ownand Lord Byron 
 thus characterises him in “ The Bride of Abydos 
 
 Another and a braver man 
 Was never seen in battle’s van. 
 
 We Moslems reck not much of blood. 
 
 But yet the line of Karasman 
 Unchanged, unchangeable hath stood 
 First of the bold Timariot bands 
 That won and well can keep their lands. 
 
 —Enough that he who comes to woo 
 Is kinsman to the Bey Oglou I 
 
 Ganto 1, Stanza vii. 
 
THE yEGEAN. 
 
 201 
 
 to the care of Spiro, sauntered out to view the 
 ruins of Sardis. A great portion of the ground 
 once occupied by the imperial city is now a 
 smooth grassy plain, browsed over by the sheep 
 of the peasantry, or trodden by the camels of 
 the caravan. An ordinary mosque rears its 
 domes amidst the low dingy dwellings of the 
 modern Sardians ; and all that remains to point 
 out the site of its glory are a few disjointed 
 pillars and the crumbling rock of the Acropolis. 
 
 The first emotion on viewing these miserable 
 relics is, to inquire, “ Can this be Sardis 
 Occasionally, the time-worn capital of a pon¬ 
 derous column, or the sculptured surface of a 
 shattered marble, appear rising above the weeds 
 that overshadow them, incongruous masses of 
 overthrown edifices are uncovered by the plough, 
 or the storied inscription of some hero’s tale is 
 traced upon the slab imbedded in the mud of 
 the cottage-wall; but Sardis possesses no re¬ 
 mains to gladden the prying eye of the tra¬ 
 veller, and no comforts to requite his toilsome 
 
202 
 
 LETTERS FROiM 
 
 wanderings in their search. The walls of its 
 fortress, that bade defiance to the successive 
 arms of Cyrus, Alexander, and the Goths, are 
 now almost level with the surface of the cliff 
 on which they were once proudly reared; the 
 vestiges of the palace of the Lydian kings are 
 too confused to suggest the slightest idea of its 
 form or extent; and the area of the amphi¬ 
 theatre is silent as the voiceless grave. 
 
 About sunset a caravan approached the city 
 from the west; it was composed of a confused 
 team of mules and camels, attended by a crowd 
 of Jews, Greeks, and Armenians : they halted 
 for a short time to refresh their cattle and 
 themselves, and then set out for a halting-place 
 on the road to Allah-Shehr. Their bustle and 
 tumult for a while enlivened the scene; but 
 when they had again hurried on their march, 
 when the last straggling servant of the troop 
 had fallen into the long line of his companions, 
 and the dust of their course grew dim in the 
 distance, the scene resumed its air of solitude. 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 203 
 
 the lazy serfs retired to their abodes of misery, 
 and we walked onwards to survey the ruins of 
 the temple of Cybele. 
 
 These are situated in a small plain on the 
 banks of the Pactolus, at a very short distance 
 from the village; and, though' deeply imbedded 
 in the accumulating soil, present an interesting 
 object to the visitor : two lonely but gigantic 
 columns, and a slight portion of the frieze, are 
 all that is standing ; but these, and the massive 
 fragments strewn around them, serve to indi¬ 
 cate the ponderous dimensions of the entire. 
 Their architecture, which is of the purest Ionic, 
 is generally attributed to the kings of the Ly¬ 
 dian dynasty; but the temple now presents a 
 field for the scientific explorer, rather than a 
 satisfactory object for the picturesque visitant. 
 In us it excited more melancholy than interest; 
 and having proposed to set out early for the 
 Lake Gygaea and the Barrows of Halyattys, 
 we returned to our miserable quarters. We 
 found Spiro busily employed in preparing our 
 
204 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 dinner: he had purchased a kid, which he dis¬ 
 sected so as to preserve the shoulders and solid 
 pieces entire, and the remainder he cut up for 
 pottage. The miserable city contained no pub¬ 
 lic oven, so common in all Oriental towns, and 
 so often referred to in the Bible : but the owner 
 of the hut in which we were lodged supplied 
 him with a substitute; this was a large hollow 
 cone of clay, which he immediately filled with 
 dried herbs, sticks, and grass; and when it was 
 sufficiently heated, he inverted it over the 
 meat, taking care to keep up a moderate heat 
 around it. The other dish he compounded of 
 the chopped kid, onions, oil, and cucumbers ; 
 and, stewing all together, produced really a very 
 savoury mess. This being concluded, and 
 having settled our arrangements for the night, 
 we lay down to rest. 
 
 To sleep, however, was impossible: our 
 earthen lamp was scarcely extinguished when 
 there issued from every quarter such a swarm 
 of vermin as would have defied the efforts of 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 205 
 
 Morpheus himself: it afforded no relief to turn 
 from side to side and fly from one expedient 
 to another ; the room was fizzing with mus- 
 quitoes, and the ground absolutely animate with 
 bugs and other tormenting insects. Through 
 the chinks of the door, however, I could descry 
 the brilliant light of the moon streaming in 
 upon us; and rising I wrapped my cloak around 
 me, and hurried out to enjoy an hour’s respite 
 in the calm air of midnight. 
 
 It would be vain to attempt a description of 
 the splendid scenery of Oriental moonlight. 
 The sky is not, as with us, an ebon concave 
 gemmed with brilliants, but one calm expanse 
 of saddened blue, so soft that it seems to blend 
 with the outline of the silvery moon, and so 
 bright as to form a scarcely distinguished 
 contrast with the twinkling stars. Every object 
 was as distinct as in a northern twilight: the 
 snowy summit of the mountain, the long sweep 
 of the valley, and the flashing current of the 
 river. I strolled along towards the banks of 
 
206 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 the Pactolus, and seated myself by the side of 
 the half-exhausted stream. 
 
 There are few individuals who cannot trace 
 on the map of their memory some moments of 
 overpowering emotion, and some scene which 
 once dwelt upon has become its own painter, 
 and left behind it a memorial which time 
 could not efface. I can readily sympathise 
 with the feelings of him who wept at the base 
 of the Pyramids; nor were my own less pow¬ 
 erful on that night when I sat beneath the sky 
 of Asia, to gaze upon the ruins of Sardis from 
 the banks of the golden-sanded Pactolus. Be¬ 
 side me were the cliffs of that Acropolis, which, 
 centuries before, the hardy Median scaled whilst 
 leading on the conquering Persians, whose tents 
 had covered the very spot on which I was 
 reclining. Before me were the vestiges of what 
 had been the palace of the gorgeous Croesus: 
 within its walls were once congregated the 
 wisest of mankind, Thales, Cleobulus, and So- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 207 
 
 Ion : it was here that the wretched father 
 mourned alone the mangled corse of his be¬ 
 loved Atys; and it was here that the same 
 humiliated monarch wept at the feet of the 
 Persian boy who wrung from him his kingdom. 
 Far in the distance were the gigantic tumuli 
 of the Lydian monarchs, Candaules, and Ha- 
 lyattys, and Gyges; and around them spread 
 those very plains once trodden by the countless 
 hosts of Xerxes, when hurrying on to find a 
 sepulchre at Marathon. 
 
 There were more varied and more vivid re¬ 
 membrances associated with the sight of Sardis 
 than could possibly be attached to any other 
 spot of earth; but all were mingled with a 
 feeling of disgust at the littleness of glory—all, 
 all had passed away ! There were before me 
 the fanes of a dead religion, the tombs of for¬ 
 gotten monarchs, and the palm-tree that waved 
 in the banquet-hall of kings: whilst the feeling 
 of desolation was doubly heightened by the 
 
208 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 calm sweet sky above me, which, in its unfad¬ 
 ing brightness, shone as purely now as when it 
 beamed upon the golden dreams of Croesus. 
 
 I was sentimentalizing most luxuriously on 
 this scene of greatness and decay, when, all at 
 once, a huge shaggy mastiff rushed past me at 
 a lightning pace, and, wheeling in his course, 
 returned to make a most unceremonious scru¬ 
 tiny of my person; not finding me, however, 
 to he the individual he was in search of, he 
 again scampered down the hank of the river, 
 whilst I very speedily put myself in motion 
 towards home. I had no doubt of the beast 
 being the property of some neighbouring Tur¬ 
 coman ; and, as I had no desire to meet the 
 master on the score of the dog’s civility, I was 
 glad to hurry back to my more certain, but 
 less hazardous interviews with the bugs and 
 musquitoes. 
 
 The ensuing day, we crossed the Hermus a 
 few miles from the town, and, in about one 
 hour afterwards, reached the stupendous bar 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 209 
 
 row of Halyattys, which, with about fifty 
 others, of different dimensions, forms the main 
 attraction of the plain of the Hermus. The 
 principal tumulus is about one mile in cir¬ 
 cumference, though scarcely of a proportionate 
 height.* Its summit, however, commands a 
 splendid prospect of the surrounding plain, the 
 
 * One of the barrows on the eminence near the middle, 
 and towards Sardis, is remarkably conspicuous. It is de¬ 
 scribed by Herodotus (lib. 2. 1. 92.) as beyond comparison 
 the greatest work in Lydia. It was the monument of Ha¬ 
 lyattys, the father of Croesus,—a vast mound of earth heaped 
 on a basement of stones, by three classes of people, of whom 
 one were prostitutes. Halyattys died 562 B. C. Above a 
 century intervened, but the historian relates, that to his 
 time, five stones {ovpot termini, or stelae) on which letters 
 were engraved, had remained on the top, recording what each 
 class had performed, and from the measurement it appeared 
 that the greater portion was done by the girls *****, The 
 reader will wonder at the great number of girls who were 
 employed in this work, and will conceive a bad opinion of 
 the morals of the Sardians. The historian relates, it was the 
 custom of the Lydians to permit their daughters to procure 
 their own dovvries, deviating in this from the Greek laws 
 which were established among them. Vide Chandler, 
 pp. 262, 264. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 windings of the river, and the distant hills of 
 Tmolus and Mount Sipylus. Beyond them, 
 on the northern side, is the Lake Gygaea or 
 Coloe, said to have been a work of the Ly¬ 
 dians, and prepared as a receptacle for the 
 floods which annually deluge the plain. 
 
 We were now to bid adieu to Sardis, and, 
 in fact, to forego a portion of the route we 
 had originally chalked out for ourselves; but 
 though our time would have permitted us to 
 visit the remaining two of the Seven Churches,” 
 we had many superior inducements to dissuade 
 us from the journey. In the first place, the 
 unhalting haste with which we had been post¬ 
 ing forward, as well from necessity as appre¬ 
 hension, (and an unwillingness to court ex¬ 
 posure, by remaining longer in any one place 
 than was absolutely necessary, during a period 
 when tumults were frequent in ‘every quarter,) 
 had left us pretty well exhausted both in 
 strength and spirits; and besides, we were 
 well aware that beyond the associations of early 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 211 
 
 Christianity, slight vestiges of which now 
 remain, Pergamos and Thyatira possess few 
 objects of interest, or relics of antiquity ; we 
 therefore determined on returning by the short¬ 
 est road to Smyrna, by Turgutli and the base 
 of Mount Sipylus. 
 
 There cannot possibly be placed on record 
 a more striking example of the literal and 
 circumstantial fulfilment of a prophecy, than 
 the instance of the denunciations directed 
 against the Seven apocalyptic Churches. The 
 later events in the history of the world, the 
 predictions of which profess to be contained 
 in the writings of inspiration, are all cloaked 
 in mystery, or couched in language which is 
 impressive from its very obscurity. Here 
 there is no circuitous style of allegory, and 
 no dark forebodings dealt forth through the 
 involutions of mysticism; the words of the 
 prophet are plain, concise, and equally pal¬ 
 pable in their enunciation and fulfilment. 
 The accomplishment of some was deferred but 
 
212 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 a brief period from the moment of their de¬ 
 claration, whilst the more slow, but equally 
 certain progress of the others is at length 
 completed. 
 
 1. As the chief strong-hold of Christianity 
 in the East, and that centre from whence its 
 rays were most brilliantly disseminated, till 
 “ all they who dwelt in Asia heard the word 
 of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks,”* 
 Ephesus is first addressed by the Evangelist: 
 his charge against her is a declension in reli¬ 
 gious fervour,*I* and his threat in consequence, 
 a total extinction of her ecclesiastical bright¬ 
 ness. J After a protracted struggle with the 
 sword of Rome and the sophism of the Gnos¬ 
 tics, Ephesus at last gave way. The incipient 
 indifference, censured by the warning voice of 
 the Prophet, increased to a total forgetfulness, 
 
 * Acts xix. 10. 
 
 f Nevertheless I have something against thee, because thou 
 hast left thy first love. Rev. ii. 4. 
 
 X 1 will come unto thee quickly, and will remove tliy can¬ 
 dlestick out of its place, unless thou repent. Rev. U. 5. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 213 
 
 till at length the threatenings of the apoca¬ 
 lypse were fulfilled, and Ephesus sunk with 
 the general overthrow of the Greek empire, in 
 the fourteenth century ; preserving no halo of 
 its glory, save the twilight of tradition, and 
 no vestige of Christianity, except the deso¬ 
 lated ruins at Ayasalook.^ 
 
 2. To Smyrna the message of St. John con¬ 
 veys at once a striking instance of the theory 
 I am illustrating, and a powerful lesson to 
 those who would support the shrine of Omni¬ 
 potence by the arm of impotency, and fancy 
 they can soothe the erring soul by the balm 
 of persecution, and correct its delusions by 
 the persuasions of intolerance. To this church 
 is foretold the approach of tribulation, and 
 poverty,-f* and suffering, and imprisonment 
 
 * Vide p. 128. 
 
 t I know thy works, and tribulation and poverty, (but thou 
 art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they 
 are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 
 
 X Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer : be¬ 
 hold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may 
 
214 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 whilst the consequence of their endurance is 
 to add permanency to their faith, and to re¬ 
 ward their triumphs with the crown of im¬ 
 mortality.^ Since the first establishment of 
 Christianity at Smyrna, from the murder of 
 Poly carp, down to the massacre of the Gre¬ 
 cian Patriarch, and the persecutions of to¬ 
 day, the history of Smyrna presents but one 
 continued tale of bloodshed and religious bar¬ 
 barity; the sabre of the Ottoman promptly 
 succeeding to the glaive of the Roman, in 
 firm, but bootless attempts, to overthrow the 
 faith of ‘‘the Nazarene;” but centuries of 
 oppression have rolled over her in vain, and 
 at this moment, with a Christian population 
 of fourteen thousand inhabitants, Smyrna still 
 exists, not only as the chief hold of Christi¬ 
 anity in the East, but the head-quarters from 
 
 be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Rev. ii. 
 9, 10. 
 
 * Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
 of life. Rev. ii. 10. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 215 
 
 whence the successors of the Apostles, in imi¬ 
 tation of their exertions, are daily replanting 
 in Asia those seeds of Christianity which they 
 were the first to disseminate, but which have 
 long since perished during the winter of op¬ 
 pression and barbarism. 
 
 This fact is the more remarkable, since 
 Smyrna is the only community to which perse¬ 
 cution has been foretold, though to others a po¬ 
 litical existence has been promised. It would 
 seem, however, that in their case, ease and 
 tranquillity had produced apathy and decay; 
 whilst, like the humble plant which rises most 
 luxuriantly towards heaven the more closely 
 it is pressed and trodden on, the church of 
 Smyrna, in common with the persecuted tribes 
 of every age and of every clime, has gained 
 strength from each attack of its opposers, and 
 triumphs to-day in its rising splendour, whilst 
 the sun of its oppressors is quickly gliding from 
 twilight to oblivion. 
 
 3. Against Pergamos is adduced the charge 
 
216 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 of instability;* but to its wavering faith is 
 promised the all-powerful counsel of the deity. *[* 
 The errors of Balaam and the Nicolaitanes 
 have been purged away; Pergamos has been 
 preserved from the destroyer, and three thou¬ 
 sand Christians now cherish the rites of their 
 religion in the same spot where it was planted 
 by the hands of St. Paul. 
 
 4. To Thyatira a similar promise has been 
 made, and a similar result ensued. Amidst a 
 horde of infidels, and far removed from inter¬ 
 course with Christendom, the remnant still 
 exists, to whom has been promised the rod of 
 iron ” and the star of the morning.” I 
 
 5. But by far the most remarkable is the 
 catastrophe of Sardis; and the minuteness with 
 which its downfal corresponds with its predic¬ 
 tion cannot fail to strike the most obdurate 
 
 Vide Rev. ii. 14, 15. 
 
 •f- I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against 
 them with the sword of my mouth. Idem, 16. 
 
 X Vide Rev. ii. 26, 27, 28. 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 217 
 
 sceptic. A lengthened accusation of formality 
 in doctrine, and the outward show of religion 
 without its fervour, leads to the announcement. 
 
 I will come on thee as a thief in the night; 
 thou shalt not know what hour I will come 
 upon theebut thou hast a few names even 
 in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, 
 and fhe^ shall walk with me in white, for they 
 are worthy.” * 
 
 It is needless to trace the gradual decay of 
 Sardis. Once the capital not only of Lydia but 
 of Asia Minor, its boasted pre-eminence intel¬ 
 lectually and politically gave the first impulse 
 to its decline. I am not sufficiently versed in 
 theological lore to trace the gradations of its 
 fall; but its overthrow came, like a thief in 
 the night,” during that earthquake, which, in 
 the reign of Tiberius, levelled its proudest 
 compeers with the dust. It did certainly un¬ 
 dergo a temporary and sickly recovery; but it 
 was only to relapse into a more slow but equally 
 
 * Rev. iii.3, 4. 
 
218 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 fatal debasement; and the modem Sart scarcely 
 merits to be called the diist of Sardis. So far 
 for the first clause of the prophecy; and the 
 second is not less striking, if we may consider 
 the little church of Tartar Keuy* as that rem¬ 
 nant who should walk in white.” Such 
 literal instances are seldom to be paralleled. 
 
 6. Philadelphia is the only one of the Seven 
 Churches on whom unqualified praise has been 
 bestowed, and to whom a permanent endurance 
 is foretold."!* Both its physical and political 
 situation would seem to conspire in counter¬ 
 acting the fulfilment of the prediction; earth¬ 
 quakes and subterraneous convulsions on the 
 one hand, and wars and ruinous invasions on 
 the other ; but it still endures, despite of both, 
 and its community, though not the most nu¬ 
 merous, is by far the purest in Asia. 
 
 * Vide p. 199. 
 
 t Thou hast a little strength, thou hast kept my word, and 
 hast not denied my name. Rev. iii. 8. 
 
 . Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of 
 my God, and he shall go no more out. lb. 12. 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 219 
 
 7 . I have already alluded to Laodicea its 
 crime was pride, its punishment desolation. 
 The threatening is accomplished; it now stands 
 rejected of God and deserted by man, its glory 
 a ruin, its name a reproach! 
 
 About mid-day we turned our back upon 
 Sardis, and, pursuing the route to Turgutli, 
 recrossed the broad and turbulent stream of 
 Hermus, and regained the plain. The current 
 of the river was brown and muddy, probably 
 occasioned by the late rains ; but the quantities 
 of mica, and other laminated matter contained 
 in the soil and sand of its banks, frequently 
 formed a glittering object when struck by the 
 sunbeams. The splendour of the latter has 
 probably given rise to the idea of its being 
 ‘‘ golden sanded,” like the Pactolus; whilst 
 this, contrasted with the impurity of its waters, 
 forms the combination alluded to by Martial: 
 
 Non illi satis est turbato sordidus auro 
 Hermus - — L. viii. ep.77. 
 
 * Vide page 177. 
 
220 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 After passing by numerous green barrows 
 which occasionally occur in traversing the plain, 
 together with numerous plantations of vines, 
 olives, and cotton, we arrived at Turgutli about 
 sunset. It is a modern town, more generally 
 known by the name of Cassaba, (which is, in 
 fact, an ordinary appellation for any Turkish 
 village,) and contained nothing very striking 
 except its more than ordinary filth ; the rivulets 
 which traverse it in several directions serving as 
 sinks and receptacles for all manner of unclean¬ 
 ness, instead of contributing to the thorough 
 purification of its streets. Lying in the direct 
 course of the caravans, it is an extraordinary 
 thoroughfare for merchants, who are likewise 
 attracted by the quality of the cotton produced 
 in its vicinity, immense quantities of which are 
 annually forwarded to Smyrna. 
 
 The cause of the utter absence of neatness 
 or cleanliness in Turkish towns may in a great 
 degree be traced to the want of wheel carriages. 
 At present the sure foot of the camel or the 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 221 
 
 mule can traverse the most irregular causeway 
 with security; and, consequently, the dilapi¬ 
 dated passages need no repairing, and the con¬ 
 tented apathy of the Moslemin will endure any 
 annoyance externally which does not interfere 
 with his domestic ease and slothful luxury. 
 
 The same circumstance gives another charac¬ 
 teristic to Oriental towns,—their unbroken 
 silence. During the day no noise disturbs 
 the calm repose of a Turkish chamber : and at 
 morning and sunset, the single voice of the 
 Muezzin is distinctly heard in the utmost ex¬ 
 tremity of the city. We spent the night in a 
 miserable khan, and the following morning 
 were again on horseback for Magnesia, which 
 we reached about four o’clock in the evening, 
 after crossing some tributary streams of the 
 Hermus, and winding beneath the precipitous 
 cliffs of Mount Sipylus, on the northern side of 
 which the town is built. It is still one of the 
 most beautiful cities of Turkey, combining with 
 all the graces of Eastern architecture and plant- 
 
222 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 ings, a splendour of situation almost unrivalled. 
 Though of extreme antiquity,* no remains of 
 interest are now to be found, with the exception 
 of a few columns inserted in the clumsy walls of 
 modern edifices; and the most agreeable asso¬ 
 ciations of its name are those connected with 
 Amurath the Second, to whose munificence Mag¬ 
 nesia is indebted for the greater number of its 
 buildings. Having retired hither on his aban¬ 
 donment of his kingdom in the fifteenth cen- ‘ 
 tury, he devoted the remaining portion of his 
 life and fortunes to the establishment of the 
 city ; and two superb mosques,*f* an hospital, 
 and an asylum for lunatics, attest his munifi- 
 
 * This city is frequently confounded with Magnesia at the 
 Meander, which was allotted to Themistocles. Livy, how¬ 
 ever, accurately marks the distinction. Book xxxvii. chap. 37, 
 
 “ circa Magnesiam quce ad Sipylum est castra posuit,” &c. 
 and in the same book, at the 44th chap, he mentions, “ a 
 Magnesia quae ad Meandrum est, et ab Epheso legati, ad 
 dedendas urbes venerunt.’’ &c. 
 
 t Mosques of royal foundation are distinguished by two or 
 more minarets, whilst those of ordinary erection possess but 
 
 one. 
 
THE tEGEAN. 
 
 223 
 
 cence. It likewise contains the monuments of his 
 wives and children, though his own bones rest 
 at Adrianople, where he expired of a broken 
 heart in 1451. The width of its streets and 
 the whiteness of its buildings, the number of 
 its minarets and the beauty of its prospects, 
 render it altogether the handsomest city of the 
 Levant. A fortress, formerly of vast extent, 
 but now in total ruin, is seated upon a craggy 
 and, in some places, almost perpendicular cliff, 
 which was once celebrated for producing mag¬ 
 nets,” from whence, according to Lucretius, 
 they derive their name: 
 
 ——— Lapis hie ut ferriim ducere possit 
 Quem magneta vocant patrio de nomine Graii 
 Magnetum quia sit, patriis in finibus ortus. 
 
 Lib. vi. V. 608. 
 
 The rock seems still to contain some portions of 
 iron, and from experiments made by Chishull 
 would seem to be composed of strongly magne¬ 
 tic powers,* and the optical phenomenon which 
 
 * This hint gave us the curiosity to carry a sea compass up 
 the hill, when we had the satisfaction to see it point to dif- 
 
224 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 gave rise to the story of the transformation of 
 Niobe is still extant at Mount Sipylus. 
 
 She was changed to stone by Apollo and 
 Diana, for presuming, in her proud affection for 
 her children, to prefer herself to Latona. The 
 existence of her petrified figure on Mount Sipy¬ 
 lus is thus narrated by Homer. (II. «. line 614.) 
 
 NDv ?£ TTOu Iv TrerpnciVy £v ovgeciv o'tvoir6\oia'tv 
 ^E» 2i7rvK<j>j ^aa) S'e^cov ’ififxsvcm £U»af 
 &(r KfJ.<p ’AysKwiov IppwaavTOf 
 EvSa, hBog Trep eoDo'a S'ealv ex x^Stoi Treo'O’ti. 
 
 On this passage the Scholia usually attri¬ 
 buted to Didymus have the following remark. 
 Qpyjvovcrccv ouv tvjv Nio^»)v u(pd.Tai^y to toiovtov dvarv- 
 Zsyj ei$ \ldov jxsTe^aXev, 0 $ xoc) jxsxpt 
 
 vvv iv iBiTTvXep rijf 4>pvyloi^f opocroti TTotpu ntuvTm 
 •nriyac daxpvctiv Trpoiepi^svog. And Pausanias Attic. 
 
 ferent quarters as we then placed it upon different stones, 
 and quickly after entirely to lose its whole virtue,—two 
 effects which are natural to the magnetic needle when injured 
 by the nearness of other bodies impregnated with the same 
 quality.— Chishullj page 10. 
 
THE tEGEAN. 
 
 225 
 
 lib. i. cap. 21, says, that he has actually seen 
 the figure. Ttxvryjv t^v Nio^ijv xu) uuto$ sl8ou 
 e$ Tov '^IttuXov to opog. 'HSe ttKyictIov (J.h 
 
 TTSTpU xca XpSfLVOg h(TTtVy ovhh TTUpOVTi a-^YjlitCi TTU- 
 ps^ofxsvog yuvocixog, ours aKKuog, cure 7rsvdoo<rv]g' si 
 §6 ys TTOppooTspco ysvolo dsdaxpvfjisvyjv do^sig opav xa) 
 XUTYj^Yl yuvuixoi. 
 
 Mr. Chishull, who visited Magnesia, in 1698, 
 mentions that he, too, saw the phenomenon. 
 
 Designing from hence,” says he, (p. 12) for 
 Durguthli, we continue our journey under the 
 foot of Sipylus, which, about two hours from 
 the city, ends in a stupendous precipice, consist¬ 
 ing of a naked massy stone, and rising perpen¬ 
 dicularly about a furlong high. It was not a 
 little surprising, as we rode along under the foot 
 of this hill, to observe a certain cliff of the rock 
 representing an exact niche and statue, with 
 the due shape and proportion of an human 
 body; for Sipylus being the seat of the trans¬ 
 formation of the unhappy Niobe, there was 
 ground for imagining that we had either met 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 with her statue, or with that which was the first 
 occasion of the fable,” &c. &c. Chishull goes 
 on to suppose it a work of art, but a more 
 scientific and natural explanation is aflPorded by 
 Dr. Chandler, who passed over the same route 
 some sixty or seventy years after him. “ The 
 phantom,^'' says the Dr. may he defined an 
 effect of a certain portion of light and shade^ on 
 a part of Sipylus perceivable at a particular 
 point of view. The traveller who shall visit 
 Magnesia after this information, is requested to 
 observe carefully a steep and remarkable cliff, 
 about a mile from the town, varying his dis¬ 
 tance while the sun and shade, which come 
 gradually on, pass over it,—I have reason to 
 believe he will see Niobe.” 
 
 May there not be the same combination of 
 optical phenomena in this instance, as in that 
 which produces the spectre of the Broken in 
 Germany ? The origin of the sublime reply of 
 Zebul to Gaal may likewise be referred to tlie 
 same cause. And when Gaal saw the people, 
 
THE yEGEAN. 
 
 227 
 
 he said unto Zebul, Behold there come people 
 down from the top of the mountains; and 
 Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the shadows 
 of the mountains as if they were men.” 
 (Judges, ix. V. 36.) 
 
 Having passed the night in a Karavan Serai, 
 we set out for Smyrna the following morning 
 with the party of Mr. Thomson, an English 
 gentleman, returning from Bergamo and Ai- 
 vali, who had joined us the night before. After 
 leaving the plain of the Hermus to the right, 
 we commenced the ascent of Mount Sipylus, 
 the summit of which we attained about noon; 
 a rapid descent now brought us to the village 
 and plain of Hadjilar; in two hours from which 
 we again reached Smyrna, hailed the British 
 flag which floated above our Consulate, and 
 took possession of our quarters at the locanda 
 on the beach. 
 
228 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER yil. 
 
 Omnia quse nunc vetustissima creduntur nova fuere, et 
 quod hodie exempla tuemur inter exempla erit. Tacitus. 
 
 PHOCGEA, PATMOS, SIME, &c. 
 
 Affected exterior poverty of the Smyrniot Greeks. —Turk¬ 
 ish love of Comfort.—-Treatment of their Women.—Beauty 
 of Turkish Women.— Story of a Turkish Lady at Na¬ 
 poli Di Romania. —Opinion of Dr. Clarke of Smyrna.— 
 M. Fauvel, the former French Consul at Athens.—A 
 Turkish Regiment.—Punishment for passing forged Money. 
 —Fete on board the Cambrian. —Manufactory of base 
 Money at Hydra and Spezzia (note).—Diplomatic Phrases 
 of a Consul.—An Emir. 
 
 The accounts which we are accustomed to 
 hear in Europe of the luxury and commercial 
 wealth of the Smyrniots, would scarcely ap- 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 229 
 
 pear credible, were we to connect them with 
 the external poverty of their dwellings, so uni¬ 
 versal throughout their city, as well in the re¬ 
 sidences of the Greeks as the Moslemin. The 
 tottering staircase which leads to the most gor¬ 
 geous apartments, is often approached through 
 a stable, into which the ground-floor of the 
 mansion has been converted; and mud-walled 
 houses, supported by transverse beams of tim¬ 
 ber, not unfrequently inclose chambers, whose 
 gilded cornices, carved ceilings, tinted windows, 
 and splendid furniture, realize all we have read 
 of Oriental grandeur. 
 
 But beneath this sordid exterior, the as¬ 
 siduous merchant is forced, by the galling des¬ 
 potism of his capricious masters, to conceal 
 the produce of his toils, and to enjoy, in anx¬ 
 ious privacy, the dearly-purchased fruits of se¬ 
 dulous industry. From the influence of such 
 oppression, selfishness becomes a leading trait 
 of national character : the slave soon finds that 
 
230 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 the circle of his own home must be the orbit 
 of the world to him; all beyond it are but 
 tyrants or betrayers ; his happiness is secure 
 only while it blooms, like the flower of the 
 desert, unknown and unenvied ; and concealed 
 possession is his only security for his wealth, in 
 a land where rapacity has rendered ‘‘ mine” 
 and thine” at best but words of dubious im¬ 
 port, which become synonymous on the slightest 
 contact with a rival or a ruler. 
 
 With the Turks we had but little domestic 
 intercourse; but when we were admitted to 
 their houses, which was merely upon two oc¬ 
 casions, our reception varied in no degree from 
 that to which we had been accustomed through¬ 
 out the Levant, saving once, when the pipe 
 with which we were presented, was the cool 
 narghile, (in which the smoke passes through a 
 vase of water,) instead of the amber-mouthed 
 chibouque; and on all occasions the salver 
 containing coffee and sweetmeats was handed 
 round by an Arab or a Nubian slave, in lieu 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 231 
 
 of the female, by whom we had been waited on 
 when visiting a house in the Archipelago. 
 
 The disregard for external show, farther than 
 a splendid personal appearance, and the total 
 want of public amusement, serve to render the 
 life of a Turk much more domestically happy 
 than might be anticipated from the obvious 
 blank in society occasioned by the degraded 
 education and servile habits" of the female mem¬ 
 bers of his family. The greater portion of his 
 life being spent within his own apartments, and 
 his enjoyments at once emanating from and 
 centering in his home, that attention is solely 
 devoted to the culture of private comfort, 
 which, under any other state of society, would 
 be wasted on public ostentation. 
 
 My opportunities of observation were by far 
 too confined to judge of the truth or falsehood 
 of those reports which alternately condemn and 
 palliate the conduct of the Moslemin with re¬ 
 gard to their women ; but one fact I have had 
 frequent occasion to remark whilst exploring 
 
232 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 the modern ruins of Tripolizza, Athens, and 
 Napoli di Romania, that in all the deserted 
 Turkish houses, the haram and other quarters 
 for the residence of the women, were invariably 
 the most sumptuous in their decorations, whilst 
 the remaining apartments were fitted up in 
 ordinary style, but slight attention, compara¬ 
 tively speaking, being paid to the comforts or 
 convenience of the men. This, however, is a 
 point on which,it must require a very long and 
 intimate acquaintance with the country to fur¬ 
 nish data for a decided opinion : as there are 
 very few Europeans indeed who ever catch a 
 casual glance of the features of a Turkish 
 female, much less have an opportunity of ob¬ 
 serving her domestic usages; and our only con¬ 
 jectures must therefore be from superficial hints. 
 
 As to their confinement to their own apart¬ 
 ments, I should think the discipline cannot be 
 severe, as crowds of them are to be daily en¬ 
 countered in the bazaars, where their chat¬ 
 tering and mirth give but slight indication 
 
THE AEGEAN. 
 
 233 
 
 of melancholy or restraint. Beyond this, all 
 means of information must be slight and unsa¬ 
 tisfactory. 
 
 As to their general personal appearance, we 
 could form no idea, their faces being invariably 
 covered with crape, two apertures in which are 
 made for their eyes, and their figures loosely 
 enveloped in their ungraceful garments, so as 
 to conceal every trace either of awkwardness 
 or symmetry. In the Morea I had frequently 
 seen some of those wretched beings who had 
 been carried off from the towns which had fallen 
 into the hands of the Greeks, and were merely 
 rescued from massacre to be reserved for in¬ 
 famy ; but amongst these I never saw a Turk¬ 
 ish lady who had any pretensions to beauty, 
 with, perhaps, one solitary exception, which 
 occurred in Napoli di Romania. 
 
 I was returning one evening to my quarters, 
 when, in one of the most populous streets, I 
 met a mob of boys and a few barbarous sol¬ 
 diers, who were following the steps of one of 
 
234 
 
 LETTERS FROM. 
 
 the most melancholy but majestic females I have 
 ever seen. She was much above the common 
 stature, and her dress, though plain, was grace¬ 
 fully arranged. On enquiry, I found that she 
 was the wife of a Turkish Effendi, who had 
 formerly resided within about a mile of Napoli, 
 but had fallen beneath the knives of the in¬ 
 surgents two years before. She had been res¬ 
 cued by the singular being who lately filled 
 the office of Minister of the Interior, Pappa 
 Flescia, and had resided with her child in his 
 family up to the present time., Two days 
 before, however, she had learned that her un¬ 
 fortunate protector had been killed by the 
 troops of Ibrahim Pacha whilst besieging the 
 town of Arcadia on the Western coast; and, 
 conscious that her asylum was no longer secure, 
 she made her escape by the gates, and flew to 
 conceal herself amidst the grass-grown remains 
 of what had been her residence in happier days. 
 A monk, however, who had the guardianship 
 of an adjoining chapel, had already taken up 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 235 
 
 his abode in its desolated chambers; and, im¬ 
 patient of any intruder, he drove her out even 
 from the ruins of her home. 
 
 Aware that the country could afford her 
 neither concealment nor subsistence, she was 
 again obliged to return to the city, and cast 
 herself upon the mercy of her enemies. She 
 entered that gate, homeless and forlorn, which 
 she had once been wont to pass amidst down¬ 
 cast eyes and bending turbans. Her appear¬ 
 ance soon attracted notice, and collected round 
 her the brutal mob which I have mentioned. 
 She passed along, however, as if unmindful of 
 her woes: in one hand she held the arm of 
 her terrified child, and the other was grace¬ 
 fully bent across her breast, whilst her large 
 dark eyes were sadly turned on Heaven, nor 
 once bent upon the crowd around her. She 
 moved along with the step of a Juno, whilst 
 the indignities of her tormentors proceeded 
 from words to screams, and flinging dust upon 
 her person. 
 
236 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 At length, overcome with apprehension and 
 fatigue, she seated herself by the door of a 
 ruined mosque, apparently in all the calm ab¬ 
 straction of despair. At that moment a mem¬ 
 ber of the Senate, Tricoupi, I think, came 
 up, and perceiving the inhumanity of the 
 crowd, immediately remonstrated with them 
 on their self-debasement, and giving her his 
 arm, accompanied her to his own house; 
 from whence I understood she was afterwards 
 conveyed in an English vessel to her friends 
 at Smyrna. 
 
 She was beyond comparison the most ele¬ 
 gant female of her nation I have ever seen ; 
 and I have reason to think such beauty by 
 no means usual in Turkey. In fact. Dr. 
 Clarke, an intelligent Scotch physician, resi¬ 
 dent at Smyrna, and highly in repute from 
 his knowledge of the epidemics peculiar to 
 the Levant, informed me, that though in the 
 habit of being called in to visit the families 
 of the most wealthy of the Turkish residents. 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 237 
 
 he had never, in the course of several years" 
 constant practice, seen more than six or seven 
 ladies, who could at all compare with the 
 average of English beauty. 
 
 A few days before our departure from 
 
 Smyrna, Mr. B-, an English merchant, 
 
 and possessor of a valuable collection of an¬ 
 tiques, did us the honour of an introduction 
 to M. Fauvel, the French Consul of Athens, 
 so honourably alluded to by Lord Byron a 
 gentleman no less distinguished by his valu¬ 
 able archaeological discoveries than by the effi¬ 
 cient and often gratefully-acknowledged ser¬ 
 vices which he has had it in his power to 
 render to artists visiting Attica. 
 
 At the commencement of the Greek Revolu¬ 
 tion, Mons. F- had been forty years resi¬ 
 
 dent at Athens, when that event compelled 
 him to abandon his home, and leave behind 
 him a collection of antiquities which had been 
 the accumulation of a life-time, and which 
 
 * See Notes to “ Childe Harold,” Canto II. 
 
238 
 
 J^ETTERS FROM 
 
 have been now, most probably, destroyed by 
 the carelessness of the Greeks or the barbarity 
 of their besiegers. His mind, however, is still 
 lingering in its accustomed habits, and his 
 hands are busied in their wonted occupation; 
 for at the feeble age of eighty-five, he is sedu¬ 
 lously employed in the completion of a wax 
 model of the Acropolis, the city, and its en¬ 
 virons, which will be as unique in point of de¬ 
 sign as accurate in execution. 
 
 During several visits which we paid him, his 
 only theme was his beloved Athens; and he 
 seemed to enjoy an ecstatic pleasure in sitting 
 for hours together to talk over the days he 
 had spent in poring among its ruins, whilst 
 every creature who had visited the spot, was 
 received by him with the same cordial affec¬ 
 tion with which a devout Mahommedan looks 
 upon him who has made the sacred pilgrimage 
 to Mecca. 
 
 One day, on returning from his house, we 
 were obliged to halt in one of the narrow streets ' 
 
THE ^GEAN. 
 
 239 
 
 near the Bazaar, the centre of which was com¬ 
 pletely blocked up by a team of camels, which 
 had crouched down upon their knees in order 
 to be unloaded by their drivers. Whilst stand¬ 
 ing in the door of an adjoining bath, a pro¬ 
 cession passed down another street at a little 
 distance, which, from its uncouth appearance, 
 we were for some time at a loss to account for. 
 It proved, however, to be a Turkish regiment, 
 preceded by a military band. The latter con¬ 
 sisted of about half-a-dozen fantastic wretches 
 sounding little kettle drums, which they struck 
 with pieces of some elastic substance, appa¬ 
 rently raw hide, or very thick leather, with no 
 other design than to elicit a discordant noise; 
 and as many more, sounding instruments some¬ 
 thing like clarionets, but without the slightest 
 pretensions to tune, time, or measure in their 
 modulation. The troop had no uniformity of 
 step, dress, or arms, and their straggling gait 
 would have excited a smile from any spectator 
 accustomed to the march of European mili¬ 
 tary. 
 
240 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 The street was now cleared of the camels, 
 and we were pursuing our route towards home, 
 when, close by the entrance to the Bazaar, we 
 saw a crowd of children gathered round a man 
 who lay apparently in a most singular position, 
 stretched on his face upon the ground, whilst 
 his head was brought out between his legs 
 behind him. On coming a little nearer, we 
 found it was the body of a Greek, who had 
 been beheaded about an hour before, and* his 
 carcase placed as I have described, for a salu¬ 
 tary warning to his associates. 
 
 He had been detected, along with two others, 
 in an attempt to pass false money in the Ba¬ 
 zaar ; in which case, with a Giaour, the course 
 of justice is very rapid, as the criminal is de¬ 
 capitated on the spot, without the form, or 
 rather the delay of an investigation. The little 
 urchins, who now stood around him, seemed 
 highly delighted with the spectacle; they kept 
 screaming, and chattering, and touching him 
 with their feet, till one, having smeared the 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 241 
 
 face of another with a stick clipped in the blood, 
 which was still oozing from the Wretch’s neck, 
 flew off* convulsed with laughter to the Bazaar, 
 where he was followed by the whole party in 
 full cry, who seemed marvellously delighted 
 with the exploit.^ 
 
 On resolving to leave Smyrna, we engaged 
 a passage to Castelorizo on board a small brig, 
 the Madonna de Tunisa, commanded by a 
 Greek, called Panagies Androcopoulo, and sail¬ 
 ing under the Ionian flag. His real destination 
 
 * At Hydra and Spezzia there exist regular manufactories 
 of false money to the number of twenty or thirty, not only 
 unprohibited, but absolutely supported by members of the 
 government; the money, consisting of imitations of Spanish 
 dollars, as well as paras and all the coins of the T\irkish 
 empire, being disposed of as a fair matter of traffic to the 
 Maltese and lonians, who carry it to Egypt and Turkey for 
 a second sale or surreptitious circulation by their own agents. 
 The Greeks defend this species of commerce on two grounds ; 
 first, that it is always fair to cheat an enemy ; and secondly, 
 the pieces circulating freely with them, as false money at a 
 reduced rate, thence become a national coin, which they 
 have every right to strike for their own use. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 was Beirout in Syria, and his cargo a quantity 
 of nuts and dried hides, the property of, and 
 consigned to Turkish merchants there. But 
 as both the vessel and cargo were thus liable 
 to be seized by the Greek cruizers, his papers 
 were made out for Cyprus, and his bills of 
 lading contained merely the names of European 
 factors. 
 
 The evening before we sailed we spent at 
 a ball given on board an English Frigate, 
 at which were assembled the greater number 
 of the British residents at Smyrna. The 
 band of the frigate was placed amid-ships. 
 Almost the entire of the crew were, like 
 their gallant commander. Irishmen; and it 
 was rather an exhilarating spectacle to see 
 two or three hundred hardy fellows dancing, 
 (or, as they term it, “ footing itthat is, 
 audibly beating time with their feet, as well 
 as observing the motions of the dance) to the 
 national airs of their country in one of the 
 
THE iEGEAN. 
 
 243 
 
 loveliest bays of. Asia Minor. A few Turks 
 who were on board seemed highly amused with 
 a performance, the robust activity of which so 
 far excelled any exercise to which they had 
 been accustomed, and testified their delight 
 with frequent bursts of most unoriental 
 laughter.” 
 
 The ensuing day, having got our bills of 
 health signed, specifying not only our own bo¬ 
 dily convalescence, but the temporary freedom 
 from infectious disorders at Smyrna, the Con¬ 
 sul furnished us with passports indited with 
 regal pomposity, and commencing with—“ We 
 Francis Wherry, &c. &c. &c. Given from under 
 our hand,” and so forth. Our vessel was lying 
 in the offing at some distance from the beach. 
 A wretch of most squalid appearance, but whose 
 turban of sacred green” bespoke him an 
 Emir, and a lineal descendant of the Prophet, 
 carried down our luggage to the marino; and 
 having rewarded the offspring of Mahomet with 
 
244 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE iEGEAN. 
 
 a piastre, we pushed off from the shore, and 
 bade farewell to ‘‘ Izmir the lovely* 
 
 * Izmir, the Turkish name for Smyrna, is (like many 
 others similar) a corruption of “ elg rr\v as Stam- 
 
 boul or Constantinople is “el? ttoA/v,” Negropont, 
 **elg T^v Ev^/tto,” (or, as the Greeks pronounce it, Evripo,) 
 &c. &c. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street. 
 
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