remnants of a circus. We crossed right through Constantinople, by numerous winding disgusting streets, bordered by the meanest houses and tottering decayed wooden habitations, to the shores of the harbor. Our cicerone meeting with a friend, went to have a puff at his pipe as we passed along, and I flung a stick at a dog that rushed at me from a butcher's shop, and knocked him head over heels, to the great indignation of the Turks. We took boat at the Golden Horn and crossed over to Gálata. The shipping that one sees in the harbor, is at first sight calculated to give one a favorable idea of the commerce of Constantinople; but these ships have no connection with the prosperity of the place. The commodities that are exchanged come from distant countries, and do not awaken the industry of the native cultivators; the productions of Poland, the Ukraine, Russia, and Siberia are here exchanged for the cutlery, cloth, tin, watches, and glass-ware from England, the silks of France, and the linen of Germany; the commerce is sustained by foreigners, and the Turks derive little advantage from their enterprise and industry. The rambler in the streets and lanes of Galata and Constantinople near the waterside must keep, according to the proverb, "all his eyes about him," or he runs a shrewd chance of losing one or both of them. Porters with long strips of wood and quivering bars of iron pass and repass through the dark thoroughfares, looking neither to the right nor the left-they come on at a sort of run, and if, as is often the case, any accident occur, there is neither redress nor pity. Nearly the whole breadth of the narrow lane is sometimes occupied with crowds of these men, bearing along large wooden packages, or immense casks of mer.chandise slung on elastic poles, and carried on the shoulders of twelve or sixteeen at a time. Let the passer by, then, keep his wits about him, or he will find himself knocked into the mire or trodden under foot. "It is fate it is thé will of God," cry the porters, and trot on with their load. "Fatis agimur: cedite fatis; Quidquid facimus, venit ex alto, Omnia certo tramite vadunt, Primusque dies dedit extremum."--SENECA. It is all fate with the Turk; and his present condition and prospects-his character reckless, ignorant, and besotted; his kingdom impoverished, decayed, and dismembered; show to what a point of ruin this fatal doctrine is leading him; it promotes but one virtue, and that of a very questionable quality-it gives courage in the field of battle, but it is the brute courage of indifference-it leads him not to face danger, but to forget it, like opium before amputation. He carries into private life the same absurd creed, and fate renders him indifferent to every thing to education and to improvement. He spends his lazy days on a divansilent, and thoughtless, and puffing smoke. He has no energy, and indeed no impulses to action; he dares not aspire to distinction, for there is danger in it; his head and his property are the Sultan's and not his own; the laws by which he is governed are made or changed by the same master. If he has property, he conceals it for fear of robbery; for the Sultan and all his officers are robbers of different grades-from the great Vizier to the petty village Aga. But the Sultan, say his admirers, has effected a multiplicity of reforms, and bettered the character and condition of the people. His highness has indeed set up a "Moniteur Ottoman," lying in Greek, Turkish, and French; he has built barracks which catch strangers' eyes, and changed for jackets and caps the turbans and caftans of his troops. "The Sultan has civilised these Turks," said a European to me; they are beginning to drink wine." I cannot test the character of these reforms, which seem to bring the evils of European life without its good, the dross without the ore, better than by my honest friend's criterion of civilisation. 66 CHAPTER XI. DEPARTURE.-PRINCE'S ISLANDS.-MONDANIA.-PRUSA. MOUNT OLYMPUS.-NICE.-MONHALLICK.-SOUSGOURLE. BALIKESER.— KELEMBEH.-THYATIRA.-LYDIA.—SARDIS. -PHILADELPHIA.-MAGNESIA. Jamque dies auræque vocant: rursusque capessunt JUNE 20th. The bright sun shone in a clear unclouded sky when we embarked in a small boat on the Bosphorus, with a fine fresh favorable breeze for the Prince's Isles and the coast of Bithynia. Some of the happiest hours of my life have been passed at Constantinople in the contemplation of its lovely scenery, and in making the delightful excursions that its environs afford. They pointed out to us Cadykeui, the site of ancient Chalcedon, "the city of the blind," and the scene of the great Ecclesiastical Council, on a rising ground to the left; but our attention was solely occupied by the fast fading minarets, domes, and crescents, and with the indulgence of those feelings which the last view of a spot where you have spent many a happy day, and which you are never likely to see again, is always calculated to awaken. In four hours we were off the Prince's Islands, the largest of which is called Boyook Addah, or Great Island, by the Turks; four of them only are inhabited, Prinkipos, Chalke, Antigone, and Protos, the others are mere rocks. The inhabitants are nearly all Greeks; and one or two Greek monasteries, in commanding situations, have a picturesque appearance. From the Prince's Islands to Kiose the port of Mondania, six hours are generally occupied with a fair wind. The shore is picturesque, ending in abrupt capes and wooded slopes. From Kiose to Brusa, the ancient Prusa, founded, according to Pliny, by Hannibal, and, according to Strabo, by Prusias, who was contemporary with Croesus, is a ride of about five hours; the charge for horses and mules is 15 piastres, or 38. 6d. apiece. The scenery was rendered grand and striking by the lofty range of Mount Olympus rearing its rugged peaks, still covered with a slight coating of snow on the very top. One hour from Kiose we arrived at Mondania, a considerable town, containing several mosques, and a population of some thousands. Beyond Mondania the scenery is most beautiful. From an eminence a fine view is obtained of the sea of Marmora, the island of Kalolinino, and the gulf, running up to Khenleh. Approaching Prusa, the valley is thickly clothed with mulberry trees, over the green foliage of which are seen the distant minarets of the town, and behind them towers the loftiest summit of Mount Olympus. It is a delightful spot in summer, and much resorted to for its warm baths. The numerous trees and fountains produce a refreshing coolness during the great heat. The valley is from ten to twelve miles long by one broad, presenting a forest of mulberry trees, which nourish the silk-worms, for which Prusa is so celebrated all over the East. On a rocky and picturesque eminence above the town stands the castle near which is an old church, adorned with marble and paved with Mosaic work; here Orcan, the son of Othman, the conqueror of Prusa, is said to be buried. To him Gibbon thus alludes: "From the conquest of Prusa we may date the true era of the Ottoman empire: the city by the labors of Orchan assumed the aspect of a Mahommedan capital; Prusa was decorated with a mosque, a college, and a hospital of royal foundation; the Seljukian coin was changed for the name and impression of the new dynasty, and the most skilful possessors of human and divine knowledge, attracted the Persian and Arabian students, from the ancient schools of oriental learning.' From that time, until the conquest of Adrianople, it remained the capital of the Ottoman empire, and the residence of the Sultans. Here is the tomb of Amurath, covered with his soldier's cloak, three lances, and three horses' tails, the tombs of his children, and a tomb, said to be that of Osman. It is said to boast of near 100 mosques, four Greek churches, and a Greek bishop; numerous spacious natural warm baths invite invalids from all quarters, and in one of these baths is a great prodigy, a natural spring of hot and of cold water in the same room. The waters VOL. I.-15 being sulphureous, are drunk as well as bathed in. Near our sleeping place was one of these luxurious baths of warm water, into which we could plunge of a morning before dressing. To the summit of mount Olympus, is ten hours. On it is a monastery dedicated to the seven sleepers, who have been located here as well as in fifty other places. The first part of the ascent is covered with chestnut and dwarf oak, then succeed various kinds of fir, dwarf shrubs, and juniper trees; and lastly, bare granite rocks. The view is described as very sublime and very extensive; the eye ranging over the sea of Marmora to Constantinople, and embracing numerous lakes, and the vast mountain ranges of Anatolia. From Prusa to Nicæa, or Nice, the birth-place of Hipparchus, and the ancient capital of Bithynia, built by Antigonus, is twelve hours; the ancient walls, towers, and gates still remain in a remarkable state of preservation, formed of alternate courses of stones and Roman tiles, and a few ruined buildings and mosques, constructed of marble fragments of the ancient city, on the borders of the lake Ascanius, present a melancholy scene of solitude and decay. Four hours from the, lake, is an obelisk described by Pocock. Nice was conquered by Sultan Soliman, became the seat of the Seljukian dynasty, and "the divinity of Christ, was derided and denied in the same temple in which it had been pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics."* It was retaken by the tumultuous crowds of the first crusaders, who captured but generously restored the Sultana and principal servants of Soliman, but it soon reverted to the Turks, and has since been called Ismid. June 23d.-From Prusa to Monhallick, seven hours. We emerged from the wooded valley of Prusa, retraced our steps through Mondania, and turning to the westward, entered an uncultivated and solitary country. The road was mountainous and difficult, and the rocky hills were covered with dwarf shrubs and plants, and sweetly smelling wild thyme. There was a wildness about the country, and an air among the few people we met with, more savage and uncivilised than any thing I had hitherto seen. A few armed horsemen, and a string of mules or donkeys loaded with packages, were the only living objects we encountered during the ride. We passed through a miserable village of * Gibbon. |