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RECORDS OF TRAVELS 
 
 IN 
 
 TURKEY, GREECE, 
 
 AND OF A CRUISE IN THE BLACK SEA 
 
 WITH 
 
 THE CAPITAN PACHA. 
 
 BY 
 
 CAPT. ADOLPHUS SLADE, R.N., F.R.A.S. 
 
 ^tomtral in tfje Eutfusfj Jleet, 
 
 (muchaver pacha.) 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 
 1854 . 
 
4 
 
 ' 
 
7 S', 20 V) 
 
 \\5V\ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE NEW EDITION. 
 
 <-< The intense interest excited by the events now occurring in 
 \ the East, and with which the honour of England is inseparably 
 bound up, coupled with the absence of any book which affords 
 detailed information upon the relative strength of the prin- 
 cipals in the struggle, or upon the seat of war on the Danube 
 and in the Black Sea, suggests the re-issue of a work, which, 
 upon its first appearance, attracted considerable attention in 
 respect of its observations on these very topics, and of which it- 
 is now difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a copy. The high 
 and responsible position which the author now holds in the 
 Ottoman Navy gives an interest and a value to opinions 
 
 at a period when the attainment of such a position 
 could hardly have been contemplated. The opportunities 
 
 which he possessed of making himself fully acquainted with the 
 subject upon which he was writing, were unusually favourable, 
 md long habits of observation produced by an active pro- 
 fessional life, joined to a perfect knowledge of the Turkish lan- 
 ^ guage, acquired during a protracted residence in the East, enabled 
 ^ him to turn those opportunities to the best advantage. The 
 
IV 
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 work was written at a time when Turkey lay prostrate at the 
 feet of Eussia. The Crescent had indeed paled before the 
 Cross. The Danube had been bridged, Varna had been 
 betrayed, the Balkans were passed, and a humiliating peace 
 had been dictated and accepted under the walls of Adrianople. 
 
 These events, however, had occurred shortly after the de- 
 plorable mischance at Navarino, and at a time when the then 
 Sultan, Mahmoud, after destroying the Janizzaries, had neither 
 fully organized nor disciplined the Nizam Djeddit. The 
 defeat of the Turkish armies, and the discouragement of their 
 fleet, were events at such a time equally to he expected. Hence 
 the opinions which the author then formed of the morale and 
 courage of the Ottoman forces. It will he seen, however, from 
 a perusal of the work, that Turkey even then, in that hour 
 of deep humiliation and despondency, had in her fleet and in 
 her army officers of high talent and devoted courage ; and the 
 sad hut glorious fate of those who perished in the slaughter 
 at Sinope, has shown to the world that she still possesses 
 men with hearts as brave, and swords as devoted, as those 
 who followed Cara Mustapha to the walls of Vienna. 
 
 It has long been the fashion to despair of Turkey and her 
 destiny. The author himself at one time somewhat shared in 
 that opinion. But Turkey has been in worse straits than she 
 even is at present, and yet has roused herself and re-established 
 her position. , At the close of the 17th century all seemed lost: 
 to use the author’s own words in a work published in 1837,* 
 “ Cornaro had taken Dalmatia, Morosini had possessed himself 
 of the Morea, the Duke of Lorraine had defeated two armies in 
 Hungary, and the Poles had ravished Moldavia, while a revolt 
 
 * “ Turkey, Greece, and Malta.” By Adolphus Slade, Esq., R.N. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 V 
 
 of the Janizzaries, ending in the dethronement of Mahmoud 
 the Fourth, crowned the whole — deeming then that the hour 
 had arrived for ejecting the Ottomans from Europe, the Em- 
 peror Leopold refused to listen to any terms of accommodation 
 unless preceded hy the entire cession, on the part of Turkey, of 
 Sclavonia, Croatia, Bosnia, Servia and Bulgaria to Austria ; of 
 Moldavia, Wallachia and part of the Crimean Tartary to 
 Poland ; of the Morea, the Negropont, and part of Dalmatia to 
 Venice. Thus was Turkey in 1687. In the following year 
 the Imperialists captured Nissa, Widdin and Orsova, and 
 obliged the Sultan to flee in haste from Sophia. Eighteen months 
 after, Kiuprili, Turkish Grand Vizier, son and' grand- son of two 
 celebrated Grand Viziers, retook these places, replanted the 
 Crescent in Belgrade, and after defeating Veterain in a pitched 
 battle, returned in triumph to Adrianople.” Such was the 
 elasticity of the Ottoman Empire when driven to rely upon 
 its resources against numerous foes ; what may we not expect 
 from it when menaced hy a single enemy, and assisted hy the 
 co-operative navies of two great Powers; above all, when it is 
 supported hy the unanimous sympathy and public opinion of 
 Europe ? 
 
 F. W. S. 
 
 London, January 18 th, 1854. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The Turkish Empire is as interesting, now that it is crumbling 
 to pieces, as it was in the 16th century, when a Tartar could 
 ride with the sultan’s firman, respected all the way, from the 
 banks of the Volga to the confines of Morocco — when its 
 armies threatened Vienna, and its fleets ravaged the coasts of 
 Italy. It then excited the fears of civilized Europe ; it now 
 excites its cupidity. 
 
 Having passed through France and part of Italy, touched 
 at some of the Grecian isles, the author reached Constanti- 
 nople in May, 1829, at the time when the second campaign, 
 between the emperor and the sultan, was commencing. Acci- 
 dent procured him the acquaintance of the Capitan Pasha, 
 with whom he cruized in the Black Sea. This at once gave 
 him opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the manners 
 and opinions of the Osmanleys, which a much longer residence 
 in the country otherwise might not have afforded him. 
 
 Sultan Mahmoud II. was then in the zenith of his fame: 
 because he had not been conquered in 1828, it was concluded 
 that he would be equally successful in 1829; and such an 
 
V1U 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 exhibition of strength, such a fecundity of resources (gratui- 
 tously allowed), as enabled him to resist the Russian forces — 
 coming, too, so immediately after the disasters respecting 
 Greece, which had befallen the empire — appeared extraordi- 
 nary, only to be accounted for by an unusual cause ; which 
 cause was supposed to be the reform which the sultan had 
 introduced. And so difficult is it to persuade oneself that 
 reform can be otherwise than beneficial, that even on the most 
 humiliating reverses befalling the sultan’s arms — when the 
 Russian army was at Adrianople, its Cossacks within twenty 
 hours’ march of the capital, parts of Asia Minor in revolt, 
 Albania and Bosnia assuming hostile attitudes, the streets of 
 Constantinople streaming with blood — even then, though it 
 was generally allowed by Franks that some part of the machine 
 was unusually out of order, still few could bring themselves 
 to blame reform. 
 
 The Osmanleys, however, never having seen reform under 
 the seducing garb of theory, never having heard of her before, 
 unhesitatingly attributed all their disasters to her presence ; 
 perhaps with no better reason than has the patient, who, on 
 finding himself getting worse, attributes the change to the last 
 medicine he took. “ Poor barbarians,” we Franks at first 
 thought, “ you do not know what is fit for you ; you cannot 
 distinguish between good and evil ; you are too ignorant to 
 like being flayed alive for the sake of a new skin.” 
 
 Gradually, however, the illusion with which we had invested 
 ourselves respecting the sultan, viewing him as a second Peter, 
 dispelled: coupling the bitter enmity of his subjects towards 
 him with the accelerated decline of his empire, made us think 
 that there was something in the reform that might as well 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 have been left out — that, perhaps the sultan had mistaken the 
 word change for it; that in its best light the reform which 
 was opposed to the wishes of the majority of the nation, and 
 forced on it, was, far from being liberal, an act of pure 
 despotism, only to be excused by the amount of absolute good 
 to be obtained from it, overbalancing the evils to be appre- 
 hended ; both calculated beforehand. 
 
 Considering the importance of the subject, its wide-spread- 
 ing influence on the Turkish empire, especially that portion of 
 it inhabited by Greeks, the author has devoted a few pages to 
 the sultan’s reforming policy; while admitting the absolute 
 necessity of reform in Turkey, he has endeavoured to show 
 wherein Mahmoud failed ; in attempting too much at once, in 
 commencing at the wrong end ; so that reform, instead of 
 being a blessing to his people, has been a curse to it; instead 
 of healing party dissensions, it has widened the breach ; instead 
 of appeasing the rayas, it has given them courage to ask for 
 more; instead of consolidating his throne, it has shaken it. 
 
 After witnessing the events which so curiously chequered 
 the political aspect of Constantinople before and immediately 
 after the peace of Adrianople, the author embarked in his 
 majesty’s ship Bbnde, and visited Sevastopol, Odessa, Varna, 
 and Bourgas. 
 
 He then proceeded over the seat of war in Boumelia. He 
 visited Adrianople, Philippopolis, &c. ; he traversed the winter 
 quarters of the Russian army, sojourning in them some days, 
 receiving marked hospitality from the generals commanding 
 the districts: and, crossing the Balkans by the Kasan pass, 
 went to Schumla. He has given some account of that interest- 
 ing people, the Bulgarians; of its connexion with the Russians, 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 and its consequent disasters. His intercourse, too, with them, 
 as well as with the Russians, and the Osmanleys of the neigh- 
 bourhood, enabled him to obtain some correct details of the 
 campaign of 1829, which so singularly affected the Ottoman 
 empire, and the consequences of which need to be watched by 
 England. 
 
 Quitting Schumla, after a short stay, the author again 
 traversed the Russian cantonments, and so returned to Con- 
 stantinople, where he then remained three months, during 
 which time he saw all that was remarkable in it. He has 
 given a slight description of the city, together with some 
 notices of its inhabitants. 
 
 Finally, leaving Constantinople in the summer of 1880, the 
 author again went to Adrianople, and thence, descending the 
 Marizza, visited Demotica, Enos, &c. From Enos he em- 
 barked for Samothraki, and Rom there sailed to Mount Athos. 
 After residing some days in this romantic spot, visiting one 
 or other of its numerous and interesting monasteries, he went 
 to Salonica, where he had the fortune to meet with the cele- 
 brated missionary, Mr. Joseph Wolff. From Salonica the 
 author proceeded to Smyrna, whence, after remaining there 
 some months, he returned to Italy the beginning of 1831. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Auberge — Nice — Col de Tende — Coni — Turin — Gen. Menou — Genoa, p. 1 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Attivo — Passengers — Rats — Syra — Consul — Pirates — Thamantis — Captain 
 Pechel — Greeks 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Syra — Scio — Tenedos — Hellespont — Marmora — Stamboul . . 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Dr. Musmezzi — Bey — Levantine — Sardinian Consul — Baker — Review — 
 Baron Bolley — Khosrew Pasha — Arsenal — Liman Reis Bey — Bagnio — 
 Kutchuk Husseyin — Renegade — Captain Hanchet — Lord Cochrane — 
 Sir P. Malcolm 48 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Caiques — Bosphorus — Barbarossa’s Tomb — Delhi Sultana — Touz Oglou — 
 Castles — Devil’s Current — Ypsilanti — Calosso — Sultan’s Band . 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Steam-boat — Selimier — Capitan Pasha — Caique — Black Sea — Supper — 
 Jester — Pilot — Tahir Pasha — Eleet — San Raphael — Russian Brig — 
 Artillery — Comboradgis — Powder Magazine . . . . 73 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Chess — Cossacks — Renegades — Devotions — Manoeuvres — Sydney Smith — 
 Cochrane — Religion — Ghiaour — Nourrey Bey — Capitan Pasha — Music 
 — Games — Kiuchuck Mehemet — Zante — Squall — Chase — Clear for 
 Action — Retreat — Bosphorus — Sariery ..... 92 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Character of Sultan Mahmoud — His crimes — His despotism — His views of 
 Reform — The Dere-beys — The Ayans — The Ulema- — The Muderis — 
 Judicial Education — Power and abuses of a Mollah — Services of the 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Ulema — Russian war — Impolitic peace — Comparison of Turks and 
 Egyptians — Progress of the Greeks in prosperity — Their dawn of 
 freedom — Accelerating causes — Grave error of the Porte concerning 
 the Greeks — Their insurrection — Execution of the Greek Patriarch — 
 Death of Khalet Effendi — Ali Pasha’s head . . . p. 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Beys of Albania — Ibrahim Pasha in the Morea — Revolt and Slaughter of 
 the Janizzaries — Peter the Great and the Strelitzes — Mahmoud and 
 Amurath — The Nizam Dgeditt and the Janizzaries — Turkish prejudices 
 — Erroneous policy of the Sultan — A parallel of civilized and uncivilized 
 states— Consternation at Constantinople on the battle of Navarine — 
 Reflections on the Greek question — Departure of the Ambassadors — 
 Alarm of the Merchants — Exile of the Catholic Armenians — Emperor 
 of Russia’s Manifest — The Sultan’s Answer — Advance of the Russian 
 Army — Sultan’s preparations for War 133 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Confidence in the Capital — Prejudice of Schumla — Arrival of the Ambas- 
 sadors — Great expectations thereon — Question of Greece — Presenta- 
 tion of the English Ambassador — Sultan — French and English Frigates — 
 Dr. Capponi — Hekim Bashi — Surgical School — Turkish Widower 159 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Buyukdere — Society — Marquis Gropallo — Baroness Hubsch — Sultan — 
 Guard-boat — Capitan Pasha — Capitan Pasha’s Wives — Belgrade — 
 Cricket — Elopement — Fire of Galata — Capture of Adrianople — Levy^ 
 masse — Consternation — Sandjack Scheriff — Conspiracy — Advance of 
 Diebitsch — Peace 177 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Passage of the Danube — Yarna — Battle of Koulevscha — Schumla — Passage 
 of Kamptchik— Of the Balkans— Battle of Aidos— Bourgas— Selimnia— 
 Adrianople — Pasha of Scutari ...... 206 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Hamid Aga— Executions — Turkish Lady — Jew— Sir P. Malcolm— Seraglio 
 — Ball on board Blonde — Turkish Ministers .... 229 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 Sevastopol — Arsenal— Quarantine — Dniester — Odessa — Plague — Danube 
 — Squall — Yarna — Gulf of Bourgas — Sizepolis — Ignada — Bosphorus 
 — Count Orloff ......... 254 
 
‘CONTENTS. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Rodosto — Post-horses — Haide-bouroun — Tartars — Ouzoun Kiupri — 
 Lodging — Marizza — Adrianople — Russian hospital — Arhmaneh — Hass 
 Keuy — Bulgarian village — Philippopolis — Greek house — Charlatan — 
 Bishop p. 271 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 Hadgi Toozoon — Tchapan — Bastinade — Eski Saray — Adra Bey — Mustapha 
 — Cossack Captain — Yeni Saara — General Reuchteum — Russ Colonel — 
 Selimnia — General Montresor — Poniatowsky — Wolk Llanevsky — Russ 
 Army ........... 292 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Kasan Pass — Bach Keuy — Bulgarians — Kasan — Osman Bazar — Jhumha — 
 Schumla — Prince Madatoff — Greek Priest — Koulevscha — Yeni Bazar — 
 Pasha — Greek Archbishop — Osman Bagar — Mountains — Selimnia — 
 Yamboli — General Timan — The fair Scherifeh — Adrianople — Plague — 
 Grand Vizir — Luleh Bourgas — Mahmoud Bey — Chorloo — Selybria — 
 Constantinople — Pera ........ 316 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Selimnia — Yamboli — General Timan — The fair Scherifeh — Adrianople — 
 Plague — Grand Vizir — Luleh Bourgas — Mahmoud Bey — Chorloo — 
 Selybria — Constantinople — Pera 310 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Pera— Carnival — Ambassadors — Dragomans — Adventurers — Mustapha 
 Effendi — Royal Birth — Sultanas — Illumination — Ramazan — Story 
 Tellers — Bairam — Procession — Review — Sandjack Scheriff . 365 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OF CONSTANTINOPLE (STAMBOUL.) 
 
 Stamboul — Wall — Breach — Galleys — Charsheys — Bazars — Osmanie — 
 Burnt Column — Eski Saray — Seraskier’s Pillar — Panoramic View — 
 Parallel — Hippodrome — Columns — St. Sophia — Cisterns — Menagerie — 
 Women Market — Bath 381 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Constantinople ( continued .) 
 
 Solimanie — Bedlam — Mausoleum — Valens’ Aqueduct — Marcian’s Column 
 — Historic Column — Seven Towers — Golden Gate — Breach — Scutari 
 — Cemetery — Howling Dervishes 402 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 On the Osmanleys— the Greeks — the Armenians — the Jews . . p. 421 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 On Mussulman Women — Greek Women — Armenian Women — Hebrew 
 Women * 436 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Capitan Pasha — Greek Patriarch — Nourrey Bey — Passage Boat — Echoes — 
 Rodosto — Adrianople — Kar’agatch — Silk Worms — Mad Dog — Inhu- 
 manity — Greeks — Mahmoud Aga — Mosque — Grand Vizir — Bairam 
 Pasha 446 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Marizza — Demotica — Bishop — Dungeon — Cossacks — Eera — Bektashes — 
 Enos — Vice-Consul — Petition — Mahmoud Bey — Greek Beauty — 
 Banquet 464 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Schooner — Deserters — Samothraki — Ancient Castle — Greek Pirates — 
 Thasco — Mehemet Ali — Mount Athos — Albanian Gardeners — Simenu — 
 Vatopede — Monkish Customs — History of Monte Santo — Cariez — - 
 W aivode — Protaton — Ruthenisi — Prios — Iphiron — Libraries — Lavra 
 
 483 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Eever — Church Scene — Bigotry — Voyage — Gulf of Cassandra — Salonica — 
 Banditti — Earthquake — Chaban — Execution — Pirates — Mr. Wolff — 
 Hebrews — Missionaries — Maronite 503 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Tertian Eever — Philanthropy — Hydriote Schooner — Mr. Wolff — Smyrna — 
 Hotel — “ Glorious three days” — Recluse — Swede — Merchants — 
 L’Eurydice — Ourlaq — Gazelle — English Erigate — Spezzia — Quarantine 
 — Genoa 521 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS, 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 S 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Auberge — Nice — Col de Tende — Coni — Turin — Gen. Menou — Genoa. 
 
 Not to find a comfortable inn on the road is considered a 
 hardship in civilized Europe; in the East a shed is often 
 esteemed a luxury. If in the latter country a traveller he de- 
 tained days for want of a bridge to cross a stream, which rain 
 or thaw may have rendered impassable, he is neither surprised 
 nor greatly annoyed, being prepared for such a thing; nor, 
 again, does he vent reproaches on the government, because it 
 never entered into his head that the government should pro- 
 vide for such casualties. But that in la belle France — in the 
 country which boasts its bridges of Austerlitz and Jena, 
 couriers and travellers should be delayed for want of any 
 means to cross a paltry brook may well astonish him. 
 
 Early in the momfrig of March 16, 1829, the Antibes dili- 
 gence drew up at a small auberge, on the road side near 
 Estrelles, the bourgeois of which invited the passengers to 
 alight, with the information that it was necessary to wait until 
 a stream, half a mile in advance, swoln by the falling rain, 
 should subside. The intelligence was unpleasant to all the 
 party, the more so, perceiving from our windows that the said 
 auberge, exposed to a fresh mountain breeze, had no windows. 
 However, there was no remedy ; so we got out and took pos- 
 session of the saloon, where, after causing a large fire to be 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 lit, and stopping, as well as could be, sundry chasms in 
 the walls intended to admit daylight, we listened for the 
 trampling of horses to vary the pattering cadence, promising 
 ourselves indemnification for our own disaster in the blank 
 countenance of each coming traveller. We were not long kept 
 in expectation, for a German baron arrived soon afterwards in 
 his own carriage. He first took a dissatisfied survey of the 
 naked apartments of the house, apparently hesitating whether 
 he should associate with the occupants of a diligence, and 
 then, yielding to the gregariousness of his species, crept into 
 our circle, where, however, he endeavoured to seclude himself 
 by paying attention to a fair Roman, who was going to 
 Florence with her brother, an artist, though without success ; 
 a lively Frenchman occupied her other ear so effectually as to 
 render its fellow deaf. We had scarcely resumed our crouch- 
 ing posture round the fire, which this addition had disturbed, 
 when a Portuguese courier, on his way from Lisbon to Rome, 
 stopped, and loudly swore at the cause of the delay. He also 
 joined our circle. A few minutes after arrived, in two coaches, 
 the Cardinal de Clermont- Tonnerre, Archbishop of Toulouse, 
 with a priestly suite, going to Rome to assist at the conclave. 
 To lodge this traveller extraordinary, conv enablement, who 
 otherwise would not have alighted, the host consented to give 
 up his own apartment, which was glazed, and then his eminence 
 was carried through the mud in the arms of his two chaplains. 
 Monseigneur was a mild, gentlemanly-looking little man, with 
 peculiarly expressive eyes for eighty-two years of age, and his 
 having been lately exposed to the vexations of the ministry, 
 for having, as the self- constituted champion of the mitred 
 clergy attacked in its privileges, published an article based on 
 his motto, etiam si omnes, ego non ; and through which he was 
 ordered, notwithstanding his advanced age, to go to the con- 
 clave, excited in us an additional interest in his favour, and 
 caused us to unbonnet willingly. But though the whole party, 
 the fair Roman and the Portuguese above all, truly rejoiced to 
 see so worthy a pillar of the church, it is right to confess that 
 the presence of his cook was infinitely more appreciated ; for 
 previously to his arrival we had been in a dilemma about din- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 3 
 
 ner, our host having declared his inability to provide for so 
 many after the breakfast we had devoured. All difficulties now 
 speedily vanished, and we had a proof of the resources of talent 
 even with slender means. The cardinal’s professor of gastro- 
 nomy, worthy of his exalted station, meriting a cordon bleu, 
 installed himself head of the humble cuisine, produced sundry 
 articles, which I am sure the surrounding country did not pro- 
 duce, and having first supplied his master’s wants, did us, les 
 voyageurs, the honour to concoct a savoury meal, as also to 
 assist us to eat it. The excellent humour this put us in need 
 not be dwelt on ; everybody has felt the bland effects of a good 
 dinner, especially when unexpected. To the frugal dessert the 
 Portuguese added, from the pockets of his carriage, some bot- 
 tles of Spanish wine, and I a packet of Havannah cigars, the 
 only lady of our party having previously declared that she 
 liked the odour of tobacco, an assertion which her brother sup- 
 ported her in. With these accessories, round a blazing fire, 
 two fine wolf-dogs basking at our feet, we passed a sociable 
 evening, enlivened by song and tale, little regretting the delay 
 which brought so many absolute strangers of different nations 
 and different pursuits into good fellowship. 
 
 At sun-set the rain ceased, and an hour after midnight we 
 were informed that the stream was fordable. The courier gal- 
 lantly took the lead, taking with him a lad to bring back word 
 if he got safely over or not. Then followed the baron, whose 
 stiffness was so far rubbed oft' by the collision of the day, that 
 he shook hands with every one, not excepting a poor Prussian 
 student who was journeying to Pavia. The diligence came 
 last; the cardinal remained till morning. Excepting the 
 water which came into the carriage, washing it thoroughly, for 
 the first time probably since it left the maker’s hands, no other 
 inconveniences occurred to us but such as are inseparable from 
 travelling in the South of France. The country we passed 
 through was rich in scenery and recollections, and in due time 
 we reached Nice. 
 
 Nice, which had the singular misfortune in the sixteenth 
 century of being stormed by the Turkish forces under 
 Barbarossa, in alliance with the troops of Francis I., and 
 
 b 2 
 
4 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 in later times, of receiving a still more disagreeable visit 
 from a revolutionary band of Marseillais, was then governed 
 by the Marquis de Faverges, a Savoyard nobleman, whose 
 hospitality and talents gained him the esteem of the numerous 
 foreigners, of various countries, who visited Nice during his 
 governorship. M. de Faverges was yet further remarkable 
 by having been a noted victim of that spoliatory spirit called 
 liberty, which distinguished the close of the last century. 
 Because he would not desert his sovereign, exchange honour 
 for wealth, embrace a foreign yoke at the fierce cry of 
 republican France, he was cast out an alien from his country. 
 The princely domains of his family in Savoy were confiscated; 
 the chatedu, near Faverges, for centuries its residence, became 
 a manufactory. His brother fell in battle against the French. 
 Then a mere boy, he swore enmity to the soi-disant liberators 
 of mankind from the burthen of ancient prejudices. Flow 
 well he kept his engagement may be inferred from the 
 circumstance of Napoleon having caused him to be executed 
 in effigy, because he refused to return to his country, though 
 invited thereto with the offer of the restoration of his estates ; 
 and of his having stipulated in a secret article of a peace 
 with Austria that Colonel de Faverges should be given up to 
 him as a traitor — a traitor ! in having fought against him ; 
 with such distinction, also, as to have gained the order of 
 Maria Theresa. The Austrian government, in seeming com- 
 pliance with the despot’s will, caused him to be arrested and 
 confined in a castle, with instructions, however, to the 
 governor to allow him to escape. Thence, persevering in 
 his determination not to be inactive while France had an 
 enemy, he joined the Piedmontese corps in English pay: 
 he served under Lord William Bentinck, in Spain and Sicily; 
 and had the pleasure of entering Genoa with him as a victor, 
 in 1814. The Emperor of Austria, remembering his services 
 and devotion in the cause of legitimacy, offered him, at the 
 peace, his rank in his service, as it would have been, had 
 he not been obliged to quit it, in which case he would now 
 have been a marshal of the empire ; but with a just sense of 
 what every man of honour, particularly a soldier, owes to his 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. -5 
 
 country, he declined the brilliant offer, giving up also the 
 pensions attached to his Austrian orders. In 1821, his 
 firmness, aided by the individual love entertained for him by 
 his own regiment, saved Turin from the wild attempts of the 
 patriots. The following year, it being considered necessary 
 that the illustrious Liberal should purify himself by joining 
 the French crusade against Spanish liberty, he accompanied 
 him, and was with the prince at the head of the grenadiers 
 who stormed the Trocadero. From that time the Marquis de 
 Faverges has remained in his country, of which he became 
 one of the seven wise men, as the governors of the seven 
 provinces of the kingdom are ironically, or complimentarily 
 termed. 
 
 Nice, or Vhopital a la mode d’Europe, was filled as usual 
 with malades imaginaires, the yearly flight of whom attracts 
 all the beggars of the country, and recompenses the Nissards 
 for the loss they sustained in being separated from the French 
 empire, when their wines and their oils produced quadruple 
 the revenue they do at present. There were peers of England 
 and of France, counts of the empire of Poland and of Eussia, 
 with numbers of untitled English, and a due proportion of 
 the young and fashionable of the fairer sex, apparently more 
 consuming than consumptive. There was, too, with his little 
 yacht, Captain Koberts, E.N., the friend of Lord Byron, and 
 Mr. Trelawney. The yacht had belonged to his lordship, who 
 sold it to Lord Blessington, who sold it to the captain, who 
 converted it from an ugly dull sailing craft into a pretty neat 
 clipper. Pic-nics were the order of the day, dances the order 
 of the night, and both amusements we enjoyed in perfection, 
 for the days were already balmy warm, the nights fragrantly 
 cool. The only addition wanted at Nice, to make it perfection 
 in the spring, is an island or two to break the monotony of 
 the sea view, which is scarcely ever diversified even by a 
 passing sail. I, however, had not time to get weary 
 of the blank, for after ten days I left it, and pursued my 
 journey through the magnificent romantic scenery which 
 intervenes between Nice and the Lower Alps. One valley in 
 which we stopped to breakfast reminded me somewhat of the 
 
6 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 happy valley of Rasselas. From the Col de Brousse we had 
 a singular prospect of a snow- clad mountain, symmetrically 
 shaped, resembling, in the setting sun, a bright silver altar 
 rising from the vast hill- dimpled valley as from the nave of 
 a cathedral, while motionless clouds floating over it pictured 
 the steam of incense. We rested for the night at a small 
 hamlet at the foot of the Col de Tende, where, however, as 
 everywhere in Italy and France, we got good clean beds, and 
 at six in the morning commenced the ascent, which, in con- 
 sequence of a fall of snow in the night, was rather fearful. A 
 corps of guides was obliged to clear away the snow before us, 
 and the mules, alarmed, stopped repeatedly. Experienced 
 some nervous shocks, one by a gust of wind, which took my 
 hat down the steep, and nearly made me roll with it ; again, 
 when on the edge of a sublime looking precipice, my mule fell, 
 and had not two guides been near, and lifted it on its legs 
 again, it would have been its last tumble, and mine too. 
 Other parties of mules descending the mountain with mer- 
 chandize occasioned us considerable delay; each time we came 
 in contact, we were obliged to halt *until the guides had cut 
 a lateral path in the bank of snow to allow us to pass by. 
 
 At length, after seven hours of severe toil, we reached the 
 summit ; and there the glorious prospect — ranges beyond 
 ranges of mountains quietly reposing on clouds — amply repaid 
 us. Traineaux were waiting, so quitting my mule, to the great 
 satisfaction of both parties, I engaged one, tied my portmanteau 
 on itj and slid down into Piedmont with great speed and fun, 
 not unmixed, however, with fears of a somerset, which were 
 reasonable, seeing that I was the only one of the party that 
 chose this mode of conveyance. I cannot describe the sensa- 
 tion experienced in making this tremendous slide, Brobdig- 
 nagian Montagne Russe ; it is worth a person’s while going to 
 Italy in the winter to pass the Col de Tende on purpose to 
 make it, and so enjoy the sublime. Our straight line down was 
 intersected in several places by the regular zig-zag paths, deep 
 chasms in the snow, so deep that the mules in them were in- 
 visible to us, unless at the moment when our light vehicle 
 bounded over them like a gazelle, its velocity from off the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 7 
 
 upper bank giving an impetus that would have carried us thrice 
 the width. We reached the bottom in a quarter of an hour ; 
 my companions on mule-back were three hours and a half 
 getting down. The fatigue of dragging the traineaux up again is 
 very severe ; the traineurs are seen every hundred yards or so to 
 throw themselves down, and lie in the snow quite exhausted. 
 They are fine stout fellows, but are said to lose their eye- sight 
 early, on account of their constant exposure to the glare. 
 
 Having gone through some formalities at the custom-house, 
 on account of coming from Nice, a free port, we entered a 
 diligence, and reached Coni in the evening. The inn being 
 crowded, there was a difficulty about beds, on which my im- 
 mediate compagnon de voyage , a native of Mentoni, politely 
 proposed sharing one ; and, on my gently dissenting, so as not 
 to hurt his feelings, expressed surprise, observing with a shrug, 
 that it was a prejudice with the English. We arranged matters 
 by having a bed made up in the same room. He amused me by 
 an anecdote relating to the Coniotes, who are reputed to have 
 the thickest pates and the largest goitres of any in the king of 
 Sardinia’s dominions. When the Marquis d’Yenne came to 
 Coni some years since, it struck the natives that his name was 
 also the appellation of a wild beast. Accordingly, to do honour, 
 and pay a delicate compliment, to their new governor, they 
 made up a figure of a hysena, with little Cupids hanging round 
 its neck, and then paraded it before his windows with music ; 
 and, when his excellency appeared in the balcony, bowing 
 thanks, &c., cried out, “Voi siete la bestia, noi siamo gli 
 amorini.” My friend was also a perfect liberal, and, I thought, 
 a retired harlequin, for he constantly swore by his sabre de bois. 
 Finding himself in the company of an Englishman, considered 
 carte blanche on the continent, an available opportunity for a 
 radical to clear off his bile, he loosed his tongue, and railed in 
 form against governments, taxes, clergy, &c., reaping fresh food 
 for his arguments in every village we passed through on our 
 journey to Turin, next day, in the coupe of a bad diligence, 
 taking nine hours to do thirty- two Piedmontese miles (forty- 
 two English.) 
 
 How singularly does the richly-cultivated, modern ap- 
 
8 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 pearance of the valley of Piedmont contrast with the 
 antiquated costume of its inhabitants, which transports the 
 stranger a century back, and shows how difficult it is to 
 change the manners of the lower classes, which have, in this 
 instance, survived the sweeping action of the revolution. We 
 passed women working in the fields, with head-dresses five 
 stories high, helmet-shaped ; peasants with knee-buckles, red 
 mantles, cocked hats, and pig-tails, driving mules and carts, 
 their wives and daughters riding on them, with stomachers and 
 massy buckles, each article worn long past the usual wear of 
 male or female gear. Metliought one need not be in a very 
 deep dream to fancy that the court of Louis XVI. had resusci- 
 tated here, and preserved its denounced costume- as a 
 melancholy memorial. 
 
 In material respects, though. Piedmont is widely changed 
 from what it was thirty years since. Its eighteen fortresses,* 
 erected in the long reign of Victor Emanuel, chiefly with 
 English gold, have disappeared ; and its narrow lanes, im- 
 practicable in winter, are replaced by broad, magnificent roads ; 
 and all because Napoleon thought it for ever annexed to his 
 empire. Thus the continental dominions of the king of Sar- 
 dinia, which before could make an obstinate resistance, may 
 now be occupied in a few marches, when deemed requisite by 
 Austria or France; though so much the better for the 
 inhabitants, as thereby they are not exposed to the continued 
 and destructive presence of leaguering armies. The most 
 admirable thing in Piedmont, tending to its astonishing fertility, 
 is the manner in which it is irrigated by numberless minute 
 canals, which traverse the plain in every direction. The 
 country does not owe the inestimable boon either to kings or 
 nobles, but to a much calumniated body, the monks, who thus 
 righteously employed their means. Manifold were the abuses 
 of the Italian clergy, but the tree might have been pruned 
 without striking at its root. Cardinals and bishops may 
 
 * The government of Queen Anne deeming it important to render 
 Piedmont a barrier against Prance, agreed to pay the king of Sardinia 
 £100,000 a year, provided he would lay out at the same time £250,000 
 annually in fortifying his towns. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 9 
 
 easily be spared, but the monks in all ages have been the 
 friends of the poor. 
 
 I found Turin considerably embellished since my previous 
 visit to it in 1825. A new quarter had arisen at the extremity 
 of the rue de Po, a new bridge, one of the finest in Europe, 
 spanned the Dora, and a new church was on the point of being 
 finished. The proportions of this church are good, the form 
 elegant, and the structure solid ; but it has the irremediable 
 defect of appearing smaller than it really is, on account of 
 being built in the vista of a long street, under the com- 
 pressing influence of a hill. The plan was excellent according 
 to rule, on paper appeared well ; but the architect showed a 
 want of correct judgment in not foreseeing the effect when 
 built, — that dimension, the principal element of grandeur in 
 architecture, would be dwindled. It was built in fulfilment of 
 a vow of Victor Emanuel, on his restoration in 1814 : seven 
 years afterwards he abdicated. His eldest brother, Charles 
 Emanuel, was dethroned by the Directory : he retired to 
 Rome, and died in a monastery. His fourth brother died of a 
 coup de soldi at Cagliari. His remaining brother, Charles 
 Felix,* reigned at the time I write of, a monarch who united 
 every mild virtue, but who allowed himself to be too much 
 governed by priests. By their persuasion he prohibited the 
 regimental schools, perhaps thinking that a soldier could use 
 his firelock just as well without knowing how to spell it. 
 
 Whether the army suffered by the privation of education I 
 cannot say. It is formed on the landwehr system, and consists, 
 when all the contingents are under arms, of about sixty-five 
 thousand men, of whom the Savoyards are esteemed the best 
 soldiers, the Sardinians the worst. It is not uncommon, when 
 a regiment composed of Sardinians marches into a town, to 
 
 * He died May, 1831, his last moments embittered by the knowledge of 
 a plan to assassinate him. He was the last of the eldest branch of the 
 illustrious house of Beroldo, of whom it may be truly said, that no member 
 was ever guilty of a cruel act. The history of the reigning house of Savoy 
 is the best apology that can be made for absolutism. Charles Felix was 
 succeeded by Charles Albert, Prince de Carignan, who began his reign with 
 universal satisfaction, giving every promise, by talents and application, of 
 reforming the abuses of the state. His first acts were to abolish several 
 useless offices about court, and to lay open some of the royal chases. 
 
10 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 see all the shops shut, as in a Turkish town on the approach 
 of an Albanian corps. They are cleanly looking troops, and 
 tolerably well-dressed, which is extraordinary, considering they 
 are clothed only once in three years ; but they have the great 
 defect of wanting young superior officers : seniority is the rule 
 of promotion in the service, grey hairs the test of merit ; and 
 a man is fortunate to command a regiment at fifty. Deaths 
 are the only vacancies ; and in the Italian climate, unless war 
 or plague graciously intervene, man usually lives the time 
 allotted by scripture. 
 
 The streets of Turin are eminently distinguished by loath- 
 some beggars, by tawdry uniforms, chequered by tiny crosses, 
 and by staunch devotees. The churches, spacious as they are, 
 are often so full, that the streets outside are covered with 
 kneeling crowds. Excepting Spain and Ireland, Catholicism 
 is nowhere more fervid than in Piedmont, notwithstanding its 
 vicinity to Rome, which might be supposed to have let the 
 inhabitants a little behind the scenes. A strange contrast, 
 therefore, must General Menou have been as governor of 
 Piedmont; Menou being a Mahometan, having embraced that 
 faith while in Egypt, assumed the name of Abdallah, and 
 married a Turkish lady. Nevertheless, he was popular with 
 his Christian subjects, though he never recanted, not probably 
 thinking it worth while to repeat the farce. Like a good 
 soldier, Menou revered the mandates of his chief more than 
 fetwas or bulls, and thought the hubbub of drums sweeter 
 music than Imam’s voices or church hells. And such must 
 generally be the case with a military man, so little can religion 
 affect his acts. His best occupation is wholesale slaughter of 
 his fellow- creatures. Rapine comes in the way of his trade. 
 Nor is the tenth commandment much respected by him. The 
 ninth he observes, because it is gentlemanly to do so. The 
 fourth he often considers a bore. The second he is led to infringe 
 for the sake of a pretty face. The third is a dead letter with 
 him. Even the respect which he naturally has for the fifth 
 commandment would he modified, to the detriment of cellar 
 and larder, were the respectable persons there included to be 
 on the opposite side; but, at all events, it is quite free from 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 11 
 
 the selfish consideration of having his days prolonged in, or 
 out, of his land. 
 
 Although Piedmont boasts of some of the finest roads in 
 Europe (because its royalty is fond of travelling), its diligences 
 are execrable (pervious to wind and rain), because one person 
 has the monopoly of providing the public with conveyances. 
 One of them conveyed me in thirty hours from Turin to Genoa, 
 where I proposed to embark for Greece. 
 
 Genoa well merits her surname. Whether winding^down 
 the hills in her rear, through hanging gardens and colonnaded 
 villas, or gazing upwards from the sea on the vast marble 
 amphitheatre, the traveller involuntarily exclaims, u Superb !” 
 Of all her palaces, three-fourths of them hid from general view, 
 in narrow lanes, miscalled streets, which give the city a Turkish 
 air, none more pleased me than the palazzo Doria, proud 
 monument of national gratitude ! In the hanging garden of 
 it is a gigantic statue, visible from the sea, of the renowned 
 Andrea. Numerous are the mementos of her former glory. 
 The libro d’oro attests the antiquity of her merchant nobles ; 
 the hospitals, their public spirit; the chains suspended in the 
 streets their victories over the Venetians and the Pisans; the 
 magnificent hall of St. George, in the Porto Franco, their vast 
 commerce; the frescos in the houses, representing Moors in 
 slavery, their triumphs over the infidels. As late as when 
 republican France subverted republican Genoa, captives were 
 found chained to posts in the arsenal, eating and sleeping in 
 their own ordure. The recollection of the atrocities committed 
 by the republics of Venice and Genoa, allays in some measure 
 our regret at their extinction : but should they have been thus 
 disposed of — given, without an article in their favour, to abso- 
 lute governments ? Had they, with all northern Italy, been 
 formed into one constitutional state, their warmest admirers 
 would have rejoiced at the change, and the kingdom of Sardinia 
 would then have ceased to be, what it is now emphatically 
 termed, a bone between two great dogs. Such change might 
 have been effected with ease, to our great advantage, in 1814 , 
 had England willed it; the Italians would, with enthusiasm, 
 have united themselves constitutionally under a monarch of 
 
12 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the oldest reigning Italian family, the house of Savoy; and 
 their petty jealousies — cancers which prevent the development 
 of their independent forces — would, under wise management, 
 aided by apprehension of Austrian domination, have worn out 
 with the generation. 
 
 Dislike of German rule, inherent among all Italians, dates 
 at Genoa far hack. During a siege of the city by the Ger- 
 mans, about a century since, it happened one day that a shell 
 fell in one of the streets, and hurst among a crowd of people, 
 though without injuring any one. This escape was considered 
 miraculous; it was attributed to a statue of the Virgin in one 
 corner, and this assurance of divine aid so revived the flagging 
 spirits of the townspeople, worn out by famine, that they made 
 a desperate sally and drove the besiegers off. In commemora- 
 tion whereof, a square stone was laid down on the spot where 
 the shell burst, with a mortar carved on it. The stone re- 
 mained in 1829 (but the emblem was nearly obliterated), and 
 in 1821, when the occupation of the city by the hated Aus- 
 trians appeared imminent, it served as a rallying point to the 
 citizens, who swore by it to resist their invaders. 
 
 They were not put to the trial, or perhaps, we should have 
 had another example of the inadequacy of a heart- stirring 
 recollection to create a corresponding effect, except on the 
 stage. The altar of a noble sacrifice may remain, a parallel 
 occasion for devotion occur, hut the dead will not rise. On 
 the same stone where, in 1307, three Swiss peasants swore to 
 free their country, thousands of Swiss, in 1798, swore to save 
 it : — the former kept the oath, the latter did not. 
 
 Napoleon, to console the Genoese patricians for the loss of 
 their independence, threw a bauble among them. He gave 
 them the title of marquis, and as long as they enjoyed a ray 
 of the grand empire’s glory it sufficed them; hut on their 
 destiny being changed, they felt the triviality of the boon, felt 
 the wide difference between the condition of a noble under a 
 little monarchy, and that of a patrician in a renowned republic, 
 with no other superior than a temporary doge, to whose office, 
 moreover, it being triennial, any patrician might aspire. This 
 feeling, added to purse-pride, has generated among them a 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 13 
 
 petty enmity towards the employes and military of the king of 
 Sardinia, and a whining discontent of the existing order of 
 things, by which, at the same time, no class has more gained, 
 their commerce having doubled since the national flag was 
 struck, and their ready money having enabled them to take 
 advantage of the distress of the Piedmontese nobles, and buy 
 up their estates cheap, so that the Genoese are become the 
 largest proprietors in the kingdom. 
 
 The government, aware of the slender hold it has on their 
 affections, has taken the wisest means of preserving their 
 allegiance, by erecting a fort so advantageously placed, that 
 its fire would in a few hours raze the city. This fort, called 
 the Castelletto, existed in another shape, in the time of the 
 republic, and was regarded by the people, who captured it 
 once in a riot, as a Bastille. Whether the people are content 
 with the change I can hardly say; recollection and habitude 
 are powerful agents with man, and often make him prefer the 
 worse to the better; but it is beyond dispute that the lower 
 classes of Genoa are infinitely more free than under their 
 nobles, whose slaves — downright slaves — they were. It is 
 amusing the tenacity with which they cling to republican recol- 
 lections. I remember one day asking a labourer the way to 
 the palazzo del governatore ? Del governatore ! repeated the 
 man, drawing himself up, il palazzo ducale, volete dire. Other 
 notable and more useful works, besides palaces and fortresses, 
 dignify Genoa. 
 
 The subterranean and intramurean aqueducts, which bring 
 excellent water from a distance, and supply the whole city, 
 would have been worthy of Romans : — the moles which form 
 the harbour are as good as any in the world, excepting Ply- 
 mouth Breakwater, man’s signal triumph over the most unruly 
 element; they have been greatly improved by the present 
 government, and now afford shelter to any number of vessels 
 against the heavy south-west gales, one of which, in 1.822, 
 previous to the extension of the old mole, destroyed two 
 hundred sail. The bridge (now called de Carignan,) is a 
 monument of labour and of woman’s caprice: to the latter 
 Genoa owes a most useful undertaking. About a century 
 
14 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 since lived the widow Sauli, in whom centered the wealth of a 
 noble family. She was devout as well as rich, and therefore 
 attended mass daily in the neighbouring chapel of a patrician, 
 who had the complaisance to retard or hasten the celebration, 
 according to her arrival, in expectation that she would enrich 
 it at her death. One day, however, the gentleman, after wait- 
 ing an unusual long time, and supposing she would not come, 
 ordered the priest to commence the service; it was half over 
 when the widow arrived; but no apologies could allay her 
 anger at being thus disrespectfully treated. In revenge she 
 resolved to build a church, which should totally eclipse the 
 said chapel, and draw away its congregation, it being as 
 fashionable in those days to have one’s mass numerously 
 attended, as in the present day to have a crowded drawing- 
 room; and that indolence might not plead distance as an 
 excuse for neglecting her church, when finished, she connected 
 the densely peopled opposite hill with it by a bridge, which 
 bridge spans over houses seven stories high, and is in conse- 
 quence a favourite “ lover’s leap,” as well as an agreeable 
 promenade, and a convenient short cut, saving one an hour’s 
 up-and-down walk through the dirtiest purlieus of the city. 
 The widow’s wish was fulfilled; the chapel sunk under the 
 influence of its rival; but she did not live to enjoy the fruits 
 of her piety. Piety! what profanation of the word; at the 
 bar of eternal justice, that church — offspring of a black passion 
 — will be a heavy charge. She left the completion of it to her 
 son, whose name, with the family arms, is over the great doors, 
 endowed it munificently, and that her name might never be 
 forgotten, ordained that some part of it should be annually 
 pulled down, and as often rebuilt, with the interest of a sum of 
 money set apart for that purpose. Strange to say, absurd as 
 it may appear, this beneficial practice for masons was continued 
 till the French took Genoa. 
 
 Genoa has a neat arsenal. The navy is small but compact, 
 and the whole department is conducted with an economy which 
 is extraordinary. The Marquis de Genez, minister of Marine, 
 is only allowed 2,500,000 francs, 100,000Z. a year. With this 
 sum he keeps seven frigates in good order, pays the officers 
 and seamen, and maintains the coast police of Liguria and 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 15 
 
 Sardinia, besides other items ; but the petty saving he is obliged 
 to adopt, even on doctor’s lint, is ludicrous. The frigates are 
 excellent, from forty-six to sixty guns (all new), after the best 
 French and English models; it is a pity that one of them was 
 not called II Doria, as a compliment to the Genoese, and a 
 tribute to the memory of a great man. Their tanks, chain cables, 
 and guns, came from England ; the wood is of Sardinian oak, of 
 a good quality, equal to the Roman oak; the artificers are con- 
 victs, instructed in the arsenal in all the trades appertaining to 
 ship -building. This practice has its good and its bad side ; it 
 deprives honest men of work, but it saves expense, and enables 
 the convicts, when released, to gain a livelihood by the art 
 they have acquired during their captivity. The Parmezan 
 convicts are sent to the Genoese arsenal ; one franc a day is 
 paid for each, on which the Sardinian government gains at 
 least half. 
 
 The aspirants for naval commissions are educated at a 
 college during four or five years, during which, at intervals, 
 they are embarked. Annually a frigate or corvette makes a 
 tour in the Levant, and occasionally a squadron displays the 
 flag to the bey of Tunis, or the pasha of Tripoli. In 1825, a 
 squadron imposed terms on the latter, having first burnt a 
 schooner in his port. This brilliant affair, in which one man 
 was wounded, was an era for an Italian navy, and placed it, in 
 its opinion, on a par with the British navy. The battle of 
 Algiers was scarcely considered a greater exploit. The admiral, 
 who was in his frigate, anchored five miles off, was created a 
 baron, and on all the actors crosses were bestowed, to the dis- 
 content of several, as no distinction was made between the 
 meritorious, who pulled in under the ill- directed fire of the 
 pasha’s batteries, and one who winded his boat and rowed 
 in the opposite direction. 
 
 Midshipmen who cannot pass their examinations are sent 
 into the army, thus reversing the English aphorism, “ send a 
 fool to sea.” With due deference to the supporters of that 
 wise saying, I imagine that, when first used in that sense, fool 
 corresponded with the French word fou; not with bete, as we 
 now use it. 
 
 Easter Monday I witnessed the ceremony of administering 
 
16 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the oath of fidelity to the troops. A theatre was erected on 
 one side of the Aqua Verde (a square), amid piles of shot, and 
 an altar raised in it. High mass was performed ; and then the 
 governor, the Marquis D’Yenne, a gallant old Savoyard, much 
 loved by the Genoese, read the formula. The soldiers answered 
 giuro, at least those who chose ; those who did not, held their 
 tongues, and considered themselves exempt, as a young radical 
 officer told me an hour afterwards, when I rallied him on his 
 inconsistency, in swearing fidelity to the government in public 
 — against it in private. As the ceremony is repeated every 
 year, it follows that the value of the oath does not exceed that 
 period. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Attivo — Passengers — Rats — Syra — Consul — Pirates— -Thamantis — 
 Captain Pechel — Greeks. 
 
 In the good ship Attivo, bound, God and the sultan willing, to 
 Odessa, I engaged a berth to Syra for thirty Spanish dollars 
 (paying half a dollar a- day for my table.) We did not, how- 
 ever, immediately sail, for nothing short of the fear of excom- 
 munication would make a Genoese leave his Easter festivities : 
 and then, when we at length quitted the port, two more days 
 elapsed, owing to baffling winds, before we lost sight of 
 the lofty Earo. The interval gave me reason to appre- 
 hend a tedious voyage. The Attivo was named in mockery; 
 she ought rather to have been called il canchero, on account 
 of the side-long propensities of her course. Being lotica, 
 i.e., flattish-bottomed, with a contrary wind her traverse 
 lines retrograded, to the amusement of other vessels which 
 passed us, and left us. There were two other cabin passengers 
 — a Sclav onian, a pleasant man, going to Constantinople; and 
 a Neapolitan, bound to Tino, a servile, ignorant fellow, and, to 
 add to his amiability, often sea-sick: however, he yielded us 
 amusement, for he was droll and antic. In the steerage, was 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 17 
 
 a Genoese jeweller with his family, emigrating to Odessa, 
 where persons of his craft were in request. The Genoese 
 surpass all people in their emigrating propensities. From 
 Gibraltar to Taganrok there is not a place where they are not 
 established and thriving; they can live where others starve: in 
 the former place they are in considerable numbers, and rank as 
 its richest merchants. Our captain was a fat, fresh, good- 
 natured, little man, wearing a pendant red cap, canvas trousers, 
 check shirt, and a blue sash; — thus rigged on board — on shore 
 he was a dandy. He smoked bad tobacco and ate garlick; he 
 washed when it rained, and prayed when it blew — to a picture 
 of the Virgin, which hung in the cabin, with a lamp constantly 
 burning before it; and if by chance, or through malice pre- 
 pense — sometimes the case — the light went out, it was ludicrous 
 to see the trepidation with which he would cross himself, recite 
 an Ave Maria, and put it in again, asking pardon of our Ladye. 
 In short, our skipper was a regular Mediterranean sailor, all 
 talk and little work ; and as he, with all his crew, had a 
 wonderful respect for the English navy, I soon found myself 
 de facto captain of the vessel ; had I been her owner, I would 
 have sold her for firewood. We anchored for a couple of days 
 under the Malora Bank, off Leghorn, for stress of weather, and 
 then continued our voyage, which was rendered unpleasant by 
 rats of an enormous size on board ; they stormed the cabin, 
 and made prey of small articles, such as gloves, handkerchiefs, 
 &c. It was almost requisite to sleep in boots. In my cabin 
 I was in a besieged place, employed every morning in repairing 
 the breaches made by the foe in the night ; but their pertina- 
 city in attack far exceeded my diligence in defence, and their 
 extreme voracity made us seriously think on our probable fate 
 should provisions fail. I was somewhat consoled by perceiving 
 that my fellow-passengers were fatter than me. This incon- 
 venience arose from having neglected to smoke the vessel 
 before leaving Genoa, where she had been lying two years, and 
 where rats are very numerous. A sou a day is allowed by the 
 Genoese admiralty for the support of a cat in each ship of war. 
 I had often seen water rats, but I had no idea that they ever 
 arrived to such size and ferocity. Our two cats dared not 
 
18 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 attack them ; they would have discouraged Whittington’s cat. 
 In the East they tell marvellous stories of rats, such as that 
 they kill children by sucking their blood when asleep. I 
 cannot vouch for the truth of this bat-like propensity, though 
 it was so firmly believed by our Neapolitan messmate, a regular 
 Levantine, that he never pulled his clothes off, lest he should 
 awake minus a toe, or anything else. 
 
 After an undue share of foul weather, considering the season, 
 we made the bold and picturesque coast of Maina, and the 
 same evening entered the Archipelago, embellished by a richly 
 variegated sunset, which spread a roseate tinge over Candia’s 
 snow- clad tips. Not a sail intercepted our view of one of the 
 Cyclades, an unusual blank, since merchant vessels, unpro- 
 tected by a ship of war, generally reckoned on a visit from the 
 Grecian mysticos in this spot. In apprehension of them, not- 
 withstanding, we prepared our only cannon and a few rusty 
 muskets for service. A light air from the north-east, aided by 
 the stream, would have soon swept us far to the southward, 
 had it not fortunately shifted to the south-west before morn- 
 ing : we gained a distant view of Sunium’s “ marbled steep,” 
 and in the course of the day anchored in the beautiful harbour 
 of St. George, Syra, land-locked by Tino and Myconi. 
 
 The first object that attracted my attention on landing, was 
 a man on the beach, the half of his legs and his feet red with 
 blood ; in Rome I might have taken him for a cardinal : he 
 was undergoing the vernal depletion universally practised by 
 the Greeks. The second was an auction in the open street by 
 inch of candle : the auctioneer held a candle in his hand, and 
 as long as it burned the bidding continued. The third was 
 our consul, a Greek, not the steadier for his bottle. He 
 insisted on sharing my company at the table d’hote , the 
 daily resort of a good quantity of villany; then on signing 
 my passport, to show me, I suppose, that he could write, his 
 signature being no more necessary than that of the Great 
 Mogul. He was a reasonable specimen of a class of persons 
 scattered over the Archipelago, styled British officers, who 
 disgrace the flag that waves over their dwellings. I mean the 
 consuls of the different islands, some honorary, some with 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 19 
 
 inadequate salaries. Chiefly Greeks — such Greeks as the 
 most staunch Philhellenists, whose hearts hound at the name, 
 who believe that Themistocleses and Miltiadeses are still to he 
 seen in every province, would object to — they are found at 
 Pera ready for any service, according to their several neces- 
 sities, under the title of protected Rayas, which they enjoy 
 through the means of one ambassador or other, and thereby 
 are not regarded by the Porte as direct subjects. And thus 
 it frequently happens that a person scarcely owned by any 
 country, whose only recommendation consists, perhaps, in 
 having been domestic to an ambassador, in or out of doors, is 
 appointed all at once agent for a great nation ; as, for example, 
 M. Vitalis held a menial office in a consul’s house at Pera 
 previous to his own consular appointment at Syra. The 
 piratic trade; (grseco, free trade,) by which Syra, as its 
 emporium, taking no part in the war of independence, rose 
 from insignificance to prosperity, received no check at his 
 hands. He became rich. Deeply will the cut-throat popu- 
 lation of Syra lament (should the time arrive) when a good 
 blade and a swift bark cease to be riches to him who can 
 wield the one and steer the other. During the height of its 
 illegal career the bazaars offered a singular contrast. English 
 cottons, French jewellery, Turkish silks, might all be seen 
 pele mele selling for mere trifles. I once bought there, in the 
 same shop, Pope’s works (for eighteen-pence) and a Koran; 
 the former, of course, was part of the plunder of an English 
 merchant- vessel ; the latter, of a Turkish vessel, conveying 
 pilgrims on their way to Mecca. 
 
 This organized and tolerated system of piracy, generally ac- 
 companied by revolting barbarity, was the most prominent 
 feature of the Greek revolution, as well as a solecism (from its 
 impunity) in history. The extent to which it was carried 
 appears incredible to those who did not witness it. Boats 
 launched for the traffic from every part of the Archipelago. 
 The deep inlets formed by the long promontories of Mace- 
 donia conveniently enabled the Armatolis to change the scene 
 of their operations from land to sea. None so distinguished 
 himself as a certain Thamantis, chief of a band which had 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 been for years the terror of the Turkish and Christian villages 
 indiscriminately. At the commencement of the revolution he 
 excited the peaceable inhabitants of Neyousta to revolt; but, 
 on being attacked by Aboulloubout Pasha, from Salonica, 
 basely fled, and left them to be decimated ; then with the ver- 
 satility of genius he turned pirate, and made himself equally 
 renowned on the water as he had been on land. No flag was 
 respected by him — scarcely the Grecian — and he wound up a 
 series of exploits, in 1827, by murdering the crew of an Aus- 
 trian vessel, who had dared to resist him. Finding, after this 
 action, which marked him to the cruizers of all nations, that 
 his aquatic career was too hazardous to continue, he prudently 
 obtained an amnesty from the Porte for his former deeds as a 
 klepht, and retired to his native village at the foot of Mount 
 Olympus. Thus far his history possessed nothing uncommon 
 — counterpart of a hundred similar and cotemporary, che- 
 quered by blood and rapine — but the following year it was 
 ennobled by Mr. S. Canning deputing the English consul of 
 Salonica to negotiate with him in person, in order to make him 
 promise that he would renounce piratical habits. The unex- 
 pected proposal was too advantageous to be rejected ; eagerly 
 closing with it, the corsair drew out a declaration to the desired 
 effect, that is, signed a treaty of peace, and sent it by the 
 consul to the ambassador, then at Poros; since when, free 
 from all apprehension of justice from any quarter, he enjoys 
 his ill-gotten wealth in quiet. Now this was an unnecessary 
 concession to expediency. Thamantis, having been guilty of 
 the most atrocious acts, should have been made an example 
 of; the Turkish government would have had him taken, on 
 being applied to officially by the English ambassador. The 
 number of brigands who obtain free pardon in Turkey is no 
 proof of a want of power to take them up. The Porte calcu- 
 lates loss and profit. The expense of apprehending a powerful 
 brigand is certain; the sum that he offers for his pardon is 
 also certain; and he will do no more harm, at least, for some 
 time. When, however, the Porte wishes to catch a brigand — 
 a determination which is always taken when a brigand, once 
 pardoned, resumes his old trade — it never fails. Precise orders 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 21 
 
 are sent to the pashas, who always obey when their own in- 
 terest is not involved ; he is hunted from province to province ; 
 the villages, scenes of his extortions, refuse him asylum when 
 it is known that the authorities are up against him, and he 
 generally ends by being betrayed by his own followers. Such 
 has been the fate of many daring klepthes, after having fol- 
 lowed their will for years, and such would have been the fate 
 of Thamantis had the necessary means been resorted to. He 
 would then have justly suffered as a criminal, instead of ca- 
 pitulating as an honourable foe, with the representative of 
 majesty. 
 
 Another daring band carried on business from Gozzo di 
 Candia, thence commanding the trade to Alexandria. The 
 Maltese particularly suffered by its activity. At length, in 
 1826 , his majesty’s ship Sybille proceeded against it, and re- 
 ceived a severer check than had been experienced in any 
 cutting- out affair (excepting one) during the French war. 
 Captain Pechell — with an absence of caution which might have 
 caused a young officer, without a reputation to rest on, to be 
 sup^seded — sent his boats up a narrow creek to cut out 
 some mysticos anchored at the farther end ; he neglected to 
 send a party on shore to secure them from an ambush. Mark 
 the consequence. When the boats were fairly in the creek, a 
 volley of musketry opened on them from the rocks on either 
 side from unseen hands: twenty-two were killed, twenty-three 
 were wounded ; the remainder lay on their oars scarcely knowing 
 what to do. Two of the marines, in the hurry of the moment, 
 leaped overboard from the launch and swam ashore; out of 
 the frying-pan into the fire one might have supposed, but the 
 pirates spared them for hostages. Showing them to the frigate 
 (anchored close to) from an eminence, they stipulated, as the 
 price of their lives, that they (the pirates) should be left in 
 tranquillity. The gallant captain had no choice. He em- 
 barked his killed and wounded, victims in an inglorious cause, 
 and made sail for Malta. This was the only occasion, it is to 
 be observed, that pirates courageously resisted a man-of-war’s 
 boats, and therefore the captain had some reason for despising 
 them. Pirate hunting had previously been carried on among 
 
22 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the Moreotes and Cycladeotes, not very remarkable for cou- 
 rage; whereas the Candiotes, of either religion, have always 
 been notorious as the most daring and ferocious of the sultans 
 subjects. A party of them, in the same manner as the Mar- 
 seillais at Paris, committed those deplorable excesses of which 
 Smyrna was the theatre in 1821 . 
 
 Generally speaking, the Greeks entertain the belief — a belief 
 which proofs as strong as holy writ will not change — that we 
 encouraged their piracy ; and certainly, to judge by appear- 
 ances, the philosophic way in which we suffered the vessels of 
 our Ionian subjects to he plundered by them, they have some 
 reason on their side. The arguments they use are worthy of 
 them, and render it fortunate for the honour of the navy that 
 our squadron in the Levant was commanded, during the six 
 momentous years, by Captain Hamilton, a man of such nice 
 honour as to make it certain that his lenity towards the pirates 
 was the effect of his orders, or of the purest Philhellenism. 
 The low-minded Levantines and Greeks, on the contrary, 
 being incapable of appreciating a generous sentiment, attri- 
 bute it to interested motives ; judging by themselves, they 
 believe the rule of every man’s conduct to be gold. They 
 saw our ships among them ; they were told that they were 
 there to suppress piracy ; they knew their fame and their 
 power; yet piracy prospered: ergo, they inferred the chief 
 received bribes to relax in his duty. The gallant individual 
 in question could not have been more thunderstruck than I 
 was when I heard this opinion publicly expressed at Syra. I 
 obliged the speaker to retract his words, and I hoped it was 
 confined to that spot. I was mistaken ; I heard it in other 
 isles, on the main, in places far removed from the coast : and, 
 with indignation I say it, I have heard more than one English 
 merchant declare his belief of the false tale. That the natives, 
 who are brought up to consider vice as virtue, intrigue as 
 talent, should give ear to it, is not surprising, but that 
 Englishmen should thus concur in fixing a stain on a noble 
 profession, is too had. The good or bad opinion, however, of 
 the majority of the Levant merchants, is not entitled to much 
 consideration. It being my duty, as well as inclination, I 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 23 
 
 contradicted it wherever I went : to the unreasonable, I de- 
 clared its falsity ; to the reasonable, I pointed out the impos- 
 sibility of a British officer thus acting, were he even so inclined, 
 without incurring publicity and disgrace. 
 
 But, independent of supposed injunctions to trifle with 
 piracy, it was impossible for our cruizers to arrest its progress, 
 because the existing laws about piracy did not second them. 
 Direct evidence of the fact, in all its details, was required to 
 condemn ; and that evidence could never he procured, because 
 our consuls in the islands were natives, who were afraid or 
 unwilling to act. Without half the occasion that we have, 
 the French government always employs Frenchmen as agents. 
 The maritime law regarding piracy is quite adequate for inci- 
 dental cases ; but when a whole nation takes to it as a lawful 
 trade, it should he exchanged (as in a province overrun by 
 brigands) for martial law. Our captains should have had the 
 power of inflicting summary justice by courts martial, on well- 
 known pirates, instead of sending them to Malta, where a 
 quibble always saved them ; and where, had they been hanged, 
 they would not have operated as an example, the chief end of 
 hanging, from the distance of time and place. As, however, 
 it was considered necessary by the powers that were, to allow 
 the Greeks to pirate, and so provide themselves with the sinews 
 of war, it would have been more consonant with reason and 
 humanity, to have let them exact a toll from every merchant 
 ship entering the Archipelago. 
 
 Throughout that eventful war, of which the first marked 
 consequence was the collapse of Turkey in the grasp of Russia, 
 our policy was wofully oblique, scarcely becoming a petty state. 
 It served all parties, and it displeased all parties. It affected 
 our integrity, and it prolonged the struggle. While, apparently 
 to hasten the hberation of the Greeks, we recognised their 
 most trivial, vexatious blockade, to the injury of our com- 
 merce, British consuls in the Levant, in conformity with their 
 instructions, assisted the Osmanleys. By their agency some 
 of the Turkish fortresses (notoriously Patrass) were re-vic- 
 tualled in the last stage of starvation, without which aid it is 
 probable that the Osmanleys, surprised as they were, would 
 
24 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 have been starved out of the Morea the second year of the 
 revolt. Patrass thereby remained in their hands till 1828, 
 when it surrendered to the French troops. To show the weight 
 of a fortress having been thus victualled, in the balance of the 
 contending parties, it is enough to say, that had Napoli di 
 Romania been succoured in 1 822, the patriot cause would have 
 been crushed the same year, since the capture of that impor- 
 tant place, through famine, by the Greeks, led to the destruc- 
 tion of Drama Ali’s army, which would otherwise have over- 
 run the Morea. About the same time, too, the Greeks took 
 two ships laden with com, the property of the Turkish govern- 
 ment, under the name of a British consul. These, the only 
 lawful prizes they ever made, were re-captured by our cruizers, 
 and restored to the Pasha of Salonica, who made the two cap- 
 tains presents, to mark his sense of their services. 
 
 It may therefore readily be imagined the surprise of the 
 sultan, when England demanded the liberation of Greece, in 
 such evident contradiction to the acts of her officers — in such 
 contradiction to the surrender of Parga. Pie doubted the 
 earnestness of the request on her part, though he fully 
 believed it on the part of Russia, and even of France, who had 
 been unequivocal respecting Greece. Noble, indeed, was the 
 part taken by the French in that struggle. It was the part of 
 humanity, divested of political colouring. Wherever a treaty 
 was to be made, a French ship of war assisted to see fair play ; 
 wherever a massacre had taken place, a French ship of war 
 was ready to embark the fugitives ; wherever a fortress 
 was about to surrender, a French ship of w r ar was present 
 to protect the vanquished. Equally zealous were the 
 French consuls, particularly M. David of Smyrna, in the 
 generous cause. Nor were their praiseworthy exertions con- 
 fined to one side : on several occasions, they preserved defence- 
 less Turks from the fury of the patriots ; and if it be urged 
 against them, that they were to blame in not endeavouring to 
 check piracy, it may be answered, that having little or no 
 commerce in the Levant, it was not their immediate duty — 
 less likely to be undertaken, from being opposed to their 
 Philhellenic propensities. It reflects bright honour on rear- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 25 
 
 admiral de Rigny, tliat during his command in the Levant, his 
 presence in any port was considered a safeguard from the 
 horrors of civil war. Yet the patriots brand the French navy 
 because it showed itself equally forward to save Turks, as 
 Greeks, from being butchered. Not one of their liberators do 
 the Greeks like — these same Greeks, who after a hard but ill- 
 organized struggle, were on the point of yielding to the sabre 
 or the yoke, when Europe, influenced by the magic of a name, 
 outstretched a mighty arm. They dislike us because we rule 
 the Ionians ; they dislike the French, because of the long 
 sojourn of their troops among them ; and they dislike the 
 Russians on account of their airs of protection, rendered more 
 obnoxious by their ignorance and their slavery, which their 
 intercourse with Russian ships of war, since 1827, has enabled 
 the Greeks to perceive. 
 
 Talented as the Greeks certainly are, it was yet reserved 
 for them to set the example of a people unable, during a long 
 struggle for freedom, to produce one man capable of guiding 
 the energies, or of controlling the passions, of the multitude. 
 Look in the old and the new world, the case is unparalleled. 
 Even Columbia, long bent under the paralyzing mental yoke 
 of the inquisition, produced a Bolivar ; a Toussaint was 
 engendered amidst the slavery of St. Domingo ; Scanderbeg 
 tamed the wild Albanians to his will ; and, to come nearer the 
 point, Servia boasts a Czerni George. But in the Morea we 
 search in vain for a native name to efface the dark pages of 
 revolutionary history ; that of Byron, bright on them as a 
 meteor darting across a lurid sky, graving on them immorta- 
 lity, was not hers, save by adoption. Alas ! that that fine 
 spirit should have exhaled, worn out, (knowing them too late,) 
 by the frivolous dissensions of such a people. Some few, it 
 cannot be denied, appeared on the stage, acting a worthy part ; 
 Miaoulis, (a Hydriote,) Canaris, (an Ipsariote,) Botzaris, (a 
 Suliote,) were patriots and heroes ; their names deserve to be 
 inscribed in brass, their features perpetuated in marble, their 
 children honoured in their memory; but their deeds were 
 eccentric, and only created an individual halo, shedding no in- 
 fluence beyond that of exciting a temporary enthusiasm. 
 
26 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 There did not appear the capacious mind, the embodying 
 intellect, supposed to exist in embryo among every people, 
 waiting only a favourable conjuncture to spring into life, and 
 assert its divine pre-eminence. The modern Greeks are an 
 exception ; as they were in 1821, they are now, divided by petty 
 interests. The klephte chiefs, taking advantage of the drowsy, 
 stupid confidence of the Osmanleys, struck the first direct 
 blow, not actuated by true patriotism, hut by a desire to extend 
 their licentious power; they looked not beyond this, the 
 pleasure of the moment, and had not the priesthood fanned 
 the flame, and prevented the popular spring from relaxing, 
 these Hellenists, whose portraits have figured in every print- 
 shop in France, their names in a hundred tomes — the Gouras, 
 the Odysseus, the Mavromichalis, the Grievos, the Coloco- 
 tronis, &c.— would have been separately bought over; and, 
 indeed, there is little doubt that had Turkish pride, in 
 accordance with its usual Machiavelian policy, stooped to this 
 obvious means earlier than it did, the rebellion would have 
 been paralyzed in its commencement. But the experiment was 
 delayed until the cause had fully excited the Philhellenism of 
 Europe, when the consciousness of being in the gaze of the 
 civilized world, of being watched with suspicion, prevented 
 some of their chiefs, as there are proofs, from profiting by 
 Turkish gold. They have passed the ordeal ; hut has it 
 purified them ? If not still banditti chiefs, (which is doubt- 
 ful,) they are partisans mutually opposed, except in the one 
 pursuit of throwing obstacles in the way of establishing order 
 in their immortal country. The approach of a large Turkish 
 force twice united them, perhaps hand and heart ; and it is 
 only the arrival among them of a firm monarch, with a page 
 of the sultan’s code in his pocket, and a few thousand foreign 
 soldiers, that will again produce union. Severity must he his 
 motto, or the Lord have mercy on him ; and to make it palat- 
 able, he should give the Greeks the shadow of freedom ; by no 
 means the substance. He may give them a parliament — a 
 parliament such as that of Corfu, sitting on concealed bayonets; 
 let its members have consideration, and wear fine robes ; let 
 them harangue on arts and sciences, on temples and statues, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 27 
 
 on roads and bridges ; not a word about government. Such a 
 parliament, an elegant toy, would flatter their pride, and 
 exercise their talents, without rendering them troublesome. I 
 by no means advocate the cause of absolutism. The sovereign 
 of Greece can never become a despot, or other than a 
 monarch, in its most liberal sense. The circumstances that 
 give him a kingdom, and his responsibility in consequence to 
 two enlightened nations, will prevent his exceeding the bounds 
 of moderation; and though he should not permit an' un- 
 censored press in his dominions, which would do more harm 
 than good, the constant influx of talented strangers on his 
 classic shores will fully supply its useful qualities. To give 
 the Greeks a constitution, whereby its representatives would 
 have great political power, would be like giving a child a watch 
 — it would be pulled to pieces before its value were known. 
 
 None have been more deceived in the Greeks than the 
 English ; yet their experience of the same race in the Ionian 
 Isles should have taught them the amount of baseness and 
 ingratitude to be expected. Nothing short of the firmness and 
 salutary rigour of Sir T. Maitland could have brought those 
 islands into order. Fortunately he was not a theoretical Phil- 
 hellenist, and his timely measure of disarming the inhabitants, 
 and hanging the disaffected, in 1822, saved the English in 
 them from being massacred. Hence it has become a proverb 
 in the East, that the English and the Osmanleys are the only 
 people that know how to govern the Greeks. Europe, if she 
 have not already opened them, will open her eyes, and be 
 ready to regret that she has done so much, broken old ties, 
 and committed a great act of injustice for so undeserving a 
 race. Liberty and brigandage are synonymous terms with the 
 Greeks; without the latter, they see no meaning in the former; 
 any attempt to bring them within the bounds of rational order 
 they call tyranny, and any ruler who aims at protecting the 
 well-disposed, and their property, is likened to a pasha. 
 
28 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Syria — Scio — Tenedos — Hellespont — Marmara — Stamboul 
 
 Syra was in the second year of her liberty, and already began 
 to regret it, for the tribute imposed by the Greek government 
 was quadruple the amount of the kharateh, from which, too, 
 she had been exempt by the-Porte during the war, in reward 
 for not having joined the insurrection. As one of the Cyclades, 
 she was necessarily concluded in independent Greece. Capo 
 dlstria was then expected for the first time, and as his object 
 was supposed to relate to the arrears of tribute, the notables 
 were not enthusiastic. Capo d’lstria was certainly unpopular 
 everywhere, though I really believe that that was not so much 
 his fault as the fault of his position, and would have been the 
 same with any one. He wanted force. The allies blamed him 
 for not quelling piracy, the Greeks blamed him for attempting 
 to quell it. One party said that he must be a Russian at 
 heart, because he wore Russian orders ; another party insisted 
 that he was in English interest because he employed a great 
 many Ionians, (he being a Corfuyote.) And so they went 
 on : with all he did or said, right or wrong, fault was found ; 
 if he wished to impose taxes, his subjects said they would 
 rather live under a Begler-Beg; if he attempted to free the 
 passes of brigands, they called him Dervendjii Bashi ; the 
 Mainiotes replied to his deputation, desiring them to become 
 reasonable members of society, that they had always preserved 
 their freedom under the Turkish government, and they would 
 continue to preserve it under his. With a couple of thousand 
 foreign soldiers at his beck, the Greeks would have called 
 Capo d’lstria the best of rulers — as it was, they called him a 
 tyrant. 
 
 With her freedom, Syra had acquired one of the plagues of 
 civilization — a plague invented by mankind, dependent on its 
 fears rather than its reason — quarantine. A Russian vessel 
 was performing it in the port, and thus exemplifying its 
 absurdity in a general sense, because, disposed as Rus- 
 sians are by habitual uncleanliness to disease, the keep- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 29 
 
 ing a number of them shut up in a narrow space, screened 
 from air and exercise, was an excellent way of generating in- 
 fection : it would have been safer to have incurred the remote 
 chance of their having brought plague from the coast of 
 Turkey. Syra had also acquired one of the comforts of civili- 
 zation, though in a very uncomfortable form — an inn. The 
 master of it was very woe-begone ; his grey locks were un- 
 combed, and his white beard long unshorn. “ Ah, signore,” 
 he said to my probing, “Aime! a month since I took a young 
 wife ; the day following she was attacked by a violent small- 
 pox, from the effects of which she remains in a deplorable 
 state. Povero me ! she was fresh and beautiful, without a 
 stain on any part of her body — smooth as alabaster; now, 
 rabbia di Dio ! she is an object to turn one’s face from.” As 
 he was past sixty, and she was scarce twenty, I thought 
 neither of them entitled to much pity. To my inquiry as to 
 what, at that time of life, emboldened him to enter among 
 the shoals of matrimony, he said, “ Non sa signore , davvero ? 
 sa che una bella donnina fa lafortuna d’un oste ?” What an 
 Italianism ! 
 
 There was another Italian on the island, a person of note in 
 the capacity of a doctor possessed of information, and the art of 
 talking well ; and therefore his shop, amply stocked with empty 
 phials, was the fashionable lounge. He informed me that he 
 was writing a history of the Greek war, for which purpose he 
 had visited the principal scenes to collect notes, and flattered 
 himself with being able to give correct particulars. “ Will it 
 occupy much space ? ” I asked. “ Not much,” he replied ; 
 “ my style is concise ; I put in three pages what would take 
 another man ten ! ” An impartial work of the kind is wanted, 
 since Pouqueville’s, excepting one or two incidents of which 
 he happened to be a witness, is a tissue of misrepresentations, 
 founded on hearsay. M. Pouqueville’s rancour alone, against 
 the British nation, would render his authority doubtful, even 
 were direct evidence wanting. What, for instance, must be 
 thought of the man who designates the immortal Nelson, in 
 his history of Modern Greece, “ un Cyclops sanguinaire ? ” 
 Thus to make a wound, gained in honourable warfare, the sub- 
 
30 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 ject of obloquy and ridicule, shows him to be totally devoid 
 of honourable feelings. Frenchmen should blush for him. 
 
 Three of my countrymen were occupying the little inn on 
 my arrival, Messrs. Phipps, Spencer, and Benyon; they were 
 officers of the Ionian garrison employing a month’s leave in 
 visiting the Morea and the isles. Our common language was 
 a sufficient introduction. Late in the evening another Briton 
 came in, name unknown; he had just landed from an Ipsariote 
 boat. He told us he had left Constantinople a fortnight before, 
 that he had been there a week, had seen everything, was now 
 taking a bird’s-eye view of the islands. A bird’s-eye view, 
 indeed ! “We shall then have the pleasure of your company 
 for a day,” we said. “ 0 no ; off to-morrow morning for Paros 
 and Aritiparos — have not time to pass more than an hour or 
 two at each place— have to make a tour of Sicily yet — must 
 get it over before the hot weather sets in.” It was now the 
 middle of May ! In fact, on rising in the morning, we found 
 that the travelling gentleman was already off. We saw the 
 lions of Syra shortly, the island being, as all its neighbours, 
 little better than a pile of rocks, with a few patches of cultiva- 
 tion. The beauty of the Archipelagian islands, so much, and 
 justly vaunted, is outwardly: not that, viewed singly, they have 
 the slightest pretensions to the picturesque; but the assemblage 
 of so many isles of different shapes and heights, studding the 
 sea, as a constellation of stars in the sky, produces an enchant- 
 ing effect. The charm of sailing among them with a fresh 
 gale at night, when sky and water mingle in a dubious purple 
 haze, giving undulating softness to the mountain outlines, 
 adding to the grace of inland sea variety the effect of ocean 
 expanse, now staggering to the blast which sweeps through 
 the passages, now slipping quietly along beneath some 
 glittering white kastro, each headland, each inlet, creative of 
 glowing association, is indescribable — necessary to be felt to 
 be understood. We saw them, nearly all, stretched at our 
 feet as in a map, from the summit of Syra, to which we 
 climbed with excessive fatigue, and some risk. 
 
 After three days we separated: my military acquaintance 
 embarked in a Hydriote schooner for Napoli di Romania, and 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 31 
 
 I made sail for Scio — Scio, garden of the isles, once, and that 
 not long since, so famed for women, wine, silk, mastic, scholars, 
 luxury, and good manners, now girt with the melancholy cele- 
 brity of the massacre committed by the Osmanleys, in 1822. 
 In an evil hour the Sciotes forgot the cause of their singular 
 prosperity, and took the brand of revolution from the Samiotes. 
 Their effeminate hands could not hold it longer than sufficed 
 to slay the feeble and confiding Turkish garrison; then, when 
 the avengers of the latter came burning with fanaticism and 
 hopes of plunder, grasped the cross. In this age of dethrone- 
 ments, partitions of kingdoms, sweepings away of the human 
 race by hundreds of thousands at a time, succeeding each 
 other in rapid succession, it is somewhat surprising that the 
 catastrophe of Scio should have caused such a clamour. The 
 reason lay in the sufferers being Christians, the aggressors 
 Mussulmans : had they been vice versa we should not have 
 heard a word about the affair. The Greeks told their own 
 story uncontradicted, and as the Turks, either not knowing, or 
 not caring, what was imputed to them, said nothing, gratuitous 
 barbarities were ascribed to them. It was well for the honour 
 of Christianity that they have no press, or they would be able 
 to cite the conduct of the French in Egypt and Syria, as justifica- 
 tion for a century of atrocity. The annals of military outrage 
 would be greatly enriched by correct details of Napoleon’s 
 pashasliip. His feat at Jaffa has few parallels — I mean that 
 of causing four thousand Albanians, prisoners of war, to be 
 shot in cold blood, because (this was the sublime reason) if set 
 at liberty, they might act against him. Let the French his- 
 torian who vents virtuous indignation about the conduct of 
 Henry to his prisoners at Agincourt, append this veritable 
 morgeaux as a note. 
 
 Had not our bark been polacca-rigged I should not have 
 reached Scio in 1829, for a gust of wind took us at the en- 
 trance of the Tino passage and nearly overset us. Our Greco- 
 Italian crew became, in consequence, so nervous, that it was 
 some hours before I could persuade them to make sail again. 
 It was the afternoon of the day after leaving Syra before we 
 reached the canal of Scio. We sailed slowly up to it, passed 
 
32 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the town, and anchored near the spot where Canaris blew up 
 the capitan pasha’s ship in 1822, a neat exploit, which he re- 
 peated a few months after in the roads of Tenedos, on the 
 capitan hey. Abreast of our anchorage was a large garden, 
 once, to judge by the relics of taste and luxury scattered about, 
 the abode of opulence. Its inviting shade made us speedily 
 quit the unawninged deck, on which we had been frying all 
 day in preference to stewing in the close cabin for the benefit 
 of the insect tribe. After walking about it some time undis- 
 turbed, w T e sat down on the steps of a half- ruined kiosk, to en- 
 joy the cool evening breeze, which wafted to us the fragrance 
 of the coast of Asia opposite. Perceiving us intent on filling 
 our chibouques, an elderly woman brought us charcoal, then 
 fetched us some indifferent sherbet, while a young girl pre- 
 sented us roses, according to the Grecian custom. The 
 appearance of our hostesses, joined to their naive politeness, 
 was very interesting; through the garb of poverty, we per- 
 ceived in the elder tokens of another sphere, and in the sweet 
 countenance of the younger that she was born to higher hopes. 
 She was very beautiful ; her eyes black, her hair auburn, 
 descending in braids to her middle, and her elastic graceful 
 form was set-off by a Turco-Grecian costume, which, though 
 coarse, appeared elegant on her. Their tale was soon told, one 
 of many similar. On that never-to-be-forgotten night, they 
 had lost all that makes life dear — kindred and friends — their 
 wealth had enriched their destroyers, and in their once 
 happy home they were now domestics. “In this paradise,” 
 exclaimed the elder, “ my husband lived, my children flourished, 
 and I was blest : — fools ! why had we not followed the warn- 
 ings we received, and fled in time? O night of woe ! what 
 cruel pity spared me, preserved that innocent I should myself 
 have slain ! She was so young. I saved her life — alas ! for 
 what. You see her beauty, — fatal gift ! Our lord has seen 
 her ; may, if unrestranied by pity, drag her from me ! ” Grief 
 stopped her utterance, while her daughter threw herself in her 
 arms, energetically exclaiming, “ Never, mother, they shall 
 bear me to death sooner.” It was quite a scene, and made our 
 rough skipper draw his sleeve across his eyes. It was near 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 38 
 
 midnight before we left this interesting couple to return to 
 our wooden couches; they felt a melancholy pleasure in relating 
 and bewailing their misfortunes. 
 
 This, I was happy to find next day, on going into the city, 
 was, comparatively speaking, but an isolated case of distress. 
 Several of the streets were rebuilt, and workmen were employed 
 in clearing away the rubbish, and making a square. We 
 visited the houses of some of the primates; they were well 
 furnished, and the ladies ornamented, as in better times, with 
 gold chains and bracelets. We were treated, in each, with 
 conserve of roses (best of conserves), and a pleasant spirit dis- 
 tilled from the mastic, presented to us by the fair hands of the 
 mistress of the house. Making several visits the same day in 
 the East is a serious affair, on account of the sweetmeat ordeal. 
 The refugees who had fled, first burying their precious metals, 
 on the rumour of the invasion, and those who, having been 
 captured, had been redeemed from slavery, were returning 
 allured by the favourable promises of the Porte, and by the 
 mild government of the Pasha Yussuf, to whom I made my 
 salaam in due form, accompanied by a dragoman. He resided 
 in the castle, which was extensive, and in gbod repair for a 
 Turkish fortress, though a frigate could have levelled it in a 
 few hours. After some conventional discourse, he observed, 
 “ God is your friend.” I bowed. “ You belong to a distant 
 part of the world, yet you are going to Constantinople; you 
 will see that paradise; you may also have the happiness of 
 seeing our lord’s countenance; you will be there in time to 
 witness the rejoicings that will follow our lord’s victories over 
 the Muscovites — happy man !” Yussuf was never more mis- 
 taken: little of pleasure led me to the East; I in no manner 
 shared his idea of the advantage to be derived from seeing the 
 features of his sublimity ; and the victories ! — even the proud 
 ignorance of the inmates of the seraglio, their fanatic confi- 
 dence in Mussulman invincibility — was enlightened by the 
 reverse. 
 
 That evening I again made sail, but before reaching the 
 Spalmadores, vivid lightnings broke the pile of clouds in the 
 north, and heavy squalls obliged us to bear up. We ran for 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS* 
 
 the Bay of Tchesmeh, so called from the mineral springs on 
 its shore, and famed for two great victories gained in it — that 
 by the Romans against the fleet of Antiochus (171 years B. c.), 
 and that obtained by the Russian fleet (on board of which 
 rear-admiral Elphinstone was third in command), over the 
 Turks, July 8th, 1770, a most disastrous epoch in Ottoman 
 history. 
 
 “ In an instant,” — thus says the Ottoman historian, — “ the 
 two fleets being in the straits of Conioun-ada (Spalmadores), 
 the raging fire of battle was lighted ; in the ardour and con- 
 fusion of the fight, and in the midst of flames, which rose as 
 the demon of the mountain of Kaf, Djezairlu Hassan, the capi- 
 tan hey, r drew near to the enemy’s flag-ship. The combat was 
 terrible on both sides: but at length the enemy, unable any 
 longer to sustain the attack, and in despair at seeing his vessel 
 on the point of falling into the hands of the Mussulman, set 
 her on fire. It being impossible to disengage the capitan-ship 
 from her opponent, it pleased the Almighty that both vessels 
 should become the prey of the devouring element. With 
 infinite trouble Djezairlu Hassan Bey contrived to save him- 
 self. 
 
 “After this event, the sultan’s fleet entered the port of 
 Tchesmeh, where, the enemy having followed it, the battle 
 re-commenced. Soon, by the continual fire of the big guns, 
 the sea became a surface of flame. As the enemy kept under 
 sail during this naval fight, it was as imprudent as dangerous 
 on the part of the Mussulmans to remain at anchor; and 
 therefore, considering the facts, we must attribute to the force 
 of destiny the determination of Hassan-Eddin, capitan pasha, 
 to do so. In the midst of the efforts which this officer made, 
 nevertheless, to repulse the attack, the enemy sent against him 
 several vessels, filled with inflammable substances, blazing to 
 the clouds ; and, in consequence, the Ottoman ships, which for 
 mutual succour were close together, became all the prey of the 
 flames in the night of the 14th of Rebi ul Ewel, 1184. 
 
 “The capitan pasha and the capitan bey were wounded; but 
 the patrona bey and the riala bey perished in attempting to 
 swim ashore. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 35 
 
 “ The coasts being without troops, it was feared that the 
 enemy would enter the gulf of Smyrna, and capture the vessels 
 that might he there. Five merchant vessels were therefore 
 sunk in the passage of Sandjack Bournou, and the castle put 
 in a state of defence. An order was particularly sent to Ali 
 Pasha, charged with the defence of the Hellespont, that the 
 ships which had been intended to succour the grand fleet 
 should remain where they were. The captains of all merchant 
 vessels on the coasts were likewise ordered to remain quiet 
 until the crisis was over, and the governors of the fortresses were 
 ordered to redouble their vigilance. The enemy, thus seeing 
 that he was prepared for on all points, lost hopes of being able 
 to do more injury, and disappeared, after having repaired his 
 ships in the isles of Conioun-ada. 
 
 “ This event deeply afflicted the entire Mussulman nation, 
 and the padischah in particular was imbued with the most 
 lively sorrow. He lifted his suppliant hands towards the 
 throne of God, to pray him to revenge Islamism, and to 
 grant new strength to the laws of him who is the glory of 
 mankind. 
 
 “ This deplorable state of things was attributed to the faults 
 of the capitan pasha, who was immediately deposed, and 
 Djiafar, an able sea-officer, appointed in his place. He sailed 
 directly for the White Sea, with six line of battle ships from the 
 imperial arsenal, and joined thirty other sail, which had been 
 prepared at Dulcigno and other places. Money was given to 
 commissaries to repair the damages occasioned by the enemy, 
 and orders sent to the governor of Alexandria to the same 
 effect. 
 
 “ It being a truth, that victory, the same as the ordinary 
 course of human affairs, depends on the decrees of destiny, it 
 is against all justice to attribute an unlucky turn of events to 
 those who are charged with important affairs. Most men who 
 enjoy the favours of fortune, and the confidence of govern- 
 ments, apply themselves diligently, induced thereto by the 
 necessity of requiring, or preserving, a good reputation, to 
 direct properly the affairs intrusted to them ; but if, instead of 
 attaining this object, those who reach the high offices of state 
 
 d 2 
 
36 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 only meet with shame and opprobrium, they will naturally 
 soon feel disgusted with the cares attached to office. This 
 truth is incontestible to every body who is experienced in the 
 affairs of the world.” 
 
 With what cunning does the learned Mollah insinuate that 
 the doctrine of fatality (which he dares not impugn) is no 
 excuse for the faults of empty-headed statesmen. The maxim 
 he here lays down, that such deserve punishment, not so much 
 for their errors, as for their presumption in believing them- 
 selves capable of filling difficult situations, should be applied 
 by all nations. Error of judgment is a securer retreat for 
 incompetent statesmen and commanders in Christendom, than 
 destiny is for Mussulman grandees. 
 
 From Tchesmeh to the plain of Troy we had a most delight- 
 ful sail. With light airs we coasted close along Mytilene, and 
 in the afternoon of the second day were off Alexandria Troas. 
 The scene from this direction is truly fine — perhaps the finest 
 in the Archipelago — independent of the Homeric recollections. 
 The shore of the Troade was varied by white tents, capped 
 with green, pitched at intervals for several miles, in order to 
 observe the Russian squadron, to give the alarm in case a 
 landing should be attempted. This squadron, consisting of 
 five line of battle ships and three frigates, under the command 
 of rear-admiral Ricord, a Nissard, showed, by the difference of 
 its appearance then, and when it arrived from the Baltic a 
 year and a half previously, that it had profited by the example 
 of the French and English fleets, and by the resources of 
 Malta dock-yard. Two frigates kept under sail, one to the 
 northward, the other to the southward of Tenedos ; the re- 
 mainder lay at anchor near the Dardanelles, in a situation 
 exposed to the operation of fire-ships, had the Turks been 
 sufficiently enterprising to make use of them. The utility, 
 however, of blockading the Hellespont (which, with all due 
 deference to Lord Collingwood’s opinion to the contrary, ap- 
 pears perfectly easy) is doubtful, since two hundred miles of 
 coast, on either side of the Hellespont and Propontis, will 
 always supply Constantinople, (scantily it is true,) even in the 
 degraded state of Turkish agriculture. That their produce did 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 37 
 
 not suffice in 1828 — 29, was owing to the policy of the sultan, 
 in prohibiting a free market to the coasting traders, none of 
 whom, having been once taken in, would return until the 
 monopoly was removed ; and then provisions flowed in, 
 enough to prevent apprehensions of a rising in consequence 
 of the distress. 
 
 The wind failing us at sunset, we anchored off a village six 
 miles from the castle of Asia. Imprudently, some of us got 
 into the boat, and landed for curiosity : we were soon sur- 
 rounded by a tumultuous body of Turks, who assailed us with 
 vociferations, in which the word Moscof was very distinct, and 
 showed indications of treating us worse. It was vain to 
 answer that we were not Muscovites ; they did not believe us, 
 or would not understand us : and the clamour increasing, I 
 began to apprehend that my travels in Turkey might finish 
 where they began. Fortunately, however, the aga was smoking 
 under a tree in view of what passed : he sent two officers to 
 extricate us, and to desire us to return on board, as he could 
 not answer for our safety on shore. We did not require the 
 hint to be repeated, and we escaped without further violence 
 than a few stones thrown after us as we rowed from the beach. 
 The calm continuing next day, I went to stretch my legs on 
 Tenedos, where I did not fear a repetition of the preceding 
 evening’s entertainment, since the bey and the admiral were on 
 good terms. 
 
 Tenedos possesses no antiquities beyond a few tumuli. The 
 town is tolerable, and its bazaar is always exceedingly well- 
 stocked with provisions. The inhabitants are Greeks, well 
 disposed towards the Turks, of whom there are none in the 
 island, excepting the suite of the aga, and a few cannoniers 
 for the castle. They make some of the best wine in the Archi- 
 pelago ; it is strong bodied, of a good flavour, not at all unlike 
 port, and infinitely better than the drug under that denomi- 
 nation sold in most of the hotels in England. The price of it, 
 in 1829, was eighteen paras (three halfpence) the oq (quart) ; 
 we paid at the rate of twenty-five paras for some which had 
 been in cask two years. While waiting for my boat to return 
 on board, one of the cannoniers approached me, and pointing 
 
38 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 to some rusty cannon, observed, that they had belonged to 
 Ajax. Standing where I was, it may be readily supposed that 
 I thought of no other Ajax than him whose tumulus graced 
 the plain of Troy before my eyes. The remark, whether in 
 wit or ignorance, was ludicrously a-propos, and singularly 
 contrasted with the usual ignorance of Orientals on all subjects 
 which date a few years back. Turning to my bearded cicerone 
 with an expression of approbation, I was about to conceive a 
 sort of respect for his understanding, but, not having the art 
 of knowing when he had said enough, he convinced me in 
 another breath that the loss of the Ajax, English line-of-battle 
 ship, burnt off Tenedos, in 1807, was the sole cause of a Turk 
 knowing one classic name. 
 
 With a fresh south-west gale, the morning of May 80, 1829, 
 we entered the noble channel which unites the Archipelago 
 with the Propontis, esteeming ourselves fortunate in not 
 having been detained at its mouth above twenty-four hours, 
 considering that vessels often lie there wind-bound for months ; 
 in that case, a traveller may land at the Dardanelles, row in a 
 caique to Gallipoli, and then take horses to Constantinople. 
 The outer castles of Europe and Asia, with dazzling white 
 walls and minarets, are fine ornaments to the mouth of the 
 Hellespont, and little more, for their separation, three and 
 a quarter miles, renders their cannon more threatening than 
 dangerous. The former, Sertil bahr Kalesi, (padlock of the 
 sea), stands well, on the d.eclivity of a hill ; the latter, Koum 
 Kalesi, (sandy castle), is built on a sandy tongue, near the 
 mouth of the Simois. To each a village is attached, for the 
 accommodation of the families of the garrisons, it being against 
 the law that women reside in Turkish forts, or go on board 
 Turkish ships of war. The shores of the Hellespont mutually 
 contrast as those of the Strait of Messina, the Asiatic shore 
 (like the Sicilian) being diversified by wooded hills and 
 cultivated vales, while that of Europe corresponds with 
 Calabria’s bold and sterile aspect. After passing several time- 
 honoured tumuli of demi — what? gods or devils? in the space 
 of ten miles, we came to a formidable thirty-six pound battery, 
 a flew' d’eau , directly raking us — one of those thrown up by 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 39 
 
 the French, in 1807. A string of camels, cheered by the 
 sound of their hells, and led by a green turbanned Mussulman, 
 mounted on a donkey, was winding by it. 
 
 Three miles higher up we hoye-to olf the inner castle, to 
 receive the visit of the Turkish officer, who hoards all vessels, 
 ascending or descending, a tiresome and useless regulation, 
 which often puts a vessel, in the latter case, to the inconvenience 
 of anchoring, on account of being unable to lie-to against the 
 current, when the wind is strong : in the event of non-com- 
 pliance, a shot reminds her of it. An Fmglish merchantman, 
 some years since, anchored in consequence ; but, driving fast 
 towards the shore, was obliged to cut her cable and make sail 
 again down the strait : each castle in succession fired one shot 
 at her as she passed, but she escaped without being - struck. 
 These castles were erected in the reign of Mahomet IV., and 
 from their vicinity are formidable ; they are separated about 
 three-quarters of a mile, and have each about seventy pieces of 
 cannon from thirty to eight hundred pound calibre. The 
 castle of Europe, Kilidi Bahr, (the key of the sea,) with its 
 village and cypressed grounds, ornaments the face of a hill ; 
 that of Asia (Hissar Sultani) stands in a delightful plain, 
 watered by a small river: adjoining it is a considerable town, 
 the seat of a two-tailed pasha, called by the Turks, Channa- 
 kalis, from its noted manufactory of earthenware ; and, by 
 Europeans, Dardanelles, from being built on the site of the 
 ancient Dardanus, known in history as the place where peace 
 was signed between Sylla and Mithridates. In a tchiftlik, 
 (farm,) not many miles from it, the preliminaries of peace 
 were signed, January, 1809, between England and Turkey. 
 Two miles farther up, we passed, on the right hand, an elegant 
 fountain, termed the pasha’s fountain ; tradition runs that a 
 sailor of an European merchant vessel, having killed his captain, 
 apostatized to save his life ; he afterwards rose to the rank of 
 pasha, built this fountain, and was buried near it. We next 
 approached the sites of Sestos and Abydos, which, till quite 
 close to, appear to join and close the channel. Strong bat- 
 teries on either side cross their fire, at the distance of little 
 more than a mile, and finish the ordeal of the hold fleet that 
 
40 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 dares to run the gauntlet, — an ordeal that would prove fatal 
 were the batteries ably served. We cannot judge of the prac- 
 ticability by the success of Sir J. Duckworth, since in his 
 passage up he was nearly unopposed, owing to the indecision 
 of the enemy ; and in his retreat, the velocity of his ships, 
 produced by a strong north-easter and a rapid current, offered 
 a severe test for their gunnery. A fleet wishing to force a 
 passage, (most practicable in May, June, October, or Novem- 
 ber, during which months southerly winds prevail strongest,) 
 would make it easy by landing a body of men after sunset, and 
 taking the principal works on the European side of the Hel- 
 lespont before morning. The usual self-security and laziness 
 of the Turks would render the enterprise certain. The garri- 
 sons are not strong, (composed of regular veterans inured to 
 smoking and eating pilaff,) and the castles, in addition to the 
 defect of being commanded within a stone’s throw by the slope 
 on which they are built, are extremely weak in the rear ; they 
 have no drawbridge, and the crazy wooden gates would yield 
 to a few strokes of a hatchet, unless it were preferred to cross 
 them by ladders. Their height, the same as that of the wall, 
 is about twenty- two feet ; the ditch is dry and shallow. Before 
 a sufficient force could be collected to dislodge them, the 
 assailants would have time to open a fire on the opposite works 
 in Asia, which are commanded by the European works ; at all 
 events, if hard pressed, to spike the guns and retreat to their 
 advancing ships by means of the numerous boats belonging to 
 each castle. By the simple expedient of constructing a tower 
 on the hill above each castle in Europe, with two or three 
 guns so mounted as to fire down into it, the possibility of a 
 similar coujp-de-main would he completely guarded against. 
 But the Turks never adopt precautions until misfortune shows 
 them the necessity, then perhaps too late. Allah has hitherto 
 preserved the works of the Dardanelles, and they trust he will 
 continue to do so without giving them any trouble. 
 
 Owing to the increasing height of the banks, which acted as 
 a funnel, the gale sensibly freshened, so that we soon reached 
 Gallipoli, a good town, capital of an extensive sandjacklik, 
 famed for manufacturing the best morocco leather, and pos- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 41 
 
 sessing a good port, in the Chersonese of Thrace. Seven 
 mosques, an old Greek castle, and a lighthouse, (seldom lit,) 
 grace it visibly. It has 15,000 inhabitants, and has the repu- 
 tation of being the first place occupied by the Turks in Europe, 
 then in a manner by divine aid, by an earthquake throwing 
 down its works, and enabling young Othman, the son of 
 Orchan, to take possession of it without trouble. Gallipoli 
 was for the Turks what Calais was, during two centuries, to the 
 English. 
 
 A few miles above it we entered the Sea of Marmara, and 
 night spread her mantle round us while passing the lofty island 
 of the same name. Pale lightnings in the N.E. made us 
 apprehend a contrary wind. The southerly breeze, however, 
 prevailed, and we remained on deck, waiting the dawn that 
 should reveal to our eyes the pride of fifteen centuries. It 
 came with oriental splendour, and with it a forest of towers 
 and trees appeared on the waters. It gradually rose as we 
 slowly advanced, and by an hour after sunrise the noble work 
 of Constantine, the first Christian capital, the rival of eternal 
 Rome, planted triumphantly on seven hills, was fairly disclosed 
 to view, each hill studded with cupolas and minarets, chec- 
 quered with funereal bowers, dotted, here and there, with an 
 ancient column, and girt, the whole, with a venerable crust of 
 time, the battlements of her glory. In the vast hay, which 
 the mingling shores of Europe and Asia seemed to form, she 
 sat, queen of cities, seat of empire, whether Christian, heathen, 
 or Mohammedan, chosen spot whence genius might rule the 
 world. 
 
 Two prominent objects of the picture before our eyes were 
 the seven towers on one side, and on the other the superb 
 barracks of Scutari, the glittering whiteness of the latter 
 beautifully relieving the long and broad cypress belt of the 
 great cemetery, stretching from them over the plain towards 
 Mount Oetos, on whose summit the ruins of a Roman fortress 
 brave time and tempest. Farther to the right, we saw a 
 scattered village on the site of Chalcedonia, and, near a 
 meadow planted with gigantic cypresses, a faro skirted by a 
 boldly picturesque rock high out of water. Continuing the 
 
42 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 same line, the Princes Isles, where blind old Dandolo refreshed 
 his galleys in 1203, and where, in 1807, a British fleet lost 
 several men, blended in one, and in the distance, over a low 
 chain of hills, forming Mondania gulf, the snowy ridge of the 
 Bythynian Olympus formed a silver arch on the blue sky. 
 
 As we began to open the Bosphorus, the scene changed, 
 though still preserving its characteristic beauty; instead of 
 one city we saw three cities, the capital, Tophana crowned by 
 Pera, and Scutari, almost joining, yet distinctly separated. 
 We then, for the sake of the eddy- stream, edged over to Point 
 St. Stephen, near which was a pretty royal kiosk, and then 
 skirted the sea front of Constantinople. Owing to the 
 position of the city on a series of hills of nearly equal height, 
 its principal edifices are seen at one view. We discerned with 
 our telescopes Marcian’s column among a crowd of mean 
 habitations; to the left of it, Sultan Selim’s mosque; to the 
 right, on the fourth hill, that of the conqueror, (Mahomet II.;) 
 lower down, the mosque of Mahomet IY.’s mother, remarkable 
 by the numerous adjacent mausoleums, and near it two vast 
 cupolas, covering one of the finest public baths. Also on the 
 fifth, sixth, and seventh hills, numerous mosques were dis- 
 cernible, though of no great merit, excepting one built by a 
 princess of the blood, and distinguished by the absence of 
 minarets. Passing the interval of the third and fourth hills, 
 we saw the minarets and flag-staff of Ramis Tchiftlik, the 
 out-post of Constantinople. Sultan Solyman’s magnificent 
 mosque towers on the third hill; led by its imposing appear- 
 ance, we at first supposed it the principal temple, forgetting 
 St. Sophia. A tall ugly white tower, the model of bad taste, 
 called the Seraskier’s Tower, served as a foil to it, and the 
 gracefully wreathed minarets of Bajazet’s and other mosques. 
 Glancing hastily from it, our eyes lighted on the elegant 
 mosque of Osman III. on the second hill, and dwelt on the 
 porphyry column of Constantine adjoining. From this to the 
 first hill the transition is short but striking. The summits of 
 two obelisks, and a cluster of ten minarets at the apex of the 
 triangle, pointed out to us the hippodrome, and the mosques 
 of Sultan Achmet and of St. Sophia; another cluster beyond 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 43 
 
 of slender gilt minarets, and a thick grove of trees, marked 
 the seraglio. Two grand cathedrals, and an imperial palace, 
 occupying alone the space of four miles, is a collection which 
 only Constantinople can show. 
 
 Having passed these interesting objects slowly in review, 
 we shot into mid- channel, between Scutari and the seraglio 
 point; there, meeting the current, we did not advance, hut the 
 scene was of so rivetting a nature that I did not regret the 
 delay. We were in a splendid panorama nearly surrounded 
 by cities ; and, as one unacquainted with the localities might 
 have readily imagined, at the confluence of two oval mountain 
 lakes, the gulf of Keras, (the port,) and the last reach of the 
 Bosphorus ; the latter not appearing, as it really is, a headlong 
 stream, but calm, radiantly blue, one of Claude Lorraine’s 
 originals. The broad quay of Tophana, strewed with ordnance 
 of every calibre, and piles of shot, from the accommodating 
 grape to the cumbrous eight hundred pounder, was the point 
 of union of these beautiful pieces of water. We admired the 
 noble, bizarre-looking arsenal on it, and the symmetrical 
 mosque of Mahmood II., with its peculiarly elegant, slender, 
 gilt-spired minarets, and the large handsome fountain of 
 Tophana, as rich and appropriate ornaments to the entrance of 
 the harbour. 
 
 Finding, after some minutes, that we were retrograding 
 rather than progressing, we edged over to the seraglio, in 
 order to warp by the fragments of columns planted for that 
 purpose in the quay, but the breeze freshening, spared us the 
 trouble. We sailed close beneath the mosques of Achmet and 
 Sophia, and the seraglio wall, in the embrasures of which, as 
 high as our mast-heads, several bostandgis were lounging; at 
 its base were other features of tyranny, — as low iron doors 
 conveniently placed for those destined to a watery grave. We 
 just caught a glimpse of the Corinthian capital of an antique 
 column in the fourth court of the seraglio, peeping out from 
 among the trees, so difficult to hit, that many who visit Con- 
 stantinople never hear of it. We then glided past the gorgeous 
 kiosk of Sultan Mahmoud, erected between the wall and the 
 water, into the harbour, and looking up the northern front of 
 
44 
 
 RECORDS OF TRIERS. 
 
 the city, saw nearly the same line of columns and mosques 
 which we had seen from the Propontis, with other remarkable 
 edifices, particularly Yeni Giami, the Charsheys, Yalidi Khan, 
 and the vast palace of the Scheick Islam. 
 
 An officer hoarded us, and introduced himself to us as the 
 captain of the port. He had a smiling, adapting countenance, 
 as became one who studied the perquisites more than the 
 duties of office. He required a backsheish (present) for the 
 honour he conferred on us in coming off, but our skipper was 
 up to the mark, and refused him. “ What is your cargo ?” he 
 then demanded. “We have a few baskets of maccaroni.” 
 “ God is bountiful S give me one;” — same denial — “give me 
 then a handful to put in my pocket for my wife, who is sick.” 
 By the look of his capacious breeches he could have stowed 
 away a basketful in them; but our skipper had the firmness to 
 resist this official beggar, who then left us in disgust, without 
 saying a ,word about our anchorage. We knew, however, 
 where to go, and after three tacks reached it, off the Kour- 
 soumlou Mahze, (Frank custom-house.) We had it nearly to 
 ourselves, for the din of war had hushed the stir of commerce 
 in the Golden Horn, and its usual crowd of vessels of all 
 nations had departed. 
 
 We soon had an opportunity of observing the progress of 
 civilization; we were directed to a bureau in the custom-house 
 to have our passports examined, a formality utterly useless, 
 since, had we landed in any other spot, we should have been 
 as free from interrogatories as in an English port. The half- 
 dozen scribes who performed the inquisitorial office — grave, sad- 
 looking Osmanleys, as if addicted to sedentary habits, with 
 one full-blown Armenian for dragoman — were comfortably 
 arranged on a divan: at the left hand of each a chibouque 
 rested, and, as tobacco is more grateful when accompanied by 
 coffee, attendants stood respectfully in front, to present it 
 when required. At the right hand of each, on the sofa, was a 
 writing-case, containing ink, sand mixed with gold-dust, 
 stamps, reeds, a knife, rolls of paper, a pair of scissors to cut 
 it into the prescribed forms, and pieces of muslin to enclose 
 letters to persons of distinction. The forms appeared to us 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 45 
 
 very simple: a raya, for example, came in, and demanded a 
 teskereh (pass) for Gallipoli : tlie scribe, whom he addressed, 
 laid down his pipe, placed a piece of paper on the palm of his 
 left hand, and, in this awkward position, wrote it in beautiful 
 characters. No copy was taken. The applicant paid the fee, 
 three piastres ! (eleven-pence.) Two minutes sufficed for the 
 whole affair. The examination of my passport, which I had 
 got from the French embassy at London, occupied their 
 united wisdom a considerable time. An Englishman, with a 
 French passport, appeared to them very suspicious. 
 
 “ Are you really an Englishman ?”■ — “ I am.” “ Where is 
 your English passport ? — “ I have not got one.” “ Why 
 not ?” — “ Because it is not customary to have one.” “ Why 
 then have you got a French passport ?” — “Because I travelled 
 through France.” “ There is no sense in this: you ought to 
 have an English passport : if your intentions were good, your 
 king would have given you a passport. Bakalum!” — and they 
 all began to smoke. “Bakalum, indeed,” I thought, seeing 
 I had to do with fellows who had just learned enough to he 
 ignorant. “ Can you give us a reference ?” — “ Not I ! I do 
 not know a person in the padischah’s dominions.” “ Wonder- 
 ful !” — and they all laid down their pipes. “ What then brings 
 you to Turkey ?”■ — “ To see the great man, Mahmoud.” “ A 
 very good reason. But you are English, and have a French 
 passport ; we do not understand that.” I endeavoured to 
 explain to these infants in the noble art which Fouche per- 
 fected, that, although an Englishman is free in his own country 
 to go where and when he pleases, in other countries he must 
 submit to he deprived of a portion of his liberty; the restraint 
 on him, at the same time, being perfectly absurd, since he 
 could obtain a passport with the same ease, whether a rogue or 
 an honest man. This was above their comprehension: they 
 could not understand why there should he a distinction between 
 a Frenchman and an Englishman, believing, as most Turks do, 
 that all Franks belong to the same family, are governed by the 
 same laws, and that the Bible is the rule of Christian jurispru- 
 dence as the Koran is of Mussulman jurisprudence. My argu- 
 ments, however, good or had, were admitted; for our passports. 
 
46 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 after all, were only examined in affectation of Frank customs, 
 then commencing to be in vogue: moreover, the Porte cared not 
 who entered Turkey, not being yet sufficiently enlightened to 
 suspect every stranger of having designs against her. 
 
 Freed from this embarrassment, the last which I expected to 
 have met with in Turkey, I ascended the steep streets of 
 Galata, a town less remarkable for the usual oriental features 
 of wolfish curs, sturdy porters, and spectre-looking females, 
 than for its motley Frank population, in appearance a deputa- 
 tion from the canaille of every country in Europe. Ionians, 
 Sclavonians, Bussians, the inhabitants of every petty Italian 
 state, here mingle manners and language with Greeks and 
 Turks. In Galata every nation may be said to have its repre- 
 sentative, in every calling, from the merchant to the beggar. 
 
 But Galata as it is, is lost sight of in the recollections of 
 Galata as it was — imperium in imperio, during nearly two 
 centuries, rivalling the city of which it was only a suburb, 
 possessed by a company of foreign merchants, who had power 
 to impose conditions on the emperor, audacity to wage war 
 with the subjects of a rival republic within sight of the palace 
 of the Paleologhi, but who were compelled to remain trembling 
 spectators of the Moslem’s triumph. 
 
 “ Compelled to remain” is an expression irreconcilable with 
 the general received opinion that the perfidy of the Genoese 
 accelerated the sad catastrophe which renders 1453 a promi- 
 nent year in the history of the world. I am inclined, however, 
 to adopt it, because more consonant with reason, though 
 opposed to the history of the last siege of Constantinople; that 
 history, moreover, being too incorrect to be admitted as evi- 
 dence, that the Genoese were so far bereft of mercantile perspi- 
 cacity as to believe that the price of a hollow neutrality would 
 exempt them from the anathema of the common foe of Chris- 
 tendom. Gibbon (to give an instance of the incorrectness 
 alluded to) informs us that, notwithstanding the friendly 
 offices (according to him) of the inhabitants, the walls ,of 
 Galata were prudently razed immediately after the conquest. 
 He assigns no adequate reason for so useless and wanton an 
 act; nor indeed would it be easy to imagine why the conqueror, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 47 
 
 in the plenitude of success, should have conferred that honour 
 exclusively on a suburb, from which pride alone forbade that 
 he should apprehend any danger. That Mahomet II. did not, 
 however, display such despicable weakness, so inconsistent 
 with his haughty character, the actual walls and fortifications 
 of Gaiata bear evidence, standing where they stood six centuries 
 since, of the same form and construction as the walls of the 
 city, with the same colouring of time, the arms of the Genoese 
 remaining on several parts of them, with inscriptions over 
 some of the gates.* The position of Gaiata, built amphithea- 
 trically on the side of a hill, by which the inhabitants were 
 entirely at the disposition of the Mussulman corps, encamped 
 above them, (where now stands Pera,) is a better reason for 
 their inactivity, than a wilful indifference, which, though 
 prompted by religion, was discountenanced by interest, to the 
 fate of the last and noblest of the Constantines. 
 
 “ There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet,” 
 rang in our ears, from the galleries of several minarets, as we 
 reached the tower of Christ, in the upper part of Gaiata ; a 
 tower which, according to the inscription, was built by the 
 preetors of the most noble Genoese colony, and merits, com- 
 paring its size and solidity with the surrounding buildings, the 
 name of colyseum ; while its obstinate survival of numerous 
 fires, save occasionally its wooden, conic top, renders applicable 
 to it — “ Quamdiu stabit colyseus,” &c. The muezzin’s appeal 
 informed us that it was past noon, the heat of the sun that it 
 was time to be housed somewhere. Both the officer and the 
 sentry of the guard bore evidence to the latter, and to the 
 inefficacy of the former, by the sleep they were in. A few 
 minutes’ walk from the tower brought us to Pera, to the house 
 of Dr. Musmezzi, whose brother had been my fellow-passenger 
 from Syra. It was infinitely preferable to going to one of the 
 bug-infested inns, and eastern hospitality made me feel quite 
 comfortable. 
 
 * N h 9 m 
 
 ccc'cxxxxvi May. Erexit Praetor Maraffa Baldasar ista menia, plus 
 aliis nobile fecit opus grandis in aspectu formoso human habidus. Evoque 
 in serio tristitiaque pari haec sibi servabut Romanu munera nomen, quodque 
 Diis divum cunque celebrerit. 
 
48 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Dr. Musmezzi — Bey — Levantine — Sardinian Consul — Baker — Review — 
 Baron Bolley — Khosrew Pasha — Arsenal — Liman Reis Bey — Bagnio — 
 Kutchuk Husseyin — Renegade— Captain Hanchet — Lord Cochrane — Sir 
 P. Malcolm. 
 
 “ Yes,” said my host, “ the Osmanleys drink a great deal since 
 the sultan has begun to reform them ; though I should not 
 complain, for the habit is very favourable to the interests of 
 medicine.” He said this in reference to a young Bey, who had 
 come in at the dessert, installed himself on the sofa, and drank 
 himself recumbent. When it was dark, his attendants covered 
 him with a cloak and carried him away. Alas ! that drunken- 
 ness should he the first step of civilization. That it is so 
 cannot he denied ; look at Russia for a standing example ; 
 Turkey will soon he another. My host was a Sclavonian by 
 birth, a physician by profession, a Levantine by adoption. By 
 a Levantine is meant a Frank, who has totally abandoned his 
 native country, and fixed himself in Turkey for good. He 
 cannot he mistaken. He is a compound of the Turk, the 
 Greek, and the Frank : disfigured by the moustache of the 
 first, the long hair of the second, the whiskers and dress of the 
 third ; not the dress usually worn in Europe, hut a mixture of 
 fashions for the preceding half century ; no wonder that the 
 easterns think it unbecoming. He talks many languages — 
 none well : he is servile with Moslems, pert with Christians — 
 your humble servant abroad, a tyrant at home. But not a 
 shade of this sketch of the species applies, except the name, to 
 the worthy Musmezzi, who was the more entitled to an English- 
 man’s good word from having been surgeon’s assistant on board 
 an English line-of-battle ship in the Adriatic. He did not 
 remain long in the service, for, as he said with a sigh, cockpit 
 tricks and dry holy stoning disagreed with his temper and his 
 lungs, and obliged him to abandon prospective half-pay ; when, 
 his own country offering few resources, he brought his wits to 
 the great eastern market, where having taken an Armenian wife, 
 by way of introduction to society, he soon shared a brisk, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 49 
 
 though ill-remunerated trade with surgeons from all parts of 
 Europe, all duly certified and diplomaed to practise on the 
 credulity of the Moslems, and who often justify the saying of 
 a Venetian Bail, that the Italians always carried on the crusade 
 against the Moslems ; first with arms, then with recipes. 
 
 The fair hands of the doctor’s lady did the honours to a 
 guest, hy sprinkling his bed with rose-water. The town en- 
 joyed a death-like repose, only broken occasionally by the 
 watchmen hitting their iron-shod staves on the pavement ; yet, 
 notwithstanding such auxiliaries, I could not sleep, for since 
 leaving Genoa I had had occasion to rough it without a bed. 
 The night, however, was not long ; on looking at my watch, at 
 breakfast, in the morning, I was dismayed to find that it was 
 just five o’clock. What a space to get over till noon, the hour 
 a London day commences ! What detriment to candlemakers, 
 the custom of the east, to appropriate the day to business, the 
 night to sleep ! No oriental will willingly commence a task or 
 a journey after noon ; he looks at the sun, and says in excuse, 
 “ It is evening.” The Frank, though he grumbles at first at 
 this new division of time, soon gets used to it, and likes it, 
 especially when, as at and about Constantinople, he sees the 
 sun rise every morning over the most charming scenery in the 
 world. 
 
 Pera was quite deserted. Three of its kings, the ambas- 
 sadors of France, Kussia, and England, were absent; so were 
 their dragomans, and so were the consuls and most of. the 
 merchants of their respective nations. Only two English 
 
 merchants, Mr. Sarrel and Mr. , had outstayed the storm, 
 
 and in so doing showed their sense, for the cloud which had 
 frightened people contained no wind. A Mr. MacCarthy was 
 there in quality of doctor: he had had some practice with the 
 seraglio: and there was another countryman in the person of 
 Mr. Simmons, a jeweller, established in a thriving business at 
 Stamhoul. Two other Englishmen had arrived a few days since 
 from Persia, hut were then at Broussa. I knew them after- 
 wards — Mr. Alcock, M.P., and Captain Trevyllian. . In default, 
 however, of a representative, the Dutch minister was charged 
 with English interests, for which service he was rewarded by 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the British government with a costly diamond snuff-box. An 
 introduction gained me at once the acquaintance of the 
 Sardinian consul-general, Truqui, who showed me the most 
 gratifying attentions, and to whom, and his amiable family, I 
 was debtor for many very agreeable days. He occupied the place 
 in society which his ambassador, through meanness, declined. 
 No gentleman visited Pera without enjoying the hospitality of 
 his mansion. 
 
 The first day or two at Pera one feels the embarrassment of 
 the wise men who visited the moon. What with chibouques in 
 one house, sherbet in another, a gaze on a beautiful scene here, 
 a stroll in a cool shade there, the day slips away insensibly. 
 Tobacco is a sad time-killer. I am sure that no intellectual 
 nation can ever become a nation of smokers — mind, I do not 
 mean a cigar or two per diem as anything; that much no more 
 makes a man a smoker, than a glass or two of wine makes him 
 a hard drinker. This prostrate indolence is, I suppose, the 
 cause that many persons pass their lives at Pera, without 
 having the curiosity to visit Constantinople. I met more than 
 one such a phenomenon, and many who, in the course of many 
 years, had not been there above twice. We have only to 
 imagine a person living at Alb ano or Vincennes, and never 
 going to Rome or Paris; even that parallel is too wide, for 
 Pera is not more than a good rifle-shot from the capital. 
 
 I had not proceeded up two of the steep streets, on my way 
 to the Eski Saray, attracted by a review, when I was stopped 
 by a singular exhibition peculiar to Turkish towns, a baker 
 nailed by his ear to his door-post. I was fortunate, for the 
 sight is sufficiently rare to make it a curiosity. The position 
 of the rascal was most ludicrous, rendered more so by the 
 perfect nonchalance with which he was caressing his heard. 
 The operation, they say, does not hurt much; though in this 
 case it was done very roughly, and the patient was obliged to 
 stand on his toes to keep his ear from tearing. “This is 
 nothing,” said my dragoman, observing my attention; “a few 
 days ago a master-baker, as handsome a young fellow as ever 
 you saw, had his nose and ears cut off. He bore it like a brave 
 one : he said he did not care much about his ears, his turban 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 51 
 
 would hide the marks — but his nose — he gave the executioner 
 a bribe to return it to him, after he had shown it to the judge, 
 that he might have it stuck on again.” “ Poor fellow !” I 
 thought, “ that would have puzzled Carpue !” “ It served him 
 
 right,” added my dragoman ; “ at that time loaves were scarcer 
 than bakers’ noses.” The Spartan appearance of the bread in 
 the shops was evidence of the scarcity which still reigned : it 
 had been blacker a short time previous, and caused serious dis 
 turhances, especially on the part of the women, which the 
 government could only quell by distributing rations. 
 
 A regiment of Tacticos was on the ground, exercising under 
 the eye of M. Galliard. Galliard, who had been a serjeant 
 in Napoleon’s army, was chief instructor of the Turkish in- 
 fantry; in other words, drill- serjeant: his authority extended 
 no farther; and there lay the difficulty of forming a regular 
 Turkish force, since there was no power to compel the officers 
 to learn. Regular troops, unless they are provided with a good 
 staff and commissariat, skilful leaders, &c., are more unservice- 
 able than irregular troops : the uniformity of the former is no 
 balance for the self-resources of the latter. Regulars look to 
 others for food and clothing; irregulars trust to themselves. 
 There were many other instructors in the army, of all nations, 
 except English. Their situation was very miserable; their 
 salaries were nominal ; they were often reduced to rags 
 and dry bread, — reduced to kiss the hem of a pasha’s 
 garment to obtain a backsheish (present). Mussulman hau- 
 teur prevented the Osmanleys from employing Christians 
 as officers, and therefore they ruined their country, for they 
 had not talents to meet the exigencies which arose on the 
 catastrophe of the Janizzaries. Had Peter trusted to Mus- 
 covite genius to form and lead the troops which replaced the 
 Strelitzes, Charles XII. would have quartered in the Kremlin. 
 One of the earliest instructors was a Bavarian noble, the Baron 
 Bolley, who died shortly after my arrival, leaving a widow, a 
 young Greek, the daughter of his washerwoman, and not 
 enough money to buy a coffin. The baron was known to me 
 by name, by having created a sensation at Malta, where he 
 stopped some days on his way from Marseilles to the East. 
 
 e 2 
 
52 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Having an introduction, and being a polished, well-spoken 
 man, he was received into the first set — at Malta there are 
 several. Either to make an eclat, or for some offence, I know 
 not which, he called out a civil officer of the government, Mr. 
 Nugent ; hut Mr. Nugent, deeming his request mal-a-propos, 
 referred it to General Ponsonhy, who put the baron under 
 arrest. After a day of durance vile, the haron consented to 
 leave the island, exclaiming, though, bitterly against such a 
 violation, as he termed it, of the laws of hospitality, as well as 
 of honour. Little did I then think to find him, in two years, 
 in a back lodging at Pera. A gallant and able French officer. 
 General Count Hulot, came to Constantinople about the same 
 time I di(J, and offered his services gratis to lead the Turkish 
 regular army against the Russians. Had they been accepted, 
 the scale of the campaign might have been turned, for Diebitch’s 
 blunders, lost on the grand vizier, would then have been acted 
 on. The reis effendi offered him — a French general, who had 
 lost an arm at Borodino, an eye elsewhere — the post of in- 
 structor. The general smiled, and remained tranquil, the guest 
 of Count Guilleminot, during the disastrous campaign : his 
 talents and agreeable manners made him the charm of every 
 society at Pera. 
 
 A little ugly man, with a shining red face and a long white 
 beard, dressed in a hussar uniform, smoking a chibouque at a 
 window of the palace which overlooked the ground, attracted 
 our attention more than the manoeuvres. It was Khosrew, the 
 seraskier pasha (minister of war). Perceiving we were Franks, 
 he sent an officer to invite us into the shade of his verandah. 
 I afterwards had the advantage of knowing him well. He was 
 an instance of the rapid change of fortune daily witnessed in 
 the East. By birth a Georgian, Khosrew was purchased when 
 a child in the market of that very city in which I then saw 
 him the most influential person. His supple and jestful man- 
 ners, in his quality of page, gained him the love of Selim III. 
 He retained it in manhood, and after filling minor situations, 
 attained the height of his ambition, the reward of a life of 
 hypocrisy, by being invested with the pashalik of Egypt at the 
 time of its evacuation by the French and English troops. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 53 
 
 Egypt then offered a fair field for a man of genius to rise to 
 eminence on : that man was there ; and though Khosrew was 
 not wanting in talent, especially the talent most necessary to 
 greatness in the East, cunning and cruelty, he succumbed to 
 the fortune of his lieutenant, Mehemet Ali, commanding a 
 corps of Albanians. Selim III. immediately sent the capitan 
 pasha to Alexandria with orders to remove Mehemet Ali, if 
 possible, to another world, if not, to confirm him in the 
 pashalik, it being a maxim of the Porte, that it is wiser to 
 leave a rebel in peace, provided he will pay tribute, than to 
 make war on him. Mehemet Ali avoided the snare, gave up 
 Khosrew, and remained pasha. 
 
 But though Khosrew had been egregiously outwitted, his 
 talent at treachery was too notorious to he overlooked by 
 Mahmoud II. when he came to the throne, who wanted such 
 men to forward his reform. He made him his capitan pasha, 
 which post Khosrew blackly stained by allowing himself to he 
 exiled (proforma ) to cut off a powerful dere bey in the vicinity 
 of Angora. The marked bey gave him a friendly reception, and 
 seeing an infirm old man, invited him to reside in his house 
 till a comfortable one could he prepared for him. An exiled 
 pasha is always treated with honour by the inhabitants of the 
 place of his exile, not out of respect to fallen greatness, 
 but such is the mutation of fortune in Turkey, that in a 
 month he may regain his lost favour, and be able to punish 
 the neglect of provincials. Khosrew’s frank and cheerful 
 manners were sufficient to remove suspicions, had any even 
 been entertained. Confidence was soon fully established, and the 
 bey daily visited his guest unattended by followers. At length, 
 sure of his victim, one day sitting on a sofa together, Khosrew 
 drew from his bosom the fatal firman, and displayed it to the 
 astonished hey, thus requited for his hospitality. Before he 
 could raise his voice, the ready cordon stifled it for ever. His 
 followers were called in to behold their lifeless master; however 
 they might have felt, the sight of the sultan’s firman disarmed 
 their resentment. Khosrew seized his wealth, and with his 
 head returned to Constantinople. Such a man was a treasure 
 to Mahmoud II., and almost a solitary instance of a pasha de- 
 
54 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 basing himself to such a deed, unless for the object of attaining 
 the deceased’s place. 
 
 Khosrew’s next exploit of notoriety was taking off Kiatib 
 Oglou, the governor of Smyrna, famed for his amours, and 
 his predilection for Frank customs. As he was the son of a 
 rebel, and had also himself retained the government against 
 the sultan’s will, it was not an easy matter to catch him : it 
 required consummate address. After a year’s ensnaring, 
 Khosrew succeeded in placing two hundred miles between the 
 head and the body of Kiatib Oglou. 
 
 We next find Khosrew distinguishing himself at Ipsara, the 
 massacre of whose inhabitants, July 2, 1824, he directed as 
 capitan pasha. By singular good luck, he was not capitan 
 pasha in 1822, the year of Canaris’ success. 
 
 In June, 1826, Khosrew assisted his master in cutting down 
 the Janizzaries. The year following he ought to have sailed, 
 being still capitan pasha, in the ill-fated fleet that went to 
 Navarine ; but as the fleet had occasion to go first to Alex- 
 andria to be victualled, it was seen that his presence would 
 not be agreeable to Mehemet Ali, whom the Porte was then 
 caressing, especially as in his rank he would be the superior 
 officer (nominally). Tahir Pasha, therefore, the capitan bey, 
 assumed the command, and Khosrew remained in the capital 
 to nurse a plot. 
 
 At the breaking out of the Russian war, Khosrew was 
 appointed seraskier pasha, in addition to being anadolu valyci. 
 A more inefficient minister of war could not well have been 
 found : his only merit was personal activity, which was remark- 
 able . for seventy-one years of age ; on the same day, I have 
 seen him inspect the castles on the Bosphorus, and review 
 troops at Ramis Tchiftlik. Avaricious as he is rich, cruel as 
 he is artful, mean as he is powerful, Khosrew’s fortune, in 
 having so long escaped poison or the bowstring, is only 
 equalled by his crimes, which are considered superla- 
 tive even in a country where such attributes are not held in 
 horror. 
 
 When I had had enough of the seraskier and his troops, I 
 went down to the shore, got into a caique, and rowed up and 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 55 
 
 down the beautiful harbour, the very best in the world, always 
 sweet and clean, on account of the current, and sheltered from 
 every wind. I then landed at the arsenal, and had the pleasure 
 of seeing the largest ship in the world lying alongside the 
 quay. A fine sixty-gun frigate was on the stocks, nearly 
 finished. The constructor of both was a Turk ; eleve of Mr. 
 Le Bran, an architect formerly in the service of Selim III. 
 Like our celebrated builder, Bomam Jumpsatjee, of Bombay, 
 he knew nothing of mathematics — he worked by eye. 
 
 While I was admiring these fine specimens of naval archi- 
 tecture, with astonishment at seeing them there, the work of a 
 barbarian, the personification of Othello accosted me. His 
 hue was between that of the Arab and the Moor, his beard 
 was pointed, his vest and trousers were snow white, connected 
 by an embroidered sash, finished by yellow boots, and a pair 
 of coal-black, bloodshot eyes glowed under a scarlet fez. He 
 was the liman reis bey, (commissioner,) and a very good fellow 
 too. We sat down to smoke, and by means of a few words 
 of various languages established an ambiguous sort of a lingua 
 franca, the occupation of our chibouques tending to fill up 
 breaks in the conversation. On a serious question the pre- 
 sence of the narcotic weed is invaluable; it gives time for 
 second thoughts, and a cloud of it veils a perturbation of 
 countenance. To aid our intercourse, the bey displayed a 
 talent that not two of his countrymen possessed — that of 
 sketching ; true, the animal he drew on a leaf of my pocket- 
 book, intended for a gazelle, so much resembled a pig that he 
 seemed quite ashamed — the unclean animal ! 
 
 Nothing could equal my surprise, I may say disappointment, 
 for I had strung my nerves for a trial, on going to the Bagnio 
 from his divan to find it by no means a horrible place, but a 
 very quiet, orderly conducted prison. The galley-slaves of 
 Toulon, I positively assert, are one hundred times worse off 
 than the Bagniotes. Their only point of resemblance is in 
 their food, equally bad in each, consisting of a kind of hog- 
 wash, sufficiently nutritious to keep the bones covered, but ill- 
 calculated to create an appetite in hot weather. In all other 
 respects they differ. The galley-slaves are chained in gangs, 
 
56 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the Bagniotes in pairs. The former must sleep on boards, the 
 latter may sleep on beds. In Toulon dockyard no horses or 
 steam are employed, in order that the convicts may have 
 harder work ; in Constantinople arsenal the number of sailors 
 always on pay, whether the fleet be in commission or not, is 
 so great that the convicts have scarcely anything to do. The 
 former have not the advantages of religion ; in the precincts 
 of the Bagnio is a mosque, a Greek Church and a synagogue, 
 for the different castes. In Toulon there are from 4000 to 
 5000 galley-slaves ; in the Bagnio the number rarely amount 
 to 100. In Toulon a convict remains fourteen years, or for 
 life, according tq the sentence, without a hope of commuta- 
 tion; in the Bagnio prisoners are often released by the capitan 
 pasha. 
 
 No capitan pasha did so much for the navy as Kutchuk 
 Husseyin, the favourite, and son-in-law of Selim III., whose 
 disinterestedness and liberality ably seconded his master’s pro- 
 jects. Though no sailor, he had common sense to direct him 
 in the pursuit of knowledge: he procured architects from 
 France, with whose aid he resuscitated the arsenals of Con- 
 stantinople, of Sinope, and of Rhodes, supplying the first 
 with two wet docks, and all other necessaries for the equipment 
 of a large fleet; and in a short time he had twenty sail of the 
 line, built ontthe newest models, anchored before the windows 
 of his palace. He reformed the Galiondgis, built barracks for 
 them, and encouraged the naval school, — the professor of 
 which, when I was there, was a young Englishman, named 
 Redhouse, who had run away from a merchant-ship in the 
 harbour, on board of which he was a cabin-boy, and then 
 apostatized to avoid being retaken. Mustapha, that was his 
 new name, had poor success with his lazy scholars, one of 
 whom, however, whom I knew on board the flag-ship as signal 
 officer, was looked on as a prodigy because he could ascertain 
 noon with the quadrant, never supposing that the instrument 
 was intended to produce a more important result. 
 
 After the death of Kutchuk Husseyin, the navy resumed its 
 usual languor. The events of 1821 roused it; but its ill 
 success against the hasty armed merchant-vessels of Greece 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 57 
 
 are notorious, and is stronger proof than words of its wretched 
 condition. Experience, however, was bought by misfortune; 
 officers and crews were formed, who at length discovered that 
 man should trust more to his own exertions on the sea than to 
 the protection of Allah. After five years’ struggle for the 
 mastery of the Archipelago, they gained it, with sufficient 
 knowledge of maritime affairs to cruize about without running 
 foul of each other every night. With experience they had 
 also acquired confidence, the principal step to improvement. 
 In short, the Turkish navy, in 1827, was in a state of practical 
 efficiency, which it was far from having, even under Kutchuk 
 Husseyin, and which rendered it superior to the Russian fleet 
 in the Euxine, as would have been apparent had not the affair of 
 Navarine intervened. That “ untoward event” destroyed the 
 fruit of the preceding five years of toil and disasters, and 
 again paralyzed the Turkish navy. Every effort was made to 
 equip another fleet to meet the Russians on the Black Sea, hut 
 instead of appointing the gallant Tahir pasha to the supreme 
 command, the post of capitan pasha was conferred, succes- 
 sively, on landsmen, who were ill-qualified to impart energy to 
 those under them, or to feel it themselves. 
 
 An important personage, however, had just arrived, one day 
 before I did, who expected by his presence to remove all diffi- 
 culties, and to hold the scales of fate in the ensuing naval 
 campaign. He was on hoard a large steamer, then anchored 
 off the arsenal: this steamer, (the Hilton Jolliffe,) had come 
 from England to be sold to the sultan, and had eluded the 
 scrutiny of the blockading fleet at the Dardanelles, by hoisting 
 the red ensign at the main, signal of the ambassador (hourly 
 expected) being on hoard. The Russian admiral, duped by 
 the stratagem, not only allowed her to pass, hut shoved off in 
 his barge to compliment his excellency. The steamer did not 
 back water for him, but emitting a denser cloud, left her black 
 pennant miles behind her. 
 
 Instead of an ambassador, Captain Hanchet, formerly R.N., 
 came in her to assist the sultan. He modestly offered to com- 
 mand the Turkish fleet for the sum of £20,000, and the rank 
 of vice-admiral. The Osmanleys would have considered his 
 
58 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 terms rather high had he even been provided with the burning 
 glasses of Archimedes. They told him that they were very 
 willing to accept his services in their way, particularly as he 
 was a friend of Sydney Smith; hut that they would not give 
 him the sum required, nor the post of petrowna bey, (vice- 
 admiral,) he being a Christian. They would, however, give 
 him the pay annexed to the office, £180, and allow him to go 
 to sea with the fleet, to advise on its operations. This was 
 courting honour rather too cheaply, thought the captain. How- 
 ever, he continued negotiating some days with the reis effendi, 
 who merely wished to gain an idea from him, and proposed, in 
 the interim, that a fleet of gun-boats should go to the Danube. 
 His object therein was rather vague; no benefit could have 
 arisen from it, since the principal part of the Russian army 
 was known to have already crossed the river, and Silistria, if it 
 still held out, was not in a condition to he succoured by gun- 
 boats. The Osmanleys looked nearer: they met the question 
 in its outset, and pertinently asked how the boats were to 
 reach the Danube, past the enemy’s fleet — an obstacle that 
 they considered insurmountable. No valid proposal being 
 made to remove it, the gun-boats remained where they were, 
 and the ex-captain returned the way he came, astonished that 
 the Sublime Porte was too avaricious to reward unknown merit 
 in prospective. He had apparently taken a leaf out of Lord 
 Cochrane’s book, without considering the difference between 
 himself and his lordship, whose services the Greek committee 
 deemed worth purchasing. 
 
 He established, or accredited, a report that Lord Cochrane 
 was with the Russian fleet in the Euxine; and, without re- 
 flecting on the extreme improbability of the emperor insulting 
 Admiral Greig, covered with his orders, by placing a stranger 
 over him, wrote it as a fact to Sir Pulteney Malcolm, at Smyrna. 
 Sir Pulteney immediately weighed anchor, and came to the 
 Dardanelles with his fleet, in order to pass the strait, should 
 the Russian fleet, as was to be apprehended in that case, make 
 a dash down the Bosphorus, and decide the war by a coup-de- 
 main. The conqueror of Valdivia, and of Callao, had he been 
 there, was capable of undertaking so glorious an enterprise. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 59 
 
 provided, which is doubtful, the Russian captains would have 
 seconded him. Admiral Greig never dreamed of it. The 
 vicinity of Sir P. Malcolm, at the Dardanelles, allowing he 
 might have taken on himself, or been directed by Sir R. Gor- 
 don, to assist the sultan, at such a crisis, would have been no 
 obstacle ; for the north-east gale, which would have brought 
 the Russian fleet down the Bosphorus, would have effectually 
 prevented the English fleet from ascending the Hellespont.* 
 And though it is not necessary that Constantinople, unfor- 
 tified as it is, should yield to a fleet which has succeeded in 
 reaching it, since batteries are easily thrown up, and a city, 
 fourteen miles in circumference, can afford delay ; yet the sul- 
 tan’s position in 1829 was so very precarious, owing to the 
 disaffection of his subjects, rife with the spirit of janizzaryism, 
 added to the unpopularity of the war, that he would have been 
 compelled to have signed a peace, in order to have prevented 
 revolution. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Caiques — Bosphorus — Barbarossa’s Tomb — Delhi Sultana — Touz Oglou — 
 
 Castles — Devil’s current — Ypsilanti — Calosso — Sultan’s band. 
 
 The great lion of the East, that is, the sultan, being at 
 Therapia, a village twelve miles up the stream, one fine morn- 
 ing, a week after my arrival, having seen les eaux clouces, the 
 royal stud, the dancing dervishes, the niches for exhibiting 
 noble heads in, in short, glanced at the minor lions, reserving 
 a closer inspection for cool weather, — having surfeited myself 
 on cahobs, and affronted cholera with iced sherbet, sold — irre 
 
 * It is as well to consider, in the event of another war between Russia 
 and the Porte, that a British fleet, destined to be ready to assist the latter, 
 may be utterly useless at the mouth of the Hellespont, unless accompanied 
 by a fleet of steamers. The wind might, it is true, favour it ; but the 
 chances would be against it, for the north-east wind, against which it is im- 
 possible for a ship to work, blows down the Hellespont nine months out of 
 twelve. It blows, at times, two months, even three months, together ; and 
 in that time a Russian army may now march to Constantinople, and build 
 a church in the place of every mosque- 
 
60 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 sistible temptation — in every street, at two paras (one-sixth of 
 a penny) a glass, — I walked through the ordeal of the dogs of 
 Tophana, and got into a caique. 
 
 Divide an egg-shell longitudinally, take one half, pinch in 
 its two ends, lengthen them by slender beaks of wax, gild and 
 paint the whole tastefully, and you have the precise model of 
 the uniquely elegant skiffs that ply on the Golden Horn and 
 the Bosphorus. Europeans, resident at Pera, who have a flat- 
 tering idea of the value of their persons, seldom venture into 
 one. The sight of a large caique leaving the shore, filled with 
 men and women, involuntarily brings to mind the Noyades of 
 the Loire. You no sooner step into one, than, feeling prescient 
 of a drowning, you endeavour to step out again ; the attempt 
 nearly completes the catastrophe. “ Sit down !” cry the caiqgis, 
 authoritatively, seeing they have to do with a greenhorn. You 
 obey, and place yourself on what appears to be a seat, but so far 
 from gaining steadiness, the bark reels to an inch of the tide 
 each way. “Sit down! down in the bottom of the boat!” 
 again shout the caiqgis, who, half frightened, endeavour to 
 counteract your awkwardness by balancing their supple bodies; 
 “ sit quiet, unless you wish the boat to be over you instead of 
 under !” You cast a wishful glance at the beach, with an ex- 
 clamation at your rashness, as you shove off, doubtful if you 
 may land again. Reader, hast thou rolled, rivalling a porpoise, 
 on a catamaran through the surf at Madras ? hast thou sat on 
 a couple of hides, dancing like Indian-rubber balls on a 
 wooden floor, trembling lest the wind in your body will not 
 suffice to keep them inflated till the last wave pitches you on 
 the beach at Coquimbo ? — hast thou, in a wherry, dipped six 
 times into the same hole on the Spit during a south-west gale, 
 visions of capsized wherries swimming before your eyes? — 
 there is yet a sharper nerve-twinger : hoist your sail, and scud 
 down the Bosphorus in a caique ; you will have your heart in 
 your mouth one hour, half out each time you gibe, with the 
 satisfaction of hearing “ delhi” shouted at you from each 
 caique and point which you pass in your arrow-like progress. 
 Frail, though, as caiques are, even rowing, thousands daily 
 ascend, or descend, or traverse the Bosphorus, without accident, 
 
KECOR'DS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 61 
 
 the absolute necessity of caution being a safeguard ; one trial 
 gives confidence, with the knack of getting in and out. 
 Should one overturn, the passengers must he drowned ; for 
 though one hundred caiques may he passing, none can assist, 
 the attempt would be suicidal. The rowers are chiefly Greeks, 
 who find it a gainful trade, and are one of the handsomest 
 races in Turkey. They wear light garments, of dazzling white, 
 and can row eight, nine, ten miles an hour, according to the 
 number of oars. 
 
 A few strokes — we shot into the Bosphorus, and com- 
 menced rapidly ascending between shores of unrivalled love- 
 liness, where art and nature, taste and chance, have for once 
 combined to finish pictures worthy of paradise ; the deep blue 
 stream flowing between them, reflecting Grecian castle and 
 Turkish kiosk, cypress grove and flower garden ; gladdened by 
 the constant flight of birds, the splash of oars, the glitter of 
 fish. Naples fades in the comparison of this celebrated strait ; 
 and Bio de Janeiro, the first view of which repays the tedium 
 of an Atlantic voyage, only surpasses it in the splendour of the 
 sea approach. There the rivalry ends : Bio exhibits all at one 
 burst, like a beautiful actress dressed for the stage ; but the 
 Bosphorus, like one’s own love, has winning charms, which 
 fasten on the memory and tax the imagination : each time we 
 row up it, new beauties, hitherto undiscovered, elicit fresh 
 admiration ; every reach appears a highland lake, every vale an 
 Armida’s garden, and the faint tracery of the varying perspec- 
 tive promise of Elysian scenes, veiled, as it were, from direct 
 observation, in order that each may have its due share of 
 admiration ; in the same manner as works of genius are viewed 
 to more advantage, and create more pleasure, when scattered 
 over Europe, than when collected in one gallery, where none 
 gain, but hundreds lose, by comparison, or are not looked at. 
 Neither is this fairy ground unappreciated by its possessors, as 
 is usually imagined, though certainly neglected. They revel 
 in it : their great pleasure consists in gazing on it from the 
 windows of their kiosks and cafenehs, of which the possession 
 of a fine view is the first qualification. Exile from their 
 ghiuzel Istamboul is dreaded nearly as much as death, and 
 
62 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 their poignant grief at quitting it is only equalled by their joy 
 at returning. The fair sex delight in spreading their shawls 
 on the turf, and enjoying their kief for hours under the shade 
 of cypresses on the banks of the Bosphorus, seated in circles, 
 quiet, demure, sentimental looking groups, their veils half 
 drawn aside to inhale the breeze, listening to a story-teller, or 
 sipping sherhert, or playing with their children : often, turn- 
 ing an angle suddenly, does the stranger cause hasty blushes 
 to mantle cheeks rarely seen by man, hut which are hastily 
 screened from longer view, while a suppressed titter may 
 inform him that modesty is more awake than anger. 
 
 Nature, too, has been equally beneficent to the Bosphorus 
 in a more substantial point of view, stocking it with fish of 
 every description, more than sufficient for the daily consump- 
 tion of the vast population of Constantinople. Among these 
 the sword-fish ranks first. Notwithstanding its size, it is 
 delicate eating, and is moreover very fashionable, as being the 
 favourite dish of Sultan Mahmoud. It is chiefly caught in the 
 Bosphorus and the Propontis, rarely in the Hellespont, and 
 still more rarely in the Euxine or the Archipelago ; in the 
 latter of which seas, however, it abounded in 1812, an exten- 
 sive emigration having taken place, to the alarm of the Con- 
 stantinople bons vivans , who feared that it would never return ; 
 and it was, in consequence, seriously proposed in divan to send 
 a vessel down to catch a male and female alive, and tow them 
 up to the Bosphorus ; but the voluntary return of the fugitives 
 prevented this project from being carried into effect. When 
 properly dressed, sword pointed, it is a regal looking dish, fit 
 to crown a civic banquet. The palamithe, a large, and rather 
 coarse fish, is also greatly esteemed. It is an emigrating 
 species, and found in greatest plenty in the sea of Azof : the 
 Cossacks salt great quantities of it. There is also turbot in the 
 Bosphorus, similar to, though not quite so good, as the Eng- 
 lish turbot. It requires habit to relish it, from its back being 
 covered with scaly carbuncles, considered a dainty by the 
 natives, which offend the sight. There being no want of lob- 
 sters, it may he eaten en regie. Bed mullet, soles, and white- 
 bait, are in profusion ; likewise the ink-fish, so called from 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 63 
 
 containing a bag of black liquid, perfectly adapted to write 
 with ; remove it, and the taste of the fish resembles that of 
 skait ; it is, however, generally dressed with it as sauce, and 
 therefore few strangers have the courage to eat it, nor does it, 
 after a trial, tempt a repetition. The Greeks make a great 
 consumption of it in their rigorous fasts, for it does not rank 
 as fish. 
 
 Twenty-six villages skirt the shores of the Bosphorus, ten in 
 Asia, sixteen in Europe : the former are scattered ; the latter, 
 excepting three, form a continuous street for eight miles, only 
 broken occasionally by royal palaces. Near one of these, 
 Beshik-tach, adjoining the village of the same name, we ob- 
 served, in a small cemetery, an elegant octangular building, 
 covered by a dome, the mausoleum of Haired din Pasha, 
 better known by the name of Barbarossa. I was some time in 
 Turkey before I knew to whom it belonged, and few discoveries 
 in that terra ignota gave me more satisfaction. I say terra ig- 
 nota, for even in Constantinople a stranger may search in vain 
 for an object which he knows exists, or inquire to no pur 
 pose about an edifice before his eyes. Few Turks, except the 
 Ulema, are acquainted with other facts than those which are 
 connected with their own lives, and with the majority oblivion 
 dates scarcely a century back. I was at the tomb in question 
 several times before I could ascertain if it was the one for 
 which I was seeking ; none of the inhabitants, whom I ad- 
 dressed, had heard of Haired din Pasha — their Nelson. At 
 length, an elderly man of the law satisfied my desire ; he had 
 observed me before, and in my last visit, with another gentle- 
 man, broke through habitual indifference, and came to know 
 our object. We told him, on which he sent a boy for the key, 
 which, from the time it required to be found, and the difficulty 
 in turning the rusty wards of the lock, appeared to be seldom 
 used, and introduced us to the last dwelling of Andrew Doria’s 
 antagonist. It was simple, in accordance with oriental taste 
 in such matters ; the floor was covered with an Indian mat, on 
 which rested two coffins, one of which was nine feet long, and 
 proportionately wide.* At the head of it was Barbarossa s 
 
 * The custom of placing celebrated men in gigantic coffins is a trick to 
 
64 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 caouk, and above it hung his particular banner. The other 
 coffin contained his chiaja. My bearded ciceroni wished to 
 know what gave me such a desire to see Barbarossa’s tomb. 
 “ Curiosity,” I replied. This answer did not satisfy him, nor 
 indeed does it ever satisfy orientals, who cannot understand 
 people taking trouble for pleasure or for curiosity. In conse- 
 qence, absurd reasons are often assigned for a traveller’s mo- 
 tives; if he ride fast he is suspected of being a government 
 agent; if he look about him, of being a spy, and so forth ; but 
 mine was a singular case, and therefore required a singular rea- 
 son. Singular enough was the one assigned ; viz. that Barba- 
 rossa in one of his voyages to Franguestan, had had an intrigue 
 with a lpdy from whom I was descended, and that being in 
 Turkey, I very laudably looked for the tomb of my great pro- 
 genitor. I heard this afterwards from a Greek of my ac- 
 quaintance, resident in the village, to whom this sapient idea 
 was communicated. 
 
 Two beings of the neuter gender, airing themselves before 
 a palace a mile higher up the stream, denoted the vicinity of 
 royalty. It was the residence of the Delhi sultana, the sultan’s 
 uterine sister, a lady possessing charms of mind and person, 
 and celebrated for gallantries in the wood of Belgrade, which 
 obliged more than one European to make a precipitate retreat 
 from the country. She was married, when young, to Kutchuk 
 Husseyin, the talented, generous, capitan pasha, of whom I 
 have already spoken, and was happy in being one of the few 
 princesses of the house of Othman who have not been debarred, 
 owing to a barbarous policy, the society of their husbands ; 
 the object of marrying them off being only to free them from 
 the restraints of the seraglio, and to give them a separate 
 establishment, which the husband supports from the proceeds 
 of his government, usually rich and distant, where he resides 
 without daring to profit by the Mohammedan privilege of a 
 plurality of wives, since on the good graces of his royal bride 
 
 make future generations believe that they were mighty in stature as well as 
 in mind. It has the desired effect ; no orthodox Turk doubts that sultan 
 this, or sultan that, or Kuprogli, or Hadgi Bektash, or any other popular 
 idol, was of the size of his coffin. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 65 
 
 depends his existence. So warm in the East is the affection 
 which children by the same mother have for each other, that 
 the lady in question has been enabled to pass her widowhood 
 as she pleased, and her eccentricities, in consequence, made 
 the Osmanleys call her the delhi sultana, by which name she 
 was universally known. Her chief pastime was riding about 
 in an araba, that is, in a waggon without springs, drawn by 
 oxen ornamented with ribbons ; though let it not be supposed 
 that this mode of airing was an effect of eccentricity, for such 
 rude equipage supplies the place of barouche or chariot to the 
 fair of Constantinople, whose diamonded locks and cashmeres 
 present a strange contrast. The delhi sultana particularly 
 liked to frequent the places where Franks resorted, because 
 their unambiguous mode of expressing admiration pleased her, 
 never, woman-like, allowing herself to think that their meaning 
 glances were directed to any of the beautiful damsels who 
 composed her train ; and if a Frank attracted her notice, she 
 would not hesitate to speak to him, calling him Hekim, which 
 address varnished the impropriety of her condescending to 
 regard an infidel. One day she honoured me with a saluta- 
 tion, and again, to my surprise, stopped her araba where I was 
 standing ; but her guards thinking twice in one day too much 
 familiarity, bade me walk on. A gentleman with me amused 
 himself each time by telegraphing with one of her young 
 attendants in the second araba, who got a sharp scolding from 
 the old duenna, for showing too much of her sweet face. The 
 sultana’s suite on these occasions consisted of twelve maidens, 
 among whom we used to remark two very pretty Circassians, 
 about eleven years old, whom she was educating for her 
 brother’s harem ; and in consequence of their destination, which 
 might lead one of them to be valide sultana, they sat by her 
 side, were profusely ornamented with jewels, were treated in 
 every respect like young princesses of the blood, instead of 
 slaves, purchased in the market a few years since. In short, 
 the delhi sultana was a rara avis in Turkey — a woman with 
 her own free will. She received some European ladies in her 
 harem occasionally, and could she have done so, would, I make 
 no doubt, have frequented the Pera balls, and, though not 
 
66 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 dancing, have been amused and witty at the “dancing- 
 girls.” 
 
 The current tired our rowers’ brawny arms and bent their 
 ashen blades, yet we cleaved it steadily as far as Arnaoutki, 
 where we stopped to refresh ourselves with coffee and chi- 
 bouques. Two trees on a hill above the village pointed out the 
 tomb of the unfortunate Armenian brothers, Touz-Oglou, a 
 few years since the first bankers of Stamboul. They abounded 
 in wealth, but, being generous, were not envied; they exhi- 
 bited vizirial pomp, but, being modest in behaviour, were liked 
 by believers and unbelievers ; they were young, but, being 
 rich, could not expect to attain old age ; they were directors of 
 the mint, dangerous, though much sought after, post in a 
 country where depreciating the coin is a familiar financial 
 resource. Mahmoud, the reforming, innovating sultan, despising 
 the policy of his predecessors in only gradually reducing the 
 standard of money so as not to produce too sudden a panic, 
 as savouring of prejudice, issued at once a hatti scheriff, com- 
 manding his subjects to bring all their gold and silver money 
 to their respective governors, for which they should receive 
 little more than half the value : pain of death to the refractory. 
 Commotions naturally ensued, and in the capital proved so 
 serious, that to appease them, and throw the odium off the 
 government, the Touz-Oglou, whose only crime was in having 
 literally obeyed their master, were accused of having depre- 
 ciated the coin of the realm for their own advantage. A 
 victim, no matter whether guilty or innocent, always pacifies 
 a mob, is the Turkish maxim, perhaps applicable in all coun- 
 tries, so the Touz-Oglou, whose innocence was clear to all 
 informed persons, were put to death, their property confiscated, 
 their relations exiled, but their bodies, as a particular mark of 
 the sultan’s clemency, were allowed to be interred, instead of 
 being thrown into the sea according to custom. 
 
 Thanks to the ignorance which causes the effects of tyranny 
 to be less remotely felt the less civilized the country, this 
 stroke of the sultan’s policy did not distress the nation, or 
 profit the treasury, to the extent apprehended or expected. 
 The difficult art of finance is still in its infancy in Turkey; 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 67 
 
 few other modes of raising money are successfully practised 
 than the rude and inefficient ones of confiscation and mono- 
 poly. Instead of obeying the hatti scheriff, the inhabitants, 
 wherever they were able, sold their money, the circulation of 
 which had become illegal, to the Frank merchants, who then 
 resold it to the Porte for sterling value. 
 
 Leaving this memento of royal favour behind us, we soon 
 rowed between two ancient castles built on the points where 
 the shores of the Bosphorus nearest approach, within nine 
 hundred yards, six miles from the city. The Asiatic castle was 
 built by Bajazet to control the navigation of the strait; the 
 European castle, by his grandson, Mahomet, to close it, and 
 to give the Greek emperor a forecast of his intentions. The 
 latter has the singularity of representing the name of Mo- 
 hammed in Arabic characters, at least so it is said, though it 
 probably requires the devotion of a Mussulman to make it 
 out, as much as it does the fancy of an astronomer to trace 
 the figures of certain animals in the heavens. Of late years 
 these castles were solely used as a prison for Janizzaries, and 
 on the execution of one of that body at, or about, the capital, 
 a gun was fired from one of them — a regulation which acted 
 as a strong personal protection to the parties concerned, for 
 the surest, indeed the only way to restrain tyranny, is to pub- 
 lish its acts : the tyrant who nightly stains his dungeons with 
 blood would shudder if a bell tolled, or a cannon roared for 
 every victim. 
 
 Half a mile further up we shot into Scheitan Souyou, 
 (devil’s current,) so called from its rapidity and whirlpoolish- 
 ness. We did not attempt to row through it, but took hold of 
 a rope from one of the men who were waiting on the quay for 
 the purpose of tracking boats. 
 
 On turning the next angle of the strait we opened the Bay 
 of Buyukdere, which was then filled with the Ottoman fleet, 
 moored in one line, comprising all rates, from the splendid 
 three-decker to the knowing-looking steamer. It was a gaudy 
 spectacle. The ships were all garish with new paint, and their 
 ensigns, spread out by a fresh breeze from the Euxine, made 
 the hills above the village in the back- ground seem as though 
 
 f 2 
 
68 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 carpeted with crimson silk. The shore on onr left was of an 
 opposite character, and presented evidences of a melancholy 
 tale in the razed palaces of several Greek nobles, executed at 
 the beginning of the revolt. A little farther on we passed a 
 small kiosk with a guard of honour by it, containing the sand- 
 jack scheriff, which had been placed there in order to he near 
 the sultan, whose temporary palace, a straggling wooden edi- 
 fice, painted pale yellow, (the royal colour,) was not far 
 distant. His guards were encamped on the low hills above it 
 in green and white bell tents pitched in circles, producing a 
 scenic effect; and from the broad quay before it a crowd of his 
 pages, of all ages from fifteen to thirty, were fishing. We 
 could not help, owing to the current, disturbing their lines 
 with our oars, but they contented themselves by looking in- 
 vectives, and we rowed close under the windows of the sultan’s 
 saloon to the hiding-place of Therapia. 
 
 This delightful village, then for the first time honoured by 
 the residence of royalty, was the favourite country resort of 
 the Greek nobility and gentry before the revolution. “ O,” 
 exclaimed the Phanariotes, “ had you only seen us in those 
 days, how happy we were ! — our balls, our promenades in the 
 sweet summer nights !” — “ Why then did you revolt ?” one 
 naturally asks. And incessantly one feels inclined to ask that 
 question at Constantinople, seeing the comfort and luxury of 
 the Greeks, (surpassing those of the Osmanleys,) their reli- 
 gious freedom, the riotous festivity of their fetes. 
 
 A specimen of the luxury in which the Greek nobles lived is 
 seen at Therapia, in the palaces and gardens, unsurpassed by any 
 on the Bosphorus, (scarcely excepting the royal palace,) belong- 
 ing to the French embassy, given by Selim III. to Sebastiani, 
 with permission to hoist the French flag on it — a permission 
 never before or since accorded to any ambassador.* The gift, 
 though, cost the monarch nothing. On war breaking out 
 with Russia, in 1807, Prince Ipsilanti (father of the Ipsilantis 
 
 * In August, 1829, Sir R. Gordon very properly assumed the same right, 
 and hoisted the British ensign on his country house, also at Therapia, to the 
 great satisfaction of all the English, and the astonishment of foreigners, who 
 expected, perhaps hoped, that the sultan would have ordered it to be hauled 
 down. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 69 
 
 in the Morea) collected his treasures, or rather his spoils, and 
 retired into Russia ; on which the Porte, suspecting an insur- 
 rection among the Greeks, arrested his relations at Constanti- 
 nople, among whom was his hrother-in-law, who had just built 
 a palace at Therapia, (the one in question), and was going 
 to inhabit it the day the news of the hospodar’s defection 
 arrived. 
 
 Now this transaction is less a sign of tyranny than of the 
 selfishness of the Greek character, so often similarly exempli- 
 fied by the hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia, many of 
 whom have at different times fled into Austria or Russia with 
 the plunder gained in their governments, although, in so 
 doing, they knew that they exposed their relations in Constan- 
 tinople (regarded as hostages) to the suspicions of their master. 
 Nor can their conduct he defended — if indeed there he any 
 defence for being base enough to bring evil on one’s parents — 
 on the plea that they acted up to nature’s first dictate, self- 
 preservation. Their lives were seldom in danger, and if they 
 were, from the just complaints of the boyars being attended to, 
 they well knew how to stop the ears of an Ottoman minister. 
 Nearly all the persecutions suffered by the Greeks have arisen 
 from the cowardice or the interestedness of their leading men. 
 The defection of the hospodars has often been occasioned by 
 the Russian cabinet, thereby to strengthen the belief of Europe 
 in the wretched condition of the Greeks ; to show that the 
 virtuous Greek, who had governed a province with equity and 
 moderation for years, dared not return to Constantinople lest his 
 head should be taken from him. Such is the language which 
 has been long held and believed ; but the groans of the Mol- 
 davians and Wallachians, the frequent petitions of the boyars 
 to be given any governors rather than the Phanariote nobles, are 
 more redolent of the truth. 
 
 Therapia had no inn, hut I did not feel the want of one, 
 having an invite to the house of Signor Calosso, talimgi of the 
 pages. This gentleman, a Piedmontese by birth, a soldier by 
 profession, a liberal by circumstances, whose hospitality made 
 me feel quite at home, was among those who left Italy in 1821 
 to travel. During some years he struggled with adversity in 
 
70 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 England, Spain, and France, oftentimes a prey to biting want 
 and calumny, then tried fortune in that overstocked market for 
 military adventurers, Greece, where he failed owing to a dis- 
 agreement with M. Fabvier, and finally brought his talents to 
 Constantinople at a time when they might be desirable to 
 form the Nizam dgeditt. A recommendation was necessary. 
 He naturally looked for it to the Sardinian ambassador, as half 
 a word from his mouth would have sufficed ; but the ambassa- 
 dor turned his back on him with unworthy meanness. I say 
 with meanness, because, two years afterwards, when the Car- 
 bonaro, whom in his distress he had scorned, was held in honour- 
 able consideration by the Pera society, was a guest at the 
 tables of the different ambassadors, he changed his view of 
 principles, and made advances to him, which were received as 
 they deserved. Fortunately for our emigre , who otherwise 
 might have had his wits taxed even for subsistence, General 
 Count Guilleminot, the constant friend of the oppressed, seeing 
 in him only un officier d’kussards de la grande armee, took 
 him by the hand, and introduced him to the seraskier pasha, 
 from whose service, he was, fortunately, soon after transferred 
 to the sultan’s staff, to instruct the pages in equitation and 
 the principles of cavalry exercise ; and so well did he obtain 
 favour, that the sultan one day allowed him to kiss his foot, 
 the honour to a Christian being perfectly unprecedented, and 
 only enjoyed by the Ottoman grandees at the celebration of 
 the Bairam. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, this marked favour, so great was 
 the repugnance of Mussulmans to be seen subservient to 
 Christians, that Calosso could obtain no authority in his new 
 vocation, and therefore was not enabled to produce more effect 
 than the other military instructors, over whom the only ad- 
 vantage he possessed was in having a regularly paid salary, 
 and a good house at Pera, given to him by the sultan’s order. 
 Though wearing the uniform of the guard, and distinguished 
 by a crescent in diamonds, he never received the slightest 
 respect from the meanest persons of the army, nor could he 
 demand it; but, on the contrary, was often insulted by the 
 soldiers, even under the windows of the palace. As he had the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 71 
 
 appearance of an officer, they seemed determined to show that 
 he was not one ; so therefore, Calosso, his task over, dressed in 
 plain clothes. But to no Franks do the Turks like to be civil 
 in public. The chavasses of the ambassadors, paid by them, 
 never rise when they pass, or evince the slightest respect — a 
 neglect, by 'the way, which their excellencies should have 
 long since insisted on being remedied. Travellers observe 
 how lordly their Tartars are when in company with other 
 Turks, though when alone, or in situations which do not com- 
 promise their supposed dignity, very assiduous and attentive 
 to their comforts. Many writers have ascribed this feeling to 
 renegades only ; it is common with all Mussulmans, and the 
 farther one gets from the cities frequented by Franks the more 
 reserve is manifested — that is in Turkish company. The sur- 
 ro gee, who leads your baggage-horse, will not enter a town 
 behind you. If you insist on riding in first, he will stop till 
 you are out of sight, or take another entrance. 
 
 In all things, however, which do not mark inferiority before 
 witnesses, Mussulmans are very respectful. Two young Osman- 
 leys, at different periods during my residence in Turkey, offered 
 to follow me to Frank country as my servants ; they would 
 sooner have starved than have been my servants in a Mussul- 
 man country. The Persians have not got this pride. 
 
 We had a very pleasant dinner in a pleasant apartment, 
 which overlooked the harem of an aged Osmanley, the lattices 
 of which were not always closed, nor its fair inmates insensible 
 to admiration. Signor Gobbi, an attache of the Sardinian 
 embassy, an amateur artist of great promise, who had already 
 taken the portraits of the sultan’s children, and was then 
 staying with Calosso to meet the sultan’s whim to take his 
 likeness also, made our third. Presently, the songs of a party of 
 Greek boatmen, which had enlivened our dessert, gave way to 
 the strains of a military band, and, unexpected treat to me on 
 the banks of the Bosphorus, we heard Rossini’s music, executed 
 in a manner very creditable to the Professor, Signor Donizetti 
 (Piedmontese.) We rose, and went down to the palace quay, 
 on which the band was playing. I was surprised at the youth 
 of the performers, and the familiarity with which they addressed 
 
72 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Calosso, calling him Rustam; and still more surprised on 
 finding that they were the royal pages, thus instructed for 
 the sultan’s amusement. Their aptitude in learning, which 
 Donizetti informed me would have been remarkable even in 
 Italy, showed that the Turks are naturally musical ; hut these 
 young gentlemen had not time to acquire proficiency, for their 
 destinies called them to other pursuits. As the embryo grandees 
 of the empire, after having finished their probationary studies 
 of the manege , the Koran, and music, they were intended to he 
 placed in important situations ; and thus, I thought, looking 
 at them, we may in a month see the flute captain of a frigate, 
 the big drum governor of a fortress, the bugle colonel of a 
 regiment of cavalry; the last-named certainly as well qualified 
 for the task as a favourite black eunuch, who, in 1829, was 
 colonel of a tactico regiment of lancers. I mean to insinuate 
 nothing against the dark gentleman, in whose company I once 
 dined; we have the example of Narses in favour of his unfor- 
 tunate class. The employment of the pages, who, as destined 
 to set the example in a state, said by its chief to he regenerating, 
 should rather have been taught the wisdom than the trifles of 
 civilization, gave me at once an insight into the nature of the 
 reform so much vaunted as taking place in Turkey. Parade, 
 dress, and debauchery undisguised replaced, after 1826, the 
 sober, solemn formalities of the seraglio, and came in as a farce 
 to the numerous tragedies acted in Mahmoud’s reign — of which 
 in another chapter. 
 
 Franks praise him because he neglects the mosque, and 
 drinks wine, and wears boots, and fetes Christians, (all the 
 while hating them,) and courts their applauses, and imitates 
 their defects. These qualities, they say, show his fitness to be 
 a reformer — of whom ? — of Mussulmans. Should an enthu- 
 siastic missionary, seeking to convert them, preach such 
 doctrines, we should not be surprised to hear of his being 
 stoned ; we should certainly consider him cracked. Mahmoud 
 began where he should have left off. He imagines himself a 
 second Peter; but he has a more difficult task to perform, 
 with less talents to meet it. The two monarchs may be com- 
 pared to two architects: Peter, from a rough, uncut rock 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 73 
 
 hewed a column to his free, unfettered taste; Mahmoud has to 
 remodel a pillar of quaint architecture, already adorned or 
 disfiguredby the whims of ages, to a chaster form. They 
 may he compared to two surgeons, one of whom practises on a 
 healthy savage, while the other attempts to cut out a malignant 
 cancer, reaching the vitals, from a pampered sensualist. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Steam-boat — Selimier — Capitan Pasha — Caique — Black Sea — Supper- 
 Jester — Pilot — Tahir Pasha — Fleet — Sau Raphael — Russian Brig — 
 Artillery — Comboradgis — Powder Magazine. 
 
 About sun-rise of the morning following my arrival at 
 Therapia, — it was, I think, June 5th, 1829, we proceeded to 
 Bujukdere to visit the capitan pasha, who might not have 
 been visible later. We stopped in the way to take a cup of 
 coffee on hoard the sultan’s steamer, with her director, Mr. 
 Kelly,* (formerly a master in the navy,) a gentleman who 
 succeeded, by a combination of pleasing manners and spirited 
 conduct, in gaining the entire good will and respect of the 
 Osmanleys. Being perfectly versed on naval subjects, he 
 would have been of invaluable assistance to them, had their 
 pride allowed them to profit by a Christian’s counsels. 
 
 The steamer being anchored to the south of the fleet, we 
 had occasion to pull up along the whole line to reach the flag- 
 ship, headmost but one. The hulls of the ships, by the help 
 of paint, presented a tolerable appearance; but the rigging 
 indicated that the captains, according to the rule of taste, con- 
 
 * In February, 1829, the sultan went to Ridosto in the steamer. The 
 weather being very bad, he had occasion to admire the address of her cap- 
 tain, which failed not, at different times, to procure him marks of royal 
 favour; among others, a medal representing, in diamonds, a steam-boat. In 
 May, 1829, a Russian steamer appeared off the mouth of the Bosphorus, 
 and remained tauntingly several hours. Mr. Kelly took it for a challenge, 
 and therefore requested the capitan pasha to give him some men, and to 
 allow him to go out and meet his rival, promising to bring him in. But the 
 pasha would not consent. More the pity, for Kelly would have certainly 
 made a prize had he caught him up. 
 
74 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 sidered curved lines more graceful than straight ones. The 
 position, also, of the masts and yards showed that they were 
 not so hostile to crosses as usually supposed. 
 
 A crowd of boats waiting alongside the Selimier occasioned 
 us delay. She was a noble first-rate without a poop. From 
 her peak a large crimson silk ensign, pierced with three 
 crescents, trailed in the water, and the pasha’s burgee at the 
 main, likewise crescented, spread to a southerly air. Her guns 
 looked out of the ports in all directions: some were laid to 
 strike top-gallant masts, some to sink boats, some to fire on 
 the hows, some to hit the davits. Men in various costumes 
 were seated on the port-sills smoking; the legs of others were 
 dangling over the quarters; nor were the cat-heads and hump- 
 kins void of occupants. A steep accommodation-ladder, 
 reaching from the water to the upper deck, we climbed up it, 
 and then stood a moment on the gangway, butts to curiosity, 
 to observe a novel scene. Achmet Papuchi, capitan-pasha, 
 reclined on a couch in the middle of the quarter deck ; he was 
 a sickly-looking man, with an ordinary countenance, solem- 
 nized hut not dignified by a long grey heard, dressed in vest, 
 trowsers, and anteri of orange-coloured silk, with a richly 
 embroidered sash, and a slate- coloured cloth pelisse. He was 
 smoking from the amber-mouthed snake of porcelain narghiler- 
 A semicircle of well- attired attendants was ranged before him, 
 in ready submission, to catch the slightest aspirations from his 
 lips, or to move a limb, or to scratch his head if needful. A 
 secretary was reading papers to him, he being deficient in that 
 vulgar accomplishment: his Greek dragoman stood obsequious 
 beside him; and a dozen chavasses formed a line apart, armed 
 with pistols, ataghans, and long staves of office, equally pre- 
 pared at his nod to amputate or to bastinade. Between the 
 guns, abaft the mizen-mast, and on the forecastle, sailors were 
 sleeping, or playing chess, or breaking their fast on bread and 
 olives, or performing their monotonous devotions : the officers 
 were scarcely distinguishable from them, at first sight, ex- 
 cepting one, an elderly, corpulent efiendi, (second captain,) 
 who was sitting on the booms, his shirt half off, diligently 
 seeking for the obnoxious disturbers of his morning’s nap. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 75 
 
 We could have laughed outright at the masquerade; hut 
 his excellency perceived us : “ Guielsin !” he cried, and a 
 passage was immediately cleared that we might approach him. 
 He saluted us with a knowing glance, (peculiarly Osman- 
 leyish,) and permitted my companion, whom he knew, to put 
 his rohe to his lips and forehead, an honour which I took 
 care never to avail myself of, with him or any other Osmanley. 
 No Frank should ever submit to it: though only meaning to 
 pay a compliment, his intention is sure to he misconstrued. 
 Pride is necessary to ensure respect from the Osmanley, who 
 ascribes even common politeness to submission. It is not 
 uncommon with him, in order to ascertain the quality of a 
 stranger, to drop something, as a handkerchief ; if the stranger 
 neglect it he is set down as a person of distinction, who is 
 accustomed to he served, not to serve others; if he pick it up, 
 which is very natural, the contrary is inferred. It is one 
 unpleasantness of being acquainted with Osmanleys, that you 
 must, for your own sake, disregard good breeding in many 
 points. For example, a hey or an aga pays you a visit; you 
 rise to receive him; he attributes the movement to the innate 
 respect of a Christian for a Mussulman. You may go into 
 his room fifty times without receiving the same compliment, 
 though he will pay it to a Mussulman of similar rank. The 
 Frank, in short, in his intercourse with Osmanleys, should 
 never abate one iota of his due as a gentleman; if he do, he 
 is soon regarded in a menial light. Suppose he visit a pasha, 
 and the pasha does not invite him to be seated, he should 
 immediately sit down, unheeding the angry looks of the atten- 
 dant officers, indignant at his audacity. The next time the 
 pasha will desire him to sit on the sofa the moment he sees 
 him, not to expose his rank a second time to the slight of 
 any body daring to sit in his presence unhidden. When at 
 the divan of a man of rank, whom you may have occasion to 
 visit again, coffee is brought to you without the chibouque, 
 desire the attendants to bring the latter : it will he brought, 
 although discontent visibly lour on the brow of the master. 
 Never mind; the next time, the chibouque will he presented 
 as a matter of course. I need hardly observe that the pipe 
 
76 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 is the symbol of social equality: coffee is given to everybody, 
 the pipe to few. These little neglects are studiously acted on 
 by Osmanleys; if becomingly resisted they are never repeated, 
 and you are esteemed a person of consideration. It may be 
 deemed presumptuous in a Frank gentleman thus to place 
 himself on a level with the high nobles of the land, hut he 
 cannot avoid it, however modest he he, for in the East there is 
 no medium between equality and slavery; the choice, therefore, 
 is not doubtful. I knew Franks in the service of the Porte 
 lead an unpleasant life because, with a view of flattery, they 
 yielded on these trifling points. They soon learned their 
 error, hut a step thus lost is rarely regained. 
 
 The pasha, rising from his couch, invited us to descend into 
 his cabin. Two officers supported him under the arms, and a 
 long train followed us. 
 
 The cabin was plain, hut elegant and scrupulously clean. 
 The furniture consisted of a sofa, and half a dozen chairs, with 
 gold embroidered suns and moons on the hacks. In various 
 frames were suspended the sultan’s cypher, sentences of the 
 koran, and two paintings of the ship. A manuscript chart of 
 the Euxine, never used, with compasses and rulers, lay on a 
 small table ; and beautifully emblazoned copies of the koran 
 and the sunna were placed on an ottoman. Damascus sabres, 
 French pistols, and two Dollond’s telescopes completed the 
 decoration. Piles of lemons were in the windows to impart 
 fragrance to the air, and the rails of the stem- gallery were 
 interwoven with fresh- cut orange branches. 
 
 Pages fanned the flies from us while we were discussing 
 pipes, coffee, and sherbet. Our conversation turned on the 
 respective merits of chairs and sofas, the former of which the 
 pasha said he had got purposely for the accommodation of his 
 Frank visitors. We bowed, hut judged that he had them in 
 adroit flattery to the sultan’s new tastes. He informed us that 
 he was going that day into the Black Sea to seek the Russian 
 fleet. The word “seek” surprised me, for his excellency had 
 not the air of a man who would risk his topmasts in chase oi 
 an enemy. He remarked on the advantage that he should 
 derive from the counsel of an English officer, and proposed 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 77 
 
 that I should accompany him. Although complimentary, his 
 invitation was not very enticing, considering the odds against 
 us. However, curiosity overcame other considerations, and I 
 cheerfully consented, on the express condition that I should 
 he considered as his friend, in no ways belonging to his service. 
 He agreed ; and we left the ship. 
 
 It was now half-past seven a.m., and I expected to have time 
 to return to Pera to provide myself with necessaries for the 
 cruise. The boat which brought us on board being still along- 
 side, I jumped into her, and darted down the stream. At nine 
 I reached Pera, and at ten was again in the same caique rowing 
 gallantly up the Bosphorus. We outstripped the porpoises ; 
 but in vain. On turning the angle which concealed Buyukdere, 
 I saw to my dismay the fleet under way. It had just cast, and 
 was standing out in a novel style; some ships under their 
 courses, some under stay- sails, some under top -gallant and 
 royal sails only, making steady way. At any other time it 
 would have been a good sight ; as it was I cursed my folly in 
 having returned to Pera, which I feared would he attributed to 
 any motive rather than the right one. 
 
 Every moment our distance increased ; the wind seemed to 
 rise on purpose to foil us, and the current, while opposing our 
 progress, to aid that of the ships. The scorching sun, added 
 to my vexation, made me burn. Castle after castle succes- 
 sively disappeared behind the passing ships, and by the time 
 that the sternmost frigate cleared the Symplegades, we were 
 yet four miles from them. My boatmen, whose limbs no longer 
 yielded moisture, now wished to give up the chase, and lay on 
 their oars. “ Onward !” I exclaimed, doubling my promises, 
 and again the little skiff dashed aside the rippling foam. The 
 next hour appeared an age, and indented every tree and every 
 cavern of the steep shore beside us in my memory. I regarded 
 them with the fixedness of impatience. At length we reached 
 the Symplegades.* New dilemma. The long swell of the 
 
 * These rocks mark the entrance of the Bosphorus; from them to Chal- 
 cedonia Point, the other extremity, is twenty miles. The average depth is 
 from thirty to forty fathoms, being ten fathoms more than the bottom of 
 the Euxine, immediately outside. The transition on entering the strait is 
 so sudden, that in one cast of the lead you deepen from twenty-six fathoms, 
 
78 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Euxine, (yet unappeased by the young south-wester,) meeting 
 and recoiling from the jagged base- worn rocks, raised such a 
 turmoil as seriously threatened the equilibrium of our egg-shell 
 bark. The boatmen were alarmed, and began to pray. The 
 fleet was six miles off. I became frantic. At that moment it 
 hauled to the wind, topsails on the caps, larboard broadsides to 
 us, apparently waiting our arrival. “We will yet overtake 
 them !” I exclaimed. The men laughed at me ; declaring that 
 they would not row a stroke further — that their boat could not 
 live in the sea. They were winding her. Nothing but the 
 absolute necessity of keeping immovable prevented me from 
 using force, and taking the oars myself. I entreated, I swore ; 
 they moqked me. As a last appeal, I threw a handful of dol- 
 lars into the bottom of the boat, pointing at the same time to 
 my pistols. This acre-doux sauce had the effect. We con- 
 tinued our course, but in a state of anxiety, for it was necessary 
 to measure with the greatest nicety the strength to be applied 
 to each oar, that the coming wave might not surmount our 
 spoon-like prow ; one topple would have immersed us. The 
 
 which have been the soundings for near two miles, to thirty-six fathoms; 
 thus showing how rapid, in its entire depth, the current must be to have 
 dug for itself such a bed. This invalidates the opinion of Strabo and 
 Polybius, repeated by modern authors, that the Euxine was formerly a lake; 
 for, had it been so, the lake, it is clear, considering its shallowness, being 
 in no part two hundred fathoms, in few places one hundred fathoms deep, 
 and that two large rivers, the Danube and Don, besides smaller ones, 
 flow into it, could not have continued so many years, requiring, as it actually 
 does, a large outlet. Its waters must have sensibly deepened, and in a very 
 short time have made for themselves a passage without the aid of an earth- 
 quake, according to theory; and that passage would rather have been over 
 the low land twenty or thirty miles to the northward of the Bosphorus. The 
 opposite character, too, of the shores of the Bosphorus (similar to those of 
 the Hellespont) in feature and productiveness, strengthen the idea that they 
 were never nearer related than at present. The rocks are picturesque 
 objects, particularly the one near the European shore; rough, jagged, and 
 worn by the action of the sea, which breaks over it in the north-east gales, 
 with a wild stunning noise, producing, with the view of the fine mountainous 
 coast of Asia, a sublime effect. I have often witnessed it from the divan of 
 my friend the capitan pasha’s Kiaja, who governed the outer castle within 
 pistol-shot of it. It is considered a necessary feat with travellers to climb 
 to its summit, where is the remnant of a column of white marble, six feet 
 high, three feet in circumference, wreathed, and connected to a base, resting 
 without fastenings on the rock. Respecting it are two opinions: 1. That it 
 was a pillar in honour of Pompey; 2. An altar to Apollo. Why not have 
 been dedicated to Neptune ? 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 79 
 
 men showed admirable skill ; and at half-past three we reached 
 the Selimier, having rowed since the morning thirty-eight 
 geographical miles. Here a lresh difficulty presented itself, 
 inasmuch that we could not approach her. The vast fabric 
 was rolling two strakes, imperceptible to those on hoard, but 
 creating whirlpools for a caique. The men even said that I 
 must return on shore, because the very act of getting out would 
 overturn them. It really appeared so. “ Ropes !” we cried : 
 two were thrown ; one I made fast to my bag and my cloak — 
 up they went — the other I grasped, and with the descending 
 wave, which allowed the caique to sink quietly from under me, 
 sprung out, and in a minute was on deck. “ Afferim !” (bravo) 
 resounded from several voices. I looked hack a moment for 
 the caique ; she was already a cable’s length off, dancing before 
 the sea, the delighted caikgis waving their red caps to me. 
 
 The capitan pasha was smoking on the taffrail. “ Afferim ! 
 capitan,” he cheerfully exclaimed, “ what kept you above water 
 in that skiff ?” “God’s mercy,” I replied. “God is great,” 
 he continued ; “ sit down by me ; bring a chibouque.” 
 
 The captain of the ship now came to him, and kissed his 
 robe. He was a smart little fellow, dressed entirely in white, 
 excepting his red slippers and his fez. He held a formidable 
 cowskin, but did not make much use of it. Having received 
 his orders, he leaped on the hitts, on the guns, and ran on the 
 forecastle. A signal was then hoisted — helm a-port — some 
 hundreds of loose-breeched vagabonds seized the fore-tack; 
 tore it down with an impetus which made the sturdy mast 
 shake ; ran the topsails up, and away we went nine knots an 
 hour into the Euxine. I felt quite exhilarated ; the moment 
 that the gallant ship sprung into her bed of foam, repaid my 
 day’s toil. To he thus ploughing the Euxine in a first-rate 
 was a pleasure I might have thought of hut never expected ; 
 that sea having been as closed to our ships of war as the 
 Caspian or any other lake. 
 
 The Selimier steered like a cutter and sailed like a frigate. 
 “ What a beautiful ship !” I exclaimed to his excellency. “By 
 God’s grace,” he said, “ she is.” A poor compliment, I thought, 
 to the architect. “ Who built her ?” I asked. “Who knows?” 
 
80 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 was the answer. “ She must do your excellency honour,” I 
 continued. “ Please God,” he answered. Alas ! I thought, 
 man gets little credit among these people, Allah takes all. I 
 elicited in five minutes’ conversation that it would not he his 
 fault if we met the enemy. He had left the Bosphorus in com- 
 pliance with the sultan’s orders ; hut his private opinion, hacked 
 by his officers, was, that it would he madness to engage. 
 However, we talked on business, particularly about the Russians 
 retaining possession of the important post of Sizepolis, which 
 they had taken in February of the same year. “ They must he 
 driven from it,” I observed ; “ let us do it.” That did not 
 enter into his ideas : “ Bakalum,” he replied. Bakalum, ( nous 
 verrons,) was his constant answer to every suggestion, good or 
 had. I soon learned its value, and the force of Sebastiani’s 
 caustic remark to Selim III. “ Your majesty bewails destiny, 
 in giving you Russia and England for enemies ; you have three 
 enemies yet more powerful.” “ God forbid,” said the sultan ; 
 what do you mean ? Greater than the Hon of the north, the 
 queen of the seas — impossible !” “ Yes,” continued the general, 
 “ Inshallah, Allah kerim, and Bakalum are your deadly foes.” 
 Discerning Sehastiani ! Bakalum is indeed the bane of the 
 Osmanleys. By it they deliberate weeks on a subject which 
 should he decided in a day. The opportunity is lost; the 
 cause should he referred to Bakalum, hut they press a higher 
 power, and repeat, “Allah Kerim” (God is wise). 
 
 We had run about twenty miles when the sun set, carpeting 
 the sea, and tapestrying the sky with a rare unison of delicate 
 green and golden hues; small, fantastically shaped clouds in 
 the gorgeous horizon so nearly resembled a fleet, that the 
 signal officer reported one as a sail, and drew the anxious gaze 
 of the pasha. Before we ascertained its fallacy, a real frigate 
 was discerned to the north, and instantly multiplied in hundreds 
 of retinas. “What is she?” asked the pasha of me. “The 
 look-out of the enemy’s fleet,” I answered, as I supposed; 
 “ Admiral Greig must naturally be anxious to avenge the loss 
 of the frigate which you took the last cruise; we may therefore 
 expect to meet him in the morning.” He hastily collected the 
 ships, and put their heads in for the shore. I proposed that a 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 81 
 
 frigate should give chase, and offered to go in her myself; but 
 he would not consent, for he imagined that his imperative duty 
 was to keep all his ships — line-of-hattle ships, frigates, cor- 
 vettes, and brigs — as near each other as possible. Poor 
 Achmet Papudgi ! he knew he was unfit for his situation. 
 Originally a papudgi (shoemaker) he was an instance of the 
 rapid change of fortune so often witnessed in the East. Only 
 two years before I knew him, he was in the service of Izzet 
 Mehemet Pasha, who procured for him the situation of waivode 
 of Galata. He made an excellent police officer, therefore the 
 sultan thought he would make an excellent admiral — watch the 
 seas as well as watch the streets. 
 
 The night set in balmy. I was standing on the gangway, 
 watching the gleaming tracks of fish, and musing on the 
 probable issue of the engagement to be expected next day, 
 when the melodious words — “ Allaliou ekher ; esliedou inne la 
 illahe ilia Allah ; eshedou inne Mouhammed resoul Allah, hceya 
 aless-celat, haya oelel fellah ; Allahou ekher la illahe ilia 
 Allah,”* filled the air as from the voices of invisible spirits. 
 They came from the mizen rigging of each ship, whence 
 Imams were calling the faithful to prayers. Everywhere this 
 appeal is beautiful ; but thus on the sea, responding from ship 
 to ship, it was divine. 
 
 The summons was promptly obeyed ; every deck was covered 
 with the prostrating crew, each man on his own capote, the 
 officers on carpets spread under the half- deck, each person 
 having previously washed his hands and feet. The pasha was 
 equally devout in his cabin, and on the whole it was a most 
 impressive sight, even to a Christian. 
 
 The ceremony being concluded, his excellency and myself 
 prepared to sup, for which task the Black Sea air had given 
 me a keen appetite. A small carpet was spread between two 
 guns on the main deck outside his cabin. It was not screened 
 off. On it we sat down, cross-legged, opposite to each other. 
 
 * God is great. There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet 
 — come to pray — come to the gardenf of prayer. God is great, &c. 
 
 f The early Mussulmans prayed in gardens for want of mosques; hence 
 the expression. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Two agas — they were gentlemen of no less rank— knelt to us 
 with ewers to wash our hands; then tied napkins round our 
 necks, and placed between us a circular metal tray upon a low 
 stool, provided with four saucers, containing as many kinds of 
 conserves, slices of bread and of cake, salt, and a howl of salad 
 sauce, to he eaten at discretion. Our fingers were the ope- 
 rating instruments. The first dish was a pile of red mullet. 
 The pasha of course had the first help; being a bit of an 
 epicure, he pawed every one individually before choosing. I 
 took one whose tail only had come in contact with his forceps. 
 The next dish was a fowl. The pasha steadied it with the 
 thumb of his left hand, and with his right hand pulled off a 
 wing. I tried the same manoeuvre on a leg; but, owing to 
 delicacy in not making free use of both hands, failed in dislo- 
 cating it. The pasha perceiving my awkwardness, motioned 
 to an officer to assist me. I would fain have declined his 
 services, hut it was too late. The fellow took it up in his 
 brawny hands, ripped off the joints with surprising dexterity, 
 peeled the breast with his thumb-nail, tore it in thin slices, 
 and, thus dissected, laid the bird before me with an air of 
 superiority, saying “Eat.” I was very hungry, or I should 
 not have been able. The third dish was lamb stewed with 
 olives. On this I showed that I had fully profited by my late 
 lesson, and, dreading the intrusion of another person’s fingers 
 on so slippery a subject, dug my own in with unblushing 
 effrontery. I followed precisely the pasha’s motions, scooping 
 the olives out of the dish with a piece of bread and my 
 thumb as adroitly as though I had never seen a fork. The 
 attendants winked at each other, and my host’s unmeaning eyes 
 faintly radiated at the rapidity with which I adapted myself to 
 existing circumstances. I never fully understood before the 
 point of the saying, “Do at Rome as Rome does.” Various 
 other meats followed, which I will not enumerate; they were all 
 diminished by a similar process; suffice to say that they were 
 excellent, the Turkish kitchen being in many points equal to 
 the French kitchen, and in one article superior — the exquisite- 
 ness of lamb dressed in Turkey far, very far, surpasses my 
 feeble praise. About twelve dishes, of which, in compliment, I 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 83 
 
 was obliged to eat more than my inclination prompted, rendered 
 still more irksome by the absence of wine, had been shifted 
 with great dispatch, and a pause ensuing, I began to breathe, 
 thinking my repletory task over, when, to my utter dismay, a 
 huge platter of pilaff, the standing last dish, was placed between 
 us. Never having liked rice since I was at school, the sight of 
 the pressed greasy mess before me was positively revolting. 
 However, there it was, and had I only been required to eat a 
 pound of it, I might have esteemed myself happy. A much 
 severer trial awaited me. The pasha immersing his fingers 
 deep into it, drew forth a tolerable quantity, with which he 
 amused himself some minutes, rolling it into a ball, while I 
 stared, simply supposing that the delicate morsel, when it 
 should have received the last touch, was destined for his 
 throat. It was lucky that I did not foresee its right destina- 
 tion, or the bare thought would infallibly have made me 
 forget myself, which would have grieved me, before so many 
 witnesses, not to mention the insult of the restitution. When 
 fairly reduced to the substance of a grape-shot, the pasha 
 stretched his lean hand over the tray; I involuntarily shrunk 
 back; he stretched further, and inserted it — O nausea! — into 
 my mouth. I swallowed it with an effort of despair, but know 
 not what power of nerves kept it down. The attendants 
 arched the brows of wonder: a capitan pasha bestow such au 
 exceeding mark of distinction on a stranger ! Had there been 
 then a gazette in Stamboul the circumstance would have been 
 published at our return as the most notable event of the 
 cruize. I was delighted to find that the honour was too great 
 to be repeated. 
 
 The appetizers which came on with the tray were removed, 
 and replaced by a bowl of koshub, a sweet liquid, composed of 
 various preserved fruits, perfumed with rose ; two tortoise-shell 
 spoons were in it. This was very good, especially as we were not 
 reduced to lap it up with the palms of our hands, as I might 
 have reasonably expected after what had passed. A glass of 
 sherbet assisted our deglutition, and chibouques, with coffee, 
 assured its efficacy: while enjoying the latter, an Albanian 
 
 g 2 
 
84 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 bagpipe, harsher, if possible, than a Scotch one, supplied the 
 absence of conversation. 
 
 I then went on deck, and, wrapping my cloak round me, lay 
 down to rest on the planks, surrounded by snorers. There 
 were no beds, not even one for the pasha; his excellency slept 
 in a box, resembling a dog kennel in size and shape, placed 
 ahaft the mizen mast. I could not sleep much for the singing, 
 or rather moaning, of some sailors, as monotonous and annoying 
 as the buzzing of mosquitoes; and twice, at twelve and at four, 
 I was startled out of a doze by a din loud enough to raise 
 the dead — a dozen drummers were parading the decks fore and 
 aft, beating with all their might to rouse the watch. 
 
 In the morning we were close off the Bosphorus, nearly be- 
 calmed. Not a strange sail was in sight, a void marvellously 
 consoling to the crew, among whom I perceived a sad spirit of 
 apprehension. I am not vain enough to say I did not share it, 
 (the mere circumstance of there being no surgeon on hoard was 
 discouraging,) but at any rate I did not show it, and being 
 fairly in for the worst, determined to make the best of it. I 
 considered the trial of our strength only deferred. My principal 
 aim was to encourage the chief, and, therefore, having first break- 
 fasted on coffee thick as chocolate, without sugar, bread and 
 and honey, I repaired to him. He was undergoing the opera- 
 tion of having his head shaved, and looked very dismal: that 
 done, he performed his minor ablutions, and said his prayers, I 
 all the while smoking his narghiler on the divan. “ What can 
 I do?” the pasha despondingly said, “with such men, such 
 means? they know nothing.” “ Nor do you,” I thought; and 
 replied, “ Let us do our best ; allow me to exercise the guns, 
 it will give the men confidence : if we do meet the enemy, let 
 us not die like dogs !” He scarcely heeded me at the moment, 
 for his attention was suddenly attracted by the appearance of 
 a boat coming off. He hoped it contained his jester and his 
 pilot, who had missed their passage the day before, and whose 
 absence considerably annoyed him. He was disappointed; it 
 brought an order from the seraskier pasha to steer out to sea 
 again. His countenance fell; and we were about to fill the 
 maintop sail, when a merchantman’s boat was seen emerging 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 85 
 
 from the shade of the canal’s high banks. We distinguished 
 in it a Frank and an Osmanley, the objects of the pasha’s 
 solicitude. 
 
 The jester skipped on deck with the confidence of one who 
 knew that his presence would excuse his absence. He was 
 gaily attired in scarlet and gold, and his fez was hound by a 
 silver hand. He was dumpy in stature, but active in limb ; and 
 his countenance displayed more archness than folly. He saw 
 the suppressed smile of the officers, and at once ran up to the 
 pasha, who affected to look stem, and, making a somerset, took 
 hold of the hem of his robe, saying, “ Thus will the Russian 
 admiral reel before your potent thunder, and thus will I salute 
 him,” making a sign with his foot. “ Pezaveng,” said the old 
 man, taking him good-humouredly by the ear, “ I will nail this 
 to my cabin- door.” “ The fool will then hear the wise man’s 
 secrets,” replied the other, " and you will have to sew his mouth 
 up. What would you do without his tongue ? Talk to him,” 
 he added, pointing to the pilot, who stood at the gangway, 
 doubting what to do ; “ without his boat your highness’s Tom 
 Fool must have come off on a porpoise’s back, for the Peza- 
 veng caikgis will not take jests for piastres.” This acknow- 
 ledgment, which included a sarcasm on his slender emoluments, 
 secured his companion’s grace; and with this invaluable addi- 
 tion we made sail. He had originally been a dervish, (a jester’s 
 profession after all,) and was much liked by all the crew, for 
 whom he was always- ready to exert his influence. The pilot 
 was a Ragusan, extremely well acquainted with the Euxine. 
 His office was no sinecure, since everything relating to the 
 navigation, heaving the log, &c., depended on him. He had 
 been pilot of Tahir Pasha’s frigate at Navarine. He described 
 it as warm work; and said that, excepting himself and the 
 pasha, not a man was left standing on the upper deck. Above 
 three hundred men were killed in her. He told me an odd 
 anecdote of Tahir Pasha, while commanding that fleet: — One 
 day, out at sea, two of his corvettes were slow in obeying 
 signals, on which he hove to, and made signal for their captains 
 and their signal officers. When they came on board, he placed 
 the latter under the canes of the chav asses, and, arming himself 
 
86 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 and his captain with rattans, administered an equal number of 
 blows to the former. Tahir acted thus in person through a 
 sense of propriety, for he considered it derogatory to the 
 service that captains should be corporally corrected by any 
 person beneath their own rank. “ The example,” added the 
 pilot, “ produced an excellent effect; the two corvettes, in 
 future, set an example of activity to the whole fleet.” 
 
 Our fleet consisted of one three-decker, five two-deckers, 
 three frigates, five corvettes, and three brigs ;* hearing, in 
 addition to the capitan pashas flag, the flags of the capitan, 
 petrowna, and reala beys (full, vice, and rear admiral). The 
 two former had commanded ships at Navarine. They were 
 courageous men, and not despicable seamen. I often con- 
 versed with them. They could not mention the name of 
 Mouharem Bey, the commander of the Egyptian division at 
 Navarine, with patience. They informed me that he not only 
 commanded his own frigate not to fire (in fact she did not) t 
 but also landed at the commencement of the action, and 
 stopped the firing from the castle, which would otherwise have 
 damaged the rear squadron while entering. This accounts for 
 the silence of the castle, and for the personal safety of the 
 traitor Mouharem, when his frigate was sunk, notwithstanding 
 her neutrality, by the Asia’s fire. 
 
 One of our frigates was the St. Raphael, which had been 
 captured about three weeks previous. Not an idea being 
 entertained that the Ottoman fleet would venture out to sea, 
 the Russian captain, cruizing off the coast of Anatolia, took it 
 at night-time for his own fleet. He made no signals, and 
 joined company; but to his surprise, in the morning, found 
 himself surrounded by strangers. Even then a bold manoeuvre, 
 and a couple of broadsides, would have secured his retreat 
 from so inexperienced a foe ; had he only hoisted Turkish 
 colours, he would have gained sufficient time to have extri- 
 cated himself ; for so ignorant were the officers of the Selimier 
 of the features of their own vessels, that to make out the 
 
 * The Russian fleet, on the Euxine, in 1829, consisted of two three- 
 deckers, nine two-deckers, eight frigates, (three of which bearing sixty 
 guns,) and twelve corvettes or brigs. 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 87 
 
 supernumerary, they were obliged to wait till every ship had 
 shown her colours. The Russian, imbecile like, showed the 
 blue cross, until a shot from the pasha made him lower it. He 
 was quietly taken possession of ; and the pasha, equally 
 astonished with himself at the unexpected encounter, and 
 attributing it to Allah, changed the name of the prize to 
 “ Gift of Heaven.” A pine-apple was substituted for the 
 angel, her figure-head. The sultan visited her, and regarded 
 with attention the portraits of the emperor and the empress 
 suspended in the cabin. He demanded of the prisoners if 
 they were likenesses ; and being answered in the affirmative, 
 his courtiers insinuated that they augured the capture of the 
 originals. Mahmoud was pleased ; but I cannot suppose that 
 he expected that consummation any more than he expected 
 that the emperor’s general would occupy his palace at Adria- 
 nople within three months. 
 
 The frigate was not without a witness to her disgraceful 
 submission : a brig was in company ; but, fortunately, to lee- 
 ward of the enemy, instead of being surrounded. Without 
 hesitating, she put before the wind in a noble manner, crowded 
 sail, plied her sweeps, and escaped from under the ill- directed 
 fire of the capitan bey, receiving little damage.* The capitan 
 bey foamed when he related to me the circumstance. “ The 
 taouchan (hare) was in my clutches, but my dogs were afraid 
 of their own noise ; when a shot came amongst them, they fled 
 from their quarters. Alas ! our bravest fell at Navarin. 
 Tchorbans (shepherds) are now our sailors, who smell the 
 sea and gunpowder for the first time.” He spoke the truth. 
 
 I went on board the “ Gift of Heaven” the second day we 
 were at sea, to draw from her an approximate idea of the condi- 
 tion of the Russian fleet. A short inspection convinced me 
 that it was not much superior to the Turkish. Her rigging 
 
 * The conduct of the commanders of the frigate and the brig met with 
 fitting notice. The captain was degraded to serve before the mast, the com- 
 mander received two steps and the cross of St. George ; his officers one 
 step each, and a decoration ; and the brig the distinction of Saint George’s 
 ensign in perpetuity. The former was hung in effigy, and his wife solicited 
 the emperor’s leave to change his name. She was an Englishwoman, and 
 English blood flowed in her children’s veins. 
 
88 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 denoted the lubber. She was very dirty — but that would not 
 impede fighting. Her powder was much superior to the 
 Turkish; hut that gave me no great concern, for I reasonably 
 judged that any action between the fleets would he carried on 
 within point blank, for the mutual accommodation of had gun- 
 nery, when the inferior powder would have the advantage. It 
 is true that the charge of good powder may be diminished ac- 
 cording to the range, hut this point is scarcely attended to even 
 in the English navy. The principal superiority in the equip- 
 ment of the Russian lay in the shot ; the Turkish shot being 
 so extremely had that nearly all, in the trials which I made, 
 broke by the concussion in the bore. On the whole, I had 
 reason to he satisfied, and I assured the officers who accom- 
 panied me, that their rivals had no real advantage over them ; 
 but they chose to believe the contrary by way of varnishing 
 their lukewarmness, insisting on every thing they saw, whether 
 understood or not, being perfection ; and had not the organ of 
 non- combativeness been so very prominent throughout the 
 fleet, I should no longer have had much apprehension as to 
 the result of an engagement with equal numbers ; our numer- 
 ous crews would have given us a decided advantage in boarding. 
 The presence of an English officer, it is true, in some measure 
 encouraged the crew of the Selimier, but that influence did not 
 extend beyond her. Even the Selimier would have been an 
 easy prize to an English frigate in twenty minutes. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe the rare confusion among 
 fourteen hundred men of twenty different tongues, the first 
 time that I exercised them at quarters. They were amused 
 and riotous, but withal perfectly civil. The topchi bashi (mas- 
 ter gunner,' second in rank to the captain) ably seconded me, 
 and liberally applied the rattan to the stupid. I thought this 
 a bad plan, likely to defeat my object; I therefore begged him 
 to spare his arm and employ his tongue in explaining to them 
 my motive in making them work, — for their good, not mine. 
 I flattered them by appealing to their judgment on the details 
 of the exercise, instead of exacting brute acquiescence. The 
 next day they cheerfully followed my wishes, and expressed 
 satisfaction at my being on board. I took care not to give a 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 89 
 
 suspicion that I assumed the slightest authority, although the 
 pasha gave me full power : I was aware of Mussulman jealousy 
 in that respect. But their willingness was so borne down by 
 their laziness, that any long continuance at one time was im- 
 possible, or oftener than once a day. They could run in and 
 out pretty well, could load too without putting the shot before 
 the cartridge ; but they never thought of stopping the vent ; 
 and although I made them comprehend the danger in the 
 neglect, my caution would not have been attended to in action 
 simply because the man, whose duty it was, could not have 
 suffered by his negligence. “ Every man for himself and God 
 for us all.” What would it have signified to those at the 
 breech whether the loader’s arm was blown off or not. This 
 was a trifle — which I did not insist on — compared with the 
 main object of the exercise, levelling the guns, at which their 
 incapacity was marvellous. Never having seen, or had an 
 idea of, a crew of absolute landsmen, I at first attributed it to 
 wilfulness : the only aim of the captains of the guns was to 
 keep clear of the recoil. Exercising without powder it was the 
 same. I would tell them to point at the hull of a ship 
 a-heam — a good wide mark : they would take evident pains for 
 five or ten minutes to he correct, calling to me successively to 
 come and examine, when, out of a whole broadside, I often 
 found not one gun any way near the object : one would be 
 directed to the royal yards, another depressed to half the range, 
 and so on. I thought there was a general defect of optics. It 
 was, however, natural. We are all like children at their 
 a, b, c, when we commence a new art, in the opinion of those 
 who understand it, and who forget that they themselves were 
 once as awkward. 
 
 The Selimier’s artillery consisted of thirty-sixes, twenty- 
 sixes, twenties, with long twelves and nines on the upper-deck, 
 in all one hundred and twenty (French calibres.) The quarters 
 were magnificent, with all the requisite appurtenances, except 
 match-tubs. The matches were fastened to spiked sticks, and 
 stuck about the decks, ready to bum any combustible article 
 which might come in their way, — cartridges or fingers. The 
 guns had no sights, not even notches, and were yet more de- 
 
90 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 fective in the quoins, which, instead of being finely-sloped 
 wedges, were clumps of wood of nearly equal thickness at both 
 ends ; in consequence, it was difficult to lay a gun horizontal ; 
 and when in that position it was liable to fall down in the bed 
 at each recoil, where, I plainly saw, it would remain during an 
 action, as no one would think of replacing it. So wedded 
 were the officers to old customs, or jealous of a Christian’s in- 
 terference, that I could not persuade the pasha to have others 
 made of a more approved form.* 
 
 In addition to the calibres above-mentioned, there were on 
 the middle deck four guns carrying granite halls of seventy-five 
 pounds ; and on the lower deck, four others with one hundred 
 and ten pound granite halls. Iron halls of similar size would 
 have weighed upwards of three hundred pounds. A party of 
 Comboradgis was embarked to serve these enormous pieces, or 
 rather to look at them, as I shall show. Wishing to see one 
 of them fired, I came down on the lower deck for that purpose, 
 which created instant commotion among the smokers and 
 sleepers. Every man jumped on his legs. “What is the 
 matter ?” I said ; but, getting no answer, passed on. Having 
 ascertained that the piece was properly charged, I was retiring, 
 to allow a Comboradgi to fire it, whilst I should observe the 
 effect from the foremost port. No Comboradgi was there, nor 
 indeed any one else within twelve yards ; “ Mashallah,” some 
 voices shouted to my inquiry, “ that gun has never been fired.” 
 — “ Is that a reason why it should not he fired now ?” I asked. 
 “ It is very old,” was the reply, “ and will burst.” It was cer- 
 tainly antiquated, and this warning made it appear infinitely 
 worse than it really was. But I was in for it. “ Will no one 
 fire it ?” I asked ; “ then I will,” brandishing the match in a 
 mortal fright, (cowardice is so infectious.) “Delhi, delhi, 
 Allah kerim ! hakalum !” Away the rascals ran, holding their 
 breeches up with one hand, their pipes with the other, up the 
 ladders, and left me alone on the deck with the topchi bashi, 
 
 * The Turkish quoin has a handle whereby it is easily adjusted with one 
 nand. The after trucks of the long guns on the upper deck are inside the 
 carriage, giving more room and pleasing the eye. Both these plans might 
 be imitated. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 91 
 
 who did not quite desert me, hut remained on the opposite 
 side peeping at me from behind the pumps. His head only 
 was visible, and that, too, I dare say, he drew in when I 
 touched the priming — hut this he would not confess. I drop- 
 ped the match, and hastily ran forward to escape the dreaded 
 explosion. Our fear was unfounded. The ball broke in three 
 or four pieces, and flew along a shower of grape, of which 
 two of the pieces recocheed. We tried another with a reduced 
 charge, and had the satisfaction of seeing the hall fly, whole, 
 fully as far. The second time I had no occasion to fire the 
 gun.* 
 
 This experiment affected the capitan pasha’s nerves, so that 
 when I asked his permission the following morning to have the 
 principal magazine opened for my inspection, he refused. He 
 happened to he very much shook that morning with a violent 
 fit of coughing. “Capitan,” he said, “you shall see it if we 
 come to action.” “ Effendi, that will he too late ; you will 
 then require me on deck — what fear ? — God is great.” “ Ba- 
 kalum,” was his reply ; then, after some minutes’ consideration, 
 “ well, you may go, but touch nothing — leave every thing — 
 powder is a dangerous thing.” He left off smoking, and began 
 twirling his comboloyo rapidly. The appearance of the maga- 
 zine, solely accessible by the gun-room hatch, fully justified 
 the old man’s apprehensions. The powder lay about on 
 shelves or in boxes, partly filled and partly not, and so ex- 
 posed that I would fain have taken off my shoes lest their nails 
 should raise a spark. The topchi bashi accompanied me with 
 four mates, each carrying a lanthom, and as if the presence of 
 so many lanthoms, not in the soundest condition, were not suf- 
 ficient to make me feel, as it were, in a vapour hath, he wished 
 to take the candles out that I might the better admire his 
 arrangements. My reputation in this case was an evil ; for, 
 owing to trifling knowledge being esteemed wonderful by those 
 who possess less, the gunner and his mates thought that where 
 
 * Might not the system of having such large pieces of ordnance on board 
 ships of war be worthy of adoption F Holes thus made between wind and 
 water would prove extremely embarrassing : but I should prefer using 
 shells to balls ; they make the same aperture with the additional advantage 
 of a bursting charge. 
 
92 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 I was nothing could go wrong. I thought, on the contrary, 
 that we might very easily go in the air, and never felt, I own, 
 much more uncomfortable than while in this depot of destruc- 
 tion, more apparent to me than to anybody else on board, from 
 having been accustomed to the positive absence of danger in 
 an English ship’s magazine. There were no fire-screens any- 
 where, and how, handing powder up a large hatchway along 
 decks covered with burning matches, without cartridge boxes, 
 the powder escaping through the ill-sewed seams, the Turkish 
 ships avoided blowing up, appeared to me extraordinary. 
 Against accidental fire there were sufficient precautions : the 
 Selimier had four English engines, and the other ships were 
 proportionately supplied. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Chess — Cossacks — Renegades — Devotions — Manoeuvres — Sydney Smith — 
 Cochrane — Religion — Ghiaour — Nourrey Bey — Capitan Pasha — Music 
 • — Games — Kiuchuck Mehemet — Zante — Squall — Chase — Clear for 
 action — Retreat — Bosphorus— Sariery. 
 
 Our crew consisted of one thousand four hundred persons, 
 with little discipline, though, as they were naturally docile, 
 things went on smoothly, and order grew from the elements of 
 disorder. They pleased themselves, without much surveillance 
 on the part of the officers. Their principal restraint was being 
 required to live and sleep at their respective guns, in order 
 that the ship might be always ready for action. The crew of 
 each gun composed a mess, which spread a little carpet on the 
 deck, and passed the time very contentedly, smoking and 
 drinking coffee, for preparing which two cafenes were on each 
 deck, and were never idle day nor night. The men frequently 
 amused themselves at drafts or chess : at the latter game they 
 displayed considerable skill, making a temporary board with 
 chalk lines, and, taking bits of wood or pebbles for the pieces, 
 were enabled to remember throughout the game their separate 
 names. The majority of the crew were Mussulmans ; a few 
 were Greeks ; a few Franks ; and there were sixty Cossacks, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 93 
 
 remarkable by tlieir fair hair and sheepskin caps, who had left 
 the Danube on the approach of the Russian army, and come 
 to Constantinople to obtain employment. They were tall, 
 stout, quiet men, and lived apart from the others abaft the 
 mizen-mast, where they ate olives, bread, and rice twice a day 
 with apparent content. They were much pleased at my being 
 amongst them ; two of them only spoke Turkish. 
 
 I soon found myself perfectly at home, and received grati- 
 fying and amusing attention. All — the green coifed descendant 
 of the Prophet, the white-bearded veteran, the slashing youth 
 who took an hour to curl his moustaches — would, as I strolled 
 about the decks, offer me the friendly pipe, and welcome me 
 to a comer of the carpet. More than one poor fellow was 
 offended because I would not put him to the expense of 
 treating me to coffee, which I generally refused on the plea 
 of dislike, unfeigned, for the want of sugar. A trifling 
 practice that I had of washing my hands and feet two or three 
 times a day, on account of the heat, was a singular recom- 
 mendation. They were greatly edified by it, and considered 
 me half a Mussulman in principle ; for cleanliness is a con- 
 stituent part of their faith. The only incivility that I 
 experienced on board came from two renegades (Sciotes). 
 Had they been native Mussulmans, I should not have much 
 cared; but they raised my bile. One of them was very 
 annoying: I bore him, however, patiently till one morning 
 that I was sleeping under the half-deck he laid down beside 
 me, placing his head on the same cushion next to mine. 
 Jumping up, I kicked him off the carpet, and then dragged 
 him to the other side of the deck, where the captain was 
 smoking. The captain took down his rattan, and gave him a 
 sound licking ; nor did one person sympathize with the apostate 
 — on the contrary, all were offended that their guest should 
 have been insulted. 
 
 It may readily be supposed that I was an object of great 
 curiosity to them. They knew not what to make of me. The 
 circumstance of a man cruizing on the fena Kara Deniz (bad 
 Black Sea) for pleasure, without one apparent prospect than 
 that of receiving a quietus, was past their conception. This 
 
94 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 was natural, for extreme indolence is the prominent feature of 
 the Oriental character. My quarter-deck walk excited their 
 amusement, as it often did mine to find myself the only 
 person among so many hundreds who made a free use of his 
 legs ; but when they one day beheld me go to the topmast 
 head to observe a Russian frigate, they set me down for a 
 delhi. The whole crew came on deck to see a man go aloft 
 for amusement. However, delhi or not, they took care to turn 
 my walking propensity to a good account. Whenever I began 
 to pace at night-time officers and look-out men invariably, and 
 sometimes the helmsman, fell asleep, and left the ship to me. 
 
 The only systematic duty on hoard, incumbent on all, was 
 prayers, which were acted, I may say, at all hours and every 
 hour. The muezzins summoned them three times a day, at 
 dawn, at noon, and after twilight. Between these stated hours 
 the scrupulous performed additionally, thus completing the pre- 
 scribed five times. When the fit seized a devotee, down he 
 went on his marrow-bones, regardless where he was, in whose 
 presence he was, or what was doing. Nothing then disturbed 
 him ; a man jostling him, a block falling from aloft, or a sail 
 splitting; and as these, tome ludicrous, scenes often occurred 
 in the midst of working ship, I should have suspected skulk- 
 ing, had I not clearly seen that no task in ordinary life of 
 twenty minutes’ duration is so fatiguing as a Mussulman’s de- 
 votions. They consist of seven adorations, each comprising 
 three prostrations ; in all touching the ground with the head 
 twenty-one times. Aged or infirm people are often so ex- 
 hausted by it in hot weather, that they remain stretched on the 
 ground unable to rise; nor is it uncommon to see one faint. 
 
 Our manner of working ship was respectable; but in reef- 
 ing we were awkward; more the fault of the sails than of 
 the men, the captains of the tops having to descend on 
 the leeches each time to reeve the ear-rings, which opera- 
 tion was rendered yet more difficult by there being no thimbles 
 in the cringles. I had made up my mind not to remark on 
 trifles, seeing that it gave umbrage, but this was a serious fault, 
 at the same time so easily amended ; and I thought to enforce 
 my request by saying that any accident (such as a flaw of wind, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 95 
 
 or the ship falling off) would cause the best laid sail to flap, 
 whereby the man on the leech might easily be shook overboard. 
 Vain words: they had hitherto reefed that way, why should 
 they not continue to do so ? — a triumphant interrogatory in 
 their opinion, to which I could make no valid reply. The Ra- 
 gusan pilot, who often smiled at my earnestness, and who knew 
 from experience the besotted prejudices of old Turks, told me 
 afterwards that I had used the wrong argument. A man fall- 
 ing overboard — “ bah !” — what of that? 
 
 The general movements of the fleet were not so happy as the 
 individual ones. We always tacked and wore in succession, 
 whereby at night some of the vessels were sure to get foul of 
 each other, although, it being generally fine, no great injury 
 ensued, except on one occasion to two corvettes, which were 
 obliged to return into port, and being seen running down the 
 Bosphorus in a dismantled state, gave rise to a report that we 
 had all been taken or sunk. The pasha was seriously annoyed 
 at the repetition of these accidents, and asked me for a remedy. 
 Performing the evolution in question there was of course none, 
 with such officers as were in the different ships ; hut I proposed 
 the simple expedient of tacking together at night-time. Pie 
 liked it at first sight, and allowed me to add the necessary sig- 
 nal to the code. Two hours afterwards, however, having well 
 pondered over it, he sent for me again to tell me that he could 
 not follow my plan. I assured him that it was not mine, and 
 begged to know his reason. “ Because,” he said, “ on one 
 tack the fleet will not be in one line.” I could not dispute that 
 view of the case, and there the matter rested; for I might have 
 argued till doomsday before shaking his favourite prepossession 
 that the whole mystery of naval tactics lay in keeping one line, 
 stem and stem, the devil catch the hindmost. 
 
 Besides the fourteen hundred men which comprised the 
 crew, the pasha had a private suite on board, consisting of 
 more than one hundred persons, officers and domestics, the 
 former of whom were distinct from the ship’s officers, and 
 superior to them. They occupied the ward-room, where they 
 spread their carpets, and lived and slept with as much dis- 
 comfort as the foremast men : sick or not, no one had a bed. 
 
96 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 They were unbounded in their endeavours to entertain me, and 
 make me feel the truth of the proverb, (extremely applicable to 
 Turkey,) “ the eye of the master fattens the horse,” although I 
 must do them the justice to say, that during the whole time I 
 remained in the country, I received the most friendly attentions 
 from them. They took pleasure in inquiring about my country. 
 They knew the name of Sydney Smith, and spoke of him with 
 esteem as buyuk adam (great man.) They also knew the name 
 of Cochrane, hut held his lordship light because they inter- 
 preted his inactivity, while with the Greeks, into a fear of them.*- 
 They often questioned me about the naval power of England, 
 and when I described to them its magnitude, would lift up the 
 lingers of incredulity. The hare tale of Britain’s power on the 
 ocean is scarcely credited by civilized continental Europeans ; 
 I could not, therefore, he surprised if the Osmanleys gave me 
 credit for using the traveller’s privilege. My religion, too, 
 came in for a share of their curiosity, and caused me amuse- 
 ment, for I had no occasion to act the hypocrite. One old 
 gentleman very gravely demanded, among other things, if I did 
 not believe that all Mussulmans went to heaven. “ By no 
 means,” I frankly replied ; “ as with the followers of other 
 religions, it depends on their good works.” After stroking his 
 heard some time, and musing on this unorthodox opinion, 
 which would have caused a true believer to he stoned, he 
 answered, “pekey” (very good;) then asked whether I 
 thought that good Christians went to the same place as good 
 Mussulmans. To this question, not wishing to bring on a 
 discussion, I returned an ambiguous answer, which pleased old 
 Hassan, as it allowed his vanity to suppose that I too might 
 think that no place was so bright as Mohammed’s paradise. 
 He expatiated at length on the rivers of milk and wine, on 
 the Tuba tree, on the pearl dwellings of the faithful ; but 
 not a word about the houris. 
 
 “Now tell me,” I asked in return, “is it a part of your 
 
 * I was in the Archipelago when Cochrane arrived, and witnessed the 
 panic that his name caused among the Turkish fleet, which hastily retired 
 into port. Such was the terror then of his reputation, that I am convinced 
 the eapitan pasha would have fled before him in a schooner. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 97 
 
 creed that Mussulmans are pulled into heaven by the solitary 
 lock they preserve with such care ?” He lifted his fez, and 
 pointing to his bald pate, laughingly said, “ How am I ever 
 to get there if that be the case ? it is an error entertained by 
 the vulgar, but which has no foundation in our holy books.” 
 On various other occasions, I experienced the reasonableness 
 of this odd people, so much misunderstood. One day the 
 pasha’s mignon, a spoilt, handsome hoy, called me, in a pet, 
 ghiaour. I did not heed the word, coming from that quarter ; 
 but, for experiment, said to old Hassan Bey, who was smoking 
 with half-a-dozen other effendis, “ Have you heard what the 
 young ghiaour says ?” That obnoxious term, in allusion to a 
 Mussulman, sounded strange and harsh to their ears ; but, far 
 from being angry, thinking I had some meaning, they good- 
 humouredly formed a court of inquiry, to ascertain on what 
 grounds I could apply an expression which, in this case, pre- 
 facing by a compliment to my understanding, they averred was 
 perfectly absurd. I accepted the trial, and said, “ By your 
 own argument I use it: does not the word ghiaour mean 
 infidel ?” “ Confessedly.” “ Then,” I added, “ we agree : I 
 
 am an infidel in regard of your faith, it is true ; but you are 
 also infidels in regard of my faith ;” — they nodded ; — “ con- 
 sequently, the term ghiaour is as applicable to you from me, as 
 from you to me.” This novel exposition required some little 
 consideration ; but was so unanswerable, that in a few moments 
 pekey, pekey, resounded from all within hearing, and I never 
 afterwards was insulted by the name ; on the contrary, when 
 they wished to plague me, they would call me Mussulman. 
 One name was, of course, as indifferent to me as the other. 
 Some of the young men would say to me, “ La illahe ilia Allah, 
 Mohammed resoul Allah,” and ask me to repeat the declaration. 
 I unhesitatingly did, to enjoy the rapture with which they would 
 clap their hands, and exclaim, “ You are a Mussulman !” The 
 elders always supported me, and rebuked the levity of their 
 young companions. “ They spoke in jest,” I would say, “ and 
 I took it in jest : a few words do not constitute faith.” 
 
 The conversion of a Frank is never accepted, unless an 
 infringement of certain laws render it imperative, without 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 giving him ample time to reflect. In Constantinople, they 
 send, in the first place, to the ambassador of his nation, that 
 it may he satisfactorily known that no force or artifice has 
 been adopted with the convert. Pronouncing the profession 
 of faith is simply indicative of a desire to embrace the religion, 
 by no means conclusive. 
 
 A word on the term ghiaour, so often misconceived. Many 
 epithets, originally contemptuous, become in time, if not 
 creditable, harmless. Thus many well-disposed Turks, talking 
 of Christians, call them ghiaours, without the slightest allusion 
 to its real sense; they know no other name by which to 
 express a Christian, and consider it proper. This, however, 
 does not hold good in the great trading cities, where Franks 
 abound, and where we have a right to he offended if it be 
 applied to us; since our proper appellation, Frank, being 
 known, it must he intended slightingly. But in parts where 
 we are rarely seen, a Frank would do both parties wrong to 
 catch offence at being called ghiaour. The insult of the name 
 is lost in its antiquity and its familiarity. Even Christians, in 
 many provinces of Turkey, have the same idea, ignorant of 
 its real signification, infidel. Meet an Albanian or a Bulgarian 
 peasant on his hills, and ask him whether he is a Mussulman. 
 To your astonishment he answers, “ I am a ghiaour ;” 
 and to your heightened astonishment, at hearing it from 
 a Christian’s mouth, adds, “ Are you a ghiaour ?” In 
 like manner, a poor Osmanley, who receives a sobriquet in 
 youth, in allusion to some defect or trick, preserves it, as a 
 distinction, if he become a pasha. The common name of a 
 Jew, in Turkey, Yahoudi, (beloved of God,) farther shows how 
 fallacious are the readings of denominations in the East. 
 Mussulmans hold Yahoudis in absolute contempt, and neglect 
 no mode of expressing it. If they in general knew the literal 
 meaning of Yahoudi, they would discontinue its use, and adopt 
 cheefoot, a name sometimes applied to Jews, and hateful to> 
 them. The Jews have sufficient tact to conceal their feelings 
 on the subject, or they would never escape it. 
 
 The sixth morning of our cruize found us becalmed seventy 
 miles from the land, to the terror of our crew, who feared that 
 the enemy would get between us and the Bosphorus, and their 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 99 
 
 apprehension was increased by not seeing the look-out frigate, 
 which had hitherto kept within ten miles of us. Being then 
 ignorant of the deficiency of the Russian fleet in skill and 
 energy, I thought the same, and accordingly counselled the 
 pasha to go, in the first place, to Sizepolis and Varna, and 
 even to Sevastopol; do all possible mischief to the shipping 
 left there; then return and force a passage. The former part 
 of this scheme would have been accomplished in a few days, 
 before our destination was known; and the latter part, an 
 action off the Bosphorus, would have been to our advantage, 
 since our disabled ships would have had a port under their 
 lee to run into ; whereas the Russian disabled ships would 
 have had difficulty in getting off shore against the indraft of 
 the strait. Admiral Greig appears to have been impressed 
 with this idea. His inactivity caused me a feeling of shame ; 
 the Osmanleys knew that he was an Englishman. 
 
 A light breeze springing up at north-east, a corvette was 
 sent a head to reconnoitre, and the principal officers of the 
 fleet were summoned on board to consider on what I had pro- 
 posed. The capitan, petrowna, and reala beys salaamed their 
 chief vfith the submission of slaves, putting his robe to their 
 lips and head. He invited them to sit, but not on the same 
 couch, and treated them with pipes and coflee. Nourrey Bey, 
 capitan of the Scheriff Rezan, a fifty gun-frigate, came with 
 them ; being also khasnadar (treasurer) of the pasha, he could 
 not sit in his presence ; he stood first of his suite, and presented 
 him the chibouque. 
 
 By virtue of his office, Nourrey was captain of the finest 
 frigate in the navy, notwithstanding that only six months pre- 
 vious had seen him a royal page. He was a pleasant-looking 
 man, fair, good-humoured, and polite, twenty-eight years old ; 
 his beard denoted in him a certain spirit of independence, at a 
 time when nearly everybody connected with the sultan shaved 
 his chin, in flattery to his reforming ideas. 
 
 My plan was rejected, the council broke up, and I accom- 
 panied Nourrey Bey to dine with him on board his frigate. 
 He treated me with distinction, but overbalanced his politeness 
 by giving me the trouble of visiting every comer of the ship. 
 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 She was very clean, as were, I must say, all the ships ; the 
 Selimier’s decks, for example, were washed every morning, and 
 as orientals never spit about, looked cleaner than the generality 
 of Christian ships. 
 
 Nourrey spoke very sensibly on the absurd custom of 
 placing landsmen in command of ships. He felt in a great 
 dilemma, “ I can manage a horse and a sabre,” he said, “ and 
 use the how, but as for a ship, I never was in one before.” It 
 was true that he had officers under him somewhat versed in 
 maritime affairs ; hut they could not remove the responsibility 
 from his shoulders, or the consequent anxiety, or the restless 
 desire of interference so natural to the captain of a ship (in all 
 services). The commander of an Ottoman ship-of-war, what- 
 ever duty is performing, sits on his bench on the quarter-deck, 
 leaving the second captain to carry on the war. By the time 
 that his chibouque wants replenishing, something may happen 
 to disturb him ; if a squall, a sail splits ; if an action, the 
 shot come in. In either case he gets nervous, and imagines 
 faults in his subordinates. He jumps into his slippers, and 
 gives orders that cannot be understood ; seizes a speaking- 
 trumpet, knocks down the second captain ; runs forward on 
 the forecastle, repeats the same operation on the boatswain ; 
 then returns to smoke another pipe, exclaiming “ Mashallah.” 
 
 I have hitherto said little on the habits of the capitan pasha, 
 those of most Ottoman grandees. He led a life of absolute 
 ennui. He could neither read nor write, nor was there any- 
 body to read to him, had he wished it. He did not play at 
 chess, therefore had an enjoyment less than the sailors ; 
 neither had he any person to converse with, an advantage pos- 
 sessed by everybody else on board. Between a master and his 
 slaves there can be no conversation, since the latter must 
 assent and smile en regie. His legs seemed made for no other 
 purpose than to bend under him ; his hands to run over his 
 comboloyo (rosary). A narghiler was never from his lips, 
 except while he ate, or prayed, or slept : how he performed the 
 first of these offices I have described ; suffice for his meals, 
 that they took place twice a day, at unsettled hours. Officers 
 continually stood before him, arms crossed, eyes cast down — a 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 101 
 
 painful apprentissage which every Osmanley goes through 
 before arriving at power — and anticipated every desire with 
 surprising dexterity. If he wished to rise, he was lifted on his 
 legs ; if he drank, the glass was held to his lips ; if he walked, 
 he was supported hy the arms ; if an ignorant fly alighted on 
 his brow, officious fans warned the intruder not to return ; 
 even when he spat, which was not rare, he being asthmatic, 
 there was never wanting one to hold his handkerchief for the 
 precious token. Such servility — though perfectly natural, 
 from the effect of early education, therefore not abstractedly 
 servile — was disgusting to witness ; performed, too, hy men 
 who in their own homes exacted the same from their inferiors, 
 and thus made themselves amends for their own humiliation. 
 From the top to the bottom of the ladder is a gradation of 
 similar servitude. The grand vizir kisses the sultan’s foot ; 
 he bows to Mohammed. The pasha kisses the grand vizir’s 
 foot; the hey, the pasha’s ,* the aga, the bey’s; and so on. No 
 Mussulman subject is so high but what he has a master, and 
 none so low as not to have a slave ; the son is slave to the 
 father. I often saw the capitan pasha’s son, a royal page, 
 with him ; but the youth never sat or tasted food in his 
 presence. 
 
 With all his deficiencies, Achmet Papuchgi was a good- 
 natured man, a complete contrast to his predecessors during 
 the last twenty years, who were all remarkable for cruelty. 
 The quality seemed inherent to the office. 
 
 In the middle of the day he crept into the kennel abaft 
 the mizen-mast, and reposed for some hours, his example 
 being duly followed by the officers, stretched out on the 
 quarter-deck, and covered by flags to keep off the sun. 
 On awaking, coffee and chibouques were served. Water 
 was then brought, with a complete change of garments, 
 and in the same narrow box, six feet by three, hy two 
 high, he washed and dressed; then came out and enjoyed 
 the cool of the evening on his quarter-deck couch, always 
 doing me the honour to place me beside him with a 
 chibouque, and no doubt it was a droll sight to the crew, 
 who all gathered round, the pasha and me thus cheek hy 
 
102 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 jowl. His band, consisting of as many drums and cymbals 
 as could be collected, with two clarionets and one fife, 
 usually made a noise for our benefit. It played the hunter’s 
 chorus in Friesehuts, Zitti zitti, and Malbrook, over and 
 over till I fairly wished it at the bottom of the sea. I 
 not only could not stop my ears, but was obliged to applaud 
 liberally. Thinking, one evening, that its style was more 
 adapted to Turkish music, at the same time intending a 
 compliment, I asked the pasha whether it could perform any 
 Turkish airs. “ Turkish airs !” he repeated with astonish- 
 ment; “Mashallah! have you not been listening to them 
 these two hours?” I bowed, and took refuge in ignoranee. 
 
 He asked me one evening, if I would like to see his regular 
 soldiers; I had never heard of any being on board. Presently 
 six scare- crows marched aft, preceded by a drum and fife, 
 each carrying a musket, and wearing a shabby tactico uniform. 
 A first-rate’s marines! I could scarce refrain from laughing 
 out at the idea, although a thousand eyes were fixed on me 
 to observe my admiration. The pasha told them seriously 
 to do their best, for a judge of military performances was 
 by. Accordingly they went through the manual exercise, 
 and the same was rendered exceeding amusing by the 
 drollery of the jester, who, shouldering a long chibouque, 
 acted as fugelman, to the roars of both spectators and 
 soldiers. I warmly applauded, and the pasha in delight 
 gave the corporal a piece of gold, which was contested by 
 the jester, who swore that without him the troop would have 
 been disgraced. 
 
 The chief entertainment of every evening was provided by 
 the crew, who, when our orchestra closed, commenced acting 
 gross buffoonery, such as ducking in tubs of water for money, 
 when many a poor fellow half-drowned himself in vain attempts 
 to take with his lips the thin bit of silver, shining at the 
 bottom ; or playing at bear and monkey, when both the bear 
 and monkey well deserved the piastres their beating gained 
 them; or blind man’s buff. This last game was capital. 
 The blind man, provided with a stick, was at liberty to hit 
 everybody within reach, only subject to the inconvenience of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 103 
 
 tripping over the bodies of his prostrate fellows, or over the 
 combings down a hatchway. The pasha’s attendants received 
 sundry blows in keeping him off the presence, and as he 
 readily found his way amongst them, I supposed that he was 
 purposely allowed a peep-hole, especially as his excellency 
 enjoyed it much. A game also of men hanging in pairs to 
 the spanker-boom, till one turned senseless or cried quarter, 
 afforded infinite amusement. Each exhibition the deck was 
 convulsed at the writhings of the actors ; the pasha, forgetting 
 his hauteur, would join in the laugh, and rapidly combing 
 his heard with his fingers, throw pieces of gold at the victor. 
 
 “ Well,” he said to me one evening that I was more than 
 usually tired of his foolery, “ does your capitan pasha amuse 
 himself in this way ?” I could not for the life of me flatter 
 him; I simply answered that the English capitan pasha had 
 something else to do. A dead silence, and mutual looks of 
 surprise ensued. 
 
 Such were the occupations of the third man of the empire; 
 of one of the chiefs on whom depended the fate of Turkey. 
 If, I thought, her others resembled him, faint indeed are 
 her hopes. His followers were alike degenerate. Not one 
 felt as he should have felt, except Kiuchuk Mehemet, the 
 captain, who bitterly lamented the want of energy in his 
 chief. We conceived a regard for each other that lasted 
 during my stay in the East. He had commanded a ship at 
 Navarine, and could show eleven scars, gained partly there, 
 and partly in the war against the Greeks, with six of whose 
 vessels he sustained, in 1822 , a severe conflict, which ended 
 by his running his brig ashore in Kieri bay, near the town 
 of Zante, to avoid being captured. I was at Zante at the 
 time, in the Seringapatan frigate, and perfectly recollected 
 the circumstance. The Zantiotes flocked to the beach, with 
 the base intention of putting the Turkish crew to death, and 
 were only restrained by a party of English soldiers, on whom 
 they fired in rage, wounding the officer and killing one or 
 two men, which barbarous act gave Sir T. Maitland a reason- 
 able pretext for disarming the inhabitants of the island. 
 Kiuchuk Mehemet was placed in the hospital, where, after 
 
104 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 lying six months, he recovered, and then returned to his 
 country, retaining a lively sense of gratitude to the English, 
 without whose kindness, as he expressed it, he should have 
 died. He was a native of Trebizonde, which place he left 
 eighteen years since, and in that time had only heard once 
 of his relations. There is a slight want of post-office arrange- 
 ment in Turkey. 
 
 Excepting him, no offioers on board knew anything of a 
 ship ; and as officers of the watch, they kept me in a constant 
 state of excitement, on account of our lower deck ports being 
 kept up at night, an excess of incaution which I could not 
 overcome by citing a thousand and one precedents of accidents 
 in consequence. One morning at two o’clock I awoke and 
 looked over the side. Every soul was asleep, the yards were 
 any way, the royals set; a squall was rapidly forming on the 
 lee bow. Rousing the officer of the watch, I bade him look to 
 his sails and to the weather. “ How should I know what to 
 do ?” he yawned out, rubbing his eyes. How should he in- 
 deed, poor man, considering that he was not bred to the trade ? 
 There was no time to be lost in being angry, so therefore, 
 hastily collecting a few Greek and Frank sailors about the 
 decks, I trimmed and shortened sail. We were just in time ; 
 the squall came with violence, paid us olf before it, and threw 
 the fleet into great disorder. I then repaired to the pasha, who 
 was crawling out of his kennel in a state of nervous agitation, 
 and told him that if more care were not observed, the ship 
 would go to the bottom some night without his knowledge. 
 This put him into a great rage, and he ordered the guilty 
 officer to be thrown forthwith into the sea. They were seizing 
 him; in another minute would have made him (in a literal 
 sense) that which he was condemned for not being — a seaman , 
 but I interposed, aghast at the prompt notice taken of my 
 complaint, and begged him off : in consequence of which the 
 fellow, who never liked me afterwards, escaped without any 
 punishment, though certainly meriting a severe one, for neglect 
 that might have caused the death of fifteen hundred persons. 
 When punishments depend on the breath of one man, there is 
 often no medium between death and immunity : it is so easy 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS, 
 
 105 
 
 to say “ kill,” or “ pardon.” For the credit of humanity we 
 may hope that many an arbitrary chief regrets, when too late, 
 the hasty obedience of his followers, — would rejoice, would 
 they give him occasionally breathing time to recover from 
 passion, or afford him a plausible pretext, so as to save his 
 pride, for contradicting himself. I make no doubt, but that 
 if Savary had not been in such a hurry, had only waited till 
 Bonaparte rose, to take a final order, the Due d’Enghien’s life 
 would have been spared. Napoleon himself said so. Why 
 should he not have spoken truth ? The greatest minds often 
 waver about an important act, so that the slightest breath 
 will turn the balance, especially if it come from an unexpected 
 quarter. 
 
 It is now time to close this log. The few days that I was 
 on board had sufficient variety to render them agreeable. 
 Russian frigates were generally in sight, but the fleet never 
 made its appearance. Why, I know not; it thereby lost a 
 brilliant opportunity of bringing the Ottoman fleet to action, 
 and destroying it. 
 
 At length on the tenth morning of our voyage, the pasha 
 yielded to my entreaties, and gave chase to a frigate and a cor- 
 vette. They crowded sail for Sizepolis. We followed with 
 the wind fresh at east-north-east ; the Selimier under easy sail 
 that the dull sailors might keep up. No persuasion could in- 
 duce the pasha to make sail on his own noble ship, which 
 would have caught the fugitives in three hours. We were all 
 excitement, in expectation of an affair with the enemy’s fleet; 
 the captain and topchi bashi busied themselves like brave men, 
 and I endeavoured to encourage the officers by decrying Mus- 
 covite courage, and by holding out the rewards that the 
 padischah would heap on them, and the glory they would 
 acquire with the world. To little purpose; the Osmanleys 
 have an hereditary fear of the Russians, and as for rewards, 
 my listeners thought they would be sweeter without fighting 
 for them. 
 
 Before sun-set, the chasees were rounding the southern point 
 of the gulf of Bourgas, while we were still nine miles from it, 
 and at that moment the wind unfortunately headed us. The 
 
106 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 pasha, therefore, tacked his fleet, head to the eastward, under 
 easy sail, and expressed his intention to me of meeting the 
 enemy, who would not fail, if in force, of getting out the same 
 night; if not in force, we should he far enough to windward 
 by the morning to fetch in on the other tack, and engage him 
 at anchor. In either case, he said, he should entrust me with 
 the command of the ship, to which arrangement, the little 
 captain, who was present, assented with a noble absence of 
 petty feeling. 
 
 That evening there was no music, no buffoonery, the 
 muezzins called louder than usual, and the men were more 
 devout in their prayers. 
 
 Our line was incomplete, the riala bey being far to leeward. 
 He had been culpably negligent all day in not carrying sail, 
 but for which we should have saved the wind, perhaps have 
 caught the Russian corvette, and at the present moment was 
 edging away with his mainsail off. I almost wished, for his 
 sake, that our pasha resembled his predecessor, Izzet Mehemet, 
 who treated heads like onions. Night set in hazy and squally, 
 and it became a serious question on our quarter-deck whether 
 we should bear up and form the line on him, or heave-to till 
 he gained his station, which he might find difficult to do, 
 or might find convenient to avoid. The evolution was 
 hazardous, lest some of the ships might fall on board each 
 other. However, it was requisite to act, and a dozen voices 
 spoke all differently. The jester sarcastically said that if we 
 bore up, none of the ships would stop again. Prophetic fool ! 
 The chief butler opined that it was too dark to see to do any- 
 thing. The purveyor of tobacco insinuated that the rain 
 would affect his highness’s health ? His highness was already 
 dripping, and what was worse bewildered : he ran from gang- 
 way to gangway, a glass in one hand, and a speaking-trumpet 
 in the other, two officers holding up the skirts of his robes. 
 It would not have been safe then for any one to have trod on 
 his toe: he might have said, “ Chuck him overboard,” and 
 overboard the treader would have gone. I never saw a stranger 
 scene than that which an occasional flash of lightning disclosed 
 on our quarter-deck. One personage only was wanting to 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 107 
 
 complete its incongruity — that personage was the cook ; and 
 presently lie came up, and thrusting into the throng, fairly 
 gave his advice on what ought to he done, as though he were 
 marshalling a train of dishes. I had not patience to learn 
 what the fellow said, but, taking him by the shoulders, pushed 
 him away with “ d — n your impudence.” The jester laughed 
 outright, the captain squeezed my arm, some stifled, others 
 drew back, while the offended artist swore loudly at the infidel. 
 The pasha took on himself to appease him,* and in so doing, 
 had time to collect his thoughts. A tender was then sent 
 down with peremptory orders to the absent ship, and by half- 
 past ten o’clock the fleet was collected in close order, each 
 ship carrying a light at the peak, the small craft forming a 
 line to leeward. The pasha still remained on deck, continu- 
 ally directing his glass round the horizon, and often mistaking 
 a phosphoric curl on the water, or a rising star, for a ship’s 
 light. The consequent agitation affected his nerves. Towards 
 midnight the squalls violently increased : he became very 
 anxious, and begged me to go round the decks once more to 
 see that all was right. I obeyed. Below was a noble sight. 
 The three decks were perfectly clear, and brilliantly illuminated; 
 everything was in its place, and at the large stone-shot guns 
 were picked crews, whom I expressly ordered to reserve their 
 fire till within twenty yards of their opponents. Nothing was 
 wanting, save courage: officers and men gathered round me, 
 and begged that I would advise a retreat. I never imagined 
 such a panic. An English fleet could not have prayed more 
 earnestly to meet an enemy, than this did to avoid one. 
 
 I assured the pasha that he could not fail of success : then 
 having nothing to do for the present, and being very tired, I 
 laid down in his cabin. I had not long closed my eyes, when 
 the noise of water rushing past awoke me. I guessed the 
 cause ; I hastened on deck, and found the fleet running twelve 
 knots off the wind. The chief, as though relieved of a great 
 burthen, was seated joking with his officers. What could I 
 say? — not what I thought; — for the first time since our 
 
 * Where poisoning is a trade, the cook becomes of necessity a highly 
 privileged personage. 
 
108 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 acquaintance he did not invite me to join him. I went aft. 
 The brave little captain was there: he sighed when he sam we. 
 
 We ran our distance by the morning; but the haze scarcely 
 permitted us to distinguish the Faro before we dashed into the 
 Bosphorus. We swept by the castles with foaming velocity, 
 and in twenty minutes from passing the Symplegades dropped 
 our best bower at Buyukdere. Had we been a Russian fleet 
 we should not have received twenty shot from the twelve 
 powerful batteries which garnish the first four miles of the 
 strait. Our ships took up their stations admirably, dropping 
 their best bowers exactly corresponding to their small bowers 
 planted on the quay. The Selimiers small bower cable was 
 bent round a large plane tree which shaded a fashionable 
 cafene, in the village of Sariery, and joining Buyukdere. A 
 first-rate tied to a tree ! thus realizing the nobleman’s idea, 
 who asked Lord Anson if he tied his ship to a tree at night. 
 
 I immediately went on board Captain Kelly’s steamer, 
 where I enjoyed a good English breakfast, and a laugh 
 at the expense of Ottoman tactics ; but before quitting 
 him the capitan pasha, with flattering expressions, offered 
 me a handful of gold, according to Eastern custom. I 
 expressed astonishment. He then begged me to accept any 
 present from him that I might choose — as arms or a horse ; I re- 
 fused all, on the plea that having accompanied him as a friend 
 I could not accept of a remuneration. He was rather offended, 
 and much astonished; for I believe he was the first Turk who 
 had ever had presents refused. Seeing, however, that he was 
 willing to oblige me, I spoke to him in behalf of four Greek 
 slaves on board, natives of Samothraki, who had been taken 
 in 1826. 
 
 Fie invited me to accompany him in his next voyage : I 
 consented on condition that he would have brulots ready, and 
 proceed to Sizepolis, or wherever else the enemy might be. 
 He agreed, and actually prepared four brulots, but the fleet 
 never left the Bosphorus during the remainder of the war. 
 
 It is evident that had the Ottoman fleet been commanded by 
 a man of energy it would have changed the fate of the war : 
 bad as it was, had it in the first cruise that it made — an event 
 quite unexpected, as the capture of a Russian frigate proved 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 109 
 
 — gone straight to Sizepolis and to Varna, the ships there 
 might have been destroyed in detail. Without the co-opera- 
 tion of their fleet, the Russian army could not have advanced. 
 In the second cruize it was still so much despised, that, 
 although watched, it was deemed unnecessary to collect a force 
 to drive it in. In Sizepolis harbour, when we were off it, 
 were only three line of battle ships and two frigates, in con- 
 sternation, expecting an attack in the morning. I learned this 
 after the peace from Russian officers, who could not account 
 for our sudden retreat : it surprised them as much as our 
 appearance had done, and which they attributed to certain in- 
 formation on our part of their weak force. Unaccountable as 
 it may appear, we never, during the whole campaign, had any 
 idea of the Russian force in the Gulf of Bourgas ; although 
 . the shores of the Gulf, excepting Sizepolis, were in possession 
 of the Osmanleys until the passage of the Balkans. The fact 
 is, that the capitan pasha did not wish to ascertain it, that he 
 might not thereby be obliged to act on the offensive. What 
 he had done — going off Sizepolis — he magnified to the sultan 
 as a wonderful exploit, boasting that he had chased the enemy 
 into port, and remained master of the Black Sea. On this 
 laurel he resolved to rest. 
 
 The sultan knew of my excursion. He expressed his appro- 
 bation of it and inclination to see me, and his secretary inti- 
 mated to me that I should have the honour of a private 
 audience. But pressing affairs intervened to disappoint me. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Character of Sultan Mahmoud — His crimes — His despotism — His views of 
 Reform — The Dere-beys — The Avans — The Ulema — The Muderis — 
 Judicial Education — Power and abuses of a Mollah — Services of the 
 Ulema — Russian war — Impolitic peace — Comparison of Turks and 
 Egyptians — Progress of the Greeks in prosperity — Their dawn of 
 freedom — Accelerating causes — Grave error of the Porte concerning 
 the Greeks — Their insurrection — Execution of the Greek Patriarch — 
 Death of Khalet Effendi — Ali Pasha’s head. 
 
 Before proceeding with the narrative of the events which dis- 
 tinguished Constantinople in 1829, I will give a brief outline 
 of Sultan Mahmoud, and of his reign. 
 
110 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 The personal appearance of Sultan Mahmoud is favourable, 
 giving no index of his heart. His eyes are saturnine ; his 
 complexion dark; his countenance, hedged by a fine black 
 heard, open, at times mild, its form oval; his hands are small; 
 his body remarkably long ; his stature five feet eight inches. 
 He is temperate as regards women, a reproach, however, rather 
 than a merit, in a man who keeps a well-stocked harem. He 
 is greatly influenced by the favourites of the day, who enjoy 
 his intimacy in a degree unwitnessed in western courts since 
 the reign of Henry III. of France. It would be incorrect to 
 characterize him by adducing his love of blood, for it is doubt- 
 ful whether cruelty can be said to be a crime with a sovereign 
 of Turkey, who is taught to believe that he may cut off as 
 many as fourteen heads a day, without any other motive than 
 that of divine inspiration. Neither can his ingratitude, through 
 which no services find merit with him when no longer wanted, 
 or save their author from a bowstring, be deemed a peculiar 
 shade, since that vice has long been considered to be instinc- 
 tive in oriental kings. But what particularly characterizes him 
 is unbending obstinacy. Nothing diverts him from the view 
 he takes of an object : no laws, contracts, or dangers, swerve 
 him from the path which leads to it. This disposition — firm- 
 ness in a man of genius, idiotcy in an ordinary mind — has 
 gained him (temporarily) the end of his labours, an increase 
 of personal power, and an extension of personal enjoyment; 
 but has accelerated the decline of his empire more than the 
 actions of five of his predecessors, an assertion which is cor- 
 roborated by the history of his reign. He is also remarkable 
 for avarice, a quality everywhere odious, but particularly so in 
 the eyes of a nation among whom it is the custom, from the 
 highest to the lowest, to give and take, — to measure love by 
 liberality. The petty economy and unostentation which he 
 affects would be becoming in him as the ruler of an enlight- 
 ened people who would know he were only a man, but are im- 
 politic among Mussulmans, who regard him as the vicegerent 
 of the prophet — as being superior to the ordinary race of 
 mortals. In their estimation, generosity and splendour belong 
 to his station, more than ever necessary, since that he has need 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 of popularity to make his reforms palatable. Selim III. had 
 more tact. He did not make war on trifles, or deem it neces- 
 sary, in order to effect reform, to wound every prejudice of his 
 subjects, to let them see that he considered their ancient usages 
 absurd, and their ancestors imbeciles for having observed them. 
 He humoured their foibles while introducing changes. He 
 often amused them with magnificent shows, and flattered 
 their pride by the pomp of his appearance in public. The fine 
 ships, the palaces he built, the manufactories (now in ruins) he 
 established, were all calculated to blind them to his real ends : 
 even the presses which he set up gave no great offence, when it 
 was understood that the Koran should not be submitted to the 
 unholy practice of squeezing. His regular troops, few in num- 
 ber, were looked on as a handsome toy, and Osmanleys wil- 
 lingly enrolled themselves, allured by the pay and appointments. 
 In short, by these means a wholesome reform was began without 
 alarming the Janizzaries, whom it was Selim’s object to over- 
 awe rather than destroy, since he had the sense to perceive the 
 dangers that the empire would run from internal, as well as 
 external, foes — the Greeks and Russians — as has since been 
 proved, should a sudden prostration of military power ensue. 
 But this unexpected want of opposition deceived him, and 
 made him draw aside the veil too soon. In an evil hour he 
 indulged his architectural mania, and built vast barracks about 
 Constantinople capable of containing twenty thousand men. 
 This enlightened the Janizzaries, and clearly showed them to 
 where tended Selim’s views — to the formation of a large new 
 army. They resolved to prevent him, and in so doing brought 
 to an untimely end the monarch who might have reformed 
 Turkey. They gave the sabre of Othman to his cousin 
 Mustapha, from whose feeble hands, stained with the blood of 
 Selim, it soon passed into the stern grasp of his brother 
 Mahmoud, then twenty-four years old, July, 1808. The same 
 month saw Itim a fratricide : and that he might longer ensure 
 the inviolability which that crime, by leaving him the last scion 
 of the house of Othman,* had obtained for him, two of his 
 
 * To prevent a sultan from obtaining this protection, the Janizzaries 
 often insisted on having the young princes of the blood placed under their 
 
112 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 brother’s women who proved with child were consigned to the 
 deep. The fate of preceding sultans was not lost on him, and 
 showed him the necessity of curbing the power of the Janiz- 
 zaries which had lately caused such fearful tragedies. He bent 
 his energies to that point, rendered the prosperity of his 
 empire tributary to it, and at length, after a long circuit, 
 reached it. 
 
 Revolt, when he took the reins of government, was up from 
 one end of Turkey to the other. The pashas of Bagdat, of 
 Yanina, of Egypt, of St. Jean d’Acre, with others inferior, 
 were independent ; that is, they refused to yield their posts, 
 though they paid the tribute, and over, in order to be unmo- 
 lested. This proceeding had satisfied most sultans, they little 
 caring who paid the tribute, so as it was paid, knowing that 
 no rebel would (in fact none ever did) aspire to the throne, the 
 line of Othman reigning, in the eyes of all classes of Mussul- 
 mans, by divine right. But Mahmoud resolved that there 
 should be no power which did not emanate from, and depend 
 on, his will. It is needless to enumerate the schemes he 
 adopted to crush these powerful subjects: many succeeded. 
 The pasha of Bagdat was poisoned, in 1812, by the agency of 
 the celebrated Khalet Effendi, who thereby gained the first 
 place in his master’s graces : the fall of Ali Pasha of Yanina 
 is historical : Abdallah Pasha of Acre, and Mehemet Ali of 
 Egypt, two notorious tyrants, escaped him. Among the 
 numerous traps which were laid to catch Mehemet Ali, the 
 most curious was in the person of a young Circassian, sent by 
 the sultan as a present to his trust-worthy cousin and pasha. 
 Before leaving the seraglio, she was given a charmed lozenge, 
 which she was told would have the effect of attaching her new 
 master to her for life, provided she let it drop unseen into a 
 glass of sherbet that he was about to drink. She arrived safe 
 at Cairo ; but Mehemet Ali, whose heart, in addition to age, 
 and satiety, was iced by mistrust, would not look on her ; he 
 
 surveillance; in which case, they were lodged in the Eski Saray. 
 Mahmoud II., the present sultan, is accused of having caused the death of 
 his first-born son. His family, in 1830, consisted of three sons, the eldest 
 nine years old, and three daughters, the eldest eighteen. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 113 
 
 gave her to one of his officers. To be thus disparaged, was 
 a cruel stroke for a beauty just from the imperial seraglio ; 
 but, nevertheless, submitting with a good grace to the decree 
 of fate, she resolved to try whether her charm would not have 
 the same effect on a bey’s heart as on a pasha’s. She dis- 
 solved her love philtre ; the bey drank it off, was seized with 
 death pains, and shortly after expired. 
 
 Mahmoud exercised an undoubted right in opposing the 
 usurpations of the begler beys (great pashas), men who 
 usually sprung from insignificance, owing their elevation to 
 baseness, supporting it by tyranny — sycophants in the capital, 
 tyrants in the provinces; and had he rested there, replacing 
 them by men of integrity, if such could have been found, he 
 would have given a solid proof of an enlarged understanding , 
 but their reduction formed a small part only of his plan, 
 embracing the entire subversion of the liberties of his subjects, 
 which he narrow- sightedly supposed to be creative of the 
 arrogance of the Janizzaries. Liberties of the subject is so 
 strange an expression, when relating to Turkey, that to 
 explain it I will digress, and state how the people came to 
 possess checks against the tyranny which seemed to meet it at 
 every turn. 
 
 These checks lay — first, in the dere beys; secondly, in the 
 ayans ; thirdly, in the ulema. 
 
 The dere beys, literally lords of the valleys, an expression 
 peculiarly adapted to the country, which presents a series of 
 oval valleys, surrounded by ramparts of hills, were the original 
 possessors of those parts of Asia Minor, which submitted, 
 under feudal conditions, to the Ottomans. Between the con- 
 quest of Brussa and the conquest of Constantinople, a lapse 
 of more than a century, chequered by the episode of Tamer- 
 lane, their faith was precarious; but after the latter event, 
 Mahomet II. bound their submission, and finally settled the 
 terms of their existence. He confirmed them in their lands, 
 subject, however, to tribute, and to quotas of troops in war; 
 and he absolved the head of each family for ever from personal 
 service. The last clause was the most important, as thereby 
 the sultan had no power over their lives, nor consequently 
 
 i 
 
114 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS, 
 
 could be their heirs, that despotic power being lawful over 
 those only in the actual service of the Porte. The families of 
 the dere beys therefore became neither impoverished nor extinct. 
 It would be dealing in truisms to enumerate the advantages 
 enjoyed by the districts of these noblemen over the rest of the 
 empire; they were oases in the desert; their owners had more 
 than a life interest in the soil, they were bom and lived among 
 the people, and, being hereditarily rich, had no occasion to 
 create a private fortune, each year, after the tribute due was 
 levied. Whereas, in a pashalick, the people are strained 
 every year to double or treble the amount of the impost, since 
 the pasha, who pays for his situation, must also be enriched. 
 The devotion of the dependents of the dere beys was great: at 
 a whistle, the Car’osman-Oglous, the Tchapan-Oglous, the 
 Ellezar-Oglous* (the principal Asiatic families that survive), 
 could raise, each, from ten thousand to twenty thousand 
 horsemen, and equip them. Hence the facility with which the 
 sultans, up to the present century, drew such large bodies of 
 cavalry into the field. The dere beys have always furnished 
 and maintained the greatest part ; and there is not one 
 instance, since the conquest of Constantinople, of one of these 
 great families raising the standard of revolt. The pashas 
 invariably have. The reasons, respectively, are obvious. The 
 dere bey was sure of keeping his possessions by right; the 
 pasha of losing his by custom, unless he had money to bribe 
 the Porte, or force to intimidate it.f 
 
 These provincial nobles, whose rights had been respected 
 during four centuries, by a series of twenty-four sovereigns, 
 
 * The possessions of the Car’osman-Oglons are chiefly about Magnesia ; 
 they comprehend several cities, among them the greater part of Smyrna. 
 
 Tchapan-Oglou’s estates are in the neighbourhood of Erzeroum ; his 
 distance from the capital renders him more independent. He is a very old 
 man, and has forty sons, one of whom served in the late war as pasha of 
 Rudschnk. 
 
 Ellezar-Oglou lives near Scala Nnova. This family is not to be com- 
 pared with the two former, but is the third in hereditary importance. It 
 suffered greatly in the civil war, principally from the Turkish army, which 
 assembled at Scala Nuova, for the invasion of Samos, which, however, did 
 not take place. 
 
 f This feudal system was increased by the Timariots, instituted by 
 Amurath II., feudatories, or possessors of conquered lands in Europe, on 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 115 
 
 had two crimes in the eyes of Mahmoud II. : they held their 
 property from their ancestors, and they had riches. To alter 
 the tenure of the former, the destination of the latter, was his 
 object. The dere beys — unlike the seraglio dependents, 
 brought up to distrust their own shadows — had no causes for 
 suspicion, and therefore became easy dupes of the grossest 
 treachery. The unbending spirits were removed to another 
 world, the flexible were despoiled of their wealth. Some few 
 await their turn, or, their eyes opened, prepare to resist op- 
 pression. Car osman- Oglou, for example, was summoned to 
 Constantinople, where expensive employments, forced on him 
 during several years, reduced his ready cash ; while a follower 
 of the seraglio resided at his city of Magnesia, to collect his 
 revenues. His peasants, in consequence, ceased to cultivate 
 their lands, from whence they no longer hoped to reap profit ; 
 and his once flourishing possessions soon became as desolate as 
 any which had always been under the gripe of pashas. 
 
 In conjunction with subverting the dere beys, Mahmoud 
 attacked the privileges of the great provincial cities, (prin- 
 cipally in Europe,) which consisted in the election of ayans 
 (magistrates) by the people, from among the notables. Some 
 cities were solely governed by them, and in those ruled by 
 pashas, they had, in most cases, sufficient influence to restrain 
 somewhat the full career of despotism. They were the pro- 
 tectors of rayas, as well as of Mussulmans, and, for their own 
 sakes, resisted exorbitant imposts. The change in the cities 
 where their authority has been abolished (Adrianople, e.g.) is 
 deplorable ; trade has since languished, and population has 
 diminished. They were instituted by Solyman, (the lawgiver,) 
 and the protection which they have invariably afforded the 
 
 condition of attending the sovereign in war, with their followers armed and 
 mounted, under the immediate command of their respective pashas. The 
 number of the Timariots, however, rapidly diminished, from an obvious 
 cause; not being exempt from personal service, they were exposed to the 
 extortions of the sultan and his viziers, and to the bow-string. In the 
 former case, their tenants were racked for money ; in the latter case, the 
 sultan was their heir, their children were attainted in blood, and their pro- 
 perty became wasted. Hence the reason of the desolate state of great 
 part of Roumelia. The Timariots, however, of Bosnia and Albania, com- 
 monly called beys, still exist in number and power, but are very disaffected. 
 
 l 2 
 
116 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Christian subjects of the Porte, entitles them to a Christian's 
 good word. Their crime, that of the dere beys, was being 
 possessed of authority not emanating from the sultan. 
 
 Had Mahmoud II. entrusted the government of the provinces 
 to the dere beys, and strengthened the authority of the ayans, 
 he would have truly reformed his empire, by restoring it to its 
 brightest state, have gained the love of his subjects, and the 
 applauses of humanity. By the contrary proceeding, sub- 
 verting two bulwarks (though dilapidated) of national pros- 
 perity — a provincial nobility and magistracy— he has shown 
 himself a selfish tyrant. 
 
 The ulema, or Mussulman hierarchy, is a most powerful 
 body, its existence, founded on religion, being cemented by the 
 respect of the nation. It is the peerage of Turkey, sole inter- 
 medium now existing between tyranny and slavery, and as 
 such merits a short notice concerning it. 
 
 It might easily he supposed that as law and religion are 
 synonymous with Mussulmans, both being derived from the 
 koran, that the priests and the jurists were the same. So they 
 were intended to he by Mohammed ; and as long as the occu- 
 pation of his followers consisted in conquering, with the 
 sabre in one hand, the book in the other, slaying or con- 
 verting for the honour of God, the union of the two profes- 
 sions was not incompatible with convenience ; but when they 
 sat down in large social societies, the discrepance between the 
 peaceful adoration of the Almighty, and the management of 
 human disputes, became so obvious, that a corresponding dis- 
 tinction arose in the officers of each, and their qualifications. 
 Still the ground-work remained ; the scheik islam, (pontiff,) 
 acting for the sultan, is the immediate head of church and bar, 
 the last appeal from either. From him descend two lines, 
 the muphtis, imams, &c. (bishops, &c. ;) the mollahs, kadis, 
 &c., (judges, &c.) In each of the Turkish cities reside a 
 muphti and a mollah. A knowledge of Arabic, so as to he 
 able to read the koran in the original, is considered sufficient 
 for the former, but the latter must have run a legal career in 
 one of the medressehs, (universities of Constantinople.) After 
 thirty years’ probation in a medresseh, the student becomes of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 117 
 
 the class of muderis, (doctors at law,) from which are chosen 
 the mollahs, comprehended under the name of ulema. Students 
 who accept the inferior judicial appointments can never become 
 of the ulema. 
 
 The ulema is divided into three classes, according to a scale 
 of the cities of the empire. The first class consists of the 
 cazi-askers, (chief judges of Europe and Asia ;) the Stamboul 
 effendisi, (mayor of Constantinople ;) the mollahs qualified to 
 act at Mecca, at Medina, at Jerusalem, at Bagdat, at Salonica, 
 at Aleppo, at Damascus, at Brussa, at Cairo, at Smyrna, at 
 Cogni, at Galata, at Scutari. The second class consists of the 
 mollahs qualified to act at the twelve cities of next importance. 
 The third class at ten inferior cities. The administration of 
 minor towns is entrusted to cadis, who are nominated by the 
 cazi-askers in their respective jurisdictions, a patronage which 
 produces great wealth to these two officers. The cazi-asker of 
 Roumelia is the superior; he particularly directs all causes 
 relating to the army. From the cazi-askers the sheik islam is 
 usually taken, although the sultan may appoint any member of 
 the first class of ulema, to which the muderis arrive by seniority, 
 to the office. The khodja bashi, (preceptor to the heir-appa- 
 rent;) the hunkiar imams, (sultan’s chaplains;) the hekim 
 bashi, (sultan’s physician ;) are chosen from the first class of 
 the ulema. 
 
 When Sultan Solyman settled his code, he gave the mollahs 
 a fixed salary, five hundred aspers daily (then worth twenty 
 shillings, now reduced to one), and that justice might he ad- 
 ministered, he ordained that causes should first be taken before 
 the muphti, who, receiving a fee of ten paras, was to give a 
 fetwa (opinion) by which the mollah should be guided. This 
 arrangement was good in theory, hut in practice it was soon 
 apparent — and it is surprising that so wise a man as Solyman 
 did not foresee it — that the muphti, who was not required to 
 know much, was ill qualified to direct the mollah, who had 
 passed so many years in the study of the intricacies of Mussul- 
 man theology,* and who, with the suhtilty of law, could render 
 
 * Of nearly equal esteem with the Koran is the Sunna, or sayings of the 
 prophet, collected after his death. The commentaries on these two 
 
118 
 
 RECORDS OP TRAVELS. 
 
 nugatory any honest meant fetwa, unless it by chance coincided 
 with his own opinion. The muphtis felt their inferiority, and 
 quietly yielded ; they confined themselves to the care of the 
 mosques, and thus the grave authority of the one, intended to 
 cheek abuses open to the other, soon dwindled to a name. The 
 position of the muphti to the mollah throughout the empire, 
 was intended to he, relatively, as that of the scheik-islam to 
 the sultan, — a check. But in the former case the order is re- 
 versed, while in the latter, knowledge balances power. Long 
 study, acknowledged experience, and consummate hypocrisy, 
 and deep practice in the ways of man, belong to the scheik- 
 islam, with sanctity; and thus armed, he can often direct, for 
 good or ill, the power of the sovereign. The muphti, on the 
 contrary, has little more than the sanctity of his office to com- 
 mand respect. 
 
 The mollah of a city has real power ; it may be said equal 
 to that of a pasha, excepting that he has not the prerogative 
 of cutting off heads without going through the forms of justice; 
 even then the execution of the sentence depends on the pasha. 
 His legal perquisites consist in a tenth of the personal effects 
 of every Mussulman that dies in his jurisdiction, after his debts 
 are paid : this, however, is trifling, for Mussulmans rarely leave 
 money. His illegal profits are according to the scale of his 
 corruption, exhibited as follows. On taking office, he fixes 
 the price of provisions, as he should, in reference to the wants 
 of the poor ; but this not tallying with the expectant profits of 
 trade, the butchers, the bakers, the chandlers — the three great 
 purveyors of human wants — each depute a member to wait on 
 the mollah. Having made his salaam, the deputy retires a 
 few feet, and respectfully stands until the inquiring nod tells 
 
 volumes by the four first caliphs are also sacred. Then there is a fourth 
 book, containing the canonical decisions of the principal caliphs of the 
 early ages. 
 
 These are the four orthodox codes of Turkish jurisprudence — a perfect 
 chaos. To facilitate their attainment, a mollah, in the reign of Bajazet II., 
 reduced them to one code, called, for excellence, the pearl (indju). 
 Another mollah improved and augmented with notes the pearl , which was 
 afterwards subdivided into five divisions — religious, civil, military, criminal, 
 political. Besides being acquainted with all this mass of laws and com- 
 mentaries, the muderis must know the fetwas that have been issued by the 
 different scheiks-islam, which alone form a large collection. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 119 
 
 him to announce his errand. This expressive sign, which con- 
 tains a volume, is always delayed some minutes, since it would 
 ill become a man of the law to show impatience ; it is more 
 significant than speech, and so studied by the privileged order, 
 that by it, a member of it cannot he mistaken, even though not 
 otherwise distinguished. “ Effendi,” commences the deputy ; 
 “ long fife ! — God is great ! — it is for the happiness of this city 
 that thou art come to administer justice. Verily, effendi is a 
 well of learning, a mirror of discrimination. Please God, we 
 shall recover from the distress to which unprincipled extor- 
 tioners” (meaning preceding mollahs) “ have reduced us.” To 
 these complimentary phrases the mollah answers by another 
 expressive sign, as much as to say, this is all a, b, c — to the 
 point. The deputy goes on to explain that although^ God is 
 great, and the sultan victorious, and the effendi wise, yet if the 
 low prices of bread, or meat, or any other article be enforced, 
 ruin must ensue to the trades. “ Ah, rascal !” now replies the 
 mollah ; “is this why thou art come — to seduce me ? No ; I 
 know my duty. The poor are beloved of the prophet — are my 
 sacred charge ; if thou art devoid of conscience, I am not ; — 
 go.” The deputy now produces the touchstone ; he lays a 
 purse at the mollah’s feet. “ Effendi, we know our duty : see, 
 we have not delayed in expressing it.” The mollah scarcely 
 notices the gift, though his practised eye, at half a glance, 
 scans its approximate value. “ Ah ! I am glad that thou 
 knowest the respect due to my rank. Go ; I am thy friend.” 
 The next day the prices of provisions are raised, and an intima- 
 tion given at the same time that a similar purse is expected 
 every month. Should the mollah be an honest man, or, which 
 is the same thing, sufficiently rich to render an octroi no object, 
 the trades make up the deficiency in part by using false weights 
 and measures, running the risk of being found out by the 
 mollah in casual visits of inspection; the consequence of de 
 tection being the bastinado, or nailing by the ear to the door- 
 post ; in flagrant repeated cases, amputation of the nose. To avoid 
 such admonitions, the confidential officers of the mollah are 
 bribed to inform the tradespeople when their master is about 
 to make them a visit, when, of course, true weights and mea- 
 
120 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 sures only are exhibited, though this safeguard is not always 
 effectual, because an Osmanley being by education very suspi- 
 cious, the mollah in his perambulations often steps into a shop 
 without having said a word of his intention to his chiaja : 
 instant punishment falls on the luckless rogue of a shopman. 
 
 A valuable branch of a mollah’s income may also be found 
 under the head of false justice. If a man have a bad cause he 
 engages two witnesses, which everywhere abound in Turkey at 
 all prices, according to the responsibility ; he then bribes the 
 mollah, who admits their testimony without reference to their 
 character, which is perfectly well known, and gives judgment 
 accordingly. It is true that from time to time an upright judge 
 appears on the stage, and makes a terrible example of such 
 perjurers, but it noways checks the practice ; corruption is so 
 general in the east ; and for one man who will not take a bribe, 
 there are ten thousand that will. 
 
 In consequence of these powers the mollah of a city may 
 prove as great a pest as a needy pasha ; but as the mollalis are 
 hereditarily wealthy, they are generally moderate in their per- 
 quisitions, and often protect the people against extortions of 
 the pashas. The cadis, however, of the minor towns, who have 
 not the advantage of being privately rich, seldom fail to join 
 with the aga to skin the “ serpent that crawls in the dust.” 
 
 The mollahs, dating from the reign of Solyman — zenith of 
 Ottoman prosperity — were not slow in discovering the value of 
 their situations, or in taking advantage of them ; and as their 
 sanctity protected them from spoliation, they were enabled to 
 leave their riches to their children, who were brought up to the 
 same career, and were, by privilege, allowed to finish their 
 studies at the medresseh in eight years less time than the pre- 
 scribed number of years, the private tuition which they were 
 supposed to receive from their fathers making up for the defi- 
 ciency. Thus, besides the influence of birth and wealth, they 
 had a direct facility in attaining the degree of muderi, which 
 their fellow citizens and rivals had not, and who were obliged 
 in consequence to accept inferior judicial appointments. In 
 process of time the whole monopoly of the ulema centered in a 
 certain number of families, and their constant residence at the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 121 
 
 capital, to which they return at the expiration of their term of 
 office, has maintained their power to the present day. Never- 
 theless, it is true that if a student of a medresseh, not of 
 %e privileged order, possess extraordinary merit, the ulema has 
 generally the tact to admit him of the body: woe to the cities to 
 which he goes as mollah, since he has to create a private fortune 
 for his family. Thus arose that body — the peerage of Turkey — 
 known by the name of ulema, a body uniting the high attri- 
 butes of law and religion ; distinct from the clergy, yet enjoy- 
 ing all the advantages connected with a church paramount ; 
 free from its shackles, yet retaining the perfect odour of 
 sanctity. Its combination has given it a greater hold in the 
 state, than the dere beys, who, though possessed individually 
 of more power, founded too on original charters, sunk from a 
 want of union. 
 
 It is strange that many Franks in Turkey hope that Sultan 
 Mahmoud may succeed in overturning the ulema, as he has 
 done the Janizzaries. They appear to think that no perma- 
 nent reformation can take place while one of the ancient 
 institutions exist. Who, when the machine is entirely dis- 
 organized, is to remodel it, — when every element of discontent 
 is loosened, is to allay them, — when the fabric of centuries is 
 violently shaken, is to consolidate it ? A man who till his 
 twenty-fourth year lived with eunuchs, since with slaves ! In 
 a country like France, where all alike are alive to one impulse, 
 quiver to one note — la gloire nationale, were all existing institu- 
 tions to be overturned, a talented individual might restore 
 order shortly, for he would he aided by men of talent and by 
 the general knowledge diffused among the community : but in 
 Turkey, whose inhabitants are classified by separate laws, 
 religions, and languages — by all that constitutes diversity, and 
 whose only sentiment in common is mutual hatred, where is 
 the man who can even suggest a mode that shall be new and 
 acceptable ? Where is the statesman, above temptation, to 
 grapple with the universal corruption ? Where is the press 
 to persuade the people that it is well to abandon ancient forms 
 connected with religion, for novel and unholy usages ? Or, if 
 there be a man in the empire — a modem Kuprogli — qualified 
 
122 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 to undertake the task, is it likely that he will be found among 
 the ministers of Mahmoud II., who are, four-fifths of them, 
 bought slaves from Circassia, or from Georgia, — whose recom- 
 mendation was a pretty face, — whose chief merit, a prostitution 
 to the worst of vices, — whose schedule of services, successful 
 agency in forwarding their master’s treacherous schemes against 
 his subjects ? 
 
 Suppose, now the influence of the ulema to be overturned, 
 what would be the consequence ? The mollahships, like the 
 pashalicks, would then be sold to the highest bidders, or given 
 to the needy followers of the seraglio. These must borrow 
 money of the bankers for their outfit which must be repaid, and 
 their own purses lined, by their talents at extortion. 
 
 The vacouf (mosque lands) have been among the best culti- 
 vated in Turkey, by being free from arbitary taxation. The 
 mektebs (public schools) in all the great cities, where the rudi- 
 ments of the Turkish language and the Koran are taught, and 
 where poor scholars receive food gratis, are supported by the 
 ulema. The medressehs, imarets, (hospitals,) fountains, &c. 
 are all maintained by the ulema ; add to these the magnificence 
 of the mosques, their number, the royal sepultures, and it will 
 be seen that Turkey owes much to the existence of this body, 
 which has been enabled by its power and its union, to resist 
 royal cupidity. Without it where would be the establishments 
 above mentioned ? Religious property has been an object of 
 attack in every country. At one period, by the sovereign to 
 increase his power ; at another, by the people, to build for- 
 tunes on its downfall. Mahomet IV. after the disastrous 
 retreat of his grand vizir, Cara Mustapha, from before Vienna, 
 1683, seized on the riches of the principal mosques, which 
 arbitrary act led to his own deposition. The ulema would have 
 shown a noble patriotism in giving its wealth for the service of the 
 state, but it was right in resenting the extortion, which would 
 have served as a precedent for succeeding sultans. In fine, 
 rapid as has been the decline of the Ottoman empire since 
 victory ceased to attend its arms, I venture to assert, that it 
 would have been ten-fold more rapid but for the privileged 
 orders — the dere beys and the ulema. Without their powerful 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 123 
 
 weight and influence — effect of hereditary wealth and sanctity 
 — the Janizzaries would long since have cut Turkey in slices, 
 and have ruled it as the Mamelukes ruled Egypt. 
 
 Mahmoud’s reign was early marked by a Russian war, in 
 which, his innovations not being yet sufficiently broached to 
 create disgust, he collected one hundred and fifty thousand 
 men in Bulgaria. He might have turned this war to his 
 permanent advantage; hut he listened to England, allowed 
 himself to be won by some trifling advantages, conceded by 
 Russia, and concluded peace at a time when an alliance with 
 Napoleon, marching on Moscow, would have effectually dis- 
 embarrassed his empire of a constant foe. By the peace of 
 Bucharest, he was confirmed (conditionally) in the possession 
 of Moldavia and Wallaehia, — who has them now? — and 
 eighty thousand Russians were set free to act on the flank of 
 the French army. He was too much occupied by internal 
 reform to heed foreign politics. He took Mehemet Ali for his 
 guide ; and the rule of Mehemet Ali was to extort money 
 from every source, by any means — to render himself sole 
 proprietor of Egypt. An enlarged view of things, joined to 
 unparalleled cruelty and duplicity, with a perfect knowledge of 
 the evil ways of mankind in the East, gained during the 
 various phases of his life, (he has been a cavedgi, a tobacco 
 merchant, a chavass, a klephte, a bim bashi, a pasha,) enabled 
 him to succeed. Excepting cruelty, Mahmoud had none of 
 these advantages ; truth never found the way to his ear, and 
 he always saw with others’ eyes — the natural consequences of 
 his station. He thought that the other owed his success 
 entirely to having overturned existing institutions, and he 
 flattered himself, when he should have accomplished the same, 
 to be able to rule Turkey and to till it. But he had different 
 materials to work on. The Fellahs had always been slaves, 
 and, therefore, Mehemet Ali found no difficulty in retaining 
 them slaves — to labour and perish as he willed. The Turks, 
 on the contrary, had never been slaves, nor would they slave 
 patiently. In virtue of this difference of character, Egypt is 
 a hundred-fold more productive than it was previous to the 
 destruction of the Mamelukes, (March 1st, 181 1,) at the same 
 
124 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 time a hundred-fold deeper plunged in misery. Turkey every 
 year becomes more desolate. Mehemet Ali, with all his craft, 
 might have failed in the latter country ; Mahmoud might have 
 succeeded in the former. 
 
 While intent on depriving his Mussulman subjects of their 
 freedom, Mahmoud did not perceive that his Grecian subjects 
 were silently, hut rapidly, extending theirs. 
 
 Since forty years the condition of the Greeks had been 
 sensibly ameliorating. The islanders, it may be said, have 
 always been independent, and in possession of the coasting 
 trade of the empire. The wars attendant on the French 
 revolution gave them the carrying trade of the Mediterranean : 
 on the Euxine alone they had above two hundred sail under 
 the Bussian flag. Their vessels even navigated as far as 
 England. Mercantile houses were established in the principal 
 ports of the continent of Europe ; the only duty on their 
 commerce was five per cent, ad valorem, to the Sultan’s 
 custom-houses. The great demand of the English merchants 
 for Turkish silk, when Italian silk, to which it is superior, 
 was difficult to procure, enriched the Greeks of the interior, 
 who engrossed the entire culture. The continental system 
 obliged us to turn to Turkey for corn, large quantities of 
 which were exported from Macedonia, from Smyrna, and from 
 Tarsus, to the equal profit of the Grecian and Turkish agri- 
 culturists. The same system also rendered it incumbent on 
 Germany to cultivate commercial relations with Turkey, to 
 the great advantage of the Greeks, who were to be seen, in 
 consequence, numerously frequenting the fairs at Leipsic. 
 Colleges were established over Greece and the islands, by 
 leave obtained from Selim III. — principally at Smyrna, Scio, 
 Salonica, Yanina, and Hydra; and the wealthy sent their 
 children to civilized Europe for education, without opposition 
 from the Porte, which did not foresee the mischief that it would 
 thereby gather. 
 
 In short, the position of the Greeks, in 1810 , was such as 
 would have been considered visionary twenty years previous, 
 and would, if then offered to them, have been hailed as the 
 completion of their desires. But the general rule, applicable 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 125 
 
 to notions as well as to individuals, that an object, however 
 ardently aspired after, when attained is chiefly valued as a 
 stepping-stone to higher objects, naturally affected them : the 
 possession of unexpected prosperity and knowledge opened to 
 them farther prospects, gave them hopes of realizing golden 
 dreams, of revenging treasured wrongs — showed them, in a 
 word, the vista of independence. Were they right in going 
 towards it? The means which enabled them to do so had 
 been obtained by an accumulation of advantages enjoyed 
 peaceably through the favour or remissness (the same thing) 
 of the sultan. Should they have repaid them by revolt ? On 
 the general question, strangers may differ in opinion ; but the 
 people interested cannot. It can never admit that it owes 
 gratitude for any other boon than the freedom which it con- 
 siders as unjustly withheld — scarcely then : all benefits, short 
 of that one, are received as part payment only of an old debt, 
 and are considered rightful arms to second the noblest impulse 
 of the human mind. Yet, this well-known generous sentiment 
 unhappily warns a politic sovereign of such a people to hold it 
 in stem bondage until it be completely amalgamated with his 
 orthodox subjects ; to which end no semblance of a separate 
 existence — as mock parliaments, universities, national guards — 
 should be permitted to it ; for such foster the seeds of cherished 
 recollections — the spirit of national individuality — which must 
 ever be ready to germinate, and by which every citizen feels 
 it a sacred duty to oppose the foreign yoke, however light it 
 be, though lighter than the one he bore under his native 
 princes. This feeling is an heirloom, and no oaths or con- 
 tracts, in opposition to it, are considered binding ; nor should 
 their infraction be regarded as a stigma. 
 
 It is painful to behold oppression in any shape, but, con- 
 sidering the world as it is, and the principle that every man is 
 justified in keeping his own, I do not understand how a sove- 
 reign, who inherits a province that was formerly independent, 
 can be accused of tyranny in employing severe measures, con- 
 sistent with humanity, to retain the allegiance of its inhabitants. 
 He may have the warmest wishes, the most enlightened views 
 in their behalf, but the history of nations is an imperious 
 
126 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 lesson: it teaches him that his generosity will be construed 
 into weakness; that every imprudent concession will become a 
 weapon against him. As long, therefore, as civilized Europe 
 permits ambitious sovereigns to annex small states to their 
 empires, it is inconsistent to expect that their spoliated 
 inhabitants can he allowed the privileges of freemen. 
 
 The fall of Napoleon, while it assured the bondage of Poland, 
 and established an imperial inquisition, gave the Greeks facili- 
 ties for developing their ideas of independence. Many French 
 and Italians were by this event thrown on their wits ; men of 
 talents and enterprise, equally ready to support a military 
 despot, or to preach the doctrines of liberty. Turning their 
 eyes towards Greece, as to a theatre where profit and glory 
 might be reaped, they saw that her sons only wanted an 
 impulse to start on the career of revolution, and they gave it 
 by mixing with those who were on the continent for pleasure 
 or study. The youthful Greeks thus incited, inflamed each 
 other, and all to whom they spoke on the inspiring subject ; 
 Greek mercantile houses gave substantial support, and many 
 influential persons throughout Europe added weight by their 
 approbation to the plot against the sultan. As early as 1815, 
 a secret society, which had been gradually extending its 
 opinions since 1812, was organized. It ramified over the 
 Ottoman dominions, and had correspondents in most of the 
 capitals of Europe. Its agents were established at Constanti- 
 nople, and the principal cities of European Turkey. The entire 
 Greek population, clergy, nobles, and people, was canvassed. 
 Still the Porte had not an idea of its operations, and, when at 
 length warned by some of the Frank ambassadors, refused 
 credence to them. Its authorities throughout Greece were 
 equally ignorant of what was preparing, excepting Ali Pasha, 
 who was in correspondence with the chiefs of the society; he began 
 to dread the vengeance of Mahmoud, which was hearing towards 
 him, and he hoped, by joining his name to the cause of liberty, 
 to become king of Greece. He reckoned on the attachment of 
 the Armatolis, who had been long under his command while 
 Dervendji Bashi, (guardian of the roads,) but he did not take 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 127 
 
 into account the unpopularity which his excessive cruelty, 
 during twenty years, had procured for him. 
 
 The state of Turkey during the hatching of the conspiracy 
 was singularly favourable to its success. The obnoxious policy of 
 the Sultan, in monopolizing the trade in corn, and on other 
 subjects, caused a general rising throughout Asia Minor in 
 1816. The ministers, as usual, were charged with the respon- 
 sibility; that year the grand vizir was changed four times. In 
 1818 Georgia openly revolted and entered into relations with 
 Russia, which relations greatly tended to Paskewitch’s success 
 in 1828-29. In 1819 Constantinople was a prey to fire, pesti 
 lence, and a sedition of the Janizzaries. 
 
 The explosion of the Greek mine was fixed for the spring of 
 J 822, but circumstances anticipated it by a year. Sultan Mah- 
 moud, although he apparently love, never forgives a rebel ; 
 although he load him with favours, and bestow governments on 
 his sons, they are only lures to draw him to ruin. In the sum- 
 mer of 1820, he declared Ali Pasha at the ban of the empire, 
 and charged Kourschid, begler bey of the Morea, with his re- 
 duction. Kourschid immediately marched with the greater part 
 of the troops belonging to his government, leaving his caima- 
 ean as his deputy at Tripolitza. The stupid anger of Mah- 
 moud against Ali made him thus commit the irreparable fault 
 of ungarrisoning the Morea when he was beginning to be con- 
 scious of an extensive plan of insurrection among its in- 
 habitants. Suspecting, however, that Ali was leagued with it, 
 he thought, perhaps, by crushing him, to paralyze the other. 
 He had yet to learn that the cunning tyrant of Epirus, who had 
 so long made tools of others, was now a tool himself. He had 
 always seen a rebel province submit when its chief was taken 
 off; he had never had occasion to consider the people as worthy 
 of attention, and therefore his blind policy, supposing Ali the 
 chief of the Hellenists, was somewhat excusable. The educa- 
 tion of Ottoman princes is ill-calculated to give an idea of the 
 strength of a people, though slaves, when united for a common 
 cause. Kourschid’s unexpected prompt success at Yanina, gave, 
 however, the sultan an opportunity of retrieving his error, or 
 
128 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 rather of making it appear as the opening of a brilliant plan of cam- 
 paign, hut his apprehension of all that had been under Ali Pasha’s 
 direct rule, joined to the mistaken idea he had of that rebel’s 
 connexion with the Hellenists, prevailed, and instead of order- 
 ing back Kourschid to the Morea, he directed him to employ 
 his victorious troops in subduing the Souliotes with other Alba- 
 nian tribes, which the death of Ali had set free; and shortly 
 afterwards, when those troops were thinned by desertions and 
 disorganized, he sent to the caimacan at Tripolitza a firman — a 
 firman which should have had a strong army to hack it — to 
 disarm the Moreotes. No measure could have been so pro- 
 pitious for them. The most important, and involving considera- 
 tion in a well-schemed insurrection, is that its irruption be 
 simultaneous. Previous arrangements are inadequate to effect 
 this desideratum, from the clashing interests to he consulted, the 
 many objections, as to time and place, to be overcome. It is, 
 therefore, earnestly to be desired by the chiefs of the plot, 
 that the government may commit an act of rigour calculated to 
 affect every individual, to act as a touchstone on the passions of 
 all. Such was this order to the caimacan; from the bishop to 
 the priest, from the noble to the peasant it was resented, and 
 created unanimity on one point — resistance ; which resistance, 
 passive at first, in consequence of the prestige attached to 
 Ottoman prowess, soon, through the vacillating policy of the 
 Porte, too proud or ignorant to conciliate, too contemptuous of 
 the Greeks to act with timely vigour, became active. 
 
 Germanos, bishop of Patrass, first raised the cross at Kala- 
 vryta, March 1821. Patrass followed the example. The flame 
 spread, or rather flew. Mavromichali, Colocotrino, (Klephte 
 chiefs,) Mavrocordato, Demetrius Ipsilanti, (Fanariote nobles,) 
 took the lead. Before June the Osmanleys were everywhere 
 driven from the field, and before October of the same year, the 
 half of their fortresses were compelled to yield for want of pro- 
 visions. Simultaneously with Germanos’ movement, Alex- 
 ander Ipsilanti crossed the Pruth, March 7, with the sacred 
 battalion. He called on the Christians to take up arms against 
 their Turkish oppressors, promising the support of Russia; 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 129 
 
 but without success, the Moldavians having suffered too long 
 and too bitterly from the oppression of the Hospodars to feel 
 sympathy with the cause of their countrymen. The sacred 
 battalion, therefore, after performing prodigies of valour at 
 Dragheshan, was cut in pieces by a body of Delhis; Ipsilanti 
 then retreated into Austria, where he was quietly immured. 
 
 The news of the insurrection was received at Constantinople 
 with rage on the part of the Osmanleys, with apprehension on 
 the part of the Greeks. The Fanariote nobles and the clergy 
 trembled, and with reason, for they were all acquainted with 
 the plot, although they might hope to escape detection. Their 
 denouncer was at hand. Khalet Effendi was still Mahmoud’s 
 favourite. This man, in the early part of his life, had been 
 ambassador at Paris above a year, whence he returned tinc- 
 tured with infidelity and liberalism, which made him entertain 
 ideas, (as many enlightened Osmanleys have,) on the propriety 
 of placing the Greeks on a level with Mussulmans. By his 
 intimacy with the Greeks of the capital, he obtained a half 
 knowledge of the designs of the Hellenists, but did not betray 
 them, because he was led to believe that they coincided with 
 his views, which no ways tended to separate Greece ; from the 
 empire. He seconded them by procuring the hospodarships 
 of Moldavia and Wallachia for prince Michael Soutzo and 
 prince Caradjak, the latter of whom, on the breaking out of 
 the revolution, fled into Austria, while the former joined Ip- 
 silanti. This defection struck Mahmoud ; he remembered the 
 interest that his favourite had exerted for them, and he taxed 
 him with treachery. In Turkey there is no great shade of 
 distinction between accusation and proof; nor is it considered 
 necessary to wait for the latter to execute punishment. Khalet 
 Effendi knew this, and judged that the only way to save his 
 life was to show as great hatred to the Greeks as he was sup- 
 posed to have friendship. He spared no person, but by his 
 allegations fanned the flame of his master’s rage, which was 
 also ably seconded by the Janizzaries. E aster-day, April 22, 
 1821, was disgraced by the murder of the patriarch Gregory; 
 he was seized at the altar, and hung in his robes at the door of 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the Metropolitan church.* Above twenty bishops were also 
 hung in and about Constantinople, with a crowd of nobles and 
 inferior clergy; and the populace seconded their sovereign by 
 slaying the unfortunate Greeks who ventured into the streets. 
 Orders were sent to the principal cities to repeat the same 
 scenes for the honour of God and the prophet. 
 
 This horrible butchery was not only a foul crime, hut a deep 
 political fault. The sultan’s apologists — (he has some, Chris- 
 tians too, even on this point, as well as a Christian precedent, 
 in the murder of the Archbishop of Arles, the Bishops of 
 Beauvais and of Saintes, and of two hundred and fifty priests 
 at Paris, September 2nd, 1792) — gloss it over, and term it a 
 political stroke, to ascertain, at once, the extent of the insur- 
 rection, and where to act. It fully succeeded. The wind, that 
 bore the sad news to the Archipelago, dispersed all traces of 
 lingering allegiance. The islands which had determined to 
 remain neuter joined the sacred cause, and every Greek saw 
 that his only refuge lay in arms. The timid imagined their 
 fate in that of their patriarch, in case they fell into the tyrant’s 
 gripe; the brave swore to avenge his death; and the senate, 
 assembling at Calamata, proclaimed these sentiments. 
 
 In the midst of this tragedy, Abdallah Pasha alone, of the 
 Ottoman grandees, had the courage to approach the sultan. 
 He told him that his head was his, hut, till he deprived him of 
 it, it was his duty to counsel him for his honour, and the 
 honour of the empire. He declared the heinous fault of 
 driving the Greeks to desperation; he accused Khalet Effendi 
 of having deceived them for his individual profit, denounced 
 
 * The corpse, after being dragged by Jews through the streets of the 
 Phanar, was thrown into the Propontis, where the stones which sunk it be- 
 coming detached, it floated to the surface. The captain of a Russo-greco 
 vessel, passing at the time, was attracted by the venerable white beard. 
 Recognising the body, he took it on board, embalmed it, and conveyed it 
 to Odessa. It was there laid in state, dressed in rich patriarchal vestments, 
 sent expressly by the Emperor Alexander, and then interred with every pos- 
 sible honour. It was Gregory’s third time of being patriarch. The first 
 was marked by the hostile arrival of the English fleet, on which occasion, 
 for the zeal he displayed in animating the labourers employed in throwing 
 up ramparts, he received a pelisse of honour from the hands of Selim III. 
 The second he passed in wordy warfare with his intriguing bishops, who 
 obtained his deposition. The third gained him the crown of martyrdom. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 131 
 
 him as a traitor in having counselled the executions, and de- 
 manded his immediate expulsion from the capital. He was 
 supported by the Scheik Islam, and by the principal members 
 of the ulema, who showed, by their conduct throughout this 
 affair, that they were worthy of being ministers of a milder 
 religion. Mahmoud yielded. The following day he created 
 Abdallah grand vizir, and banished Khalet Effendi to Cogni; 
 hut before taking leave of his favourite, he gave him a written 
 protection for his life, assuring him, that whatever might ulte- 
 riorly happen, it should avail. Khalet embraced his kind 
 master’s feet, and, depending on his talisman, quitted Stam- 
 boul, with the hope of again seeing its minarets. Vain hope ! 
 He was yet two days from the place of his exile, when a 
 capidgi bashi overtook him. Khalet, with a slight misgiving, 
 showed his protection, and observed there was some mistake. 
 
 “ There is,” replied the capidgi : “ see, the date of my order 
 is later than the date of yours, which is thereby useless.” 
 Khalet still insisted that it was a mistake, that the sultan could 
 not have contradicted himself, in a few days, on so essential a 
 point, (in Khalet’s opinion,) and he begged the capidgi to 
 return to Constantinople, and assure himself. “ God is great!” 
 rejoined the capidgi; “thou speakest nonsense; dost think 
 that I am tired of wearing my head ? Thy paper, I tell thee, 
 is of no use; submit with grace, and bless our Lord, the 
 sultan, who, in condemning thee, assures thee of the joys of 
 paradise.” This was cruel mockery to Khalet, who doubted 
 very much the efficacy of such a recipe for reaching heaven. 
 However, there was no remedy. He laid down his last pipe, 
 — (he was sitting on the divan of a village aga,) — and was 
 twisted into eternity by the cordon of his own sabre. Thus 
 perished the minister of Mahmoud’s vices for nearly ten years. 
 He, perhaps, thought, with Wolsey, “ Had I but served my 
 God,” &c. without more reason, since both, in serving their 
 sovereign, only thought of serving themselves. His name is 
 held in horror by the Greeks; if one of them wish to describe 
 a monster of iniquity, Khalet Effendi is the model. 
 
 The sultan had a certain mode of crushing the insurrection 
 in its egg, which was by pitting Ali Pasha against it, instead 
 
 k 2 
 
132 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 of outlawing him. The crafty tyrant, when he found himself 
 blockaded in his castle, and the dupe of the Hellenists, came, 
 though too late, to a sense of his error. To a natural wish to 
 save his head, whitened by eighty- three winters, was joined a 
 desire to wreak vengeance on a people whom he despised ; and 
 he would have deemed his sanguinary life well terminated, had 
 he employed its last months in massacreing the Greeks, re- 
 newing with an army of Albanians the scenes of 1770. He 
 made propositions for pardon, offering to abort the revolt. 
 Nor did he assume what he could not perform. His former 
 relations with the Hellenists gave him a secret power against 
 them : he was intimately acquainted with the Klephte chiefs, 
 who had mo^t of them been his creatures, and whom he had 
 never found insensible to the charms of gold : his possession 
 of Kiapha Castle* insured the neutrality of theSuliotes; and 
 he was the hero of the Albanians, theme of their songs, loved 
 by them for his valour in spite of his tyranny, with an influence 
 over them which no one since Scanderbeg had obtained, so 
 that he would have had no difficulty in making them march 
 under him to the Morea, or to any other place for plunder- 
 They deserted him in his extremity, partly from a reluctance 
 to oppose the sultan, but principally from the defection, 
 owing to his avarice, of some of their chiefs, particularly 
 Omer Bey, Ali’s trusted follower, who opened the passes of 
 Pindus to the Ottoman force under Ismael Pasha. 
 
 Supposing, however, that Mahmoud had calculated the 
 extent of the insurrection, had known that it was independent 
 of Ali, still it is not probable, considering his character, that 
 he would have suffered the policy of accepting his offer to 
 weigh against the desire of being revenged, now that he had 
 the power, on a subject, who, for twelve years, had walked on 
 the edge of the gulf of rebellion. He satiated his vengeance by 
 cutting off every branch of so sturdy a tree, even to an innocent 
 
 * When Ali Pasha had subdued the Suliotes, after seventeen years’ war, 
 he built the castle of Kiapha in the centre of their fastnesses. In his ex- 
 tremity he gave it up to them as the price of their co-operation. This 
 should have secured their independence after his death ; but, owing to their 
 dissensions, the Osmanleys took it from them. They then bade adieu to 
 their hills, and retired to the Ionian Isles. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 133 
 
 boy, twelve years old, Ali’s youngest grandson. The Tartar who 
 bore the head to Constantinople was surrounded hy crowds, 
 in the towns where he stopped, who could scarcely credit that 
 it was the terrible Ali’s ; and the brave mountaineers wept, for 
 they remembered the feats of his youth. Its exposition at 
 the seraglio gate filled the Constantinopolitans with astonish- 
 ment, and the sultan with joy. Short-sighted man ! That 
 head was the head of the Hercules who might have crushed 
 the hydra, Revolt. Time in a few years would have laid it in 
 the dust ; what time will sear the full-grown necks of liberty ? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Beys of Albania — Ibrahim Pasha in the Morea — Revolt and slaughter of 
 the Janizzaries — Peter the Great and the Strelitzes — Mahmoud and 
 Amurath — The Nizam Dgeditt and the Janizzaries — Turkish prejudices 
 — Erroneous policy of the Sultan — A parallel of civilized and uncivilized 
 states — Consternation at Constantinople on the battle of Navarine — 
 Reflections on the Greek question — Departure of the ambassadors — 
 Alarm of the Merchants — Exile of the Catholic Armenians — Emperor of 
 Russia’s Manifest — The Sultan’s answer — Advance of the Russian 
 army — Sultan’s preparations for War. 
 
 It is foreign to my purpose to follow the progress of the 
 Grecian war — the blunders, the barbarities, the cavillings,. on 
 both sides — it has been detailed in many tomes. But it is 
 curious to observe how Mahmoud, notwithstanding its distrac- 
 tion, perseveringly followed the grand object of his life — the 
 destruction of the Janizzaries, and the abasement of the power 
 ful chieftains. With Machiavelian policy he designed the civil 
 war as an instrument. 
 
 Mustapha Pasha, hereditary bey of Scutari, was pre-eminent 
 in Upper Albania. The vicinity and power of Ali Pasha had 
 caused him to be previously unnoticed ; but on the death of 
 the latter, Mahmoud perceived the youthful bey, then twenty- 
 five years old, guilty of ancestral rights. He recollected his 
 father,* the notorious rebel, and he knew the influence of his 
 
 * Cara Mahmoud, shut up with eighty men in his castle at Scutari, re- 
 sisted twenty thousand of the sultan’s troops, whom at length he caused to 
 be dispersed or massacred, by fomenting an insurrection among the Guegues. 
 The sultan then confirmed him in his honours. But Cara Mahmoud did not 
 
134 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 family with the warlike beys of Bosnia. To weaken him, 
 therefore, he commanded him to raise and maintain twenty 
 thousand men for the war in western Greece, and to command 
 them in person, under the seraskier pasha, who had also an 
 army of Albanians. Mustapha obeyed, as far as raising the 
 army, hut took care to effect nothing. He marched twice 
 from his capital to the Gulf of Lepanto, and hack again. In 
 one of these excursions, while encamped near Carpenisi, Marco 
 Botzaris attacked him at midnight, with a band of devoted 
 followers ; penetrating to the horse-tailed tent, he was on the 
 point of doing the sultan a great favour, when the pasha 
 awaking, escaped by cutting an aperture in the canvas with his 
 ataghan. The heroic Greek was then surrounded, and received 
 death and immortality at the same moment. 
 
 Mehemet Ali was also requested to expose some of his 
 disciplined troops to the chances of war, in the Morea. He 
 hesitated ; but, at length, being hard pressed by threats and 
 promises, also rather intimidated by the fall of the powerful 
 Ali Pasha, thereby attributing greater power to the sultan 
 than he really possessed, sent his son, Ibrahim Pasha, to 
 Modon, with ten thousand men, February, 1825. The 
 jealousies of the Greeks were then at such a pitch, paralyzing 
 energy and patriotism, that had Ibrahim pleased, he would 
 have conquered the Morea that year. He marched through its 
 defiles without encountering opposition ; looked at Napoli di 
 Romania, on the possession of which hung the fate of Greece ; 
 burnt the ruins of Tripolitza, and then returned to the west 
 coast, and cantoned his troops. Ibrahim has been generally 
 accused of stupidity in not taking more advantage, that cam- 
 paign, of the prostrate condition of the enemy. I suspect, 
 however, that the true cause lay in his father’s instructions. 
 Mehemet Ah was too much alive to his own interests to wish 
 to forward the sultan’s views. He did not feel sufficiently 
 powerful to resist openly; but, while co-operating with an 
 
 long survive the triumph. In a war with the Montenegrins, 1795, he was 
 taken prisoner in the pass of Cettigni, by his implacable foe, the bishop of 
 Montenegro, who cut off his head, and placed it m his own chamber, in the 
 4 invent of Cettigni, where it may still be seen. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 135 
 
 efficient army, he probably commanded his son to husband 
 his resources, by being a spectator, rather than an actor. 
 Ibrahim’s career, until his expulsion in 1828, supports this 
 opinion. The only important affair he engaged in was the 
 siege of Missolonghi. There he fairly assisted Kedschid 
 Pasha; but at Navarine his fleet as fairly betrayed Tahir 
 Pasha. The promise of annexing the Morea to his govern- 
 ment was a poor bait to Mehemet Ali, who was not deterred 
 by the difficulty of the conquest, which he would have 
 accomplished by means of gold — an arm against which, well 
 handled, the Greeks are truly impotent ; hut he foresaw, that 
 to keep a country of hold and hardy brigands under, and render 
 it productive, would occasion a drain of Egyptian troops and 
 treasure, which would, in the sequel, leave him defenceless, an 
 easy prey to Sultan Mahmoud, who, he was perfectly aware, 
 only wanted the opportunity to crush him. 
 
 Warned by the example of others, these two chiefs thus 
 avoided the snares spread for them. The Janizzaries were 
 less fortunate. Each campaign a body was embarked onboard 
 the fleet, and landed in small parties, purposely unsupported, 
 on the theatre of war : none returned, so that only a few thou- 
 sand remained at Constantinople when, May 30, 1826, the 
 sultan issued a hatti scheriff concerning the formation of “ a 
 new victorious army.” This was a flash of lightning in the 
 eyes of the Janizzaries. They saw why their companions did 
 not return from Greece : they saw that the old, hitherto abor- 
 tive, policy, dormant since eighteen years, was revived : they 
 saw that their existence was threatened ; and they resolved to 
 resist, confiding in the prestige of their name. June 15 fol- 
 lowing, they reversed their soup-kettles, (signal of revolt,) 
 demanded the heads of the ministers, and the revocation of 
 the said firman. But Mahmoud was prepared for them. Hus- 
 seyin, the aga of the Janizzaries, was in his interests, and with 
 him the yamaks, (garrisons of the castles of the Bosphorus,) 
 the Galiondgis, and the Topchis. Collecting, therefore, on the 
 following morning, his forces in the Atmeidan, the sandjack 
 scheriff was displayed, and the ulema seconded him by calling 
 on the people to support their sovereign against the rebels. 
 
136 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Still, no ways daunted, the Janizzaries advanced, and sum 
 moned their aga, of whom they had no suspicion, to repeat 
 their demands to the sultan, threatening, in case of non-com- 
 pliance, to force the seraglio gates. Husseyin, who had acted 
 his part admirably, and with consummate duplicity brought 
 them to the desired point — open rebellion — flattering them 
 with success, now threw aside the mask. He stigmatized them 
 as infidels, and called on them, in the name of the prophet, to 
 submit to the sultan’s clemency. At this defection of their 
 trusted, favourite chief, their smothered rage burst out ; they 
 rushed to his house, razed it in a moment, did the same by the 
 houses of the other ministers, applied torches, and in half an 
 hour Constantinople streamed with blood beneath the glare of 
 flames. Mahmoud hesitated, and was about to conciliate ; but 
 Husseyin repulsed the idea with firmness, knowing that to 
 effect conciliation, his head must he the first offering. “Now 
 or never,” he replied to the sultan, “is the time ! Think not 
 that a few heads will appease this sedition, which has been too 
 carefully fomented by me, — the wrongs of the Janizzaries too 
 closely dwelt on, thy character too blackly stained, thy treachery 
 too minutely dissected, — to he easily laid. Remember that 
 this is the second time that thy arm has been raised against 
 them, and they will not trust thee again. Remember, too, 
 that thou hast now a son, that son not in thy power, whom 
 they will elevate on thy downfall. Now is the time! This 
 evening’s sun must set for the last time on them or us. Retire 
 from the city, that thy sacred person may he safe, and leave 
 the rest to me.” Mahmoud consented, and went to Dolma 
 Bachtche, (a palace one mile up the Bosphorus,) to await the 
 result. Husseyin, then free to act without fear of interruption, 
 headed his yamaks, and vigorously attacked the rebels, who, 
 cowardly as they were insolent, offered a feeble resistance, 
 when they found themselves unsupported by the mob, retreated 
 from street to street, and finally took refuge in the Etmeidan. 
 Here their career ended. A masked battery on the hill beyond 
 opened on them, troops enclosed them in, and fire was applied 
 to the wooden buildings. Desperation then gave them the 
 courage that might have saved them at first, and they strove 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 137 
 
 with madness to force a passage from the burning pile ; part 
 were consumed, part cut down; a few only got out, among 
 them five colonels, who threw themselves at the aga’s feet, and 
 implored grace. They spoke their last.* 
 
 The bonfire of their bones and barracks still smoked, when 
 Husseyin repaired to the sultan, and told him that the terrible 
 Janizzaries were destroyed — all excepting their chief ; — “ I am 
 that chief, and offer thee his head.” Mahmoud embraced him, 
 and named him on the spot superior to all pashas, by the title 
 of aga pasha. The next day a hatti scheriff was read in the 
 mosques declaring the Janizzaries infamous, the order 
 abolished, and the name an anathema. 
 
 This event was so unexpected, as well as extraordinary, 
 that Europe almost unanimously voted Mahmoud the title of 
 “ great,” and prophesied that Turkey would resume her place 
 among powerful nations. The illusion has not entirely ceased : 
 nor should it cease could one argument be brought forward to 
 justify it. Posterity awards the distinction of “great” to few 
 men, since, at its tribunal, splendid actions are judged by 
 their motives. Peter of Russia has incontestably the clearest 
 right to it; for he voluntarily sacrificed, pro tempore, power and 
 wealth, and descended to the level of mankind, that he might 
 reform himself before attempting to reform others ; a lesson 
 which an ordinary mind could not have submitted to learn. 
 It is not his fault, that on the foundation he laid his succes- 
 sors have raised a superstructure of astounding despotism, and 
 converted an honourable profession — the army — into a vehicle 
 for galling slavery. After destroying the Strelitzes, he did not 
 apply the arbitrary power thus gained to subverting the ancient 
 institutions of the Muscovites, hut to the enforcement of 
 national principles, and he used his superior knowledge with 
 as little selfishness as was compatible with human nature. 
 Mahmoud’s policy, on the contrary, in increasing his power, 
 was alien to the happiness of his subjects. “ Oh !” exclaim 
 
 * The after and more disagreeable task of hunting out the fugitive Janiz- 
 zaries, and their warm partizans, was entrusted to Khosrew Pasha, who kept 
 open the shambles several months. Five thousand fell under the grand 
 blow, and in the whole, twenty or twenty-five thousand are supposed to have 
 perished throughout the empire. 
 
138 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 his admirers, which consist of the Frank and Raya population 
 of Constantinople, “he put down the Janizzaries, that cancer 
 of Turkey 1” It is riot . sufficient that the weights before a 
 prison door he removed, unless the spring that opens it he also 
 touched ; that the presumed obstacles to all improvement he 
 set aside, unless an impulse he given to make improvement flow. 
 The pernicious system of selling the governments to the highest 
 bidders, partly attributed to the influence of the Janizzaries, 
 has been more acted on by Mahmoud than by any other sultan, 
 since, in addition to the nomination pashalicks, he puts up the 
 (formerly) hereditary beyliks to auction, and will also the mol- 
 lahships, should he succeed in his designs against the ulema. 
 Let us see, however, whether the Janizzaries were the cancer of 
 Turkey. No ; the real cancer that eats her up is corruption, uni- 
 versal corruption, commencing with the ministers of state, and 
 multiplied through every department, even to the fakirs. That 
 they were a cancer to Constantinople I will not deny, a plague spot 
 to the seraglio. But what is Constantinople to Turkey ? does it 
 exercise the mental control over the provinces which other great 
 capitals respectively possess ? does public opinion flow from it ? 
 So perfectly distinct are the manners and sentiments of its inhabi- 
 tants from those of the mass of the nation, that it may be com- 
 pared to an island in a sea. In the former view, therefore, 
 the Janizzaries were only a particular evil, repeated with less 
 malignancy in two or three great provincial cities; and in 
 their latter shape — a bar to the free will of the sultan—- it is 
 doubtful whether, whatever may be supposed, their influence 
 materially affected the empire; the elements of its decay being 
 deeper seated. Strikingly does the conduct of Mahmoud, in 
 forming the nizam dgeditt, contrast with that of Amurath 
 in the formation of the Janizzaries; the measures being 
 parallel, inasmuch as each was a mighty innovation, no less 
 than the establishment of an entire new military force on the 
 institutions of the country. But Amurath had a master mind. 
 Instead of keeping his new army distinct from the nation, he 
 incorporated it with it, made it conform in all respects to 
 national usages; and the success was soon apparent by its 
 spreading into a vast national guard, of which, in later times. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 139 
 
 some thousands usurped the permanence of enrolment, in 
 which the remainder, through indolence, acquiesced. Haying 
 destroyed these self- constituted battalions, Mahmoud should 
 have made the others available, instead of outlawing them, as 
 it were : and, by respecting their traditionary whims and social 
 rights, he would easily have given his subjects a taste for 
 European discipline. They never objected to it in principle, 
 but their untutored minds could not understand why, in order 
 to use the musket and bayonet, and manoeuvre together, it was 
 necessary to leave off wearing beards and turbans. 
 
 It is not my wish, in what I have said, to defend this race 
 of fanatic ruffians. Lords of the day, they ruled with uncon- 
 trolled insolence in Constantinople, their appearance por- 
 traying the excess of libertinism ; their foul language, their 
 gross behaviour, their enormous turbans, their open vests, 
 their bulky sashes filled with arms, their weighty sticks, render- 
 ing them objects of fear and of disgust. Like moving columns, 
 they thrust everybody from their paths, without regard of sex 
 or age, frequently bestowing durable marks of anger or con- 
 tempt; and during the bairam, the report of pistols, let off in 
 sport, or intoxication, often followed by a shriek, every where 
 denoted their presence. No man who was not of them, no 
 property that was not theirs, was safe ; and habituated to 
 lawless excess, they knew no crime hut what aimed at their 
 privileges. Deposed sultans, and a long list of headless vizirs, 
 attest this truth. It may be truly said that there was scarcely 
 a person of consideration in the empire who was not glad of 
 their downfall, for they had long separated themselves from the 
 nation. If left alone after the catastrophe of June 16, 1826, 
 the remnant would have died a natural death, and the name 
 only would have remained, a glorious recollection interwoven 
 with the brightest era of Ottoman history. 
 
 But Mahmoud, in his hatred, wished to condemn them to 
 oblivion, to eradicate every token of their pre-existence, not 
 knowing that trampling on a grovelling party is the surest way of 
 giving it fresh spirit ; and trampling on the principles of the 
 party in question, was trampling on the principles of the whole 
 nation. In his ideas, the Oriental usages in eating, dressing, 
 
140 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 &c. were connected with the Janizzaries, had been invented by 
 them, and therefore he proscribed them, prescribing new modes. 
 He changed the costume of his court from Asiatic to European ; 
 he ordered his soldiers to shave their beards, recommending 
 his courtiers to follow the same example, and he forbad the 
 turban, — that valued, darling, beautiful head-dress, at once 
 national and religious. His folly therein cannot be sufficiently 
 reprobated : had he reflected that Janizzarism was only a branch 
 grafted on a wide spreading tree, that it sprung from the 
 Turkish nation, not the Turkish nation from it, he would have 
 seen how impossible was the more than Herculean task he 
 assumed, of suddenly transforming national manners con- 
 secrated by centuries ; a task from which his prophet would 
 have shrunk. The disgust excited hy these sumptuary laws 
 may be conceived. Good Mussulmans declared them unholy 
 and scandalous, and the Asiatics, to a man, refused obedience; 
 but as Mahmoud’s horizon was confined to his court, he did 
 not know hut what his edicts were received with veneration. 
 Some people excuse this conduct, "and say that the repugnance 
 attending it would have passed away with the generation, and 
 that the next would not have thought more of turbans and 
 shulwars, than the Highlanders think of bonnets and kilts. 
 I doubt that: the Highlanders were part, part only of the body; 
 the Turks compose the body. At all events, supposing the 
 regulations politic, they should have been deferred until the 
 sultan had power to enforce them. His own language has a 
 proverb applicable — “ Do not take a man by the beard unless 
 you can cut off his head.” I verily believe that an effendi of 
 Bagdad, or of Aleppo, or of Damascus, who still believes that 
 the Ottomans are invulnerable, and that his padischah invests 
 the krais of Christendom with their crowns, would rather lose 
 his right hand than appear abroad without his turban, and 
 consent sooner to lose his head than to shave his beloved beard, 
 which grew with his strength, the solacer of his ennui, the 
 rival of his comholoyo in employing his fingers. I readily 
 believe the story told of Dom — — , governor of Goa, that he 
 obtained a large sum of money on the security of his whiskers. 
 To Englishmen, the impolicy of altering the dress of a half 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 141 
 
 civilized military nation is more apparent than to other Franks, 
 since it is known that a similar determination, relating to the 
 Anglo-Indian army, led to the mutiny at Vellore, 1806. The 
 governor- general would be ill advised, who ordered the native 
 troops to shave their moustaches. 
 
 If Mahmoud had stopped at these follies in the exercise of 
 his newly- acquired despotic power, it would have been well. 
 His next step was to increase the duty on all provisions in 
 Constantinople, and in the great provincial cities, to the great 
 discontent of the lower classes, which was expressed by firing 
 the city to such an extent that in the first three months six 
 thousand houses were consumed. The end of October, 1826, 
 was also marked by a general opposition to the new imposts ; 
 but repeated executions at length brought the people to their 
 senses, and made them regret the loss of the Janizzaries, who 
 had been their protectors as well as tormentors, inasmuch as 
 they never allowed the price of provisions to he raised. These 
 disturbances exasperated the sultan. He did not attribute 
 them to the right cause, distress, but to a perverse spirit of 
 Janizzarism, a suspicion of harbouring which was death to any 
 one. He farther extended his financial operations by raising 
 the miri (land tax) all over the empire, and, in ensuing years, 
 by granting monopolies on all articles of commerce to the 
 highest bidder. In consequence, lands, which had produced 
 abundance, in 1830 lay waste.* Articles of export, as opium, 
 silk, &c. gave the growers a handsome revenue when they could 
 sell them to the Frank merchants, hut at the low prices fixed 
 by the monopolists they lose, and the cultivation languishes. 
 Sultan Mahmoud kills the goose for the eggs. In a word, he 
 adopted in full the policy of Mehemet Ali, which supposed the 
 essence of civilization and of political science to be contained 
 in the word taxation ; and having driven his chariot over the 
 necks of the dere beys, and of the Janizzaries, he resolved to 
 tie his subjects to its wheels, and to keep them in dire slavery. 
 
 * In 1829-30, they were obliged to send to Smyrna from the interior of 
 Asia Minor for corn — an unprecedented circumstance, for Smyrna had 
 hitherto drawn her supplies from the interior, instead of importing foreign 
 com. 
 
142 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Hence a mute struggle began throughout the empire between 
 the sultan and the Turks, the former trying to reduce the 
 latter to the condition of the Egyptian fellahs, the latter un- 
 willing to imitate the fellahs in patient submission. The sul- 
 tan flatters himself (1830) that he is succeeding, because the 
 taxes he imposed, and the monopolies he has granted, produced 
 him more revenue than he had formerly. The people, although 
 hitherto they have been able to answer the additional demands 
 by opening their hoards, evince a sullen determination not to 
 continue doing so, by seceding gradually from their occupa- 
 tions, and barely existing. The result must be, if the sultan 
 cannot compel them to work, us the Egyptians, under the 
 lashes of task-masters, either a complete stagnation of agri- 
 culture and trade, ever at a low ebb in Turkey, or a general 
 rebellion produced by misery. 
 
 Travellers are apt to laud Mehemet Ali : but let them con- 
 sider the condition of his subjects — let them recollect what 
 they must have seen, the multitudes labouring naked in the 
 cotton and rice grounds, goaded on by overseers, the numbers 
 perishing on the banks of the canal, or in the towns, — the 
 only bar between life and death, of those who survive a few 
 years, black bread and the water of the Nile, their only enjoy- 
 ment — shared with animals, as transitorily and as soullessly 
 — multiplying their wretched species, — they will not wish his 
 doctrines to be extended to Turkey. If the attributes of 
 civilization, — armies, fleets, canals, roads, palaces, — can only 
 be obtained by similar means, humanity would decline them. 
 We admire the pyramids for their grandeur, and their antiquity, 
 and their astronomical position; but our admiration would be 
 mingled with disgust at the tyrants who founded them, were 
 the thousands, sacrificed in toil for their mighty whims, 
 engraved on the bases. 
 
 Civilization, forced, is as inimical to a people’s happiness as is 
 a constitution abruptly presented. That deprives them of their 
 liberties; this of their judgment: the shackles of the former 
 are felt, before the corresponding silken bands are fitted to 
 disguise the iron ; the condescension of the latter is abused 
 before its beauty is respected : the one sharpens the sword of 
 state ; the other puts clubs in the hands of the mob. For the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 143 
 
 former hypothesis look at Russia ; for the latter observe 
 France. 
 
 When a nation, comparatively harharous, copies the finished 
 experience of a highly civilized state, without going through 
 the intermediate stages of advancement, the few are strengthened 
 against the many, the powerful armed against the weak. The 
 sovereign, who before found his power (despotic in name) 
 circumscribed, because with all the will, he had not the real 
 art of oppressing, by the aid of science finds himself a giant 
 — his mace exchanged for a sword. In scanning over the 
 riches of civilization, spread out before him for acceptance, he 
 contemptuously rejects those calculated to benefit his people, 
 and chooses the modem scientific governing machine, result 
 of ages of experiments, with its patent screws for extracting 
 blood and treasure, — conscription and taxation. He hires 
 foreign engineers to work it, and waits the promised result — 
 absolute power. His subjects, who before had a thousand 
 modes of avoiding his tyranny, have not now a loop-hole to 
 escape by : the operations of the uncorroding engine meet them 
 at every turn, and, to increase their despair, its movement 
 accelerates with use, and winds closer their chains. A people 
 thus taken by surprise, and thrown off their guard, will he 
 centuries before they acquire sufficient knowledge — every beam 
 of which is carefully hid from them by the clouds of despotism 
 — to compare their situation with that of their neighbours — 
 (who, although mled by the same means, have advantages to 
 counterbalance its weight) — to assert human rights, and to 
 dare to say “ we are men.” In the mean time, they are dis- 
 persed, or collected, or worked, as cattle ; suffered to perish of 
 disease, or starve, as things of no import ; compelled to march 
 like puppets from zone to zone, for the caprice of one man — 
 to slaughter and be slaughtered for his pleasure ; and if any 
 one, using his reason, pronounce such proceedings against the 
 eternal fitness of things, he is denounced as revolutionary, an 
 enemy of order, little short of mad, and unfit to live. Such 
 are the fruits which civilization, so called, has produced in one 
 country. Newspapers act as oil to the engine, are, under such 
 auspices, the direst enemies of freedom and rational reform, 
 simply because they dare only espouse one side of a question, 
 
144 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the side which suits the powers that are. Even supposing, 
 which is not probable, the editors to have anything dearer at 
 heart than their own profits, they dare not expose corruption 
 in the heads of departments, and therefore, as a juste milieu is 
 seldom the part of a newspaper, they applaud their measures, 
 however tyrannical, the more particularly if they receive money 
 for so doing. It is a long time in any state before the press 
 acquires sufficient respectability, as well as independence, to 
 expose abuses ; until that time it only serves to abet them. 
 The Smyrna Gazette, or Courier d’Orient, for an apposite 
 example, is edited by a Frenchman, M. Blaque : M. Blaque is 
 a clever man, and, when his subject is France, or England, or 
 Bussia, a violent liberal, a scoffer of kings, a declaimer against 
 tyranny ; but, at the same time, there is not a warmer defender 
 than M. Blaque of the arbitrary proceedings of Sultan Mah 
 moud and his officers, as the columns of his paper bear testi- 
 mony. We have read in them a palliation of that most cruel 
 and unjust act of the sultan, banishing the Armenians from the 
 capital, in 1828. We have read in them apologies for Abdallah, 
 pasha of St. Jean d’Acre, the veriest tyrant, on a small scale, that 
 ever breathed. We have read in them panegyrics on the 
 talents and ministerial qualities of Mustapha effendi, the 
 sultan’s secretary and Ganymede, the most empty-headed cox- 
 comb that ever rolled a turban or presented a chibouque. And 
 we have read in them article after article on the courage and 
 devotion of the Ottoman troops in 1829, at the time that those 
 troops were fleeing from before the Cossacks without having 
 waited to be seen by them. I cannot suppose that M. Blaque 
 had the option of being silent, not to mention severe, on such 
 men and such measures, which would, had they related to any 
 other country, have dipped his pen in gall : his line of conduct, 
 therefore, shows that the establishment of gazettes in Turkey, 
 though exceedingly captivating in sound, quite refreshing to 
 the ears of liberals, a harbinger of freedom, is in fact very 
 anti-liberal, a corruption promoter, an gegis for the greatly 
 wicked. 
 
 It is curious to observe the similarity of advantages which 
 are enjoyed by nations in opposite spheres of knowledge, and 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 145 
 
 separated by perfectly distinct manners and religion. Hitherto 
 the Osmanley has enjoyed by custom some of the dearest 
 privileges of freemen, for which Christian nations have so 
 long struggled. He paid nothing to the government beyond a 
 moderate land-tax, although liable, it is true, to extortions, 
 which might he classed with assessed taxes. He paid no 
 tithes, the vacouf sufficing for the maintenance of the ministers 
 of Islamism. He travelled where he pleased without pass- 
 ports; no custom-house officer intruded his eyes and dirty 
 fingers among his baggage ; no police watched his motions, or 
 listened for his words. His house was sacred. His sons were 
 never taken from his side to be soldiers, unless war called 
 them. His views of ambition were not restricted by the 
 barriers of birth and wealth : from the lowest origin he might 
 aspire without presumption to the rank of pasha ; if he could 
 read, to that of grand vizir; and this consciousness, instilled 
 and supported by numberless precedents, ennobled his mind, 
 and enabled him to enter on the duties of high office without 
 embarrassment. Is not this the advantage so prized by free 
 nations ? Did not the exclusion of the people from posts of 
 honour tend to the French revolution? I might infinitely 
 extend the parallel existing between nations removed by ages 
 of knowledge. One more example, rather burlesque, however, 
 than correct. The Janizzaries of Constantinople somewhat 
 resembled a chamber of deputies, for they often compelled 
 their sovereign to change his ministers, and any talented, 
 factious member among them, with the art of inflaming men’s 
 passions, was sure to obtain a good employment in order to 
 appease him. 
 
 For this freedom — this capability of realizing the wildest 
 wishes — what equivalent does the Sultan offer ? It may be 
 said none. I do not think that the Osmanleys would have 
 objected to a uniform system of government, with the burthen 
 of a standing army which would have defended their honour, 
 provided their liberties had been respected. But instead of 
 engrafting his plans on the old system, which — embracing a 
 respected hierarchy, an hereditary noblesse, and a provincial 
 magistracy — offered such facilities, with a studious care not to 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 shock prejudices, idle, but sanctified, to make it appear that he 
 aimed at rendering European subservient to Asiatic, rather 
 than Asiatic to European manners, he rejected all subterfuge, 
 and prematurely disclosed his schemes of self-aggrandizement 
 and appropriation, which disgusted his subjects, and changed 
 their respect for him into something less than honour. 
 
 I will now return to the affairs of Greece, which form so 
 important an episode in the reign of Mahmoud II. 
 
 The scheme to which he had made the civil war subservient, 
 viz. the destruction of the Janizzaries, having succeeded, he 
 prepared to show the world that he had the power, though 
 delayed, of reducing his revolted subjects, and to which he 
 was warmly impelled, by their having rejected his offers, twice 
 repeated, of amnesty. The success attending his arms im- 
 mediately afterwards seemed to promise a speedy termination 
 to the war. The middle of August, 1826, Athens surrendered 
 to the Seraskier, Redschid Pasha, who was ably seconded in 
 his operations by Omer* Pasha of the Negroponte. In the 
 Morea also, Ibrahim Pasha, whose father was alarmed at the 
 power the Sultan had displayed, showed greater activity : he 
 established himself on the borders of Maina, and made several 
 attempts to reduce its hardy inhabitants, though without 
 success. The northern shore of the Gulf of Lepanto was 
 cleared by the Albanian mercenaries in the service of the 
 Porte ; and the most efficient weapon was everywhere ably 
 employed — money. The most influential of the patriots were 
 bought; letters intercepted proved the defection of the Grievos 
 family, then in possession of the Palamithe castle; and the 
 Sultan showed his determination on the subject, by rejecting 
 the intervention of the ambassadors of France, Russia, 
 Prussia, Austria, and England, June 1827. The net was 
 fairly spread. The end of that year would have seen the 
 Moreotes again under the sabre, had not the battle of 
 
 * This person, the greatest proprietor of the island, lived as a private 
 individual till the breaking out of the revolution, when he exerted himself 
 as a true Osmanley, by raising his peasantry and preserving order among the 
 Greek inhabitants, by whom he was much esteemed. Colonel Fabvier, with 
 his tacticos, attacked him, but was completely routed, and barely escaped. 
 He never troubled him again. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 147 
 
 Navarine interposed. Could not a better mode have been 
 adopted for saving Greece? In my opinion the treaty of the 
 6th of July, with all due deference to its framers, betrayed an 
 utter ignorance of the Turkish character. It was supposing 
 too much that, when on the point of re-occupying a province, 
 the Sultan would yield it to a few threats, which, as inculcated 
 by Austria, were not intended to lead to any thing serious ; it 
 appearing improbable that England would assist Russia in her 
 designs against Turkey. Moreover, the Turks do not com- 
 prehend threats; they require facts, and, being themselves 
 scrupulous in observing the laws of nations, they thought that 
 hostilities would be preceded by the usual formalities of 
 declaring war, and by the departure of the ambassadors. Had 
 the latter course been adopted, the result would have been 
 much more satisfactory. Th6 Sultan would have protested 
 against the injustice of the allies, but would never have 
 affronted the gigantic odds. His fleet would have remained 
 in port; his pashas have stayed their march; and the Morea 
 would have been occupied, to the great disappointment of the 
 Russian cabinet, without firing a gun. Its pacification and 
 settlement, with its adjuncts, Attica, &c., not settled four years 
 after, would have immediately followed as a matter of course ; 
 for, though the Mussulmans pretend that their religion does 
 not allow them to give their possessions to infidels, they make 
 no scruple of yielding them on the compulsion of war, and, 
 the treaty once signed, the subject is soon forgotten. 
 
 No colours can paint the dismay at Constantinople when 
 the news of the “ untoward” event arrived. The Franks of 
 all denominations trembled for their lives. Well for them 
 that the Janizzaries no longer existed, or no consideration 
 would have saved them ! The English ambassador first heard 
 of it over land from Smyrna. The following day the drago- 
 mans of the French and English embassies repaired to the 
 reis effendi, and imparted the disaster, concealing, however, its 
 extent, and imputing the entire blame to the Turkish fleet, an 
 adroit representation, which, backed by others to the same 
 purport, by the ambassadors in person, had the desired effect. 
 It warded the indignation of the Mussulmans from the 
 
148 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Franks ; but it placed the head of poor Tahir Pasha in a 
 jeopardy. No insurance-office would then have given him a 
 fortnight’s purchase. Fortunately contrary winds detained 
 him twenty days en voyage from Navarine, in which time the 
 Porto had time to digest its loss, and be somewhat reconciled 
 to the decrees of hismet, (destiny,) though I believe that this 
 doctrine was never more unwillingly bowed to than at that 
 moment. 
 
 Tahir’s anchor was scarcely dropped in the Golden Horn, 
 when a capidji bashi boarded him to conduct him to the sultan. 
 His interrogatory was not long. He briefly told his tale, 
 which very naturally, if not justly, contradicted the other. 
 He then stood resigned, waiting the signal of death or life ; 
 for, though conscious of innocence, of not having disobeyed 
 his master’s orders, he had been unfortunate, and the annals 
 of Ottoman history tell us that no crime is more severely pu- 
 nished. After a terrible pause, he was told to return on board 
 his ship.* 
 
 The smothered anger of the sultan now burst into fury. 
 Tahir Pasha’s version of the affair soon circulated through the 
 city; the populace deeply murmured, and for three days a 
 massacre of the Franks was apprehended. It is even said 
 that the sultan was on the point of authorizing it; but his 
 ministers, in cooler blood, among whom was foremost Khosrew 
 Pasha, threw themselves at his feet, and besought him to 
 pause, to consider the inevitable consequences of such a pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 Greece, after this, was a sore subject to the sultan, and it 
 would have been wise to have deferred renewing the discussion 
 of it for some months, giving him time to cool. The object 
 of the treaty of London — the safety of the Greeks — was vir- 
 tually accomplished, for hostilities had ceased between them 
 and their opponents. But the ambassadors of France, Russia, 
 and England, thought it was best to strike while the iron was 
 hot, and therefore addressed note after note to the reis effendi 
 demanding the fulfilment of the treaty, accompanied by threats, 
 
 * Tahir Pasha, I believe, was strangled the beginning of April, 1831. He 
 was or was supposed to he, implicated in a conspiracy. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 149 
 
 in case of evasion. It is not surprising that the sultan, still 
 smarting under the wound which his pride had received from 
 the sovereigns of those same envoys, refused to accede to their 
 request; but it is a matter of regret and astonishment that the 
 French and English ambassadors, at a time when their exer- 
 tions were doubly required to prevent the impending aggression 
 of the Emperor of Russia, foreseen by every one from the 
 time that the Turkish fleet was destroyed, should have chosen 
 to consider this obstinacy as an insult which made their longer 
 stay at Constantinople impracticable. The fact is, they had 
 threatened so long and so high to go, in case they were not 
 satisfied, that they became ashamed, when they found their 
 threats unheeded, to remain. It was rather undiplomatic to 
 let idle, angry words escape, by which they felt obliged to 
 govern themselves, hardly excused by the contempt they enter- 
 tained for Turkish understanding, which caused the error. A 
 better acquaintance with the Turkish character would have 
 made them more circumspect, and not have given a cause of 
 triumph to the Russian ambassador. 
 
 They demanded their firmans. The sultan refused them, 
 saying that he was not at war with their masters: however, 
 they were at liberty; if they chose to remain, they should 
 enjoy protection; if they chose to depart, they should meet 
 no obstacle. Unfortunately, the latter course was adopted, to 
 the regret of all, of whatever nation or sect, at Constantinople, 
 excepting the Russian ambassador. Up to the hour of their 
 embarking, they were requested to remain by some of the Ot- 
 toman ministers, who assured them that the sultan would see 
 his danger, if allowed time for reflection, and consent to sign 
 the treaty. It was well worth the experiment: hut I suppose 
 they had reasons, which those not in the secret cannot guess, 
 for not making it, and thereby, if successful, undoing the knot 
 that was cut, twenty months later, at Adrianople. 
 
 They sailed down the Hellespont, accompanied by their con- 
 suls and dragomans, leaving their countrymen, and the vessels 
 and property of their countrymen, to the uncertain protection 
 of the Dutch minister. By the law of nations the sultan would 
 have been authorized in laying an embargo on them. The 
 
150 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 merchants, alarmed, as well they might be, considering the past, 
 the present, and the probable future, in the horizon of a few 
 months, proposed to leave their business and follow. But the 
 grand vizir re- assured them. He told them that the govern- 
 ment had the power to protect them from the people, and would 
 he answerable for their safety; and in order that their affairs 
 should suffer no impediment, he recommended that the mer- 
 chants of each nation should appoint one of their members to 
 act as consuls, with whom the government would treat on all 
 subjects within the sphere of commerce, or of personal safety; 
 at the same time, he peremptorily ordered that all Franks, 
 who had no stated business in the capital, should leave it; 
 and, freighting two vessels, he caused them to embark at a 
 day’s notice. This harsh measure was excused on the plea of 
 their being dangerous as spies. 
 
 In regard to the intervention in favour of Greece, the reis 
 effendi said, after the departure of the ambassadors, “ If other 
 powers admit of intervention in their internal affairs, that is no 
 rule for the Porte. The Porte should be regarded by them as 
 an exception, because its political existence is founded on its 
 religion, which admits of no foreign intervention.” 
 
 From the moment of the departure of the ambassadors, the 
 sultan considered war inevitable ; and no longer concealing his 
 feelings, issued the celebrated hatti scheriff to the Mussulmans, 
 calling them all to arms in defence of their religion, and ex- 
 citing them by violent reproaches against the Christian nations, 
 ‘‘leagued to overthrow the Ottoman empire.” It stated that 
 the Porte only accepted forced treaties to break them on occa- 
 sions, had only dissimulated the repeated insults it had received 
 to gain time ; and that in regard of the Morea and the Cy- 
 clades, it would perish rather than recognise their indepen- 
 dence, “ because such a step would encourage the other rayas 
 to revolt, and would reduce Islamism under the dominion of 
 infidels.” 
 
 To prepare for war, money was requisite ; and therefore a 
 few weeks after the publication of the above violent and im- 
 politic address, the sultan issued another firman, by which he 
 banished from the capital to distant towns of Asia Minor, all 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 151 
 
 the Catholic Armenians. To explain this wanton act of 
 barbarity, it is necessary to say a few words on the condition 
 of the Armenians in Turkey. 
 
 About the sixth century, they separated from the Greek 
 church to follow the opinions of Eutyches. They have four 
 patriarchs, of whom the principal resides at the monastery of 
 Etzchmiazin, near Erivan ; two others reside in Asia Minor, 
 one of whom at Cesarieh, and the fourth at Shirvan (formerly 
 a Persian, hut since 1813 a Russian province.) Under these 
 patriarchs are several archbishops, one of whom resides at Con- 
 stantinople, with the honorary title of patriarch, and, as 
 regards the Porte, may he considered as the head of the 
 church. The Armenian religion is not sanctioned by a 
 charter, as that given to the Greeks by the conqueror of Con- 
 stantinople; nevertheless it enjoys equal toleration, and its 
 clergy has the same power in administering justice to its 
 flock that the Greek clergy has. 
 
 In the middle of the eighteenth century, a great number of 
 Armenians united themselves voluntarily to the Catholic 
 church, still retaining some of their ancient rites. They are 
 principally numerous in the province and city of Angora. 
 The Porte never formalized their union with Rome, nor 
 granted them, at least in Constantinople, the privilege of 
 having churches ; but treated them constantly as dependents 
 of the orthodox Armenian patriarch, alone acknowledged, 
 allowing them, at the same time, unlimited tolerance, which 
 was never disturbed except through the means of an hostile 
 or ill-disposed patriarch, as happened in 1781 and in 1819. 
 Constantinople is, as it ever has been, the theatre of religious 
 disseDsions : and hut for the constant protection of the French 
 ambassador, the united Armenians (as the Catholics are called) 
 would have suffered severely from the persecutions of their 
 schismatic brethren. 
 
 At this juncture, the Porte, influenced by the wealth of the 
 parties, chose to see in their mutual hostility machinations 
 against the state, and accused the patriarch accordingly ; 
 adding, as a proof, the emigration of his countrymen that took 
 place into the province of Erivan, become Russian, where the 
 
152 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 patriarch of Etzchmiazin resided as a Russian vassal. The 
 patriarch refuted the accusation, as directed against the nation 
 in general, by a heavy donation ; hut centred it in the 
 Catholic Armenians, supporting it by oath, and refusing to 
 answer for their allegiance as he did for that of the orthodox. 
 
 This was sufficient for the sultan, although he must have 
 known its falsity. The firman commanded the Armenians of 
 Angora (Catholics) to leave the capital in the space of ten 
 days, and to return to their province. The motive alleged in 
 the preamble is curious. It stated that the ancient law of the 
 empire forbid the rayas of the provinces to change their resi- 
 dence at will, above all, to establish themselves at Constanti- 
 nople ; hut the government having, from time to time, shut its 
 eyes on this subject, a multitude of provincials had come to 
 crowd the capital, which occasioned great disorders; that at 
 present there were a great mass of Armenians of Angora — 
 priests, hankers, merchants, &c. — to which were added numbers 
 of vagabonds, of whom the most part infringed the laws, and 
 neglected their duty as subjects of the Sublime Porte — actions 
 which it could no longer tolerate ; and as, in consequence of 
 the great number of these Armenians (thirty thousand) in 
 Constantinople, the innocent could not he discerned from the 
 guilty, all were involved in the same measure, all condemned 
 to exile. “ The capital is henceforth shut to these Armenians ; 
 let them follow commerce and agriculture in their own country 
 in order to live ; at the same time, let them recollect the 
 punishment to which they will he exposed, if, at the expira- 
 tion of the delay granted them, (ten days,) they shall not have 
 commenced their journey.” 
 
 The cruelty of the sentence was only equalled by its imme- 
 diate execution. Upwards of twenty thousand were expelled 
 from a city, which they had enriched by their industry, by those 
 who never could accuse their fidelity. At the intercession of 
 the Austrian internonce, exceptions were made in favour of 
 septuagenarians, of the blind, of women seven months gone 
 with child, and of all that would abandon the Catholic faith 
 for the Armenian, and acknowledge the supremacy of the 
 patriarch. Few remained at the latter price, which was set by 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 153 
 
 the patriarch alone; for the Porte openly declared that it was 
 far from wishing to persecute any body on account of his 
 belief, and that it had been moved to the measure of exile 
 by considerations solely political. 
 
 The victims begged for a respite till the spring; in vain. 
 The 20th of January, 1828, all — bankers and merchants, 
 artizans who were identified with the bazaars, ladies whose 
 cheeks seldom felt the breeze, their infants swathed in cash- 
 meres — were turned into the plains of Asia, then covered with 
 snow, to struggle as they might, assisted by the few conve- 
 niences which a carriageless, roadless, thinly populated country 
 affords. Many died on the first days of their sad pilgrimage. 
 The governors of some of the towns treated them kindly ; and 
 one, the mousselim of Brussa, had the courage, when he wrote 
 to the Porte, to ask what was their crime. Calumny could not 
 invent one, unless it were their riches. Their fellow- Christians 
 in Constantinople, separated only by a few idle dogmas, rejoiced 
 at their religious victory, and the Osmanleys exulted in the 
 possession of their confiscated wealth.* “ They who profit by 
 crime,” says Alfieri, “are alone guilty of it;” but this maxim 
 
 * All their property was not directly confiscated. In their short respite, 
 they were permitted to sell as much as was not sequestrated to the sultan’s 
 use. Of course they were not able to sell much, or for much. One of the 
 best houses in Pera, built of stone, was purchased by anOsmanley for 570/. 
 It is let since for 270/. a year to the Prussian embassy. A certain Italian 
 marquis proposed to one of the exiles to make him a present of his house, 
 which his diplomatic situation would enable him to keep. The Armenian 
 offered to sell it for a moderate price. The other declined the bargain, and 
 said that he might as well give it to him for nothing, or for a trifling sum, as 
 let it fall into the hands of an Osmanley. The owner was so vexed at seeing 
 a Frank of rank endeavouring to take advantage of his misfortune, that he 
 told him that sooner than consent to his proposition, he would leave it to be 
 confiscated. He did so. In the beginning of 1830, the exiles were recalled 
 through the exertions of Count Guilleminot and Sir R. Gordon, but they 
 returned, the most, poor. Something was said about restoring their 
 property; but, independent of a want of will to do that justice, it would 
 have been difficult, considering how it was dispersed. One house in Pera, 
 for example, was given by the sultan to M. Calosso — another, at Therapia, 
 to the English embassy. An order, however, was issued to oblige the 
 orthodox Armenians, who had purchased some of the possessions of the 
 Catholics at the period of their sentence, to restore them at the prices they 
 had given. Whether it was complied with, I know not. It was not before 
 I left Constantinople. Probably the patriarch had sufficient influence to 
 prevent so just a restitution. 
 
154 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 cannot excuse the Armenian patriarch. Among the exiles 
 were the widow and daughter of a hanker, who died ten years 
 since, leaving millions of piastres to the sultan. They were 
 not exempted, and their house at Therapia was converted into 
 a royal residence. It is worthy of remark, that a few months 
 previous to this, shortly after the catastrophe of the Janizzaries, 
 the sultan issued a firman abolishing confiscation. He has a 
 knack — similar to Napoleon’s at bulletinizing — of giving 
 firmans breathing equity and moderation, thereby to deceive 
 Europeans, never intending to act by them. 
 
 At the same time that the sultan thus persecuted the most 
 faithful portion of his Christian subjects, he sent, the third 
 time, offers of amnesty to the Moreotes, if they would re-enter 
 under his dominion. 
 
 Their unqualified refusal no doubt stung him ; but he had 
 not leisure to dwell on it, for the most momentous period of 
 Turkish history since Tamerlane defeated Bajazet on the 
 plains of Angora was approaching. Russia was in no want 
 of pretexts to her own taste, to make war on Turkey, hut she 
 wanted a plausible one to show to the world. The ill-advised 
 hatti scherif, above mentioned, gave it. In addition to its had 
 faith, she insisted that the violent reproaches contained in it, 
 although addressed to all Christendom, were levelled parti- 
 cularly at her. In reality they were only intended to stimulate 
 the ardour of all branches of Mussulmans, who were called 
 upon to act by their hatred of infidels. The Emperor of 
 Russia would not view it in that light. At the time of its 
 promulgation, however, he took no notice of it, being then 
 engaged with Persia, hut on the peace of Tourkmantchai being 
 published at Petershurgh, signed at the village of Tourk- 
 mantchai, February 22nd, 1828,* he answered it by a manifest, 
 and a declaration of war. These documents are curious, as 
 showing with what ease despots can pervert facts, and invoke 
 the most solemn names to aid their injustice. The emperor’s 
 
 * By this peace Russia gained an indemnity of three millions sterling, and 
 the provinces of Erivan and of Nakhitchevan, with a military frontier that 
 renders Persia defenceless; in return, she guaranteed the possession of the 
 throne of Persia to Abbas Mirza. 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 155 
 
 manifest concluded with these words — “ But all longanimity 
 has its limits: the honour of the Russian name, the dignity of 
 the empire, the inviolability of its rights, and that of our 
 national glory, have marked them. It is not till after having 
 maturely weighed our duty, founded on an imperious necessity, 
 and being penetrated with the most sincere conviction of the 
 justice of our cause, that we have commanded our armies to 
 march, with the aid of God, against an enemy who con- 
 stantly violates the rights of nations and the most sacred 
 engagements. 
 
 “We are convinced that our faithful subjects will join their 
 most ardent vows to our prayers for the success of our enter- 
 prise, and that they will invoke the Almighty to clothe our 
 soldiers with his grace, and to shower his celestial benedictions 
 on our arms which are destined to defend our holy and dear 
 country. 
 
 “ Petersbnrgh, April 26, 1828.” 
 
 In the declaration that accompanied this manifest are re- 
 markable the following passages : — 
 
 “ All the endeavours of Russia to remain at peace with a 
 neighbouring empire have been in vain. Constrained, not- 
 withstanding long patience and costly sacrifices, to confide the 
 protection of her rights to the care of her arms, she will 
 develop the just and imperious motives which impose on her 
 the painful necessity of such a determination.” 
 
 After a long fist of pretended wrongs and insults — “ The 
 sacrifices which Russia has constantly imposed on herself, 
 with the view of assuring a lasting peace to the world, since 
 the ever-memorahle epoch which saw dethroned at the same 
 time military despotism and the genius of revolutions; these 
 sacrifices, dictated by a generous policy, and as spontaneous 
 as they are numerous, are known by the whole universe — the 
 history of late years attests them, and Turkey herself, although 
 little disposed to appreciate them, has experienced the preser- 
 vative effects of them.” 
 
 After enumerating instances of Russian magnanimity — 
 “ Such complete moderation was not understood ; during five 
 
156 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 years the Divan opposed obstinately the conciliatory overtures 
 of the Emperor Alexander, and occupied itself in exhausting 
 his longanimity, in contesting his rights, in doubting of his 
 good intentions, in braving even the power of Russia, chained 
 only by the desire of prolonging the general tranquillity. 
 
 “ And yet a war with Turkey involved Russia in no difficulty 
 with her principal allies. No pact, no political exigency 
 attached the destinies of the Ottoman empire to the reparative 
 stipulations of 1814 and 1815, in the shadow of which Chris- 
 tian and civilized Europe breathed after her long discords, 
 and saw her different governments united by the remembrance 
 of a common glory, and by a happy identity of principles/’ 
 
 After another long recapitulation of Russian wrongs and 
 Russian policy — “ In having recourse to arms, Russia, far 
 from yielding, as the Divan accuses her, to sentiments of hate 
 against the Ottoman power, or of meditating its overthrow, 
 has furnished convincing proofs that if it entered into her policy 
 to overturn it, she would have seized former occasions of 
 war, which her relations with the Porte have never ceased to 
 offer. 
 
 “ Russia is equally far from nourishing ambitious projects. 
 Enough of countries and of people acknowledge her laws; 
 enough of cares are attached to the extent of her dominions. 
 
 “ The emperor will not lay down his arms until he has 
 obtained the results indicated in the present declaration ; and he 
 expects them from the blessings of Him, whom justice and a 
 pure conscience have never yet vainly implored.” 
 
 Before this declaration reached Constantinople, (May 15,) 
 the Russian army (May 7) crossed the Pruth at Skouleuy, at 
 Faltschi, at Yodotsky, without meeting resistance, a Te Deum 
 having been first chaunted at the head of each brigade. 
 
 On the injustice or justice of Nicolas in making this war, 
 and on the folly or ignorance of Mahmoud, in regard to his 
 resources in accepting it, I will not discuss ; they are of no 
 consequence in the general issue, but it is a subject of regret 
 that the former should have been allowed to take advantage, 
 thus wantonly, of the embarrassed situation of the latter. 
 
 In reply to the emperor’s declaration, the sultan returned one 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 157 
 
 equally long, which was read in all the mosques. Some passages 
 are remarkable : it began with — 
 
 “ All wise and clear-sighted men know that, according to the 
 maxims of practical wisdom, and of theoretical demonstrations, 
 the good understanding existing between sovereigns to whom 
 Providence has entrusted the absolute government of nations 
 is the principal point on which depends the duration of univer- 
 sal order and of general tranquillity; that the maintenance of 
 this order depends also on the equal and uniform observation 
 of treaties concluded between empires ; that, thanks to God, 
 the Sublime Ottoman Porte, since the dawning of its happy 
 existence, has always followed more exactly than others this 
 political system and this praiseworthy conduct.” 
 
 The charges of the emperor are refuted one by one; the 
 Greek revolution is dwelt on. 
 
 “ The refugee, Ipsilanti, then quitted Russia to invade pub- 
 licly Moldavia. Soon, at the head of a troop of rebels, he 
 diffused trouble and disorders in the two provinces. Animated 
 by the chimerical desire of establishing a pretended government 
 in Greece, he raised all the Greek nation, subject tributary of 
 the Ottoman empire from father to son ; he misled it by his 
 cursed proclamations, spread everywhere, and excited it to 
 despise the authority of the Sublime Porte. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 “At length, the fatal event of Navarine, — an event unheard 
 of and without example in the history of nations, — in no ways 
 changed the friendly sentiments of the Sublime Porte: but, 
 not content with the concessions that the Sublime Porte might 
 in consideration for the three Powers, and without ulterior 
 augmentation, grant to its revolted provinces, the envoy of 
 Russia left Constantinople without rhyme or reason.” 
 ****** 
 
 “ Russia has constantly made use of the pretexts, interest 
 and protection, in favour of the unhappy inhabitants of Mol- 
 davia and of Wallachia, to raise discussions with the Sublime 
 Porte. To he convinced that her true object was not to 
 protect them, but to seek a quarrel with us, we have only 
 to consider the evils that have caused them and which will 
 
158 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 cause them, the former causeless attempt of Ipsilanti, and the 
 present unjust invasion by the Russian army. These are the 
 people whom Russia pretends to protect. It is, on the contrary, 
 to Russia that they will owe their ruin.” 
 
 iff iff 
 
 “ In a word, the Sublime Porte makes this present declaration 
 in all sincerity; in order that no one may reproach her; in 
 order that the injustice of Russia and the wrongs of the 
 Sublime Porte, which are as clear as the sun, may be weighed 
 in the scales of equity and truth ; in order, finally, that exempt 
 from all responsibility on the measures of defence that the Mus- 
 sulman nation may use, aided by Divine aid, according to the 
 holy law, the Sublime Porte may totally discharge its con- 
 science of an event which will cause, now and hereafter, the 
 misery of so many beings, and perhaps disturb the tranquillity 
 of the whole world.” 
 
 A homer truth was never said than that above, that Russia 
 pretended to commiserate the Greeks as a pretext for attacking 
 Turkey, and in regard of the rest of the firman, it may be 
 observed that, if not much freer from falsehoods than the 
 emperor’s, it is at least free from the blasphemy of the latter ; 
 since nothing can he more blasphemous than the manner in 
 which the Russian cabinet constantly calls on God to sanction 
 its enterprises. 
 
 The sultan had already given orders relating to defence, and 
 on the news of the passage of the Pruth, which arrived at the 
 same time as the declaration of war, sent Tartars all over the 
 empire with pressing orders to the pashas and beys to furnish 
 contingents. These orders were ill obeyed, and could the 
 truth have reached the sultan’s ears, it would have shown him 
 the impolicy of having weakened the dere beys: in consequence, 
 for the first time, a Turkish army took the field almost unac- 
 companied by cavalry. 
 
 From Bosnia, a province filled with a robust and warlike 
 Mussulman population, the sultan expected efficacious succour, 
 and showed it by ordering Abdurrahman Pasha, its governor, 
 to march with forty thousand men towards the Drina, in 
 order to observe the Servians, who, under Prince Milosch, were 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 159 
 
 suspected of intentions favourable to Russia. But in Bosnia 
 the spirit of Janissarism, or the desire of preserving ancient 
 institutions, prevailed, insomuch that the pasha, afraid of the 
 result, deputed a him bashi in his place, to accompany the 
 mollah to the camp to read the firman. Having heard it, the 
 troops burst out into murmurs, which soon increased to 
 violence. The bim bashi and the mollah were shot dead, 
 and the new uniforms, which had been brought to dress them 
 in, were piled on the spot and burnt. These troubles the 
 Porte tranquillised by changing the pasha, sending in the room 
 of Abdurrahman, the pasha of Philippopolis, a sensible, mild 
 man, notwithstanding which, no aid was received from Bosnia 
 during the whole campaign ; on the contrary, there was great 
 difficulty in preventing the Bosniaks that were in the fortresses 
 of the Danube from deserting. 
 
 The sultan, however, in default of the usual means of prose- 
 cuting a war, had an army of regular troops, that is, an army 
 of conscript boys, the most part under eighteen, hastily raised, 
 rawly instructed, without efficient officers ; but they were armed 
 with the musket and bayonet, the only real superiority, in his 
 opinion, of European over Asiatic troops, and with them he 
 flattered himself to be able to resist the legions of the North; 
 and perhaps the ill-placed confidence in his nizam dgeditt was 
 the true cause of his accepting the war. 
 
 At the same time that prayers were offered up in the 
 mosques for the success of the Mussulman arms, the Greek 
 clergy voluntarily prayed for the same end — quere hypocrisy ? 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Confidence in the Capital — Prejudice of Scliumla — Arrival of the Ambas- 
 sadors — Great expectations thereon — Question of Greece — .Presenta- 
 tion of the English Ambassador — Sultan — Erench and English Frigates — 
 Dr. Capponi — Hekim Bashi — Surgical School — Turkish Widower. 
 
 Yet, at the period of my arrival at Constantinople, there was 
 no visible indication that Turkey was engaged in war ; a war ? 
 to judge from the Sultan’s haughty words — “ I will lose sabre 
 
160 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 in hand, what my ancestors with the sabre won” — that might 
 decide his fate. Perfect inactivity and apparent confidence 
 prevailed among all classes. The sultan daily amused himself 
 with archery, and his guards were listlessly encamped, forgetting 
 what they might have learned of their exercise. I had at least 
 expected to find, as was currently reported in the gazettes of 
 Europe, Constantinople a vast arsenal ; to have seen the sultan 
 busied in the formation of new regiments, reviewing others, and 
 taking measures to fortify his capital. Nothing like this. The 
 few troops that were in the city were idle ; and as for fortifi- 
 cations, Constantinople, with the exception of a fascine battery 
 before Ramis Tchiftlik, was in the state it had been four cen- 
 turies hack. 
 
 It was easy to observe that this calmness rose, in the mul- 
 titude, from apathy occasioned by a continuation of disasters, 
 and impatience under the sultan’s tyranny, rather than from 
 reliance on their own force, — in the chiefs, Rom an overwhelm- 
 ing confidence in the virtue of Schumla, through which only, 
 they persuaded themselves, could an enemy reach Constanti- 
 nople. In Schumla they centred their hopes, and considered it 
 a talisman on which depended the fate of the empire, and thus 
 fascinated, refused to see danger Rom any other quarter : indeed, 
 had Schumla been garrisoned, as was believed, it might have 
 answered their expectations. “ Go,” said the sultan to Red- 
 schid Pasha, grand vizier ; “at Schumla you will find one 
 hundred and fifty thousand men. Go, and with them drive the 
 infidels beyond the Pruth.” When Redschid arrived there, he 
 found scarcely ten thousand men, and at no period was he able 
 to collect above thirty-five thousand. 
 
 Other reasons gave rise to confidence. 1. The assertions 
 published all over Europe, that because Russia had effected so 
 little in the first campaign she would be as unsuccessful in the 
 second. 2. Her delay in opening the campaign of 1829, of 
 which no news arrived until June ; then favourable. 3. The 
 arrival of the French and English ambassadors June 18, which 
 filled the sultan with golden hopes, and banished any ideas 
 that he might have had of making overtures to Russia, as 
 counselled by some of the envoys at Pera. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 161 
 
 When it is considered that one year previous the French and 
 English ambassadors, then residing at Corfu, replied to the 
 reis effendi, who had invited them in the name of the Sublime 
 Porte to return to Pern, and terminate by amicable conferences 
 and sincerity the affairs pending, assuring them that they should 
 be received with every distinction, that the dignity of their 
 respective courts would not permit them to return to Constan- 
 tinople unless the sultan first notified his adhesion to the treaty 
 of July 6, 1827, it is not surprising that the sultan, seeing them 
 resume their official duties at his court notwithstanding that 
 declaration, he not having subscribed to one article of the 
 treaty, supposed that they were impelled by the paramount 
 interest of France and England to aid him. If such was their 
 interest, and that it was (of England) no one can doubt, it was 
 folly to sacrifice it for the question of the Morea, on which 
 Mahmoud showed unshaken obstinacy until Diebitch gave him 
 weighty arguments at Adrianople, without which it is difficult 
 to say how the affairs of Greece would have been patched up. 
 
 The having left Constantinople at all, letting the sultan, 
 blinded by rage, throw himself into the grasp of Russia because 
 he would not sign away the Morea at a week’s notice, was a 
 grave political fault in the English ambassador, only to be 
 excused on the supposition that the sultan, alarmed at being 
 abandoned by his ally, would recall him. The not returning 
 when a friendly overture to that effect was made, because he 
 would not preliminarily sign away the Morea, was a duplicate 
 of that fault, with the supplement of not having a similar 
 excuse ; it not being likely that the sultan would stoop lower 
 to obtain his acquiescence, and it being certain that, whether 
 solicited or not, an ambassador would have to go to Pera, if 
 only to meet the Russians. If it be considered ambassadorial 
 tact, when an obstacle presents itself which cannot he disposed 
 of off-hand in one particular way, to wait quietly until it dis- 
 appears, or till some one else removes it, anybody may make 
 an ambassador, in the same manner as anybody may he an 
 engineer if he be allowed to stop short, in a line of road he is 
 making, at the first mountain he cannot carry it straight over. 
 A Xerxes, unable to double a promontory, may cut through its 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 isthmus; an ambassador of Bussia, unable to mystify the 
 sultan out of a province, may demand his passports. In the 
 opinion of many well informed persons at Constantinople, had 
 Mr. (now Sir) Stratford Canning duly considered the import- 
 ance to his country of impeding the conquesto-mania of Bussia, 
 — had he not chosen to see in the pardonable irritation of a 
 monarch, stung in a monarch’s weakest point, his pride, a want 
 of consideration for himself, the Greek question would have 
 been settled in the spring of 1828, and England have been 
 enabled to intervene with efficacy between Bussia and Turkey ; 
 though, as I before said, since the Morea was virtually free, not 
 to have intervened on account of a signature, for the sake of a 
 mere formality to have given Bussia a moral power equal to 
 one hundred thousand men, was sad policy. For — may I he 
 a false prophet ! — every blow received by Turkey from Bussia 
 will be felt by England. The freer Bussia is from interruption 
 on her southern frontier, the freer will she be to colonize 
 Persia, and to adapt it to her ulterior views. Those views — 
 what are they ? If not the overthrow of our Indian empire, at 
 least the power to hold us in check by being able to march an 
 army to the aid of the independent rajas (already too powerful) 
 in the north of India. Let no one view the presence of the. 
 Bussians in India in the nineteenth century as visionary, or 
 think it is not necessary to commence at once raising a barrier 
 against them. Bussia has not yet made one retrograde step. 
 'On every side her frontier has receded. Warsaw is one of her 
 provincial cities, the Caspian is one of her lakes, the Caucasus 
 is one of her ridges, and the Danube (the best part of it) may 
 be called one of her rivers. 
 
 The multitude thought with their sovereign ; and every 
 Constantinopolitan (Mussulman or Christian) believed that the 
 Blonde, which bore the English ambassador, was the precursor 
 of the English fleet on its way to Sevastopol ; — would that she 
 had been ! — and her having been allowed to pass the Darda- 
 nelles with her guns, (though masked,) strengthened the belief. 
 The capitan pasha felt so persuaded of this grateful anticipation 
 that he was vexed with me for telling him that it certainly 
 would not enter the Hellespont. He did not believe me until 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 163 
 
 tlie peace, when, recollecting our conversation, he complimented 
 me on, what he was pleased to term, my sagacity. The com- 
 pliment was unmerited, since my opinion had only been that, 
 (with regret,) of every Englishman at Pera ; our neutral policy 
 was too evident, and, what was worse, too unexplicitly declared. 
 The sultan was equally sanguine, and on being informed by 
 his selictar of the fine condition of the frigate, said, “ I am 
 glad. The English ships are my friends: they will accompany 
 mine into the Black Sea.” 
 
 The arrival of the ambassadors infused joy into the Christian 
 population of Constantinople. Count Guilleminot was already 
 well known and highly esteemed. Sir Robert Gordon was 
 new, but being the representative of Great Britain, in the 
 opinion of Orientals the most powerful nation among those 
 that adore Jesus, rendered him an object of greater attraction. 
 The populace expected that provisions would in consequence 
 become plentiful ; the merchants that commerce would resume 
 its course; and the divan that his presence would at once 
 promote an honourable peace. Never had so much been 
 expected from one man. Nothing was omitted that might do 
 him honour. The customary presents were doubled, among 
 which the horses were, for the first time, worth something; his 
 preparatory interview with the caimacan, (pro grand vizir,) was 
 flattering; and he was received in public by the sultan with 
 marks of distinction never before accorded. 
 
 This ceremony, which formerly had been observed in the 
 dark precincts of the seraglio, took place on the plain of 
 Buyukderd (calos agros) where, under the shade of two 
 renowned, wide-spreading sycamores, the imperial tent was 
 pitched; it was vast and simple, hung with cashmeres, and 
 ^provided with a silver couch, covered with a cloth of pearls. 
 Near it were reposing tents; on either side tents for the accom- 
 modation of the members of the divan, of the European 
 envoys, and larger ones for banquetting. Alleys of flowers, 
 interlaced with scarfs, connected them. About two thousand 
 nizam dgeditt occupied the ground in segments from the tents 
 to the landing-place, near which were stationed the royal musi- 
 cians and the chamberlains. The space outside the military 
 
 m 2 
 
164 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 was densely covered with the Christian population of the 
 capital, come up in their gayest attire ; and the muzzles of a 
 nine-pound battery overlooked the scene to enliven it with 
 their notes. 
 
 In the forenoon the ambassador landed from the Blonde, 
 which had anchored for the occasion within musket-shot of the 
 plain, accompanied by a numerous suite of officers and gentle- 
 men, forming altogether the most respectable Frank show ever 
 exhibited to the Osmanleys. He mounted a richly caparisoned 
 horse, and escorted by the marines of the frigate, her hand 
 playing before him, proceeded to the second tent, where sat the 
 caimacan with the cazi-askers of Europe and of Asia, the latter 
 of whom were interesting to look on, considering that, as the 
 chief judges of Turkey, they could he excelled by none in 
 duplicity. The caimacan relaxed his unmeaning countenance 
 as his guest approached, and motioned to a low stool; hut the 
 ambassador disregarding this little assumption of superiority, 
 so consistent with Ottoman etiquette, placed himself on the 
 divan beside him. No notice was taken; the important stool 
 was quietly removed; the dragomans knelt on the carpet beside 
 their respective masters, and the usual insipid string of com- 
 pliments ensued. The Blondes band performed lively airs, 
 and her fine body of marines drew up quarter facing the 
 imperial tent, affording, in our eyes, a gratifying contrast to 
 the slouching, short, ill-dressed nizam dgeditt. 
 
 A banquet followed the preliminaries of pipes and coffee. A 
 silver tray was placed between the caimacan and the ambassador, 
 and four other trays of inferior metal were arranged round the 
 tent for the suite. They were covered with the refinements of 
 the Ottoman kitchen; in less than half an hour twenty dishes 
 were brought on, each in rapid succession, and, what was more 
 surprising, cleared, — with our fingers, too, to the amusement 
 of the numerous spectators, who gathered round to see how 
 awkward Franks were at eating. Gold embroidered napkins, 
 and tortoiseshell spoons inlaid with pearl, were the only costly 
 articles at this royal entertainment, which concluded with 
 coffee and chibouques. 
 
 We were then conducted to another tent to be clothed. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 165 
 
 “Feed and clothe the infidels” is the ancient expression; the 
 custom remains, hut it must he considered an honour in the 
 present day rather than an insult, as formerly. Our clothing 
 consisted of Spanish mantles, made of inferior cloth, of scarlet, 
 red, or yellow, according to the wearer’s rank. They gave us 
 a grotesque appearance, increased hy our hats, which, there 
 being several military and fancy uniforms among us, were 
 extremely varied in shape. 
 
 Presently tremendous firing and cheering from the Turkish 
 fleet, which manned yards in the hay, announced the sultan’s 
 departure from Therapia. In six minutes his twelve-oared 
 caique, distinguished hy a gold eagle in the prow, traversed the 
 mile between the palace and the plain. He then mounted a 
 superb Arabian whose trappings were covered with jewels, 
 (not so loose, as some sultans have fancied, as to fall out for 
 the benefit of the crowd,) and advanced slowly to his tent, 
 pages walking on either side with high peacock plumes to 
 conceal his resplendent visage from profane eyes. The troops 
 salaamed to the ground as he passed along, and drowned the 
 notes of the bands with cries of “ Live a thousand years !” 
 
 He reposed an unreasonable time, considering that the 
 embassy was waiting, ready “ clothed and fed.” At length, a 
 capidgi informed us that he was ready. On our entering the 
 audience tent, a remnant of ancient prejudice in regard of 
 Christians was displayed in an equal number of dismounted 
 cavalry mingling with our ranks by way of precaution; y6t, so 
 quietly was the manoeuvre performed, that, had not the cause 
 been present to our minds, it would scarcely have attracted 
 notice. It is to be remarked that the whole party wore swords, 
 an honour which no Christian, except General Sebastiani, to 
 whopa Selim III. accorded it, has enjoyed since Amurath I. 
 was stabbed in his tent by a Servian after the battle of Cossova; 
 since when ambassadors have always been disarmed and held 
 while in the presence. 
 
 The sultan received the embassy with great simplicity; his 
 selictar and his serrkiatib were the only individuals present. 
 In person he was equally divested of sultanic pomp. Instead 
 of robes of golden tissue, and a cashmere turban concealed by 
 
166 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 precious stones, he wore a plain blue military cloak and 
 trowsers. with no other ornament than a diamond chelengk in 
 his fez, and steel spurs on his Wellington hoots. 
 
 The dragoman translated the ambassador s speech, after it 
 had been spoken in English, and the sultan replied in person, 
 expressing satisfaction at the judicious and sensible choice of 
 a representative made by the English king. I think it was 
 Mr. Adair who, on a similar occasion, having forgotten his 
 speech, repeated the Lord’s Prayer. The gift of etiquette, 
 most important of his credentials, since without it he would 
 not have been welcome, presented at the same time by Sir R. 
 Gordon, consisted of diamonds worth about three thousand 
 pounds. ' The sultan then desired that the captain of the 
 English frigate might he pointed out to him. He said 
 nothing, hut sent an aide-de-camp to him in the course of the 
 day to know if he were sensible of the honour conferred on 
 him by his having deigned to cast eyes on him. He was in 
 high spirits, and remained talking with his favourites after 
 the ceremony was over, apparently to let us admire him. One 
 of our party, however, who was short-sighted, forgetting the 
 decorum due to the presence, soon brought a change over his 
 countenance by eyeing him through a glass as though he had 
 been a lion every way; observing which, the sultan rose, and 
 retired in a huff, leaning on his favourites, to whom he had 
 remarked, in the course of the interview, as a matter of great 
 consequence as well as surprise, that the officiating dragoman 
 of the embassy still wore his moustaches drooping a la Janiz- 
 zaire. This little observation was remarkable, as showing his 
 abhorrence of that race, carried to such a degree that he could 
 not endure ’the slightest point of coincidence with them : in 
 consequence of which, long moustaches were entirely out of 
 favour at Constantinople, and many courtiers found it prudent 
 to sacrifice a cherished curl, the growth of years. 
 
 The sultan was so pleased with the unwearied attention of 
 the Blonde to him, in manning yards and cheering whenever 
 he passed within sight, on shore or on the water, that he sent 
 fifteen thousand piastres (220 1.) to her crew, and a cashmere 
 shawl todier captain, sending one at the same time to Captain 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 167 
 
 Hugon, of the French frigate VArmide, although the latter 
 had not, from political motives, testified the same desire to do 
 him honour. Count Guilleminot did not wish that any con- 
 clusion of receiving assistance from France should he drawn 
 by the Osmanleys from the frigate’s actions; she was, there- 
 fore, nominally considered as a merchant ship, neither showing 
 her guns or pennant, and her officers wore plain clothes. The 
 English frigate acted more openly, and gained an object 
 affecting all nations. From time immemorial no foreign ships 
 of war have been allowed to lie in the waters about Constan- 
 tinople unless, apparently, disarmed. Her captain considered 
 it a good opportunity to do away with this distrust, which 
 would be more pointed in his case as his stay was likely to he 
 long. Too sudden a display would have defeated his inten- 
 tion; so he made the brig under his orders show her guns 
 first, then, when the excitement occasioned by it subsided, ran 
 his own out by degrees, and finally showed his ship as she 
 should be, in conscious strength, but incapable of abusing 
 confidence. By this proceeding a right was obtained, a prece- 
 dent for other ships, to the satisfaction of the sultan, who saw 
 in a manner usurped what he might have been embarrassed to 
 grant. The fact is, that he was eager to conciliate the English 
 in any way. On board the Turkish fleet, however, pride took 
 alarm. On the day that the brig mounted her guns, some 
 of the superior officers expressed their surprise to me at her 
 insolence in so doing without the sultan’s permission. “ Why 
 not?” I said, taking the matter as a joke; “surely you are 
 not afraid of a brig.” They said no more. They soon heard 
 them ; for in his visit of ceremony, a few days afterwards, to 
 the frigate, the capitan pasha was received with a lord high 
 admiral’s salute, nineteen guns. As a pasha is always accom- 
 panied by his own pipe and coffee-bearers, there was no diffi- 
 culty in entertaining him on board in a proper manner. He 
 made himself perfectly at home, took possession of the arm- 
 chair in the cabin, smoked his hookah, sipped coffee, and, 
 stretching a point, drank some sweet wine; then visited every 
 part of the ship with visible pleasure. In the hold he took off 
 his pelisse with the intention of getting into one of the tanks, 
 
168 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the first he had ever seen, hut desisted on its being intimated 
 that he might find some difficulty in getting out of it again. 
 A capitan pasha in an iron box ! what an interesting object he 
 would have been in a menagerie ! The marines pleased him 
 mo**e than any other part of the ship’s equipment; they were 
 drawn up on deck, and went through their exercise in great 
 style. “ Buyuk adam 1” (great man !) his followers repeatedly 
 exclaimed, in reference to the marine officer, and some of them 
 asked if he were not the commander of the ship, it being 
 impossible, in their opinion, that so much merit could exist in 
 an inferior post. This was a natural supposition founded on 
 the importance attached by the Osmanleys, as a military 
 people, to, the military art, which they consider as the first and 
 most difficult of human acquirements. Before leaving the 
 ship the capitan pasha distributed his piastres with great 
 liberality to the dragomans, the side-boys, and to the crew in 
 general. 
 
 The Blonde throughout gave great satisfaction, and reflected 
 credit on the nation. The Mussulmans and rayas who daily 
 visited her received the utmost attention and hospitality, and 
 the Turkish naval officers profited greatly by her presence, 
 since they were enabled to gain by ocular evidence the infor- 
 mation for which they were too proud to ask. Some of them 
 were daily on board to examine her details, by which they so 
 much improved, that in three months their fleet was scarcely 
 recognisable. One good example is worth a hundred instruc- 
 tions. On one occasion we were amused by an argument 
 between two Osmanleys about her tell-tale.* They, at length, 
 after many suppositions, agreed that it was a chart, and so 
 were retiring in great good-humour with their wisdom, when 
 one of them, turning round and looking at it again, observed, 
 
 * The tell-tale is a graduated semicircle, fixed to the fore-part of the 
 wheel, with a hand which, moved by the action of the wheel, points out the 
 position of the helm, ft has more the appearance of a clock than any other 
 terrestrial object, and for such might be mistaken by a landsman; but the 
 Turks, who are sometimes rational, and who are not used to a superabun- 
 dance of any article, except women and horses, having seen the hour-glasses 
 under the half-deck, could not suppose that there was another instrument 
 
 so close for marking time. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 169 
 
 “ But it is not the chart of the Black Sea.” With this farther 
 proof of wisdom the other still agreed, and both finally went 
 away with the firm conviction that the ghiaour ship had a 
 chart of some unknown sea affixed to her wheel. Perhaps, in 
 accordance with the eastern opinion of our magician-like 
 talents, they believed that it was a self-accommodating chart, 
 according to the sea whereon the ship was sailing. 
 
 Here let me recall the names of the officers of the Blonde , 
 if only to refresh my ideas with pleasing recollections of their 
 attentions to me — attentions which were so contrary to the 
 usual practice of the navy, with whom to be a naval officer is 
 generally the worst recommendation. How unlike the free- 
 masonry which exists between army-men and university-men 
 respectively ! 
 
 Her captain’s name was Lyons : he was one of the few — 
 alas ! how few — captains, I ever saw or heard of, who under- 
 stood the art of keeping a ship in beautiful order without 
 making her a “ hell afloat,” as your crack ships are, and com- 
 monly with justice, emphatically termed. He was popular 
 with the officers, the midshipmen, and the men — a rare 
 combination of success which he owed to being at once a 
 gentleman, a man of feeling, and a seaman. Doubtless, he 
 sometimes, owing to the contrarieties which especially occur 
 in a naval life to cross the temper, gave an unmerited sting to 
 an inferior; hut then he was not above acknowledging his 
 fault, and thus, in addition to effacing the wrong, rendered 
 himself doubly esteemed. It was my first personal acquain- 
 tance with him, though I may say that I knew him before 
 from the circumstance of his younger brother, Maine Lyons, 
 who died of his wounds received at the Battle of Navarine, as 
 first lieutenant of the Rose, while gallantly heading her boats 
 against brulots, having been my dear and valued friend. A 
 better, more amiable officer -the service never lost. Captain 
 Lyons had his two sons on board with him, boys of twelve 
 and fourteen, the youngest intended for the service. The 
 sultan was much pleased with them : he had them brought to 
 the seraglio two or three times, dressed them in the costume 
 of his court, and gave them various elegant presents. 
 
170 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Trst lieutenant was Luckraft. Luckraft ought to have 
 been then a commander; for the frigate had co-operated with 
 the French forces, the preceding year, in reducing Patrass, for 
 which service the principal actors in either service received the 
 cross of St. Louis or of the Legion d’Honneur. So certain 
 was Luckraft’s promotion considered, he having earned it in 
 every respect according to the custom of the service, that Sir 
 P. Malcolm congratulated him. The Admiralty, however, 
 said that his promotion must he deferred (it was for more than 
 a year), because it would offend the Turkish government. The 
 Turkish government ! what a pretence ! — as if the Turkish 
 government had the means of knowing whether an officer of 
 the British navy were promoted or not ; as if it took in the 
 navy list, or read the gazette; as if it even knew — if it knew 
 at all that a British ship was at Patrass — that that ship was 
 called Blonde , or Blanche. The Turkish government does 
 not know the names of the ships of its own fleet. 
 
 The second lieutenant was Wynne, a nephew of the Welsh 
 baronet, and an excellent officer. He had fagged well, con- 
 sidering who he was, for his commandership ; and, on becom- 
 ing first lieutenant after Luckraft’s promotion, had reasonable 
 hopes of getting it, it being customary to compliment an am- 
 bassador who has a ship at his disposal for some time by 
 making one of the officers. Unluckily for him, however, 
 when the Blonde paid off the Tories were out, and so the pre- 
 cedent was disregarded. 
 
 The third lieutenant, and a general favourite, was D acres, 
 whose father, Admiral I) acres, received justice at the hands 
 of the Duke of Clarence at that bright though short-lived 
 period for the navy when his royal highness was lord high 
 admiral. The navy then hoped, but hoped in vain, that it 
 would not again witness the anomaly of a land first lord, — that 
 one of its two hundred admirals would be considered capable 
 of filling the post, — that, at least, the admirals, if again 
 humiliated by the silent charge of incompetence, would re- 
 monstrate against the unjust exclusion, — would make an effort 
 for the honour of the service. Suppose a civilian were to be 
 appointed commander-in-chief, would the generals be silent ? 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 171 
 
 would the colonels let them ? is there a corps in the army 
 that would not feel the insult ? Yet a civilian may have a 
 tolerable idea of an army, because it is difficult for a gentle- 
 man to go through life without seeing a great deal of troops ; 
 he may have been in the militia ; but a man must serve his 
 time well to know anything of ships and sailors. It has been 
 urged, I know, that by having a civilian first lord the patronage 
 is more impartially bestowed. Indeed ! Until recently, the 
 only unquestionable recommendation for an officer was having 
 Scotch blood in his veins. Verily, the Scotch, if they have 
 any gratitude, should raise a monument to Lord Melville on 
 every headland of their country ; for I suppose there is not 
 one Scotch family that he has not benefited. To show, more- 
 over, the advantage to the service of having a sailor at the 
 head of it, it is enough to say, that the Duke of Clarence, 
 when lord high admiral, conferred on the seamen two more 
 important boons than any gained by them since the mutiny; 
 viz., filling up banyan days, and exempting petty officers from 
 the lash. A landsman could not have known the bore of a 
 banyan day; nor in controlling the power of flogging, would 
 he have thought of drawing a line. 
 
 The fourth lieutenant was named Brock. Brock had been 
 with me at college; we had since met at Buenos Ayres. He 
 was an excellent fellow, a bon vivant, with talents of no ordi- 
 nary cast. He well learned the navigation of the Bosphorus 
 during the frigate’s stay in it, for nearly every evening he came 
 to Buyukdere in the little dingy, attracted by a pair of eyes 
 that beamed in a kiosk not far from mine. A chibouque and 
 a glass of grog with me about midnight would chase away his 
 sentimentality; then, if the night were too dark or the wind 
 too high to allow him to steer easily through the Turkish fleet, 
 he would occupy my mosquito -infested sofa till morning. 
 
 Who else was there in the gun-room ? There was Turton, 
 the master, as pleasant a messmate and as good a navigator as 
 any in the service. There was Kerrigan, the purser, well 
 known as the talented author of the Treatise on, and Tables 
 of, Navigation, bearing his name. There were two marine 
 officers, most eccentric good fellows, though of a perfectly 
 
172 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 opposite cast, Pepytt and Hayes. The latter scarcely ever 
 ventured outside the ship on account of an unfounded appre- 
 hension of becoming an object of eastern admiration. The 
 former, on the contrary, investigated every lane and corner of 
 Constantinople till at length his rubicund visage became infinitely 
 better known than that of the commander of the Faithful him- 
 self. With a big stick he might he seen everywhere, five miles 
 an hour his pace. His appearance was more dreaded in a 
 certain way in the bazaars than that of the Stamboul effendisi 
 (that respectable person who sometimes nails honest shopmens 
 ears to their doors), because there was no one like him at 
 driving a bargain, and he always bargained for his messmates. 
 All, however, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, liked him, 
 though he would correct the latter with his stick, nor be very 
 scrupulous with the important beards of the former: they 
 called him delhi, and faith ! he half deserved the title. Last, 
 though not least, was the chaplain, the Rev. C. Walpole. 
 Mild and amiable, a gentleman and a scholar, Walpole was ill 
 fitted by taste or habits for the roughs of a naval life, though 
 fortune had placed him in a ship where, above all others, his 
 calling was duly respected. From studious retirement he had 
 passed at once into the bosom of domestic happiness, and 
 thence into — a man-of-war. What a transition ! Greece with 
 her monuments of two thousand years, her fresh planted tree 
 of liberty ; — Egypt and Asia Minor teeming with thrilling 
 recollections of all times, had failed to reconcile him to it. 
 The ties of home were too strong, too difficult to bear thus 
 lengthened, so therefore after a few months he quitted the 
 gorgeous East, and, giving up the slender prospects of the 
 service, returned home the shortest way, via Vienna, to his 
 Mary. 
 
 The midshipmen’s berths presented the usual number of 
 human casts between the ages of fourteen and thirty; and 
 some among them were as fine lads as ever took Nelson for a 
 leading-star. What a field for a physiognomist is a middy’s 
 berth ! In it we see a happy boy just emancipated from 
 school ; a few years older, a youth proud of the watch on deck 
 just entrusted to him; another tremblingly anxious as the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 173 
 
 hour of passing approaches. The eyes of another, more ad- 
 vanced, beam with the prospect of speedy promotion. On 
 the manly cheek of another the cancer of hope delayed is 
 beginning to develop itself : and silent in the comer may oft 
 be seen one brooding over long and often renewed disappoint- 
 ments which have worn his spirit till it becomes callous to 
 reproach. I never enter a crowded berth without thinking 
 that the youngster, who is buoyantly mirthful over his glass, 
 had better be anywhere than there, viewing the interval of 
 mental agony between him and the care-worn neglected oldster 
 at the other end, to which state he must come have he no in- 
 terest, and the brighter his mind the deeper his pain. Two of 
 my messmates in my time sunk under the weight of disappoint- 
 ment, and became the inmates of a madhouse. It is against 
 the dictates of justice, reason, and clemency, the way in which 
 midshipmen are allowed to pine away the best years of life, 
 deprived of ordinary comforts and common-place education, 
 in expectation of — what ? — Of ninety pounds a year as the 
 reward of long years of toil, in pestilential climes may be, — 
 a reward delayed until it is not thanked for, and, except 
 per se, useless, as an old midshipman when promoted is never 
 employed. Thus, estranged from his connexions by long 
 absence, a stranger to his country and its institutions, he sits 
 down in it at the age of thirty to vegetate for the rest of life, 
 condemned by a system to be a pauper-gentleman ; driven* often, 
 by the consciousness of inferiority, to the pot-house for relief. 
 Think of this, parents ! this faint outline of a gloomy picture, 
 and let not the bait of getting rid of your sons at the age of 
 thirteen for fifty pounds a year (all expenses included) on 
 board of one of his majesty’s ships seduce your reason. Put 
 them rather behind a counter, in situations where their own 
 exertions may avail them, and they will bless you. There are 
 at present above two thousand midshipmen on the lists, not 
 one-half of whom can expect to get commissions at all, and 
 not one-fourth of that half to get their commissions till they 
 have passed eight, ten, even twelve years. What man (with- 
 out interest) would knowingly allow his son to enter such a 
 “ Slough of Despond ?” 
 
174 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVEL'S. 
 
 There was yet an officer of the Blonde , whose name I have 
 not mentioned, who alone marked the presence of a Christian 
 frigate in the Bosphorus, whose memory will he long cherished 
 by the lower classes of Mussulmans and rayas who inhabit its 
 shores ; this was her surgeon, Mr. Capponi : worthy man ! at 
 the same time that the crew under his care enjoyed perfect 
 health, he employed his leisure hours in examining the diseases 
 of the country, and in relieving the prominent sufferers, to 
 whom he gave medicines at his own expense, besides unwearied 
 assiduity. A knowledge of languages facilitated his inter- 
 course with the natives, and his labours were repaid by suc- 
 cessful cures on either sex. His presence was a fete in any of 
 the charming villages which skirt the Bosphorus. Numbers 
 resorted to him, and his fame so spread that noble Osmanleys 
 gladly requested his assistance ; but to such, with modesty, 
 only equalled by his merit, he never repeated his visits, saying 
 to them, “ There are able surgeons in Pera to whom you 
 can apply — my attendance is devoted to the poor who can- 
 not pay for medical advice.” Such noble conduct carries with 
 it its own eulogium. One of his worst cases was a Turkish 
 woman, at Arnaoutkeuy, about which he felt greatly interested 
 on account of the despair of her husband, who never left her 
 or ceased bewailing. She died. The next day the good doc- 
 tor went to see the unfortunate widower, whom he feared might, 
 have committed suicide, (rather un-Turkish,) or have fallen 
 into an alarming despondency. To his utter astonishment he 
 found him smoking at the door of the cafeneh, as though 
 nothing had happened. “ Allah has called her,” he simply 
 exclaimed ; “ what can we say ? ” This was beautiful resig- 
 nation, since his grief for the loss of his partner was undoubted. 
 Another case was curious, as showing the profound ignorance 
 of the native practitioners. A young lad, son of a Turkish 
 gentleman of Philippopolis, had been during two years under 
 the care of the professors (Greeks) of the surgical school at 
 Constantinople for the liver complaint. It grew worse, not- 
 withstanding their remedies, and they at length agreed that 
 one of the bones must be diseased. Fortunately, before act- 
 ing upon this hypothesis, Mr. Capponi was called in, and they 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 175 
 
 actually consulted with him about removing the rib which they 
 supposed was affected. It is almost needless to add that this 
 difficult operation, which has never been performed but once 
 with success, was abandoned. Mr. Capponi prescribed for the 
 lad ; in six weeks he perfectly recovered and returned to his 
 parents, who expressed their gratitude by sending the doctor 
 some of the productions of the country, among them a case 
 of soap, for which Philippopolis is famed. 
 
 His position brought him in intimate acqauintance with the 
 liekim bashi, (physician to the sultan,) as perfect a specimen 
 of a smooth, polished, cool Osmanley as exists. He much 
 admired the English instruments, hut especially the stomach- 
 pump, for which he begged hard, making innumerable offers of 
 services to Mr. Capponi if he would give it to him. Mr. 
 Capponi* wanted none ; however he satisfied him, and from 
 that moment the hekim’s civilities ceased, perfectly in accord- 
 ance with a Constantinople education. What use he made of 
 the stomach-pump I cannot say; we were amused by thinking 
 on which of our acquaintances among the pages it would he 
 tried in experiment : or perhaps that honour was conferred on 
 one of the members of the royal kitchen, to show how little 
 use it would he to poison a dish while that extractor was at 
 hand. With it the hekim bashi gained additional credit with 
 his master. 
 
 The surgical school, to which I alluded, owed its origin to 
 Selim III., that enlightened monarch who was more adapted 
 to succeed than precede his cousin Mahmoud, and is almost 
 
 * Mr. Capponi died at Constantinople on board the Blonde , March, 1830, 
 of an erysipelas fever, aggravated by the previous exhaustion of attending 
 to the crew, ill of the fever, with a zeal beyond his strength. Sincerely 
 and bitterly was he lamented, not only bv his shipmates, but by all who 
 knew him. He was buried in the Bosphorus, according to his request, 
 with the Union Jack on his left breast, that flag, as he said in his will, 
 under which he had enjoyed such protection, and seen such glorious days. 
 True to the last in his solicitude for the poor, he left his little property to 
 the Grampus seaman’s hospital ship. He was a native of Corfu — a rare 
 instance of worth in a Greek. He early entered our service, and served 
 during the whole war. He was on board the Java in her action with the 
 Constitution , and narrowly escaped being killed : while dressing a man’s 
 arm on the lower deek, a shot came through the ship’s side, passed between 
 the heads of Sir T. Hislop and one of his staff, who were sitting in the 
 starboard berth, and killed his patient, scattering his brains over him. 
 
176 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the only one remaining of his various liberal establishments. 
 Though of thus long standing, its success is next to nothing, 
 owing to the ignorance of the soi-disant professors and the 
 absence of subjects ; the latter being a want likely to exist 
 from the strictness of the Koran respecting the sanctity of 
 the dead. About this time, however, an incident occurred 
 which marked the colour of the times at Constantinople, and 
 showed how the love of science overcomes all other considera- 
 tions. A young Turkish student, who could not understand 
 the professor’s lecture on the brain, brought him the following 
 morning a human head that he might explain it to him in a 
 more tangible manner. The poor professor was frightened out 
 of his life, the head was hastily concealed, and the inquisitive 
 student given to understand that he ran the risk of having his 
 own head made the subject of a lecture. 
 
 But notwithstanding their ignorance of medical science, 
 added to the extreme irregularity of their living both as re- 
 gards diet and exercise, one day dining off cheese and cucumbers, 
 (a favourite eastern meal,) another day feasting on ten greasy 
 dishes, one month riding twelve hours a day, another month 
 never stirring off the same sofa, smoking always and drinking 
 coffee to excess, occasionally getting drunk, besides other in- 
 temperances, combining, in short, all that our writers on the 
 subject designate as injurious to health, the Turks enjoy par- 
 ticularly good health. And this anomaly is owing to two 
 causes : first, their religious necessity of washing their arms, 
 and legs, and necks, from three to five times a day, always 
 done with cold water, generally at the fountains before the 
 mosques, by which practice they become fortified against 
 catarrhal affections ; second, their constant use of the vapour 
 hath, by which the humours which collect in the human frame, 
 no doctors know how or why, occasioning a long list of disorders, 
 are. carried off by the pores of the skin. Gout, rheumatism, head- 
 ache, consumption, are unknown in Turkey, thanks to the great 
 physicians, vapour-bath and cold-bath. No art has been so much 
 vitiated in Europe by theories as the art of preserving health. 
 Its professors, however, are beginning to recur to first principles ; 
 and when the value of bathing shall be properly appreciated, 
 three-fourths of the druggists will he obliged to shut their shops. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 177 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 Buyukdere — Society — Marquis Gropallo — Baroness Hubscli — Sultan — 
 Guard-boat — Capitan Pasba — Capitan Pasha’s Wives — Belgrade — 
 Cricket — Elopement — Eire of Galata — Capture of Adrianople — Levy en 
 masse — Consternation — Sandjack Scheriff — Conspiracy — Advance of 
 Diebitsch — Peace. 
 
 I resided at the period of which I am speaking at Buyukdere, 
 that pleasant village on the hanks of the Bosphorus so well 
 known as the principal summer residence of the European 
 diplomatists. It is situated on the European bank, about 
 fourteen miles from the city, and is constantly refreshed by 
 cool gales from the Euxinc. During the summer of 1829, the 
 thermometer never rose above 79°, and rarely above 75°; while 
 in the city, the range was from 80° to 85°. The worst of the 
 climate, in and about Constantinople, is its inequality ; in a 
 few hours the thermometer varies 20°, and the changes in the 
 barometer are more rapid than any I ever witnessed elsewhere. 
 Nevertheless, it is not unhealthy, barring tertian fever. It is 
 proper to avoid sleeping in the open air, and to be well 
 clothed. It has little more than two seasons, winter and 
 summer; the natives say they shake hands, although each is 
 preceded by three or four weeks of peculiarly delicious 
 weather. The summer* altogether, I think, is charming : 
 cool, Euxine breezes reign nearly through it, interrupted only 
 by an occasional murky south-wester, which, however, is of 
 short duration, and, in oppression, no more than the breath 
 of a drawing-room flue, compared with the oven blast of a 
 scirocco. The winter, on the contrary, of five months’ duration, 
 is villanous; one week frozen by Tartary gales which whistle 
 through the cage-like wooden houses, the next drenched by 
 Archipelago clouds ; two feet depth of snow is replaced in 
 twenty-four hours by streams of water, and vice-versa. The 
 
 * The summer breaks in October, with heavy rains and violent gales, 
 shifting suddenly from north-east and north to south-west. From the latter 
 quarter, October 8th, 1829, it blew so hard, that the surface current of the 
 Bosphorus was sensibly arrested, and the harbour rose three feet. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 cold is in some years so intense, that the top of the harbour is 
 frozen, and the snow lies in the streets six weeks at a time. 
 The archives of the empire mention that, in 1621, the Bos- 
 phorus, between Tophana and Scutari, was frozen over strong 
 enough to bear ; a circumstance which is also mentioned 
 by the poet Hazmeh. Their united evidence, though, is not 
 conclusive of the fact, that in 41° latitude it has ever been 
 sufficiently cold to chain a stream one mile wide, thirty-eight 
 fathoms deep, running two miles and a half an hour. The 
 poet may have used the licence of his art, or have been 
 deceived by looking through the medium of his frost-crusted 
 panes; and the public historian may have copied from the 
 poet. 
 
 In ordinary years, the environs of Constantinople are blest 
 with great plenty, combined with great cheapness, though 
 when I was there the contrary was the case. The lady of an 
 envoye informed me that, previous to the war, the table 
 expenses of her family, at Buyukdere, were little more than a 
 dollar a day. Turkeys, not unworthy of Norfolk, sold usually 
 at fourpence each ; fowls, &c., accordingly; beef and mutton 
 equally cheap. The opposite shore of Asia supplies the finest 
 fruit and vegetables in abundance ; also game. Tolerable 
 wine is made by the Greeks, particularly from a grape called 
 altyn tach (golden stone), and sold at a penny or three half- 
 pence a quart. In the autumn months wild boars come down 
 in the vineyards to eat the grapes, when they are easily shot ; 
 and in the same season the sun is often nearly obscured by the 
 prodigious flights of quail which alight on the coast of the 
 Black Sea, near the Bosphorus, and are caught by means 
 of nets spread on high poles, planted along the cliff some 
 yards from its edge, against which the birds, which are ex- 
 hausted by their passage over the sea, bring up and fall. By 
 this simple mode, the Mussulmans enjoy a delicacy which they 
 otherwise could not, since they consider anything that dies of 
 gunshot wounds as unclean, the blood thereby not freely 
 escaping. This is the chief reason why they do not eat game ; 
 they hold no birds in holy dislike excepting the partridge, one 
 of which species betrayed, by its cackling, the hiding-place of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 179 
 
 the saint Mustapha. I can best illustrate the nature of this 
 annual migration of quails, by observing that the sultan, 
 October, 1829, sent orders to the capitan pasha to catch four 
 hundred dozen for the use of the seraglio : they were collected in 
 three days, and sent to their destination, alive, in small cages. 
 
 In every respect, Buyukdere is a very agreeable residence ; 
 rendered more so, in addition to its native charms, by the 
 society being free from the etiquette which prevails at Pera. 
 In the one place, however, as well as the other, a traveller is per- 
 fectly well received, and may pass his time extremely pleasantly, 
 not being restrained, as are the fixed residents, to a particular 
 set ; and be he comme il faut he will find himself in request 
 among all classes, and must become a perfect cosmopolite, as 
 it is difficult to be in a saloon without meeting a dozen of 
 different nations. 
 
 Along the broad quay which connects Buyukdere with the 
 little village of Sariery, to the north, in a line of good houses, 
 reside during the summer most of the members of the European 
 diplomacy. The principal of them, while I was there, was the 
 Sardinian ambassador, who made himself conspicuous by having 
 mass performed in his house every morning, and by riding in 
 an antiquated carriage every evening up and down the anchor 
 strewed quay. This nobleman had a knack of making himself 
 disliked by persons of all ranks, nations, and sects. In 
 character he was proud, (with the low,) avaricious, (though 
 rich,) and a gourmand : in person he was tall, bloated, and 
 corpulent. With the cunning of a Genoese citizen, he united 
 the fawning of a Turinese courtier. He was the only public 
 man at Pera, whether ambassador, charge d’affaires, or consul, 
 that did not receive strangers at his table ; even his ceremonial 
 dinners to his colleagues were rare and grossiers, so much so 
 that they talked of leaving him out in their invitations. 
 Count Guilleminot named him, in derision, V elephant en bonne 
 fortune , and the sultan called him, in contempt, buyuk Yenit- 
 cheri (the fat Janizzary). He had the arrogance one day, when 
 he treated the inhabitants of Pera as grown-up children by 
 giving them a punchinello play, to send to the sultan for his 
 hand ; the sultan refused. Moreover, he was a bigot. His 
 
 n 2 
 
180 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 daughter was enamoured of the Swedish charge d’affaires, a 
 gentlemanly man, who, equally in love, made proposals of 
 marriage. The match was advantageous, and pleased Madame 
 la Marquise. But M. le Marquis refused his consent, because 
 the Swede was a Protestant. The young lady, in consequence, 
 went hack to Italy, where she has since married il Conte 
 Visconti of Milan. His son was also successful, by disregarding 
 their prejudices, in gaining the malevolence of the natives. 
 Beautiful gulls fly about the Bosphorus, as tame as pet doves, 
 and as cherished, for the Osmanleys have the good taste 
 to find more pleasure in preserving what is ornamental in 
 nature than in destroying it. Everybody admires these birds, 
 flitting familiarly among the houses and cypresses, and skim- 
 ming over the water close to the caiques and vessels, making 
 resting-places of them. Since the conquest of Constantinople, 
 they had, probably, never been disturbed. The anger of 
 the by-standers was therefore great, when they saw the Mar- 
 quesino take his fowling-piece, and wantonly bring down three 
 or four of them. Even the chavasses at his father’s door rose 
 up, and exclaimed, “ Pezaveng /” (a word, when used in a bad 
 sense, not to be translated.) 
 
 His nearest neighbour was Signor Komano, the Neapolitan 
 minister. Signor Romano had, during the war, been employed 
 in a government office at Malta : he there married a Maltese 
 lady. He spoke English perfectly ; she considered herself an 
 Englishwoman ; therefore Englishmen were made welcome at 
 their house. Poor Madame Romano could not hear Turkey. 
 She could not recover from the fright she took at the catas- 
 trophe of the Janizzaries. The beauty of the Bosphorus could 
 not make her forget “ il fiore del mondo,” (Malta ;) and her 
 amiable daughters sighed for the pleasures of Naples. 
 
 Another house was occupied by the Senor Souza, Spanish 
 charge d’affaires, and his young wife, — the raven-haired, the 
 kindling- eyed, revealing in her looks the depth of Andalusian 
 feelings. They loved each other, and lived retired. 
 
 In another house was seen that important personage, Mr. 
 Chabert, English head dragoman. I dare say he was a good 
 man, though he received twelve hundred pounds a-year for 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 181 
 
 doing little, and that little, it was whispered, not always very 
 conscientiously ; hut he was ruled by his wife, a lady of Greek 
 origin, whom it was impossible to like, on account of her ill- 
 treatment of her eldest daughter. Miss, at length, threw her- 
 self out of window — into her lover s arms, went to church, and 
 got married. The young man was highly respectable, attached 
 to the Austrian embassy. For this rash act, Mrs. Chabert 
 would never again speak to her daughter, would not let her 
 husband speak to her, would not let her other children speak 
 to her. In compensation, the young lady, as fair as she was 
 spirited, was esteemed by all Pera. 
 
 But the pride of Buyukderd was the Baroness Huhsch, 
 widow of the late, and mother of the actual Danish minister, a 
 charming old lady, richly endowed with wit and talent, and 
 highly esteemed by Moslems and Christians. In 1821, her 
 house was an asylum for Greeks, in 1828 it was equally so for 
 Armenians, for the Osmanleys had too much respect for her to 
 annoy her. Parties of Osmanleys, of either sex, often had 
 dinners served in one of the arbours of her delightful gardens, 
 passing hours there; and, one day in June, 1829, the sultan, 
 in his ride to Sariery, did her the honour, unprecedented to a 
 Christian, of paying her a visit. 
 
 The sultan frequently rode from his palace at Therapia, 
 round the head of the bay, by a path so narrow that horsemen 
 could only proceed in single files, to the kiosk of the capitan 
 pasha, with whom, or rather in whose presence, for the old man 
 was kept standing like a slave, he would smoke a chibouque, 
 and then return. A company of infantry always preceded him ; 
 about a dozen courtiers on horseback accompanied him, and his 
 train was closed by two sumpter horses, under the guidance of 
 the cup-bearer, laden with all sorts of good things for eating 
 and drinking. The latter was an essential part of his suite, 
 since he could not touch food prepared by other than his own 
 cooks ; fear of poison being the cause. He was always avidly 
 gazed on in these excursions ; his subjects bent their foreheads 
 to the dust as he passed along, and the windows of the houses 
 were lined with Franks, to whom, however, he never gave the 
 slightest indication of being aware of their curiosity. The 
 
182 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 position of a sultan necessarily keeps people from being care- 
 less of his presence. Mahmoud had many particular claims to 
 attention, such as his calm aspect and composed demeanour 
 contrasted with his sanguinary character, his notoriety as the 
 murderer of his brother, his renown as the mower of the Janiz- 
 zaries ; but, independent of these, it creates an indefinable sen- 
 sation in the minds of free-born, civilized Europeans at seeing 
 a man made and drest and moving like other men, who has 
 only got to say, “ Out this or that head off ; throw that wretch 
 into the sea ; break that fellow’s legs ; impale that vagabond,” 
 &c. ; and to think that his words will be acted on without the 
 slightest demur. About thirty years since, Mr. Abbott, (now 
 our consul at Beyruth,) was seen by Selim III. with a white 
 turban on ; at that period the sumptuary laws were rigorously 
 enforced ; “ Cut his head off,” said the monarch, and passed 
 on ; and had not some Franks shouted out, “ He is not a raya, 
 he is a Frank,” Abbott’s head would never again have worn 
 either a turban or a hat. 
 
 Sultan Mahmoud, thus attended, stopped one day, quite 
 unannounced, at the door of the Baroness Hubsch. His gal- 
 lantry in every respect deserves record. In the first place, he 
 left his suite outside, and went upstairs accompanied only hy 
 his secretary : in the next place, seeing the lady rising to give 
 him the place of honour on the divan, he desired her to retain 
 it, and placed himself on a chair beside her. 
 
 He conversed for some time in Turkish, of which language 
 she is perfect mistress, and requested her amiable and accom- 
 plished daughters to play to him on the piano. He looked at 
 the beautiful drawings of Mademoiselle Emilie, and asked her 
 if she would take his portrait. The young lady excused herself, 
 on the plea that she had not made that branch of the art her 
 study, but offered to introduce him in a drawing which she 
 intended making of the Oourbam Bairam, to be celebrated in a 
 few days. The sultan was pleased with the idea, and at the 
 festival caused a tent to be erected for her in the most conve- 
 nient spot for commanding the view. The picture was exceed- 
 ingly well and spiritedly executed, but unfortunately it was sent 
 to the seraglio before a copy was taken. From the saloon the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 183 
 
 sultan repaired to the garden with the ladies, where he took 
 refreshments, and then departed, leaving the whole family in 
 an ecstasy, from which it will probably never recover. The 
 bench in the garden whereon he sat was removed, and a stand 
 of flowers placed in its room in order to prevent meaner mortals 
 from standing on a spot so ennobled ; the chair he occupied in 
 the saloon was likewise prohibited to inferior seats. This step 
 caused universal astonishment, and her house in consequence 
 became the resort of the young beys who aspired to polish 
 themselves; they did not find it a bad school. I had the 
 pleasure of knowing the family intimately, and of receiving 
 innumerable civilities from it. The baroness, it may be pre- 
 sumed, was a warm admirer of the Osmanleys, degenerate as 
 they are ; at the same time she could not avoid wishing well to 
 the Russians, among whom she had many relations. She herself 
 was a Pereote, and as such, possessed of many choice anecdotes of 
 the intrigues and cabals of the only real school of policy, accord- 
 ing to Machiavelli. Her favourite one was that in which her 
 husband, the former minister, figured in principal on the subject 
 of the arrival of Sir J. Duckworth’s fleet, in 1807, a never- 
 failing topic in the east. When seen in the morning from the 
 heights, a consternation ensued not to be described. Sebastiani, 
 Mr. Adair’s rival, conceiving further stay useless, prepared to 
 fly, in order to avoid the Seven Towers, which might be his 
 lodgment, in case the fleet should compel the sultan to accede 
 to the English terms, one of which would be a declaration of 
 war against France. In this mood the Baron Hubsch found 
 him busily employed burning his papers. He ridiculed his 
 occupation, and encouraged him to go to the sultan, and pro- 
 pose vigorous measures, engaging himself to amuse the English 
 while batteries should be erected to repel them. The issue of 
 this farce is well known. Sebastiani, assisted by the aga of the 
 Janizzaries, a brave man, in his interest, effectually encouraged 
 Selim, and with the aid of the officers attached to his embassy, 
 seconded by thousands of labourers, threw up strong works. On 
 the other hand, Mr. Hubsch, as mediator and ally, amused the 
 English with assurances that the sultan would certainly give in, 
 till the eleventh day, when, the admiral and the ambassador, 
 
184 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 finding themselves duped, — that they were become as the log- 
 king of the fable in regard of the frogs, after having caused an 
 immense sensation, thought it prudent to retire. His widow 
 considered this acting as a master-piece of policy. It certainly 
 produced the amplest effect, and in Pera politics the end sanc- 
 tifies the means. 
 
 I occupied a house belonging to the baroness, adjoining 
 hers. The situation was delightful. We inhaled the breezes 
 of the Euxine, and we looked down a fine reach of the Bos- 
 phorus: on the opposite side of the hay, at Therapia, waved the 
 lilies and the union on the houses of the French and English 
 ambassadors; off them, in the fair way, lay the Armide and the 
 Blonde; and parallel with our quay the Turkish fleet was 
 moored in line. But the vicinity of the latter, though pleasing 
 to the eye, was annoying to the ear on account of its numerous 
 drums that were rarely silent day or night. Its guard-boats were 
 also troublesome, at night time, to people on the water. Being 
 well known, I never received any impediment from them except 
 once, when, coming from Constantinople, the boat on duty 
 boarded mine rather uncourteously. The officer did not choose 
 to know me, notwithstanding that two of his crew insisted on 
 my identity, and he ended a warm altercation by laying his iron 
 tiller on the shoulders of his men who contradicted him, ordering 
 us, at the same time, to follow him to the flag-ship. Although 
 it was past midnight when we reached the Selimier, the band 
 was dinning, and the deck was covered with a busy multitude 
 admiring the pasha, who was smoking on his couch. “We 
 make an appropriate visit,” I said to my friend, “ we shall have 
 a cup of coffee and a chibouque.” He rather expected, by his 
 looks, a different compliment. Our conductor ascended the 
 ladder, bidding us, in an authoritative tone, to do likewise. At 
 the gangway he encountered Mehemet, the captain. While 
 making his report, I was recognised by the by-standers, who 
 began to salute me with demonstrations of pleasure, for I had 
 not been among them for several days, and were much amused 
 at the idea of the officer of the guard having caught a Tartar. 
 The little captain angrily demanded, “ Who hast thou brought 
 here? ’ — “ Franks who were insolent to mu.” “ Ass !” giving 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 185 
 
 him a blow, “dost thou not see that this is our English 
 capitan ?”* “ Effendi, I did not know him.” “ Ealse ! has he 
 
 not sailed in the fleet ? He is the pasha’s friend : everybody 
 knows him.” “ Effendi, I swear I did not recognise him. See, 
 he has a hat on : he wore a fez before.” “ Imbecile ! is not a 
 man’s face the same under a hat, or under a fez ? Go, quick, 
 to your boat. By my heard ! if the pasha sees thee he will 
 make thee eat dirt.” He ran down the ladder faster than he 
 had ascended it, probably cursing the infidel who had brought 
 this evil on his head. “Do not complain of him,” said the 
 good-natured Mehemet, as I walked aft to pay my respects to 
 the pasha. The old gentleman smiled at seeing me, and wanted 
 to know what brought me off at that time of night. I ex- 
 plained by a compliment. Erom this mode of killing some 
 hours of the night may be imagined the ennui of his existence. 
 He was that detestable malady personified. Whether in his 
 kiosk at Sariery, or on board of his own ship, or of any other 
 in the fleet, it was the same wearing of life. Often for a change 
 he would take up his quarters for half a day or more in one of 
 the line of battle ships or frigates, a fancy that upset everybody 
 and every thing, to make room for him, and his large suite. On 
 these occasions he was followed by his own cooks, who brought 
 their own viands and prepared them, since no man of rank in 
 Turkey likes to partake of food that is dressed by strange 
 hands. On other days he would go to a neighbouring valley, 
 where the sailors washed their clothes, and, under a tent, lounge 
 on a cushion to enjoy the process. For the more active plea- 
 sures of fife he had not the health, though he had ample re- 
 sources. He had a tolerable good stud, and a part of his harem 
 lived in a large kiosk on Buyukdere quay ; but he seldom rode 
 the former, and rarely visited the latter. When he did pay a 
 visit to it, it was after dusk, for he possessed Mohammedan ideas 
 of propriety, and he chose the hours that had no moon ; yet was 
 always numerously accompanied by officers and guards, among 
 
 * Capitan is applied by the natives to Franks of every degree. _ The 
 captain of militia, to whom the title is grudged at home, may here enjoy it 
 to satiety; while the regular captain feels disposed to drop it when he finds 
 that his valet equally shares the distinction. 
 
186 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 whom it was piteous to behold him walk feebly from his barge 
 to the kiosk, and the more piteous to imagine him ascend alone 
 to the lighted laticed apartment of the beautiful Georgian, who 
 expected and loathed him. This lady was not insensible to 
 admiration, nor averse to the displaying of her charms, when a 
 sly opportunity offered at a half-drawn lattice, or in her garden* 
 to eyes that peeped over its wall. She was not her lord’s only 
 wife; he had another, older and plain, hut who resided at Con- 
 stantinople on account of the jealousy which prevented the two 
 ladies from being together in a small house. Indeed, these 
 husband shareholders generally cause so much domestic 
 bickering, that few Turks, except the very rich, venture on two 
 wives. The pasha, however, one day sent for his older wife, 
 perhaps influenced by a touch of used affection, or the lady her- 
 self might have wished it. There was no amicable pre- arrange- 
 ment. That night the usual tranquil kiosk changed its character ; 
 shrill voices issued whence whispers had not before escaped, and 
 the placid stream reflected lights passing and repassing in rapid 
 succession. The harem was in an uproar; a scene of wordy 
 female warfare, which not even the pasha’s grave authority — he 
 was there — could restrain. There was hut one remedy admis- 
 sible — separation ; and therefore the day following this experi- 
 ment the intruder was sent hack to the vast and solitary palace 
 overlooking the Golden Horn. This was only a temporary 
 mortification to the fair and proud Georgian. She had one 
 nearer and keener in a young Circassian, one of her slaves, on 
 whom her lord had presumed to look, and who was “ as ladies 
 wish to he,” &c., the happy result of which would raise her from 
 servitude, and give her the honours of a wife : from serving she 
 would he waited on; from standing before, she would sit beside 
 her mistress, who was furious, unmindful that she, by a similar 
 result of her master’s passions, had been emancipated, and had 
 supplanted her mistress, his first wife, and moreover a Turkish 
 woman, who cannot he a slave. However, her fears were un- 
 founded, for the young Circassian, who was not pretty, mis- 
 carried. 
 
 The capitan pasha was an odd man : perhaps I have already 
 said enough of him; one more anecdote, and I have done. I 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 187 
 
 saw him often, and then he was fond of asking me about my 
 travels and other countries, more for amusement than instruc- 
 tion. Many of my recitals he considered fabulous, and joked 
 on as such; but that did not prevent him from entertaining- 
 some very marvellous beliefs of his own. Among others, he 
 asked me one day, with a perfectly solemn visage, if I had 
 been to the island where the people have two heads ? Before 
 answering, I put a question to ascertain if he was serious. 
 Perfectly. The island, according to him, was in the Indies, 
 and had been visited by many travellers. I felt half inclined 
 to amuse myself, and two officers who were with me, and to 
 whom the question was equally put, by acting on his igno- 
 rance ; hut I restrained myself by the reflection that if I did, I 
 should certainly be cited by him as authority in future. I 
 assured him that he was in error; hut I might as well have 
 tried to convince him that the earth went round the sun. It 
 was too favourite a conceit to dislodge. From that time he 
 did not think my authority so good as formerly. He was 
 wonderstruck at a small pocket microscope that I had, though 
 he could not believe that what he saw through it was true. 
 Such curious objects as a fly’s eye, a flea’s wing, a musquito’s 
 fangs, were rather lost on him, hut a drop of dirty water 
 excited his undivided attention; and, fortunately for him, as a 
 water-drinker, it impressed him with complete incredulity of 
 the instrument. “ That,” he averred, must he magic. It was 
 impossible that water was in reality full of voracious ugly 
 animals, else the prophet, who knew everything, would never 
 have ordained it as the sole beverage of Mussulmans. It was 
 well that his faith in Mohammed’s goodness and wisdom led 
 him to this conclusion, or his knowledge would have em- 
 bittered every meal, and with reason, considering how scru- 
 pulous Mussulmans are about their drink and drinking-vessels. 
 Had he convinced himself of the existence of animalculse, he 
 would have mentioned it, I dare say, to some influential 
 members of the ulema, by whom would have been debated in full 
 divan the propriety of establishing a law to kill them — by the 
 admission of a little rum. It would certainly have proved a 
 formidable weapon in favour of the increasing unholy custom 
 
188 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 of wine drinking, and might be used with effect by missionaries, 
 that is, if there shall he found any with sufficient courage to 
 preach the Gospel to the Turks. 
 
 Four miles from Buyukdere, and twelve from Pera, em- 
 bosomed in a forest of oak and elm, is the village of Belgrade, 
 celebrated by Lady M. W. Montagu, where she wrote some of 
 her charming letters, and had the courage to try inoculation 
 on her child. The road to it from Buyukdere runs under a 
 fine aqueduct of twenty arches. The village has not the en- 
 chanting views of the Bosphorus, hut instead there are agree- 
 able rides through the wood, and from an eminence adjoining 
 an extensive prospect of the Euxine. Its situation is un- 
 healthy from the proximity of the bendts, which give out 
 unwholesome exhalations in spring and autumn; notwith- 
 standing which, some of the residents of Pera have country 
 houses there; one, that of the great English merchant, Mr. 
 Black, so well and honourably known in Turkey for his 
 gentlemanlike hospitality, which since his return to England 
 has been equally maintained by his worthy locum tenens , Mr. 
 Hardy (hanker). 
 
 At Pirgos, two miles from Belgrade, are four aqueducts, 
 from one to three rows of arches each, two of them are ancient, 
 one supposed of Justinian, or Andronicus; hut neither the 
 antique or the modern possess much architectural merit. 
 They are for the purpose of conveying the water from the 
 reservoirs, so well described by Dr. Walsh, to Constantinople. 
 
 We often made these spots the scenes of picnic parties from 
 Buyukdere ; hut a more charming site was in a plain on the 
 opposite shore of Asia, and in every respect a complete park, 
 where once or twice a week during the summer of 1829, an 
 unprecedented spectacle was exhibited in a regular cricket- 
 match, the players of which were furnished by the Blonde , 
 whose hand also attended for the amusement of the fair 
 Europeans who might he present, and to invite them to a 
 softer game on the green sward. Indeed, Frank society in 
 Constantinople was never on so good a footing as in 1829, 
 while poor Turkey was feebly wrestling with her mighty foe; 
 for in addition to the presence of a superior set of naval 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 189 
 
 officers, the British embassy was unusually brilliant in secre- 
 taries and attaches, besides personal friends of Sir Bobert 
 Gordon. There were Lords Yarmouth and Dunlo, the Hon. 
 K. Grosvenor, Messrs. Parish, Yillars, and Mellish. They 
 raised the scale of English gentlemen high in the opinion of 
 the Pereotes. Their praises had not died away six months 
 after their departure. 
 
 Another of our countrymen, Mr. Finlay, Philhellenist, &c., 
 caused a sensation about this time, and afforded us amuse- 
 ment, by taking a prominent part in a rare spectacle — an 
 elopement. The youngest of two pretty Armenian sisters 
 contrived to elude the vigilance of father, mother, and brother, 
 and have a little flirtation from her window with an admirer of 
 her bright eyes, who, by the way, could talk sweet in Greek. 
 It is astonishing how rapid courtship is in the East; if the 
 talisman matrimony be only hinted at, it is like going on a 
 railway. After four or five evenings of intercourse, like, we 
 may suppose, 
 
 " The sweet south. 
 
 That breathes upon a bank of violets. 
 
 Stealing and giving odour,” 
 
 the lady ( en g argon) put herself under the protection of the 
 enamoured Briton, tripped with him nimbly to a caique, rowed 
 up the Bosphorus, and found lodging in a village near 
 Justinian’s Aqueduct, where they thought to he concealed till 
 they could leave the country ; for as marriages between Franks 
 and Kayas are illegal in Turkey, the officers of justice might 
 have separated them. The morning after the elopement found 
 her father bilious, her mother crabbed, her sister envious, her 
 brother furious. Having sought them in vain at Pera, the 
 hitter rows up the Bosphorus, goes on hoard the Blonde , sees 
 the mutual friend of both parties, Brock — explodes. His 
 words seemed dagger-points and pistol-halls; but — he wants 
 to fight ? — O no ! — not his trade. Only required Brock to 
 find out Finlay — to talk to him — to get him to restore his 
 sister — anything to save appearances — anything hut fight. 
 Duelling not the fashion in the East. Brock accordingly 
 buckled on his armour, and taking the centre arch of the 
 
190 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 aqueduct for a leading mark, started. Traces were fresh: he 
 ferreted out the fugitives: he entered abruptly. The lady, 
 still in masquerade, taking him for a chavass, jumped into a 
 closet. Finlay looked martial. Brock laughed. He talked 
 about honour; Finlay swore that he was treble distilled. He 
 talked about propriety; the lady declared that her love was 
 the essence of platonism. So Brock left them, returned on 
 hoard, and made the brother “ seas over.” Her parents 
 appealed to the ambassador, who — hummed — there was nothing 
 to be done that could do any good at all. They threatened to 
 appeal to the Turkish authorities; hut that would have caused 
 expense to the father, as well as misery to the young lady; 
 and the ,old Armenian kept his hand in his pocket. In the 
 meantime the lovers quietly got on hoard a merchant brig, 
 and went to Syria, where they were married. But, we since 
 heard, Mrs. Finlay would not leave off wearing the breeches. 
 Her successful debut in the so often enacted comedy of “ A 
 hold Stroke for a Husband” made a deep impression at Pera 
 in favour of English honour; we might any of us after that 
 have facilitated the descent of a fair Armenian or Greek from 
 a window. 
 
 But all this time how went the war ? News was so scant, 
 and the Oonstantinopolitans so indifferent, that we might have 
 supposed, hut for the scarcity of provisions, that they were at 
 peace. The presentation of the English ambassador, however, 
 was the last satisfactory event for the sultan. Its excitement 
 was scarcely over, when Tartars from the north and the 
 south began to arrive. The surrender of Silistria was pub- 
 lished, and the defeat of the grand vizir in a pitched battle 
 confirmed, — a misfortune long suspected by us, though the 
 Osmanleys had affected to discredit it. They still cried, 
 infatuated, “ Schumla will hold out; the Balkan cannot be 
 crossed.” This was the common language among them to 
 the latest. From Asia the news was equally discouraging, — 
 that Erzeroum, capital of Armenia, had surrendered by 
 treachery, and that everywhere the spirit of Janizzaryism was 
 up. But on this side distance was a great ally to the sultan, 
 and made him disregard the success of Paskewitch. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 191 
 
 While our political horizon was thus clouded, our natural 
 one was enlivened hy a conflagration of Galata. It was a 
 splendid sight. When I approached it on the water before 
 daylight all was blazing, pre-eminently the wooden summit of 
 the great tower, illumining vast sheets of water on either 
 side, and throwing broad refulgence on Stamboul. The tall 
 white minarets, with their wooden spires in flames, resembled 
 so many lighted wax tapers of Brobdignag. During many 
 hours it burned, and for days after smoked a heap of cinders — 
 a scene of wretchedness — in which groups of women with their 
 children were seen squatting among the ruins, bewailing their 
 lot, or raking up the ashes for valuables, or cooking a few 
 victuals over the smoke. Yet, so accustomed are these people 
 to such accidents, that ere a fortnight new streets were rising 
 and the old ones in progress of being forgotten. It is curious 
 to walk about a burning Turkish town, and observe the perfect 
 indifference of the men. I have seen them remain smoking on 
 the floor till the flames actually turned them out, then gather 
 up the skirts of their pelisses, and quietly walk away, as coolly 
 as though leaving their house for an hour’s stroll before supper. 
 It is an extraordinary fact, that in those great fires people are 
 rarely killed, or even hurt.* 
 
 Our ignorance of the real movements of the Russian army 
 was fully counterbalanced, August the 1st, hy the startling 
 intelligence that it had crossed the Balkans, that it had defeated 
 the army at Aidos, under the pashas Alish and Ahdurrhaman, 
 and that it was in full march for Adrianople. Rumour magnified 
 
 * It has been the fashion to attribute the fires to the malice of the 
 Janizzaries. It is true, that when they wanted to gain an object, as the 
 head of a -vizir, or other trifle, they resorted to this measure; but it is an 
 error to suppose that they always caused this mischief, unsupported by the 
 common argument that the duration of a fire was proof that they prevented 
 the people from extinguishing it. It is in vain to attempt to put out a 
 wooden house in flames. The only remedy is by removing down the wind, 
 and making a large cut in the street by razing three or four houses; but 
 the proprietors of such devoted houses (as I have witnessed) naturally 
 oppose this salutary measure, in the hope that the flames will not reach so 
 far, and never yield unless to force. If force be not employed, the flames 
 continue until arrested by a mosque, or other stone edifice. It is not sur- 
 prising that a wooden town often takes fire. In the winter of 1829-30, 
 were seven great fires at Constantinople. 
 
192 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Diebitsch’s force to 150,000 men. The news came like a 
 thunderbolt; for though the plan of the campaign had been 
 clearly foreseen, from the moment that Sizepolis was occupied 
 — that the passage of the Balkans would never be attempted 
 through Sehumla, that that city would be turned, its success 
 also anticipated, from the known exhaustion of Turkey, and 
 the general disaffection ; — it was never for a moment supposed 
 that the Osmanleys, their country and religion at stake, would 
 yield their last barrier without rendering it of bloody celebrity. 
 This consideration, therefore, caused many to reject the tale as 
 improbable; nor was it fully believed until three days after, 
 when letters from the diplomatic agents residing at Adrianople 
 confirmed the fatal account. There, things could not be worse. 
 The inhabitants were in despair; the troops, coward-stricken, 
 absolutely refused to march; the pasha, scarce knowing what 
 to do, had ordered a levy en masse, and was thinking of throw- 
 ing up fortifications : added to all, the rayas were in exultation, 
 and took no pains to conceal it. The fate of the second city of 
 the empire was not doubtful. In the first, from its greater 
 distance, alarm — though general among the greater part of the 
 Frank and Greek population, who expected, at least, to be 
 roasted alive whenever the mob should take it into its head — 
 did not spread widely among the Osmanleys. They still 
 talked large, and seemed to expect that their prophet, by a 
 miracle, would arrest the infidels. Kecreants! had he come 
 amongst them on his winged camel, they might have fallen on 
 their faces, and worshipped him, but they would not have 
 fought. They compared, with unparalleled effrontery, the 
 Russian army in Boumelia to the French at Moscow. “ It is 
 enveloped in a net !” they said. “ The grand vizir will come 
 down on its rear ; the pasha of Scutari is advancing from the 
 west; the reinforcements from here will complete the circle. 
 Mashallah ! we will cut it in pieces.” They little knew the 
 broken reeds they trusted to. Disaffection paralyzed them at 
 home; the grand vizir remained at Sehumla, a dead letter; and 
 as for the Scutari pasha, it was not even known where he was. 
 He had left Albania for the purpose of lining the Balkan ; but 
 whether, on hearing that he was too late, he would continue or 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 193 
 
 return, was equally uncertain. Moreover, much trust could 
 not be placed in him. He was averse to the sultan’s reforms, 
 and also leagued with the Bosniaks, who were equally hostile 
 to the new order of things. Had he arrived in time, as was 
 expected, the Balkan might not have been crossed. 
 
 Some measures, however, adopted, showed anxiety on the 
 part of the Porte. A spirited proclamation was read in the 
 mosques, and sent to the cities of the empire, commanding all 
 Mussulmans, from sixteen to sixty, to take arms. It was ill 
 obeyed. From the populous town of Salonica five hundred 
 men marched, but four hundred and ninety of them returned 
 to their homes the next day. This is a fair specimen of Avhat 
 took place elsewhere. From Asia, not above two or three 
 thousand men answered the appeal. They daily crossed the 
 Bosphorus, in parties of a hundred or so — turbaned, wild, 
 strange-looking beings, armed to the teeth in various modes, 
 some with fine horses, others attended by their hunting dogs — 
 and were sent at once, without being permitted to enter the 
 city, to the posts of Kilios, Karaboumu, &c., on the Black Sea, 
 to oppose any disembarkation that might be attempted on the 
 part of the Russian fleet against the defences of the Bosphorus, 
 which was seriously apprehended, since a merchant vessel from 
 Bourgas had announced to the capitan pasha that the 27th of 
 August was publicly talked of as the day for attacking Con- 
 stantinople by sea and land. These Asiatics, as they passed 
 up the shore of the Bosphorus to their destination, evinced, by 
 words and gestures, their hatred of Christians, and gave a 
 forecast of our fate, in case the storm gathering should enable 
 them to work their will. The Constantinople Turks were 
 equally afraid of them. “ Observe those fellows,” said one of 
 them to me, as fifty were galloping along the road, their spears 
 couched, or their pistols held aloft as jerreeds, uttering wild 
 yells; “ if the enemy approach, they will revolutionize Stam- 
 boul ; they will massacre not only you, but also us, whom they 
 equally hate, for having adopted Frank customs.” Few only 
 went to their posts; the remainder spread about the environs, 
 in guise of brigands, waiting the fall of their monarch, an infidel 
 in their eyes. Tn the city, coercive measures were employed to 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 make the Mussulmans arm. No trade was spared; watermen 
 were taken from their boats, porters from their loads, bakers 
 from their ovens, &c. Universal disaffection prevailed ; and 
 this diseased state of the public mind, the more extraordinary- 
 while acting the prime lever of fanaticism, a Russian war, 
 strongly marked the evil policy of the sultan’s edicts, respecting 
 dress and finance, which had produced it. Of the mass thus 
 collected, ten thousand, including all ages, from the downy- 
 chinned youth to the white-bearded tiriaki, were sent, under the 
 command of Osman Pasha, the bostandgi hashi, to re-inforce 
 Adrianople. Not one of them reached it. The remainder of 
 the levies were ordered to prepare; and, as if willing to make 
 a show, they daily filled the arms bazaar, which then offered a 
 stirring spectacle from morn till night, equipping themselves 
 with all manner of weapons, as though each had pre-deter- 
 mined to slay ten men. Asiatics mingled with them, and the 
 population changed faces, from a quiet, sleepy state to a 
 feverish anxiety. The turban was everywhere resumed, and 
 the obnoxious fez discarded. “ How do you expect them to 
 fight,” said an old Osmanley to me, whom I was rallying on 
 the pusillanimity displayed by the troops at Aidos, “ with this 
 thing on their heads ?” pointing to his own fez with unmixed 
 contempt. It certainly is a very stupid head-dress, neither 
 calculated to keep off the rays of the sun, nor a sabre’s stroke, 
 which the turban can, be the former of Libya, the latter of 
 Damascus. 
 
 In the midst of the general disorganization, while the parti- 
 zans of the Janizzaries were known to beholding consultations 
 in various quarters of the city, and spies among the Greeks to 
 be in correspondence with the enemy, the government showed 
 great firmness in preserving the peace of the city. Fire being 
 apprehended, everybody, under pain of death, was ordered to 
 keep his house after eight p.m., and to extinguish lights. 
 Aided by this salutary regulation, which did not affect Pera, 
 the vigilance of the patrol prevented two incendiary attempts on 
 a large scale. Notwithstanding the excitement, we frequented 
 Stamboul with security. The men might scowl on us, with 
 reason too, since, in their estimation, all Christendom was 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 195 
 
 linked against them, hut the women were quite otherwise ; they 
 often accosted Franks in the bazaars with earnestness, entreat- 
 ing them to save their homes from the horrors of war. Inter- 
 esting creatures ! interesting on account of their bright eyes, 
 and their sweet voices, and the mystery encircling their being. 
 I never observed fanaticism in them but once, and that once 
 was rendered more remarkable by the welcome of pleasure 
 that a party of us had just received from some females, in the 
 Egyptian bazaar, to whom our appearance was a harbinger of 
 peace. Leaving that busy scene, it chanced that I entered a 
 solitary street — silent as sleep, not a sound heard behind its 
 latticed casements, where I stopped to admire a beautiful child 
 playing with a fountain stream. Near it stood its young 
 mother, who, the moment she perceived my attention fixed, drew 
 close her veil, and exclaimed, in a voice of terror, “ Run, my 
 child, the evil eye of the infidel is on thee !” 
 
 The sultan in the meantime sent a positive order to the ca- 
 pitan pasha to put to sea with the first wind. Having promised 
 to accompany him, I was with the pasha nearly as soon as the 
 order. He was in great agitation, for the lodos, (south-west 
 wind,) as if in compliance with the sultan’s will, had that very 
 morning overcome the obstinate poyraz, (north-east,) which it 
 had combated mile by mile up the strait, and reached Buyuk- 
 dere. An English merchant vessel was just then drifting in 
 with the stream. The barge hoarded her, and brought her cap- 
 tain to the pasha’s kiosk. He was from Bourgas, and to my in- 
 quiries gave a most detailed, unconsolatory account of the force 
 of the Russian fleet, then united. He whispered me on going 
 out, as a friend — though un-Englishlike — that I had better act 
 the truant. There was no hope for the pasha. With a blank 
 countenance he observed the increasing rippling of the water, 
 the pennants pointing to the Bosphorus; and by the time we 
 got on board the Selimier, had cast off our inshore cable, and 
 began to heave in on the other, our look-out brigs, which had 
 already weighed, were nearly at the outer castles. A pheno- 
 menon, such as occurs once or twice a year, saved us. A small 
 white cloud rose suddenly from the Euxine; our crew hailed 
 its appearance ; it rapidly spread, seeming to gather to it every 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 vapour in the air; then, thickly condensing, it descended, and 
 hung before the mouth of the Bosphorus just like a dark cur- 
 tain. Vividly contrasting with the white faros and batteries on 
 either side, it had a terrific appearance, which might have me- 
 rited for the sea it rose from the appellation of infernal, much 
 less that of black. For some minutes was a still calm, so still 
 that the air seemed deprived of elasticity, and the birds drooped 
 on the wing. Then a crashing noise was heard, between that 
 of breakers and distant thunder; at the same instant a flash of 
 light rent, as it were, the curtain in twain. Wild was the scene 
 disclosed. The poyraz burst through with impatient violence, 
 the dark mist whirled away in jagged cones, and sheets of 
 foam came dashing down the agitated strait. The brigs 
 scudded in under hare poles. “ God is great!” said the pasha. 
 In half an hour every trace of the squall had passed, the day 
 was as fine as before, but the poyraz had resumed its empire. 
 The fleet took in again its small bower cables, in expectation 
 that, as it could not pay the Russians a visit, they would pay it 
 one. 
 
 In this alarming posture of affairs, it was hoped that Sultan 
 Mahmoud would display some of the heroic qualities gratui- 
 tously supposed in him; that he would yield his ideas of 
 despotic power, to attain which he had sown universal discon- 
 tent ; that he would forgive his internal enemies, to unite with 
 them against a common foe ; that he would immolate himself 
 rather in defence of his country, than sacrifice it to secure 
 some personal advantages ; that he would, in a word, level his 
 pride before honour. How noble would it have been to have 
 seen him appear in the Atmeidan with the ancient and 
 denounced emblems of majesty, so dear to the Osmanleys, and 
 appeal to his subjects by his ancestors, on whom his adoption 
 of Christian manners cast a stain, — appeal to them by their 
 bigotry, by the Janizzaries with whose name every particle of 
 Ottoman glory is linked, and by their patron saints, the Beck- 
 tashes. The effect of such a proceeding would have been 
 electric. With the hearts of the Constantinopolitans he would 
 have had their hands; and by the cherished name of the 
 Becktashes the women and infirm would have followed him to 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 197 
 
 the field, had he chosen to march, or would have seconded him 
 in throwing up fortifications before - the city, waiting with 
 firmness the result, which must have been — victory. Alas ! 
 those who thought Mahmoud capable of such greatness of 
 soul were quickly deceived. He made no demonstrations of 
 wishing to do aught than wait — with no other resources than 
 what he had — a turn of chance. 
 
 Ten days after the announcement of the passage of the 
 Balkan, he removed the sandjack scherif from Therapia to 
 Ramis Tchiftlik,* with the usual solemnities due to its sanctity. 
 It was the first time, I believe, that infidels had been permitted 
 to see the ceremony. The procession opened by a body of 
 regular troops, followed by the royal horses superbly capari- 
 soned ; then walked another guard, to military music ; then 
 the caimacan, the seraskier, and other great officers of state ; 
 afterwards, surrounded by the ulema, the scheik-islam (pontiff 
 of Islamism) ; then, preceded by its emblem, a green flag, came 
 the holy standard, in a gilded car drawn by four horses. The 
 sultan followed, very plainly dressed, accompanied by his 
 favourites, and a rear guard closed all. At the moment the 
 procession started, the fleet, dressed in flags, fired a royal salute 
 in honour of the prophet’s banner,*)* which, in the hands of 
 Mahmoud II., did not possess the talismanic virtue that erst 
 made the believers come from all parts of the empire, and 
 gladly rush on death for it. 
 
 Opposite reports continued to excite or depress the Con- 
 stantinopolitans, and to account for the inaction of General 
 Diebitsch, of whose latter movements nothing was known. 
 Every version, probable and improbable, was eagerly believed. 
 Advices from Adrianople announced that it was his intention 
 to remain under the Balkans until he had collected one hundred 
 and fifty thousand men, with the corresponding materiel; but 
 
 * Barracks and small entrenched camp, half a mile from the city wall, 
 where the sultan resided during part of the war. 
 
 f Many writers have speculated on the nature of the sandjack scherif. 
 The Turks have an agreeable tradition that it was the curtain which hung 
 before the door of Aische’s apartment, Mohammed’s favourite wife. The 
 amorous prophet was just the man for this piece of gallantry. 
 
198 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 this met with little credit ; it was only invented by the Russian 
 partizans to frighten the^Turks. 
 
 Meanwhile a conspiracy among the Janizzary party in Con- 
 stantinople was rapidly spreading, and the arrival of the 
 Russian fleet in the Bosphorus confidently and openly talked 
 of. Still all was uncertainty ; hut on the farther advance of 
 Diebitsch, every doubt was removed as to the extent of danger 
 to be apprehended, so much so, when known that the Osman- 
 leys offered no resistance, that there was even an idea of order- 
 ing up the English fleet from the Dardanelles to embark the 
 sultan with his treasures, in case the Russians came on too 
 rapidly. 
 
 Successively the Turkish troops made a show of standing, 
 at Selimnia, and at Yamboli : it was but a show ; they fired 
 once, then “ sauve qui pent,” and the war assumed the character 
 of a race, who could run or follow fastest over the vast plains 
 of Adrianople. The intermediate posts rapidly fell ; the army 
 intended for the defence of Adrianople disbanded two days 
 before the Russians^arrived ; and the return of Osman Pasha 
 alone (who had marched a fortnight before with ten thousand 
 men), on the 24th August, 1829, announced to the astonished 
 sultan the fall of that city, the palace of which had been fitting 
 up for his reception that very month. At first he would not 
 believe that the infidels had penetrated to «the ancient capital 
 of his ancestors ; but the unpleasant intelligence was soon too 
 fully confirmed, with all the disagreeable details. Horror- 
 struck, he gave way to imprecations. It was said that he 
 wept, and blamed his ministers for having concealed from him 
 the extent of his weakness ; but neither his character nor his 
 after conduct warranted the assumption ; neither was it likely 
 that his ministers, at the risk of their heads, kept him in igno- 
 rance of what he must ultimately know. On the contrary, 
 the sentiments of the divan, from first to last, were peaceable. 
 
 He still refused to open the way to conciliation, and perhaps 
 his obstinacy might have prevailed, but for the entreaties of 
 those around him to make at least a show of being willing to 
 treat. Constantinople was like a volcano in labour, yet he 
 seemed the least sensible of its throes. Already a Janizzary, 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 199 
 
 thinking all was sure, had entered the gates, dressed in the 
 denounced costume, and holding the emblem of his orta. No 
 secrecy was observed among the conspirators ; the arrival of 
 the Bussians was to he the signal for the explosion, — to depose 
 the sultan, to murder his ministers, to fire the city, and to 
 raise his young son, Abdul Hamid, on the smoking ruins. 
 His only chance of safety was by arresting the march of the 
 enemy, and a few days’ indecision in showing the conspirators 
 that he had that power might have proved fatal. His pride 
 made him hesitate; hut his dangerous position was fairly 
 pointed out to him by the ambassadors ; they represented to 
 him that, should the enemy advance, his capital would certainly 
 rise against him, that he would be obliged to pass into Asia, 
 where his fife would not be safe, and that Europe would be 
 lost to him if he once left it. Those terrible denunciations de- 
 termined him. That same night, August 24th, Mehemet Sadik 
 Effendi, the tefterdar, and Ahdoul Kadir Bey, the cazi-asker 
 of Anadolu, went in his steam-boat to Eodosto with orders to 
 proceed thence leisurely to Adrianople, and enter into prelimi- 
 naries with Turkish caution and delay. He then, assured of 
 not being disturbed by the Cossacks for some days, seized his 
 iron sceptre. But not to interrupt the narration, I will defer 
 to another chapter the bloody scenes consequent. 
 
 On the European side of the harbour the distress on that 
 day was as deep as on the opposite side, though not involving 
 the subversion of a monarchy, and, wanting the sublimity of 
 defined danger, very ludicrous to a spectator. Those who 
 were present can never forget it. Plague, famine, and the 
 battle of Navarine combined, could not have produced the 
 same effect as the simple news of the capture of Adrianople, 
 one hundred and fifty miles distant. The consternation among 
 the Pereotes,* which had been increasing from the day that the 
 
 * In speaking of the Prank population of Constantinople, it is necessary 
 to exclude the English, and, in general, the Erench residents. They are so 
 few in comparison with, and so superior to, the nondescript mass of other 
 nations ; their position, too, so much more respectable, that they cannot be 
 classed as one. The latter, at the same time that they hate and despise, 
 fear and flatter the Turks ; believing them semi-barbarians, they treat them 
 as demi-gods. 
 
200 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 Russians crossed the Balkans, bordered on insanity. They 
 were threatened in their ideas with the excess of every evil, of 
 which violation would be the least. Some affirmed that the 
 Russians were in full march, only twelve hours distant ; others 
 that the Cossacks were already seen from the walls, their lances 
 gleaming among the cypress groves. A report got in circula- 
 tion that the sultan, in despair, had restored the Janizzaries ; 
 a general conflagration was therefore immediately expected, 
 and the fright of a vender of grapes, running through the 
 streets, made them believe that the massacre of the Christians 
 had commenced. I know not if any ladies miscarried, but I 
 know that the mention of the name of Janizzary was enough 
 to make them faint ; and the representative of an Italian king 
 nearly jumped out of window in consequence of taking a black 
 cat, stalking across his saloon at dusk with a long shadow 
 thrown by the rays of the moon, for a Janizzary. Amid the 
 confusion one cry was heard, “What shall we do?” Few 
 could determine, or looked to the sea as their only refuge, and 
 nearly all, in case of the dreaded crisis, viz., the rapid approach 
 of the Russians unkennelling the fanatic blood-hounds of 
 Stamboul, would have fallen like sheep for want of ordinary 
 presence of mind. The thermometer of public alarm went on 
 rising, augmented by getting no intelligence, till August 27th, 
 when, terror being at its maximum, M. Clair, secretary of the 
 Prussian embassy, who had left Pera a week previous for the 
 Russian head-quarters, returned with the joyful tidings that 
 General Diebitsch consented to halt his columns, and to treat 
 of peace. 
 
 But though the sultan had despatched envoys to preliminate, 
 though Diebitsch had stayed his march, and though most 
 of the diplomatists at Pera considered peace absolutely neces- 
 sary, at whatever cost, — even the half of the Ottoman empire* 
 and the hand of the sultan’s daughter for the Russian general, 
 — it was still uncertain whether Constantinople would be 
 honoured, or polluted, by the presence of a Christian army. 
 Mahmoud was not inclined to consider his affairs desperate, 
 and thought, if he could gain time to quell the conspiracy 
 at home, which late events had prematurely disclosed, to drive 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 201 
 
 back the enemy. In this view his envoys acted. On their 
 arrival at Adrianople, after an easy journey en eveque, they sat 
 quietly on their couches, smoking, and thinking of the em- 
 peror’s magnanimity, hut concluded nothing. This delay 
 created fresh alarm at Pera, and the poor envoys were blamed 
 by all classes of Franks for their supineness, which, in reality, 
 was able diplomacy, since the fortnight’s delay, thereby gained, 
 might have caused Diebitsch’s failure : his forces not being so 
 much over-rated by the sultan, in his ignorance, as by the 
 mediating ambassadors. They supposed that the Russian army 
 amounted to 60,000 men, whereas it never passed 30,000 men, 
 and with that idea they were fully justified in getting up a 
 peace at any cost. Frequent divans were held, at one of which 
 the sultan consented to the treaty of Greece as the price of 
 the efficient mediation of the ambassadors of France and 
 England ; though this tardy concession, wrung from him by 
 the pressure of danger, could not be considered as a compli- 
 ment to either. The Turkish public mind was occupied by 
 daily executions, and thus kept from dwelling on their national 
 dishonour. 
 
 A fortnight thus elapsed without positive news from Adria- 
 nople. All doubts were then removed by the intelligence that 
 Diebitsch had broke up his camp, and had pushed his ad- 
 vanced guard to Tchorloo, twenty hours from Constantinople. 
 This movement was neither unexpected nor any way alarming, 
 compared to what it would have been a fortnight earlier. In 
 that short lapse a great change had taken place. The con- 
 spiracy was allayed, and the well-disposed Osmanleys, having 
 recovered from their panic by looking on the danger, were 
 somewhat inclined to forget their sultan’s tyranny in their 
 hatred of the foe. The sultan, at all events, was inclined to 
 wait before deciding on peace, and in so doing he would have 
 lost nothing — might have gained, as will be shown — for no 
 terms could have been harder than those which he obtained. 
 Unfortunately, as I before said, the weak, enfeebled state of 
 the Russian army had not transpired, therefore he was not 
 supported. His ministers were clamorous for peace, not from 
 any knowledge of affairs, but from a fear of the revolutionary 
 
202 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 party in Constantinople, the slightest success of whom would 
 compromise their heads; and though that party had just been 
 put down, there were embers glowing, they feared, to awake 
 the flame. Thus, had Mahmoud been finally inclined to act 
 the part of the last Constantine, they would have opposed 
 him. The ambassadors, considering his case desperate, joined 
 his ministers in counselling him to repose on the magnanimity 
 of the emperor of Russia. He did so, and exhibited a signal 
 example of a rapid descent from the pinnacle of pride to the 
 level of supplication. Tartars were immediately despatched 
 with orders to the envoys to subscribe to any terms, and Mr. 
 Royer, the Prussian minister, being, from the intimate relations 
 between his court and that of Russia, a party interested, and 
 feeling himself in some measure implicated in the precipitate 
 departure of General Muffling,* started the same evening for 
 Adrianople to facilitate the adjustment. That night the se- 
 raskier, Khosrew Pasha, held his final interview on the subject 
 with the French and English ambassadors in the sultan’s 
 palace at Therapia. “We are so beaten,” he observed, “we 
 
 * Baron Muffling arrived some days previous. At the commencement of 
 the campaign, Nicholas saw little prospect of a happy termination, and 
 therefore wished to induce Mahmoud to sue for peace. For this purpose, 
 the Prussian general was despatched, via Naples, with instructions to per- 
 suade Mahmoud to throw himself on the emperor’s magnanimity, and assure 
 him that he should have easy and honourable terms. Good — but owing to 
 a long journey, when he arrived at Pera affairs were widely changed. The 
 Russian troops were in the heart of Roumelia. Nevertheless, General 
 Muffling performed his mission to the letter ; whether he believed that the 
 promises of which he was the interpreter would be realized, I cannot say. 
 I suppose he did, for he is an honourable man. Mahmoud, in consequence, 
 reposing on his assurance, threw himself bond fide on the emperor’s gene- 
 rosity. Had he known its extent, pride might have induced a struggle. 
 Days elapsed without a word respecting the terms transpiring, when sud- 
 denly Baron Muffling demanded an audience. It was granted, and the sultan 
 presented him and his secretary with diamond snuff-boxes. Conjectures 
 concerning this step were afloat, but none hit the reason. The same 
 evening General Muffling gave a diplomatic dinner, and the next day put to 
 sea in a Genoese vessel, not allowing the master time to water, telling him 
 that he might water at Tenedos, or elsewhere. In a few days the hard 
 terms were known. The solution of the enigma proved to be, that he knew 
 them before, and withdrew from the scene to avoid the reproaches of Mah- 
 moud. But why, having cajoled him, (undesignedly,) seek for a token of 
 his approbation ? In his audience with the reis effendi, on his arrival, 
 General Muffling fainted from the heat. “ Malum omen,” said the Osman- 
 leys. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 203 
 
 cannot be beaten more; resistance is useless.” Had he 
 drawn bis sabre in the cause, he might have been justified in 
 giving that opinion, but he had not even seen a Russian 
 uniform. 
 
 All idea of hostility ceased, and September the 13th, 1829, 
 the peace was signed that gave a blow to Turkey from which 
 it cannot recover. By it Russia gained the entire eastern 
 coast of the Euxine as far as Poti, and brought her frontier 
 through the middle of Georgia; — a large slice, considering 
 that the emperor, a year previous, solemnly asserted that he 
 did not wish for any increase of territory. 
 
 The peace of Adrianople undeceived the Austrian cabinet, 
 which had constantly buoyed up the sultan with the prospect 
 of assistance from England. Mettemich was wrong for once, 
 but he cannot be accused of want of judgment. He knew 
 England’s true interests, and he conjectured that her minister 
 would have acted as he would have done in his place. It is 
 melancholy to think what an opportunity was lost of checking 
 Russia in her aggrandizing career; and that the Russian 
 cabinet expected that England would take advantage of it, was 
 proved by Diebitsch having orders to halt the moment an 
 English fleet should appear in the Black Sea. How nobly 
 might England have proclaimed, “ We destroyed the Turkish 
 fleet for the sake of humanity, but we will not permit that 
 another take advantage of that act to ruin the sultan.” How 
 justly would she have entered on the contest ; how Europe 
 would have appreciated it! France would have cheered her 
 on ; Austria and Prussia would have gratefully thanked her. 
 The most satisfactory results would have been obtained, 
 without any cost to speak of, by the gentle pressure of her 
 peculiar and powerful arm. Two English line-of-battle ships 
 and three frigates, joined to the sultan’s fleet, would have 
 turned the scale of superiority on the Euxine. Six English 
 line-of-battle ships with frigates, leaving the Turks on one 
 side, would have been more than sufficient to keep every 
 Russian ship in port, in which case, instead of having imposed 
 a peace at Adrianople, the emperor would have had to regret 
 the destruction of his fleet and arsenal at Sevastopol. Had 
 
204 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the Turks had the command of the sea, Varna would not have 
 been taken in 1828; neither in 1829 would ten thousand 
 Eussian troops, with magazines and artillery, have been landed 
 at Sizepolis, without which important appui Diebitsch would 
 not have ventured to cross the Balkans. Irretrievable is the 
 opportunity lost ; now one hundred line-of-battle ships on the 
 Euxine could not affect the march of a Eussian army to 
 Constantinople. It has no need of the co-operation of a 
 single ship. Its next campaign will commence from the 
 Balkans, fifteen days’ march from the capital. Hitherto 
 Eussia’s greatest difficulty (till now insurmountable) has con- 
 sisted in getting through Wallachia and Bulgaria. It required 
 a year at' least to reduce their strong places, and this delay 
 in an unhealthy climate occasioned a loss on the average of 
 from 50,000 to 100,000 men; add to which the seeds of dis- 
 ease and discouragement sown among the surviving troops. 
 Not one of these obstacles now exist, except the sickly climate, 
 which is of no consequence when troops are not obliged to 
 remain long in it. The fortifications on both sides of the Danube 
 are razed ; Varna* is razed, Schumla is degarnished, and 
 over the Balkans, in addition to the Eoman pass by Schumla, 
 are two roads, between it and the sea, now practicable for 
 every sort of vehicle. Nor will Turkey, were she inclined and 
 sufficiently rich, he able to restore her fortresses ; any indi- 
 cations to that effect will he carefully watched by Eussia, and, 
 if persisted in, he made a pretext for war. Thus her frontier 
 — now the Danube instead of the Pruth — is perfectly hare. I 
 say the Danube, for it is idle to suppose that Moldavia and 
 Wallachia, though tributary to the Porte, do not virtually 
 belong to Eussia; she will fashion them to her will, enlist 
 their inhabitants by conscription, oblige their provisional 
 government to make roads throughout, and to keep magazines, 
 and all means of transport ready for troops. No one can he 
 
 * In the Peace of Adrianople, as published, no mention is made of Varna 
 or Schumla ; but by a secret article the works of the former are razed : and 
 from the latter every gun is removed, it having no fortifications to destroy; 
 and the Russians farther insisted that the guns should be transported over 
 the Balkans, whereby to prevent the place being put in a state of defence 
 without great trouble. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 205 
 
 duped by the magnanimity of the emperor in restoring those 
 provinces to the sultan. 
 
 The most onerous part of the emperor’s magnanimity, was 
 the seven millions sterling demanded as indemnity for the 
 expenses of the war, — a trifling sum compared with the 
 treasures supposed to he in the seraglio, and which have been 
 described by some travellers with an amusing exactness, con- 
 sidering that they never could have seen them. The supposi- 
 tion is not unreasonable, when we consider that for ages the 
 riches of the empire have flowed into that reservoir, only over- 
 flowing on favourites; that Turkey is the appanage of the 
 house of Othman, and that the pashas of the provinces have 
 ever been sponges. True, the basin wherein they have been 
 repeatedly dipped is nearly dry; but where are the sqeezings? 
 Converted into jewels, I believe, judging from the profusion 
 displayed ; for, in addition to those employed in the decora- 
 tion of the royal women, the royal horses, and the royal pipes, 
 the ranks of the officers of the nizam dgeditt are marked by 
 crescents, suns, laurels, &c., composed of diamonds, worn on 
 the left breast. Constantinople has always been the great 
 market of jewellery from the west: quantities were brought to 
 it at the commencement of the revolution, property of emigres. 
 The presents alone brought by the Christian ambassadors, 
 generally precious stones, must by this time form a large col- 
 lection. It is a great pity that Mahmoud did not convert a 
 great portion of this useless wealth to a more available form, 
 (as did one of his predecessors, Mahomet IV., 1688 , in as 
 awkward a crisis,) and pay his debts with it, instead of laying 
 an extra taxation, and — cruel measure ! — monopolizing the sale 
 of provisions in the large cities, thereby completing the aliena- 
 tion of his impoverished subjects, punished for the obstinacy of 
 their master, — a consideration that should make a conqueror 
 abstain from exacting a tribute, unless the country subdued 
 enjoy a representative government, in which case the inhabi- 
 tants cannot complain, having agreed to the war, and voted 
 supplies for it. But when an absolute monarch is conquered, 
 the case is quite altered ; the people, who have no hand in 
 making war or peace, suffer, while the author of it does not 
 
206 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 lose one luxury. In justice, the conqueror should compel him 
 to live as a private person, and take the revenues appropriated 
 to his personal expenditure, till the sum required is paid. 
 
 I should now recur to the tragic scenes that were acted in 
 and about Constantinople during the eventful period between 
 the 24th of August and the 14th of September; hut previously, 
 I will briefly detail the principal movements of the Eussian 
 army in this memorable campaign, the result of which reduced 
 an empire to extremities — paralyzed by a Protean disorgani- 
 zation. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 Passage of the Danube — Varna — Battle of Koulevscha — Schumla — Passage 
 of Kamptchik — Of the Balkans — Battle of Aidos — Bourgas — Selimnia 
 — Adrianople — Pasha of Scutari. 
 
 To the unvarying hostile policy of Eussia towards her 
 Turkish neighbour — acted on since a century with consum- 
 mate prudence, its deformity concealed under the mask of 
 religion; dictated by calculating, and supported by hereditary 
 ambition ; never allowing its wary course to he interrupted, 
 except when continuance tended to defeat its object, and then 
 in apparent deference to the principles of the balance of power; 
 ever leading to territorial accession, calling for, hut never 
 raising the opposition of Europe — two immediate causes may 
 he added as having impelled her legions towards the Danube 
 in 1828; the military change in Turkey, and the battle of 
 Navarine. In the former, Eussia apprehended the germs of a 
 new power, which, if suffered to develop itself, might become 
 as formidable as the Janizzaries under the Amuraths and the 
 Bajazets; she thought that the time was approaching when her 
 armies would cease to march against undisciplined hordes, and 
 her steppes to he the granary of Europe, supplanted by the plains 
 of Eoumelia ; and that then, or never, was the time to crush her 
 rival, while exhausted with internal convulsions. But to 
 ensure rapid success, in default of which, a war in the feverish 
 state of Europe would have been imprudent, liable to he 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 207 
 
 aborted by foreign interference, something else was wanting. 
 That something was the unexpected destruction of the Otto- 
 man fleet, which gave Russia the unopposed command of the 
 Black Sea. To neglect such an advantage was not in her 
 nature. The emperor swore that justice was his guide, and 
 Europe let him act. 
 
 Accordingly began a war, which, if conducted with skill, 
 would have been determined the same year ; but the general 
 difficulties of place and climate were underrated, and the minor 
 obstacles, the military resources of the Osmanleys, overrated. 
 Hence the great faults which marked the first campaign, 
 wherein, it is not saying too much, had the Russian army been 
 opposed by any other enemy, or had the Turks even been com- 
 manded by a man of talent, it would have been utterly destroyed. 
 Its march as far as Bucharest was rapid. The army consisted 
 of one hundred and fifty thousand men, including sixteen 
 thousand cavalry and eight thousand Cossacks, with a splendid 
 train of artillery, reinforced later in the season by twenty 
 thousand of the guards. The third corps, fifty thousand strong, 
 with the emperor in person, first reached the Danube, opposite 
 Issatscha, the pasasge of which was facilitated by a dyke, two 
 miles in length, constructed expressly over the morass, and by the 
 aid of a tribe of Cossacks,* (established in the vicinity, who 
 claimed Russian protection,) for which the hetman was created 
 a colonel, and received the cross of St. George. By their boats 
 and address a few battalions were transported to the right 
 bank, the Osmanleys fled from their batteries, a bridge was 
 thrown over, abutting on the dyke, the army crossed, and the 
 fortress of Issatscha, with two pashas, immediately surrendered. 
 
 Here the troubles of the Russian army commenced. Disease, 
 
 * Another tribe, also, near Babadagh, placed themselves under Russian 
 protection. These defections were of great import to the Russians, since 
 m all preceding wars they had suffered greatly from the opposition of the 
 Cossack tribes on the Danube. In the present war, too, some of the tribes 
 showed fidelity in the Turkish cause ; one, particularly, near Rassowa : in 
 revenge, the Russians surrounded it, set fire to the village, and killed every 
 human being. To justify such atrocities, Russia pretends that the Cossacks 
 on the Danube are rebels to her, because, when their original country was 
 conquered by Catherine, their ancestors retreated south, preferring Turkish 
 to Russian domination. 
 
208 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 generated in that most malarious spot, Turkish Dobruscha, 
 made rapid havoc; Varna’s brick wall checked the impe- 
 rial guards ; and instead of vigorously besieging Silistria, the 
 most important place on the Danube, twenty thousand men 
 were wasted in investing Schumla. 
 
 On the other side, Omer Vrione was in force at Dervish 
 Keuy, on the Kamptchik-, and the grand vizir had some troops 
 at Aidos. Their junction and march on Varna, an operation 
 dreaded by the Russians, might have raised the siege, on 
 account of the disadvantageous position of the besieging army, 
 which was so completely divided by the extensive morassy lake 
 Dewno, that one part could not have supported the other under 
 fourteen hours’ march. The half of the army north of the 
 lake conducted the siege ; the other half was intended to hold 
 Omer Vrione in check ; and the troops before Schumla, in 
 danger of starvation, depending on convoys from Wallachia 
 for daily bread, prevented Husseyin from coming out. A fine 
 army was thus kept in a ruinous state of inactivity, blockading 
 a few irregular troops in order that Varna might be taken. 
 Its tardy capture was a poor compensation for the immense 
 loss in men and horses that preceded during the rains, and 
 followed in the sudden frost which put a stop to all operations. 
 Thirty thousand horses died in the retreat from the Danube ; 
 and, in consequence, the wretched Wallachian peasantry were 
 harnessed in droves, men and women, to draw the artillery. 
 The enfeebled, half-starved division before Schumla, not having 
 this resource, barely succeeded, by the sacrifice of its baggage, 
 in saving its cannon, which must have also been lost had the 
 brave Husseyin, taking advantage of its exhausted state, 
 harassed it in its painful march to the Danube. 
 
 The faults of the Turks were equally glaring, and deprived 
 them of brilliant opportunities ; though had they been tenfold 
 greater, what could be said ? What other could he expected 
 from commanders ignorant of everything relating to modern 
 warfare, who do not know the nature of the ground they act 
 on, who have no hooks or maps, or place any value on infor- 
 mation ? The Russian generals, on the contrary, had a perfect 
 knowledge of the country; it might have been supposed of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 209 
 
 the art of war, they laid good plans of it, had officers who 
 had been employed for years in examining it, and they were 
 not ignorant of the arts of corruption; several pashas know 
 their gold. Yet, to Russian errors, not to Turkish valour, 
 must be attributed the disasters of this campaign. The deso- 
 lation and the sickliness of Bulgaria are proverbial; yet the 
 commissariat was shamefully deficient, and the medical de- 
 partment was not equal to many a charlatan establishment. 
 The presence of the emperor embroiled all; added to the 
 parade, but deadened the springs of war — decision and expe- 
 dition — more necessary against an unskilful foe, since more 
 felt. He was surrounded by a crowd of officers, some of whom 
 had served in the war of 1811, some had read about it, others 
 had thought of the subject — all gave their opinion — all were 
 listened to. The field-marshal, Wittgenstein, became dis- 
 gusted; Diebitch fell sick; Mentschikof was wounded. Use- 
 less precautions were adopted ; a mistake which should have 
 been avoided in their old arena. The emperor wished to see a 
 siege, and accordingly Varna, instead of being assaulted, — or 
 left alone, which it might have been, since Kovarna, twenty 
 miles north, served all the purposes of a port, — was besieged 
 en regie : though it must be alleged, in excuse for not storming 
 it, that the Russians have great reluctance in attacking the 
 Turks behind stone walls, which, when they have time to 
 screw their courage up to the sticking point, they defend with 
 valour, with cool aim and deadly cut dispute stone by stone. 
 Sabres and pistols are more destructive in the breach than 
 bayonets, and every inhabitant of a Turkish town being habi- 
 tuated from childhood to the use of such arms, takes part in 
 the defence. These considerations, joined to recollections of 
 terrible failures, Rutschuck in 1811, and the receipt one against 
 Brailow,* rendered Russian generals cautious. 
 
 * The failure of the assault of Rudschuck caused such discouragement 
 among the troops, that the emperor prohibited any more assaults being 
 given. The grand duke Michael directed the siege of Brailow : the assault 
 on it totally failed ; all was prepared for making a second, two days after, 
 when it capitulated. The Russian bulletins of this siege allow seven 
 hundred men killed, and fourteen hundred wounded ; but Russian state- 
 ments always require multiplying or dividing, according as they relate to 
 themselves or to the enemy. 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 However, after all mistakes, all losses, the campaign ter- 
 minated to the decided advantage of the Russians; and 
 though the hulk of the army retreated over the Danube, ad- 
 vanced posts retained possession of Pravodi, Koslogie, &c., 
 more in ostentation than for any real purpose; the garrisons, 
 being isolated, were exposed to he cut to pieces if the enemy 
 moved. 
 
 Wittgenstein retired. Diebitsch took his place, and passed 
 the winter very actively in filling the thinned ranks of the 
 army, and in organizing the Wallachians, who found their 
 protectors very troublesome, and gave proofs of discontent by 
 refusing to cultivate their fields, alleging that they had not 
 been paid for the harvest last gathered. Diebitsch sent officers 
 to make them work, at the same time to seize on all their 
 carts for the transport service, with these remarkable words : 
 “ If cattle cannot be found to draw them, you will harness 
 men; if there are not men enough, you will harness women.” 
 But as some indocility was still manifested, he summoned the 
 boyars, and reproached them sharply for their lukewarmness 
 in the Russian cause. One prepared to reply. “ Hold !” says 
 Diebitsch ; “ does any one dare to reply to me, the emperors 
 representative ! to hear and to obey is all I require.” Where 
 the heavy artillery was cantoned was no forage : the nearest 
 magazines were distant sixty miles, and therefore, wanting 
 means of transport, the general commanding it proposed re- 
 moving the horses till the spring : on which Diebitsch issued 
 this order to the officer of the district containing the forage : 
 “ You will take as many men and as many women as are 
 sufficient, and load them each with as many pounds as they 
 can bear, and employ them in conveying forage to the canton- 
 ments of the heavy artillery.” My narrator, who was present, 
 and whose brother put the order in execution, told me that 
 half of these bipeds died on the road. After all, what are 
 these atrocities in an army where they are of daily occurrence? 
 Russian officers smile when they hear strangers affix weight 
 to them. Collectively they cannot be blamed, for it is part of 
 their education to undervalue the human species. What are 
 Russian subjects considered, but as being good food for the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 211 
 
 cannon ? How is a new province valued, but as it is favour- 
 able for conscription laws ? Trade, manufactures, arts, sci- 
 ences, the people’s happiness, all sink, with the Russian 
 government, before the sublime objects — conquests, or rather 
 the appropriation of neighbouring provinces. “ The end 
 sanctifies the means,” was Napoleon’s motto, but he calculated 
 on the tables of glory, and eclipsed the deformities of the 
 game by the halo which he threw round it. 
 
 The emperor wisely abstained from sharing the pleasures of 
 the second campaign. He gave Diebitsch carte blanche. 
 After a few unimportant affairs in Little Wallachia in repulsing 
 sorties, it really commenced by the commander-in-chief sitting 
 down in person to besiege Silistria. The divisions of Generals 
 Roth and Reidiger took up positions in the triangle formed by 
 Silistria, Schumla, and Varna. To oppose them, about forty 
 thousand troops, two -thirds irregular, the other third little 
 better, were entrenched in Schumla under Redschid Pasha, the 
 newly appointed grand vizir, a man of distinguished personal 
 bravery, and well known by two unsuccessful campaigns against 
 the Greeks. To him was addressed the sultan’s laconic mes- 
 sage in 1825: “ Missolonghi or thy head!” in the same strain 
 as the Comite de Salut Public wrote to General Custines, 
 September, 1793, “ Delivrez Valenciennes on apportez ici 
 votre tete.” Less fortunate than the vizir, the general’s head 
 rolled on the Place de la Revolution. Time had not matured 
 Redschid ’s military judgment. He adopted a contrary system 
 to that of his predecessors, whose defensive tactics had been 
 fatal to the Turks, without considering that the spirit of enter- 
 prise which would have been prudent against an exhausted, 
 dispirited, retreating army at the commencement of a severe 
 winter, was temerity against fresh troops advancing in the fine 
 season, and anxious to redeem their lost credit. At the same 
 time it must be said, in favour of his ideas, that he had one 
 way to change the war — by proceeding straight to Silistria. A 
 rapid march would have deceived General Roth, and a com- 
 bined attack with the garrison would have placed Diebitsch in 
 an awkward position. Diebitsch might have been defeated; 
 if so, the divisions of Roth and Reidiger, cut off from the 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Danube, must have fallen back on Varna. The different gar- 
 risons would then have swelled the vizir’s army; the Bosniaks 
 and the Albanians would have joined him on the news; and the 
 fanaticism of the Mussulmans, thus revived, would have so 
 operated as to have driven the Russians beyond the Pruth. 
 Nor is this chimerical; the pasha of Widdin,* the preceding 
 year, nearly produced the same effect. The attempt, however, 
 was not made, therefore conjecture is useless. The vizir’s 
 enterprise confined itself to sorties, which ended by his falling 
 into a trap. May 12, he left Schumla with fifteen thousand 
 men, and five days after, under cover of a fog, made an attack 
 on Arnaoutlarkeny : it nearly proved successful ; hut the gar- 
 rison of the village, consisting of two regiments of infantry 
 with a few pieces of artillery, made a fine resistance, and 
 obliged him, after two attempts, to retire into a neighbouring 
 valley. Meanwhile, General Roth arrived with reinforcements ; 
 seeing the (natural) disorder of the vizir’s troops, he ordered 
 a regiment of cavalry to complete it. The delhis repulsed it 
 in great style, pursued them to their own lines, broke a square 
 of infantry, sabred it, and took two guns and four caissons. 
 General Reuchteurn’s lancers restored the order of the day, 
 
 * Middle of August, 1828. The pasha of Widdin crossed the Danube 
 with 15,000 men, and attacked General Geismar, who was at Golang with 
 8000 men. He routed him. Geismar then, abandoning his magazines, 
 retreated on Czoroy, where he entrenched himself. The following day, he 
 was again attacked, and being again beaten, retired to Slatina, in expecta- 
 tion of receiving succour from Count Langeron. The inhabitants' of the 
 province, in consternation, tired of the Russians, and afraid of the Turks, 
 fled to the woods, or toward the Austrian frontiers. Sorties from Giurgewo 
 and Rudschuck increased the alarm. But unfortunately the Turks, instead 
 of following up these successes, and marching on Bucharest, by which they 
 would have cut off all supplies from the emperor in Bulgaria, collected the 
 booty — their only object — and retired to their fortresses. After some 
 weeks, Geismar, being reinforced by 2000 cavalry, again advanced to his 
 old scene of action, Czoroy. Here, September 25th, he was attacked by 
 the same pasha of Widden; the battle was obstinate, and lasted till night, 
 when Geismar gave it up, and changed his ground. He considered himself 
 lost, having only 6000 men left, and being in a funnel, from whence he 
 could not retreat without fighting again. From this dilemma, however, 
 some Bulgarian deserters from the enemy relieved him ; they informed him 
 that the Turks, considering the game sure, were, sentries and all, “ taking 
 their keyf;” i. e., making themselves happy. Geismar, on this, attacked 
 them at midnight. They made an irregular resistance for two hours, then 
 fled, abandoning tents and baggage. This was the most brilliant affair that 
 took place during the war. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 213 
 
 assisted by an explosion of ammunition among the Turks. 
 The grand vizir, then, being totally ignorant of the enemy’s 
 force in the neighbourhood, thinking, moreover, that he had 
 achieved a great feat, retired in the night, and the following 
 morning re-entered Schumla with his trophies, singing triumph. 
 
 Elated with this success, he left Schumla the second time, 
 with about forty thousand men and fifty cannon, with the 
 intention of bringing Roth to action ; but instead of following 
 up this intention, and attacking him where he was, in so un- 
 favourable a position that he could not have saved a regiment, 
 he altered his purpose, and drew olf to the right to invest 
 Pravodi, an insignificant place, defended by a redoubt on the 
 hill above it, and garrisoned by five thousand men. To storm 
 this redoubt, and then march into the place, would have been 
 the work of an hour; but instead of so doing, it was can- 
 nonaded for three days without effect, and three days longer 
 it might have been cannonaded, had not a Tartar arrived with 
 dispatches from the pasha left in command in Schumla, 
 acquainting Redschid that while he was endeavouring to take 
 Pravodi from the Russians, they might take Schumla from 
 him, as Roth was marching in that direction. This movement 
 was conformable to a plan of Diebitsch, who, as soon as he 
 heard of the vizir’s second appearance in the defiles of Pravodi, 
 hoped- to draw him into a general battle, by deceiving him as 
 to his own presence and the number of his troops. Trusting 
 to the want of intelligence in a Turkish leader to conceal his 
 operations, he left General Krassofsky in charge of the siege 
 of Silistria, and marched in person to the southward, sending 
 orders at the same time to Generals Roth and Reidiger to meet 
 him with their divisions at the village of Koulevscha. 
 
 A low chain of hills projects at right angles from the Balkans, 
 and terminates with an abrupt cliff in the direct line between 
 Schumla and Pravodi. At the foot of this cliff, on the western 
 side, stood Koulevscha, facing Schumla, at the distance of two 
 miles and three-quarters. On the eastern side, the ground is 
 broken into deep ravines, along the most difficult of which an 
 army must pass from Pravodi to gain the plain of Schumla, 
 and also wind round the cliff across the small valley in which 
 
214 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 it is embedded, and which embraces it like the concha of a 
 fountain, only wanting a stream from its brow to complete the 
 resemblance. 
 
 In this position, on the west side of the Koulevscha hills, 
 Diebitsch found himself at daylight, June 11th, with thirty-six 
 thousand men and one hundred pieces of cannon. He dis- 
 posed them so as to deceive the enemy. He posted a division 
 in the valley, its right leaning on the cliff, its left supported 
 by redoubts; the remainder of his troops he drew up behind 
 the hills, so as to be unseen from the ravine; and then, with a 
 well-grounded hope that not a Turk would escape him, waited 
 the grand vizir, who was advancing up the defile totally uncon- 
 scious that Diebitsch was in any other place than before 
 Silistria. He had broke up from Pravodi the day before, on 
 the receipt of his dispatch from Schumla, and was followed by 
 the Russian garrison, which had been reinforced by a regiment 
 of hussars; hut the general commanding it, instead of obeying 
 Diebitsch’s orders, and quietly tracking him until the battle 
 should have commenced, harassed his rear. To halt and drive 
 him back to Pravodi caused the vizir a delay of four hours? 
 without which he would have emerged from the defile the same 
 evening, and have gained Schumla before Diebitsch got into 
 position. 
 
 This little affair of Marcoffsky caused the disgrace of General 
 
 , for having acted on his own responsibility, though it 
 
 certainly brought on the battle, by detaining the bird till the 
 net was spread. 
 
 In the course of the night the vizir was informed that the 
 enemy had taken post between him and Schumla, and threatened 
 his retreat. He might still have avoided the issue of a battle, 
 by making his way transversely across the defiles to the 
 Kamptchik, sacrificing his baggage and cannon; but deeming 
 that he had only Roth to deal with, he, as in that case was his 
 duty, prepared to force a passage ; and the few troops that he 
 saw drawn up in the valley on gaining the little wood fringing 
 it, in the morning, confirmed his opinion. He counted on 
 success; yet, to make more sure, halted to let his artillery 
 take up a flanking position on the north side of the valley. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 215 
 
 The circuitous and had route, however, delaying this manoeuvre, 
 he could not restrain the impatience of the delhis. Towards 
 noon, “ Allah, Allah her,” they made a splendid charge; they 
 repeated it, broke two squares, and amused themselves nearly 
 two hours in carving the Russian infantry, their own infantry, 
 the while, admiring them from the skirts of the wood. Diebitsch, 
 expecting every moment that the vizir would advance to com- 
 plete the success of his cavalry — thereby sealing his own 
 destruction — ordered Count Pahlen, whose division was in the 
 valley, and who demanded reinforcements, to maintain his 
 ground to the last man. The count obeyed, though suffering 
 cruelly; hut the vizir, fortunately, instead of seconding his 
 adversary’s intentions, quietly remained on the eminence, 
 enjoying the gallantry of his delhis, and waiting till his artillery 
 should be able to open, when he might descend and claim the 
 victory with ease. Another ten minutes would have sufficed 
 to envelope him ; but Diebitsch, ignorant of the cause of his 
 backwardness, supposing that he intended amusing him till 
 night, whereby to effect a retreat, and unwilling to lose more 
 men, suddenly displayed his whole force, and opened a tre- 
 mendous fire on the astonished Turks. In an instant the 
 rout was general, horse and foot ; the latter threw away their 
 arms, and many of the nizam dgeditt were seen clinging to the 
 tails of the delhis’ horses, as they clambered over the hills. 
 So complete and instantaneous was the flight, that scarcely a 
 prisoner was made. Redschid strove to check the panic by 
 personal valour, but in vain. He was compelled to draw his 
 sabre in self-defence : he fled to the Kamptchik, accompanied 
 by a score of personal retainers, crossed the mountains, and on 
 the fourth day re-entered Schumla. 
 
 This eventful battle, fought by the cavalry on one side, and 
 a few thousand infantry on the other, decided the fate of 
 Turkey; — immense in its consequences compared with the 
 trifling loss sustained, amounting, on the side of the Russians, 
 to three thousand killed and wounded; on that of the Turks, 
 killed, wounded, and prisoners, to about four thousand. Its 
 effect, however, was the same as though the whole Turkish 
 army had been slain. It was morally annihilated. Few, ex- 
 
216 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVEL'S. 
 
 cepting the delhis, who fled that day, returned to their colours ; 
 the remainder spread panic among their countrymen. 
 
 The Russians gained the victory — could they do otherwise ? 
 — hut the honour of the battle was due to the delhis, who, the 
 second time within a month, broke the enemy’s squares; a fact 
 which shows either that the Russian infantry is not so good as 
 it has been vaunted, on account of its machine-like qualities — 
 in all respects, since, machine-like, it cannot rectify itself when 
 disordered — and its stoicism, which gave rise to the French 
 proverb, “Tjl faut deux coups de bayonette pour tuer un Russe 
 or that Asiatic cavalry is superior to European. Individually, 
 there can be no doubt, the Turks are admirably qualified for 
 cavalry, on account of the perfect command that they have over 
 their steeds, and the severe training* that these undergo, not 
 in relation to war, but simply as riding-horses. Turks make 
 their horses go in the direction they wish under any circum- 
 stances; against a wall, a barrel of fire, or a chevaux de frize ; 
 and this power, joined to a habitude of firing their pistols, and 
 hurling their jerreeds correctly at a gallop, makes them for- 
 midable in a charge to any infantry. In addition to such 
 advantage, it must he observed that Turkish cavalry can charge 
 vigorously from one hundred yards, which facility of locomo- 
 tion is extremely valuable in a broken, cut-up country. Rus- 
 sian officers informed me that their cavalry could not have 
 charged with effect at Koulevscha, the ground being so very 
 unfavourable; and this inability was proved by their not being 
 able, even the Cossacks, to pursue the fugitives. I was after- 
 wards on the spot with Captain Chesney, R.A., a talented 
 officer, and had not the fact been indisputable, we would not 
 
 * The training of a horse in Turkey takes plaee in a paved court, not 
 above fifty yards square. He is rode full butt at the wall on either side, 
 till he can turn on a pivot, or stop at once — the latter art is most difficult. 
 He is then taught to gallop in narrow circles ; to start at full speed from a 
 stand-still; not to heed blows from jerreeds, or pistols let off between his 
 ears and before his eyes. In six weeks he is complete ; sure-footed as a 
 mule, with the bound of a gazelle ; gentle as a lamb, and docile as a 
 spaniel; yet with blood to make his veins swell like ropes, his nostrils 
 expand like globes of fire. As all Turks, for amusement, constantly practise 
 these movements, it follows that every horse in the kingdom is fit for war. 
 Hence the ease in Turkey of forming large bodies of fine cavalry in a short 
 space of time, when the war is popular. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 217 
 
 have believed that the delhis had made the charges ascribed to 
 them. 
 
 The day after the battle of Koulevscha, Diehitsch sat down 
 before Schumla, which, being ungarrisoned, excepting by its 
 usual inhabitants, who were insufficient to man one-third of the 
 lines — moreover, dispirited by what had passed before their 
 eyes — might have been taken the same day; hut his evil genius 
 prevailed, and made him think that a strong garrison remained 
 in the place. Although a brilliant trophy, Schumla would have 
 proved a losing acquisition, as, in that case, the grand vizir, 
 beaten out of his foolish solicitude about it, would have in- 
 trenched himself in the mountains, and have guarded all the 
 passes. 
 
 He again collected thirty thousand men, chiefly drawn from 
 the posts at the other passes, and sat down in Schumla, ex- 
 pecting to he besieged. But no indication of the sort occurred. 
 Diehitsch, throwing up redoubts to protect his camp, contented 
 himself with repelling the enemy’s frequent sorties. One or 
 two redoubts were stormed, on either side, with considerable 
 loss; hut the chief amusement lay in some brilliant affairs be- 
 tween the delhis and the Russian lancers, which made the 
 intervening plain a field of arms. It was chivalrous, I have 
 heard Russian officers say, to see the former issue from the 
 gates of the city, and, throwing their lances in the air, charge 
 over the plain like a collected flight of birds, their high caps 
 drooping with their speed, their loose sleeves and horses’ tails 
 flying in the air — cross lances, kill, and have killed, a man or 
 two — then halt, wheel, and disperse in a moment, no two to- 
 gether, to avoid their usual salutation of grape, which, on 
 account of their extreme rapidity of movement, rarely touched 
 them. On one of those occasions Redschid headed them, and 
 narrowly escaped being taken, though they were doing little 
 more than playing a jerreed game — a gallop round the ring, a 
 feint charge, and a taunt or two at the lancers, who kept back. 
 Suddenly a masked battery opened, and sent the delhis flying, 
 their heads on their horses’ necks, forgetful of their gallant 
 leader. He remained alone, butt to a Cossack captain, who, 
 attracted by the richness of his attire, dashed out of the ranks, 
 
218 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 and seized his arm. The suddenness of the action deprived 
 Redschid of his presence of mind, and another minute would 
 have seen a grand vizir prisoner, for the first time, had not an 
 Arab, who had checked his steed in time, galloped up at that 
 critical moment. He shot the Cossack through the body, 
 seized the vizir’s bridle, turned, and led him, ventre a terre, 
 into the town. 
 
 In this position, which wearied the Russians beyond mea- 
 sure, by requiring a constant alertness to meet the night attacks 
 of their irregular foe, some weeks passed ; and the rapid mor- 
 tality among them, caused hy fever and want of medical 
 assistance, scarcely counterbalanced by the reinforcements 
 daily arriving from Wallachia, reminded the commander-in- 
 chief that he must cross the mountains, or retreat to a more 
 healthy spot. The former project his generals opposed, alleging 
 insufficient force. But Diebitsch was determined. He knew 
 his resources. He was aware of the disaffection at Constanti- 
 nople; he was certain of the co-operation of the Christians in 
 Roumelia; and .he calculated the demoralizing effects of the 
 late battle as equal to fifty thousand men. 
 
 The nicest point was to attain the passes of Kiupri Keuy and 
 Dervish Keuy without exciting suspicions, in the grand vizir, of 
 his real intentions. Much address was not necessary. The Greeks 
 in Schumla, all Russian spies, announced that he was more 
 than ever intent on the defence of that place. Accordingly, as 
 the besieging army, from Silistria,* came up to supply the 
 vacancies, Diebitsch sent off the corps of Roth and Reidiger, on 
 the nights of the 13th and 15th of July respectively, so as to 
 arrive simultaneously at Kiupri Keuy and Dervish Keuy, on 
 the Kamptchik: himself followed on the 17th, with Pahlen’s 
 corps, to support either, leaving General Krassovsky to keep 
 the blockade of Schumla, and to amuse the grand vizir ; who, 
 still prepossessed with the idea that he, or Schumla, till taken, 
 must be the main object of the war, conceived this flank move- 
 ment, combined with the arrival of Krassovsky’s division, to be 
 
 * This place capitulated June 22, 1829, after a gallant defence, at two 
 intervals, of six months. In I&10, Count Langeron took it m seven days. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 219 
 
 the prelude of a general attack on Schumla, by turning it from 
 the east. He therefore sent off Tartars to Joussouf Pasha, 
 the commander at Kiupri Keuy, for reinforcements. Joussouf 
 replied, that the enemy were actually in sight, and that he 
 required succour instead ; hut before this answer reached the 
 vizir, poor Joussouf, with his pair of tails, was prisoner. 
 
 The two first corps marched by Dewno, through a deluge of 
 rain, that made their men drop every yard. Their loss, during 
 this forced march, amounted to near ten thousand men: “ Mais 
 il-y-a tant cle ces gens la,” said a Russian aide-de-camp, 
 talking of this at Pera. General Reidiger first crossed the 
 Kamptchik, by throwing a bridge over it in the night, three 
 miles below the works of Kiupri Keuy ; he was not opposed. 
 In the morning, the Turks, finding themselves turned, drew 
 up on the heights, and made a show of resistance, hut did 
 not wait to receive a charge. Having secured this bloodless, 
 hut important conquest, he descended the right hank to Der- 
 vish Keuy, where General Roth had taken the enemy’s works 
 in flank, in a similar manner, by crossing the stream, unop- 
 posed, two miles higher up, and had immediately followed up 
 his advantage, by marching three miles, in a northerly direc- 
 tion, to Dervish Jowan, where Ali Pasha, the commander- 
 in-chief on the Kamptchik, was posted with a considerable 
 force. He completely succeeded. Ali, after a faint resistance, 
 fled, leaving his cannon, a few killed, and two hundred 
 prisoners. 
 
 From Dervish Keuy, two roads led over the mountains; one 
 by the coast, the other, transversely, towards Aidos. Vast 
 woods overhung them, by means of which — cutting down the 
 trees across them, and planting batteries in the intervals, so as 
 to enfilade the zigzag paths — the Turks might have made a 
 good resistance, even after their surprise on the Kamptchik. 
 But the panic there sown spread from post to post; and the 
 dust raised by the heads of the Russian columns was, in 
 general, their signal of flight. 
 
 By those two roads the divisions passed, the cavalry leading 
 their horses, more for the* purpose of being secure from rifle- 
 
220 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 men, than from any difficulty of the route. July 20th, General 
 Reidiger reached the highest point* of his march, and the next 
 day descended into the plains of Roumelia; thus completing, 
 without opposition, this ever-memorable passage, which the 
 Russians, in their bulletins, called so glorious for their arms ; 
 and which the Smyrna Gazette, or Courier d’ Orient, compared 
 (seriously), in the obstinacy of its defence, to the pass of 
 Thermopylee. I wonder that the editor’s obsequiousness had 
 not extended the comparison, and immortalized the pasha, who 
 should have made a stepping-stone of his body, by clothing 
 him in the garb of Leonidas. To the left the Turks showed 
 equal pusillanimity. They did not offer to dispute General 
 Roth’s march till he came within a league of Messembria; a 
 body of live thousand then affected to stand, but did not 
 wait a junction. Messembria immediately surrendered; and 
 Ahiouli followed the example on being summoned; also 
 Bourgas. 
 
 The two generals then united, and made dispositions for at- 
 tacking four pashas, who were encamped on the plain near 
 Aidos, with twenty thousand men, consisting, in part, of nu- 
 merous fugitives, and actuated, all, by the worst spirit. Their 
 wisest plan would have been to have retreated gradually 
 through Roumelia, taking up every favourable position, and 
 leaving each when about to be attacked. I have heard several 
 Russian generals state their belief, that had this army acted in 
 this manner, the delay thereby occasioned would have been 
 fatal to the success of the campaign, on account of the scarcity 
 of provisions, and the increasing sickness among the Russian 
 troops; added to the confidence which would have gradually 
 taken place, in consequence, among the Turks, reinforced, may 
 be, during their retreat. Unfortunately, the pashas confided 
 in their strength, and, July 25th, drew up their irregular 
 multitude in order of battle. The Russians, of course, had 
 children’s play; for there were no delhis opposed to them, 
 
 * According to the surveys of the Russian engineers, the height of the 
 Balkan, where the army crossed, is 1800 feet; at the pass of Kasan, twelve 
 hours west of Schumla, 3000 feet; at its greatest elevation, about the 
 neighbourhood of Sophia, barely 6000 feet. What mole-hills to make such 
 a fuss about! 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 221 
 
 to break their squares, or to charge their artillery. Half 
 an hour decided the affair; when the Turks, throwing away 
 their arms and their upper garments, fled in the direction of 
 Selimnia. Their entire camp, with their cannon and ammu- 
 nition, fell into the victors’ hands. The pashas’ tents showed 
 well. Piles of delicious tobacco, cachemires, amber, and other 
 valuable contents of oriental pavilions, became the prize of the 
 fortunate Cossacks who first entered them. In the square of 
 Aidos, through which the fugitives passed, one Osmanley re- 
 mained, alone, (like Codes on the bridge,) to oppose the 
 Russian column marching into the town ; and, on its approach- 
 ing within hearing, apostrophized the infidels in no very 
 courteous terms. The column halted in surprise. “ Bring 
 that madman here !” said the commanding officer to one of his 
 men. The Osmanley showed that he could act as well as 
 speak: he levelled his piece, and the soldier fell. Another left 
 the ranks: he fired a pistol, and laid him on the ground. 
 Another shared the same fate. He then drew his ataghan, and 
 was rushing on the foremost ranks, when a volley riddled him, 
 and sent his soul to the arms of the expectant houris, which 
 never before received such a hero — one, of a nation, who pre- 
 ferred death to surviving his country’s dishonour. 
 
 General Diebitsch followed the steps of General Reidiger, 
 greeted by the Bulgarians of the Balkans, to whom he ad- 
 dressed proclamations, telling them that they Tvere freed from 
 the dominion of the grand signior, and annexed for ever to the 
 Russian empire; thus taking from them the option of neu- 
 trality. Thousands of these mountaineers laboured, gratis, in 
 clearing the passes *of the materiel left by the divisions in their 
 rapid march, and in accommodating the roads for the expe- 
 ditious transport of supplies. The carriages of the general 
 officers were soon enabled to pass the hills at a trot. The 
 commander-in-chief established his quarters at Bourgas for 
 some days, in order to make arrangements with the fleet, in 
 case of a retreat becoming necessary. A regiment of Cos- 
 sacks were sent up the great Schumla pass to Czalykavak, for 
 the double purpose of raising the Bulgarians and of watching 
 the grand vizir’s movements. A detachment was ordered to 
 
222 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 march down the coast to Ignada, and another half-way towards 
 Adrianople; both with instructions to elate the Greek popu- 
 lation with promises that the country was to he annexed to 
 Russia; and to calm the Mussulmans with assurances that the 
 war was made only on the sultan, who would he compelled to 
 abandon his plans of reform. Diebitsch was excessively 
 anxious to ascertain the state of public feeling in Adrianople, 
 before proceeding further; hut the Archbishop of Bourgas 
 conjured him to advance, telling him that all was assured — the 
 Greeks enthusiastic, and the Turks in dismay. “ What proof 
 can you give me?” asked the general; “ the step is hardy; I 
 must not fail.” — “ I will send a person to Adrianople,” replied 
 the archbishop, “ who shall report to you the actual state of 
 things.” A Bulgarian of trust was accordingly sent. He was 
 so little suspected, that he obtained a lodging in the pasha s 
 palace, through the favour of some of the officers whom he 
 knew. Having remained there some days, sounding all parties, 
 he went to Selimnia, to report agreeable intelligence to the 
 general, and to deliver him letters from the Archbishop of 
 Adrianople, who invited him to lose no time in coming while 
 the consternation was fresh. 
 
 From Bourgas, the general marched, by Karnabat, on Se- 
 limnia, where part of the Turkish army, defeated at Aidos, had 
 rallied. It was also incumbent on him to visit that important 
 town, as being the capital of the Bulgarians of Boumelia, whom 
 it was necessary to draw into revolt. The divisions of his army 
 united, August 13th, before Selimnia; hut ere a shot was fired, 
 the Osmanleys were already in full flight, harassed by the Bul- 
 garians, who killed about one hundred, and sacked the dwell- 
 ings of the Mussulman inhabitants; then, being fairly com- 
 mitted with their old masters, they cordially embraced the 
 cause of the Russians, who, in the first place, armed them, 
 and to whom, in recompence, they were of incalculable benefit. 
 They supplied their new allies (and, as they believed, fellow- 
 subjects) with transport, with provision, with forage, with 
 clothes, with guides, with interpreters, and all gratis. In short, 
 they were an artery of the expedition. The day following, 
 five thousand men were sent up the Kasan pass to expel Suley- ■ 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 223 
 
 man Pasha, posted at Kasan. Suleyman instantly fled, with 
 his troops, to the north side of the mountains. The detach- 
 ment weeded the adjacent villages of Turks, armed the Bul- 
 garians, and, leaving parties of Cossacks to organize them, 
 and to prevent the enemy, if possible, from coming over the 
 pass, returned the second day to Selimnia, where all was pre- 
 pared for striking the grand blow. Nothing hitherto had failed. 
 The Christians were in open revolt, the Mussulmans in dismay ; 
 and even the movements of the Turkish chieftains appeared to 
 have been dictated by Diebitsch, so well had they met his views. 
 But before going further, it may not he amiss to state the 
 amount of the army that aimed at the subjection of Turkey. 
 The three divisions which crossed the mountains contained, 
 w r hen Selimnia was taken, about thirty-five thousand men; 
 adding seven thousand men, remaining of those landed at 
 different times at Sizepolis, made the Russian force, in Rou- 
 melia, forty-two thousand men. Of these eight or nine thou- 
 sand were required to occupy the line from the Gulf of Bourgas 
 to Selimnia, in which debouched all the passes, in order to 
 oppose the grand vizir, who, it was naturally expected, would 
 quit Schumla, and cross the mountains after his enemy. 
 
 But though so small, the Russian army had the immense 
 advantage of being in a country devoted to its interests. 
 
 Diebitsch having directed the general of the Selimnia dis- 
 trict to retreat on Bourgas, in case the grand vizir should 
 attack him in too great force to he resisted, commenced his 
 march on Adrianople, August 16. The season was unusually 
 hot, faintingly oppressive to those northern soldiers, dressed 
 as they were in thick clothes, and carrying each seven days’ 
 provisions, — a requisite precaution in a country without much 
 more cultivation than is necessary for its scattered inhabitants. 
 Their distress was great; yet few died. The prospect of 
 seeing Sophia’s fane cheered them on; and the evening of 
 August 19, their fatigue was somewhat compensated by the 
 sight of the minarets of Sultan Selim’s mosque in Adrianople. 
 That night they rested under arms on the eminence near the 
 city, where great agitation seemed to prevail by the moving 
 lights and the general murmur; subsiding, however, before 
 
224 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 sunrise, at which hour envoys came to the Russian head 
 quarters to gain terms or time. They informed the general 
 that an army was expected from Constantinople to defend the 
 place, and they hoped that he would have the complaisance 
 to wait a few days, if hut to show the sultan that it had re- 
 sisted. Diebitsch refused. The envoys then said that the 
 great and glorious city of Adrianople, having no means of 
 defence, would capitulate, provided private property were 
 respected. Diebitsch agreed. August 20, 1829, the second 
 city — former capital — of the Ottoman empire was peaceably 
 taken possession of. Te Deum was sung in the square; a 
 general was, appointed commandant, with the pasha under him 
 as civil governor ; — the horse-tails under the cane ! — guards 
 were established at the mosques, and other places of public 
 resort; and, as a necessary precaution, the Mussulmans were 
 ordered to give in their arms. They submitted to the humi- 
 liation without a murmur, except the lady of Osman Pasha, 
 (taken prisoner at Ahiouli.) It was her husband’s sabre, she 
 said, left in her care, and she could not give it up without his 
 consent: she retained it. In three days the wonder was over. 
 The mosques filled again, and the people resumed their occu- 
 pations as though nothing extraordinary had taken place. Yet 
 what had taken place should have made each Turkish mother 
 curse the hour her son was born. Should the race of Othman 
 eventually be obliged to quit Europe, who, with such proof of 
 degeneracy, will feel commiseration for it ? — will not rather 
 hail the emancipation of the beautiful countries that have so 
 long withered in its grasp ? But let not Russia be the substi- 
 tute; slavery is as primarily and more artificially woven with 
 her system. Turkey in Europe should be formed into an in- 
 dependent kingdom ; and for population, there are hundreds of 
 thousands who would gladly leave the overstocked countries of 
 Christendom for the rich prospects which a good government 
 ’would hold out in this. Their fusion with the talented Greek, 
 the warlike Albanian, the hardy Bulgarian, and even the Mus- 
 sulmans, would be the best security against the ambition of 
 Russia: who also on the side of Asia would find the Turks a 
 more formidable enemy, when having only one frontier to 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 225 
 
 defend. Who should be the king of this new country? There 
 is but one answer : the King of Greece. Brilliant prospect ! 
 
 And should that personage prove to have talents and judg- 
 ment, he may look on the throne of Athens as the footstool of 
 the throne of Constantinople. The hand of destiny points that 
 way. Wrenching Greece from Turkey was a mortal stroke to 
 the sultan, because it established a precedent for successful 
 revolt, which will he acted on. His rule in Europe is going, 
 going, going ; in a few years it will he time to write — gone. 
 Russia is watching its agony like a vulture hovering over a 
 dying wolf. Let the king of Greece prepare himself, by put- 
 ting his own kingdom in an efficient state, and by gaining 
 the good will of the Christians of Roumelia, to assist at the 
 death. Let England be ready to assist him ; let her prepare 
 the way — it is easy ; and then the original intention of the 
 Greek question, which was to render Turkey stronger by lop- 
 ping off a gangrened member, will be accomplished, though in 
 a different manner from that projected. But this does not 
 signify ; we look to the edifice, and mind not its colour. A 
 little gentle violence, in addition to gilding the pill, may he 
 adopted with the family of Othman, if it cannot re-organize 
 European Turkey ; which, however, is not probable, because 
 European Turkey will only be regenerated on regenerated 
 Greece, and this cannot well he effected by an Othman ; and 
 the injustice, if indeed such he worth thinking of in this parti- 
 tioning century, will he excused by the consideration, that in 
 forestalling Russia in deciding on the destinies of this fine 
 country, the misery of millions will he prevented. To this 
 arrangement Austria may be induced to lend herself, for the 
 sake of rounding her territory in the basin of the Danube. 
 Wallachia and Moldavia already belong to Russia, therefore 
 nothing need be said of them. We want nothing ; may even 
 yield the Ionian Isles to the Greek empire, and, consequently, 
 shall have the merit of acting, in appearance, disinterestedly. 
 It is time to shift the pieces to the other side of the board in 
 the game of the balance of power. We have long enough 
 trifled about this country or that country in the west of Europe 
 having a province more or less, as if any country can touch us 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 across a barrier of water ; and no country but Eussia has land- 
 passage to our dominions. It is time seriously to look to 
 Eussia, and not let slip the opportunity, now held out to us 
 through emancipated Greece, of making EuropeanjTurkey a 
 partial counterpoise to her. Eussia should be the watchword 
 of the British cabinet. We want a Cato to ring it in the ears 
 of our politicians. 
 
 At the same time it is fair to observe, that the weak opposi- 
 tion made by the Osmanleys, in the campaign of 1829, could 
 not be received as a standard, did no other exist, of the weak- 
 ness of the empire. It had peculiar causes. Let us suppose 
 a civilized Christian country with an absolute monarch ; that 
 that monarch at one blow destroys a portion of his regular 
 troops, and disbands the remainder, forbidding them under 
 pain of death to appear; that he commands his subjects to 
 change their usual costume for monks’ robes, to shave their 
 heads, and wear night-caps instead of hats. Suppose at that 
 moment, while the attendant disgust is fresh, his empire to be 
 attacked by an enemy morally and physically superior ; could 
 it be expected that the people would rally round his throne ? 
 The ease with which the allies marched through France was 
 no proof that the French were unable to resist them; it only 
 showed that they were tired of Napoleon and of wars. But 
 that was no excuse for their indifference. Men should support 
 even a devil in preserving their native soil from the pollution 
 of foreign troops. 
 
 The Eussian army did not enter the city; it bivouacked, not 
 on the high dry ground, but most imprudently on the marshy 
 banks of the Marizza and the Toondja. The advanced guard 
 was pushed on to Luleh Bourgas, and two regiments of cavalry 
 were sent by Demotica, to take Enos, a fortified town on the 
 gulf of the same name. The right of the army thus rested on 
 the Archipelago ; the left on the Euxine, at Midia. 
 
 As I mentioned in the preceding chapter, envoys came 
 immediately to Adrianople, on the part of the sultan, to treat 
 of peace. Diebitsch had therefore reason to flatter himself that 
 everything would succeed according to his sanguine wishes. 
 But a violent fever among his troops nearly marred his brilliant 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 227 
 
 success. It was occasioned by sudden repose after violent 
 fatigue, and by their being exposed to marsh miasmata, 
 to heat and dews, unprotected by trees or tents. In a 
 week vast numbers died, and scarcely a man was free 
 from its debilitating effects. There were few medical men 
 with the army, and they had few medicines — imprimis, no 
 bark — and, to complete the mischief, there was a scarcity of 
 provisions. The army was so completely cut up, that I 
 have heard several of its officers declare, that the Turks 
 might have annihilated it without much effort ; and that, even 
 without opposition, it would have been difficult, almost impos- 
 sible, to march on Constantinople, over one hundred and fifty 
 miles of country, devoid of forage and supplies; although 
 nothing would have been easier at first, while the impulse was 
 fresh among the troops, with toil to keep off disease. Add to 
 this, Mustapha Pasha, of Scutari, was coming up in the rear 
 with 30,000 Albanians ; and though it was not certain that 
 they would fight — their chiefs’ loyalty being suspected — it was 
 certain that they would eat everything up, — as sure a mode as 
 with bayonets, of reaching the vitals of the Russians. 
 
 Unfortunately the real state of the Russian army was not 
 known at Constantinople, at least not in the right quarter. 
 That the Prussian minister, one of the three mediators between 
 the sultan and the emperor, in constant communication with 
 General Diebitsch, knew it, is positive ; that he concealed it 
 from his colleagues, the English and French ambassadors, is 
 equally positive. They believed it to consist of 60,000 men 
 in good condition ; had they been aware of the fact, that it did 
 not amount to the half, in a deplorable state, they might not 
 perhaps have counselled the sultan to give his consent to the 
 humiliating peace, which was wrung from him most reluctantly. 
 He knew nothing of the exhaustion of his enemy, but he could 
 not believe that his own resources were so completely paralyzed. 
 It was a tanto quanto, which might, if acted on, have made his 
 obstinacy appear reason. 
 
 In this trying interval, General Diebitsch maintained a firm 
 countenance, and affected indifference about the procrastination 
 of the envoys. He told them they might do as they pleased, 
 
 q 2 
 
228 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 but that on such a day, if his terms were not subscribed to, he 
 should march. Effectively, as I before said, twenty days after 
 his arrival at Adrianople — a ruinous delay, which showed a 
 great want of calculation on his part, since the same result 
 would have been gained in less time under the walls of Con- 
 stantinople, whither, had he not halted at Adriauople, he 
 would have led his army in good health, its spring of excite- 
 ment unrelaxed, backed also by the universal panic, and by the 
 conspiracy among the Janizzaries — he broke into column, and 
 pushed his advanced guard to Chorloo. It had the desired 
 effect. Peace was signed. The same day the pasha of Scutari 
 — a traitor by his inactivity — reached Philipp opolis, having 
 previously had an affair of outposts with some troops led by 
 General Geismar against him over the high Balkans. He 
 pitched his camp in the adjacent plain, and during the 
 ensuing three months, assisted the Cossacks in ravaging the 
 villages. 
 
 Owing to the distance, hostilities did not cease in Asia until 
 October 10th; on that day Paskewitch wound up a successful 
 campaign with the battle of Beibout, in which two thousand 
 Turks were killed or wounded. The following day one of 
 Diebitsch’s aides-de-camp arrived from Constantinople with the 
 news of the peace ; an event that would have been known some 
 days earlier, and the blood spilled at Beibout saved, had not 
 the pasha of Trebizonde refused another aide-de-camp, who had 
 left Bourgas by sea, to land in his pashalick. 
 
 Thus terminated this eventful war, which in its progress 
 twice overturned the opinions of most politicians. When the 
 first campaign opened, they said that the Russians would be 
 at Constantinople the same year ; when the second commenced, 
 judging from the siege of Yarna, that they would not cross the 
 Balkans. 
 
 Both campaigns were marked by enormous faults : the first 
 failed for want of energy; the second succeeded from want of 
 opposition. “ Nous nous sommes battus avec des invisibles ,” 
 said a Frenchman in the service. The loss in men, cattle, and 
 materiel was immense. Fifty- two general officers were known, 
 and 200,000 men were computed, to have fallen in the two 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 229 
 
 campaigns ; not a twentieth part by the enemy. The exact 
 number of the latter, where their lives are held at nought, is 
 difficult to ascertain, but the former is a good index. Generals 
 in modem warfare, like the chiefs of the Huns and the Comans, 
 never go to the other world unaccompanied by a numerous 
 suite. 
 
 The event placed Diebitsch* and Paskewitch by the side of 
 Suwarrow in the opinion of their countrymen, and their grateful 
 emperor showered on them equal honours. He created them 
 marshals, gave them the grand cross of St. George, and one 
 million of roubles (40,000?.) to each. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Hamid Aga — Executions — Turkish Lady — Jew — Sir P. Malcolm — Seraglio 
 — Ball on board Blonde — Turkish Ministers. 
 
 I before mentioned that the sultan dispatched his envoys, 
 August 27, to amuse Diehitsch, while he crushed the con- 
 spiracy in his capital. 
 
 Mahmoud was, by nature and by long practice, well adapted 
 to appease a revolt; he had often tried the most approved 
 recipe, blood-letting, and always found it efficacious; and on 
 this occasion, though unable to shed the blood of the Russians, 
 he determined not to spare that of his more dangerous foes, 
 his disaffected people. 
 
 The first person who fell a sacrifice to the nature of the 
 times was the aga of Buyukdere, a man much loved by all 
 classes, for a mild and just administration, and gentlemanly 
 qualities; he was also nazir (governor) of the outer castles of 
 the Bosphorus. But though thus honoured by his sovereign, 
 he was a Janizzary in principle, and therefore his death became 
 
 * Could Diebitsch have rested with his Turkish laurels, he might have 
 died with the reputation of a great general ; but they withered by the side 
 of his Polish cypresses. The emperor should not have employed him 
 against the Poles, because his campaigns against an enemy too ignorant to 
 take advantage of his errors, thereby engendering in him a habit of care- 
 lessness, rendered him less able to cope with skilful antagonists. By long 
 practice at any game with inferior players, we give those formerly our 
 equals the superiority over us. 
 
230 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 imperious; indeed, under the military laws of Europe he 
 would sooner have ascertained the falsity of his prophet’s 
 mission, for his actions supported the suspicion that he held 
 treasonable correspondence with the enemy. He also fre- 
 quently slept away from his post, allured, it was said, by the 
 charms of a Greek lady. Poor Plamid ! peace to his errors ! 
 I knew him well; a merry, mellow-eyed mortal, who, though a 
 true Osmanley, preferred punch to sherbet, and the daughters 
 of Eve to the Houris in reversion. The evening before his 
 catastrophe we smoked a pipe together, when he little thought 
 that the rustling of Azrael’s wings fanned the cool breeze in 
 our faces. Late that night the capitan pasha returned from 
 Constantinople, where he had been assisting at a divan, with 
 the fatal firman in his bosom ; and the next morning, the sun 
 just peeping above the Asiatic hills, I saw a barge row swiftly 
 from the flag-ship to the nazir’s house, which overhung the 
 water. Suspecting something, I put a question to the officer 
 of the boat, as he passed my window; he shook his head in 
 reply. The nazir was still reposing. “ The pasha wants you,” 
 was the pithy message. “ Why, what can he require ?” “ You 
 
 will soon learn; rise.” He adjusted his dress, performed his 
 ablutions, prayed, and then, without making any arrangement, 
 stepped into the barge. I was already dressed, and on the 
 quay; passing which, he waved his hand to me, and said 
 something, I thought farewell, so I took a caique and followed. 
 The principal officers of the fleet received him on the quarter- 
 deck ; the man whose smiles they courted the day before, on 
 account of his intimacy with the capitan pasha, they received 
 with insults. Hassan, riala bey, gave him a kick. At this he 
 crossed his hands and exclaimed, “ I understand.” He was 
 then conducted down on the main deck: there his accusation 
 was read to him, enumerating, with other charges, the unjust 
 one of grinding the poor. So false an accusation, without the 
 power of refuting it, must have added a pang to the bitterness 
 of death; that is, if he felt any, for he betrayed no fear, 
 neither probably, with true Ottoman stoicism, would he have 
 said one word, had not the capitan pasha at that moment come 
 out of his cabin to look at his old friend, who, one little spark 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 231 
 
 yet burning among the embers of hope, cried once “ Aman.’ 
 He might have spared his breath. The pasha answered by a* 
 slight wave of the hand, the usual signal in such cases ; the 
 guards understood it, and taking the nazir by the arms, led 
 him below to the prison, where two slaves attended. Not 
 thinking for a moment that he was going straight to death, 
 I was about to follow, moved by an impulse of pity, or of 
 curiosity, when the pasha motioned me to come into the cabin. 
 The bowstring soon did its task, and in a few minutes, the 
 receipt, poor Hamid’s head (the countenance calm as in sleep) 
 was brought up to be shown to the pasha, before being trans- 
 mitted to the seraglio. It is startling to see a human head 
 carried in a platter up the ladder, down which you had seen it 
 descend, just before, sentient and well poised on a pair of 
 shoulders; this had an effect even on the cold-blooded 
 Osmanleys, under the half-deck; they involuntarily shuddered, 
 as well they might: the reign of terror was begun, when no 
 man might say that his turn would not come next. 
 
 An officer was sent to seal up the nazir’s effects, and to seize 
 his secretary; and the pasha, having first breakfasted with as 
 good an appetite as ever, rode to the outer castle of Europe to 
 hold a summary trial on the garrison, which ended by twenty 
 of its members being strangled and thrown into the Bosphorus. 
 After this pastime, he took his siesta at the castle, and then, 
 having first installed his kiaja as governor, returned in the 
 evening to Sariery. A moving scene awaited him on landing, 
 in the wife and children of the nazir’s secretary, who, with 
 dishevelled hair, and weeping, implored mercy at his feet, for 
 an innocent husband and father. The pasha passed on without 
 deigning to notice them, but the following morning I was 
 happy to find that the man was released, as being innocent of 
 his master’s guilt; in other words, that there was neither wealth 
 nor secrets in the case to extract. Poor Hamid ! he did not 
 leave much ; his favourite female slave was given to one of the 
 capitan pasha’s retainers, and his personal chattels were sold 
 by auction. 
 
 This was the prelude to the tragedy which impressed blank 
 terror on the citizens of Constantinople, numbers of whom 
 
232 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 were, each night, thrown, strangled, into the Propontis; and 
 each day some of the chief conspirators were publicly deca- 
 pitated pour encourager les autres. So completely had the 
 latter reckoned on the arrival of the Russians in the capital, 
 that their unexpected halt at Adrianople deprived them of all 
 presence of mind to concert either means of resistance or of 
 escape : they were therefore cut down like dogs in the caniculae. 
 
 Every street presented horrid spectacles; the bodies stretched 
 on their backs, heads under their right arms, and the yaftas 
 (sentences) on their breasts, with stones on them to keep the 
 wind from blowing them away. For variety, the head of an 
 Armenian, suspected of being implicated in the conspiracy, 
 was placed between his legs, looking towards the ignoble part; 
 and the circumstance of being an infidel was strongly and 
 repeatedly dwelt on, with amusing prolixity, in his yafta, as a 
 heinous aggravation of the crime of treason against his 
 sovereign lord. Fortunately for him, his punishment was not 
 greater than that of the most orthodox Osmanley. One of the 
 first and most pitiable cases was that of the master of a 
 fashionable cafene, near the fish market, in which the conspi- 
 rators used to hold their meetings. This poor devil, who 
 probably had no idea that the act of selling coffee to a con- 
 spirator made him one, nor conceived it the duty of a correct 
 publican to make a distinction of customers, was buying 
 vegetables at a stall, when he was accosted by the guard ; and, 
 having answered the usual interrogatory, “ What is your name ?” 
 made to kneel, and decapitated on the same spot where he had 
 been providing for his supper, it being conveniently situated 
 for publicity. As a farther example to the fraternity, recording, 
 at the same time, an immemorial eastern custom, his shop was 
 razed to the ground. The people passed these exhibitions 
 with seeming carelessness ; a few stopped to read the sentences ; 
 but none showed commiseration, or made any remark. None 
 dared — the least display of feeling entailing death; indeed, 
 hardly so much was requisite, since those suspected of thinking, 
 were deemed equally culpable with those who spoke, against 
 the government. The most active search was made for the 
 accused, who, withont warning or trial, wherever they were . 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 233 
 
 found, (if a public place, if not, in the nearest,) were instantly 
 beheaded. The process verbal was simple — “ Are you so and 
 so, Hassan, or Achmet, or Sadik?” — “True, I am Achmet, 
 what do you want?” “We want your head; kneel down, 
 without disturbance.” — “ Oh ! this is a mistake : you mean 
 that Achmet, or that: I am not the man!” “You are the 
 man : we are looking for a certain Achmet, with a long nose 
 and large eyes; you have a long nose and large eyes, and are 
 called Achmet, therefore must be the man who is convicted of 
 treason against our lord.” — “ I protest this is a calumnious 
 falsehood! I pray you go elsewhere, I am not the man!” 
 “ Hear the blasphemer ! not content with conspiring against 
 our lord, he denies his guilt, instead of bowing at once to our 
 lord’s clemency ! kneel, wretch !” — “ By the prophet ! by my 
 father’s beard! by my soul, I swear I am innocent! this is a 
 mistake!” — thus saying, falls his head. This exposure to an 
 unpleasant equivoque renders it fortunate, rather than otherwise, 
 for an Osmanley to have a personal defect, which may obtain 
 for him a surname ; as, for example, Selim One-eye, or Mus- 
 tapha Crook-back, or Avni Club-foot, is not liable to become a 
 head shorter through a mistake. 
 
 The sanguinary old seraskier, Khosrew, was put to his old 
 trade, head butcher of sultan Mahmoud’s shambles, and did 
 not discredit his former fame; on the contrary, rather added 
 to it, by establishing a torturing shop, for relaxing hard nerves, 
 presiding thereat in person. Little, however, was elicited by 
 this process.* Espionage was more successful; on which 
 
 * It is just to say that the Osmanleys are not addicted to torture, widely 
 differing therein from the Persians. But when they do set about it, they 
 do it seriously. One of their questions is binding the head with a rope, and 
 drawing it tight until the accused speaks or famts. The discomfort of a 
 tight hat may give one a millionth part of the idea of this frightful torture. 
 Those who undergo it rarely lose the mark of the rope, which remains 
 impressed on the head as though burnt in with a hot iron. As a set-off to 
 their moderation in this respect, the Osmanleys practice mutilations of a 
 hand or foot; the former on burglars, the latter on highwaymen: and a very 
 effectual remedy it proves; but unfortunately, three out of four that 
 undergo it die from want of surgical aid, the operation being generally 
 performed at the same place where the sentence is pronounced, by one of 
 the chavasses present, who draws his ataghan, and lops off the proscribed 
 member. The stump is then smeared with hot tar to staunch the blood. 
 In Constantinople, during 1829-30, was to be seen a Turkish beggar, who 
 
234 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 service the sultan’s aides-de-camp went about in various dis- 
 guises. It was a service of danger. I met, one day, Saley 
 Bey, dressed as a galiondji; he would certainly have been 
 assassinated, had he been found out thus prying. They fre- 
 quented the cafenes, and other places of public assemblage; 
 and woe to the wretch who “ had his heart on his tongue, 
 instead of his tongue in his heart:” (Turkish proverb:) their 
 denouncement was certain death; by which scope for private 
 revenge, doubtless, many innocent people were cut off. But 
 this was a natural inconvenience, arising from the complexion 
 of the times. Nor was this rigour confined to one sex; 
 several women who, in the fulness of grief, dared openly to 
 bewail their relations, and to arraign the measures of govern- 
 ment, were cast, in sacks, into the sea; and as a farther and 
 more effectual check, combining shame on female loquacity, 
 one was publicly hung, but, with an attention to bienseance 
 peculiar to the easterns, enveloped in a sack. About the same 
 time, also, a Hebrew, for having been too intimate with a 
 Turkish lady, was hung at his door, where he writhed and 
 kicked for two hours before the ill- adjusted knot choked him — 
 the stream of the Bosphorus, in the meanwhile, washing 
 away the guilt of his fair accomplice. She almost deserved 
 her fate, for having shown such bad taste. In many shapes 
 death triumphed during this terrible fortnight. Two wretches, 
 convicted of attempting to fire the new seraglio at Beglerbey, 
 on the Bosphorus, were impaled; one still breathed on the 
 following day. 
 
 These horrors enabled us to appreciate the most unaccount- 
 able part of an Osmanley’s character : his great passive courage 
 at so trying a moment, so “ sudden a wrench from all that is 
 dear;” the more extraordinary to us, knowing the want of 
 courage displayed by the troops, witnessing the cowardly run- 
 aways from before the Cossacks, part and parcel, countrymen 
 and brethren, of the victims of Mahmoud’s rigour. Their 
 noble bearing at the fatal moment was really exalting, and 
 
 had been deprived of both his feet by that rude operation. He was in good 
 health, and enforced his arguments by carrying in his hand the skeletons of 
 his poor feet. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 235 
 
 almost made the spectators envy deaths which seemingly cost 
 so little to endure. It certainly caused a tone of feeling in the 
 bystanders — a want of detestation — far other than what might 
 have been expected ; yet very natural, for tyranny loses the 
 greater part of its hideousness when it fails to depress the 
 minds of its victims, consequently acts with tenfold security. 
 The shrieks of a person on the point of being executed would 
 have more effect in awaking the passions of a crowd than would 
 the sight of ten persons quietly suffering the same fate. A 
 death-shriek echoes a long time in our ears, but a death-blow 
 soon vanishes from our eyes. So, we are told, the cries of 
 Madame Dubarry (the only person cited as having given way 
 to despair on the revolutionary scaffold) produced an un- 
 wonted thrill of horror in the Parisian mob, and roused it from 
 the apathy which the courage of the condemned — causing 
 admiration to usurp the place of pity — had hitherto kept up. 
 One morning I accidentally became a witness of an execution. 
 At the upper end of the street I observed a slight tumult, 
 occasioned by an arrest, but not knowing what it related to, I 
 did not stir. Presently, the guard moved towards me, and 
 halting where I was standing, in the widest part, cleared an 
 open space ; by which manoeuvre, we, the spectators, were so 
 closely wedged, that I could not get away, incited thereto by 
 the visible and audible discontent of the Osmanleys around 
 me at the presence of an infidel. It certainly was mis- 
 placed. 
 
 Into this place two men stepped from the body of the guard 
 — one old, and ugly, and meanly dressed ; the other young, 
 and handsome, and richly attired in the old costume. The 
 office of one of them was not doubtful, by the long ataghan in 
 his hand ; the other, by his firm step, and the unconcerned air 
 with which he glanced around, might have passed for the 
 provost marshal, had not his manner soon announced that he 
 was destined to act a more important part ; — and he knew it, 
 for he at once knelt down, without prompting, and suffered his 
 thumbs to be tied behind him with a piece of string, that he 
 might not involuntarily interfere with the operation. The 
 executioner then took off his turban, tied up Mohammed’s lock, 
 
236 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 and adjusted the denounced head in the most favourable posi- 
 tion for displaying his skill, desiring its owner to hold it 
 steady. So peculiarly adapted is the eastern costume, having 
 no collars, to the dispatch of head-cutting, as to make it pro- 
 bable that it was originally adopted by slavish courtiers as 
 symbolic of their necks being always ready. This preparation 
 did not occupy two minutes, during which it was uncertain 
 which of the two showed the greatest coolness. Drawing, then, 
 his ataghan, the executioner held it up in the act to strike, 
 and in this position recited the offence — “ conspiracy,” &c. It 
 was an awful picture, a moment of breathless excitement to all 
 present excepting the two actors, the one of whom the most 
 interested in the event appearing the most careless. Being 
 close to him, malgr (Z moi, I watched him narrowly, but could 
 not perceive the slightest change in his florid countenance, or 
 a tremor in his fine limbs. Both at such a crisis would have 
 been pardonable in the boldest. Having heard his crime, he 
 cried in a firm voice, “ O Mohammed, I die innocent ; to thee 
 I consign my soul.” He repeated these words, with some 
 others to the same purport, when the finisher of the law, im- 
 patient, demanded, “ Are you ready?” The gallant fellow, 
 with an energy of tone, which showed that his spirit already 
 saw the “ dark-eyed girls,” promptly answered “ Beady.” The 
 moment after, his head, struck off by one blow, was rolling in 
 the dust. The blood instantaneously gushed out of the body, 
 the neck slightly palpitated ; life vanished with the rapidity of 
 thought. The savage who performed the deed, cleaned his 
 blade on the corpse’s clothes, then held it up in the rays of the 
 sun ; but seeing some stains on it, again wiped it before re- 
 sheathing it. How willingly, to judge by my own feelings, and 
 the looks of the bystanders, would we have torn the wretch in 
 pieces ! He disposed the body secundum artem, an assistant 
 washed away the blood, the crowd silently dispersed, and 
 Hassan was left where he fell, to glut the gaze of bipeds and 
 quadrupeds twenty-four hours before being consigned to sine- 
 peds. What a change in five minutes ! No sight ever made 
 so painful an impression on my mind. Nor hanging, nor 
 breaking on the wheel, nor impalement, nor any of the ordinary 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 237 
 
 modes adopted by man to destroy God’s image, can produce 
 so disagreeable an effect on the unused spectator. In those, 
 the notes of preparation, and the attendant bustle, gradually 
 attune his feelings to the event ; the mere circumstance of there 
 being some apparatus assures him, or at least inclines him to 
 believe, that it is not an ordinary occurrence ; and when the 
 curtain drops, there is no direct evidence of aught than a 
 suspension of life. The ghastliness of death is veiled. But 
 in this there is no deception. Here lies the motionless trunk, 
 there rolls the head, as if in mockery of the faith which huilds 
 on their re-union ; and what increases the pain of the spectator, 
 is the conviction, that the victim, arrested, accused, and exe- 
 cuted before him in five minutes, was innocent. 
 
 Though appalling to behold, it is preferable for an Osmanley, 
 who, from the time he can link two ideas, has death before his 
 eyes, to take the hitter draught at one gulp, than to savour it 
 for days in the solitude of a prison ; but it requires more reso- 
 lution. With time for reflection, on any trial that he has to 
 undergo, a man may screw up his courage to the sticking- 
 point, and go off the stage with credit, on which, taken 
 unawares, he would have faltered. Many, however, will look 
 on this in a more serious point of view than a display of nerve. 
 The priest may allege the want of time for repentance ; hut an 
 Osmanley prays every day, from three to five times, and is, 
 therefore, always prepared to meet his Mediator. The man of 
 business may exclaim about the settlement of affairs ; but the 
 condemned Osmanley has none to settle ; the sultan is his 
 heir. The sentimentalist may sigh to think that the sufferer 
 could not take leave of his friends ; but the Osmanley has few 
 ties, few of those sympathies which form the links of a family, 
 and unite its members from different parts of the earth. Asa 
 lion’s cub leaves its den for the forest, so he quits the paternal 
 roof rarely to re-enter it ; in a few years his mother, the only 
 bond for him under it, is old or dead, discarded or forgotten ; in 
 either case replaced by a young wife, by whom are young 
 children to absorb his father’s affections : his sisters have 
 become the inmates of strange harems, where his feet, though 
 not forbidden, are unwelcome ; and his brothers, like himself. 
 
238 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 are the butts of fortune, or the dependants of a pasha, ready 
 at the dictates of either to slay each other. 
 
 This gloomy prospect was somewhat enlivened by the anni- 
 versary of the prophet’s birth-day, September 9, which was 
 celebrated, as usual, by royal salutes, and by the illumination 
 of the fleet and the mosques. Nevertheless, the canonization 
 of his worshippers continued without intermission, till the 
 news of the peace arrived, when, freed from the great lever of 
 insurrection, Sultan Mahmoud deposed his iron sceptre, having 
 tolerably well succeeded in allaying the feverish disposition of 
 his good citizens, not one of whom dared call his head his 
 own, — no way consoled for the uncertainty of possession, by 
 the certainty of a good berth in Paradise, if lost by the sultan’s 
 commands. They were paralyzed, afraid to leave their houses, 
 and for some days Constantinople appeared as a city of the 
 dead. The cafenes, usually filled from morn till night, were 
 empty, the bazaars deserted, and excepting a few Armenians 
 and Jews stealing along under the porticos, scarcely a human 
 being was to be seen in the streets. Even the dogs seemed, 
 by their silence, to partake of the general calamity. 
 
 Persons in every rank were infected with the panic, and set 
 about removing the Janizzary marks stamped in with gun- 
 powder on their arms :* among others, to my surprise, I found 
 Mehemet, the captain of the Selimier, laid up with a swollen 
 arm, in consequence of having applied blisters for that purpose. 
 As he suffered mentally, as well as bodily, in effacing the 
 cherished ornaments, I remonstrated against his repeating the 
 operation on the other arm, saying, that he could not be 
 
 * It has always been the practice of the Osmanleys, resident in the large 
 cities, to enrol themselves on the Janizzary lists, not as fighting or factions 
 characters, but to enjoy the credit of the name and the appui of their 
 respective orta, the number of which they were obliged to imprint on some 
 conspicuous part of the body, to prevent after evasion of their principles, 
 and to constate their claim. Some of these ortas had a prestige from 
 trifles or accidental causes, as crack regiments in Europe ; and their rolls 
 swelled to an enormous amount, as high as fifteen or twenty thousand names : 
 not that these numerous hangers-on are to be confounded with the turbulent 
 body so well known. 
 
 From this practice arose the custom, among the delhis and the Janizzaries, 
 of going to battle with the right arm bare, in order that he who distinguished 
 himself should be known everywhere by his marks. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 239 
 
 suspected. “ You do not know,” he replied ; “ past services 
 are soon forgotten, and these few lines may prevail against a 
 life of fidelity. Mashallah,” he continued, with a wince at the 
 pain, “ our lord is a great man; is he not?” another wince 
 and a sigh, looking at his untouched arm, “ they must come 
 out.” Dr. Capponi was kind enough to take him in hand, and 
 relieved him of the obnoxious evidence with comparative ease ; 
 hut large scars remained to denote the cloven foot. 
 
 The Constantinopolitans, however, soon began to recover 
 from their stupor, and to relapse into their usual lethargy, 
 apparently as indifferent as heretofore to the operations of 
 Destiny. At the same time, it was easy to perceive that a great 
 change had come over them in the short space of a month ; 
 that they were no longer buoyed up with the idea of being in- 
 vincible, of being the first people on earth, in whose favour 
 Allah would cause an infidel army, which dared approach Stam- 
 houl, to vanish in smoke ; that they were sunk as low in their 
 own opinion as they before stood high ; and that, seeing no 
 outlet from the abyss in which fate had cast them, they deemed 
 it useless to make any efforts ; replying to exhortations to im- 
 prove themselves by study and by example, — “ It is of no use, 
 we have too much to learn !” They only prayed to he per- 
 mitted to live and die in peace — to enjoy their hone without 
 fighting for it — nor longer thought of glory or revenge. So 
 disastrous was the moral effect, a hundred fold that of the phy- 
 sical, produced by the peace of Adrianople. 
 
 Peace, at the same time, brought with it novelties to divert 
 their sadness. One morning, an English admiral’s flag was 
 seen flying in the Bosphorus, for the first time since the Flood; 
 and Sir P. Malcolm, who had come up from the Dardanelles in 
 his tender, gave publicity to his arrival by saluting the capitan 
 pasha with nineteen guns from the Blonde, which were returned 
 by an equal number. The sultan was pleased ; and believing 
 him to be the capitan pasha of England, therefore third man 
 in the British empire, as his capitan pasha was in the Ottoman 
 empire, felt somewhat flattered; as he, no doubt, considered 
 that the worthy admiral’s visit of curiosity was influenced by 
 a desire to see his radiant countenance. He honoured him 
 
240 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 with a private audience for half an hour ; conversed, it was 
 said, very sensibly, on various subjects, and showed his judg- 
 ment, at parting, by giving him a snuff-box set in brilliants. 
 His selictar, taking the hint, entertained him, together with 
 the ambassador, at a kiosk, a few miles from Pera, terminating 
 the repast, a VOsmanlie , with presents; and then the capitan 
 pasha, to whom it especially belonged to do the honours to a 
 brother admiral, took his turn, and received him with distin- 
 guished honours. He saluted him with nineteen guns, as well 
 on entering as on leaving the Selimier, whose crew exercised 
 at quarters before him, in a style to elicit his approbation of 
 their address and discipline. In all respects, the pasha be- 
 haved with winning courtesy. Besides displaying his best 
 assortment of amber mouth-pieces, his most elaborately filla- 
 greed coffee-cups, various preserves, and perfumed sherbets, 
 he also, following a good example, bestowed gifts on the 
 admiral — a sabre, and two cashmere shawls; for which, in 
 return, the admiral presented him with the Blondes life-buoy, 
 wanted for one of his frigates, which was then preparing to 
 convey an ambassador extraordinary, Halil Pasha, to Odessa ; 
 not from any fear of his excellency falling overboard, but to 
 show off before the Russians with so clever a thing hanging 
 to the stern. Not long, however, did the Osmanleys keep it, 
 for it was soon voted a bore by them as being an excuse for 
 holding loose. In the frigate’s return voyage a man fell over- 
 board : it was accordingly let go ; but as he never reappeared 
 on the surface, it was not deemed worth the while to lower a 
 boat to pick up the buoy, which was left to go its own course, 
 and will, no doubt, if found on any of the wild coast of Asia 
 Minor, be regarded as a valuable trophy, (in the same manner 
 as the Cornishmen once took a hencoop, drifted on shore from 
 a wreck, for a musical instrument,) and be transmitted by the 
 finder as an heir- loom, if not suspended in a mosque. 
 
 In addition to these distinctions, all very flattering except- 
 ing the presents, (for presents, in Turkey, if not requited by 
 others of equal value, are looked on as acts of grace which a 
 superior accords to an inferior,) the admiral’s wish, expressed 
 through the ambassador, to see the seraglio, was complied with. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 241 
 
 The number of the suite not being limited, I gladly availed 
 myself of the permission to accompany them; although I do 
 not mean that as an excuse for inflicting a minute description 
 of what, though called a palace, more resembles a city, such as 
 a painter might sketch in a fanciful mood. Built on the site 
 of one, (Byzance,) it contains, in its circuit, gardens, fountains, 
 groves, circuses, mosques, palaces, altogether strangely inter- 
 • mingling, yet harmonizing, — European elegance by Asiatic 
 luxury, the light by the sombre, the trivial by the magnificent, 
 — and offering, in their labyrinths, every convenience for the 
 pleasures of the most luxurious court, and the accommodation 
 of four thousand retainers, besides the women. 
 
 ' The original plan consists in four spacious courts, sur- 
 rounded by buildings, connecting with each other by high 
 gates, and running in an oblong square nearly across the area ; 
 the remainder of which is laid out in pleasure grounds, or filled 
 up by kiosks, the fancies of different sultans, which commu- 
 nicate with the main edifice one way, and command views, the 
 other, of the finest scenery in the world. By the most modern 
 of these kiosks we began our excursion, entering it through a 
 massy, gilded gate in the sea wall. It was built by the present 
 sultan, and is no less distinguished for size than splendour, 
 furnished in a style half French, half Oriental ; the former 
 shown in cut-glass chandeliers, mirrors, musical clocks, ivory 
 ships, mosaic tables, and other trifles; the latter in velvet- 
 coloured divans, piles of brocaded cushions, highly-wrought 
 mats, and frescoes on the wainscotings. The baths were per- 
 fect specimens of their kind, almost too beautiful for use, com- 
 posed of variegated marbles, wherein roux and verd antique 
 were lavished. The Gothic, richly-fretted, marble chimney- 
 pieces, in the winter cabinets, were also highly ornamental, and 
 excited a wish for fire. In one of these cabinets were arranged 
 the sultan’s personal arms, consisting of Damascus sabres, 
 French pistols, Persian hangiars, all of exquisite workmanship, 
 and set in jewels. By them lay a small assortment of korans 
 and sunnas, beautifully written, and highly emblazoned. 
 
 Leaving this kiosk, we traversed the courts of the main 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 fabric to the imperial gate, or sublime porte,* which gives 
 entrance to the first court from the city. In the porch-way 
 are niches for the heads of distinguished criminals. The first 
 court contains the mint, the armoury, the imperial stables, and 
 apartments of the kislar aga, besides others, all of ordinary 
 appearance outside, and presenting, we are told, nothing re- 
 markable inside : but we were not invited to judge for our- 
 selves ; a subject of disappointment, since it is well known that • 
 the armoury contains many suits of Grecian armour, with other 
 memorials of the empire. 
 
 The second court is handsomer, set off by a fountain in the 
 middle, with trees planted round it. The kitchens are on one 
 side, occupying the entire length, of stupendous proportions, 
 the roof supported by lofty pillars, and surmounted by ten 
 domes which are distinctly seen from the sea, and generally as- 
 signed to a different kind of building, since few persons place 
 Ottoman gourmandise in so exalted a station as to require the 
 most noble edifice in the seraglio for its service. It speaks 
 high for civilization. We found it in full activity; not less 
 than a hundred dinners were preparing, each at a yawning 
 cavern of flames and smoke that might have graced Vulcan’s 
 workshop, and hosts of lackeys were going or returning with 
 full or empty dishes. The cooks, clean-fingered nimble gentry, 
 dressed in white, like their Eomish brethren, were exceedingly 
 polite, and brought us at each compartment pezimets and other 
 dainties, farther induced thereto by the presence of our ciceroni, 
 who, no less a personage than the chief artiste, did the honours 
 of his jurisdiction with an air and manner that would have 
 gained him the cordon bleu had he lived in France in the reign 
 of Louis XV. 
 
 * Over it is an inscription, in Arabic, of which the following is a 
 translation: — “ By the assistance of God, and his good pleasure, the lord of 
 the two continents and seas; the shadow of God among men, and among 
 angels; the favourite of God in the East and in. the West; the monarch of 
 the terraqueous globe; the conqueror of the city of Constantinople; — that 
 is, the victorious emperor Mehemet, son of the emperor Amurath, and 
 grandson of the emperor Mehemet, laid the foundation of this august 
 building, united the parts solidly together, for the preservation of quiet and 
 tranquillity. May the Almighty perpetuate his empire, and exalt it above 
 the lucid stars of the firmament.” 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 243 
 
 He terminated his attentions by exhibiting to us, with an 
 assurance beforehand of exciting our wonder, the dried, almost 
 mummied, body of a merman, which, he told us, had been 
 caught in the Bosphorus a century back; he did not know 
 with what bait, but he knew that no other had been caught 
 since. As we were not hound to take this assertion on credit, 
 we put our heads down — our hands were kept off — to examine 
 it, and soon discovered that this merman was nothing more nor 
 less than a large fish, somewhat mis-shapen, called palamithe, 
 to whose shoulders some adventurer, with great dexterity, had 
 joined a human head, and thus imposed it on Turkish credulity. 
 However, we did not express this opinion, for charity’s sake, 
 but left them to enjoy their error, and roll up again in fine 
 cloths the precious monster, which, in the absence of a pro- 
 fessor of natural history on the seraglio establishment, has 
 always been in the care of the reigning cook, he being con- 
 sidered, after the hekim bashi, the most scientific person in the 
 empire ; and if, before, a doubt on the authenticity of the mer- 
 man was considered blameable in any sceptical, free-thinking 
 page, or eunuch, it will now amount to heresy, — now that it 
 has been seen and approved of by an eltchi, a capitan pasha, 
 and a host of bey zades and bim bashis (our party) of 
 England. 
 
 Opposite to the kitchens — in conformity with the good rule 
 that weighty deliberation should immediately succeed, or be 
 succeeded by dinner — we saw the divan, or the privy council 
 chamber. It is of an oblong form, covered by two domes, and 
 paved with fine marbles, divided by a low marble balustrade 
 into two squares. In place of the usual luxurious couch, a 
 marble bench runs round three sides, a kind of seat pleasantly 
 cool in summer, unpleasantly so in winter, always disagreeably 
 hard, but at the same time possessing the advantage of being 
 preventive of long debates. The sultan rarely assists in person, 
 but from his apartments a passage leads to a narrow niche, on 
 one side of the hall, where, unseen, he can hear what passes. 
 
 Thus far any person may penetrate on business, but the 
 third court is the sanctum sanctorum, trodden by few excepting 
 the white eunuchs, a considerable number of whom were loiter- 
 
 r 2 
 
244 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 ing about the entrance of it, and raised our attention, as much 
 as any other appendage of this empire of jealousy, by their 
 complete and abhorrent ugliness, more than sufficient, we 
 thought, to disgust the Odalisques with every thing in the 
 shape of man. Dull and spiritless, although young, with the 
 yellow shrivelled appearance of decrepit old age, these white 
 weeds of humanity gathered round us with childish curiosity 
 as we entered the “ gate of happiness,” and in cracked tones 
 complimented us on our arrival in their world ; wherein, caused 
 by the gothic overhanging style of architecture, reigned an air 
 of gloomy magnificence, well corresponding with the mystery 
 attached tq it and heightened to us by the idea, which one 
 could not help entertaining, that we were gazed on, as a me- 
 nagerie of strange and rare animals from distant parts, by 
 myriads of bright eyes from the lattices. A rich marble co- 
 lonnade runs round this court, connecting its various offices ; — 
 the treasury, the great baths, the hall of the sandjack scheriff, 
 the apartments of the sultanas, of the princes of the blood, 
 and the eunuchial quarters. Detached in the area stand two 
 separate buildings of an original structure, somewhat between 
 the Chinese and the Swiss, but pretty withal, shaded by deep 
 porticos supported by porphyry columns. One of them, near 
 the gate of happiness, to which it leads by a covered gallery, 
 is the audience chamber, where ambassadors, until 1829, had 
 the felicity of waiting on the prophet’s vicegerent; a singular 
 monument of distrust : — it was evidently built to prevent the 
 possibility of a sultan being assassinated by the representative 
 of the “most powerful of the kings of the adorers of Jesus,” 
 who stood before him pinioned. In size it is not too large for 
 a dungeon, and in gloom it is not inferior; one door gives ad- 
 mittance, and one window, heavily barred, barely enough light 
 to distinguish a person’s features in it. 
 
 From this, having first discussed chibouques, coffee, sher- 
 bets, and conserves, prepared for us, we were conducted with 
 some ceremony to the other detached edifice, commonly called 
 the imperial library, and regarded by the Osmanleys, I know 
 not why, with as great a respect as St. Sophia and other great 
 trophies of their conquest. No reason can be assigned for 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 245 
 
 their predilection in its favour, since it boasts of no 
 relics of the former lords of Constantinople, and contains 
 only about fifteen hundred Arabic and Turkish volumes on 
 history and theology, not being near so good a collection as 
 exists in three or four of the libraries attached to the principal 
 mosques. Not a ray of light breaks the darkness, not a 
 Grecian character adorns its shelves, not a trace of antiquity 
 supports the long fondly cherished opinion of the learned re- 
 specting its contents. The librarian assured us that he had not 
 one infidel book in his care; he appeared hurt at the suspicion, 
 and invited us to remove our doubts by examining the cobweb 
 repositories. But this would have been a dirty job ; so we 
 even took his word for his proud poverty of treasures. In 
 recompence, he showed us, as the pride of his heart, on a long 
 scroll, the portraits of the sultans ; — all — whether the fierce 
 conqueror, or the wise Solyman, or the effeminate Ibrahim, or 
 the boyish Osman (represented beardless) — equally badly 
 executed, showing how completely the art has been at a stand, 
 and also showing that the Othmans, notwithstanding the reli- 
 gious prohibition, have not been free from the kingly vanity of 
 transmitting their looks to posterity — a curious fact now, that 
 the present sultan has been so highly panegyrized for having 
 had the civilization to disregard the Koran, and have his like- 
 ness taken. The difference is, that his predecessors were con- 
 tent with native artists ; he has chosen a Frank one ; * for two 
 excellent reasons, first, that he is superior, second, that his 
 features will thereby have more publicity. 
 
 In glancing over the portraits of this long line of sove- 
 reigns, one dwells on that of Mahomet IV., and endeavours to 
 trace some feature that may indicate the rarest of royal vir- 
 tues, particularly his, gratitude, owing to an exercise of which 
 the wheel of Ottoman greatness turned down the hill, and in its 
 first progress dragged him from the throne. The example de- 
 serves to be recorded. He came to the throne at seven years 
 old, between when and fourteen three grand vizirs were put to 
 
 * A correct likeness of Sultan Mahmoud II. was taken in the beginning 
 of 1830 by Signor Gobbi, an attache of the Sardinian embassy. The sultan 
 munificently rewarded him with a snuff-box set with diamonds. 
 
246 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 death through the intrigues of his grandmother, Sultana 
 Kiosem, she having retained the management of affairs. 
 Mahomet Kuprogli, being then elevated to the rank, with 
 great prudence immediately freed the young sultan from the 
 tutelage of the women, and conducted him to the war in Dal- 
 matia. He died at Adrianople, and was succeeded in the 
 grand vizirship by his son, Achmet, who also died a few years 
 after, at Constantinople, leaving, as well as his father, a great 
 name in Ottoman history. To mark his sense of his services, 
 the sultan not only left his son Mustapha all. his riches, hut 
 appointed him grand vizir ; and on the rank being modestly 
 refused by the young man on the plea of his inexperience, 
 gave it to his nearest relative, Cara Mustapha, observing, that 
 any member of the family of Kuprogli must he worthy of it. 
 Cara Mustapha belied the compliment. By his counsel, 
 against the opinion of the scheick islam, who declared it un- 
 holy, predicting that divine vengeance would follow the infrac- 
 tion of treaties, the Porte for the first time — never since repeated 
 — encouraged revolt in a foreign country; listened to the pro- 
 positions of young Tekeli; and in alliance with him declared war 
 unjustly against Germany; in which war Vienna was not taken, 
 owing to the avarice of Cara Mustapha, and in which, by his 
 imbecility, the finest Turkish army ever seen was totally routed 
 by Sobieski on the ever memorable 2nd Sept., 1683, from 
 which epoch dates the decline of Turkey. The author of the 
 calamity, Cara Mustapha, received in recompence the how- 
 string, to which he readily submitted his neck, thus confirming 
 what he used to say in the days of his splendour, that he only 
 wanted that martyrdom to complete his happiness. The de- 
 position of Mahomet IV. followed, with complete anarchy 
 throughout the empire, which was reduced to extremities, 
 threatened by the victorious Germans, and only saved by his suc- 
 cessor giving the seal of grand vizir to Mustapha Kuprogli, the 
 same who had before refused it. He proved an equally great 
 man with his father and grandfather : he restored the Turkish 
 affairs as well as could he ; and was finally killed by a musket- 
 shot in a battle against the imperial army under the walls of 
 Peterwaradin, to the consternation of all Turkey. Turkey that 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 247 
 
 day lost her last able minister. No man has been found since with 
 probity, disinterestedness, talent, and courage — all are neces- 
 sary, to rule his own passions, a despotic sultan, and a fanatic 
 nation ; to lead a petticoat cabinet, and conduct armies, — a 
 capacity that was eminently possessed by the three Kuproglis, 
 who certainly merit a rank among the great geniuses that grace 
 history’s scroll, and present an unexampled chain of great 
 hereditary talent. 
 
 To return to the seraglio ; after our disappointment in the 
 imperial library, we descended to the fourth and last court, in 
 which was nothing remarkable, except a marble column, 
 seventy feet high. The inscription was nearly effaced, hut its 
 Corinthian capital was perfect, and reflected credit on its 
 masters, for having so well preserved a remnant of the first 
 Constantine’s magnificence. 
 
 We were next conducted through the sultanas’ gardens, laid 
 out with taste, but wanting that day their most beautiful 
 flowers, across a spacious circus for the jerreed exercise, to the 
 water gate, where a crowd of retainers were assembled to see 
 the exit of the travelling menagerie. We delayed a few 
 minutes to converse with two regular mutes ; they were boys 
 about fourteen years old, very genteel, and good-looking, 
 whereby we were completely undeceived in regard of their 
 species, having previously understood that a mute was a kind 
 of animal between a dwarf and a monkey. The little urchins 
 were exceedingly amused, and laughed and conversed about us 
 with great rapidity, making most expressive language with 
 their eyes and fingers. Their quick wit is proverbial in Tur- 
 key, and in the secret deliberations in the seraglio, where they 
 alone are allowed to be present as domestics, nothing escapes 
 their intelligence. One of them is noted for having saved the 
 celebrated grand vizir, Kuprogli, whose death-warrant, owing 
 to the intrigues of the valide sultana and the kislar aga, to 
 whom his economy of the public money had rendered him 
 odious, was signed by the weak Achmet. A mute gave him 
 notice of the plot ; and thus timely warned, Kuprogli, who 
 was then at Adrianople with the army, was enabled to receive 
 the messenger of death with smiles, and to turn the tables. 
 
248 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 The kislar aga was in consequence exiled, and his secretary- 
 strangled. 
 
 Here finished our visit to the seraglio. The same evening 
 Sir P. Malcolm sailed for the Dardanelles. We, who remained 
 at Pera, had occasion, soon afterwards, to behold the Osman- 
 leys in a very unusual position; viz., mixing with European 
 society with a degree of versatility and condescension so un- 
 expected, that the dragomans, a race peculiarly unsusceptible 
 and difficult to beguile into a display of feelings, gave way for 
 the first time in their lives to expressions of astonishment, and 
 declared that nothing more could surprise them. The object 
 was a hallo , the name which the Osmanleys have since adopted, 
 as vernacular, to signify the simultaneous movement of nu- 
 merous pairs of legs to music, on hoard the Blonde , which 
 was fitted up for the occasion with a taste and splendour rarely 
 equalled in the British navy, where such things, too, are well 
 understood. Sir R. Gordon was the giver of this fete in cele- 
 bration of the peace, and the Turkish ministers were asked to 
 meet the Frank society; a novel combination, which greatly 
 amused the most of us, in anticipation, hut rather ruffled the 
 composure of the true believers, and of the fair Europeans in 
 general. The ladies took it into their heads that they were 
 only invited to dance for the amusement of the Osmanleys — a 
 gratuitous calumny on our worthy ambassador — and declared, 
 whether or no, that considering the estimation in which Mus- 
 sulmans held women, it was indelicate to exhibit before them 
 at all. They were perfectly correct in their opinion; hut when 
 the moment came, these, and all such idle considerations, gave 
 way to the pleasure of a hall on hoard ship. On the other 
 hand, there were a few prejudices to vanquish, and the sultan’s 
 leave to he obtained. He, however, so far from refusing it, 
 would gladly have assisted in his own sacred person, had not 
 state etiquette prevented. The most difficult man to persuade 
 to soil himself by so close an approach to Christian debauchery 
 was the reis effendi; but when he found that his brother 
 ministers were going, and that the sultan wished it, consented. 
 “ Wonderful ! if they go, why should not I go ? Inshallah ! 
 I will go.” Heavy rains retarded some days this grand expe- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 249 
 
 riment on Turkish morality, and undid the frigate’s canopying 
 more than once. At length, the heavens cleared, also long 
 faces, and by nine o’clock, p. m., the distinguished three-tailed, 
 and two-tailed, and no-tailed, company assembled beneath the 
 ensigns of England, of Turkey, and of Kussia; the two latter 
 amicably joining, and forming, it might have been supposed, 
 a galling sight for the Osmanleys, as well as the word peace, 
 which was multiplied in transparencies round the quarter-deck. 
 If it was so, they concealed their feelings ; looked at both with 
 their usual apathy, and leant, as might he, on the arms of 
 some of Diebitsch’s aides-de-camp present. Abaft the mizen 
 mast a superb divan was arranged where their excellencies the 
 pashas sat by their excellencies the ambassadors — cashmeres 
 vying with stars. The ladies were ranged opposite, prim and 
 prude, to be eyed by these terrible four-wived fellows, who 
 made themselves as perfectly at home as in their own harems, 
 smoking chibouques, and caressing their stockingless feet, 
 which for greater ease they took out of their slippers and put 
 on the sofa, according to custom ; they probably would have 
 liked the fair Franks to have rendered them the titillating pro- 
 cess on the cranium, that minor yet cherished luxury of the 
 harem, — though, if they had the wish, it was not expressed. 
 Coffee was sipped, tea drunk, and the dancing then commenced 
 between the fore and main masts. The music was excellent, 
 and a gentle breeze brought waves of perfume from a bosquet 
 on the forecastle. The Osmanleys left their sofas and their 
 pipes to gloat their eyes on the mazes of the waltzers, and, 
 but for their pelisses, might have joined them. The old capidgi 
 bashi was in a state of ravishment, which the sameness of his 
 harem had failed to produce. “Wonderful!” he emphatically 
 exclaimed; “ I have lived fifty-seven years and seen nothing 
 like this; now that I have seen a hallo I will die content.” 
 The capitan pasha was more moderate ; he sat himself down to 
 learn ecarte, and succeeded in losing his money. His brother 
 pasha, the little, lame, round-backed, sanguinary seraskier, 
 Khosrew, he whom we so lately saw chief head-cutter and 
 limb-racker in Constantinople, was as merry as a buffo. He 
 looked everywhere, and caressed everybody; took all his ac- 
 
250 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 quaintances by the ear, and tapped their cheeks: his country- 
 men, however, seemed to bear his advances like those of a 
 serpent, nor could we, little as we cared for him, view them 
 without disgust. There were also present the sultan’s two 
 favourites, the Selictar Pasha, and the secretary, Mustapha 
 Elfendi, both comely men about thirty; the former by birth a 
 Candiote Greek, the latter an Anatolian, who, when a boy, was 
 employed in a cafeneh at the village of Ghiok, on the Bos- 
 phorus. The sultan riding through the village one day, was 
 struck with his physiognomy, and had him transplanted to the 
 seraglio, where his supple and compliant manners completed 
 the conquest which his beauty had begun. Both had great 
 power over their master’s mind, and without their favour few 
 places were long tenable. “ How many guns would you give 
 to the capitan pasha ?” hastily asked Mustapha Effendi of the 
 captain of a French man-of-war in the harbour. “ Nineteen,” 
 the captain answered, “ as high admiral.” “ Imbecille,” replied 
 the little favourite ; “ and you only give me seven. I who can 
 make and unmake seven capitan pashas in a week !” he turned 
 off, and sulkily stepped into his boat. 
 
 An important personage on board was Halil Pasha ; and an 
 equally striking example of the fortune which often follows 
 slavery in Turkey. By birth a Circassian, he was purchased 
 in the slave market of Constantinople by Khosrew Pasha, who, 
 it is worthy of remark, was bought in the same market. 
 Having no sons, he finished by adopting the young Halil as the 
 “ son of his soul,” a common practice in the East, and raised 
 him to the highest offices of the state. He commanded a 
 division in the war, and in the campaign of 1828 distinguished 
 himself by a charge of cavalry against the Russian hussars, 
 near Kustendgi. At this period he was about to proceed to 
 St. Petersburgh as ambassador extraordinary, with rich and 
 -rare gifts, (cloaks, with diamond embroidered collars, saddles 
 covered with jewels, shawls fringed with pearls, and amulets of 
 a thousand years date,) to endeavour to soften the terms of the 
 peace. The hand of the sultan’s daughter, a houri of eighteen, 
 was destined for him at his return. This good fortune of his 
 adopted son gladdened the seraskier, and he could not help 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 251 
 
 speaking of it to a Frank in a manner which develops a point 
 in Eastern character. “It is wonderful,” said the old man; 
 “ at length Halil is going. God is great. I purchased him ; 
 now behold him an eltchi. Ah ! he was a sweet child, a 
 charming hoy ; he cost me fifteen hundred piastres.” “ Only 
 fifteen hundred !” replied the Frank ; “ that was not dear for 
 such merit : surely your excellency cost more ? ” “ I said 
 
 the seraskier, “ that is quite another thing, truly ; I was worth 
 more; I cost my master two thousand five hundred piastres.” 
 This conversation shows what fallacious ideas people entertain 
 of slavery in the East, where it is regarded with pride rather 
 than with shame ; and is an argument against the general 
 assertion of anti-slavites, that slavery is everywhere disgrace- 
 ful and inhuman. Here was seen one of the first men of the 
 empire referring with pleasure to epochs which we might sup- 
 pose he would wish to hury in oblivion. 
 
 In addition to pashas and their trains, the deck was graced 
 with some him bashis, aides-de-camp of the sultan, dressed in 
 gold-laced hussar uniforms, among whom I must not pass over 
 the young Avni Bey — the Hamlet of the Turkish court, the 
 mirror of the new modes. Had his head been covered with hair 
 instead of a fez, he might have passed for a Frank : his clothes 
 were well made, his neckcloth, the first ever worn by a Turk, 
 neatly tied, and his pumps and silk stockings fitted him. This 
 aptitude in taking up Frank customs had gained him the sul- 
 tan’s favour, and had caused him to he appointed mehminder 
 (complimenter) to Sir Robert Gordon on his arrival. He 
 dined once with a large party at the ambassador’s table, and 
 conducted himself, notwithstanding the strangeness of the 
 scene, with perfect ease and good breeding, graces which came 
 natural to him from the self-command and indifference to ex- 
 ternal objects — the nihil admirari — acquired by a Turkish 
 education. He made a graceful bow, between the dignified 
 inclination of the Osmanley, and the quick violent stoop (as 
 if trying to crack one’s breeches) of the French, and with a 
 good master he would have danced : as it was he attempted a 
 waltz once or twice, (quadrilles he called insipid), hut could 
 never get out of the middle of the room. But with all his 
 
252 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 talents he was very stupid at languages; for, though mixing a 
 good deal with the Pereotes, and often on board the Blonde, 
 whose officers took much notice of him, he never got farther 
 than “comment vous portez vous? — assez bien — jolie fille,” 
 and in English, “ Abaft there ! give me some wine.” * 
 
 The entertainment went off admirably, as may he supposed, 
 with so much variety and novelty. Even the fair prudes 
 became disposed to take the circumstance of having bearded 
 spectators as a joke, and did not show off the less because 
 avidly gazed on. Supper was announced. Each noble 
 Osmanley then took a lady under his arm, and led her down 
 on the main deck, where it was served in perfect style, 
 with a liberality which did honour to the representative of a 
 great nation. The coup d’oeil was good: knives and cutlasses, 
 forks and tomahawks, spoons and sponges, glasses and ram- 
 mers, bottles and guns, napkins and arrows, flags and flounces, 
 sparkling eyes and sparkling liquors, were all together in a 
 narrow space, relieving, not perplexing. Champagne flowed 
 like fountains, other liquids like rivers. The Osmanleys 
 laid aside their gravity, and dispensed for that night with the 
 orthodox use of their fingers, though we feared that sundry 
 manslaughters would have taken place in consequence of their 
 awkwardness with those “ accursed contrivances,” knives and 
 forks. There was never a more jovial or a more noisy ban- 
 quet. They pledged the sovereigns of Europe, they pledged 
 the ambassadresses, and they pledged each other in repeated 
 bumpers, and talked much nonsense. The ladies fortunately did 
 not understand Turkish. Some of them, it must be said, by 
 repeated doses, were brought very near the verge of inebriety. 
 Nourrey Bey, (the Capitan Pasha’s khasnadar, captain of the 
 Scherif resan, to whom I have before alluded,) drank im- 
 moderately, partly from complaisance, and partly from good 
 taste. At length, he told me, putting down his glass, filled 
 
 * Avni Bey was afterwards banished to Nicomedia for insulting some 
 Greek ladies. He also liked this part of Prank customs. At Nicomedia. 
 he would have been forgotten by the sultan, had not Count Orloff received 
 two swords from the emperor, to give to any two of the sultan’s suite he 
 pleased ; in consequence, he was recalled to receive one. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 253 
 
 alternately with champagne and porter, and taking my hand, 
 that he could drink no more; I believed him, for he had 
 already swallowed what no one hut an habitual water-drinker 
 could have done without being speechless ; hut, pointing to a 
 young belle, he discreetly expressed another idea, in a tone 
 which showed that he thought he was in the right sphere. I 
 endeavoured, infinitely amused, to make him comprehend the 
 difference between dancing ladies and “ dancing girls.” He 
 smiled incredulously, and stroked his heard, then said, “Very 
 good; you Franks are right to keep them for yourselves.” 
 This calumnious opinion, derived from seeing them waltz, was 
 not confined to honest Nourrey. More than one other grave 
 effendi thought there would he no harm in making proposals 
 to ladies, who, they saw, allowed themselves to he embraced in 
 public. The warmth of the Seraskier’s language to a beauty 
 obliged her to appeal to an ambassador, who gently remon- 
 strated with the old sinner. However, nothing unpleasant 
 occurred: they were all attentively polite, and after supper 
 consented to lower themselves, by walking a polonaise with 
 the ladies. They then took leave, having thus, in a few hours, 
 made three giant strides in civilization ; danced with females, 
 drank publicly, and gamed ; and were so much pleased, that 
 the capitan pasha expressed his intention of giving a ball on 
 board the Selimier , and the seraskier pasha of having one at 
 his palace : of course neither one or the other took place. 
 
 The reis effendi alone, of the Ottoman grandees on board, did 
 not lose sight of his character, and by this keeping raised himself 
 in the esteem of everybody. True to his creed, he drank no fer- 
 mQpted liquors, yet with good breeding only alleged in excuse 
 that they disagreed with his health, (his soul’s health, he meant) . 
 He took no pleasure in the fete, probably thinking that such a 
 peace as that just concluded was no subject of rejoicing for 
 an Osmanley. The word “ peace,” placed in transparencies 
 in various languages, in the quarter-deck ports, appeared to 
 him so many duplicates of shame ; and the union of the Rus- 
 sian and Turkish banners over his head, as a bitter mockery. The 
 last heritage of the unfortunate is pride : their sovereign may be 
 
254 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 overthrown, and their country subjugated; but that is not 
 subject to a conquerors will : with it their enemies will esteem 
 them, without it their friends will despise them. 
 
 In every respect that sudden and deep plunge of the Otto- 
 man ministers into public debauchery was ill-judged. It 
 showed that they were readier to copy the vices than the 
 virtues of Christendom, — to commence where they should 
 leave off ; it gave the Tories — and the Tories in Turkey com- 
 pose the majority — a powerful moral argument against a 
 reform, the chief feature of which appeared to be contempt of 
 their prophet’s wisest law — sobriety; and it afforded all Turks, 
 who still regard the Koran as an inspired volume, a further plea 
 for considering the sultan and his ministers as little removed 
 from infidels. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 Sevastopol — Arsenal — Quarantine — Dniester — Odessa — Plague — Danube 
 — Squall — Varna — Gulf of Bourgas — Sizepolis — Ignada — Bosphorus 
 — Count Orloff. 
 
 The Blonde soon replaced her divans and figured boards with 
 guns and boats, and in a few days (the early part of Novem- 
 ber) proceeded into the Black Sea. I sailed in her by the kind 
 invitation of her captain and officers. The moon was well up 
 when we weighed anchor from Buyukder6, and made the night 
 scene beautifully varying, as the frigate, under all sail, spread to 
 a gentle southerly breeze, glided past the forts and batteries^ on 
 either hand, the interest being heightened by the consideration 
 that she was the first English ship of war that had thus far fol- 
 lowed the Argo’s track. To commemorate the auspicious event 
 the main-brace was spliced (a dram given to each man.) 
 
 A north-east gale came on the following day, and drove us 
 within sight of the mountains of Anatolia. While it lasted, we 
 remarked that the sea ran very long, considering the small size of 
 its bed. It made, however, little impression on the Blonde, the 
 most gallant lover that its dark bosom ever had heaved under; 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 255 
 
 and on the fourth morning, we made Cape Aia, the magnificent 
 cliff which marks the south-west end of the Crimea, fourteen 
 hundred feet high, generally visible from ten to fifteen leagues, 
 and in clear weather, as far as twenty-five leagues. Near it, to 
 the north-west, forming with it the romantic harbour of Bala- 
 clava, is Cape Phelient, low and bluff, and remarkable from the 
 land behind it rising in three steps. To the north of it is Cape 
 Kherson, the index of Sevastopol, with a light house on it, 
 near one hundred feet high. Two other light-houses serve as 
 leading marks into the harbour, but of them and the dangers 
 of the navigation I need say nothing ; when a British fleet is 
 sent to attack Sevastopol, Captain Lyons, or any of the officers 
 of the Blonde, will he found capable of leading it in. 
 
 Verily, Norwegian fishermen, when they gazed on what they 
 thought the demon ship, were not more astonished than was 
 the Russian squadron in Sevastopol at the apparition of the 
 Blonde.* The outer ship hid us anchor and not pass her. 
 We complied. Next came an officer, plumed, and booted, and 
 buttoned, alongside, to know what was the ship, whence she 
 came, what her cargo, with similar sapient questions, as though 
 her ensign and pennant, with other obvious signs, were not 
 admissible evidence of her nation and quality. He was an- 
 swered in general terms, that the frigate being on a cruize for 
 the health of the crew, her captain did not deem it compli- 
 mentary to the admiral to pass the port without entering. 
 Admiral Greig, the commander-in-chief, was not there, having 
 gone a few days previous to Nicolaef, on the Bog, hut at the 
 mizen of a first-rate was the flag of a rear-admiral. The rear- 
 
 * By the sensation of jealousy occasioned at St. Petersburgh by an 
 English frigate having cruized on the Euxine, it appears that Russia con- 
 siders it as much hers as the Caspian : with as much right to prohibit 
 strange ships of war from navigating it. She ought to be better taught. 
 The following is one of the articles of the peace of Tourkmantchai, signed 
 Eebruary 1828, between Russia and Persia. “In regard of vessels of 
 war, those under the Russian flag having the right, ab antiquo, of navigat- 
 ing the Caspian Sea, it follows that this right is theirs exclusively. There- 
 fore it is reserved and assured to them now, with the full understanding, 
 that no other power can have vessels of war on the Caspian.” If Russia 
 be allowed to make another war like the last in Turkey, she will dictate a 
 similar article for the Euxine. 
 
256 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 admiral would rather have dispensed with the compliment. He 
 scarcely knew what to do : he could not turn us away, yet 
 Sevastopol was forbidden water to strange ships. Our story 
 he did not credit; the compliment involved a plot to him; and 
 he considered it an absurd pretence, a frigate cruizing on the 
 Black Sea in the winter for the health of her crew, an exercise, 
 in his opinion, (Russian as he was,) well calculated to kill one 
 half, and give the other half rheumatism. He arrived at the 
 conclusion that she came for the purpose of surveying Sevas- 
 topol, and he thought to frustrate it by surrounding us with 
 the harriers of quarantine. It was with difficulty that per- 
 mission was granted us to row up the harbour, and then in a 
 way that evinced distrust, for it specified that one boat only 
 should go, with not more than two sitters in the stern sheets, 
 and that it should he accompanied by the admiral’s aid-de- 
 camp in another boat. This was mortifying, considering that 
 no spying intention existed on our part, simply rational 
 curiosity. However, we got over the difficulty about sitters, 
 weathered the admiral, and gratified ourselves by dressing as 
 Jacks and taking the oars of the gig. 
 
 We rowed about the harbour under a sharp snow-storm, 
 during two or three hours, to the impatience of the aid-de- 
 camp, who must have thought us a very ill-disciplined boat’s 
 crew, and on excellent speaking terms with our captain; at 
 the same time he was civil, and told us all that he knew. 
 
 The great harbour is a fine sheet of water, three and a-half 
 miles by one, due east and west, with good bottom all over, 
 from twelve fathoms to four fathoms. The northern shore is 
 broken into hays, separated by three abrupt points, formed by 
 loose stones, each fortified by batteries pointing seawards, 
 respectively eighteen, twenty-one, seven guns. A low beach 
 confines it to the east, intersected by a rivulet, and backed by 
 a range of high hills. On the southern shore are two creeks, 
 which tend to render Sevastopol one of the finest harbours of 
 the world. The inner creek penetrates considerably inland, 
 by three-quarters of a mile wide, with depth for first-rates. 
 On one side of it is the dockyard, extensive, but ill supplied, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 257 
 
 from the system of peculation carried on by the naval officers.* 
 It has no docks. The other creek, between it and the 
 harbour’s mouth, serves for the repairs of small craft. 
 
 A small hill separates these creeks, on which the town is 
 loosely scattered, — a few, good government-houses, with green 
 roofs, the remainder huts. At its sea-base are two lines of 
 batteries, mounting thirty-four guns: near the small creek is 
 another of seventeen guns; between which and the entrance of 
 the harbour, on the brow of a cliff, are two double-tier batteries 
 of twenty-one, twenty-seven guns; and on the rocky points 
 forming the entrance, are also batteries of thirty- three, twenty- 
 six guns, making on the whole two hundred and four pieces of 
 cannon that could bear successively on ships entering Sevas- 
 topol. But when we saw them they were in a bad state, and 
 chiefly mounted en barbette, which affords a poor chance 
 against ships’ broadsides. Indeed, everything in this great 
 depot — second in Bussia — indicated its distance from the 
 capital, a circumstance, in countries where the press is not 
 free, which singularly assists the depredations of employes. 
 
 Admiral Greig’s want of energy during the Turkish war had 
 not preconceived us in his favour, and the sight of his fleet com- 
 pletely removed any idea we might have had of his professional 
 talents. His fleet was bad, even after the Turkish fleet. Could a 
 stranger have seen the two fleets together (without their colours), 
 he would have decided that the Russian fleet was the Turkish, 
 and vice versa. The ships were of an old construction, filthy, 
 shamefully rigged, and scarcely fit for service. We gathered an 
 idea of their interior discipline from the chief medical officer of 
 the naval department. He asked the Blonde s surgeon how 
 many sick he had on board. “ One,” was the reply. “ One !” 
 repeated the Russian, with astonishment; “ by wliat miracle do 
 you manage, cruising, too, in the worst season of the year 
 
 * To such au extent did the officers of the Black Sea fleet carry the 
 system of selling their ships 5 stores, that the government were at length 
 obliged, as the only means, to prohibit merchant vessels from lying in the 
 harbour ; the merchant captains being the chief customers of the imperial 
 captains. The same habit exists in the Baltic, hut to a less extent. It is 
 considered a punishment to be sent from the Baltic fleet to serve on the 
 Euxine. 
 
 S 
 
258 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 (November) ? Our fleet never leaves harbour for six weeks in 
 the summer, then goes no further than sixty miles, but it 
 returns, having lost several men, with a full sick list.” The 
 condition of the Russian sailors on the Euxine is too shameful 
 to be easily credited. When I say that they are abandoned, 
 when ill, like dogs, I do not express their misery, unless the 
 dogs of Constantinople are to be understood. At the quaran- 
 tine ground, we observed several holes cut in the earth, commu- 
 nicating with caves seven feet by three; the snow falling thick 
 at the time, they were nearly filled. Their regularity denoted 
 that they were not there by accident, or kept open for no 
 purpose. What could they be for? we thought. One said they 
 were to kee|) sails in ; another, to keep oars ; a third, rope ; but 
 we agreed, on consideration, that any article of that kind would 
 spoil in them, and therefore they could only be for grapnels, or 
 such like articles. Soft-hearted Britons ! Reader, those holes 
 or caves, as you will, lined with the damp earth, floored with 
 the damp earth, ceiled with the damp earth, were for the recep- 
 tion of isolated cases of plague among the sailors. Wrapped 
 in sail cloth, the wretch is laid there to feel — what must he feel ! 
 — to curse — can he do otherwise ? his masters. Food is given 
 to him twice a day, till he miraculously recover, or speedily die. 
 From such a life death must be welcome. 
 
 The quarantine harbour is a creek outside the port. We 
 found in it a brig, with plague on board, a cutter, and a lugger ; 
 three merchantmen, and a Turkish coaster wind-bound. The 
 establishment was wretched, consisting of about half a dozen 
 small houses, without windows, for the accommodation of the 
 detenus. Captain Alexander, of the Sixteenth Lancers, and a 
 Danish naval lieutenant were there, performing their quarantine 
 from Roumelia. They looked well, but very cold. People in 
 this quarantine are imposed on, since supplying necessaries to 
 it is a monopoly granted to one person : provisions, however, are 
 so cheap in Russia, that, though charged double, one could not 
 
 * The following summer, 1830, the sailors of the fleet at Sevastopol 
 avenged in part their trampled-on humanity ; they rose and murdered their 
 brutal surgeons : — at least, so it was currently reported. Contrast tH&ir 
 victims with the surgeons of the British navy, for whom the tars would 
 almost cut their own throats. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 259 
 
 grumble. Beef was a penny a pound, and the best we ever 
 tasted out of England ; though it may be, that our excellent 
 appetites, occasioned by the sudden increase of cold, was one 
 cause of its goodness. We saw some of the inhabitants; they 
 were stout, but not good-looking. What we saw of the country 
 — certainly not improved by being covered with snow — did not 
 lead us to agree with Clarke, who calls it a Paradise. He came 
 to it from Russia; we from Turkey, whose Eden-like scenes 
 must not be profaned by being compared with the harsh out- 
 lining of the Crimea, which, at the same time, has some novel 
 points; the hills are singularly pitched by nature, ranges of 
 them terminate in steps, the great feature of Tartary scenery, as 
 well cut and apparently as artificial, as though fashioned by 
 Cyclopean labourers. The Crimea has little wood. None could 
 be brought for the frigate ; she was obliged to be supplied from 
 the government stores. 
 
 We remained only three days at Sevastopol, and then sailed, 
 to the joy of the rear-admiral; he kindly recommended Captain 
 Lyons not to stay out long at sea, for fear of accidents. From 
 a distance, Cape Aia showed uncommonly fine; as also the 
 range of mountains inland. We did not see Koslof, in running 
 along the land, as we expected, though it is said to be remark- 
 able for a large mosque. We saw, at the distance of twenty 
 miles, the light-house on Cape Tarkham, which at night shines 
 brilliantly, as do all the excellent light-houses, kept up by the 
 Russian government, on the coasts of the Crimea, and of Bes- 
 sarabia, to the great comfort of navigators. They may be said, 
 after the English, to be the only good lights in the world ; and 
 they render unimportant the error existing in this part of the 
 chart of the Euxine, which places Bessarabia too close to the 
 Crimea. 
 
 In the morning, we made the extensive lagoons to the south- 
 ward of the Dniester; and, shortly after, the low island which 
 forms the two mouths of the river. The country about it is a 
 flat, marshy waste. Thirty miles off shore we had twenty- 
 five fathoms ; four miles off shore, from six to eleven fathoms. 
 As we advanced north, the face of the country changed to the 
 vast, woodless steppes. Several towers were erected along the 
 
 s 2 
 
260 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 cliffs ; one, white, close to a large building, with a green cupola, 
 and some trees, (rare objects,) was the light-house of Odessa, 
 though ten miles distant from it, on account of the cape, 
 whereon it stands, somewhat projecting. We observed the face 
 of great part of the intervening cliff and shore to be laid out, 
 with great expense and labour, in gardens, ornamented with 
 marble statues and urns, which appeared exceedingly cold and 
 out of place in this frigid clime. They were the property of a 
 Polish nobleman, one of the richest subjects of the emperor. 
 
 The frigate sailed close by them; and, in the afternoon, 
 anchored in Odessa roadstead. About twenty vessels only were 
 lying there. ' The mole, on the contrary, was quite full, chiefly 
 of Genoese vessels. Three or four hundred Genoese vessels 
 annually come to Odessa for corn — for corn ! while Sardinia, 
 one of ancient Rome’s granaries, within a day’s sail of Genoa, 
 lies uncultivated ! They were loading in a hurry, for fear of 
 being frozen in — a circumstance to be expected earlier than 
 usual, as the winter had already commenced with severity.* 
 There are two moles at Odessa, one of which, destined for vessels 
 in pratique, is little used, on account of the absurd regulation 
 that obliges every vessel to undergo the same process, be the 
 plague actually on board or not. Greater part of the vessels, 
 therefore, prefer remaining under the yellow flag their whole 
 stay, which generally amounts to three or four months; and 
 may, if they are frozen in, extend to double that time. In 
 consequence, the lazzaretto is on a superb scale, containing 
 cafes, restaurateurs, and billiards, to assist the captains and 
 mates in spending their cash. At the barrier we met two 
 English merchants, the only ones in the place. They were 
 decorated with badges, which we might have taken, considering 
 their plurality and ease of attainment, for Russian orders, had 
 they not been made of tin. The plague was in a few houses ; 
 and therefore, as a precautionary measure, none of the inha- 
 bitants were allowed to walk about the streets, excepting those 
 
 * The great cold in this low latitude is extraordinary ; every year the 
 space between Odessa and Kherson is thickly frozen over; and in 1824-25 
 the sea was covered with a crust as far as the Danube ; in the same winter 
 part of Constantinople harbour was frozen. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 261 
 
 who obtained similar badges from the governor. One of these 
 gentlemen informed us, that during the war, one hundred and 
 seventy vessels, of all nations, among them twelve English, 
 were employed in the transport service; yet the Turkish 
 ministers, often for a paltry bribe, suffered neutrals to pass into 
 the Black Sea, well knowing how they would be employed. The 
 Kussian government paid well. 
 
 The few vessels actually belonging to Russia, scarcely any in 
 comparison with those of other nations that trade on the Black 
 Sea, does not say much for the commercial spirit of the 
 Russians. This losing balance, however, so detrimental to the 
 country, is not, I have been informed, so much owing to the 
 want of individual enterprise, as to the obstacles which the 
 government throws in the way of seamen entering on board 
 merchant-ships; either requiring them for the navy, or appre- 
 hensive that they may, if in the habit of visiting foreign parts, 
 imbibe strange ideas about the rights of man, and so forth; per- 
 haps may not he inclined to return home. The latter supposition 
 is probable, considering the unhappy state of a great portion of 
 the Russians, — their liability to a merciless conscription: many 
 of Diebitsch’s army deserted, and remained in Turkey; I met 
 several of them after the peace. 
 
 This great mart of southern Russia is seen to advantage from 
 the sea; it has fine buildings along the cliffs, in the manner of 
 Brighton. It owes much to the Duke de Richelieu, who may 
 he said to have been the most fortunate of the French emigres, 
 and who enjoyed the complete confidence of Alexander. He 
 slept only four hours at night, and studied a great deal ; but 
 he never arrived to speak Russian fluently. He loved Odessa, 
 as being his creation ; and to such an extent carried his paternal 
 solicitude, that at the commencement of a great plague in the 
 town, he turned all the Jews (some thousands) into the country, 
 little caring whether they spread the disease, before drawing the 
 cordon sanitaire, le§t, in a scarcity of provisions that might 
 happen, they should become a tax on the inhabitants. He 
 quitted it at the general peace, to return to France. The 
 governor, Count Woronzow, was very civil to us. His aide- 
 de-camp came alongside, to compliment the captain, on his 
 
262 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 part, and to regret that the frigate did not take pratique, when 
 he might he personally attentive. He sent some English news- 
 papers on hoard, and Gaultiers chart of the Euxine. 
 
 After twenty-four hours’ stay at Odessa, we again weighed, 
 the wind at north, and steered through a thick fog, keeping to 
 the southward and eastward, the coast being too little known 
 to hug it during the night. In the morning we made Yelan 
 Adasi, (Serpents’ Isle,) a truncated block, twenty miles from 
 the Danube, and invisible from it: rounding it, pretty close to, 
 we hauled up west towards the river which we had curiosity to 
 view. The frigate approached within six miles of the lofty 
 Pharos that marks the centre branch, then hove- to, in shallow, 
 discoloured, almost fresh water. This principal entrance, Kili 
 Bogasi, of the Danube, is obstructed by a bar, which would 
 oblige deep vessels, were there any in the trade, to partly un- 
 lade, in order to pass it. Inside the bar are six fathoms, and 
 thence the navigation is uninterrupted as far as Ishmael, one 
 hundred miles up, where are two fathoms. Little trouble and 
 expense would remove this bar, with other hindrances occurring 
 above Ishmael. Should the inhabitants of the provinces, now 
 emancipated from Turkish misrule, he ever freed from the chill- 
 ing influence of Russian military protection, or should Russia 
 consider their advantage hers, attention will necessarily he paid 
 to this source of wealth. Hungary, Servia, Moldavia, and 
 Wallachia are situated to profit by it; and by this increased 
 intercourse, the Mussulmans on the right hank will improve. 
 In that case, instead of the few huts, now adjoining the light- 
 house, we may see a flourishing town, depot of the products 
 of the rich countries in the course of the Danube and of the 
 manufactures of Europe, which the increasing civilization of 
 those countries will demand, and for which the Danube is the 
 natural channel. It will rival Odessa as a corn-mart, and 
 eclipse it in other respects, from its superior position. 
 
 The country adjoining the Danube is, like that of the 
 Dniester, muddy, marshy, misty, one of fever’s head- quarters. 
 We had not been ten minutes off it when a violent snow- squall 
 hid the dreary prospect. We bore up. The night following 
 was extremely rude, and morning rose with an unpleasant coun- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 263 
 
 tenance. Tlie snow was flaking, the wind was gusting violently, 
 yet seeming to sport and reserve its strength for a better occasion; 
 wild, ragged, horse-tailed clouds were dashing from the horizon 
 to the zenith, as though for amusement, and thick vapour flew 
 along the surface of the water in broad curls ; altogether de- 
 noting a regular Black Sea squall, one of which we had not yet 
 been favoured with. To add to the interest of the scene, a 
 thick mist one moment hid the frigate’s extremities, and the 
 next a dazzling gleam, darting across it, showed us rocky cliffs 
 jutting apparently close to us ; while, holding the same course 
 with ourselves, other vessels under one sail, like wild birds on 
 the wing, were plunging through, and dancing over the boiling 
 waves. Suddenly, while we were preparing to gain an offing, 
 a magician waved his rod. With a flap the atmosphere shook 
 off its incubuses, the clouds disappeared, the snow ceased, the 
 wind fell, and three miles distant, north-west, we saw Cape 
 Calaghriah, in a masquerade dress, — the snow having interlined 
 its red strata. A tumulus on the hills to the west, and a 
 solitary mosque, were the only visible signs that man fre- 
 quented this inclement coast, — in the latitude of Leghorn with 
 the rigour of Shetland. We entered the smooth water under 
 its lee, and after running about twenty miles came to, in a safe 
 anchorage, two miles off Varna.* 
 
 This city has had a place in history since 1444, when 
 Ladislaus, King of Hungary, was defeated and killed near it 
 by Amurath II., who commemorated his victory, and expressed 
 his gratitude to heaven, by erecting on the field of battle a 
 pyramidal column — levelled a century afterwards by the 
 Imperialists. It has since been reputed for its military 
 position, long considered one of the keys of the Balkans; — its 
 commercial importance as being the outlet for the produce of 
 Bulgaria, thence shipped for Constantinople; and for an exten- 
 sive fishery. But all these advantages have passed away on 
 the wings of the Russian eagle — everywhere the harbinger of 
 
 * Varna is situated on an abrupt point in a bay within a large bay of 
 which Cape Calaghriah forms the north-east point. The road is sheltered 
 from all winds except between south-south-east and east-north-east. Ves- 
 sels ride with safety the whole winter. 
 
264 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 ruin. Its numerous mosques and churches have at length 
 attained a point of coincidence — they crumble in unison ; and 
 of its three thousand houses, scarcely as many hundreds 
 remain entire. At the same time Varna’s celebrity has widely 
 increased; from being local is become European, and firmly 
 rests on the fine defence made by its garrison in 1828 , — a 
 defence which, looking at the place, appeared to us fabulous. 
 Its fortifications consisted of a low double wall and a narrow 
 ditch, with about sixty pieces of cannon in all. Two of its 
 sides are washed, one by the sea, the other by a small creek in 
 which large boats may anchor. Into the bottom of this creek 
 trickles the , rivulet Desineh. On the north side the ground 
 slopes till it commands the works, and on the west is a large 
 morassy lake, which proved its chief defence against the 
 operations of the last siege, which should not have been carried 
 on on that side. An assault would have carried it in a day, but 
 the Russians were too frightened by the recent check at Brailoff 
 to attempt one. Finally, Prince Mentschikoff and Admiral 
 Greig arrived with the fleet to second the Imperial Guard. 
 Eight line of battle ships, among them two first- rates, sailed 
 round the bay in order of battle, and on arriving opposite this 
 mockery of a fortress, discharged their broadsides to the admi- 
 ration of the emperor and his court. Three times this magni- 
 ficent spectacle was repeated, and three times the emperor and 
 his court expected the place to disappear in the smoke. The 
 ships were too far; a couple of frigates, lightened and taken in 
 close, would have levelled it in a few hours. Russian patience, 
 however, and the talents of Count Woronzow, who took the 
 command after Prince Mentschicoff was wounded, at length 
 caused its surrender; no ways accelerated by the evasion of 
 Yussuf Pasha, whose cause I will take up to clear him of the 
 charge of cowardice and treachery alleged against him. Yussuf 
 possessed large estates in Macedonia, descended to him from 
 his father, which in his hands became unusually productive. 
 His chiftliks were well maintained, his peasantry were happy, 
 and though not a reformer, he was at least half a century 
 before his countrymen in useful civilization. But, as I have 
 had occasion to observe with others, he had two crimes; he 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS* 
 
 265 
 
 knew his great-grandfather, and he was wealthy, independent 
 of the sultan. The sultan had also pressing occasion for 
 money to prosecute the war. Yussuf was one of the first beys 
 called on for his quota. He obeyed, and marched to Yarna 
 with six thousand Albanians, raised at his own expense. He 
 was scarcely there when he received a galling insult from the 
 Porte, by a governor being placed over him ; no other than the 
 capitan pasha, Mehemet Izzet, as brave a man as ever lived, at 
 the same time as cruel a one. I afterwards knew two of his 
 officers who were with him at Yarna. Considering that he 
 owned the garrison, Yussuf had a right to complain that the 
 command of the town was not entrusted to him. He sub- 
 mitted, however, with respect, but kept on his guard against 
 the treachery which he had reason to apprehend, since the gaze 
 of a despot was on him ; and his suspicions were justified by 
 his receiving dispatches a month after from his capi-tclioadar, 
 acquainting him that a firman was sent to the capitan pasha to 
 cut off his head. Yusssuf, thus situated, in reach of a pro- 
 verbially artful man, had no other means of keeping his life than 
 by open mutiny, or by accepting Russian protection. A middle 
 course might have been fatal to him. To conciliate his duty, 
 however, as far as possible with self-preservation, he deferred 
 his project till the tardy preparations of the besiegers were 
 completed, and then, having sent his secretary the day before 
 to feel the way, went on board the Ville de Paris, Admiral 
 Greig’s ship, and surrendered himself prisoner. The next day, 
 his flight being known, his Albanians refused to serve under 
 the orders of any one else. The place was therefore quietly 
 taken possession of, and the capitan pasha, with two hundred 
 followers, in reward for his gallantry, allowed to retire honour- 
 ably; but it is just to repeat that the place was positively 
 untenable, and had been so long before Yussuf quitted it.* 
 
 It was the grave of the Russians from first to last. From 
 
 * Eds flight was turned to the same account as his death would have 
 been; and to compensate for not showing his head at the seraglio, his 
 name was anathematized in the mosques. His property was confiscated, a 
 thing to be expected ; but, not content with this, the satellites of the Porte 
 broke open his harem, and despoiled his wife of her jewels and rich gar- 
 ments. This unprecedented violence created great and universal horror, 
 
266 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the time they came into it plague never left it. The governor 
 informed Captain Lyons that in the preceding ten months, from 
 January 1829, fifteen thousand troops had died in Varna alone; 
 in consequence, the garrison was living in tents pitched in the 
 snow on the elevated ground outside. I should have preferred 
 staying in the town with the chance of contagion ; the thermo- 
 meter was at 18° Fah., and the camp in want of the common 
 necessaries of life, principally spirits. It is almost incredible 
 the way in which a civilized and victorious army was compelled 
 to pass the severe winter of 1829-30. In other parts, as well, 
 the same misery existed ; it is no wonder that they died. 
 
 Varna formed so considerable an episode of the war, that I 
 may relate an anecdote concerning it. 
 
 When the first news of its capture reached Warsaw, a 
 German trader ventured to doubt its truth, in a large coffee- 
 house, where the company were discussing on the subject, and 
 said that it wanted confirmation. He was scarcely out of his 
 bed the next morning when a police-officer came into his room 
 without ceremony, and informed him that the grand duke 
 wanted to see him. “ Why — what — ” exclaimed the terrified 
 German, “ what have I done ?” “ You will soon know,” 
 
 replied the satellite. With unpleasant forebodings, the poor 
 man arrayed himself in his best, and obeyed the summons. 
 “ So,” says Constantine to him, “ you do not believe that the 
 emperors army has taken Varna — what do you know about 
 Varna that makes you doubt of its fall?” “Please your 
 
 highness, I am a poor ignorant man; — I merely thought ” 
 
 “ You thought; then, sir, you must learn to think right.” 
 “ Pardon, your highness — I meant no harm.” “ There is no 
 harm done; do not he afraid. — Hold,” continued Constantine, 
 seeing the German about to prostrate himself — “ a courier is 
 this moment going to Varna, you will go in his kihitka and 
 clear up your doubts.” Away they go, click clack, day and 
 
 for such is the inviolability of the harem, that the rich Osmanleys are in 
 the habit of loading their wives with jewels and shawls as a certain pro- 
 vision for them under all chances. After the peace, Yussuf was pardoned 
 through Russian influence. He returned to Constantinople, and his son 
 was made captain in a regiment of Nizam Dgeditt. But his once high 
 cultivated lands, near Seres, were waste, and his tenantry dispersed. 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 267 
 
 night, the poor German in a mortal fright, under the idea that 
 he is on the road to Siberia. They arrive at Varna, and the 
 courier addresses his companion for the first time since they 
 left Warsaw. “ Sir, this town is Varna; you will have the 
 goodness to put the question to anybody you like, and convince 
 yourself. Now, sir, you see these troops — look at them well — 
 examine the uniforms. Are you satisfied that they are Eussian 
 troops ?” “ I am perfectly satisfied,” answered the German. 
 
 4 4 Then, sir,” replied his companion, “you have no further 
 business here. In a quarter of an hour another courier will 
 start for Warsaw; you will return in his kibitka, and report 
 yourself to the grand duke.” Away he goes again, jolt, jolt, in 
 fear of dislocating half his bones, for being free, this journey, 
 from mental anxiety about Siberia, he had leisure to observe 
 that he was made of flesh and nerves. Constantine welcomed 
 him with a horse-laugh. “ Now,” he said, “ you will go to that 
 cafe, where you were the last evening you were in Warsaw, and 
 acquaint the company that the Eussians are in Varna.” 
 
 After being detained some days at Varna by a heavy gale of 
 wind, we ran down towards the Gulf of Bourgas, along a fine 
 mountainous coast, the track of one division of the Eussian 
 army. We saw one village, and the mouth of the Kamptchik. 
 Then rounding, close to Cape Emineh, the bold termination of 
 the Balkans, and the northern point of’ the gulf, we approached 
 Messembria, a town strongly situated on a low rocky isthmus, 
 joined to the main by a long spit of sand. Four miles S.W. of 
 it, we passed Ahiouli, another town situated in precisely the 
 same way ; and after experiencing some difficulty in picking 
 our way among some shoals, of which our pilot knew nothing, 
 reached Bourgas, at the bottom of the gulf, a town of about the 
 same size as Messembria and Ahiouli, and similarly situated; 
 farther remarkable for one very tall minaret, and one very 
 dumpy one. It became the head quarters of Marshal Diebitsch 
 during the winter. We anchored three miles off the town, not 
 far from a Eussian brig of war, whose commander had a good 
 plan of the gulf, but would only allow it to be glanced at. 
 
 The gulf of Bourgas is a splendid thing in naval, military, 
 and picturesque points of view. It may be described in a few 
 
268 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 words. Twenty miles in depth east-north- east, west-south- 
 west, with good anchorage all over, in not more than fourteen 
 fathoms, it is overlooked by the Balkans, and bordered by a 
 luxuriant country. Its northern side presents three positions 
 — Messembria, Ahiouli, Bourgas — capable of being rendered 
 impregnable : its extremity is equivalent to a harbour, being 
 protected by shoals from the reach of the sea; and on its 
 southern shore are two excellent ports, Carnizavolovsky and 
 Sizepolis. Near Carnizavolovsky is a remarkable rock, the 
 tomb of a Bulgarian hero, named Marcus, and his horse. 
 According to tradition, he was to rise on the arrival of the 
 yellow-haired race : it came, but he remained quiet. In Bourgas 
 gulf the fleets of the world might ride. Sevastopol is not to be 
 compared with it. If the Porte were awake to its interest, it 
 would make of it a great naval depot, protected by adequate 
 works, in order that it might become in war time the rendezvous 
 of the fleet. The fleet would then be in a most advantageously 
 offensive attitude, with the power of acting with any wind; 
 whereas in the Bosphorus, its usual rendezvous, it may be, and 
 often is, neutralized by the north-east wind three months to- 
 gether. 
 
 From Bourgas, we ran down the following morning the south 
 side of the gulf to Sizepolis. The harbour is formed by a cape 
 and two islands, is land-locked and commodious, with sufficient 
 depth close to the shore. Two Russian line-of-battle ships, 
 and a frigate, one of the former bearing a vice-admiral’s flag, 
 were lying in it. The town covered the point ; it had no forti- 
 fications, but on a hill commanding it was a redoubt, thrown 
 up by the Russians when they took the place, February, 1829. 
 The Turks made no attempt to drive them from it, although 
 the enemy for the first fortnight had only a few hundred men. 
 They neglected it till the hundreds became thousands ; they 
 then thought of it, but did nothing; thus furnishing a great 
 example of the evil of procrastination, since the position of this 
 important post, with ten thousand men, and magazines, waiting 
 him, enabled Diebitsch to cross the Balkans fearlessly. We 
 saluted the vice-admiral, and hove-to a couple of hours, while 
 Captain Lyons visited him; then stood out to sea between the 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 269 
 
 town and the largest island, a narrow passage with five and a 
 half fathoms in the centre. 
 
 From Sizepolis to Ignada the coast is mountainous, and 
 finely wooded. Mount Papias, near the former, is a conspicuous 
 object. Along it, notwithstanding the natural difficulties, a 
 Russian column penetrated without encountering any opposi- 
 tion from the enemy, who neglected to avail himself of most 
 favourable positions, — that is, if any enemy were there. A 
 Turkish army was supposed by the seraskier to be somewhere 
 in that direction, hut it does not follow that there was one ; it 
 certainly did not show itself. Cape Ignada, in had weather, is 
 capable of affording good protection, of which merchant vessels 
 would do well to avail themselves more than they do; wrecks 
 would thereby be avoided. A clump of trees on it marks it 
 clearly from every view. From Media, a hay twenty miles south 
 of Ignada, to the Bosphorus, the coast is low, bleak, reddish 
 cliff, with sandbanks off it, which render it difficult to approach. 
 Between the banks and the shore is good anchorage, which 
 might he serviceable at times were the passages marked by 
 bearings. 
 
 Light airs enabled us to appreciate the force of the current 
 in this part of the Euxine. It swept us to the eastward and 
 southward with a rapidity past our belief, insomuch that when 
 we approached the mouth of the Bosphorus, which showed 
 every plain, we doubted its identity, our reckoning, with all due 
 allowances for the stream, making us considerably to the north- 
 ward, and looked to another opening for it, some miles to the 
 left, thence named the false Boghaz.* The hearing of the true 
 Boghaz, however, at the moment being about south-west, 
 
 * Many wrecks in the Black Sea are occasioned by vessels running for 
 the false Boghaz, which, it being to leeward of the true one in a bight, 
 prevents dull sailers from getting off shore. It is, however, astonishing 
 that this error should be committed, or be considered easy to fall into by 
 anybody who has made the voyage once. Nature marked the entrance of 
 the Bosphorus as clearly as if to provide against the casualty. To the 
 right of it, the coast of Roumelia is uninteresting, chequered with red 
 patches; to the left, that of Anatolia, is mountainous and picturesque. 
 These are general marks ; but Mount Maltepe and two knolls (the Brothers) 
 in Anatolia are the peculiar indices of the Bosphorus, further distinguish- 
 able by a high mountain to the left over Point Kili, the site of the false 
 Boghaz. 
 
270 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 enabled us to see the ruined Genoese castle under the Giant’s 
 Mountain, inside the strait, and that settled the point. We 
 accordingly made sail with a gentle breeze, that afforded us 
 leisure to dwell on, in perfection, one of Nature’s finest pictures, 
 — the entrance of the Bosphorus from the Euxine; and in the 
 evening, November 26, anchored inBuyukdere bay, after a very 
 pleasant voyage of about three weeks, which had annoyed the 
 Russians, puzzled the Pereotes, interested us, and shown that 
 the dangers ascribed to the Euxine are more imaginary than 
 real; that its bad reputation is more owing to the ignorance of 
 its ordinary navigators than to any peculiar malignity. Its fogs 
 and currents are amply compensated by many good anchorages, 
 and by there being few hidden dangers. After all, ten or fifteen 
 is the amount of vessels lost in it on the average, in the course 
 of the year; absolutely nothing, compared with the hundreds 
 which annually strew the English coast. 
 
 The day after the frigate’s arrival at Buyukdere, the sultan’s 
 steamer came up from Rodosto, and anchored before the 
 Russian palace. Count Orloff, the ambassador extraordinary, 
 was on board. That same evening at the Baroness Hubsch’s 
 one of the ladies suddenly cried out, “ There is an earthquake!” 
 Three shocks, which had taken place during the summer, ren- 
 dered the fair alarmist’s nerves very sensitive to any tremour of 
 the house, and justified the crimson cheeks of her hearers. The 
 rooms certainly trembled, the doors flew open, in the way that 
 doors and windows do fly open in earthquakes, and — I grieve 
 the catastrope is not more moving — in stalked Count Orloff, 
 glittering with gold lace, and covered with decorations, the 
 whole breadth of his coat, from the neck to the waist. The 
 absurdity was naively explained, — that the martial strides of 
 himself and companion had equalled the minor operations of 
 an earthquake, — and received smilingly by his excellency, a 
 tall, stout, gentlemanly personage. He made himself agreeable, 
 reviewed the conduct of the Turkish chieftains with that proud 
 sort of forbearance so easy in a victor — often extolled as mag- 
 nanimity, though in reality a delicate species of self- commenda- 
 tion, — and regretted not being in time to see Halil Pasha, who 
 had sailed on the 17th instant, since they had been immediately 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 271 
 
 opposed in 1828. He discoursed with an air of military frank- 
 ness on politics ; took us to St. Petersburg!!, Berlin, and Vienna; 
 said a word on Diebitsch’s talents/ and many on those of the 
 emperor. In short, he appeared to me a very proper selection 
 to please the Osmanleys; handsome, good-mannered, with an 
 open address; above all, a military man. He soon became a 
 luminary that made his brother-ministers very inferior stars. 
 He was the person at Pera during his stay. The streets were 
 thronged with his Cossack and Circassian followers ; and he 
 had ships of war at his command in the Bosphorus, and in the 
 Golden Horn. He might, indeed, as every Russian ambassador 
 henceforth will, consider himself in the light of ambassador at 
 the court of a tributary prince, or crowned vassal of his 
 sovereign. 
 
 It is a curious fact, that while thus great at Constantinople, 
 his brother was an exile in Siberia, for having been mixed up 
 with the conspiracy which took place at Nicholas’s accession. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Rodosto — Post-horses — Haide-bouroun — Tartars — Ouzoun Kiupri — 
 Lodging — Marizza — Adrianople — Russian hospital — Arhmaneh — Hass 
 Keuy — Bulgarian village — Philippopolis — Greek house — Charlatan — 
 Bishop. 
 
 The commencement of December 1829, I left Constanti- 
 nople on a tour over the theatre of war in Roumelia. Mr. 
 Mellish, of the foreign office, left it at the same time to return 
 to England, his duties in the East being terminated. I pro- 
 posed availing myself of his company as far as Philippopolis : 
 then, turning to the right, to traverse the Russian cantonments, 
 and cross the Balkans to Schumla. 
 
 We got a lift in the Blonde as far as Rodosto, and landed 
 there early one morning with some difficulty, on account of the 
 surf on the beach. Two hours after, we were toiling over a 
 hilly, clayey district, whence, looking back, we saw our swift 
 conveyance of the preceding day fleeing towards the Helles- 
 pont before the N.E. gale which was cutting us to the quick. 
 
272 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 She soon disappeared in the shade of the isle of Marmora. 
 Many were our denunciations during the first day against 
 Turkish post-horses, nondescript animals, which by long 
 practice acquire the difficult art of stumbling in all directions, 
 and picking themselves up again without sustaining any injury. 
 The rider also becomes in a short time an adept at keeping on ; 
 if he do not, he is to be pitied, especially in the winter time, 
 because then, laden with the necessary precaution against cold, 
 he feels on the ground like a dismounted cuirassier, and finds 
 it as difficult to regain his seat. In the first place the saddle 
 will probably turn round on the lean carcass of his steed, an 
 accident not easily remedied with benumbed fingers; in the 
 second place, it may happen that when, after repeated trials he 
 succeeds in getting his right leg over, the Tartar boot belong- 
 ing to it remains embedded in a stratum of mud, erect as a 
 column, and filling with snow or any other gift from heaven. 
 But this is only one, a minor one, of the inconveniences 
 attending Eastern travelling, of which, to avoid repetition, I 
 will give a reasonable list. 
 
 1. After making a complaint to a Pasha of an inferior 
 officer, with the intention of getting him reprimanded, or, at 
 most, bastinadoed, to have his head brought in to you on a 
 wooden dish, with a polite message to know if you are satisfied”. 
 
 2. Crossing a bridge, to find yourself suddenly projected 
 several yards, and on rising, if your neck be not broken, to see 
 the animal dead lame in consequence of having stepped into an 
 aperture, caused by vacant plank, and concealed by the snow. 
 
 3. When six hours from any village, your guide, on whom 
 you may have had occasion to exercise your tongue or whip, 
 takes the sulks, and leaves you to find your own way. 
 
 4. Travelling of a dark night, your sumpter horse slips off 
 the path into a ravine, breaks his back, and scrunches your 
 baggage. 
 
 5. After a long cold journey, to find the walls of the khan 
 streaming with wet, wherein you get a room with paper win- 
 dows, and no doors; you endeavour to make a fire, but the 
 wood is green, and when at length you have blown it up with 
 your mouth, you are sick, and cannot eat pilaff. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 273 
 
 6. On rising from the floor of a coffee-house where you have 
 rolled all night, to find several holes burnt in your clothes by 
 the embers of the company’s pipes. 
 
 7. On arriving late at a hamlet just occupied by irregular 
 troops, to have the option of a pigsty, or the only spare house, 
 — where the plague happens to be. 
 
 • 8. Crossing a river, to find your horse trying to swim, your 
 
 guide having missed the ford. To the misery of feeling your 
 nether garments freezing to your skin, you add the reflection 
 that there is not a dry shred in your baggage. 
 
 Such, and such like, inconveniences will attend every man in 
 a few months’ travelling in Turkey, excepting the first, which 
 however has happened. In return he enjoys novelty, and that 
 feeling of complete independence which this kind of life 
 generates. 
 
 The first evening, after riding nine hours, we halted at a 
 village, Haide-bourounderes. We spread our carpet for the 
 night on the bench of a cafeneh ,* and obtained a supper of 
 pilaff, cabobs, pancakes, and honey, from the adjoining 
 cabobgi-dukiane (cook’s-shop). To this, by no means had 
 fare, our Tartar added excellent cafe au lait, for making which 
 he was celebrated on the road: his name was Veli, a good 
 specimen of the finest race of men in Turkey, of whose kind 
 of life to judge fairly, a stranger at Constantinople should go 
 occasionally to Scutari, to see one start for, or return from a 
 long journey. In the former case, a Tartar is the picture of 
 animation, his face transparently clear, just from under the 
 barber’s hands ; his shining beard and moustaches trimmed to a 
 hair; his high calpack put on with a touch of dandyism, 
 covered by a flowered handkerchief to tie under his chin in 
 case the wind prove high ; his long fur riding- cloak, of red or 
 other gay-coloured cloth, with unsewed sleeves brushing his 
 horse’s back ; his capacious trousers and huge boots, scrupu- 
 lously clean ; his brass shovel-stirrups, bright as friction can 
 
 * The coffee-houses in Turkey are the resting-places of benighted tra- 
 vellers, of houseless poor, of all in short who choose. 
 
 The poor that sleep on the benches pay nothing, and have the chance of 
 getting a bit of supper from richer occupants. This practice of the pub- 
 licans is extremely creditable to them. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 make them ; his black, polished leather saddle set off by silver - 
 hilted pistols, and by the amber mouthpiece of his chibouque, — 
 altogether a gay and gallant cavalier. In the latter case, his 
 mother would not recognise him: pale, haggard, and dirty, he 
 falls rather than gets off his horse, and throws himself on the 
 ground in pain, unable even to light a pipe, — an object of utter 
 distress. Even on a journey, while fresh horses are preparing, 
 the Tartars throw themselves down, and can scarcely lift their 
 heads to remount. They clothe exceedingly, and never alter 
 their dress, on the hanks of the Danube, or on the scorching 
 plains of Syria. They usually wear over their shirt a long 
 robe of silk, a waistcoat of cloth, a jacket of cloth, a jacket 
 lined with fox’s fur, an overall jacket with open sleeves, at 
 times a pelisse, drawers, shelwar (enormous cloth trousers), 
 woollen leggings, and heavy boots. To these must he added, 
 sashes of a hulk and size to us insupportable, their pistols, 
 ataghan, towels, handkerchiefs, tobacco-purse, the three last 
 contained in his bosom. In short, a mounted Tartar is a 
 magazine, and the ease with which he supports such a weight 
 reduces our surprise at the Crusaders having been able to hear 
 their armour. The Tartars preserve their health by it ; for in 
 Turkey, warm clothing is as necessary in summer as in winter, 
 on account of the frequency of mal-aria and keen winds. 
 Europeans in these climes get fevers by dressing too lightly ; 
 hut there is a medium between our clothing and a Tartar’s. 
 
 Tartars in their long journeys drink a great deal of brandy 
 and coffee, and take quantities of snuff. Their chief difficulty 
 consists in keeping awake. The Surrogee (post-hoy) is often 
 obliged to ride by their side to keep them from falling off for 
 the first hour after changing horses, the half-hour which that 
 takes giving them time to get into a deep sleep. 
 
 The Tartars at St. Jean d’Acre are the most esteemed at 
 present in Turkey. They usually perform the journey to Con- 
 stantinople in twelve days and nights, which, considering that 
 as far as Antiochia it is mountainous, is very quick. There is 
 an elderly Tartar now at Constantinople, who used to he 
 employed during the war by the English embassy, to convey 
 letters to Bagdad ( en route to India). He often performed it 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 275 
 
 in fourteen days. The same distance was rode once by a Tartar 
 in nine days. It appears incredible, when the actual distance 
 is considered — the mountains, the rivers in it, and the total 
 want of roads, and of relays at less intervals than from ten to 
 twenty hours ; but the fact is recorded in the archives of the 
 empire.* 
 
 Tartars are well paid. The Devlet (government) Tartars in 
 particular make a great deal of money, since the Pasha or 
 other great officer to whom they are sent, makes them presents 
 according to the news. A Tartar who takes intelligence to a 
 Pasha of a son being born to the Sultan, may expect eight or 
 ten purses : on such occasions three or four Tartars go on the 
 same errand, — woe to the horses ! for it is a race the whole 
 way. They make money also by conveying private letters and 
 remittances, in which service their fidelity is at all proof ; and 
 should any money be lost, it is made up to the owner by the 
 body corporate. 
 
 In every Pashalick is a regular establishment of Tartars, 
 commanded by a Tartar Aga, who regulates the journeys. 
 They are everywhere greatly considered; and, when hard 
 pressed, may command any horses, even to the Pasha’s, in a 
 town where they pass. 
 
 Tartars prefer accompanying travellers and merchants, since 
 they are well remunerated by them, and carry on a little traffic : 
 moreover, slow travelling and long halts, suit a Turks love of 
 indolence, which no habits of activity can conquer. When a 
 Tartar arrives from a journey, he literally sits down till called 
 upon to mount again. He is a stupid fellow who does not, in 
 the course of fifteen or twenty years, make a provision for his 
 
 * A great feat in riding is performed every year on the return of the 
 caravan from Mecca. When eight days’ march from Damascus, the Pasha 
 escorting it sends a Tchoadar mounted on a fleet dromedary with the news 
 to the second Pasha, who commands in Damascus during his absence. His 
 arrival fills the inhabitants with joy, and they commence costly preparations 
 to welcome the Hadgis. The bearer of the news is loaded with presents, 
 and having reposed one night, mounts on horseback to bear letters, an- 
 nouncing the safe return of the caravan, to the Sultan, who rewards him 
 according to the speed he has made. In 1829 he died two hours after his 
 arrival at Constantinople. In 1830 he was stopped a day’s journey from 
 Damascus by Bedouins, and robbed of his letters ; in consequence, he had 
 to send back a servant for others. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 after-life. Many die in tlie noviciate, or are obliged to give it 
 up from sickness. Those, however, who become inured to the 
 life, enjoy good health, and attain old age. 
 
 To our journey. — At three a. m., Yeli again put before us 
 cafe au lait with toast, by way of breakfast. The hard bench 
 was not provocative of a second nap, and we were in our saddles 
 by four o’clock; thus early, with the intention of reaching 
 Adrianople that night. But on our reaching Ouzoun Kiupri 
 at noon, the postmaster was busy billeting a large detachment 
 of troops from Schumla, returning into Asia: as he could not 
 therefore attend to us, we were detained for horses upwards of 
 four hours, and when we got them their appearance denoted 
 that they were just off a journey. We left the place by a stone 
 bridge of about one hundred arches, spanning the wide bed of 
 the narrow river Erkeneh, tributary of the Marizza ; and, after 
 wading three hours through deep mud, sought shelter from the 
 piercing cold in a Bulgarian hamlet, every house of which had 
 just been occupied by Turkish soldiery, excepting one, where 
 lay a child with a had fever. This was offered to us, hut, 
 deeming filth better than disease, we preferred creeping under 
 an adjoining shed, where a wood fire kept us partly warm, and 
 completely blinded. Our host and hostess, the parents of the 
 sick child, as well as of three sturdy hoys, were unremitting in 
 their attentions : they gave us a very good soup, a dish of fried 
 meat (perhaps from the next dead horse), eggs, and in all 
 showed such a perfect disposition to oblige us, that we gave 
 them a gratification in the morning with more pleasure than we 
 would have paid for the accommodation of an hotel. 
 
 A couple of miles brought us to the Marizza, to a gay 
 scene for the sportman’s craft. It was frozen over, and 
 covered with flights of wild fowl ; and here and there, where 
 the ice was broken by the pressure of a wedged-up boat, mag- 
 nificent fish-eagles stood watching for prey. The morning 
 was exhilarating, and our nags, notwithstanding they had 
 passed the night in the snow, trotted cheerfully along the 
 hank, which was strewed with dead horses, indices of the 
 march of a Russian column from Demotica. Presently our 
 baggage-horses, which were frisking and galloping in front 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 277 
 
 without restraint, took it into their heads to cross an arm of the 
 river. I shall not attempt to describe our agony while the 
 passage was effecting, as we expected every moment to see 
 them come up on their sides and go through the ice, when 
 adieu the Cashmere shawls and embroidered garments in my 
 companion’s portmanteau. However, they not only got over 
 safe, but back too ; Turkish horses having very much the pro- 
 perty of cats in keeping on their legs. 
 
 A bend of the river brought us into the plain of Adrianople, 
 over which we had an unbounded view, broken only by the 
 four minarets of sultan Selim’s mosque, seen, from their angular 
 position respecting us, in one line, at twelve miles’ distance. 
 We passed several villages, all bearing marks of Eussian devas- 
 tation, and towards noon, by by -paths, along ditches, through 
 gardens and willow plantations, entered the second city of the 
 empire, which till within three weeks had been the head- 
 quarters of Marshal Diebitsch. He left in Nov. 20th, having 
 lost by disease 12,000 men since his arrival, August 20th. He 
 might have left it earlier, thereby saving several thousand lives, 
 had he not deemed it necessary to wait for the keys of 
 Giurgewo, which its pasha, Kutchuk Achmet, refused for a 
 long time to deliver up, saying, that he had not been taken, 
 and that he considered the peace as disgraceful, — a peace that 
 might have been made to save the empire, but not to save Con- 
 stantinople. In the Eussian hospital remained 8000 men, not 
 more than 1500 of whom were left alive: horrible to relate, 
 they died chiefly of absolute want. In that severe winter 
 1829-30, the streets of Adrianople feet deep in snow, these poor 
 fellows lay on the floor of the vast wooden barracks (converted 
 into a hospital) without beds or bedding ; although the bazaars 
 would have furnished enough for 20,000 men. On some days 
 they had not even fire to cook their soup, while the icy gales 
 from the Euxine sung through the crevices of their cage (the 
 barracks could be called no other), which was so slight that it 
 vibrated to people’s footsteps. It is said that the emperor shed 
 tears, on hearing, in part, of the distresses of his brave, victo- 
 rious army. He had better have sent roubles. A company of 
 galley slaves never suffered more cruel neglect than these 
 
278 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 troops : their diseases arose partly from the water they drank : 
 spirits and wine were dirt cheap at Adrianople ; yet, not even a 
 drop was served out per diem. 
 
 After two pleasant days under the hospitable roof of the 
 English consul, Peter Duveluz, Esq., to whom and to his 
 amiable, accomplished lady, all travellers who pass that way 
 are deeply indebted, we continued our journey. Our road, 
 or rather direction, was along the left bank of the Marizza, 
 over a luxuriant plain with scarce a trace of cultivation, the 
 absence of which marks nearly every part of the rich country 
 contained between the Balkans, the Macedonian mountains, 
 the Black Sea, and the Propontis ; a tract unequalled in the 
 world for natural advantages, possessing a soil capable of pro- 
 ducing, almost without labour, nearly all the fruits of the 
 earth, with internal navigation for transporting them. The 
 Marizza and the Toondja intersect it, one from theN.W., and 
 the other from the north, and uniting at Adrianople, flow into 
 the port of Enos ; a dozen minor streams, capable of being 
 rendered navigable for barges, are tributary to them. With 
 such resources, Boumelia, if cultivated, would become the 
 granary of Italy, whereas Constantinople depends on Odessa 
 for daily bread. The burial-grounds, choked with weeds and 
 underwood, constantly occurring in every travellers route, far 
 remote from habitations, are eloquent testimonials of the con- 
 tinued depopulation. I have often asked my guides, while 
 passing one, concerning its origin, or the name of the town 
 that gave its inhabitants. “ Kim bilir?” (who knows?) — or 
 “ Allah bilir,” (God knows,) was ever the careless answer, — an 
 expression in the mouth of a Turk which means that the subject 
 it refers to is considered by him as being either above man’s 
 understanding, or as beyond all date. The living, too, are far 
 apart: a town every fifty miles, and a village every ten miles, 
 is close, and horsemen meeting on the highway regard each 
 other as objects of curiosity. The causes of this depopulation 
 are to be found in the pernicious government of the Ottomans, 
 too evident to be mistaken, but among them I cannot reckon 
 polygamy as one ; for in Turkey, as in all other countries, 
 there is a plurality of women sufficient for the few men who 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 279 
 
 are able or willing to have a large assortment of such delicate 
 ware. A reason may be assigned in the seclusion of the 
 Mohammedan women, which, by ' keeping young people from 
 falling in love, prevents marriages among the lower classes. 
 A poor devil with head and heart free, thinks twice before 
 doubling his embarrassments. 
 
 Our route, as on the other side of Adrianople, was thickly 
 strewed with Russian cavalry horses, which fell, exhausted by 
 fatigue, in the severe march of the army to the northward a 
 few weeks since. We perceived at the same time the truth of 
 the adage, “ it is a bad wind that blows nobody good,” in every 
 high-fed cur that thrust his head out of the interior of a car- 
 cass to bark at us. Very regular was the discipline among 
 these sagacious animals. Three were attached to each horse : 
 one gorged inside while two watched outside: and they 
 guarded their property with great rancour, violently attacking 
 any other dog that dared to approach it, though only with the 
 humble intention of smelling. The instinct of the dogs in 
 Turkey is so remarkable, as to warrant the belief that an emi- 
 gration of them took place from Constantinople* after the war, 
 
 * The dogs of Constantinople belong to everybody and to nobody, the 
 streets are their homes ; their appearance is between a wolf and a jackal. 
 It is astonishing how they continue their species, exposed to a rigorous 
 winter and the casualties of a large city. They are littered and reared in 
 the streets. In the summer several die of thirst, but none have ever been 
 known to go mad. Though a worrying nuisance to walkers, their general 
 utility is obvious, for as the Turks throw the leavings of their kitchens out- 
 of-doors, the streets would very soon be impassable but for the scavenger- 
 like propensities of the dogs and the storks, assisted occasionally by 
 vultures. As they subsist entirely on charity and what they pick up, 
 instinct teaches them the necessity of a division of labour ; and therefore, 
 in the same manner as a well-regulated society of beggars has separate 
 walks for its members, they divide the city and its suburbs into districts. 
 Were a dog found in a strange quarter he would infallibly be tom to pieces 
 by the resident dogs ; and so well are they aware of this, that no argument, 
 not even a bone of roast meat, will induce a dog to follow a person beyond 
 his district; a singular and authenticated fact. We caressed, for experi- 
 ment, one of these animals, whose post, with many others, was near the 
 Mevlevi Khan ; we daily fed him till he became fat and sleek, and carried 
 his tail high, and was no longer to be recognised for his former self. With 
 his physical, his moral qualities improved. He lost his currishness, and when 
 his patrons approached, expressed gratitude by licking their hands, &c. ; yet 
 he would never follow them beyond an imaginary limit, either way, where 
 he would stop, wag his tail, and look wistfully after them till they were out 
 of sight, then return to his post. Once only I saw him overstep his limit : 
 
280 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 in consequence of its becoming known that the line of the 
 Russian march was supplied with horse-flesh. It is certain 
 that a sensible diminution of those animals took place in 
 Stamboul about that period. Might not a vulture have 
 conveyed the news to his fellow-labourers in a field of battle’s 
 gleanings ? 
 
 At the village of Mustapha Pasha we crossed on a stone 
 bridge to the right bank of the Marizza, and entered on an 
 execrable route, which kept our horses in a labouring walk. 
 That night we slept at Ebebjik, in a Turkish cafeneh, the 
 heat of which proved extremely unpleasant for the first half- 
 hour, after having been exposed the whole day to severe cold : 
 from 28° to 72° is a sudden change. However, I recommend 
 every traveller in the winter, to pass the nights in the cafenehs 
 in preference to accepting the quarters his firman entitles him 
 to, and he will travel all over Turkey, sleeping always on the 
 boards, without catching a cold, or feeling a pain in a limb: 
 whereas, if he put up in a chilly wooden house, he will have 
 both in a week. The healthiness of this practice I affirm 
 from experience, and support by the practice of the Russian 
 peasantry, who, on coming in from their out- door labour, their 
 beards masses of ice, strip and lie over a large oven till they 
 break out in perspiration. They never have rheumatism, the 
 scourge of the lower classes in England. 
 
 The next morning, in three hours we reached Arhmaneh, a 
 village, with signs of former importance, in a vast burial- 
 ground, and a large khan of curious construction, with a 
 cupola a la Chinoise , built, we are told, above 200 years since, 
 by Sci Ayoush, Grand Vizir of Amurath. In those times, 
 when wars with Germany were common, all this track must 
 have been of great resort, requiring spacious khans and ceme- 
 teries. 
 
 We left it by a stone bridge over a rivulet, and having sur- 
 mounted with toil a boggy upland, wound along the sides of a 
 
 he was very hungry, and we were alluring him with tempting food ; but he 
 had not exceeded twenty yards when he recollected himself, and ran hastily 
 back. I cannot say if any order of precedency is observed in gaining the 
 best stations, as near a butcher’s shop, or a khan. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS, 
 
 281 
 
 picturesque and rocky glen, at the bottom of which lay a 
 frozen stream, tributary of the Marizza; a little further on, 
 we passed some water-mills, and some fine flocks of sheep and 
 goats, the first evident signs of returning confidence that we 
 had seen. It came dark while we were yet a considerable dis- 
 tance from Hass Keuy, where we were to pass the night, and 
 the tracks being obliterated by the snow, we much feared not 
 being able to find it : but, after retracing our steps, and wind- 
 ing in the same circles several times with increasing impa- 
 tience and ill-humour, the welcome bark of dogs, more 
 delightful music at that moment than an opera overture, 
 directed us. “ Some use, these animals, after all,” we said, on 
 alighting at a very good khan, of which the Khandgi, being 
 a friend of our tartar, Veli, invited us to take up our lodging 
 with him. The offer was gladly accepted, for his apartment 
 was carpeted, and on one side of it an enormous chimney was 
 blazing with nearly a cart-load of wood. There were other 
 comforts, too, attending this arrangement. In the first place, 
 we had room to expand our limbs, and to enjoy ewers of 
 water, and clean towels : in the next place, our supper was 
 more recherche than usual, though our host did not partake of 
 it, he having already supped. He was a particularly handsome 
 man, with the most perfect beard I ever witnessed; it would 
 have been a crime to cut it off. He sat on a little carpet on 
 one side of the fire, we spread ours on the other side, and 
 Veli completed the square. Thus we smoked and sipped 
 coffee till sleep wooed us, when, arranging pillows of what 
 there were, we lay down in the same relative position. The 
 servants crept into the area, their heels into the fire, the 
 crackling of which was soon varied by sundry-toned snores. 
 It is pleasant, rather than otherwise, thus travelling, not to be 
 able to undress; one is always ready to sleep or to rise. 
 Whether horses are announced at two a. m. or two p. m., it is 
 the same thing — the servants are always up, coffee is prepared 
 in a minute, and the chibouque as soon replenished : stand 
 up and give a good shake, your toilet is done; draw on your 
 Tartar boots, and throw your capote around you, you can face 
 the bleak N.E.: and, regarding the cleanliness of this mode 
 
282 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 of proceeding, when yon halt for a day or two, take a Turkish 
 bath, a process able to purify years of filth, and leave the 
 subject cleaner than ever. 
 
 When daylight broke, the two mosques of Hass Keuy were 
 long behind us. Our road this day was more interesting; occa- 
 sionally through a low range of hills we saw Mount Rhodope, 
 before us the Balkans ; and the plains to the eastward were 
 studded with isolated hills, singularly shaped, certainly not arti- 
 ficial, and not quite small enough for aerolites. After riding 
 eight hours and passing three Christian villages, we stopped at 
 a fourth to bait, with little expectation however of finding any- 
 thing, as the country between Adrianople and Philippopolis had 
 been, the last three months, the foraging scenes of Cossacks from 
 the former, and of Albanians from the latter, to supply their 
 respective armies.* But we were mistaken. The Bulgarian 
 cottage where we alighted was clean and comfortable, though 
 the floor was mud and the walls plaster : a cheerful fire was 
 sparkling, by which, spreading a clean rug beside it, the matron 
 invited us to sit. She then prepared us a repast of fried eggs 
 and toast, with milk and wine, alleging Lent as a reason for 
 not giving us a slice of pork. Her sons and husband were out 
 at work, but her daughters were with her ; two very pretty 
 girls, loaded with silver bracelets and buckles, with their long 
 hair braided — quite the national costume. The plenty visible 
 astonished us, as it well might, considering what I above 
 observed ; it could only be accounted for by the talent possessed 
 by the villagers throughout Turkey, of hiding everything 
 instantaneously on the approach of a marauding party, and 
 changing an air of comfort into one of utter misery. Of this 
 art we had a specimen the same evening to our cost. We had 
 intended sleeping at Philippopolis, but soon found that that 
 would be very difficult, on account of the jaded state of our 
 horses. We therefore drew up at a small hamlet of three or 
 
 * When Turkish troops are on the march, the Christian villages suffer 
 much less from them than the Turkish villages, since their wine and their 
 pigs are sacred from plunder. Any traveller in Turkey, in the track of 
 troops, must have observed this. In the former he will be sure of getting a 
 slice of pork and a jug of wine. In the latter he must often content him- 
 self with a draught from the fountain. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 283 
 
 four houses, half unroofed, on the road-side, to make a shift 
 till morning; but this habitation, wretched as it was, was 
 already occupied by a Pasha, with a large suite, en route from 
 Schumla to Adrianople. His Selictar, an Albanian youth, 
 splendidly dressed, one of the handsomest I ever saw, even of 
 that handsome race, came out and informed us there was no 
 room, at the same time begged us, in his masters name, to 
 alight and take coffee : hut, as the sun was already on the 
 mountains, and the temperature several degrees below freezing, 
 we declined the civility, and proceeded towards a village which, 
 we were told, lay two miles off the high-road. Its pillars of 
 smoke guided us from a distance ; all at once they vanished, 
 and when we arrived at their bases, the village was deserted ; 
 not a human form or voice was seen or heard, not a dog 
 growled, or pig grunted. Yet there were certain signs of 
 recent habitation, even supposing that our eyes had been 
 deceived about the smoke. Where were the bipeds? Par 
 from understanding the cause, we were about retiring, after 
 losing half an hour in looking for somebody, doubtful where 
 to go, when it struck us that it lay in our Turkish costume, by 
 which we had been taken for part of the Pasha’s retinue in the 
 neighbouring hamlet, come to collect provender for their own 
 and their masters supper. Yeli knew thi3 reason before, hut 
 his pride kept him silent. We returned to the charge, anxious 
 to redeem our credit, as well as to get out of the cold, and 
 hoped to succeed by knocking at every door and telling who 
 we were. We spoke to the stones. Veli soon got into a 
 terrible passion at being so slighted. He swore by Allah, by 
 Mohammed, by his father’s beard, by his own head, and 
 threatened the bastinade on man, woman, and child — in vain ; 
 and thus we might have continued till morning — we soothing, 
 he swearing — had not a slight wreath of smoke, escaping from 
 a half-stifled fire, betrayed the inmates of one cottage, who 
 then yielded to Veli’s direct imprecations — he swore he would 
 set fire to the house — and opened the door. What a scene ! 
 men, women, and children, half smothered, and grim with 
 smoke — the first salaaming, the second scolding, the last 
 squalling, turned out to know our will, and swear, in their 
 
284 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 turn, by the Virgin and all the Apostles, that they had not 
 heard us till that moment ; that, poor innocent people, they had 
 been fast asleep ! A sow, dogs, pigs, and poultry followed 
 them out of the smoke. Presently came up the Kiaja, and 
 the Tchorbagi of the village, protesting to the truth of the 
 same lie, that our worthy presence was only that minute known. 
 Veli waxed more wroth, was about to lay club-law on the one, 
 and told the other he would get him decapitated. “ God is great! 
 is this the way to treat two Bejzades travelling with our Lord’s 
 firmans under my protection ? Please God, I will tell the 
 Pasha of Philippopolis to-morrow, the Grand Vizir when I see 
 
 him, the Eltchi when I return/ to Pera, and ” he would have 
 
 gone on for an hour had we not stopped him. We saw that 
 if we stayed, there would be nothing but hot water on both 
 sides, and we feared that Veli, though really very good-natured, 
 might get outrageous ; so we remounted, and rode two hours 
 further, to a menzil-khan (post-house). The little cafeneh 
 belonging to it was crowded to excess, and we were about to 
 be rejected, when two Turks very civilly turned out into the 
 stable, and gave us their places. Veli also took up his lodg- 
 ing with the horses, and made himself quite comfortable, as 
 indeed a Turk always does in every situation, — equally con- 
 tented, apparently, on a divan, with lamb and pilaff, or under 
 a shed with onions and nuts. He got a pan of charcoal beside 
 him, smoked his pipe, and curled his moustaches, and looked 
 as pleased as though nothing had occurred for a week to cross 
 his temper. 
 
 We passed an indifferent night, as may be supposed, sharing 
 a bench eight feet by four, with five others. But any thought 
 of the annoyance vanished when the first view of Philippo- 
 polis burst on us as we rode from the khan in the morning, 
 enlivened by an atmosphere buoyant as angels’ spirits, and so 
 clear that the outlining of the mountain scenery was traced on 
 the blue sky as delicately as though done with a fine pencil. 
 We were approaching the N.W. angle of the vast plain of 
 Roumelia, still so vast that our prospect was bounded to the 
 south and the east by the horizon : to the north, hoary-headed 
 Hsemus met us in his greatest elevation, thence drooping 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 285 
 
 towards the Euxine ; and Rhodope's clustered brows and pic- 
 turesque peaks, merging with the clouds in the S.W., was our 
 western limit. These two ranges nearly unite, and form “ the 
 iron portals of Trajan,” which as viewed from our direction 
 were exceedingly grand, appearing the entrance to a mighty 
 avenue of mountains leading into Servia, its extremity lost in 
 haze. Before us, at the distance of two miles and a half, in 
 the way of the iron portals, apparently at their threshold, 
 defining by comparison their dimensions — a point for the mind 
 to rest on, and thence grasp the surrounding objects — rose 
 from the earth a finely-carved insulated rock, cleft by an earth- 
 quake in three crags, and frowning over the waste of snow, 
 like a volcanic island over the ocean. The Marizza, silver- 
 striping the plain as far as the eye could reach, gleaming among 
 clusters of snow-heaps, which in spring would turn out to he 
 villages, wound by it ; and resting at its base, washed by the 
 river, or clinging up its eastern side, was the city of Philip - 
 popolis. The minarets of twenty mosques, springing like 
 needles in the frosted air, added grace to the picture, while 
 ruins, crowning the highest crag, gave it the finishing touch of 
 antiquity. 
 
 Having stayed some minutes to admire the scene, we con- 
 tinued, over the site of the Pasha of Scutari’s camp, disturb- 
 ing legions of dogs and vultures, harmoniously raking 
 together. We passed the entombed remains of 5000 of his 
 Albanians, who died there in the space of three months, and 
 entered the city through the great cemetery, which, from its 
 enormous headstones, might be aptly termed the Giants’ 
 Cemetery. The streets were saddle-deep in mud, and misery 
 was prevalent. In one corner lay an Arab tainted with plague, 
 covered with a rug, and abandoned to his fate, simply because 
 he was an Arab.* We threw him money, but I believe it 
 would have been more charity to have given him poison. 
 
 * “ He is an Arab to my sight.” I saw an illustration of this verse at 
 Buyukdere in the case of a drowned man, whom the surgeon of the Blonde 
 failed of recovering because the people round were dilatory in getting warm 
 water and clothing. “ Shame,” I exclaimed, “ thus to let a countryman 
 perish.” “ Countryman !” answered an old Osmanley, taking the pipe from 
 his mouth, “Arab dcr” (he is an Arab). 
 
286 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 After one or two wrong turnings, we reached the Pasha’s 
 seraglio, where we were to show our firmans in order to obtain 
 quarters. His Excellency was sitting at an open window ad- 
 miring his horses, which, saddled and bridled to the number of 
 sixty, were being paraded by the grooms round the court. 
 
 He sent an officer to conduct us to a principal Greek house 
 in the upper part of the town. To our astonishment, a scene 
 awaited us similar with that of the preceding evening, though 
 we had taken the precaution to give our costume a Christian- 
 like air, by changing our fezes for foraging- caps. The lady of 
 the mansion, seeing only the Turks with us, barricaded her 
 doors, and from an upper window refused us admittance, 
 saying that her house had already had more than its share of 
 Turks quartered on it, and that they might go elsewhere this 
 time. The officer was too proud to explain ; he insisted that 
 the door should be opened, or he would force it. A large 
 crowd in consequence assembled, and various opinions were 
 given by one and the other, according as the spokesman was 
 Mussulman or Christian. We cut the matter short by address- 
 ing the fair keeper of the fortress, and desiring her to look out 
 of the window at us. She did so, and uttered an exclamation 
 of joy. The doors were immediately opened, and she came 
 with all her servants to welcome us, and to make apologies for 
 the delay occasioned by her ignorance of our being Franks. 
 What a triumph ! Yeli was so ashamed at this second adven- 
 ture, that he did not get over it all day. The house which had 
 fallen to our lot, was excellent, spacious, and well furnished, 
 belonging to a merchant engaged in trade at Vienna, where he 
 then was. Notwithstanding the complaints of his wife about 
 having had a party of Albanians quartered on her, an evil 
 shared in common with every other inhabitant, Mussulman as 
 well *as Christian, it seemed to us that her guests must have 
 conducted themselves extremely well, since they had injured 
 nothing. But Philippopolis* being in the great thoroughfare 
 
 * This city has about 22,000 inhabitants ; one-third are Mussulmen. The 
 remainder are Greeks, excepting a few Armenians and Jews. It has exten- 
 sive manufactures of soap and leather. Rice is the great produce of the 
 country Its climate is mild, being sheltered by the Balkan from the Black 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 287 
 
 to Servia, and to Bosnia, and to Upper Albania, and therefore 
 often exposed to the passage of troops, the inhabitants are 
 very sore on this subject, as on an old grievance; each con- 
 siders himself particularly imposed on in the distribution of 
 billets, and endeavours to throw the burden off himself on to 
 another. They flattered themselves that they had escaped the 
 immediate evils of the war ; but the Amaout undeceived them ; 
 he came and encamped as in a hostile country. The Sultan, 
 alarmed at his long continuance after the war, repeatedly 
 ordered him to lead his army back. Mustapha pleaded that 
 he had no money to pay his men. “ Pay them,” replied the 
 Sultan, “ by levying contributions on the town and villages.” 
 To do this, however, the Pasha did not require an order, as he 
 had already predisposed that as his own perquisite. His de- 
 mand on the treasury of Constantinople was another thing ; 
 and, in order to succeed, he quartered his army, about 20,000 
 men, on the town, when the severity of the winter obliged him 
 to strike his tents. He remained there twenty days ; during 
 which he received a sum of money from Constantinople, and 
 this, though not equal to his expectations, added to the mur- 
 murs of his men to return to their hills, proved conclusive. 
 He eased the Philippopolitans of their loose cash, then wished 
 them good morning ; and did the same on his way home, by 
 Tartar Bazardjik and Sophia.* 
 
 We vere visited by the principal Greek inhabitants, to whom 
 the arrival of Franks was (as in every town) a joyful occur- 
 rence, as thereby they obtain news. They asked many 
 questions about the Morea, and when they were satisfied of its 
 certain independence, broke out into enthusiastic eulogiums 
 of England and France. Their praises were thrown away on 
 us, as we were well aware that they would be turned into 
 
 Sea winds. The Marizza rarely freezes near it. At Adrianople, on the 
 contrary, it freezes every winter, often as far down as Enos. The fig and 
 the _ cypress come to perfection at Philippopolis, which they do not at 
 Adrianople. 
 
 * I have already mentioned this chieftain. In the summer of 1830 he 
 broke into open rebellion, in consequence of the Sultan requiring him to 
 submit to his reform. The Grand Vizir routed his forces, and he fled back 
 to Scutari. 
 
288 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 expressions of hatred, were we their masters. We further 
 gratified their pride by showing them a passport and some coins 
 of Capo d’lstria, which so exalted them that they began handling 
 our arms with boyish delight. One comely young man buckled 
 on a sabre, drew it several times with increasing satisfaction, 
 and made a pass or two at the wainscoting. Had there been a 
 cat in the room, he would certainly have tried his valour on it. 
 They spoke bitterly of the conduct of the Russians, in having 
 proclaimed that they came to take possession of the country ; 
 receiving, in consequence, every assistance from the Greek in- 
 habitants, and abandoning them afterwards to the warrantable 
 distrust of the Osmanleys. We told them that they should 
 have known by that time the nature of Russia’s promises, which 
 ever made Grecian blood flow solely for her own interest. 
 “ True,” they answered ; “ sixty years of fatal experience 
 should have taught us the truth ; but hope is ever new, and 
 this time even the Osmanleys thought that the fair-haired 
 Muscovites were come to rule over the country. Instead, they 
 leave us, and the emperor shows his pity for our false position 
 by obliging the Sultan to pay a large indemnity, which must 
 come in great part from the pockets of his Christian subjects.” 
 This touch at the emperor was just ; but the weight of the in- 
 demnity fell equally, if not more heavy, upon the Mussulmans, 
 since the Sultan feared to oppress the Greeks too openly, when 
 he saw that Europe took so lively an interest in their welfare. 
 
 Some of the Greeks here spoke German tolerably. The 
 most useful European language in Turkey is Spanish. All 
 the Jews talk it, impurely certainly, but quite well enough for 
 interpretation; indeed, their Spanish, such as it is, is their 
 household language, Hebrew being considered classical. 
 Moreover, Spanish is the chief ingredient of the lingua 
 Franca. 
 
 At our levee assisted a Charlatan, soi disant Hekim Bashi 
 of the city. He spoke French very well, though not a French- 
 man, having served l’Empereur (as Commissary’s fifteenth 
 clerk, I suppose). At the peace he sought means of livelihood 
 at Algiers, but not finding any there, came to Constantinople, 
 where, with others, he established a brewery. That speculation 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 289 
 
 failed, according to him, from the had taste of the Mussul- 
 mans in preferring their Boza; according to others, from the 
 laxative qualities of his heer. Finally — the usual refuge for 
 destitute Franks in Turkey — he styled himself M.D., and 
 settled in Philippopolis ; where, to commence fair, he took a 
 Greek wife. He stated his name to be Smidth, of Dutch 
 extraction; but before our dinner was over, at which he 
 remained to assist, half per invite, half per hanging on, his 
 affection for us so wonderfully increased, that he vowed he was 
 bom in England. His name was a witness in his favour. 
 However, he was useful as a Ciceroni, and served to amuse me 
 after the departure of my friend, Mellish, the next day, for 
 Tartar Bazardjik, on his route to Belgrade. I remained 
 longer, in hopes of procuring a Tartar to accompany me to 
 Schumla; hut as my intended route lay through the Kussian 
 cantonments, the pasha told me it could not he. A Yasakgi, 
 however, should escort me, he said, as far as the lines, when 
 the Cossacks would take charge of me. In the meantime I 
 saw what was to he seen in and about the city, and, for variety, 
 got good humouredly pelted once with snow-balls by Turkish 
 schoolboys. Two Roman gates still existed, and my Ciceroni 
 showed off, he thought, his antiquarian lore, by pointing out 
 to me a house as Philip’s of Macedon. I did not think it 
 worth while to lower his consequence by telling him the error 
 he had committed, misled by the name of the place. The 
 Mussulmans inhabited the lower part of the city, the Christians 
 the upper part, according to the usual practice in Turkish 
 towns, in order to prevent the latter from holding communi- 
 cation with the enemy in case of a siege. Philippopolis is 
 subject to earthquakes ; yet, on the highest crag, almost inac- 
 cessible, were three cannons, for the ostensible purpose of 
 commanding the place in case of an insurrection. In theory 
 they answered the end proposed; in practice they could not 
 have been sufficiently depressed to touch a single house. A 
 fine view, scarcely ever seen by one of the natives, rewarded 
 my trouble of climbing to them. These cannons were con- 
 sidered as the palladium of the liberties of the city, and when 
 the sultan sent orders to have them transported to Schumla, 
 
290 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 at the commencement of the war, the inhabitants refused to 
 part with them. On another commanding spot was a large 
 clock, an indulgence enjoyed by the Christians in nearly all 
 the towns of northern European Turkey. Standing by this 
 very clock, the Charlatan, who had hitherto eat with me, asked 
 me to dine with him. I unwittingly accepted the invitation, 
 not reflecting on the uncertainty of pot-luck with a man whose 
 features were given to length. I instantly saw my mistake, 
 for he grew troubled, having only made the invitation to have 
 it refused. However, the deed was done, and we descended 
 the rock in silence; he probably meditating how to avoid the 
 impending; exposure, I consoling myself with the prospect of 
 seeing his menage, which as yet had been as secluded from me 
 as though it were a harem. We soon reached the house, 
 lifted up the latch without speaking, hit my head against the 
 low door-way, and in the little parlour surprised his lady, who, 
 starting up, displeased at our abrupt intrusion, opened her 
 ruby lips in the act of levelling Ionic slang at her lord : but, 
 on seeing a perfect stranger, smoothed them into a smile, and 
 disappeared to arrange her toilet. Another professor was in 
 the room; after a formal introduction, Charlatan whispered 
 contemptuously, “ He is also a tailor.” “ Proof of talent,” I 
 replied. “By no means,” continued Charlatan; “do not 
 imagine that because he calls himself a doctor, he knows any 
 thing of our abstruse science; a grave air and the Hekim’s 
 cap impose on any Turk.” I sat down on the sofa, after a 
 time, gnawing with hunger, for I had been running about all 
 day, and the sun had already given the mountain snow a 
 vermilion tinge. Charlatan seeing me fixed became fidgety; 
 he brought me a chibouque, and a half-torn Journal de 
 Medicine, containing an article on the digestive organs, — no 
 chance, I thought, of exercising mine. I discussed the tobacco 
 leisurely, and the book page by page, but still no signs of 
 eating, not even a napkin. I began to think that I had com- 
 mitted a real error, and how to extricate myself without 
 offending good breeding, when Charlatan relieved my suspense 
 by confessing que ce n’etait pas sa faute, mais — sacre careme 
 — la maudite religion Grecque ne permettait pas de manger de 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 291 
 
 la viande que deux cent jours de l’an .... enfin il n-y-avait 
 rien a manger. I thought as much, and was debating what to 
 do next, when, at that awkward moment, two servants came in 
 bearing trays covered with good things ; gifts of a fair 
 Asmodeus, my kind hostess, who not seeing me return to 
 dinner, conjectured that I had gone chez Mr. Smidth: she also 
 conjectured the denouement there; and therefore, without any 
 apologies — certainly never less necessary — sent this seasonable 
 reinforcement to his kitchen. This quite changed the face of 
 affairs, from despondency to confidence. Mr. Smidth had 
 been too long in France not to be able to take it as an excellent 
 joke, as it really was, and did the honours of the table a 
 merveille. After dinner his brother quack discreetly vanished ; 
 his pretty wife then threw aside her Grecian reserve, sung 
 sweet airs, and talked agreeable nonsense all the evening, while 
 her worse half got d — d d — k on my cognac. When I left 
 him at midnight, a Bey’s domestic was over his prostrate form, 
 endeavouring to rouse him into consciousness that he might go 
 and see the Bey’s child, supposed to be dying, if not already 
 dead. 
 
 I did not leave Philippopolis without visiting the archbishop 
 (Niceforas). He rebuked me for not having made his house 
 my home, and his chaplain expressed surprise that I could not 
 translate a chapter of ancient Greek for him out of a book 
 which he showed me, and which he could not do himself. Our 
 conversation soon turned on the usual topic, the distresses of 
 the Greeks, the manner in which they were placed and insulted. 
 It was certainly ludicrous to sit in the company of portly 
 priests, on elegant silk divans, smoking from porcelain nar- 
 ghilers, sipping coffee from China cups with filagreed silver 
 saucers, and talk of misery; — knowing also the undeniable 
 fact, that the best house in every Turkish town, after the 
 governor’s, belongs to a Greek; that the Greek men are uni- 
 versally well-dressed, the Greek women richly ornamented ; and 
 that the Greek merchants journey with a luxury to which few 
 Osmanleys pretend. But it is the fashion to paint the Greeks 
 wretched: they made their own story, and Philhellenism 
 amplified it. The ar hbishop told me that he had three 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 hundred villages in his diocese, which was one of the most 
 extensive in Turkey. I do not suppose that he was propor- 
 tionally rich, for the Greeks, though extremely bigoted and 
 devoted to their clergy, pay them very ill. It is true that 
 Mahomet II. established a tariff in their favour; but it soon 
 fell into disuse, and the Greek clergy have naturally been 
 averse to making the Porte arbiters on one subject, lest it 
 should take it as a precedent for interfering on others. In 
 addition to their spiritual functions, the Greek bishops have 
 always been judges in causes between Greek and Greek, unless 
 the litigants preferred Turkish justice, which, strange as it may 
 seem, often, happened. 
 
 The more we examine the conduct of the early Ottoman 
 conquerors, the more we are convinced that religious tolerance 
 is the rock on which they split in Europe. They should 
 either have extirpated the Greek religion, which has ever been 
 a cancer to the Mussulman power, as they could have done, or 
 they should have made its professors dependent on the govern- 
 ment for salaries, whereby they would have ceased to have 
 cared so much for the affection of the people. Amurath II. 
 adopted the former plan in Albania. He succeeded; the 
 Christians that are now there are later settlers. After all, 
 conversion by the sword, though it sound very horrid, is as 
 good as any other way, certainly more efficacious. There may 
 be doubts of the sincerity of the forced proselytes, but their 
 children are certain to be born in the faith ; and this assurance 
 in the converters, of saving generations in future, counter- 
 balances the injustice of making one generation forswear 
 itself. 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 Hadgi Toozoon — Tchapan — Bastinade — Eski Saray — Adra Bey — Mustapha 
 — Cossack Captain — Yeni Saara — General Reuchteurn — Russ Colonel — 
 Selimnia — General Montresor — Poniatowsky — Wolk Llanevsky — Russ 
 Army. 
 
 The next morning, Hadgi Toozoon (Yasakgi), destined by the 
 Pasha to act for me as a Tartar, came to my house with horses ; 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 293 
 
 the weather was beautiful, I therefore took leave of my fair 
 hostess and her fairer daughter, who had succeeded in dismis- 
 sing the gazelle-like shyness which made her conceal herself 
 the first day, and left the city at a gallop. Hadgi Toozoon was 
 a merry fellow, too merry, for he frequently applied a spirit 
 flask to his lips, — a very unbecoming practice for one who had 
 visited Mecca ; but I suppose he thought that that duty, per- 
 formed, was absolution for sins to come as well as for sins past. 
 A short way from Philippopolis we stopped to admire some 
 Osmanleys imitating the jerreed game. Couching their pistols 
 in the absence of reeds, they galloped and whirled on the sheet 
 ice with as much confidence as though on grass. One horse 
 at length failed in recovering himself after a fearful slide, and 
 indicated a tremendous fall. The rider no-ways daunted, used 
 his reins and stirrups with great address, eliciting universal 
 approbation, till finding all his efforts of no use — go he must, 
 he fired his pistol in the air, that it might hurt no one, jumped 
 nimbly off, and with his hands eased the animal down on its 
 side ! it was an admirable specimen of horsemanship. 
 
 In crossing the river, a little farther on, we made a mistake 
 and got up to the swimming mark — all the Hadgi’s fault — and 
 in consequence, wet — my baggage soaked — we arrived late at 
 Tchapan, a large Bulgarian village. The good people of the 
 house assigned me by the Ayan, received the stranger with 
 pleasure, for he was now entering a part of the country where 
 his religion was a bond of friendship, so different from the 
 Greek inhabited cities, now, as ever, focuses of religious in- 
 tolerance. Two Osmanleys were seated by the fire-place : they 
 rose and salaamed me, repeating the Russian word dobree ; 
 then took my wet clothes, and brought me wine. I thought I 
 was dreaming, to receive such unpaid civilities from true be- 
 lievers, of no mean condition either, to judge by their muslin 
 turbans and silver-hilted arms. The enigma was explained on 
 the entrance of Hadgi Toozoon, who had remained outside to 
 look to the horses. They asked him if Effendi was not a great 
 Russian. He replied in the negative that Effendi was only an 
 Englishman. I could not refrain from smiling at their mis- 
 take, at the same time disgusted at their servility to a race 
 
294 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 they should rather have trampled on than courted. They 
 repeated the question to make sure, and then, ashamed of 
 having exposed their meanness, slunk away, and did not return. 
 
 After an excellent supper, the pilaff seasoned to a grain of 
 pepper, I laid down to sleep, wrapped in my host’s fur pelisse, 
 while my things were drying ; hut my eyes were soon re-opened 
 by an altercation in which the Hadgi’s voice predominated. 
 He had been Christian enough, during my short nap, to get 
 intoxicated; and was now, Turk-like, endeavouring to turn 
 my host and his two daughters into the street, where the snow 
 was falling deep. Jumping up, I pulled him away from the 
 door, which was already half open, shut it, and placed my hack 
 against it. He began swearing ; and the good people, fearing 
 that ill consequences would ensue, begged that I would let 
 them go out, to restore quiet. I could not thus repay their 
 hospitality, nor, had I been so inclined, should I have had 
 time, for the Hadgi speedily settled the dispute by drawing out 
 a pistol. He presented it at me, and — it flashed in the pan. 
 This sobered him ; at the same time my Surrogee, crouched in 
 a comer, jumped up and assisted me to take his remaining 
 arms from him. He offered no resistance ; on the contrary, 
 was all penitence. He reflected that according to the Turkish 
 law he was liable to death for what he had done, and he begged 
 forgiveness. I did not think it right to let him off ; so in the 
 morning took him before the Ayan, who, with great civility, 
 had him seized up in my presence, and fifty blows applied to 
 the soles of his feet. He bore the severe pain very well ; and 
 when over, slid away on his breech, for he could not walk.* 
 I offered him his backscheish : he took it, and said, Oughrola 
 (bon voyage). This incident rather tired me of Turkish 
 guards : after all they are of no great service to a traveller, 
 except in getting on tired horses, at which they are unrivalled. 
 Beasts apparently unable to crawl for ten minutes longer, they 
 induce by the magic of their whip and voice into a hobbling 
 
 * The operation is performed by two Chavasses armed with long white 
 sticks, thick as a man’s thumb. The sticks are changed every twenty blows. 
 The sufferer often faints before the fiftieth blow — the punishment goes on. 
 He recovers, to faint again and again till the dose is administered. Five 
 hundred strokes are next to death. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 295 
 
 canter; not very agreeable certainly, but very valuable when 
 the minarets of the nearest village are gleaming in the setting 
 sun, yet two hours distant. Besides this talent they have, in 
 common with all Turks, the happy knack of making any horse 
 go in a sort of amble, called chack-bin : it is very easy, and a 
 horse covers with it four and a half miles an hour. In vain 
 the Frank changes horses with his Tartar or his Surrogee, he 
 remains the last; while flogging and spurring, obliged occa- 
 sionally to trot, to overtake them, they jog on without effort, 
 smoking their pipes, and the difference of fatigue in man and 
 horse at the end of the day, is evident. It can only be obtained 
 by riding with large Turkish shovel-stirrups, an equable titilla- 
 tion of which kept up in the horse’s flanks produces the chack- 
 bin. We always ride on European saddles; therefore, we fail: 
 one’s heel is not enough, and a spur is too much , — le juste milieu 
 lies in the shovel-stirrups. 
 
 The Hadgi being thus disposed of, I left Tcliapan, and en- 
 tered a highly cultivated tract, called the Garden of Roumelia, 
 renowned for its flowers and its fruits, and its wines. It ex- 
 tends along the foot of the Balkans forty miles: the cultivators 
 are Bulgarians, who make a good thing by sending their roses, 
 to Adrianople, where the best attar is distilled. The air of 
 prosperity was quite refreshing, and the contented appearance 
 of the peasantry, who saluted me as I rode quietly through 
 their vineyards and rose plantations — the former planted low 
 and shrubby, as in France — showed me that they were under a 
 wise master, one who knew that the interests of the landlord 
 and of the tenants are inseparable. This enlightened Osman- 
 ley, Hadgi Fayret Effendi, was Ayan of the neighbouring town 
 of Eski Saara, and hereditary possessor of large estates. For- 
 tunately, his retired situation, off the great roads, had hitherto 
 preserved him from the sultan’s reforming rage ; and, still more 
 fortunately, the Russians did not come far enough to make his 
 people revolt, consume their produce, and then abandon them. 
 I saw him that evening, when I reached Eski Saara. He re- 
 ceived me very politely; and a dazzling white beard, of unusual 
 luxuriance, added greatly to the respect I already entertained 
 for him. He made some demur about providing me with 
 
296 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 horses to proceed the next day to the Russian outposts, about 
 twelve miles distant; his attendants also evinced considerable 
 uneasiness, as it was necessary that one should accompany me, 
 in order to ensure the horses being permitted to return. In 
 the meantime, he assigned me excellent quarters in a Bulgarian 
 house; where I had scarcely supped, when several of the no- 
 tables came in to visit me. As usual, in all Bulgarian places, 
 the conversation turned on the ill conduct of the Russians, 
 who had excited their countrymen to rebel with false promises, 
 and were now about to abandon them: having got every thing 
 out of them they could, and impoverished them. This was the 
 language held where the Russians had not been, and I had soon 
 occasion to know that it was considerably short of the truth. 
 
 Later in the evening an Osmanley, a friend of the house, 
 came in. He sat down as humble as a Raya, and took the 
 chibouque, immediately presented to him, begging me to take 
 a few whiffs from it first, by way of good fellowship. He then 
 asked me if Mussulmans would be allowed to reside in the 
 Morea: “Certainly,” I told him, “but under the Greeks.” 
 At this he sighed. “ I lived there fourteen years, and left two 
 children when I quitted it in the suite of Kourshid Pasha. I 
 love the country, and should wish to return to it: will the 
 Greek government,” he added, “ allow us to enjoy our religion?” 
 “ Assuredly,” I said. “ Ah!” he continued, “ this is no country 
 now for us; we are the prey to suspicion. Our sultan is now 
 as much hated as he should be loved.” Having heard the 
 same expressions of dislike to the sultan elsewhere, I was not 
 surprised at what this man said. 
 
 It was noon the following day, before I received any intelli 
 gence from the Ayan about my progressing. I was going to 
 him, when one of his officers, an old gentleman named Mus- 
 tapha, came and intimated to me most sulkily, with no more 
 words than were barely necessary, that he was to take me to 
 Yeni Saara. “ Good,” I said ; “ let us go !” This quiet 
 Turkish reply set his tongue going. “Let us go !” he repeated 
 emphatically, and then went on grumbling about Franks, 
 and about Moscofs, — about what business they had there,™ 
 why they could not go another road, —why they travelled at 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 297 
 
 all, — why they could not stay at home, — et cetera. I saw it was 
 no use to interfere, so I let his hile work off, which it did in 
 about an hour and a half, when he fetched some good horses 
 from the Ayan’s own stahles. 
 
 We had not ridden above two hours and a half, in perfect 
 silence, when Mustapha pulled up at a wretched village, Adra 
 Bey, and proposed alighting to take a pipe. I agreed, to please 
 him, though wishing to push on, as the Russian lines were not 
 above two miles farther. We had not half consumed our peace- 
 offering when my baggage was brought in. I looked at Mus- 
 tapha — Mustapha looked at me. “What is this?” I said: 
 “We sleep here,” he replied. “Sleep here!” I exclaimed, 
 looking at the wretched habitation, which, as the village had 
 been sacked by Cossacks, was stripped to the very doors. 
 “Yes: here we will give you a good supper.” “ You old im- 
 postor,” I said, “ is this why we dismounted — why do we not 
 go on? — what shall I do here?” “Do! sit down and smoke 
 your pipe.” I began to get warm, particularly as I remembered 
 the trimming he had given me at Eski Saara; and I gave him, 
 in consequence, my whole vocabulary of abuse, — a man never 
 talks a language so well as when he is in a rage or in love, — 
 and finished by swearing by the prophets and saints of both 
 religions, that I would go on. “ God is great,” said Mustapha ; 
 “we will not leave this place to-day.” “ Please God,” I replied, 
 “ we will reach Yeni Saara to-night.” “ Bakalum” (we will 
 see), said Mustapha, and resumed his pipe. It requires a per- 
 son to have been in an altercation with an Osmanley, exposed 
 to his common-place replies, intermixed with the regular pro- 
 portion of inshallahs, mashallahs, and bakalums, to understand 
 the complete rage which it generates. Menacing to take him 
 by the beard, I cried ; “ You stay where you like, I will go on. 
 Surrogee, bring out the horses.” But the Surrogee, instead of 
 obeying me, looked for further orders from his superior; who 
 quietly said : “ Leave them alone; the Beyzade is mad.” This 
 quite transported me; my hand mechanically rested on my 
 sash — which trifling action had the effect of disturbing the 
 equanimity of my tormentor, and of restoring mine. He 
 changed his tone, and coming up to me, begged that I would 
 
298 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 wait till the morning, as he was sickly, and did not like passing 
 the night among strangers. He was an old man, and that was 
 enough. Moreover, I could not help esteeming what I now saw 
 to he his real motive, a dislike to he with the Russians more 
 than possible. 
 
 The next morning, having no temptation on the hard floor 
 to be indolent, we were on horseback betimes, and jogging on, 
 a market-woman’s sort of a trot, our heads buried in our ca- 
 potes, soon reached a wild common, where our reverie was dis- 
 turbed by four strange-looking fellows, on rough horses, with 
 long ragged lances and uncouth beards, who addressed us in a 
 language of which I had not any idea — Cossack. Getting no 
 answer, they conducted us to a small village in the middle of 
 thebommon, where their captain was quartered, with 100 ir- 
 regular Cossacks, — disagreeable acquaintances to make on a 
 high road. He was shaved, and therefore more Christian-like 
 than his men. He invited me into his apartment, slighting my 
 companion; but as I considered Mustaphanow under my pro- 
 tection, I took him with me. It was rich to behold his super- 
 lative air of disdain as he threw himself down in one comer 
 and lit his chibouque, in the clouds from which he soon 
 shrouded himself from his hateful hosts. The captain and I 
 could do no more than bow and look interesting at each other; 
 for though he knew the Russian in addition to his own lan- 
 guage, I did not. We telegraphed to no purpose, mutually 
 convinced of each other’s stupidity. The only two signs in- 
 telligible to me were, that I could not continue my journey, 
 and an invitation to eat: to the latter I agreed. He produced 
 some salt pork and some vile rum, for breakfast; in discussing 
 which dainties, we made use of the same knife, the same 
 platter, and the same cup : Mustapha all the time regarding us 
 with holy horror, and deeming us probably as swinish as the 
 swine before us. 
 
 At length a Bulgarian was found who could talk Russian as 
 well as Turkish, and we commenced business ; but our path 
 was strewed with difficulties. In the first place the captain was 
 not quite aware that there was a country named England ; and my 
 passport, being in French, was of no service in supporting my 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 299 
 
 word that there was. There might he, he said; but— he had 
 heard of France and Germany; but — he had never heard of 
 England, — that England in whose sway the sun never sets ! 
 Alas my country ! I thought, is it possible that thy name — 1 
 familiar where the Arab wanders, the Indian scalps, the African 
 gambols, the cannibal feasts: — thy fame — rivalling that of 
 Rome and Carthage combined — has not reached the banks of 
 the Don. Are there individuals ignorant of that glorious isle 
 — abode of freedom, marvel of history, mother of empires — 
 whose ensign floats triumphant on every wave, — whose con- 
 quests are graven on every shore, — whose language connects 
 distant worlds ! I was never more astonished. The captain, 
 however, consented to waive the question of my nationality: 
 the General, he said, would be able to read my passport, and 
 that would do, — hut I could not prosecute my journey without 
 being disarmed, as he had strict orders not to permit any 
 stranger to enter the lines armed. He added, that my sword 
 and pistols should be forwarded to Selimnia, where they would 
 be delivered to me on my arrival. This arrangement I op- 
 posed; not that I cared about parting with my incumbrances, 
 but I was an English officer; and in explaining this reason for 
 my objection, I turned up the cuff of my capote, and showed 
 the buttons of a half uniform, which I wore. All Russian 
 subjects have an instinctive respect, mingled with fear, for 
 uniforms; nor was my Captain an exception. His address 
 instantly increased tenfold in civility, and he begged that I 
 would at least allow the Cossacks, who were to escort me to 
 Yeni Saara, the head quarters of his General, a few miles off, 
 to carry my arms, instead of sending them to Selimnia. This 
 mode, which he intended as complimentary, appeared to me 
 infinitely worse, as it would he like conducting me as a pri- 
 soner, not escorting me, and I absolutely refused to agree to it. 
 The Captain was exceedingly embarrassed : he did not like to 
 turn me hack ; nor did he like to let me proceed armed, in op- 
 position to his orders. I ventured to assure him that such an 
 order could not apply to the Franks, and that I would justify 
 him to his General, who would certainly be displeased on 
 knowing that any of his officers had deprived me of my sword. 
 
aoo 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 He saw the justice of my observation, as well as my obstinacy, 
 aud retired to deliberate with his subalterns. Mustapha, who 
 had been an attentive listener to our conversation, now rose. 
 ‘-- Very good,” he said, “ do not give them up.” Poor fellow! 
 he thought that if I kept my arms he should be allowed to re- 
 tain his, and his spirits greatly revived. In an hour the 
 Captain returned to us, and said, that I might proceed in my 
 own way; in the interval he had sent despatches to Selimnia, 
 and to Yeni Saara, to acquaint the respective Generals of what 
 had taken place. Now came a scene.— Mustapha was per- 
 emptorily ordered to give up his arms. “No,” he replied, 
 “ the Beyzade keeps his : I will keep mine.” His reasoning 
 was ineffectual; nor could I intercede in his behalf, though I 
 sincerely felt for him, thus compelled at his age to part with 
 his beloved weapons. It would be necessary to have worn the 
 same ataghan and the same pistols for twenty years or more — 
 to have slept beside them, to have regarded them daily with 
 pride — to appreciate his anguish. He drew them slowly from 
 his sash, one after the other, as lingeringly as a mother parting 
 from her babes, and dropped them one by one on the straw 
 palliasse, muttering, “ dogs !” The unfeeling Cossacks laughed 
 at him. 
 
 In an hour we reached Yeni Saara. General Reuchteurn was 
 at dinner; who dared to disturb him! no one that I could 
 find; on the contrary, I was desired to kick my heels in the 
 court till he had done. I did so for about ten minutes : when, 
 calculating the hours that might elapse in eating, and in drink- 
 ing, and in gaming, I put myself in the train of a dish, and 
 gained the room where he was at table with a dozen officers. 
 All jumped up at the strange apparition, and stared at my still 
 more strange appearance, in a costume half European, half 
 Asiatic. I explained in a few words, and in another minute found 
 myself seated at the General’s right hand, with a plate of ex- 
 cellent soup, Russian patties, and a bottle of French wine be- 
 fore me, — luxuries as agreeable as unexpected. My adventure 
 at the outpost amused, and also surprised them; for the Cos- 
 sacks were not fellows to disobey orders. However, the General 
 said that he was very glad it had so turned out ; adding, that 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 301 
 
 the order was only intended to apply to the natives, though no 
 exception had been made in favour of Franks, it not being 
 supposed that any would come in that direction. I put in a 
 good word for Mustapha, who was accordingly desired to make 
 himself at home. But the old man would not accept of any 
 civilities : he got an assurance that his arms should be restored 
 to him at the outpost, then wished me well, and started. The 
 General and his two Aids-de camp spoke French fluently, an 
 accomplishment not possessed by the rest of the company. He 
 was pleased with my arrival, in order to gain information of 
 the affairs of the world, of which he was two months in arrear ; 
 for, not even a Petersburg^ Gazette, scanty as it is, often 
 reached this sequestered spot: even then it could not give 
 much information. “Is this account true?” said an officer to 
 me, afterwards, putting one into my hands, containing a sum- 
 mary of the victories obtained over tli3 Turks in the campaign 
 of 1829. It concluded by stating, that the Pasha of Scutari 
 had advanced with his Albanian army to Demotica, by which 
 movement he surrounded and put the Russian army in a most 
 critical position, whence it was only extricated by the address 
 of Diebitsch, who compelled the Pasha to abandon his advan- 
 tage and retire. “ True ! General,” I replied why do you ask 
 me ? — you, who were at Adrianople, must know as well as I, 
 that the Pasha of Scutari never came beyond Philippopolis, 
 one hundred miles from Demotica.” “ So I imagined,” he an- 
 swered; “you see how they impose on the ignorant. This 
 bulletin is already believed throughout Russia, and will be soon 
 believed in this very army.” In the same manner it is certain 
 that half the bulletins were fabricated and credited. Was not 
 General Berthier’s history of Napoleon’s Syrian campaign (the 
 most flagrant tissue of falsehoods ever published under an 
 honourable name) firmly believed by the whole world, except 
 the English, till subsequent memoirs exposed it? 
 
 The General invited me to spread my carpet in his own 
 room, where was a stove^ — a luxury introduced by the Russians 
 into all their quarters, and fully valued by any one who has 
 been doomed to shiver through the night in a straggling, 
 wooden, long-passaged, rattling-windowed, no-doored seraglio: 
 
302 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 and thus, — the General on a sofa, myself on a shake- down of 
 straw beside him, — we became as good comrades in a few hours 
 as though we had been acquainted for years ; to which also, a 
 predisposition existed on his part, owing to his admiration for 
 the English nation, evinced in the choice of his Aids-de-camp, 
 who were both of English extraction, Captain O’Connor and 
 Captain Levitt. 
 
 The servants brought us pipes, after we had lain down, by 
 way of opiates ; and on awaking in the morning, the same un- 
 meaning countenance was peering at me with another long 
 pipe, ready to thrust into my mouth. The General was al- 
 ready arousing himself by a similar appliance. Though I had 
 been sometime in the East, I was not so great an adept at 
 smoking as to relish it so late and so early. The excessive 
 drinking of the Russians was likewise trying to my politeness ; 
 hut the weather being cold, I stood it pretty well, — -the more 
 obligatory on me, as we also have a name for hard drinking, a 
 name which is now certainly incorrect. Their filth, in which 
 they rival the Jews, is a much more peculiar national trait. 
 What I saw in their cantonments is perfectly indescribable. 
 General Reuchteurn's establishment was one of the cleanest, 
 inasmuch as he had a hair brush and a wash-hand basin, and 
 some towels : yet he only made use of one room for everything 
 — eating and sleeping — having fifty rooms at his disposal, the 
 state of some of which indicated too clearly that his people 
 were above the common decencies of mankind; no from want 
 of conveniences, since in that respect the Turks are as scrupu- 
 lous as we are. The General opened a door to show me a 
 handsome saloon, as he said. He hastily shut it, exclaiming? 
 “ Disgusting,” — “ ditto,” I. No person changed his linen, at 
 least, so I judged from appearances, and from the circumstance 
 of being informed, on desiring to have mine washed, that such 
 a thing was out of the question. This defect alone brought 
 the Russians into great disrepute with the Christians of Turkey, 
 who, in the virtue of cleanliness, imitate their Mussulman- 
 masters. The General at the same time was a perfect gentle- 
 man, with a frank and chivalrous character, that made him 
 adored in the army, and allowed him to discourse with me on 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 303 
 
 the late campaign, with an openness I was little prepared to 
 expect. But then he was not a Russian. He was a native of 
 Courland, brought up with principles of freedom which enabled 
 him to distinguish between rational government and military 
 despotism. 
 
 He mounted me on a fine Arabian, a presentfrom Mustapha, 
 Pasha of Scutari (presents hy-the-hy which were irksome to 
 the Russian officers, since they felt obliged to return others 
 equal in value), and we rode to a neighbouring village to re- 
 view a regiment of Lancers. The horses were recovering from 
 their late starvation; hut the men bore the impress of the 
 Adrianople fever, and appeared fitter for a hospital than for 
 service. The Colonel (a native Russian), detained us to dinner. 
 It was a complete Russian military one, spread out in the 
 Colonel’s sleeping-room, which was heated to the temperature 
 of an oven. He, professing to he unwell, reclined on his bed, 
 smoking a meerschaum : while we, that is, the General, Captain 
 O’Connor, and myself, sat down to the table ; on which, to do 
 justice to our host’s hospitality, was plenty of good tilings, with 
 variety of wines and spirits. Two officers of the regiment— a 
 captain and lieutenant, waited on us. I was perfectly scandalized, 
 and when one of them came to help me to wine, rose to make 
 room for him at the table. He bowed. The general then re- 
 quested them to he seated; hut as their colonel did not second 
 him, they excused themselves and remained standing. We re- 
 turned home in a Kibitka drawn by four little Tartar horses, 
 which equipage was the greatest curiosity that I had seen on 
 the Turkish plains, being so much at variance with the native 
 arabas. The general seemed to think that our dinner required 
 explanation, and told me that colonels had that kind of power 
 over their officers, without subjection to interference from 
 higher authority; — that formerly, it was quite the thing thus 
 to do honour to a general, however he, if civilised, might dis- 
 like it ; hut that now it was never seen, except in the case of a 
 rude boor like the colonel in question. “ Fortunately,” he 
 added, “few of the superior officers are Russians, therefore the* 
 practice is fast disappearing. At my table you see, on the 
 contrary, non-commissioned officers sit down with me.” This 
 
304 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 was the fact, in the case of a young man whose parents had 
 been exiled, and who was in consequence brought up at a mili- 
 tary colony. Though debarred from ever getting a commission, 
 his worthy general made his situation as light as possible, and 
 treated him as a gentleman. Our team nearly upset us over a 
 rude bridge without parapets, and indeed kept us rather nervous 
 the whole way, galloping over the roadless plain which en- 
 circles Yeni Saara. From its tall belfry, as we drew near, a 
 Bulgarian gave a signal, and instantly two Cossacks dashed out 
 at speed, passed us, towards some persons at a distance, who 
 turned out to be only peasants coming from work. This vigi- 
 lance was observed in consequence of a rumour, quite un- 
 founded, and purposely set afloat, in order to excuse rigour, 
 that the Mussulmans in the district were preparing for a rising. 
 On alighting at the house, we saw an example of the incor- 
 rible drunkenness of the lower class of Russians, in the person 
 of the Maitre d’Hotel. We had been talking on the subject 
 that morning, in consequence of his having been incapable the 
 preceding evening of fulfilling his duties. “ I is no use,” 
 observed the general, “having him licked; he has already 
 received more blows than would suffice to dust a carpet manu- 
 factory; yet he is never sober one twenty-four hours; nor do 
 I think it possible to keep him so. However, let us try, for 
 curiosity; we will lock everything up, and leave orders that he 
 is not to go out, nor any one to come to him.” Detto, fatto. 
 Notwithstanding which, we found him stretched in a state of 
 glorious insensibility. “ Astonishing!” we said; the general, 
 at the same time, being half pleased at the truth of his predic- 
 tion, although totally unable to make out by what miracle he 
 had got the liquor. An hour afterwards, I missed a bottle of 
 cognac from my saddle-bags. The next morning, on being 
 questioned, he swore that he had not swallowed a drop, and 
 appealed to the state of the cupboards, to the sentries, in sup- 
 port of the truth, that he had only been in a sound sleep. Of 
 course I said not a word about the secret, for fear of the unmer- 
 » ciful drubbing that the fellow would have had. 
 
 We attended the auction of a deceased colonel’s effects, 
 among which I remarked twelve horses and two carriages. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 305 
 
 The former, partly Russian, partly Asiatic, sold well, particu- 
 larly the Russian, as being better qualified for supporting 
 fatigue. Russian superior officers (the inferior are wretchedly 
 off) have not great emoluments in specie, but in attendants 
 and horses they are princely.* G-eneral Reuchteurn’s stud 
 consisted of about twenty horses. 
 
 One day we devoted to sporting : we coursed some hours 
 with four Angora greyhounds, with indifferent success, owing 
 to a fog; then dismounting, proceeded with our guns into the 
 covered country, where, however, notwithstanding the exer- 
 tions of a party in beating for game, we did not meet with 
 much better luck, for there were too many sportsmen about. 
 Shooting was as much a business as an amusement, and parties 
 of soldiers were continually occupied at it to supply the officers’ 
 tables, there being little besides game to eat. Scarcely a head 
 of cattle or a sheep was left in Roumelia, a fact which showed 
 the destitution of that rich country ; that it had little more than 
 sufficient for the ordinary inhabitants, since a small army eat 
 everything up in a few months. 
 
 I would willingly have accepted my host’s invitation to pro- 
 long my stay; military life on a war-footing was pleasant to 
 one who had never seen it, though sufficiently disagreeable to 
 the actors, to judge by their grumbling; but the season was fast 
 advancing, and might render the mountain passes difficult; so, 
 therefore, after three days, I pricked over the plain for Selimnia, 
 twenty miles distant. The swollen state of the Toondja detained 
 us a long time on its right bank searching for a ford, and when we 
 found one, all the address of the Cossacks with me was scarcely 
 sufficient to get us safely over, the stream being so rapid, that 
 it was necessary for them to plant their lances in the bottom 
 in order to stem it, keeping me above them in one line. The 
 pitch darkness, therefore, when we reached the cluster of hills 
 in which the town is situated, caused us infinite trouble in 
 finding our road ; it made us nearly tumble down one preci- 
 
 * The most lucrative post in the army is that of colonel, as he clothes 
 and provisions his regiment, often to the detriment of the men. Many 
 flagrant cases I heard from good authority, not worth while mentioning. It 
 is said that the emperor is about, if he can, to abolish this pernicious system. 
 It is time. The Russian soldier is much to be pitied. 
 
 x 
 
306 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 pice, stumble up another, and run against sundry walls and 
 trees, till at last the. Cossacks, with all their mole-like qualities, 
 confessed themselves puzzled, and dismounted to feel the way 
 with their lances. At length we reached the suburb, where, 
 however, far from ending them, our difficulties multiplied ; for 
 the natural streams, running through every street, were 
 increased, by the heavy rain falling, to rivers ; not a light nor 
 a person was to be discerned ; and the din of numerous cas- 
 cades drowned our halloes. A sentry or two, whom we floun- 
 dered against, could give us no information regarding the 
 direction of the government-house. “ They are Russians 
 muttered the Cossacks. In this manner we wandered upwards 
 of an hour, without the slightest prospect of gaining a clue to 
 the labyrinth, when we met a Cossack, who instantly put us in 
 the right road. The governor. General Montresor, received 
 me with singular kindness. Having sent in word, to his 
 request that I would come into his presence, that I was 
 drenched, and would rather shift first, he came out exclaiming, 
 “ Whoever heard of a sailor standing on ceremony. Come in, 
 mine is the only warm room in the house.” I required no 
 pressing ; and the officers of his staff showed, by their welcome, 
 that the intrusion of a stranger, wet and dirty, was not annoy- 
 ing. Two soldiers laid hold of me per order. In one minute 
 they divested me of my clothing ; it was no use being shy ; 
 and in another I found myself wrapped in a fur pelisse, my 
 feet thrust into fur boots, sipping a glass of exquisite tea, for 
 the preparation of which an urn was hissing on the table, and 
 in the discussion of it, mellowed with rum, the party was 
 engaged at my entrance. Such an introduction is worth years 
 of common acquaintance, and by the time that tea was 
 replaced by supper, we were intimate. To Englishmen the 
 subjects of despotic governments open freely. I have observed 
 it everywhere. They have faith in us; we speak our minds, 
 and the example is contagious ; for frankness is the. most con- 
 genial disposition of the soul, and the more winning the rarer 
 it is encountered. It is a perfect treat in countries where 
 thought is chained on certain subjects, to hear a man talk as 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 307 
 
 unreservedly of his own government as of any other. Who has 
 not felt this in passing from Italy into France ? 
 
 My new friends were naturally inquisitive about Constanti- 
 nople, and as they were also unacquainted with the events of 
 the busy world during the last three months, my arrival afforded 
 them considerable gratification. We did not leave the supper 
 table till three A.ta. I then stretched myself on a heap of 
 carpets by the side of the stove, never out day or night, keep- 
 ing the room at the comfortable temperature of 70°, and slept 
 till seven, when cafe au lait was brought in to aid our waking. 
 At ten we breakfasted a la fourchette, whetting our appetites 
 with raki. Dinner was served at two o’clock, preceded as usual 
 by raki and spiced patties. Tea-punch occupied us from eight 
 till half-past ten, and then supper closed the labours of the 
 day. I never saw so much eating and drinking, and thought 
 that Russian digestive organs, to he able to undergo such work 
 every day, must he differently constructed from ours. 
 
 The ignorance of the officers, as I observed above, of every- 
 thing passing out of the pale of their cantonments, was not 
 surprising, considering the total want of all means of informa- 
 tion in them; but their questions, relative to their own army, 
 perfectly astonished me. I thought they were joking when 
 they asked me about the strength, the state of regiments, the 
 existence of officers, &c. By no means ; kept in perfect 
 ignorance about subjects on which I, as a traveller, could not 
 avoid being conversant, they knew not in one station of the 
 army what was passing at another, and the death of a general 
 officer would scarcely have transpired ten miles off. The esta- 
 fettes carried no private letters ; certainly none would be written 
 for the inspection of the Commander-in-Chief. At the capture 
 of Adrianople, 1829, two artillery officers met, who had served 
 together in the same battery at the battle of Borodino, 1812; 
 each believed that the • other had been killed there, till this 
 accidental meeting undeceived them. A slight want of an army 
 list.* 
 
 * To further show the misinformation of Russian officers — Count Orloff, 
 talking of the practicability of taking the castles of the Dardanelles in the 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 The opinion that I gathered generally of Diebitsch, making 
 certain allowance for the bias which men always have for a 
 commander who has led them to victory, although by blunder- 
 ing, was not favourable to his military talents. We are apt 
 to look only to results. He was universally blamed for care- 
 lessness of the lives of his men, sacrificing them in unhealthy 
 encampments, wearing them by fatiguing reviews and long 
 marches, and not checking the dishonesty of the commissariat 
 department. These, coming from Russian officers, who are all 
 more or less guilty of neglecting their men, were heavy charges 
 against him. His decision in crossing the Balkans, against 
 the opinions of all the generals, they dwelt on with rapture. 
 Yet this firmness he carried into things of no moment ; it was 
 therefore often injurious : e. g., the day fixed on for the march 
 of the army Rom Adrianople to its winter quarters was terrible ; 
 cold and wet; on which the generals of division waited on the 
 marshal, to know if the movement could not be deferred till 
 the following day, when the storm might cease. “ My orders 
 are given,” he replied; “ march!” In consequence, one- third 
 of the already exhausted horses were left on the road during 
 the first twenty-four hours. 
 
 He was very hard with his officers, not keeping his cane at 
 times from their shoulders, or caring about degrading them to 
 the ranks ; the latter punishment only to be understood by 
 those who know the wretched condition of a Russian soldier. 
 
 At Adrianople, Prince , who had been a major only a 
 
 month before, was seen carrying a musket. The marshal was 
 
 rear, told Sir R. Gordon at Pera, that some days after the cessation of 
 hostilities, a foraging party of Cossacks stormed one of them, and drove 
 the garrison out; but was hastily dislodged by an explosion of gunpowder, 
 which killed some of the party. The incorrectness of this statement is 
 authentic. The same action was, however, related to me by General Mon- 
 tresor, but on a different scene — near Selybria. He added that, having 
 taken place after hostilities had ceased, the party was punished, pro forma, 
 but rewarded for gallantry with Crosses of St. George. This also was 
 wrong, as I can vouch by the warranty of my eyes and ears. That some- 
 thing of the kind took place, is probable; but where, is uncertain and in- 
 consequential. It shows how little credit should be given to the statement 
 of Russian officers, unless they are eye witnesses of what they relate. Here 
 are two generals giving opposite reports of the same affair, which, though 
 trifling, was made much of, and cited on every occasion as a proof of 
 Russian bravery. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 309 
 
 a bon-vivant , often exaggerated into a glutton, and, not a 
 drunkard, but a muddler ; propensities, added to a Sancho 
 Panza figure, which rendered a sudden death probable any day. 
 Withal, he had an amiable quality. The Emperor, after the 
 peace, sent him a snuff-box, with his (Diebitsch’s) portrait on 
 it. The likeness was flattering; observing which, he said, “ I 
 must send this to my wife, to let her see how the campaign has 
 improved me.” “ She has no need of it,” said the gentleman 
 who related this anecdote to me, “ to think him handsome, for 
 she loves him.” He was then at Bourgas; I did not proceed 
 to it, though I had had the intention, on perceiving that it 
 would not be agreeable. Indeed, his dislike of the English 
 was previously known to me, and had shown itself at Adria- 
 nople, by great want of attention towards Lord Dunlo and 
 Major Keppel, who stayed there about a month. It was yet 
 further manifested, as I shall have occasion to relate. But, 
 independent of his personal attraction, I had no occasion to 
 visit Bourgas, Selimnia being, from its position and superior 
 accommodations, the chief quarters of the army. 
 
 The number of soldiers in the streets made it exceedingly 
 annoying for an English officer to walk about them. My hand 
 might as well have been tied to my cap. No sooner does a 
 Russian private catch a glimpse of an officer, though a quarter 
 of a mile off, than he draws up, unbonnets, raining or snowing, 
 as may be, and remains statue-like till he passes. It was 
 intimated to me that touching my hat was unnecessary. I 
 understood the hint; the comparison thereby drawn might 
 have been prejudicial: it proved very advantageous to me, and 
 caused the men to regard me with pleasure. Nearly all the 
 artillery, best part of a Russian army, was at Selimnia; among 
 which the Cossack brigade was distinguished for neatness and 
 celerity of movement. In everything the Cossacks were 
 superior to the other troops, which could only be attributed to 
 their energies being unbent by that equalizing machine of 
 mental depression — Russian discipline. Ever fertile in re- 
 sources — whether exploring roads, cutting off convoys, gaining 
 information, finding water, &c., the army, of which they may 
 be termed the eyes, could not march without them; and part 
 
310 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 of the disasters of the campaign of 1828 was ascribed to the 
 experiment, then made for the first time, of giving the outpost 
 duty to the troops of the line — an experiment not repeated. 
 
 The Staff Corps was there, engaged in reducing plans of the 
 country, which were executed in a beautiful style, and with 
 wonderful precision in the details, as far as a casual observation 
 would allow me to judge; for I was barely permitted to look 
 at them, much less to take down a note. What absurd jealousy ! 
 as if the possession or non-possession of plans can influence 
 an army which is strong enough to invade an enemy’s country. 
 Several superior officers were also there, on leave from the 
 different quarters, and daily crowded the General’s table. 
 About a dozen generally sat down, all proper men, and able 
 to speak French. This circumstance may seem too trivial for 
 remark, but in Russia it is a strong sign of a gentleman. Few 
 who are ignorant of it advance. If you see a very old Russian 
 officer in the hack ground, he sure he cannot speak French. 
 At Yamboli I had the honour one evening of playing at whist 
 with three Generals, the senior of whom was very young; the 
 others, double his age, spoke nothing but Russian, and that I 
 was told was the reason of their ill luck. The distinction, 
 therefore, is more than elegant. Russian military etiquette is 
 well known as graduating in its scale all social precedency : the 
 ensign being placed before the greatest noble, if not military, 
 or wearing military orders ; and a family which suffers three 
 generations to pass without having one of its members in the 
 army, loses caste. A plain English gentleman, therefore, 
 (may be, an M.P., with wealth to buy a principality) may find 
 himself scurvily treated, out of St. Petersburgh, if he do not 
 assume a military title. In my case, General Montresor — but 
 then it must be recollected that he is a Pole — disregarded my 
 low rank (that of Captain in the army), and gave me the 
 stranger’s prerogative — his right hand; except one day that 
 
 Major dined with us. Not knowing his importance, I 
 
 was surprised to find myself placed according to my rank; 
 nevertheless, I eat with as good an appetite, and found him a 
 very good fellow. After dinner I was let into the secret, by 
 being told, as an apology, not at all required, that he was one 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 311 
 
 of Marshal Diebitsch’s Aids-de-camp ; at the same time was 
 further informed, that it was not prudent to slight such gentle- 
 men. 
 
 Among the favoured guests was Captain Poniatowsky, cousin 
 of the Prince of that name, of Ister celebrity, and brother of 
 one of the richest subjects of the emperor; otherwise, by no 
 means remarkable. Also, another Pole, Captain Wolk 
 Llanevsky, of the lancers; a delightful young man, quite a 
 treasure where he was. He had been in the Imperial Guard, 
 and was renowned at St. Petersburgh for his good looks, his 
 talents, and a host of et ceteras ; hut he marred his prospects 
 on that grand military stage by writing verses on his com- 
 manding officer. They created a sensation, were universally 
 read, admired (might have been imitated) ; and there the effect 
 
 would have stopped, for General , not to increase the 
 
 ridicule, wisely inclined to say nothing about them, in hopes 
 that they would he forgotten after a butterfly progress : hut 
 unfortunately the satire included his lady — a Potiphar, who 
 had found a Joseph in the author. To have remained quiet 
 under this would have proved her more or less than woman. 
 She interested the empress in her behalf, who spoke to the 
 emperor; she incited her patient husband, who then made it a 
 serious affair. Veterans declared that such licence, if tolerated, 
 would prove subversive of military discipline ; young officers, 
 who envied Llanevsky his bonnes fortunes , thought he might 
 employ himself more advantageously than in criticising his 
 superiors, i. e. that he would be better in Siberia, and all 
 together induced the emperor to mark his displeasure by 
 removing the poet from the guard. But elsewhere this did 
 him no harm. At Selimnia he was feted by all ranks, and was 
 an inmate of the general’s house, though not on his staff. 
 He was enthusiastic about Scott and Byron — who is not? 
 “ Do not call him Scott,” said he to me one day. — “ What 
 then?” — “Walter Scott; scot in Russian means ass.” — “Then,” 
 I replied, “you should change your nom d’dne.” Amiable 
 Llanevsky ! he was sadly ennuied in a Turkish town, without 
 his favourite resources, love and literature; with few persons 
 to speak to possessed of any ideas beyond army regulations, 
 
312 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 and so forth. He was the liberal of our set, and gladly took 
 advantage of my presence to indulge in the rare topics, freedom 
 and constitutions. General Montresor always laughed at 
 him; for he was a good fellow, though an Ultra-Czarist, 
 defending ukases, conscription laws, and all the abominations 
 of despotism. He would not understand the blessing of being 
 an English gentleman. “ What are your advantages,” he said, 
 one day, “compared with mine? with my general’s uniform 
 on, I go from one end of Russia to the other, treated as a 
 prince; every noble is flattered if I make his house my home; 
 every peasant is glad to put his shoulder to my carriage-wheel ; 
 every lady is proud of my attentions.” — “ True,” I replied, 
 “ but the duration of such enjoyments does not depend on 
 yourself. A stroke of the emperor’s pen may tear the epaulettes 
 from your shoulders, subject your back to the cane, send you 
 to Siberia: on the faith of a vile suborner, your name may be 
 branded, your family degraded, your estates given to a cour- 
 tesan, — and all without your being able to say a word in your 
 defence.” “Hold!” he cried; then, after a pause, “ Mais, que 
 voulez vous, we are brought up in this life, and get used to it : 
 if we have a bright side of a picture to look on, why need we 
 care about the reverse?” There was philosophy in what he 
 said — and only philosophy, for it was easy to discover that his 
 heart belied his lips; and that though he spoke thus before a 
 stranger — also through amour propre — he thought otherwise. 
 Could he avoid doing so, man of talent and a Pole as he was l 
 Every class of officers was disgusted with their military life, 
 which they described to me as unremittingly irksome ; leave of 
 absence was out of the question. An officer from Finland 
 might be for fifteen years in Bessarabia, and vice versa. In a 
 general view, also, they talked to me of the army as of 
 an evil of uncommon magnitude ; — too numerous for the popu- 
 lation of Russia, and too expensive for her resources, although 
 the expense, proportionately, is scarcely one-twentieth that of 
 an English army. The condemnation of a million of men to 
 celibacy completely arrests the population of the country. I 
 do not mean to say that Russia has a million of men under 
 arms, but the continued conscription necessary to supply the 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 313 
 
 deficiency of about 50,000 men who die annually on the 
 average (leaving the killed out of the question) makes it up. 
 This frightful mortality is not the consequence of any pre- 
 disposition to die, still less of hard drinking, the Russian 
 soldier having only one shilling and sixpence a month pay, 
 with rations of bread and salt : but from want of cleanliness, 
 of necessaries, and principally of good food, which renders 
 them unable to support long fatigue; also from the absence of 
 medical men and medicine, by which slight disorders prove 
 fatal. Of the latter defect, the following circumstance is a 
 valid proof. General Montresor’s brother, a young officer of 
 lancers, was residing in his house at the time I was, on sick 
 leave from his regiment at Aid os. He was wasting away from 
 the effects of the Adrianople fever, although it was evident 
 that proper treatment would restore him in a few weeks. The 
 general was greatly distressed, he being his only brother, and 
 imparted his uneasiness to me one day, concluding by saying, 
 “There is not a doctor in the army.” All in my power to do 
 I did, which was to note down the young man’s case, and to 
 offer to lay the same before a medical person at Pera, on my 
 return. It was gratefully accepted: but what a state of 
 things! The army at that time south of the Balkans was 
 15,000 strong, yet one of its superior generals was obliged to 
 depend on the casualty of a traveller returning to Constanti- 
 nople (an uncertain journey, which might be delayed by acci- 
 dents), to get a few medicines for his brother.* The penury of 
 the Russian government renders its armies quickly inefficient 
 in countries not civilized, where they must depend on their own 
 resources. We have seen how the army that reached Adria- 
 nople suffered from the common casualties of heat and rain in 
 a fine temperate climate; yet there are people who think seriously 
 of a Russian army being capable, even now, of marching to 
 India. Russia may in time grow to India, and will do so easily, 
 if we allow her to continue extending her Persian frontier ; 
 
 * Dr. Capponi, of the Blonde , prescribed for him on my return to Pera. 
 I directly forwarded the necessary medicines, and two months after had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that young Montresor had perfectly recovered. 
 But, alas! his restorer had himself paid the debt of nature — was then 
 immerged in the deep Bosphorus. 
 
314 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 but at present, if 200,000 men left her frontiers, not 2000 
 would reach ours. The Russian officers, with all their boasting 
 of what they had done, and what they could do, treated this as 
 visionary, at least for the next twenty or thirty years. By that 
 time they hoped to have Persia organised, and cultivated, and 
 intersected with roads; the Persians their vassals, and their 
 resources theirs; an amalgamation of interests, which will be 
 facilitated by the lukewarmness of the Persians touching 
 religion. The death of the Schah, too, by lighting civil war 
 among his sons, will give Russia a pretext for occupying Persia, 
 in order to place Abbas Mirza, to whom she has guaranteed it, 
 on the musnud. Will not Abbas Mirza be her humble vassal? 
 Will she withdraw her troops ? They related to me that the 
 Emperor Paul, when inclined to second Napoleon in his designs 
 against England, actually ordered Platoff to march to India with 
 50,000 Cossacks. Platoff prepared to obey, as he would have 
 done an order to march to a hotter place ; but at the end of three 
 days it got among his men where they were going — to some 
 unknown hot place, at an unknown distance. They accordingly 
 mutinied; not against their leader, but against their destination, 
 and would not proceed a step beyond Astrachan. Platoff, 
 finding his authority ineffectual, dispatched a courier to the 
 emperor with the intelligence, and waited with some anxiety 
 for the answer; but he was shortly relieved by the arrival of 
 another courier, crying, “ Long live Alexander.” The mad- 
 man’s death put an end to this mad freak. 
 
 Before, however, the obstacles of clime and distance, which 
 now screen Hindostan from the basilisk gaze of Russia’s ambi- 
 tion, be overcome, and she be enabled to plant military colo- 
 nies on the right bank of the Indus, let us hope that her 
 greatness will be reduced by the same instrument which raised 
 it — the army. When we consider how it is raised; that the 
 conscripts are, in all cases, obliged to be marked, in many 
 instances shackled, to ensure their joining their regiments, 
 when they bid an eternal farewell to home and happiness ; 
 that their term of service is twenty- three years (which few sur- 
 vive), during which they exist under the worst of treatment — 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 315 
 
 worse than that which negroes endured when their drivers 
 wielded the lash unchecked by responsibility ; we are only 
 surprised that the half of it does not commit suicide — not that 
 the whole does not revolt. Hitherto this unnatural state of 
 things has been cemented, by the blindest ignorance among 
 the soldiers of their comparative unhappy situation. But it 
 cannot last long. If one spark of intelligence fall among 
 them, a flame will burst out unquenchable : it will flee from 
 Kamptschatka to the Euxine, illumine the mines of Siberia, 
 dazzle the palaces of Moscow, and end in a terrible explosion, 
 the effect of which must be the destruction of their despots, 
 and so total a disorganization of the state, that a century will 
 not suffice to reconsolidate it. As it is, not a year passes with- 
 out there being a mutiny in some regiment or other, carefully 
 concealed from the rest of the army, and from the world. 
 
 Conscription, in the present state of Continental Europe, is 
 a necessary evil, which in France and Germany is modified by 
 its short duration, by mild discipline, and by the prospect held 
 out to soldiers of becoming officers. In Russia, no soldier can 
 emerge from the ranks, and every officer has the power of 
 inflicting corporal chastisement for the slightest misdemeanour; 
 as, for example, a cornet’s or an ensign’s servant has not dried 
 his master’s boots, or cleaned his pipe — he is sent to the town- 
 major to request a beating. The man himself, as I have wit- 
 nessed, bears the message. The major accedes, and places him 
 between two Cossacks, who lay on with their terrible whips, 
 like flails, ad libitum. From such treatment the Cossacks, 
 being ruled by their own laws and privileges, are free ; and it 
 is to their exemption from the general discipline of the army 
 that I attribute their being angels of intelligence compared 
 with the soldiers of the line — “ not one of whom,” observed a 
 general to me, “ is worth his salt until he has received 500 
 coups de baton ; right or wrong, he must have them — the 
 sooner the better.” I could not avoid observing, that this 
 very indiscriminate chastisement might be the cause of his 
 stupidity. “ Bagatelle,” he replied, jokingly; “these are 
 English ideas: such will not do with us; we should have 
 
316 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 rebellion in a week. Sans les coups de baton , they would not 
 stand les coups de fusil” How mortifying to human pride to 
 think that a stick can produce the effect of honour and 
 patriotism ! 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Kasan Pass — Bach Keiiy — Bulgarians — Kasan — Osman Bazar — Jhumha — 
 Schumla — Prince Madatoff — Greek Priest — Koulevscha — Yeni Bazar — 
 Pasha — Greek Archbishop — Osman Bagar — Mountains — Selimnia — Yam- 
 boli — General Timan — The fair Scheraeh — Adrianople — Plague — Grand 
 Vizir — Luleh Bourgas — Mahmoud Bey — Chorloo — Selybria — Constanti- 
 nople — Pera. 
 
 To he taken for a bore in society, and cut, is bad ; to be 
 taken for a boar on the mountains, and shot, is worse. News 
 that the latter had taken place in the person of a Russian 
 corporal was brought to General Montresor the morning of 
 Dec. 30th, 1829, the very morning I had fixed on for crossing 
 the mountains. He carelessly commented on it, and informed 
 me that the same outrage had been committed several times 
 by Bulgarian banditti. In one case the assassin had been 
 taken ; and stated in his defence, that while hunting he mis- 
 took the rustling of the leaves made by a man for that of 
 a wild animal, and fired in consequence. It was not an agree- 
 able tale for me ; still less so as the general made no offer of 
 an escort, and as the case stood I would not ask for one. In 
 fine, I took leave and started with a Bulgarian Surrogee for the 
 Kasan pass, vainly endeavouring to hit upon some reason 
 to account for the general’s carelessness of my life, after the 
 great civility he had shown to me ; but before reaching the 
 mouth of the pass, about three miles from the town, three 
 Cossacks overtook us with a note from him, stating that he 
 had given them orders to escort me as far as Kasan, where they 
 should be relieved by an equal number from the party stationed 
 there, concluding by a compliment on the English as tra- 
 vellers. Thus accompanied, I began to ascend the narrow 
 precipitous path with greater confidence. Well it was that 
 they were with me, otherwise I could not have overcome the 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 317 
 
 natural obstacles of the way, which, being little frequented, 
 was no better than a goat path ; and which were augmented by 
 the snow, lodged on the woods above and around us, being 
 flaked so violently in our faces by a high wind, as nearly 
 to blind us. Presently the headmost Cossack stopped, and 
 began jargoning with those behind ; the cause of which lay in 
 the path before us, for about twelve yards, being an inclined 
 plane of ice, made so by the water oozing out of the high 
 bank, and freezing by contact with the open air till it formed 
 a contiguous slope with the precipice, some hundred feet deep, 
 on our right. To cross this seemed utterly impossible : my 
 feet, I knew, would not keep on it ; nor did it appear probable 
 that the horses, with all the cat-like qualities of theirs, would 
 be cleverer. After a short consultation, the Cossacks dis- 
 mounted. Two set about picking up the ice with their lances, 
 while the other tore up some sacking and bound the horses’ 
 feet with it, by way of rough shoeing ; and thus sagaciously 
 prepared, we proceeded cautiously, letting our animals go first, 
 in order to have the first chance of a roll, and supporting our- 
 selves alternately with the lances. It was nervous work. 
 Soon afterwards we gained the summit of the first ridge, 
 whence we led our horses down a rocky ravine, or, more pro- 
 perly speaking, leapt from crag to crag, to the small village of 
 Icheri, near the source of the little Kamptchik. We then 
 climbed another precipitous hill with severe toil, crossed a 
 second valley, saddle deep in snow, requiring the utmost 
 exercise of whip and spur to avoid sticking in, and two hours 
 after dark succeeded in finding Bach Keuy, a large Bulgarian 
 village, nominally six hours’ distance from Selimnia, but which 
 it had cost us ten hours to reach. I alighted at the Tchor- 
 bagis house, where a comfortable room soon restored me 
 to animation, which the sudden decrease of the temperature 
 had nearly suspended. The thermometer in the morning at 
 Selimnia, had marked 28°, here it was at 16°; even my Cos- 
 sacks said it was cold, and were glad to thaw their icicled 
 mustaches, which, by the by, had a very pretty effect. 
 
 Till midnight I had to sustain the company of the notables 
 of the place. An Englishman at any time would have been a 
 
318 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 curiosity to them, and now his visit was doubly gratifying, as 
 they had grief to express, and counsel to ask. Outside the 
 lines, as I have before observed, the expressions of the Bulga- 
 rians against the Russians were strong : here, as in Selimnia, 
 they were hitter, in proportion to the evil they had received for 
 good. Their complaints were summed up in a few words. 
 They had been excited to revolt — deprived of the option of 
 neutrality, by threats and by assurances that the Russians 
 would never leave this country. After having given their all, 
 persons and property, and broken their allegiance to their so- 
 vereign, on the faith of such promises, what was the result ? 
 They were about to he abandoned by their betrayers to the just 
 resentment (their own words) of the Osmanleys, to avoid which 
 — unavoidable in their opinion otherwise — they determined to 
 expatriate, to leave their substantial dwellings and fertile fields 
 for poverty in a strange land. I endeavoured to dissuade them 
 from this ruinous step by pointing out the treatment they 
 would experience in Russia, of which however the state of her 
 army had given them prescience, and by assuring them that the 
 Sultan, in virtue of one of the articles of the peace, had issued 
 a strong firman to the authorities, granting them an entire 
 amnesty. This they could not believe possible. “ The Sultan 
 must punish us,” they said, “ for our revolt. He cannot help 
 it : his religion will oblige him. We have joined his enemies, 
 we have plundered and killed Mussulmans— can we expect 
 pardon ? No, our only safety is in flight ; and though griev- 
 ous the sacrifice, we must quit our beloved hills in the train of 
 the Russian army.” Knowing full well what their condition 
 would he under the protection of a Russian army ; knowing 
 also that their fears of Ottoman vengeance were groundless, 
 their cause being the cause of the ambassadors at Pera, I did 
 all in my power to dissuade them from this step; b t in this 
 visit my rhetoric was vain. They were all armed : by way of 
 experiment I alluded to it — to their position, and proposed 
 that rather than fly to certain misery they should, if the Sultan 
 broke his promise, strike for independence. They shrunk at 
 the idea : the hands used to the plough tremble in grasping 
 the sword ; and had one Osmanley entered the room, the six 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 319 
 
 Bulgarians present would have saluted him submissively. 
 With a little courage on the part of the mountaineers, a Bul- 
 garian confederacy might have been formed at that period with 
 ease. The Balkans, Switzerland in miniature, have impreg- 
 nable points ; the valleys are fertile, well cultivated, and wa- 
 tered by numerous streams, and the towns and villages teem 
 with a robust population. To the north, Wallachia is indepen- 
 dent of the Porte ; the Albanians may be considered a part ; 
 and to the south, the Christians are as numerous as the Mus- 
 sulmans, who otherwise would not be eager to assist their 
 unpopular Sultan in a second domestic war. 
 
 But the natural peaceable disposition of the Bulgarians pre- 
 vented them from seeing their advantages. Hitherto they had 
 lived tranquil, and never till 1829 formed one of the jarring 
 elements of the Ottoman empire. Hence their superior con- 
 dition, visible in their flourishing towns and abundant fields ; 
 witness Ternova, Gahrowa, Rasgrad, Selimnia, Yamboli, Aidos, 
 &c., all thickly peopled, wealthy, and possessing manufactories 
 of cloths. They have never had much to do with the Osman- 
 leys, and have been quite free from the intrigues of the Greeks ; 
 hence the reason why I could not hear in any place of a Bul- 
 garian having been executed. The circumstance was time out 
 of mind. 
 
 They may be said to have colonized Roumelia, having 
 extended over the plain to forty miles south of Adrianople, and 
 taken up the agricultural pursuits abandoned by the Greeks, 
 who, sharper witted, with more pliable spirits, soon perceived 
 how much more was to be gained in the cities, by administer- 
 ing to the wants of their luxurious masters. Without the Bul- 
 garians, Roumelia would by this time be quite a desert. 
 
 The Bulgarian is handsome, robust, patient, stubborn, and 
 very jealous; with primitive manners. The stranger who puts 
 up for the night in a cottage, has the best of everything, and 
 sleeps on the same floor with father and mother, sons and 
 daughters. 
 
 The women are tall and beautiful — the finest race that I saw 
 in Turkey — with peculiarly small hands and feet. Their cos- 
 tume is elegant, consisting of a striped shift, which covers. 
 
320 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 without concealing, the bust, fastened round the throat with a 
 heavy gold or silver clasp; a short worked petticoat, and an 
 embroidered pelisse, a la Polonaise, confined by a broad orna- 
 mental girdle. Their hair is dressed in long braids, and their 
 wrists and waists adorned with solid bracelets and buckles ; the 
 poorest have them. Yet these nymphs of the Balkans are 
 household slaves, and are to be seen in the severest weather 
 drawing water at the fountains. 
 
 No peasantry in the whole world are so well off. The 
 lowest Bulgarian has abundance of everything : meat, poultry, 
 eggs, milk, rice, cheese, wine, bread, good clothing, and a 
 warm dwelling, and a horse to ride. It is true he has no 
 newspaper to inflame his passions, nor a knife and fork to eat 
 with, nor a bedstead to lie on, and therefore may be considered 
 by some people an object of pity. A pasha, at any rate, is 
 equally unhappy. Where, then, it may be asked, viewing the 
 above true statement, is the tyranny under which the Christian 
 subjects of the Porte are generally supposed to groan ? Not 
 among the Bulgarians certainly. I wish that in every country a 
 traveller could pass from one end to the other, and find a good 
 supper and a warm fire in every cottage, as he can in European 
 Turkey — the result of its being thinly inhabited. For in the 
 same ratio as population adds to a nations greatness, it 
 subtracts from its happiness. The soil, when over- occupied, 
 fattens on man; when under- tenanted, man fattens on the soil: 
 that is, in the former case unremitting labour is requisite to 
 make it yield barely sufficient for the sustenance of numbers; 
 in the latter case, nature requires very little aid to afford plenty 
 for the few. The principal grievance of the Christian peasant 
 in Turkey, is the harratch ; oftentimes he cannot pay it. 
 What can the collector do ? It is useless distraining his cattle, 
 for on the plain are others wild. It is useless taking his 
 furniture, for there is no vent for it. It is useless ejecting 
 him, for no other occupier will be found for his tenement, 
 every man having already more land than he requires, in a 
 country without trade to consume the overplus of his produce. 
 It is still more useless putting him in prison, for money is 
 never gained there. He gives him the bastinado, or not. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 321 
 
 according as he believes that the man’s poverty in specie is 
 real or feigned. A few dozen blows decides the doubt, and he 
 is undisturbed for another year. I venture to say that many a 
 free-born man, who boasts of liberal sentiments, of chartered 
 rights, of equal laws, would gladly compound for his rent with 
 a licking, and, instead of grumbling at his fate, bless heaven 
 that he is not turned out on the high road with his family. 
 At the same time I do not deny that the lower classes in 
 Turkey often suffer grievous oppression under a rascally pasha 
 or aga : but, take their position in the worst view, distorted by 
 the film of slavery, they never see the most ruthless of tyrants 
 — hunger. Their despots, though armed with whips and 
 
 screws, and racks, cannot inflict any torture equal to the pang 
 of a father who hears his children crying for bread, and crying 
 in vain. They never feel this. Their rulers cannot check the 
 fertility of nature ; — cannot prevent the beasts of the field from 
 multiplying ; the trees of the forest from sprouting ; nor the 
 seed thrown on the ground from springing into ear. They 
 may have the mortification of seeing many of their children die 
 when young, for want of medical aid ; but they are certain that 
 those who grow up will not be reduced to follow the career of 
 vice — the sons on the highway, the daughters on the pave — 
 for subsistence. They are not tantalized by the constant sight 
 of enjoyments beyond their reach; are not tempted by easy 
 modes of conveyance, to leave their quiet villages for the 
 fancied pleasures of the capital ; are not made discontented, by 
 reading, with the state of life wherein destiny cast them ; and, 
 to sum up the advantages which the poor have in such (bar- 
 barous !) countries, it is worthy of remark, that the punish- 
 ment of death rarely falls on them. For one poor man who 
 loses his head in Turkey, 500 rich men lose theirs. How 
 contrary to the practice of highly civilized states — elysiums 
 for the wealthy, purgatories for the indigent — where the 
 hungry and the naked — wretches whose greatest crime was 
 want — are the principal offerings at the shrine of justice. 
 Far be it from me to decry civilization and commerce. He 
 would indeed be an unworthy Englishman who undervalued 
 the levers which have raised his country to an unexampled 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 pitch of greatness ; "but at the same time we cannot blind our- 
 selves to the fact that they cause evil to a great proportion of 
 mankind ; by creating a thousand fictitious wants, which 
 beget crimes, which build prisons and raise scaffolds ; by un- 
 equally distributing wealth, to the great deterioration of social 
 happiness ; by drawing away the productions of countries, 
 intended by nature for the support of the natives, to pamper 
 strangers : vide, for example, the droves of cattle, sheep, and 
 pigs ; the cargoes of oatmeal, eggs, and flour, daily wheeled 
 from the shores of Erin, while her sons are starving. With- 
 out the active agency of commerce, they must remain where 
 they are produced, and perforce be eaten there. 
 
 To resume my tour. I quitted Bachkeuy early in the 
 morning. From the eminence above it we looked down into a 
 singular valley, bound in by four steep mountains, which in- 
 closed a flat oval area (a colosseum fit to exhibit mammoths 
 in), and in two hours reached Kasan, a town, with 5000 inha- 
 bitants, beautifully situated in an elevated valley, watered by 
 the Kamptchick. Having breakfasted with the Tchorbagi, I 
 continued my journey, escorted by three irregular Cossacks, 
 instead of the three regular ones who came with me from 
 Selimnia. The apparent difference of the two classes is in the 
 beards of the former, which, joined to their wool caps and 
 rough horses, give them disagreeable looks. A rough exterior, 
 however, is no criterion. They were very attentive in smooth- 
 ing the difficulties of the route, which were not few, though 
 their skill could not save us from a serious accident on an 
 Alpine bridge : our Surrogee’s horse put his foot into a hole 
 concealed by snow, and precipitated him, fortunately not into 
 the ravine. He escaped with a slight contusion, but the 
 animal was so lamed that we were obliged to leave it. I would 
 fain have had it shot; but the Surrogee, covering it with 
 cloths, and making a barrier of snow against the wind, ex- 
 pressed a hope that it might outlive the night. In fine, after 
 having lost our way several times, and almost puzzled my 
 argus-eyed attendants, we reached Osman-bazar, a Turkish 
 village, containing 2500 inhabitants, at the north foot of the 
 mountains. As it was very late, I esteemed myself fortunate 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 323 
 
 in getting a warm room at the Khan, and a good supper, in 
 the course of which the Khandgi showed me some English 
 needles, and asked if they were dear at seven paras (three 
 farthings) each. Considering the place, I thought that cheap. 
 Throughout the country English cutlery is prized, and a 
 traveller cannot make a more agreeable present, in a small 
 way, than a pocket-knife, or a pair of scissors, even to a great 
 man. 
 
 The Turkish authorities here recommenced; in consequence 
 my Cossacks left me in the morning to continue my road with 
 the “Faithful.” 
 
 Schumla was ten hours distance, about forty miles. The 
 first three miles our road lay through a forest: then, enter- 
 ing a mountainous tract, we pursued, for three miles further, a 
 defile of a tremendous description. The height and proximity 
 of the mountains, which seemed to unite above our heads, 
 obscured the daylight, and a torrent dashed along under our 
 feet, at times covering the entire path, greatly to the annoy- 
 ance of a number of soldiers toiling through it on their return 
 from Schumla. 
 
 The severity of the weather — the thermometer at 13°, with 
 a piercing easter in my teeth — compelled me to stop at Jhumha, 
 a Turkish village of 3000 inhabitants, having only travelled 
 about four hours. The Ayan, at whose house I alighted, wel- 
 comed me with great civility, and, in order to thaw my blood, 
 plied me with coffee, which is an excellent expedient, far better 
 than spirits. His three sons were with him — fine lads, between 
 fifteen and twenty, all wearing the turban, a sign that the sul- 
 tan’s reform had not extended thus far : they were seated. 
 I mention this circumstance as being the only time that I ever 
 saw a son in Turkey sit in the presence of his father : yet a 
 distinction was observed; they were not smoking. He assigned 
 me the best Christian house in the village for quarters — a very 
 good one it was — and in the evening came to sup with me for 
 the sake of drinking; nor did his presence at all disturb my 
 host, who appeared to be on perfectly good terms with him. 
 In most of these villages great harmony subsists between the 
 Mussulmans and the Christians, particularly the Bulgarians. 
 
 y 2 
 
324 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 My next day’s road lay over plains at the foot of the moun- 
 tains, passing signs of Kussian occupation ; that is, ruined 
 villages. Towards noon we turned into the dark pile of hills 
 where Schumla is embosomed, and pursued a dangerous path, 
 from precipice to precipice, from defile to defile, for nearly 
 two hours. A deep ravine then opened before us : five re- 
 doubts on the opposite hank, pierced for five, fifteen, fifteen, 
 six, five guns, respectively, flanked this only pass to Schumla 
 from the west ; a narrow path, admitting one at a time.' From 
 the redoubt we had, as it were, an aeronautical view of the city, 
 covering the surface of an elliptical valley, shooting out 
 suburbs towards the plain, and up the slopes of the hills, 
 checkered on one side by a large cemetery, by lines and re- 
 doubts on the others, and thickly studded with minarets, the chief 
 ornaments of Mussulman cities. Having wound, or rather 
 slid down the interior of its semicircular mountainous har- 
 rier, I entered it with that pleasurable feeling always expe- 
 rienced at finding ourselves, for the first time, in a celebrated 
 place. 
 
 Where can one go without meeting Englishmen ? The Ayan 
 informed me, on saluting me, that two of my compatriots were 
 in the town. I soon found them out, — Captain Chesney, E.A., 
 and Mr. Peach, jun., come from Bucharest the day previous. 
 The former I had met some time before at Constantinople ; 
 hut whether or no, it would not have required previous acquaint- 
 ance to he introduced, for in such places countrymen when they 
 meet, though for the first time, are the best of friends ; and 
 even Franks of different countries hail each other’s presence 
 with joy. Would that this freemasonry were extended to 
 travellers in civilized Europe ! In a steam-hoat, or a diligence, 
 or at a table d’hote, the two greatest strangers are usually 
 Englishmen. 
 
 We rode together the next day over the works. Schumla, 
 it is needless to repeat, is situated in a cluster of hills, not un- 
 aptly compared to a horse-shoe, forming an elbow with the 
 line of the Balkans. It fronts in an e.s.e. direction. 
 A rugged ravine intersects it longitudinally, and carries the 
 water from mountain torrents far into the plain. A fortified 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 325 
 
 breastwork, with a double ditch, crosses that at right angles, 
 and embraces the whole front by connecting the horns of the 
 shoe. Thence the plain has a slight inclination towards the 
 Koulevscha hills, very unequal, broken into ravines, and 
 covered with low eminences, which the Governor, Husseyin, 
 crowned with redoubts to the number of ten. Farther on, the 
 Russians threw up as many in opposition. Some sharp en- 
 counters took place in them, on either side, during the war; the 
 principal one of which, viz. a sortie made by Halil Pasha, August, 
 1828, with a numerous force, against the largest of the enemy’s 
 redoubts commanded by Major General de Wrede, completely 
 succeeded. The whole garrison was put to the sword ; with 
 it the General, — “ victim,” said the Russian bulletin, “ of his 
 own negligence in defending the post entrusted to him.” The 
 assailants were driven out of it in the morning, but not before 
 they had removed six guns and all the ammunition. The 
 strength of Gazi (victorious) Schumla, as the Osmanleys now 
 call it, consisted entirely in its redoubts, as well on the heights 
 to the east and west, as on the plain; altogether mounting 200 
 pieces of cannon, — a sufficient number, when backed by 30 or 
 40,000 men, to keep off any army. But when I got there, not 
 a single cannon remained ; the Russians having, most unjus- 
 tifiably, caused it to be entirely dismantled. 
 
 In addition to its military importance, Schumla is one of 
 the principal cities of European Turkey, certainly the most 
 orthodox, on account of its numerical strength in Mussulmans. 
 The population is about 40,000; of which 5000 are Bulga- 
 rians, 1000 between Jews and Armenians, the remainder are 
 “ Faithful.” Every tenth man we met wore a green turban, 
 which showed that the descendants of the Prophet, though as 
 abandoned a race as any in Turkey, were forward in rallying 
 round his standard. Their proud bearing was gratifying to 
 behold, after the baseness we had been used to elsewhere, and 
 a corps of delhis particularly attracted our admiration. Some 
 of them were deeply scarred, and shouted at us once or twice, 
 as if wishing revenge, “Hayde Moscof,” (be off, Russians). 
 A shout in answer that we were English, was enough to insure 
 us instead a welcome expression, since we are well liked by all 
 
326 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the Turks, and better known by them than by the Cossacks, 
 to judge by my friends near Yeni Saara. Nothing Russian 
 was tolerated in this focus of ancient Mussulman feelings; 
 scarcely the remains of Lieutenant-General Prince Madatoff, 
 (buried near the Greek church of the Virgin), who died the 
 same day that the news of the peace arrived, of wounds 
 received a month previous at the attack of the long redoubt, 
 an enterprise, on the part of the Russians, which failed. The 
 grand vizir, to his credit, attended the funeral with his troops, 
 and gave the corpse military honours; but it was found neces- 
 sary to place a sentry over the tomb, to preserve it from viola- 
 tion; a very singular circumstance, and expressive of deep 
 feeling, for Mussulmans are scrupulously respectful of the 
 sanctuaries of the dead, of whatever sect. 
 
 The Mussulmans of this part of the country are a hardy, 
 robust race. We saw the peasants who brought in wood from 
 the country, sleeping at night in the streets, with their cattle, 
 round fires, intensely cold as it was; and the chief amusement 
 of the boys of all ranks, consisted in sliding on little sledges 
 down the steep streets, made by the frost, des montcignes 
 Busses , a very dangerous exercise, but indicative of good 
 blood in its votaries. A parcel of these young urchins, coming 
 out of school one day at noon, pelted me with snowballs. The 
 Ayan, who was passing at a little distance, saw the lark, and 
 ordered his chavasses to chastise them. Of course I inter- 
 fered, taking it as a joke. “ Not so,” he said; “ you are our 
 guest; in your country I am sure that the boys would not 
 treat me so.” I did not dissent, but thought of what might 
 happen, if he were to pass by the Westminster or the Harrow 
 boys, in snowball time, with his beard and full costume. 
 
 We joined in the festivities of the Oriental Christmas, 
 January 6th, N.S. The Christians were in great glee. After 
 forty days’ fast, a feast is not amiss, and fasting in the Greek 
 religion is literal. I dined with my countrymen, who were 
 quartered on a priest; my quarters were at a respectable Bul- 
 garian’s, at the other end of the city. We also made a merry 
 day of it, substituting it for our own Christmas, which had 
 passed unkept. While sipping tea-punch in the evening, a 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 327 
 
 beverage which we had learned to relish among the Russians, 
 who take it to excess, the priest (master of the house) re-en- 
 tered. He had been deeply and gaily drinking in our com- 
 pany a short time before, — a sufficient quantity, we thought, 
 to lay him up for the night. A lowering in his dark eyes, as 
 he took his stand against a clothes-press, foreboded a storm, 
 for he was a passionate man. His long dishevelled hair, and 
 disordered garments, added wildness to his appearance. Pre- 
 sently, in a loud voice, he ordered us to turn out in the street, 
 bed and baggage; he would not have his house tainted by 
 pezaveng Franks. Had it been in the summer, the proposal 
 would not have been so preposterous; but the snow, already 
 two feet deep, was falling, freezing as it fell. Seeing that we 
 made no movement to obey him, he seized the mangal and 
 threw the contents over us ; which malicious mad trick might 
 not only have burnt us, but have easily set fire to his wooden 
 house (a patent way of ejecting us, certainly). Gathering up 
 the embers, we still remained quiet, hoping that this vent had 
 exhausted him. Not so : after heaping more dirt on us 
 (abusing us), he endeavoured to possess himself of one of the 
 pistols of the party. This was carrying the joke rather too 
 far; so, fearing that something serious might happen when off 
 our guard, if we let him longer alone, we resolved on turning 
 him out, at the same time reluctant to lay violent hands on 
 one of his calling. In the struggle he was as strong as a lion; 
 bit, kicked, and scratched. However, we succeeded without 
 doing him any injury, and tied him with a sash to one of the 
 posts that supported the verandah: then returned to our 
 punch, much astonished at his conduct, after the uniform 
 kindness he had received from my friends since they had been 
 his tenants; and left him to holloa, which he did lustily, and 
 blaspheme, for half an hour, when, becoming tired as well as 
 sober, he changed his tone and begged submissively to be cast 
 loose, promising good behaviour. We acceded — greca fede! 
 He went out, and presently returned with the Turkish guard, 
 charging us with wishing to kill him. Its arrival could do us no 
 harm, was amusing as a novelty, might be compared to Christ- 
 mas men ; but we were sorry on account of the priest, who had 
 
328 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 tnus unwittingly brought a misfortune on his own head. Had he 
 not been blinded by passion, he would rationally have reflected 
 that Franks with firmans, whether right or wrong, would be 
 found to have reason on their side, e’ven were their opponent a 
 Mussulman, much less a Raya. However, our consciences 
 were clear, we having been the aggressed party, and having, 
 moreover, acted with forbearance. The captain of the guard 
 was a particularly gentlemanly man, who combined pleasure 
 with duty. Having mildly rebuked our accuser for his want 
 of hospitality towards strangers (a grave offence in a Mussul- 
 man’s eyes), he sat down to smoke a pipe with us, and told us 
 all he knew about the war; not that his information was very 
 valuable, though a fair specimen of what one generally gets 
 from an Osmanley. Conversing on the sanguinary affair at 
 ouzoun tabia (long redoubt), we asked him how many men 
 were in it. “ A million,” he replied, but finding that did not 
 suit us, added, “ there might be a thousand or there might be 
 a million, we never keep account; but depend on it there was 
 a world” a favourite Turkish expression for a great, though 
 indefinite, number. After a couple of hours, he departed with 
 his posse, saying, that the affair must go before higher autho- 
 rity, as it related to firmanleys (bearers of firmans). He could 
 not arrange it. 
 
 The next day the Pasha’s Chiaja took cognizance of it. He 
 expressed high indignation that the priest should treat guests 
 in so unworthy a manner, and proposed taking him before the 
 Pasha, that his head might be struck off. Considering the 
 Pasha’s noted cruelty, such a result might easily have taken 
 place; but this was not Captain Chesney’s (chief prosecutor) 
 intention. “ Then,” said the Chiaja, “ on my own authority I 
 will order him five hundred strokes on the soles of the feet.” 
 Chesney still interposed, and said that he considered a repri- 
 mand would be sufficient. The whole divan smiled at this. 
 “ Shall it be whispered at Constantinople,” continued the 
 Chiaja, “ that our Sultan’s friends were ill-treated in our 
 government without satisfaction? Ma-as Allah!” It was 
 finally settled that the priest should have a moderate bastina- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 329 
 
 doing at the expiration of the Christmas holidays, and pay a 
 fine. To get him off this seemed impossible. 
 
 The same day Captain Chesney and Mr. Peach started for 
 Varna, leaving in my hands the priest’s cause, which, as delay 
 was granted, was not lost. I know that some writers recom- 
 mend travellers in these countries never to interfere with the 
 Turkish authorities to reduce the punishment of any one of 
 whom they have cause to complain, because the motive is 
 always misunderstood. To the reason I agree. I would also 
 in the advice were punishment meted according to the offence. 
 But it depends on the passions of irresponsible officers, on the 
 good or ill humour that they may happen to he in, or the' 
 quantity of money to he extracted. Pew people would wish a 
 poor devil to have his toes nearly heat off for a trifling insult ; 
 the less to he heeded on account of the ignorance that dic- 
 tates it. 
 
 On the outskirts of the city were the ruins of a large 
 powder-magazine, which exploded one week before my arrival, 
 by the carelessness of the guards smoking in it : numbers 
 were killed. In the city, miserably lodged, I found two 
 
 Italian doctors — Sig. Bello and Sig. , who had been 
 
 engaged by the Vizir at the commencement of the war, and 
 had been there the whole of the campaign, of which, however, 
 they could give me no correct details, not having troubled 
 their heads about it. They informed me that they had little 
 to do in the way of their profession, . notwithstanding that 
 Schumla contained two hospitals for the soldiers — to die in. 
 The insuperable repugnance of the Turks — who prefer death 
 to the loss of a limb — to be operated on kept their instruments 
 from being soiled, and they had no medicines for the practice 
 of the other branch of their art. Unable, therefore, to he of 
 much service to their employers, they frankly owned that their 
 position, though unenviable — the usual one of Franks in the 
 Turkish service, the hopes held out to them soon proving 
 false — could not he complained of; nor their slender, ill-paid 
 salaries be considered an inadequate return for their services. 
 Sig. Bello had the finest greyhound I ever saw, of the 
 Macedonian breed. It had belonged to a Bey, who had been 
 
330 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 killed in a skirmish on the plain, and became the doctors 
 property by his chancing to meet the animal while returning 
 disconsolate from the field of battle ; he caressed it, and took 
 it home with him. 
 
 I rode to Koulevscha, the scene of the battle, June the 11th, 
 1829, between the Grand Vizir and Diebitsch. Of the village 
 not a stone was standing. In lieu of it were two large mounds 
 of earth, deposits of the Russian slain, and a multitude of 
 new grave stones, decent memorials of the Turks who fell that 
 day. The respect of Mussulmans for their dead is very 
 pleasing. Near every redoubt on the plain of Schumla, where 
 an affair had taken place, we saw a cluster of head-stones. 
 From those mementoes of fame I proceeded to Yeni Bazar, — 
 a place four hours in a direct line Rom Schumla, where the 
 Ayan had told me I should find quarters if out late. To my 
 inconvenience, war had been there before me ; it was a mass of 
 ruins, without even a dog to hark at a stranger. I, therefore, 
 retraced my steps by moonlight over the field of battle. In 
 some mud cabins, hard by Yeni Bazar, an advanced post of 
 Cossacks was lodged, in great distress for want of necessaries, 
 which they were obliged to draw from Varna, two days’ 
 distance. All Bulgaria, they informed me, was in the same 
 state — not a house standing; thus confirming what a Russian 
 officer had before told me : “ The Turks did some damage ; 
 but we levelled all.” The reason of their wanton destruction 
 is difficult to understand, especially among people whom they 
 were pleased to call co-religionists, allies, &c., but whom they 
 treated worse than serfs. Pravodi, for example, a Christian 
 place, they levelled to the ground, although it was not at- 
 tacked. The adage, “ Where the Spahis’ hoofs tread the 
 grass will not grow,” may be applied with more reason to the 
 Cossacks. 
 
 This discouraging account, however, of Bulgaria did not 
 restrain me, according to my original intention of crossing the 
 Balkans in the track of the Russian army, from demanding 
 horses of the Ayan for that journey. The Ayan — he was a 
 good fellow — told me, with many expressions of regret at being 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 331 
 
 unable to serve an Englishman, that it was out of his power 
 to grant them through the Russian lines. He referred me to 
 the Pasha. The reference was not promising. The Chiaja, 
 to whom I then addressed myself, repeated the Ayan’s tale, 
 but offered to take my firman to the Pasha, and hear what he 
 would say. There was my weak point, and knowing Suleyman's 
 characteristic hatred of Franks, I feared some embarrassment 
 should he read it ; trusting, however, that on seeing the Tonra 
 (royal stamp) he would conclude that the contents were satis- 
 factory, and so spare himself the trouble of deciphering its 
 tortuous characters. No such luck. The Chiaja presently 
 returned with a short answer, that not only could I have 
 no horses in the direction I was going, but that I had no 
 claim to have horses at all. On this, finding I had made a 
 mistake, I sent in my compliments to the Pasha, and begged to 
 see him, thinking to be able to explain away the informality. 
 After some delay, a Capidgi ushered me into the audience hall, 
 in one comer of which, on the divan, a stout man about fifty, 
 with twinkling grey eyes, reclined, robed in furs. Some scribes 
 and pages were near him, and twenty or thirty armed attendants 
 occupied the lower part of the hall. I made my salaam, and 
 inquired after his Excellency’s health, which, to judge from 
 his rubicund visage, was fortified with forbidden potions. 
 
 “ Otour bakalum ,’’ was the reply ; which means, ‘ sit down 
 and let us see your business.’ Pipes and coffee were brought. 
 
 “What do you want ? My Chiaja has told you that there 
 are no horses." 
 
 " Precisely what I require ; to proceed to Bourgas." 
 
 “ What are you doing here ?” 
 
 “ Curiosity brought me." 
 
 “ By what right ?" 
 
 “ The right of an Englishman travelling under the Sultan’s 
 protection." 
 
 He twirled his moustaches, and took a long whiff. 
 
 “ Schumla is not written in your firman.” 
 
 “ The want of a name is a mistake. In my English firman 
 (passport) it is written." 
 
 “ I know nothing of your English firman ; the Sultan’s is 
 
332 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 my law. You have no business in Schumla. I shall therefore 
 give you horses to-morrow morning, and a guard to conduct 
 you, by the way of Temova, to Adrianople.” 
 
 That was not my intention ; hut seeing that the Pasha was 
 wroth, I, too, made a dense cloud before replying, and then 
 said ; “ My being here, is in consequence of the good intelli- 
 gence existing between our governments. I am not a suspi- 
 cious person : I am not a Eussian (as he thought I was) ; my 
 conduct is open to observation. I thank you for your offer of 
 horses to Ternova, hut decline it, as I intend leaving Schumla 
 in the opposite direction. I hope you will furnish me with the 
 means of so doing. I consider myself under your protection.” 
 “ Allah Kierim ! I have nothing to do with you : you have 
 no firman for Schumla ; therefore* I repeat, to-morrow morn- 
 ing, I shall send you away with a guard.” 
 
 “ I trust your Excellency will not use force, for with my 
 own consent I shall not go.” 
 
 He did not reply for some moments, but smoked deeper ; 
 then repeated his words, and finished by saying, “I have 
 spoken my will : you shall not stay at Schumla.” 
 
 This provoking language made me forget myself. " If 
 then,” I exclaimed, “ that is of no service,” taking my firman 
 from my pocket, and throwing it contemptuously before me, 
 “ I will write to Constantinople for one that may be : I will 
 wait here till it arrives.” Had a thunderbolt fallen in the 
 room, it would not have made a much greater sensation than 
 did this trivial (in appearance) action. The Pasha laid down 
 his chibouque, his eyes sparkling with fury, and his numerous 
 followers raised themselves from their reverential attitude with 
 a start that made their arms ring. An infidel thus treat the 
 Sultan’s firman, in the Pasha’s presence too! The whole peril 
 of my situation instantly rushed upon me ; hut I knew enough 
 of the Turkish character to guide me. I remained as if totally 
 unconcerned, as if unaware of having committed even a breach 
 of etiquette, though the minute which elapsed in dead silence 
 appeared an age ; nor could I help glancing for the slight sign 
 of the hand that was to doom my neck to the ataghan, or my 
 feet to the bastinade. At length, Suleyman, smothering his 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 333 
 
 anger, motioned to an attendant, wlio picked up the firman and 
 gave it me. I again breathed, and to his reiteration that I 
 should go the next morning to Temova, said, “Am I to 
 consider myself a prisoner ; I, an Englishman, whose sovereign 
 is the ally of your sovereign ?” 
 
 “No;” he replied, after a pause, “yon may go when and 
 where yon please ; recollect, however, that I give you no assis- 
 tance. If brigands kill you, it is not my fault. I have offered 
 you horses one way ; you know best.” His allusion to bri- 
 gands was not to he misunderstood. I had nothing more to 
 say, so took my leave, but did not feel my head quite steady 
 till the files of attendants, collected in the gallery to see the 
 audacious stranger pass, were out of sight. I was exceedingly 
 out of humour, as may be supposed, both with the Pasha and 
 myself ; and that, — instead of gaining wisdom from my narrow 
 escape on other subjects, — made me add folly to folly by way 
 of being revenged on him, or on fate, the same thing — one error 
 in this life, is ever the stepping stone to another. I prosecuted 
 a delicate adventure which, if discovered, would have given 
 Suleyman a legal claim to my life, which he certainly would not 
 have neglected, denying me the privilege of the usual saving 
 clause on such denouements, had I been inclined to profit by 
 it. I endeavoured also to get some one to let or sell me horses, 
 that I might go my own way in despite of the Pasha, trusting 
 to get a Cossack escort. His fiat however was known, and I 
 might as well have tried to have made horses as to hire them. 
 This bother was occasioned by the negligence of the Drago- 
 man at Pera, in not seeing that my firman was properly 
 worded. Travellers cannot be too particular in that respect ; 
 for though the Turkish authorities are usually very civil to 
 Franks, seldom looking at their firmans, an animal like Suley- 
 man sometimes occurs ; and having the power, may exercise it, 
 of sending one hack some hundreds of miles. From Bagdad 
 it would not be agreeable. 
 
 On visiting the Greek Archbishop, I was glad to find that my 
 further intercession with the Chiaja had saved the priest. “ It 
 is fortunate,” he said to me, “ that the Pasha knew nothing of 
 the affair, or he would have brought evil on his head.” He 
 
334 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 then observed, that he was aware that our delicacy prevented 
 us from horse-whipping him, hut that we ought to have done it, 
 since a priest who gets drunk was not entitled to regard. Alas ! 
 in that case few of the Greek clergy would escape the bastinado. 
 The archbishop was a native of Myconi, which island he had 
 quitted twenty-five years previous. As was to be expected, he 
 amused me with a violent tirade against the Turks — his own 
 silken robed person, and his well-furnished house was a silent 
 reply — and expatiated on the happiness of living with even 
 nothing in independent Greece. He treated these two subjects 
 so affectingly and eloquently, that I really felt for him, and set- 
 tled in nly mind the means of removing him from slavery to 
 freedom ; not recollecting at the moment, that any man in 
 Turkey has full power of locomotion, there being no police or 
 sanatory regulations to interrupt him. 
 
 " If,” I began, “ you will consent to abandon your flock, I 
 can get you to Greece with ease.” 
 
 “ How ?” 
 
 “ You will dress as a Frank, and pass off as my secretary or 
 my dragoman — the thing is easy.” 
 
 “ I do not think so.” 
 
 “ You must cut off your beard, in order to effect a disguise.” 
 “ My beard !” stroking it with much affection as though he 
 were a Mollah. “ A bishop without a beard ! — scandal.” 
 
 “ With one, you will be discovered.” 
 
 “ Then I will remain.” 
 
 He said this with a sigh, that seemed to say, “ any sacrifice 
 rather than this,” and knowing that the Greek values that patriar- 
 chal appendage nearly as much as the Osmanley, I thought it 
 would be too harsh to insist on ; the more so, as we might 
 hide it by means of a high cravat. This difficulty being thus 
 put aside, I proposed that we should start the next day but one. 
 He did not appear eager, but said, “ You will take my money 
 with us.” 
 
 “ Certainly. Is there much ?” 
 
 * e A good sum.” 
 
 “ Have it then ready packed.” 
 
 “ You will also take my furniture V 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 335 
 
 “Furniture ! Whal do you mean ?” 
 
 “ My bed, my chests, my tables, my sofas, my all.” 
 
 “ You are joking : there is enough to load twenty horses.” 
 
 “ Thank God, there is.” 
 
 “ It is impossible to take it. In the first place it would 
 delay us ; in the next, you can buy more in the Morea.” 
 
 “ These have already cost me money. I do not choose to 
 lose them.” 
 
 “ Then you must remain with them.” 
 
 “ I will remain.” 
 
 I was as much annoyed with my own simplicity in having 
 believed him, as amused at the value he set on liberty. The 
 fact was, he was well off where he was, and he knew it. Being 
 a Grecian, he expressed great dissatisfaction — as a Frenchman 
 makes an offer of hospitality, sa bourse, sa maison, &c. — without 
 meaning any importance to he attached to his words. 
 
 At the bath I met a prodigy of learning in a Bimbashi 
 (Colonel). He asked me if the dominions of the English 
 Oral did not consist of three islands : then, to show his mili- 
 tary skill arranged the bathers, half naked as they were, in one 
 line, and put them through the new exercise for my inspection, 
 looking for applause which I willingly bestowed. He entered 
 into my feelings about the Pashas surliness, and offered to get 
 horses for me. He certainly tried, but was as unsuccessful as 
 myself, and for the same reason. 
 
 In the mean time, Captain Chesney and Mr. Peach returned 
 from Varna, whence they had been driven, after one day’s stay, 
 by the plague raging among the Russians. One is never 
 afraid of plague in Turkey (except the Pereotes), therefore, in- 
 stead of shunning each other, we dined together as formerly, 
 with the difference, that this time they were my guests ; and 
 my host being a quiet, respectable Bulgarian layman, we had 
 no inconvenience. 
 
 I gave up my idea of going to Bourgas, being fully con- 
 vinced that the Pasha was too strong for me in his own den, 
 and left Schumla in their company, January 15th. That night 
 we slept at Osman Bazar, in the same Khan that I had occu- 
 pied a fortnight previous. 
 
336 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Here we again separated ; their intention being to cross the 
 mountains by Gabrowa ; mine, by Kasan, again into the 
 Russian lines. My friends advised me against the latter route, 
 as they had heard reported at Varna, that Marshal Diebitch 
 had issued an order to prevent travellers from entering his 
 lines. Being only a report, such an order being also unjusti- 
 fiable, I considered it erroneous, But this was not the first 
 difficulty to be overcome. Chesney and Peach were scarcely 
 departed for Ternova (capital of Bulgaria) than a Chavass 
 came from the Ayan, to inform me that I could not have horses 
 to go to Kasan, as he had promised, but he had written to Suley- 
 man Pasha, to know what to do. Now, being perfectly aware 
 that if I waited till the answer came, I should not be able to go 
 into the Russian lines at all, Suleyman having thought that I 
 was going to Ternova, I determined not to wait an hour; and 
 therefore, without acquainting the Ayan, endeavoured to hire 
 horses from the inhabitants. Only one could be procured. 
 Packing my baggage on him, I started on foot. It was already 
 noon : the distance before us was computed six hours, but as 
 it had partially thawed and made a mixture of snow and mud — 
 ancle- deep — I could not expect to accomplish it under nine 
 hours. In short, my promenade, a la Suisse, soon began to be 
 very distressing, and made me regret that I had taken so much 
 pains to have my own way. But I did not like to return, ap- 
 prehending further molestation on the part of Suleyman Pasha: 
 proceeding was nearly as unpleasant, for the manners of my 
 guide — an armed Turk — forbode no good. He was too exigeant 
 for the place. He demanded my shawl, and my powder-flask, 
 with an assurance which showed that he considered them al- 
 ready his. I put him off for the present with fair words, but 
 on our getting about half-way, the sight of a new-made grave, 
 the fate of whose occupier was not doubtful, close by which we 
 passed, in the centre of a fine elevated table land, gave him an 
 opportunity of letting me into his intentions. We came to a 
 stand still. Though man to man, each armed nearly alike, I 
 had a great advantage in case of coming to an open rupture, in 
 having my pistols charged with English powder, which he knew 
 would not miss fire. The superiority of our fire-arms is so 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 337 
 
 well known that a Frank is a match for two Orientals. Seeing 
 that I did not give way — my powder flask was still the imme- 
 diate bone of contention — he threatened to leave me to find 
 my own road, which would have gained his end, as surely as by 
 shooting me ; but I frustrated him by taking a pistol in my 
 hand, and bidding him walk before. Knowing the direction of 
 Kasan, and having with me a compass, it was out of his power 
 to mislead me. He perceived that, and sulkily obeyed ; and 
 thus, in a moody silence, we continued for two hours more, 
 till we came to Chatal, a deserted village, where it was neces- 
 sary to ford the Kamptchick. The river being much swollen 
 was a Beresinato us. I would not cross it on foot, the guide 
 said he equally feared the cold, and I thought that the horse 
 could not carry both: after much expostulation he walked 
 through, and I rode. His courage being then somewhat cooled, 
 I offered to give him double what I had promised at first, on 
 reaching Kasan, provided that he would behave fairly. He 
 acquiesced with seeming readiness, but not the less for that 
 did I keep on my guard. Again we met a stream, where it 
 formed a cataract of twelve or fifteen feet. We had mistaken the 
 path, and had come where there was no bridge. It was too 
 late to look for it, yet how to get over without one was a ques- 
 tion. The only place at all feasible was on the ledge of the 
 rock at the edge of the fall where the water, as if collecting 
 itself for the leap, lay still, compared with its previous dashing 
 course, though that any animal could keep his legs on the 
 polished granite surface seemed impossible. The guide, how- 
 ever, said the horse could do it, provided that we both mounted 
 to give him stability. We did so, and got safely over; but it 
 was trying to our nerves : verily, Turkish horses could walk up 
 the roof of a house like a cat, although they are never rough- 
 shod ! 
 
 The night set in exceedingly dark, lowering, indicative of a 
 violent storm, and the difficulty of the path, added to my 
 excessive fatigue, made me despair of reaching Kasan. To 
 assist me, I tied myself to the stirrups with a rope, and let the 
 horse drag me, while the guide, scarcely less knocked up, led 
 the way. Another apprehension then came upon me in full 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 force : I recollected that about an hour's distance from the 
 village was an outpost of Cossacks, from whom I had before 
 experienced delay, though then accompanied by an escort, and 
 who, in my present situation, on foot, and in suspicious com- 
 pany, would, it was to he feared, turn me hack, as the least 
 evil ; and I trembled to think of the course which in self- 
 defence, in that case, would he incumbent on me to adopt 
 towards my companion before drowsiness should overpower me. 
 As I foresaw, we had scarcely obtained a glimpse of a light in 
 the wigwam — their scanty shelter — when the Cossacks debarred 
 our further passage with their lances, and by words which I 
 did not understand, and by uncourteous gestures which I did, 
 commanded us to turn hack. To obey them was death to one 
 of us, perhaps to both : not to obey them might be equally 
 unpleasant. To gain time therefore, and reflect on what course 
 to follow, I expostulated in any language but the right one. 
 Any language however sufficed, for at the sound of my voice, 
 one of them uttered an exclamation to the other ; “ Karasho,” 
 he said, pulled off his cap, and came up to me with signs of 
 pleasure and respect. He was one of those who had escorted 
 me three weeks before ; and thus proved to me how well-timed, 
 how unconsciously politic, had been my .trifling liberality at 
 Osman Bazar to three individuals whom I never expected to 
 see again. My troubles were at an end : they mounted me on 
 one of their horses, and conducted me to Kasan where my 
 friend, the Tchorhagi, gave me a hearty welcome and plentiful 
 commiserations on the sorry state in which the “ rascally Ay an 
 ofi Osman Bazar,” had allowed me to cross the mountains: 
 however I had gained my point, and I forgave him. I was 
 scarcely housed, when the storm hurst with terrific violence ; 
 the hills seemed to tremble *with the thunder, and the Kamp- 
 tchick roared past in a sheet of flame. 
 
 The next morning I continued my journey, well mounted, 
 with the hope of completing the mountain part of it early, hut 
 the preceding night’s storm had so damaged the paths, that 
 the sun set before we reached the summit of the descent which 
 led into the plains : down it, therefore, in order to save the 
 twilight, so as to extricate ourselves from the labyrinth of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 339 
 
 defiles at the foot, we were obliged to canter at the imminent 
 risk of breaking our necks. By good luck we got to the 
 bottom safe; and in another hour, after making a circuit 
 under the guidance of my Cossack, to avoid the quarantine 
 harrier, reached Selimnia where, my former kind host being at 
 Bourgas on a visit to the Marshal, I was hospitably received 
 by his invalid brother, who at the same time was astonished at 
 seeing me, starting back as from an apparition, as the Marshal 
 had really given an order that no traveller should be admitted 
 within the lines ; and had moreover directed that any one who 
 might, notwithstanding the vigilance of the Cossacks, get in, 
 should he immediately sent back the way he came. “ I 
 regret,” said young Montresor, “ that my brother is absent ; I 
 am sure he would not suffer you to return. The second in 
 
 command, General , is away on an inspection, and will not 
 
 be back for two or three days : besides, he is a martinet. I do 
 not know whether another officer can take on himself the 
 responsibility of your remaining here.” 
 
 They behaved towards me very handsomely. The temporary 
 commandant said that he could not think of turning me back, 
 according to orders, considering that I was personally known in 
 the lines — at the same time he could not suffer me to proceed. 
 
 It was necessary that I should wait till General , second 
 
 in command, returned, as he alone could decide on my 
 proceedings. 
 
 In giving such an order. Marshal Diebitsch acted in an 
 arbitrary and unjustifiable manner. He had no right to exclude 
 travellers from the portion of the Sultan’s territory (above one 
 hundred miles square) occupied by him, not in hostage, but 
 for convenience. It was entirely aimed at the English ; since 
 he knew, as well as everybody else, that they were the only 
 travellers in Roumelia. The only reason that can' be assigned 
 is, that he did not wish the state of his army to be known. 
 
340 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Selimnia — Yamboli — General Timan — The fair Scherifeh — Adrianople — r 
 Plague — Grand Vizir — Luleh Bourgas — Mahmoud Bey — Chorloo — 
 Selybria — Constantinople — Pera. 
 
 Selimnia, for size and opulence, is (rather was) one of the 
 principal towns of Roumelia. Its situation is beautiful, in a 
 cluster of hills under the Balkans ; which, rising like a wall 
 immediately beside it, appear to he falling on it. Its climate 
 is equable, neither severely cold nor oppressively hot. Nume- 
 rous watercourses, rushing down from the mountains, gave 
 motion to a hundred mills, the sources of its prosperity. It 
 had excellent wines, produced from the vines that cover the 
 hills trained low and shrubby as in France; one of them was 
 not unlike champagne ; it was the dearest quality ; for an ok 
 (a quart) we paid about a penny. Its population consisted of 
 fifteen thousand Bulgarians, and ten thousand Turks, cele- 
 brated, — the former for manufacturing cloths, the latter for 
 fire-arms. Twice a-year a great fair was held. The cloths 
 are of a rough, durable quality, and are worn all over Christian 
 Turkey. The muskets made there are the most esteemed of 
 any in Turkey, and so elegant even in the eyes of Franks, that 
 General Montresor sent one, richly enamelled, as a trophy for 
 the young Grand Duke, the Emperors eldest son. 
 
 But its prosperity at this period was drawing to a close. A 
 general emigration of the Christians was agitating. They felt, 
 and in that feeling were encouraged by the Russians, that they 
 dared not remain in the country, exposed to the vengeance of 
 the Osmanleys for the hitter humiliation that the latter were 
 now suffering: — 
 
 “ They flew 
 
 Chickens, the way which they eagles stooped ; slaves. 
 
 The strides they victors made.” 
 
 The Rayas wore the arms that they used to carry. A Bul- 
 garian guard patrolled the streets to observe their motions — they 
 who, six months before, could have dispersed a crowd of Bui- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 341 
 
 garians with frowns — and the chief mosque of the place was a 
 Russian guard-house. But the Osmanley is not revengeful. 
 
 A young Bulgarian, who had been educated at Paris, was 
 then at Selimnia, Basilios Hadgi Michael. The Russians in 
 derision called him the civilized Bulgarian. I visited with him 
 the principal inhabitants, to gain an idea of their position, and 
 soon ascertained, from their own lips, the falsity of the report 
 spread by the Russian officers, that they were overjoyed at the 
 thoughts of quitting Turkey under their wing. They were 
 overwhelmed with grief. — “If,” they said, “we had done 
 nothing else for the Russians than support their troops during 
 eight months, we merit something.” The Russians had studi- 
 ously informed me that they paid for everything, and I believed 
 them till one day, talking with a general on the necessity 
 of the army recrossing the Balkans before the summer, he let 
 slip, “besides the Bulgarians will be tired of keeping us.” 
 Comfortable allies ! 
 
 I did all that lay in my power to prevent these people from 
 the ruinous step of emigrating into Russia, assuring them, as 
 I had done at Kasan, that the Sultan had issued a hatti-scheriff 
 in their favour, containing complete amnesty, and enjoining all 
 Pashas to protect them from private revenge. They could not 
 believe the existence of such a document, and asked me if I 
 had seen it : — “ the translation,” I replied. — “ That might be a 
 forgery,”* they said ; and labouring under this idea, no argu- 
 ment of mine could induce them to place full faith in the 
 Sultan’s mild disposition towards them. This was natural; 
 for they were revolted subjects, and had committed great 
 excesses. However, notwithstanding their distrust, I had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that many, who had made up their 
 minds to expatriate, followed my counsels, and thousands 
 afterwards repented not having done so. The Grand Vizir, 
 
 * When the author was at Adrianople, a few days after, he acquainted 
 the Grand Vizir’s Secretary, who came to him for information about the 
 Bulgarians, that the sure way to retain them was to send a Turkish officer 
 of rank to them with the actual firman. It was not done, because Turkish 
 pride was in the way; and because the Vizir placed faith in the exertions 
 of the Archbishop of Adrianople, to whom he supposed they would more 
 readily listen. 
 
342 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 with a true zeal for the interests of the empire, knowing the 
 evil of having the Bulgarian towns depopulated, had sent the 
 Archbishop of Adrianople to them, to induce them to remain. 
 This prelate, whom I met, completely deceived his employers, 
 and brought ruin on thousands. He could not contradict the 
 existence of the firman, but he threw cold water on its promises, 
 making others in favour of Russian magnanimity. Twice 
 he returned to Adrianople, in the course of his mission, 
 and reported great success to the Yizir, who unfortunately 
 believed him, and each time gave him a sum of money as a 
 reward. Greca fede ! At his last visit the prelate realized 
 his property, then retired with his relations under Russian 
 protection ; he embarked at Bourgas in a frigate, and was 
 conveyed to Odessa, to receive the price of his treachery. 
 
 I will sum up in a few words the history of the Bulgarians. 
 I have mentioned their happiness and their prosperity under 
 the Osmanleys. Every traveller, every merchant, the consular 
 agents in these countries, knovf the truth of these assertions; 
 yet, in the face of them, the Russian bulletin said, after enu- 
 merating great successes — “And thousands of Bulgarian 
 families have been rescued from slavery.” It is no proof that 
 the Osmanleys tyrannized over the Bulgarians, the fact that 
 the latter took arms against them and plundered them. It is 
 now well known that in the most enlightened countries of 
 Europe, if you tell the people that they are oppressed and put 
 arms into their hands, they will attack their own landlords, 
 though speaking the same tongue and professing the same 
 faith as themselves. 
 
 The Bulgarians served the Russians during the war in the 
 expectation that they would remain. They maintained them 
 six months after the war. In return, Russia obtained an 
 amnesty for them — not for their advantage, but to impose on 
 the world — and knew also that the Sultan would observe it 
 out of fear. But instead of convincing them of this truth, 
 they insinuated the contrary. Why ? In the first place, they 
 knew that their influence was greatly weakened among the 
 Bulgarians, and that in a future war they could not reckon 
 surely on their co-operation. It was, therefore, politic to 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 343 
 
 deprive the Sultan of a valuable population. In the second 
 place, by enticing them into Russia, they would be obliged, for 
 want of subsistence, to enter the army as soldiers. These are 
 nefarious reasons, hut too true, to the disgrace of Russia. 
 When the army finally broke up, May 1830, upwards of twenty 
 thousand Bulgarians quitted home and happiness with them, 
 partly from Selimnia, Yamholi, &c., entirely from Aidos and 
 Bourgas. The soldiers rooted up the vineyards of the emigres, 
 and, before quitting Bourgas, Marshal Diebitsch’s head-quarters, 
 they razed the houses. Be it remembered that this town 
 belonged to the Sultan, and that they had only occupied it as 
 tenants. Great distress attended the miserable Bulgarians — 
 men, women, and children — in their progress to Wallachia and 
 Moldavia. Thousands sunk under fatigue and starvation, or 
 died of the plague by their contact with the troops at Yarna, 
 where they were compelled to halt; the remainder were plunged 
 in misery. I saw letters afterwards from some of these exiles 
 to their friends, entreating them not to follow them. They 
 stated that they were in want of every thing, and wished to 
 return to Turkey ; but that the Russians would not allow it — 
 they were making them enter as soldiers. 
 
 Russian influence has sensibly decreased in these countries, 
 in consequence of the late war. The inhabitants have since 
 regarded the Russians with something approaching horror, 
 only qualified by their being of the same religion. Hitherto 
 they thought that no persons but Turks bastinadoed and 
 plundered the peasantry; that no persons but Hebrews de- 
 lighted in filth; that no persons but Fanariotes made a jest of 
 bad faith. The sojourn of a Russian army in Roumelia 
 showed them the union of these three amiable qualities. With 
 what mixed contempt and dislike have I often heard the 
 Bulgarians talk of their guests ; it was painful for them to 
 compare them to the Osmanleys ; yet they did, to the advan- 
 tage of the latter. But sorrow and grievances are soon 
 forgotten. In a few years the Russians may again be thought 
 of only as Christians, and again the Bulgarians may welcome 
 them, unless the aged raise a voice of warning from past 
 events. Nor is it surprising that they should thus turn to 
 
344 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 their betrayers, like birds to a serpent : it is so sweet to be 
 ruled by one’s co-religionists. The Bulgarians, however, might 
 be saved, as well as all the Christians of northern Turkey, 
 from being made the blind tools of Kussian ambition, if 
 England had agents residing among them to point out to them 
 their true interests and the real designs of Bussia. The name 
 of England is great in these countries, and the inhabitants 
 would rather deem themselves beholden to her for protection 
 from the Sultan’s despotism (which, through policy, is masked 
 towards his Christian subjects) than to Russia. If an English 
 agent lived among them, they would consider him their pro- 
 jector, and Russian influence from that time would be a dead 
 letter.* Russia since the peace has established a Consul 
 General among the Bulgarians, ostensibly to protect them, but 
 in reality to foment discontent and to create opposition to the 
 Osmanleys, by which means, as she always practised with the 
 Greeks, she shields her next aggression, as her last, under the 
 cloak of succouring the ‘oppressed Christians. But were the 
 agent of another great power, interested in preserving the 
 Sultan’s power, on the spot, such artifices would be exposed, 
 and the Osmanleys and the Bulgarians, by his medium, be 
 preserved in harmony. And let it be ever borne in mind by 
 friends of humanity that the situation of the Raya in Turkey 
 is one thousand fold preferable to that of the Serf in Russia. 
 
 * Many aver, that no Christian power save Russia can gain influence 
 with the Greeks on account of their intolerant religion. But the Bul- 
 garians are exceptions, as I can affirm from my own experience and credible 
 information. They must not be judged by the Cosmopolitan Greeks, now 
 as ever the most fanatic of mortals, who firmly believe that a Roman Ca- 
 tholic is more sure of hell than a Pagan; as a Turk believes that a Persian 
 is seventy times worse than an infidel. Some years back the son of a Greek 
 noble embraced the Mussulman faith; the father vented accents of despair 
 in the ear of his confessor. “ It is, indeed, a heavy misfortune,” replied 
 the priest, “ but you should console yourself with the reflection how much 
 more serious it would have been had he become a Catholic.” “ True,” an- 
 swered the afflicted parent, “ that indeed is a blessing.” The very air of 
 Constantinople is favourable to intolerance. “ Why should we not dance 
 with Turks?” said a Catholic young lady at Pera, in the year 1830, 
 daughter of a plenipotentiary, “ we dance with Protestants.” 
 
 The Bulgarians are free from such intolerance, but they are extravagantly 
 superstitious. St. Nicolas is their favourite saint; and they have a super- 
 stition, firmly believed by the lower classes, that when God dies,, he will 
 succeed him. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 345 
 
 The former cannot be sold with the land, nor torn from his 
 family to join the army, nor even be a domestic slave unless 
 in the case of rebellion. 
 
 The Town Major of Selimnia was a Tartar prince. I forget 
 his name, though I ought to remember it, hard as it was, for 
 he was exceedingly civil to me ; moreover, he was a very 
 sensible man, and eminently useful, from his correct knowledge 
 of Eastern tongues ; hut he could not speak one Western one. 
 One day I met a curiosity at his house in the person of a 
 Bulgarian decorated with the cross of Saint Anne ; he was 
 also Captain of four hundred of his countrymen, who had 
 been raised for the purpose of being enrolled with the Imperial 
 Guard, which has already companies of Calmucks, of Cir- 
 cassians, and of Tartars. The inhabitants of Saint Petersburgh 
 will thereby infer that Bulgaria belongs to the empire. 
 
 The above-mentioned individual obtained his rank for the 
 zeal which he displayed in plundering the Osmanleys’ houses, 
 on the first arrival of the Russians. He was proud of it, and 
 heard himself styled captain with great complacency. To the 
 merits of the cross he was not so sensible, since it requires 
 time to impress untutored minds with the ideal value of such 
 rewards — of little value (if Russian) in the estimation of a 
 foreigner, cn account of their number ; yet eagerly sought for 
 by the natives, as on them all consideration hinges ; and there- 
 fore, the disputes after every campaign about these orders are 
 endless, and often lead to disagreeable results.* A colloquy 
 which took place between a Turk and a Russian officer on this 
 subject, is curious, as shewing a decided difference of opinion. 
 “What is this?” said the Turk, pointing to one of three 
 crosses dangling from the other’s neck. “ The cross of St. 
 Anne,” replied the Russian with pride, “ given me by the em- 
 peror for my services.” “Wonderful!” said the Turk; then, 
 producing a handsome snuff-box, “ the sultan gave me this for 
 my services — is it not better ?” “ What is this ?” he continued, 
 
 * After the battle of Navarine, some of the crew of the Azoff (Admiral 
 Heyden’s flag ship) laid a plan to blow her up, because the crosses had 
 been, in their opinion, partially distributed. The plot was discovered in 
 time, the ship then lying at Malta. 
 
346 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 touching the second cross. “ St. Vladimir said the Russian, 
 rather hurt at the comparison of his interlocutor ; “ also given 
 me by the emperor for services.” “ Wonderful !” again said 
 the Turk : “ and this (shewing a richly- emblazoned Koran) 
 was also given me by the sultan on another occasion, when I 
 pleased him — is it not better ?” “ What is this ?” he con- 
 
 cluded, pointing to the third cross. “ Ah !” exclaimed the 
 Russian, with a renewed look of triumph, “ this is the most 
 precious token of my sovereign’s regard ; this is the cross of 
 St. George, only bestowed for courageous actions ; to gain it 
 nearly cost me my life.” “ God is great !” said the astonished 
 Mussulman, “you are easily satisfied. Behold,” he added, 
 drawing out a purse of gold, “ the sultan gave me this as a 
 reward for my services against you on such a day ; friend, the 
 sultan knows better how to recompense merit than does your 
 emperor.” This was current among the Russians as having 
 actually occurred, and was told to me by many as a proof of 
 the Mussulman’s stupidity ; by some, as a specimen of his wit. 
 The Osmanleys, though phlegmatic, are often sarcastic. It 
 was usual for them to compare the crosses, dangling from the 
 necks of the Russian officers with a jingling sound, to the coins 
 on their children’s fezes, — a not unapt comparison, for the one 
 certainly has as childish an air as the other. Some of the 
 Russians of my acquaintance were of the same opinion, and 
 would never wear their crosses except when obliged ; others, on 
 the contrary, were never seen without them : one colonel at 
 Selimnia wore them on his dressing-gown. 
 
 The return of the general, second in command, gave me a 
 prospect of continuing my journey. He told me that there 
 were positive orders against permitting any traveller to enter 
 the lines ; hut in consideration of my being in them, and of 
 my acquaintance with some of the generals, he should allow 
 me to traverse them, to get to Adrianople, taking on himself 
 to represent the peculiar case to the marshal. I thanked him 
 sincerely. It really was a great kindness on his part, inasmuch 
 as it saved me a world of trouble, — no less than recrossing the 
 mountains to Osman Bazar ; then, if I encountered no obstacle 
 from Suleyman Pasha, which was to be apprehended, making a 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 347 
 
 round by Temova, and again crossing the mountains by 
 Gabrowa and Shipka; a journey of several days, and excessive 
 toil. Balkanian is not quite so smooth as Alpine touring. 
 
 The same day I proceeded to Yamboli, a town prettily 
 situated on the plain, four hours to the southward. At the 
 gate I was stopped, and, with my escort, thrown into quaran- 
 tine. The establishment consisted of a mud hovel, wanting 
 one side, and there, they told me, I must wait all night. To 
 be placed in quarantine at any time is annoying, but to be 
 thus absurdly confined, in consequence of a generalizing order 
 given to a sentry without the sense to use his senses, was 
 doubly so. I knew that the cordon was but a police pre- 
 caution, qualified by the word sanatory, and intended to apply 
 only to the natives, that some notice might be obtained of them 
 before being permitted to enter the town. Russian officers 
 came and went — imported and exported plague — as they 
 pleased; but I was not a Russian, and therefore, argued the 
 sentry, heedless of the assertions of my Cossacks that I was a 
 privileged person, was included in the act. To wait and freeze, 
 
 appeared my doom; and the Cossacks, after d g the Russian 
 
 sentry, resigned themselves to their fate, and began ungirthing 
 their horses. Not being so patient, I tore a leaf out of my 
 pocket-book, and wrote a note to the general, -stating my hard- 
 ship; but no one would carry it. I then had recourse to an 
 argument which I should have enforced before — an argument 
 which seldom fails with Turks or Russians — a bribe ; and suc- 
 ceeded in getting out of limbo, escort, baggage, and all, little 
 heeding my gaolers whether I carried the plague or not. 
 
 “ His excellency is fast asleep,” said a servant to me, “ and 
 cannot be disturbed — come to-morrow.” At any other time I 
 should have respected his repose ; but as it was, my own repose 
 depended on the duration of his, since no other person, and I 
 had inquired of a few, could take on himself to assign me 
 quarters; and to attain my object, without coming to a rupture 
 with the lacquey, I lengthened our altercation on the pros and 
 the cons, raising my voice, and stamping, in order to give more 
 emphasis to my words. General Timan (so was he named) 
 soon made his appearance, as I expected, with anger on his 
 
348 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 brow and reproaches on his lips ; which, however, he exchanged, 
 on perceiving the intruder, for complaisance and soft speech : 
 then, having rowed his domestic for not having informed him 
 that I was there, and apologized for his deshabille, he led me 
 into his apartment, where trois bons plats were speedily set 
 before me, and soon disposed of ; — my ride, the keen air, and 
 the detention at the barrier, having totally effaced any solid 
 remembrance of the roast chamois on which I had breakfasted 
 at Selimnia with young Montresor and Wolk Llanevsky. 
 
 General Timan was a neat, dapper little gentleman, — quite a 
 dandy — a rara avis in the army. His dressing-gown was of 
 the richest Brussa silk ; his cap of the finest Persian wool ; his 
 slippers of the gayest-patterned Bussia leather ; his charger 
 was equipped with an English hunting saddle ; his pistols were 
 from London ; his chibouques were of the latest Stamboul 
 fashion, with a Turkish boy, dressed in green and gold, for 
 chiboukgi ; his tea equipage— the mainstay of a Russian kit — 
 was elegant, china and silver ; he had packs of French cards 
 (with which, two Brigade -generals making up the party, we 
 played whist till two in the morning) ; and, unheard-of luxury, 
 he had a mattress to lie me on. But with all these advantages, 
 the good hospitable general was quite Russian in regard of the 
 toilet. On rising from my couch in the morning, expecting to 
 find something superior to what I had seen in other quarters, I 
 confidently asked for a basin to wash in. The domestic re- 
 quired twice telling before comprehending me, and when he 
 did, seemed rather embarrassed. However, after some delay, 
 he returned with a large brass utensil of very doubtful form ; it 
 might have passed for a stewpan, or a footbath, or something 
 else. With certain misgivings, I performed my ablutions in it. 
 An hour after, entering the apartment, — where we had dined, 
 supped, and slept, and were about to breakfast, — rather ab- 
 ruptly, I surprised mine host, whom I had left sleeping, making 
 with much ingenuity, a perfectly opposite and unequivocal use 
 of my washing-basin. “ Mon cher ami,” he burst out, “ par- 
 don, j’ai les hemorrhoides.” His servant was standing by, and 
 eyed me — the rascal ! — with a grin of baboonish satisfaction. 
 Whether the said utensil — my horror — completed a threefold 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 349 
 
 office in the kitchen, I did not allow myself to discover. I 
 should not have related an anecdote of so low a description, 
 but it is hy such trifles that we arrive at a just valuation of the 
 delicacy and refinement of a people : — whether that which is 
 exhibited is natural or affected. We should preserve a different 
 opinion of a Russian belle, if a pin escaping from her hall-dress 
 did not disclose stays couleur d’lsabelle ;* — or of a Russian 
 general’s propriety, if his deshabille after parade did not betray 
 the want of a shirt ; — or of a Russian nobleman’s magnificence, 
 displayed in costly entertainments, if he were not seen at break- 
 fast with a two-pronged fork, an oxydized knife, and a dirty 
 cloth. 
 
 The residence of the Russians at Adrianople rather affected 
 public morality. The Greek women were bound in gratitude 
 not to be coy. A few Turkish fair also took advantage of the 
 general relaxation to show their admiration for the brave, to 
 the scandal of the Faithful; and one lady, of good family, 
 was in consequence seized, and about to be sacked as an 
 example. In half an hour the Marizza would have flowed 
 
 over her, had not General of the artillery interposed 
 
 with the Mollah. The Mollah, to oblige him, abated the 
 rigour of the law, and had her privately conveyed to his 
 quarters, she being irrevocably dead to Turkish society. Now 
 the general’s solicitude, though highly commendable, was not 
 quite disinterested, the object of it having many admirers in 
 the army, over whom, in merit of this action, he hoped to 
 reign pre-eminent, notwithstanding his wooden leg. But Mus- 
 sulman fatalism thwarted him. To his eager declaration that 
 he had saved her life, she simply answered, “Good; I was 
 prepared to die; I therefor^ owe you nothing;” then said, 
 “ Give me a chibouque.” Judge of the poor man’s mortifica- 
 tion ; at the least he expected a kiss. Let not my readers suppose 
 that because the fair Scherifeh asked for a pipe she deserves 
 
 * The name couleur d’lsabelle (French for yellow dun) originated in a 
 whimsical vow of Isabella Clara Eugenia, governess of the Netherlands, at 
 the siege of Ostend, which lasted froip 1601 till 1604. She not only kept 
 it, but wished to persuade the ladies of her Court to follow her example ; 
 which, to save appearances, they imitated by having their shifts dyed. 
 
350 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 to be classed with les dames de la halle. The fairest and 
 haughtiest ladies of the seraglio, whose hair, and neck, and 
 ears, and arms, daily glisten with diamonds, divert ennui with 
 the fumes of the soothing weed. She was then at Yamboli, 
 as well as the Archbishop of Adrianople, but to obtain a sight 
 of her was difficult, because she was become extremely, parti- 
 cular ; and, what is worthy of remark, never appeared abroad 
 without being veiled a la Turque. My title of Englishman, 
 however, gained me admittance to her bower, by exciting her 
 curiosity, having never, she said, knowingly seen one of the 
 species. She received us haughtily, and motioned us, with 
 the air of a sultana, to be seated on the sofa at some distance 
 from her. Two pretty Greek girls, her attendants, brought us 
 sweets and sherbets, and then chibouques, with which, and an 
 insipid conversation, half an hour passed without anything to 
 offend the strictest decorum; her Mahommedan pride gave her 
 modest assurance, and made her feel that, though degraded in 
 the eyes of her own caste, she was yet superior to Christians. 
 Her person was comely, rather en-bon-po'int, her hair luxu- 
 riant, ‘and her eyes fine, hut with an expression by no means 
 winning. 
 
 Nothing occurring to detain me, I took leave of General 
 Timan the second noon, and pursued my journey over the vast 
 plain towards Adrianople. We rode eight hours, to Buyuk- 
 dere-bendt, a Bulgarian village, where I passed the night with 
 the commander of a party of Cossacks quartered there. I 
 would have preferred lodging with the tchorbagi, but I could 
 not avoid the former’s politeness, and could only evince my 
 sense of it by smoking with him half the night. For conver- 
 sation we had no medium except that of a bad interpreter, 
 only a little less ignorant than myself of the beauties of the 
 -Cossack tongue. 
 
 I took leave of him, when the sun rose, in a cup of raki, 
 with the hope of supping at Adrianople, twelve hours distant. 
 A Cossack accompanied me, to pass me clear of the outpost, 
 which was within six hours of the city. We reached a post in 
 half the time, when he left me, saying that I should encounter 
 no further obstacle. This intelligence was very consoling; I 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 351 
 
 was tired of the anxiety of moving about the occupation of an 
 army — such an army! — whose language I could not speak, 
 and whose generals, at least those whom I had the pleasure of 
 knowing, although particularly civil, would never give a tra- 
 veller a written order, or even countersign his passport, 
 entrusting him to the discretion of the Cossacks, — gentry, as I 
 before observed, who were under very little control. In this 
 case my Cossack completely misled me. At another village, 
 further on, when I thought to he again within the pale of the 
 sultan’s law, so accommodating to Franks, the green uniforms 
 basilisked my eyes, and my pass was demanded by the sentry, 
 as indispensable to quitting the lines. Here was a pretty 
 dilemma, knowing that in default of one I should be recon- 
 ducted to Yamboli. However, I put a good face on the 
 matter: throwing open my capote, to show my uniform, I 
 pulled out a packet, and bid the sentry call his officer imme- 
 diately. He proved a bad soldier, and left his post to obey 
 me; whereupon we clapped spurs and galloped away, neither 
 heeding sundry cries, borne after us on the wind, nor stopping 
 till we reached Buyuk Dervent, where I knew an Aga governed. 
 It was my fortune that the Cossacks attached to the above 
 post were absent at the time, or I should soon have been over- 
 hauled, and had the mortification of seeing my Bulgarian 
 Surrogee, who behaved nobly in keeping the baggage-horse on 
 the gallop, rattaned. 
 
 In the square of Buyuk Dervent a company of Russian 
 soldiers were reposing, having left Adrianople that morning, — 
 evidently from the hospital, by their sickly looks. We passed 
 them without interrogatory. On the road they had just come 
 over were twenty or thirty Cossacks urging on the stragglers, 
 who, poor fellows ! were many of them lying down quite 
 exhausted, while the unfeeling whippers-in were endeavouring 
 to stir them up with their lances. I did not feel precisely at 
 ease in their company ; habit is so inveterate, and the Cossacks 
 are so addicted to pillage, and it would have been so easy to 
 have toppled us over with a side blow, producing a trance 
 sufficiently long to allow my bags to be unlined, that I was 
 surprised it was not done. 
 
352 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 At sunset one of my horses broke down, and compelled us 
 to seek refuge in a village on the left hand, two hours distant 
 from the city. It had just been occupied by a body of 
 Turkish irregulars, every house but one — that one of course 
 the worst — under which I crept, and prepared to sleep supperless, 
 for the owner swore that he had not even a mouthful of bread 
 to offer me; that the Turks had taken what the Cossacks had 
 left. I believed him. My Surrogee, however, told him a tale 
 which changed his : “ Something,” he said, “ might be found 
 in consideration of the English Bey Zade.” Little cared I in 
 whose consideration, still less at his versatility. In short, in 
 this cabin, where poverty might have been supposed to be the 
 ruling genius, I made a hearty supper of meat, eggs, and rice, 
 with bread and wine ad libitum ; and slept on a heap of dressed 
 sheep-skins, by a blazing fire. I only mention this little cir- 
 cumstance, as an additional proof to those I have already 
 mentioned of the plenty enjoyed by the meanest peasant of 
 this country.* Had this Bulgarian possessed nothing I should 
 not have been surprised, considering his long exposure to the 
 marauding visits of the Cossacks, who, unlike the Osmanley 
 foragers, neither respected his wine nor his pork. But one 
 year’s crop gives the peasant in Turkey bread and wine for 
 years; where grass is boundless, and seed unheeded, cattle and 
 poultry must multiply. He supplies his forced lodgers, as 
 though from a hard earned and scanty store, with discontent 
 
 * The accomplished traveller, Ali Bey, equally hears evidence to the 
 comfortable condition of the peasantry in Turkey : “ I lodged yesterday in 
 the house of a Christian labourer ; to-day I have put up at the house of a 
 Mussulman labourer. The frank and hospitable character of these people 
 pleases me infinitely. Their habitations are remarkable for extreme clean- 
 liness. They live very comfortably ; they are well dressed, and in want of 
 no household furniture or utensils. I have particularly remarked that they 
 have a great quantity of pretty mattrasses and cushions.” — Journal 
 between Damascus and Aleppo, August , 1807. 
 
 “ We passed also several groups of Turcoman shepherds. What a dif- 
 ference between them and the Arab pastors ! Men, women, and children 
 were all well dressed. The camels which carried their effects were covered 
 with beautiful Turkey carpets. These people appear to enjoy all the com- 
 forts and pleasures of the pastoral life ; and it is among them, exclusively, 
 that we should seek for the models of those shepherds, as sung by the 
 poets.” — Journal between Aleppo and Konia. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 353 
 
 and curses, but places before his Frank visitors plenty, with 
 good humour. 
 
 From the village of Arnaout Keuy, the next morning, we 
 overlooked Adrianople, — from the same spot where the 
 Russian army halted the night previous to its capture. I 
 envied what its feelings must have been while gazing on that 
 fair city, — its silvery mingling streams, its countless minarets, 
 its turbaned cemetery, — considering it only the type of a brighter 
 conquest, happily unrealized — alas ! the half of those elated 
 troops looked on their graves. 
 
 A musket placed against the wall of a house at the entrance 
 of the city indicated to us a sentry’s post; at the same time 
 the head of its owner popped out of an aperture in the paper 
 window of a cafeneh, and demanded the whence and the where. 
 This specimen of the Nizam Dgeditt was easily satisfied; and, 
 resuming his pipe, waved to us to proceed where we pleased. 
 
 On alighting at the house of our worthy consul, I again had 
 the pleasure of meeting Captain Chesney and Mr. Peach, who 
 had arrived the preceding evening. Our satisfaction, however, 
 at retasting the comforts of civilization was somewhat damped 
 by the circumstance of plague being at Adrianople, it having 
 spread to the city from the Russian hospital, where it first 
 appeared, and every house in consequence being a prison. 
 Travellers in the East, from being exposed to contagion in 
 every shape, often sleeping under the same roof with it (in 
 preference to making a cast of their proportions in the snow), 
 and invariably escaping by disbelieving in its power, as well as 
 by being a great deal in the open air, soon cease to fear it, but 
 the European residents hold it in instinctive horror, and neglect 
 no means of insuring immunity. Nothing is admitted within 
 their doors without being previously fumigated, or immersed; 
 no visiting takes place between the disinfected ; dogs are 
 chained, and cats invariably destroyed on account of their fur, 
 and their wandering propensities. All these precautions appear 
 very ridiculous to a stranger; although it is fair to say, that 
 one is scarcely justified in thus qualifying them without having 
 witnessed the progress of this chief messenger of death (now in 
 danger of being superseded by cholera) when armed with 
 
 A A 
 
354 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 sovereign sway; — watched its insidious approaches, — seen 
 quarters unpeopled, — bazaars deserted and closed, one after 
 another, — the dead-cart hourly grating over the grass-grown 
 streets, filled with the corpses of neighbours and of friends 
 — one’s own house resounding with groans of anguish, or 
 cries of mania. Such sights and sounds, common enough 
 in the East, did not, however, this time shock humanity. The 
 disease was mild, nothing more than typhus ; not that I think 
 plague is ever other than an aggravated typhus, — an opinion 
 coinciding with that of many medical men who have studied it. 
 There is, often in London a typhus that would in Turkey he 
 called plague ; and, vice versa, often a plague in Turkey that 
 would escape in London under the mild denomination of a 
 typhus fever. Difference of care, and of medical knowledge, 
 constitute a corresponding difference in the phases of the 
 disorder. 
 
 Plague is certainly not indigenous to European Turkey ; yet, 
 having once been there, it may he supposed to remain always 
 shut up in some house, with old clothes or other things ; a 
 danger which is diminished by the purifying effects of the 
 frequent conflagrations in the large towns. To such a cause 
 many ascribed its appearance this year (1830), and the 
 Russians, of course, eagerly seconded the prejudice, in order to 
 clear themselves. But if the previous suffering of their troops 
 from it during the whole war were not sufficient evidence of 
 the contrary, it is notorious that the plague broke out first in 
 Adrianople, in their barracks;* and there it would have re- 
 mained, had a strict cordon been established; but, so far from 
 any precaution being adopted, the soldiers were not prevented 
 selling the garments of their deceased comrades to the Jews, 
 who sold them to the poor inhabitants. Thus the disease was 
 
 * Every body that has seen a Russian camp, or cantonment, will agree 
 with me in the constant attendance of three powerful agents of disease — 
 filth, bad air, and want. Science never directs the choice of situation ; dirt 
 of all descriptions remains where it falls ; and the bad rations of the sol- 
 diers depend in quantity on the avarice of the colonel. Fever, in conse- 
 quence, must ensue ; that fever becomes typhus ; and, from a total want 
 of medical aid, soon grows as mortally contagious as plague. Hence the 
 reason why, when once in a Russian army, nourished by the primary causes, 
 it never leaves it, as was proved in the late Turkish war. 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 355 
 
 disseminated. The Grand Vizir, however, had the good sense 
 to listen to advice, and to adopt the sanatory measures which 
 General Collins,* the Russian commandant, most culpably 
 neglected. He established a lazaretto at Arnaout Keuy, a 
 village three miles distant, to which the infected were removed. 
 Hence the city was saved: about three thousand only were 
 attacked, of whom one thousand died, or one in three. The 
 Russians, on the contrary, lost one thousand eight hundred 
 men, or two in three that were attacked, — a fatal difference, 
 which they owed to the want of a lazaretto. 
 
 The contagion or non-contagion of plague has been so often 
 discussed by able pens, that any remarks of mine would be 
 superfluous ; I will only observe that in the case at Adrianople 
 it showed itself exceedingly capricious. A Greek lady of my 
 acquaintance escaped, though her child died of it in her arms. 
 A Greek physician of the place attended a Mollah, who hud 
 buboes; his servant, with him on the visit, became inoculated, 
 and died in two days ; the doctor escaped infection. The 
 Mollah died. 
 
 Plague is sometimes communicated with a rapidity — by a 
 touch, or a passing breath — that would stagger the firmest 
 anti-contagionist, if his observation rested there; but such only 
 occurs from very peculiar or pre-disposing causes. In a general 
 sense, it is not so easily transmissible as is usually believed. 
 It is a fact, that in Constantinople, where it has made awful 
 visits, it rarely enters the habitations of the great, who, at the 
 same time, adopt no precautions; their safety consisting in 
 their large airy apartments, and their habitual cleanliness, and 
 in no other cause, for they frequent the bazaars, transact 
 business, and receive visits as usual. The poorest Osmanleys 
 have also the safeguard of domestic cleanliness, but that (with- 
 out spacious rooms) does not avail in the confined quarters of 
 an ill-built city. I believe that a person may shake hands in 
 the open air with an impested subject without danger, but not 
 remain safely two hours in a thickly occupied house, where the 
 disease is, even though he keep the prescribed six feet of space 
 
 * He fell a victim to the plague at Adrianople, March, 1830. 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 between him and every other ; a great proof of which is the fact 
 that, in nine cases out of ten, plague rages in the depth of 
 winter, when doors and windows are carefully closed, and 
 the inhabitants, wrapped in old cloaks and furs, huddle together 
 for warmth ; and it always disappears in the warm weather, 
 when the people pass most of their time in the open air. 
 
 During the existence of the plague at Adrianople, between 
 January and May, 1830, a caravan of merchandize went twice 
 a week between that city and Constantinople, besides travellers, 
 Tartars, &c., yet not a single case occurred in the latter place 
 (nor beyond ten hours of the former), to the great astonishment 
 of the contagionists of Pera, who considered it miraculous that 
 it did not come with eyery bale, and greatly blamed the Turkish 
 authorities for not establishing a quarantine. The Turkish 
 authorities excused themselves by saying that the plague never 
 had come from Adrianople, therefore it would not come ; and 
 their reasoning, however bad it might appear, spared a great deal 
 of trouble and expense to the good citizens of Constantinople. 
 
 That quarantine is highly requisite to a certain extent, no 
 one can doubt; but it requires considerable revision as it at 
 present exists in Europe, where it is applied — as a quack 
 medicine that is puffed as an universal panacea — to everything 
 and every person in the same quantum indiscriminately — to a 
 human being from the salubrious shores of the Bosphorus, to a 
 bale of cotton sewn on the pestiferous banks of the Nile, to a 
 gazelle caught on the plains of Syria, to a silk handkerchief 
 wove in the looms of Persia, that has been in the pocket of a 
 traveller exposed to sun, wind, and rain — to each forty days. 
 It appears absurd ; yet the absurdity is practised in every 
 part of Christian Europe, excepting Great Britain, where a 
 happy medium is observed, and the selfish ideas of individual 
 preservation entertained by the framers of quarantine laws, 
 who are seldom exposed to their inconvenience, are borne down 
 by the great interests of commerce. 
 
 Notwithstanding the panic, we penetrated the seraglio of the 
 grand vizir, Redschid Pasha, then holding his court at Adria- 
 nople; he having expressed a desire to cast eyes on us; we 
 being equally willing to salute him, as one of the lions of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 357 
 
 Turkey. He had lately come from Schumla, whence his 
 journey was as a triumphant march, consequent on his dignity. 
 The beys and agas of the towns through which he passed 
 prostrated themselves before his horse ; and as he approached 
 the city, the pashas, Husseyin and Alish, met him, and, dis- 
 mounting, kissed his stirrup. We had, therefore, reason to 
 esteem ourselves honoured by his invitation, enhanced by the 
 gracious reception which he gave us. His residence had an 
 air of barbaric magnificence. Saddled steeds were in the court; 
 crowds of Albanians, armed to the teeth, in the halls; trimly 
 bearded, long-robed officers, in the ante-rooms ; himself, in 
 pelissed state, reclined in the angle of a divan at the farther 
 end of a handsome saloon, on the floor of which were squatting 
 some of his intimates in humble demeanour. 
 
 He clapped his hands, and ordered coffee and pipes, a mark 
 of attention which we scarcely expected from one of his-rank; 
 at least not the pipes, that cherished symbol of equality, token 
 of precedency, among the Osmanleys, which a son may not 
 use in the presence of his father, or a younger brother in that 
 of an elder one. And as this ceremony is the only picture of 
 ostentation observed in Turkish social life, occupying the place 
 of dinners and suppers, I will briefly describe it. To preface: 
 the chiboukgis are the most important menials of an Ottoman 
 establishment, the favourites of the lord. He who presents 
 the pipe to the sultan is not only a paslia, but can dispose of 
 pashalicks. They must be comely persons, and well skilled in 
 the difficult art — only obtained by long practice — of so filling 
 a bowl, that the slightest inspiration will spread a complete 
 ignition over the superficies of the tobacco, replaced at each 
 expiration by a layer of delicate white ashes. The bowl should 
 be in the form of a bell; the reed, a Bagdad cherry-branch, at 
 least seven feet long, without a joining; the mouth-piece, of 
 lemon or cloud-coloured amber, clear, but not transparent, 
 inviting, by its tatto morbido, the lips to caress it. With such 
 an apparatus, presented by a youth a la Ganymede, you may 
 imagine that you are inhaling the spirit of nectar, and, while 
 in a kind of trance, watching the odorous vapour curling above 
 your head, that the ceiling is studded with houris’ eyes. But 
 
358 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 this perfection can only be obtained at the divan of a refined 
 Osmanley. What, compared to it, is a cigar or a meerschaum ! 
 they may well be termed weed, while the other is a bouquet. 
 
 “ Sublime in hookahs, glorious in a pipe. 
 
 When tipped with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe,” 
 
 sung Byron ; but farther on he added, 
 
 “ But thy true lovers more admire by far 
 Thy naked beauties ; give me a cigar.” 
 
 Thus proving that he had not been chez a pasha of acknow- 
 ledged taste. Indeed his highest acquaintance among the 
 Faithful was the aga of Thebes, a drunken old sot — I knew 
 him since at Smyrna, as chief douanier — who probably never 
 gave him a clean turn out; for the true lover of tobacco, real 
 discriminator of its beauties, must be a sober person, capable 
 of being exhilarated by the brown berry’s juice. But to return 
 to our subject. Scarcely had the vizir’s laconic order, “ Coffee, 
 pipes, bring,” undulated through the ante-room, than it was 
 obeyed. Two capidgis with silver sticks, vizirial emblems, 
 marshalled in a shoeless, noiseless train, which nearly filled 
 the apartment. The chiboukgis advanced first, describing 
 circles in the air with the long chibouques, and placing brass 
 saucers on the spotless floor to receive the bowls, presented 
 one to each guest, with a finished and graceful submission, 
 that would have become ambassadors offering gifts to a queen. 
 In the middle of the apartment the cavedji took his station, 
 holding a tray covered over with a piece of gold brocade: 
 beside him waited the dispenser of the sober decoction; while 
 a third person removed the covering, and disclosed the china 
 cups and filagreed silver saucers (the latter in some cases are 
 studded with jewels). The cup-bearers then advanced to 
 perform their duty; and, the cups being all filled, stood one 
 beside each guest, waiting, according to etiquette, till the vizir 
 took his, to present theirs. At the same moment we were 
 served: we sipped, returned the cups to the expectant hands, 
 and then the room was cleared with the same quiet haste. 
 His highness showed us yet farther honour. When we had 
 skimmed the cream of our first pipes, he again clapped, and 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 359 
 
 ordered fresh ones. Again the silver sticks and train entered; 
 this time bringing a handsomer set of chibouques, and, instead 
 of coffee, conserve of roses. We were much pleased, and 
 enjoyed the second pipe equally. His highness clapped a 
 third time, and a third hatch of pipes was brought in, yet 
 handsomer than the preceding. Sherbet was the accompani- 
 ment, and on each bowl a fragrant pastille was laid, producing 
 a delightful effect. Not content with displaying his smoking 
 apparatus, his highness indulged in another species of vanity, 
 — in having his pelisse changed three times, each time for one 
 of richer furs; yet so quietly was this little manoeuvre per- 
 formed, that it might have passed unnoticed, had we not seen 
 it in other instances; almost imperceptibly the atten- 
 dant removed one from his shoulders and replaced it by 
 another. Our visit occupied an hour, during which we con- 
 versed a good deal. Never before, I believe, had a grand 
 vizir’s divan been the scene of so much clatter. We talked to 
 him and to ourselves about anything, and he appeared to like 
 it. One of the party spoke to him in behalf of a village some 
 hundred miles off, that had a bad aga. “ Pekey, v (very good,) 
 replied the vizir; “ it shall be remedied.” He probably had 
 never heard of the village. Another proposed a way to save the 
 Bulgarians. “ Pekey!” replied he. Another suggested* the pro- 
 priety of building a bridge over the Marizza. “Pekey!” replied 
 he. Another said thatAdrianople ought to he fortified. “Pekey,” 
 replied he ; “ bakalum.” In his turn he said, “ Why did not 
 the English assist our lord (the sultan) against the Russians ?” 
 This was an awkward question, which almost posed us. We 
 gave him, however, many reasons, all, in his opinion, I make 
 no doubt, very had; indeed we could scarce make out a good 
 one to our own satisfaction. On this subject, being interesting 
 to him, he dwelt with earnestness. By some means or other 
 he had got hold of the notion of the Russians getting to India, 
 and inferred thereby that it was England’s vital interest to 
 uphold Turkey. As many people in the wise countries of the 
 west entertain the same idea of Russia being able now to 
 invade India, we could not he surprised to see him shake his 
 head with an air of incredulity at our assurance that the thing 
 
360 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 was impossible. That a Russian army will soon get to Con- 
 stantinople (' within a very few years if unopposed) is another 
 question , which well behoves England's consideration. Bedschid 
 Pasha’s opinion, though grounded on a narrow basis, that it is 
 her interest to uphold Turkey, is not singular. 
 
 The morning following this visit we left our worthy host, 
 Mr. Duveluz, and continued our journey towards Constan- 
 tinople. The distance between the cities is forty-four hours, 
 about one hundred and fifty miles. Tartars sometimes ride it 
 in sixteen hours, but travellers usually employ three or four 
 days. With baggage it is difficult to make above four or five 
 miles an hour, particularly on the great thoroughfares, where 
 the condition of the post-horses is as wretched as their endu- 
 rance is surprising. When you mount them they appear half- 
 dead, and at the end of the stage do not seem worse; indeed, 
 such transformation would be difficult. No stage in Turkey 
 is under eight hours, few under twelve, and many are sixteen 
 and twenty hours; and, in addition, the poor animals are 
 walked about to cool for an hour before goinginto the stables, 
 where they only get barley- straw to eat, which they have not 
 time to digest before they are brought out again, to have 
 saddles put on their ever sore backs, and be rode, perhaps, by 
 some merciless Tartar. A Turkish poster is one degree worse 
 off than a hackney-coach horse. 
 
 The first night we passed badly at Kuleli, a mere post-house. 
 We left it early, and took coffee at Eski Baba, a large village 
 with a good mosque. Before the bath were two Corinthian 
 columns of Egyptian granite. We changed horses at Luleh 
 Bourgas, twelve hours from Adrianople, a good town, plea- 
 santly situated on a plain, watered by the Erkene, and cele- 
 brated for a manufactory of pipe bowls, as the name Luleh 
 denotes. It has signs of the magnificence of the early sultans 
 in a large dome, connecting the sides of the main street, with 
 a handsome gateway on either hand; one leading to the 
 mosque, the other to the khan, both large and sightly buildings. 
 The latter had superb stabling, with ample room for upwards 
 of one hundred horses, under one lofty vaulted roof, supported 
 by numerous fine granite columns. Large apertures in the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 361 
 
 walls near the roof constantly admitted the air, it being a 
 principle with the Osmanleys to keep their stables cool, 
 covering the horses with thick cloths. And, as no country 
 presents more variety of climate than Turkey in Europe, no 
 horses at the same time being so healthy as Turkish horses, it 
 follows that the mode adopted with them is good — spacious, 
 well-ventilated stabling, with plenty of body clothes. Horses 
 in Turkey never stand on straw, but on the earth or sand, 
 kept very clean, and are always tethered. The practice of 
 tethering is worthy of imitation everywhere; it does not 
 distress the animal, and it prevents his kicking. Nothing is 
 more unpleasant than being between two rows of loose heels. 
 “Extremes meet” is exemplified in the contrary practice of 
 the English and the Turks respecting horses, the result of 
 each being the same — excellence. English stables are hot, 
 Turkish stables are cold: — English horses are high-fed, 
 Turkish horses get little else than chopped straw : — it requires 
 hours to dress an English horse; as many minutes suffice for 
 a Turkish horse: — the English snaffle would scarcely hurt a 
 deer’s mouth; the Turkish bit would break a tiger’s jaw: — the 
 hoof in England is pared to fit the shoe ; the shoe in Turkey 
 is fashioned to the hoof. 
 
 From Luleli Bourgas a jog trot of three hours brought us 
 to Karisteran, a Turkish village. A troop of newly mounted 
 lancers was here en route to Constantinople. I knew the com- 
 mandant, Mehemet Bey, bim bashi, which was fortunate, or 
 we should have found difficulty about lodging. He was very 
 civil, welcomed us with the friendly chibouques, turned some- 
 body out of a clean room to make room for us, and sent his 
 cook to assist our domestics in preparing supper. 
 
 The next morning we started with the troop. Our route 
 lay still over plains, vast and uncultivated. It makes one 
 melancholy, while traversing these beautiful countries, to 
 think that destiny should have bestowed them on such unap- 
 preciating beings. We rode with speed this morning, and 
 reached Chorloo, eight hours from our resting place, by noon. 
 But our haste was of no use, every horse at the post-house 
 being taken up for the service of a pasha, who was to pass 
 
362 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 through that day on his way to his governmeut. It was a 
 very trifling consolation for the delay that we saw the caval- 
 cade from the window of the cafeneh, at which we established 
 ourselves to while away the interim; at the same time it was 
 a handsome sight, and characteristic of olden time. His 
 horses, forty in number, led the way, richly caparisoned; — a 
 guard of Albanians, — two taligas, covered in with crimson 
 cloth, containing his harem, of which we could not even catch 
 a beam of an eye; himself, the pasha, muffled to the ears in 
 shawls, preceded and followed by pipe-hearers, coffee-hearers, 
 his selictar, his cook, his kiaja, cum multis aliis. 
 
 We were loth to pass the night at Chorloo, because there 
 was not a house with a whole window, it having been the 
 advanced guard of the Russians, hut three reasons concurred 
 to make us: the jaded state of the horses, the lateness of the 
 hour when they were brought to us, and the severity of the 
 weather. To a Greek house, therefore, assigned us as quarters 
 we went; the master of which, however, proved so exceedingly 
 uncharitable and inhospitable that we were compelled to have 
 recourse to the aga. Redress was of course instantly granted, 
 and the fellow narrowly escaped the bastinado for his pains. 
 It would have served him right, for his perverseness arose from 
 our not being of the Greek religion. The Mussulman that 
 came to arrange matters between us understood nothing about 
 the difference; we were all infidels and swine-eaters to him, 
 and that one should refuse the other an asylum was absurd. 
 Had a company of Osmanleys been in our place, the animal 
 would have been cap in hand, and knee on ground; uttering 
 effendi every minute, though almost certain of receiving barely 
 thanks in repayment, instead of the sultan’s coin which we 
 gave him. 
 
 The sea of Marmara gratified our eyes the following morn- 
 ing as we trotted over a fine upland. The sun was rising over 
 the Princes’ Islands, and, refracted by mists, two duplicates of 
 himself — brilliant parhelia — rested on the blue mirror. How 
 gladdening to an Englishman is the view of the sea after a 
 separation from it ! Rolling in vast billows, or reposing among 
 classic isles, or undulating on romantic shores, it is equally an 
 old friend, recalling home more forcibly than aught else. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 36a 
 
 At Selybria we intended to get a boat to go to Constanti- 
 nople, but tbe wind suddenly shifting to the north made us 
 abandon our intention. This town is still famed for fast 
 sailing boats and hardy sailors — Greeks or Turks. Gibbon 
 tells us that when Mahomet II. was sweeping Roumelia, in his 
 progress towards the capital, the Selyvriotes alone showed a 
 courage worthy of Greece, and, launching their boats, ravaged 
 the opposite coast of Asia Minor. In my opinion they would 
 have shown a more worthy spirit had they brought their arms 
 and their barks to the golden horn, in the teeth of the 
 invader ; but the latter proceeding would have made no indi- 
 vidual profit, — an incentive equally required by the ancient 
 as by the modem Greeks, who never exhibit such deeds of 
 daring, or patient forbearance, as when engaged in piracy or 
 brigandage. Strange that the most lawless pursuits call forth 
 some of the noblest energies of the mind. Extensive ruins 
 of an extensive building, adjoining the town, lead us to suppose 
 that it was, in the time of the lower Empire, a station for 
 troops. Our road lay past it, and thence along the golden 
 sands of the Propontis, within a few feet of the eternal margin. 
 Some people admire a tideless sea, but to me it is monotonous 
 in the extreme ; to watch the ripples kiss the same pebbles, 
 on the same line of sand, hour after hour, is as tiresome as 
 hearing water drop, drop, with an unvarying cadence. How 
 fine, on the contrary, is an ocean tide advancing gallantly up 
 a rocky beach, wave chasing wave, till it breasts a barrier of 
 cliff in haughty defiance. 
 
 The cafeneh belonging to the menzil khan, at Buyuk 
 Tchekmedge, six hours from Constantinople,* gave us shelter 
 for the night. In the morning we perceived the lagoons 
 covered with wild fowl, so tame that they scarcely heeded our 
 pistols which we discharged among them. The country equally 
 indicated the absence of man, though so near were half a 
 
 * On the west shore of the Propontis are two large lagoons, two miles 
 apart, separated from the sea by a narrow strip of beach, yet communicating 
 with it by openings through which the water flows. To save the traveller 
 a circuit of several miles, Solyman the Magnificent caused bridges to be 
 constructed, with firm causeways leading to them over the unsound grounds ; 
 one is called Buyuk Tchekmedge, the other Kutchuk Tchekmedge — the 
 former is a very fine work that would not discredit any nation. 
 
264 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 million jostled ! The burial grounds were the first cultivated 
 tract that we came to ; and a demand of the sentry at the 
 Adrianople gate for backshish was the first voice that we heard. 
 In the street some veiled women, seeing we were strangers, 
 began asking questions about their relations at Adrianople, 
 mentioning Mustapha, Ali, Hassan, to know how they were. 
 Though not having the slightest acquaintance with any one 
 of these gentlemen, or indeed with any of the name at that 
 place, I gratified the fair applicants by answering that we had 
 left them quite well, and that there was no fear about the 
 plague. This made them quite happy, and they thanked us 
 as though we had conferred a real favour on them. What a 
 state of society where people trust to a passing traveller — not 
 heeding whether he be a foreigner or not — for news of their 
 absent relations ! The idea of these females thus interro- 
 gating us was; per se , an absurdity ; but affection (probably 
 maternal or conjugal) caused it, and made us respect it. 
 
 It occupied us above an hour slipping and sliding along 
 the frost-covered streets, up and down, four of the seven 
 hills, till we reached the most convenient spot for quitting 
 our horses, balluk bazar, on the shore of the port opposite to 
 Pera. While our baggage was being stowed in a caique, we 
 had leisure to observe the ever-lovely, never-fading scene, a 
 principal object in which was the Blonde — beautiful specimen 
 of nautic art — her booms covered with dove-like gulls, and 
 the elegant piades, shooting by, appearing more in unison 
 with her than with the clumsy Turkish men-of-war, not far 
 off. After the kind of mortification which the sight of Russian 
 banners triumphant in Roumelia had caused us, it consoled 
 our national vanity to see our proud ensign floating in the 
 centre of the golden horn, — where too it is seen to most 
 advantage, at the peak of a fine frigate. May it have waved 
 typical ! 
 
 Crossing the harbour, we landed at maits skellesi (dead 
 wharf), Kasym Pasha. A body was there, and two others were 
 taking possession of their landed property as we traversed the 
 cemetery to get to Para, where we reposed, and caused appre- 
 hension. We had left the plague, we had sojourned with it, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 365 
 
 we might have brought some token of it. We knocked at 
 some doors, but in vain ; they looked at us from the windows, 
 taking us for importers of the foul disease.* Jews selling 
 old clothes in an infected town could not have been more 
 distrusted. The next day, however, we were admitted to 
 pratique, but no shaking hands took place for some days. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Pera — Carnival — Ambassadors — Dragomans — Adventurers — Mustapka 
 
 Effendi — Royal Birth — Sultanas — Illumination — Ramazan — Story 
 
 Tellers — Bairam — Procession — Review— Sandj ack Scheriff. 
 
 When we reached Pera, the end of January, 1830, the 
 carnival was in full career. There were halls costumed and non- 
 costumed : one, chez l’Embassadeur de France, exhibited High- 
 landers and Albanians, Crusaders and Saracens, Orsons and 
 Valentines, a Hippogriffin, and Lord Douglas decorated as 
 K. C. B.; neither was there a want of Swiss girls and Fatimas. 
 But on the scenes of a Pera carnival I need not dwell, the fac 
 simile being seen in every secondary Italian town; at the same 
 time this little suburb presents as singular a spectacle as any in 
 the East, viz., the assemblage of distinguished personages (repre- 
 sentatives of the sovereigns of Christendom) crowded together 
 in a narrow wretched street that would not ennoble St. Giles. 
 The principal among them, the ambassadors of France, Eng- 
 land, Russia, and Austria, may be styled the kings of Pera. 
 They have no equals out of their sphere, and they exercise ab- 
 solute control, respectively, over all under their protection, 
 without reference to Turkish laws or Turkish authority. The 
 house of each is an asylum that would protect even a Turkish 
 
 * Tke absolute desertion by friends and relatives, which constantly takes 
 place among the Christian inhabitants of the towns in the Levant, (so con- 
 trary to Mussulman practice,) greatly aggravates the horror of plague, and 
 tends to kill weak-minded people: — husband leaves wife (I knew a case,) — 
 brother leaves sister, — father leaves child, — to the mercenary care of a 
 wretch from the general hospital, who, by virtue of having already had the 
 disease, is safe from infection : surgeons flee their patients; and the priests 
 will not render them the soothing offices of religion. 
 
366 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 criminal. No monarchs are more considered by their subjects; 
 for, in the eyes of a Levantine, there is no state comparable 
 with that of an ambassador: — if he wish to describe greater 
 magnificence or authority or pride than usual, his highest type 
 is an ambassador. I leave out of the question the dignity of a 
 grand vizir, or even of a pasha;- — the mention only of such 
 personages makes a Levantine shiver. 
 
 The kings live in a feudal state of tiresome sameness : each 
 confines himself very much to his castle, and to the society of 
 his compatriots whom chance or business may bring to the 
 capital of the East. Habits and customs, totally diverse, 
 interdict their associating with the magnates of the land, as in 
 other countries ; and etiquette and formality stiffen mutual in- 
 tercourse. Except on public nights, in rotation at each 
 other’s houses, they never meet. 
 
 They are tenacious of certain usages, considered absolutely 
 requisite to maintain the respect of their subjects. One is 
 singular. When a member of the corps diplomatique leaves 
 his house, or enters that of one of his brethren, the great hell, 
 which is hung for the purpose at the entrance, is tolled, in 
 strict accordance as to rank; for an ambassador three times, a 
 minister twice, a simple charge d’affaires once ; by which 
 means all Pera, not being very large, at once knows the im- 
 portance of the functionary who is soiling his feet; and on 
 certain days, when visiting is the established order, the tolling 
 is as incessant as at an assize town, to the great annoyance of 
 the Mussulmans, for they entertain a religious dislike to 
 bell-metal. The kings may not ride or walk without being pre- 
 ceded by guards. At the halls, no dancing commences until 
 all the four kings are assembled ; whereby a considerable delay 
 sometimes occurs, as he who arrives last is looked on as the 
 greatest man for the evening. But these, and other punctilios, 
 are considered highly essential to the ministerial dignity, and 
 certainly, as long as they answer the end proposed, they are 
 wise. The stranger who incautiously smiles at them is re- 
 garded by the Pereotes with the same horror as a liberal would 
 be in the court set of St. Petersburgh. I recollect their being 
 perfectly scandalized at the unheard-of event of the British am- 
 bassador (Sir B. Gordon) having been seen walking the streets 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 367 
 
 of Stamboul without a chavass before him to clear away the 
 dogs. Equally forgetful of his high station was he considered 
 by them in allowing visitors to appear in his presence with 
 black neckcloths on. 
 
 The dragomans may be considered, as in truth they consider 
 themselves, the nobility of the kings. No aristocracy, not 
 that of the Celestial Empire, equals them in self-importance. 
 To see the head dragoman of an embassy shuffle along the 
 street of Pera, not bowing to those who bow to him, or looking 
 at those who look at him, stepping only out of the way of a 
 blind beggar, or a basking cur, or a puddle — three common 
 obstructions in a Turkish town — a person may not be very 
 fresh from the west, and take him for a Mollah. Yet, in truth, 
 he is an important personage in others’ as well as in his own 
 estimation. All the rayas and others protected by the ambas- 
 sador, his employer, regard him as their immediate protector — 
 the prime minister of their sovereign. All that aspire to the 
 same enviable exemption from Turkish prerogative court his 
 favour as the means of obtaining it : in fine, all in any way de- 
 pendent on any of the embassies respect him because he may 
 choose to change his employer, thereby becoming their 
 immediate superior. 
 
 To each embassy are attached four or five dragomans with 
 high salaries, with more or less knowledge of the Turkish lan- 
 guage; some slender enough. Five or six jeunes des langues 
 (as they are termed) are also attached to each — sons or nephews 
 of the former — receiving salaries, and studying the language in 
 order to fill the post of dragomans, to which they are eventually 
 called. Few of the young men, however, acquire a competent 
 knowledge of it before the time when they may be required to 
 interpret at the divan of the reis effendi, for the simple reason 
 that in Pera Turkish is never spoken ; their mother tongue is 
 Greek; their domestics are all Greeks, and they are reduced 
 to learn a very difficult language through the sole medium of 
 a master, which might be nearly as well done in London. 
 They are not submitted to any test whereby to judge of their 
 qualifications, and therefore are careless, often to the detriment 
 of the public service. Learned or ignorant, they are certain of 
 a salary, so great is the influence of the body congregate. 
 
368 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Whence these dealers in languages drew their origin would 
 puzzle the most consummate king of arms to determine, not- 
 withstanding that some of them have gained modern Italian 
 countships, or baronial honours. We may suppose, for the 
 stock, that a few Italians with a smattering of tongues in the 
 suite of the Venetian and Genoese hails, two or three centuries 
 hack, united themselves with the families of some Greeks, pro- 
 tected for the same qualifications. These married and inter- 
 married — cousins with cousins, uncles with nieces, nephews 
 with aunts — and increased to what they are at present, in num- 
 bers to supply the wants of all the embassies, and sufficiently 
 hound in relationship to have the secrets of all the embassies 
 in common, to he made use of as occasion prompts. This is not 
 supposition. Let a perfect stranger marry into the family of 
 a dragoman, he will have a connexion in every embassy. He 
 would soon he au courant of affairs, concerning or not concern- 
 ing him ; — a Pereote, brought up in the odour of dragomanerie, 
 Macliiavelian school, can never he ignorant of them. 
 
 This kind of partnership is very convenient for the members 
 of the large dragoman family. It enables them to hold their 
 employers in check ; in many cases to defy them. The threat 
 of an ambassador to do without them excited mirth at its impo- 
 tency. It often happens that an ambassador dare not discharge 
 a dragoman with whom he is discontented, lest, as he naturally 
 would, he go with his secrets into the service of another govern- 
 ment. How many important negotiations have failed in con- 
 sequence of their being open to bribery ! 
 
 How grievous it must he for an ambassador, charged with a 
 delicate mission, on arriving at Constantinople (perhaps for the 
 first time in his life), where he is opposed to keen rivals, his 
 actions watched, his words noted, to find that he must throw 
 himself into the arms of men whom he feels he should not 
 trust. He may not he able to talk French well; his dragoman 
 cannot talk English ; — thus rendering a double interpretation 
 necessary. A dragoman rarely ceases to receive the pay of a 
 government, even after proofs of delinquency. Another serious 
 inconvenience, arising from the employment of Pereotes as 
 dragomans, is their fear of the Porte, of which they cannot 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 369 
 
 divest themselves, notwithstanding the sure, never falsified, 
 protection which they enjoy. This, aided by the nature of an 
 oriental education, of which obsequiousness and mystification 
 form the groundwork, renders it impossible to get plain truth, 
 if harsh, conveyed to the ears of a Turkish minister. Let us 
 suppose an ambassador at the divan of the reis effendi, with 
 the intention of administering to him a few threats or re- 
 proaches, which the nature of the case requires, and which, if 
 believed sincere, may lead to good results. He seats himself, 
 stiff and dignified, on the sofa, taking care not to let the reis 
 effendi think that he yields a tittle of pre-eminence on the least 
 trifle ; takes his chibouque, and directs the dragoman to pro- 
 ceed, and render literally what he has told him. Instead of 
 thus doing, the dragoman tells the effendi that the eltchi hopes 
 he is well, is his humble servant — in short, converts the severe 
 things which he has been directed to say into as many compli- 
 ments, or at least disarms them of their point. The eltchi, 
 while this is going on, puts down his chibouque, and listens, and 
 looks, endeavouring to draw a conclusion ; but in vain : he 
 does not understand Turkish ; and the countenance of an 
 Osmanley never expresses whether he has heard a pleasant or 
 an unpleasant thing. He gets an unmeaning reply, and goes 
 away exclaiming against Turkish stupidity, and on the impos- 
 sibility of negociating with such animals, alike insensible to 
 reproof or praise ; whereas the whole fault lies in his dragoman’s 
 timidity. Every person who has to do with the Turks knows 
 how extremely difficult it is to persuade a dragoman to trans- 
 late fairly, even on trifling points. He is always put off with, 
 “ This is informal or, “ The effendi will be displeased.” 
 
 It is strange that so clumsy a machinery should have so long 
 embarrassed the diplomatic relations of Pera. Its defects are 
 however beginning to be understood. The head dragoman of 
 France has been for many years a Frenchman. Russia does not 
 care who she has, her policy with Turkey being very straight- 
 forward : “ Do so, or I will declare war.” She generally keeps 
 her word ; therefore her ambassador has only to hold up his 
 finger to obtain all that he wishes. Austria is so well aware 
 that interpreters are as awkward in politics as in love, that it is 
 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 a sine qua non with her ambassador to talk the language. 
 This is certainly the best mode of all, for Osmanleys are by 
 education so distrustful that they will hardly open their minds 
 in the presence of a third person. It may not he convenient 
 to have our ambassadors educated expressly for the Ottoman 
 Porte, hut their dragomans ought certainly to he Englishmen, 
 totally unconnected with Pera.* The beneficial effects of 
 such an arrangement would shortly be visible. In addition 
 to the certainty of the ambassador being rightly interpreted, 
 the distrust of the Turks of witnesses, unavoidable when those 
 witnesses are Levantines, would he overcome, for the English 
 character is high in the East. The saying, “An Englishman 
 cannot speak false,” is as proverbial in Turkey as in Persia. 
 
 The commons of Pera — as odd a multitude as ever herded 
 among bricks and mortar — are composed, chiefly, of that 
 interesting portion of mankind called Levantines, in which all 
 nations have a share, and of Greeks from the Cyclades, who 
 come in swarms to seek employment as servants or artizans ; 
 enriched by a liberal sprinkling of adventurers, bent by the 
 force of circumstances to exercise their wits. To these must 
 he added, of late years, tradesmen of all kinds, allured by the 
 new and fashionable wants of the Osmanleys, — wine, Wellington 
 hoots, and close garments. Occasionally might be seen, while 
 I was there, a decayed German baron, or Italian count, or a 
 colonel de la grande armae, come to teach the nizam dgeditt 
 tactics ; Poles and Prussians on the same errand ; fabricators 
 of rockets a la Congreve, to burn the Eussian fleet ; chemists, 
 to manufacture superior gunpowder; geologists, to examine 
 
 * An excellent establishment for producing dragomans might be made at 
 Malta. English children born there generally know the Maltese language, 
 which is nearly allied to the Arabic. It is no slight advantage knowing the 
 language, gratis, which is the foundation of Turkish, and which must be 
 studied, as well as Persian, to know it perfectly. Were such an establish- 
 ment formed, we should be certain of having good honest dragomans for 
 the courts of Turkey and Persia, for the great consulates; also to accom- 
 pany any expedition, by sea or land, instead of employing foreigners, who 
 may be at the same time in the enemy’s pay. Again, it is much better, 
 more just, that the lucrative situation of dragomans (with graduated sala- 
 ries from 400/. to 1200/. a-year,) should be filled by our own subjects than 
 by Italians, as they are at present. It would be an honourable profession 
 for a score or two of young Englishmen. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 371 
 
 the mountain ores ; bankers, to arrange loans ; portrait- 
 painters, to delineate Sultan Mahmoud and his court ; in fine, 
 speculators of all denominations — en grand et en petit, en 
 raisonnable et en absurde — all attracted by the report of the 
 improving tastes of the Moslems, and all equally surprised and 
 grieved to find that the Moslems regarded all their projects 
 with indifference, and patronized nobody excepting tailors and 
 wine-merchants ; only paying those because they could not 
 help themselves. A fair English vocalist, caught by the 
 common error, came to Pera, but soon found that the Osman - 
 leys were insensible to sounds softer than the clash of a 
 military band. From Paris also, about the same time, a 
 fashionable modiste was on the eve of coming, on the strength 
 of paragraphs in the journals, which stated that the Sultan’s 
 daughter wore stays, and accompanied him on horseback at 
 reviews. She was excusable in giving ear to the report, absurd 
 as it was, for she could not suppose that the Turkish ladies, if 
 civilizing, could dress otherwise than a la Francaise. Two 
 Cornish farmers were brought out to cultivate an estate on the 
 left bank of the Bosphorus, belonging to Mustapha Effendi 
 (Sultan’s secretary). They did wonders ; but Mustapha 
 expected miracles, and because he had no returns the first 
 month, swore that he was duped, and that he would advance 
 no more cash. Farther to show his adhesion to new modes, 
 the handsome secretary ordered out some English saddles ; 
 but when they came he objected to the price. How to get off 
 the bargain ? At length he ascertained that they were made 
 of pig-skin. “ Allah Kerim ! what profanation ! — a believer 
 sit on the skin of the forbidden animal ! Take them back.” 
 His ideas of religion, it is to be observed, are so lax that I 
 have more than once helped him with a bottle of wine. Pera 
 may well be termed “ a refuge for the destitute.” 
 
 The carnival had not half elapsed, when we were aroused 
 one morning, February 8th, by the cannon of the Seraglio 
 point, announcing that a son was bom to the sultan, making a 
 third. The fortunate mother, thus elevated to the honours of 
 a sultana, was a Circassian slave. No change is so complete 
 as that which befals a lady of the imperial harem who bears a 
 
 b b 2 
 
372 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 son; — palaces, slaves, wealth, are at her command to satiety ; 
 for she may become Valide Sultana , the mother of the reign- 
 ing sultan. While childless, she mingled with a crowd of 
 fair competitors ; her best occupation eager rivalry for a smile. 
 The mother of a daughter is also emancipated from the condi- 
 tion of odalisque, and gains a separate establishment, though 
 far inferior to the other. 
 
 Great rejoicings in consequence of the auspicious event 
 took place. During a week royal salutes were fired daily, in 
 which the English and Bussian ships of war in port joined; 
 and each night the fleet and the mosques were illuminated, 
 displaying the unrivalled art of the Osmanleys at such exhi- 
 bitions. The ships dazzled on the harbour, rigged with lines 
 of fire ; strings of lamps were wreathed round the minarets, 
 and suspended between them in form of crescents, which 
 Seemed to float in the air, making each of the hills, profusely 
 studded with them, appear a mound of glory, the effect being richly 
 heightened by the visible gloom of the cypress groves. The 
 city thus splendidly robed and diademed, beneath a sky, above 
 a tide, of deepest, brightest azure, is a magical picture even in 
 a Christian’s eyes. In a Moslem’s ! — he may he envied. If 
 a Teriaki, placed at his open window commanding a view of it 
 while operates the potent drug, he beholds the vault of heaven 
 open, and his Prophet, encircled by the Faithful, suspending 
 bright symbols of Ottoman pride over the beautiful city of 
 faith. Fanaticism may give bliss which knowledge cannot; 
 hut it is bliss which has a terrible counterpoise. The Teriaki 
 in the morning shivers into consciousness from his celestial 
 dream, totters through the streets, and sees, perhaps, beneath 
 the very temple which shone brightest emblematic the pre- 
 ceding evening, the headless body of a friend. At this very 
 time Zehecks (Caramanian brigands), obnoxious on account of 
 Janizzary principles, were daily decapitated at Stamboul. 
 With them, one day, a Greek lost his head, for apostatizing a 
 second time, from Mohammedanism to Christianity. On being 
 condemned according to law to suffer for this defection, he 
 offered to re-emhrace the Mussulman faith and save his life. 
 “ Olmaz,” replied the judge, “ you shall not have the oppor- 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 373 
 
 tunity of playing so foul a trick twice.” He richly deserved 
 his death ; and dying a ghiaour, the Mussulmans thought that 
 he went to hell. 
 
 The last day of the carnival, and the first day of inu 
 ramazan, fell together. Excepting during the long days of 
 summer, the penance of the latter is not very severe, then 
 from thirst ; hut did it exist in a populous country, where the 
 great proportion live from hand to mouth, it would he insup- 
 portable. It is at once a fast and a feast. Its observers 
 repose all day and revel at night. Their great privation is the 
 chibouque ; not even snuff may be taken, and, it is said, the 
 particular make a scruple of swallowing their saliva.* Unlike 
 a Catholic fast it is strictly kept, and remissness, far from 
 being winked at, incurs reproaches, being easily detected by 
 the evidence of the breath ; notwithstanding which I frequently 
 saw Turkish officers, during the ramazan in question, eating 
 voraciously at the tables of Franks. But irreligion was then 
 fashionable at Stamhoul, military men, moreover, being nowhere 
 very scrupulous. Truly uncomfortable during these tiresome 
 days, the Moslems nearly rub the skin off their fingers, in 
 their only occupation, running over the ninety-nine beads of 
 their comboloios, and endanger their eyes by gazing on the sun 
 as he travels towards the west. Scarcely has its orb disap- 
 peared, than three guns, fired from Ramis Tchiftlik, announce 
 the glad tidings to the expectant, hungry multitudes of Con- 
 stantinople, and give signal to cooks, and coffee hearers, and 
 pipe-holders to make up for lost time. And now is witnessed 
 the inconsistency of man, his indifference to an object when 
 gained ; now these same crowds, who a minute before — multi- 
 plied personifications of hunger — were watching the soul of 
 nature with the anxiety of Guehres, relapse into accustomed 
 indifference as though replete. Yet this is the Osmanley’s 
 character. He calmly discusses his pipe, sips his coffee, 
 performs his ablutions with care, and then, not till then, com- 
 mences the operation of eating, over which he has been gloating 
 in thought since the streaks of daylight permitted a black 
 
 * Exceptions to the fast are made, as in the Catholic religion, in favour 
 of the sick, women with child, soldiers on march, and travellers. 
 
374 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVEL^. 
 
 thread to be distinguished from a white thread, after when no ali- 
 ment may soil a Moslem’s lips. The mosques are illuminated 
 every night during this two-faced month, as well inside as out, 
 for the namaz, which is recited an hour and a half after sunset ; 
 at which hour, beholding through the windows the risings and 
 inclinings of the devout company, with mechanical exactness, 
 the unbeliever almost fancies it an automaton exhibition. 
 
 The peculiar feature of the ramazan consists in its saturnalia, 
 or license of the people to say and do as they please, and which 
 they avail themselves of in the cafenes, filling them till mid- 
 night, carousing, and in all ways dispensing with their orthodox 
 gravity. 'Music (rather instrumental discord) is never absent, 
 nor their disgusting kara-ghez (ombres ehinoises), of which 
 the obscenity is only equalled by the gratification it affords 
 the spectators, who are farther excited by the dialogue between 
 the mimic actors, always slang, often witty, at times sedi- 
 tious, neither sparing sultan nor ministers. Nearly all the 
 popular commotions and revolutions in Stamboul have been 
 planned in the nights of ramazan. 
 
 Story-tellers, whose tales if collected would swell the Thousand- 
 and-one Nights, all of the same stamp, also abound on these 
 festive nights ; the most celebrated of whom, however, one 
 Hassan, we had not the opportunity of hearing, for his tongue 
 was tied in consequence of having’ at the period of the massacre 
 of the Janizzaries, when all lips were sealed, ventured in his 
 favourite resort to turn the Sultan, in connexion with that 
 body (of which Hassan was a firm partisan) into ridicule. 
 Being seized, he would have suffered death, had not a favourite 
 at court prevailed on the Sultan to see him ; on which he ex- 
 cused himself in a witty way, showing that his thorns concealed 
 roses. He was consequently freed, but forbidden to exercise 
 his vocation. 
 
 The fair sex also partake of the festivities of the season. 
 Their harems are nightly enlivened by dancing girls, wander- 
 ing singers, fortune-tellers, by all classes, in short, of that 
 numerous and profitable profession in the East, whose business 
 is to divert ennui. It is also the season for lovers : for love 
 in the East, though ranging chiefly in fancy’s domains, does 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 375 
 
 occasionally escape the lattices. Cunning old Jewesses — am- 
 bassadresses of sighs, antidotes otherwise — convert their dingy 
 back apartments into bowers of delight, where mingle the 
 flowery intercourse which gave so intense an interest to the 
 preceding year. Would the Deity of the Bosphorus speak, 
 what a tale ! did its waters enshrine as well as entomb, its 
 deep bed would be variegated with beauty’s moulds, victims of 
 four centuries. 
 
 Various state ceremonies likewise distinguish the month of 
 ramazan. Some hairs of the prophet’s beard are produced for 
 the admiration of the “ Faithful;” and on the 15th day of it, 
 some remnants of his garments are immersed in water by the 
 Sultan’s hands, which holy water is then bottled and sent to 
 the Pashas of the empire, each of whom is expected to send 
 back a handsome present, beside the largess to the Tartar who 
 bears the dose. If the pasha be in favour, a moderate gift is 
 accepted ; if not, a capidgi takes it back and demands a richer 
 one, — ominous that the pasha will be superseded. 
 
 The cannon of Ramis Tchiftlik announced in the evening 
 of March 24th that the moon of the month chevale, to catch 
 the first glimpse of whom an Iman, it is said, is stationed on 
 the Bithynian Olympus, had quitted the sun’s embraces, and 
 consequently that all true Believers might eat again in day- 
 light. Followed the Bairam, or feast of three days, during 
 which the Mussulmans air their best garments (on their own 
 goodly persons), exchange presents, gladden their slaves, 
 adorn their women, and reciprocally give the kiss of peace, — 
 tokens of good will and fraternity, which are repeated at the 
 Courbam Bairam, and only then. 
 
 The Mussulman year being closed, and the Mussulman 
 people, purified from their sins by the preceding penance, 
 having renewed a solemn compact with their Prophet, the first 
 day of the Bairam — of the new year — is ushered in by the 
 Sultan, as first Iman of Islamism, going in state to one of the 
 mosques to recite the ramaz, thus asserting his claim to the 
 caliphate — to be head of the church as well as the state — in 
 Turkish phraseology, “to rule by book and sword.” To 
 witness the ceremony, therefore, we left our beds at four in the 
 
376 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 morning, and, after a cold row through n clammy fog, up the 
 whole length of the harbour, found ourselves at the appointed 
 place, in the midst of various costumed figures and close 
 ranks of soldiery, visible, though indistinctly, by the glare of 
 numerous torches. More light enabled us to see that most of 
 the Franks of Pera, ministers, secretaries, consuls, dragomans 
 with wives and daughters, adventurers, instructors, projectors, 
 &c., occupied every vantage spot, forming a singular audience 
 to an Ottoman pageant, and the only one that morning, for no 
 Mussulmans were present excepting those in office, — a strong 
 sign of Mahmoud’s unpopularity. In one corner several 
 Armenian - and Hebrew women were huddled together to view 
 the procession, but poor creatures ! the sterns of some led- 
 horses dispersed them long before it came; and in another 
 part five taligas, close screened, were drawn up, containing the 
 Delhi Sultana and her suite. Opposite to us, on the railings 
 of the handsome mosque, several fakirs were clinging, wild 
 and romantic looking objects; and above them, collected on 
 the trees, on the minarets, and about the cupolas, multitudes 
 of storks were exceedingly observant, instead of clattering as 
 usual, as became the reputation they enjoy for predilection for 
 Mohammedanism. 
 
 Our scene was placed in Eyoub, a suburb of Constantinople, 
 resting on its wall and on the shore of the harbour, celebrated 
 from several causes, but originally from a Mohammedan 
 chieftain of the name of Eyoub (Job), who was killed on this 
 spot during the siege of the city by the Saracens, in the reign 
 of Leo. Of his history I know nothing, or of his merits; but 
 the former must have been bright, the latter in high esteem, 
 since Mahomet II., five years after the conquest, immortalized 
 him by building a handsome mosque* over the spot where his 
 bones mouldered, and designing it as the place where the 
 sultans should be girded with the sabre of Othman, — a dis- 
 tinction tending more than the saintly warrior’s relies to pre- 
 serve its veneration. The investiture is given by the Scheick 
 
 * The inscription is as follows: — “In the year 863 ( 1458 ) the Emperor 
 Mahomet built this mosque, intending it for a paradise of delights, a place 
 of worship for the people of God, who have religion and purity.” 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 377 
 
 of the Mevlevi Dervishes, called Mollah Hunkiar, who resides 
 in opulence at Cogni, enjoying the office by right of his 
 family, which, as being descended collaterally from the Abbas- 
 sides, last race of the Caireen caliphs, claims spiritual pre- 
 eminence over the Othmans, no one of whom would he 
 considered reigning de jure in the eyes of the nation unless 
 girded by the Mollah Hunkiar. The present Mollah suc- 
 ceeded to the office in 1803, when two years old, by the death 
 of his father, the old Scheick, and, when seven years old, 
 was brought to Constantinople to invest the present Sultan, 
 Mahmoud II. What an interesting spectacle! to see his little 
 hands tying the renowned sabre of the wise and valiant 
 Othman on the loins of his ferocious descendant. What a 
 contrast beneath the dome of that mosque ! — on one side an 
 innocent child, supported by the ministers of religion; on the 
 other a despot, surrounded by his satellites. This was power 
 stooping to opinion — a lion led by a lamb. How impressive 
 the moment ! — when altogether — the man and the hoy, the 
 warriors and 'the priests — bent their foreheads to the pave- 
 ment in acknowledgment of one truth and one falsity : “ There 
 is no God hut God; Mohammed is his Prophet.” How 
 sublime the voice from the minaret ! — when the Sultan left the 
 mosque amid the acclamations of his subjects, exclaiming, 
 “ Mavrolanma padishaim, senden huyuk Allah var. Be not 
 elate, my sovereign ; God is greater than thee : ” a caution 
 which is repeated at each accession, a caution which might be 
 dispensed with as ineffectual. But I am digressing from one 
 ceremony to another. One by one the torches went out, 
 superseded by the glare of daylight ; still no Sultan appeared, 
 though we had been waiting three hours, and the imper- 
 turbability of the storks and fakirs opposite seemed to mock our 
 impatience, which was beginning to be audibly expressed in 
 Frankish dialects, when Khosrew Pasha made his appearance, 
 splendidly dressed, his cloak thrown back, two pages holding- 
 up the skirts, so as to display the rich embroidery on his 
 breast, over which flowed a snow-white heard, and, bowing 
 to the spectators with courtly humility, rode down the line to 
 the gate of the mosque, where, dismounting, he addressed the 
 
378 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 troops to the end that they should cheer the Sultan. Members 
 of the Ulema next began to arrive, their ample robes and 
 caouks* appearing to advantage beside the uniforms and fezes 
 of the nizam dgeditt ; then, after an interval, thirty or more 
 of the royal horses, with gold and purple housings, studded 
 with diamonds — each steed worth at least a plum — came 
 pawing down the street with airs of royalty. Strains of music 
 now came on the breeze ; the Caimacan advanced on horse- 
 back, preceded by two lines of tchiaoushes, with silver tipped 
 staves, emblems of pro-vizirial dignity. More led-horses 
 succeeded, yet more costly caparisoned, followed by the 
 bostandgis and the capidgis — a numerous train — arrayed in 
 blue and red cloaks ; after whom walked the pages, in two lines, 
 their eyes modestly bent on the ground, their heads bearing 
 wide spreading plumes to conceal from vulgar gaze the coun- 
 tenance of their master, who, mounted on a superb Arabian, 
 rode between them, no otherwise distinguished in dress than 
 by a diamond chelengk in his fez. Immediately behind him 
 rode his secretary and his selictar, and other ministers of state 
 closed the march. Not deigning to cast eyes on the infidels, 
 who had theirs eagerly directed towards him, or on his troops, 
 who salaamed to the ground, shouting, “ May our sovereign 
 live a thousand years !” he passed slowly along, through the 
 outer court, to the entrance of the mosque, where the sheick 
 islam assisted him to dismount, the different bands at the same 
 moment striking up cheering airs. In twenty minutes he 
 reappeared, and the procession returned in the same order. 
 Thus simply was performed this most important of Ottoman 
 pageants, which used to be truly magnificent, the state officers 
 then wearing their national distinctive costumes, and the led- 
 horses carrying the armoury of the Greek Emperors, — noble 
 trophies ! Then, after the mosque service was over, the Sultan 
 used to repair in state, by water, to Dolma Backche, the 
 
 * The caouk is a species of turban, not composed of a shawl wound 
 round, as may be, but made up carefully and firmly, the folds being re- 
 strained by transverse bands of gold lace or other substance. It formed 
 the peculiar head dress of Turkish gentlemen. The Sultan fulminated 
 against it, but the Ulema chose not to be confounded with the multitude. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 379 
 
 nearest palace on the European shore of the Bosphorus, in 
 the extensive gardens of which the people were entertained all 
 the day with games and shows. 
 
 In lieu thereof the sultan reviewed for our amusement, on 
 the plain of Bamis Tchiftlik, his regular troops,* which were 
 quartered in and about Constantinople, amounting to about 
 four thousand five hundred foot, and six hundred horse; 
 though, beyond being dressed and armed uniformly, scarcely 
 meriting the name of soldiers. What a sight for Count Orloff, 
 then ambassador extraordinary, filling the streets of Pera with 
 his Cossacks and Circassians ! The count, whom the sultan 
 often amused with a similar exhibition of his weakness, used 
 to say, in reference to the movements of these successors of the 
 Janizzaries, that the cavalry were employed in holding on, the 
 infantry knew a little, and the artillery galloped about as 
 though belonging to no party. Yet over such troops do the 
 Bussians boast of having gained victories ! In no one thing 
 did Sultan Mahmoud make a greater mistake, than in changing 
 the mode of mounting the Turkish cavalry, which before had 
 perfect seats, with perfect command over their horses, and only 
 required a little order to transform the best irregular horse in 
 the world into the best regular horse. But Mahmoud, in all 
 his changes, took the mask for the man, the rind for the fruit. 
 — European cavalry rode flat saddles with long stirrups ; there- 
 fore he thought it necessary that his cavalry should be the 
 same. European infantry wore tight jackets and close caps ; 
 therefore the same. Were this blind adoption of forms only 
 useless, or productive only of physical inconvenience, patience; 
 but it proved a moral evil, creating unbounded disgust. The 
 privation of the turban particularly affected the soldiers ; first, 
 on account of the feeling of insecurity about the head with a 
 fez on ; secondly, as being opposed to the love of dress which 
 a military life, more than any other, engenders. An elegant 
 
 * The army of Sultan Mahmoud amounted, in the spring of 1830 , to 
 twelve thousand men at the outside, stationed chiefly between the capital 
 and Adrianople. Their want of discipline and of subordination was striking, 
 requiring occasional strangulation in the barracks ; so that it is to be 
 apprehended that the Nizam Dgeditt will, in a few years, become as 
 obnoxious to good order as were the Janizzaries. 
 
380 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 uniformity in the army might have been obtained, flattering to 
 the national prejudices, by making one regiment wear red 
 turbans, another yellow, another white, another speckled, 
 another striped, and so on ; and — a more important advantage 
 than mere look — this style would have created great emulation 
 among the different corps. The wearers of green turbans 
 might have been enrolled as a sacred corps, or have composed 
 the artillery. 
 
 The Mussulmans were as indifferent to the review as to the 
 procession, hut they indulged somewhat in the gaieties due to 
 the season ; and cheering it was to see them, for their depres- 
 sion in consequence of public misfortunes was deep. In the 
 cemeteries crowds assembled, and the youth of both sexes 
 amused themselves with swings suspended from the cypresses. 
 The sexes being thus permitted to mingle (the fairer as usual 
 veiled) is a feature of the Bairam. — The sun shone out, and 
 their bright- coloured garments waving among the dark foliage 
 had a lively effect. Wrestlers, their arms oiled, were displaying 
 their address ; and crackers, let off among the trees and crowds, 
 were faint images of the pistols which the Janizzaries were in 
 the habit of discharging about the streets during the three 
 days. Then it was not prudent for Franks to walk about 
 Stamboul ; now we were everywhere permitted with good 
 humour. 
 
 Another pageant, the translation of the Sandjack Scheriff 
 from Ramis Tchiftlik to the seraglio, on the news arriving that 
 the Russian army had recrossed the Balkans, diversified the 
 spring of 1830. The procession, which lasted some hours, 
 having to traverse the whole length of Constantinople, was 
 nearly the same as that of the Bairam, with this difference, 
 that the whole Mussulman population crowded to honour their 
 Prophet’s standard : which enthusiasm for things rather than 
 for persons, might have been a lesson for Mahmoud, who has 
 also another lesson to learn — a much severer one. He will 
 learn it. He will learn that in having attacked the customs of 
 his nation, — customs descended to it from Abraham, and 
 respected by Mohammed, — he has directly undermined the 
 divine right of his family, that right being only so considered 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 381 
 
 by custom, — by its harmonizing with all other cherished 
 usages. He will learn, that in having wantonly trampled on 
 the unwritten laws of the land, those traditionary rights which 
 were as universal household gods, he has put arms in the hands 
 of the disaffected, which no rebel has hitherto had. Neither 
 Ali Pasha nor Passwan Oglou could have appealed to the 
 fanaticism of the Turks to oppose the Sultan. Mehemet Ali 
 can and will. Ten years ago, the idea even of another than 
 the house of Othman reigning over Turkey would have been 
 heresy the question is now openly broached, simply because 
 the house of Othman is separating itself from the nation which 
 raised and supported it. Reason may change the established 
 habits of an old people ; despotism rarely can. A monarch 
 runs as much risk in anticipating reform, as in retarding it : — 
 the impulse of the people alone can determine the point. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OF CONSTANTINOPLE (STAMBOUL.) 
 
 Stamboul — Wall — Breach — Galleys — Charshevs — Bazars — Osmanie — • 
 Burnt Column — Eski Saray — Seraskier’s Pillar — Panoramic View — 
 Parallel — Hippodrome — Columns — St . Sophia — Cisterns — Menagerie 
 — Women Market — Bath. 
 
 The origin of the name Stamboul is doubtful, and unim- 
 portant to any one excepting the Easterns, who attach weight 
 to it. The Greeks, in accordance with their usual idea that 
 there is nothing in the world which did not originate with them, 
 trace it to their language, to the words eis tin polis ; whence 
 Istambel by an easy corruption. This theory is ingenious, hut 
 its fallacy is apparent ; for although it might have been the 
 old custom to call the capital, by excellence, Polis, as we apply 
 Town to London, the Osmanleys would have heard apo tin 
 polis, as often as eis tin polis, and might as well have 
 imagined it the name of the city. The Mussulman doctors 
 say that the word is a corruption of Islambol, which signifies 
 “ full of the true faith.” This is more consonant with reason, 
 
382 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 though no Greek will admit it ; nor are there many Osmanleys 
 of sufficient reasoning power to separate Islam (true faith) 
 hoi (ful) and perceive their connexion with the other word. 
 “ Allah knows/’ is the usual answer one gets to much less 
 puzzling questions from the uneducated. Both words, how- 
 ever, are superseded by Stamboul. 
 
 On which ever side of the city we approach it, we are imme- 
 diately arrested hy a striking memento of its former fortunes 
 — girdle of its magnificence — the wall. Its preservation is 
 remarkable ; for as it was six centuries since, so, to all ap- 
 pearance, it is, — equally respected hy time and Turk, excepting 
 the breach through which the conquering Janizzaries rushed ; 
 the fragments, which then streamed with blood, still preserve 
 their place in the ditch, scented hy myrtle. The wall, which 
 is about twenty-two feet high, flanked at equal distances hy 
 square towers, and pierced hy twenty-five gates — seven towards 
 the Propontis, thirteen towards the harbour, and five landways 
 — circumvallates the city, enclosing a space of thirteen miles in 
 circumference. Various Greek inscriptions,* remaining on 
 different parts of it, show that it was repaired hy Theophilus. 
 While rowing or sailing along the Propontis shore of the city, 
 or riding down its land face, we have a clear view of the wall ; 
 but from the harbour it is concealed hy rows of houses 
 intervening between it and the water, without which obstruc- 
 tions, the quay, four miles in length, would be the finest pro- 
 menade in the world ; having on one side the battlemented 
 wall, with its inscriptions and gates ; on the other the vast 
 suburbs, comprising arsenals and cities ; to the west, a rural 
 scene in perspective ; to the east, Scutari, washed hy the deep 
 Bosphorus. But, it being impossible to visit Constantinople 
 without having Gibbon in one’s thoughts, this quay, looking 
 at the breadth of it, gives rise to another reflection, — seems to 
 invalidate his splendid account of the attack of the city by the 
 
 * Many of the inscriptions were copied hy the Rev. Mr. Walpole, of 
 H.M.S. Blonde. Same of them were tolerably legible, but others required 
 the classical scholar to decipher and connect them, in addition to a con- 
 siderable share of resolution to overcome the toil, and the importunity of 
 the ignorant inhabitants, to whom the “writing on the wall” had been 
 invisible. 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 383 
 
 Crusaders, wherein he tells us that the besiegers let down 
 bridges from the tops of their ships to the wall, and thus 
 “ made for themselves a passage through the air an enterprise 
 unmatched by Ariosto, and which, if the space between the 
 wall and the water (leaving out of the question its elevation 
 above the water) was the same then as now, we may pronounce 
 to have been impossible. And that the space was equal, the 
 construction of the quay which, apparently, is coeval with that 
 of the battlements, hears evidence ; though, had it not 
 existed — granting an improbability for the sake of the argu- 
 ment — distance would have been equally against the aerial 
 feat of the Venetians, for the water, where unconfined by a 
 quay, does not flow near enough to the wall to allow even 
 boats to approach it; so that Dandolo’s ships, the waters of 
 Constantinople not having changed their landmarks, would 
 have grounded as early as would ships of the same burthen 
 in the present day, and. that would be far enough off to 
 relieve the inhabitants from any fears of an escalade from 
 the tops. 
 
 Equally inclined is the traveller to agree with the remark of 
 Gibbon, that at the distance of three centuries and two 
 thousand miles, it is difficult to he correct, when, in com- 
 paring his still more splendid account of the Mohammedan 
 conquest of Constantinople with the site, he endeavours to 
 make out by what means the galleys, which Mahomet II. 
 introduced into the harbour over land, could have proved of 
 such service to him as it is said they did ; so much so that, 
 according to Gibbon, without them he must have raised the 
 siege : the historian omits to add that the forces of the 
 Osmanleys and the Greeks were balanced to a hair, as they 
 must have been, if the addition of a few boats were sufficient 
 to turn the scale. But so far from that being the case, — from 
 the Ottoman owing his success to his boats, — there are many 
 reasons for saying that they could not have rendered him any 
 service. In the first place, the breach being two miles from 
 the harbour, screened from it by the inclination of the land, 
 they could not have assisted directly. In the second place, 
 the good condition of the north-west angle of the wall, par- 
 
384 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 ticularly exposed to missiles from the harbour, shows that they 
 did not make a false attack : and in the third place, they did 
 not intercept the communication ; for it is certain that people 
 entered and quitted the city during the assault, and that after 
 its fall vessels sailed away with families on hoard. On the 
 whole, I am inclined to think that the galley episode, if it 
 had any foundation beyond the imagination of the discomfited 
 Greeks, who would not fail to adduce anything to save their 
 own credit, would even have given their enemies miracles to 
 work with, had they not unfortunately been Mussulmans, was 
 merely a royal freak to shew power, — in a Xerxes-like strain, 
 — perhaps with the idea, by its hardihood and novelty, of in- 
 fusing discouragement among the besieged, showing them that 
 nothing was impossible to their terrible foe. Whatever its 
 moral effects, no doubt great, it certainly produced none 
 physical. 
 
 To enter the city from Pera, we' usually land at the balluk 
 bazar (fish market), near the “ new ” mosque (yeni giamisi) ; 
 then, passing under a venerable gate, wind through two or 
 three dirty lanes, ascend a street where chibouque manufac- 
 turers work, and so enter Mizir charschey ; that is where the 
 wares of Egypt and Arabia are prepared for sale, among 
 which may he noticed the alcohol for the eyes, the henna for 
 the finger tips, and a third powder, much used by ladies to 
 give the hair a golden hue. Those who have dark hair cannot 
 use it. After golden colour, red hair is most admired in the east. 
 We next lose ourselves in the labyrinths of the charscheys, 
 traversing in all directions, or, as they are commonly, though 
 erroneously, termed by Franks, bazars ; bazar signifying mar- 
 ket, and used in no other sense, as et bazar (meat market), at 
 bazar (horse market), &c. ; whereas charscheys are streets, or 
 rather, in Constantinople, long, vaulted, stone galleries, lighted 
 by apertures in the roof, with shops on either side, where the 
 corporate trades carry on business. No cooking or smoking 
 is allowed in them, and the iron gates, at which are always sen- 
 tries, are closed before sunset; owing to which precautions they 
 are never involved in a conflagration. Screened from sun, wind, 
 and rain, and farther attractive by the richness of the wares of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 885 
 
 all countries spread out in tempting profusion,* the charscheys 
 are the favourite lounge, particularly of the fair sex, who 
 crowd them from morn till evening, bargaining and chatting, 
 and laughing with whoever will bargain or chat or laugh with 
 them, infidel or not. Another amusing scene for the stranger 
 is the bitt bazar, or louse market, a sort of repository existing in 
 French and Italian cities under the similar name of pouillerie- 
 pidocchieria, in England known by that of Monmouth- street. 
 All such places, however, whether in Paris, London, or Naples, 
 must yield to that of Constantinople, — where, too, the name is 
 calumnious, no people under the sun being so free from the 
 obnoxious reptile as Mussulmans,— on account of the various 
 and tempting offers which assail you on all sides. One man 
 holds up a fur pelisse; another, an amber mouthpiece; a 
 third, an ataghan ; a fourth, a silver-hilted pistol, and so on ; 
 all ambulating and puffing their articles at the same time, with 
 much address and humour, while the goodness of many of 
 them shew that they belonged to men of rank : for no man in 
 the East, when he wants cash, is ashamed of selling his clothes, 
 or indeed of doing anything that is right — or wrong, civiliza- 
 tion not being far enough advanced to admit of mauvaise honte, 
 and as ft is the custom in Turkey to wear half-a-dozen gar- 
 
 * The manufactures of Constantinople consist chiefly of sword-blades, 
 nun-barrels, pipes, saddlery, gold-lace, muslins, silks, and leathers. The 
 four first-named are manufactured almost exclusively by Mussulmans. 
 Their gun-barrels are singularly good, being made of wires beaten together, 
 often inlaid with gold, producing a beautiful wavy appearance. Their 
 stocks are generally inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The locks are bad. 
 Flowered muslins, embroidery of all descriptions, in gold or silver, is done 
 by the Armenians, in a manner far superior to any tiling of the sort in France 
 or England. Considerable skill is shewn in chibouques, in silver coffee- 
 saucers, and in everything relating to horse equipage. The excellence of 
 Turkish woollens, carpets, for example — the temper of Turkish blades — are 
 too well known to require mention; but I must not omit to observe the 
 wonderful art that is shewn in manuscripts. Korans, well written and 
 illuminated, are beautiful things, as also the perpetual almanacks on long 
 rolls of parchment The Osmameys carry the art of dyeing to great perfec- 
 tion ; their vegetable dye, sang de bmuf for example, is inimitable, and un- 
 surpassed in durability ; also the art of coining, in which they are the only 
 people, except the Venetians, who preserve the same colour in every piece 
 of their gold money. Take any number of sequins or mahmoudies, not the 
 slightest shade of difference will be observed between any two of them ; 
 but take an equal number of the coins of any other country, several varieties 
 of colour will be seen. 
 
 C C 
 
386 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 ments on one’s shoulders at , the same time, in the shape of 
 jackets and pelisses, a chevalier d’industrie may go often to the 
 hitt bazar before coming to his shirt. It is not uncommon to 
 see a richly dressed individual, followed by domestics, dispose 
 of a ring, or a garment, or other trifle, for ready money, then 
 walk away quite unconcerned. 
 
 Of all the khans in Constantinople, and they are numerous, 
 for the accommodation of hankers, merchants, Tartars, and 
 vagabonds, the most remarkable is the Valide Khan, less so 
 on account of its vast size and commodious arrangements, 
 than for having been founded by the mother of Selim III., 
 that extraordinary woman, who had perception to note the 
 sinking state of the Ottoman empire, and judgment to suggest 
 remedies : in whom originated the useful undertakings which 
 adorned the reign of her son, and who inspired those brilliant 
 ideas of reform which, unskilfully acted on, led to his ruin. 
 Fortunately, she died before him; in another sense unfor- 
 tunately; since, had she lived, she might have better directed 
 the bias she gave, and thereby have given a tone to the state. 
 Where is the country that cannot boast of paramount worth 
 in woman? Though horn among barbarians, sold in a market, 
 reared in a harem, toy of a despot — what a soul to hurst such 
 trammels ! 
 
 Leaving the Charscheys at their upper end, we find ourselves 
 on the second hill, close to the Osmanie, the most elegant of 
 the mosques, built, as its name denotes, by sultan Osman. In 
 form it is a square of ninety-five feet, covered by a singularly 
 tasteful cupola, which rests on the four walls of the building. 
 As I have other mosques of more importance in view, I just 
 mention it, and pass on to 
 
 The Forum of Constantine, 
 near it, where still remains his column, ninety-six feet in 
 height, thirty-five in circumference, composed of eight 
 pieces of porphyry. Round the capital, which is of marble, is 
 this inscription : 
 
 To Beiov epyov ev Bade (pBapev \povo Kcuvonoiei pavovrjX ei(re(3r]$ avroxparoov t 
 
 It was so much damaged by the great fire of 1779, that, to 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 387 
 
 prevent it from falling asunder, it was found necessary to bind 
 the shaft with eight rings of iron; and, more especially to 
 preserve it from damage by a similar cause, the sultan ordered 
 the lower part to be fortified with a strong work of masonry, 
 and prohibited houses from abutting against it. The rings 
 and the stone work have a bad effect; at the same time our 
 gratitude is due to Selim III. for having preserved so interest- 
 ing a monument. It is called by the natives the burnt column. 
 Not far from it on the same elevation is the 
 
 Eski Saray, 
 
 a large walled space, containing a palace in which Mahomet 
 II. resided before the great seraglio was built. It then was 
 appropriated for the reception of the women of the deceased 
 sultan, and of the old maids, who are now superseded hy a 
 regiment of the Nizam Dgeditt. In the middle of it rises a 
 lofty, ill-formed, white column 100 feet high, with a spiral 
 staircase leading to the summit, around which is a gallery. It 
 is named the Seraskier’s tower, since that officer, in his capa- 
 city of governor of the city, stations himself on it to observe 
 the progress of insurrections, or of incendiarism. 
 
 The stranger turns it to a more agreeable purpose, and sur- 
 veys from it a panorama that words cannot describe. The 
 aqueduct of Valens, the seven towers, Saint Sophia, the 
 seraglio’s domes, the Propontis, — circlet of beauty studded 
 with ocean gems, — Mount Olympus, the gloomy grand ceme 
 tery, the wide flowing Bosphorus, the golden horn, covered 
 with caiques gliding like silver fish, are a few only of the 
 features beneath him. Long may he look before being able to 
 trace any plan in the dense mass of habitations that cover the 
 hills, and fill the valleys, which are so thickly planted, and so 
 widely spread, that the countless mosques, and public baths, 
 and numerous khans, besides the charscheys, (of a moderate 
 city’s dimensions) are scarcely noticed for the space they 
 occupy ; although in other respects they attract attention, for 
 no one can look at the seven hills, each crowned with a superb 
 mosque, with numerous smaller ones on their sides, without 
 being duly impressed with the piety of the Ottoman monarchs, 
 c c 2 
 
388 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 and of their favourites, unsurpassed, save in Rome. Their 
 good taste has led them to imitate Saint Sophia, the Turkish 
 architects have improved on the model, and their taste and 
 vanity combined to erect them on the most commanding spots, 
 whereby Constantinople is embellished to a degree it could not 
 have been in the time of the empire ; that is, in an external 
 view. I sincerely hope that whenever the cross replaces the 
 crescent (which it must do) a mistaken zeal for religion will 
 not remove the stately minarets. Another pictorial charm, 
 which it also owes to Mussulman customs, is the union of the 
 colours, green, white, and red, visible in the cypresses, the 
 mosques; and the dwellings. The city might he improved, hut 
 to alter these quaintnesses for the sake of regularity would be 
 profanation. I said improved ; hut I hardly think I am cor- 
 rect, certainly not as regards its outward appearance. In 
 possession of a nation with ideas of comfort, regularity, and 
 chaste splendour, Stamboul would lose part of the indefinable 
 hold on the senses which it now has. Its very deformities are 
 not displeasing. The perpetual and varied contrast is food for 
 the eye, and excitement for the mind. We leave Pera, a 
 regular European town, and in five minutes are in scenes of 
 Arabian Nights. The shores of the Bosphorus realize our 
 ideas, or recollections, of Venetian canals, or the Euphrates’ 
 hanks. Women, shrouded like spectres, mingle with men, 
 adorned like actors. The Frank’s hat is seen by the Dervish’s 
 calpack ; the gaudy armed chavass by the Nizam Dgeditt ; the 
 servile Greek by the haughty Moslem; and the full-blown 
 Armenian by the spare Hebrew. The charscheys resound 
 with Babel’s tongues, the streets are silent as Pompeii’s, We 
 stumble over filthy dogs at the gate of a mosque, cleans 
 plumaged storks cackle at us from the domes ; a pasha with a 
 gallant train proceeds to divan, harpy vultures fan him with 
 their wings ; and in the same cemetery we see grave-diggers 
 and lovers, corpses and jesters. A lane of filth terminates 
 with a white marble fountain, and a steep narrow street con- 
 ducts to a royal mosque. In a moral sense also the parallel 
 holds. We have an absolute monarch, a factious people; 
 pashas, slaves in name, despots in fact; a religion breathing 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 389 
 
 justice and moderation, a society governed by intrigue and 
 iniquity. The Mussulman is mighty in prayer, feeble in good 
 works; in 'outward life modesty personified, in his harem 
 obscenity unmasked. He administers to a sick animal, bow- 
 strings his friend ; he believes in fatality, and calls in a doctor. 
 In short, everything, and every person, and every feeling, and 
 every act, is at total variance in this great capital; and a man 
 may readily find amusement in it for some months. Your 
 shoemaker this year may be a vizir the next ; your friend the 
 hey serve you with coffee and pipes in a week, thankful for a 
 backschish ; — and, what is a worse change, your boon cam- 
 panion of the evening be headless in the morning. But I 
 digress. Descending from the Seraskier’s tower, we proceed to 
 the apex of the triangle, and find ourselves in the 
 
 Hippodrome ; 
 
 or, as the Turks call it, At-Meidan. It is an oblong square, 
 250 yards by 150 yards. Three monuments of antiquity in it 
 attest that the Osmanleys are not such indiscriminate de- 
 stroyers as is usually believed. Were it necessary to quit 
 Constantinople for proof of that, I would cite Athens, which 
 notwithstanding the numerous sieges it has undergone from 
 Turks, and Venetians, and Greeks, still possesses enough to 
 interest the world. It must have required great care to pre- 
 serve its ruins, more than would be shown in modem civilized 
 warfare. Though not connoisseurs of art, the Osmanleys have 
 religiously preserved temples, columns, &c., as trophies. Those 
 in the At-Meidan are — 1. An Egyptian obelisk, sixty-five feet 
 high, covered with hieroglyphics. It rests on a pedestal, on 
 which are groups in bas-relief, exceedingly fresh, among them 
 the figures of Theodosius and the Empress. The accumulation 
 of soil has buried the inscriptions all but the first few lines ; 
 but they were previously copied.* 2. A pyramidal column, 
 
 * Kiom reTan\evpov an x@ VVL X €l{ ? evov ax@ 0s — Movvo? av aarjeras Oevboalos 
 /3acri\eis — TvXcorjaas Ilpo^Xa) eTreKe^Xero rvaOearj — Klcov KeXiois ev TeaxvvTa 
 bvo. 
 
 On opposite side. — Difficilis quondam dominns parere serenis — jussus et 
 extinctus palmam portare Tyrannis — omnia Theodosio cednnt subolique 
 perenni : — Terdenis sic victus, duobusque diebus — Judice sub Proclo sub- 
 limes elatus ad auras. 
 
390 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 100 feet high, composed of loose stones, apparently ready to 
 come down with the first gale. An inscription informed us that it 
 was originally cased with plates of brass, brought from Ehodes; 
 quere — part of the Colossus ? 3. A spiral column of bronze, 
 
 eleven feet high, four feet in circumference, called the ser- 
 pentine column, on account of three serpents’ heads that used 
 to surmount it. Mahomet II., the day that the city fell, 
 knocked them off with his mace, to show his contempt for the 
 emblem of collective wisdom. The square at the moment 
 was filled with victorious Janizzaries, and “Allah hu” rent 
 the air over the prostrate fragment. What a triumph ! the 
 youthful conqueror might have fancied himself a god. Thence 
 he turned his horse’s head north, and rode a few paces to — 
 where we will follow him— to 
 
 St. Sophia. 
 
 Spirits of St. Helena, of Constantine ! where were ye ? It 
 is said that he reproved some zealous Mussulmans (quere, 
 killed them ?) for breaking the marble pavement. Probably he 
 did ; the pavement in variegated beauty still exists. The con- 
 version of the church to a mosque was soon effected. Mo- 
 hammed was invoked in it that day ; and the following after- 
 noon, from a hastily constructed minaret, the muezzin’s voice 
 was heard for the first time in Constantinople. The same 
 minaret stands at this day, at the north-east angle, and is 
 easily discernible from the other three, by its ancient and mean 
 appearance. Mosques, however, had been tolerated by the 
 emperors above a century previous, for the benefit of Mussul- 
 mans resident in the Eastern capital; and Bajazet, (Ilderim) — 
 he who boasted that he would feed his horse with a bushel of 
 oats on the altar of St. Peter’s at Borneo — obtained leave from 
 the Emperor Manuel II. (Paleologos) to establish a Mekheme, 
 and to found a royal mosque ; but its imams were not per- 
 mitted to call their flock to prayers. From a similar spirit the 
 Greeks are prohibited the use of bells in their churches, though 
 not I should imagine in retaliation. What a difference between 
 the fine tones of the human voice, and the din of hell-metal ! 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 391 
 
 The original St. Sophia was built by Constantine I., and 
 overturned by an earthquake. Constantius rebuilt it. It was 
 again destroyed by the great fire which consumed nearly all the 
 city, in the fifth year of Justinian. Justinian then built the 
 present edifice.* Its outward appearance is mean compared 
 with that of the other mosques, owing to its flat dome and 
 dwarfish minarets; — also to the vicinity of its superb neighbour, 
 Sultan Achmet’s mosque, built in, and filling up the interval 
 between it and the Hippodrome. But the situation is very 
 good. It is visible from every side, from the sea of Marmora, 
 the Bosphorus, and the harbour : from the latter to most 
 advantage, Achmetie being then concealed by the inclination of 
 the land. 
 
 It has always been difficult of access to Christians, whereas 
 the other mosques while I was there were comparatively easy* 
 The imams of some of them acted as our ciceronis, of others 
 did not oppose us, but from St. Sophia we were warned off 
 before even reaching the doors : in addition to which (cus- 
 tomary) fanaticism the Superior at that time was a rigid 
 believer, to contravene whose will the Sultan would not have 
 dared. This inaccessibility, however, only sharpened our 
 curiosity. The Hon. Mr. Grosvenor was then a guest of Sir 
 Robert Gordon, and he being willing, I nothing loth, we re- 
 solved to penetrate together beneath Sophias domes. So, 
 changing our hats for fezes, and otherwise assimilating our 
 costume to that of the Nizam Dgeditt, not entirely, for a com- 
 plete disguise would have made us more guilty if discovered, 
 we started from Pera one fine day, taking with us a chavass by 
 way of a protection, our appearance rendering it doubtful 
 whether we were renegade Mussulmans or apostate Christians. 
 We passed leisurely through the gardens skirting the seraglio, 
 then wound through the royal mausoleums adjoining the 
 mosque hastily and mute, as Lot on his flight, looking neither 
 
 * Its form is nearly square, 273 feet by 247, representing three naves 
 without a cross. The dome has 128 feet diameter, and is 195 feet above 
 the pavement. It is lit by twenty-four windows; two half cupolas are an- 
 nexed to it, terminated by four smaller ones. The gallery above the naves 
 is supported by forty columns, eight of which are of porphyry ; the rest of 
 Egyptian granite. 
 
392 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 to the right nor the left, and so reached the outer gates un- 
 challenged ; totally unconscious, though, that in the mean 
 while our chavass, fearing to embark in so unholy an enterprise, 
 had abandoned us to our destiny. Leaving our shoes at the 
 threshold, we proceeded quietly along the vestibule, still un- 
 noticed, as far as the great doors which open on the body of the 
 edifice ; and there, the difficulty being surmounted, we stood to 
 admire ! — but in truth were disappointed at finding it inferior 
 in disposition and the richness of its marbles to some of the 
 other mosques. Nevertheless it was St. Sophia, the most cele- 
 brated, and one of the most venerable of Christian temples— 
 centre of memorable associations — and we were congratulating 
 ourselves on being where so few Christians, during four 
 centuries, have been, when a little Turkish boy came running 
 to us, exclaiming : “ run, quick — they will kill you.” Had we 
 immediately profited by the kind warning, we might have got 
 away unmolested, but surprise detained us — to look for the 
 danger, to ask questions. No sooner had the lad spoken than 
 he disappeared behind a column ; at the same instant we be- 
 came sensible of a movement — a confused murmur of voices, 
 in it ghiaours only distinct — and from the interior five Turks, 
 one of them an imam, rushed out at us, yelling rather than 
 speaking, and indicating by their gestures that we deserved 
 pounding in a mortar at least. The sudden appearance of 
 these fierce fanatics completely threw us out, and any presence 
 of mind that remained was seriously impaired on perceiving 
 for the first time, on looking round for him to screen us with 
 his staff of office, our chavass’ defection. To resist was the 
 next thought ; but fortunately, in anticipation of such a result 
 to our expedition, we had brought no arms with us, or we 
 should have produced them, and then — Allah kerim ! I should 
 not have written this. Our situation was most unenviable, — 
 not liking to remain where we were, equally fearing to turn our 
 backs, either way expecting martyrdom, no ways consoled by 
 the immortality we should gain by such an unusual finale. 
 What the feelings of my companion in the pickle were I do not 
 know, but I fairly own that I never felt much more uncomfort- 
 able, or looked, I dare say, more foolish; not long, however, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS, 
 
 393 
 
 remaining so, for one of our tormentors, a fellow in a green 
 turban — I shall not easily forget him — soon brought the affair 
 to a point. Having succeeded in working himself into a 
 passion till the foam ran over his beard, he then raised his 
 ataghan, with the apparent intention of making our swinish 
 blood expiate our sin. But at that moment, when neither of 
 our heads seemed worth anything like so much as a New 
 Zealander’s head when tattooed for exportation, the imam in- 
 terposed, and seizing his arm, bid us authoritatively escape. 
 We did not require twice telling, and retreated, an eye each 
 way, under a shower of maledictions, and some blows which the 
 more unceremonious bestowed. The green- turbaned savage 
 wrestled ineffectually for a minute with the priest, then dropped 
 his weapon, and rushed past us to the doors, — to close them we 
 feared, when worse than death might have been our lot, but he 
 had not the wit. He seized our shoes, and as we ran out, our 
 steps having considerably accelerated in our passage down the 
 vestibule, hurled them at us with puerile anger. Slipping into 
 them, glad that we had not had to “ eat more dirt,” we quitted 
 the precincts of St. Sophia, half disconcerted and half amused, 
 fully determined not to enter them again on similar terms.* 
 In the next street we met our chavass, who premising with 
 “ wonderful !” said he thought we were dead ; then proposed 
 that we should adjourn to a cafeneh to smoke a pipe, which we 
 did. “ You must not think,” naively observed a gentleman at 
 the embassy, “ that the imam was trying to save your lives ; 
 he was only wrestling with the green turban for his ataghan, 
 
 * We had a consolation in thinking that onr indignity was not without 
 precedent. About thirty years since the Russian ambassador at the Porte 
 was much worse served in the mosque of Solimanie, for visiting which he 
 had a firman from the Sultan — but in that day Solimanie was difficult of 
 access. His lady not having left her shoes behind her on going in, had 
 them taken from her, and farther received gentle admonition with them; 
 his aide-de-camp had two of his front teeth knocked out with the heel of his 
 own boot ; and the whole party were violently ejected into the street, where 
 worse treatment might have befallen them, but a mollah whose house was 
 close by harboured them till their guards arrived from Pera. The Sultan, 
 much mortified, endeavoured to pacify his Excellency by sending him pre- 
 sents, but his Excellency thinking that was treating him rather too much 
 like a school-boy, sent them back — admitting, however, the apologies of the 
 Vizir. 
 
394 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 that he might have the honour of killing you.” However, 
 praise be to the imam. The old capitan pasha, when I related 
 the adventure to him, manifested greater signs of feeling than 
 I had ever seen him on any former occasion. He laid 
 down his narghiler snake, uncoiled his legs, combed his heard, 
 twisted his moustaches, lifted off his fez to scratch his head ; 
 and having said that God was great, and the mosque was holy, 
 and we were Franks — he had too much politeness to tell me 
 that we were infidels, though he meant it — protested that he 
 was surprised that we had not been immolated, adding that 
 even his high presence, had he been there, could not have saved 
 us. This was half humbug of the old hypocrite. Certain how- 
 ever it is, that six months after, when Count Orloff was in 
 plenitude of power, he could not see St. Sophia. The Sultan 
 had granted him a firman for the purpose, and fixed a day ; 
 but, on that very morning, sent his secretary to him, to beg 
 that he would not visit it. 
 
 Near St. Sophia is the church of St. John the Evangelist, 
 now converted into a menagerie of wild beasts. There are two 
 fine lions in it, so tame that the keeper goes in to them and 
 invites strangers to do the same. We declined under the 
 apprehension that hats would not meet the same respect as 
 turbans.* 
 
 Also behind the Hippodrome is the church of St. Sergius, 
 built in the reign of Justinian, one of those that depended on 
 the see of Rome. The Mussulmans converted it into a mosque, 
 and called it kutchuk Aya Sophi (little St. Sophia) from its 
 similitude to the cathedral. 
 
 The north side of the Hippodrome is bounded by the highly 
 carved cloister and balustrades of the Achmetie ; on its south 
 side, opposite, is a massy remnant of Constantine’s palace, and 
 a few yards behind it is the entrance of one of the vast cisterns 
 made by the same emperor. It is a noble excavation. The 
 
 * This feeling of the animals in the East about hats is ludicrous and 
 disagreeable. In places frequented by Franks it is probably encouraged, 
 and where Franks are rarely seen it arises from their being strange objects. 
 One cannot walk through Tophana (the most fanatic quarter of the capital) 
 without being assailed by a yelling pack ; on the Troade I have often been 
 run at by cattle, while turbans were passing unnoticed. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 395 
 
 roof is supported by 220 marble columns. Each column is 
 marked by the letters K 0 S, and with a globe surmounted by 
 a cross. It was capable of containing 1,460,000 gallons of 
 water, a good supply for 10,000 people during four months: 
 at present it is half-filled with earth, and a few poor people 
 spin silk in it. Fifty such subterraneous lakes, therefore, would 
 have sufficed half a million of inhabitants during an ordinary 
 siege, supposing the aqueducts to have been cut. That there 
 were as many or more for that purpose is not doubtful ; and 
 the Porte would do well to look for them and clear them out, 
 now that the city is again in danger of being attacked. A de- 
 tachment from the Russian fleet, or a troop of Cossacks in 
 advance, might cut the bendts in one night : awful would be 
 the distress, for all the water used in the city and the suburbs 
 comes from them, fifteen miles distant. Such a crisis, however, 
 is not thought of. Only two other cisterns are known, one 
 near St. Sophia, called for excellence the Basilica, of a similar 
 description, only on a more gigantic scale, having above 330 
 marble columns, some with Corinthian capitals. 
 
 The next object of interest in this part of the city is the 
 
 Avret Bazar (Women Market.) 
 
 Slavery sounds revolting to an English ear; change the 
 name, where is the country in which it does not exist? The 
 labourer is chained to his plough, the mechanic to his loom, 
 the pauper to the work-house. Slavery ever has been, and 
 must be a principle of society, under different names. Where 
 the population is thin, the powerful force the weak to be their 
 drudges, or import others ; where the contrary is the case, 
 necessity is the coercive power. Freedom, in connexion with 
 the millions who depend on daily toil for daily bread, is a 
 sophism. Since, therefore, slavery, barefaced or masked exists, 
 as though a provision of nature, in all communities, barbarous 
 or civilized, it should rather be the object of rulers to render 
 it bearable by wise provisions, than to aim at the impossibility 
 of abolishing it, thereby entailing greater evils on the sufferers.* 
 
 * In support of this argument, the evils of the African slave trade have 
 increased since 1815. The slave dealers are driven to select fast bottoms. 
 
396 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Mohammed fulfilled this sacred duty, as' the pages of the 
 Koran bear testimony. Among various regulations for the 
 good treatment of slaves, that mothers should never be sepa- 
 rated from their children, honours his memory ; and, that it has 
 ever been strictly observed, honours the Mussulman people. 
 
 But a market where — horrid idea ! — women are sold like 
 beasts. God forbid that I should defend it ! At the same 
 time, the pretty creatures seem so content, that I cannot pity 
 them. Perhaps I should follow the example of most writers, 
 who, whenever they touch by chance on such a subject, give 
 vent to a deal of sentimentalism and vapouring about weeping 
 innocence, and dishevelled locks, and tom garments, and 
 beaten breasts. Such exist only in imagination, and I believe 
 that many who describe the slave-markets in such moving 
 terms never saw one. Occasionally, I will not deny, heart- 
 rending scenes occur, in the case of captives of war, or victims 
 of revolt, wrenched suddenly from all that is dear ; hut these 
 are rare occurrences. 
 
 The Circassians and Georgians, who form the trade supply, 
 are only victims of custom, willing victims ; being brought up 
 by their mercenary parents for the merchants. If horn 
 Mohammedan, they remain so ; if horn Christian, they are 
 educated in no faith, in order that they may conform, when 
 purchased, to the Mussulman faith, and therefore they suffer 
 no sacrifice on that score. They live a secluded life, harshly 
 
 in order to avoid our cruisers ;—to overload them, in order to cover the 
 risk. Hence infinite misery to the slaves. Were the trade legalized, it 
 would be their interest to have commodious ships, supplied with conve- 
 niences, so as to insure the safe delivery of the cargo, and they would then 
 be under the eye of the law — of superintending officers, and be liable to 
 punishment if guilty of cruelty in the passage. As long as African despots 
 sell their subjects, it is idle to expect that they will not find purchasers. 
 When they do not, they will slay the prisoners taken in war, whose lives 
 are now spared for the market. Their blood will then moisten the sands of 
 Africa, instead of their sweat fertilizing the plantations of the West Indies. 
 On which side will humanity gain P 
 
 Suppose the Russian Government were to interdict this commerce in the 
 Caucasus, and in Georgia, what would be the consequence ? All the horrors 
 of a contraband traffic, as nightly journeys over the mountains, escapes 
 across the frontiers, hasty embarkations, any where and any how. Whereas, 
 under the present system, the slaves travel as commodiously as the country 
 admits of ; they embark in good vessels, and are brought to Constantinople 
 in health and beauty, where they are lodged in a comfortable khan (the 
 market), which, being public ti>n surveillance of the police. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 397 
 
 treated by their relations, never seeing a stranger’s face, and 
 therefore form no ties of friendship or love, preserve no 
 pleasing recollections of home to make them regret their 
 country. Their destination is constantly before their eyes, 
 painted in glowing colours; and so far from dreading it, they 
 look for the moment of going to Anapa, or Poti, whence they 
 are shipped for Stamboul, with as much eagerness as a parlour- 
 boarder of a French or Italian convent for her emancipation. 
 In the market they are lodged in separate apartments, care- 
 fully secluded, where, in the hours of business — between nine 
 and twelve — they may be visited by aspirants for possessing 
 such delicate ware. I need not draw a veil over what follows. 
 Decorum prevails. The would-be purchaser may his eyes 
 on the lady’s face, and his hand may receive evidence of her 
 bust. The waltz allows nearly as much liberty before hun- 
 dreds of eyes. Of course the merchant gives his warranty, on 
 which, and the preceding data, the bargain is closed. The 
 common price of a tolerable looking maid is about 100?. 
 Some fetch hundreds, the value depending as much on accom- 
 plishments as on beauty ; but such are generally singled out by 
 the Kislar Aga, A coarser article from Nubia and Abyssinia is 
 exposed publicly on platforms, beneath verandahs, before the 
 cribs of the white china. A more white-toothed, plump - 
 cheeked, merry-eyed set I seldom witnessed, with a smile and 
 a gibe for every one, and often an audible “ buy me.” They 
 are sold easily, and without trouble. Ladies are the usual 
 purchasers, for domestics. A slight inspection suffices. The 
 girl gets up off the ground, gathers her coarse cloth round her 
 loins, bids her companions adieu, and trips gaily, bare-footed 
 and bare-headed, after her new mistress, who immediately 
 dresses her a la Turque, and hides her ebony with white veils. 
 The price of one is about 16?. Males are sold in a different 
 place — always young. Boys fetch a much higher price than 
 girls, for evident reasons ; if clever, may arrive at high employ- 
 ments ;* whereas woman is only a toy with Orientals, and, like 
 a toy, when discarded, useless. 
 
 * Four-fifths of the ministers of the present Sultan were purchased slaves. 
 How many of the pashas who rule the provinces sprung from the same 
 origin I cannot say, probably great numbers. 
 
398 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Not far from the Avret Bazar is a colossal stone edifice — an 
 oblong square, surmounted by two domes — the finest public 
 bath in Stamboul, built by a certain Mustapha Pasha, and 
 bearing his name. As bathing has a great share in eastern 
 customs, the baths being objects of solicitude to all classes, I 
 may be excused digressing a little on the ceremonial. The 
 structure is the same as that of the Roman baths. One of the 
 domes is pierced by numerous illuminators ; beneath it is the 
 hath. The other dome is open at the summit, like the Pan- 
 theon’s, to let the rain descend in a marble basin of water on 
 the floor. A broad bench surrounds the apartment, supplied 
 with couches, each couch separated by a railing ; so that the 
 most timid person need apprehend no intrusion on the place 
 which he takes, and where he leaves his clothes. Decorum is 
 a natural virtue with Mussulmans, strictly, almost fastidiously 
 enjoined by the Koran, and religiously observed. The Frank 
 who goes for the first time to one of these great establishments 
 feels very awkward, and wishes to retreat, for the company 
 gaze on him with surprise ; the appearance of a Frank being 
 not only unusual, hut, I may almost say, of no occurrence. 
 The courtesy, however, of the hammamgi (master), and of the 
 others, re- assures him. He is conducted to a sofa, and pre- 
 sented with a chibouque, which gives him time for reflection. 
 He observes, with pleasure, the perfect cleanliness of everything, 
 particularly the linen ; the pavement too, variegated with slabs 
 of verd antique, of roux antique, and of other coloured marbles ; 
 the basin in the centre, an urn of one piece ; the elegant carved 
 chimney ; the position of the company, some proceeding to the 
 hath, others coming from it ; some reposing in delightful lan- 
 guor, and others performing their devotions ; for the Mussul- 
 man, when purified outwardly, does not neglect the inward 
 man. When ready to quit his under garments, clean wrappers 
 are put round his body and over his shoulders ; a towel is put 
 round his head. This garb is precisely the same as the ihram, 
 the costume in which the hadgis perform their ceremonies at 
 Mecca, and doubtless the type has a very proper effect on a 
 Mussulman : the Frank sees nothing symbolic in it, but he 
 feels great satisfaction in being so completely covered that the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 399 
 
 most shrinking modesty could not take offence. He then steps 
 into wooden clogs, and supported by his tellek (bather) walks 
 toward the hath. A narrow passage intervenes between it and 
 the dressing room, of moderate heat, where those who dislike 
 rushing at once into a reservoir of vapour, like a steam engine’s 
 receiver, sit awhile to allow the pores to adapt themselves 
 gradually to the increased action of the blood. In summer, 
 when the thermometer is at 80° or 90 , the precaution is of 
 little consequence, hut when there are 30° or 40° difference 
 between the dressing and the bathing rooms the sensation, on 
 suddenly entering the latter, is suffocation. The average heat 
 of a hath is, in summer 102°, in winter 90°. 
 
 Our stranger then penetrates into what he may well deem 
 Pandemonium. He sees, imperfectly through the new medium, 
 a number of human figures stretched on the heated marble 
 estrade, like corpses on the table of a fashionable dissector. 
 Wild-looking forms, half-naked, with long loose hair, are 
 enacting sundry manoeuvres over them, rolling them about, 
 twisting them like sticks of wax, kneading them like dough, 
 singing wildly all the time in a strange dialect, and making 
 the vault ring with the claps of their hands against each other 
 or on the flesh of the prostrate. Bound the sides of the hall, 
 beneath fountains, he sees other subjects, equally passive, 
 literally undergoing the process of drowning. 
 
 By the time that he has made these by no means consolatory 
 observations, the perspiration is streaming from every pore, 
 and his Asmodeus, who has never left him, seeing that he is 
 in a fit state to act upon, signs to him to lie down. The 
 stoutest has a nervousness creep over him at this moment; 
 would desist from the experiment were he not withheld by 
 shame, and by a natural desire to try a new thing. He takes 
 another survey of the scene before resolving, and then, being 
 satisfied that no one has died under the operation, resigns 
 his body ; with dismal foreboding, though, if he possess the 
 slightest glimmering of anatomy, of suffering rupture or dislo- 
 cation. I pass over the minor and agreeable processes of 
 titillation and friction to that of shampooing. Our Frank 
 now begins to he alarmed ; for his joints, unlike Turkish 
 
400 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 joints, are difficult of cracking. Fingers and toes soon yield, 
 but his elbows and knees are obstinate and excite the tellak’s 
 wrath, who sings in a louder strain, and applies in good 
 earnest to the task. His patient, knowing that what is pleasure 
 to one is death to another, imagines that his joints are not made 
 to crack, and therefore begs him to desist, assuring him that 
 he is well satisfied ; hut as he speaks in some western tongue, 
 the swarthy demon over him merely replies by a grin, and 
 continues his work. At length imperfect sounds are pro- 
 duced, on which he addresses words of congratulation, not 
 understood, and the other supposing all is over feels half 
 mortified; that the operation hasnotbeenso terrible. Before, how- 
 ever, he can raise himself, the tellak slaps him on the shoulders, 
 and turns him over on his breast with the dexterity of a cook 
 with a pancake, seizes his arms, crosses them behind with a 
 strain, as if about to draw them from their sockets, thrusts 
 his knee into the small of the hack, and with this lever pulls 
 up the head and shoulders, letting them fall again, himself 
 falling with his whole weight on the crossed arms.* Each 
 time this is repeated the internal fabric appears about to 
 give way. The patient almost screams with apprehension, and 
 threatens loudly; but his tormentor no ways moved, thinking 
 that the delhi ghiaour is only amusing himself with the chorus 
 of a song, continues the see-saw operation until the desired 
 cracks issue from the shoulder-blades, or till he is tired. He 
 then drops him, and wrings his own dripping locks. Our 
 Frank forgets his rage, on finding after a minute investigation 
 that he is whole, and allows himself to be led to a fountain ; 
 he conceives his terror over, hut soon finds that he has only 
 escaped being broken alive for drowning. During five minutes 
 eyes, ears, nose, mouth (he fain tries to look and speak) are 
 filled with soap ; a tide of hot water, during another five 
 minutes, washes that away, and leaves him clean for the first 
 time in his life. Thus, par-boiled, faint and angry, he is lifted 
 
 * Shampooing, as far as legs and arms, is very well, but when extended 
 to the back it may be dangerous in people whose bones are not used to it. 
 The Orientals, on the contrary, are always supple. The joints of withered 
 old men are as free as if newly oiled. It is a fact, that rheumatism is un- 
 known in Turkey, which must be attributed to these baths. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 401 
 
 on his legs ; dry wrappers are put round him, a turban on his 
 head, and he is led to his sofa with a determination never to enter 
 another Turkish bath. He is laid on, and covered with, hot 
 linen, and fresh air is allowed to blow on him. He falls into 
 a most voluptuous doze, sips his coffee and chibouque with a 
 pleasure hitherto undreamt, while the nadins dry him by gentle 
 pressure through the cloths — a species of magnetism — inducing 
 slumber. A glass of sherbet thoroughly revives him, and he 
 gets up so elasticized in mind and body that he resolves to 
 come again next day. A mirror, with back of mother-of-pearl, 
 is held before him to tie his cravat ; he counts the money on 
 it, and judges of his liberality by the tone in which hock 
 guieldin (welcome) is pronounced. A Frank deems it requisite 
 to overpay, as he may consider himself an intruder. In Stamboul 
 a native pays fifty paras (4 ^d.) The poor are admitted for 
 twelve paras, hut then they have no tellak, nor are they entitled 
 to a sofa ; but they may use hot water for hours. In the 
 interior of Asia Minor, such a hath does not cost a poor man 
 above one or two paras. Men and women use some of the 
 baths on alternate days, while others are reserved expressly 
 for the different sexes. My ignorance of the custom nearly led 
 me into a serious scrape soon after my arrival in the country, 
 viz. into a hath, where I had been once before, filled with 
 women. A scream, and a confused waving of long hair, told 
 me, at once, my error. At any other time it would have been 
 a delicious sight, and as it was, astonishment for a moment 
 chained my feet ; hut shriek on shriek, accompanied by some 
 choice epithets, in which the sharp notes of the old predo- 
 minated over the mellow tones, and, as I thought, stifled 
 laughter, of the young, hid me think of a retreat, unless I 
 desired unpleasant handling. There was not, fortunately, a 
 single person in the street to witness my exit, nor did I wait 
 till one should come ; I hastened down to the water side, took 
 a caique, and rowed over to Galata. 
 
 n D 
 
402 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE ( continued ). 
 
 Solimanie — Bedlam — Mausoleum — Valens’ Aqueduct — Marcian’s Column 
 
 — Historic Column — Seven Towers — Golden Gate — Breach — Scutari — 
 
 Cemetery — Howling Dervishes. 
 
 We leave the interesting region of the two first hills, and after 
 a gentle descent and ascent, reach the third hill, where towers 
 pre-eminent the superh mosque of Solyman the Magnificent, 
 built on the most elevated part of the city, after the style of 
 St. Sophia, hut surpassing it in architecture, in site, in deco- 
 ration: in all, save veneration and antiquity. It is 234 feet 
 hy 227 feet. A whole cupola and two half-cupolas cover the 
 central aisle, and ten small cupolas the lateral aisles. Nearly 
 all the mosques are similarly capped, and the assemblage of so 
 many cupolas has a very imposing effect. A flight of broad 
 marble steps leads up to the great doors,* before which is a 
 faqade of six gigantic Egyptian granite columns with pointed 
 capitals. There are also various other entrances, ornamented 
 with arabesque d archwork of good sculpture. Before the 
 entrance is a court 117 feet by 152 feet, surrounded hy a 
 portico or open cloister formed of rows of marble columns 
 with Turkish capitals, which are connected hy Gothic arches, 
 and sustain twenty-four cupolas. At the angles of the court 
 spring the minarets, two of which have each three galleries, re- 
 
 * Over them is an Arabic inscription : — “ The mighty servant and glo- 
 rious vicar of God, by virtue of divine power and glory; existing by the 
 authority of the mys'tic volume, and by the observance of its precepts, 
 spread in all parts of the world, the conqueror of the cities of the East and 
 of the West by the assistance of God, the fountain of every victory and of 
 his armies ; the image of God above all people ; the emperor of Arabia and 
 of the other regions ; the institutor of the imperial constitutions ; the tenth 
 emperor of the Ottomans, viz. Solyman, descendant of the emperors Selim, 
 Bajazet, Mahomet, Amurath, Mahomet, Bajazet, Amurath, Orchan, and 
 Othman : in building this mosque of noble, perfect, and wonderful structure, 
 as a place of worship for the people who assiduously serve and adore God, 
 has given pleasure to the Lord of Majesty and power, who is the Creator 
 of the universe. May the series of his imperial race, united with that of 
 time, be never interrupted ; and may the holy souls of his predecessors 
 enjoy eternal delights in paradise ! It was begun the end of Gemaziel ula 
 of the year 957 (1550), and terminated the end of Zilhiggi 964 (1556).” 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 403 
 
 semb ling wreaths in the distance; the two others being lower, in 
 accordance with the laws of perspective, have only two each. 
 In the centre of the court is a handsome marble reservoir, 
 which supplies water to numerous fountains for the ablution of 
 the faithful, all of whom, before entering a mosque, wash arms, 
 legs, and neck — in the winter no pleasant duty. They leave 
 their shoes at the threshold and walk in — then immediately 
 kneel, and having first placed their hands a moment before their 
 eyes and over their ears, as symbolic of shutting out the world, 
 commence a series of prostrations which last twenty minutes* 
 It is impressive to behold people of all ranks thus totally ab- 
 sorbed before God, their foreheads bent on the pavement ; and 
 that the head may literally come in contact, a Mussulman un- 
 rolls his turban ; for Mohammed said, “ The knees and fore- 
 heads of those doomed to penance in hell shall not he scathed 
 by the fire, because those parts touched the ground in adora- 
 tion of the Supreme Being.” It is difficult to go into a mosque 
 at any time and not find men at prayers, or in groups on their 
 knees round an imam, who is expounding the Koran to them. 
 Women are not suffered to pray in the mosques, their presence 
 being deemed prejudicial to the current of religion in men. I 
 do not suppose they regret it, for on the slender chance which 
 the Prophet gives them of heaven, it is hardly worth their 
 while to pray. In one of his journeys to the other regions, he 
 declares that he saw heaven filled with the poor: — hell con- 
 tained many rich, and swarmed with women. Poor women ! 
 he has fairly cut them out by the houris ; yet, with considera- 
 tion, he ordained that any true believer who might particularly 
 desire it, might have a beloved wife with him in Paradise. 
 
 The interior of Solimanie is simple, and, from its simplicity, 
 vaster apparently than in reality. The columns supporting 
 the galleries are of valuable marbles, brought from Alexandria 
 Troas. It has one altar, and a pulpit, that is, a narrow stair 
 highly ornamented with gilding, which serves the purpose, and 
 on which the imam changes his place, ascends or descends a 
 few steps, according to his discourse. In lieu of paintings or 
 statues, the walls are covered with sentences from the Koran, 
 and the different names of the Creator, in Arabic characters, 
 
 D d 2 
 
404 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 which, from their richness and variety, have a good appear- 
 ance. At evening it is lighted with coloured lamps, which are 
 attached to a circle of brass of the size of the dome, and 
 suspended beneath it by chains, — a very elegant mode, copied 
 by the Osmanleys from the Greeks. 
 
 Connected with Solimanie is a Bedlam, on a correspond- 
 ing scale, adorned with marble colonnades, fountains, and 
 gardens, — luxuries which sadly contrast with the state of 
 the unfortunate inmates, who, furious or tame, are fastened by 
 the neck with a heavy chain. We are generally led to believe 
 that Orientals hold people thus afflicted in a certain degree of 
 veneration: in Constantinople, at least, they have lost the 
 superstition, and see in them little more than wild beasts. 
 
 Behind the Solimanie, in a garden, are two octangular 
 buildings, covered with cupolas ; they contain the bodies of 
 Soliman and of Boxellana. The death of this great monarch 
 caused such intense grief that the superficies of the third hill 
 scarcely contained the multitudes that attended his funeral. 
 As the offering most grateful to his spirit, the prejudice re- 
 specting women was broken through, and his favourite laid by 
 him. The coffins are stone, the same as in all the royal 
 mausoleums, which are numerous ; the best are those erected 
 by the mother of Mahomet IV. 
 
 The above sketch applies to the principal mosques of 
 Stamboul. Each is more or less adorned with spoils of 
 antiquity, which are certainly more worthily thus employed 
 than in building and repairing private fortresses and houses, 
 as Rome witnessed. The mosque of Bajazet, near the above, 
 built 1498, has twenty columns, four of which are of porphyry, 
 ten of verd antique, six of Egyptian granite, besides eight 
 smaller ones of verd antique, which adorn the fountain. 
 Scbehzade giamisi, built by Soliman I. in memory of his son 
 Mahomet, and Ederne Kapusu giamisi, built by Mihrumah 
 (moon-eyed), daughter of the same monarch, are both very 
 elegant. Laleli, built by Mustapha, has remarkable subter- 
 ranean excavations, supposed to have existed in ancient times 
 as a cistern. Kilisi giamisi, on the eastern declivity of the 
 fourth hill, was a church built by the Emperor Anastasius, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 405 
 
 and, after St. Sophia, the most remarkable of the churches that 
 were converted to mosques. What is singular, it retains 
 ocular evidence of its former destination ; in the cupolas, four 
 in number, are Mosaics, well preserved, representing the 
 Crucifixion, the Virgin, with other sacred pictures. Why the 
 Moslems neglected to remove or destroy them I do not 
 know. The galleries are supported by fine Corinthian marble 
 columns, and in the court is a large urn of one piece of verd 
 antique. 
 
 The distinctive sign of a royal mosque is having two or 
 more minarets. In Constantinople, four of the mosques have 
 each four minarets ; that alone of Sultan Achmet has six. 
 The wooden spires on their summits are often gilded : some 
 of the domes also are surmounted by a gilc ball, as if to lift 
 them; and the effect is exceedingly tasteful, beyond what 
 could be expected from so slight an ornament. 
 
 To all the royal mosques are attached pious or learned 
 establishments, supported by the mosque revenues. Three 
 have bedlams; four have imarets (poor hospitals) ; and each 
 has a medresseh (college with a library). The medresseh 
 on the foundation of Mahomet II. (built on the 
 fourth hill, eighteen years after the conquest) is famed for 
 having produced the most sages in Ottoman learning. The 
 library established by Abdul Hamed, father of the present 
 Sultan, is the best. In all are twelve libraries, containing 
 Persian, Arabic, and Turkish literature. They are not much 
 frequented, nor much enriched by modern authors. The Mus- 
 sulman Augustan age was when the Moors ruled Spain,* of 
 which the library of the Escurial possesses the best evidence. 
 
 The third and fourth hills are connected by an aqueduct of 
 
 * During 800 years that the Moors were in Spain, Arabic literature 
 flourished. The academies of Seville and of Cordova especially shone. 
 Ebn Tarhun of Seville, 691 of Hegira, sung of the creation of man, on the 
 soul, and on Mecca. Dhihaldin Akazary, sixth age of Hegira, wrote a poem, 
 “Treasure of Poets.” Ebn Forgia, and Ebn Macrama, and Almotuabi, 
 were famous poets in the fifth age of Hegira. 
 
 In the library of the Escurial is a Spanish and Arabic Dictionary of all 
 the caliphs, captains, philosophers, poets, and learned ladies, in 4 vols., by 
 Ebn Alkhali Mahomet Ben Abdallah, 710 Hegira. Also in the same library 
 is a treatise on music, with designs of thirty different musical instruments, 
 by Abdi Nassar Ben Mahomet Alpharaiba. 
 
406 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 forty-one arches, built originally by the Emperor Yalens, of 
 ruins of Ohalcedonia, and since restored by Soliman. Its 
 position is happy, uniting in an eminent degree the ornamental 
 and the useful; for in addition to its aqueous office, it pre- 
 serves the contour of the city, the valley it spans being so 
 wide compared with the others, that, without it, Constantinople 
 would appear two cities. It occupies nearly the centre of the 
 length. To go on it is rather hazardous, yet it is worth while 
 to venture a few yards for the sake of the prospect on either 
 hand. The water in some parts filters through and constantly 
 drops, making some mosses on adjoining fragments sprout 
 luxuriantly. The Adrianople street, which nearly bisects the 
 city longitudinally, passes under its eastern extremity ; follow- 
 ing its course across the valley, we ascend the 
 
 Fourth Hill, 
 
 Where, near the mosque of Mahomet II. in the courtyard of a 
 Mussulman’s house (now burnt down), is the column of the 
 Emperor Marcian,* in excellent preservation. The height is 
 fifty- two feet; the shaft is granite ; the capital, of the Corin- 
 thian order, is well executed, and supports a square urn, 
 ornamented at each angle with an eagle in half relief. In the 
 precincts of another Mussulman’s habitation, where was the 
 forum of Arcadius, is the remnant of a pedestal, supposed to 
 he of the celebrated historic column, representing Theodosius’ 
 victories, which we are told, rose 140 feet above the pavement, 
 and whence the murderer and usurper Alexius Ducas was 
 cast down by the judgment of the Latin chiefs, 1204. Other 
 remnants of antiquity probably remain in the vast circuit of 
 Stamboul’s walls ; but to find them is the difficulty ; chance is 
 one’s only guide, a conflagration, by laying open quarters, 
 one’s best map. Tiresome as is the well- conned tale of a 
 professed ciceroni, I have often wished for one in Constanti- 
 nople. The presence is better than the absence. One is not 
 obliged to listen, and he saves a great deal of riding or walk- 
 ing, which is keenly felt in a large, hilly, ill-paved city, where 
 
 * On the pedestal are these words distinct, “Hanc statuam Marciani.” 
 The remainder of the inscription is illegible. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 407 
 
 innocent curiosity is magnified into necromancy ; the pursuits 
 of an antiquarian interpreted as the researches of a treasure 
 hunter. There are few natives of the East who can understand 
 the incentives of curiosity or pleasure, uninfluenced by 
 stronger motives : if they see a man taking observations, he 
 is calculating a horoscope ; if they see him measuring ruins, 
 he is tracing some deposit of coin. They hate trouble, and 
 therefore cannot reconcile it with pleasure. 
 
 But in default of antiquities, there are a few modernities that 
 are interesting by their resemblance to ancient usages. The 
 shops are like the shops at Pompeii, open from side to side, 
 having a parapet where the window should be, with a narrow ^ 
 sill by way of a door. They J are closed at night by shutters, 
 slinging on the top, which in the day serve for awnings. The 
 counters are covered with slabs of marble, always beautifully 
 clean, particularly so where preparations of creams, wheys, &c. 
 are sold, of which the Osmanleys make great consumption. 
 The confectioners shops are admirable in point of elegance, 
 and the excellence of the article: everybody has heard praised 
 Turkish sweetmeats; I may add that one is in danger of 
 having a tooth-ache during his stay at Constantinople. The 
 cooking-houses are very tempting ; cababs, and roasted sheep’s 
 heads, are smoking in them all day long. You go in with 
 your friend, and squat down on a clean mat ; ad interim the 
 chibouque is brought. Cababs on toast are served in five 
 minutes, with a jug of wine which you order from the nearest 
 Greek vault : a cup of coffee terminates your luncheon, — the 
 whole about the cost of eightpence paid handsomely. 
 
 The Osmanleys, like the ancients, eat and drink a great 
 deal in the open air. Venders of sherbets, of rolls, of creams, 
 of sweetmeats, of catimeras (sort of cake), of boza (kind of 
 beer), are at every comer ; whereby the cries of Constanti- 
 nople are as numerous as those of Paris. Some of them sound 
 ludicrous to an English ear : — az beaz (white white) in rela- 
 tion to bread, makes the new arrived Englishman often turn 
 round with mingled anger and surprise. Baliuk (fish) like- 
 wise catches his ear for the first few days ; and perpetually 
 these two resound in all the streets. 
 
408 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 The Osmanleys also show the taste of the Romans in their 
 country houses, by building them on piles in the water where 
 possible ; and so far do they project over the Bosphorus, that 
 private caiques lie under the basement floors, whence they 
 issue romantically through low arches; and the inhabitants 
 are often seen fishing from their window, — a mode peculiarly 
 suitable with their indolence. 
 
 Many other points of similarity might be cited between the 
 ancient Romans and the Osmanleys. The burial grounds of 
 the latter are highly ornamented, and equally rendered sub- 
 servient to social intercourse; their love of display, I may 
 add, in appearing abroad with numerous attendants ; and their 
 contempt of women. But in what relate to the decencies of 
 life, there is not the slightest resemblance. The signs over 
 the doors, the frescoes in the chambers of Pompeii, have 
 not the remotest counterpart in Turkey. In the article of 
 cruelty, too, there exists a wide difference. The exhibitions 
 which delighted the Romans would disgust the possessors of 
 their second capital. Spain alone humbly imitates them. 
 
 The cloaques are also evidences of the former masters of 
 Constantinople. They are indifferently kept; but connected 
 with them is a curious anecdote of the present sultan, who, 
 when young, had Haroun Alraschid’s habit of going about the 
 city incognito. It chanced one day that he passed by one cf 
 the cloaques that was opened for the purpose of being 
 cleaned; in it was a man up to his neck in abominable filth, 
 endeavouring in vain to remove an obstruction. The sultan 
 stopped, and looked with commiseration at a human being 
 thus employed. At length the labourer, after long driving and 
 tugging lost his patience : — he threw down his guielberi, 
 uttered an oath, and was about to abandon his work ; but, as 
 if suddenly receiving a bright idea, took up his instrument 
 again, and thus apostrophized his impatient spirit: “Dayan 
 gian, yoksa seni bounden beter boku soccarim ;” which being 
 translated, means, “ Persevere my soul, or I will plunge thee 
 in worse filth than this.” At this exclamation made by the 
 speaker in perfect ignorance of who was listening, the sultan 
 opened the eyes of astonishment : t “ Is it possible,” he thought, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 409 
 
 “ that there can be a worse occupation than that ?” — He 
 returned to the seraglio, hut could not rest for thinking on 
 what he had heard. He asked his attendants to expound the 
 labourer’s meaning: they could not. “ Go, then,” he at length 
 said, “ and fetch him hither.” 
 
 “Where is the honest man who was working here this 
 morning?” demanded a capidgi of the superintendant of 
 cloaques : — “ God knows — he left olf work two hours since.” 
 
 “ Wonderful ! find him instantly !” 
 
 The appearance of an officer of the seraglio on such an 
 errand aroused some of the neighbours. One exclaimed, “ He 
 went to the hath from here ; a hoy followed him, carrying a 
 suit of clothes.” 
 
 “Which hath?” asked the capidgi: — “run, bring him 
 to me.” 
 
 The object of this research in the mean time had com- 
 pletely purified himself (without which salutary measure he 
 could not have gone into a mosque to say his evening prayer), 
 and now appeared quite another person, dressed in a suit of 
 good cloth, a fur pelisse, with a caouk on his head : he might 
 have passed for a substantial tradesman. “Kalk, guiel,” — 
 “ Kise, come,” — exclaimed a messenger, rushing into the bath, 
 where he was enjoying the restorative chibouque : “ quick, a 
 capidgi of the Porte wants you.” 
 
 “God is great,” replied the other; “want me! why — for 
 what ?” 
 
 “ You will know soon enough. Come.” 
 
 The capidgi, having ascertained that he was the very man, 
 bid him follow him to the seraglio. During the walk he vainly 
 endeavoured to guess at the evil which he conceived had fallen 
 on his head. 
 
 “ Eshek” (ass), said the sultan to the officer, on beholding 
 a respectably dressed man, who would have done credit to a 
 pasha’s suite ; “ I told thee to bring me that fakyr bokulu” 
 (stinking wretch). 
 
 “ Effendimiz,” this is he. 
 
 The sultan then addressed the man, who was standing with 
 his hands crossed before him, his eyes cast on the floor, in 
 
410 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 great apprehension ; “ Wast thou, some hours since, in the 
 cloaque, in the condition of a hog ?” 
 
 The fact could not be denied. “ What saidst thou, dost 
 thou remember ?” 
 
 This question made him fear that in his wrath he had 
 uttered something treasonous, which had been overheard, and 
 he began to implore grace on the plea that in a moment of 
 anger a man’s tongue may utter what his heart does not 
 acknowledge. “Fear nothing,” replied the sultan; “didst 
 thou not say, ‘Dayan, &c.’ Explain what situation is worse; 
 or didst thou speak in folly ?” 
 
 Thus reassured, the man answered by pointing to the 
 tchocadars, who were in the presence, and added, “ Their 
 situation is worse.” If the sultan was before astonished, he 
 was now still more so. “ The work,” continued the man, “ at 
 which I was engaged, is disgusting in the eyes of God ; but it 
 gains me sufficient in two or three hours for the day, some- 
 times for two days. I am then free. I purify myself from its 
 stains, and dress becomingly ; I frequent the mosques, and the 
 cafenehs, master of my time : whereas thy officers cannot call 
 one moment their own, to eat or to drink. This is my mean- 
 ing; I told my spirit that if *t had not courage to submit to 
 that servitude for two hours, I should be obliged to put it in 
 perpetual bondage, by taking a great man’s bread, to be at his 
 call the whole twenty-four hours.” 
 
 The sultan, far from being offended at his boldness, dis- 
 missed him with a handsome present ; though, I dare say, the 
 tchocadars, thus coarsely commented on, would rather have seen 
 him get the bastinado. This circumstance, which was related 
 to me by an officer of the seraglio, gives rise to reflections on 
 the cause of love of freedom, which this man possessed in its 
 widest sense, simple, divested of any specious ornament. 
 Whence came it ? He could not conceive it disgraceful to 
 serve a great man, for an oriental education inculcates that 
 that condition is honourable, and it confers consideration. It 
 came from pure love of indolence, so dear to, so cherished by, 
 the Osmanleys, to indulge which they are capable of enduring 
 great privations. Does it follow that love of freedom and loye 
 of indolence are synonymous terms ? «• 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 411 
 
 The eafenehs likewise merit a stranger’s notice in Constan- 
 tinople, less on account of their number — several hundreds — 
 their charming shady situations, and their elegant fitting up, 
 with variegated marbles and sculpture, not to mention highly 
 coloured representations of ships, kiosks, gardens, &c., in 
 which the fish are as large as the ships, the men as tall as the 
 houses, than for embracing the whole mystery of the barber’s 
 science — a science which is looked on with infinitely more 
 respect in the east than in the west, and to which the prepara- 
 tion of the sober berry, far from being the stay of the concern, 
 is quite secondary; simply intended with chibouques, to amuse 
 the customers while waiting. In addition to shaving, cutting 
 hair, trimming, dying, and anointing, the barber bleeds, draws 
 teeth, and applies leeches,* all very adroitly. At the same 
 time may he seen, one man holding his head to be washed and 
 shaved, over an enormous metal basin, the operator twisting 
 the solitary lock from side to side, and brandishing his razor 
 with inimitable grace ; a second submitting to have every hair 
 plucked out which interferes with the prescribed line of beard 
 and moustaches; a third having his eyebrows dyed; a turbaned 
 urchin squalling as a bad tooth comes out; a Tartar, with his 
 sleeves up to his shoulder, getting hied after a long journey; 
 in the comer, a tiriaki coiled up, enjoying his dream of 
 Paradise; and, if in Pera, the scene is further diversified by 
 Franks, smoking and chatting, waiting a turn. Oh ye ! who 
 visit the East, put yourselves under an Armenian or Turkish 
 barber. Never shave yourselves. His shaving is ambrosial. 
 The delicate manipulation with which he assists the steel sets 
 you to sleep, and so exquisitely is the operation performed, 
 without ruffling, in the slightest degree, the tenderest skin, 
 that when done, and feeling your face, you start — considering 
 the country you are in — doubtful of your sex. 
 
 We need go no farther than the fifth hill. Thus far the 
 breath of the seraglio vivifies the languid mass ; thus far every 
 
 * Not a century since the same union existed in London; in the year 
 1745 the surgeons were separated from the barbers by an Act of Parliament, 
 entitled, “An Act for making the Surgeons and Barbers of London two 
 distinct and separate Corporations.” 
 
412 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 description of traveller, with one added to Sterne’s list — the 
 hypochondriac — may find food for amusement and reflection x 
 hut, beyond it, we wander through a wasted city, and view the 
 effect of the silent depopulation — -from executions, disease, 
 and famine — which has reduced its 750,000 inhabitants, in the 
 reign of Solyman, to half the number. Our eyes wander 
 over the Etmeidan, Janizzaries’ slaughter scene, and rest on 
 three large towers in the S.W. angle of the city, which denote 
 
 The Seven Towers.* 
 
 How things become changed from their original purpose ! 
 — a church becomes a stable, a palace barracks, a hut the 
 residence of a monarch, by the vicissitudes of war; but 
 Mahomet II. little thought, when he erected this fortress for 
 the custody of his treasures, that it would be long solely used 
 as a prison for Christian ambassadors. The apartment where 
 they were lodged is not bad. The Golden gate, or triumphal 
 arch, raised by Theodosius to commemorate his victory over 
 Maximus — through which, for one emperor who entered it in 
 triumph twenty ingloriously fled, thereby rendering the name a 
 mockery — was in the present circuit of the seven towers. Two 
 dilapidated Corinthian columns, supporting the remnant of a 
 frontispiece, denote its existence. 
 
 Adjoining the towers, supplying the want of the golden 
 gate, is the gate Yedi kule kapusu. Four other gates also 
 give entrance to the city from the country, viz. Ederne kapusu 
 (angl. : gate of Poliandro), Top kapusu (angl.: gate of St. 
 Eomanus), Mevlana yeni kapusu (angl.: porta quinta), Selivri 
 
 kapusu (angl.: gate of ). These gates are massive 
 
 arches uniting the double wall, and connecting each with a 
 good stone bridge over the fosse, which is twenty-five feet 
 wide, and not so many in depth, notwithstanding the asser- 
 tion of history, that it was one hundred feet deep at the time 
 of the Mohammedan conquest; which, however, it could not 
 have been, or we should not be able to see the ruins of 
 
 * There were originally seven; bnt the great earthquake of 1766 threw 
 down three of them: one of the others is nearly ruined. They were 
 erected 1458. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 413 
 
 the breach in it as we can. A fine paved road runs along 
 it, from the Propontis to the harbour, a distance of three 
 miles and a half, bordered on the left hand, for a consi- 
 derable way, by a vast cemetery. The great age of some 
 of the cypresses, and the antique fashion of many of the 
 tombs, led me to conclude that this was the receptacle of 
 those who fell in the storm, — a striking evidence of which 
 event is seen in the prostrate condition of a tower and of 
 eighty feet of wall in the ditch, about one-third of the dis- 
 tance from the sea of Marmora to the harbour, near the gate 
 of St. Komanus. The Mohammedans considering them a 
 trophy, and believing that Constantinople had seen its last 
 siege, have suffered these interesting ruins to remain where 
 they fell; and time has ornamented them with a profusion of 
 wild creepers. No, beautiful, and romantic, and classic as is 
 Constantinople and its environs in every part, it has no spot 
 so truly interesting, so riveting to the imagination as this, the 
 breach, where closed the career of the last and noblest of the 
 Constantines. 
 
 One more suburb of Constantinople remains to he men- 
 tioned; the city of Scutari, on the opposite coast of Asia. It 
 was anciently called Chrysopolis (city of gold), the cause of 
 which name still exists, in its being the depot for the caravans 
 from Arabia, from Syria, and from all parts of Asia Minor. 
 In consequence its inhabitants are chiefly employed in manu- 
 facturing saddlery, with all kinds of horse and travelling 
 equipage. One mile from it is the site of the city of Chalce- 
 donia, now occupied by the village Kady Koju; and, about a 
 cable’s length off it, in the fair way of the Bosphorus, on a 
 rock just above water, is a square white tower, called by Euro- 
 peans Leander’s Tower (without any reason), by the natives 
 Kiz Kulesi (Maiden’s Tower), built by Manuel Comnenus for 
 the purpose of extending a chain from it across the strait. It 
 is admirably situated for assailing hostile ships: some heavy 
 cannon are mounted; and in the rock is a spring of pure 
 water. Between it and the shore is a passage for vessels not 
 drawing above fourteen feet. 
 
 The inhabitants of Scutari being entirely true believers (ex- 
 
414 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 cepting some Hebrews), the mosques, royal and private, are 
 numerous and handsome. That built by a daughter of Soly- 
 man is the most elegant.* There is also a superb pile of 
 barracks, built by Selim III. for the Nizam dgeditt, and near 
 the city is a seraglio where the sultans used to reside for a while 
 when they intended to follow the armies to a Persian war. 
 
 From the outskirts of Scutari the great cemetery stretches 
 three miles over the plain, where repose the half of the genera- 
 tions of Stamboul, undisturbed by axe or spade. f A more 
 striking memento of human nothingness, a more imposing 
 tribute of human piety, a more sincere attestation of faith in 
 resurrection, elsewhere is not to be seen. The graves are 
 never disturbed, being barricaded by superstition as well as by 
 law; for it is the Mussulman faith that some part of the body 
 (the os-sacrum, generally believed) remains undecayed, on 
 which, at the last day, to effect regeneration. Some Mussulman 
 divines assert that the dead suffer torments while actually in 
 the grave; that they do until laid there is universally orthodox; 
 for which reason the breath is scarcely out of a man than he 
 is hurried to his last home without ceremony, the bearers 
 running as fast as they can, giving a funeral a grotesque 
 appearance. All Mussulmans believe that the dead undergo 
 an examination in the grave, before Monkir and Nekir, some 
 time during the first three days, in order to decide whether the 
 patient shall go straight to heaven, or perform a little prepara- 
 tory penance in hell. On this account the grave is constructed 
 so as to allow the body to sit up and answer questions. I 
 
 * It has this inscription, “ This mosque adorned with columns has been 
 built by a pious princess, gem of the Ottoman crown, ornament of the 
 world, of religion, and of her country. God render her incomparable with 
 every grace. Built by the daughter of the Emperor Solyman, son of the 
 Emperor Selim, who rendered the world habitable with justice and clemency, 
 and established security and tranquillity in favour of the Eaithful. May 
 God extend his empire to the eternity of ages! It was begun, with the 
 aid of God, in the sacred month of Zilhiggi, in the year of the Hegira 954 
 (1547). 
 
 f It is a common error to suppose that the Constantinopolitans are all 
 buried at Scutari in anticipation of their capital falling into the hands of the 
 infidels, when their graves might be defiled. It certainly is a favourite 
 resting place; but the different cemeteries on the European side of the 
 Bosphorus would, if put together, cover a space equal to the great cemetery. 
 Nearly all the sultans are interred at Constantinople. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 415 
 
 have often witnessed a Turkish burial: as soon as the procession 
 reaches the spot fixed on, breathless, two of the party set about 
 digging the grave, while the remainder sit round the coffin in 
 a circle, apparently quite unconcerned. Women cannot attend. 
 The coffin is then taken to pieces, and the body being laid in the 
 ground, a kind of vault is raised over it with the planks, on 
 which the earth is heaped. No service whatever is performed. 
 This accommodation is of course very temporary, but it lasts 
 sufficiently for the dark inquisitorial angels to arrive. The 
 tombs, or monuments, are very beautiful: they are of white 
 marble, covered with verses of the Koran, durably and mas- 
 sively gilded on a dark-blue ground. The Osmanleys carry 
 the art of gilding to perfection, and the Arabic character is 
 peculiarly effective for its display. The name of the deceased 
 only is inscribed, without any record of virtues, such as deface 
 Christian tombs — deface, I say, since in nine cases out of ten 
 the record is false. The nature of the carved turban denotes 
 the rank which the deceased held in society. Women’s monu- 
 ments are distinguished by a lotus leaf painted on them. 
 Some graves are covered with marble troughs filled with soil 
 to grow flowers in, the odour of which is grateful to the spirit 
 when he revisits his earthly tenement; neither is it uncommon, 
 in the cities, to see private burial plots covered over with wire 
 trellis work in which to keep birds, whose notes are also sup- 
 posed to solace the spirit. All erroneous as it is, this idea is 
 very beautiful, and the possessors of it are enviable ; it is the 
 most intellectual part of the Mussulman faith, and shews that 
 Mohammed had a soul for poetry. How soothing to affection 
 the belief, that it can afford pleasure to the soul of a departed 
 friend, — can still converse with it; how assuaging to the pang 
 of separation ! It is touching sometimes to witness the 
 solicitude of Turkish females about these hallowed spots, 
 where they pass some part of nearly every day. Once in a 
 romantic burying ground, on the banks of the Bosphorus, I 
 accidentally saw a young female, unveiled, with her hair loose, 
 plucking the stones from a new made grave, and casting them 
 from her with maniac gestures. She did not perceive me, but 
 continued her sad task till not a stone or a weed defaced it; — then 
 
416 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 threw herself on it. There she remained till her women, who 
 were observing her from a distance, came and roused her from 
 her trance of woe. In Europe such grief would he deemed a 
 mockery; hut with Eastern women, whose passions grow in 
 solitude, who have few worldly amusements to divert the cur- 
 rent of their thoughts, and whose joy generally centres in one 
 object, with whom perhaps hope dies, it is often too real. 
 
 The deep solemnity of this vast forest of cypresses, impene- 
 trable alike to sun or gale, cannot he imagined. Paved roads 
 intersect it in various directions, hourly traversed by man and 
 beast. On whichever side you approach Constantinople or its 
 suburbs, ;it is through a burial ground ; you cannot pass from 
 one quarter to another but through a burial ground ; you look 
 out of window on a burial ground ; your only promenades are 
 in the burial grounds. Mussulmans at least have the awful 
 lesson constantly before their eyes. At night the dogs troop 
 in them, to the annoyance of all that have to pass them ; and 
 without being provided with a good stick and a lantern, a man 
 has a chance of being found in the morning ready laid for 
 burial ; for though a most cowardly species, they have wolfish 
 blood, and acquire artificial courage at night-time.* Yet to 
 see one crouching behind every tomb, — one darting at you at 
 every angle, — to hear their continued bark, adds an indescrib- 
 able interest to these gloomy solitudes. Thus amidst the 
 ruins of Ephesus, how exciting is the long howling of the 
 jackals in every direction ! How greatly would it enhance the 
 scene, on entering Balbec to meet an hyena! What a train of 
 association it caused me, one day at Sardis, the sight of a Tur- 
 coman boring one of the three remaining columns of the 
 
 * There are instances, though rare, of their seriously hurting people. 
 Two, one day, tripped up a little youngster of the Blonde , and commenced 
 biting him, and might soon have finished him had not an old Turkish woman 
 opened her door and driven them away. A formal complaint was in conse- 
 quence lodged against them before the ambassador for having thus insulted 
 a British subject. But as his Excellency did not exactly know what pro- 
 cedure to adopt in so novel a case, it was referred to the waivode of Galata, 
 in whose jurisdiction the assault and battery had been committed. The 
 waivode took proper cognizance of the affair. He sent out his emissaries, 
 and a dark, ill-disposed, well-known dog, was taken up on suspicion, and 
 making no defence, was publicly put to death. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 417 
 
 temple of Apollo, for the purpose of blasting it ! It is not that 
 an hyena, or a jackal, or a' Turcoman, abstractedly viewed, 
 adds much to the picture, but connectively each speaks 
 volumes. They are the postscripts of time, the seals of desola- 
 tion. An extent of ruin signifies no farther than that a city 
 once stood there ; there may be another within five miles; — 
 tenant it with savage beasts, and we conclude that equal ruin 
 has befallen the surrounding country. The Turcoman boring 
 the column was a sorry spectacle ; but what a tale of fallen 
 grandeur ! in the once proud capital of Croesus, the tumuli of 
 Alyattes and his wives in sight; — what evidence of the reign of 
 barbarism ! Thus also in the cemeteries which environ Stam- 
 boul, we involuntarily think, as the pack yells round us, that we 
 are in a desert. Ten paces on we enter a populous quarter. 
 They never disturb the dead, (which would be easy on account 
 of the shallowness of the graves,) or the Turks would soon 
 destroy them. I do not even think that they like human flesh. 
 Lord Byron says, in the notes to the “ Siege of Corinth,” that he 
 has seen them gnawing bodies washed up under the seraglio 
 walls. That should be conclusive ; but I suppose that his 
 lordship wrote from memory, and mistook the place. The 
 water beneath the seraglio wall is bound by a pier two feet 
 above its surface, past which the current rushes, without the 
 slightest eddy, at the rate of two miles and a half per hour. 
 Nothing thrown into the Bosphorus lower down than Buyuk- 
 dere bay, or the Propontis, can turn up, that is, come to shore, 
 within several miles of Constantinople. Indeed it is contrary 
 to reason to suppose that the Turks, who have such supersti- 
 tious veneration for the dead, would tolerate these disgjisting 
 animals were they in the habit of violating them. 
 
 Adjoining this paradise of worms is the college of dervishes 
 kadi, or the howling dervishes, in contradistinction to the 
 dancing dervishes at Pera. We found them in full cry. 
 They were extremely civil ; were flattered at our curiosity, and 
 gave us prominent seats. The apartment was octangular, 
 surrounded by a low railing to keep off the spectators. The 
 superior gave the time with his hand and head, while about 
 twenty brethren moaned, half sung, a kind of hymn, in which 
 
 E E 
 
418 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the names Allah, Mohammed, Mnstapha, (a saint, founder of 
 the order,) continually recurred. At intervals some howled 
 suddenly, others danced round as mad, and all by turns 
 approached and kissed the hand of the superior, who sat aside 
 on a carpet. During the performance sick people were car- 
 ried in and laid at the superiors feet to he cured. He 
 whispered in their ears, stroked their breasts, and then bid 
 them rise. They obeyed: some tottered off; others, faith 
 lighting up their sunken eyes, joined the holy troop, and sung 
 and danced with equal fervour. Presently the scene changed 
 to one of a more lively description. To the notes ya-la-ye-ip, 
 sung to a merry tune, the fanatics twisted their bodies in rapid 
 contortions, jerked themselves violently forwards and back- 
 wards, to either side, their heads twirling and their eyes 
 rolling in a frightful manner, making the spectators giddy, and 
 expect every moment that some would fall into fits. Occa- 
 sionally, seized by a sudden impulse, they howled in concert. 
 For upwards of thirty minutes this bedlamite game had lasted, 
 and we began to think that the actors were endowed with per- 
 petual motion, when the superior, extending his hand, pro- 
 nounced the word “ Allah.” Immediately, as if they felt the 
 hand of the Almighty as well as heard his name, they stood 
 each still as a statue, eyes fixed, head firm. This was the 
 grand coup de theatre, and exceedingly well done it was — quite 
 sublime. The sport recommenced with greater ardour. In a 
 state, apparently, of complete frenzy they seized each other’s 
 hands, and they danced and they sung, and they leaped in 
 concert. Then dividing in two lines, they rushed from side to 
 side, and they charged, head down, like goats, only separating 
 to meet again with greater impetus, all the while making the 
 dome resound with discordant howls. Finally, closing in a 
 heap, confusedly embraced, with disordered garments and 
 swollen veins, they stamped and rolled round the hall, till 
 three, overcome with the violence of the exercise, foamed and 
 fell into convulsions. This was the triumph of devotion ; and 
 thus terminated, after two hours’ continuance, as singular a 
 scene of folly grafted on superstition as one could wish to se e 
 It is worth seeing once, and only once. 
 
 / ' . ' I 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 419 
 
 Under the head of Scutari I should mention that from the 
 heights behind it is a fine, by some said the finest, view of 
 Constantinople. Whether it is, I will not pretend to decide, 
 since the impression made on me was the same from whichever 
 side I received it. One is in danger of becoming surfeited 
 with the profusion of beauties which nature has here amassed 
 in a narrow compass. I would recommend the epicure in such 
 things on his arrival to take horse and ride to Buyukdere, by 
 which he will prolong his enjoyment. There let him embark 
 in a caique, and descend the Bosphorus. I will not dwell on 
 the enchantment. Who once makes this excursion will he 
 tempted to repeat it often. Nor is the ride devoid of interest. 
 During the first two or three miles, let him occasionally turn 
 round and look on the glorious scene he is leaving. Each 
 time he will doubt the evidence of his senses, comparing the 
 proud capital — billows on billows of city — within cannon 
 range, with the barren, almost trackless heath he is traversing, 
 where man neither sows nor reaps. To the civilized European 
 the contrast is truly painful. To find himself, on leaving 
 Palmyra, at once in a sandy desert, would only excite his 
 surprise at the individual folly which could build in such a 
 spot ; at the same time the triumph of art over nature would 
 reconcile him to the anomaly, and flatter human pride. Here 
 it is the triumph of ignorant indolent despotism over a soil 
 which scarcely needs the spade to burst into fertility, yet 
 remains profitless. Luxury alone might have prompted the 
 ornamental. Ascending the heights of Kiris Boumoo, the 
 fortifications of the Bosphorus and the distant Euxine open on 
 him — a scene that may be dwelt on. 
 
 There is another view to which I would draw attention. It 
 is from the tombs of the Armenian cemetery on the borders of 
 a deep ravine. The spectator looks down between two hills 
 nearly united at their bases, only separated by a narrow rivulet, 
 thickly studded with habitations ; that on the right being the 
 Greek village of St. Demetrius, notorious for the lax morals of 
 its inhabitants; on the left is Pera. Emerging from the 
 shadow of the hills are seen the capitan pasha’s palace and the 
 arsenal gates, on the one hand ; on the other, his divan hane 
 
 E e 2 
 
420 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 and the quarters of kasym pasha. Beyond them the harbour 
 intervenes with admirable effect, to break the monotony of 
 architecture, — masts and yards mingling with doors and win- 
 dows, caiques appearing and disappearing among cypresses and 
 domes, — not an expanded sheet, but a narrow triangular lake, 
 of insufficient dimensions, apparently, to allow the guard 
 frigate anchored in it to swing round, her broad red ensign 
 wanting space to display its ample folds. From the base of 
 the triangle, on the farther side, Stamboul rises, and expands 
 to the east and west, with the configuration of the hills, till 
 two-thirds of its extent are visible. Valens’ aqueduct occupies 
 the centre of the picture, and over its deep arches, lying 
 parallel with them, defined on either side by the domes of a 
 mosque, the soft blue line of the Propontis, like the pencil 
 stroke of a drawing which represents distant water, faintly 
 traces the horizon. When the sun is setting, and gilding the 
 columns and minarets ; or on gala nights, when the frigate and 
 the mosques are covered with lamps ; or, still more magnificent, 
 when the devouring element, as I have seen it, careers over the 
 seven-hilled city, the above feebly indicated scene is capable of 
 arresting the attention of a gourmand whose dinner is waiting. 
 The masses of dwellings thus brought together in a coup d’oeil 
 from the nature of the site, and the foreshortening of the pic- 
 ture, are striking in another sense : — they prompt the question, 
 “ How do their inhabitants exist ?” — a question which every 
 stranger puts to himself as well as to others — a question which 
 is difficult to answer; for Constantinople does not offer the 
 same resources as the great Christian capitals for those who 
 live on their wits. Vice, the great alimenter of idleness, is 
 kept under by the strong arm of religious law. There is little 
 commerce; there are few arts; there is no great influx of 
 travellers ; the rich men of the provinces do not congregate in 
 it. There are no cultivated lands to speak of within twenty 
 miles, in some directions within fifty miles. The commonest 
 necessaries of life come from distant parts : — the corn for daily 
 bread from Odessa; the cattle and sheep from beyond 
 Adrianople, or from Asia Minor ; the rice, of which such a 
 vast consumption is made, from the neighbourhood of Philip- 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 421 
 
 popolis ; the poultry chiefly from Bulgaria ; the fruit and 
 vegetables from Nicomedia and Mondania. Thus a constant 
 drain of money is occasioned, without any visible return except 
 to the treasury or from the property of the Ulema. The places 
 above mentioned may he considered as foreign parts; their 
 inhabitants never visit the capital, and thereby restore the 
 equilibrium. But though I cannot precisely solve the problem 
 of the means of the Constantinopolitans, I may give a rough 
 sketch of them, which may serve as a specimen of the inhabi- 
 tants of European Turkey in general ; not of the Asiatic 
 Turks, who are a different people ; more open and hospitable, 
 less treacherous and avaricious; hut far more fanatic and 
 ignorant. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 On the Osmanleys — the Greeks — the Armenians — the Jews. 
 
 In reference to some writers, who assert that we should change 
 “ Turks,” as a general appellation for the sultan’s subjects, for 
 Osmanleys,” because (according to them) the former is vili- 
 fying, I beg leave to remark that the latter is only applicable 
 to the European Turks, as is easy to be shown. When Oth- 
 man (founder of the reigning dynasty) usurped the sovereignty 
 of Cogni (Iconium) on the death of sultan Aladdin, of whom 
 he was the vizir, Turk, or Turkman (husbandman) was (as 
 now) the denomination of the inhabitants of nearly all the 
 provinces that at present comprise the Turkish empire in Asia. 
 After the conquest of Brussa, however, his followers disdained 
 it, and assumed the name of their leader, leaving the indigenous 
 name to those who would not immediately follow his fortunes. 
 The short interval that elapsed ere the seat of their empire was 
 at Adrianople, prevented these proud soldiers from losing their 
 characteristic, and thereby ceasing to he a separate body. 
 With Amurath their descendants quitted Asia and settled in 
 possession of the lands of the Greeks, from which time the 
 distinction has remained, so that no European Turk will allow 
 
422 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the name of Osmanley to an Asiatic; even talking of the 
 powerful Car’ Osman Oglou, or Tchapan Oglou, he tells you, 
 with a sneer, that he is only a Turk; and this superciliousness 
 has been fortified by the superiority that in all demi-civilized 
 countries those of the profession of arms assume over the pur- 
 suers of husbandry; — the lowest European Mussulman having 
 seldom till lately had occasion to be other than a soldier, 
 whereas in Asia, there not being a raya population, the Mus- 
 sulmans put their shoulders to the plough. “ Bin Turk bir 
 toorp; yazektoorp !” a thousand Turks for a radish; poor 
 radish! (at being valued so cheap) is in every Osmanley’s 
 mouth. 
 
 The name Turkey is also strictly Turkish. The Asiatics 
 sometimes call their country Tourkia Yakasi, but the Eu- 
 ropeans never do; they may call it Memleket Osmanley, or 
 Vilayet Othmanjick, the appellation being also extended to 
 Bythynia, because Othman reigned there. Both names, how- 
 ever, are superseded by “ Roumely” (for Europe), “Anadolu” 
 (for Asia). 
 
 Having thus settled, in one way, who are and who are not 
 Osmanleys, we may proceed to give a sketch of the Constanti- 
 nopolitans, among whom rank foremost, of course, the Osman- 
 leys. As they value beauty, even in men, more than talent, 
 it is right to commence saying a word on that subject; the 
 more necessary because they have been so often described as a 
 very handsome race, and the impression thereby made is so 
 strong, that it requires to be among them some time before 
 allowing one’s self to doubt. All, however, who have visited 
 Constantinople since the catastrophe of the Janizzaries, agree 
 that they are not in general good looking, the disuse of tur- 
 bans and long robes being the cause of their altered appearance. 
 Excepting Kussian troops, I never saw a worse-favoured body 
 of men than the Nizam-dgeditt. The magical effects of a turban 
 are well known. It gives depth to light eyes, expression to 
 dark eyes; it softens harsh features, relieves delicate ones; it 
 hides misshapen ears, or a “ villanous low forehead ;” it adds 
 gravity to a simple countenance, dignity to a sensible one; 
 and it little matters whether a man be hump-backed or bandy- 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS, 
 
 423 
 
 legged, crooked or parrot-footed, when clothed in ample rohes, 
 which, besides concealing defects, impart a theatrical assurance 
 to his step. The sultan, as I have before observed, could not 
 have hit upon a surer way to make his subjects discontented 
 with him and with themselves. 
 
 Midway between the savage and the civilized man in regard 
 of mental resources, not yielding, however, to the latter in phy- 
 sical enjoyments, the vices of the Osmanleys have been over- 
 rated, because they have been chiefly drawn at periods of 
 fanatic excitement, which should only he considered as episodes. 
 The most favoured nations, at times, with all the advantage of 
 education and example, commit wholesale the excesses of 
 Ashantees and Cherokees ; yet, when the crisis is over, resume 
 their place in the front ranks of civilization. 
 
 The prominent feature of his character, and which, far more 
 than his religion, acts as a bar to improvement, is an exceed- 
 ing love of indolence, which he carries to an extent scarcely 
 credible ; shopkeepers, in hot weather, rather than rise off their 
 cushions to reach you the article you want, will desire you to 
 go to another shop. The “ dolce far niente,” joined to the 
 pensar niente, is the Osmanley’s felicity ; and while he could 
 flatter himself that he was as far above the rest of the human 
 species as his prophet above him, he constantly enjoyed it ; but 
 late reverses have broken the charm, and placed him in the 
 condition of a paralytic invalid, who wakes from a dream of 
 health to a sense of his helplessness. 
 
 He is not revengeful, that is, if interest be in the scale against 
 passion ; unlike the Albanian, with whom blood must atone 
 blood. He will forgive a personal insult, and embrace the 
 murderer of his friend ; will fight with ardour for his patron, 
 and the moment after be equally faithful to his fortunate rival ; 
 bowing, at the sight of the firman of death, to the very execu- 
 tioner of a kind master. Provided with this authority, a man 
 might stab a pasha in his divan (if he could get at him), and 
 it would almost save him from the immediate fury of his 
 attendants ; certainly it would save him were they in an ad- 
 joining chamber. 
 
 But the Osmanley’s treachery is terrible : for, as the Spartan 
 
424 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 boys were taught to consider theft meritorious, so does he con- 
 sider the art of successfully dissembling the highest effort of 
 the human mind. The command that he exercises over his 
 tongue and features is perfect, — by us unattainable. The 
 most cutting reproach, or the most sudden surprise, or the 
 most joyful news, is no ways betrayed by one or the other, 
 unless he be in a situation not to need observation, when he 
 will foam. His entire education tends to the acquirement of 
 this talent. Through life he is no better than an automaton 
 while in the presence of a superior : with eyes cast down and 
 hands crossed before him, he stands unless bidden to sit, — is 
 mute unless invited to speak. The more I have witnessed of 
 this command over what may be termed the involuntary 
 emotions, the more I have been astonished ; but it requires a 
 painful apprenticeship to arrive at such perfection. 
 
 Individually, he is courageous ; and he is skilful in the use 
 of arms, drawing his ataghan in particular with an electric 
 effect, so that at one motion he can unsheath it, and almost 
 sever his opponent. No inconvenience, however, arises from 
 this aptitude, for it is death by the law to use a weapon unless 
 by command of a superior. Severe as this law is, heat of blood 
 not being even admitted in excuse, it is invariably acted on, 
 otherwise no man’s life would be safe among an armed popu- 
 lation ; and in consequence, no country is so free from man- 
 slaughter. Once, and only once, did I know of a fight; it 
 took place one afternoon on the quay of Buyukdere, between 
 two of the capitan pasha’s guards, one of whom, half in- 
 toxicated, had just taken a loaf from a Greek’s shop, for which 
 offence the patrol, which happened to be passing at the time, 
 seized him, and were driving him towards the pasha’s kiosk, 
 that the soles of his feet might pay the penalty of the palms of 
 his hands. Irritated, at length, by the abuse and the blows of 
 the chavass bashi, the fellow turned sharp round, drew out his 
 own sabre from the hands of the chavass who was carrying it, 
 and made a cut at the bashi. The bashi parried it, also a 
 second blow, but then, finding himself hard pressed, dropped 
 his stick and drew his ataghan. They were now on a par, both 
 much enraged, and the affair seemed likely to be sanguinary. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 425 
 
 Their countrymen did not interfere, probably fearing a by-blow, 
 otherwise than by calling on Allah to witness their madness ; 
 nor did we, and for the same reason. Still, however, the 
 parties kept a respectful distance apart, preluding by some 
 pretty flourishes, which made the air whiz as though they were 
 using switches. At length, with one accord, they advanced a 
 pace, and made a cut. Neither thought of guarding. The 
 blades, directly horizontal, passed each other like flashes, and 
 took effect, — the sabre dividing the skin of its opponent’s neck, 
 while the ataghan, not being so long, only reached the other’s 
 nose, making a neat incision across it; — at the moment we 
 thought that one of their heads was off. The sight of blood 
 cooled instead of inflaming the antagonists, who instantly 
 sheathed their weapons ; and he who had first drawn, recollect- 
 ing then the enormity of his faulty rushed, with presence of 
 mind, into the house of a diplomatist, relying on the respect 
 usually accorded to such. Thence he was conveyed to the 
 flagship. The pasha ordered him to be strangled at sunset ; 
 but in consideration of his temporary asylum, sent him to the 
 bagnio instead. 
 
 The Osmanley is avaricious from the nature of his country, 
 which combines uncertainty of employment and insecurity of 
 property. At the same time he is inconsistent ; for though he 
 may be said to adore gold, ostentation makes him spend it. 
 He will give rich presents to a stranger, while an intimate 
 friend may expect in vain a token of liberality. He has a 
 richly-dressed train of domestics and a beautiful stud, neither 
 of which can he employ, while his domestic expenditure is so 
 trifling, that, excepting on parade days, when it is lavish, five 
 shillings will pay for the dinner of a pasha’s household. Sim- 
 plicity guides most of his tastes : perfumes, and the sound of 
 falling water, and rushing wind, — harmless pleasures, which are 
 easily procured by artificial means, — are necessary to his com- 
 fort ; to which add the chibouque, and a tolerable supply of 
 coffee, and he requires no more to enable him to get through 
 the day with patience. At evening he may honour the ladies 
 with his presence. We will not draw the harem curtains ; a 
 description of the bizarre and multiplied sensualities behind it, 
 
426 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 would rather offend than amuse. Yet this monotonous life is 
 capable of being exchanged for one of violent action, and with 
 a surprising facility. After lolling half a year in Sybarite 
 indolence, only using his legs to convey him from one sofa to 
 another, he will gird his loins, and ride twelve hours a-day for 
 a month. 
 
 He is not the unsocial animal so perpetually described ; on 
 the contrary, he is very partial to the company of his like- 
 nesses, as the constant occupation of the coffee-houses proves. 
 True, whether in town or country, his verbal intercourse is 
 confined to “ selam aleykum, aleykum selam, ne var,” and 
 other ordinary questions and answers, followed by a long 
 silence ; but what can they say ? deprive the most loquacious 
 people of books, of gazettes, of scandal, their conversation will 
 soon drop to monosyllables. 
 
 The Osmanley’s hospitality has been too much extolled on 
 principle, for in a country which offers few resources for 
 travellers, hospitality becomes not only a bounden duty, but a 
 point of self-interest, in order to obtain the same upon occasion ; 
 besides, the arrival of a traveller in a family is as good as half 
 a year’s newspapers. Neither is his charity, wide-flowing 
 though it be, so very meritorious, because it springs from the 
 selfish idea of smoothing with it the individual way to heaven, 
 not “ out of kindness to all men;” and is therefore, in appear- 
 ance, cold, bitter cold, as any one will say who has seen a pious 
 Osmanley give away his quantum of paras in his morning 
 stroll, one by one, according as he is solicited, then stop at a 
 baker’s shop, buy a loaf, break it in pieces, and distribute them 
 to the expectant dogs ; after which stated duty, a friend’s son, 
 or a friend’s hound in distress, would scarcely attract his 
 notice. Such arises from his religion, which consists chiefly 
 of appearances — ablutions, alms, prayers, — by which, obliging 
 his followers to attest their faith daily in public, by acts that 
 could not be misinterpreted or slurred over, making the infrac- 
 tion a crime, little caring whether the heart were in unison 
 with the tongue or not, Mohammed provided his creed with a 
 firm bulwark against the most dangerous of heresies — visible 
 indifference; and by a due observance of which, though unin- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 427 
 
 Alien ced by one proper feeling, a Mussulman feels assured of 
 exchanging his kiosk for “ a hollow pearl,” his favourite palm- 
 tree for a branch of the tuba, his sherbet for draughts from the 
 rivers of milk and wine, and, above all, of obtaining a sight of 
 Him, “one look at whom,” said Mohammed, “is joy past 
 imagining.” This, however, this injunction to his followers to 
 practise charity is not the only boon which poor Mussulmans 
 owe to their Prophet, who was intimately too well acquainted 
 with mankind to suppose that simple exhortations on such a 
 subject would operate on the mass, and he therefore saved the 
 really charitable from the unequal duty which the callous would 
 have imposed on them — do impose on them in all countries — 
 by establishing poor laws. Poor laws — our boast — which to 
 this day only exist in one comer of Christendom — have been 
 sacred among Mussulman nations since 1 200 years. By them 
 a Mussulman is bound to give to the poor two per cent, of all 
 he has ; and where the religion maintains its wonted sway over 
 the minds of the people, the law is strictly observed ; but in the 
 cities — the principal ones of European Turkey, for example — 
 where religious indifference — herald, according to the mission- 
 aries, of the introduction of Christianity — is making progress, 
 charity, it is mortifying to observe, is rapidly waning. 
 
 But the virtue which chieAy characterizes the Osmanley (as 
 well as all Mussulmans) is cleanliness, which he carries to 
 fastidiousness. I cannot comprehend how some travellers 
 have disputed it ; they must have formed their opinion from 
 their tartar and their surrogee, although these, the journey 
 over, thoroughly purify themselves in a bath. For my part, I 
 do not know so clean a people, and I have seen them in all 
 grades of society. In addition to his daily ablutions, he takes 
 a bath — such a bath ! — at least once a week. Equally incorrect 
 is the saying that he does not frequently change his linen; 
 perhaps they who assert it judge from his showing no shirt 
 collar, which in civilized Europe would certainly be an ad- 
 missible argument. The sailors and soldiers, for example, 
 used to wash their linen twice a week. His house, and every- 
 thing relating thereto, his food, &c., are scrupulously clean; 
 and in every Mussulman dwelling is seen a neat temple to the 
 
428 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 worship of Cloacina — a piety nowhere else practised out of 
 Great Britain. No people have a keener sense of propriety. 
 We in vain seek in the streets of a Mussulman town for sights 
 which in polished European cities make a woman turn her head, 
 and necessitate the magistrates to affix in conspicuous places, 
 “ ici il est defendu de deposer,” &c. When they bathe in the 
 sea they never appear in naturalibus, however remote the spot, 
 lest hy chance a female might he shocked; even boys of the 
 tenderest age retain a cloth. I could cite fifty other examples 
 to the same purport. Eor those who love to trace ancient 
 customs in modern times, it may not he uninteresting to observe 
 that in Turkish camps the same practice, in necessity, is strictly 
 observed as was prescribed to the Hebrews, though more out of 
 respect to man than to God. 
 
 The Greeks occupy the second place in importance among 
 the inhabitants of European Turkey, and more particularly 
 deserve notice on account of the influence which they have 
 exercised over its destinies ; an influence which has tended 
 more than any other cause to undermine the Ottoman power, 
 hy acting on it like a perverse mind on a pampered body. The 
 Osmanleys viewing conquest only as the means of obtaining 
 repose, had gained their object with the powerful aid of the 
 Koran as long as the nations whom they subjugated were of 
 the same caste as themselves ; hut on obtaining possession of 
 all the Grecian provinces — (their dominions in Europe having 
 been too narrow while Adrianople was their capital to affect 
 their general policy) — they perceived that other arts would he 
 necessary to rule their new subjects, and reap the fruit of their 
 labour. They were therefore delighted to find in the Fanariotes 
 the requisite knowledge, with a ready pliability of temper, which 
 saved them the necessity of hateful study. Policy should have 
 shown them their error, hut indolence was in the opposite 
 scale; they employed them in affairs of state, and from that 
 moment began to decline in learning. With another character 
 the Greeks might have reformed their masters and taught them 
 how to govern, hut their treachery was so unvarying, that the 
 Osmanleys could never regard any scheme of theirs, although 
 really beneficial to the empire, hut as injurious to it. Had 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 429 
 
 they been commonly honest they would long since have been 
 emancipated ; in proof of which I cite Kuprogli’s Greek secre- 
 tary, who by his artifices caused the fall of Candia, 1669. He 
 received royal rewards during his lifetime, and after his death 
 was honoured by a public funeral. But we in vain search the 
 annals of Turkish history for another Greek in high office who 
 did not betray his employer; and considering the number of 
 pashas who have lost their heads by the treachery of their 
 Greek agents, it is surprising that they were so long trusted. 
 
 The Greeks naturally turned their power to their own advan- 
 tage. The hardest terms of their servitude gradually dis- 
 appeared. They were forbidden at the conquest to build or 
 repair churches; they have done both. They were forbidden 
 to celebrate their religious festivals, burials, &c., openly; they 
 have long since given them the greatest publicity. The odious 
 tribute of every fifth child was discontinued two and a-half 
 centuries since. In the capital they soon became of sufficient 
 importance, as dragomans of the Porte and of the fleet, to rival 
 the courtiers in wealth and display; to vie with pashas out of 
 it by obtaining the hospodarships of Moldavia and Wallachia.* 
 It may he said that this is the fair side of the picture, that in 
 the provinces, on the contrary, they were exposed to the wills 
 of pashas, of agas. This is partly true in the Morea; in 
 Albania quite incorrect; and in Roumelia the Greeks, aware of 
 the difference, early abandoned country occupations to the 
 Bulgarians, and congregated in the cities, where they enjoyed 
 equal protection with the Mussulmans. The great hardship of 
 the peasantry has consisted in the difficulty of procuring money 
 to pay the kharatch, often multiplied in the course of the year, 
 but in the towns this difficulty never existed. At the same 
 time it must be recollected that pashas in Europe have seldom 
 had unlimited power. It is only in the great pashalicks of 
 Asia where tyranny is practised on a broad scale, and in them 
 live few or no Greeks. 
 
 * The situation of hospodar of late was preferable to that of pasha, 
 because the former was under the protection of Russia. The term of his 
 government was for five years, then for seven years. If he then feared the 
 complaints of his oppressed snbjects, he found a secure asylum in Russia 
 and Austria with his spoils. 
 
430 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 The Greeks have been, and are, without contradiction, the 
 most favoured subjects of the Ottoman Porte, which superiority 
 they owe to their union and their hierarchy. The latter pre- 
 served the former, and prevented them from losing their dis- 
 tinction as a nation. 
 
 The modem Greeks, as the ancient, have ever been impatient 
 of the rule of the stranger. They constantly dreamed of the 
 empire and its pride, of St. Sophia and the cross, which recol- 
 lections, joined to the torpitude of their masters, made ithem 
 often rebel. The Osmanleys on these occasions generally wiped 
 off all scores at once by an indiscriminate vengeance, affecting 
 guilty and innocent. The Greeks naturally cried out Tyranny, 
 Oppression! and the cry re-echoed throughout Europe; and as 
 the Greeks alone of the Porte’s subjects thus repeatedly com- 
 plained, Europe rationally concluded that they were peculiarly 
 oppressed. Tyranny is comparative. What is cruelty, folly, 
 and bigotry in one country, is justice, reason, and religion in 
 another. If one portion of the inhabitants of an empire have 
 privileges which the others have not, the government, though 
 abstractedly had, cannot be accused of tyranny towards that 
 privileged part; nor can any reasoning persuade it of the fact, 
 because it draws a comparison with the rest of its subjects. It 
 is unreasonable to suppose that it will willingly regulate itself 
 by other nations. I by no means pretend that the Ottoman 
 government is not perverse and horrible; the desolate state of 
 the fairest portion of the globe is evidence of this fact before a 
 volume of arguments drawn from the retrograding effects of its 
 faith ; but I must say that the Greeks have suffered least by it, 
 and have least reason to complain. Visit any part of Grecian 
 Turkey, the peasant is well clothed and well fed, his property is 
 protected, his wife and daughters are sacred: (I exclude periods 
 of revolt.) His great hardship is being obliged to lodge and 
 feed troops on their march, and to receive government officers; 
 — the Turkish peasants are equally exposed. In every sense 
 the condition of the Greeks is superior to that of every other 
 class in the empire. The Armenians, though not more op- 
 pressed, are infinitely less co nsidered, on account ojL-t heirmot ^ 
 
 being so completely a nation. The J ews are absolutely despised. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 431 
 
 The Fellahs of Syria are slaves in comparison of them : and the 
 Fellahs of Egypt are in a state disgraceful to humanity. It is 
 easy to account for this remarkable difference between the 
 Christians and the Mussulmans of the Ottoman empire in- 
 versely to what we should expect to find it. 
 
 The Christians have one common misfortune, that of being 
 governed by strangers in every sense of the word; and one 
 common sentiment, that of being oppressed. These two causes 
 existing among any people would produce a spontaneous 
 united opposition to the government which no concession on 
 the part of the latter could dissipate, because the root of the 
 evil is the being of the government. All its acts would be 
 regarded with jealousy; — if conciliatory, after-purposes would 
 he imagined ; — if arbitrary, indications of discontent would he 
 manifested. In this contention the people must have the ad- 
 vantage, because their endeavours tend to one point alone: 
 religion and sympathy are embarked in the cause, and every 
 loophole left is immediately occupied. On the contrary, the 
 government has many things to distract its attention from this 
 imperceptible encroachment. State difficulties, the weakness 
 or good nature of the monarch, the carelessness or corruption 
 of ministers, are all arms for the people. By this proceeding, 
 all their own merit, the Greeks entirely changed their condition ; 
 but, not content with the prospect thus afforded them of gra- 
 dually rising to the condition of the Osmanleys, too confident 
 in their own strength, and in the blindness of their rulers, they 
 often immaturely revolted and drew on themselves the punish- 
 ment they had reason to expect, and thus lost ground. If 
 other proofs were wanting of the superior condition of the 
 Greeks, comparatively, I would cite the frequency of their 
 revolts. A people ground to misery by watchful tyranny rarely 
 shake their chains. It is when physical wants are satisfied that 
 moral abstinence is felt; that the mind has leisure to dwell on 
 fancied superiority, — to desire change of government, a consti- 
 tution, free press, equality of property, and so on, on the scale 
 marked by intellect. The cool pride of the Osmanley, the 
 superiority he constantly assumed, and marked by distinction 
 of dress, tended as much as anything else to make the Greek 
 
432 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 discontented with him. So sorely has he felt on this point, 
 that I verily believe, had the Osmanley, with wise policy, per- 
 mitted him to wear yellow slippers, and a white turban, and an 
 ataghan (though with a wooden blade), he would not have cared 
 much about changing masters. 
 
 Now let us consider, by the side of the Christians, the Mus- 
 sulmans, the causes of whose inferior condition may he summed 
 in the few words, that they have no legitimate causes of com- 
 plaint. They are ruled by their lawful sovereign, whom their 
 religion teaches them to consider as such by divine right. They 
 are taught that he has a just title to the lives and property of 
 his subjects; and that for more whim he may cut off from ten 
 to twenty heads per diem, being moved thereto by divine in- 
 spiration. To question these prerogatives is impiety, and they 
 therefore have no refuge from tyranny hut in sullenness, and in 
 passive resistance, which the peasantry in parts of Asia Minor 
 display by not cultivating more land than is requisite for their 
 villages, so that the towns and troops on the march may suffer; 
 — farther seceding from occupation, if hard pressed, and trusting 
 to their flocks and herds, which they can drive away, for sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 The Greek, as an animal, is handsomer than the Osmanley. 
 As a man he is distinguished by knowledge ; not that he has 
 much ; nor is much necessary, for between a very little and 
 wilful ignorance is a wide gulf. His manners, from long con- 
 tact, are similar; his tastes are not more refined; his constant 
 air of cunning, and ready adaptation of phrases and features to 
 the occasion, evince habitual servitude. His moral character 
 is sufficiently notorious. Say the Philhellenists (whose number 
 is fast diminishing), what can he expected after four centuries 
 of slavery ? They forget the centuries of crime and bigotry 
 that disgraced the empire previous to the Mohammedan con- 
 quest. Many fondly hope that the Greeks will he again what 
 they were. Is a similar hope ever entertained for the Italians ? 
 The European merchants in Turkey fly into an opposite 
 extreme, and assert that the Greek is as dishonest as the 
 Osmanley is honest. They judge from their mercantile trans- 
 actions, in which it is true the latter display more fair dealing. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 433 
 
 We must seek the cause. The Osmanley despises trade: he 
 rarely follows it; and when he does, pride — the pride of the 
 lord — keeps him from practising the knavery of the slave. 
 But where is his faith when his object is the head of a pasha, 
 or the spoil of a banker ! In a word, we may say that where the 
 Osmanley is honest, it is through pride: where the Greek, 
 through fear. 
 
 Were a sufficient number of Grecian skulls to be examined, 
 they would afford a strong argument for or against craniology. 
 They should all have the hump of vanity. The Greeks have 
 always been and are the vainest of the vain on all subjects, from > 
 politics to dancing. They still consider and call their country 
 the “ fountain of philosophers the “ mother of heroes ;” the 
 “ shining Greece.” Here they stopped. Of late years, how- 
 ever, it has been so much the fashion in Europe the saying 
 “We owe everything to the Greeks,” that the modern Greeks 
 begin to believe it; certes, it is too flattering to them to be 
 rejected. A Fanariote noble very seriously told me that had 
 it not been for his ancestors, Europe would still be barbarous. 
 His ancestors ! — It would puzzle any Fanariote (except perhaps 
 the Argyropouli) to trace his descent higher than the Moham- 
 medan conquest: could he do so, he would have more trouble 
 in tracing any of the noble stocks of Attica and the Morea 
 among the schismatizing population which disgraced New Rome 
 so many centuries. Then, as now, the appellation Greek was 
 a religious, not a national distinction. “ Are you a Greek ?." 
 you demand of an inhabitant of the Morea or of the Cyclades. 
 “No, thank God, I am a Catholic;” and vice versa . A Frank 
 ignorant of this, often gives an insult when he means a com- 
 pliment. After all, what do we owe to the Greeks ? — Poetry ? 
 
 — Without them we should have had Shakespeare, though 
 Pope would not have acquired so much renown. — Painting? 
 We have only notices of theirs. — Music? They were unac- 
 quainted with harmony. — Sculpture, architecture ? We English 
 at least have not profited much by their unrivalled productions. 
 
 — History? Theirs teaches us to admire cruelty and duplicity. 
 
 — What are all the acquirements of all the ancients to the 
 wonders of printing, of the compass, of steam, which overturn? 
 
 F F 
 
434 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 empires and creeds, discovers worlds, and almost sets worlds in 
 motion. Yet there are people who still love to repeat, a We 
 owe everything to the Greeks.” 
 
 The Armenians occupy the third rank at Constantinople. 
 They are good-looking, affable and pliant, peaceable and loyal. 
 They are divided into two classes, catholics and schismatics, as 
 I have already mentioned in another chapter. These sects are 
 in open enmity, and are both cordially hated hy the orthodox 
 Greeks, whose principal article of faith appears to consist in 
 hating every one who does not pray, fast, and feast to a tittle 
 as they do. The Armenians are the chief bankers of European 
 Turkey, having supplanted the Jews in that dangerous, but 
 Tucr^v^^mplojment, in consequ ence of possessing Yhperior 
 j^iun esty~'or rather inferior knavery. They are greatly pro- 
 tected by "the Ottoman grandees, often against the sultan 
 himself. In return they perform eminent services. If a pasha 
 requires a million of piastres to buy or take possession of a 
 pashalick, an Armenian banker provides them; he trusts to 
 his creditors talents at spoliation for repayment, and if he 
 have sufficient art to remain long in office, his fortune is 
 assured. On the other hand, should the pasha be impeached 
 and beheaded, the banker is seized and made to disgorge his 
 patron’s wealth and his own. 
 
 i The Hebrews form the fourth tribe of the Constantinopolitans. 
 
 V They are, as is well known, descended from the Spanish exiles, 
 victims of a cruel policy. It is not surprising that these 
 turned their steps to Turkey, considering the protection that 
 their ancestors had enjoyed under the Moorish kings. In 
 .. addition, they neared Jerusalem, the place — the valley of 
 Jehoshaphat — where every Jew wishes his bones to rest. 
 Numbers in every part of the empire realize their property in 
 their old age, and retire to the holy city to die there. When 
 I was at Salonica three hundred embarked for that laudable 
 purpose. Their position in Turkey is ambiguous. They are 
 termed musafirs (guests), but are treated as guests who have 
 outstayed their welcome. Nothing can equal the contempt 
 \ which is heaped on them. If an object of popular hatred has 
 ' to be insulted, who are constrained to do it ? — Jews. If a 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 435 
 
 malefactor or other is to be dragged through the streets, who 
 perform the degrading task ? — Jews. If a pasha cannot get a 
 volunteer executioner, on whom is the odious office imposed ? 
 — Jews. They have the peculiar marked countenance of the 
 nation, — eye of care, sallow complexion, scanty beard, — which 
 is not remarkable in the Jews of England. Indeed, the Jews 
 of the East and of the West appear to be distinct families. 
 What in Turkey particularly distinguishes them from the 
 other inhabitants, independent of costume, is their uncleanli- 
 ness: owing to it the Turkish troops will not quarter in their 
 houses. A modern writer on Turkey has published an absurd 
 calumny about them, concerning their kidnapping and killing 
 Christian children. Their national timidity would contradict 
 this were there not abundance of direct evidence to the 
 contrary. 
 
 They never by any chance follow agricultural pursuits. 
 Their household language is Spanish, rather a vile dialect of 
 it; at the same time, they are well acquainted with the Hebrew 
 and Turkish languages. 
 
 The various people above-mentioned, however different in 
 most points, have one common characteristic, — a total want of 
 conscience. Examine them as we may, we never meet with a 
 trace of it. We are taught to believe that conscience is im- 
 planted by nature, but we learn by experience that education 
 is its parent. Still, in civilized Europe it is seldom entirely 
 eradicated from the bosom of any man, or its place is supplied 
 by honour, the reputation of a good name, &c., sufficient to 
 answer the purpose of society. But every subject of the 
 Porte, of whatever sect, acts perfectly unrestrained by it, or 
 by its substitutes. A pasha slays his confiding guest : a kadi 
 bastinadoes an innocent man ; a banker cheats his patron; a 
 servant robs his master; — all swearing on the Koran, or on 
 the Talmud, or on the Testament, to their respective faith. 
 What is more surprising, this train of evil goes on in the most 
 regular manner, no ways out of the prescribed course of events. 
 The pasha washes his guest’s blood off his hands, and eats his 
 dinner, and sleeps as sound as on the preceding day. The 
 banker and the merchant, each in their respective calling, 
 
 f f 2 
 
436 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 place more merit in fraud than in honesty, and deem a fortune 
 sweeter earned by the former than by the latter; solace their 
 eisure hours by talking of their dexterity in overcoming 
 Frankish caution. Be the object to encompass a man for his 
 blood, or his money, the air of friendship, the winning softness 
 of manners assumed, the oaths put in requisition, the awful 
 denunciations invoked on their own heads in case of treachery, 
 are not only sufficient, one hundred fold, to deceive the unini- 
 tiated, hut even the initiated, in Oriental manners: should the 
 latter not yield, he cannot help thinking himself the most 
 suspicious, stony hearted being alive. Not only strangers, or 
 provincials, but even Oonstantinopolitans, who breathe from 
 birth the air of dissimulation, are frequently taken in : witness 
 the readiness with which pashas, beys, &c., fall into the snares 
 spread for their lives, notwithstanding the experience of ages, 
 of every day, of their own experience. These men have spread 
 similar snares for others ; they know all the toils, every mesh 
 of the net, yet they are caught. The fact is, they cannot 
 believe that there are men equally bad as themselves, who are 
 capable of calling on the Most High, on his prophet, on the 
 bones of their parents — for what ? to mask crime. 
 
 Amongst such a people it is difficult at all times to divest 
 oneself of an involuntary emotion, similar to that which is 
 experienced when viewing for the first time the ponderous 
 movements of a steam engine, which appear immutable, 
 subject to no ordinary control. So we cannot help feeling, 
 that if it be the interest of our host, our seeming friend, to 
 slay us, no moral tie, no human affection would restrain him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIL 
 
 On Mussulman Women — Greek Women — Armenian Women — Hebrew 
 
 Women. 
 
 Of the more interesting portion of the inhabitants of the 
 Turkish capital, the Mussulman women occupy the first place. 
 What, however, can be said of women who have no balls, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 437 
 
 routs, plays, masquerades, concerts, panoramas, pic-nics, fancy 
 fairs, not even tea-parties ? If no other than that they are 
 happier than half the women in the world, — Lady M. W. 
 Montagu for a witness, — that is something. Love, or desire, as 
 you will, is the idol to which they are devoted from childhood, 
 at whose altar their ideas are formed, to whose service their 
 education tends; the principal care of a mother is to instruct 
 her daughter in the art of pleasing the first man who sees her 
 — her husband — and as his tastes are not refined, the nature 
 of her lessons may be supposed. The Turkish bride is a self- 
 contradiction. Their beauty ! who can he so presumptuous as 
 to decide on the appearance of those whose walking garb, 
 “ equalizing tomb of elegance and deformity,” is purposely 
 made to screen them from the gaze of the monster man ? All 
 is not hid. Eyes belying the Prophet’s anti-female soul 
 doctrine, large, softly lustrous, — voice, toned like a silver 
 lute, making music of every word that leaves the lips, 
 — hands small, taper-fingered, indicate favourably of the 
 remainder of Nature’s handywork. Different from the Italian 
 and Spanish black, their eyes, in particular, are unrivalled, 
 with an expressive expression, impossible to look on without 
 admiration ; a peculiar charm which they owe to the necessity 
 of concealing their faces, since, deprived of the aid of smiles 
 and blushes, their feelings when excited concentrate in the 
 organs of mute eloquence. 
 
 Of the higher classes of women in Turkey — for the lower 
 orders lead nearly the same life in all countries, nursing 
 children, cooking food, and matrimonial bickering being the 
 changes they ring — rank first the inmates of the seraglio, who 
 are divided into two classes; the sultan’s ladies, and the 
 maidens of the valide sultana : the former are purchased slaves, 
 since no Turkish woman, being freeborn, can be a mistress, 
 even of the sovereign ; the latter are also in part slaves, and 
 part daughters of pashas who have been placed there for 
 honour, or on the death of their fathers. They are all 
 instructed in the Arabic and Persian tongues, in dancing and 
 singing. The resources of each other’s company, the luxury 
 of their existence, and the absence of cares, it being certain 
 
438 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 that no man hut the sultan ever sees these secluded birds, 
 render them happy: there are few ladies brought up in the 
 seraglio, who do not look hack on it with a kind of regret, 
 comparing its society with that of the uneducated females of 
 the provincial towns where their residence may he. 
 
 After a sister or a daughter, the sultan cannot evince greater 
 favour for a pasha than by giving him in marriage one of his 
 unknown women; an equal honour, perhaps dearer, is a wife 
 from the house of the valide sultana. The lady, in either case, 
 is placed at the head of her husband’s harem, with absolute 
 authority, since on her influence at court depends his advance- 
 ment. More pashalicks are gained by petticoat interest than 
 is supposed. In virtue of her influence, she prevents her lord’s 
 affections from being disputed by another wife. Should he he 
 old or disagreeable, she must exercise patience, and wait till 
 his death, by the bowstring or otherwise, when she may please 
 her taste by marrying one of his officers who has won her 
 regard. The state of a lady in her harem is the same as that 
 of a pasha in his selamlik. She has a train of female slaves, 
 more or less numerous, 'more or less beautiful, more or less 
 ornamented, according to her fancy, distinguished, as are the 
 officers of her lord, by the titles of kiaja, selictar, cavedji, &c. : 
 they watch her eyes, listen for the clap of her hands, leave her 
 alone, dance to her, sing, act the buffoon, anything to please 
 her whims. None sit in her presence. She smokes, chews 
 mastick, sips coffee, and drinks sherbet; voila her life, — tire- 
 some enough the Frank belle thinks; hut habit reconciles us 
 to everything, and “ignorance is bliss.” The Turkish lady 
 knows no other mode of existence, nor has she any hooks to 
 enable her to define the vague wishes which rise in her bosom 
 in moments of languor. The condition of her slaves is un- 
 pleasant: exposed to all the caprices of their mistress, with 
 scarcely a prospect of obtaining liberty, their only hope lying 
 in attracting the notice of their master, they may be said to 
 live in a convent. Viewing their situation, people are apt to 
 judge all Mohammedan women equally deserving of com- 
 miseration ; than which nothing can he more erroneous, 
 since Turkish women, as I have before remarked, being 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 439 
 
 freeborn, respected by the laws to such a degree, that the 
 shadow of slavery may not dim them, restrained even from 
 living with the other sex unless under the bond of marriage — 
 an honourable consideration unparalleled in other countries — 
 are as far above them as European ladies in the West Indies 
 are removed from their negro slaves. 
 
 Turkish ladies have a singular amusement for consolation. 
 Two, for example, declare themselves lovers, one of the other; 
 plans of intrigue are formed, confidants are established, secresy 
 ensured, billets doux, i.e., flowers, are mutually exchanged, all 
 the petites ruses de guerre are employed to elude discovery, 
 and in this way a harmless courtship is continued for years. 
 
 The Koran, while it gives great power to a husband, does 
 not leave a wife defenceless: it gives her a title to an equal 
 share in her lord’s affections, his attentions once a week; in 
 default redress may be had of the cadi. But these important 
 privileges may be regarded as null, since there are few women 
 who would make a similar complaint. Facility of divorce is 
 their great ally. Writers on Mohammedan customs have not 
 sufficiently dwelt on this subject; indeed, it is generally con- 
 sidered an evil rather than a blessing for the weaker sex, and 
 its difficulty is placed among the advantages of Christian 
 women. Divorce among Mussulmans supposes no guilt, simple 
 volition on the part of the husband being a sufficient cause. 
 If in a moment of anger he say the words “ I will five with 
 thee no longer,” that suffices. The parties go before the cadi, 
 and the act of separation is drawn out, paying a trifling fee. 
 The lady receives her dowry, and the divorce is no impediment 
 to her remarrying. What an advantage ! suppose her husband 
 was a disagreeable fellow, she is at once rid of him, and if 
 without children she has nothing to regret. But in conse- 
 quence of this tie, parties who have been divorced for trifling 
 causes only — for passing ill-humour — come together again. 
 No formality is requisite; as mutual will separated them, so 
 mutual will reunites them. The cadi takes his fee, and the 
 affair is ended. 
 
 Mohammed, however, aware of the numerous inconveniences 
 which might arise from the abuse of this licence, wisely 
 
440 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 ordained that after a third divorce a man could not have back 
 his lady, unless she were previously married to another for the 
 space of twenty-four hours. It is natural to suppose that few 
 orientals would put their affections to so painful an ordeal. 
 However, whether from love or habit or other cause, the hooleh 
 sometimes takes place. It also occurs that parties thus joined 
 (in intention temporarily to accomplish the law) become so 
 pleased with each other before the expiration of the term, that 
 they refuse to be reseparated. The prior husband has no relief, 
 he must devour his chagrin. But to avoid this unexpected 
 result, the uxorious man has generally recourse to a respectable 
 member of the law; he presents him with a sum of money (the 
 labourer deserves his hire), and engages him to perform the 
 condition strictly. He thus makes sure of not being imposed 
 on by his agent; but he cannot impose on himself — the 
 marriage must be consummated. Friendship cannot qualify 
 this unpleasant office, and the mollah would esteem himself an 
 unworthy Mussulman did he fail in this particular. 
 
 Turkish women have another remarkable privilege in the 
 rapin (conventional marriage). We will suppose an inhabitant 
 of Bagdad or Aleppo come to Stamboul on commercial or other 
 business with the intention of remaining several months. He 
 has left a wife behind him, and, being used to domestic happi- 
 ness, feels uneasy. He addresses himself to the imam of some 
 mosque whom he may know: “Effendi, being a stranger in 
 this city, and likely to remain some time, it would be wrong to 
 remain single. Our holy Prophet enforced matrimony by 
 precept and example; I would not wish to be remiss. In your 
 parish there may be some well-disposed young woman; — you 
 will not find me ungrateful.” “ Good,” replies the imam, “ there 
 are many women in my neighbourhood who would not turn 
 their eyes from a comely man like yourself: what condition 
 would you choose?” The applicant answers, “As I am not 
 very rich, besides having a family elsewhere, I should prefer a 
 widow who has a respectable house.” The imam bids him 
 return another day, and in the meantime finds a lady according 
 to order. He describes her suitor as possessed of a thousand 
 good qualities, and as smitten with her charms. “ Oh,” ex- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 441 
 
 claims the fair, “ I know nothing of him ; he may he a bad 
 man, may beat me, may not let me smoke or go to the hath.” 
 The imam guarantees his client. The parties then go to the 
 Mekhemeh, and the rapin is drawn out, that is, a certificate of 
 marriage for a certain length of time, at the expiration of which 
 it is null, and the parties are free. Merchants find this ar- 
 rangement very convenient, as thereby they often get a com- 
 fortable home during their residence in a strange place. In no 
 large towns of Turkey are there wanting accommodating 
 imams. 
 
 Turkish women are entitled to the credit of being the best 
 of mothers. To he childless is considered the greatest misfor- 
 tune; and yet, by a strange contradiction, after having got 
 two or three children, — as many as suits their fancy to have, — 
 they are addicted to the evil practice of procuring miscarriages, 
 at which they or their accoucheuses (Jewesses) are exceedingly 
 expert, not producing constitutional injury. Wet-nurses are 
 unknown among them; and the custom of the Franks, esta- 
 blished in the Levant, sending their children to Europe for 
 education, is also regarded by them as unnatural. They never 
 lose their influence with their sons, which repays them in some 
 measure for their want of importance in the eyes of their hus- 
 bands. The chief care of a Turk, on arriving at wealth and 
 power, is to place his mother comfortably ; to which amiable 
 trait in his character, which counterbalances a multitude of 
 faults, we are inclined on first acquaintance to add that of 
 strong parental tenderness. It is interesting to see the Osman- 
 leys along the quays of the Bosphorus dancing their children 
 in their arms, and dropping their gravity to play with them : 
 the poorest will deny himself to deck his child : but the feeling 
 is purely selfish, derived from a plaything, an exhibition of 
 animal instinct; as they increase in size it diminishes, and 
 when they are grown up they are never thought much of, un- 
 less fortune raise them high in the world. Valueless therefore 
 to the Osmanleys must be that promise in the Koran, that 
 “ their sons (daughters are not to be produced, since they 
 would interfere with the rights of the houries), if they wish 
 any in paradise, shall be born and grow up in the space of an 
 
442 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 hour;” a promise which, ridiculous as it may appear ? is at the 
 same time a striking proof of Mohammed’s admirable tact in 
 adapting his religion to the peculiar tastes of his people. 
 Among the Arabs it must have been the first and most natural 
 wish of a father to have his sons capable of bearing arms, and 
 of sharing the fatigues of a wandering and predatory life : — 
 until that age they were a complete burthen to him, instead of 
 being a solace. 
 
 As prodigal of displaying their charms, leaving little for the 
 fancy to do, as the Mussulman women are reserved, the 
 Grecian sex rank next on the list, inferior also in brilliancy, 
 and less handsome comparatively than their men. Still they 
 are good-looking, with a dreamy voluptuous style of counte- 
 nance, common in the East, and fine eyes — though fine eyes 
 are so universal among them that the absence is a defect rather 
 than the presence a beauty; and were they set off by stays and 
 milliners, they would not yield the palm to the Genoese — 
 fairest of the Italian sex — whom they resemble in a remark- 
 able manner, considering that four centuries have elapsed since 
 the union of Genoa and Galata. But their dress vulgarizes 
 them; it consists of an unsightly assemblage of jackets and 
 petticoats, hung about rather than put on their persons, with 
 open bosoms and loose sleeves ; and their coiffure, a turban of 
 prodigious width, the wider the more fashionable, composed of 
 their own luxuriant hair interwoven with flowers and gauze, 
 elegant as it certainly is, gives them a courtesan-like air. It 
 might not have this effect elsewhere, but compared with the 
 modest apparel of their neighbours it appears indecorous, and 
 Mussulman women consider it a scandal thus to appear in 
 public. To this exceeding love of display, most inconsiderate 
 in countries where licentiousness is not always restrained by 
 the law, the Greeks may attribute many disagreeable conse- 
 quences. In quiet times their women are as sacred as Moham- 
 medan women, as free from insult from every quarter; but 
 in revolts, which give scope to their masters’ passions, it has 
 happened that a family, which would otherwise have escaped 
 notice, has been plunged in misery because one of its female 
 members in her walks, gaily dressed and unveiled, attracted, 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 443 
 
 perhaps used to coquet for, the notice of a pasha or other 
 great man, who takes advantage of the crisis. Similar' ex- 
 amples are not rare, yet the Greeks never profited by them. 
 They should have applied to themselves a story told of one of 
 the early caliphs, who meeting a beautiful woman one day in 
 Bagdad, caused her to he conveyed to the seraglio. The in- 
 jured husband immediately repaired to the caliph, and expos- 
 tulated with him on his injustice. After a struggle between 
 his reason and his passion, the monarch restored the "man his 
 wife, accompanied by the caution not to let her go abroad 
 again unveiled : “ Men," he observed, “ are not insensible to 
 beauty; they should not therefore he tempted: — take warning 
 by this ; you will not find all men so moderate.” This reason- 
 ing is doubtless inapplicable in countries where the laws are 
 sufficient to restrain unprincipled men. To the want of such 
 laws only must be referred the custom in the East of veiling 
 the women, — a custom established ages before the coming of 
 Mohammed, — a custom which did not originate in the jealousy 
 of the men, though degenerated to such, hut as the surest way 
 of preserving their women from insults. 
 
 The chief feature in the character of Grecian women is, I 
 should say, covetousness of money. It would he difficult, 
 except perhaps among mountain tribes, to find a model for one 
 of the thousand heroines of song and tale about Grecian love 
 and devotedness. In no country is manage de convenance so 
 much a law of society as among the higher classes of Greeks ; 
 and among the lower classes mothers do not hesitate to bargain 
 away their daughters’ honour, which practice is so much thd 
 more reprehensible as they are never reduced to it by want; 
 want, in our acceptation of the word, being almost unknown 
 in unpopulous countries. No lover need think of advancing 
 in the affections of his mistress unless provided with Cashmere 
 shawls: necklaces and bracelets are also in request; but Cash- 
 mere shawls — the more the better — are the things — the height 
 of female ambition, the tests of gentility. She must he low 
 indeed who would think of going to church or to the promenade 
 without one. A counterfeit Cashmere ! the reproach would be 
 ineffaceable. , 
 
444 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 Divorce is nearly, if not quite, as easy in the Greek religion 
 as in the Mussulman, hut less to the advantage of the fair 
 sex, "because a fault is supposed. The licence is much abused, 
 and the bishops, each of whom has the power, grant it on the 
 slightest pretext. There are, however, three legitimate causes 
 of divorce: viz., infidelity, inebriety, and a had breath: in 
 justice, there should be a gasometer to decide on the state of 
 the latter, which should not he left to the olfactory powers of 
 the bishop and his clerk. A claim of divorce may also he pre- 
 ferred on account of hymeneal mysteries, for which reason the 
 bride’s relatives visit the nuptial chamber to possess them- 
 selves of the evidence of her honour. The antiquity of this 
 custom is shown in Deuteronomy. 
 
 The Armenian women come next. They may he considered 
 as Christian sisters of their Turkish neighbours, for they very 
 nearly resemble them in dress and manner ; rendering them- 
 selves, however, less handsome by an immoderate use of cos- 
 metics. They bring their eyebrows nearly into the form of 
 semicircles, marking the interval between them, with the idea 
 of showing the straight outline of the nose, with a perpendi- 
 cular stroke of black paint; and they spoil their plump satin 
 cheeks by an ill-judged display of rouge. They also coral- tip 
 their fingers, and tinge their eyelids in the manner of Turkish 
 women. Their national characteristic is insipidity ; “ghiuzel 
 Ermeneh” (pretty Armenian) is proverbial in Turkey for a 
 tame beauty. 
 
 Owing to divorce not being permitted among them, whether 
 of the Catholic or schismatic persuasion, their situation is 
 more triste than that of any other class in the empire, for they 
 live nearly as secluded “as Mussulman women, and are com- 
 pletely domestic slaves; a bride, for example, may not speak 
 except in answer, or sit in the presence of her husband, until 
 she has home him a child — a species of indignity from which 
 Turkish women are exempt. This corroborates what I before 
 observed of the Mohammedan religion respecting women, — 
 that it is not peculiarly oppressive. We are in the habit of 
 comparing it with the Christian religion in the West, and 
 drawing our inference theisefrom; hut this is not fair: we 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 445 
 
 should compare it with the Christian religion in the East— its 
 cradle — where seclusion of women has ever been in vogue 
 among the natives, whether Jews, Pagans, Christians, or 
 Mussulmans. The Hindoo who told bishop Heber that they 
 owed the custom to their Mohammedan conquerors, deceived 
 him. The conquest of a few may alter the government, the 
 laws of a country, hut it never changes the manners of a nu- 
 merous people : the Tartars among the Chinese is an example ; 
 the Normans among the English, and the Osmanleys among 
 the Greeks still more striking ones. In comparing also, in 
 other respects, the precepts of the Koran with the customs of 
 the early Arabians, we find a great similarity, for Mohammed 
 was infinitely too wise to touch prejudices which had the sanc- 
 tion of antiquity, excepting such as revolted nature. He put 
 a stop to the inhuman practice of the Arabs, which exists to 
 this day in parts of India, of destroying female children; but 
 circumcision he passed over in silence, not choosing, fortified 
 therein, may be, by his hatred of the Jews, to recommend an 
 absurdity, harmless but cherished, but not daring to forbid a 
 practice which had been handed down to the Arabs from 
 Abraham. 
 
 The Hebrew women close the fair list at Constantinople, 
 and require no comment, for their manners, customs, and 
 duties are the same in the nineteenth century as they are de- 
 scribed in the Bible, sufficiently minutely I am sure to satisfy 
 the most curious investigator. A local practice, however, 
 prevails?, in order to restrain the facility of divorce which the 
 law of Moses permits, and whoever considers the character of 
 the nation is not surprised to find that it is very effectual; a 
 bride’s dowry is named at three times its real amount, which 
 the husband is obliged to give to her in case he divorce her. 
 
 A word now on the relative beauty of women of the East 
 and the West. The former have been extolled by the divinest 
 poets, copied by the finest sculptors and painters; yet, when 
 in the East, we are disappointed. Why? — because our expec- 
 tations have been too much raised; and, principally, because 
 our ideas on beauty have been formed in a different school, so 
 that habit has silenced reason. We know it is unnatural, the 
 
446 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 female form stayed with cord and whalebone, — that tfhe variety 
 of shape so much admired in Europe, is as much owing to 
 art as nature; still how we are wedded to the effect, — how 
 graceless in our eyes are the vague lines of nature ! Dress up 
 the Venus deMedicis, — what a dowdy she would he — a “ dumpy 
 woman.” — We cannot help occasionally, while in the East, 
 drawing a comparison between the native fair and our own, led 
 by the presumed superiority of the former, but we always 
 decide in a general sense in favour of the latter. It is true, 
 that in the East we are now and then arrested by a face that 
 might be dreamed, the likeness of which is never seen in other 
 climes, but we say this is only one, surpassingly divine cer- 
 tainly; at home we have myriads, if not quite so fair, nearly 
 so; never reflecting that many pass us every day without 
 notice who, were they set off, as in Europe, by dress, would 
 claim ardent regards. However, whether northern, southern, 
 eastern, or western climes, every man who has travelled far, 
 must allow that for one pretty woman seen out of England, 
 there are one hundred pretty women in England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Capitan Pasha — Greek Patriarch — Nourrey Bey — Passage Boat — Echoes — 
 Rodosto — Adrianople — Kar’agatch— Silk Worms — Mad Dog — Inhu- 
 manity — Greeks — Mahmout Aga-r-Mosque — Grand Vizir — Bairam 
 Pasha. 
 
 April 29th, 1830. — I saw for the last time my old friend, 
 Achmet Papudgi, Capitan Pasha: reclined on a sofa in his 
 divan hane (council chamber), his glassy eyes and clear hollow 
 cheeks told me that he was at length dying of his old com- 
 plaint, ossification of the heart. His officers eyed me wistfully, 
 as much as to say, Can he live? — I shook my head. Little, 
 however, did the object of their solicitude — less out of love 
 than interest — think that he was soon to be confronted with 
 Monkir and Nekir; for, after saying that he was going in two 
 months to the White Sea (Archipelago), in the new first-rate, 
 he invited me to accompany him. It was painful to hear him 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 447 
 
 thus talk. He was smoking a narghiler at the time — his bane, 
 yet like opium, so fascinating, that he never could leave it off 
 — hut on its producing severe coughing, old Hassan, his pur- 
 veyor of tobacco, handed him a chibouque instead. This also, 
 after holding it a minute between his pale thin lips, he laid 
 down, and looked out of the Window with an air of pleasure, as 
 the English frigate swung in the line of his vision. Her top- 
 gallant masts catching his attention, he put a question to me 
 about them, and then directed an order to be taken to the 
 arsenal, to fit his ships in the same way, “ Because,” he said, 
 “ we may meet the English Capitan Pasha in the White Sea.” 
 Poor man! a dark sea was opening before him. Presently, a 
 dish of boiled herbs, his only diet, was brought in and laid on 
 a stool before him. Dipping his attenuated fingers into it, he 
 contrived to swallow a couple of mouthfuls, hut then, as if 
 exhausted by the effort, he called for a glass of water, and sunk 
 hack on the cushions. My chibouque being now finished, I 
 rose and wished him well, when, as if a different feeling sud- 
 denly crossed his mind, he drew a ring from his finger, and 
 gave it to me as a memorial. The next day I went to Brussa, 
 and on my return, May 5th, found him dead. He had died on 
 the 4th in the same comfortless state, surrounded by mercenaries 
 only, notwithstanding that his wives were in his palace, and 
 his son was sultan’s page. But though his ladies were not 
 grieved, they felt the loss, for, being of ignoble birth, they 
 required reflection; and therefore, attributing his death to the 
 surgeon of a French vessel of war, who had attended him, they 
 showed their spite by emptying the contents of a vase on his 
 head as he passed under their windows on the following morn- 
 ing. The remains of the shoemaker admiral were interred at 
 Eyouh, his effects sold by auction to pay his debts, and Halil 
 Pasha (then ambassador at St. Petershurgh, since the sultan’s 
 son-in-law), who knew nothing more of the sea than that it 
 was salt and full of fish, succeeded him; thus disappointing 
 the expectations of many, that Sultan Mahmoud would have 
 discontinued the absurd practice of appointing landsmen to 
 that high post — especially disappointing the capitan bey, who, 
 by way of paying court, had adopted Frank usages in a hare- 
 
448 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 faced manner, even going the length of smoking cigars. Were 
 the duties solely ministerial, the defect, though great, of having 
 any other than a seaman at the head of the naval department, 
 would not very materially signify; hut the capitan pasha always 
 sails with the fleet: true, he has officers under him who know 
 something of the profession, hut their judgment can have little 
 weight against his obstinacy, nor is their firmness to he de- 
 pended on in the presence of a chief, who has power to dispose 
 of their heads. 
 
 The weather at this season was most delightful, propitious 
 for travelling ; so, having made another agreeable excursion on 
 board the Blonde, to Nicomedia,* I took leave of my esteemed 
 friends, her captain and officers— the frigate proceeding to 
 Artaki, and then prepared to quit Constantinople ; with a lively 
 sense, though, of the civilities which I had received from many 
 of its inhabitants, Franks and natives, during a residence 
 among them of several months. Indeed the English traveller, 
 without any other acquaintance, would have found ample 
 resources, at the period of which I speak, in the hospitality of 
 our ambassador, Sir R. Gordon, in whose house he ever found 
 a cordial welcome. I doubly felt his attentions, since previous 
 to his arrival in the country I had not the honour of being 
 known to his Excellency. Of the hospitality of our worthy 
 and talented consul-general, Mr. Cartwright, and of those 
 liberal-minded merchants, Mr. Black and Mr. Hardy, I need 
 not say anything; they must be fresh in the recollection of 
 every gentleman who has visited Pera during the last fifteen 
 years. 
 
 My friends, the Turkish naval officers, overwhelmed me with 
 
 * This place, called Ismid by the Turks, and containing about 13,000 in- 
 habitants, between Mussulmans and Armenians, possesses one of the most 
 interesting ruins in Turkey, viz., of the palace of Dioclesian, which, from 
 what remains of it, must have been a stupendous edifice. It is situated on 
 a platform one-third of the distance up the hill, and commands a fine pro- 
 spect everyway; — on one side of the gulf, which yields only to the Bosphorus 
 in beauty; on the other side, over the plain where Dioclesian performed the 
 ceremony of abdicating the empire. In a fissure of the wall we disturbed 
 some storks from their eggs; and on the green at its base some Turkish boys 
 were playing at leapfrog. The only ancient remains besides it are — a round 
 tower on the summit of the town, and portions of the arches of the terraces 
 on which the streets of the city were raised in amphitheatre. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 449 
 
 polite demonstrations. I had to smoke twenty chibouques, 
 at least, with them on taking leave, and drink as many cups 
 of coffee; and my hand was nearly wrung off by their unso- 
 phisticated way of shaking it. Little Mehemet, capitan of the 
 Selimier, embraced me, and all expressed a hope of seeing me 
 again. 
 
 As Mount Athos lay in my projected tour, I visited the 
 Greek patriarch in order to obtain a letter of recommendation 
 to the monasteries. His residence, which is in the Fanar, 
 close to the metropolitan church, and screened from the danger 
 of fire by a high wall, ^appeared to us to he very little different 
 from a Turkish palace, excepting that instead of the crowd of 
 chavasses which encumber the halls of the latter, we saw an 
 equally lazy crowd of priests. In the saloons of the first and 
 second floors were antique chairs of state, with high backs, 
 curiously inwrought with pearl: time, also, we should have 
 had to examine a picture gallery, had there been one, for the 
 siesta of his Holiness kept us waiting an hour; when, without 
 any ceremony, we were introduced, and found the Eastern 
 Pope — at whose almost apostolic simplicity his brother of 
 Rome would have sneered — seated, a la Turque, on a silken 
 divan, with a writing case and a quantity of papers beside him. 
 His apartment, which overlooked the Golden Horn, though 
 plainly decorated, yet evinced the presence of taste in some 
 frescoes of birds on the walls, exceedingly well executed, the 
 work of an Italian. Having heard the purport of my visit, 
 the patriarch expressed himself glad of the opportunity of 
 serving an Englishman, and farther complimented us by saying, 
 that he should have been offended had we not asked him : then, 
 directing his secretary in the mean time to write a circular, in 
 warm terms, to the superiors of the monasteries, he invited us 
 to refresh ourselves with chibouques; which, on our bowing 
 thanks, for the honour was not to be expected, were served in 
 due form by deacons, with coffee and sherbet. While enjoying 
 them, I could not avoid remarking the dejection of the patri- 
 arch’s countenance, which gave him the air of an Osmanley: 
 he must, I thought, have known severe trials to extinguish 
 Greek gaiety, which generally survives everything, even honour; 
 
 G G 
 
450 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 and his eye and voice became yet more melancholy as we dis- 
 coursed on Greece: it would have done some Philhellenists 
 good to have been there. Unsparing in his censures of their 
 conduct — of the mercenary interestedness of their leaders, 
 whether Fanariotes or Capitani, he lamented more the moral 
 than the physical degradation of his countrymen and pre- 
 dicted great difficulties for prince Leopold (who was then 
 expected to he sovereign of Greece), saying that he would 
 encounter infinite risk in governing the Moreotes, “ the most 
 treacherous of the Greeks,” to use his own words. The letter 
 being now ready, he signed it, previously reading it to me, and 
 added, — “ you will not find such good fare in the monasteries 
 as travellers used to meet with, for they have all been pillaged 
 during the civil war.” He spoke knowingly, as well as feel- 
 ingly, for Agathangoulos (the patriarch’s name) had been a 
 caloyer. His age was fifty- three : his heard said older; hut 
 a heard is a deceitful index: if prematurely white, and worn 
 so, it ages a fresh countenance; if dyed, it smoothes wrinkles. 
 Thanking him for the document, which was acceptable as a 
 curiosity, leaving aside its prospective merits, which, however, 
 proved great, we took our leave, hoping that he might long 
 keep in the pontifical chair; hut our hopes were of no avail, 
 for within two months he was superseded — owing, as usually 
 the reason, to the intrigues of the archbishops all striving for 
 the same place. 
 
 My next care was to visit the Waivode of Galata, who hap- 
 pened to he my old friend Nourrey Bey, he having obtained 
 the situation a short time since, on his predecessor being 
 deprived of his head, in order that he might secure me a good 
 berth on the morrow in the Kodosto passage boat. We after- 
 wards had a long conversation together, over a parting chi- 
 bouque, principally about my braces, which, the fashion of them 
 pleasing his fancy, and an Oriental being like a child in the 
 way of asking, I was obliged to give to him. By way of re- 
 tort, I put him some anti-Mussulman questions concerning 
 his young wife, to whom he had been married only a short 
 time; hut as Nourrey was anxious to he thought civilized, he 
 answered pertinently instead of running sulky, as most Osman- 
 leys would have done. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 451 
 
 Thus my arrangements being completed, I embarked on the 
 following afternoon. May 25, 1830, at the custom-house, 
 Galata, one year since my arrival at the same spot ; and a 
 gentle breeze at north-east, aided by the stream, soon carried 
 us past the seraglio wall into the Propontis. My compagnons 
 de voyage consisted of three Osmanleys; five Turkish, and 
 three Armenian, females; the latter of which parties had 
 already been the cause of a disturbance, by one of the three, a 
 very pretty girl be it said, having presumed to seat herself in 
 the best place of the lumbered deck, which had been reserved 
 for me through the offices of Nourrey Bey. The intru- 
 sion would not have been noticed by me but for the Turkish 
 ladies, who, being outrageous that a raya should dare to sit 
 above them, set about endeavouring to dislodge her by a bat- 
 tery of abusive epithets: on which, actuated by the feeling 
 which makes co-religionists in the East, where the line of 
 demarcation is so strongly marked, regard each other as of the 
 same party, I asserted my claim to the disputed spot, supported 
 therein by the reis, and bid the fair Armenian keep it. In 
 proportion as her conscious looks spoke gratitude, the black 
 eyes of her aggressors shot fire at me. Nevertheless I was 
 inclined to think that two of them were pretty, though I could 
 not be certain on account of the jealous yakmashes. What 
 however persuasion could not have done, a short pitch of the 
 sea soon effected, producing that indescribable sensation — 
 consummation of temporary misery — which usually causes 
 propriety to be disregarded. The yakmashes fell, and dis- 
 closed two youthful sets of handsome features. Poor things ! 
 they were in great distress, and their countrymen being occu- 
 pied or careless, I tendered them the little assistance which a 
 sailor knows how to give. The dark portentous eyes now 
 changed their expression, and looked almost as bewitching as 
 I thought eyes ever could look. Peace was accordingly re- 
 established, and we continued in great harmony during our 
 little voyage. 
 
 The sun was setting as we coasted by Kutchuktcheckdmege. 
 Constantinople was still distinctly in view ; long and linger- 
 ingly I gazed on its declining minarets, and when they sunk 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 in the waters, I could not help feeling, as Adam felt on quit- 
 ting Eden, that there was no other place so beautiful. It is 
 not surprising that the natives adore it, and regard banish- 
 ment from it with nearly as much horror as death. An exile, 
 on leaving Constantinople, dismounts several times while in 
 sight, and looks at it, and embraces the ground. 
 
 Night closed in, and we thought of rest. It was a confined 
 space for so many, the majority of whom were women. I 
 coiled myself literally as a dog for want of room, my position 
 being rendered still more distressing by the proximity of the 
 fair Armenian. At one the following morning we were off 
 Selybria, in a calm, which obliged us to have recourse, to our 
 oars: all that day we rowed under a scorching sun, accom- 
 panied by other inconveniences, for trusting to a northerly 
 wind, we had a scarcity of provisions. The women too, with 
 children, were of necessity troublesome, at the same time their 
 maternal solicitude was admirable. For my part, I was in a 
 dilemma. Towards evening we passed Heraclea Point, in 
 which are some Roman remains. Some caverns in the cliff 
 gave a stupendous echo to our voices, to the great amusement 
 of the girls, who had never heard the like. Peals of laughter 
 followed each effort of the invisible vocalist, whether in 
 Turkish, Greek, or English, in all three languages he was 
 invoked. 
 
 That night, after a very frugal supper on black olives, we 
 resumed our recumbent canine position, and at three a.m. cast 
 anchor at Rodosto. At five we landed, and while horses were 
 being brought from grass I discussed a pint of cafe au lait, 
 with some good bread and caimac, almost the first sustenance 
 that I had taken for sixty hours. 
 
 The country for the first six miles appeared in tolerable 
 cultivation, but after that we rode over the usual Turkish 
 waste. The sun was oppressively hot, with a stifling south 
 wind, equally trying to man and horse, and made me therefore 
 greatly enjoy the luxury of iced sherbet on changing horses 
 at Haide-bol, thirty miles from Rodosto. “ Where do you 
 obtain your snow from?" I asked. “ Allah left it here last 
 winter," was the prompt reply. We again changed at Ouzoun- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 453 
 
 kiupri, thirty miles further, and stopped for the night at a 
 small village on the Marizza. I supped on omelet and 
 pilaff, then tried to sleep, hut could not close an eye for the 
 unqualified torment of moskitoes. Though firmly believing 
 that God made nothing in vain, I cannot understand that he 
 made everything for man’s use, as is usually preached; appa- 
 rently he made man for the use of insects. We may tame 
 tigers and hoa constrictors, hut no human ingenuity and 
 patience could render moskitoes subservient to our will; they 
 were not among Job’s trials, or he would have given in earlier. 
 
 In the morning I again trotted along the Marizza. The 
 scene was changed from what it had been when I rode along it 
 a few months before; — a frozen sheet, eagles, bare trees, flights 
 of wild fowl, — for a rapid stream, boats scudding down it, 
 embowering hanks, and stately storks. The carcasses of the 
 Russian horses had shared the general mutation, and were 
 become skeletons. At the entrance of Adrianople I had a 
 specimen of the discipline of the Nizam-dgeditt. Some indivi- 
 duals of the guard insolently accosted me for money, and one 
 seized my horse’s bridle. A blow on his knuckles, however, 
 from my whip-handle made him let go, and I spurred on re- 
 gardless of their shouts. In ten years, or less, these soldiers 
 will be as lawless as were the Janizzaries : they are now hoys; 
 what will they be when their passions unrestrained develop 
 themselves ? 
 
 The consul being at his country house at Kar’agatch, a 
 Greek village three miles distant, I did not alight, but, taking 
 a Jew hoy for a guide, rode on through the city; we crossed 
 the Toondja on a fine stone bridge, on one side of which the 
 guard, sentries and all, were asleep, and soon reached the 
 Marizza, where however indefinite delay seemed inevitable, for 
 about twenty waggons, besides men, camels, and horses were 
 waiting at the ferry: as many were on the opposite bank, 
 while only four punts were in the transport service. It being 
 the season for silk worms, was the cause of this great assem- 
 blage of waggons; they were laden with mulberry leaves. We 
 forced our way with difficulty through the dense crowd, as it 
 was evident that our turn otherwise would not come for hours, 
 
454 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 and a few paras in addition to the toll atoned for the irregula- 
 rity. Presently a punt struck the landing place with a jerk 
 that threw men and cattle on their knees, and then a strange 
 scene of confusion ensued, those in, striving to get out, those 
 out, endeavouring to get in. The impediment was complete 
 to both parties. The toll guards now exerted themselves in 
 earnest, stunning the men with thick sticks, kicking the 
 women, driving back the camels, and forcing the arabagis to 
 back up the steep to make room for the boat to he cleared. A 
 few more paras adroitly bestowed saved me and mine from this 
 rude salutation. At length the punt’s cargo was discharged ; 
 and now began to flow the tide of war from our side. We had 
 been standing attentive for some time, each holding his bridle 
 ready for a spring, and when the scramble for places began 
 down we rushed, surrounded by all kinds of animals, down the 
 steep bank, dragging our horses after us, kicking on those 
 before us, those behind paying us the same compliment; the 
 spongy foot of a camel nearly pressed mine into a similar sub- 
 stance, and my servant’s horse almost kicked himself over- 
 board, thereby so disturbing the equanimity of a full-blown 
 Osmanley, who had boldly ridden in and was stoically smok- 
 ing, that the offending Greek was glad to place me between 
 them. Nothing serious ensued, and we landed safely at a hank 
 on the opposite side, a few degrees only removed from the 
 perpendicular. 
 
 I established myself with my much esteemed friends Mr. 
 and Mrs. Duveluz to my perfect content, and, I may say, 
 to theirs. Their house was delightful, surrounded by gardens 
 literally filled with bulbuls, whose melody at times was almost 
 overpowering. 
 
 The little village was in a state of excitement from a dog 
 having bitten an old woman : it afterwards bit two cows, a 
 donkey, and Mr. Snell, a Hanoverian trader. The old woman 
 was dying, — from old age, hut the country people insisted 
 that she was mad, and proved it by continually applying 
 water to her lips, which she refused — because she preferred 
 wine. The owner of the cows killed them, and sold the flesh. 
 The donkey was doomed to labour on, but to prevent madness 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 455 
 
 was previously made to walk three times over the ashes of the 
 dog. The last subject was in mortal apprehension; he often 
 applied to the test — water, but without effect; he could not 
 loathe it. His fears augmented by the alarming accounts cir- 
 culated about the old woman, and settled into despair when a 
 young Englishman gravely told him (as a joke) that she was 
 mad. Poor Snell was now not far off himself, and hastily 
 sending for Dr. Pharso, caused himself to be bled under the 
 tongue, the Greek remedy for insanity. In short, as there 
 was never any danger, he as well as the donkey recovered; but 
 the old woman died, not of the bite, but of age, accelerated by 
 shameful neglect. She had existed for several years in an 
 outhouse of Mr. Marciani, a Greek, Austrian vice consul, 
 originally a slave, then a beggar, then an usurer: requiring 
 the narrow spot which was occupied by her for his silkworms, 
 he actually turned the poor creature into the field without 
 covering, saying that she would soon be dead whether or no ! 
 As a climax of cruelty he prevented her daughter, who was in 
 his service, from attending on her. When we beheld her, a 
 crowd of her countrymen and women were round her, laughing 
 and joking at her grimaces. Will it be believed? not one 
 offered her assistance; they left her where she lay. Mrs. 
 Duveluz’s charity smoothed her exit. Mr. Marciani will 
 never see this; it is therefore of little use mentioning his 
 name, a disgrace to humanity.* 
 
 It is not fair to judge of a nation by the conduct of one 
 village, yet I have seen other examples, nearly as bad, and feel ' 
 justified in saying that a more mercenary cold-hearted race 
 than the Greeks does not exist. Notorious instances of in- 
 gratitude and baseness within the last few years, since they 
 have been freer agents, I could cite — cui bono ? 
 
 One other instance I will mention, relating to Adrianople. 
 At the commencement of the revolution, when the Greeks 
 were considered fair game and keenly hunted according to 
 
 * As if in judgment, a few days after a tremendous storm of rain pene- 
 trated the roofs of his sheds, and destroyed nearly all his worms, by which 
 he was a loser of several hundred pounds’ weight of silk. The Greeks, 
 superstitious as they are cruel, attributed the storm to the spirit of the old 
 woman riding on a broom-stick. 
 
456 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 their wealth, one Vernazzo, a Greek, Dutch vice-consul, 
 denounced the richest among his countrymen to the Turks, 
 for which he was rewarded. — W hen a Greek gets a shadow of 
 authority his arrogance knows_.jjo bounds : if he obtains a 
 titular o'ffice under an European government, which screens 
 him from Turkish laws, he assumes the airs of an Osmanley 
 with his countrymen, and reproaches them with their abject 
 condition. 
 
 They are cunning advocates. I remember once in Greek 
 society the conversation turned on a young Greek who had 
 slain his brother and uncle. To my surprise, one of the 
 company took the part of the murderer, and said that he saw 
 no reason why the blood of relations, if bad or avaricious, 
 should be held sacred more than any other person’s ; — that after 
 all it was a case of simple homicide ; — the youth had been much 
 exasperated. I expressed unqualified horror at the sentiment, 
 not at all participated in by my hearers, one of whom sharply said 
 in reply, “You Englishmen at least should have nothing to say 
 on the subject of the excesses of other people: we do not kill 
 people in cold blood to sell them to the surgeons.” I never 
 was more taken aback, as sailors say, and the justice of the 
 attack added poignancy to it. That the horrid tale should 
 have reached so far! — I put a salve on my conscience, and 
 stoutly declared that it was not true, — that it was a calumny 
 invented by our rivals. If ever falsehood were commendable, 
 it was then : I could not for the life of me have supported by 
 my silence so dark a stigma on my country, among a super- 
 stitious people, too, who regard the crime of burking ten thou- 
 sand times blacker than we do, — who consider violating the 
 dead a far more barbarous act than torturing the living, — who 
 give decent interment to their bitterest foes. 
 
 Enough of Greeks. — Silk-worms were the sole topic of 
 conversation in and about Adrianople, and I soon became as 
 much interested in their prosperity as the natives. It is inte- 
 resting to watch the progress of these little artisans when one 
 has not the care of them, to observe, as the Orientals say, the 
 change of mulberry-leaves into silk. Towards the termination 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 457 
 
 of their eating phase, which lasts about forty days, the anxiety 
 of an owner of a large number becomes intense, since food may 
 fail from various causes, — by sudden blight fastening on his 
 trees, in which case nobody will help him ; he must destroy his 
 worms, destroying at the same time his yearly revenue. 
 
 Silk is the staple commodity of Adrianople : it goes chiefly 
 to England in the raw state. A failure is a catastrophe to the 
 inhabitants. It pays five per cent, to the pasha. 
 
 It is rather inferior to the Brussa and Damascus silk, yet 
 superior to the Italian silk. The superiority of the Turkish 
 over the Italian silk must he attributed to the manner of feed- 
 ing. In Turkey (as well as in India and China) they give the 
 worms the leaves on the branches; in Italy they pluck the 
 leaves off. In the Grecian isles they also pluck the leaves, 
 and their silk is inferior to the silk of Boumelia and of Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 When the worm has done spinning, which is known by its 
 shaking in the cocon like a nut in a shell, the next object is to 
 destroy it. This is done in Turkey by exposure to the sun; 
 two days in general suffice, but it may happen, does sometimes, 
 that owing to cold winds, or clouds, there is not sufficient heat, 
 in which case the worm become a moth, eats out of its silken, 
 cavern, thereby rendering it nearly useless. In Italy they 
 manage better. They place the cocons, wrapped in cloths, in 
 a graduated oven, which in a few hours destroys the worms, 
 but this requires some experience, since an improper heat will 
 tarnish the silk. 
 
 Kar’agatch being scarce three miles from the city, we rode 
 in nearly every day. One day we made a visit to Mahmoud 
 Aga, physician in ordinary to the grand vizir ; we found him 
 busily engaged over a jug of wine, with four brethren of the 
 lancet, adventuring Germans, who had come with the Kussian 
 army to Adrianople, and then quitted it in disgust. Presently 
 afterwards a captain of Nizam-dgeditt came in, a fine-looking 
 young man, and drank off a tumbler of wine without flinching ; 
 he then chewed some orange peel to remove the smell, lest a 
 good Mussulman should accost him. Mahmoud Aga, whom 
 
458 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 we had thus discovered in unholy practices, was of a good 
 family in Cobough, and had been known, till within a few years, 
 by the name of Augustus Fromain. He received his education 
 at Yena; and then, disliking a quiet life, he entered the 
 Austrian service as regimental surgeon. In course of time he 
 obtained a brevet as medecin d’un corps d’armee, in which 
 capacity his merits made him known to some members of the 
 Imperial family; — better for him had they not! for in 1815, 
 yielding, I suppose, to bribery, he undertook to convey a letter 
 from Napoleon, who was then about to quit Elba, to Maria 
 Louisa. He accomplished his mission, but not without being 
 observed by a spying waiting-lady, on whose information our 
 hero was seized and incarcerated in Ingelspach, whence, how- 
 ever, after eight years 5 confinement, he contrived to escape, and 
 fled to Marseilles; but there, not deeming the white flag a 
 sufficient security, he embarked, and came to Turkey. In 
 Turkey, however, he ran still greater risk, for as the Porte 
 never protects the subjects of foreign powers, he would have 
 been given up to the Austrian ambassador on being claimed ; 
 so, therefore, Fromain, after some months of doubt, relieved 
 himself from all apprehension of Ingelspach, or of any other 
 Christian fortress, by embracing the Mussulman faith. His 
 subsequent life has been that of most renegades — vagabond 
 and unpleasant. 
 
 The reason why renegades are usually despised in Turkey, 
 is not because they have abjured their religion, but because 
 the most of them are idle, dissolute characters, and have 
 embraced the Mussulman faith for some apparent vile motive. 
 Without talents or industry (seldom acquiring the language 
 well) they remain miserable. But if a respectable character 
 changes, he finds merit in the eyes of zealous Mussulmans, 
 since he gives proof, in the clear exercise of his judgment, of 
 considering Mohammedanism superior to Christianity. The 
 child horn in the faith has no merit. With tact and reckless- 
 ness he will rise ; since birth not being regarded by the Otto- 
 man government, the European renegade has an equal chance 
 with the enfranchised Georgian, or Circassian. M. Bonneval 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 459 
 
 became a pasha (brevet), he never had a pashalic ; and Mr. 
 Campbell* rose to the rank of topchi bashi. 
 
 It is quite natural that the more bigoted a people, the more 
 readily should renegades, if men of character, be credited. 
 They are even well received in the most enlightened countries. 
 Let a Hebrew embrace the Christian faith in England, he will 
 be caressed by the rich and wise ; he will get profitable employ- 
 ment ; and he may aspire to contract an alliance with one of 
 the first families. 
 
 The neglect of outward and visible signs by renegades in the 
 East — more necessary the more fanatic the people, in no 
 country to be despised — is another reason why they do not in 
 general prosper. I saw a Jew, in England, give a respectable 
 company a high opinion of his merits and his faith, by dining 
 off pork (nicely roasted with apple sauce) the day of his con- 
 version; by which little masticatory exercise he gave more 
 certain proof, in the opinion of some, of being fairly inoculated 
 with the Holy Spirit, than he would have done by years of 
 preaching, amid privation and penury. Let the embracer of 
 Mohammedanism profit by the hint. If he spit on the unclean 
 animal, throw away his brushes made of its bristles, have 
 “ Allah” constantly on his lips, knock his head in mock 
 humility against the ground, his new brethren will assure him 
 of the houris, and the tuba-tree, although he commit murder 
 and rape once a year while he is able. 
 
 A renegade should never attempt to pass for a native Mus- 
 sulman, unless perfect in his part ; because he may be suspected 
 of being a Christian in disguise, which would lead to unplea- 
 sant consequences. There is nothing so difficult as to per- 
 sonate a Mussulman. They are all as one family. They walk 
 alike — they eat alike — they smoke alike — they do the most 
 trivial, absurd things alike ; consequently, the slightest devia- 
 tion by one person is observable. One Mussulman’s house is 
 a specimen of the whole nation. The Spaniard, who travelled 
 
 * Mr. Campbell was past forty when he came to Constantinople, and 
 renegaded. Disgust at the conduct of some relations was the cause. He 
 was well known in Pera. During our great expedition to Egypt he was of 
 service. Coming on board one of our transports, at Marmorice, he burst 
 into tears of joy on seeing part of a Highland regiment. He died at Pera. 
 
460 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 under the name of Ali Bey, came to his end by neglect of a 
 trifling custom. Ali Bey not only passed for a true-horn and 
 accomplished Mussulman, hut as a descendant, indirectly, of 
 the Abbassides. He visited Mecca and Medina, and never 
 caused the least suspicion of his real faith ; for he had perfectly 
 acquired the habits of the people, among whom he had resided 
 from youth upwards. It chanced, however, one day, at 
 Morocco, that an idle person observed him, while at the office, 
 make use of his right hand instead of his left, which is an 
 abomination, according to the Koran, since a man eats his food 
 with his right hand. This at once showed that he was not a 
 Mussulman. He was shortly afterwards assassinated. The 
 strict unvarying decorum of Mussulmans caused Ali Bey to be 
 off his guard on this point — not having had the advantage of 
 example before his eyes. The language is the least bar to 
 simulation; for the Turkish, like the Italian, has so many 
 very distinct dialects, that it requires no great proficiency to 
 pass for a native of an opposite part of the country to that 
 where you happen to he, and if the memory he tolerably well 
 stored with proverbs, a mollah may he duped. 
 
 We went to the mosque of Sultan Selim — one of the finest 
 of the empire. Its minarets are too high: a fault from a 
 distance. The inside is vast and grand, tastefully adorned 
 with Arabic inscriptions, hut wanting the antique marble 
 columns, the chief beauty of the Stamboul mosques. The 
 imam was very civil ; indeed, I may observe, that excepting in 
 Constantinople and Jerusalem, there is no difficulty in seeing 
 any mosque in Turkey. He was a humorous fellow, and told 
 us as a wonder, that, a fortnight previous, the Marquis Gro- 
 pallo, Sardinian ambassador, a Lambert-like man, had actually 
 climbed up one of the minarets, to the alarm of the whole 
 establishment, who dreaded the effect of an earthquake. The 
 same imam returned answer to Diebitsch, who sent a polite 
 message to know if he might be permitted to visit the mosque, 
 that “ the general had certainly no occasion to ask permission, 
 when his officers came in all day, and every day, in their dirty 
 boots.” 
 
 The grand vizir, Redschid, still held his court at Adrianople. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 461 
 
 He was mustering troops and gold for a campaign against the. 
 Albanians, who were in arms, on two accounts : first, they 
 claimed arrears of pay due to them for services during the civil 
 war; secondly, they refused to submit to the sultan’s new 
 regulations ; and to carry their point they held the vizir’s eldest 
 son, Emin Pasha, blockaded in Janina, as hostage for his 
 father’s conduct. I had met Emin, who was about twenty-two 
 years old, some months before, and thought him a superior 
 young man for his nation. Since then, his father had con- 
 tracted an advantageous marriage for him with a rich Albanian 
 heiress,* and as Eoumely Valyci had given him the pashalick 
 of Janina, the crafty Albanians suffered the new pasha to enter 
 the city, and then informed him that he should not leave it 
 till he received money for them. But this was not his only 
 contrariety; for poor Michelaki, the grand vizir’s talented 
 secretary, whom he had sent with his son to guide his inex- 
 perience, threw himself into the lake in despair, on hearing that 
 the Albanians had carried away his wife and daughters, whom 
 he had left at Janina, his native place, as security for his good 
 behaviour. Thus Emin remained alone, and though married 
 some months, had not yet seen his bride. 
 
 The vizir was distributing justice and injustice ; withal was 
 a popular man. Wanting horses to mount a regiment of 
 cavalry, he sent to the meadows where the Turkish gentry of 
 the neighbourhood had their steeds at grass, it being the season, 
 and selected the requisite number, — a plan worthy of imitation 
 by European sovereigns, since it is just as reasonable to make 
 a conscription of horses as of men. He detected Bairam Pasha, 
 or at least suspected him, the same thing, of embezzling public 
 money, and therefore ordered him five hundred blows on the 
 feet. The cruel punishment was about to be inflicted when 
 the tefterdar, khasnadar, and other great officers interceded and 
 obtained its remission. But his tails were taken from him, 
 and he was reduced to beggary by the seizure of his property. 
 To keep him from starvation, the vizir gave him a menial 
 situation in his household, whence, by another change, he may 
 
 * In some parts of Albania, daughters, if elder, inherit to the prejudice 
 of sons. 
 
462 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 again rise to power. What a stroke in one day ! the master of 
 thousands penniless, the lord of slaves a domestic ; his horses, 
 his pipes sold : yet, attributing all to Khismet, he gave no 
 signs of mortification. 
 
 We went to the seraglio to see his highness. As he was 
 busily engaged with his chiaja hey we were ushered in attend- 
 ance into the apartment of the khasnadar (treasurer), who was 
 one of the best-looking men that I ever saw in a fez. Several 
 clerks were busy in counting money and making up accounts ; 
 they were all smoking in absolute silence. Bags of money 
 were piled on the floor, like shot in a battery, packed for tra- 
 velling in strong rope netting. Presently there was a stir in 
 the ante-room, and the vizir’s second son, a lad about ten years 
 old, walked in. All made a low salaam; and the khasnadar, 
 jumping nimbly off the sofa, handed him into the place of 
 honour, which he took with the solemnity of a judge. It was 
 ludicrous to see a pale sickly boy assume such airs, and so well 
 had he conned the Turkish art (nonchalance) that we, strange 
 animals as we were, did not excite in him any curiosity ; he 
 barely glanced at us with a slight inclination. An attendant 
 took off his violet-coloured cloak, and showed that he was 
 dressed a la nouvelle mode in a scarlet hussar jacket and 
 trowsers. A fine diamond glittered on his finger. A chi- 
 bouque twice his length was then presented to him, which he 
 took, as well as a cup of coffee, without making the slightest 
 acknowledgment to the two handsome armed Arnaouts who 
 served them. He played with the amber mouth-piece for a few 
 minutes, then threw it down and walked out without ceremony. 
 This was a trait of the education of the young Turkish no- 
 bility; and the all-sufficient pride, the calm superiority, joined 
 I must say to perfect good breeding, which sit so easy on them, 
 are natural consequences He had lost his mother, and, a rare 
 exception, his father had no harem. After some time an officer 
 informed us that his highness was too busy to see us. He 
 appointed the following morning; — when, the consul being 
 taken unwell, I proceeded alone to the vizirial residence ; the 
 halls of which, however, being crowded to excess by expectants 
 for the vizir’s sortie made me hesitate, doubting whether I should 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 463 
 
 be able to thread my way through them; luckily, however, one 
 of the Albanians on duty, Sadig, who had formerly belonged 
 to Achmet capitan pasha s ward, recognised me; and he speedily 
 made a great man of me by clearing a passage through the 
 crowd to the curtain, where stood the capidgis waiting for the 
 clap of their lord’s hands. I was announced, and instantly 
 admitted into a most luxurious room, paved with variegated 
 marbles, cooled by a jet d’eau which rose from the centre of it, 
 falling again into a large marble basin, and open to the fragrance 
 of a flower-garden whose branches intruded through the sashes. 
 Here on a crimson divan sat the sultan’s deputy. He instantly 
 remembered me. “ Hoch guieldin, sefa guieldin — cafe, chi- 
 bouque guietir!” Welcome, welcome, bring coflee and pipes. 
 
 He was occupied. The couch was strewed with papers, and 
 secretaries came and went during the hour I remained with 
 him. Apparently full of anxiety, he took quantities of snuff. 
 Once he stood up on the sofa as if unconscious of my presence, 
 stretched out his arms towards the kybla, then closed them on 
 his breast, and sunk down again in deep dejection. If he was 
 then revolving in his mind the black treachery which he after- 
 wards adopted towards the Albanian Beys, I am not surprised 
 if his spirit for a moment quailed.* He told me that he was 
 going to Betolia; that I could join him there if I pleased, 
 after having made my excursion to Ayonoros, and go with him 
 into Albania, or he would give me a houyourdu if I preferred 
 going alone. This pleasant offer I accepted; but severe illness 
 
 * It was in imitation of Mehemet Ah’s affair with the Beys of Cairo. 
 The vizir, the commencement of July, 1830, established his head-quarters 
 at Betolia, near Monastir iu Macedonia, where he endeavoured to corrupt 
 the league of the Albanian Beys before marching against them. Finding 
 them, however, deaf to his ambassadors, he proposed to them, under sacred 
 promises of hospitality, that they should come to Betolia and lay open 
 their grievances to him. Five of the principal beys consented; but not 
 trusting to his word, came each attended by several hundred of retainers. 
 The vizir, as I have before observed, has a soft, winning, frank manner, with 
 a peculiar air of mildness. In a few days he overcame their distrust. His 
 affability, so unusual to his rank, the same as when they had known him as 
 simple Redschid Pasha, won their confidence : he induced them to dine with 
 him, by way of cementing their friendship. Unfortunate men ! They dined 
 sumptuously ; but while sipping their coffee, the signal, they were shot 
 dead bv Amaouts stationed behind the curtains. Among the victims was 
 Pacho Bey, the man who betrayed Ah Pasha : he was rightly served. 
 
464 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 prevented me from profiting by it. He then informed me as 
 a piece of news that the French army had landed at Algiers, 
 and had been defeated. Probably some miserable Frank gave 
 him the false intelligence to get a present. Contradicting it, I 
 told him that the French had not left Tonlon by the last ac- 
 counts. He then asked me my opinion as to their success; I 
 replied that they could not fail. “Bakalum, what can 35,000 
 men do against Algiers? They will be beat/’ Many Osman- 
 leys at Constantinople had held the same opinion to me, so 
 infatuated were they, notwithstanding sad experience. I was 
 tempted to reply that as 35,000 Russians had dictated peace to 
 Turkey, 35,000 of the best troops of Europe could find no 
 difficulty in Barbary; but I contented myself by observing 
 that the Algerines were not Osmanleys. Just before I left 
 him, he gave an order to a secretary, and in two minutes after- 
 wards I saw a Tartar at full gallop over the stones. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Marizza — Demotica — Bishop— Dungeon — Cossacks — Fera — Bektashes — 
 Enos — Vice Consul — Petition — Mahmoud Bey — Greek Beauty — 
 Banquet. 
 
 After ten days agreeably passed, I took leave of my amiable 
 host and hostess to proceed to Enos, in a Greek boat which 
 came from Smyrna with lemons. I embarked at the custom- 
 house on the Toondja, and at the distance of half a mile, 
 entered the Marizza. At the point of confluence, under some 
 noble trees, a party of Osmanleys were pic-nicking on carpets 
 spread on the grass; — men of consideration, by the richly 
 dressed attendants who stood round in respectful solicitude, 
 and by the beauty of the horses picketed apart. 
 
 I rejoiced that I had not delayed my departure, for the river 
 was already so low that we grounded often the first ten miles, 
 obliging my boatmen to get out. The navigation at all times 
 is so intricate with sandbanks, that the smallest boats take 
 pilots ; it is farther obstructed by hedges planted in it trans- 
 versely, to throw the stream against the mills on the hanks. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 465 
 
 Boats in consequence cannot run at night-time. The banks 
 for the first six miles were embowered with willows, hut after 
 passing Tartar Keuy, a small village, were flat and uninterest- 
 ing. At sunset we stuck our boat-hook into the bank, and 
 made fast for the night. I then indulged in a cup of tea, and 
 the boatmen, who preferred my cognac to the Chinese herb, 
 amused me by singing. 
 
 Early the next morning we reached the mouth of the rivulet 
 Kusildere, on the right hank of the Marizza. It being too 
 shallow to row up far, we landed and walked through mulberry 
 groves to Demotica, which stands on the side of a hill on the 
 left bank of the rivulet, one mile from the river. In many 
 maps, Demotica is placed on the left bank of the Marizza. 
 Within and without the walls it contains 9000 inhabitants, 
 between Mussulmans and Christians. The apex of the hill is 
 crowned by the ruins of an extensive fortress commanding all 
 sides, so that Demotica might be made impregnable. The ap- 
 pearance of the walls and castle led me to suppose that they 
 were erected by the French nobleman to whom the lordship of 
 Demotica was assigned on the division of the empire by the 
 Latins, 1203. There were inscriptions on the gates, but the 
 Russians in 1829 hewed them out and carried them off, or 
 destroyed them. They also removed all the cannon of the 
 place, consisting of two pieces : a broken one, however, with 
 great generosity, they left. 
 
 I ascended to the bishop’s house. His reverence, whose 
 name was Calinico, a native of Candia, was surprised at seeing 
 me, at the same time much gratified, for I was the only Frank 
 traveller who had been there since ten years. We smoked the 
 friendly pipe together, whilst my servant got breakfast ready. 
 As one of a long string of grievances, which took an hour to 
 go through, the bishop told me that the kharatch weighed 
 heavy that year, being forty-eight, twenty-four, and twelve 
 piastres for men, young men and youths, respectively. His 
 diocese contained sixty villages ; his revenues, though, did not 
 exceed 9000 piastres (about 130Z.), two-thirds of which he said 
 went to the patriarch ; hut then his table cost nothing. Among 
 various questions, he asked me why the Greeks were to have a 
 
 H H 
 
466 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 foreigner to govern them (Prince Leopold). “At least,” he 
 said, “he should be baptized and marry a Greek.” “Paris 
 vaut hien une messe,” dit Henri IV., but I doubt if the Morea 
 does. 
 
 Near his house was a loathsome dungeon wherein many of 
 the French who had been captured in Egypt had been confined. 
 In order to get to it, we descended to the bottom of a dry deep 
 well, where on one side was a low door through which we 
 crept, and thence along — always descending — a narrow pas- 
 sage, and so found ourselves all at once in a large circular 
 vault. Its chill- damp struck to my spirit as well as my hones, 
 thinking of the fate of its various occupants. On the walls 
 were remains of writing, of which I distinguished the following 
 sentences, separated by effacements : — Ici deux officiers, et vingt 
 sous officiers de la sixieme .... sont enfermes .... mal- 
 heureux .... sont morts ici. 
 
 There were four etchings done with charcoal, representing — 
 Napoleon on horseback (not a had likeness) ; a piece of artil- 
 lery in movement ; a hussar sabreing a Mameluke ; a party of 
 grenadiers. What became of these malheureux I could not 
 learn ; perhaps they died there. It may he wrong taste, hut I 
 own that these touching memorials of men of our own century 
 interested me more than would have done an autograph of 
 Jugurtha round the ring that confined his chain to the wall. 
 We were about to leave it, when some human voices under my 
 feet startled and detained me ; they came up an aperture made 
 to admit the air, and a lamp being lowered down it, we distin- 
 guished two Turks and one Greek in a dungeon fifteen feet 
 below the one we were standing in. I wished to go down, hut 
 the key of the iron trap could not he found ; so instead, I sent 
 them some money in the basket which conveyed them their 
 scanty food. They screamed out thanks for the unexpected 
 and unprecedented gift, and called to the jailer to fetch them 
 some bread. 
 
 The deacon, my cicerone, next conducted me to a small 
 chapel of great sanctity hewed in the rock near the castle. 
 He dated its existence above a thousand years, and attached 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 467 
 
 some miracles to two mouldering pictures on wood of Christ 
 and of the Virgin, which he devoutly kissed. There were, he 
 said, other valuable antiquities, such as mosaics, till the 
 Russians came : they carried them away. “ What time and 
 Turk and Goth have spared !” 
 
 From the eminence the view was pleasant, and the country 
 seemed better cultivated than most other parts where I had 
 been. The inhabitants gain a comfortable livelihood by their 
 silk. 
 
 The deacon next led me to view the metropolitan church : a 
 poor building, over the entrance of which was a remarkable 
 specimen of Greek superstition, in a picture done in a sort of 
 Chinese style. It was divided into two compartments. In the 
 upper one was represented the Almighty with a long black 
 heard ; near him were grouped Christ, Moses, and a crowd of 
 saints ; below him stood an angel with expanded wings, hold- 
 ing the scales of good and evil. On one side of the lower 
 compartment were the gates of Paradise, made of iron flanked 
 by twisted columns, towards which were advancing a troop of 
 white-headed men, the foremost of whom had already got his 
 hand on the knocker : angels guarded them, and with long 
 lances spitted the devils who from the opposite side endea- 
 voured to seize their charge. The opposite side was hell, 
 represented in a novel form. A huge monster with the head of 
 a whale and the scales of a dragon rested on a sea-shore, its 
 mouth wide open, glowing like a furnace of flames, and on the 
 forked tongue sat the proto-thiavolos (words of the priest), 
 grinning and receiving sinners, strings of whom, chained neck 
 to neck, were being dragged on by a huge devil, while little 
 devils most ludicrously drawn accelerated their progress by 
 kicking them, at the same time holding them back by the ears 
 with their long monkey arms. Behind this monster were 
 similar monsters sporting on the waves with live cargoes which 
 they had embarked from the stern of the other : this transmi- 
 gration could not he seen because the tail of the first monster 
 was under water, hut I had the priest’s word for its taking 
 effect, and so on, from fish to fish to all eternity — a very inge- 
 
 h h 2 
 
468 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 nious mode of torment. There were other conceits, such as 
 Elijah’s ascent: the prophet had reached God’s footstool, and 
 was holding on by his mantle. 
 
 A man was waiting for me at the bishop’s with medals. 
 Though no connoisseur, I bought the best ; — Birmingham ware 
 could hardly have found their way to Demotica, I thought ; 
 nor was I apprehensive of the tricks of Peestum, where I once 
 saw a man literally sowing antiques. 
 
 Having, as well as my servant, received the kiss of peace 
 from Bishop Calinico, I re-emharked in the afternoon and con- 
 tinued my voyage. The naked monotony of the hanks soon 
 changed on the right for low, wooded, wavy hills, and the 
 stream flowed in a narrower bed, consequently faster ; hut the 
 heat was so oppressive, that I could not enjoy myself till 
 evening. I then prepared to eat, squatted a la Turque , at the 
 bottom of the boat. I had cold lamb and tongue, with some 
 excellent Adrianople wine, which the kind Mrs. Duveluz had 
 taken care, unknown to me, to have placed in my boat ; a dish 
 of cherries, present from the bishop, was cooling in a tub of 
 water ; from the prow came the fragrance of coffee roasting, 
 and behind me the reis perfumed the air smoking my exquisite 
 seraglio tobacco. The sun had just declined behind the groves 
 by which we were gliding, myriads of bulbuls saluted us, and 
 the splashing of the oars made pleasing accompaniment to 
 their notes. I scarcely remember to have had a more quick 
 epicurean selfish hour. We passed Sofli* on the right bank, 
 and at eight tied ourselves for the night to a stake on the left 
 bank. While the boatmen were cooking fish for their supper 
 (it being Lent) and my man preparing some tea, I strolled 
 inwards to where I supposed was a village by the clattering of 
 storks — birds for which I have a great respect, for the noise 
 they make with their bills resembles that of the well-known 
 instrument carried by the white-coated big-sticked worthies 
 who used to perambulate London streets. I was not mistaken 
 —it was Daykeuy, a Mussulman village of 100 houses. The 
 inhabitants gathered round me with civil eagerness ; not even 
 
 * A Greek village of four hundred houses situated on the slope of a 
 well-cultivated hill two miles from the river. It is celebrated for wine. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 469 
 
 tlie dogs barked at my Frank costume. They brought me 
 some milk and honey, and invited me to sit down and smoke. 
 They were a comely race. Their lands were in perfect order, 
 divided by hedgerows, and in few countries have I seen more 
 comfort — a sign that, in addition to a good aga, they were 
 never troubled by the passage of troops. I returned to my 
 boat, and fell asleep to the cadence of a water-mill. Le£ me, 
 however, caution my reader, if he ever find himself in a similar 
 situation, to prefer passing the night in a pigstye to the luxury 
 of sleeping in the open air : to the three nights that I slept on 
 the Marizza I attribute the seeds of the fever which afterwards 
 nearly cost me my life. 
 
 Early the next morning we reached the first of the Cossack 
 villages — three in number, at intervals, on the left bank. The 
 appearance of the inhabitants at once denotes their origin, and 
 their flaxen hair is a proof how carefully they have preserved 
 their blood uninfluenced by climate, or by the charms of the 
 Grecian and Bulgarian women. As like the Cossacks of the 
 Don of the present day as though of the same family, they are 
 descended from the tribes that emigrated rather than submit to 
 Catherine; — had they prescience of conscription? Their 
 fidelity to the Porte met with an exemplary reward; though 
 Christians, they were put on the footing of Mussulmans, and 
 allowed to carry arms. At first, all of them settled on the 
 right hand of the Danube; hut in a few years a portion came 
 farther south, and obtained lands on the Marizza, where their 
 descendants remain, with all the privileges, undisputed, of 
 Osmanleys, distinguished by their national costume, and by 
 their northern skins. Their principal occupation, as everywhere 
 else, is fishing ; they cure the fish and supply the whole country, 
 by which traffic they have become opulent. I have frequently 
 met them trading beyond Adrianople : and was surprised, till I 
 knew the reason, at beholding Christian subjects of the Porte 
 armed. They have never betrayed its confidence, and, in fact, 
 the best resistance made during the late war to the Russians 
 was by some Cossack tribes on the Danube. The Porte would 
 do well to extend the privilege to its Bulgarian subjects, who, 
 having no ideas of independence, no recollection of a separate 
 
470 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 existence, would prove equally faithful, and would, with the 
 Cossacks, form a good defence for its northern frontier. 
 
 At noon we passed Ipsala, a flourishing Mussulman village 
 of 800 houses, two miles from the left hank, and two hours 
 further on pulled up to the right hank at the nearest spot to 
 Fera, a Turkish town, two miles from the river. I procured 
 horses and rode to it, to ascertain if there were any remains 
 of antiquity, it being conjectured to he on the site of Trajan- 
 opolis. I found none, hut saw a good mosque and the ruins 
 of a spacious khan, showing that the town had been of more 
 importance. Thence we rode to the summit of an adjoining 
 hill to see some ruins, which, according to my informant at 
 Adrianople, were of an old castle. Ruins there were, certainly, 
 though not such as I expected to find — time-hallowed, recalling 
 crusading scenes, — hut recent, betraying wanton destruction. 
 Yet among them was an edifice, entire, low, and solid, re- 
 sembling a powder magazine or a dungeon, and singular, 
 attracting curiosity, as having escaped the surrounding wreck : 
 stooping under a low arch, I entered it, and started on finding 
 myself in a chamber containing the coffins of five dervishes, 
 as the peculiar caps, decaying at the head of each, and the 
 tattered garments, hung round, indicated. An elderly Osmanley 
 was on the hill: him I questioned, and learned that it was 
 the tomb of Ibrahim Baba, a holy dervish of the order of 
 Bektash, and that the adjoining ruins had been houses for the 
 accommodation of pilgrims. In reference to the size of two 
 of the coffins, which were upwards of nine feet long, he said 
 that they held evel zemen adam (men of the olden time). He 
 recommended me to go five miles further, where was the tomb 
 of Nefez Baba, one of the most celebrated saints of the 
 same order, who had come from Gallipoli with the Os- 
 manleys when they conquered the country; and in comme- 
 moration he, Nefez, being rich, Fez Padischah Oglou (son of 
 a Barhary prince) had founded a monastery. A similar 
 spectacle awaited me — a ruined village and a tomb. Two of 
 the coffins were also of enormous size, made so to impose on 
 the vulgar. There, also, a direction was given me to the tomb 
 of another saint, Rustam Baba, some miles farther, hut I did 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 471 
 
 not profit by it, thinking two sufficient for a moderate curiosity; 
 at the same time I was greatly pleased at finding myself among 
 the tombs of the Bektashes — as celebrated in the east as the 
 Jesuits were in the west. But our friend, Hadgi Bektash’s? 
 was not one ; he, as every one knows, was the founder not of 
 the order, but of its fame, by sanctifying the corps of Janiz- 
 zaries at Adrianople, 1389, at Amurath’s request. Holding 
 his sleeve over the foremost file, he said, — “Let them be 
 called Yenicheri : may their countenances be for ever bright ; 
 their hands victorious ; may their spears hang over the heads 
 of their enemies; and wheresoever they go, may they return 
 with a white face !” How well they answered his invocation, 
 the battle-fields from St. Sophias domes to Vienna bear evi- 
 dence. Thus the cowl became the scarf of the sabre, the 
 dervish’s sleeve the plume of the soldier. Thenceforward the 
 names of the Janizzaries and the Bektashes were nearly 
 synonymous; their interests were indissolubly linked; and 
 they supported each other, respectively, by deeds and prayers. 
 The order was immensely rich, spread over the empire, com- 
 manding the veneration of high and low; and not to visit the 
 tombs of the principal saints was considered a serious omission. 
 The blow struck at the Janizzaries rebounded on the Bektashes. 
 Sultan Mahmoud instantly proclaimed their dissolution, and 
 sent officers to this part of the country to level the houses of 
 accommodation and the tombs. The former part of the sen- 
 tence was carried into effect, but the discontent of the people 
 averted the latter. Hadgi Bektash lies near Cesarieh, whither, 
 I should imagine, the sultan’s anathema did not penetrate : the 
 Asiatics have not hitherto shown much docility to his will, and 
 still less would they respect it regarding the violation of their 
 favourite saint. To judge by the pilgrimage to the inferior 
 luminaries, that to the Hadgi’s tomb should be numerously 
 attended. Probably it still exists, and it is worth a traveller’s 
 while, whose route lies that way, to make inquiries concerning 
 this interesting character — interesting, for certainly no man 
 since the prophet has more permanently influenced the affairs 
 of the East. Poor Hadgi Bektash! he little dreamed in the 
 days of his sanctity, when he breathed soul into that body, so 
 
472 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 long the terror of Europe, that his name would ever become a 
 curse with the sovereign of Turkey. Wherever I went existed 
 a strong feeling against the sultan for his wanton enmity to 
 the dead. 
 
 That night I passed like the others in my boat, slowly pro- 
 gressing, as there were no dams to * obstruct us, and early 
 in the morning reached Enos,* where I was hospitably received 
 in the house of Mr. Limonjoglou, an Armenian merchant, 
 whom I had known at Adrianople as dragoman to the consulate, 
 — a clever worthy man, with a very pretty amiable Greek lady 
 for a wife; her father was beheaded at the commencement of 
 the civil war. I had scarcely breakfasted when officers came 
 on the part of the aga and the kadi to compliment me on my 
 arrival. The British agent also called, a native of Syra, a 
 man notorious for a disreputable appearance and life, and for 
 unworthy practices ; I was ashamed to see such offal bearing so 
 respectable a title. People out of Turkey cannot conceive the 
 injury caused by such representatives; wherever they reside 
 Franks are not respected. Born rayas, they seldom surmounts 
 their timidity of the Osmanleys: and when they do, their tone 
 towards the agas with whom they have to deal, becomes 
 insolence; the more insupportable, because connected, gene- 
 rally, with incapacity and ignorance of the laws and peculiar 
 privileges of Europeans in the Levant. Besides, they always 
 engage in trade, often contraband, to increase which they 
 scruple not to compromise the nation they represent. 
 
 The out- ports of Turkey swarm with Ionians who claim 
 British protection. For these, respectable agents are infinitely 
 more required than for the English, who conduct themselves 
 
 * The Marizza is navigable all the year for flat boats ; from October to 
 the middle of June for frigates’ launches. Both banks are well cultivated 
 to within fifteen miles of Adrianople, with substantial villages at intervals 
 of ten miles or less. 
 
 In a future war between Russia and Turkey it will probably be England’s 
 policy to give the latter effectual aid, and, if so, to send a few thousand 
 men to Adrianople to form a nucleus for the Turkish forces. Troops landed 
 at Enos might march with comfort to Adrianople in three days, their ma- 
 teriel being conveyed on the river. There are a sufficient number of good 
 positions to ensure the communications ; and the inhabitants (Mussulmans 
 and Cossacks) would render essential service. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 473 
 
 properly, and command respect everywhere ; they rarely need 
 the interference of consuls ; whereas the Ionians are perpetually 
 embroiled with the native authorities, either through ignorance, 
 or malice (the pleasure of annoying Mussulmans). The agent, 
 if a Greek islander, or an emancipated raya, cannot restrain 
 their irregularities, and will not question the exactions of the 
 aga, with whom he often connives. Thus commences an 
 affair. It gets abroad that English interests are neglected; it 
 gets to Constantinople ; is referred to the ambassador, and a 
 tedious correspondence ensues with the Porte in consequence 
 of a trifle, originating in the inability or dishonesty of an 
 adventuring, penniless Greek or Italian — agent for Great 
 Britain ! 
 
 The Ionians are spread all over Turkey, as traders, as 
 doctors, as pedlars, as tradesmen; and, when in trouble, in- 
 variably style themselves Englishmen (not otherwise), to the 
 great injury of our name; they commit more disorders in 
 Turkey than any other class. I have met some with pass- 
 ports wherein they were styled Englishmen, a license which 
 should not be permitted to them, because they only discredit 
 it. Nor are the Osmanleys always aware of the distinction. 
 One day at Buyukdere, the capitan pasha sent to inform me 
 that an English sailor on board one of the ships was mutinous, 
 and committing great disorders. It was a trait of delicacy on 
 his part letting me know of it, instead of ordering the man a 
 few hundred blows on the soles of his feet. I had never heard 
 of an Englishman being in the fleet, but I felt gratified for the 
 information, and immediately went to him. He was a Cepha- 
 loniote. I was so vexed that I threatened to let the worst 
 come to him for having assumed our name to screen his mis- 
 conduct. I took care, however, to explain to his excellency 
 the distinction between an Englishman and an Ionian. 
 
 A few years since an Englishman was vice-consul at Enos ; 
 he there married the bishop’s niece. This alliance cost him his 
 situation ; for Mr. Stratford Canning would not, in conse- 
 quence, permit him to retain it, it being contrary to Turkish 
 laws, intermarriages between Franks and rayas. The publicity 
 thus given, in virtue of the ambassador’s proceeding, aroused 
 
474 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the authorities, who separated the parties and placed the lady 
 under confinement. The husband, not being able to gain any 
 redress at Constantinople, retired to the Morea in distress, 
 where he soon died. His widow was then restored to her 
 friends. Now this act of the ambassador was cruel, because 
 totally unnecessary ; for although the Turks sometimes inter- 
 fere to prevent these matches, they never oppose them after 
 the ceremony. At Constantinople and at Smyrna, in proof of 
 this assertion, are Englishmen and other Franks married to 
 rayas. At Adrianople, a Corfuyote physician of my acquaint- 
 ance paid his addresses to a Greek lady during three years, 
 hut could not obtain permission to marry her ; moreover, Alish 
 Pasha, a vulgar tyrant of low origin, fearing that his commands 
 might be ineffectual with the lovers, sent for her parents and 
 threatened their heads if the marriage took place. A similar 
 menace is too easily carried into effect to be despised ; there- 
 fore the consummation of their wishes seemed hopeless. The 
 arrival of the Russians, however, by superseding the Turkish 
 laws, smoothed all difficulties. They were united, and con- 
 tinued to live undisturbed, notwithstanding that the same 
 pasha resumed the command of the city after the departure of 
 Diebitsch. 
 
 There was one other agent at Enos when I was there, be- 
 sides the British agent, his brother-in-law ; but more fortunate, 
 he was agent for seven nations. Seven coats of arms were in 
 his hall, and consequently he was seven times a rogue. His 
 reign, however, was drawing to a close. The morning that I 
 arrived, the aga, kadi, and the principal inhabitants — Mussul- 
 man, Greek, and Frank — signed a petition against him to be 
 presented at the Porte. I saw the petition, and a curious 
 document it was, on account of the signatures, which were 
 various : some were done with reed or pen, others with a 
 signer, others by the bulb of the fore-finger of the signer dipped 
 in ink and pressed on the parchment. One of the marks I 
 observed made with the back of the fore-finger contained be- 
 tween the second and third joints. This custom is of high 
 antiquity. The Koran informs us that the prophet signed 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 475 
 
 papers of importance by laying his whole hand, smeared with 
 ink, on them. 
 
 Enos is situated on a rocky isthmus, so nearly surrounded 
 by water that a cut of 200 yards would make it an island. In 
 the hands of Franks it might be rendered a second Gibraltar ; 
 nothing commands it. It has an old castle of Italian structure; 
 there were thirty-six pieces of cannon in it which the Russians 
 carried off or sunk, together with all the ammunition. It 
 surrendered at first summons to General Severs, at the head of 
 a brigade of cavalry, with a few field pieces. In the founda- 
 tions of the town are quantities of oyster shells, and on the 
 plain outside are some remarkable rocks, encrusted a foot deep 
 with similar marine productions. It is natural to suppose that 
 they were formerly under water, in which case Enos was an 
 island, although, at first sight, the extreme flatness of the plain 
 towards Adrianople seems to contradict this supposition, on the 
 ground that the sea in flowing over them would have en- 
 croached farther inland than facts justify. But a rise of one 
 inch in fifty feet, which is imperceptible, gives in five miles 
 and a half as many feet elevation ; and the inhabitants assured 
 me, from tradition, that several villages now four and five 
 miles inland, were formerly on the sea coast. It is manifest 
 that the alluvial deposit of the Marizza is forming a delta. 
 
 Another of Enos’ curiosities is the infinite number of storks, 
 called by the Turks lekleks, from the noise they make with 
 their bills. They cover every house and chimney, and for a 
 stranger to attempt sleeping of a morning after they commence 
 lekleking is useless. They are fond of their young: when 
 they have occasion to bring food to them from a long distance 
 they swallow it for the convenience of carriage, and restore it 
 on reaching the nest. They are an emigrating species. At 
 the commencement of winter they assemble and fly off in long 
 caravans to the south, returning in the spring — the same birds 
 to the old quarters, as I was credibly informed. They are 
 lovers of tranquillity though such noisy creatures themselves, 
 on the same principle that great talkers like silent people ; and 
 from this disposition arises the vulgar opinion that they shun 
 
476 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 the vicinity of Christian dwellings, — a prejudice somewhat 
 warranted by the observation that they are rarely seen in the 
 Christian quarters of Turkish towns: Constantinople, for ex- 
 ample, swarms with them, excluding the less quiet suburbs of 
 Pera and Galata. Their position at Enos, however, an entire 
 Greek town, exonerates them from entering into the religious 
 antipathies of Mussulmans. 
 
 I returned the inquiries of the aga, Mahmoud Bey,* in 
 person. I found him a handsome, polished young man, and 
 as I had known some of his brother pages at Constantinople, 
 we soon became good friends, and exchanged trifling presents. 
 He had more curiosity than Osmanleys usually have, and 
 wished to know my opinion of several pashas whom he named. 
 I had a good word for all excepting Alish Pasha, at which he 
 caressed his moustaches, informing me that Alish had been 
 his fathers selictar, and that he hated him for a parvenu. 
 This shows, that though the - sultan disregards birth in the 
 selection of his officers, the Turks, like all other people, value 
 it. Happy the man among them who can boast a grandfather. 
 He invited me and my party to dine with him next day at a 
 kiosk in the country. We then visited the cadi and the arch- 
 bishop, and in the evening, it being Sunday, mingled with the 
 fashion of the town on the promenade by the sea-shore. The 
 whole female population was out, partly on land, partly on the 
 water in small boats, and made a gay spectacle in their rich 
 costume, consisting of loose robes a la Turque of finest bright 
 coloured silks, and all seemed superlatively happy, though 
 under the Turkish rule. We sat down by a windmill to listen 
 to their songs and observe their landing. It was pleasantly 
 cool. The sun was setting behind a fine mountain-range, 
 terminating with Cape Macri; Samothraki expanded in the 
 clear atmosphere, and the jagged cone of the holy mountain, 
 appearing single on the water as an island, was distinctly 
 visible. Presently a fair freighted bark, object of our attention 
 on account of a sweet voice in it, came to the beach near 
 where we sat. A dozen ladies disembarked; among them was 
 one of real beauty, that beauty which we are taught to expect 
 * Sons of pashas have the title of bey. 
 
RECORDS OP TRAVELS. 
 
 477 
 
 in Greece, but which we rarely find — a model for the sculptor. 
 There was the virgin front, the pencilled arches, the large 
 saintly eyes, the straight profile, the satin cheeks, the just- 
 parted delicate lips, the chin nor oval nor round, the blue- 
 veined neck, the falling shoulders : there were all these — all in 
 perfection ; but where were the charms of figure ? — the bust, 
 the slender waist, the swelling hips, the well-turned ancle, — 
 charms unpossessed out of modish Europe. The fair Eno- 
 siotes, in my opinion the best looking of the Grecian women, 
 surpassing the vaunted Smymiotes, conceal the forms nature 
 has given them under a mass of clothing, and their toilette 
 makes girls appear enceintes. 
 
 The next morning we made a light breakfast, in anticipation 
 of the surfeit we were doomed to undergo chez le bey. It is 
 one effect of civilization that a man is not forced to eat more 
 than he wishes, but the Osmanleys have not yet reached that 
 point. At two o’clock the bey sent horses for us. We were 
 four in number: my host; his partner, a freed ray a; a Nea- 
 politan trader, his guest, waiting for a passage to Syria; and 
 myself. The place of rendezvous was a kiosk near the salt- 
 pans, one mile and a half from the town. We had occasion, 
 to get to it, to cross an inlet of the sea up to our horses’ 
 bellies, in doing which poor Aleccho (Limonjoglou), who 
 preferred riding on a donkey, got a wetting. However, it was 
 a fine day, and he dried before the bey, who followed soon 
 afterwards, accompanied by the cadi and the yombrokgi 
 (douanier), arrived: in the meantime we galloped about the 
 plain, and played awkwardly at the jerreed with some Os- 
 manleys. 
 
 These three personages, in small towns, are seldom apart, 
 from the necessity of playing into each others’ hands, and for 
 society; they may be compared, under the latter article, to the 
 parson, the apothecary, and the schoolmaster of an English 
 village fifty years back. The bey was in every respect the 
 superior of the triade, with, too, a perfect freedom from eastern 
 nonchalance, so trying to a stranger, and only to be met by 
 counterfeiting a similar deportment. The cadi was a usual 
 specimen of the favoured law class, distinguished over Turkey 
 
478 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 by superior knowledge and superior sensuality; his smooth 
 and polished manner, soft as his lady-like hand, a beauty 
 much esteemed in the East, was opposed by the lurking 
 treachery of his eyes glancing from the comers of their half- 
 closed lids. The extraordinary self-command of these adepts 
 in duplicity, equally serene whether signing a death-warrant 
 or accepting a bribe, makes one experience in their intimacy 
 the sensation of the Hindoo while caressing a cobra capella. 
 The yombrokgi was a vulgar, low Asiatic, tolerated by his 
 superiors 'on account of his gross buffooneries; for however 
 superior an Osmanley is, he cannot get over the innate love of 
 beholding others expose themselves to ridicule. I already 
 knew these worthies, therefore without ceremony we took pos- 
 session of the divan, and began, as usual, to smoke. The bey 
 kicked off his Wellington boots, which annoyed him in his 
 tailor-like position, and asked my opinion about fortifying the 
 town, of which we had a full view. Not knowing more of 
 fortification than men of my profession in general do, I might 
 have been embarrassed without the comfortable reflection that, 
 know ever so little, I could not well know less than an 
 Osmanley. I completed my task off hand, and assured him 
 that if he followed my plan, Enos would be the strongest place 
 in the empire; much was not requisite to gain for it that 
 pre-eminence. He expressed himself delighted, though, I 
 knew, inly determined to do nothing that would require 
 money, and the freed raya burst out into rapture at my demon- 
 stration, with “ Voila l’avantage des mathematiques.” As this 
 was his constant expression, his retreat, I may say, when any- 
 thing was said or done of which he was ignorant, I could not 
 take it as a substantial compliment: however, it had the effect 
 of giving a change. The bey and cadi began a whispering 
 conversation; the yombrokgi, displeased at being neglected, 
 applied himself assiduously to a narghiler; and my Frank 
 companions, who never saw newspapers, drew me into their 
 favourite subject, politics, of which I remember no other than 
 that the Neapolitan was extremely anxious to know the views 
 of the hautes potences (as by a natural translation of his own 
 word, potenza , he expressed puissances). The repetition of the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 479 
 
 expression was amusing, and the idea of how sharply an 
 Italian policeman would have caught it up, still more so. 
 But the equivoque was harmless; there was nothing in his 
 hroad good-humoured countenance that indicated a savour of 
 carbonarism. By the frequent changing of our chibouques it 
 became evident that we should not eat before late, and we 
 therefore ceased looking impatiently towards the hill over 
 which the viands were to be brought from the town. To 
 amuse us, in the meanwhile, English beer and cucumbers were 
 brought in, of which we partook moderately, and the Os- 
 manleys voraciously. The natives of Turkey, of every sect, 
 are greedily fond of cucumbers, and in the season are seldom 
 seen without a whole one in their hands devouring it. We 
 then walked out to view the pans. The hey, in a facetious 
 humour, called for some of the salt, and tasted it; all his 
 countrymen present were of course obliged to follow the 
 example, and praise it; nor dared they spit it out, not even 
 the yombrokgi, who made wry faces. It appeared good and 
 white. It forms a principal source of the agas revenue, — 
 Adrianople, with the surrounding country, being supplied 
 with it. 
 
 At our return to the kiosk, I hoped to find dinner, — but no 
 such luck. As a necessary prelude, for it was now evident 
 that we were destined the honour of a regular Bacchanalian 
 repast, an enormous howl of punch was ready, and musicians 
 were in waiting. The Osmanleys made a few fagons, hut drank 
 deep, excepting the hey, who constrained himself for appear- 
 ance sake, and in order to make the yombrokgi intoxicated. 
 The yombrokgi acted his part well. He began by protesting 
 that he was a true Mussulman — that he would not violate his 
 religion by drinking before Franks; then begged submissively 
 (as if the victim of his politeness) not to he made the jest of 
 the company, — entreated that we would at least turn our heads, 
 and finished by swallowing an ok (quart). The music then 
 struck up with songs that will not admit translation. The 
 company warmed to the subject, and joined in the chorus — the 
 cadi, in an under tone, with a subdued expression of satisfac- 
 tion, the yombrokgi furiously striking the floor with hands and 
 
480 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 feet. The bey was infinitely delighted, and urged him to 
 play the fool still more. Presently dancing hoys came in, and 
 began in a moderate manner to keep time with their attitudes. 
 This would not suffice the yombrokgi ; he rose, fast inflaming, 
 reeling joined the dance, and excited them to show all their 
 skill ; but, it not being the intention o r ‘ the epicurean company 
 to exhaust at once their means of entertainment, he was com- 
 pelled to sit down and console himself with punch, while the 
 boys continued in their own fashion to exhibit lascivious 
 sleepy gestures. We were all good friends — hats and turbans 
 — the cadi, next to me, testified great solicitude for my enter- 
 tainment, and kept me in a state of suffocation by making his 
 own chiboukgi assiduously serve me. It was now six o’clock^ 
 and what with beer, cucumbers, punch, and an infinity of 
 tobacco, I began to fear that I should not be able much longer 
 to preserve my equilibrium; when, with the joy that a famished 
 army knows, hailing its long-expected convoy, we perceived a 
 train of domestics bearing dishes over the water. Our flagging 
 spirits revived ; the dancers retired, the music ceased, the 
 yombrokgi went out to make restitution, the Albanians came in 
 to arrange the cushions for eating commodiously. But one of 
 the guests, Ali Effendi, was not yet arrived. While I was 
 wishing him at Mecca, behold he rides into the water, and 
 crosses it in an orthodox style, smoking a long pipe. The 
 musicians came up again to welcome him, and punch was 
 brought in, in order to assimilate him to the rest of the party. 
 His white beard seemed older than his florid countenance, and 
 a bright mellow eye inferred how little he heeded the Koran. 
 “We Osmanleys,” he whispered to me, “seldom drink, but 
 when we do we can empty a cask.” At length all being 
 arranged, the guests merry, we disposed ourselves round the 
 tray, — the bey in the angle of the sofa, the cadi on his right 
 hand (place of honour), myself on his left, and the rest of the 
 company alternately — nine in all. There was also an inferior 
 tray, which received our leavings, for the attendants and some 
 low Franks, who came to the feast like Myconians. The first 
 dish was, as usual, lamb roasied whole, stuffed with rice and 
 raisins. An Albanian first took it up and twisted off a shoulder 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 481 
 
 for the second table, an etiquette which is observed in order to 
 lessen the sense of inferiority. It was excellent, as well as the 
 multitude of dishes which rapidly followed. I complimented 
 the hey on his cook, hut he reminded me that he was son of a 
 pasha, therefore it was not surprising. Between every dish 
 wine was handed round in large goblets. I was compelled to 
 drink deep, for Ah Effendi, wishing to recover lost time, pledged 
 me repeatedly until the hey checked him, saying, “I desire 
 that my guest follow his will.” But his politeness in other 
 ways was as disconcerting as this was acceptable, for he carried 
 it to the length, showing me the greatest honour that can he 
 shown in the East, of helping me with his fingers to the choicest 
 morsels of every dish, sopping them in the gravy. The repast 
 I thought would never terminate : an ordinary repast is over in 
 ten minutes, but one of this description is indefinite, and 
 requires energy. The Turks on such occasions loose their 
 sashes and to it; nor was our company, Christian or Mussul- 
 man, wanting in due exertions. The Neapolitan forgot his 
 dear maccaroni in the luxuries before him; the cadi eat like an 
 accomplished gourmand, savouring all, allowing only a slight 
 remark occasionally to escape his lips; the yombrokgi was 
 voracious, tearing the meats with both hands (he was not on 
 my side), and applying a rum bottle to his at each mouthful; 
 Ali Effendi was very loquacious, at the same time not neglect- 
 ing the more serious business of the day. 
 
 Finally, to our great relief, the saffron pilaff* made its 
 appearance with creams and kourskoub. These were replaced 
 by a large howl of punch, in the composition of which water 
 had a very small share. In virtue of it our orgies were pushed 
 to excess, and the scene, — what with the music, the songs, and 
 the dancing hoys, became rather bedlamite. Some of the guests 
 tore off their upper garments — fire in their eyes, froth on their 
 beards — joined the dancers, their turbans, half-unrolled, flying 
 out as they reeled round the apartment, and hut for the presence 
 of the hey scandalous displays would have ensued. Tran- 
 
 * It is a sign that your entertainer is well-bred when the last pilaff is 
 slightly tinged with saffron. To the eye it is pleasing, and not disagree- 
 able to the taste. 
 
482 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 quillity after a time was restored: — coffee composed the actors, 
 and the hey hoped that I would make no remark on what I 
 saw, adding that such took place only once in a way. I assured 
 him that I had been sufficiently long acquainted with Osmanleys 
 to he aware of their general propriety, and that he might depend 
 on my discretion. 
 
 At ten o’clock we remounted, forming a cavalcade of fifteen 
 persons. Footmen accompanied us with torches, the long 
 streams of light flowing from which on the placid tide joined 
 to the phosphoric splashing of our horses, was exceedingly 
 pretty, qnd made, hy their dazzling vibrating effect, some of 
 the party reel in their saddles. No derangement, however, 
 occurred to any one excepting the Neapolitan, who hastily 
 sprung off, exclaiming, “ Faccia che vuole alia giumenta almeno 
 mi lascia tranquillo.”* 
 
 Beyond this nothing discomposed us. Ali Effendi reined in 
 his neighing charger, laughing at the joke, and in ten minutes 
 we gained the town, the streets of which we paraded till past 
 midnight, accompanied hy harking dogs and discordant music, 
 to the entertainment of the inhabitants, male and female, 
 who stood at their windows with candles to admire us or to be 
 admired. We gradually dispersed, nor did I again join the 
 bons vivans of Enos. 
 
 * It was a singular circumstance that a very few days before this ban- 
 quet a copy of a hatti scheriff came from the Porte enforcing the prohibi- 
 tion of wine or spirits. When it arrived the aga and the cadi were half 
 intoxicated, and consequently the public reading of it was deferred till the 
 next day. The aga and cadi in their cups thus commented on it : — “ Here 
 is an order against drinking, and we are drunk when it arrives. They who 
 sent it must have been drank too, for not knowing that we would disre- 
 gard it. — Mashallah !” Simple remonstrances have never restrained the 
 Osmanleys from drinking. Sultan Mahomet IV., in whose reign the vice 
 rose to a great height, enforced his hatti scheriff by commanding hot lead 
 to be poured down the throats of those who were caught drinking wine. 
 
 The Mussulmans have always been dexterous in twisting the Koran, by 
 taking it in a figurative or literal sense. They defend the use of spirits 
 because they say the Prophet only forbade wine — for a good reason, spirits 
 were not then known in Arabia ; and the irreligious, the drinkers of wine, 
 excuse themselves by saying that the prohibition is figurative, supporting 
 their argument by the verse of the Koran, that the Faithful shall have wine 
 in Paradise — a wine delicious to the taste, but which does not intoxicate. 
 It is clear, therefore, they say, that the Prophet only intended that wine 
 should not be drank to excess ; for it is sinful to suppose that what is law- 
 ful in heaven is unlawful on earth. 
 
RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 483 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Schooner — Deserters — Samothraki — Ancient castle — Greek pirates — 
 Thasco — Mehemet Ali — Mount Athos— Albanian gardeners — Simenu — 
 Vatopede — Monkish customs — History of Monte Santo — Cariez — 
 Waivode — Protaton — Kuthenisi — Priors — Iphiron — Libraries — Lavra. 
 
 I rose with a headache, which, however, an unnsnal incident 
 soon dispelled. A Genoese schooner had just dropped anchor 
 in the port, from Salonica, freighted with a hundred Albanians — 
 deserters and vagabonds — to he sent to the grand vizir at Adria- 
 nople. Every shop was closed, and the inhabitants, in alarm, kept 
 their houses. The hey was on the beach, in doubt what to do. 
 “God is great!” he said, “and those fellows are villains: the 
 pasha of Salonica has sent them here to be rid of them. 
 Please God, I will send them away too; but I have no troops, 
 and they may choose to quarter on Enos.” He sent a mes- 
 senger on hoard, to order them to land anywhere hut in the 
 town. They beat the messenger, and did the contrary; came 
 on shore like wild beasts, in a mood to break open the first 
 shop, or fire the first house, crying out for food. A large 
 magazine was speedily cleared; bread, caimac, and cheese, 
 placed in it ; and they rushed in, like a crowd into a theatre on 
 the doors being opened. Guards were placed over them. This 
 manoeuvre gave time for consideration on what was to he done 
 with them next — not provide them with supper also, certainly. 
 Our counsel being asked, we advised that they should be called 
 out singly, under any pretence, and handcuffed. It succeeded 
 admirably, and in a few hours they were on the march to Fera, 
 with a bouryourdou to the aga to feed and forward them. I 
 simply mention this as a specimen of how they manage things 
 in Turkey. 
 
 At midnight I embarked in a large boat, which I had hired, 
 and the next forenoon beached in a little cove in the rocky 
 shore of Samothraki. A distressing walk over rocks and 
 briars, up-hill for two hours, brought me to a deep ravine, on 
 the sides of which was suspended the village, resembling piles 
 of rocks, from the houses being built of large loose stones. 
 
 i i 2 
 
484 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 Magnificent ruins of an ancient castle, rendered yet more 
 picturesque by the contrast of three Turks smoking their 
 chibouques in the shade of them, towered on a precipice above. 
 On the walls were several inscriptions, the most perfect of 
 which I copied, after having visited the aga, a rough Albanian. 
 He demanded my firman; but not finding it at the moment, I 
 presented him my post-horse order instead, making sure that 
 it would answer the same purpose, as, in fact, it did. He 
 affected to read it attentively, then returned it, saying that it 
 was good, and directed the Greek tchorbagi to take care of me. 
 The tchprbagi’s house commanded a view of Mount Athos, 
 which is a stupendous object viewed from afar, though not 
 four thousand feet high, on account of its isolation, and the 
 absence of comparative heights. One knows not whether to 
 admire the Titanean idea, or laugh at the extravagance, of 
 Dinocrates, when he proposed to shape it into a statue of 
 Alexander, holding a city in one hand, a lake in the other. 
 The monarch’s answer, that the adjacent country could not 
 furnish provisions for the inhabitants of the city, was keenly 
 ironical ; for the length of a hand to a figure four thousand feet 
 high, could not, if in proportion, exceed three hundred and 
 forty feet. 
 
 In a more elevated part of the island, near a small lake, are 
 the remains of a fine amphitheatre. Theatres, in ancient days, 
 were not such direct evidences of wealth and population as 
 now, that men are more devoted to business ; therefore vestiges 
 of them, even though superb, are not always conclusive of a 
 former state of high prosperity, although, in this case, they 
 may be so considered; for we know that Samothrace was cele- 
 brated, while governed by its own laws; and the extent of the 
 castle renders it apparent that it continued of importance after 
 Vespasian reduced it, with all the Egean isles, to the condition 
 of a province. 
 
 Samothraki is chiefly composed of granite rock. On the 
 south side, however, there is a large portion of plain, with 
 good pasturage, though utterly neglected, on which a town 
 might he built, and the inhabitants enjoy plenty. But the 
 Greek pirates are obstacles to such a scheme; during the last 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 485 
 
 eight years they have,brought desolation on the island by fre- 
 quently landing, and carrying off cattle and other moveables. 
 When it is considered that of the population — six hundred 
 families — six only are Mussulmans, the patriotic Hellenists 
 can hardly claim the credit of taking to the trade of piracy 
 solely to distress their natural enemy. 
 
 June 23rd. We made sail for Ayonoros (Mount Athos), 
 and in the course of the day, the wind constraining us, passed 
 near Thasco, an island now interesting as the birthplace of 
 Mehemet Ali of Egypt. In the small town of Cavalla, near it, 
 on the main, is still seen the cafeneh where he once served in 
 a humble capacity. The master of the cafeneh afterwards 
 came to Egypt, in the hope that the pasha would favour him: 
 effectively he was inclined to do so ; hut the cavedgi marred his 
 prospects by reminding him of their former intimacy. “Never 
 let me see or hear of that man again,” said the pasha to his 
 secretary, Boghoz. 
 
 Men who surmount the obstacles of low birth and poverty 
 generally excite our curiosity, because we suppose them gifted 
 with extraordinary minds. In civilized countries the sight is 
 rare, and justifies our expectations; hut in Turkey, on the 
 contrary, it is very common, and usually disappoints us. The 
 possessor of greatness in the East, in nineteen cases out of 
 twenty, rises from nothing. Why ? because crime or vice is 
 there the high, the only road to power; consequently, men who 
 are in easy circumstances will not, unless goaded by unusual 
 ambition, enter it; they shudder at its first steps, and having 
 the comforts of life, with peace of mind, care not for the 
 baubles as the price of it. But the poor man, who has nothing 
 to lose, and is urged on by the desire of being avenged on 
 fortune, will, for less than the distant chance of a pashalick, 
 soil his conscience. Repetition of crime cleanses it — strange 
 peculiarity of this said conscience. 
 
 Late in the evening we made for a small bay in the promon- 
 tory of the mountain, at the bottom of which appeared, as I 
 thought, a dismantled fortress. My boatmen knew it for the 
 monastery of Simenu. We landed, and endeavoured to obtain 
 admittance by knocking at the gates; hut no answer was 
 
486 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 returned. We then walked round the walls till we came to a 
 spacious garden, where several Albanians were employed as 
 gardeners and as guardians, to judge by the opposite descrip- 
 tion of their implements. Laying down their spades, and 
 bringing their tophenks up to their shoulders, they interrogated 
 us in a manner which showed that unity of religion would not 
 have been a sufficient passport; for the times were trouble- 
 some, and a formidable hand of klephtes was near. Being 
 satisfied, however, at length of our pacific intentions, they 
 showed us a postern-gate which admitted us within the walls. 
 The caloyers were at prayers; hut nevertheless the superior 
 came out to meet us. He took the patriarch’s letter with 
 great respect, put it to his forehead, kissed it, read it, then 
 invited us to enter the church. It was small, but rich and 
 clean. Fifteen caloyers were present, and the service was 
 performing with a monotonous carelessness that did not 
 astonish me. When finished, I was conducted to the best 
 apartment, and the superior supped with me off bread and 
 boiled herbs — the monkish fare — seasoned with excellent wine 
 - — “ dove si trovano frati Id si trova buon vino ” — a proof that 
 art has more to do with the quality than climate. Throughout 
 Mount Athos the wine is excellent. 
 
 The monastery where chance threw me was one of the 
 smallest, and bore marks of the Turkish occupation during 
 the last eight years. 
 
 At the commencement of the revolution, the Greek patriots 
 had the intention to occupy the mountain, and garrison the 
 fortified convents, whence they could have made incursions 
 into Macedonia, and raised the province; but with a foresight 
 that rarely belongs to them, the Turks threw troops into all 
 the convents in time, with the farther view of preventing the 
 caloyers from sending their riches away. The infliction lasted 
 till March, 1830, when a firman from the Porte relieved them. 
 During the occupation the convents were obliged to support 
 the troops, and to pay a contribution, besides being exposed 
 to individual exactions. The monthly sum levied on the 
 whole mountain was ten thousand piastres (one hundred and 
 sixty pounds.) The larger establishments, being rich, were 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 487 
 
 enabled to pay their unwelcome guests for good behaviour; 
 but the smaller ones suffered grievously in the furniture and 
 decorations of the apartments. 
 
 The chief instrument of the Porte in bleeding the caloyers 
 was Aboulloubout Pasha, who, at the commencement of the 
 revolution, was summoned from Jerusalem, where he had 
 made himself odious, to practise his art at Salonica. After 
 various atrocities, among others decimating the inhabitants of 
 Neyousta, he came to the mountain to endeavour to get gold 
 in exchange for bastinadoes and threats. He was forbidden 
 to take the life of a single caloyer. He then went to Demo- 
 tica, and thence — but it is needless to enumerate the halting- 
 places of this barbarian: his crimes are probably exaggerated 
 by the caloyers, who use his name as a curse. “ Where is he 
 now ?” I asked. “ In hell,” was the emphatic reply. Had a 
 devout Catholic Greek been by he would have mentally added, 
 “In the hands of the caloyers.” Put they erred: Aboulloubout 
 was still alive, though unemployed. 
 
 The next afternoon, re-embarking, we. beat up a few miles 
 to the eastward, and landed at Yatopede, the largest and 
 richest of the convents. Several young caloyers were already 
 on the heach, waiting to greet us, the arrival of a stranger on 
 the mountain having been reported from Simenu. With much 
 ceremony they conducted me up the slope to the building, 
 which, to all appearance, was a fortress, having high battle- 
 ments, a moat, with drawbridge and iron gates; cannon, too, 
 there had been, but the Turks had removed them. There the 
 rest of the brotherhood welcomed me; and, having first con- 
 ducted me to a chapel to return thanks for my prosperous 
 arrival, installed me in the best “ guest’s apartment.” Pipes 
 and coffee were immediately brought. To this Eastern 
 refreshment the caloyers add-raki. Afterwards a supper of 
 fish, vegetables, and dried fruits was served, at which the 
 principal caloyers, in the absence of the ugoumenos (prior) at 
 Cariez, did me the honour to assist. That evening my room 
 was crowded with caloyers, all eager to obtain news on various 
 subjects — the destinies of Greece, the late war, &c. One 
 among them, a Bulgarian, asked me if it were true the miserj 
 
488 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 that the Russians were reported to have brought on his 
 countrymen ? Of course I did not disguise the truth. Through- 
 out the mountain, as in every other part of Grecian Turkey, I 
 found the same marked discontent with the Russians. 
 
 That night I lay on a comfortable sofa, and in the morning 
 appreciated the beauty of the situation from my windows, 
 which commanded a view, over the sea, of the hills of Mace- 
 donia, of Thasco, and of Samothraki. 
 
 Mount Athos is, properly speaking, an elevated cone of 
 rock, at the extremity of a long mountainous promontory, 
 forty miles by nine, the highest point of which it doubly 
 exceeds, connected by a low narrow isthmus to Macedonia. 
 This is the geographical distinction; but Ayonoros (Holy 
 Mountain) is applied to both cone and promontory, along 
 either shores of which, in small bays, the monasteries are 
 situated; and, considering their isolation, the climate, the 
 prospect, the pleasant country, the gardens, more delightful 
 spots do not elsewhere exist for religious or philosophical 
 retirement; with too many comforts, elegant lodgings, books, 
 and society — such as it is. 
 
 The monasteries are twenty-two in number, as follows : — 
 
 Zilantari — built by Simeon, a prince of Servia, who became 
 a caloyer. 
 
 Zographo — built by two brothers of Justinian. In these 
 two monasteries the service is performed in the Bulgarian 
 tongue, the caloyers being Bulgarians. 
 
 Simenu — built by the Empress Pulcheria. 
 
 Vatopede — built by Constantine originally, and rebuilt by 
 Theodosius. 
 
 Pantocratorous — by Manuel Comnenus. 
 
 Kuthenisi — by Alexius Comnenus, of Trebizonde. 
 
 Protaton — built originally by Constantine, rebuilt by Theo- 
 dosius. 
 
 Iphiron — built by Theophania, wife of Romanos, son of 
 Leon Sophos; restored by a prince of Iberia (Georgia) about 
 a.d. 600; added to by his son, a caloyer. 
 
 Stavronikita — by the patriarch Jeremiah. 
 
 Philotheu — built by a wealthy Roman, (name unremem- 
 bered,) since restored by a Georgian prince. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 489 
 
 Karcicalu — by Carac alios, governor of Bessarabia. 
 
 Lavra — built by Niceforas. 
 
 St. Anna — a monastery without a wall, called a skidt. 
 
 St. Paul — built by an emperor’s son, who became a caloyer. 
 
 Dionisius — by Alexius Comnenus, of Trebizonde. 
 
 St. Gregory — by a Servian prince. 
 
 Simopetra — by John, a Servian prince. 
 
 Ziropotamo — built by Andronicus II. (the old ;) shook down 
 by an earthquake the beginning of the 16th century, and restored 
 by Selim I. 
 
 Rusikon — founded by Catherine for Russian caloyers. 
 
 Xenophu — built by the Logothete of an emperor. 
 
 Dochejariju — 
 
 Kastamonitu — built by Constantine; rebuilt by Constantius ; 
 rebuilt by a Servian prince. — There are also visible some ruins 
 of Amalfenu, a Latin monastery, built in the short interval of 
 peace that existed between the Eastern and Western churches, 
 and destroyed by the Greeks nine hundred years since. 
 
 Before the Greek revolution, there were nearly two thousand 
 caloyers on the mountain. When I was on it there were about 
 nine hundred, many having fled to the convents of Mega Spi- 
 lion and others. They were expected, however, to return, since 
 the Osmanleys had taken leave. 
 
 The description of one convent may serve for all. Vatopede 
 is in form a heptagon, of which the faQade is equal in length to 
 three of the other sides. At the acute angle is a high tower, built 
 by Arcadius, commanding a view of the whole establishment. 
 Round the interior of the walls are corridores, supported on 
 arches, containing the cells, about two hundred and fifty 
 in number, which are neatly furnished with divans, tables, and 
 chairs. On the walls and turrets, overhanging them, have 
 been erected various kiosks, that give the monastery, from 
 a distance, the appearance of a village built on white rocks : 
 these aerial dwellings are musaphir odasi, (“ guests’ apart- 
 ments.”) The area of the figure is occupied by the church, 
 the refectory, the magazines, the distillery, the stables, and 
 some chapels. At the gates are apartments for the wardens. 
 
 The church is singularly rich and elegant, partly in imita- 
 
490 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 tion of St. Sophia. The dome is sustained by four porphyry 
 columns, brought from Eome by Theodosius the Great. The 
 pavement is variegated with roux and verd antique. The walls 
 are adorned with frescoes of saints, and martyrdoms, and of the 
 chief benefactors. Imperial eagles are in every corner. The 
 praying desks, the chairs, the stools, the batons, are inlaid with 
 pearl. The candlesticks, chalices, urns, &c., are of massy 
 silver. The bibles are clasped with gold. 
 
 In the sanctum sanctorum, I was shown various relics : — a 
 picture of the Virgin and Child; the countenance was of the 
 real Jewish cast, but black with age, the gift of Theodora, 
 who married Orchan : — a piece of the real cross, presented by 
 Stephen, a Servian prince : — a piece of the Virgin’s shawl, by 
 John Cantacuzene ; with it is kept a pearl necklace of high 
 price, a votive offering : — a jasper vase set in gold, a beautiful 
 specimen given by Constantine Manuel Paleologos : — the 
 tapestry on which Andronicus knelt; in the centre of it a 
 two-headed eagle worked in gold ; in each corner a crowned 
 griffin, with the emperor’s cipher : — a picture of Peter and of 
 Paul, given by the same, at the bottom of it this inscription ; 
 — A icOpoKig (tov sv (ra^ovg Sea-rjorov IIAAAIOAirou : — a 
 manuscript volume, written by the Emperor Leon, being a 
 history of Jesus and of Mary, and a disquisition on the 
 writings of the apostles. All these relics are carefully pre- 
 served in silver boxes ; the wood of the cross is set with 
 jewels. 
 
 They showed me, as a curiosity, a marble tablet of bas 
 reliefs, very ancient, depicting in twelve compartments the 
 history of our Saviour, commencing with the scene of the 
 angel’s first conversation with Mary. The execution is far 
 from good, but singular ; in the stable two donkeys are repre- 
 sented regarding the infant with awe. 
 
 In another part of the church was a marble coffin, with 
 a lamp burning over it, containing the bones of Andronicus 
 Paleologos, Manuel Paleologos, and John Cantacuzene. These 
 three emperors died in the monastery, the first as a caloyer. 
 Eor greater security, their bones were taken from their respec- 
 tive tombs, and enclosed together. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 491 
 
 Every Latin and Greek establishment has its miracle ; nor 
 was this an exception. After several crossings before a tat- 
 tered curtain, my conductors drew it aside, and disclosed a 
 picture of the Virgin, black with time. One of her cheeks 
 was marked with a scar and a blood-stain — the prodigy, 
 occasioned by a caloyer, who, for some unknown reason, struck 
 her with a knife ; blood followed the blow ; the arm of the 
 impious wretch instantly dropped off, and he died in agony 
 the following day. He was buried in the spot where the 
 sacrilege was committed ; whence, on the anniversary for several 
 succeeding years cries issued, while the blood flowed anew on 
 Mary’s cheek: in confirmation whereof, they showed me the 
 bones of the offending arm, kept in a case. 
 
 The curtain that divides the body of the church from the 
 great altar was formerly of sculptured marble, but the frivolous 
 taste of the caloyers, sixty years ago, changed it for carved 
 gilded wooden work, a change that the present inhabitants, with 
 better taste, lament. 
 
 The great doors are of richly carved brass, the gift of Theo- 
 dosius. Near them is preserved, with care, an ancient marble 
 slab, although nothing concerning its history is known. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the Osmanleys never took any- 
 thing from the churches, not even in the convents, which 
 became too poor latterly to satisfy their demands. “What 
 restrained him,” I asked, “ from laying hands on these objects 
 of cupidity?” pointing to the above-mentioned picture of the 
 Virgin; the caloyers answered, that they dreaded her ven- 
 geance. A poor restraint, I thought, judging from the treat- 
 ment the French gave the Italian churches. They further 
 assured me, that the Osmanleys never disturbed them at their 
 devotions, at which they often attended as spectators. I well 
 understood that, because the church- service at Ayonoros 
 resembles the mosque service, consisting chiefly of a series of 
 prostrations and other visible signs, with the constant cry of 
 Kyrie Eleison. This point of resemblance pleased them. 
 Moreover, the Mussulmans respect the Christian religion; they 
 revere Christ next to Mohammed, and rank the Virgin among 
 the four perfect women, (Asia, the princess who saved the 
 
492 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 infant Moses; the Virgin Mary ; Khadijah; the prophets first 
 wife; Fatima, his daughter.) They regard no part of our faith 
 with horror, excepting that, that Christ is Son of God — I will 
 not mention their reasoning on this subject — they regard it as 
 a complete blasphemy : had Mohammed asserted that his wife 
 was the daughter of God, it could not be a greater blasphemy 
 to our ears. They doubly hate the Jews, because the latter do 
 not believe in Jesus. The conversion of a Jew would not be 
 considered sincere, because the Mussulmans say, that unless a 
 man believe in Christ he cannot believe in Mohammed. One 
 is a consequence of the other. 
 
 The outside, however, of the churches of the different convents 
 rather suffered from the prejudices of the Osmanleys. They 
 are covered with frescoes representing the most atrocious 
 martyrdoms, and hell and purgatory in every variety that 
 human fancy has devised; more than I, poor ignorant Pro- 
 testant, had any previous idea of. Paradise is not portrayed, 
 excepting here and there at its gates, whereat companies of old 
 men are obtaining admittance. The dismal abodes, on the 
 contrary, are entirely filled with young men; women are no- 
 where seen — a greater illiberality than is displayed by Moham- 
 medanism, which does admit some of them to a future state. I 
 remarked to an old caloyer, who took pleasure in explaining 
 the pictures to me, on the discrepance in the judgment allotted 
 to the old and the young. His politeness prevented him from 
 saying anything; but he made a very significant reply by stroking 
 his own long white beard, and complacently smiling. Like- 
 wise were embodied the reveries of the Apocalypse, exaggerated 
 into manifold absurdities. The seven-headed beast was there, 
 seven hundred times repeated at least, generally in the form of 
 a giraffe with seven necks, like boa constrictors, with as many 
 heads, unlike those of any animal in Buffon. The Osmanleys 
 very willingly respected the pictures of Christ, and of Mary, 
 and of saints ; but saw no reason why they should respect such 
 monstrosities, and therefore amused themselves by picking out 
 all its eyes, wherever they found it, with the points of their 
 ataghans, making it tenfold more ridiculous. I could not 
 sympathize with the caloyers in their complaints on such 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 493 
 
 vandalism, though I thought that the perpetrators of the said 
 barbarous acts were wrongly actuated ; they certainly could not 
 complain that that part of the Koran was infringed which 
 forbids the representation of any of God’s creatures. 
 
 Having completed our survey of the church, the day after 
 my ajrival, the prior’s secretary, my immediate entertainer, 
 with some others, conducted me to the garden, where we 
 seated ourselves in an open kiosk. The gardener, an old 
 caloyer, brought us some fresh cucumbers and a bottle of raki. 
 Each of my companions ate two of the former, and drank five 
 or six glasses of the latter. On the beach, not far from us, a 
 tall and spare caloyer was walking up and down with an 
 irregular pace, occasionally stopping, and regarding the sea 
 earnestly. His deportment reminded me of the “ Giaour,” and 
 I was ready to imagine him also a victim of passion, when sud- 
 denly he threw aside his cowl, rushed into the water, and 
 casting out a small net, enclosed some fish: he was appointed 
 to catch fish for my supper that night. It would not have 
 required much fancy to have traced a melancholy tale in the pale 
 countenance of some of the caloyers : hut there was no truth in 
 them; they had never known the world, therefore could have 
 no causes, beyond vague ones, of regret. Brought to the 
 mountain as children, they grow up with perfect freedom from 
 work or study : to read is all they learn. On reaching the age 
 when they must quit the mountain, or embrace the order, they 
 usually choose the latter, their choice confirmed by habits of 
 indolence, and by a feeling of security. No temptations after- 
 wards cross their minds. Women are not admitted in any part 
 of the mountain, in a circuit of one hundred miles, and few 
 strangers (of late) visit their abodes: during the last twelve 
 years, a chance fishing-boat for water, or a pirate seeking a 
 blessing, has been their only varieties. This absence of excite- 
 ment, joined to rigid fasting and watching, soon tames the 
 natural heat of their blood, so that at thirty, their pulses heat 
 like men’s at seventy. I felt several for curiosity, and was 
 astonished. My visit afforded them great pleasure, and, I fear, 
 did no good to the younger members, who nightly crowded my 
 supper table, and remained with me till the midnight church 
 
494 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 bell tolled, seeking information about the world, of which, it 
 appeared, the rogue, my servant, told them I had seen much. 
 One Papas Gregorios, evinced a strong natural taste for earthly 
 vanities: daily he put on my uniform more than once, and 
 strutted about with great satisfaction, regardless of the sneers 
 of the aged. He was very inquisitive about everything outside 
 the mountain, particularly regarding women, whom he had 
 heard of, but never seen, that is, since he was four years old. 
 For charity’s sake I discouraged his inquiries, and hade him 
 thank Heaven that he was safe from their dangerous allure- 
 ments. He would willingly have dropped his cowl, and ac- 
 companied me ; hut what could I have done with a caloyer ? 
 
 The life of the caloyers is monotonous, their dress coarse, 
 and their food simple. Their time is occupied between 
 praying, eating, and sleeping. At midnight they rise and go 
 to church, remaining there four hours, after which they retire 
 to a chapel, and pass two hours more in silent meditation on 
 the scriptures : they may then sleep. At nine they rise, and 
 breakfast on what they please, (of monastic fare.) At noon, 
 church until four o’clock ; at five they dine, singly or in com- 
 pany, only eating altogether in the refectory on festival days. 
 This routine is enough to blanch their cheeks. Besides, they 
 have domestic and out- door employments. On occasions of 
 fasts and festivals the churchings are considerably increased ; 
 during the Easter week, they are in the church fifteen hours of 
 each twenty-four. On set days they visit holy spots in the 
 neighbourhood to pray. At the panagia they walk procession- 
 ally a circuit of several miles in their robes of ceremony, pre- 
 ceded by the banner of Constantine, which is a large flag 
 representing on one side the emperor and his mother Helena, 
 supporting a huge cross ; on the reverse the Virgin kneeling, 
 an angel hovering over her. They have other ceremonies in- 
 numerable, the due observance of all which preserves the mem- 
 bers of the communities from corpulency. 
 
 Meat is entirely excluded from their diet. Fish, vegetables, 
 fruit, milk, eggs, they may eat, excepting during their Lents, 
 to the rigour of which the laity as well as the clergy are sub- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 495 
 
 jected.* Wine and spirits maybe drunk at all times; indeed, 
 they are necessary after their indigestible food. They felt the 
 privation of milk, they told me, in Lent more than of any 
 other thing. 
 
 With all, they enjoy excellent health, although there is not 
 a doctor on the mountain, or a particle of medicine, as I found 
 afterwards to my cost, and they attain longevity. InVatopede, 
 I conversed with three caloyers above one hundred years old, 
 the eldest of whom was one hundred and seven ; they were 
 fresh and vigorous, and able to attend the night church, only 
 suffering a little from chalk stones in the hands. By their ap- 
 pearance they might live twenty years longer. 
 
 The government of the monasteries is paternal, independent 
 of each other and of external influence. They pay no tribute, 
 or owe any direct obedience to the patriarch, although, as head 
 of the religion, his wishes have weight, and his approval 
 (never withheld,) is necessary to confirm the election of a new 
 prior, which is performed by the caloyers in their respective 
 monasteries. The prior has the power of solitary confining, 
 and of flagellation. 
 
 The priors are nominally subjected to the Bishop of 
 Ayonoros, who resides at Cariez, receiving a moderate stipend 
 from the monasteries once a year: he visits them in succession, 
 when he is treated, respectively, as the prior, in order to confer 
 priests’ orders on such of the caloyers as choose. Few, how- 
 ever, in comparison of their numbers, aspire to that dignity, 
 deterred, perhaps, by the arduous task of performing church 
 service: priests are at the same time exempt from menial 
 offices. 
 
 The cultivation of the monastery lands is performed by 
 caloyers, assisted by Albanian labourers. During prosperous 
 
 * The Greek fasts are four, viz., fifty days before Easter, when they eat 
 bread and vegetables only; on Saturday or Sunday may add oil. Twenty- 
 five days after Easter, when they eat bread, fish, and vegetables; no oil. 
 Fifteen days before the Madonna, when they eat bread and vegetables only. 
 Forty days before Christmas, when they eat bread, fish, and vegetables. 
 Thus in the year the Greeks have one hundred and thirty days’ rigorous 
 abstinence, to which the Catholic lent is feasting : and the Greeks keep 
 them. 
 
496 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 times the produce was sufficient to supply all the monasteries 
 with bread, wine, and vegetables ; but the incursions of the 
 klephtes since 1821 and the presence of the Osmanleys caused 
 such a stagnation of agriculture, that the greater part of their 
 corn, when I was there, was imported, and only enough wine 
 made for the sick and the aged. Of raki, however, they dis- 
 tilled sufficient quantities for a liberal consumption by the 
 brethren, who drink it at least twice a day, and are no ways 
 restrained : even with this indulgence, I should say that a 
 more mortified body of men than the caloyers of Mount Athos 
 does no f t exist. 
 
 Numerous cottages are scattered in the valleys of the moun- 
 tain, for the accommodation of the farmer caloyers, who prin- 
 cipally like their mode of life, because it relieves them from 
 their religious duties ; although, it is true, they are enjoined to 
 be equally exact when alone, as when in the monasteries — a 
 fervour not to he expected ; for a man, after a hard day’s toil, 
 will hardly awake at midnight to pray for four hours, even were 
 he innately devout, which the caloyers certainly are not ; 
 thereby showing, that religion, though delightful when 
 prompted by godliness, is irksome, like most obligations of 
 this life, when enforced as a duty. I was surprised one night, 
 attending the church, to find very few present ; hut the secre- 
 tary confidentially told me, that it was in consequence of the 
 prior’s absence at Cariez. He, too, gladly availed himself of 
 his temporary office, doing the honours to a guest, to excuse 
 himself from the night service. 
 
 The religious history of Monte Santo commenced with Con- 
 stantine and Helena, who founded several monasteries. Julian 
 the Apostate levelled them, and dispersed the monks. After 
 his death, however, they returned to their old haunts ; but did 
 not again prosper till the reign of Theodosius the Great, who, 
 moved by a miracle, which I will relate, rebuilt Vatopede, the 
 principal monastery. The emperor, in a voyage from Italy to 
 Constantinople, was surprised by a violent gale off the moun- 
 tain, during which his fleet received great damage, and in the 
 course of the night, a wave washed his infant son, Arcadius, 
 overboard. Instead of drowning, as any other child would 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 497 
 
 have done, he was saved by the Virgin, who, seeing the acci- 
 dent, descended on a cloud, and bore him to a wood, near a 
 ruined monastery, on the sea shore. The disconsolate emperor 
 vowed not to continue his voyage without the body of his son ; 
 therefore, stationing his ships round the promontory, he 
 landed to search the inlets, and, heaven directed, proceeded 
 straight to the very tree — (the ealoyers still show it) — under 
 which the young Arcadius was sleeping. Confessing the 
 prodigy, he showed his gratitude by rebuilding the monas- 
 tery, and, in commemoration of the event, named it Vatopede, 
 from vatos, wood ; pethe, son. In a short time, from this 
 impulse, the mountain surpassed its pristine magnificence. 
 Succeeding emperors, with other Christian princes, built 
 various monasteries, adorning its shores and romantic 
 glens; and the continuance of such high favour preserved 
 its sanctity from becoming dim — its treasures from dimi- 
 nishing. Several royal heads retired to it to enjoy repose; 
 and three emperors, as I have mentioned, were buried 
 in it. There is a tradition, that the Latins, in one of their 
 crusades, landed on the mountain, and pillaged the convents. 
 Direct proof of this outrage is wanting ; but the crusaders 
 were just the gentry to commit it, came they in the way. On 
 the other hand, in their favour, it may be said, that a Greek 
 would not lose an opportunity of vituperating a Catholic. 
 
 The mountain escaped the catastrophe attendant on the 
 Mohammedan conquest by the shrewdness of the ealoyers, who, 
 inspired by divine grace, as their successors modestly allow, 
 foresaw that, with Constantinople, every land where Greek was 
 spoken would fall into the hands of the Osmanleys ; and 
 therefore, without waiting their turn to yield to force, sent 
 deputies to congratulate the conqueror, and to declare them- 
 selves his obedient subjects. Mahomet, pleased with their 
 unclaimed submission, granted their prayer, and gave them a 
 firman, exempting them from the desolation he designed the 
 Greek church ; empowering them to retain possession of their 
 monasteries, and all the lands appertaining to them, with the 
 right to use bells and other symbols of their faith ; to repair 
 their monasteries, and to build others. He only claimed the 
 
 K K 
 
498 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 kharatcli. These privileges have never been contested. The 
 caloyers retain them, with the important firman — their charter 
 — to this day; nor have they ever received so severe a visita- 
 tion from their masters as the one they were just freed from on 
 my arrival. 
 
 The revenues of the monasteries were derived in part from 
 pilgrims, who resorted to them in great numbers from Greece, 
 and Turkey, and from Russia. Since the Greek war, the pil- 
 grimage has ceased, but is expected to be resumed now that 
 the Levant is more tranquil. It was considered a party of 
 pleasure a voyage to the mountain. The pilgrims received 
 great hospitality. Some visited all the monasteries; others 
 were contented with seeing three or four. They generally gave 
 money; and the names of donors were inscribed in a large 
 book, at each convent, however small the amount. In the 
 great hook at Iphiron, I saw the names of Peter the Great and 
 of Catherine the Second. 
 
 The monasteries also derive revenues from their estates in 
 Vallachia, Moldavia, and in Russia, where they have dependent 
 establishments, as in Constantinople, and the principal towns 
 of Roumelia. Members of the mountain reside in them to 
 receive the rents, and the offerings of the pious. By this 
 medium, which closely connects the Russians, the Bulgarians, 
 and the Greeks, Russia can exercise a great influence with the 
 Christian subjects of the Porte: in fact, it is a secret police for 
 her all over Turkey. 
 
 After three days, I quitted Vatopede. My conveyance was 
 mules, remarkably fine animals. The bells of the monastery 
 were set ringing, not excluding the great gong that summons 
 to church; and the whole fraternity accompanied me to some 
 distance outside the gates, where we took an affectionate 
 parting. My path struck into the nut woods that cover the 
 mountain, and from which vessels every year embark cargoes 
 gratis. The way was rough, but highly picturesque : at times 
 fine rocks girt us close to the edge of steep precipices; at 
 times we passed under natural arches, formed by large oaks 
 growing from the banks above us, and crossing with others 
 springing up from beneath our feet: when a glade occurred. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 499 
 
 we looked down on the sea, and occasionally, from a summit 
 devoid of trees, we saw the grey head of the cone. All the 
 promontory is of the same description, cool and varied. The 
 sun cannot penetrate its thick foliage, and the caloyers have 
 furnished it with a ready supply of excellent water, collected 
 in numerous fountains, and carried for many miles, from hill 
 to hill, diverging in all directions, in split trunks of trees, 
 hollowed out: the murmur of these little streams, dropping 
 from branch to branch, joined to the continued fragrance of 
 myrtle, is extremely agreeable to the traveller. The pro- 
 menades at Castel a Mare are a miniature of the sequestered 
 shades of Ayonoros. Art has only to prune nature to make 
 them yet more delightful. I met several caloyers, who be- 
 stowed blessings on me, so gratifying — so auguring of peace, 
 was the novel sight of a Frank traveller to them. 
 
 In three hours I reached Cariez, a village embosomed in 
 woods aud hills, with an old fort, built by Justinian. Six 
 priors received me, and conducted me to a house already pre- 
 pared for me, they having previous notice of my arrival. It is 
 not surprising the extraordinary honour I received at Ayonoros, 
 when it is considered that I was the bearer of a patriarchal 
 letter, and the first milordos* who had been there for fourteen 
 years. The rarity of the animal was a sufficient reason for 
 curiosity (of which he was an unbounded object) and hospi- 
 tality, even were the caloyers not inclined that way. My 
 apartment was not so commodious as the one at Vatopede; 
 but it commanded a finer prospect, from its elevated situation. 
 Several priors kept me company till late, and undeceived me 
 in regard of their supposed acquirements. The brethren at 
 Vatopede had told me that I should gain any information I 
 wanted about the monasteries from them — they referred me 
 back to the monasteries. The ignorance of the monks makes 
 them regard with wonder anybody who displays the learning 
 of a school-boy. “ If you conversed with our priests,” I said, 
 
 “ then you might indeed exclaim, 4 Sophos !’ ” They had heard 
 
 * Milordos is adopted universally by people of the East to express a 
 traveller on pleasure. They apply it to individuals of all nations. 
 
 K K 2 
 
500 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 of the devastation and misery caused by the Eussians in 
 Bulgaria: “ Is it possible,” they asked, “that a Christian 
 
 army conducts itself like a Turkish army?” “Too true,” I 
 replied. They asked me for how many years peace was con- 
 cluded — a usual question with all classes in the East, who can 
 never believe that a peace between Eussia and Turkey is other 
 than a truce: to judge by what has hitherto taken place, they 
 have reason on their side. They wished very much to know 
 whether Prince Leopold would change his religion on assuming 
 the sovereignty of Greece. I answered in the negative; on 
 which one of them said that it was not of very great con- 
 sequence, considering that he was a Protestant. The Greeks 
 generally believe, that in deviating from the Latin church we 
 approached the Greek church. 
 
 Cariez is situated about the centre of the monastic district. 
 The Turkish waivode- resides in it — a personage with little real 
 authority, who may be considered in the light of a referendee, 
 or of a gate that a man puts up in his own road to establish 
 his claim thereto. The caloyers have in general sufficient in- 
 fluence to obtain the removal of an obnoxious waivode. 
 
 Cariez has a bazaar for supplying the monasteries with 
 articles of importation — as cheese, salt fish, caviar, coffee, 
 spices, tobacco, clothes, &c. Pour times a year the priors 
 assemble there to wait on the waivode, and to deliberate on 
 their prosperity or adversity. Each monastery has a lodging 
 in the village for its prior. While together, the priors live 
 sociably, meeting twice or thrice a day to drink coffee, smoke, 
 and eat sweetmeats. Church service is performed only once a 
 day. After a week, or ten days, they return home, excepting 
 two who remain at Cariez the whole year to transact business 
 with the waivode, and with the bishop, and with the trades- 
 people. A caloyer also, with the rank of prior, resides at 
 Constantinople as their agent with the Porte: he informs them 
 of its commands respecting them, receives their kharatch, and 
 other contributions that may he levied, and pays them into the 
 treasury. He is also their great protection against an ill- 
 tempered waivode, who is further restrained by the pasha of 
 Salonica, in whose jurisdiction he is. But, independent of 
 
KECOKDS OE TBAVELS. 
 
 501 
 
 these checks, as the community support him and his at- 
 tendants, and give him a salary, it is his interest to he civil. 
 
 In the morning I waited on him, accompanied by nine 
 priors, and seldom met a merrier Turk. When I gave him my 
 firman, he put the signature to his head and lips — the first 
 and only time I saw that respect paid. I amused him greatly 
 by an account of the change which had taken place at 
 Stamboul — that the padischah wore boots and pantaloons, and 
 rode a Frank saddle — that the grandees cut their beards — that 
 one or two even talked French, and used knives and forks. 
 “ Mashallah !” he exclaimed, “ the world is coming to an end. 
 What then brings you here?” he laughingly asked. “You 
 will find nothing but monks and vegetables: I have been here 
 six years, and have not seen a woman.” “ You have a fine 
 climate,” I observed, “to make amends.” “Yes, we have good 
 air, good water, and,” winking to the priors, “excellent 
 wine;” to which I added my testimony. 
 
 In the evening I left Cariez; but previous to mounting, 
 could not avoid walking processionally through the town, 
 accompanied by all the clergy. The waivode, who was enjoy- 
 ing a chibouque on a couch in the street, lifted up the finger 
 of astonishment, as he had never before witnessed so grotesque 
 a ceremonial; perhaps, too, somewhat mortified at such honour, 
 to a tithe of which he could not aspire, being shown to an 
 infidel. “ Oughrola,” (bon voyage,) he said. The priors then 
 blessed me, and I proceeded with two Albanians, for honour, 
 down hill towards Iphiron, along a rugged romantic path, 
 skirting some beautiful glens, adorned here and there with 
 large wooden crosses, which gave evidence of the moderation 
 of the Osmanleys towards a hostile faith during their nine 
 years’ occupation of the mountain. Flourishing their top- 
 henks over their heads, and singing wild airs, my martial 
 guides bounded merrily before me with the agility of chamois, 
 till a turn of the path disclosed the battlements of Iphiron, 
 when they stopped, and discharged their pieces — a preconcerted 
 signal which set every bell a ringing. Another turn of the 
 rock, and we came abruptly in front of the great gates, before 
 which, to my surprise, the whole brotherhood were drawn up to 
 
502 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 welcome me. Haying severally saluted, and been saluted, 
 they ushered me into the building under a deafening peal, through 
 a formidable apparatus of iron gates, which might have led a 
 stranger to suppose that he was entering a feudal castle rather 
 than a peaceful monastery ; and in the first plac6, as a primary 
 duty, conducting me to a small chapel of peculiar sanctity, 
 introduced me with great form to a picture of the Virgin, to 
 which, although unable to distinguish her features, owing to 
 their native darkness, and the obscurity of the place, I was 
 not wanting in due adoration, crossing myself so devoutly, as 
 greatly edified the caloyers, who returned me the compliment 
 by showing themselves equally fervid, at my supper-table, in 
 devotions to the rosy god, pouring out copious libations, ac- 
 cording to custom. On Mount Athos wine is doubly attractive, 
 since at its shrine are offered up the vows which, in other 
 places, would be more willingly paid to its fair rival. After 
 supper I went down to the beach to enjoy the baneful luxury 
 of nocturnal bathing ; then returned to roll on my couch, a 
 prey to that cruel, pitiless foe of mankind, mosquitoes. Their 
 stings, pungent as they are, might be endurable were it not for 
 the constant buzz which heralds their approach, and appears to 
 triumph at their success. What a satire on man, that an 
 insect, scarcely larger than a fly’s young, should be capable of 
 chasing repose from the couch of prince or peasant! More 
 than wonderful — exquisite specimen of divine mechanism — is 
 the force residing in the wings of these diminutive creatures ; 
 the buzz of one alone pervades a spacious room, and the undu- 
 lation of the air, caused by its flight, affects the flame of a 
 candle at the distance of feet. The midnight bell led me to the 
 church in the hopes of getting an appetite for sleep. Had 
 example been contagious they would soon have been realized, 
 for in less than half an hour nearly all the caloyers were 
 oblivious ; and the officiating priests, scarcely visible in the 
 flickering glare of a few lamps, resembled so many sleep- 
 walkers. 
 
 I slept one night at Iphiron. The next evening, embarking 
 in a small boat belonging to the establishment, a fresh north- 
 erly breeze carried us swiftly past a romantic shore, its promi- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 503 
 
 nent points adorned with chapels, to a tiny harbour, capable of 
 affording shelter to a dozen large boats, formed by a shelf of 
 rocks and a rude breakwater at the foot of the cone, just be- 
 neath the monastery of Lavra, to which I was welcomed with 
 the same ringing, and the same good-will as at the other con- 
 vents ; though — and ill-luck it proved to be — its accommoda- 
 tions, in consequence of having had ruder occupants, were far 
 inferior. Not an entire pane of glass remained, and the furni- 
 ture was in a woful condition from the Osmanleys having been 
 in the habit of firing at marks in- doors. Add to this a biting 
 scarcity of provisions, and it may he readily supposed that the 
 inhabitants, ninety in number, the remnant of two hundred 
 and forty, looked, as they expressed themselves, in a deplorable 
 state. They hoped, however, for better times ; and two elderly 
 caloyers were about to go to the monasteries of Mounts 
 Olympus and Pelion, and to Mega Spilion, to invite back the 
 refugees, who in the first months of the revolution had fled, 
 carrying with them, it is said, good part of the riches of the 
 convent. At Yatopede and Iphiron envoys were preparing for 
 a similar expedition ; so that, in a few years, Ayonoros may 
 again be flourishing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Fever — Church Scene — Bigotry — Voyage — Gulf of Cassandra — Salonica — 
 Banditti — Earthquake — Chaban — Execution— Pirates — Mr. Wolff — 
 Hebrews — Missionaries — Maronite. 
 
 At Lavra, my monasterial tour terminated, much to my regret. 
 At a small chapel situated near the summit of the cone, to 
 which I climbed the morning after my arrival, the fever, which 
 had been lurking in my veins since leaving Adrianople, fostered 
 by a foolish want of precaution, and by excessive fatigue, sud- 
 denly pulled me to the ground. I was carried hack to the 
 convent, where, during five days, I inhaled the grave. My 
 pulse ran 160. Nothing was in the convent which could avail 
 me, and all my resources were comprised in a determination to 
 
504 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 get through it, despite the prophecy, which now struck me as 
 singular, of an old wizard at Constantinople, that I should die 
 on a mountain, and in a pair of lancets. One of the caloyers 
 professing to be able to use the latter, I made him, much 
 against his will, bleed me copiously seven times. But it was 
 of slight relief; every basin of blood he took from me seemed 
 only to make room for a hotter tide to flow in my veins. Hot 
 baths I tried also, till I was like a boiled lobster, and with as 
 little effect; not as much moisture could be attracted to my 
 skin as would have damped a grain of sand. I required calo- 
 mel. Those who have felt the stifling heat of a violent fever 
 — stifling even with “ all appliances to hoot” — may have an 
 idea how I suffered, rolling about in a room which had glass- 
 less windows on two sides, without a curtain to exclude the 
 sun, which glared in on me half the day, with an intensity to 
 have made the most devoted fire-worshipper, in my place, 
 curse him, or a shutter to keep out the malaria, which rose 
 every evening like a wave from the valley, undulating on a 
 level with my windows. But these inconveniences were trifles 
 compared with what followed after night-fall, when the reign 
 of mosquitoes set in. Then, every faculty sharpened by pain 
 and anxiety, every sense was resolved into that of hearing, and 
 my apartment in consequence seemed pervaded by the blasts 
 of a thousand trumpets. Such an effect had this visitation 
 upon me, that for months after, even when surrounded by that 
 blest contrivance, a mosquito curtain, the humming of one of 
 these insects would make me start from sleep in dismay. In- 
 sensible as forest ponies to such an infliction, the caloyers 
 ridiculed my complaints on the subject, and thought me, I 
 believe, madder when I grieved seriously about it than when 
 delirium, from time to time, overcame me. Thirst, too, 
 tormented me; for though I had no disposition to canine 
 madness, I positively loathed the only beverage I could get — 
 water. What would I not then have given for a shaddock — a 
 lemon — the cast-away peel of one! The middle of the fourth 
 night I rose, and cast a sheet round me. My appearance, I 
 suppose, was strange, for the caloyer appointed to guard me 
 ran away. I followed him along the corridor — he ran still 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 505 
 
 faster, till on reaching the gallery, which overlooked the body 
 of the church, I turned into it, disturbing at the same time 
 two centenarians, who were mumbling their prayers. They 
 started at the apparition, crossed themselves, and drew close 
 into their respective comers to make room forme between them. 
 It being the eve of a saint’s festival, the whole fraternity was 
 present in mournful guise, acting holy parts with becoming 
 fervour. I recollect gazing earnestly down on the solemn 
 scene till it became unreal to my disordered imagination — till 
 a change came over its fair proportions — till the monks in 
 their black robes and crape cowls, prostrating themselves on 
 ’ the pavement, flitting about spectrally, blending in the dim 
 light with the martyrized figures on the frescoed walls, crying, 
 and the roof echoing the cry, “ Kyrie eleison,” seemed to me 
 the souls of the wicked, whose torments, in idea, my fever was 
 supplying. An eternity flashed across my mind. Scarcely 
 for the realization of my fondest wishes would I consent to 
 re-experience the same intensity of feeling. How long I re- 
 mained in the gallery I do not know, or how I left it; hut as 
 the dawn was breaking, I found myself again lying on my rug. 
 The disorder seemed to he coming to a close; my skin felt as 
 though drawn over a frame of red hot iron ; my head as though 
 an anvil under a dozen hammers; and for the first time it 
 struck me seriously that I was about to die. What a place to 
 die in ! without even hearing my native tongue, sweetest of all 
 sweet music at such a moment. I motioned for pen and paper, 
 that I might write to a friend, but, in vain I tried, I could not 
 form a letter. In this extremity a number of caloyers, drest 
 as I had seen them in the church, and preceded by the cross, 
 entered my chamber in processional array. I absolutely 
 recoiled, thinking them — I may he excused, considering my 
 state — dark watchers Tor my soul, struggling to escape from 
 its burning tenement. Heedless of my repulsive gestures, 
 they gathered round me, and began talking of the inestimable 
 advantage of leaving the world in the true faith. How I 
 answered I scarcely know, hut not very courteously, I believe. 
 Moreover, earthly wants still pressed on me, and made me beg 
 for some lemonade. They had none to give me ; but instead, 
 
506 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 reiterated their proposition in fall chorus, until, at length, 
 weary with their importunity, I bade them leave me to die in 
 my own way. They obeyed, and went away shaking their 
 garments, saying, “ that I should go to hell.” They were 
 mistaken — at least for the present, for, after a few hours of 
 unconsciousness, into which I had fallen on their departure, I 
 came to my senses in a violent fit of vomiting, &c. The fever 
 had changed its malignant for an intermittent form; and then 
 I knew that I was out of immediate danger, though so ex- 
 tremely weak, that my only idea was to get away to any place 
 where I might procure assistance. With this view, I sent to 
 Oariez for mules or horses, that I might proceed to Salonica 
 in a litter: ride I could not. But the waivode would not hear 
 of it, because the road was infested with klephtes; and my 
 having a firman, made him, in some measure, feel himself 
 responsible for my safety. A boat in the mean time arrived at 
 Lavra, manned by three suspicious looking Greeks, who 
 offered to convey me and my servant to Salonica. The 
 caloyers, who now, forgetting whither they had consigned my 
 soul, and attributing my recovery to their prayers, were very 
 assiduous about my welfare, warned me against them ; hut what 
 could I do ? Remaining on Mount Athos in my state, was, I 
 thought, suicidal; leaving it, even in a pirate boat, my only 
 chance of recovery : besides, at the worst, they were but three, 
 and we were two. 
 
 Embarking, therefore, one evening, as the sun set, we left 
 the holy mountain, to my great joy, one effect of a violent 
 illness being to make a man loathe for the time the place where 
 he had it; but before midnight, other considerations assailed 
 me, for I could not help feeling that, however strictly I might 
 keep on my guard, I was completely at the mercy of the helms- 
 man, he being seated behind me on a level with my shoulders. 
 To have continued in that way would have been preposterous; 
 but to my request that he would tranquillize me by placing 
 his arms beside me, the fellow strongly objected, calling on 
 God to witness that he was the honestest man living, and ap- 
 pealing to his comrades for the truth of his modest assertion. 
 His eagerness appeared to condemn him. To have believed 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 507 
 
 him would have been folly on my part; to have desisted from 
 my attempt would have been worse : so I fairly told him my 
 mind; on which, affecting a sort of proud consideration for my 
 nervous state, he yielded the point, perhaps thinking it would 
 be all the same when I should he asleep. Sleep ! I could have 
 slept, for my eyelids were like pieces of lead; but the idea of 
 having escaped the fangs of the fever only to fall into the 
 hands of such fellows, was unbearable. Perhaps I was wrong, 
 and they were well inclined at first. 
 
 We progressed slowly, on account of a light, scant wind, till 
 early the second morning, when we altered our course, and 
 steered for the gulf of Cassandra. It was well that I remem- 
 bered the coast. The helmsman swore that it was the gulf of 
 Salonica — that we had passed the gulf of Cassandra in the 
 night without my knowledge; nor could I, without a very 
 warm altercation, and pointing out indisputable land-marks, 
 convince him of his error. He affected to treat me lightly ; 
 said “that he would not he dictated to — that he knew the 
 coast better than I did, (I was certain of that) — that he was a 
 palicari — that I had treated him unjustly, as a villain — that I 
 might do as I pleased : in short, that he would have his own 
 way.” Of course, my only answer to all this rodomontade 
 was by insisting on our hauling to the wind again. My 
 friend’s purpose was evident. The gulf of Cassandra, from 
 time immemorial, has been noted for consistent pirates : every 
 boat that leaves the inlets of its coasts is a free-trader if 
 occasion offer; if not, a fishing-boat. Had we met one of 
 these convenient navigators, my travels were finished : I should 
 not even have adorned a tale. In the gulf of Salonica, the 
 pirates are obliged to act with more caution, because there are 
 often ships of war there ; and from the vicinity of consuls of 
 various nations, notice of a piracy is more prompt, as well as 
 pursuit more vigorous. 
 
 The third day, being fairly in the gulf of Salonica, therefore, 
 comparatively sure, I sent my servant on shore to find me some 
 fruit : and the next morning early we landed at Salonica, 
 where I was hospitably received by James Charnaud, Esq., the 
 British consul. I had need of repose, for the intermittent 
 
508 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 fever on me, recurring every twenty-four hours, had quite ex- 
 hausted me ; and, added to that, my long exposure in an open 
 boat, with the necessity of keeping so much awake, brought on 
 a violent ophthalmia, which the surgeon of the place treated 
 ignorantly. His name was Lafont, a Frenchman. To hear 
 him, no one ever performed so many cures ; to hear others, no 
 one ever killed so many people. He kept me in perfect agony 
 during a fortnight, when it ceased. He pronounced me cured, 
 not knowing that the disease was only assuming a more dan- 
 gerous form ; and in consequence, I gave myself liberties, which 
 in the end nearly proved fatal to my sight. 
 
 The neighbourhood of Salonica, at my arrival, was infested 
 with brigands, who carried their audacity so far, as to pillage 
 within a mile of the city, and even threatened to enter it and 
 levy a contribution. Under ground was also in commotion : 
 one day, while lying in bed very ill, I was surprised at seeing 
 the doors and windows of my room hanging to and fro, without 
 the aid of hands, and feeling the house roll like a ship. 
 Wooden houses are difficult to overthrow. 
 
 Ohaban, (one of a Christian tribe of Albanians called 
 Gueges,) the leader of the above daring gang, was no novice in 
 his profession. He had already obtained a pardon for a 
 former career ; remaining tranquil some years ; but on the 
 breaking out of the Russian war, he resumed his old work, and 
 made himself, as before, the terror of a wide tract of country. 
 The peace, however, rendering his profession hazardous, he 
 made overtures for purchasing a second pardon ; hut the Porte, 
 instead of listening to them, sent circular orders to have him 
 taken up at any cost. A brigand, howsoever powerful he he, 
 rarely escapes such a crisis ; he becomes like a wild beast, and 
 the villagers gladly assist the authorities in tracking him. 
 From the district of Seres, whither he had been chased with 
 considerable loss, Chahan made a dash in the vicinity of 
 Salonica, whence he also retreated, after having alarmed us 
 peaceable folks, speedily followed by the pasha’s chiaja, who 
 overtook him at a village about fifteen miles distant. Several 
 were killed and wounded on both sides in the skirmish which 
 ensued ; among the latter was Chahan, who narrowly escaped 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 509 
 
 being taken ; but mounting on a baggage horse, and supported 
 by a palicari on either side, he contrived to cut his way through 
 with fifty followers. Thence he attempted to gain the gorges 
 of Olympus, and so into Greece ; but in that direction also his 
 retreat was cut off by the peasantry; on which, as a last 
 resource, he disbanded his followers, and crossed the mountains 
 alone into Albania. There his career ended. The pasha of 
 Scutari, willing to oblige the Porte in everything that did not 
 affect his own independence, had given orders to have him 
 taken up whenever he should appear in Albania. He was 
 punctually obeyed, and Chaban was conducted as an agreeable 
 offering to the grand vizir, whose head quarters were then at 
 Betolia. 
 
 When brought before his highness, he was no ways down- 
 cast. I was then at Salonica, and heard him described by 
 those who saw him, as a very fine looking man, about thirty- 
 five. He endeavoured to excuse himself by saying, “ that he 
 had the intention of delivering himself up to the pasha of 
 Salonica, when attacked hy his forces, and only fought in self- 
 defence.” The vizir replied, “A man does not go for that 
 purpose with five hundred followers, and ravage villages 
 en route ” — “ I was obliged to have followers to protect me: I 
 endeavoured to restrain their excesses — that should he consi- 
 dered.” The vizir was unmoved. Chaban was taken out, and 
 as a preparatory exercise suspended by his arms for twelve 
 hours. He was again brought into the vizirs presence. “ You 
 ' will do wrong to slay me,” he said; “ my death can do you no 
 good. Example in this country has no effect. I am able to 
 serve you — I know the haunts of the brigands as a hare knows 
 her form ; you wish to snare the beys of Albania — they trust 
 me. Let me escape, you will not repent it — kill me, you lose 
 one who can bring a thousand palicari to your standard to- 
 morrow.” Chaban’s reasoning was vain. His judge was in- 
 flexible, considering him too great a villain to live. He was 
 taken back to prison : the following day a hook was thrust into 
 his side, by which he was suspended to a tree, and there hung, 
 enduring the agony of thirst, till the third evening, when death 
 closed the scene; but before that, about an hour, the birds, 
 
510 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 already considering him their own, had alighted on his brow to 
 peck his eyes. During this frightful period, he uttered no 
 unmanly complaints ; only repeated several times, “ Had I 
 known that I was to suffer this infernal death, I would never 
 have done what I have. From the moment I led the klephte’s 
 life, T had death before my eyes, and was prepared to meet it, 
 but I expected to die as my predecessors — by decapitation.” 
 Simple death is a trifling punishment for great crimes, which 
 require bold hearts to execute; if accompanied by torture, it 
 makes courage shrink, not unless. 
 
 His ,exit restored tranquillity to Salonica. The city of Sa- 
 lonica is large and well built, containing about sixty thousand 
 inhabitants, of whom nearly one-half are Jews. It is consi- 
 dered the head quarters of the Turkish Jews. One, a purveyor 
 of flour, was hung during my stay, for cheating the public. 
 His fate caused a sensation, for Jews are rarely put to death 
 in Turkey — they are too cunning. He was hung on a Friday ; 
 and that the body might not continue hanging on the Saturday, 
 according to custom, a sum of money was presented to the 
 pasha; a bad precedent, since every Jew in future condemned 
 to death, will be hanged on a Friday. 
 
 Salonica, twenty years since, vied with Smyrna in trade; 
 and was the residence of nearly as many Frank merchants, of 
 whom three remain. Its chief exports were corn, produced in 
 the fertile, well- watered plains of Macedonia; but the ruinous 
 policy of Sultan Mahmoud, in monopolizing the produce, has 
 caused such a stagnation of agriculture, that barely enough is 
 now produced to supply the city. The proprietors have no 
 interest in cultivating their estates when they must take the 
 produce to the government market. Whenever the Turks have 
 had the advantage of free trade, they have shown no want of 
 spirit to meet the demands of the merchants ; the quantity of 
 corn exported from Salonica and Tarsus, during the war, is a 
 proof. The rule of farming in Turkey is, the landlord finds 
 seed, the tenant incurs all the other expenses, and the profits 
 are equally shared. All lands pay ten per cent, of the produce 
 to government. 
 
 Salonica has above twenty mosques, several Greek churches, 
 
RECORDS OP TRAVELS. 
 
 511 
 
 many synagogues, with two Catholic churches, which have the 
 privilege of using bells, as at Pera and Smyrna. The great 
 protection enjoyed hy the Catholic church in the East is en- 
 tirely the merit of the French ambassadors, who have always 
 been, and are still considered, its protectors. It is singular in 
 the present time, when religion is a bye- word in France, to 
 know the French ambassador cavilling with the Porte to obtain 
 privileges for it. It may he asserted, without fear of contra- 
 diction, that their unwearied zeal in its behalf for centuries 
 has more benefited the cause of humanity in the countries 
 governed hy the Osmanleys, than could have done the labours 
 of thousands of missionaries. It has preserved the religious 
 institutions in Syria, and Palestine, and Arabia; it has ever 
 offered a secure asylum for wavering minds of the Greek and 
 Armenian sects ; and it has, at the same time, conciliated the 
 Porte hy never interfering with its interests. After all, what 
 is the rational object of religion ? Is it not to make men live 
 in peace among each other, and under their government, what- 
 ever that government he ? The Catholic religion in the East 
 has effected this. 
 
 The remarkables of Salonica are — its ancient walls, which 
 stand the test of time as well as Constantinople walls ; — a 
 triumphal arch with bassi rilievi, erected by Constantine to 
 commemorate his victory at Cassandra; — and the pulpit whence 
 St. Paul preached to the Thessalonians. It then stood in the 
 street near the church of the S. S. Apostles, and I make no 
 doubt, from its form, was oftener used to get on a horse, or a 
 cart, than for a display of eloquence. The Mussulmans have 
 a respect for it, in the light of a trophy, and keep it in the 
 mosque of Aya Sophie. It is worthy of remark, that the Turks, 
 when they converted churches into mosques, never re-named 
 those that bore the title of St. Sophia. It is formed of one 
 block of marble, of a species of verd antique, and consists of 
 three steps, with a platform, the parapet of which reaches to the 
 knee. Its height is about five feet, its length eight feet — as 
 near as I could guess ; for the imam showed impatience at my 
 wishing to measure it. As many Turks almost regard Franks 
 in the light of necromancers, the good priest might have 
 
512 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 thought that if he allowed me to measure it, I should make a 
 corresponding aperture in the roof, and so convey it away at 
 night. It would be seen to much more advantage in London; 
 and I dare say that the sultan would give it to an ambassador, if 
 asked. He certainly does not know of it. A trifling gift after- 
 wards to the pasha, and the Greek bishop of Salonica, would 
 cause it to he embarked without opposition from the people. 
 
 I had been at Salonica about ten days when we were all 
 much surprised at the consulate by a letter from Mr. Joseph 
 Wolff, missionary to Persia and to Palestine. The reverend 
 gentleman stated that he was at a village, two days’ distance, 
 in consequence of having been maltreated by pirates off Cas- 
 sandra Point ; that he was shoeless, and coatless, and money- 
 less ; in fine, wanted aid. It was, of course, immediately sent. 
 A few hours after a large boat arrived, containing seven cases 
 of hihles, and Mr. Wolff’s domestic, a Cypriote Greek. The 
 Cypriote informed us that his master had embarked in this 
 same boat about a fortnight before at Mytilene, having resided 
 there six weeks, preaching the gospel — to no purpose. He 
 had come to the island from Alexandria, where Lady Georgiana 
 was then staying. Prom Mytilene they went to Tenedos on 
 the same errand; and thence, after remaining a few days, 
 steered southwards. They passed one night at St. Anna, a 
 small convent at the extremity of Mount Athos, and were con- 
 tinuing their voyage with high spirits to Salonica, when it was 
 interrupted by a pirate giving chase to them off Cassandra 
 Point. Not trusting to his eloquence to convert his pursuers 
 to a better life, or thinking that the gospel would be thrown 
 away on them — pearls to swine — Mr. Wolff directed his boat 
 to he run on shore, and left her, half- dressed as he was on 
 account of the heat, accompanied by his Arabic professor, a 
 Maronite. Landing, also, the pirates pursued them some way 
 up the hills, firing several shots; but on finding that faith 
 gave speed to the fugitives, they abandoned the chase, and re- 
 turned to pillage the boat, from which they removed everything 
 valuable excepting the bibles ; then beat the Cypriote, and hid 
 him tell his master that he owed his life to his legs. We were not 
 so much surprised that Mr. Wolff had been attacked by pirates, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 513 
 
 as that he had been able, as his letter showed, to escape the 
 brigands who infest the promontory of Cassandra. It was like 
 jumping out of the fryingpan into the fire. We expected him 
 with impatience. In three days he arrived, with his feet in a 
 woful plight from the thorns, though otherwise in good health, 
 and undaunted by his disaster. Confirming his servant’s 
 report, Mr. Wolff added, that after a sharp run of an hour up 
 the hills, perceiving that the chase was given up, they halted 
 to consider of their position. Alone on wild mountains, which 
 had scarcely ever been trodden by Franks, covered with under- 
 wood, and infested by worse than savage beasts — men in a 
 lawless state — without shoes, without food, without a compass 
 to guide their steps, their position was indeed distressing. 
 Fearing to return to the beach, they wandered about in great 
 anxiety during twenty hours, searching in vain for traces of 
 paths or of water. Their thirst at length became insupport- 
 able . Sinking on their knees, as they thought for the last 
 time, they prayed fervently, and the Maronite, in particular, 
 supplicated God not to abandon his apostle. Their prayers 
 were heard ; in less than ten minutes they met a stream, and 
 shortly after some shepherds, who conducted them to Sicaya, 
 the residence of an aga. 
 
 Fortunately Mr. Wolff had about his person his firman, with 
 other papers, which entitled him to the utmost attentions of 
 the aga, who provided him with a courier to carry his letter to 
 Salonica, and a guard to escort him. 
 
 Notwithstanding his fatigues, he commenced his labours the 
 same day. His name was already well known to the Hebrews, 
 and they were not remiss in flocking to hear him. The house 
 and streets adjoining were filled. He preached assiduously 
 twice or three times a day, and disputed hotly with the rabbis ; 
 taking care, however, not to eat or drink with them, for he 
 remembered his experience of their artifices at Jerusalem.* 
 
 * At Jerusalem, Mr. Wolff was in the habit of arguing once or twice a 
 week in a cafene much frequented by Jews. One day the cavedji, being 
 bribed by some of his enemies, presented him with a cup of poisoned coffee. 
 Fortunately, the dose was too strong ; he brought it up immediately, and 
 thereby saved his life. Lady Georgiana was there with hiih, and to her 
 
 L L 
 
514 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 He distributed bibles with profusion; and after some days, 
 put up in the streets a call to the Jews, showing them from the 
 Testament that Christ was Messiah, and would come again on 
 earth in 1647. I have often heard this prophecy from Mr. 
 Wolff s lips, and he has done me the favour to explain to me 
 his calculations, from which he deduces that year in particular 
 for the advent. They are ingenious, and the connexion of 
 them good; hut no calculation from the data in the Old 
 Testament can he relied on, because no two people can agree 
 on the expression of those data. I have listened with delight 
 to Mr. Wolff. He is eloquent and persuasive, with four lan- 
 guages — Hebrew, Italian, German, and English — in which to 
 clothe his thoughts gracefully; besides having a tolerable 
 knowledge of Arabic and Persian. But on one subject his 
 enthusiasm rather taxes his auditor’s patience, if not precisely 
 of his opinion. He has published, and he believes, that in 
 the year 1847 Christ will come in the clouds, surrounded by 
 angels, and commence his reign in Jerusalem for one thousand 
 years. It is difficult to listen to such expressions without 
 regarding the speaker of them twofold, to discover if there be 
 not something hidden under the garb of enthusiasm; but I 
 really believe that Mr. Wolff is sincere — deceives himself as 
 well as others. The great foil of his character is vanity. 
 How far this passion, if deeply probed, may be found to have 
 acted on his judgment till he believed himself pre-eminently 
 the chosen of God, I will not pretend to hint at: we forget his 
 foibles in considering his talents and his principles ; yet, 
 without being thought uncharitable, we may be allowed to 
 suppose that Mr. Wolff, on being enlightened by the Holy 
 Spirit, would have done well in sitting down unostentatiously 
 in Bavaria, endeavouring to convert his relations, before 
 wandering to distant lands. I asked him one day, whether he 
 would be at Jerusalem in 1847, to receive the Messiah? 
 
 care Mr. Wolff attributed, bis recovery from a dangerous illness which 
 ensued in consequence. Since then, however, he has been entirely free 
 from tertian fever, to attacks of which, on exposure to malaria , he was 
 previously very liable. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 515 
 
 “ Certainly,” lie replied; “Lady Georgiana and myself will go 
 there for that purpose.” 
 
 The call he put up excited great sensation. He was obliged 
 to give a soldier money to prevent it from being torn down. 
 Thousands of Jews came to read it. Some said in reply, that 
 as the advent was only seventeen years off, they would wait till 
 then before determining their opinions. Few men are so old 
 as not to hope for as many as seventeen years more life. The 
 whole city was upside down. Hitherto the pasha had been 
 silent; but on this he sent to the consul, and desired him to 
 tell Mr. Wolff not to affix any more calls on the houses 
 inviting people to change their religion, which he considered 
 highly improper. 
 
 To make a long story short, after a fortnight’s preaching and 
 arguing, Mr. Wolff desisted, tie told me that endeavouring 
 to convert the Jews was reaping in a barren field. No one 
 acquainted with them will he much surprised at this confession. 
 I was less so, because I knew the opposition that he had encoun- 
 tered from the Jews in every part of Turkey. From the Ottoman 
 authorities he never received any serious obstacle. The intrigues 
 of the Jews obliged him to leave Cyprus and Rhodes; they 
 poisoned him at Jerusalem; they burnt the New Testaments 
 he distributed at Adrianople; at Amaoutkeuy, a populous 
 village on the European hank of the Bosphorus, they paraded 
 a crucified dog in derision of him : how they may have evinced 
 their abhorrence of his apostasy in other places I do not know. 
 He might well say that he reaped in a barren field; at the 
 same time he told me that at Constantinople he had baptized 
 thirteen Jews, who were afterwards banished through the 
 influence of the rabbi; and will probably, if not already, by 
 means of discipline, he induced to rescind. At Rome two 
 Jews are converted every year — hut how? In all cases it 
 seems to me a negative humanity to convert people whom we 
 cannot protect from after-persecution. They generally recant. 
 
 The Thessalonicans not only would not listen to Mr. Wolff; 
 they libelled him, by swearing to the consul that he had offered 
 four thousand piastres to any one who would consent to he 
 
 l l 2 
 
516 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 baptized. I believe this to be false; Mr. Wolff assured me 
 that it was. 
 
 Though unsuccessful in his pursuit, no one can deny Mr. 
 Wollf great praise for the single-minded zeal that he displays 
 in his avocation, or can depreciate his motives, which, he 
 has shown the world, are pure. It may be considered the 
 bounden duty of every person who believes in the Christian 
 doctrine (which I hope is wrongly interpreted), that none can 
 be saved but who believe in Christ, to take the Bible in one 
 hand, the cross in the other, and go through the world with 
 the hope of enlightening at least one soul. This is Mr. WollFs 
 idea. There is little merit in sitting by a warm fire, and 
 sending deputies for that purpose. With such an object in 
 view as the salvation of a soul, no persuaded believer should 
 regard fatigue and privation; he should rather rejoice in them. 
 
 Alas! this is not the object of the missionaries who frequent 
 the shores of the Turkish empire. To what purpose do they 
 frequent them? to convert those who are already Christians: 
 it would be as wise to teach the poor of one parish Greek and 
 the mathematics, while the poor in the rest of the kingdom 
 could not read. To what do they convert them? to their own 
 peculiar opinions ; as whether it be better to stand or kneel in 
 church, to pray together or alone, to fast or feast on certain 
 days. The utter unprofitableness of these gentlemen cannot 
 be sufficiently pointed out; and Mr. Wolff has not done a 
 greater service to the public, than by exposing some of them 
 in his work. Would that his hints were attended to! One 
 comes to Malta, and settles therewith his lady; another comes 
 to Tino, and while learning Greek, to be enabled to labour on 
 the continent, falls in love, and marries an amiable Tiniote— 
 his spiritual ardour takes another course; — another fixes him- 
 self at Smyrna, finding that demi-Frank city pleasanter than 
 the interior of Turkey, whither he was destined; — another 
 takes a disorder, and dies of it on the shores of the Persian 
 Gulf; — another quietly pursues his own studies at Alexandria, 
 regardless of others’ souls, to qualify himself for a situation 
 in one of the London colleges. All are living on the stipends 
 granted by the missionary societies, and occupied in forwarding 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 517 
 
 their particular views. Far be it from me to say that human 
 weakness does not merit indulgence; but they who embark in 
 a holy cause should quit it when they find that the flesh over- 
 powers the spirit. Religion is the last asylum where hypocrisy 
 should shelter in. 
 
 Independent of moral qualifications, which apparently are 
 not seriously attended to by the nominators of missionaries, 
 it is reasonable to suppose that other qualifications are con- 
 sidered indispensable : particularly a knowledge of languages ; 
 yet, it will scarcely he credited, missionaries arrive in the 
 Levant, to preach, to convert, knowing absolutely no other 
 than their mother tongue. Everybody knows the length of 
 time it requires to learn a foreign language, so as to he able to 
 argue in it: the older the tyro, the more difficult the task. 
 
 There is no field without a flower, no desert without an 
 oasis, no sea without a coral. I say this in reference to Mr. 
 Hartley, missionary of the Church of England. His unwearied 
 zeal, and his amiable character, gained him the esteem of all 
 who met him during his stay in the Levant. He does not 
 remember the writer of this, for there was nothing there to fix 
 his attention ; hut he saw in the preacher a mild persuasiveness, 
 which he thought could not fail in its object, could men he 
 weaned from the creed of their fathers — he taught to believe in 
 any miracles besides those imbibed with their mother’s milk, 
 fostered by continued precepts, sanctioned by the credence of 
 all whom they esteem, which, if left to the exercise of their 
 mature judgment, might have been rejected as fabulous. This, 
 in my opinion — the extreme improbability of men, arrived at 
 years of discretion, embracing another, hitherto ridiculed 
 series of prodigies — is a chief obstacle to making converts; 
 a valid reason for doubting their sincerity when converted; a 
 plausible argument for not esteeming their talents. Of course 
 there are exceptions; favoured individuals, on whom rays of 
 divine grace alight, and paint on their minds’ retinas the 
 mysterious truth; but, in a general sense, the difficulty is 
 insuperable. Abdul Wahab, the Luther of Mohammedanism, 
 founder of the sect called Waliabites, since scotched by the 
 sabre of Mehemet Ali of Egypt, while acknowledging the 
 
518 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 unity of God, the purity of the doctrines contained in the 
 Koran, the existence of future worlds as therein described, 
 rejected the orthodox belief of Mohammed’s intercourse with 
 the angel Gabriel, and held him up as a mortal only, worthy 
 of veneration truly; a being superiorly gifted with wisdom, 
 hut not supernaturally endowed. There can he no doubt that 
 a grown person, brought up in no religion, if desired to make 
 choice between Islamism and Wahabitism, would choose the 
 latter, as being least offensive to human reason. 
 
 But to return whence we started. Where did Mr. Hartley’s 
 labours- lie ?-^-among the Greeks, and without effect. Let the 
 Greeks alone ; they are already entitled to salvation, as far as 
 belief can entitle them. Under the actual or nominal rule of 
 the sultan, are fifteen millions of Mussulmans, who, according 
 
 to the religion which the missionaries preach, must he d d. 
 
 Hoes ever a missionary attempt, in the most indirect way, to 
 save one of them ? Never ; the age of martyrdom is past. 
 
 The lavish distribution of Bibles is equally distressing to 
 behold. Did the members and supporters of the Bible Society 
 know how they go, how they are received, they would infinitely 
 prefer giving their money to their poor countrymen. God 
 knows, it would he a more praiseworthy action. But then the 
 patronage of appointing missionaries, Bible distributors, &c., 
 would cease. Let us examine what become of these books. 
 Bibles are given to the Turks, printed very rationally in 
 the Turkish character — (one hundred and ninety-nine of two 
 hundred cannot read). A Turk takes one of them as he 
 would a Treatise on Fluxions, or a Life of Lord Bacon, and 
 with about as much interest ; as neither the pasha nor the 
 muphti interferes with his possession of it, it does not gain 
 additional value as a prohibited article : he either keeps it as a 
 curiosity, or tears it as waste paper. If imams came to Eng- 
 land and France, and distributed Korans in the English and 
 French tongues, I make ijo doubt that the people would wil- 
 lingly accept them, or buy them cheap ; hut I am sure that the 
 propagation of the Mohammedan faith would not he the least 
 advanced by this liberality, especially not being enforced by 
 word of mouth. The Hebrews take the Bible with great 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 519 
 
 pleasure, because saving them expense : they carefully destroy 
 the New Testaments, and place the Old Testaments in their 
 synagogues, sneering at the donors. The Albanian klephtes 
 make wadding for their guns of the leaves of the Society’s 
 Bibles, if they have no other. Vast numbers of Bibles are 
 annually distributed, or sold cheap, to the Greeks : these tell 
 their priests, and their priests, as in duty bound, relieve them 
 of the charge of keeping such forbidden books. In 1829, 
 a Sardinian frigate at Alexandria received Bibles from the 
 agent of the English Society : when the frigate arrived at 
 Genoa, her officers and men, without distinction, were required 
 to give them up, and did. If such absurdity exists in en- 
 lightened Italy — I vouch for its truth — what can be expected 
 in Greece ? In Mesopotamia, Mr. Wolff told me, to justify 
 the distribution of Bibles, is a tribe of 200,000 souls, who 
 were formerly Christians (at least, so it is said), but who, 
 their books becoming destroyed by age and carelessness, lost 
 all remembrance of their faith, and degenerated into, what they 
 are, worshippers of the evil spirit. Here, it may be exclaimed, 
 is a fitting channel for the liberality of the Bible Society to 
 flow in ! to restore a lost flock to its pastor. Much cannot be 
 hoped : their Christianity must have been very, very lukewarm, 
 if they could not copy their writings, or at least preserve them 
 traditionally. The oriental Hebrews, and the Mohammedans, 
 have been equally without the aid of printing ; yet Bibles and 
 Korans are not wanting — at least one to every family. 
 
 This discussion does not properly come under the head of a 
 lay traveller’s note-book; but the subject, at which I have 
 barely hinted, forcibly impresses every disinterested Frank in 
 the East. 
 
 I must, however, add that the missionaries do not entirely 
 labour in vain. Converts are obtained, not many certainly, 
 but enough to impose on the world, chiefly from among the 
 Syrian Christians. I will not say that any of them are gained 
 by actual bribery, but they certainly are by promises of employ- 
 ment in the missionary line — promises often not fulfilled, in 
 consequence of which the converts are reduced to distress. 
 More than one Armenian bishop has embraced a Protestant 
 
520 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 faith in order to marry : “ every man has his price.’' Mr. 
 Wolff’s Arabic professor, of whom I have spoken, was one of 
 these Syrian Christians. He had been converted five years 
 since by an American missionary at Beyruth — converted to 
 the American’s own doctrines : what they were I know not ; I 
 only know that the said American, with another of his coun- 
 trymen in the same line, have brought the English name in 
 great discredit with the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, and 
 thereabouts. Having been strongly recommended as one ad- 
 mirably qualified to preach the gospel among the A^abs, Mr. 
 Wolff took him into his service, with a liberal salary of eighty 
 pounds per annum. When obliged to make the precipitate 
 retreat from his boat off Cassandra, Joseph (the convert) 
 accompanied him. In his fear he did not forget his Syrian 
 craft, but opening a trunk, took out his master’s ready money, 
 four thousand piastres, and put them into his sash for his own 
 private use. At Sicaya, Mr. Wolff wanted money very bad to 
 repay the civility of the aga’s attendants : Joseph offered him 
 none ; indeed his master thought he had none, and did not 
 ask him. On arriving at a convent, in their journey from 
 Sicaya to Salonica, Joseph, tormented with ideas of brigands, 
 lodged his money in the hands of the prior ; and when he 
 reached Salonica, requested the consul to withdraw it from 
 him. The consul, knowing that Mr. Wolff had been in distress 
 for money, was scandalized at this mercenary trait in the 
 Maronite, and thought that the man who could be guilty 
 of such meanness towards a liberal patron could not be honest. 
 Sanctified Joseph, still feigning poverty, induced his master 
 not only to reimburse him for the loss of apparel which he had 
 sustained in the boat, but also to fit him out entirely anew, 
 and pay up his arrears of salary. He insisted on these terms 
 without delay, which put Mr. Wolff to great inconvenience on 
 account of the exchange at the moment being unfavourable. 
 At this unprincipled extortion I could not restrain my indigna- 
 tion, or from expressing it to Mr. Wolff, who was much sur- 
 prised at hearing that his strongly-recommended, good, honest 
 Joseph was possessed of a considerable number of piastres, 
 especially as he had reason to know that he had had none 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 521 
 
 previous to the visit of the pirates — gentlemen who take rather 
 than give. Still, judging from his own good feelings, he was 
 inclined to think that he might have been mistaken, and that 
 at worst Joseph was only guilty of had faith with him, not of 
 a crime which in England might have brought him to the 
 gallows. I thought differently. Here, however, the affair 
 ceased for the present ; Mr? Wolff resolved on parting with 
 him on arriving at Smyrna, not on account of this, hut on 
 account of his ignorance of any other language than Arabic, 
 which rendered him of little service, also from his lukewarm- 
 ness in the cause of religion. He settled in his own mind that 
 Joseph should be sent to Alexandria, with strong certificates 
 to the missionaries there, in order to be profitably employed. 
 I am happy to say that the rogue was unmasked in time. On 
 our arrival at Smyrna, the Cypriote (Mr. Wolff’s domestic), 
 between whom and J oseph had been a growing coolness on the 
 passage, quarrelled with him seriously on account of the said 
 wrongly-appropriated piastres, and to be revenged told his 
 master the story of the theft, of which he was an eye-witness, 
 and which he was to have shared. The case being laid before 
 the consul, honest Joseph was induced to disgorge great part of 
 his dearly-beloved piastres, and was sent back to Syria in dis- 
 grace. He will probably resume his old creed, laugh at the 
 credulity of missionaries, and lament his own sufficient want of 
 cunning. The name of this man has figured more than once in 
 the reports of the Bible Society, and been cited as an instance 
 of the success attending the missionaries’ labours. As a further 
 spur to their labours, I may add, that there is no difficulty in 
 converting a Maronite to anything except honesty. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Tertian Fever — Philanthropy — Hydriote Schooner — Mr. Wolff — Smyrna — 
 Hotel — “ Glorious three days” — Recluse— Swede — Merchants — L’Eury- 
 dice — Ourlaq — Gazelle — English Erigate — Spezzia — Quarantine — Genoa. 
 
 Salonica is notorious — I know it to my cost — as the head- 
 quarters of the tertian fever, which ravages, more or less, every 
 part of Turkey in the summer and autumn, — the natural con- 
 
522 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 sequence of uncultivated lands. During my stay, it cruelly 
 afflicted the town ; of eight males in the consulate, not one 
 escaped. There were nearly as many females, including Mrs. 
 and Miss Charnaud ; not one took it. Exposure to the wind 
 that blows over the marshes, without having on a cloth jacket 
 or flannel, is certain to produce it. One day of this wind, the 
 doctor seeing my servant, a stout athletic islander, standing at 
 the window in his shirt-sleeves, cautioned him to come away, 
 or to put on his jacket. “ Maccari !” exclaimed the fellow ; “ do 
 you think we are like you effeminate Franks ? We are Palikari.” 
 “ You maybe a Palikari,” replied the doctor; “ hut the fever is 
 more of a Palikari than you.” That evening he sunk under it, and 
 twice afterwards before leaving the place. In consequence, the 
 inhabitants are divided into two parties ; the partisans of quina 
 (hark), and the partisans of quinina (extract of hark); each has 
 its doctors, and the respective merits of the drugs form the 
 engrossing topic of conversation. I give the preference to 
 quina ; it is slower in performing a cure, hut its effects are 
 more certain ; quinina, too, though it generally cuts a fever in 
 twenty-four hours, has the disadvantage of giving intolerable 
 headache. 
 
 The depopulation of Turkey is mainly attributable to this 
 fever. Wars, executions, and plague are active agents, I allow; 
 but they are incidental, whereas tertian acts like rust on metal, 
 silently and destructively. It falls heaviest on children, and 
 more than counterbalances the great fecundity of the women; 
 the mother of ten children may esteem herself happy on being 
 able to bring up two. Bark, its sovereign remedy, is not pro- 
 curable, except in the great trading cities of the coasts; in 
 default whereof, the natives drink off large doses of raw spirits 
 seasoned with pepper, or of lemon juice which has stood in the 
 sun a whole day. The cure is often worse than the disease ; 
 both are uncertain, and in no case can he safely administered 
 to young children. Winter checks it, hut it returns the ensuing 
 summer : a child is weaker each season, and, unless shaken off 
 in time, intestinal complaints ensue, from which only the most 
 robust recover. Mind has so much influence on this fever, that 
 I have heard of natives being cured by going to mosque or 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 523 
 
 church covered with amulets. I can believe it, from knowing 
 how effectually the mind, in an inverse way, acts on Franks, 
 who, being free from the wholesome superstition, prolong the 
 disorder by a nervous apprehension of its certain repetition. It 
 is laughable the exactitude with which it returns, to half an 
 hour. A Frank takes out his watch, orders warm drinks, and 
 waits for it : he never waits in vain ; at the precise minute his 
 extremities begin to chill, and the shivers soon follow. Of all 
 the inhabitants of Turkey, the Osmanleys suffer the least from 
 tertian fever, because they clothe the warmest. 
 
 On the subject of the depopulation of Turkey, it may not he 
 amiss to observe, that another great cause of it, more active 
 than is readily supposed, is the absence of surgical aid. Bad 
 wounds, fractures, neglected ulcers, gangrenes, &c. almost 
 always prove fatal. One of the rarest objects in Turkey is a 
 person minus a limb. Minus an eye is fearfully common; for 
 simple ophthalmia, trifling in civilized Europe,, is in these 
 countries generally followed by the partial loss of sight ; by a 
 merciful provision of nature, when one eye is extinguished, the 
 other is less liable to disorders. 
 
 Aware of the distressing consequences of neglected wounds 
 and hurts, the Philanthropic Society of Paris, with an enlight- 
 ened humanity that cannot be sufficiently admired, sent two 
 surgeons into Greece in 1827, with liberal stipends, and all 
 necessaries appertaining to their art, to relieve the natives 
 gratis. If the healer of sores and the preacher of the gospel 
 were united, might not greater success be expected ? European 
 skill in medicine is regarded by the easterns as almost miracu- 
 lous ; they do not attribute it to witchcraft. Was not a power 
 of healing one of the direct proofs given by our Saviour of his 
 divine mission ? A person with skill and medicines, and a 
 knowledge of the language, would he treated as a little divinity 
 all over the country; he would be carried on men’s shoulders 
 from village to village; pashas would court him, and brigands 
 would respect him. 
 
 At length, Mr. Wolff, despairing of mollifying the obdurate 
 hearts of the Hebrews, and I of getting cured by Mr. Lafont, 
 who, too late, convinced me that he knew little more of the 
 
524 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 nature of an eye than of the moon, we embarked in a Hydriot 
 schooner, to proceed to Smyrna. 
 
 The live cargo of our little hark might, for singularity, be 
 placed in comparison with the old pirate’s of the Cyclades — 
 Haidee’s father. There were five Albanians cap-a-pie ; a Greek 
 trader, with hales of tobacco for the Smyrna bazaar ; a party 
 of Turkish women, on their way to Damascus, to join the next 
 Mecca caravan; an Egyptian slave-dealer, with nine young 
 negresses, whom he was conveying to Smyrna on speculation, 
 having failed to dispose of them at Salonica ; and last, though 
 not least in consideration, or least out of place, a missionary, 
 a Maronite, and an English naval officer. These groups so 
 crowded the narrow deck, that the ten merry Hydriotes, who 
 composed the crew, had barely room to plant their broad feet. 
 We had some difficulty in getting out of the gulf, on account 
 of baffling airs : while in it, the Maronite was deeply engrossed 
 by fears of pirates, and referred to me as the only unbiassed 
 authority on board, in his opinion, each time that a boat, or 
 anything that his fancy magnified into one, appeared. I 
 amused myself by playing with his childish apprehensions ; 
 we were too well armed for a bonne bouche ; and the joke 
 spreading, he found himself all at once the butt of the com- 
 pany: 1m could not eat for fear; and he could not sleep for 
 fear ; and he worked himself ill before three days. 
 
 Having cleared the gulf, we met the north wind, which rarely 
 ceases in the Archipelago during the fine season, and the well- 
 sustained merriment of the passengers changed into something 
 like alarm at the heeling of the vessel ; she sadly wanted 
 ballast. This enabled me to appreciate more fully the zeal of 
 Mr. Wolff. He is constitutionally nervous, and therefore, his 
 exposing himself in the manner he does to uncertain perilous 
 journeys — being able to subdue the infirmity of nature in the 
 cause of religion, shows a singularly fine, elevated spirit ; and 
 his exertions, in consequence, merit one hundred-fold more 
 praise than they would were he possessed of ordinary strength 
 of nerve. In no one point did I so much admire his character 
 as in this. The apprehensions which would have been puerile 
 in other men, were respectable in him, almost ennobling, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 525 
 
 because they acted as foils to bring into full relief the force of 
 his mind, which showed itself, in thus combating the flesh, so 
 vastly superior to the conservative ideas which mark the great 
 mass of mankind. He never, while on board, forgot his calling, 
 but talked of religion to the crew and the passengers, as cheer- 
 fully as on shore. One morning, however, his distrust of the 
 sea made him expose himself unwittingly to a sharp retort from 
 one of the crew, whom, with others, he had just rebuked for 
 swearing profanely, saying, “ that they should be cautious on 
 the deep, where God might engulph them at a moment.” The 
 fellow promptly answered, “ Is he not equally powerful on 
 shore? Why, then, should we be more guarded here than 
 there?” 
 
 By means, however, of carrying low sail, we crossed the 
 narrow sea pleasantly, and anchored at Smyrna on the third 
 evening. I was in a bad state, having suffered a complete 
 relapse on board. So I placed myself under the care of Mr. 
 Clarke, surgeon of the factory; a gentleman, as renowned in 
 the country for his professional skill, as esteemed for his various 
 acquirements and amiable manners. To his care I owe that 
 my disorder did not terminate in gangrene — disposed that way 
 through the ignorance of Mr. Lafont ; and the moments of his 
 company, which he gave me, and which he could ill spare from 
 his well-employed time, tended to relieve the tedium necessarily 
 attendant on ophthalmia. 
 
 I did not immediately lose my eccentric and amiable friend ; 
 he remained in the same hotel a week, before embarking for 
 Malta, to meet Lady Georgiana Wolff, who was expected there 
 from Alexandria to lie in. During his stay, his apartment was 
 like a chapel. Morning and evening he preached ; at one time 
 in Italian, that language being the most universal medium in 
 the Levant; at another time in English, — to an audience 
 chiefly composed of Americans, who were much pleased with 
 him, and listened for hours to his extemporaneous eloquence ; 
 but who were also rather facetious at occasional slips in his 
 pronunciation, particularly of the word tribes, when talking of 
 the tribes of Israel, accenting the b rather too sharply. He 
 was also besieged by the visits and attentions of the mis- 
 
526 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 sionaries and Bible Society agents resident at Smyrna ; they 
 remembered the lashing he had given their class in his work, 
 and they wished to disarm his scrutiny. He was not blinded 
 by the flattery. If I do not mistake, it was said in one of the 
 Bible Society reports, “ that the Smyrniote Greeks were to be 
 seen sitting at their shop-boards diligently reading the Bibles 
 distributed by the Society, every moment they could spare from 
 their work.” I have no wish to cavil, but I cannot help 
 remarking on so astounding a misrepresentation, made for an 
 interested motive. I have often been at Smyrna, a great deal 
 in the bazaars, and among the Greeks ; but I have never seen 
 one of them read a Bible; nor has, I believe, any other 
 Englishman at Smyrna. When a Greek has done his work, 
 he goes to dance, and to sing, and to drink; attending mass 
 satisfies his conscience. 
 
 Smyrna abounds with Erench, not of the best class ; many, 
 exiles nolens nolens for the events of 1814-15. One of them, 
 a stanch Napoleonist, rather cracked it is said, armed himself 
 with a long knife, and burst open the door of Sir Hudson 
 Lowe’s apartment, when he was here on his way to India, in- 
 tending to make the lieutenant-governor of Ceylon expiate the 
 faults of the governor of St. Helena. Sir Hudson was fortu- 
 nately out, but he profited by the hint, and took up his quarters 
 on board the Cambrian, then lying in the harbour. 
 
 Our inn belonged to a Frenchman; and when the news 
 arrived of the capture of Algiers, his countrymen hoisted an 
 Algerine flag on the roof. Such conduct cannot be sufficiently 
 deprecated; it is always bad taste, not to say the height of 
 meanness, to insult misfortune. Some old Osmanleys abso- 
 lutely wept when they saw it. Six years ago, before the Turks 
 were crestfallen, this action would have brought destruction on 
 the house in question, and perhaps endangered all the Frank 
 quarter. Many of the great disasters suffered by Franks in 
 Turkey have been occasioned by their imprudence or their 
 pride. 
 
 I had not been many days at Smyrna, when rumours of the 
 “glorious three days” filled all ears, and made the hearts of 
 the French swell with exultation, excepting those in. trade; for, 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 527 
 
 during several weeks, their bills were not acceptable. Count 
 Guilleminot’s son-in-law, who was going to Constantinople 
 with his lady, and M. Fontanier (author of a hook of travels 
 in the east), on his way to Trehizonde as consul — both in my 
 inn — received the report rather queerly, for they or their rela- 
 tives held office under the fallen dynasty; yet, with true French 
 feeling, they drank to the illustrious event. Individuals who 
 before had scarcely known each other, now fraternally embraced 
 with, Avez-vous entendu le prodig e — le peuple heroique—vive 
 la France — encore notre chere patrie, &c. All eyes were 
 turned towards the sea to catch the first glimpse of the magic 
 stripes, the mystic union of blue, white, and red; and Sep- 
 tember 1 5th, the people’s triumph was fully confirmed by the 
 arrival of a French ship of war from Algiers. As she clewed 
 up, rounding to in fine style within % a cable’s length of the 
 British consulate, and displayed from her peak a broad tri- 
 coloured ensign, nearly as large as one of her topsails, loud 
 cheers from the crowds on the quay, as fervently answered by 
 the crew from her yards, welcomed her. Who could gaze on 
 that banner, miraculously, it might he said, restored, without 
 reading in it a long tale of blood, and glory, and stem reverses 
 — Italy, Egypt, Moscow, Waterloo, at the angles; in the 
 centre, St. Helena. Having sufficiently admired its graceful 
 undulations in the sea-breeze, the liberals dispersed, and then 
 paraded the streets with hands of music : that evening, ga ira 
 and the Marseillaise succeeded to the Muezzin’s Hymn, “ God 
 is great : there is no God but God.” The next day a schooner 
 arrived from Toulon, with orders for the consul, who the fol- 
 lowing day hoisted the tri-color on his house. The French 
 brig saluted it with twenty-one guns ; and the American mer- 
 chant vessels in port testified their joy by firing guns from time 
 to time during the day; and the delirium of the French was 
 carried to its height by the Wasp, English sloop of war, arriv- 
 ing from Ourlaq the same evening, and saluting regally the 
 revolutionary emblem. Young Napoleon was on all lips. The 
 Turks during these few days kept the eyes of astonishment 
 open, and more frequently than usual made use of their favourite 
 exclamations, “ Wonderful ! God is great !” It added another 
 
528 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 reason to the many they already pretend to have, for saying that 
 Franks are mad. The rejoicings were wound up a I’Anglaise , 
 by a national dinner, to which the only foreigners invited were 
 the English and American consuls, as representatives of the 
 two free nations, and therefore alone worthy to fraternize with 
 French citizens , — quels citoyens ! 
 
 At Constantinople the same order was observed. A dinner 
 followed the inauguration of the flag, at which were present all 
 the French at Pera, to the number of nearly one hundred, the 
 English consul, and an American citizen ; and to heighten the 
 entertainment, combining recollections, it was served in the 
 garden of the embassy, in the same allee where, at the com- 
 mencement of the first French revolution, a tree of liberty was 
 planted. It was, however, lamented by some, that Count 
 Guilleminot, so universally respected, the personal friend of 
 the Due d’Angouleme, to whose influence he owed the post of 
 ambassador, should have given that dinner on that occasion. 
 In his public capacity; it was his duty to cause the colours to 
 replace the lilies with all necessary solemnities ; but he had no 
 occasion to make a private display. If the banquet he gave 
 on the downfall of the elder branch of the Bourbons was a lure 
 to secure his place, he perhaps regretted it, and thought since, 
 how much more noble it would have been not to have given it. 
 
 In my inn lived a singular being, who had abandoned the 
 world. Since eleven years, he had occupied a chamber in it 
 not larger than a friar’s cell, and in that interval had not been 
 outside the house a dozen times.; in the last two years he had 
 not left it. He was a good-looking man, spare, about forty- 
 five. He led a life of sameness, irksome to those that beheld 
 it, in sober sadness. In all his actions he was the pattern of 
 exactitude. He slept to a moment, he eat to a mouthful, he 
 drank to a drop, he smoked to a puff ; no inducement could 
 make him exceed in any one point ; and I dare say, had I 
 counted them, I should have found that, in his walk up and 
 down the passage, he never made a step more one day than 
 another. The mere act of forsaking the world, and retiring to 
 a distance from one’s former connexions, is not very extraordi- 
 nary ; such an impulse is often produced by the crosses of life ; 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 529 
 
 but that a man should bury himself in a dirty inn, in one 
 comer of his native town, appeared to me the excess of origi- 
 nality, and excited my curiosity. He had never been known 
 to form an acquaintance with any of the strange and opposite 
 characters who came to the Cloche d’Or from all parts of the 
 world ; yet, with a remnant of that instinct which draws human 
 beings together, he loved to regard them from the door of his 
 room, just sufficiently ajar to allow his head to appear, where 
 he would remain like a rahbit at the entrance of its hutch, and, 
 like a rabbit, would quickly withdraw if any person, prompted 
 by politeness or any other cause, addressed an obtrusive ques- 
 tion to him. Nor should I probably have made further pro- 
 gress in his graces, had not our situation been similar : we 
 were both prisoners ; he from will, I from sickness. It may be, 
 too, that compassion excited an interest in him for me, as 
 curiosity did in me for him. Be that as it may, we made 
 gradual approaches ; an occasional “ Good morning — how do 
 you do ?” &c., broke the ice ; and in a short time, to the asto- 
 nishment of the house, he would visit me in my apartment. 
 At first, he would only remain a minute, put a good-natured 
 question about my health, and retire abashed. By degrees, 
 however, I got him to sit down ; and thus our familiarity 
 increased, till he would remain an hour, and apparently take 
 pleasure in hearing himself talk again. He was not an unin- 
 teresting companion. In his youth he had travelled, as a mer- 
 chant, in Russia and Germany, and could recount anecdotes 
 and personal adventures with humour ; but of the present 
 aspect of the world he was more ignorant than a dervish, for 
 since his seclusion he had not thought of it. I endeavoured to 
 hit upon the cause of his malady, but met with indefinite 
 success ; hints he would not understand, and direct questions 
 he evaded. I touched, however, a sensitive chord, whose 
 vibrations showed me that he had learned Timon’s experience : 
 the mention of his countrymen, the Greeks, was sure to set 
 him in a flame — to make him “ cast dirt on them,” to use a 
 Turkish phrase, in neither measured nor decent terms ; if I 
 praised them, he became worse. His severe strictures, too, on 
 women, led me to conjecture that he had not found them alto- 
 
 M M 
 
530 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 gether angels. More precisely his motives for disliking his 
 species I never learned ; I ceased to importune him when I 
 suspected that it would be ripping open too keen a wound. 
 He became more and more partial to my society ; and I may 
 say, without vanity, that my departure caused him a sensation 
 such as he had not felt for years. Can it he doubted ? when 
 we consider how consoling it must have been for his mortified 
 and suspicious spirit to find a person willing to hold com- 
 munion with him, totally unmotived by interest. 
 
 For several weeks we were the only resident lodgers. Occa- 
 sionally a guest arrived for a day or so; hut their stay being 
 short, and their time occupied, they caused no interruption to 
 our daily intercourse. I knew some; among them an ex- 
 colonel and an ex- captain de la grande armee , who were re- 
 turning from Constantinople to France, in consequence of the 
 revolution. Their joy was only equalled by their volubility 
 in expressing it. The colonel wished to pass off* as having 
 been a him hashi of the nizam dgeditt, and hinted to me to 
 countenance him. To humour his vanity, I did so, though I 
 had known him in the humble capacity of talimgi (instructor.) 
 Another was a M. Wildenbrach, officer of the King of Prussia’s 
 guards, who was honorarily attached to the Prussian embassy 
 at Pera, where I had made his acquaintance. He had been 
 touring in Syria and Palestine, and was now hasting back to 
 Constantinople, on account of the death of his minister, M. 
 Royer, and of the “ three days.” 
 
 At length a Swedish merchant took up his abode under the 
 same roof* to wait for a passage to Malta. He came from 
 Eski Scheyr,* three days’ journey distant, whither he had been 
 on a speculation in ecume de mer, hut had failed, in conse- 
 quence of the article being monopolized. As he was a 
 gentlemanly, pleasant man, with a great deal of information, I 
 was egotist enough to rejoice that there was no present oppor- 
 
 * Esld Scheyr is about eighteen hours from Brussa. Near it, in mines, 
 is found the best quality known of ecume de mer. The trade is monopo- 
 lized by six Turkish merchants, who supply all Germany. As they reside 
 in turn at Vienna, in quality of agent for the sake of the article, one meets 
 at Eski Scheyr the rare phenomenon of a Turk speaking any other language 
 than his own. The inhabitants are Mussulmans, governed by a mousselim. 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 531 
 
 tunity for his departure. He was sixty years old; but to the 
 experience and knowledge that should, hut does not always, 
 belong to that age, he joined the vivacity and freshness of 
 youth: it may therefore be readily conceived how I valued his 
 acquaintance, deprived, as I was, by my disorder, of the enjoy- 
 ment of reading. My original friend was not so pleased with 
 this addition to my society, and at the commencement kept 
 aloof. He yielded, however, to the impulse which I had given, 
 and occasionally formed the trio; hut would never join in the 
 conversation, contenting himself with listening. The Swede, 
 on his part, could not hear him, and amused himself heartily 
 at his expense behind his back, and now and then covertly to 
 his face ; not being in that to blame, for he certainly was a 
 legitimate subject for a quiz to any one who had not had the 
 leisure that I had to appreciate his good qualities, or to make 
 allowances for the contrarieties of his life. He only saw in 
 him the absurdity of a misanthrope. The poor recluse had 
 sufficient Grecian wit to know friend from foe, and did not 
 lose an opportunity that presented itself to be quietly revenged. 
 The Swede was intimately acquainted with the Dutch consul, 
 M. Van Lennep, who promised him a passage in a Dutch brig 
 of war, which was about to sail for Malta ; assuring him that 
 he need not he uneasy about losing his passage, for he would 
 give him a day’s notice to prepare his baggage. Accord- 
 ingly, the Swede remained joyously tranquil, waiting the 
 hour of the vessel’s departure; an occasion so much the 
 more valuable as there would be no other for a long time. 
 Thus matters stood, when, one evening, as we three met 
 as usual, the recluse, addressing himself to me, observed, 
 carelessly, that the Dutch brig had gone out of harbour 
 in good style about two hours before. Not having the 
 slightest idea of it, I shrunk at the effect which so abrupt 
 a notification would have on the Swede, who was naturally 
 choleric, as he had set his heart on that conveyance, daily 
 expatiating on its advantages. He laid his chibouque against 
 the wainscot, put his hands in his sides, and fixing his large 
 grey eyes on him, said, “ What did you say, sir ?” The recluse 
 quailed under his intense stare ; but, encouraged by my 
 mm2 
 
532 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 vicinity, simply repeated what he had said. On this the Swede 
 drew breath, inwardly thinking, from the half- suppressed smile 
 which I could not for the life of me conceal, that we were 
 joking with him, and contemptuously replied, “ You, sir, you 
 do not know a Dutch brig from a Chinese junk : how should 
 
 you, shut up all your life in this ” “ I do not know,” 
 
 answered the recluse, in a struggle between malice and timidity, 
 “ I may be mistaken ; but is not the Dutch ensign red, white, 
 blue, horizontal ?” This circumstantial evidence was stagger- 
 ing. Having given it, he shot me a look from the comer of 
 his eye ; I nearly bit my lip in two, and the Swede opened his 
 eyes till I thought they would have left his head. “ You, sir,” 
 he again cried, “ you do not know an ensign from a topsail 
 then, without waiting for an answer, he ran to the head of the 
 stairs, and loudly vociferated for the master and the servants, 
 who, one and all, came running up, thinking that murder had 
 been committed. “ Where is the Dutch brig — has she sailed 
 - — when did she sail — why did she sail ?” Having given utter- 
 ance to these interrogatories in one breath, he allowed himself 
 time to hear the painful truth confirmed, that she had sailed 
 two hours before. Those who have missed a sea passage can 
 judge of his mortification. He struck his hand to his forehead, 
 and walked up and down the passage, past us, like one pos- 
 sessed. I never swallowed so much smoke, in order to prevent 
 laughing. I saw that a storm was brewing ; and the author of 
 the mischief, satisfied with his evenings work, was about to 
 retire, when the Swede opened fire. “ Stay here — two months 
 longer — I shall cut my throat — have already been here two 
 months — enough to make a man throw himself from that win- 
 dow headlong into the sea.” Then fixing his eyes again on the 
 recluse, who edged closer to me, he continued : “ A man who 
 would live in this dog-hole by choice must be mad — worse than 
 a beast — deserves to have a chain round his neck. By God,” 
 waxing more wroth, “ if I have to remain here another month, 
 I will blow my brains out.” It was now the recluse’s turn. 
 “ In that case,” he said — I was surprised at his courage — 
 “ come to me ; I have a pair of pistols hanging up in my 
 room.” “ Then, sir,” cried the Swede, who could contain him- 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 533 
 
 self no longer, “ blow your own muddled brains out, and go to 
 h — .” He then deliberately broke his own pipe in two, put 
 his foot, inadvertently, on my bowl, and smashed it ; upset all 
 that lay in his way, and rushed into his room. That night we 
 saw no more of him. Next morning, I found him in bed, sick 
 in mind and body. His well-made grey wig, that suited his 
 years to a nicety, and deceived even the perruquier, had fallen 
 off : his shirt was open ; a dish of slops was by his side, and a 
 rejected pipe before him ; he presented a forlorn picture, and 
 showed that at sixty his blood ran too quick. It was now my 
 office to console him, which I did in regard of his disappoint- 
 ment ; but nothing could reconcile him to the recluse, who was 
 become as an abomination in his eyes. He rose and repaired 
 to the Dutch consul to seek an explanation. The consul acted 
 his part admirably, started back on seeing him, as from a 
 spectre, affected despair, loaded himself with reproaches, and 
 swore that it was a complete oversight ; so that the Swede, who 
 had worked off his bile in the night, allowed himself to believe 
 his professions. 
 
 The fact was, that intelligence of the revolution in Belgium 
 had altered the brigs destination, which the consul did not 
 choose to avow ; and instead of going to Malta, she went to lie 
 at Port Oliveto, ready for any emergency, fearing, in case of a 
 war with England or France, to be blockaded in Smyrna. 
 
 The commander of a Russian vessel of war that was in port 
 dined frequently at the Cloche d’Or. On such occasions he 
 always had the complaisance to pay me a visit ; but though 
 gratified by his attention, I derived little pleasure from his 
 society, for we sadly wanted a medium of intercourse ; he 
 speaking no other language than his own, excepting about a 
 dozen words of English ; I only knowing about as many 
 words of Russian; so our stock was equally produced each 
 time, and as soon exhausted. If the recluse, however, hap- 
 pened to be present we could get on, for he spoke Russian 
 tolerably well. One day that he was thus acting as our inter- 
 preter, and in unusual spirits, we persuaded him to depart 
 from his precise habit so far as to take a little wine ; but 
 shortly afterwards, going into his room, I saw him throw out 
 
534 
 
 RECORDS OE TRAVELS. 
 
 of window the small portion of wine which he reserved from 
 his bottle at dinner to drink with his cigar at seven o’clock. 
 “ Why did you throw it away ?” I asked. “ Because I drank 
 a glass with the commandant,” he replied, “ and therefore have 
 no occasion for it.” 
 
 The commandant’s gig, which waited for him every day at 
 the quay beneath my windows, had a very decent crew, dressed 
 after the English fashion — a fashion now adopted by the ships' 
 of war of most nations ; not that foreign men- of-war’s men, 
 though imitating the dress — blue collared frocks, black hand- 
 kerchiefs' tight breeched trowsers without braces, . low-quar- 
 tered shoes, straw hats with black ribbons — can ever acquire 
 the address, the happy, off-hand, don’t care a d — n air of our 
 Jacks. The coxswain, in particular, was a superior man, free 
 from the Bussian snub -nose and low forehead which marked 
 all his companions ; and his intimacy with two Turkish 
 custom-house officers, whose station was close to the landing- 
 place, attracted my attention still more. “ Call him Mus- 
 tapha,” said one of them to me, “ and you will know the reason 
 why we are such friends.” True enough ; he answered to the 
 name which confessed him a Mussulman. I could do no less, 
 then, than show him that I had not taken his name in vain, 
 which I accordingly did by asking him upstairs, bidding the 
 gargon, at the same time, to fetch coffee, chibouques, and punch. 
 The two first of these introductory tokens he accepted cheer- 
 fully ; the other he at first shyed, for form’s sake, but having 
 salved his conscience by saying that he had lived a long while 
 among Christians, drank it off. He informed me that on 
 hoard many of the Bussian ships of war Mussulmans were 
 embarked, adding, that they were treated very well, excepting 
 while in Turkish ports, when an embargo was laid on their 
 leave, under the idea that they would desert ; and so strictly 
 was it enforced, that the request of some imams, who came on 
 hoard his vessel for the purpose during the preceding ramazan, 
 that the Mussulman part of the crew might be allowed to go 
 on shore to mosque, they (the imams) answering Tor their 
 return on hoard, was refused j “ which,” said Mustapha, “ was 
 very hard, considering that the Christians were allowed to go 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 535 
 
 on shore on Sundays, and other festival days, to church.” He 
 had been nineteen years in the service, and looked forward with 
 impatience to when his time should expire — in four years ; 
 though he expressed a fear that even then he would not obtain 
 his liberty, because he was still strong and healthy. “ But,” I 
 observed, “ after having been twenty- three years in the service, 
 what will you do on being discharged ? you will have no pen- 
 sion, and will be in want.” “Not so,” he replied; “my father 
 has a house and lands near the Caspian ; if they give me my free- 
 dom I will not ask them for more ; it was the unhappiest day of 
 my life when they took me from my home — it will be the hap- 
 piest one when I again see it.” Poor fellow ! I did not damp him 
 by hinting at the change which will probably await him, should 
 he be able, on being discharged at Cronstadt, to find his way 
 home across the extent of Bussia, which extent operates as an 
 effectual bar to desertion since the conscripts are generally en- 
 rolled in opposite provinces to those in which they are levied. 
 During these nineteen years Mustapha informed me that he 
 had not heard once from his relations; — how should he ; 
 snatched from the Caspian and imprisoned on the Baltic ? nor 
 did he seem to expect it, but would have deemed it, I believe, 
 rather miraculous to have received intelligence of them. Al- 
 though speaking with great moderation and loyalty, treating 
 the privations under which he laboured as things of course, he 
 confirmed what I had heard from other sources of the convict 
 condition of the Kussian sailors ; — even they are better off than 
 the soldiers of the line. At the time of which I am speaking 
 the sailor in the Levant station received nine Turkish piastres 
 a month (half- a- crown), his entire pay, no arrears, no allot- 
 ments ; but then, it is true, the government found him in 
 clothes, and sufficient leather to make two pair of shoes a 
 year, which, if he was not endowed with a cobbling capacity, 
 he had to pay others for making. The duty on board ran 
 in the opposite extreme ; for, independent of being sailors, 
 the crew were drilled every day for four hours as soldiers. 
 Alas ! if philanthropists would consider the nature of twenty- 
 three years of such an existence, whether on shore or on board, 
 seasoned with rattanning, on such pay, on rations to which 
 
536 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 prison fare in England is luxury, without hope, without sur- 
 geons or medicines in case of sickness, they would deem it' 
 more charitable to rescue Russian subjects from their govern- 
 ment, than negroes from West India merchants, or Greeks 
 from Turkish masters. Sift slavery how we will, view it on 
 every side, stigmatize it as degrading, as bestial, I do believe 
 that it is not near so galling as the state* of conscript soldiers 
 in countries where military duty is arduous. Leaving in- 
 security of life out of the question, as unworthy of considera 
 tion, what is there in the negro’s fate — we cannot cite the 
 slaves' of Mussulmans, for they are treated like their master s 
 children — what is there in his fate worse than that of such a 
 'soldier ? Say you, he is dragged from his native shore to work 
 in distant isles ; is that worse than being marched from Arch- 
 angel to fill a ditch in Bulgaria ? Say you, he can never see 
 his friends again, allowing that he cares a straw for them ; will 
 the conscript’s friends recognize him after twenty-five years of 
 absence, when he returns sickly and poor ? But the negro, 
 though severed from his country, is not separated from the 
 best portion of the human species; though doomed to he 
 tyrannized over by man, he has the sympathy of woman to 
 lighten his cares ; though cut off from first connexions, he has 
 dearer ones growing up around him, which make every place a 
 home. What has the conscript soldier got to make up for his 
 lost home, his forgetful friends, his cheerless singleness? — 
 honour ! x 
 
 The beginning of November a Sardinian frigate, L’Eurydice, 
 arrived from Syria, and I gladly accepted a proposal of her 
 officers, whose acquaintance I had made at Genoa, to accom- 
 pany them to that port. The obstinate nature of the complaint 
 in my eyes rendered it advisable to try a change of climate, 
 and I could not have undertaken a voyage in a vessel without 
 n competent surgeon. What I suffered from ophthalmia 
 during three months at Smyrna, relapse after relapse, I shall 
 not attempt to describe; it was at times the excess of agony 
 only to he calmed by opium. It is a most frightful disease, 
 almost an excuse for suicide. 
 
 Having been so long at Smyrna, I may he supposed capable 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 537 
 
 of saying a word on our numerous countrymen resident in it, 
 how their customs are affected by long contact with Turks, 
 Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Levantines. In good earnest, 
 to speak generally, an Englishman may be there a long time 
 without knowing any of his countrymen beyond some shop- 
 keepers. Thus far the reputable body of fruit merchants 
 deserve credit for their consistency, in which, I believe, they 
 were never grossly wanting but once, and then the individual 
 in whose favour the rule was infringed repaid them by quizzing 
 them in print. In no town of Turkey is a traveller put more 
 to his shifts than he may be at Smyrna; in every other he 
 presents himself to the governor, who quarters him on the 
 best Greek house, the owner of which, far from being dis- 
 pleased with the distinction, is glad of the opportunity of 
 gaining news ; but at Smyrna the pasha would with astonish- 
 ment refer him to his consul to procure him accommodation 
 among his countrymen, — who would admire his simplicity, 
 and in return refer him to some paltry inn, as fall, perhaps, of 
 bipeds as of centipedes. I do not pretend to say that travellers 
 have the least right to complain of the lukewarmness of their 
 compatriots at Smyrna; it is a matter of opinion; but their 
 inattention to the navy is as inexcusable as it is singular, and 
 so marked as to excite the surprise of all foreigners. The 
 officers of foreign ships of war invariably find a ready welcome 
 in the houses of their respective consuls and merchants, who 
 are, the latter to the English, in point of wealth and numbers, 
 as one to ten. The English officers rarely see more than the 
 outsides of their merchants’ houses: every English man-of-war 
 that has been at Smyrna can testify the same. There is 
 seldom more than a corvette and a brig lying there at the same 
 time, therefore numbers is not the obstacle. A merchant said, 
 (I suppose jokingly,) “ It would be a clever stroke, indeed, to 
 invite the naval officers to our houses, to corrupt our wives 
 and daughters while we are at our bureaux.” It is a new 
 thing to be told that the navy abounds with Don Juans. But 
 however cheap the author of that sensible remark holds the 
 virtue of Frank ladies at Smyrna, he may be assured that it is 
 on as fair a scale as in any other confined society, where- 
 
538 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 scandal, the guardian as well as the vituperator of female 
 fame, has her eyes ever open, her tongue ever ready. No one 
 will be so inconsiderate as to say, that the English navy has 
 no claim on the gratitude of English merchants. Where is 
 there a navy that shows such disinterested zeal under all cir- 
 cumstances, the most trying and responsible, in the protection 
 of its country’s commercial interests ? It is its duty — true ; 
 but there are two ways of doing that duty, the difference 
 between which would make a material corresponding difference 
 in the receipts of trade. 
 
 Noveinber 14, 1830, I embarked in L’Eurydice. Her first 
 destination was Ourlaq, a capacious and safe anchorage on the 
 south shore of the Gulf of Smyrna, eighteen miles from the 
 city, much frequented by ships of war since 1821, on account 
 of its excellent water. It takes its name from a large village 
 two miles distant, near which are mineral springs, reputed 
 efficacious, but not much used from a want of conveniences 
 for patients, — a defect which renders unavailing nearly all the 
 mineral waters throughout Turkey, excepting those of Brussa, 
 where are accommodations on a superb scale. On an island 
 near the main, formerly connected with it by a causeway which 
 is still visible under water, are ruins of Clazomene, described 
 by Chandler. One of the islands which screen the anchorage 
 of Ourlaq is named English Island, probably from some of 
 our early crusaders who landed on it; though this is conjec- 
 tural, the origin of the name being unknown: it abounds in 
 rabbits. 
 
 We soon completed the frigate’s water, and then left the 
 Gulf of Smyrna on our homeward voyage to Genoa. Several 
 memorials of Syria, olf which coast the frigate had been for 
 some months, were on board, among others, some melodious 
 bulbuls and a gazelle. The latter was a beautiful little crea- 
 ture, and tamer than a pet-lamb. A peculiarity of its nature 
 struck my attention as being very very remarkable, and this 
 was its extreme fondness for tobacco, which it ate like hay. 
 Buffon says that the gazelle will eat anything; but anything 
 does not mean a pound of tobacco at a time. Whenever we 
 smoked, it would come bounding towards us, attracted by the 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 539 
 
 fumes, and if we did not immediately satisfy its wishes, would 
 put its little nose to the pipe-howls to inhale the odour nearer. 
 We usually gave it a handful every morning, which it devoured 
 with avidity and came for more. It did not much relish cigars, 
 but was particularly grateful for snuff, licking it off our fingers 
 with great gout. 
 
 Foul and squally weather detained us some days at the 
 entrance of the Archipelago, during which an English frigate, 
 equally with ourselves hound out, doubled us by working 
 through the Cervi passage, and was out of sight next morning. 
 This little circumstance was not alluded to by the officers, 
 nor, through delicacy, touched on by me, though it would he 
 hypocrisy to say that I was not pleased by this proof of our 
 national superiority. However, it is fair to observe that 
 L’ Euryclice was a sweet frigate, and her officers proficients in 
 their art, moreover versed in the various knowledge and 
 accomplishments of gentlemen — merit peculiarly their own, 
 since in a naval career such must be self-taught. They were 
 alive to the inconvenience of belonging to a diminutive state, 
 where sous are counted, and officers’ talents estimated by the 
 scale of their economy. “ Our captains cannot venture to do 
 what yours do,” one observed to me ; “ for our admiralty 
 makes as much fuss if we carry away a topsail-yard as yours 
 does if you lose a frigate.” There was truth in what he said, 
 showing the excellent policy of not being too severe on officers 
 for loss of ships (unless where stupidity is the cause). Too much 
 responsibility creates timidity. What might not he lost by a 
 captain of a ship of war being afraid, through long habits of 
 caution, to carry sail, or attempt hazardous navigation in 
 night or hazy weather ! a dispatch, involving the destiny of 
 nations, might he detained weeks in consequence of lying to 
 six hours for day-light; for in that short delay a gale of wind 
 might come on, and drive him far to leeward. 
 
 At length a south-east wind took us and carried us to 
 within a few miles of Catania, Thence, meeting the north-east 
 wind blowing down the strait of Messina, through which we 
 had hoped- to pass with a flowing sheet, and there being little 
 probability of its changing, and it making little difference by 
 
540 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 which side of Sicily a vessel passes going to Genoa, we bore 
 up for the Malta channel, where, after lying a day becalmed, 
 the friendly south-easter again overtook us, and accompanied 
 us with little intermission to the Gulf of Spezzia, in a snug 
 cove of which, half a cable from the lazzarette, we moored 
 December 7, to ride our quarantine of twenty-eight days 
 duration ; the minimum, in the opinion of the sapient council of 
 sanita at Genoa that could with safety he given to a ship of war 
 which had not one sick person on hoard, and had been twenty 
 days in her voyage from Smyrna, where had not been known 
 a symptom of plague for thirteen years. But instead of 
 grumbling at our fate, I thought it rather our duty to be 
 thankful for not having a longer time inflicted on us, which 
 might well have happened, considering that we were at the 
 mercy of the fears of a set of men (quere old women ?) who 
 knew nothing of the subject of contagion from experience, or 
 from reading, or from inquiry; who founded their reasons 
 about it, and their sanatory regulations, on the fright and 
 consequent laws occasioned by the great plague at Marseilles, 
 in 1720, without taking into consideration the immeasurable 
 advance of medical science since, and the superior habits of 
 the lower classes of Christendom, which tend very much to 
 diminish the spread of contagion. What was prudence in 
 1720 is imbecility in 1830. 
 
 The first night of our arrival it blew hard, and a vessel 
 laden with corn from Odessa nearly ran on hoard of us, 
 exciting our unqualified apprehensions : had a portion of her 
 canvass touched one of our 'catheads, or spars, or davits, we 
 should infallibly have been condemned to share her quarantine, 
 (forty-five days,) on account of the cholera morbus raging in 
 the south of Russia; as if cholera morbus were a personage 
 who remains shut up in a cask or a bale, or, rat-like, revels in 
 a cargo of wheat. I am aware that, in the opinion of many 
 sensible people, to question the expediency of the most 
 rigorous quarantine is little short of counselling murder. If 
 we were to yield implicit faith to some alarmists, we should 
 close communications with all countries inhabited by Mussul- 
 mans, on the theory that England might, through her cotton 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 541 
 
 manufactures, be inoculated with plague as fast as goods 
 travel from town to town. In no one particular is the good 
 sense of England so visible as in her quarantine regulations, 
 which are quite sufficient to ensure public health, without 
 adding one unnecessary shackle to commerce. A distinction 
 is made between a vessel laden with fruit, and a vessel laden 
 with cotton; between a vessel that has been ten days at sea, 
 and a vessel after seventy days’ voyage. So natural and neces- 
 sary must this distinction appear, so impossible to avoid 
 making without incurring the charge of folly, that any person 
 who has never troubled himself about the subject, must deem 
 the assertion that it is not made in any other country, a mis- 
 statement. In the ports of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
 Germany, and Russia it is never made. There, quarantine is 
 a complete job, kept up in all its absurd detailed rigour, 
 embracing manifold anomalies, to give salaries to directors, 
 physicians, surgeons, guardians, &c., and at the expense of 
 those subjected to it. A prisoner in Bedlam has the advan- 
 tage over a prisoner in a lazzaretto, insomuch that his lodging 
 is gratis. There is no one regulation, made by civilized 
 societies, so subjected to caprice and interested motives as 
 this. For example : two vessels leave the coast of Turkey 
 together, laden with unsusceptible cargoes, bound respectively 
 for Southampton and Havre de Grace. Both anchor the same 
 day. Three days after, the passengers from the English vessel 
 may cross over to France in the steamer with their trunks, and 
 look, in liberty, at their French consort, who is condemned to 
 thirty days’ quarantine. A traveller, for another example, 
 leaves Constantinople, rides through Roumelia, with his bag- 
 gage, sleeping every night in the cottages of the peasantry, or 
 in the cafenes, where disease may or may not be, and arrives 
 at Semlin, twenty minutes distant from the Turkish frontier, 
 where he has only four or five days’ quarantine to perform, and 
 is then at liberty to continue his journey wheresoever listeth 
 him. Another traveller leaves Constantinople at the same time 
 in his yacht, and after thirty days’ voyage, without communi- 
 cating with any place or vessel, refreshed by cool mountain 
 and sea breezes, reaches Trieste, in the same empire, where he 
 
542 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 must perform twenty-eight days quarantine. . Were common 
 sense to decide which of these travellers merited the least 
 quarantine, she would give it in favour of the latter : hut unfor- 
 tunately, her presence never yet graced a hoard of health in a 
 Mediterranean port, except occasionally of late years at Malta, 
 where, however, she is generally overruled hy the supposed (but 
 erroneous) necessity of following the example of Marseilles. 
 
 But hoards of health show still more inconsistency in draw- 
 ing no line of distinction (none to speak of) between ships of 
 war and merchantmen; between vessels carrying no cargoes, 
 cleaned throughout every day, with surgeons and discipline 
 on hoard, and vessels full of cotton, packed for aught any one 
 knows in a season of plague, devoid of discipline or cleanliness. 
 Formerly, the passage of a ship of war was reckoned as part of 
 her quarantine ; for as all writers on contagion agree that 
 a given number of days, fourteen, or twenty -one, or thirty, is 
 sufficient to let the disease appear in the living subject, after 
 which no danger can he apprehended, so it was rationally con- 
 cluded that the end was equally obtained, whether the proba- 
 tion were passed at sea, or in port, provided that the observance 
 of it, in the former case, were satisfactorily proved. For this 
 purpose, the words of the captain and the surgeon of a ship of 
 war, regarding the length of voyage from a suspected place, and 
 the health of the crew, used to be considered a sufficient 
 guarantee. But the privilege lasted a very short time after the 
 peace, when the continental nations ceased to care — not 
 requiring our aid — about conciliating our prejudices. The 
 boards of health pretended that captains of ships of war gave 
 incorrect statements, thereby diminishing their already favoured 
 quarantine ; and being unfortunately enabled to adduce proof in 
 the case of an English frigate at Leghorn, commanded by a 
 Captain Dundas, they refused at length to credit their affidavits 
 more than those of merchant-ship masters. This manifest, 
 galling, public insult, repeated on every shore of the Mediter- 
 ranean, to an honourable body of men, the officers of the 
 British navy, — a service, of all others, where least discreditable 
 conduct can be shown, should not be tolerated any longer. 
 Our government should insist with the other governments of 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 543 
 
 Europe, that this unworthy distrust should he done away — 
 that the words of its officers should he credited ; with, of 
 course, the proviso that any officer, capable of acting de- 
 liberately unlike a gentleman in that respect, should be 
 cashiered. 
 
 On the other hand, hoards of health, leaving out of the 
 question considerations of reason and justice, as irrelevant, 
 might say with plausibility, “ the public health being entrusted 
 to our care, it is our sacred duty to prevent the possibility of 
 its being trifled with, of our being imposed on by a false oath ; 
 we therefore cannot admit of any quarantine which is not per- 
 formed under our eyes.” Good ; hut so far from acting up to 
 this maxim, they take the word of a guardian of sanita, that is, 
 of a Maltese, or a Neapolitan, or a Livornese, or a Genoese, 
 who works for tenpence a day, as to the duration and circum- 
 stances of a vessel’s voyage ; take the word of such scum, 
 before the united testimony of the officers of an English line- 
 of-hattle-ship — of an admiral himself, were one on hoard. It 
 is scarcely credible that governments allow themselves to he 
 thus insulted in the persons of their officers. Suppose a 
 frigate and a merchantman to leave Alexandria together, 
 hound to Genoa, or to any other Italian port, and that they 
 anchor in their way at Messina ; that the latter there embarks 
 a guardian of sanita, and pursues her voyage, followed 
 by the frigate in a couple of days. Both arrive at Genoa the 
 same day. The guardian makes his declaration, that he 
 embarked on the merchantman such a day; from that day her 
 quarantine commences. The captain of the frigate equally 
 asserts, that he anchored at Messina at the same time, and 
 demands a similar grace. “ That may he,” replies the spectacled, 
 sharp-nosed, cadaverous-looking health officer, who comes 
 alongside ; “ but as you neglected to take a guardian, we can- 
 not answer for your having had no communication with any 
 vessel since leaving Messina ; you must he content to ride the 
 whole quarantine.” That such a circumstance may happen, 
 disjunctively does occur, cannot he contradicted. What a 
 balance ! on one side, we have the word of a captain of a 
 frigate, hacked, if requisite, by his officers ; on the other, that 
 
544 
 
 RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 of a Sicilian, who works for a carline a day, and who would, if 
 resembling the generality of his countrymen, sell his wife or 
 daughter, much less his conscience, for five dollars, or less. 
 
 There are certain abuses and prejudices in the world, against 
 which it is idle to preach : the wisest way is to take advantage 
 of their discrepancies, while existing, and in virtue of which, in 
 question, English ships of war may reduce their quarantine, 
 without contravening one regulation. A guardian on the 
 quarantine establishment at Malta receives one shilling per 
 diem, the pay of an A. B. Let, therefore, each ship in the 
 Levant station bear a seaman less on her books; and in lieu 
 embark one of these gentry, still preserving the title and uni- 
 form of guardian. From the day that the ship leaves Smyrna, 
 or any other suspected place, to return to Malta, her quarantine 
 will commence on the faith of her guardian’s word. By this 
 arrangement everybody will be pleased, without incurring any 
 expense to the public; the admiral have the ship at his disposal 
 earlier; the officers and crew escape ten days’ imprisonment, 
 more or less ; and the guardian find his account by gaining his 
 provisions in addition to his daily shilling. 
 
 There is no one privation of this world so impatiently sub- 
 mitted to as quarantine, and no person conversant with it who 
 does not consider it perfectly gratuitous, when applied to the 
 living subject, except where disease actually exists. View it 
 on all sides, its supposed advantages and its certain incon- 
 veniences, it may be confidently stated, in Opposition to the 
 former, that a plague, or other similar wide- spreading disorder, 
 does not visit any country in healthy latitudes, so often as once 
 in a century, and therefore it may be asked, “ Is it not better 
 to run the risk of that chance which no human prudence may 
 avert, than to impose on ourselves the eternal plague of qua- 
 rantine, which, in its strictest sense, enforced by fines, impri- 
 sonment, and death, can never be totally effective, can never 
 stop clandestine intercourse, or contraband traffic ?” On the 
 contrary, it favours the latter, as was clearly proved in that 
 which was carried on between Sicily and Malta during the time 
 they were separated by quarantine. Sparonaroes then carried 
 our manufactures, virtually prohibited in the Sicilies by 
 
RECORDS OF TRAVELS. 
 
 545 
 
 enormous duties, to the opposite coast, where, during the 
 fourteen days’ quarantine, in which the boats were of necessity 
 unmolested by doganieri, they were quietly landed. Since free 
 pratique has existed between the two islands, this species of 
 intercourse, so profitable to us, has entirely ceased, for a spa- 
 ronaro no sooner appears off the coasts than she is hoarded by 
 the doganieri, who quickly probe her cargo. 
 
 To return to Spezzia. The morning that our quarantine 
 should have terminated, January 4th, 1831, a seaman died 
 suddenly. Of all the little contrarieties of life, I never saw one 
 more bothering than that. He might have had symptoms of 
 fever in him — a black spot under his arm — a twist in his 
 bowels — and then another month’s quarantine. We sent the 
 corpse to the lazzaretto to he inspected, and waited with 
 anxiety the result, which was that apoplexy was the cause of 
 the death; and therefore, on the evening of the next day, the 
 members of the sanita, having maturely deliberated on the 
 subject, consented to admit us to pratique: the extra twenty- 
 four hours was stated to have been inflicted on us by way of 
 observation; though why that observation was necessary, they 
 who ordained it only know. They could hardly have supposed 
 that apoplexy was catching ; if they did, they would equally 
 have observed us in the case of a man falling from aloft, and 
 breaking his neck, lest the contagion, spreading, should have 
 made the bricklayers do the same off their scaffolds. 
 
 January 6th, 1831, I landed from L’Eurydice in “ superb” 
 Genoa, where I had embarked nearly two years previous. The 
 thunder of the “ glorious three days” still vibrated within her 
 walls, exciting the republican craniums of her sons, among 
 whom, in consequence, a rigorous espionage exerted its baneful 
 sway. Some officers were arrested for speaking freely, several 
 avocats imprisoned, without trial, for Carbonaro principles, and 
 a few nobles watched for having talents. Yet governments are 
 surprised that there are revolutions ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 N N 
 
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