pleasing description of the assemblage of the Trojan women for the same purpose in time of peace*. Quitting the sources, we mounted and set off for the ruins of Alexandria Troas (called by the Turks, Eski Stamboul, or Old Constantinople), which are six hours' distancet. The road was a mere path, so entirely covered with heath and shrubs, that, but for the mountains, I could have fancied myself on an English common. There were many fragments of ancient columns and other remnants of antiquity lying along the road, on a few of which I saw mutilated inscriptions. The number of these increased as we drew nearer to the ruins, the country in the immediate neighbourhood of which is so covered with trees * Iliad 22, 155,— Where Trojan dames (ere yet alarm'd by Greece) + An hour is a league. Part of an inscription, which I copied from a small column lying on the road, ran thus : The following was on the lid of a sarcophagus lying among the ruins : ΑΥΡΗΛΙΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΕΘΗΚΑ ΤΗΝ ΣΩΡΟΝΕΑΥΤΩΚΑΙ One of our party saw an immense stone on the plain, near the village of Yeni Cheyr (see Mr. Gell's accurate maps for the (chiefly the oaks that produce the valonia), that the place is almost a wilderness. An hour before we reached the city, we saw great remains of the ancient aqueduct, all of which is easily traced. It was of gigantic dimensions; but one of the party missed great masses of its ruins, which he saw at his last visit to the place; and this is not to be wondered at, for Alexandria Troas has been for centuries, and still is, the magazine whence the Turks draw materials for the stone balls which they fire from their batteries round Constantinople, and for their buildings in the neighbourhood. As our visit was very hasty, the only other ruins I had time to see were those of one of the gates, of a small theatre, and of the baths; the latter, though much ruined, were very distinguishable, and the dry channel of the spring that supplied them was clearly marked: these were on the west bank of the river, and close to them were the hot springs which have been so often described; their temperature is that of boiling water, and their taste salt and disagreeable; they are used by the Turks for baths, and are considered beneficial in scrophulous disorders. On the other side of the river was a copious cold spring, whose water was fresh and pleasant. The ruins were built with enor topography of the plain), inscribed as follows, in very large letters : C MARCIVS MARAS VS mous masses of stone, some of them entirely with composite shell-stone. We dined under the trees, and returned in the evening. On our way back, we lost the road, and, had not a bright moon risen, should have been in a very uncomfortable situation, as we were for more than an hour wandering in the dark over this wild country, stumbling every moment over bushes and stumps of trees, with no other amusement than the unintelligible bawling of our guides. We did not, in consequence, reach Koum Kalé till two in the morning, when we found a boat waiting for us, in which we went immediately on board the frigate. During our passage there, I was surprised at the number of meteors, called falling stars, which I observed in the clear sky; we were only half an hour rowing to the ship, and in that time I counted nineteen. Whilst we were waiting for our messenger from Constantinople, we occasionally rowed ashore to look at the barrow called Achilles' tomb, and the other objects of interest on the plain, which have been too amply and accurately described to justify my dwelling on them. On the morning of the 22d, our messenger returned from Constantinople, with letters stating, that a Mehmendah was appointed to conduct the ambassador to the capital*. He was waiting for us at the Dardanelles, accompanied by one of the Giovani di * The Porte has now, from fears for the capital, forbidden any European ship of war to enter the Bosphorus or Darda Lingua, (students of languages, who attain in rotation the post of Dragomans) of the embassy. In the evening, we took leave of the officers of the Argo, with sincere thanks for their kind attentions to us, and entered our boats. These were long vessels manned by eight or ten Greeks, who rowed us with no interval of rest, against the rapid current (which runs at the rate of four miles an hour) to the Asiatic town of the Dardanelles, (to which Europeans give the name of Abydos) distant about sixteen miles from the ship. We arrived at ten o'clock, and immediately laid ourselves down, with hopeless attempts to sleep, on the divan, (sofa,) in the house of Signor Tarragano, a Levantine Jew, and English Vice-consul at the Dardanelles, a post which his family have filled for successive generations. In the following morning we were introduced to our Mehmendah, an old respectable looking Turk, with a white beard, who was one of the Sultan's capoudgee bashis, (chamberlains,) nelles. This interdiction is chiefly aimed at Russia, against whom it is ineffectual, for in 1816, the frigate which carried from Odessa to Constantinople, Baron Stroganoff, the present Russian Minister in Turkey, sailed strait through the entrance of the Bosphorus, and anchored opposite the Russian Palace at Buyukdereh; when the Turks finding their prohibition disregarded, and not caring to make a quarrel of it, sent to congratulate the Minister on his arrival. During the time of my residence in Constantinople, an English brig of war had passed the castles of the Dardanelles before it was detected; but boats were sent after it to give notice of the prohibition, and thereupon it immediately returned. but who derived greater rank in the eyes of his countrymen, from having been Sourreh Eminy-conductor of the Pilgrims to Mecca. I was surprised to find the town so inconsiderable, considering the advantages it might possess, as the immediate passage of commerce from the south to the capital. The town is by the Turks called Chanak Kalesi, from the manufactory of earthern ware, as the word Chanak denotes. It contains about two thousand houses, almost all of wood; it's streets, (like those of all Turkish towns) are narrow, ill-paved, and dirty. It is remarkable only for a manufacture of pottery, which, though coarse and clumsy, is in great repute through the Levant. Its fortifications are formidable, and if ably manned would be impassable. They consist of strong batteries on each coast, whose united fire, if accurately pointed, no vessel could pass. The Asiatic fort is commanded in person by the Bey of the town, whose authority extends also over the European, which never fires, till the example is set by the other. The gun which fired stone shots at our fleet in 1806, lies immoveable on the ground, close to the Asiatic battery, on the southerly side: the diameter of its bore is two feet, and I crept up it with the greatest ease. The weight of powder required to load it is sixty-three okes*, and its stone ball weighs one hundred and forty-two okes. I took the opportunity of this visit to the Dardanelles, to try the his * An oke is 2 lbs. |