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taining the old shapes, and being formed, it seems, by ancient models. The situation of the place is low, and subject to epidemical disorders. Besides these, the plague, which commonly visits the inhabitants every year, is remarkably destructive, and seldom fails to make a long stay. The cemeteries are swelled to a great extent round the town, and filled with broken columns, pieces of granite, and marble fragments, fixed as grave-stones; some carved with Turkish characters in relievo, gilded and painted. In the Armenian buryingground we discovered a long Greek inscription, on a slab of white marble, but not legible. On a rocky eminence, on the side next the Propontis, is a range of wind-mills.

The town and castle has on the south a river, which descends from M. Ida with prodigious violence after snow or rain upon the summits. Its source, as we were told, is seven hours up in the country. A thick wall had been erected, and planetrees disposed, to keep off the torrent when it overflows, and to protect the buildings from its assaults. At the mouth, like the Scamander, it had then a bar of sand. The bed was wide, stony, and intersected with green thickets; but had water in the cavities, at which many women, with their faces muffled, were busy washing linen, and spreading it on the ground to dry.

This river enables us to ascertain the site of the inner castles, a point of some consequence in the topography of the Hellespont. Its ancient name, as appears from Strabo, was Rhodius, and it entered the sea between Dardanus and Abydos. The remnants of marble, which we saw in the burying-grounds about the town, have been removed thither, chiefly, from the ruins of these cities, particularly of the latter, which was the most considerable. The consul shewed us a head of an image

of the Virgin Mary, which was found in the rubbish of a church there. On the European side, opposite to the Rhodius, was Cynossema, The Barrow of Hecuba, which is still very conspicuous, and within or close by the castle.

We returned, when we had finished our survey, to our lodgings, where we supped cross-legged, about sun-set. Soon after, when it was dark, three coverlets, richly embroidered, were taken from a press in the room, which we occupied, and delivered one to each of us; the carpet or sopha and a cushion serving, with this addition, instead of a bed. A lamp was left burning on a shelf, and the consul retired to his family, which lay, in the same manner, in an adjoining apartment. We pulled off our coats and shoes, and expected to be much refreshed by sleeping on shore. We had not been apprised of a nightly plague, that of bugs, which haunts the place, or perhaps rather the houses of the Jews. Two of us could not obtain rest for a moment, but waited the approach of dawn, with a degree of impatience, equalled only by our bodily sufferings, which cannot be described.

We

CHAP. V.

pass down the Hellespont-Land in the Chersonese of Thrace The town anciently Eleûs-Civility of the governor—The barrow, &c. of Protesilaus.

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We had agreed in the evening to visit some neighbouring places on the continent, with the principal islands near the mouth of the Hellespont. Early in the morning the consul asked for money to purchase provisions, which, with other necessaries, were put into a scheick or wherry. He embarked

with us, between the hours of eight and nine by our watches. We had six Turks, who rowed; a janizary, and a Jew servant. The two latter, with the consul, sate cross-legged before us, on a small carpet; as the rais or master of the boat did behind, steering with the handle of the helm over his shoulder.

We soon crossed the Hellespont, and, coasting by the European shore, saw several solitary king-fishers, with young partridges, among vast single rocks. The winter torrents had worn deep gullies; but the courses were dry, except a stream, which we were informed turns a mill. A narrow valley or two was green with the cotton plant and with vines, or sowed with grain.

After passing the mouth of a port or bay called anciently Cœlos, we landed, about eleven, on the Chersonese or Peninsula of Thrace, near the first European castle, within the entrance of the Hellespont, and ascended to the miserable cottage of a poor Jew in the town. Here a mat was spread on the mud floor of a room by the sea-side, and the eatables, we had provided, were placed on it. The noon-tide heat at this place was excessive. The consul retired, as usual, to sleep; while we also rested, or were amused with the prospect from the window. Beneath us was the shining canal, with Cape Mastusia on the right hand; and opposite, the Asiatic town and castle, with the noble plain divided by the Scamander; and the barrows mentioned before, two standing by each other not far from the shore, with Sigéum, and one more remote.

The ancient name of this town, which is exceedingly mean and wretched, was Eleûs. The streets or lanes are narrow and intricate. It is on the north-side of the castle, and ranges along the brink of a precipice.

When the heat was abated a little, we were informed that

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the governor gave us permission to refresh in his garden. We dismissed his messenger with a bac-shish, a reward or present, of three piasters,* and an excuse, that we were just going away; but this was not accepted; and we paid another piaster for seeing a very small spot of ground, walled in, and containing nothing, except two vines, a fig and a pomegranate tree, and a well of excellent water.

The Turks, after we were landed, had rowed the wherry round Mastusia, and waited for us without the point. In our way to them, by the castle-wall, we saw a large Corinthian capital; and an altar with festoons, made hollow and used as a mortar for bruising corn. Near the other end of the town is a bare barrow. By this was, formerly, the sacred portion of Protesilaus, and his temple, to which perhaps the marble fragments have belonged. He was one of the leaders in the Trojan expedition, and was killed by Hector. Afterwards he was worshipped as a hero, and reputed the patron or tutelar deity of Eleûs.

CHAP. VI.

Sail to Tenedos-Situation and modern history of the island-The port and town-The antiquities-Greek recreations-The night-The morning-The consul returns.

On our arrival at the wherry, which was behind the castle, we found our Turks sitting on the ground, where they had dined, chiefly on ripe fruits, with ordinary bread. We had

* A piaster is about half a crown English, and is equal in value to thirty peraus. These are a small silver coin, about the size of an English penny.

there a wide and deep gulph, a portion of the Ægæan Sea, anciently called Melas, on our right hand; with Imbros, toward the entrance, twenty-five miles from Mustusa, and twenty-two from Lemnos, which lay before us; and beyond these, other islands, and the continent of Europe, in view. We had intended to visit Lemnos, and the principal places in that quarter; but, the wind proving contrary, we now steered for Tenedos, and, after rowing some time with a rough sea, hoisted sail. We passed by some islets, and about three in the afternoon reached the town. On opening the harbour, we discovered in it, besides small-craft, three Turkish galleys waiting to convey the Venetian bailow or resident, who was expected daily, to Constantinople; the ships of that republic being, by treaty, excluded from navigating the Hellespont.

The island Tenedos is chiefly rock, but fertile. It was anciently reckoned about eighty stadia, or ten miles in circumference, and from Segéum twelve miles and a half. Its position thus, near the mouth of the Hellespont, has given it importance in all ages; vessels bound toward Constantinople finding shelter in its port, or safe anchorage in the road, during the etesian or contrary winds, and in foul weather. The emperor Justinian erected a magazine to receive the cargoes of the corn ships from Alexandria, when detained there. This was a lofty building, two hundred and eighty feet long, and ninety broad. The voyage from Egypt was rendered less precarious, and the grain preserved until it could be transported to the capital. Afterwards, during the troubles of the Greek empire, Tenedos experienced a variety of fortune. The pirates, who infested these seas, made it for many years their place of rendezvous; the Othman seized it in 1302, procured the vessels, and from thence subdued the other islands of the Archipelago.

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