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treasure, and had already filled with it the provision chests, which he had seen by our tent; and demanded one of them as his share. He treated the janizary as mocking him, when he endeavoured to explain the nature of our errand, and the manner in which we had been employed. The janizary returned to us, exclaiming, as at Eski-hissar, that we were among rebels and robbers; that neither equity, our firhman, or the grand seignior would avail us; that, unless we would repent too late, it behoved us to hasten away. He was prevailed on, however, to remonstrate again; but the aga insisted on his claim with threatenings, if we did not speedily comply.

It seemed an exorbitant sum would be requisite to glut this extortioner and his dependants; and, if he were gratified, we might still expect other agas to follow his example, and be harassed until we were quite stripped of our money. The dispute growing very serious, we were apprehensive of immediate violence; and it was deemed prudent to retire by the causey to our tent. to our tent. At the same time, his two men, who had tarried by us, mounted their horses with visible chagrin, and rode off, as was surmised, to the village with orders.

On our arrival at the tent we held a consultation, when the janizary warmly urged the peril of our present situation; that the frontier of the Cuthayan* Pashalike, in which we were, was inhabited by a lawless and desperate people, who committed often the most daring outrages with impunity. He recommended the regaining, as fast as possible, the Pashalike of Guzel hissar. It was indeed the general desire, that we might remove from a region, in which we had already experi

* Cuthaya, anciently Cotaium in Phrygia.

enced so much solicitude, and where our safety for a moment was deemed precarious. Our men were alert in striking the tent, and loading our baggage; and at nine in the morning we fled from Pambouk, under the conduct of our janizary.

We forded the Mæander by a wooden bridge for foot passengers, with the water up to the bellies of our horses. We rode through a court before the house of the aga, with whom we had first treated, and saw there some marble fragments, probably removed from the adjacent ruins. The village is exceedingly mean and small.

Keeping up the plain to recover the road from Laodicea westward, we had on our left a narrow and deep water-course. The stream, at an over-shot mill, was turned from its channel, and permitted at intervals to run into the corn fields. The rills also from the mountain were conducted into lands recently ploughed, on which cranes were stalking to devour insects or reptiles, distressed by the moisture. We hurried on, apprehensive of being pursued, until we were opposite the snowy summit, beneath which we had pitched our tent, going to Denisli. We found there a company of Turks, and alighted to dine near them under some trees, which grow by a fountain. These repasts were usually followed by sleep on a carpet in the shade.

The travellers, with whom our men conversed, informed them, that the Turcomans, encamped in the plain on the other side of the Mæander, had very lately plundered some caravans, and cut off the heads of the people who opposed them. We disliked this intelligence, and set out again after two hours, fearing we might be benighted among them. Leaving the road to Magnesia on the left hand, we came in half an hour to a crazy wooden bridge, over a rapid stream,

falling, lower down, into the Meander. This river had also a wooden bridge on piles which we crossed; with one of stone, in view, higher up, consisting of a single arch. The plain was here very wide and smooth, and covered with the black booths of the Turcomans. Our janizary appeared as one half frantic, if he saw any one of the company straggling, or loitering on the way. We pushed briskly through, and then travelled westward in a green and pleasant recess of the mountain Messogis.

On entering the recess, we had on our right hand, at a distance, the ruins of Tripolis. Smith* relates, that he saw there only huge stones, lying confusedly in heaps, besides vestiges of a theatre and of a castle. We could plainly discern the naked site of the former on the slope of Messogis, and beneath it masses of wall, remnants of the fortress. About half an hour to the west is a flourishing town or village. A stream, of which we had a distinct view from the mountains the next morning, winds not far off in the plain, and has been mistaken by several travellers for the Mæander. Smith forded it near Tripolis, in his way to Pambouk, where he arrived about four hours after.

Tripolis is the place, where St. Bartholomew taught, and St. Philip is said to have suffered martyrdom. It was afterwards the see of a bishop. John Ducas, the second emperor of Nice, had an interview there with the Turkish sultan in 1244. It was enlarged and fortified for a bulwark to cover Philadelphia. In 1306 it was in the possession of the Turks, who had besieged and taken it by stratagem; and Alisuras made from it his incursions into the empire. It is not men

*Survey of the Seven Churches, p. 245.

tioned by Strabo; but in the Antonine Itinerary is placed twelve miles from Hierapolis, and thirty-three from Philadelphia; and, in Peutinger's Table, from Tralles fifteen.

We rode on by fine crops of barley, with a large watercourse on our left hand; and, after nine hours, arrived in the dusk of evening at Bullada, a Turkish town; the houses numerous and scattered on slopes, with a bridge crossing the bed of a torrent, then dry. We were lodged in a new khan, small, but unusually neat; and from the windows, in the morning, had an extensive view over the plain. We could see part of the white cliff of Hierapolis. On inquiry, we found that we were now only a journey of about four days from Smyrna, going the direct road; and were assured, that the plague raged there with uncommon fury.

CHAP. LXXIII.

Our mode of living-Mount Tmolus--The region named Catakekaumene-The river Hermus-We arrive at Ala-shahir, or Philadelphia.

OUR mode of living in this tour had been more rough than can well be described. We had endeavoured to avoid, as much as possible, communicating with the people of the country; and had commonly pitched our tent by some well, brook, or fountain, near a village; where we could purchase eggs, fowls, a lamb or kid, rice, fruits, wine, raki or white brandy, and the like necessaries with bread, which was often gritty, and of the most ordinary kind. We had seldom pulled off our clothes at night; sleeping sometimes with our

boots and hats on, as by day; a portmanteau or large stone serving instead of pillow or bolster. But one consideration had softened the sensations of fatigue, and sweetened all our hardships. It was the comfortable reflection, that we enjoyed our liberty, and were, as we conceived, at a distance from the plague; but now we were about to lose that satisfaction, and at every stage to approach nearer to the seat of infection.

We had agreed to visit Ala-shahir,* or Philadelphia; and, setting out in the morning, ascended the mountain, which is Messogis, and turned to the north-west, through a cultivated tract, the way good, to hills green with flowering shrubs, and in particular with Labdanum. The air partook of their fragrancy, and dispensed to us the sweet odours of Mount Tmolus. The manner of gathering the gum from the leaves, with the whip or instrument made use of, is described by Tournefort. After five hours we alighted, and dined beneath a tree by a well. We then entered a deep narrow track, and came in two hours more to a village, and pitched our tent on a dry spot; with an old castle on the mountain on our left hand, and before us an extensive plain, in which the river Hermus runs.

This region, which is above, or to the east of Philadelphia, was called Catakekaumene, or The Burned. By some it was reckoned in Mysia, by others in Mæonia, or Lydia. It was five hundred stadia, or sixty-two miles and a half long, and four hundred stadia, or fifty miles broad; and anciently bare of trees, but covered with vines, which produced the wine called by its name, and esteemed not inferior to any in good

* Allahscheyr, The City of God.

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