CHAP. I.

CALAMITIES OF TURKEY.

Turkey the most unhappy of all countries-Deserted Burial

grounds-Desolations of Ephesus-Laodicea-Sardis-Diminution of population at Constantinople-Corfu-ÆginaColossæ-Discovery of Apamea and Sagalassus-Site of Antioch of Pisidia, and other places mentioned in Scripture, not yet discovered-Reflections-Destruction of the Janissaries-Massacre of Greeks-of Twenty-seven Samiots at Vourla -Total desolation of Psara-Disappearance of Mahomedans and their religion from the Morea-Unhappy condition of Women in Turkey - Polygamy-Slavery of Greek Females-Scene of distress at Magnesia.

TURKEY, whether regarded in a secular or religious point of view, presents a most dark and dismal picture. Its history, like the roll of Ezekiel, is written, within and without, with lamentation, and mourning, and woe. To the religious state of the empire we shall chiefly direct our attention; but the calamities not strictly religious, which have befallen these lands, stand in such intimate connexion with religious considerations, and afford room for reflections of so serious a character, that we shall not hesitate to commence with them.

Were it requisite to place a motto at the head of this chapter, we should find one highly appropriate in the language of the Prophet: Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled. Against our entire globe, it is true, divine displeasure is directed: on every man, as a sinner, divine indignation is ready to be discharged: but if there be any part of our world more exposed than another to the righteous vengeance of God, it is surely the Ottoman Empire; and it might seem as if there the thunders of Heaven rolled with more awful reverberation, and as if there the lightnings of God's displeasure were doomed to display their most destructive agency, and to sear, consume, and desolate with unaccustomed effect. These lands, once the most favoured, are now the most chastised of all countries.

Few occurrences can evince more clearly a calamitous condition of the human race than habitual diminution of population. One of the first and most powerful laws of our nature is, Increase and multiply. When we, therefore, observe an instinct so imperative frustrated, and the most powerful tendencies of Nature turned out of their due course, there can be no doubt that some mighty evil is at work. And such is

precisely the case in the Turkish Empire. In whatever direction the traveller proceeds, he observes cemeteries crowded with the dead: and if he inquires where are their descendants, no answer can be given. Frequently, no town, no village, no cottage on the borders of the deserted burial-ground, can suggest the reply, "Here are the children of the deceased." And when the monumental epitaph has become illegible, and no more bears its testimony to the name and existence of former generations, still does the close array of dark and mournful cypress-trees present impressive information of the multitudes interred beneath them. That the human race in Turkey really does "fade away and perish, beneath the eye of the observer," may be further evidenced by the circumstance, that Constantinople is supposed to have diminished its population by 300,000, since the year 1812.

But the astonishing loss of population, which those parts of the world have sustained since ancient times, is still more affecting. I have wandered amidst the ruins of Ephesus; and I had ocular and auricular demonstration, that where once assembled thousands exclaimed, Great is Diana of the Ephesians, now the eagle yells, the jackal moans, the echoes of Mount Prion and

Mount Coryssus no longer reply to the voice of man. I have stood on the Hill of Laodicea, and I found it without a single resident inhabitant. There was, indeed, an inferiority in its desolations to those of Babylon. Of Babylon it was predicted (Isaiah xiii. 20), The Arabian shall not pitch tent there. At Laodicea, the Turcoman had pitched his migratory tent in the area of its ancient amphitheatre; but I saw neither church nor temple, mosque nor minaret, nor a single permanent abode. The capital of the island of Corfu-to allude to a place adjacent to Turkey-is reported to have once contained 120,000 inhabitants: now, the entire island only numbers 60,000. Athenæus assures us, on the authority of Aristotle, that Ægina formerly possessed a slave population of 470,000: now, the total number of Æginetans is probably not more than 12,000. I have myself observed the exactitude with which the denunciations of divine anger against the three Churches of Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea have been fulfilled. Whilst the other four Churches of Asia, which are in part commended, and in part more mildly menaced, are still populous cities and contain communities of nominal Christians, of each of these it may now be said, that it is empty, and

void, and waste. And though the Arabian may pitch tent at Laodicea, and the shepherds, as at Ephesus, make their fold there, still have they scarcely been inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation. Wild beasts of the desert lie therehyænas, wolves, and foxes. Their houses are full of doleful creatures: scorpions, enormous centipedes, lizards, and other noxious reptiles, crawl about amidst the scattered ruins; and serpents hiss and dart along through the rank grass which grows above them. And owls dwell there. When I was standing beneath the three stupendous columns of the Temple of Cybele, which are still remaining at Sardis, I looked upward and saw the species of owl which the Greeks call Cuckuvaia, perched on the summit of one of them. Its name is derived from its note; and, as it flits around the desolate ruins, emitting this doleful sound, it might almost seem to have been appointed to chaunt from age to age the dirge of these forsaken cities. And here the distich of Hafiz is most true:

The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace; And the owl hath sung her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab.

I paid a visit to the city of Colossæ-if that,