Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, IGYPT, GERMANY, &C 301
haze, the bold and lofty mountains of Candia, covered with snow,
together with a town and small fort. At sun set the wind shifted
to the westward, and we bore away to the north-east. In the
night it became contrary, accompanied by a rough sea.
Finding it impossible, on the morning of the 1st of April, to
clear the island, we tacked and stood the same course as on the
preceding day,
towards the western coast. At noon the wind ha-
ving shifted to the westward, we bore up for the land. In the afternoon
we had a heavy gale from the north-east, which carried us
considerably to the westward.
On the f2d, in the morning, we bore away with a north-west
wind to the eastward, with a view to clear the eastern point of the
island, abreast of which we found ourselves at one o'clock P. M.
At this time the gale increased in violence, with heavy showers of
rain.
On the 3d we were driven to the eastward bv a strong gale from
the north-west, the force of which was augmented to such a de-
gree in the evening, that the waves beat over our vessel with an
impetuous fury, threatening every moment to plunge us in the
dreadful abvss, In this perilous situation, drifting under our bare
poles, we continued until the following morning at day-break,
when the storm abated gradually, and we once more made sail.
We shortly after descried land to the eastward of us, and having
steered in that direction, with a favourable breeze, came to anchor
at two in the afternoon in the bay of the island of Castel Rosso,
on the coast of Asia Minor, to our great satisfaction and content,
after the repeated and violent gales we had had to encounter since
our departure from yllcxandria, and the imminent peril to which
we had been exposed by that of the preceding day.
Almost immediately after our arrival, I landed at the town of
Castel Rosso, the ancient Cistene, situated at the extremity
of the
bay, on a solid rock, and built in the form of a crescenr. The
island consists
entirely
of rocks, from which the materials have
been drawn for the construction of the houses. 7 he entrance into
the bay is fine and romantic. In the centre and more elevated part
of the town there is a castle, on which several guns are mounted.
The island having formerly belonged to the Venetians, they had
built this castle, and taken some pains to fortify the rock : the for-
mer has, since that time, been rebuilt by the Turks. The inhabi-
tants are for the greater part Greeks, with a few Turks. There
are scarcely any productions on the island, on the rocky surface oi