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

40
TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
fissures, occasioned by the different fires which have taken place in
its vicinity, insomuch that it is now encircled by iron hoops to keep
it together.
After our excursion, we dined on board the New Adventure
transport ; and in the afternoon went on board the Charon to take
leave, she being on rhe eve of sailing from Constantinople for Gi-
braltar. I did not reach Buyukdere until midnight. The weather
had been extremely sultry during the day, the thermometer being
at eighty-eight in the shade.
On the 13th, I rode to Levant Chifiiek. On my return,
I heard
the Charon salute the Grand Seignor in passing the seraglio point.
On the evening of the 1 4th 1 went to a kiosque in Buyukdtre,
wh'ei e the Greeks were assembled to sing, dance, and partake of
oth r amusements. I joined the promenade afterwards in the mea-
dow, in which there was a very numerous assemblage of Greeks,
Turks, and others. It being Sunday, the inhabitants of all the
neighbouring villages were collected; and the groups which were
formed, by the variety of their costumes, and the characteristic
traits peculiar to each nation, had a very pleasing, and to me a very
novel effect. While the Greeks displayed all the gaity and nonchalance
which belong to their character, the Turks, with much
gravity, had recourse to their constant companion the pipe, and in
the intervals of smoking took coffee.
On the 15th I rode to Levant Chifiiek, where I visited the Aga
and several other Turku who were indisposed. On the preceding
day we had made an appointment with Mr. Spurring, the English
ship-builder at Constantinople, to visit the Sultan Selim, the ship
which bore the flag of the Capitan Pacha. We were the more an-
xious to do this, as the Turkish fleet was to sail in the course of a
few days for the Dardanelles. We went on board accordingly,
and found her to be a remarkably fine vessel: we were told, how-
ever, that her timbers were not proportioned to her size, and that
she would work very ill in tempestuous weather, and in a rough
sea. The Sultan Selim mounts one hundred and twenty forty-two-
pounders, besides other guns of a smaller caliber. The Capitan,
Pacha's cabin was fitted up in a very elegant style. At the sides
were suspended a considerable number of rich and beautiful sabres,
pistols, and muskets, which, being
set with a profusion
of diamonds,
and curiously
inlaid with gold, made a very glittering
and showy appearance. The furniture and other other decorations
of the cabin were in a
corresponding
of
style magnificence.
Sevc-