64

FRENCH AND ARMENIAN COLLEGES.

and Asia at one glance. The advantage of living on the summit of these hills is their extreme coolness-the only drawback being the labour of ascending them.

Opposite Candilee, on the European coast, is the village of Bebek, with its lovely bay, a favourite resort of Europeans. Here are several American families, and also French and German. Here are also two colleges-one a French Catholic, under the order of Lazarist Fathers, the other a Protestant Armenian, under the care of an Armenian gentleman. There is also a small convent and enfants trouvés, belonging to the Sœurs de la Charité. We visited these three institutions; the first contained about 500 boys, who were all dressed like French soldiers, and among their other studies military exercises are diligently learned, a French soldier being their instructor. Boys of every nation are there-Turks even send their sons, so that the facility of acquiring languages is very

66 MAISON DE SAINT JOSEPH."

65

great. We counted ten that are spoken in the house.

We were most courteously received by the Superior, and conducted over the college. We saw the library and the laboratory, and the boys at their gymnastics, and heard their singing in the little chapel. The music was an improvement on the general character of French music in the East, but the chapel was so much too small for the large body of voice accompanied by an organ, that we could hardly judge of its merits. We enquired whether the Turkish boys attend the chapel. The answer was "seldom." It was entirely voluntary; if they wished for religious instruction they had it, but they were not forced to hear it.

The superior himself conducted us to the Maison de Saint Joseph close by, belonging to the Sisters of Charity; they are sent from the convent at Galata. Their house is for sick children and the enfants trouvés, on a

VOL. II.

F

66

AMALGAMATION OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

very small scale, however, in comparison to the well-known institutions of Paris.

Here again the amalgamation of different nations struck us,-a Sœur was standing at a window holding in her arms a dark-eyed Italian baby, a fair-haired German child was climbing up her knee, while a little sicklylooking Russian sat beside her. Groups of other little ones, some suffering from sickness and others the lonely and forsaken, played about the room. Four Sisters were in charge of them, gathering, as these sweet Sisters ever do, the most desolate and afflicted of God's creatures into their loving care. The college and Sister's house stand in a lovely situation, half-way up the hill, looking down on the Bosphorus.

We visited the Protestant Armenian College, and were most kindly received by the principal and his family. We were conducted over the college library, dormitories, &c., but it being the recess we did.

PLEASANT EVENING AT BEBEK.

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not see the pupils. The college is intended for young Armenian men belonging to the sect of Protestant Armenians. Mr. H

the principal, kindly invited us to spend an evening with his family, and walk to see the French camp, then lying about a mile from their residence-the sight, he said, was worth looking at.

We accepted the invitation, and afterwards spent a pleasant evening at Bebek, but in the interim cholera had broken out in the French camp, which had been moved elsewhere; we returned home that evening by moonlight and the Bosphorus looked like a plain of silver light. Clearly in the brilliance stood out the hills and surrounding houses; now and then a caique darted past us like a bird, so swiftly did it go; in the distance was the city, looking dim and shadowy; the current was with us and our row took us only ten minutes, when against the current we were half an hour or more coming across.

68

VISIT TO THERAPIA.

About this time we had occasion to visit Therapia, and some of us who had there spent the first six weeks of our lives in the East were desirous of seeing it in its summer aspect; on our journey up the Bosphorus we passed the village of Yenikoi, which was full of huts containing the sick of the Sardinian army. A great many Greeks live at Yenikoi, for here begins the part of the river where the Christians are allowed to build country houses. When we reached Therapia a change was indeed apparent. The Sultan's palace was converted into a convalescent hospital for the British, and was in beautiful order. We walked in the extensive grounds, under the shade of the magnificent trees which must form such a delightful walk for the invalids.

After visiting our kind friends at the hospital we walked through the town along the quay to the embassy gardens-they were indeed lovely-the lilac Judas trees and