reaching Erzeroum, the traveller enters the first important Turkish town in this part of Asia Minor. Sir Robert Ker =Porter describes this town as containing a population of about sixty thousand, of whom fifty thousand are Mohammedans. It contains forty-five mosques and two churches. Two of the most ancient mosques are fancifully ornamented with bricks and coloured tiles. The lofty domes of these mosques, together with the glittering minarets of others, rising above the fortified walls of the governor's palace, give a delusive splendour to the appearance of the town when seen from a little distance. The whole town is defended by high double walls, well built, and additionally strengthened with lofty towers; the outer wall being supported by a deep ditch. The dresses of the inhabitants are often exceedingly gay, and indeed the rank of the wearer is scarcely discernible through the showy texture of his dress. Sir Robert Ker Porter observes: "The well-known flowing garment and large turban of the Turk, are common alike to the tradespeople and highest classes; the chief difference lying in the colours and materials: but the gaiety, and even splendour, of them all often exceed imagination, and so completely confuse ranks to the eye, that an inexperienced foreigner, gazing at a procession of these stately personages, moving solemnly along in their motley attire, could not possibly distinguish the degree of one from another. I remember, on entering the town of Kars, (a little eastward of Erzeroum,) meeting a most gorgeously apparelled gentleman, who, from his gravity, and majestically-slippered walk, Í might have mistaken for the pacha's vizier, had not a string of little tallow candles in one hand, and a plate of sour cream in the other, proclaimed his title to some humbler calling." But since the last-mentioned traveller visited these countries, Erzeroum has been doomed to suffer the misery attendant on hostile attacks. It was a flourishing place of trade until 1829, when the Russian Count Pascovitch overran the country, and partly by persuasion, partly by force, caused nearly one hundred thousand Turks, Armenians, and Koords, to leave their native country, and pass into the Russian territory. Of this number seven thousand were from Erzeroum; and the misery and cruelty which they experienced from the Russians have given rise to a deadly hatred on the part of the natives. Indeed it is lamentable to see the state of feeling existing in and around this district: let the reader look at a map of that part of Asia situated near the south-east margin of the Black Sea, and he will find a region where Turks, Koords, Persians, and Russians mutually detest each other, and only join interests occasionally, when two of them are attacked by a third more powerful than themselves. As we depart westward from Erzeroum, we leave by degrees the region inhabited by the Armenian Koords, whose villages are formed of houses built under ground, the earth that is excavated being heaped about the walls to aid in the exclusion of wintry cold. As darkness closes in, a plentiful supply of wood enables the inmates to keep up a blazing fire; but when they require light for other purposes, they make use of the same sort of candle-fir, or splinters of fat turpentine pine, which are used in the highlands of Scotland. These portions of the wood are produced by a disease in the common fir, which produces a congestion of its resinous juices to the part affected; and the tree is cut down for the sake of this alone, or the part is cut out, leaving the rest to decay of itself. The domestic economy of these wretched hovels may be estimated from the paragraph quoted from Mr. Fraser, respecting his night's sojourn in one of them. Travellers in this part of the Turkish territory frequently perform their journey by Tatar, that is, accompanied by a government courier or guide, called a Tatár, and travelling on horseback with as few stoppages as possible. These Tatârs are to be hired at the chief cities, and are men of wonderful energy and hardiness. On the occasion of the escape of Napoleon Bonaparte from Elba, the British Consul at Constantinople hired a Tatâr to convey the information to the British Consul at Demavund, a place about sixty miles beyond Teheran in Persia. The man mounted his horse, and performed the whole journey, over mountains, and through valleys and plains, in seventeen days, the distance being about 2000 miles. It was with such a guide, and on such a plan as this, that Mr. Fraser made his journey; and it is thus that the term "Tatâr journey" is given to his narrative. There are, besides, other guides, not connected with the military or government departments, but attached to the Turkish post-houses, and hired by travellers. Trained from childhood among the animals of which they have the care, they are good grooms and admirable riders; and, accustomed to brave the road and its dangers in all weathers, they become bold, intrepid, and skilful guides in this part of the country. These men, who are called Soorajees, are as remarkable in appearance as in character. They wear large shulwars, or riding-breeches, often highly embroidered; a short Turkish or Mamluc jacket, frequently of coloured velvet, and decked with faded finery; a striped silk or cotton vest, the skirts of which are stuffed into the trousers; huge pistols, or a yatagan, or both, protruding from their broad leathern girdle and sash. On the head they wear a turban, wound rather loosely; and they wrap their legs and feet in pieces of rag, cotton, or woollen, winding them over and over again, like surgical bandages on a fractured limb. Over these bandages are large boots, or laced sandals made of raw hide. With such guides, then, we proceed on our journey, and a few miles after leaving Erzeroum, we cross the westernmost branch of the upper Euphrates, that noble river which flows into the Persian Gulf by the same mouth as the Tigris. Here we come to the boundary of what is generally deemed Armenia, and enter on the Turkish province of Pontus, a country of much notoriety in ancient times, having been the seat of a flourishing kingdom, under Mithridates the Great. The kingdom of Pontus was conquered by Julius Cæsar, and made a Roman province, but it was often governed by monarchs who were tributary to the power of Rome. At about thirty-six miles from Erzeroum is Ashkala, a pretty village inhabited by a small number of families; and further on is a similar village called Kara Koulak, the scene of many conflicts between the semi-barbarous tribes of the neighbourhood. At another village, named Mama Khatoun, are some remarkable buildings, which Mr. Morier was told were built as a love-token by a wealthy Turk to his mistress. These buildings are situated close to the village, and consist of a caravanserai, a mosque, a bath, and a tomb, all constructed of fine white free-stone, and finished in a very excellent manner. The caravanserai is a hollow square, with a gate on the eastern face; round the court are built small rooms arched in a very solid and symmetrical style; and there are also two vaulted chambers, each fifty yards long by forty broad, for the accommodation of the horses and mules of travellers. In the middle of the square is an arched chamber, erected probably as a cool retreat in summer. The mosque is situated on the right of the caravanserai, and is entered by a small court yard, from which a vaulted peristyle leads under the dome into the principal chamber, where is a stone pulpit. The fine materials and admirable masonry of this dome are said to contrast strikingly with the general character of Turkish buildings in this part of the country. Close to the caravanserai is the bath; and on the other side are the remains of another building. Nearly facing the caravanserai is a small round temple, supposed to be a tomb, enclosed by a circular wall, which is entered by a gateway of Saracenic architecture. The interior of the round temple is arched, and carved with a variety of ornaments. In various parts of Asia Minor are towns bearing the name of Kara Hissar. This implies "black castle," and is generally applied to a fortress built on a hill. One of these is found on the road which we are now traversing. The position of the fortress seems inaccessible, the rock on which it stands resembling that of the Castle of Edinburgh, but nearly twice as high. It spreads entirely over the summit of the hill; but the most formidable of its towers appear on the northern point. Beneath the western brow, and just on the slope of the rock where the declivity is least abrupt, the greatest part of the town is built. The houses are mostly of two stories, and stand in ranges one over the other, as seen from a distance; two mosques and one minaret rise from among them. Sir Robert Ker Porter describes the mountain scenery in the vicinity of this hill fortress as being among the most sublime which he had met with in the East; as a country" of the wildest character; the whole consisting of endless ranges of dark, stupendous mountains, hurled together in the most rugged forms of chaotic contrasts. But this august assemblage of Nature's vastest materials expanded to even a terrible sublimity as we approached a higher region, where some tremendous convulsion of the earth seemed to have rent its mountain piles with more than ordinary rage. Heights and depths, and yawning darkness, affrighted the eye in our advance, though I thought it not improbable that the closing gloom of the evening, added to the natural blackness of the mountains, might, by confusing the outlines of objects, and mingling shadows with reality, exaggerate the awful appearance before me." At the various villages which we have named, and at others of a similar kind, are post-houses, which are likewise the only inns in the place; and the following description will convey an idea of the sort of entertainment for travellers at these post-houses. Travellers and servants have to squat down to the same board with the people of the house, from the keeper to the meanest trencher-cleaner; and mingle their fingers in the great general dish. This huge mess stands in the middle of a tray, on a low circular table usually laid out with as many pieces of bread as there are guests. The other ingredients of the meal (breakfast) are commonly thickened milk, with two plates of curdy goat's cheese, a little honey, and some grape syrup. At mid-day, bread and dried or ripe fruit are given. At sunset, a kind of soup, and a stew of mutton, or goat's flesh, mixed with sweetened gravy or onions, and a pillau of wheat. The dishes are served in rotation, and placed in the middle of the tray; round which the eaters sit on their heels, ready with their fingers or spoons to dip into the dish. Such is post-house fare. The town of Nixar is approached by a road descending the declivity of a mountain. Mr. Morier says that no description is adequate to paint the brilliancy and luxuriance of vegetation, and the picturesque forms of this region. Trees of every denomination grow here in the wildest profusion, whilst their roots are embalmed by the odour of myriads of flowers. Sir R. K. Porter likewise speaks of the valley of Nixar as a picture of rural prosperity and beauty; displaying a gently swelling ground, carpeted with verdure, and diversified with groves and sparkling rivulets. He adds, "The whole scene gave me an idea of some of the finest parts of Switzerland; a remembrance which had never been awakened in me before, by any landscape of the East; and it may not be irrelevant to recollect here, that it was from Cerazunt, on this shore of the Euxine (Black Sea), that Lucullus transplanted cherry-trees into Italy; and thence, in little more than a century after, they first embellished the gardens of Great Britain." A little beyond this, and at about one-third of the distance from Erzeroum to Constantinople is a large and open town called Tokat, (supposed to be the ancient Comana Pontica,) situated at the foot of a lofty mountain, or rather pair of mountains, with a cleft between them. Numerous houses appear crowded together at the bases of the twin mountains, varied here and there by mosques and minarets. The town was said thirty years ago, to have contained one hundred thousand inhabitants; but this is in all probability a gross exaggeration. The bazaars were however very numerous, and everything common to Turkey and its wants seemed to be found there in plenty. Mr. Fraser, many years afterwards, proceeded on this route with such rapidity, frequently performing one hundred and twenty miles in a day, that he had not time to pay much attention to the objects and scenery among which he passed; but he speaks of Tokat as a noble old place, which, with its fine castellated rock and picturesque mountains behind, looked extremely grand in the moonlight, and appeared to be an extensive place, situated on a well-cultivated country. The city is seated on the banks of the Jekil-ermak, the ancient Iris. It is the centre of an extensive inland trade to and from all parts of Asia. Here are manufactories of blue morocco, silk stuffs, and copper vessels of all kinds. At this town the exemplary and lamented missionary, Henry Martyn, died on his way to Constantinople, October 6, 1812, in the thirty-second year of his age. The next important place at which we arrive is Amasia, the ancient capital of Cappadocia, and the birth-place of Strabo. The city stands in the narrowest part of the valley of Amasia, and in the midst of bold, wild, and remantic scenery. Along the bottom of this valley flows the river Yekil-Irmak; and the town spreads over both banks. On one side of the river rises a magnificent pile of rock, on the nearly pyramidal summit of which lie the mouldering towers of the ancient citadel, surmounting the caverned openings into the royal tombs, which are excavated in the face of the hill. On entering the city, an English traveller is struck with the appearance of the ruins of a Christian church, part of which are mouldering to dust, and the remainder used as a Mohammedan mosque,-a melancholy transformation from good to evil. The streets of the town are narrow and disagreeable, as is frequently the case in Turkey; and the houses were estimated by Sir R. K. Porter at about six thousand. But the most interesting object to Near about this part of the country the traveller frequently meets with Angora goats, so well known in Europe for their white and silvery coats. The town from which they take their name is situated about fifty miles southward of the direct path which we are following; but many of the valleys and villages all around Angora display large numbers of these goats, the sides of the mountains affording a rich pasture for them, and the villagers being employed in dressing and weaving hair. Around this district, too, are many kinds of manufacture, carried on, it is true, in a very primitive manner, and to a small extent; but still it is pleasant to have a respite from the details of oriental turbulence, and to hear of industry and its effect. At a pretty little town called Chirkiss, the inhabitants are celebrated for the bread and the honey which they produce, and which are regarded as great luxuries by the travellers who pass that way. At another small town called Garidi, are manufactories of copper utensils, and others for tanning and staining a stout and durable kind of leather. Great quantities of this leather are sent to Constantinople to be made up into boots and saddle-bags. While travelling over the open country in the neigbourhood of the town of Boli, Sir R. K. Porter witnessed a scene which illustrates the wasteful and thoughtless conduct of Asiatics. The wood-cutters are accustomed to kindle a few dried branches to form a fire for their nightly bivouac; and this object once served, they are heedless as to the consequence of leaving the wood unextinguished, particularly if the wind be blowing. Sir Robert found the forest on fire, the flames bursting up with the appearance of volcanic eruptions, and producing a scene of horrid sublimity by throwing a red light over distant objects. The wind was roaring amongst the adjoining woods with a noise like the sea in a storm, and increased the impressive effect on the senses of the spectator, We cannot stop longer at these ruins, but must proceed westward to the pass of Drekler-Daugh, in the direct route to Constantinople. A spur of the rock terminates in a bold perpendicular cliff twelve hundred feet high, at the foot of which a rapid stream runs; and midway in air, across the face of this rock, and at a height of about five hundred feet above the torrent, a pathway has been cut. This path is about ten feet broad, with a very low and precarious parapet at the outer edge. This path is about a quarter of a mile long, with a steep declivity at each end. Along such a path did Mr. Fraser travel in the depth of winter, when every spot of rock was covered with slippery ice, and the cold so intense as almost to benumb the faculties. Humboldt passed over much higher and narrower mountain passes; but he had not, except in some few cases, to conduct Boli is the ancient Hadrianopolis. The modern town is his mules over a solid icy path. Immediately after passing a poor place, consisting of about a thousand houses, chiefly this rock, Mr. Fraser traversed another still more awful, as inhabited by Turks. There are a few Armenians, but no may be judged from the following vivid description:"Our Greeks, although the villages in the vicinity are filled with approach to it seemed to be through the very bowels of the them. It is the residence of a pasha of two tails. The mountain, in the bed of a furious torrent, where no man plain, at the extremity of which it stands, is rich and fertile. could have imagined a path to have existed; and from About four miles to the south-east of the town, at a village which, turning up a narrow fissure, we scrambled on in the called Valajah, are some mineral baths, to which the Turks darkness, (it was nine o'clock on a winter's night!) leav-resort in great numbers. There is nothing else remarkable ing all to the instinct of our horses, till we emerged far above, upon the very brink of a black abyss, along which we still continued ascending by a narrow rocky zig-zag path, paved here and there, but without any parapets, for a height of, I suppose, six or seven hundred feet. It was a frightful tug. You must know that the Turks do not frost, or sharpen their horses' shoes, as we do, to keep them from slipping on the ice, and here all was ice and melting snow; and the track was on the very verge of the 'precipice; there was no getting off to lead the horses, or walk: we did not even dare to stop. It was neck or nothing; a breathless scramble up-up; often holding on by the mane to keep from slipping off behind. Nothing but the conviction of this and of my own helplessness, embarrassed with great boots glued to the stirrups by ice, and our heavy cloaks frozen as rigid as a board in their folds, could have kept me in the saddle. The descent was not so long, but fully as dangerous, and even more horrible; for there you were constantly looking down into the black yawning gulf, from whence the far-off sound of the winter torrent came roaring up in fits as the wind sighed down the glen. How different are our impressions of scenery according to the season when we view it! That which is all lovely and attractive when clothed in spring garments, becomes cheerless and dull in winter. Westward of the mountain pass which we have just described are the valley and town of Tosia, which Mr. Frazer traversed twice during his Tatar journey, going and returning. On one occasion, all was ice-bound, cold, and dreary, and his thoughts were only directed to his onward progress. On the other occasion he was enraptured with the beauty of the valley, its splendid cultivation, its green picturesque hills and its multitude of waters. The neighbourhood of the town was laid out into little fields and paddocks, interspersed with orchards and gardens, divided by walls and hedges; the first built of mud and thatched, and partly overgrown with herbage; the latter, formed of barbary bushes and other thorns, with pollard elms, oaks, and willows. In the town too, all looked attractive; the mosques and many of the houses constructed of stone, and rising one above another in irregular groups and terraces, showed to much advantage. in the neighbourhood. We are now approaching rapidly towards Constantinople, and find the towns and villages losing much of their rude character. Ismit, or Is Nickmid, is the ancient town of Nicomedia, and has always been a place of some importance. It was an early residence of the kings of Bithynia; but its highest greatness began under Diocletian, who made it the metropolis of the Roman empire; the wealth of which he lavished in raising it at once to a rivalry with Rome. In this character it was soon supplanted by Constantinople, and many of its ornaments were probably carried off to embellish this new residence. The ruins of the ancient city are still visible; but very few Europeans have visited them for the purposes of study. The present appearance of the town is highly picturesque; with its curious old tenements, rising high as they do from the very shore of the gulf, up to the side of a steep mountain, in terraces, ridges, and ravines, all surrounded by vineyards and orchards, and interspersed here and there by picturesque burial-grounds, planted as usual with cypress trees. At length we reach Scutari, the sea-port town immediately opposite Constantinople. In any other situation Scutari would rank as an important city, but standing as it does in the vicinity of Constantinople, it is considered merely a suburb to that great city. It stands on the Asiatic side, in a beautiful and cultivated plain, and presents a picturesque appearance from the mixture of trees and minarets. It carries on a very considerable caravan trade with the interior of Asia. A great forest near it contains the most splendid cemetry of the empire, as all the grandees of Constantinople seek to deposit their remains in Asia, which they consider as a Holy Land, in the possession of true believers, while Europe is almost entirely the prey of "the infidel." In this vicinity is situated the castle of the seven towers, used by government as a state-prison. And here we must beg the reader to consider for a moment the remarkable position of Constantinople. It is at the very extremity of Europe; but it is essentially an Asiatic city; and its position, in a commercial point of view, is one of the finest in the world. North-east of Constantinople is the Black Sea, south-west is the Sea of Marmora; and the two are connected only by Odessa on the Black Sea, Lemberg, Cracow, Vienna, Munich, a narrow neck of sea called the Straits of Constantinople, that city. Lieut. Lumsden, in 1820, returned by way of or the Bosphorous. The sea of Marmora again, is connected with the Mediterranean, still further to the south-west,only by the narrow strait called the Dardanelles, anciently the Hellespont. Hence Constantinople commands the whole intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, with the noble rivers flowing into the latter, such as the Danube, the Dniester, the Dnieper, and the Don; hence the importance of Constantinople as the capital of the Eastern empire and afterwards of the Ottoman empire; and hence the anxiety of the cabinets of Europe at the present moment respecting the future fate and possessorship of that city. To the east and south of Constantinople is the large and beautiful country of Asia Minor, through which we have just conducted the reader, and the whole of which is possessed by Turkey; north-west is the large country of European Turkey; and south-west, after passing through the sea of Marmora, is the Levant or Archipelago, a large bay stretching northward from the Mediterranean, and separating Greece from Asia Minor, studded, too, with numerous islands. Whenever our readers meet in the public journals with a notice of political or diplomatic occurrences between the various European powers at Constantinople, it may be useful to remember that this Archipelago, or cluster of small islands, as well as the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora, must be traversed before communication of a maritime nature can be held with Constantinople. He will also be able to form some idea, especially with a map before him, of the reason why so great importance is attached by these powers to the Dardanelles. This narrow strait is, in fact, the key to Constantinople and the Black Sea. It will be remembered that in our First Route we conducted the reader to Astrakhan in the Caspian Sea, and there dismissed in a few words the remaining part of the journey through Russia. We shall follow a somewhat similar plan on the present occasion, for the following reasons. We hope shortly to accompany our readers in a steam voyage down the Danube, through the Austrian and Turkish Empires; and have also in hand a course of papers on Turkey and the Turkish provinces. These will collectively afford a tolerably clear insight into Turkish topography, and thus save the necessity of treading that ground on the present occasion. With regard to Constantinople itself; its mosques and bazaars; its seraglio; its oriental customs and peculiarities; here are abundant materials for two or three of our numbers, and must therefore be passed over here. A few general remarks, then, will conclude our present route. English travellers proceeding from Persia to England, by way of Constantinople, pursue different routes after leaving Lieutenant Lumsden estimates the journey by sea from Bombay to Muskat, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, 1280 miles; from Muskat to Bushire 400; from Bushire to Shiraz, 170; Shiraz to Ispahan, 220; Ispahan to Tabriz, 540; Tabriz to Mount Ararat, 160. Sir James Alexander estimates the last four distances, respectively, at about 180, 280, 680, and 160. As Sir James took a somewhat circuitous route in some parts, we may perhaps estimate the distance from Bushire to Mount Ararat at about eleven hundred miles, or from Bombay two thousand eight hundred. From this point to Constantinople, along the northern part of Asia Minor, is estimated by Sir J. Alexander at about thirteen hundred miles, and by Sir R. Porter at about twelve hundred; taking the latter, we have four thousand miles from Constantinople to Bombay. Neither Porter, Alexander, nor Fraser, gives an itinerary from Constantinople to London, but Lieutenant Lumsden estimates the distance from Odessa on the Black Sea, through Russia, Austria, Bavaria, and France, to London, at about seventeen hundred miles. The route here taken is probably two hundred miles longer than the usual route from Constantinople vid Vienna and the Netherlands, to London. We may therefore perhaps estimate the distance from Bombay to London, by our present overland route, by way of Bushire, Shiraz, Ispahan, Tabriz, Mount Ararat, Erzeroum, Constantinople, and Vienna, at somewhere about five thousand five hundred miles. |