two men grazing a considerable number of horses, which I imagined was a
nursery for the Turkish Cavalry; but on mentioning this to the Greeks
who attended them, they answered no; that the only use they were of was
to tread out the corn in summer; in return for which they grazed them
from place to place in winter. I also found a small chapel, not bigger
than an hermitage, to which the people from the interior country, on
particular occasions, resort. Part of the neighbourhood is covered with
wood, which any one may take who chooses to cut it. Longa, the once
celebrated Island of Helen, is entirely depopulated, and produces
nothing. Our pilot calls this Port Maundré. It has the same advantage I
remarked at Modon, a passage at each end of the island.
If you can believe that I am within a day's journey of Athens, how will
you envy my being so near the mother of the arts and sciences, and what
will you say when I tell you that I did not go there. But be assured it
was not through want of exertion; but from the impracticability of
getting there by land in these hostile times. But whilst the people were
wooding, I went in a boat to the Promontory of Sunium, to see the
remains of the Temple of Minerva, which I take to be one of the most
ancient remaining in Greece. If we may credit Homer, it was contemporary
with Troy; for in the third book of the Odyssey, Nestor, after relating
the seduction of Clytemnestra, passing to the return of the Greeks,
says,
"But when to Sunium's sacred point we came,
Crown'd with the Temple of the Athenian Dame,
Atrides Pilot, Phrontes, there expired, &c."
In some ground lately opened I found a human scull, and some other burnt
bones. What antiquarian will object to their being those of this
ill-fated pilot?
A considerable part of the architrave of the Temple is still standing,
supported by fifteen columns, nine of which are in a row, each nineteen
feet high, and near eleven in circumference. The whole edifice was of
Parian marble. Vast quantities of fragments and broken columns are lying
all around, and the Temple is still a beautiful, and a venerable object,
on whatever side you approach the Promontory.
November 5th.
Got under way at day-light, and having passed the south point of
Negropont (the ancient Eubœa) and Andros, were opposite the center of
the Island of Teno at twelve o'clock the next day. It seems populous and
well cultivated. Lat. 37° 33′. Paros, Delos, and several other islands
in sight.
November 7th.
We were within a few leagues of Scio at day-break, and being driven to
the southward, had a distant view of Samos, the birth place of Juno. We
were employed all this and the next day in working to windward, between
the continent of Asia Minor and the Island of Scio, famous for producing
the nectar of the ancients, and for the beauty of its women. The ladies,
I am told, are as charming as ever, but the wine has lost its luscious
qualities. The town is large and straggling; it seems to have some
works, but they are in a very sorry condition. The road is quite open.
Before we reached the town, we passed the bay of Chisemé, on the Asiatic
shore, where the Turkish fleet was destroyed by the Russians.
Friday, Nov. 9th, 1787.
A light breeze sprang up fair late last night, with which we entered the
Gulf of Smyrna, and early this afternoon anchored off the town.
LETTER XV.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Smyrna, November 29th.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
Smyrna is the only ancient town of Asia Minor, that continues to thrive.
It flourished many centuries before Christ, but was almost destroyed by
an earthquake in the reign of Mark Anthony, and has never since
recovered its former splendour. For although its advantageous situation
for trade soon drew new inhabitants, yet, to lessen the effect of a
similar catastrophe, the houses are all very low. The streets are in
general dirty, narrow, and ill-paved, for the natives never study
regularity in the scite of their buildings, and the Europeans, crowding
to the water side, found no room to spare for ornament.
The French have the most numerous factory. The English are next in
number of houses, but the Dutch exceed us in shipping. The Venetian and
Ragusee vessels are very numerous, but they are seldom more than
carriers.
The great advantage England derives from the trade to this country is,
that the commodities we bring here are home-wrought, whilst the silk,
cotton, and mohair, with which we are repaid, are raw articles, that are
afterwards manufactured by ourselves, find work for our people, and are
then exported to different parts of the world, and some of them even
brought back here.
Besides silk and cotton, we take fruit and drugs, some of which are also
re-exported; but I am sorry to find, that though our Levant trade is
more flourishing than it has been for many years past, yet its rise is
considerably checked by our own laws, and by the want of a regular
Lazaretto in England.
If there is the least suspicion of the plague being at Smyrna, no
vessel, even of our own nation, is permitted to discharge her cargo in
Britain, previous to her having performed a quarantine in some other
part of Europe; for our Lazarettos do not admit vessels from infected
ports. But since our manufactories must be supplied with silk and
cotton, our merchants are obliged to employ the Dutch, who land their
goods in a Lazaretto in Holland, and after a short quarantine performed
there, send them over to us. Thus do we suffer foreigners to deprive our
seamen of employment, and our country of its just profits.
The cause that produces this prejudice to our Levant Company, is our
dread of the plague. But are we more likely to be infected by this
distemper than the Dutch? Or is England less able than Holland to set
apart a small place for a regular Lazaretto? There are innumerable spots
in our island which might be inclosed for this purpose, where goods from
infected places might be properly aired, and afterwards introduced with
more safety by our own subjects, than we at present receive them from
the Dutch.
A person who has not been in the Levant, cannot conceive the
inconvenience and distress arising to our nation, from this want of a
Lazaretto. The enterprising spirit of the English leads them every where
in search of employment. A vessel arrives at Smyrna--she gets a cargo,
and the last day of her loading perhaps the plague appears on shore.
What is she to do? She cannot sail for England--she must either submit
to a ruinous loss, unload immediately, and fly to another port in quest
of a freight, or go to one of the Lazarettos of Italy, France, or Malta,
there perform a quarantine, land and reship her cargo; and after having,
to the prejudice of the nation, laid out a considerable sum in a foreign
port, she arrives at Stangate Creek; where, though the ship perhaps is
not long detained, the cargo is put into one of the hulks, and aired
with greater care and length of time, than the cotton has been which we
receive without any apprehension from Holland.[3]
Footnote 3:
The Author since his return to England, has been at Stangate Creek,
where he found that cotton, and other enumerated goods brought over
from Holland, now undergo a similar process to those, which, after
having performed a quarantine in a foreign Lazaretto, are brought home
by the English. But still the inconvenience to our own people is not
lessened, nor ever will, till we have a complete Lazaretto of our own.
---
That precautions are necessary nobody will deny; but why should we
shackle our own people more than the Dutch? Or why should we be more
afraid of allowing goods from an infected place to be landed in one of
the many waste spots of Kent, Essex, Devonshire, or Cornwall, than
foreigners are of receiving them at the very gates of their capital
cities. I shall write you a long letter on this subject, when I have
gained more experience in the nature of the plague, which I can already
assure you is by no means so dangerous a distemper as Europeans imagine
it.
The factory have great hopes that the generous Philanthrope, who lately
visited Asia, will interest himself in their favour. This amiable
patriot knows that
the navy is the bulwark of Britain, and that whatever tends to decrease
the number of our seamen, tends to diminish the strength of our country;
a truth so interesting to an Englishman, that I hope to God the accounts
I hear of a most alarming decrease in our Greenlandmen are much
exaggerated. A proper Lazaretto in England, by increasing our shipping
in the Levant, would afford a sustenance to many of those invaluable
subjects, whom a perhaps too rigid public œconomy has bereft of bread.
There are many inconveniencies attending a correspondence between this
country and Europe. The post sets out and arrives but twice a month. It
goes through Constantinople and Vienna, and unless letters to and from
England are taken up, and paid for at each of those places, they will
never reach their destination. The want of a more regular communication
must be sensibly felt in a place of so much trade.
We found near one hundred sail of merchantmen in the bay, every one of
whom saluted us; for, to raise the European Powers in the eyes of the
Turks, it is the custom at Smyrna to salute every man of war that enters
the port. The same ceremony was performed on our going on shore the next
day; and, as soon as we landed at Mr. Hayes', we were waited upon by the
Consuls and Factories of the different nations, who have given us the
most flattering reception. Scarce an evening passes without a ball or a
concert, or some other party, for our amusement: but I am much surprised
at the excessive dread in which the Christians live of their fellow
subjects, the Mahometans. They dwell in separate districts, and are as
fearful of going promiscuously among them, as into a den of wild beasts.
The Turks have, indeed, a lordly, imperious air, which I suppose they
acquire from the abject manner of the Greeks, who, being a conquered
people, are always suspected of rebellious intentions, and almost
extirpated on the least appearance of an insurrection; which obliges
them to crouch so much to the conquerors, that they imagine all other
Christians equally dastardly, and hold us in the same light as we do the
Jews--a mean, money-making, unbelieving sect: but I am convinced, that
if we went more among them, we should hear of fewer insults. I was so
confident of this, that, without mentioning my intentions, I set out,
and, after walking round the Turkish town, struck down through its very
center, without meeting any interruption, except from one man, who,
pointing at me, called out _Bah!_ and two or three boys, who threw
stones, but who were immediately called in by their father. I doubt
whether a foreigner, in a strange dress, would pass through London with
so little molestation.
Nevertheless, like the Jews in England, there have been instances here
of the Christians being most inhumanly massacred; but this has never
happened but after some signal disaster to the Turks, to which they
supposed they had contributed; such as the destruction of their fleet in
the Chisemé, which they knew the Russians could not have effected
without the assistance of other powers; and the rabble make very little
distinction of nations, confounding all Europeans together, under the
appellation of Franks.
The poor Greeks complain much of their cruelty and oppression; but, in
points of honour, our merchants tell me no people are stricter than the
Turks. In other respects, the reports they give of their laws and
customs, vary so much, that it is impossible for a stranger, as I am,
and ignorant of the language of the country, to send you a more perfect
account.
LETTER. XVI.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Smyrna, December 31st.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
The Empress of Russia's late journey to the Crimea, and the confederacy
formed there by her Majesty and the Emperor of Germany, have given the
late stroke to those reiterated provocations which would, long ere this,
have excited to arms a people less irascible than the Turks: but,
however inclined the nation at large might be to resent the insults of
the Russians, and the frequent infringements of the Treaty of
Cainardgie, yet their fiery spirit was kept in awe by the pacific
disposition of the reigning Sultan.
Abdoul Hamet is a Prince of a humane and virtuous character; and,
although the peace of 1774 was forced upon his country, he determined
most religiously to adhere to the conditions it imposed.
At the time this treaty was concluded, the Porte was in a most
deplorable state, to which it was in a great measure reduced by the
unprecedented support the English afforded to the ambitious views of the
Court of Petersburg, against a nation with whom we were at peace.
The Spaniards were well inclined to prevent the Russian fleet entering
the Mediterranean; but their objections were quashed at once by the
interference of so brilliant a Power as England: a Power whose
all-conquering force the Court of Spain had so recently felt, in the
repeated victories of the immortal Chatham, which had obliged her to
supplicate peace at the feet of our glorious Sovereign.
A George, and a Chatham, are names which the patriotic Englishman could
for ever dwell upon; but both the politics of the one, and the virtues
of the other, are too exalted to be extended by a panegyric from my
humble pen. To return, then, to the Turks, and to a time when, I am
sorry to say, our prejudice in favor of Russia, made us adopt a line of
conduct in a high degree contrary to but own interest: The terror of the
English having compelled the Spaniards to suffer the Russians to enter
the Mediterranean, our port at Mahon immediately received them with open
arms. Here they were not only supplied with every refreshment, but our
hospitals, nay, even our arsenals, were opened to them, and every
encouragement was given to our officers and seamen, to enter into their
service.
Thus supplied and equipped, the Russian fleet sailed for the
Archipelago, and gave battle to the Turks. Victory (as may naturally be
supposed, from the superior abilities and nautical experience of
Commodore Elphinstone and the British officers) declared for the
Russians.
The Ottoman fleet retired to the Bay of Chisemé; and the Moscovites,
unaccustomed to naval exertions, were not disposed to pursue their
advantage. It was with the utmost difficulty that Commodore Elphinstone
could persuade them to follow the enemy, and attack him in port: but at
length, by threats and entreaties, having stimulated them to this
enterprize, he led them to the Chisemé the ensuing night. The Turks,
astonished at the unexpected attack, were instantly panic-struck, and,
without any shew of defence, abandoned and set fire to their ships.
Thus did an Englishman give a fatal blow to the Turkish empire--a blow
from which I much doubt whether the Porte will ever recover.
Commodore Elphinstone instantly pushed for the Dardanelles, and, by
guarding the entrance of those straits, cut off all communication by sea
between Constantinople and the southern provinces. The capital was
streightened for provisions; Egypt revolted, and most of the Greek
islands joined the Russians.
These were the first consequences of the disaster at Chisemé; and every
day brought on others still more distressing to the Porte.
The Russian fleet, now unopposed, was enabled to attack every part of
the Turkish coast in the Adriatic, the Archipelago, and the
Mediterranean; and, although the troops they had on board were but few,
yet, from the facility with which they were transported from place to
place, the Turks were obliged to detach a very large part of their grand
army to oppose their different attacks.
But this was not all. Many of the soldiers employed to the north, were
volunteers from the southern provinces, who, hearing that their own
homes were attacked, deserted in large corps. These desertions, and the
detachments sent to the south, weakened and discouraged the northern
army so much, that the Russians gained repeated victories, and at last
compelled the Porte to sue for peace.
The Treaty of Cainardgie was highly humiliating in itself, and was
rendered still more so by the haughty manner of the Russians, which
seemed entirely calculated to provoke the Turks to hostilities, in which
they have at last succeeded.
Monsieur Bulgakow, the Russian Envoy, who had been sent for by the
Empress, to assist at the conferences between her Majesty and the
Emperor of Germany, and probably to give the Confederate Powers
information of the disposition, and the measures most likely to be
pursued by the Porte, had no sooner returned to Constantinople, than the
Turkish Ministry, convinced of the oppressive and aspiring views of the
Court of Petersburgh, made the Envoy a formal representation of the many
causes of complaint his Court had given to the Porte.
This representation was followed by a second; but the Envoy, in
conformity, I suppose, to the plan agreed upon at Cherson, gave no
manner of satisfaction, and the hostile views of his Court becoming
every day more notorious, the Porte summoned him to a conference on the
16th of August, and there demanded a categorical explanation of the
intentions of the Empress towards the Turks.
M. Bulgakow's answers appearing vague and unsatisfactory, the Divan
determined to have recourse to arms, and in conformity to the Turkish
custom on such occasions, the Envoy, with part of his suite and
attendants, were sent to the Seven Towers, where, though state
prisoners, they have every indulgence but liberty. And such is the
pacific disposition of the Sultan, that he declares his only motive in
going to war, is to inforce the conditions imposed by the Treaty of
Cainardgie--a treaty, which, though the most disadvantageous the Turks
ever signed, he declares himself still ready to renew.
The manifesto published by the Porte states, that ever since the year
1774, the Court of Russia has been constantly infringing the Treaty of
Cainardgie, and disturbing the harmony which that treaty was intended to
secure. That she has even seized on the Crimea, and raised up Prince
Heraclius, who was an acknowledged vassal of the Porte. That not content
with endeavouring to drive the Oczakowians from their own salt-pans, and
many other attacks, she proceeded so far as to order her Envoy to make a
demand of several dangerous and humiliating concessions from the Porte,
and to threaten, that in case of a refusal, Prince Potemkin, with 70,000
men, had orders to advance to the frontiers. That since the Porte could
not with any safety agree to these conditions, she was obliged to
declare war. And submits her motives to the equity of her friends.
So vigorous a step was not immediately expected by the Empress; and had
the Turks been in any degree prepared for the hostile measures they were
compelled to adopt, the surprise in which they took the Russians, would
probably have given them a decisive advantage.
The fact is, the Court of Petersburgh did not expect hostilities to
commence before the ensuing spring, and the Turks never thought of them
till M. Bulgakow's return from the Crimea. Thus both parties were
equally surprised.
The season was too far advanced for the Grand Vizir to take the field.
Those troops, however, that could be collected on the frontiers,
immediately began to act, and in different recounters with the Russians,
have been generally victorious.
No enterprize, however, of any moment has as yet been undertaken by the
Turks, except an attack upon Kimbourn.
This fortress is situated on the Russian side of the Liman, or mouth of
the Dnieper, exactly opposite to Oczakow, and from its situation is of
the first importance. The Porte therefore ordered an immediate attempt
to carry it by a coup-de-main. A detachment from Oczakow was accordingly
landed in the night of the 11th of October, and carried all before them
till they arrived at the very scarp of the fort; but by this time the
Russians had recovered their surprise, and the Turks, from the nature of
the enterprise, being unprepared to attempt a regular escalade against a
garrison whose numbers they found were very little inferior to their
own, were obliged to retreat.
The loss on each side was nearly equal, and on the part of the Russians,
M. Souwarow and M. Reck, two generals of note, were both severely
wounded.
The Court of Petersburgh, however, has great reason to rejoice at this
escape, since had Kimbourn been carried, none of her vessels could have
entered the Liman till it was retaken, which probably would not have
happened this year, and consequently, should the Porte even choose to
act on the defensive in the spring, the Russians would still be obliged
to begin the ensuing campaign with a siege in their own country.
Count Romanzow, with an army, has entered Polish Russia, but the season
was too far advanced for him to attempt any active operations, I have
not heard any thing else of importance on the land side; but in the
naval line, fortune has struck a capital blow in favor of the Turks.
The little fleet the Empress had, with great difficulty, collected on
the Black Sea has been entirely dispersed and dismasted, and a line of
battle ship, of sixty-four guns, commanded by Captain Teesdale, to avoid
being wrecked, was obliged to push for Constantinople, and give herself
up to the Turks.
As she is very little damaged, she will sail in the spring, under the
banners of the Porte. The Russians were before very inferior to the
Turks on the Black Sea; and the loss of one ship to them making a
difference of two in favor of their enemies, renders their inequality
still more desperate.
The Turks having no idea of prisoners on parole, the Russian Captain is
sent to associate with the Envoy in the Castle of the Seven Towers. The
rest of the ship's company are disposed of in the Bagnio.
Notwithstanding our impolitic ill usage, so fatal to the Turks during
the last Russian war, I think we are the favorite nation of such of them
as are at all acquainted with the different powers of Europe: I say,
impolitic ill usage, because, depend upon it, the very extensive Empire
of Turkey will never be in hands so beneficial to England, as whilst it
remains in those of its present possessors.
The Turks, happily for us, are not a commercial people, notwithstanding
their Empire has every advantage to induce them to become so. We cannot
do without those valuable articles which their soil produces almost
spontaneously; and the Turk, like the easy possessor of a very rich
mine, allows us to enrich ourselves at our pleasure. Three per cent.
duty equally on all exports and imports, is, with little exception,
their only restriction to Europeans engaged in their trade.
Would the Empress be equally moderate, if in possession of this fertile
region? Believe me she would not. As several of our manufactures could
not be carried on without her productions, she would only give them on
her own terms. Perhaps only in her own bottoms. All her politics would
be directed to increase her trade and shipping, and consequently her
naval force; and, thus inclined, with such a country, she would soon
rise to a maritime power much beyond what the world has ever
experienced. We have only to look to Tyre, to Rhodes, and many other
places scarce bigger than specks on the map of Turkey, to conceive what
a force might arise from this immense, this all producing Empire.
In its present state, Turkey, as I have already hinted, may be compared
to a rich mine, to which the industrious from every nation have free
access. In the hands of the Empress it would be like the barred treasure
of an ambitious Lord, never to be opened but to be increased.
In this I do not mean to reflect on her Imperial Majesty, since, I
fancy, every European power, in a similar situation, would act the same
part. I only desire to evince that England will never derive such
advantages from Turkey, as whilst it remains in the hands of the
Ottomans, and consequently that it is our interest, as well as that of
every other nation that does not expect a share in the partition of the
Turkish Empire, to break the confederacy between the Empress of Russia
and the Emperor of Germany, and check the progress of the two Imperial
Courts. I mention the Emperor, because, though he has not yet declared
war, it is very well known that he is bound, both by treaty and
inclination, to assist the Russians.
The French Court very wisely, in the last war, supported the Porte; but
from the indifference with which she now beholds the threatened ruin of
a power with whom she trades to so much advantage, a rumour gains ground
that she has been brought over to the ambitious views of the Imperial
Courts, by the promise, that should their designs succeed, Egypt and the
Island of Candia shall be given to France.