Colonel Rottiers, a recent traveller in Turkey, holds out the following
temptation to European enterprise:--
The terrestrial paradise, which is supposed to be situated in Armenia,
appeared to M. Rottiers to stretch along the shores of the Black Sea. The
green banks, sloping into the water, are sometimes decked with box-trees
of uncommon size, sometimes clothed with natural orchards, in which
the cherries, pears, pomegranates, and other fruits, growing in their
indigenous soil, possess a flavour indescribably exquisite. The bold
eminences are crowned with superb forests or majestic ruins, which
alternately rule the scenes of this devoted country, from the water's
edge to the summit of the mountains. The moral and political condition
of the country contrasts forcibly with the flourishing aspect of nature.
At Sinope there is no commerce, and the Greeks having, in consequence,
deserted the place, the population is at present below 5,000. This city,
once the capital of the great Mithridates, enjoys natural advantages,
which, but for the barbarism of the Turkish government, would soon raise
it into commercial eminence. It has a deep and capacious harbour--the
finest timber in the world grows in its vicinity--and the district of the
interior, with which it immediately communicates, is one of the most
productive and industrious in Asiatic Turkey. Amasia, the ancient capital
of Cappadocia, Tokat, and Costambol, are rich and populous towns. Near the
last is held an annual fair, commencing fifteen days before the feast of
Ramadan, and which is said to be attended by at least fifty thousand
merchants, from all parts of the east. From the nature of the country in
which it is situated, M. Rottiers is disposed to believe that Sinope holds
out peculiarly strong inducements to European enterprise. He also had an
opportunity of observing, that its defences were gone totally to ruin, and
significantly remarks, that it could not possibly withstand a _coup de
main_. Amastra, a great and wealthy city while possessed by the Genoese
in the middle ages, is now a wretched village, occupied by a few Turkish
families, whose whole industry consists in making a few toys and articles
of wooden ware. It stands on a peninsula, which appears to have been
formerly an island, and the Isthmus uniting it to the mainland is wholly
composed, according to the account of Mr. Eton, who surveyed part of this
coast, of fragments of columns and marble friezes.
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