ADALIA--SATALIA (SIDÉ)--ALAIA--HOSTILITY OF NATIVES--SELINTY--CAPE
ANEMURIUM--VISIT OF A PASHA--CHELINDREH--PORTO CAVALIERO--SELEUCIA--A
PRIVATEER--NATIVES HOSTILE--POMPEIOPOLIS--TARSOUS--A POOR RECEPTION--
EXPLORES A LAKE--CASTLE OF AYAS--CAPTAIN BEAUFORT WOUNDED BY
NATIVES--SAILS FOR MALTA.
"On the 1st of May we reached Adalia (or Satalia). It stands on a plain
which breaks abruptly into the sea and looks very rich and Oriental from
a distance. Considering the way Captain Beaufort had given protection to
certain fugitive rebels last year, he was rather uncertain what sort of
reception to expect. It turned out to be a very cordial one, for the old
pasha having just died and his son not yet firmly set in place, he could
not deal with the high hand as Turks like to do. He expressed himself as
pleased at the captain's offer to salute the fortress, but begged the
guns might not be more than eleven, probably because he had only eleven
guns to answer with. It was clear, however, that the appearance of the
vessel had excited no small apprehension in the town. No Turks came to
look at her, as usually happens in a port, and we could see that the few
miserable guns in the fort had been trained to bear upon us. At the
same time a handsome present was sent to the ship, consisting of
bullocks, goats, fowls, vegetables, and a very magnificent dress for the
captain. The dress was refused, but the eatables were accepted and a
suitable return made. This included English ale and porter, and a big
barrel of gunpowder, which, slung on a pole carried by two seamen,
looked imposing. The captain and his boat's crew and guard of marines,
all in their best, and my humble self then landed and went up to pay a
visit of ceremony to the pasha. Captain Beaufort in the course of the
interview very kindly asked, on my behalf, leave for the captain of my
caique--which had come on to Adalia with us--to load his boat with
flour, a profitable cargo which would indemnify him for being discharged
by me. The export of flour is really contraband, but as there is an
immense trade quite openly carried on in it by Greek ships, they need
not have made such a great favour of it as they did. However, they gave
permission, and I was indignant that my late captain never came and
thanked me. During our stay we rode one day through the town and out
into the country beyond, which is very rich and well cultivated. There
are two interesting gates to the town--one on the land side, of Roman
architecture, very rich and much injured, and the other towards the sea,
of Frankish work, with mutilated arms and inscriptions on it.
We set sail on the 7th, without doubt to the great relief of the people
of Adalia, and cast anchor again at Lara. Here there are considerable
ruins, but none of them very interesting. Our next stoppage was at Eshi
Satalia, the ancient Sidé, where we remained four days. The Roman
theatre is of vast dimensions and in good preservation, and it is
noticeable that, as is evident from marks of crosses on the stones, it
had been repaired in Christian times, which shows that theatres were
still used after the conversion of the inhabitants to Christianity. The
proscenium was in ruins, as usual, and some of its sculptures lay in the
arena. In comparatively modern times it had been utilised to form part
of the city wall, but the theatre itself was in wonderful preservation.
Sidé is now absolutely desolate, probably because the aqueduct which
supplied the ancient city is broken, and there is no water whatever on
the site. This accounts for the theatre being so well preserved.
I spent all my time among these lonely ruins to very good purpose,
drawing and studying. The architecture is some of it even absurd: for
instance, the triumphal façade at the entrance; but the sculpture is all
far superior to the architecture. Although not in the very best style,
it is exceedingly good, and cut with astonishing freedom and boldness.
As I said, the site of Sidé, and even the neighbourhood, is absolutely
deserted. Nevertheless, news of our being on the coast had got about,
and a Turkish dignitary came down from the interior, ostensibly to offer
us civilities, but in reality to watch our proceedings. He was invited
on board, but refused, saying, with a great assumption of dignity, that
he had ridden an hour to the coast to visit the captain, and now the
captain should come to him. The real fact was he was afraid. The captain
accordingly came in the jolly-boat, the crew of which was in charge of a
midshipman who charmed the Turk so much that he wanted to buy him, and
made an offer of 2,000 piastres for him.
On the 16th we reached Alaia and anchored off the town. It stands on a
steep rock projecting into the sea. The houses have a very Oriental
look, with their flat roofs and balconies, rather like rabbit-hutches
supported on long poles. Our reception was very cordial; a salute was
fired, and a present of bullocks &c. sent us. We landed to take a little
turn into the town and found it filthy; stinks of all kinds in all
directions. Through narrow streets down which wound gutters, disgusting
with horrors flung from upper windows, we threaded our way in
apprehension of more. The ladies, however, were eager to see the Franks,
and from the streets and from the ship we could descry them peeping at
us in their balconies. I went with the captain to pay our visit to the
council which governs in the absence of the pasha. We found it sitting
in a miserable tumbledown room with walls not even plastered. We sat a
few minutes, asked a few questions mainly about antiquities, and then
retired to the ship to receive their return visit.
Next morning we set off to the eastwards to look for ruins of Sydra. The
expedition was not a success. In the first place the surf was high and
we had difficulty in landing; then after a long walk we came upon
several villages, but no considerable ruins, and what there were, only
of late date and uninteresting, and we had to trudge back disappointed.
In the course of our walk we came upon a small Turkish boy all alone. He
screamed with fright to see our strange figures and ran away, bounding
over stock and stone, and still screaming for help. He had never seen
Franks before.
The following day we, the captain and officers in uniform and myself in
my best, landed to walk in the town. We were first detained a long time
at the gate on small excuses, and then when we started were told by the
guide that if we proceeded there was danger of a disturbance. The
captain told him to go on all the same, but as he refused we turned back
to the port.
Then we learnt that the evening before there had been a general meeting
of the Turks to protest against our being allowed to go about the town.
We went aboard again; and from the ship an officer was sent to the
council with a severe remonstrance against our treatment, and the
present of bullocks was re-landed on the beach. This attitude of ours
brought them at once to their knees; the humblest apologies were sent
with assurances that the offenders were being punished, and a request
that Captain Beaufort would come ashore and see the castle as he
desired. The captain replied that an officer of his rank could not
expose himself to the possibility of a repetition of such affronts as he
had submitted to that morning, but that the beyzesday (myself) with some
of his officers would go, as they allowed it. We accordingly went; but
as the authority of governors in these countries is at no time very
great, we went in the fullest expectation of a disturbance and of being
forced to turn back. The council seems, however, to have kept its
promise, for nothing of the sort occurred. We were entirely unmolested.
On the other hand, there was nothing whatever to see. It was a most
fatiguing walk up the hill. The town is defended by three walls, one
inside the other, never well built and now ruinous, although well
whitewashed to conceal their condition, and in the whole place only four
cannon, all of them old. On the top of all is the citadel, itself
ruinous and full of the ruins of several Christian monasteries and
churches converted into mosques, some water tanks and a fountain. Over a
gate is an inscription to say that Aladin was conqueror of this city.
There are remains of a fine ancient Greek wall. This was all we saw for
our trouble and risk.
The council again sent apologies and invitations to Captain Beaufort,
but he replied as before; only, to show he had no resentment, he sent
his surgeon, while the anchor was being weighed, to see what he could do
for a member of the council who was ill. I meanwhile, with a party of
officers, went off in the gig to look at some ruins we had observed to
the westward on the top of a hill. We had three miles to go in the boat
and about two on foot inland. The hill is high and desperately steep. On
the top is a town, deserted, with ancient Greek walls, a tower, the
ruins of a temple, a number of pedestals and monuments, some with
inscriptions which we copied, but none of them gave us the name of the
place. We have made up our minds since, judging by Strabo's description,
that it must have been Laertes. The city walls, the temple, and the
tower are all of cut stone and the best Greek construction, while the
walls of dwellings are of small stones and mortar. This town, being all
of one sort of date, is a good example by which to judge of Greek habits
of building. I suppose private houses were always built in this inferior
style.
Our next stoppage was at Selinty, originally Selinus, and afterwards
changed, on the death of Trajan within its walls, to Trajanopolis. It
stands on a remarkable rock, the Cragus, absolutely precipitous on one
side and very steep on the other, with a river, sixty feet or so wide,
at the bottom of the slope. It struck one as curious that with such a
river there should be an aqueduct to carry water across it into the
town. One could only suppose that the water of the river, like that of
the cataracts near Adalia, was unwholesome because it contained a chalky
sediment. To the top of the Cragus is a great climb. There we found a
fortress without any inscriptions of any kind, but, to judge by the
style, of no great age and no interest. The best thing was the view.
Beneath us fell a sheer precipice right down into the sea, perhaps five
hundred feet. As we looked over the top the eagles sprang out from the
rocks far below us, so far that shots fired at them were quite
ineffective. We found here a small theatre, much ruined, and the remains
of a grand senate house, or perhaps a mausoleum to Trajan, also very
much injured. The ship remained a day and a half. After passing a
promontory we came opposite to a rocky ridge sloping rapidly to the sea,
on which was a fortress, answering to Strabo's Antiochetta on the
Cragus. We put off in the gig, and had to land on a precipitous rock in
a high surf, which I did not like at all; but as we had been brought, it
had to be done. We found a place that must have had some importance.
There were fragments of polished granite columns, a modern castle,
several Greek chapels, and ruins on all sides as well. The most
promising were on the mountain above us and on a small peninsula jutting
out from the site of the town. My companions made for the small
peninsula, where they found some tombs like those at Selinty, and other
matters of no great moment. I, hoping for something more considerable,
went up the mountain--and a very rough climb it was. I was, however,
well paid for my exertions. I found there numbers of granite columns,
marble blocks and pedestals, and the ruins of a vast and magnificent
edifice which might have been a senate house or a gymnasium. The
situation of it was truly sublime, and it must have had a glorious
effect from the sea. I hoped to return and examine it more perfectly
next day, but unfortunately Captain Beaufort thought it necessary to get
on to Cape Anemurium by the 24th, in order to make an observation of
Jupiter's satellite which would determine at once his longitude, and the
wind was favourable. We went on therefore, to my great regret, and the
same evening (23rd) anchored opposite a small castle on a low rock by
the sea.
Next day, as we were allowed, we went all over the castle. It appears to
be of Saracen origin, and according to an inscription to have been
conquered by the Turk Aladin. A remarkable thing about it is that it has
a keep like those one sees in England. It is all in ruins; such guns as
it has are lying about dismounted.
I suppose the people hereabouts are so frightened at us that they send
the news about in all directions; for the bey of the district, who lives
at some distance inland, had heard of our arrival, and sent down his
compliments. Captain Beaufort hastened to send a suitable reply to his
courtesy by an officer with an invitation to come on board, where he
would be received with all the honours of war. He did promise to come
when he could.
All day long Captain Beaufort was preparing, on a small island close to
the castle, the necessary arrangements for making his observation. It
was perfectly successful, and we got back on board at one o'clock A.M.
_25th May._--Having done what was wanted with regard to the verification
of the longitude, we went back in a boat to Cape Anemurium to see the
ancient town. On the point is a fortress and citadel. Outside of that a
second wall includes a theatre and an odeum, the seats of which are all
gone. There are no traces of dwellings within the walls, so that one
must suppose the inhabitants to have lived in mud or timber houses, for
outside the walls there is the most perfect necropolis I ever saw. Each
tomb has two apartments, and all, except for their having been broken
open, are as fresh as if just built.
The ship being still at Anemurium, the bey above mentioned came down to
the beach attended by his retinue. As soon as we made him out, we
pushed off to pay him the compliments of the captain. Nothing could be
more picturesque than the scene when we reached the shore. At the foot
of the precipice of Anemurium he was seated on a small carpet spread on
the rock, surrounded by about a hundred dark, savage-looking men all
heavily armed. They were clearly as pleased to look at us as we were to
see the barbarians of the interior. The gloomy evening cast a grave air
over the wild crags and the savage figures, while the sea broke in heavy
waves at the foot of the rock on which Abdul Muim sat. The manner with
which the bey received us was free and polite. He told us the history of
the country about us, and of the castle in particular. He was very much
pressed to come aboard, but he would not be tempted. Instead of that, he
contented himself with inquiring the length of the ship and sat looking
at her with a pocket telescope for several hours.
We crossed a bay, and lay off Cape Kisliman, a bluff and remarkable cape
on which were ruins, but the people of the country seemed to object to
our examining them.
Thence to Chelindreh, which, being the nearest point of communication
with Cyprus for couriers from Constantinople and other travellers,
boasts some twenty huts and their inhabitants. They are barbarous and
savage to a degree, and were disposed to treat the crew of the
captain's boat, who were looking for inscriptions among the tombs of the
ancient city, very roughly. One man even drew his yatagan, when the
sudden appearance of the frigate frightened them into politeness.
_June 1st._--To the captain, who is always earnestly employed, one day
is like another. Even Sundays are only distinguished by the officers'
invitation to him and to myself to dine in the gun-room, and by the
clean clothes of the men at muster; but the other officers did not
forget that to-day was an anniversary, and we all drank the health of
Lord Howe.
_Porto Cavaliero._--To the eastward of us lay Isola Provenzale, once
without doubt a settlement of the Knights of Rhodes. While the captain
examined Cape Cavaliero, I went, burning with expectation, to the
island, not doubting but that I should come home with a load of
inscriptions and arms for the Heralds; but we found no sort of remains
of the occupation of the Knights that one could identify. We landed near
a quarry of soft stone, in the middle of which an upright rock is left
standing, in which it appears that a hermit had made his cell. There are
crosses cut in the three sides, and several neat little receptacles for
utensils. At the top of the hill are fortifications and two churches,
themselves built of the materials of older Greek buildings. Clefts in
the rock had been carefully stopped and used as reservoirs. The walls
are built with an inner and an outer face of squared stones set in
mortar, the interval being filled in with chips and rubble without
cement, and the whole making a thickness of eight or nine feet. The
north-west side of the island is also covered with ruins, all of the
same Romaic work. One was of a church to which several rooms were
attached, and in one of them a considerable tomb--probably of a saint of
the Early Church. This must at all times have been a valuable station,
and would be now. It has one of the best and most defensible harbours on
this coast, and is within easy reach of supplies.
The captain had fared no better than ourselves in his search for remains
of the Knights at Porto Cavaliero. Here we fell in with a Myconiote ship
full of hadjis on their return from a visit to the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem. My Dimitri and Andrea were pigs enough to get drunk there and
quarrel with the crew. They got the licking they deserved, but they came
and complained to me that they had been ill-used and ourselves insulted,
and gave me the trouble of inquiring into it. I found, as I had
suspected, that what they had got they had brought upon themselves. Our
next move was to Seleucia or Selefkeh. We landed as near as we could to
the end of the line of hills on which it stands, and then walked to it,
nine miles across the plain at the foot of them. The ancient town is
beautifully placed at the side of a river, the Calicadnus. It is partly
on the plain and partly on steps of rock which rise gradually from it up
to a large castle of late date, which has an Armenian inscription over
the gate. The aga received us with obvious ill-humour, which perhaps was
owing to his being unwell, for he begged to see our doctor, and promised
to send horses for him and for us to the beach next day. We looked about
among the ruins, which are very extensive. There is a theatre, a long
line of porticoes, and a temple once converted to a Christian church,
together with several late churches of the date of the ruins on
Provenzale. We then went back to the ship.
Next day, no horses for the doctor or ourselves appearing upon the
beach, we started walking, and on our arrival at Selefkeh complained.
The aga affected to blame his servants. We expected at least to return
well mounted when the doctor had seen the aga and we had seen the town,
but only one sorry hack was prepared for the doctor; and, as he refused
to ride alone, we made our exit, walking in a huff, and went so briskly
that a miserable Turk whom the aga had sent on a pony, while we had to
walk, to bring him back his medicine, could not keep up with us, and was
quite out of sight by the time we got to the beach. So we went aboard,
rather pleased at first to deprive the ungracious aga of his medicine;
but upon reflection we wrote him a sharp laconic note and sent his
dose. This aga, it is true, was not a man of good character; he had
deposed and murdered his predecessor, but as that is the usual mode of
succession in this country, it need not necessarily involve discourtesy
to strangers. But I must not, in justice to Turks, forget to mention
what occurred on our way to the beach as a set-off to the incivility of
the aga.
We had had nothing to eat all day, and we were not a little sharp-set
when, finding some peasants (Turks) amongst the corn making their
evening meal, with that confidence which hunger inspires we pounced upon
their dishes and devoured all that appeared before us. The poor fellows
were not in the least disconcerted, but begged us to eat, one of them
saying as he pointed to the corn all round him, 'There is plenty of
bread. It is ours.' They would take no money, and when we got up to go
pressed us to stay. Our hearts were melted at their noble benevolence,
and we had to agree that all Turks were not brutes.
On the whole, Seleucia is worth the trouble of a visit.
An immense reservoir, 150 by 75 feet by 30 feet deep, supplied by an
aqueduct, impressed me as a very fine work. The theatre also, although
totally ruined, is delightfully situated; and the temple, which had been
converted into a church, is very interesting. The Calicadnus, although
it is on an even bed, is a noble river, wide and rapid, and gives great
beauty to the scene. It is unhealthy to drink, which accounts for the
existence of the great reservoir.
It is evident that the population of these countries has decreased, and
still is decreasing. It has not one-tenth of what it could easily
support, and not one-hundredth of what it has supported in past times.
While we were away at Selefkeh a bombard French privateer came into the
bay of Seleucia in pursuit of a Turkish boat, and would have fallen into
our hands if the captain and pilot had been on board; but the necessary
delay before this could be done enabled the Frenchman to get to shallow
water, and the _Frederiksteen_ in pursuit ran into four fathoms, and in
another five minutes would have been aground. So the bombard
escaped.[40]
_Anchored off Lingua di Bagascia._--We arrived at a castle named Curco,
with another on a rock outside the port, which has an Armenian
inscription on it. The one on the mainland, which I take to be the
ancient Coricus, is a place of great strength. There is a moat thirty
feet wide, cut in solid rock, to disconnect from the land, and double
walls and towers. There are many ruins of modern churches and
monasteries and numberless sarcophagi of ancient and early Christian
times, but the whole place, town and castles, is absolutely deserted.
We were in the boat following the frigate as she proceeded along the
coast, when, perceiving ruins on the coast, we disembarked, and found on
a striking eminence a Corinthian temple of bad execution which had been
converted into a church. Further on was a town, a theatre, and a vast
colonnade with a number of important and very perfect tombs. We had,
however, to retire to the boat, for the inhabitants were very
threatening, and had we been fewer or shown any fear might have fared
badly. As soon as we were off in the boat we had a good bathe.
_At the Latmus._--Captain Beaufort sent two of his officers ashore to
inspect the long aqueduct leading to Eleusa, which we could see from the
ship, but the aga, who had at first consented to their going, withdrew
his permission, and they had to give it up.
At Pompeiopolis, as we had understood that the Turks of this part of the
country were particularly dangerous, I took with me two marines as a
guard to visit the ruins. Seen from the sea they presented a truly
startling grandeur. The plan of the city is noble in the extreme--one
single colonnade passes right through it from the port to the gate
leading out into the country, and forty of its columns are still
standing. The remainder, making about two hundred, lie as they fell. The
town was defended by a fine wall with towers to it, enclosing a theatre
and the port. The style of the architecture, which looked so well from
a distance, when one comes to see it close is very bad.
Pompeiopolis is quite deserted, but the Turks from the neighbouring
villages came in, and, although their appearance was barbarous in the
extreme, they were very civil. I imagine the 36 guns and 350 men of the
_Frederiksteen_ had to do with this, for I observed that the further we
got from the ship the less polite we always found the Turks to be.
We made sail in the evening and anchored off Mersine, at the beginning
of the great plain of Tarsous, and put ashore to reconnoitre and pay a
visit to the aga with a view to getting horses to go to Tarsous. The aga
was very civil and promised we should have the horses we asked for.
In the morning the horses were ready; but now the aga, for whatever
reason, discouraged our going to Tarsous, and told us that since seeing
us yesterday evening he had received news of an outbreak there, that a
neighbouring pasha had attacked the town and all was uproar and arms. On
reflection his account struck us as so improbable that we decided at any
rate to start, and go on according to the information we should pick up
on the road. We set out, a large party.
The country was a flat, covered with corn and in it many reapers, male
and female, the latter going uncovered and quite unembarrassed by
strangers. Their language and costume were Arab, quite unlike anything
I had seen before, and there were quantities of camels about.
The ride took us four hours. From the inquiries we made from time to
time it was clear that the aga's tale had been a downright lie.
Tarsous lies on the plain about two miles and a half from the mountains.
At the entrance to it is a hillock about a quarter of a mile long, which
commands the town; it was included in the ancient walls, which were then
strengthened by a moat into which the river was turned. It is now dry,
and the present town has nothing but a slight wall round it. We passed
over the old moat and through an ancient gate of Roman work. It had
three arches, but only one of them is standing, and the wall it formed
the passage through and every other antiquity in the town has been
destroyed and used up for building materials. Nothing could exceed the
surprise of the inhabitants at our appearance. They had never seen
Europeans, and they crowded about us in such numbers that we could with
difficulty move. We went to visit the aga and were detained, sitting
among the servants an hour and a half before we could obtain an
audience. The aga, they said, was engaged. At last we remonstrated and
got up to go; when, to our surprise and indignation, we saw the aga
sitting in a room by himself smoking his pipe and quite unoccupied. We
would have passed the door had they not pressed us in, so angry were we.
He was sitting on a sofa in a long white Arab cloak in a room that was
neater and handsomer than it is usual to see in these countries. He made
a slight motion on our coming in, but spoke not a word, nor did he deign
to answer 'Yhary' when we conveyed to him the compliments of the
captain. A Turk who sat by his side with our firman in his hands now
addressed a Turk who was with us with an affectation of great
indignation. He wanted to know what could be the meaning of four hundred
men, when only eight men were mentioned in the firman--together with a
number of other insolent questions, from which I gathered that he
suspected us of being travelling merchants. Fortunately, as these
remarks were not addressed to us, we were not bound to make any reply,
for if we had we were by this time in such a state of impatience with
their insolent barbarity that it would hardly have been a conciliatory
one. As soon as we could get away, we mounted our horses again, and
through a thick and insulting rabble went out of the town and homewards
without delay. An old Turk of the aga's people, who had been one of the
chief of our tormentors, saw us off for some distance. To him I had the
satisfaction of giving a piece of my mind, and when we came within sight
of the ship gave him an invitation on board that he might see how we
treated strangers. The old rascal went home very much abashed and
awestruck. We arrived on board late, and well wetted by coming through
the violent surf.
The ship was two more days off the great plain of Tarsous, moving slowly
in a thick haze, and on the 16th arrived off Cape Karadash.
The captain proposed to me that I should go with Mr. Wingham to
reconnoitre a great lake one could see from the ship. About one mile
N.W. of the cape we turned up a deep channel like a river mouth, except
that the current set inwards instead of outwards, and after about
three-quarters of a mile entered an apparently boundless lake. It was
very shallow, and before long we were aground, after which the men waded
and towed the boat. In this fashion we went several miles till we had
got a fair general notion of the size of the sheet of water. A deceptive
atmospheric effect, due to the great evaporation, would hide the shore
when very low, so that it presented the appearance of a sheet of water.
Owing to this I had a bitter disappointment. Ahead of us we descried
four beautiful deer, which, as we approached, fled to what appeared to
me to be the isthmus of a peninsula. I cried to one of the boatmen, who
had a musket, to run to the isthmus to cut them off, while I and two
others made for the other side, hoping to get a shot at them. As we got
nearer, the fancied water vanished, and the deer, a herd of ten
beauties, ran up into the plain. They were spotted like fallow deer,
but with short horns turning back like those of a goat. Coming back, we
saw immense flocks, of perhaps ten thousand at once, of white stately
birds about as big as swans [Flamingoes.--ED.], the tail beautiful with
red feathers. They stood in ranks like soldiers, and now and again
flapped their wings all at once and shrieked. There were numbers of
large fish about, and the water was so shallow that their backs stood
out of it. All the same, when we tried to catch them they were too quick
for us. The only thing we did secure was a big turtle.
At Cape Mallo we went ashore and walked over the ruins.
Thence we moved down the coast, anchored eight miles west of Ayas
Castle, and rowed on to it. There are the remains of the ancient town of
Ægæ to be seen, and a modern Turkish castle. When we entered the mouth
of the port we noticed that some Turks standing on a tower which
commanded it shouted and gesticulated to us in a threatening manner.
They were all armed. I, however, set it down to fear on their part, and
recommended our going on. Unhappily, we did so; and I can never
sufficiently regret the part I had in bringing on the catastrophe which
will always make Ayas a painful recollection. Nothing further occurred
that evening; we walked about, and when it grew dark went aboard again.
_June 20th._--We went ashore, a strong party, and scattered in various
directions. The captain took his surveying instruments, a little to the
westwards. Another party stripped to bathe and hunt turtles, of which
there were many; while two others and myself walked towards the castle.
The jolly-boat, under command of a midshipman, young Olphert, was to
meet us to the east of the castle. All at once Dimitri came running up
to us to say that a Turk had robbed one of the party. His account was
that while they were bathing, this Turk, attracted by the gilt buttons
on the coat of a petty officer, and taking them for gold, had run off
with it. We walked at once to the beach, where several Turks of the
village were collected. They tried to conciliate us, saying it was a
Turcoman from the mountains who had been the thief, and that the coat
had already been restored. Just then up came Mr. Lane to tell us to get
immediately to the boats, that the captain had been dangerously wounded
and young Olphert shot dead. We did as he told us, and got back to the
ship; but my horror and surprise were succeeded by the most violent
indignation, and there was nothing I hoped for so much as that orders
would be given for a general attack on the village. As soon as I was on
board I went to see Captain Beaufort. His wound, I was glad to find, was
not so dangerous as was thought at first. The ball had entered the
fleshy part of the thigh and had broken the bone at the hip. Still, it
was a serious wound, and he was a good deal shaken. When he heard of
poor Olphert's death he burst into tears, and bitterly upbraided himself
with having been the cause of it. It seems that when the band of
ruffians came to attack his boat and began to point their guns, he, to
frighten them, fired over their heads. Hereupon they all fell down in
abject terror, and the boats, pushing off, got nearly clear of the
rocks. One man, however, more resolute than the rest, rushed forwards,
and taking deliberate aim from behind a rock, shot the captain: and had
the rest of the ruffians been like him, the whole boat's crew must have
been sacrificed. As it was, the boat was out of range before they
recovered. But having whetted their appetite for blood, and furious at
having been shot at, they rushed off to where young Olphert was with his
boat and murdered him as he was pushing off. The condition Captain
Beaufort was in was so serious, and his concern lest Olphert's death
should have been in any sense his fault, so painful, that I took upon
myself to tell him a deliberate falsehood, for which I trust God will
forgive me. I assured him positively that Olphert had been already shot
when the natives came to attack his (the captain's) boat. As he was a
long way from where Olphert was, he had no means of knowing that it
might not have been so, and he was eventually persuaded and his mind
very much quieted.
At first we had hoped that we might be allowed to seek our own redress,
but the coolness and moderation of the captain were admirable. When one
came to consider, it was not at all clear that the villagers had had any
hand in it, and to destroy the village would not be to punish the
offenders. It was sure to make all travelling dangerous, if not
impossible, for the future, and finally it would be the act of war on
the territories of a friendly Power, barbarous as that Power might be.
It was therefore settled that we should apply for redress through the
regular channel.
We crossed the bay to Scanderoon, which is a miserable town with a
population half Turks and half Cypriote Greeks, and no resident official
higher than an aga. We did what we could to frighten this person by
representing the affair to him in its most serious light, at the same
time calling his attention to the strict moderation of our conduct, and
our respect for the authorities of the country.
Meanwhile a peremptory letter demanding reparation was despatched to the
pasha himself, who lived some miles inland. He returned an immediate
reply to the effect that Ayas was not within his pashalik, but in that
of his neighbour the pasha of Adana, to whom he had at once written.
Meanwhile he promised in his name that every reparation should be made.
In our turn we informed him that a British squadron would be there in
fifteen days to see that this was done.
In the cemetery attached to the old British factory and consulate we
buried poor young Olphert. Ten marines (all the aga would allow ashore)
fired a salute over him, and we set up over his grave a Greek tombstone
brought from one of the cities on the coast.
Considering how many tokens of friendship Captain Beaufort had shown me,
and that he was at the moment in a dangerous condition, with a risk of
fever coming on; and that, as he could not enjoy easy familiarity with
his junior officers, my company might be pleasant to him, I thought I
ought not to leave him and settled to go back with him to Malta. Two
days after Olphert's funeral, on the 22nd June, we set sail. On the 1st
of July we fell in with the _Salsette_, Captain Hope, off Khelidonia, by
appointment. She was to take Captain Beaufort's report to the admiral on
the station, and to go on to Scanderoon afterwards to see that proper
amends were made for the injury done us."
FOOTNOTE:
[40] Captain Beaufort seems to have thought that she was a Mainiote
pirate. His account of this episode is worth reading.