"Constantinople, June 17. 1810.
"Though I wrote to you so recently, I break in upon you again to
congratulate you on a child being born, as a letter from Hodgson
apprizes me of that event, in which I rejoice.
"I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to the Black
Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled with as
great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You remember
the beginning of the nurse's dole in the Medea, of which I beg you to
take the following translation, done on the summit:--
"Oh how I wish that an embargo
Had kept in port the good ship Argo!
Who, still unlaunch'd from Grecian docks,
Had never passed the Azure rocks;
But now I fear her trip will be a
Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, &c. &c.,
as it very nearly was to me;--for, had not this sublime passage been
in my head, I should never have dreamed of ascending the said rocks,
and bruising my carcass in honour of the ancients.
"I have now sat on the Cyaneans, swam from Sestos to Abydos (as I
trumpeted in my last), and, after passing through the Morea again,
shall set sail for Santo Maura, and toss myself from the Leucadian
promontory;--surviving which operation, I shall probably join you in
England. H., who will deliver this, is bound straight for these parts;
and, as he is bursting with his travels, I shall not anticipate his
narratives, but merely beg you not to believe one word he says, but
reserve your ear for me, if you have any desire to be acquainted with
the truth.
"I am bound for Athens once more, and thence to the Morea; but my stay
depends so much on my caprice, that I can say nothing of its probable
duration. I have been out a year already, and may stay another; but I
am quicksilver, and say nothing positively. We are all very much
occupied doing nothing, at present. We have seen every thing but the
mosques, which we are to view with a firman on Tuesday next. But of
these and other sundries let H. relate with this proviso, that _I_ am
to be referred to for authenticity; and I beg leave to contradict all
those things whereon he lays particular stress. But, if he soars at
any time into wit, I give you leave to applaud, because that is
necessarily stolen from his fellow-pilgrim. Tell Davies that H. has
made excellent use of his best jokes in many of his Majesty's ships of
war; but add, also, that I always took care to restore them to the
right owner; in consequence of which he (Davies) is no less famous by
water than by land, and reigns unrivalled in the cabin as in the
'Cocoa Tree.'
"And Hodgson has been publishing more poesy--I wish he would send me
his 'Sir Edgar,' and 'Bland's Anthology,' to Malta, where they will be
forwarded. In my last, which I hope you received, I gave an outline of
the ground we have covered. If you have not been overtaken by this
despatch, H.'s tongue is at your service. Remember me to Dwyer, who
owes me eleven guineas. Tell him to put them in my banker's hands at
Gibraltar or Constantinople. I believe he paid them once, but that
goes for nothing, as it was an annuity.
"I wish you would write. I have heard from Hodgson frequently. Malta
is my post-office. I mean to be with you by next Montem. You remember
the last,--I hope for such another; but after having swam across the
'broad Hellespont,' I disdain Datchett.[138] Good afternoon!