not only to further truth and promote investigation, but with a conviction that they were doing so. All we complain of in the execution of the design is that they have disturbed the repose of the faithful believers in Bounarbashi, without even proposing any other site for the city which is doomed to be the bone of contention both in ancient and modern times. We should have been more contented had we read of any real and authentic discovery of ruins and sources suited to the action of the Iliad, than we are by our author's violent and unjust accusations against Le Chevalier, who deserves some credit, because he took the pains to measure and to use a Theodolite, which we are sure none of his opponents ever did in the Troad.

Result of the inquiries of Demetrius, Major Rennell, &c. compared with the descriptions of Homer and the theories of Le Chevalier, &c.

We could have pursued this comparison or recapitulation much farther, had we not judged that this specimen of the results of the two systems would suffice. We must adhere to the Bounarbashi as the Troy of Homer, till we hear of the discovery of a hill with more ancient ruins, and with sources presenting a stronger contrast in the plain; and we must again caution the public not to place too much confidence in the reports of future flying travellers, who may deny the existence of all they, themselves, did not see, or who may wish to give rise to new theories grounded on ill authenticated documents.

JOURNEY TO PERSIA;

BY

Signor Dr. SALVATORI, Physician attached to the French Embassy in Persia, addressed to Signor Dr. Careno at Vienna.

No. 1.

Camp at Sultanieh, June 25, 1808. IF in your last letter you complained of my silence, what will you not say now when I find myself removed by two thousand miles farther from Constantinople? A good courier would require above three months to reach Vienna; and recollect, good couriers are not easily found, therefore you must learn to wait patiently during nine months for answers to such letters as you may favor me with, and which you can deliver to the secretary of the French embassy at Vienna, who will forward them to Persia by the first messenger.

My desire of visiting foreign countries made me anxious to attend the French embassy setting out for Persia, in the character of physician; and it so happened that the embassy had scarcely reached Constantinople when M. Lajard, one of the secretaries, and nephew of the celebrated Chaptal, was seized with a fit of illness. I was called upon to attend him, and he being pleased with the cure which I performed, recommended me to General Gardanne, who, without the least hesitation, gave me the appointment of first physician and surgeon to the French embassy in Persia, with an annual allowance of six thousand francs, besides table, lodgings, horses, &c. but I wa to furnish medicines myself.

Our departure from Constantinople took place on the 10th of September, and we arrived at Tehran, the imperial residence of the present sovereign of Persia, on the 4th of December; so that our journey lasted eighty-six days, including thirteen days on which we halted. To give you a regular journal of our marches would be tedious both to the reader and the writer; but I shall briefly describe whatever appeared to me most worthy of observation.

We are accustomed from our infancy to hear lofty-sounding epithets applied to the countries which served as theatres for those great personages of antiquity, Xerxes, Cyrus, Darius, and Alexander. Every student, every person turning over the various sacred and profane writers who treat of Asia Minor, Armenia, Media, Persia, &c. feels a desire to visit those delightful and celebrated regions. Who would not wish to see the kingdoms of Bithynia, of Pontus, of Paphlagonia, and of the unconquered Parthians? Who would not be happy to wander on the banks of those rivers mentioned in the Book of Genesis? to see the Iris, the Gallus, the Halys, the Lycus, the Araxes, &c. and to behold the majestic summits of Olympus, Taurus, and Ararat, and the lofty mountains of Armenia and of Persia ?

But how great is the astonishment of a traveller, who finds, in spite of all the pompous descriptions which ancient and modern writers have given of those countries, that at every step, and during a space of many thousand miles, nothing occurs but misery and oppression; fields barren and uncultivated; water brackish, or stagnant; villages constructed under ground, like the habitations of moles; cities depopulated; mountains without trees; valleys without herbage! One is almost tempted to accuse Herodotus, Xenophon, Quintus Curtius, and the other Greek and Latin authors, of having deceived posterity by inventing fables.

We left Byzantium (Constantinople), after dinner, on the 10th of September, and passed the night in a caravanserai at Cartal, a place inhabited half by Turks and half by Greeks. It does not require much penetration in the traveller to discover the haughty contempt of the Musulmans, and the base degraded state of the modern Greeks. To these it is of little advantage that their fields, washed by the Bosphorus, are naturally fertile: they are content to live most part of the year on fish, either salted or fresh; Ceres does not inspire them with a passion for agriculture; they have learned, by sad experience of many ages, that if they till the ground, others will reap the crop-Sic vos non vobis, &c.

From Scutari (the ancient Chrysopolis) to Nicomedia is a caravan journey of three days. In this tract, at Gheybize (formerly Lybissa), a small mount or tumulus, not far from the village, contains the ashes of the Carthaginian hero, a. victim to the perfidy of the Bithynian monarch. At four hours' distance from the above-mentioned village are the ruins of ancient Heraclea Bithynica, which appears to have once had a good harbour, with excellent fortifications and a considerable circuit; through this runs a rapid stream, whose banks are adorned with many majestic planes and various fruit-trees.

The city of Nicomedia is situated on the slope of a rugged mountain stretching out into the sea: it contains at present three thousand

houses of Turks, two thousand of Armenians, and three hundred of Greeks. We cannot discover here any vestiges of the ancient magnificence which the capital of Nicomedes possessed; the country of the Roman consul and general Flavius Arrianus, a celebrated disciple of Epictetus, and honored with the title of the modern Xenophon. Many ruins lie neglected and despised by the inhabitants; among those, the remains of Maximinian's palace deserve particular attention, situated on an eminence from which the prospect is delightful.

From Nicomedia (called by the Turks Isnik-mia) to Nicea', the distance is a caravan journey of three days. On the first day, the road coasts along the borders of the Gulf of Bithynia, near which the country wears a pleasing aspect, the ground being covered with fruittrees of every kind, the produce of which is destined for the capital.

Having passed the town of Karamussal we perceive an ancient aqueduct, much decayed; and, from other ruins visible about this spot, we are authorised to believe that a considerable city formerly stood here.

One day's journey before our arrival at Nicea, we slept in a village called Kyz-Devrent, inhabited solely by Bulgarians. It is now almost two hundred years since seven Bulgarian families, to avoid persecution on account of religion, abandoned their native country, and took refuge in this place, a truly wild and savage spot; but what cannot human industry effect? This village now consists of an hundred and fifty families, who live in a state of greater freedom and comfort than is perceived elsewhere. They have a good deal of flax, silk, and fruit. At the dawn of day we saw a number of women and girls beating flax, much in the same manner as the Italians: those females looked gay and contented, and hailed the sun with their songs.

The summit of the mountain, near which this village is situated, offers a magnificent view of a vast plain, on the right side of which Lake Ascanius presents itself to our view, eight leagues in length and above two in breadth. The fishery of this lake produces to the sultan an annual income of twelve thousand piastres. Around it are fifteen villages, and nothing can appear more smiling than the neighbouring lands and fields.

Nicea is situated in a very marshy plain, and near to the lake. The ancient walls are still in excellent condition; and clearly indicate the extent of this city in former ages. Immense ruins of three different epochas may be seen. The most considerable are those of the time of Constantine, undeservedly styled" the Great." I went into the church, where those two councils were held, which condemned the Arians and Iconoclasts. This edifice is still in good preservation, and its columns are very precious. It would seem that the blood shed, and the horrors perpetrated here, had attracted on Nicea the terrible anathema of its destruction. Modern Nicea comprises one hundred and sixty Turkish families, and sixty-five Greek: their whole commerce con

The French embassy was obliged to take this circuitous route that they might avoid falling into the hands of Kara Mustapha's troops. The direct road is by Sabandia.

sists in two thousand okes of silk, and a small quantity of tobacco. The moist and putrid air which the lake and marshes exhale, renders Nicea an unhealthy place of residence; and, in fact, almost all the inhabitants are affected by obstinate fevers, obstructions and dropsy. Setting out from Nicea, we took the road which crosses Bithynia, leaving on our right hand the celebrated Mount Olympus, at the foot of which are situated the cities of Prusia and Gordium, on the river Sangarius; on our left were the Grecian colonies. From Nicea to Angora (the ancient Ancira) is a distance of ten days' caravan marches. Except the vast and beautiful plain of Akserai, washed by the rivers Sangarius and Gallus, and in a high state of cultivation, the whole way is the most dreary and unpleasant journey that can be imagined lands barren, untilled, deserted, where nothing is found but soda and the limonium, immense quantities of the muriate of fossile soda, brackish or stagnant water, clouds of fine salt dust which occasion much pain and injury to the eyes; this is a faithful representation of those objects which will present themselves to the traveller who undertakes to cross the ancient Galatia.

One day's march before we arrived at Angora, we saw that extensive plain where Fortune, abandoning Bajazet to his fate, delivered him into the hands of the ferocious Tamerlane.

Angora, a city famous both in sacred and profane history, is built on the slope of a rugged rock, surrounded by triple walls, and commanded by an almost impregnable castle. At present it is computed that this city contains six thousand houses, the greater part of Armenian families. Its principal commerce consists in the hair of their whitish goats, from which they manufacture a kind of camlet called Angora shawls.

That Angora was in former ages a place of considerable importance, may be inferred from the prodigious quantity of ruins and inscriptions found all about it. The Apostle Paul ranks it among the seven principal churches of Asia; but what chiefly declares its ancient splendor, are the sumptuous edifices which it still possesses: of these, the most worthy observation is the celebrated monument of Augustus, for a sight of which I was indebted solely to my character of physician. It is a building entirely of marble, but I cannot pretend to say for what purpose it was designed: it seems, on the first view, to have served as a prætorium. In the atrium are two parallel walls, in the manner of wings, covered with large flags of white marble. The following inscription appears on one side, cut in handsome Roman letters, and on the other side an inscription of the same purport, cut in good Grecian characters; the beginning of the inscription is as follows: "Rerum gestarum Divi Augusti, quibus orbem terrarum Imperio Populi Romani subjecit; et impensarum quas in Rempublicam Populumque Romanum fecit, incisarum in duabus Atheneis pilis quæ sunt Romæ positæ, ex`emplar subjectum.”

I am ashamed however to say, that, notwithstanding those sumptuous edifices, inscriptions, columns, goats, triple walls, Saint Paul and Augustus, the Prætorium, &c. &c. I would not live in Angora for all the gold in this world. An ugly town, inhabited by insolent