In all Nations under Heaven, and at all times since the Creation, there have been men formed to make a noise in the world——to increase or impede, to direct or disturb, the calm, sober progress of social life——and, in the eagerness and violence of their efforts to reach thegoalgoalof superiority, overturn or thrust out of their ordinary path the rest of Mankind, till either they provoke against them a general conspiracy of their fellow-creatures, or, till reaching the point of their pursuit, they become elevated objects of homage and admiration. Such men are generally composed of great materials for mischief:——having strong natural talents and violent ungovernable spirits; according to the direction these get, they are harmless or mischievous——but, like morbid matter in the animal system, if not let loose by some channel or other, they never fail to disturb the whole economy of the body they belong to, and produce fatal consequences to it and to themselves: Colonial possessions have, therefore, in some views, been of use (as America formerly to England) to draw off those dangerous spirits, who, though they are in times of peace better at a distance, in times of war are found to be the toughest sinews of a Nation.
The county of Tyrol, such as I have described it, formed by Nature for the residence of the Sylvan Deities, rich in the products of the earth, the people contented and happy, and the whole the region of peace; manufactures, the first root of low vices, and commerce, the great instigator of war, have scarcely been able to set their feet there: hence it happens, that there is no channel through which those exuberant spirits I have alluded to can take their course, or expand their force. Home, therefore, is no place for those of the Tyrolese, who are cursed or blessed (call it which you please) with those very combustible qualities; and they are obliged to roam abroad in search of opportunities of distinguishing themselves, giving vent to their spirits, and manifesting their talents. They are found, therefore, scattered all over the Continent: and as it rarely happens that opportunities occur in life of signalising such talents in a dignified line, rather than be idle they do what they can, and apply to chicanery as a wide and appropriate field for their genius and vigour to work on——the emigrant Tyrolese are, therefore, by most Nations of the Continent, reckoned among the most expert and accomplished sharpers in the world——the people, however, who remain at home, are of a different character——they are, generally speaking, tall, robust and vigorous; the women strong, and very fair; and both sexes exhibit a very pleasing mixture of German phlegm and Italian sprightliness; or, to speak more properly, they are a mean between those two extremes.
Innspruck, though a small city, is handsome and agreeable, standing in a very beautiful valley, surrounded with mountains, which, while their lower parts are well cultivated, are capped on the tops with perennial snow. The castle formerly the residence of the Austrian Princes is stately and magnificent, adorned within with fine paintings, and decorated without by natural and artificial fountains, statues, pleasant gardens, groves, walks and covered galleries, leading to five different Churches.
A-propos——Let me not forget the Churches! In a chapel of the Franciscan Church, there is an image of the VirginMaryas big as the life, of solid silver, with many other images of Saints of the same metal. If some of those silver Deities were transferred to Paris, I fear their divinity would not save them from the hands of the sacrilegious Convention. One thing, however, is well worth the attention of travellers, particularly those who wish to wipe away the sins of a deceased friend, and get them a direct passport to happiness——This Franciscan Church is held to be one of the most sacred and venerable in the world, on account of the indulgences granted to it by several Popes; so that one single Mass said in it, is declared to be sufficient to deliver a soul from the pains of purgatory. When we consider the great and important extent of their power in that respect, we cannot wonder if they had all the Saints in the Calendar, and the VirginMaryto boot, in solid silver, even of the size of the Colossus at Rhodes.
Hall, the second city in Tyrol, lies one league from Innspruck: it is famous for its salt-works, and for a mint and silver mines, inwhich seven thousand men, women, and children, are constantly employed.
At a royal palace and castle called Ombras, lying at equal distance from Innspruck and Hall, there is an arsenal, famous for a prodigious collection of curiosities, such as medals, precious stones, suits of armour, and statues of several Princes on horseback, in their old rich fighting accoutrements; besides great variety of military spoils and trophies taken by the House of Austria; in particular, a statue ofFrancisthe First and his horse, just as they were taken at the battle of Pavia, and two others of Turkish Bashaws, with the costly habits and appointments with which they were taken, embellished with gold, silver, and precious stones. But, above all their curiosities, the most extraordinary is an oak inclosing the body of a deer: this last, however unaccountable, is fact; and equals, I think, any of the wonders in the metamorphoses ofOvid.
Leaving Innspruck, I proceeded on my journey, and soon entered into the mountains, which are there of a terrible height——I was the best part of a day ascending them: as I got near the top, I was, shewn, by my driver, the spot whereFerdinand, King of Hungary, and the EmperorCharlesthe Fifth, met, when he returned from Africa, in the year 1520. It is marked with an inscription to that effect, and has grown into a little village, which, from that circumstance, bears the name of the Salutation.
Although this mountain, called Bremenberg (or Burning-hill), is covered with snow for nine months in the year, it is inhabitedto the very top, and produces corn and hay in abundance: at the highest part there is a post-house, a tavern, and a chapel, where the traveller is accommodated with fresh horses, provisions, and, if he chooses, a mouthful of prayers——I availed myself of the two first; but the latter being not altogether in my way, I declined it, for which I could perceive that I was, by every mouth and eye in the place, consigned to perdition as a Heretic.
Just at this spot there is a spring of water which falls upon a rock, and divides into two currents, which, at a very small distance, assume the appearance, and, in fact, the magnitude too, of very large rivers. The mountain is sometimes difficult to pass, sometimes absolutely impracticable——I was fortunate, however, in this respect; for I got over it without any very extraordinary delay, and on my way was regaled with the most delicious venison that I have ever tasted in my life; it was said to be the flesh of a kind of goat.
Although it is but thirty-five miles from Innspruck to Brisen,ItItwas late when I reached the latter; and as it contained nothing worth either the trouble or delay attending the search of, I set out the next morning, and, travelling with high mountains on one side, and a river all along upon the other, arrived at a town called Bolsano, in the Bishopric of Trent. The country all along was thickly inhabited, and the mountains perfectly cultivated and manured even to their highest tops. On entering the valley of Bolsano, I found the air becoming obviously sweet, delightful and temperate;the vineyards, and all the trees and shrubs, olives, mulberries, willows and roses, &c. all of the most lively green, and every thing marking the most luxuriant vegetation.
Bolsano is a small, but extremely neat and pleasant town——but nothing I saw about it pleased me so much as their vineyards, which are planted in long terraces along the sides of the hills, and are formed into the most beautiful arbours, one row above another.
From Bolsano to Trent, is fifty-one miles, a good day’s journey: almost the whole of it lies through the valley of Bolsano, a most fruitful and pleasant——indeed, delightful road, which made the day’s journey appear to me much shorter than it really was.
Perhaps no part of the habitable globe is, within the same comparatively small compass of earth, so wonderfully diversified by the hand of Nature in all her extremes, as that through which I have just carried you. There, under almost the same glance of the eye, were to be seen the stupendous, the rugged, the savage, and the inaccessible——the mild, the fruitful and the cultivated. Here, the mountain capped with perpetual snow, gradually falling in blended gradations of shade, far beyond the reach of the artist’s pencil, into the green luxuriant valley; and there, the vineyard, the olivary, and the rich corn-field, bursting at once from rugged rocks and inaccessible fastnesses: the churlish aspect of the tyrant Winter for ever prowling on the mountain’s head above——perpetual spring smiling with all her fascinating charms in the plains below. Such scenes as these would baffle all efforts of the poet’s pen or painter’spencil: to be conceived, they must be seen. I shall therefore close my account of them with a strong recommendation to you, that whenever you travel for improvement, you go through the County of Tyrol, and there learn the great and marvellous working of Nature.
Perhaps the learned unwise men of the world, who spend their lives poring after impossibilities, have never met with a more copious subject of puzzle-pated enjoyment than the derivation of the names of places. In all disputed cases on this subject, the utmost within human reach is conjecture; but the joke of it is, that, fortunately for Mankind, the certainty of it would not be of a single button advantage to them, even if it could be acquired by their search. DoctorGoldsmith, in hisCitizen of the World, has thrown this matter into high ridicule; and I recommend it to your perusal, lest this shadow of literature should one day wheedle you from more respectable pursuits. Trent has afforded vast exercise to book-worm conjectures in this way; for, while some pronounce it to be derived from Tridentum, andfor this purpose will have it thatNeptunewas worshipped there, though so far from the sea——others claim the discovery of its derivation from Tribus Torrentibus, or three streams which run there. Now, as to the first, exclusive of forcingNeptuneall the way from the Gulph of Venice to their temples, I cannot find any such similarity in the sound of Trent and Trident to warrant the inference; and as to the Tribus Torrentibus, they might as well say that a primmer or hornbook was found there, and that thence it was derived from the Alphabet, since the same analogy subsisted between them, namely, that the lettersT,R,E,N,Tare to be found in both. But, in the name of God, what signifies what it was called after? Its name is Trent; and if it had been Putney, or John o’ Groat’s house, the town would be neither the better nor the worse, nor the treasures of literature suffer any defalcation from the difference.
The Bishopric of Trent is about sixty miles long, and forty broad——fertile, and abundant in wine, oil, fruit and pasture——and pleasant, the beautiful river Adige meandering through the whole of it from North to South. The inhabitants are bigoted Roman Catholics——you will the less wonder, then, that the Bishop should have so extensive a Principality, and an annual revenue of forty thousand crowns.
As I receded from Germany, and advanced towards Italy, I found the air, the persons and the manners of the People, to display a very great difference, and to resemble those of the Italiansmore than those of the Germans. Though Popish bigotry be pretty strong in many parts of Germany, it no where there assumes the gloomy, detestable aspect that it does in Italy.
And now, since I have happened to mention the characters of those two People, I may as well, once for all, more particularly as we are got to the verge of both, give you them in full; in both which I am warranted in saying, that all who know the two will agree with me.
Perhaps contrast was never more perfectly exemplified than in a comparison between the Germans and Italians; and that contrast strikes more forcibly and suddenly in passing from one Country to the other, than it would in so short a space between any two People existing. The Italians, jealous, revengeful, treacherous, dissembling, servile, vicious, sanguinary, idle and sensual. The Germans, on the contrary, open, good-natured, free from malice and subtlety, laborious, sincere, honest and hospitable—and, with those valuable qualities, properly complaisant. So happy is the character of this People, that to be German-hearted has long been a phrase signifying an honest man who hated dissimulation: and their hospitality was, even in the days ofJulius Cæsar, remarkable; for we learn from him, that their houses were open to all men—that they thought it injustice to affront a traveller, and made it an article of their religion to protect those who came under their roof. Did not intemperance in eating and drinking detract from their virtues, no People on earth would bear comparison withthem for intrinsic worth, and particularly for integrity in dealing.
The city of Trent, though not very large in circumference, is populous. The high mountains which surround it, subject it to all the inconveniences of heat and cold——rendering the air excessively hot in Summer, and extremely cold in Winter; besides which, they expose the town to dreadful inundations——the torrents that descend from the mountains being sometimes so impetuous as to roll large pieces of rock with them into it, and having several times laid the whole place waste.
There are in Trent many stately Palaces, Churches and religious houses. The only one, however, that I will particularize, is that of SaintMary Major, noted for a prodigious large organ, which can be made to counterfeit all sorts of musical instruments, together with the singing of birds, the cries of several beasts, and the sounds of drums and trumpets, so exactly, that it is difficult to distinguish between the imitation and the reality. To what an end such an instrument should be set up in a place of worship, I am at a loss to divine, unless it be to add to the rich, useless lumber that fills all those of Popish Countries.
But that which distinguishes this Church still further, is, that it is the place where the famous Council of Trent was held, concerning the Reformation, at which four thousand persons of a public character, Laymen and Ecclesiastics, assisted. This Council sat eighteen years before it did any thing: but at last the Popecontrived to get the ascendant; and, after debating and deliberating so long, not only the Protestants, but even the German and French Nations, refused to receive its decrees. Certain of the Clergy, finding the ascendancy that the negociation of the Pope was getting in this council, said that the Holy Ghost had been sent there from Rome in acloakbag!
Trent once boasted a curiosity——which indeed still remains, though out of use——that, I think, would be found serviceable in most towns in Christendom, and elsewhere too, and particularly at Bath, and such places. It was a tower on the river Adige, into which the stream was conducted, for the purpose of drowning such of the Clergy as were convicted of having been too familiar with their neighbours’ wives and daughters!
The People of Trent speak promiscuously, and indifferently, both the German and Italian languages; but whether well or not, I was not adept enough to discover.
My next stage was Bassano, a town in the territory of Vincenza in Italy, situated at the end of a very long narrow valley. It is watered by the river Brenta, which washes that very rich, fertile, serene, healthy and plentiful district of Italy, so celebrated for its admirable wines, as well as for its fine pasture-grounds, rich corn-fields, and prodigious abundance of game, cattle, and mulberry-trees; from all which it is called the Garden and Shambles of Venice.
The next day I arrived at an early hour at Venice, the description of which I shall not injure by commencing it with the mutilated fragment of a Letter, and shall therefore postpone it to my next.
Thus, my dearFrederick, have I, in order to preserve the unity and order of my progress, brought you through Germany with a precise regularity, that, if I was not wishing for your improvement, might be dispensed with——yet have left much, very much indeed, untouched, in the confidence that you will yourself have the industry to find it out.
I confess, my dear boy, that I have often, as I wrote, detected myself in excursions from the road into moral reflection——but I could not stop: your improvement was my object in undertaking the business; and I could not refrain from endeavouring to inculcate such lessons as the progress of the work suggested, and as impressed my mind with a conviction of their truth and utility.
You must have observed, that there are two topics on which I dwell very much——one,Liberty——the other, an abhorrence of Bigotry and Superstition. But, before I proceed further, I must call to your remembrance what I have often said, that by Liberty I do not mean that which some people now give that name to——nor do I mean Religion when I speak of Bigotry; for true Liberty is still more incompatible with Anarchy than with Despotism, and Superstition is the greatest enemy of Religion. Let the first object of your heart and soul be true Morality——the next, rational Liberty:but remember, that the one is not to be found independent of Religion, nor the other ever to be enjoyed but under the restraining hands of wholesome laws and good government——such as England now boasts.
In these times, when human opinion is actually polled on the two extremes of political judgment, I know, that to speak rationally, is to incur the censure of both, or to be, asPopesomewhere says, “by Tories called a Whig, by Whigs a Tory:” But I care not——I speak my opinion with the fair face of independence; nor would scruple to tell theKingofPrussiamy hatred of Despotism, or the Convention of France my abhorrence of Anarchy——between both of which the true and genuine point of Liberty lies; and England, thankGod! draws the line.
As I approached Venice, I was much delighted with its appearance. Its stately steeples and noble buildings seemed as if just emerging from the sea, and floating on the surface of it; and it required no great stretch of fancy to imagine, that it undulated with the agitated waves of its parent the Adriatic. On all the surrounding coasts, nature and art seemed to have vied with each otherin pouring the greatest profusion of their gifts, while thousands of masts, scattered like forests over the surrounding bays, denoted that Venice; not content with her own, shared in the wealth and luxuries of other climes.
It is indeed difficult to conceive a more extraordinary and pleasing appearance than this city makes at a distance, whether you approach it from the sea or from the continent. Built not like towns in Holland, where immense moles and walls push the sea forward, and encroach on his dominion, it stands on piles erected in the sea; and the foundations of the houses almost touching the water, gives it the appearance of floating on its surface. The steeples are seen at sea at the distance of thirty miles; and theappearanceappearancebecomes more beautiful the nearer it is approached——presenting in many views the prospect of floating islands.
To erect a city thus upon the water, while so many thousands of acres stand unoccupied, at first sight seems extraordinary——but all those great and strange deviations from the ordinary path presented by Nature, have their source in necessity; and it is not till long after the necessity has been first lamented, and afterwards obviated, that experience comes into aid, and demonstrates, that, from her, security and utility have often arisen. Thus it is with Venice, who, fortified by her local situation (the effort of necessity), sits secure, and bids defiance to the world.
The place where Venice now stands, is supposed to have been formerly a marshy ground, on which the Adriatic Sea had gradually encroached, leaving the more elevated parts of it abovewater, and thereby forming a vast number of little islands, hence called Lagunes: on those the fishermen of the neighbouring shores built their huts; and when Italy was invaded by the Goths underAlaric, and afterwards by that barbarous race, the Huns, underAttila, both of whom spread ruin and desolation wherever they came, vast numbers of people from the circumjacent shores of the Adriatic, particularly from Padua and Aquileia, fled hither, and brought along with them immense wealth. Here they laid the first foundations on seventy-two distinct little islands, and certainly with huts, of a city which afterwards stood almost foremost in the naval and commercial world: as those islands were built upon, and became over-peopled, they gradually pushed forward their piles, and built upon them again, till the whole became one vast city, extending to many more of those islands beyond the original seventy-two.
As it was indebted, in a great measure, for its rise and importance to the commerce of the East, which then was carried on by way of the Red Sea and Alexandria, when the passage by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, that trade declined, and Venice declined gradually along with it.
It is amazing, what an extent of territory and accumulation of power the Venetians once possessed. Besides their present possessions, which comprehend the territories of Padua and Verona, the Vincentine, the Brescians, the Bergamases, the Cremasco, the Polesin of Rovigo, Marca Trevigiana, the Patria del Friuli, and Istria, they had under their dominion the islands of Rhodes,Scio, Samos, Mytilene, Andros, Candia, the Morea, and the cities of Gallipoli and Thessalonica: besides which, they, in conjunction with France, took Constantinople, and remained for some time masters of that part of the Empire; and disputed the dominion of Sclavonia, Croatia, Morlachia and Dalmatia, with the Kings of Hungary, and contended with the Genoese for the empire of the sea: but of a great part of these, and their other conquests, they have since been stripped, almost entirely, by the Turks.
As to the government of Venice, I shall not enter into any particulars of its history——It is called a Republic, and was once a Democracy. The name remains, while that which gave it is gone. It is, certainly, now a downright Aristocracy——the privilege of sitting in the great Council being confined to the Nobility; and the Doge, under the name of Head, being no more than a gaudy slave, loaded with fetters: yet, such is the idle fondness of Man for superficial pomp, that this office is sought after with avidity; for though his power be small, his state is very splendid. Hence it is said, that the Doge of Venice is a king in his robes, a senator in council, a prisoner in the city, and a private man out of it; and what is more extraordinary, is, that though he may be deposed, he cannot resign——nor even decline the office, if he be once chosen, without exposing himself to banishment, and his effects to confiscation.
The established religion of this State is the Roman Catholic; but the Venetians are not bigots, and reject the supremacy of the Pope. Jews, Armenians, Greeks, and Protestants, are allowed theexercise of their religion there; and, provided they do not intermeddle with state affairs, of which they are extremely jealous, even their Priests, Monks and Nuns, may take almost any liberties they please——a privilege that you may be assured is not neglected by any of them.
As few places have excited greater admiration and attention than Venice, so none have been more copiously described by travellers, every one of whom may, when he returns to his native country, give a very accurate account of the public buildings, curiosities, paintings, &c. by only translating the book given to him by his Valet de Place, or Cicerone, on his arrival there——It is certain, Venice abounds with all those, particularly paintings; but I had not the time minutely to investigate; nor should I have the inclination, if I did, to describe such things: they are open to you in many well written volumes, which I recommend to your perusal. Such things, however, as strike me for their novelty, or difference from those in other places, I will, as well as I can recollect them, give you an idea of.
To their local situation they owe their security——separated fromterra firmaby a body of water of five miles in breadth, too deep to be forded, and too shallow for vessels of force to pass; and on the other sides, by scattered shallows, the channels between which are marked out by stakes, which, on the appearance of an enemy, they can take away; they bid defiance to hostile army or navy, and have not been reduced to the necessity of erecting walls or fortifications for their defence.
The first peculiarity that strikes me, as arising immediately from their living, I may say, in the sea, is the total exclusion of all sort of carriages; for those streets that are on firm ground are extremely narrow and crooked; and on most of the canals, so far from having a quay on either side to walk on, the water comes up to the doors of the houses; so that walking is but little known, for they get into a boat off their threshold, and their first step out of it again is, ten to one, on the threshold of another. This circumstance, though in some respects it has its uses, is, in others, extremely disagreeable, as well as injurious; for, though those who have occasion to labour have a sufficiency of exercise, those whose condition exempts them from labour, and who, therefore, in all other countries, resort to artificial labour (exercise) for the promotion of health, are here entirely cut off from all such means of it as we practise, having neither hunting, shooting, riding, bowling, &c. &c. nor can they have them, unless they go to the Continent for them. The chief amusements of the Venetians are reserved for the Carnival time, which commence about a week after Christmas, and which, therefore, I could not see; but, from the concurrent testimony of all travellers and the People themselves, as well as from the evidence of my own observation on the manners of the People, I am well warranted in saying, are festivals of debauchery, riot and licentiousness. This is a subject on which I am, nevertheless, disposed to believe, that more has been said than truth will bear out——yet, a bare statementof the truth would, I fear, bear hard enough upon the moral character, or at least the piety, of the Venetians.
That masquerades are the very worst schools of vice, the private anecdotes of thebeau mondeeven in England might suffice to demonstrate——That courtezans are found lost to all sense of modesty, and common decency, the streets of London afford nightly proofs——Therefore, that masquerading (which is the chief amusement of the Venetians) should cloak many crimes, and that their courtezans should be shameless and their women lewd, is no such wonder, seeing, as we do, those things in this Northern clime; but we may, without any illiberality, suppose, that, from physical causes of the most obvious kind, they are carried to a greater extent there than here: though one of the most enlightened and amiable of all travellers says it would be hard to be proved, yet, with deference to him, I think it may be rationally supposed.
There is an active principle in the mind of Man which will not suffer it to rest; it must have some materials to work upon. Men, enlightened by science, have within themselves a fund, and can never want food for contemplation; but the many, in those hours when a suspension of labour orworldlyworldlybusiness drives them to expedients for the employment of their time, are but too prone to leave the mind to the guidance of the senses, and to cogitate on vice till they wish to practise it. Hence that homely but true saying, “Idleness is the root of all evil.” In England we have avariety of expedients which the Venetians want, whose minds being besides naturally more vivid, are more prompt to give a loose to the warm illusions of sensual fancy. Thus prepared, they meet the Carnival, when every thing conspires to give circulation to indulgence; and when those operations of the mind which with us have so many channels to discharge themselves, with them, like a vast stream suddenly confined to one narrow channel, burst forth with an irresistible torrent, and carry away before them every bond that religion or morality has laid down as restraints on the exuberance of human passion. The customs and habits of the place and time contribute to it; for, while the severe restrictions of the female sex for the rest of the year sharpen both inclination and invention on the one hand——on the other, the unbounded license, the universal change of habits, customs and laws——the total suspension of all distinction, care, or business which take place at that time, aided by perpetual masquerade——and those most convenient of all receptacles, the gondolas, with those most expert and forward of all pandars, the gondoliers——afford ample scope to their wishes, and form altogether a mass of circumstances in favour of vicious indulgence, not to be found in any other part of Christendom; to resist which, they must be more virtuous than any other people——a point never yet laid to their charge by the best-natured and most extenuating of all those who have written upon that subject.
Profligate though the People of London are, I will not allow that it is so vicious a city as Venice. That there are in it, and indeed in all capitals, individuals who have reached the highest achme of shameless debauchery and depravity, it would be foolish to deny: but that concubinage is practised in the same open way, so generally, or so systematically as at Venice, no one will venture to assert. I trust the day of depravity and indelicacy is far removed from us, that will exhibit a British mother arranging a plan of accommodation for her son, and bargaining for a young virgin to commit to his embraces——as they do in Venice——not as wife, but as concubine. On that one custom of the Venetian ladies I rest my position; and have no hesitation to avow, that all the private concubinage of London amounts not to such a flagrant consummation of moral turpitude and shameless indelicacy as that practice to which I allude.
The Venetian men are well-featured and well-shaped——the women, well-shaped, beautiful, and, it is said, witty: but I hadthat withinwhich robbed every object of its charms; and I mightsay withHamlet, that “Man delighted not me, nor Woman either.”——In short, not all the beauties and novelty of the place, not all the pleasures that stare the traveller in the face, and solicit his enjoyment, not all the exquisite looks of the ladies, could rouse my mind from its melancholy, or fix my attention——I grew weary of Venice before I had been many hours in it, and determined to grasp at the very first opportunity that offered for my departure.
I had arranged, in my own mind, a plan to proceed to Latachea, a considerable sea-port town in Syria, and thence to Aleppo, whence, as it was a great Eastern mart, I entertained hopes that I should find a speedy, or at least a certain conveyance, by a caravan, across the deserts, to Bassorah, and little doubted but that I should find a vessel at some of the Venetian ports, either bound, or belonging to a sea-port of suchcommercialcommercialconsequence, upon which I could procure a passage——But in this I was disappointed; for, on the fullest inquiry that I could make, I found that there was only one ship ready to sail, and no probability of any other for a considerable time after——I did every thing I could to avail myself of this conveyance, but was disappointed, owing to a young lady being passenger, who was daughter to the owner of the vessel——and the old gentleman did not approve of an English Officer being of the party with his daughter. I used every argument without success, urging the Resident, Mr.Strange, who had behaved very politely to me during my short residence at Venice, to interest himself about it: I likewise entreated Mrs.Strange, an affable, pleasant woman,to exert her endeavours, and made her laugh, by proposing to her to give me a certificate of my behaviour, and to pledge herself to the old gentleman that the happiness or honour of his family would not be disturbed by me during the passage.
Hearing, however, that a ship lay at Trieste, which was to sail thence for Alexandria in Egypt, I determined to embrace that opportunity, and, instead of my former intended route, go to Grand Cairo, thence toSuezSuez, and so down the Red Sea, by way of Mecca, to Moca, and thence to Aden, where company’s vessels, or India country traders are always to be found going to one or other of the British settlements.
I accordingly set out for Trieste, with all the impatience of a sanguine mind, anxious to change place, eager to push forward, and full of the new route I had laid down——the charms of which, particularly of seeing Grand Cairo, the Land of Egypt, and the Pyramids, were painted by my imagination in all the glowing exaggerated colours of romance. The Captain of the vessel was then at Venice, and I accompanied him to Trieste, which is about sixty miles from Venice.
Soon after our arrival at Trieste, I had the mortification to find, that the vessel was by no means likely to keep pace with the ardour of my mind, and that, owing to some unforeseen event, her departure was to be delayed; so, after a few of those effusions which may be supposed on such an occasion to escape a man of no very cool temper hanging on the tenterhooks of expectation, I foundit necessary to sit down, and patiently wait the revolution of time and event, which nothing could either impede or accelerate.
It has often been remarked, and is held as a point of faith by Predestinarians, that some men are doomed by fate to disappointment——and that, when they are so, no wisdom can obviate, no vigilance provide against, nor no resolution resist, her decrees; but, that, in spite of all the efforts of reason and industry, a series of sinister events shall pursue them through life, and meet them at every turn they attempt to take. Such has been my lot for the greatest part of my life——but I have neither faith enough in Predestination, nor self-love enough, so far to blind me to my own faults, as to suppose that lady Fate had any thing at all to do with it. No, no; it was often owing to a temper, warm, impatient and uncontrouled, which, in almost all cases of momentary embarrassment, chased reason from her office, usurped her place, and decided as chance directed. Let every man examine the grounds of all his serious disappointments in life with candour, and he will find physical causes to which to assign them, without resorting to supernatural. For my part, when I hear a man say that he has been all his life pursued by ill-fortune, I directly conclude, that either he has been a blunderer, or those he dealt with, brutes. In the ordinary operation of earthly contingencies, mischances will happen; but an uniform life of mischance can only arise from mismanagement, or a very extraordinary chain of human injustice——
These reflections arose from the following incident:
I had procured a servant to attend me on my journey, who, from my short observation of him, promised to contribute very considerably to my comfort, my convenience, and, indeed, to my security as he was apparently honest, sincere, active and clever in his duty, and master of several languages, and particularly of thelingua Franca, a mixture of languages, peculiarly useful in travelling through the East. Finding that I was likely to be delayed at Trieste, and conceiving that in this interim letters from England, for which I most ardently longed, might have arrived at Venice for me, I imprudently and impetuously sent him to Venice, for the purpose of taking them up, and carrying them to me. But guess what must have been my feelings when I found, almost immediately after his departure, that the vessel was preparing to sail, and that I must either lose my passage or my servant: anxious though I was to get forward, and grievous though my former delay had been to me, I hesitated which to do; but prudence, for once, prevailed over inclination; and I determined, at all events, to depart, under all the embarrassment attending the want of a servant and linguist, and all the poignant feelings of having been accessary to the disappointment, and perhaps the injury of a poor fellow, whom I really conceived to be a person of merit. In our passage to Alexandria, we touched at Zante, an island on the coast of Greece, belonging to Venice: it was anciently called Zacynthus——isabout fifty miles in circumference, and contains fifty thousand inhabitants. Never before had I tasted any thing equal to the delicious flavour of the fruits of this island—the grapes exquisite, and the melons and peaches of prodigious bigness and unequalled flavour. The island is abundantly fruitful in wine, currants, oil, figs and corn, but is very subject to earthquakes. Near the seaport which we entered is as great a curiosity in Nature as is any where, I believe, to be found. Two spring wells of clear fresh water threw up large pieces of real pitch, in such quantities, that, it is said, the people collect, one year with another, one hundred barrels of it, which they use in paying their shipping and boats.
In the first stages of melancholy, consolation is rejected by the mind, as premature. The heart, intent, as it were, upon supping full of woe, disclaims all advances of comfort, and feeds on grief alone. Hence the truly skilful in the human heart consider premature consolation as an aggravation of woe, and comfort only with condolence, well knowing that the tide of grief must take its course, and that, until it be first full, no hopes can be had of its retiring. The full force of this I began now to feel. The disquietude of domestic embarrassment——the bitterness of separation from all I loved——the solitary sadness of my situation, wandering through unknown countries——myself unknown and unfriended——aggravated; at length by the loss of my servant, who was a sort of prop to my spirits——and my being cast into a ship among a people, whose language I little understood, without any soul or one circumstanceto mitigate my sorrow, or console me under it; all these, I say, had wound up my feelings to the highest pitch of fortune——More miserable I could not be when the Island of Zante received me, and, for the first time for a sad series of days, raised me with the transporting sound of an English voice.
I have promised, myFrederick, to give you a candid relation, in hopes that you will improve by it: but if I thought, that, on the contrary, any thing I said should tend to raise in your mind a sentiment injurious to your principles, or reflective on your father’s conduct, but to be an example and admonitory guide to your own, I should condemn my candour and curse the hour that I wrote——but, I trust to your good sense and disposition, with my care to direct them; and shall, but not without hesitation, proceed. But, as I have already spun out this Letter to such an extent, I will defer my further relation to another.
At the time I set out upon my journey over land to India, I was (though married, and the father of children) very young, naturally of a sanguine constitution: my attachment to the fair sex was no ways diminished by a military education; anda warmth of temper, an ardent sensibility of mind, and a frank unsuspicious disposition, left me but too often to regret the facility with which I yielded to the charms of women. But the regret for each error was willfully smothered in vain determinations of amendment——and the promised amendment again broken in upon by some new error. Thus it was, till riper years and circumstances of weight strengthened my reason, and gave it in some greater degree that dominion it should have over my actions.
Circumstanced as I have in my last Letter described myself to be, and constituted by nature and education as I have mentioned above, I landed in the charming island of Zante, where Nature herself seems to have conspired against chastity——making the very air breathe nothing but transport and delight. There I met a young lady, a native of England——extremely pretty, highly accomplished, and captivating in the extreme: she had been at Venice for her education——was a complete mistress of music, and expressed an intention of following it professionally on her arrival in England, whither she was going passenger in a vessel bound there from Zante. To have accidentally met with a native of England, even of my own sex, in such a distant corner of the world, under such circumstances as mine, just escaped from the horrid life I had for some time led, must have filled me with joy: allowance, therefore, may be made for my feelings on meeting this young lady, and for my thinking ofsome expedient to prevent our separation. She laboured, perhaps, under the pressure of feelings as disagreeable as my own, and expressed her satisfaction at meeting with a countryman so very unexpectedly. Reserve was soon thrown off on both sides: we entered into a conversation interesting and confidential, which increased my anxiety to keep her with me, and in order to persuade her to accompany me, I pointed out in the strongest colours possible, the great advantages she might derive from her accomplishments in India, where her musical talents alone, exclusive of her various captivating qualities, would be aninexhaustibleinexhaustiblemine of wealth. In short, I so very eagerly enforced my proposal to accompany me, and time was so very short, that she consented, and in two hours we had arranged every thing for our departure together——and here with shame and sorrow I confess (nor shall ever cease toregretregretit), that this ecclairecissement communicated the first ray of substantial pleasure to my heart that it felt since I left London.
Thus far, our project sailed before the wind: wayward imagination had decked it out in the most alluring drapery that fancy could fabricate, and prevented us from seeing the impracticability of it, as it stood in the nakedness of truth; and when it came to be carried into execution, a thousand difficulties occurred, that the wildness of passion, and the warmth of our feelings, had before concealed from our view. In the first place, it was necessary for her to obtain the consent of a lady to whose care and protection she was committed: in the next place, accommodations were to beprocured for her in the same ship with me——a circumstance of most arduous difficulty; besides which, a variety of other impediments——insuperable indeed——concurred to frustrate our views, and put an end to our project. If my pleasure at meeting her was great, my anguish at parting with her was inexpressible. I had once more to face the world alone; and, on the second day of my sojourning at Zante, embarked with a heavy heart, and set sail for Alexandria. The last disappointments we undergo, seem always the heaviest; and this at Zante I thought at that time to be the greatest of my life. But——oh! short-sighted Man! bubble of every delusive shadow! I never reflected, as I have since done, what serious mischiefs, what endless misery, what loss of time, means and reputation, I may by that providential disappointment have escaped——for these are the almost never-failing consequences of such affairs. It too often happens, that the syren who deludes a man into her snares, is the very person who inflicts the deadly wound into his heart. Avoid, my dearFrederick! avoid all such, as you would avoid plague, pestilence, or ruin——steel your heart by timely reflection against their advances. In all your transactions with women, like a good General in warfare, secure for your heart a retreat; for it will be too late to find that they are unworthy when your heart is ensnared——and when you find them worthy of your affection, it will be time enough to give a loose to the sensibility of your heart. A virtuous woman is beyond all calculation to be valued, when she is found; but, alas! in findingher, you may pass through so many fires ordeal, and run such danger, that it is almost a doubt, whether a wise man (if he can fetter his passions) had not better dispense with the blessing, than run the hazard of searching for it.
On my arrival at Alexandria, I found, to my fresh mortification, that the plague was raging all over Egypt——and as, if this was not of itself sufficient to block up my intended route, an irruption of the Arabs, who in formidable bodies infested all the roads, put a period to all my hopes of seeing Grand Cairo, and viewing the curiosities of that Country, which all who, like us, have the Bible put early into their hands, are taught to venerate as soon as they are taught to read. Here I thought to have viewed the pyramids, whose antiquity, origin, or intended use, have baffled the learned and ingenious inquiries of so many ages——of beholding mount Sinai, the stone of Moses, the track of the Israelites, all of which are said to be clearly pointed out, and Geography by that means brought into the support of Sacred History. These, and many things, I did wish to see——they are worth it: but I have had since reason to believe, that my ill luck was not so great as I then thought it; for the search is dangerous, and made prodigiously expensive by the exactions of the Mahomedan Magistrates. It is as well, therefore, to travel over this Country in books, which afford us good information, and more of it, at an easier rate than you could purchase it in the Country.
Alexandria was built byAlexanderthe Great, soon after the overthrow of Tyre, about 333 years beforeChrist, and is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles West of that mouth of the Nile, anciently called Canopicum. A very extraordinary circumstance is related, as a proof of the suddenness ofAlexander’sresolution to build it: After he had directed the number of public structures, and fixed the places where they were to stand, there were no instruments at hand proper for marking out the walls, according to the custom of those times: upon this, a workman advised the King to collect what meal was among the soldiers, and sift it in lines upon the ground, in order to mark out the circuit of the walls: the advice was followed, and the King’s soothsayer interpreted it to be a presage of the future prosperity and abundance of the city. This prophecy was certainly afterwards verified; for it soon became theemporiumemporiumof Commerce, of Arts and of Sciences.
By the description ofStraboand other Ancients, it appears that this city was built upon a plan well worthy the vast mind of its founder; and the fragments of its ornaments afterwards composed a part of the grandest embellishments of Rome and Constantinople. In the Museum of the Royal Palace, which occupied a fourth part of the city, the body ofAlexanderwas deposited in a golden coffin——but the detestableSeleucus Cibyofactesviolated the monument, took away the golden coffin, and substituted a glass one in its place.
This city, like most others of antiquity, has been the scene of terrible massacres. About two hundred years after its foundation, it was totally depopulated byPtolemy Physcon——the very few who escaped slaughter, flying into other Countries. Desirous, however, not to reign over empty houses, he seduced inhabitants from the neighbouring Countries; and again, for some slight offence, determined on a general massacre of the young men; and accordingly, when they were one day assembled in the Gymnasium, or place of public exercise, he ordered it to be set on fire, so that all perished, either in the flames, or by the swords of his mercenaries, whom he had placed at all the avenues. Afterwards, in the year ofChrist215, the EmperorCaracalla, having been lampooned by some of the inhabitants, ordered a general massacre by his numerous troops, who were dispersed over the city. The inhuman orders being given, all were murdered, without distinction of age or sex; so that, in one night’s time, the whole city floated in blood, and every house was filled with carcases: the monster himself, retiring to the Temple of Serapis, was all the time imploring the protection of the Deity——a proof that practical devotion and the most attrocious inhumanity may meet in the same bosom. As if this had not been sufficient vengeance, he stripped the city of all its ancient privileges——ordered all strangers who lived there to depart——and, that the few who remained might not have the satisfaction of seeing one another, he cut off all communication of one street with another, by walls built for the purpose, and guarded with troops.
Notwithstanding these massacres, Alexandria again recovered its former splendour——and was again sacked byAmrou, the infamous Saracen——and all the intrepid youth of the city perished with arms in their hands. The magnificence of the city may be estimated from the account written byAmrouto the Caliph: “I have taken,” said he, “the City of the West; it is of an immense extent; I cannot describe to you how many wonders it contains: there are 4000 palaces, 4000 baths,” &c. &c.
The great advantages of the East India trade, which was then carried on by the Red Sea, preserved Alexandria through several revolutions; but having fallen under the dominion of the Turks, and the passage round the Cape of Good Hope being discovered, a fatal blow was given to its commerce, and it has since fallen to decay. It is, however, even now, worth the attention of the classical traveller. Entering the harbour, we passed by the Island of Pharos, wherePtolemybuilt the enormous Tower which was once the wonder of the world; and, when riding within the port, nothing could be more gratifying than to see from thence that mixture of ancient and modern monuments that presented themselves to the view, on which ever side the eye could be turned.
Of myriads of antiquities which this place affords for the inspection of the curious, I shall mention only two——One, the Column ofPompey, on viewing of which, the remembrance of that great and good man’s most unmerited and cruel fate extracted a sigh from the bottom of my heart: this pillar engages the attentionof all travellers; it is composed of red granite; the capital is Corinthian, with palm leaves, and not indented; the shaft and the upper member of the base are of one piece, ninety feet long, and nine in diameter; the base, a square of fifteen feet on each side; the whole column is one hundred and fourteen feet high, perfectly well polished, and only a little shivered on the Eastern side. Nothing can equal the majesty of this monument: seen from a distance, it overtops the town, and serves as a signal for vessels; approaching it nearer, it produces an astonishment mixed with awe: one would never be tired of admiring the beauty of the capital, the length of the shaft, nor the extraordinary simplicity of the pedestal. Some years ago, a party of English seamen contrived, by flying a kite, to draw a line over the pillar, and by that means made a kind of a shroud, by which they got up, and on the very top of of it drank a bowl of punch, to the utter astonishment of a multitude who came to see them; they broke off one of the volutes of the column, but amply compensated for this mischief by a discovery they made, as, without their evidence, the world would not have known, at this hour, that there was originally a statue on this column, one foot and ancle, of which, of enormous size, are still remaining.——The other is the Obelisk ofCleopatra, of immense size, and of one single piece of granite marble. Here I observed, too, a thick wall, with towers mouldering under extreme age, which contained, in its face, fragments of architecture of the most exquisite workmanship, such as broken columns, friezes,&c.; those were the antique ruins of some fallen pieces of antiquity, at the time that this antique wall was built: what, then, must be the length of time since they had first undergone the hands of the workman? These circumstances tend to demonstrate, that, far back beyond the reach of our calculation, the Arts flourished: and when one thinks of the miraculous masses of work done in former ages——the magnitude of the pieces of which those works were composed, such as whole columns and obelisks of a single block of marble——the Colossus of Rhodes, made of brass, one foot of which was placed on one side of the harbour, and another on the other side, so that ships passed between its legs——we cannot help yielding up the palm to the Ancients for stupendous magnificence, however we may surpass them for the useful, the elegant and the good.
At Alexandria I remained about twelve days, till, wearied of the confined state I lived in on account of the plague, I resolved to devise some means, if possible, to get away, and at length hired a boat to carry me to the island of Cyprus, from whence I concluded, that I should find no sort of difficulty in procuring a conveyance to Latichea, and so proceed by my first intended route. I accordingly arrived at Cyprus in perfect safety, where, to my great sorrow and astonishment, I found that an epidemical fever, equal in its effects to a plague, prevailed: however, there was no alternative; I must run the risque, and I dismissed the boat that carried me from Alexandria.
Although the etymologies of the names of places are of very little importance, and most frequently uncertain, I think it probable that the Learned are right, who assert the name of this is derived from Κυπρος (Cyprus) or Cypress——with which shrubs the island abounds. It had, in ancient times, a number of other names——one of which was Paphia, whence Venus, who was worshipped in it, was called the Paphian Goddess. It lies thirty miles West of Syria, whither I was bound, stretching from the South-west to the North-east, one hundred and fifty miles in length, and seventy in breadth in the widest part of it.
This island holds a very high rank in classic lore——It gave birth to some great Philosophers and considerable Poets——The ApostleBarnabaswas a native of it, and, assisted bySt. Paul, first introduced Christianity among them. Famagusta, a town on the Eastern part of the island, opposite to the shore of Syria, is the ancient Salamis, built byTeucerthe son ofTelamon, and brother ofAjax.
Symisso, on the South-east, the best port in Cyprus, is theAmathusmentioned byVirgilin his Æneid, and byOvidin his Metamorphoses. And Baffo, on the Western coast, is the Παφος (Paphos) of antiquity, famous for the Temple of Venus.
As the branches of an Empire most remote from the great feat of Government are always more despotically governed than those nearer the source of redress, Cyprus has been continually ruled with a rod of iron since it came into the hands of the Turks. Whileit was under the dominion of Christians, it was well-peopled, having no less than eight hundred or a thousand villages in it, besides several handsome cities; but the Turks have spread ruin and desolation over the country, and it is now so thinly inhabited that more than half the lands lie uncultivated.
The air of this island is now for the most part unwholesome, owing to the damps arising from the many fens and marshes with which the country abounds——while, there being but few springs or rivers in the island, the want of a plentiful fall of rain, at proper periods, distresses the inhabitants very much in another way; and by means of the uncultivated state of the country, they are greatly infested with poisonous reptiles of various kinds.
The most remarkable mountain in Cyprus is called Olympus——a name common to several other mountains in Greece, particularly to that in Thessaly, so famous in the poetry of the Ancients. That in Cyprus is about fifty miles in circumference: great part of it is covered with woods; and at the foot of it are fine vineyards, which produce admirable wine, not only in a sufficiency for their own consumption, but some also for exportation——And although the greater part of the island lies uncultivated, as I have before observed, it produces a sufficient quantity of corn, unless in seasons when their harvest fails, in which case the people are easily supplied from the continent. They have, besides, cattle enough for their own consumption——Many parts of the country abound with wild-fowl,and several sorts of game, and they have plenty of fish upon the sea coasts.
The trade of Cyprus is not inconsiderable, and carried on chiefly by Jews and Armenians: the commodities in which they deal are wine, oil, cotton, wool, salt, silk, and turpentine——besides, it produces several sorts of earth, fit for the use of painters, particularly red, black and yellow.
Its most wonderful production, however, is the famous stone Ασβεσος (Asbestos) inextinguishable, or Αμιαντος (Amiantos) impollutus, so called from its extraordinary property of resisting fire. It is related that the Ancients made out of this stone a kind of thread that would remain unconsumed in the most intense fire. It is even said, that some experiments have been made in modern days, which have sufficiently proved that the thing is not a fiction. In such extraordinary questions as this, though I do not positively contradict, I always suspend my belief, till something stronger than mere assertion is offered to convince me.
There is one dreadful mischief to which this island is subject——In the hot season, locusts come from the Continent, in swarms so vast and so thick as to darken the sky like clouds. Those would certainly devour all the fruits of the earth, if they were not driven to sea by a North wind that usually blows at the time of their coming. When that wind happens to fail, which fortunately is seldom, the consequence is a total demolition of the fruits of the Country.
The whole island, as well as particular towns, was entirely consecrated to the GoddessVenus, who thence was calledVenus Cypria, orDea Cypria, and is represented by the Poets as taking a peculiar pleasure in visiting it——and this unquestionably arose from the loose habits and lascivious temperament of the women there, who certainly are, at this time, not remarkable for chastity.
I must confess, however, that I felt great pleasure in entering Cyprus——it was, as I have already stated, classic ground, and dedicated to the Queen of Love. But a traveller who visits it with hopes of amusement, will be much disappointed; for in no one particular did it seem to me to resemble that Cyprus famed in the Heathen Story and Mythology. Of the Cyprian Queen’s favours the ladies seemed to boast no one mark, save the most nauseous, disgusting lewdness——and the natural fertility of the soil is half lost beneath the oppressive yoke of the servants of the Turkish Government. Thus, in the extraordinary revolutions that human affairs are incessantly undergoing, that island which for its superior beauties was supposed to be the residence of Love, which gave birth to the PhilosophersZeno,AppolloniusandXenophon, is now a miserable, half-cultivated spot, peopled with a mixture of wretched Turks, Jews, Greeks and Christians——groaning under the tyrrany of a barbarous despotic abuse of delegated power——infested with locusts which devour the fruits of the earth——anddisgraced by a race of ignominious women, who esteem it to be an act of religion to prostitute themselves to all strangers.
OurRichardthe First made a conquest of this island on his way to the Holy Land, and conferred the Royalty of it onGuy Lusignan, King of Jerusalem. The Venetians possessed themselves of it in the year 1480——but, in the sixteenth century, the Turks dispossessed them, and have ever since kept it under the yoke——I should have remarked that their wine is excellent.
Continuing my route, I hired another boat, after only forty-eight hours stay at Cyprus, and proceeded for Latichea, which, as I have somewhere before mentioned, is a considerable sea-port town of Syria, built on a promontory of land, which, running into the sea, occasions its being continually refreshed with breezes. Fortune, who had hitherto been not very liberal in her dispensations, now favoured me; for, just as I arrived at Latichea, a caravan was preparing. The Consul of the Turkish Company at Cyprus received me with great politeness and hospitality——gave me a Letter to the Resident at Latichea; and by his instruction and assistance, after a very short stay, I set out on my way to Aleppo with the caravan.
As I shall hereafter have occasion more particularly to describe the nature of those caravans, I shall, for the present, tell you, that this was composed of no other beasts of burden than mules and asses, of which there were not less than three or four hundred in number.
Mounted on a mule, I travelled along, well pleased with the fertile appearance of the country, and delighted with the serenity of the air——We were, as well as I can now recollect, near ten days on the road; during which time we travelled only in the morning early, and in the heat of the day reposed under the shade of trees.
I was informed, that if, instead of going to Latichea, I had gone to Scanderoon (otherwise Alexandretta), I should, in the road from thence to Aleppo, have travelled through a Country, in which the most singular and extravagant customs prevail that exist in any Country emerged from barbarism——Several of those I heard; but one in particular was, that the men prostituted their wives and daughters to all comers——and that this originated from a principle of religion, though there was every reason to believe, that, like many of their religious institutions, it was at last made subservient to the gratification of avarice.
On my way to Alleppo, I was met by a Mr. ——-, an English Gentleman, who had heard of my coming, and who, in the most kind and hospitable manner, insisted upon my living at his house instead of the British Consul’s, where I should otherwise have resided during my stay there; and his manner of asking me was so engaging, interesting and impressive, that I found it impossible to refuse him.
As the great public caravan had departed from Aleppo before my arrival, and the expence of forming a private one on my account was too great, as I was travelling on my own account, andhad no dispatches to authorise or enforce my departure, or bear me out in the expence; I was constrained to remain at Aleppo till some eligible mode of travelling occurred, or another public caravan was formed——This delay gave me an opportunity of seeing and informing myself of the city and surrounding country; the result of which, I shall, in as short a manner as possible, relate to you in a future Letter. It also gave occasion to one of those unhappy incidents which I have so often had occasion to lament, not from any consciousness of direct criminality, but for the scope it gave to misrepresentation and the injury which that misrepresentation did me in the opinion of some of my friends.