FOOTNOTE:[39]The Temple of Diana was discovered by Mr. J. T. Wood, who carried on excavations from 1863 to 1874 on behalf of the British Museum.
[39]The Temple of Diana was discovered by Mr. J. T. Wood, who carried on excavations from 1863 to 1874 on behalf of the British Museum.
[39]The Temple of Diana was discovered by Mr. J. T. Wood, who carried on excavations from 1863 to 1874 on behalf of the British Museum.
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 inthe 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 ourbeing 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 itsitting 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 tothe 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 thiscity. 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 precipitouson 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 sidesas 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'clockA.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 hisretinue. 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 treatthe 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 arebuilt 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, theCalicadnus. 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 senthis 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 beautyto 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 theFrederiksteenin 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 froma 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 theFrederiksteenhad 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. Theirlanguage 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 rascalwent 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 werespotted 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, andscattered 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 dealshaken. 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 toseek 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 theSalsette, 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.
[40]Captain Beaufort seems to have thought that she was a Mainiote pirate. His account of this episode is worth reading.
[40]Captain Beaufort seems to have thought that she was a Mainiote pirate. His account of this episode is worth reading.
MALTA—ATTACKED BY BILIOUS FEVER—SAILS TO PALERMO—SEGESTE—LEAVES FOR GIRGENTI—IMMIGRANT ALBANIANS—SELINUNTO—TRAVELLING WITH SICILIANS—GIRGENTI—RESTORES THE TEMPLE OF THE GIANTS—LEAVES FOR SYRACUSE—OCCUPATIONS IN SYRACUSE—SALE OF THE ÆGINA MARBLES—LEAVES FOR ZANTE.
"We had nothing but west winds, very unfavourable for us. Meltern, as this wind is called, follows the rim of the coast of Asia Minor, being north in the Archipelago, west along Karamania, and turning south again down the coast of Syria. We were seldom out of sight of land—first the mountains of Asia, then Rhodes, Crete, the Morea, &c. Finally we reached Malta on the 18th of July, being the twenty-seventh day since we left Scanderoon, and the end of a month of complete idleness. I spent most of the time in the captain's cabin, showing him all the attention I could, and profiting in return very much by his society and his library.
To get to Malta was a refreshment to our spirits. Numbers of visitors came at once under the stern to salute Captain Beaufort, although until we had pratique they could not come aboard. The plague is at present in Smyrna, and quarantine for ships from thence usuallylasts thirty or forty days; but as we could prove that we had had no communication with any infected town, we were let off in two days. Unfortunately, from the moment we arrived I began to feel unwell. All the time I was on the coast of Asia I had been taking violent exercise and perspiring profusely, while since we left I had been wholly confined; and the consequence of the change was a violent bilious attack with fever. After stopping in bed three days I thought I would take a trip to Sant' Antonio with Gammon, the senior officer; but I got back so thoroughly done up that I had to lie up again, and was ill for three weeks in Thorn's Hotel.[41]My chief remedies, prescribed by Doctors Stewart of theFrederiksteenand Allen of the Malta Hospital, were calomel in large quantities and bleeding.
Every day one or other of the officers of theFrederiksteen—Gammon, Seymour, Lane, or Dodd—came to sit with me.
When I was able to get about again, I found that Captain Beaufort had been moved to the house of Commissioner Larcom, where every possible care was taken of him. They were a most agreeable and hospitable family—the only one, indeed, in Malta. The officers—General Oakes, Colonel Phillips, &c.—were like all garrison officers. Mr. Chabot, the banker, honoured my drafts, and when I was going expressedhis sorrow that I was off so soon, as he had hoped to have seen me at his house.
As soon as ever I was well enough I felt eager to get away from a society so odious to me as that of Malta, and having been introduced from two separate sources to Mr. Harvey, commander of H.M. brigHaughty, I got from him an excellent passage to Palermo. It took us from the 20th August to the 28th. Mr. Harvey himself was ill, and I saw little of him, but what I did delighted me. Like all sailors, he was very lovable, and so long as he remained in Palermo I went to him every day.
My first day I strolled over the town and delivered my letters to Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Fagan. The latter is an antiquarian and a great digger. He told me, I think, that he had dug up over two hundred statues in his time. I called on him several times afterwards, pleased with his conversation and hoping to learn something of Sicily from him, and found him exceedingly polite. A return of the fever I had in Malta confined me again for a few days, after which I managed to keep it at bay with plenty of port wine and bark. My chief friends in Palermo were General and Mrs. Campbell, Sir Robert Laurie, captain of a 74 lying here, Lord William Bentinck, generalissimo of the British army of occupation in Sicily, and Fagan.
After a fortnight in Palermo I started on a trip to Segeste. I could not but be very much struck by thedifference between the richness of Sicily, and the desolation of Greece under Turkish rule. Mahomet II. desired that on his tomb should be written that had he lived he proposed in the ensuing summer to conquer 'the beautiful Italy and the island of Rhodes.' Sicily must have followed, and I pictured in my mind the landscape as it would then have looked. A few ruined mosques would have supplied the place of the splendid churches and monasteries, and a wretched khan and a few low huts the rich towns of Sala and Partinico.
The temple of Segeste is the largest I have seen, but it looks as if it had never been finished. The style of workmanship is good and exact, but as far inferior to Athenian execution as its rough stone is to Pentilican marble. The turn of the capital is very inferior in delicacy to Athenian examples, and there is no handsome finish to the ceiling of the peristyle, which was probably of plaster like Ægina. The circular sinking cut in the plinth to receive the column, leaving a space all round to give a play, it is said, in case of earthquake, is certainly curious if that was the purpose of it. Nothing whatever remains of the cella.
In the evening we returned to Alcamo and next day breakfasted with Colonel Burke, who is in command of a regiment of 1,400 fine men, all Piedmontese and Italians, not Sicilians. One finds Englishmen in command everywhere. Returned to Palermo.
My fame had spread in my absence, and on my return I found my table covered with cards and invitations—the most conspicuous being from General Macfarlane and Lord Montgomery.
The palaces of the Sicilian nobles are exasperatingly pretentious and tasteless; that of Palagonia is an unforgetable nightmare.
Though a paradise compared with Greece, I find Sicily seething with discontent; and were it not for Lord W. Bentinck, to whom the people look up as the only honest man amongst the authorities, there would be an insurrection.
Ten days later I set out on horseback for Girgenti. On the second day I turned aside from Villa Fraté to visit one of the Greek villages so much talked of and so misrepresented. In Palermo I was told that the villagers are some of the ancient Greek settlers, who remain so unchanged that they still wear sandals and are almost pagans. In reality they are Albanians, who emigrated in the sixteenth century when the oppression of the Turks was specially severe in their country, and came in bands to various points of Sicily. Mezzojuso is one of their settlements, and has about 2,000 inhabitants. The situation, about two miles off the road from Villa Fraté to Alcara, is on the side of a mountain and very beautiful. I met some goodhumoured peasants who were ready to tell me all they knew. They talk Albanian amongst themselves, and theyreadily understood the few words of it which I and my servant could speak. The explanation of the report of their being almost pagans is that they retain the Greek ritual, although they have changed the altar to the Catholic form and acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. Over the altar is a Greek inscription, which I read, to the surprise of those who attended me. The priests preserve the Greek costume, the bead cap, hair, &c. St. Nicolas, the Greek saintpar excellence, is a conspicuous figure in the Church. What a pity I had not with me a little of the earth I took from the shrine of the saint at Myra in Asia Minor! It would have been an acceptable present to the priest. I saw none of the women, but I was told they wear a peculiar costume; and at their communion, instead of the host, as in Roman Catholic churches, a piece of cloth is held up.
Started for the temples of Selinunto, accompanied by Don Ignazio, the son of my host, Don Gaetano. We took the road towards the sea, and passing through Siciliana and turning inland came in the evening to Cattolica. Here we added to our party a most entertaining companion, Don Raffaelle Politi, a painter, not very excellent in his art, though one of the best in Sicily, but full of talents and of humour. He was staying at the time in the house of a certain marquis, for whom he had been painting two ceilings. We went to see him there, and found him with themarchese, sitting over a greasy table surrounded by a company of nasty fellows, such as in England one might see in a shopkeeper's parlour. No sort of civility or hospitality was shown us. On the other hand, a friend and equal of Don Raffaelle's received us very kindly. He and a company of tradesmen who had come over to a fair which was being held in Cattolica, and had of course brought their guitars with them, entertained us before supper in the locanda.
Next day we passed by the ancient city of Heraclia, of which, however, there are very trifling remains, to Sciacca, where in the market-place we saw dead meat—meat of animals that had died of disease owing to the great drought this year, which has killed a great many cattle—being sold to the poor at a cheap rate. Travelling with Sicilians I fell into their customs, and instead of looking out for an hotel I went with them into a café where we ate and drank. The cafetiere, to show his liberality, in pouring out lets the cup overflow until the saucer also is full, after which he brings spirits and cigars—all customs new to me. Arrived in a storm at Montefeice, wet through. My friends slept on a mattress, and I, who was accustomed to it, slept on the floor.
Nothing can be more solemn than the magnificent remains of the three temples of Selinus, but I had not many hours to study them. It is clear that earthquake was the cause of their destruction, and I guess fromthe difference in preservation between the parts which fell and were covered and protected, and the condition of those which remain standing, that it may have occurred about the eighth or ninth century. We went over twice from Montefeice, each time returning in the evening; and when we got home, how differently we spent our evenings from the ordinary way Englishmen do! Had they been my companions we should have cursed the fare and lodging, and should have laid ourselves down grumbling to pass a tedious and uncomfortable night. Instead of that, with these Sicilians, as soon as the demands of hunger were satisfied, at the sound of a guitar in the streets, we sallied out and joined the serenaders, stopped under the windows of some fair one we did not know, and Don Raffaelle, who is a perfect master of the guitar and ravished the bystanders, played and sang with much taste a number of exceedingly pretty melodies. If this was not enough for the evening, we sat and told stories.
At Cattolica we arrived so late that every inch of the locanda was occupied. We did not care to disturb our friend of the previous occasion, Don Giuseppe, and the marchese's hospitality had been so grudgingly offered that we were too proud to accept it, and so we sought consolation by going about the streets with a guitar till we were tired of it, and then taking horse again; but before going far we were so weary that wegot off under a tree, sat down, and waited for dawn to light us back to Girgenti.
After my return to Girgenti, I remained there till the 14th of November, applying myself with close attention and infinite pleasure to attempting to reconstruct the Temple of Jupiter Olympius. The examination of the stones and the continual exercise of ingenuity kept me very busy, and at the end the successful restoration of the temple gave me a pleasure which was only to be surpassed by that of originally conceiving the design.
My days went by in great peace and content. I lived with the family of Don Gaetano Sterlini, and when I got accustomed to them I learnt to like them. The bawling of the servants, the open doors, the dirt and disorder of a Sicilian household came after a time to be matters of course to me and passed unnoticed.
But there came an English fine gentleman, by the name of Cussins, to spend two days here, who was not so philosophical and made himself odious by protesting. When anyone came into or went out of the room, the doors, which never else turned on their hinges, must be shut; the windows, that perhaps lacked two or three panes, must be closed; the shutters bolted; he could not eat the food nor drink the wine. A creature so refined is as unpleasant an object to a barbarian as the latter is to him, and we prayed for his departure.
My fine friend was supercilious to me, but polite in a lofty fashion, and took a patronising interest in what I was doing. Would I give him some notes and a sketch? At first I said I would, but his manner disgusted me, so that I finally sent him only the notes. He wanted the sketch to flourish at Palermo.
In the last few days of my stay my fame got about. The Caffé dei Nobili, the bishop and all, heard with astonishment that I had unravelled the puzzle, and that all the morsels composing the giants were still existing and could be put together again. A dignitary of the Church, (Don?) Candion Panettieri, sent me a message to say that if I would mark the stones and give directions for the setting up of one of the giants, he would undertake the expense of doing it. I was tempted by this offer and the immediate notoriety it would give me, and agreed and completed my sketch as far as it could be carried and took it to him. It was copied immediately, and with my name appended as the author, sent to Palermo. Then I went over the fragments with Raffaelle Politi and marked the stones corresponding with the numbers in the design.
Don Gaetano could not contain his indignation at my suffering the results of so much labour to be launched into the world as it were semi-anonymously, instead of in a book duly written and published by myself, the author. From the moment I handed overmy drawing to Politi to copy there was no peace between us. I could not help being gratified at the interest he took in my success, and my feeling for him was sharpened by the sentiment with which his fair daughter had inspired me, which was so strong that it made me feel the necessity of going away, and yet made me weep like a noodle when I did. But I had found my reward in the pleasure of solving the puzzle, and though I liked the notoriety, it was not worth giving oneself much trouble about.
I left Girgenti with Don Ignazio Sala, son-in-law of Sterlini, for Alicata, and the consul himself saw me as far as the River Agrigas. On our left were many sulphur works, which are so injurious to vegetation that there is a law in force that they shall not work from the time the corn begins to get up till after the harvest. From Palma the road lies along the seashore, and there at every mile and a half are watch-towers, or, failing these, straw huts for the coastguard to give warning of Barbary corsairs. Until lately this coast was infested by them. Their descents were small, and they carried off only a few men or cattle; but there was once a desperate action near Alicata, in which the inhabitants turned out, headed by the priest, and captured the whole party of twenty-five who had landed. The prisoners were sent by Palermo to Algiers to be exchanged.
Alicata to Serra Nuova. Serra Nuova to Cartalagerone. We had to cross a river on the way, the banks of which were high and the river swollen by the rain, and one mule with baggage and man rolled right into it.
The night got very dark, and I really thought we should have to stop on the bank all night or break our necks, but by help of repeated invocations indifferently to Maria Sanctissima and Santo Diavolone we got across safely at last.
From Cartalagerone by Mineo to Lentini, and so to Syracuse. Although compared with the ancient town it is tiny and confined entirely to the island of Ortygia, the modern Syracuse has considerable fortifications. We had to pass through four gates and two dykes before we got inside. At one gate the guard wanted to take our arms, till I remonstrated on the insult to the British nation, and they let me pass. But, then, if they did not mean to enforce it, how ridiculous ever to make such a regulation!
As soon as I was settled I despatched a letter my friend Raffaelle Politi had given me to his father, who came at once, offered me every civility, and remained my fast friend throughout my stay."
Cockerell spent three months—December, January, and February—in Syracuse. For one thing his health had been severely shaken by the grave illness he had had in Malta, and he needed rest. It seems to havemade a turning-point in his travels. Hitherto his letters home had been full of joyous anticipations of getting back to England, and with restless energy he had endeavoured to cram the utmost into his time before doing that, and settling into harness as an architect. Seeing so many countries and going through so many vicissitudes had, however, weakened the tie and he could now make himself at home anywhere. For another thing, a main object of his travels—perhaps the main object—was a visit to Italy, as for practical purposes Italian architecture was the best worth studying. But the war with France continuing, Italy remained closed indefinitely to a British subject. So for several years there are no more references to coming home. A last reason for stopping where he was, was that the weather was detestable. It was the terrible winter of the retreat from Moscow. "For forty days," he says, "it never failed to rain, snow, or hail."
His time was chiefly spent in preparing the drawings for the plates of the great contemplated book on Ægina and Phigaleia. Besides this, he seems to have drawn in the museum, and to have read a good deal; he learnt the art of cutting cameos, and even executed some; and finally, fired by the performances of his friend Politi, he spent two hours a day in learning to play the guitar. He probably never carried this accomplishment very far and abandoned it on leaving Sicily, for I neverrecollect even hearing it alluded to. The time passed very quietly. He had some friends among the Sicilians, besides the Politis—Don Pietro Satallia, the Conte Bucchieri, and one English acquaintance, Lieutenant Winter, adjutant of the town and fort, who had a nice English wife and large family, with whom he spent occasional evenings. For the most part, however, he spent his evenings studying in his lodgings, and "on the whole," he says, "I can say of Syracuse what I wish I could say of all the places I ever stopped in: I do not repent of the time I spent there."
During the latter part of his stay, when the weather grew less severe, he was a good deal occupied in examining the walls of ancient Syracuse, and the fortress of Labdalum.
A letter received at about this time from Linckh records the death of the little Skye terrier Fop which my father had brought with him from England.
When he left Athens to go with Messrs. North, Douglas, and Foster to Crete,en routefor Egypt, he left the dog behind in charge of a certain Nicolo, who seems to have gone with Bronstedt and Linckh not long after on the expedition they undertook to Zea in December 1811.... "Dans la lettre égarée je vous ai écrit le sort malheureux de votre pauvre Fope, qui a fini ses jours misérablement et en grande famine à Zea. Bronstedt et moi nous lui avons encoreprolongé son triste destin pour quelques jours, car nous l'avons trouvé mourant dans un ravin entre la ville de Zea et le port. Vraiment ce Nicolo est un être infâme et malicieux. Vous savez que nous lui avons confisqué la bague du Platon qu'il a portée aussitôt que vous autres êtes partis d'Athènes pour Egypte. [He had stolen it, as he did later various articles from Hughes and Parker,q.v.] Comme nous avons quitté l'isle de Zea, il faisait une banque de pharaon pour piller les Zeotes."
He had kept in communication with his friends in Greece, and especially with Gropius, to whom he had written repeatedly on the subject of the sale of the Ægina Marbles, but it was not till March that he could have heard of the disastrous issue.
What had happened was this. It will be remembered that while the statues themselves had been conveyed for security to Malta, the sale of them had been advertised to take place in Zante on November 1, 1812.
When the day arrived only two bidders presented themselves in the sale room, one bearing an offer from the French Government, and Herr Wagner another from Prince Louis of Bavaria. The British Museum had sent out a Mr. Coombe with ample powers to buy for England, but he never turned up. He had reached Malta in good time, but having understood from Mr. McGill, who waspro tem.agent for Gropius, that thesale would take place where the marbles were, took it for granted that he knew all about it and there stayed, waiting for the auctioneer to come.
Meanwhile the sale came off at Zante. The French offer of 160,000 francs proved to be altogether too conditional to be accepted, and the sculptures were knocked down to Prince Louis for 10,000 sequins.
It was suggested afterwards that Gropius had been bribed by Wagner to keep the English parties in the dark, but it was never proved. What is clear is that if Gropius had kept his agent, McGill, properly informed as to the place of sale, Coombe would have been able to bid and the Ægina statues would be in the British Museum now.
Cockerell at once set out from Syracuse for Zante. But he found that when he joined there was really nothing to be done. He at first tried to upset the contract, but on reflection he found himself obliged in honour and in law to abide by the action of their agent. A new agreement was drawn up and signed, confirming the former and engaging to petition the British Government for leave to export the sculptures from Malta.
At home in England the deepest disappointment was felt by those who had interested themselves in the acquisition, and a protest was forwarded by Mr. S. P. Cockerell through Mr. Hamilton to the Government, petitioning that no permission to remove themarbles from Malta should be granted, and demanding a new sale on the ground of improper procedure in the first.
In the end, however, it was not found possible to contest the validity of the sale, and they were finally delivered to the Prince of Bavaria in 1814.