Streams of running water were meandering in every direction amid the numerous willows, poplars, almonds, and other trees, which bordered our road: and, at intervals, the artificial dikes were opened to admit water into the beds of rice. The greater part of the country was covered with verdure, for the new corn was already well advanced both in maturity and plenty. Peasantry enlivened the fields by the labours of the spade or the plough. PLAIN OF KHOT. The morning was one of the loveliest in spring, lightly covered with clouds, with a softness in the air which seemed to soothe every varied work of nature into tacit enjoyment of the bounty and munificence of their Almighty Creator. I shall ever recollect with thankfulness the delightful sensations which I experienced in passing the beautifui plain of Khoi; where every innocent sense re ceived its gratification, and ripened into thoughts teeming with love and gratitude to their divine Maker. Every thing was rich and beautiful : the mountains were green to their very summits; and their inequalities were here and there enriched by beds of wild flowers of the most lively and luxuriant hues. Scarcely two miles from Khoi is a very large collection of houses and gardens, which is n Mahalé or parish of the town, and is well inhabited. A stream from the mountains runs through it; and on the skirts to the N. are two pillars of brick, which are described either as the tomb or the cenotaph of a famous poet and learned moilah of Tabriz, called Shemsé. Péséh is a pretty village, situated on the declivity of the hills, which gradually form the bases of the adjoining mountains: on the summit of one of these hills is an old square fort, now in ruins; and in its neighbourhood are two other villages, called Pesé and Zaidé. There are walnut-trees, willows, poplars, elms, and fruit-trees of every description, in the highest perfection, with a profusion of grass. On this as well as on the other side of Tabriz, the peasants convey their loads on the backs of oxen, on which, indeed, they frequently ride themselves. At Péréh I saw the first wheeled-carriage (excepting gun-carriages) that I had noticed in Persia. It was exactly similar to the Turkish aruba. Besides their plough, which I have already described, the Persians have the large rake, which serves as a harrow, and is fastened to a pole aud drawn like a plough by yoked oxen : they have another implement of agriculture, which is certainly capable of much improvement. It is a pole fixed trausversely on another to which the oxen are yoked; on each of these is a smail wooden cylinder about half a foot long: and these insignificant things are dragged as a roller over the ground. MOUNT ARARAT. motion: We travelled an hour and an half, in And pastured on from verdant stage to stage, And o'er vast plains their herds and flocks to feed ; Blest sons of nature they! true golden age, indeed! Castle of Indolence, xxxvii. We quitted our hospitable friends, (who appeared to be almost more grateful for our visit than we for their kindness), and passed along the plain. Mount Ararat bore N. 40 E. and extended itself completely to our view. Its N. W. ascent is not so rapid as its S. E. and I should conceive that, in this quarter, it might be possible to ascend it. The height of Ararat can best be understood by considering the distance at which it may be seen. Chardin mentions that it is visible at Marant; tom. i. p. 253: Bruce, that he saw it at Der bend, Memoirs, p. 282; Struys, whom Olivier well characterizes as "Romanesque," describes his ascent to visit a sick hermit at the top, p. 208, &c.; but Tournefort, one of the first of travellers, has stated so fully the difficulties of his own attempt, that probably they have never yet been overcome. The mountain is divided into three regions of different breadths: the first, composed of a short and slippery grass or sand" aussi facheux que les Syrtes d'Afrique," is occupied by shepherds; the second by tygers and crows; the remainder, which is half the mountain, "est couverte de neige depuis que l'arche y arrêta, et ces neiges sont cachées la moitié de l'année sous les nuages fort épais. Les tygres que nous apperçumes ne laissèrent pas de nous faire peur." p. 358. It was impossible to go forwards and penetrate to the third region, and not easy to go back at length, utterly exhausted, they reached the bottom," nous rendimes graces au Siegneur d'en être revenus, car peut-être que nous serions perdus ou que nous serions morts de faim sur cette montagne." p. 371. If these were the sensations with which Tournefort regarded his enterprise, the common belief of the country may well be admitted, that no one ever yet ascended the Ararat of the Armenians. : ARZ-ROUM. We arrived at Arz-roum, after riding fifteen miles on a bearing of W. over a chalky road. The city presents itself in a very picturesque manner; its old minarets and decayed turrets rising abruptly to the view. Our baggage was carried to the custom-house, notwithstanding all our remonstrances and claims of privilege. The caution of the Turks, MONTHLY MAG. No. 236. though in this instance unnecessary, was not unjustifiable; for a former Persian embassador had concealed merchants in his suite, who, under his name, passed large quantities of fine goods. Arz-roum is built on a rising ground: on the highest part is the castle, surrounded by a double wall of stone, which is chequered at the top by embrasures, and strengthened here and there by projections, in the fashion of bastions, with openings fit for the reception of cannon. It has four gates, which are covered with plates of iron. The whole is well built, and to me does not appear the work of Musselmans. A ditch runs by it to the S. W.; near it is a tannery: and further on is a row of blacksmiths' forges, which seemed in good employ. In this direction (N. E. of the town) is the customhouse, a spacious building. The pa cha's residence has a large gate opening into a court-yard. The houses are in general built of stone, with rafters of wood, and terraced. Grass grows on their tops, and sheep and calves feed there; so that, when seen from an eminence, the roofs of the houses can hardly be distinguished from the plain at their foundation. I walked through most of the bazars; few are domed, the rest are terraced, like the dwellings, but affording a common road for foot-passengers, who ascend by a public flight of steps. Whereever a street intervenes, a bridge is thrown over, and the line continues uninterrupted. The shops in the bazars are well stocked, and the place exhibits an ap pearance of much industry. The streets are mostly paved; but, as in Turkey, in that manner which is more calculated to break the passenger's neck than to ease his feet. There are sixteen baths, and one hundred mosques; several of the latter are creditable buildings, the domes of which are covered with lead, and or namented with gilt balls and crescents. This is the present state of Arz-roum: its remains prove that it must have been still more considerable. Every thing attests the antiquity of the place; the inhabitants indeed date the foundation from the time of Noah, and very zeal ously swear that some of their present structures were contemporary with the patriarch: with less hazard of truth, or rather with much appearance of probability, they aver that others were the work of the Giaours, or Infidels. One in particular is attributed to the latter origin; it consists of an arched gateway, curiously worked, all in strong stone, st 4 I tuated tuated N. W. in the castle, and close to a decayed minaret of ancient structure. Yet many of the older fabrics appear, by the true Moresque arch, to be certainly of Saracenic origin; and many of the remains of mosques resemble those buildings in Persia, with curious bricks, and lacquered tiles, which were raised in the first ages of Mahomedanism. In all those at Arz-roum, I observed a round tower, with a very shelving roof, covered all over with bricks. There are still erect several minarets, obviously works of the early Mussulmans. Near the eastern gate of the castle are two of brick and tile, and a gate (with a Saracenic arch and a Cufic inscription) and many strong stone buildings around, the remains of the fine portico of a mosque. To the east of the town is an old tower of brick, the highest building in Arzroum, which is used as a look-out-house, and serves as the tower of the Janizaries in Constantinople, or that of Galata. There is a clock at the summit, which strikes the hours with sufficient regularity. In Arz-roum there are from four to five thousand of the Armenian, and about one hundred of the Greek, persuasion: the former have two churches, the Jatter one. There are perhaps one thousand Persians, who live in a caravanserai, and manage, by caravans, the trade of their own country. Trebisond is the port on the Black Sea, to which the Commerce of Constantinople is conveyed. The Turkish inhabitants of Arz-roum are fifty thousand families. This amount of the population I give from the authority of a well-informed Armenian; but as all such details in a country so ill-regu. lated are exceedingly suspicious, I have already taken the liberty to deduct more than one-third from the number of Turkish families in the original estimate. But the reduced statement still leaves in Arz roum, at the rate of five persons in a family, a total of two hundred and fitty thousand persons, besides Armenians. The climate of Arz-roum is very changeable, and must in winter be piercingly cold. It rained throughout the whole of the 19th; but the clouds dispersed on the morrow, and discovered the adjacent hills overspread with snow. The high lands, which arise from the plain around, attract constant thunderstorms: the elevation, indeed, of the whole region from the base of the sea is itself very considerable, and is sufficient to account for the cold. CREATING A PACHA. In our passage through the woods we met three tatars going in great haste to Arz-roum, bearing to Emin Aga the news of his having been created a pacha. They told that they had then been seven days from Constantinople. Their errand is called carrying the mudjdéh, which is merely a verbal notification of the appointment, and which very frequently proves false; for the tatar who is the bearer of it generally gets it from the capi kiayah or homme d'affaires of the great man in the province, and then takes the chance of the news proving false af terwards. As soon as the tatar arrives, he is carried immediately into the presence of the person whose new dignity he announces, and simply informs him of his promotion. If the news which he brings prove correct, he receives perhaps one thousand piastres, and the succeeding tatars (for there are frequently twenty who set off on similar expeditions) get sums in proportion to their early or tardy arrival. The person, indeed, who on these occasions secures the highest prize, is generally he who brings the pelisse of office, which is the common mode of investiture in Turkey. On the present occasion we were told by the tatars that the pelisse was actually on the road. BORDERS OF THE BLACK SEA. The whole country through which we passed, presented the luxuries of a gar den, with the grandeur of a forest, Flowers of all hues embellished the slopes of the rich pasturage, and embalm ed the air with their aromatic odours. I never saw spring so luxuriant, so exuberant, as it was in these regions. At the bottom of every valley invariably runs a stream, the progress of which is marked by the trees and by the fertility which borders it, and which accompanies it in all its windings. The soil is of a fine red earth; and, when occasionally turned up by the plough, breaks the mo notony of the universal verdure that now covers the country, and contrasts admirably with the splendid brilliancy of its tints. The corn on the summit of the mountain was about a foot high, but in the valley was much more advanced, The great cultivation consists in barley, besides many fields of rye, the latter indeed in many places grows wild, and ip discriminately with other plants. Wheat does not appear to be one of the necessaries of the inhabitants, for almost all the bread which we ate was made of barley. barley. Great numbers of pear-trees border the road, with pines of a form most picturesque, and presented often in the most striking views. The pencils of an hundred artists would not accomplish in as many years the task of delineating all the landscapes which this country affords. The inhabitants are as well adapted for the painter as their country, and would add new interest to the charms of the picture. Proceeding further, we entered the great tract of cultivation and gardens, more immediately surrounding the town, and certainly constituting one of the finest spots which I can recollect in Turkey, or indeed in any other country, Plane trees, poplars, fruit trees of every denomination in the thickest profusion, intermixed with corn-fields, and enlivened by the murmuring of a thousand streams, formed the fore-ground of the view. We came to a second torrent which flows through the gardens with great precipitation and noise, and adds its waters to the first. The heat was that of summer; the corn had lost its green tints, and was ripening into yellow. Such was the difference of our elevation since the preceding day; our descent to Carahissar indeed had been gradual for nearly four hours. PROPERTY OF GRASS. We had not, however, long taken possession of our station, and our cattle had not long indulged on the fat pasture that extended itself around, before a party of armed Turks, some on horsehack and some on foot, came to us and desired us to withdraw our horses from the grass, for it was the property of their village. This startled the Persians, who swore that the grass was common property, for that it was the gift of God, and that their horses had as much right to feed upon it as any other: the Turks, however, soon made them understand, that the usages of their several countries differed in this respect: one of them, at the same time, reinarking," You might as truly say, that corn, goats, cows, and sheep, are common property, for they are all, as well as grass, the gifts of God." The peasants here, indeed, take much pains with their grass, which they cut and dry into hay, and store up for the winter: whereas in Persia, grass is unappropriated; and even barley is open to the King's people; for we used to turn our horses into the barley-fields, where, in the King's name and right, they de. voured all around, while the poor cultivator did not dare to say a word to us. We were no longer in Persia, and therefore obeyed the summons; and departed, an hour after sunset, to seek a fresh pasturage. AMASIA. Amasia is situated in the recess of an amphitheatre of strong-featured lands, which arise almost abruptly from the banks of a beautiful stream, the Tozzan Irmak, that winds majestically at their roots. The houses are built on either side, on the gradations of the declivities; and the town extends itself all around. On the north, situated in the highest and most conspicuous part of the moun tains, is the castle, which appeared to me much in ruins; and on the same portion of land just upwards from the boundaries of the town, are five very conspicuous monuments cut into the rock. I crossed the river over a stone bridge, and ascended the mountain in which they were excavated, escorted and guided by a young Turk. We passed by the ruins of a fort, built upon a projecting part of the range, and came to three excavated chambers. The first has a triangular ornamented front. The others have platforms before them, and a vestibule cut into the rock behind. We then proceeded on towards the left, and arrived at the two largest excavations. A path of about three feet in breadth, cut deep within the front of the mass into the appearance of a covered gallery, and guarded by a parapet wall of solid rock leads along the side of the mountain. Qne of these monuments is a mass of hard granite, twelve paces square, severed completely from the mountain by an interval (about four feet broad) all around and above it, and excavated into a chamber. The other contiguous and last monument has no passage behind or around. These chambers are said to have been the retreats of St, Chrysostom; but I could discover no inscription upon them, which might throw any light upon the subject. In the castle above, indeed, my young conductor told me there were not only inscriptions but sculptures; but my time would not permit me to ascend, and I had now only a momentary leisure to enjoy the beauty of the view; where was the town arranged all about me, the river winding at my feet and struggling under numerous water-wheels, and the whole scenery enriched by the last rays of the setting sun. The minarets of 412 many many mosques (of which one near the river is a very fine building) break the sameness of the flat-tiled roofs. The inhabitants of Amasia are distin guished for their urbanity and attention to strangers; and their women particu. larly are celebrated as the fairest and most engaging of Asia Minor. Of this I had but a single and chance opportu nity to form a judgment: in riding through the streets, I saw an unveiled female, who was joking at the door of her house with a black slave girl, and who was more beautiful than any whom I had long seen; nor as I passed did she shrink from my observation, for our curiosity was equal. We had a lodging assigned to us in the dwelling of an opulent Turk, close on the banks of the river. He had three brothers who lived in three houses contiguous to his own, and who severally came to pay their respects to us. They were all fairer than any Turks or Asiatics whom I had ever seen. Their manners were peculiarly mild and agreeable, and they treated us with the greatest civility. They spoke in raptures of their own city, although none of them had ever seen any other place. PERSIAN OPINIONS OF TURKEY. In a short time after my arrival, the Persian envoy and his suite rejoined me at Constantinople. The splendour of the scenery, and the great novelty of every object about that city, did not seem to strike them with the surprise that I had expected. Few people are more sensible than they are to any thing that is new and extraordinary, and few more curious and inquisitive. I could therefore only attribute their apparent indifference to the downright jealousy which they entertain of the Turks. Often, when struck with the beauties of the very fine tracts of country which we were passing, I have attempted to make them join in my feelings of admiration, they nerely yielded a cool assent; always endeavouring to lessen my ardour by saying, "What is the use of such country, if it be without order?" And they considered almost as a gross national insult any comparison between the arid unshaded mountains of Persia, and the splendid foliage and rich vegetation of the Turkish dominions. As, however, they were very keenly alive to the beau ties of nature, and enjoyed much the shade of trees and the refreshing sound of running water; and as such spots recurred constantly during the course of our journey, they could not restrain their expressions of delight, though they al ways added at the same time, "What a a pity this charming country is in the hands of these people! If we had it, (and God grant we shall) what a paradise it would be." I frequently visited the Mirza Abul Hassan, at Scutari. The windows of his apartment had a fine view of the great extent of Constantinople, the Seraglio point, the shipping in the harbour, the palaces of Dolma Baghehe, and part of the Sultan's fleet, (consisting of two three-deckers and five seventy-fours, at their anchorage,) and all the activity spread over the Bosphorus by the numerous vessels of all descriptions rowing about in every direction, altogether forming the most beautiful scene that an imagination the most fertile could pic ture to itself; and, contrasted in the strongest manner with the misery, dullness, and sterility, of Teheran and its surrounding scenery. Whenever I called his attention to it, he seemed to shrink from the observation: and if I talked of the Turkish fleet, he said," who can look at any ships, after he has seen English ships?" Indeed, he was so little disposed to compliment the Turks, that, when the Caimakan, being desirous to inspire him with a grand idea of the naval force of the Sultan, sent a Turkish officer to conduct him near the fleet, the Persian replied, “I have seen English ships much finer than any thing that you can show nie." PREJUDICES OF PERSIANS. From Constantinople we went to Smyrna, where we remained till we quitted Turkey. On the 7th September, 1809, the Mirza and his servants went on board the Success, Captain Ayscough, to proceed to England. The people of Smyrna gathered in crowds to see him. The yards were manned; and he was honoured with a salute of fifteen guns, which (as soon, at least, as it was over) gave him no little satisfaction. He soon accommodated himself to the manner of a ship, sleeping in a cor, and eating with a knife and fork. He did not miss a single opportunity of inform ing himself on every thing which he saw on board; and whatever he learned, be carefully noted in a book. His attendants seldom complained, except The late Persian Envoy in England. sometimes |