CHAP. XXI. — Of the WHEN I left Conftantinople, I went to Adrianople, Rodofto, Gallipoli, and fome other places in Thrace; and on the twenty-fourth of July embarked at Gallipoli, and failed to the Dardanels on the Afia fide; it is called twelve leagues; but is no more than twelve miles, being fo far by land from Lamfac near oppofite to Gallipoli. The Hellefpont was fo called by the antients, because Helle, attempting to fwim over here on the ram with the golden fleece, was drowned: the Europeans call it the Dardanels, as well as the castles about the middle of it; the Turks give it the name of Bogas [The mouth or entrance]. The entrance to the Dardanels is now to be computed from the Afia light-house, about a league without Lamfac, and from the Europe light-house, half a league to the north of Gallipoli; the whole length is about twenty-fix miles, the broadest part is not computed to be above four miles over, though at Gallipoli it was judged by the antients to be five miles, and from Seftus to Abydus only feven ftadia; they alfo computed it a hundred and feventy ftadia from Lampfacum to Abydus, feventy from that place to Dardanus, the diftance from which to Rhæteum is not mentioned, which may be twenty, but from Rhæteum to Sigeum was fixty, in all thirty miles and a half, excepting the distance between Dardanus and Rhæteum; fo that it is probable they measured round by the bays on the fea. The land on each fide the Hellefpont is moftly hilly, especially to the weft. About three leagues from Gallipoli the paffage is wide, and the land locking into the fouth, it appears like a large bafon; then follows the narrow ftreight, which is about a league in length; at the fouth end of it are the Dardanel caftles, near the middle of the Dardanel paffage; they have been thought by many to be on the fite of Seftus and Abydus; though fome have conjectured that thefe places were at the north entrance of this narrow paffage, where, on the Afia fide, there is a long mound or rampart, with a barrow at each end, like the remains of a caftle: on the Europe fide there is a hill; and to the north of it is a ruined castle, called Acbafh, which at present is the habitation of a Dervise, and may be fome remains of Seftus; though the paffage over the freight might be to the fouth-east, at fome little distance from it: what induces me to think that thofe towns were here, is the distance mentioned between Abydus and Dardanus, which is eight miles and three-quarters; for the promontory Dardanium, and the city Dardanus, muft have been the cape, called by the Franks cape Berbiere or Berbieri, only a league from the prefent caftle, which fome fuppofe to have been Abydus; the river Rhodius alfo is faid to have been between Abydus and Dardanus, which feems to be the river called Chaie, that falls into the fea at the castle, washing the walls of it when it overflows; fo that if Abydus had been there, it would have been faid that the river, though fouth of the town, fell into the fea at Abydus, and not between that place and Dardanus. Strabo alfo fays, that Abydus is at the mouth of the Hellefpont and Propontis; from which one may argue, that it was rather at the north end of this ftreight towards the Propontis: wherever it was, it is remarkable on account of the bridge which Xerxes made there from Afia into Europe. The Rhodius therefore falling in at the old castle of the Dardanels on the Afia fide, we are to conclude that Cynofema, the tomb of Hecuba, was at the oppofite castle, being defcribed to be over against the mouth of the Rhodius. Abydus was built by the Milefians with the permiffion of Gyges king of Lydia, to whom it was then subject. The people of this place made a ftout refistance against Philip the First of Macedon, and destroyed themselves when they could hold out no longer. The The caftles are fometimes called by the Turks Bogas Hiffar [The castles of the entrance]; but that to the east is called Natoli Efkihiffar [The old Afia caftle]; it is a high square building, encompaffed with an outer wall and turrets; there are fourteen large brafs cannon without carriages on the fea fhore; they are always loaded with ftone ball, ready to fink any ship that would offer to pass without coming to anchor, in order to be fearched: they fire likewise with ball, in anfwer to any fhip that falutes the castles; as this does much damage where they fall, fo the lands directly oppofite commonly pay no rent: there are eight other cannon towards the fouth; I faw among them two very fine ones, one is twenty-five feet long, and adorned with flower-de-luces, which, they fay, was a decoration antiently used by the emperors of the east before the French took thofe arms, and I have feen them in many parts; the other cannon is of brafs, twenty feet long, but in two parts, after the old way of making cannon of iron of feveral pieces; the bore of this is about two feet, fo that a man may very well fit in it; two quintals and a half of powder are required to load it; and it carries a ball of ftone of fourteen quintals*. The town on the north fide of the castle is a mile and a half in circumference, and has in it twelve hundred houses, two hundred of which are Greeks, a hundred Armenians, and fifty of Jews. They have a great manufacture both here and on the other fide, of cotton and fail-cloth; and they make here a fort of ware like that of Delft, which is exported to the value of fifteen thousand dollars a-year; they alfo fend out fome wax, oil, wool, cotton, and cotton-yarn; and build fmall fhips. The town is fituated in a plain, which begins about two miles to the north, and extends to the promontory Dardanium, being about a league broad; I croffed it going near to the east by the river, and went in between the hills to Jaur-Kala, fituated on a high hill; it is faid to have been built in hafte, and did not appear to be of any great antiquity. A French conful refides at the castle of the Dardanels, and a droggerman for the English and Dutch, who is a Jew. The other caftle, called Rumeli Efkihiffar [The old caftle of Romelia], has in it twenty large brafs cannon, one of which is of a great fize; but not fo large as that on the other fide. The town is near a mile round in compafs, ftands on the fide of the hill, and is inhabited only by Turks, who carry on a great manufacture of fail-cloth. At the castle I was with the English droggerman, who fet out with me to the south on the twenty-feventh, in order to fee the fituation of old and new Troy: we went by the fea-fide, and in an hour came to the cape, called by the Turks Kepos-bornou, and by Europeans Cape Berbier or Berbreri, which I take to be the promontory Dardanium of the antients; and I obferved on it a rifing ground, which feemed to have been improved by art, and might be the spot where old Dardanus ftood, which was but a fmall town. Here Sylla and Mithridates met, and made a treaty of peace; fome fay, that Ganymede was taken from this cape; others, from Harpagia, on the confines of Cyzicus and Priapus; there was here alfo a cape called Gyges, probably fome small head of land that might be a part of this promontory. To the north of the fuppofed Dardanus there is a vale, extending fome way to the east, where, probably, was Ophrynium, and the grove of Hector, mentioned near Dardanus, as well as the lake Pteleus; for I obferved that way fome water, which makes it a fort of a moraffy ground. Further to the fouth the high white hills, which run along to the north of the plain of Troy, end at the fea; on fome of these eminences near the fea Rhæteum must have been, which was fituated on a hill; I concluded that it was near a Chriftian village * A quintal is one hundred and ten rotoli of one hundred and forty-four drams. called called Telmefh, and more commonly Jaurcui, which is fix miles from the old caftle, and about three from the fuppofed Dardanus. When I had paffed thefe hills, I faw from the fouth a high pointed hill over the fea, which looked as if it had been fortified, and I judged that it was near weft of Telmefh. The Aiantium, where the fepulchre and ftatue of Ajax were, is mentioned as near Rhæteum on the fhore; and I obferved at the defcent to the plain of Troy a little hillock, on which a barrow was raifed, and there were fome broken pieces of marble about it; but whether this was the tomb of Ajax, would be difficult to determine: we at length came into that famous plain, juft within the mouth of the Hellefpont; it is about two miles broad and four long, from the conflux of the Simois and Scamander, to the fea. To the eaft of this plain is that hill, which, as Strabo obferves, runs along to the eaft between the Simois and Scamander; two chains of hills end on the north fide of the plain, one between the Simois and the river Thymbrius, the other between the Thymbrius and the fea, where the plain ends to the weft at the fea; within the entrance to the Hellefpont there are falterns; and in the plain near the fea, one paffes over ftanding waters on two or three bridges, which are the marfhes that Strabo mentions; as the others are the fea lakes, all which, he fays, were made by the Scamander; he obferves, that this river brings much mud along with it, and has a blind mouth or outlet, which is very true, for the. fea fills the mouth of the Scamander with fand; fo that, as in many rivers in thefe parts, there is no vifible outlet, but a bank of fand being at the mouth of the river, the water paffes through it; unlefs when they are overflowed by great winter torrents, which rife above it; and this is what feems to be meant by a blind mouth; for the Scamander is a very fmall rivulet in the fummer, though the bed of it is wide, and is filled with the winter floods. To the fouth-weft a ridge of low hills runs near the fea, from the Sigean promontory, now called cape Ienechahere, which is at the entrance of the Hellefpont: the antient Sigeum was on this cape, which was destroyed by the Trojans, on account of fome jealoufies they had conceived of the inhabitants: there is now a village on the fpot called Ienechahere [The new city], or more commonly Jaurcui; and there are two Greek churches in it; at one of them I faw the famous Sigean infcription. There is a piece of a farcophagus of white marble near it, on which are fome reliefs of fine workmanship; there is alfo here a mezzo relievo, as big as life, broke off at the hands, and is very finely executed; it is a young man who holds in his hand fome inftrument, which being broke off, appears only as the end of a ftick, which might be the handle of a fpear, on which he is reprefented as looking with a melancholy afpect. This, poffibly, might be defigned to reprefent Achilles (who was had in great veneration here) looking on that fpear with which he had been mortally wounded. To the north-weft of this place, a little lower on the hill, is a large barrow and east of it a lefs, and to the fouth of that another fmall one; and though it is certain that the fultans and their viziers have fuch barrows made by their foldiers in many parts where they pafs, the larger fort for the fultan, and the lefs for the viziers; yet, notwithftanding, I cannot but remark, if I may not be thought to give too much into conjectures, that thefe, poffibly, may be very extraordinary pieces of antiquity, and the great one might be raised over the fepulchre of Achilles, as the other two might be on thofe of Patroclus and Antilochus, who were buried here; and to whom the Trojans paid a fort of divine honours. To the north-west of thefe, under the hill, is the new caftle in Afia, on the fouth fide of the mouth of the Scamander, with a fmall village about it, and a little town in it, being about a quarter of a mile in compafs; in time of peace it is open and neglected, and any one may enter; it has about it fome very fine large brafs cannon, the bores of which are not lefs than a foot in diameter; there are VOL. X. |