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that had he had insisted upon my trading there, against the orders of the French consul, the latter would immediately have reported him to Sebastiani, who had so much influence at the Porte, that probably at his request the Aga would have been fined to a very heavy amount. The Grand Segnior being fond of enriching his coffers by these kind of penal exactions on his great officers. I obtained so much, however, from the good will of the Aga, that I should be protected in any of the adjacent ports without the district of the French consul. Accordingly I left my first anchoring place, and went down behind the island of Oulach near the entrance of the gulf. Here it was agreed that we should discharge our cargo, and send it to town in lighters. There are no inhabitants on this island, it being rather a barren piece of ground, three or four miles in extent, producing nothing but furze, some wild flowers, and a few scattering pine trees. On one of these pines our sailors found an eagle's nest, and took from thence an eagle not yet able to fly. This was a hazardous enterprize, for probably the old one would have killed the man who climbed the tree had she returned and caught him in the act, or even if she had seen him afterwards with her young one it would have been extremely dangerous for him. They are a powerful bird, and the extent and force of their talons are sufficient to take off a man's face at one gripe. The people of the country when they attempt to rob one of these nests, go with a party of five or six, and well armed with muskets, to defend themselves. This young bird was kept on board above three months, at which age his wings extended from tip to tip nearly eight feet. We lay at this station only two or three days, and then removed over to the east side of the gulf to a little town and port called Foggia, (anciently I believe Phocia) here we found a safe, snug harbour, secure from any sea, a good depth of water and clean bottom. My friends at Smyrna had proccured me a protection here, from Cara Osman Oglou, and a letter of friendly introduction from him to the Aga of this place. The letter was in three lines and a half, wrote backwards, and instead of a signature had the seal of the Aga's ring. As soon as I anchored I went on shore, and found several Turks sitting under a rough kind of piazza, peaceably smoking their pipes; they took little or no notice of me-this is characteristic of

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Turks, they seem to have no curiosity, take little notice of any thing, and express wonder or astonishment at nothingI showed them my letter, and made them understand that I wanted to go to the Aga. One of them, who appeared to be an officer, who was dressed smart, with stockings of red cloth laced with gold, got up and conducted me into the city, through a stone arch, the town being walled; we passed along some dirty streets introduced to another great officer that could not read. They both seated themselves on a carpet, ordered a slave to bring pipes, looked at the writing of my short letter, then folded up the paper and smoked with silent composure. After their pipes were out, they asked me how long I would stay in this port, what I wanted, &c. and then signified that I might go. Here finished this interview. After I had been returned on board about an hour, the gentleman with the gold laced stockings, came off and said I must come on shore to the Aga. So I went on shore again, and was conducted to a house where I found three great men, if I might judge from their turbans, which were each the size of a half barrel. They were sitting on a rich carpet, and lolled upon cushions which were placed round the sides of the room; and the hall below and antichamber were filled with soldiers in arms and other attendants. One of these three was the Aga, or governor of the place. The officer to whom I had been first conducted, finding that the letter was directed to the Aga had sent it to him, and he immediately sent for me. He received me with civility, asked a few questions, and lifting up t up the letter in his fingers, intimated that that would procure any thing I wanted. So I left him, satisfied that my letter of introduction, though short, was influential and efficacious.

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The houses of the town are no more than miserable huts, the walls of which are rough stone and mud, and from a peep inside of them they appear not much superior either in convenience or cleanliness to our hog-sties. Though, by the way, they have no hogs here, the Turks, like the jews holding swine's flesh in abhorrence. Their principal animal food is mutton, of which they have very good. The breed of sheep are something of the Cape of Good Hope kind, having very large flat tails; these tails are from six to ten inches broad, and almost entirely flat. The Turks seldom make use of larger meat than mutton; one reason for

which, I am told, is their manner of cooking, which does not so conveniently admit of larger meats; their messes are always hashed up fine in cooking, and they eat with their fingers; they know of no such superfluous utensils as knives and forks, and of course a joint of meat is never served on their carpets. They are fond of little sweet messes, sweet meats, preserves, & G smoke their pipes and drink coffee; these are what a Turk regalés upon, and having these, he appears to be contented and happy. They are a serious, sedate, peaceable people, seldom have any disputes, take little notice of what is passing in the world, or about their streets, and never seem much interested in any thing. Load and ant

There are several small burying places near the town (for the Turks never bury their dead within their cities). These Burying places are full of cypress, which give them an agreea Bfe, though melancholy appearance; when a Turk buries a friend he plants a cypress at the head of the grave and another at the foot; these grow up, and thus where we have a barren clustre of tomb stones, they have a forest of cypress trees.

The Turkish women keep themselves much concealed, seldom go abroad, and when they do, they cover their heads with a white veil, which comes over the upper part of their face, and another covers the mouth and chin; thus masked, it is with difficulty they can be known even by their acquaintances, as very little of the face appears except the nose.

Since I have been here I have got plenty of milk, and milk variously modified, as curdled milk, sweet milk, fresh cheese, and cheese-cakes, &c. There are abundance of flocks and herds, and I was quite pleased in having occasion to remark an instance of primitive times and manners in seeing a real shepherd with his appropriate emblems of crook and bag. The crook makes a fine figure in every pastoral story we read, and I could not help tracing the bag up to the royal David, who had one by his side when he slew Goliah. This country also produces a great deal of honey, so that the properties of ancient. Palestine (from which we are not very distant) extends even here, it is a land of milk and honey. Langblond addont not of xia

The camel is the useful beast of burthen here, and it is curious to see with what docility they kneel down to receive and

discharge their loads. They carry a great weight, and the rule with the driver is to load his camel with as much as he can get up with, and then they travel a steady jog of three miles an hour, chew their quid all day, and at night stop to rest. They are called camels here, but they appear to be of that species which naturalists describe as dromedary, having but one hump upon the back, and the upper lip is slit like the hare's. Nature, in creating different sorts of animals, often approaches them together, sometimes even confounds them. There is no small likeness between the camel and the ostrich, and hence the Turks call the ostrich the camel-bird; their heads and necks are much alike, and the very silly movement and expression of these parts in each, are entirely similar.

I have before observed that the Turks are a peaceable, quiet people, and I think this is the stillest place I was ever in. They use no bells or public clocks, and the only noise I have heard here is the braying of an ass, the howling of jackalls, and the cry of a man every day from the tower of the mosque the cry from the mosque tower is regular twice a day, and serves in lieu of a bell to summons the people to prayers. These are all natural sounds; I have not heard the sound of any instrument in the place what a contrast between this and Malta? There the ringing of bells was continual, the striking of clocks every quarter of an hour, and with the rattling of cannon, beating of drums, sound of trumpets, saluting and serenading bands, blind fiddlers, horns, haut-boys, clarionets, &c. your ears are never at rest.

It is an error to suppose that the Turks indulge excessively in women, polygamy is permitted to be sure, but there is not a Turk in a hundred that has more than one wife; they sometimes have a concubine besides, but this is also seldom. They do not like to increase the evils of life, and one woman, they say, is generally trouble enough for one man.

The beauty of the Turkish women has been very much mag. nified, I imagine from the circumstance of their being so concealed. What a lesson this for our females! If they would but realize how prone we are to enhance the value of every thing kept out of sight, they would not be so forward to expose parts of the body which would increase in our estimation by being covered.

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I have occasionally seen several female faces here, but none that had the least claim to beauty. They have a filthy custom of staining their hands, their nails, and also their hair, which hangs in uncomely strings about the face and neck; their dress is unbecoming, loose and flabby; they are kept in a degrading state of servitude, which of course precludes all improvement of their minds; so that without beauty, and a good share of it, they must be entirely uninteresting. Hence we may conclude, that although their prophet has promised to the faithful a paradise of fine women in the next world, a Turkish haram in this is no very desirable resort.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO-THE PRESS.

WHEN We look at the remains of ancient literature that have passed unhurt the ordeal of Gothic barbarism, and reached us untarnished by the gross ignorance of the dark ages; when we recollect the number of literary works that formerly existed and which formed a magnificent monument of Roman and Grecian literature, and at the same time reflect on the endless drudgery, requisite in their formation and compilation, we can never sufficiently admire the prevalency of that taste for science and learning which characterised the ancient republics of southern Europe; never do sufficient justice to the laborious efforts of the scientific portions of those communities, in raising a fabric of learning and knowledge, the vastness and magnificence of which should dazzle and astonish the imaginations of a future world. But eminent as was the genius and numerous the literary acquirements of such as, in those days, were considered men of science, when we reflect upon the absolute impossibility there existed of diffusing the knowledge they possessed through the mass of society, or at least the irremediable inconvenience of communicating a portion of their numerous acquisitions to their more ignorant fellow citizens, we find those great talents and the superabundance of knowledge they possessed, entirely destitute of that general utility which constitutes the essential

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