he lived too long; they accused him to the Sultan of intending to escape, with his fortune, to Russia; they obtained a decree of death against him; and he was instantly taken and hung. At Naples, in Romania, they have this law, which is most religiously observed; that whoever sees a Greck ill-treated, struck, and overpowered, and gives him succour, is unworthy the name of Mussulman, and is cursed of the prophet. So far, indeed, are they from lending assistance, that when they see a mangled victim fall and expire, they cry out bravo! bravo! The Grecks take the greatest pains to conceal their daughters, and to remove them to the mountains; and, horrible to add, their sons also, if comely and attractive. At times, the inhabitants of Constantinople abstain from fish, from the apprehension that they feed upon human flesh, as the coast from the capital to the Dardanelles is covered with dead bodies.' If this picture, of which we have copied only parts, be accurately drawn, (and it is but too consistent with all other representations,) shall we wonder that the present missionary reports that the Greeks of Albania, Romelia, the Morea, and Livadia, sighed with impatience for the arrival of Bonaparte? The Greeks, he says, are ready for freedom, and the sentiments of their ancestors have revived in their bosoms. Romelia, we are told, contains 300,000 Greeks capable of bearing arms, who would join any christian power that would invade the country: but (it is in course added) they would give the preference to the French, and particularly to Bonaparte and the army of Italy.-For the sake of humanity and letters, we wish that their emancipation was effected, but that any other power than France should perform the work of deliverance. Woe be to England, and to Europe, if France be ever strong enough to accomplish the undertaking! We mean not to say that the achievement is in itself difficult; for, if other governments would have lain still, or had not dared to stir, it possibly might have been effected as easily as this missionary has stated. According to him, 12,000 French commanded by Bonaparte, assisted by the Greeks who would have joined them, and two or three frigates in the gulph of Lepanto, to cut off the passage of the Albanian Turks; together with six sail of the line in the bay of Naples of Romania, to hinder the arrival of reinforcements from other parts of the Turkish empire; would have formed all the force that was necessary in 1797 to recover Greece from the Turks. To turn now from political speculations to particulars of a more literary nature. We are told by these travellers that the isle of Cerigo, the antient Cytherea, was peculiarly adapted by its air, climate, and other physical qualities, for the worship to which it was formerly dedicated. On their arrival in it, they met with a self-taught universal scholar, who pos sessed sessed a valuable antient MS. of Plato; and interesting details of the ruins of Scandia, the result of his own researches. They requested to obtain the one and to copy the other, but experienced an absolute refusal. On the summit of the hill Aplunori, we are told, are the ruins of a temple of Venus Aphrodite; the scite being fenced in by four square plantations, towards the four cardinal points. The travellers there found several inscriptions; an exquisite engraving, on marble, of Venus setting a crown on the heads of two young lovers; and trees with characters cut in them, now almost obliterated: but, in one instance, by the aid of a magnifier, they decyphered the words CYMION ATAAIACEOC, symbol of rejoicing. The scite of the temple commands a most enchanting prospect; over-looking the whole of the island, the Morea, and the Archipelago, as far as the eye can reach. It is also said that here is a family, in which the eldest male succeeds to the possessions, on the conditions of living single, guarding the sacred summit, and keeping up the plantations. This keeper scarcely ever quits the spot, and allows no one to visit it; the present travellers being indulged only because they belonged to the great nation: but, even though they possessed this important privilege, the hermit, on introducing them, is said to have addressed supplications to the manes of his ancestors, to deprecate their displeasure. The authors visited the ruins of Gythium, the famed Spartan sea-port; one half of which is covered by the sea, but visible under its waves, and the other is on dry land. They state its circumference to be about twelve miles.-Its harbour must have been completely sheltered, and impregnable both by sea and land.-Among the curiosities, is a sort of amphitheatre cut out of a rock; a very remarkable defile which could not have been formed without incredible labour. Several inscriptions and other curiosities are also mentioned as having been discovered by these visitors. A statue of Liberty, taken out of the ruins of the temple of Victory, in the possession of the ex-Bey of Maina, they begged as a present for Bonaparte; it was given to them, and is now in his cabinet. The goddess holds a long pike in her right hand, and in her left a code mounted with a laurel crown. The device is, vín, lavalos.!! Other antique specimens are described by these travellers: but we shall hesitate to give implicit credit to their accounts, until they are confirmed by fresh testimony: at present, we set *The D. de Choiseul Goufier only saw these ruins as he coasted along, and never set foot on the scite of them. little value on them, except as far as they may furnish hints for future inquiries. On the whole, as we before said, though these desultory volumes contain much curious information, it must be received with considerable allowances; and the spirit which they manifest is of a nature that must excite the strongest disapprobation. ART. V. Voyage de la Propontide et du Pont-Euxin, &c. i. e. Voyage to the Propontis and the Euxine, with a general Chart of both these Seas; a topographical Description of their Coasts; an Account of the Manners, Customs, and Commerce of their Inhabitants; a particular Map of the Plain of Brussa in Bithynia, that of the Thracian Bosphorus, and that of Constantinople; and a Description of the antient Monuments and modern Edifices of that Capital. By J. B. LE CHEVALIER, Member of the Free Society of Sciences and Arts at Paris; of the Academies of Edinburgh, Göttingen, Cassel, and Madrid. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1800. Imported by De Boffe, London. THE author of this work is already well known by his publication on the Troade, or the plain of Troy, and for his profound acquaintance with the literature of the antients. He now presents the public with a description of a country on which, as he justly observes, nature has been peculiarly lavish of her bounties: though the inhabitants of it, while they exhibit the features of a noble character, have not hitherto been able to acquire the arts of political economy; and, probably, from the nature of their government, will long be retarded in their progress towards the attainment of that science, which is so necessary to the prosperity of nations. If the Propontis and the Euxine,' says M. LE CHEVALIER, were in the possession of a people sufficiently enlightened to understand the advantages of so valuable a property, and industrious enough to reap the benefit of them, Constantinople might become the emporium both of Europe and of Asia. Her suburbs, while they extended southwards to the extremities of the Propontis, would be bounded by the Euxine on the north; as will appear from an inspection of the map, and observing the immense number of towns, following in almost an uninterrupted succession from the origin of the Bosphorus to the Egean sea; towns at present, indeed, nearly deserted, their opulence having vanished with their industry but the name of every one of which calls to our minds some momentous recollection, and has deserved and obtained a distinguished place in the records of history.' As As a particular description of all these places would, however, have swelled this performance to an enormous size, the author principally confines himself to Constantinople; annex-, ing an account of the Propontis and the Euxine, to enable his readers to judge of the advantages of that capital over all the cities of the world. In the attainment of his pursuit, he had many difficulties to encounter; and a great many more would. have occurred, but for the interest, the influence, and the advice of M. de Choiseul Gouffier, at that time ambassador of France at the Ottoman Porte. This is the only circumstance stated, by which we discover the period when this excursion was performed. The voyage of the Propontis and the Euxine is divided into five parts the first containing charts and descriptions of the Propontis, of the plain of Brussa in Bithynia, and what the author calls a picture of the Hellespont; the second, a chart of the Thracian Bosphorus, with topographical particulars of its shores; the third, the antiquities of Constantinople; the fourth, a map of that capital and the description of its modern structures, interspersed with historical quotations from Gibbon, Cantemir, Delacroix, and other celebrated writers. The geographical remarks and observations, composing the fifth part, are chiefly from the pen of Col. Lafitte, lately deceased. We shall present our readers with a few extracts from this elaborate and entertaining work. I traversed at several times (says the author) and in various directions, the shores of the Propontis and the canals by which it communicates with the two adjacent seas: but, for the sake of method and precision, I shall here invert the order of my observations. It is of little consequence what route the traveller has taken, if the objects which he describes are faithfully exhibited. On the northern shore of the Propontis, three leagues from the mouth of the Bosphorus, I found a lake about a league in diameter, called by the Turks Kutchuk-Tchekmedge (the little bridge). In the generality of maps, a very imperfect idea is given, both of this lake and of that named Boiuk Tchekmedge (the great bridge), lying three leagues farther, and of twice the diameter of the former. These two lakes have unquestionably been gulphs of the Propontis; and the marshes, which now separate their mouth from the sea, have been gradually accumulated by the rivers falling into them. This hypothesis is farther confirmed by the observation which I made at Cizicum, and at the lake of Nicca, that the waters of the Propontis retreat by insensible degrees; and that the bed of that sea will hereafter be filled up, as well as those of the Euxine and the Baltic. Strabo, lib. i.' The The mouth of Boiak Tchekmedge is crossed by three magnificent bridges, which Meletias, the geographer, affirms to have been constructed by Solyman*. • On entering the town of Selivri, I had an opportunity of being present at a sight which I had in vain endeavoured to procure during the fifteen months which I spent in Constantinople. A Dervise was introduced into a company of Turks and Greeks among whom I happened to be. His figure, from leanness and melancholy, was truly hideous. His first action was that of taking off his clothes, laying his kalpact on the ground, after having brought it to his forehead; then, taking a scourge, consisting of little iron chains, which he wore at his girdle, he threw it repeatedly up in the air, catching it in his hand with dexterity similar to that of our buffoons at a Country fair. At the instant when all were expecting to see him exercise his scourge in the flagellation of his own skin, be balanced himself with his bare belly across the edge of a sabre, held at the extremities by two other Dervises; and remained in that terrifying posture at least a minute: after which he applied a red hot iron to his tongue, and pierced his arms, his eye-lids, and his cheeks, with sharp-pointed instruments; so that the blood trickled down his beard. Incited by the applause of the spectators, and encouraging himself to trials each successively more cruel than the other, it is impossible to say when he would have stopped, had not the company, at length satisfied or rather shocked at his extravagances, intreated him to desist. At some distance inland from Selivri, I traced the ruins of that long wall, Macron-Teichos, which was raised by the inhabitants of Constantinople for the defence of their city against the irruption of the barbarians; and which extended from Selymbria on the Propontis, to Philea on the Euxine; that is, being about 420 stadia in length. The city of Heraclia, which the Turks corruptly call Reklia, is situated, like Selivri, on the borders of the Propontis. This city, formerly the most considerable of Thrace, was founded in the year of Rome 153; and in it are still seen the remains of an amphitheatre, and of the magnificent palace built by Vespasian. On my visit to the port of Rodosto, I was witness to a scene which may serve to give a just idea of the despotism of a conquering over a vanquished people.-Two small boats were sailing towards the shore, at a nearly equal distance from it, and seeming to contend which should reach it first. One was manned by Turks and the other by Greeks. The bowsprit of the former having got foul of the rigging of the other, a Greek sailor ran forwards to disengage it; when the master of the Turkish boat got up in a rage, and, laying hold of an oar, knocked down the Greek with it; who suffered himself to be killed, without offering the least resistance ‡. I have gone both by sea and land from Rodosto to the mouth of the Hellespont. Keeping in with the coast by sea, I surveyed with pleasure the towns of Ganos, of Miriophito, of Peristasis, and Palio Meletion Geographia, pag. 422." + Or cap.' Patino, |