with packages, bags of cotton, and couffs of rice. All these objects now distinct, and reflecting a vivid light, now confused and enveloped in a halfshade, exhibited a genuine scene of the Arabian Nights. It wanted nothing but the caliph Haroun al Raschid, the vizir Giaffar, and Mesrour, the chief of the black eunuchs.

I then recollected for the first time, that I was. treading the plains of Asia; a quarter of the globe which had not yet beheld the traces of my steps, nor, alas! those sorrows which I share with the rest of mankind. I felt impressed with profound respect for this ancient soil, the cradle of the human race, the abode of the patriarchs; where Tyre and Babylon reared their haughty heads; where the Eternal called Cyrus and Alexander; and where Christ accomplished the mystery of our salvation. A new world lay open before me: I was going to visit nations to which I was a stranger; to observe different manners and different customs; to behold other animals, other plants, a new sky, and a new nature. I should soon pass the Hermus and the Granicus: Sardis was not far distant: I was advancing towards Pergamus and Troy. History unfolded to me another page of the revolutions of mankind.

To my great regret I left the caravan behind. In about two hours we reached the banks of the Hermus, which we crossed in a ferry. It is still the turbidus Hermus; but I know not whether its sands yet continue to yield gold. I beheld it with

1

pleasure; for it was the first river, properly speaking, that I had met with since I left Italy. At day-break we came to a plain bordered with hills of no great elevation. The country exhibited an aspect totally different from that of Greece; the fields were agreeably diversified with verdant cotton trees, the yellow straw of the corn, and the va`riegated bark of the mastick, while camels and buffaloes were grazing here and there. We left Magnesia and Mount Sipylus behind us; so that we were not far from the fields of battle where Agesilaus humbled the pride of the great king, and where Scipio gained that victory over Antiochus which opened a way for the Romans into Asia.

At a distance on our left we perceived the ruins of Cyme, and had Neon Tychos on our right. I was tempted to alight from my horse and to walk, out of respect for Homer, who passed over the same ground.

"Some time afterwards the unfavourable state of his affairs induced him to go to Cyme. Having set out, he crossed the plain of the Hermus, and arrived at Neon Tichos, a colony of Cyme: it was founded eight years after the latter. It is said that being in this town, in the house of a smith, he there recited these verses, the first that he ever composed :--- O ye citizens of the amiable daughter of Cyme, dwelling at the foot of Mount Sardene, whose summit is covered with woods that yield a refreshing shade, and who drink the waters of the divine Hermus, sprung from Jupiter, have compas

sion on the poverty of a stranger, who has no home in which to lay his head!'

"The Hermus runs near Neon Tichos, and Mount Sardene overlooks both. The smith, whose name was Tychius, was so pleased with these verses, that he determined to receive him into his house. Full of commiseration for a blind man reduced to the necessity of begging his bread, he promised to divide with him what he had. Melesigenes having entered his shop, took a seat, and some of the citizens of Neon Tichos being present, he shewed them a specimen of his poetry: it was the expedi-, tion of Amphiaraus against Thebes, and the hymns in honor of the gods, Each expressed his sentiments upon them, and Melesigenes having thereupon pronounced his opinion, his auditors were filled with admiration.

"As long as he remained at Neon Tichos, his poetry supplied him with the means of subsistence. The place where he was accustomed to sit when he recited his verses was still shewn in my time. This spot, which was yet held in high veneration, was shaded by a poplar that had begun to grow at the time of his arrival."*

Since Homer had a smith for his host at Neon Tichos, I need not be ashamed of having had a tinman of Smyrna for my interpreter. Would to Heaven the resemblance were as complete in every other respect, were I even to purchase the genius

*Life of Homer.

of Homer at the expence of all the misfortunes with which the bard was overwhelmed!

After a march of several hours we ascended one of the ridges of Mount Sardene, and arrived on the bank of the Pythicus. We halted to allow a caravan that was crossing the river to pass. The camels, each fastened to the tail of the other, did not commit themselves to the water without resistance; they stretched out their necks, and were drawn along by the ass that headed the caravan. The merchants and the horses had stopped opposite to us, on the other side of the river, and a Turkish woman was sitting by herself covered with her veil. We crossed the Pythicus in our turn, below a wretched stone bridge, and at eleven o'clock we reached a kan, where we baited our horses.

At five in the evening we pursued our journey. The country lay high, and was tolerably well cultivated. We saw the sea on our left, I observed for the first time some tents belonging to Turcomans; they were composed of black sheep-skins, and reminded me of the Hebrews and the pastoral Arabs. We descended into the plain of Myrina, which extends to the gulf of Elea. An old castle, called Guzel Hissar, crowns one of the summits of the mountain which we had just left behind. At ten at night we encamped in the midst of the plain. A blanket which I had bought at Smyrna was spread upon the ground. I lay down upon it, and went to sleep. On waking some hours afterwards, I beheld the stars glistening over my head, and

heard the shouts of the camel-driver conducting à distant caravan.

On the 5th we mounted our horses before it was light. Our road led over a cultivated plain; we crossed the Caicus, at the distance of a league from Pergamus, and at nine in the morning entered the town, seated at the foot of a mountain. While the guide led the horses to the kan, I went to examine the relics of the citadel. I found ruins of the walls of three edifices, the remains of a theatre and a temple, perhaps that of Minerva; and remarked some fine fragments of sculpture, among others a frieze adorned with garlands, supported by the heads of oxen and by eagles. Pergamus lay below me to the south; it resembled a camp composed of red barracks. To the west stretches a spacious plain bounded by the sea; to the eastward extends another plain, bordered in the distance by mountains; to the south, and at the foot of the town, first appeared cemeteries planted with cypresses, then a tract cultivated with barley and cotton; next two large tumuli; after which came a border of trees ; and lastly a long high hill which intercepted the view. I perceived also to the north-west some of the windings of the Selinus and Cetius; and to the east, the amphitheatre in the hollow of a valley. As I descended from the citadel, the town exhibited the remains of an aqueduct and the ruins of the Lyceum. The scholars of the country assert that the latter edifice contained the celebrated library.

But if ever description was superfluous, it is