Journal of a Visit to Constantinople and Some of the Greek Islands in the Spring and Summer of 1833

E-text prepared by Frank van Drogen, Turgut Dincer, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Transcriber's note: Turkish names seem to be spelled generally in French, which was the Lingua Franca of the period. These have not been corrected. The correct Turkish spellings of some of these names are given at the end of the book.
You have nothing to do, but transcribe your little red books, if they are not rubbed out; for I conclude you have not trusted every thing to memory, which is ten times worse than a lead pencil. Half a word fixed on or near the spot, is worth a cart load of recollection.
Gray' s Letters .
Drawn by Sir W. Gell
Dear Sir,
On quitting Naples, for those scenes which your pen and pencil have so faithfully illustrated, I promised to fill my note book. I now offer you its contents, as a small and unworthy token of my gratitude for the long continued kindness you have shown.
Your faithful and obedient servant,
The Author.
Naples, April, 1835.
The publication of the pages of a journal in the crude and undigested form in which they were originally composed appears so disrespectful to the public, that it requires some explanation. They were written, currente calamo, among the scenes they describe; more as a record of individual adventure, and to fix the transient impressions of the moment for the after gratification of the author, than with any hope of affording amusement during an idle hour, even to those who might feel an interest in all he saw and noted.
The intense curiosity, however, which exists at present to learn even the minutest particulars connected with Greece and Turkey, and the possibility that some of his hurried notices might not be altogether devoid of interest, have induced the author to submit them to the public attention. In so doing, he has preferred giving them in their original state, with all their defects, to moulding them into a connected narrative; his object being not to make a book, but to offer his desultory remarks as they arose; to present the faint outline he sketched upon the spot, rather than attempt to work them into finished pictures.