'Although I cannot write as long a letter as I intended and wish, for lack of time, yet, as there are several vessels in this harbour on the point of sailing for England, I must, after so long an interval, put pen to paper in your behalf.
'By the finish of my last letter to you which I trust was prolix enough I was at Smyrna, and had informed you of my visiting in this country its nobles and princes: and I think mentioned something of a visit I paid to Ali Bey, the Governor of Idun a country to the Nd. of Smyrna, whose capital is Magnesia, where the residence of the Governor is. I twice visited this Prince, and, so much was he pleased the first time, that he invited me to come a second when there was to be a hunt of birds and beasts. On the 13th of September, Forrester the Surgeon, Weatley my 2nd Lieutenant, and myself with a young Armenian as an interpreter and a Janissary for a "Garde du corps," started "au point du jour" from Smyrna, and arrived in the afternoon at Magnesia, one of the prettiest Turkish towns I have seen. Our journey slow, over bad roads, did not afford any circumstances much worth relating. We found our new acquaintances Turk and Christian, both in their way agreeable; the Armenian, young, sensible, and an extraordinary linguist, speaking nine languages though not twenty years of age. The Old Turk, funny, fat and good-natured. The latter part of our journey lay thro' a pass in the mountains from the summit of which the Valley of Magnesia suddenly burst on our view, with the town on the eastern side at the foot of a perpendicular rocky mountain very like the rock of Gibraltar, but if anything higher, more craggy, and bold: the valley that lay before us, bounded on the W. by a ridge of regular round topped hills, and to the Nd. the eye could not reach the extent of this immense plain, which is covered with vines, and fig trees, corn, and tobacco, the best in Natolia. On my arrival, I sent my Janissary from the Kane I put up at to say I was arrived, when an officer from the Bey came, and marched us thro' the street till we stopped at one of the best looking houses I had seen; we were ushered in, and I was then informed we were to live here and that if I did not like it and was not comfortable that I should have another. But I soon found out we could not be better off; the Bey having sent us to the house of the Primate of the Greeks, who was obliged to receive us whether he liked it or not, it being sufficient that a Turk orders it. But in truth, I believe the old Patriarch was very proud of the honor for no hospitality could outdo his: the fatted calf was killed and we feasted sumptuously. Fingers were now called into requisition as knives and forks are no part of the necessaries of these Oriental nations. Such tearing of fowls and tucking up of sleeves! After dinner the water, and then the Alpha and Omega of all oriental visitings, mornings, noons, and nights, "Coffee and Pipes." During the evening some pretty girls, the daughters of the Old Man, danced before us, those dances which the women of the country are so famous for: tho' none of the most decent yet very curious, some young men playing the guitar and singing, for the song always accompanies the dance. My Janissary was so delighted, that, he swore if he had only had two glasses of wine he would fire his pistols right and left. I felt rather satisfied he had not had the wine he spoke of. We were all fagged enough to find our beds on the floor capital; and the next day we visited the Bey.
'January 16, 1825.—I am now at sea and had intended this letter from Alexandria, and, as I said before, it was to be short; but now I shall send it from Malta, and it is to be long.
'But to resume my story. When we arrived at the palace he was dining in the Kiosk with some of his friends, and we had to wait a little while until the repast was ended when we were ushered in. He received us very haughtily, and in a manner not at all consistent with the kind messages he had sent us. Pipes and Coffee were served, and the conversation was rather slack. At his feet sat one of the most extraordinary figures I ever saw in my life; a countenance more devilish was never given to Dervish before. After we had been seated some time, this man, who had never opened his lips but had eyed us with the greatest attention and ferocity, at length began to mutter, "Kenkalis, Kenkalis, taib ben" ("English, English, I hope you are well"). This was one of those privileged people which in these countries are called Dervishes, who are dreaded and respected by the superstitious, and who afford amusement by their extraordinary antics to others. They have the entrée of all houses great or small, rich or poor, and are never refused food or raiment: it being in itself a crime, to insult or offend all who are in any way extraordinary: the more mad, the more sacred the person. Madness in Turkey is an excellent trade.
'At length I soon discovered how it was that my new friend the Bey was thus: his friends (Turks) rose to depart, so did I but he desired me to sit down again. The moment the Turks had departed he was a new man. I have never been so pleased with any Turk in my life as with Ali Bey. His affability and kindness were European, which, when blended with the handsomest form and face the costume of a Turk and pomp of a prince, made a most agreeable acquisition to my Eastern acquaintance.
'He now began to make his attendants play all sorts of tricks with the Dervish to draw him out; who seemed to be a perfect prince in the art of buffoonery. We were amazingly amused. He now told me he had a grand chasse in twenty-five days' time, and desired that I would come to him on that day, bring my gun, and stay with him a week; nothing could have pleased me more than this offer. And as I lay Gardo in Smyrna, twenty-five days afterwards I again found myself in Magnesia, housed with the old Greek Patriarch a second time. He now sent us down to the village of Graviousken (?) (Infidel Village) where we were well lodged: his cook and household chief accompanied us, and the following day he came himself. Our hunt, tho' not much sport to English taste, yet was most amusing. The magnificence of the horses and riders; their equipage and management of the animal; riding at speed, as tho' they were on the point of being dashed to pieces, against a wall or down a precipice, at once coming to a dead stop. Riding at each other, delivering the jareed, firing their pistols and wheeling short round in an instant, and at speed in the opposite direction. We had greyhounds and killed a few hares. The following days were unfortunately wet; we returned to Magnesia.
'The first visit I paid the Bey this time, I honored him with my full dress for reasons very good, he was not quite sure who I was. It was also necessary that his people should have outward shew, to satisfy them: this I was nearly paying dear for. There is a horrid custom in this country, of paying a certain sum to the attendants of these great people every visit you make. A few piastres had heretofore satisfied, but on leaving, after this Golden Visit, they seized my interpreter the moment he took his purse out, tore it away from him took all he had saying, "they should never see such a man again" and returned him the empty purse. He fortunately had been prepared for such an attack and had a proper sum and no more in his purse, but had it not been for this sagacity, I might have lost all the money I had with me. Our dinner at Graviousken was capital, he had wine for us; fingers were again in requisition, and we were obliged to eat of twenty-six dishes, each brought separately on the table, one after the other, which you had no sooner begun to think good, than it was immediately snatched away and disappeared. After having given to my old Greek some presents of silks for his wife, and caps for his daughters, we returned to Smyrna, where I found H.M.S. Cyrene, Captn. Grace, and soon after arrived Clifford in the Euryalus, who most kindly gave me an opportunity of seeing a great deal of other countries by an order to visit the coast of Syria, &c. &c.
'Oct. 24, 1825.—We passed thro' the Straits of Scio, and on the 25th anchored at Scala Nova. I shall not trouble you with nautical details, as all my remarks, bearings, soundings, &c., which I have carefully taken in this voyage I keep in a distinct remark-book. It is a small town, governed by an Aga, situated on an elevated promontory, with a small island and fort off the point, bad shelter for a winter anchorage. Scala Nova had much interest to me, as I was completely able to appreciate the conduct of the Captain Pacha with regard to his pitiful attempt on the island of Samos, which is distant about twenty miles. This Pacha had 100,000 men at Scala Nova, with a sufficient number of boats and transports to convey them, and about eighty sail of men of war to protect them. Yet he made the attempt to land 3000 men, which I myself was a witness, and they nearly all perished by the musketry of the Greeks. No further attempt was made on the island, the fleet remains to the Northward of Samos, under sail for fourteen days, (fine weather) the Greeks thirty-five sail of small vessels and fireships in the little Bogaz, which separates the island from the main. At length the fleet sail for Mytilene. The troops at Scala Nova know not what to think, no provisions, no water, 25,000 die of famine, the rest in a most pitiable condition, receive orders to return to their homes, massacre, pillage, and plunder the whole way back. Nevertheless, the Turks contrived to lose two small frigates by the fireships of the Greeks. The conduct of the Pacha, and his disgraceful mode of entering Constantinople with about fifty sail of small Greek Boats for the occasion, with a Greek hanging at each mast head, you might have seen from the public prints. My business with the Governor of Scala Nova being settled (having obliged him to release an Ionian Vessel one of his cruizers had captured), Ephesus three hours distant became the next object. Little is now left of this once celebrated city, and the site of Diana's huge temple I think is not to be found. One splendid relic still remains. A part of a fluted Corinthian column, of Parian marble, about 111 feet long, broken; the remainder is gone; but from the diameter, the block forming that part could not have been less than fifty feet; a part also of a huge cornice which was immediately over this column remains, of marble also, weighing about 15 tons. The carved work on the capital and cornice is as fresh as the day the artist finished it, tho' most likely above 2000 yrs. old. Ephesus is thought by many to have been latterly destroyed by an earthquake, and this small relic certainly tends to prove the assertion. On examining this column carefully, I found that the fluting, about half way down, was finished and polished, and a part in the rough. The ancients always finished and polished, after the column was erect. Certainly, some sudden accident must have occurred to have prevented the artist from completing so fine a piece of work, and the manner in which it is broken leads me to suppose an earthquake, without doubt, to have been the cause of the abrupt departure of the chisel from its occupation.
'Leaving Scala Nova, we sailed thro' the little Bogaz, by Patmos when we fell in with some Greek cruizers, on the look out for the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim Pacha, whom we found at Bodrum (?) where we next anchored. Nothing whatever of antient Halicarnassus, or the wonder of the world, here remains! Not a trace, not a vestige! One tower more modern, the base of which appears Roman with a Turkish superstructure, and one block of granite on which is an inscription stating that Caesar mounted his horse from this stone: I would have carried this relic away, but Mr. Arbro, Premier Interprète et Lieutenant à son Altesse Ibrahim Pacha, informed me that he had laid hands on it. Here I no sooner anchored than a number of Maltese captains of merchant vessels, in the employ of the Viceroy of Egypt, came on board to beg my interference with the Pacha as to some grievance they had suffered. I was quite determined I would have nothing to do with these blackguards in the Turkish service; but, on going on shore I could not help feeling immensely enraged at seeing upwards of twenty large Red Ensigns (English), flying on his fleet of Transports, loaded with Turkish soldiers going to carry them to the Morea! I presume the British subject is free to trade as he pleases but, at the same time, that he must take the consequence of his speculations. Whether this large national flag was to be displayed at sea, in a rencontre with the Greek fleet, became a question with me? Whether our ensign was to be borne by vessels actually engaging Greek ships, was also a question I asked myself. And the reply instantly was, "No, it cannot be neutrality." I determined to take the ensigns from them which was done, and having cut the Unions out I gave them back, which I have since been sorry for. In short, I should have taken all the vessels as they were all sailing under false papers, or have taken the flags away altogether and have considered them as they really were, Turkish transports. But I felt it a very delicate affair as Ibrahim Pacha, when I waited on him, declared, that I should be the means of his losing his expedition, and that he trembled for the consequences. He had previously sent his Secretary on board me, to try and talk me over to give back the flags. But it would not do, I saw thro' the whole thing. The fact was, these mercenaries employed in the Egyptian service had refused to proceed any further, their contract having expired. He having exhausted five months in reaching Bodrum (?) from Alexandria wished to throw the whole of the revolt of the Maltese on me, as having taken their colors; they declaring that they could not go to sea in safety under any other flag. He wished to be able to use this pretext to his father, the Viceroy. After about four hours' conversation we parted as we begun, I would not return the colors. We parted however the following day better friends, the revolted vessels were moored in a line before the loyal ones so that those who were willing could not go to sea. He sent for me, and begged me to speak to the Maltese which I did, and desired them to move their ships to let the other Transports pass out. What he said to the Viceroy of Egypt I know not, but be that as it may the old man was very civil afterwards to me in Egypt. I daresay you will think me a great fool for having troubled my head in this affair at all; but really, whether I am right or wrong, I could not bear to see the flag under the Turk, and the vessels bearing it conveying troops to the conquest of the Morea. Much as I dislike the Greek character, yet I love the cause.
'I was not sorry to get clear of Ibrahim and his expedition, as I inevitably saw difficulties would increase and that from the situation of the British subjects violence might be resorted to by the Turk, and that my presence only added fuel to the fire. For while I was there the Maltese grew more and more impudent. However, all since has ended well. The Maltese have been honorably paid off by the Viceroy of Egypt.