An immense reservoir, 150 by 75 feet by 30 feet deep, supplied by an aqueduct, impressed me as a very fine work. The theatre also, although totally ruined, is delightfully situated; and the temple, which had been converted into a church, is very interesting. The Calicadnus, although it is on an even bed, is a noble river, wide and rapid, and gives great beauty to the scene. It is unhealthy to drink, which accounts for the existence of the great reservoir.
It is evident that the population of these countries has decreased, and still is decreasing. It has not one-tenth of what it could easily support, and not one-hundredth of what it has supported in past times.
While we were away at Selefkeh a bombard French privateer came into the bay of Seleucia in pursuit of a Turkish boat, and would have fallen into our hands if the captain and pilot had been on board; but the necessary delay before this could be done enabled the Frenchman to get to shallow water, and the Frederiksteen in pursuit ran into four fathoms, and in another five minutes would have been aground. So the bombard escaped.[40]
Anchored off Lingua di Bagascia.—We arrived at a castle named Curco, with another on a rock outside the port, which has an Armenian inscription on it. The one on the mainland, which I take to be the ancient Coricus, is a place of great strength. There is a moat thirty feet wide, cut in solid rock, to disconnect from the land, and double walls and towers. There are many ruins of modern churches and monasteries and numberless sarcophagi of ancient and early Christian times, but the whole place, town and castles, is absolutely deserted.
We were in the boat following the frigate as she proceeded along the coast, when, perceiving ruins on the coast, we disembarked, and found on a striking eminence a Corinthian temple of bad execution which had been converted into a church. Further on was a town, a theatre, and a vast colonnade with a number of important and very perfect tombs. We had, however, to retire to the boat, for the inhabitants were very threatening, and had we been fewer or shown any fear might have fared badly. As soon as we were off in the boat we had a good bathe.
At the Latmus.—Captain Beaufort sent two of his officers ashore to inspect the long aqueduct leading to Eleusa, which we could see from the ship, but the aga, who had at first consented to their going, withdrew his permission, and they had to give it up.
At Pompeiopolis, as we had understood that the Turks of this part of the country were particularly dangerous, I took with me two marines as a guard to visit the ruins. Seen from the sea they presented a truly startling grandeur. The plan of the city is noble in the extreme—one single colonnade passes right through it from the port to the gate leading out into the country, and forty of its columns are still standing. The remainder, making about two hundred, lie as they fell. The town was defended by a fine wall with towers to it, enclosing a theatre and the port. The style of the architecture, which looked so well from a distance, when one comes to see it close is very bad.
Pompeiopolis is quite deserted, but the Turks from the neighbouring villages came in, and, although their appearance was barbarous in the extreme, they were very civil. I imagine the 36 guns and 350 men of the Frederiksteen had to do with this, for I observed that the further we got from the ship the less polite we always found the Turks to be.
We made sail in the evening and anchored off Mersine, at the beginning of the great plain of Tarsous, and put ashore to reconnoitre and pay a visit to the aga with a view to getting horses to go to Tarsous. The aga was very civil and promised we should have the horses we asked for.