The City of Philippopolis is situate on one of the three little Hills, disjoyned, and, as it were, rent from the rest of the Mountains, and is, as the Grace of those little Hillocks. While we were at Philippopolis, we saw Rice growing like Wheat, in the watry and marshy Grounds. The whole Plain, about the Town, is full of little round Hills of Earth, which the Turks say, were raised on Purpose, as Monuments of the frequent Battles fought in those Fields, and the Graves such as were slain there. From hence, leaving the River Hebrus something on the Right, and Mount Hæmus, which runs forth into Pontus, on the left, at last we passed over the Hebrus on a famous Bridge, made by Mustapha, and so came to Hadrianople, which the Turks call Endrene.
This City was formerly called Orestia, before the Emperor Hadrian inlarged it, and called it by his own Name. It is seated at the confluence of the River Mariza or Hebrus, and the two small Currents of Thinsa and Harda, which there meeting in a joint Stream run into the Egean Sea. This City is not very large within the Walls; but, if you take in the Suburbs, and the Buildings which the Turks have added without, it is very capacious.
We staid but one Day at Hadrianople, and then went forward on the last Stage of our Journey towards Constantinople. In my Way thither there grew abundance of Narcissus’s Hyacinth’s, and (as the Turks call them) Tulips, which we beheld, not without Admiration, that in the midst of Winter, which is not favourable to such Flowers in other Countries, the Ground should be so garnished by them. As for Narcissus’s, and Hyacinths, all Greece abound with them; and they are so odoriferous, that, by reason of their Multitude, they are offensive to those Heads that are unaccustomed to such Kind of Smells. But the Tulip, hath little or no Smell, but its gaudiness and party-colouredness is its greatest Commendation. The Turks are great Admirers of Flowers, so that, though they are Parsimonious enough in other Cases, yet for a stately Flower, they will not scruple to give some Aspers. And the Truth is, these kind of Flowers, though they were presented to me as a Gift, yet they cost me a great deal of Money; for some Aspers were always expelled in requital. Neither is there any other way of treating with a Turk, but by opening the Purse-strings, as soon as any Christian comes among them; neither must he think to shut them again, till he go out of their Country: While he is there, he must scatter his Coin, and if he get no other Advantage by it, yet it makes them more tractable. For the Turks are so ill-natured, and such under-valuers of all Nations but their own, that without this Open-handedness, there were no more living among them, for Strangers, than in the most desolate and uninhabited Places, by reason of the excessiveness either of Cold or Heat; but with the Bait of Liberality, you may catch a Turk at any Time.
About the mid-way between Hadrianople and Constantinople, there is a little Town, called Chiurli, memorable for the Overthrow which Selimus received in a Battle against his Father Bajazet, out of which he escaped by the Swiftness of his Horse, called Carabonluch, i. e. a Black Cloud, and so fled to the Cham, or the Precopeian Tartar, who was his Father-in-Law.
Before we came to Selimbria, which is a Town standing on the Sea-side in our Way, we saw the Ruins of an old Wall and Ditch, which were made by the later Emperors of Greece, which reached from that Sea to the Danow, to secure all that was contained within that Fortification to the Constantinopolitans, against the Incursions of the Barbarians; and there goes a Story, that when that Wall was a Building, a certain old Man delivered his Opinion to his Wife, viz. That that Wall would not so much secure what was within it, from the Hands of the Infidels, as it would expose and subject it to their Rage and Fury, in regard it would add Courage to the Barbarians to assault it, and weaken the Courage of the Grecians to defend it.
At Selimbria we had a most pleasant Prospect of a calm Sea; and ’twas very pleasant to us to behold the smooth Water, and to gather Cockles on the Shore; yea, to behold Sholes of Dolphins sporting in the Water, which, with the Warmness of the Air, was exceeding delightful. It can hardly be imagined, how mild the Weather was in those Parts, though sometimes it be a little more boisterous at Chiurli; but here there is, as I may call it, a Thracian Gale, and an incredible Sweetness of Air.
When we came near to Constantinople, we passed over two pleasant Arms of the Sea, upon a Bridge built over them. I may safely say, That if those Places were cultivated by Art, as they are naturally pleasant, the Sun never shone on a better Country; but, alas! they seem to mourn for the Neglect put upon them by the insulting Barbarian. Here we had our Fill of choice Sea-fishes, which were even taken in our Sight.
When I lodged in those Inns the Turks call Imaret, I usually observed, that the Cracks of the Walls were all full of Pieces of Paper; and thinking something was the Matter, but not knowing what, I took out some of them, and finding nothing writ therein of any Consequence, I was more earnest to know of the Turks the Reason of their so doing; especially as I had observed the same Thing in other Places of Turkey before. At first they scrupled to tell me, as thinking perhaps that I would not believe them; or else, not being willing to impart so great a Mystery of Things to such an Alien as myself. This made me the more inquisitive, till at last some of them, with whom I became more familiar, told me, That the Turks gave a great deal of Difference to Paper, because the Name of God may be written in it: And, therefore, they will not suffer the least Bit of Paper to lie upon the Ground, but presently they take it up, and thrust it into some Chink or Hole or other, that so it may not be trampled under Foot; and hitherto, perhaps, their Superstition may be tollerable, but mark what follows.
In the Day of Judgment, say they, when Mahomet shall call up his Followers from their Purgatory, (to which they were condemned for their Sins) to Heaven, to be there made Partakers of Eternal Blessedness; there will no Way be left for them to come to their Prophet, but over an huge red-hot Iron Grate, which they must run over bare-foot, (how painfully, you may guess, when you imagine a Cock to skip thro’ hot-burning Coals.) But at that Instant, (believe it if you can!) all those Bundles of Papers, which they have preserved from being trod upon, will immediately appear, and put themselves under their Feet; by which Means they will pass the red-hot Iron-Grate with less Damage; so necessary do they count the Work of saving a little Paper. And, to add to the Story, I remember that my Turkish Guides were once very angry with my Servants, for making use of Paper to cleanse their Posteriors, and thereupon made a grievous Complaint to me of their horrid Offence therein: I had no Way to put them off, but by telling them, ’twas no Wonder my Servants did such strange Things, seeing they also used to eat Swines Flesh, which the Turks abhor. Thus I have given you a Taste of the Turkish Superstition; I shall add, That they account it a damnable Sin, if any of their own People chance (though unwillingly) to sit upon the Alcoran, (which is a Book containing the Rites of their Religion) and, if a Christian do it, ’tis Death by their Law. Moreover, they will not suffer Rose-Leaves to lie upon the Ground, because, as the Ancients did fable, the Roses spring out of the Blood of Venus; so the Turks hold, That it had its Rise from the Sweat of Mahomet.
I came to Constantinople on the 20th Day of January, and there found my Collegues above-mentioned, Anthony Wrantzius and Francis Zay; as for the Grand Seignior himself, he was, at that Time, at the Head of his Army in Asia, and had only left at Constantinople, Ebrahim Bashaw, an Eunuch, as Governor of the City, and Rustan, but deprived of his Vizier-ship; however I gave him a Visit and made him Presents, as being mindful of his former Dignity, and of the fair Prospect there was of his speedy Restitution thereunto.