Beauties of the Bosphorus-Summer-Palace of the Sultan-Adventure with an old Turkish Woman-The Feast of Bairam-The Sultan his own Butcher-His Evil Propensities-Visit to the Mosques-A Formidable Dervish-Santa Sophia- Mosque of Sultan Achmet-Traces of Christianity,................ Unerring Detection of Foreigners-A Cargo of Odalisques-The Fanar, or Quarter of the Greeks-Street of the Booksellers-Aspect of Antiquity-Purchases-Charity for Dogs and Pigeons-Punishment of Canicide-A Bridal Procession-Turkish Female Physiognomy,.... 345 The Perfection of Bathing-Pipes-Downy Cushions-Coffee-Rubbing Down- "Circular Justice," as displayed in the Retribution of Boiled Lobsters-A Deluge of Suds-The Shampoo-Luxurious Helps to the Imagination-A Pedestrian Ex- cursion Story of an American Tar, burdened with Small Change-Beauty of the Turkish Children-A Civilized Monster-Glimpse of Sultan Mahmoud in an Ill- Punishment of Conjugal Infidelity-Drowning in the Bosphorus-Frequency of its occurrence accounted for-A Band of Wild Roumeliotes-Their Picturesque Ap- pearance-Ali Pacha, of Yanina-A Turkish Funeral-Fat Widow of Sultan Selim-A Visit to tho Sultan's Summer Palace-A Travelling Moslem-Unex- Natural Statue of Niobe-The Thorn of Syria and itsTradition-Approach to Magnesia -Hereditary Residence of the Family of Bey-Oglou-Character of its Present Oc- cupant-The Truth about Oriental Caravanserais-Comforts and Appliances they yield to Travellers-Figaro of the Turks-The Pilaw-Morning Scene at the De- parture Playful Familiarity of a Solemn old Turk-Magnificent Prospect from The Eye of the Camel-Rocky Sepulchres-Virtue of an old Passport backed by Im- pudence-Temple of Cybelet-Palace of Croesus-Ancient Church of Sardis-Re- Smyrna-Charms of its Society-Hospitality of Foreign Residents-The Marina-The Casino-A Narrow Escape from the Plague-Departure of the Frigate-High Char- acter of the American Navy-A Tribute of Respect and Gratitude-The Farewell, 890 II VAL SUMMER CRUISE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN LETTER I. Cruise in the Frigate United States-Elba-Piombino-Porto Ferrajo-Appearance of the Bay-Naval Discipline-Visit to the Town Residence of Napoleon-His Employment during his Confinement on the Island-His sisters Eliza and Pauline-His CountryHouse Simplicity of the Inhabitants of Elba. I HAD come from Florence to join the "United States," at the polite invitation of the officers of the ward-room, on a cruise up the Mediterranean. My cot was swung immediately on my arrival, but we lay three days longer than was expected in the harbor, riding out a gale of wind, which broke the chain cables of both ships, and drove several merchant vessels on the rocks. We got under way on the third of June, and the next morning were off Elba, with Corsica on our quarter, and the little island of Capreja just ahead. The firing of guns took me just now to the deck. Three Sardinian gun-boats had saluted the commodore's flag in passing, and it was returned with twelve guns. They were coming home from the affair at Tunis. It is a fresh, charming morning, and we are beating up against a light head-wind, all the officers on deck, looking at the island with their glasses, and discussing the character of the great man to whom this little barren spot was a temporary empire. A bold fortification just appears on the point, with the Tuscan flag flying from the staff. The sides of the hills are dotted with desolate looking buildings, among which are one or two monasteries, and in rounding the side of the island, we have passed two or three small villages, perched below and above on the rocks. Off to the cast, we can just distinguish Piombino, the nearest town of the Italian shore, and very beautiful it looks, rising from the edge of the water like Venice, with a range of cloudy hills relieving it in the rear. Our anchor is dropped in the bay of Porto Ferrajo. As we ran lightly in upon the last tack, the walls of the fort appeared crowded with people, the whole town apparently assembled to see the unusual spectacle of two ships-of-war entering their now quiet waters. A small curving bay opened to us, and as we rounded directly under the walls of the fort, the tops of the houses in the town behind appeared crowded with women, whose features we could easily distinguish with a glass. By the constant exclamations of the midshipmen, who were gazing intently from the quarter deck, there was among them a fair proportion of beauty, or what looked like it in the distance. Just below the summit of the fort, upon a terrace commanding a view of the sea, stood a handsome house, with low windows shut with Venetian blinds and shaded with acacias, which the pilot pointed out to us as the town residence of Napoleon. As the ship lost her way, we came in sight of a gentle amphitheatre of hills rising away from the cove, in a woody ravine of which stood a handsome building, with eight windows, built by the exile as a country-house. Twenty or thirty, as good or better, spot the hills around, ornamented with avenues and orchards of low |