28 MEMOIR OF DANIEL H ANBURY. 



of chains overhead, which was not conducive either to 

 quiet thought or literary composition. 



Chios, or Onward now to Chios, one of the many birthplaces of 

 Homer ; and though it may be doubtful whether it was 

 there that the poet first saw the light, certain it is that 

 the island is famous for mastich, grapes, and olives. Now 



Gulf of the travellers approach the magnificent gulf of Smyrna, 

 all along the coast of which the sultana raisin is culti- 

 vated. The scenery is beautiful exceedingly : the green 

 shore contrasting with the lofty rugged -topped moun- 

 tains, covered here and there with scattered ranges of 

 forest. But though Nature is sublime, the country was 

 found in a horrible condition, with bandits close outside 

 the town. 



The richness of the botany of Asia Minor was a suffi- 

 cient compensation for inevitable drawbacks. Smyrna 

 itself has probably not less than 1,500 species in a radius 

 of ten miles. There they saw olives with resin exuding, 

 a sight which is very rare. Fig-packing was going on. 

 Leaving Smyrna, with its wretched town, bad houses, and 

 filthy, narrow streets, they sailed by L'Imperatrice for 

 Bey rut : passed the Ionian and Carian coast to Rhodes, 

 and on Monday (Sept. 24) anchored off Cyprus, in which 



Paphosthe is Paphos, renowned for wine and honey. Next day 



modem _ , . iv-ii-i 



Bafa or Lebanon was in sight as a splendid long ridge rising 

 high out of the eastern horizon. Beautiful is the situa- 

 tion of Beyrut, at the foot of Lebanon, an undulating 

 flat with rocky shore ; the houses all nestling in green 

 foliage of mulberry, ricinus, olive, and fig. Vines, date, 

 acacia, plane, and poplar grow in the little gardens. 



At the H6tel de Bellevue they held conclave about a 

 Dragoman, and selected Habeeb Somah, who had accom- 

 panied the Misses Beaufort. Mounted on most wretched 





