104 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



of which she reserves for, the coast, and plunge each 

 morning into the brine with an unsmarting skin ; and 

 if you be a genuine lover of the picturesque, you will 

 be no less eager to seek it among the fantasies of 

 human society than among the rocks and crags of a 

 landscape. 



So thought I and my two friends as we sat smoking 

 the chibouque of reflection, at that best of Smyrna's 

 cafes, on the French quay. We were unanimous on 

 the conclusion that Smyrna had no earthly right to 

 the title of a Turkish city, except the accident of its 

 happening to be in Turkey. You may go half over 

 the place and meet not a single Turk, except those 

 wonderful fellows, the porters, whose herculean 

 powers have been so often noticed ; or perhaps friend 

 Hassan, the chief of the police, making a progress, 

 with some couple of grim attendants. In fact, in the 

 motley of its society, if any one colour prevail, it is 

 that of France : for among all decent people her lan- 

 guage is spoken, and in all reunions of pretension 

 her colonists are the more numerous body. The 

 Greeks, to be sure, are in great plenty, but they 

 occupy chiefly the lower grades. And as it so hap- 

 pens that the Sisters of Charity have here an estab- 

 lishment, and maintain, with much ability and dili- 

 gence, a female school, the only one in the place 

 and that the Lazarists are equally sedulous in their 

 province, it seems not unlikely that Smyrna will be- 

 come entirely French in spirit, so far as the upper 



