TURKEY. 



caravans proceed from this moft central port of the Ori- 

 ental trade to the chief cities of Afiatic Turkey: — 

 Bagdad, the feat of the caliphs, and fcene of many Eaftern 

 fiftions, is now reduced to a town of about 40,000 inha- 

 bitants : — the ancient and celebrated city of Jerufalem is 

 now a mean town, chiefly depending on the piety of pilgrims ; 

 and towards the frontiers of Perfia frequent wars have 

 fpread defolation ; neverthelefs Erzeron, the capital of 

 Armenia, has ftill about 25,000 inhabitants ; but Kars, the 

 extreme town upon the frontiers of Perfia, though tolerably 

 fortified, is an inconfiderable place. The chief articles of 

 commerce in Afiatic Turkey are carpets, rhubarb, and feveral 

 other drugs. The Levant or Turkey trade was formerly of 

 great confequence to Great Britain ; but from the middle 

 of laft century it has been more advantageous to France. 

 The ftate of the Levant trade chiefly carried on at Smyrna 

 appears from the following documents : 



France fends coffee, fugar, indigo, cloths, and cochi- 

 neal. 



England, Ihalloons, muflins, iron, tin, fpices, refined 

 fugars. 



Holland, muflins, India goods, cloths, fpices. 



Auftria, from Triefte, cloths, glafs, hard-vi'are, linen, 

 wood, amber. 



Ruffia, iron, corn, caviare, dried fi(h, furs. 



Italy, filks and velvets, wax and paper. 



European Turkey, wines, filks, tobacco. 



Natoha and Syria, woollens, cottons, filks, drugs. 



Egypt, coffee of Yemen, rice. 



Barbary, dates, woollen caps from Tunis, butter, wax. 



The port of Marfeilles, whi^h carries on the French trade 

 with Smyrna, draws the wool and cochineal from Spain ; 

 but this country has lately began to condudl her own com- 

 merce. Venice, under the Auflrian powar, might become 

 the chief port of the Levant bufinefs. Of the French 

 commerce, the chief flaple is coffee : but this cannot be re- 

 fumed vnth much vigour till France fhall acquire a greater 

 naval power. 



Upon the whole, fays Pinkerton, if the commerce of 

 Smyrna be at prefent valued at fifty millions of franks, 

 the Englifh trade for thirty millions, the Dutch for ten, 

 while France (hares the remaining ten milUons with the em- 

 peror, Italy, and other ftates .ibove-mentioned. 

 . The climate of Afia Minor has been always confidered 

 as excellent. The heat of the fummer is tempered by nu- 

 merous chains of high mountains, forae of which are covered 

 conftantly with fnow. The afpeft of Afiatic Turkey is 

 mountainous, intermingled with fpacious and beautiful 

 plains, which afford pafl;ure to the numerous flocks and 

 herds of the Turkomans. The foil is various ; but the 

 chief agricultural produfts are wheat, barley, and durra. It 

 abounds alfo with grapes, olives, and dates. In Syria the 

 agriculture is deplorable, and the peafants are in a Wretched 

 condition, being fold, as in Poland, with the foil, and their 

 conftant fare being barley bread, onions, and water. 



The principal river of Afiatic Turkey is the Euphrates, 

 the courfe of which maybe ellimated at about 1400 Britifh 

 miles: next in importance is the Tigris, v^hofe courfe is 

 about 800 miles ; and both thefe rivers are navigable to a 

 confiderable diftance from the fea. The third river is called 

 by the Turks Kizil Irmak, the celebrated Halys of an- 

 tiquity, rifing in mount Taurus, and difcharging itfelf 

 into the Euxine fea on the W. of the gulf of Sanfoun : 

 the river Sacaria, or ancient Sangarius, rifes about fifty miles 

 S. of Angora, and joins the Euxine about feventy miles 

 E. of Conftantinople : next in rank is the Maeander, rifing N. 



of Apamsea, and winding its courfe about 250 Britilli miles : 

 the Sarabat is the ancient Hermus, famous for its golden 

 fands. The chief river of Syria is the Orontes, now called 

 Oron or Afi, which runs into the Mediterranean. 



The lakes of Afiatic Turkey are numerous. The moft re- 

 markable are the Van and Urmiah : others are the Dead fea 

 in Syria, fifty miles long, and twelve or thirteen in breadth : 

 that of Rackama, S. of HiOa and the ancient Babylon, 

 about thirty miles long, and flowing into the Euphrates : the 

 Tatta, or Palus Salla of D'Anville, a faline lake about 

 feventy miles long, and one or two in breadth towards the 

 centre of Afia Minor, being the modern Toufla or fait lake : 

 that of Ulubad in Natoha, anciently denominated the lake 

 of ApoUonia, twenty-five miles in circumference, and in 

 fome places feven or eight miles wide, fprinkled with feveral 

 ifles and peninfulas, and the grand receptacle of the waters 

 from mount Olympus : the largeft of thefe ifles is called 

 Abouillona, probably from the ancient name of the city 

 which ftood upon it : and about fifty miles to the N.E. was 

 the lake anciently called Afcanius, now Ifnik. 



The mountains of Afiatic Turkey are of ancient cele- 

 brity : fuch are the Taurian chain ; the Caucafian moun- 

 tains, ranging from the mouth of the river Cuban in the 

 N.W. to the place where the Kur enters the Cafpian in the 

 S.E., and furnifliing various chains, fuch as the Antitaurus 

 of antiquity, and others branching out into Perfia ; mount 

 Taurus, terminating at the Euphrates and defarts of Al- 

 gezira : the chain of Taurus is now called Kurun, and ex- 

 tends about 600 miles E. and W. from the Euphrates to the 

 vicinity of the fliores of the Archipelag9. Thefe and other 

 mountains of Afiatic Turkey are conjeftured to be calca- 

 reous ; while the Caucafus alone alpires to the rank of a 

 granitic or primitive chain. Towards the E. of Armenia is 

 Ararat, properly belonging to Perfia ; and beyond Ararat 

 are branches of the Caucafian chain, to which probably be- 

 longs the mountians of Elwend, or Niphates of antiquity. 

 In Syria, the moft celebrated mountains are Lebanus or Le- 

 banon, and Antilibanus. On the eaftern fide of the Archi- 

 pelago was Olympus (now Kefliik Dag) ; and 140 miles 

 W. of Olympus is mount Ida, the branch of which was 

 called by the ancients Garganus, which gave fource to 

 the Granicus, the Simois, and other ftreams, moft of which 

 direfted their courfe to the N., and extended in weftern 

 prominences to tlie Hellefpont, amidft which was fituated 

 the celebrated city of Troy. Other remarkable mountains 

 on this claffical fliore, as it has been denominated, were thofe 

 of Rhea, Pedafus, &c. &c. S. of the Maeander, the Taurus 

 detaches a chain called Cadmus and Grius, bending towards 

 the ifles of Cos and the Cy clades. The numerous mountains of 

 Afiatic Turkey are frequently clothed with immenfe forefts 

 of pines, oaks, beeches, elms, and other trees ; and the 

 fouthern ftiores of the Black fea prefent many gloomy 

 forefts of great extent. The inhabitants are hence fup- 

 plied with abundance of fuel, in defeft of pit-coal, which has 

 not been explored in any part of Afiatic Turkey. Sudden 

 conflagrations arife from the heedlefs wafte of the caravans, 

 which, inftead of cutting off a few branches, fet fire to a 

 ftanding tree. The extenfive provinces of Natolia, Syria, 

 and Mcfopotamia, have been little acceffible to European 

 curiofity, fincc their redudion under the Turkifli yoke. In 

 Pinkerton's Geography we have a catalogue of thofe plants 

 and trees that have been found wild in the Afiatic part of the 

 Ottoman territory. Several dyeing drugs and articles of 

 the materia medica are imported from the Levant, among 

 which are madder, and a variety called alizari, which grows 

 about Smyrna, and affords a much finer red dye than the 

 European kind; jalap, fcammony, febeflen, the ricinus, 

 6 yielding 



