TURKEY IN ASIA. ' 9 



of that prophecy, " That Tyre, Queen of Nations, would be a rock 

 for fishers to dry their nets on."* Two wretched fishermen, with 

 miserable nets having just given over their occupation, with very little 

 success, I engaged them, at the expence of their nets, to drag in those 

 places where they said shell-fish might be caught, in hopes to have 

 brought out one of the famous purple fish. I did not succeed; out 

 in this I was, I believe, as lucky as the old fishers had ever been. The 

 purple fish at Tyre seems to have been only a concealment of their 

 knowledge of cochineal, as, had they depended upon their fish for the 

 dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing they 

 would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year.f 



In Natoha, or Asia Minor, is Smyrna, which may be considered as 

 the third city in Asiatic Turkey. It contains about 120,0u0 inhabi- 

 tants. The excellence of its harbour renders it the centre of all the 

 traffic carried on between Europe and the Levant, and preserves it 

 in a flourishing state ; but the rest of this country, comprehending 

 the ancient provinces of Lydia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Cilicia, 

 Cappadocia, and Pontus, or Amasia, all of them territories celebrated 

 in the Greek and Roman history, are now, through the Turkish in- 

 dolence and tyranny, either forsaken, or a theatre of ruins. The sites 

 of ancient cities are still discernible ; and so luxurious is nature ia 

 those countries, that in many places she triumphs over her forlorn 

 condition. The selfish Turks cultivate no more land than maintains 

 themselves, and their gardens and summer houses fill up the circuit 

 of their most flourishing cities. The most judicious travellers, upon 

 an attentive survey of those countries, fully vindicate all that has 

 been said by sacred and profane writers of their beauty, strength, fer- 

 tility, and population. Even Palestine and Judaea, the most despica- 

 ble at present of all those countries, lie buried within the luxuries of 

 their own soil. The Turks seem particularly fond of representing 

 the latter in the most gloomy colours, and have formed a thousand 

 falsehoods concerning it, which, being artfully propagated by some 

 among ourselves, have imposed upon weak Christians.^: 



Antiquities. ...The remains of ancient edifices and monuments in 

 Turkey in Asia are so numerous that they have furnished matter for 

 many voluminous publications. The provinces which compose this 

 country contained all that was rich and magnificent, in architecture 

 and sculpture; and neither the barbarity of the Turks, nor the de- 

 predations they have suffered from the Europeans, seem to have di- 

 minished the number of these valuable antiquities. They are more 



" Ezek. chap, xxvi 5. j- Bruce's Travels, vol. i. Introduction, p. lix. 



i The late reverend Dr. Shaw, prof! isoi of Greek at Oxford, who seems to 

 have examined that country with an uncommon degree of accuracy, and was qua- 

 lified bv the soundest philosophy to make the most just observations, says, that 

 were the Holy Land as well cultivated as in former times, it would be more fertile 

 than the very best parts of Syria and Phoenicia, because the soil is generally much 

 richer, and, every thing considered, yields larger crops. Therefore the barren- 

 ness, says he, of which some authors complain, does not proceed from the natu- 

 ral unfniitfnlness of the country, but from the want of the inhabitants, the indo» 

 lence which prevails among the few who possess it, and the perpetual discords 

 and depredations of the petty princes who share this fine country. Indeed, the; 

 inhabitants can have but little inclination to cultivate the earth. " In Palestine," 

 says Mr. Wood, " we have often seen the husbandman sowing, accompanied by- 

 an armed friend, to prevent his being robbed of the seed" And, after aU, Vfk9' 

 •:ver sows, is vm etiiei he shall ever reap the harvest 



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