92 



ASIA MINOR. 



Four hours from Lampsacus, and about a mile from the coast, we 

 saw the ruined wall of some ancient Greek town. The Turks call 

 the spot Gangerlee ; we then crossed two rivulets, Yapoudak and 

 Moosah ; one of these is the ancient Rhodius, and when we reached 

 the fertile and picturesque vale of Karajouree, the promontory of 

 Narla, on which Abydos once stood, came in view. After passing 

 the Turkish village of Karadjo, we reached the town of the Darda- 

 nelles about seven o'clock in the evening. 



Here we lodged at the house of Signbr Tarragona, a Jew, whose 

 family has held the consulship of England for a long series of years. 

 The Feast of the Passover had brought many members of it together. 

 The Jews here, generally, marry at about eighteen years of age ; the 

 girls at a much younger period of life. One of the wives in this 

 family, who was in her eighteenth year, was already mother of three 

 children. A daughter, only fourteen years old, had been some months 

 married, and Rachel, the youngest, a beautiful girl of thirteen, had 

 already, as her father told us, been asked in marriage by three 

 suitors. 



The town of the Dardanelles is called by the Turks Chanak 

 Kalesi, and by the Greeks, from the situation of the neighbouring 

 forts, to, pe<ra KcZo-Tpa, The middle Castles, being about midway in the 

 Hellespont. The only garrison we saw here consisted of three or 

 four Topgees, or Turkish gunners, whose employment consists in re- 

 turning the salutes of ships of war. The cannon, of which there are a 

 great number, are on very clumsy carriages ; on the battlements are 

 light field pieces. In the great battery are guns of various calibre, 

 and those on a level with the water are enormous ; the bore of them 

 is nearly three feet. We saw a pyramidal pile of granite shot for 

 these huge cannon, which our Consul told us were cut out of columns 

 found at Eski Stambol (ancient Constantinople), a name given by 

 the Turks to Alexandria Troas. Instead of carriages, strong levers 

 and pullies are used to work this massive artillery. At the Darda- 

 nelles, there are about two thousand families, mostly Turks ; and as 



