TO THE BISHOP OF DURHAM. 



185 



When that may be I cannot yet precisely say. The Ottoman 

 ministers have hitherto denied the existence of any library in the 

 Seraglio, but as this was conveyed through the medium of the late 

 Reis Effendi, a man in every respect feeble and ignorant, it is not 

 greatly to he relied on. The present Reis Effendi, who was appointed 

 a few days ago, is without controversy one of the most learned and 

 most intelligent persons in the empire ; I trust therefore in a very 

 short time the matter will be brought to issue, when I shall be able 

 to form some notion respecting the period of my stay in this country. 

 Believe me, my Lord, motives of mere curiosity shall not detain me, 

 when those of duty prompt my return. 



I. D. Carlyle. 



LETTER III. 



My Lord, Boyukdere, Oct. 12. 1800. 



I was honoured by receiving your letter to me here about the same 

 time that I apprehend my last would reach Your Lordship. I return 

 Your Lordship many thanks for Mr. Hawkins's interesting paper which 

 I have perused with great satisfaction. I have the pleasure of being 

 well acquainted with that gentleman, and have obtained much valuable 

 information from him upon the subjects treated in his little essay, 

 and upon similar ones previous to my departure from England. 

 I could have wished, however, my Lord, he had been somewhat 

 more particular in pointing out the places of smaller note where he 

 suspects MSS. are to be discovered ; as it appears to me quite as 

 difficult to find out where they are as to gain possession of them 

 afterwards ; some of the repositories at which he hints I have already 

 examined, and have taken steps for the examination of others as 

 soon as I shall have finished investigating the library of the Seraglio, 

 into which I have the pleasure of acquainting Your Lordship that 

 I am at length to be admitted, and a day is this evening to be fixed 

 for that purpose. The convents in the Princes Islands contain no 



B B 



