S54 O F THE P 1^ O L O NT G i. $ r o fcr 



It is true, that Paul Lucas otherwife pafTes (as cur 

 namelefs correfpondent lias not failed to remark) — - jri 

 fpite of the well-founded prejudice that every ftory-tel- 

 ler from a far diftant country has agairift him— for one 

 of the rnofl faithful and credible voyage-writers. But 

 really fo incredible a relation as this, is enough to ren- 

 der the honeny of a faint fufpecled ! The credibility 

 of d man arifes from the very circumftance, that what 

 lie relates, at leaf]: as an eye-witnefs, be pure credible 

 events* 



I could not take upon me to maintain, that' Paul 

 Lucas was always entirely free from the aim oft univer- 

 fal infirmity of travelled people, of magnifying what 

 they have feeft, and of taking pleafure in relating mr- 

 prifing occurrences. To produce only a couple of in- 

 fences by way of proof ; who would not think the ac- 

 count of the monfrrous multitude of pyramids which 

 lie allures us he found at Jurkup-Eflant, in the kara- 

 manian diftricl Kaiferia, to be fomewhat exaggerated . ? 

 Each of thefe' pyramids, fays he, is hewn out of an 

 entire rock, and is fo excavated within, as to have a; 

 beautiful gateway for the entrance, a beautiful ftair- 

 cafe, and various apartments one above another, en- 

 lightened by large windows. Thefe furprifing edifices' 

 are to be feen in innumerable quantities, in thefe parts, 

 on the two lides of the mountain between which the 

 Irmak flows fome miles from Hadfchi-Betfafche. Many 7 

 of them feem to our traveller as not yet af all exca- 

 vated, many others, indeed begun, but not completed. 

 He allures us, that only on the lide of the mountain 

 where his caravan palled, there were above twenty 

 tlloufand of them ; and the people told him, that, on 



the 



