CONSTANTINOPLE. 1 65 
Before we left Constantinople, an English chat. 
. . IV. 
officer accompanied us upon our last visits to > 
Sancta Sophia, and to the outer Wall of J^^^^J,'" 
Theodosius, by which the city was antiently ^"p'""- 
fortified on its ivestern side, from the Propontis to 
the Bay of the Golden Horn. The more we 
saw of this city, the more we had reason to be 
convinced that it remains as it was found at its 
conquest by the Turks. The same Aqueduct Further 
, account of 
that was built by the Roman Emperors still thatedi- 
supplies the inhabitants with water; and the 
interior of St. Sophia manifestly proves the indis- 
position of the Turks towards the destruction of 
the buildings they found. Indeed this part of 
their character was noticed long ago% and in 
an age when all sorts of intemperate censures 
were lavished upon them by their vindictive 
enemies, the Christians ; as if it had been con- 
sidered a holy thing to curse and to calumniate 
the Moslems'. The impression made upon us 
(2) * Car les Turcs n'ont rien osl6 des armoiries, peinctures, 
sculptures, et engraueures, et escriteaux qu'ils y ont trouu^ 
Nous disous en outre que les Turcs ont tousiours eu ceste cous- 
TUME, QUE QUELQUE CHASTEAU OU FORTERESSE QU'lLS AYENT JAMAIS 
PRIS, EST DEMEURE AO MESME ESTAT EN QUOY ILS L'ONT TROUUE : Car 
ils ne d^molissent jamais rien des Edifices et engraueures." Second 
Livre des Singular, observes par Belon, f. 88. Paris, 1555. 
(3) A slight tincture of this feeling appears in the prayer v/ith 
which Grelot concluded his work. See p. 306, of the original Paris 
edit. 1680, 
*' Renverses, 
