214 FROM CONSTANTINOPLE, 
CHAP, a sloping ground near to the base of the great 
■ range of H^mus, backed by mountainets, 
whence we supposed the Black Sea might be 
visible. Nothing was talked of, among the 
inhabitants, but the ravages committed by the 
robbers. A Tahtar, employed by the British 
Ambassador, had been lately murdered; and, 
as they told us, eleven persons who were in 
his company. 
Kirk We entered Kirk Iklisie by a gate ; a large 
ikhsie. -^^^ miserable town, surrounded by a wall. It 
contains three or four thousand houses, (only 
five hundred of which belong to Greeks,) seve- 
ral mosques, and many shops: but dirt and 
wretchedness are everywhere conspicuous. 
The traveller will find here the worst accom- 
modations of the whole route. We were stowed 
into a small and mean apartment, with hardly 
room to move, in an elevated part of the 
town, called the Quarter of the Greeks; at a 
considerable distance from our worthy Moslem 
protector, who sent, however, to ask if we fared 
well ; and we answered in the affirmative, not 
choosing to interrupt his repose with trivial 
complaints. They make here an inspissated 
juice from boiled grapes, which we remembered 
having seen at Ineada, or Tineada, upon the 
