350 
AMASIA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 
servation, for our curiosity was equal. We had a lodging assigned to 
us in the dwelling of an opulent Turk, close on the banks of the river. 
He had three brothers who lived in three houses contiguous to his own, 
and who severally came to pay their respects to us. They were all 
fairer than any Turks or Asiatics whom I had ever seen. Their man¬ 
ners were peculiarly mild and agreeable, and they treated us with the 
greatest civility. They spoke in raptures of their own city, although 
none of them had ever seen any other place. 
I was anxious to reach Constantinople as soon as possible, and resolved 
therefore to leave the Persian Envoy to follow at his leisure, and to 
proceed myself with increased expedition. Taking fresh horses then, I 
set off from Amasia at the close of the night. There is an ascent of 
two hours towards Marcivan; and then, as far as I could judge in the 
dark, the road leads through one uniform plain. The total distance 
from Amasia is reckoned twelve miles, which we had travelled two 
hours before the sun rose. [11th.] Marcivan abounds with walnut-trees, 
and is surrounded by com fields, which, as we were leaving the place at 
break of day, were animated by the reapers. 
Four hours from Marcivan, on the left of the road is the large village 
of Haji Kiev,, where the great caravan roads from Smyrna , Angora , &c. 
meet. Shortly after we came to a house where travellers usually stop; 
but the inhabitants had now fled to the mountains, in consequence of 
the passage of the Delhis ; and we found only one old man, who 
brought us some yaourt and cold pillau , and some bread that had been 
concealed. Then again proceeding, we struck into a steep mountain 
pass, at the foot of which led a torrent strewed with immense fragments 
of rocks, that (by an earthquake, or by the washing away of the soil 
beneath them) had been dislodged from the heights around: and vast 
masses, which seemed to threaten our destruction as we passed, were 
still sustained only by large poles or trunks of trees. 
After this pass we entered into a rich but limited plain, thickly 
studded with trees of every kind, and abounding in corn. At its ex¬ 
tremity we stopped at a delicious grove of immense walnut-trees beau- 
