IllOM THE HELLESPONT TO RHODES) 
109 
Continuing our course toward the south, after passing the 
iown of Tenedos, we were struck by the very grand appearance 
of the ancient Balnex , already described, among the remains 
of Alexandria Troas. T«he three arches of the building make 
a conspicuous figure, to a considerable distance at sea, like the 
front of a magnificent palace ; and this circumstance, connected 
with the mistake so long prevalent concerning the city itself 
gave rise to the appellation of “ The Palace of Priam” be¬ 
stowed by mariners upon these mins. Thence we sailed to 
the promontory of Lectum, now Cape Baba, at the mouth of 
the Adramyttian Gulph: the southwestern extremity of that 
chain of mountains of which Gargarus, is the summit. This 
cape presents a high and bold clilf, on whose steep acclivity the 
little town of Baba appears, as though stuck within a nook. # 
It is famous for the manufacture of knives and poignards: their 
blades are distinguished in Turkey by the name of Baba leeks . 
Afterward, crossing the mouth of the Gulph, we passed round 
the western point of the island of Mitylene, anciently called the 
Sigrian Promontory. It is uncertain at what time the island 
changed its ancient name of Lesbos for that which it now bears; 
but Eustathius says it was so called from Mitylene, the capital 
town. Its situation, w ith regard to the Adramyttian gulph, is- 
erroneously delineated in maps and charts: some of these place 
it at a distance in the iEgean Sea.f 
I had surveyed the whole of this island, with considerable 
interest, from the peak of Gargarus; and now, as the shades 
of evening were beginning to conceal its undulating territory, a 
vain wish of enjoying nearer inspection was excited, The con¬ 
sciousness to a traveller of the many interesting things he can¬ 
not see, often counterbalances the satisfaction derived from the 
view of objects he has been permitted to contemplate.| Few 
* A very accurate view of it is engraved in Mr. Gell’s “ Topography of Troyf p„ 
21, from his own drawing. The place was called Baba, from a dervish (Baba ) buried 
there, “ who always gave the Turks intelligence when any rovers were in the neigh¬ 
bouring seas.” Egmont, and Heyman's Travels, v ol. i. p. 162. 
f Our geographical documents of the Archipelago are a disgrace to the age ; the. 
very best of them being false in their positions of latitude, and in the respective 
bearings of the different islands, as well as remarkable for their unaaeountabie omis¬ 
sions. 
X Some amends for my own deficiency, with respect to Mitylene, will be marie by 
communication of a different nature; namely, by those extracts from the MS. Jour¬ 
nal of my friend Mf^Walpole which relate to his travels in Asia Minor. These, while. 
I am describing t*islands and the coast, will afford an accompanying view of the in¬ 
terior, and of those objects which I did not see near the shore. I shall begin with 
his journey from Pergamus to Smyrna. 
“ The antiquities of Pergamus are very deserving of a minute examination V par¬ 
ticularly those on the Acropolis ; on one part of which, toward the south, is a wall of 
granite, a most stupendous work, eighty or ninety feet in perpendicular depth. Vast 
cisterns and decayed towers, (in one of which I copied a Greek inscription relating to 
