112 
clauke’s travels. 
of Eressus* and Methymnaf were known in the time of Tour? 
uefort; the former of which still preserves its original name, al¬ 
most unaltered, in the modern appellation of Eresso; and the 
ruins of the latter are yet to be seen.J Excepting Euboea, 
Lesbos is the largest island in the Aegean sea. It was the .mo¬ 
ther of many ^Eolian colonies. Its happy temperature conspir¬ 
ed with the richness of its soil to produce those delicious fruits, 
and exquisite wines, so highly extolled by ancient writers.§ 
The present state of its agriculture does not however entitle 
its products to the high encomium once bestowed upon them. 
Its wine is said to have lost the reputation it formerly possess¬ 
ed ;|| probably owing entirely to the ignorance and sloth of its 
Turkish masters, and the disregard shown by them to the culti¬ 
vation of the vine. 
Early on the following morning, passing the Promontory of 
Melaena, and the mouth of the Hermean gulph, or gulph of 
Smyrna, we entered the Straits, between Chios, now Scio, and 
the main land. All this voyage from the Hellespont, between 
the continent and adjacent islands, w as considered by our cap¬ 
tain as mere river sailing; but pirates lurk among the straits, 
in greater number than in the more open sea. Being alw ays 
in sight of land, and often close in with it, the prospects afford¬ 
ed are in the highest degree beautiful. 
In the channel between Chios and the opposite peninsula of 
Ery three, ## the scenery is perhaps unequalled by any thing in 
& Famous for the births of Theophrastus and Phanias, the most renbwned of Aris 5 
totle’s disciples. 
f Famous for the birth of Arion. 
% Voy. du Lev. tom. ii. p. 84. 
§ Yid. Horat. Lib. i. Od. 17. Virgil, Georg, lib. ii. 89,90. Aul. Gell. lib. xiii. c. 
■SI kc. &c. 
jj Travels of Egmont and Heyman, vol. i. p. 158. Lond. 1759. 
The ruins of Erythrsg are at a place called Rytropoli, by the little river Aloes, 
near Tchesme. When Mr. Walpole was there, a number of very beautiful little bronze 
medals were discovered, ail of EsyTHRiE. He kindly presented some of them tome. 
They have in front the head of Hercules ; and for the obverse, the letters EPX with 
the name of a magistrate- An extract from Mr. Walpole’s Journal will here commu¬ 
nicate the result of his remarks in Asia Minor, made subsequently to his arrival at 
Smyrna. 
“ During my journey in Asia, I^took up my abode for the night in the khans or car¬ 
avanserais, choosing a room to myself in these bad substitutes for inRS, rather than 
the private houses of the Turks, where my Janissary procured me admittance. For 
although the Turks are quiet and inoffensive, yet any thing is preferable to sleeping 
Id a small room with half a dozen of them; or to a cross-legged posture at meals, 
round a low table, eating spoon meats, of which their repasts generally consist. As 
the road I travelled was not much frequented, I was forced to stop at the houses of in¬ 
dividuals ; and arriving generally at sunset, I found them beginning their supper? 
their dinner is at ten in the morning, as they rise at break of day. Sometimes a vil¬ 
lage afforded a Small hut of mud and straw, purposely built for travellers; half ofthis 
was raised about two feet from the ground, for men to lie on ; the other halfaccommo- 
. dated three or four horses. In the great towns it was necessary to go first to the 
governor, with some present, accompanied by my Janissary. At Guzel-hissar I wait¬ 
ed on the Aga, who* after some conversation with my-Janissary, ordered a 
