204 
LETTERS FROM 
payment of half a dollar. We first pre¬ 
sented our passports at the proper office, 
and then proceeded to an hotel, where, after 
a thorough ablution and change of raiment, 
followed by a breakfast of coffee and beef¬ 
steaks, we found ourselves so refreshed, that 
instead of going immediately to bed, as we 
had proposed, we set out on a walk through 
the town. 
Modern Syracuse is a dull shabby place, 
indeed; it is melancholy to walk through its 
dirty narrow streets, and to remember its 
former magnificence. If historians are to 
be credited, it contained at one time one 
million two hundred thousand inhabitants 
within its walls, which were twenty-two miles 
in circumference, and it was defended by an 
army of one hundred thousand foot, ten 
thousand horse, and by a navy of five hun¬ 
dred ships. The modern town is built on 
