TURKISH FLEET. 
741 
most exquisite fragments of finely sculptured columns, friezes, 
&c. At present, five gates lead out of the city, most of which 
are modern, and of poor architecture; whilst the once magnificent 
portals of the emperors, are each flanked by a couple of formidable 
square towers. Having gone entirely round the walls of the 
city, we found ourselves after our very interesting walk, on that 
bank of the Bosphorus which is immediately opposite to the 
Pera shore, where we had embarked. The ancient defence on 
this quarter, is so interwoven with the houses, and neglected 
besides, that it seems almost absolutely to have disappeared; 
presenting instead, a long irregular line of private dwellings, 
public offices, warehouses, and other buildings necessary to the 
ceaseless commerce and intercourse that ever animates this 
busy little sea. From morning until night, the water is covered 
with vessels of various descriptions, besides thousands of boats, 
passing in every direction to all parts of the Bosphorus. When 
we re-embarked, in crossing the port, (the golden horn of the 
ancients,) we had a fine view of the Turkish fleet, now in or¬ 
dinary, (about 20 ships of the line,) moored under the walls of 
the palace of the captain pasha, a large straggling building, white 
and inelegant. We relanded not far from whence we set out, 
in the suburb of Galata, formerly an establishment of the old 
Genoese republicans, and fostered by the Greek emperors ; but, 
betraying their benefactors, and in fact, themselves, their dis¬ 
graceful intrigues at last precipitated Constantinople into the 
hands of the Turks. This calamity happened about the middle 
of the fifteenth century; Greece soon fell under the sword of 
the same conqueror; and it is probable, that had not Providence 
interposed the Venetian fleet between Mahomed the Great, and 
his progress westward, that all Italy too might have been forced 
