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bread of life. I should not forget to add, that Capt. March very generously declines receiving any thing for passage, excepting the expenses of board in justice to his owners.

As we passed the hill of Xerxes, the only person to be seen on it, was a shepherd keeping watch over his flock. The monarch and the millions which encircled him, have for ages been laid in the dust, and the men of an hundred generations who have since trodden over that hill, have followed them to the "house appointed for all living." Alas! that so few of them should have "known the only true God, in Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, whom to know is life eternal!"

We had advanced but a short distance up the Sea of Marmora, when a dead calm came on, leaving us perfectly motionless for twenty hours. To this succeeded so violent a squall from the north, that we were compelled to clew up nearly all our sails, and make for shelter in the little Asiatic harbor of Camara-su, near the ancient Parium. So defective was our chart, as indeed until lately all the English charts have been, that it did not even indicate the existence of a harbor here. Had we not descried an Ionian vessel and followed her movements, we should have been compelled to have gone back to the Dardanelles.

Just at night we landed in this village, which we were told contained twenty Turkish and thirty Greek families. We discovered several Greek inscriptions, on blocks of marble in the walls, or by the side of fountains and dwellings. The inhabitants seemed little accustomed to the sight of strangers. A group of Turkish women sitting on a hill, above some ruins which 1 sought to explore, and a score of Turkish dogs were

so clamorous, that I was compelled to retire. I had hoped to repeat my visit this morning, and see, though I do not purchase, some coins which a Greek whispered me, he had for sale. I wished also to leave some tracts, which, for prudential considerations, I did not take at my first landing. Favorable, though light winds, induced us however to put to sea early this morning.

Dismissing therefore thoughts of the varied and novel objects which I have witnessed in my past voyagings, I am now preparing my mind for a sight of the great Turkish capital.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST WEEKS IN THE CITY.

Pilgrim lot of the missionary-Temporary residence in PeraMild weather-Recollections of home--A Levant boarding house-Method of heating room-Fellow boarders and acquaintances-Changed and peaceful aspect of the city-Rumors of the plague.

Constantinople, Feb. 16, 1827.

You had anticipated that my letter would have been dated at Jerusalem, "the city of the Great King," instead of this place where Christianity first assumed an earthly diadem. But the lot of the Christian missionary is still like that of the Mesopotamian pilgrim, who, from Ur of the Chaldees, "went out, not knowing whither he went." Happy if with the like fortune, he have the like faith.

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I arrived here from Smyrna, on the 2d of the present month, after an eleven day's passage of almost summer weather. The distance is reckoned at only four hundred miles by sea, and less than half that in a direct line. It is often passed both by land and water, in four days. Through the friendly attentions of Rev. Mr. Leeves, I have for the present found lodgings in the Frank suburb of Pera. Mr. L. is the Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and acting chaplain to the British embassy.

A thousand objects of interest solicit my attention, but I feel it my duty at present, to devote uninterrupted thought and labor, to the condition and language of the Jews. Providentially, I have been able to secure the best temporary helps for this purpose, which the nature of the case admits. For a teacher, I have obtained one of those Jews who assisted Mr. L. in the translation of the New Testament into Jewish-Spanish.

With the exception of a few flakes of snow, which fell at Smyrna, I have here for the first time, seen any during the present winter. It came to the depth of two or three inches day before yesterday, but is now nearly gone. The fields are charmingly green, and sprinkled over with the beautiful pink and white mountain daisies, which you cultivate in your flower pots. You may often gather a dozen of them without changing your position. We are in about the same latitude with yourself, 41° north, but the winter in Turkey has been uncommonly mild. In consequence of this, it is expected that the plague will rage more than usual the approaching summer. I have not fully decided where I shall go when the hot months set in; perhaps to Smyrna, or to some village a few miles from the city.

Do not however be solicitous about me.

When Gen. went forth to the wars, he directed his son W. to learn the 91st Psalm, and repeat it to his mother.

Feb. 20.-A hundred thanks for your letter of Nov. 1st, the first which I have received since I left America. One of the Roman poets has a sentiment, which I take the liberty of applying in a sense different from the original.

Cœlum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.

"They who cross the ocean, change their sky; not their mind." I feel this to be true of myself. The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and now the Marmora, have indeed borne me successively under another part of the firmament, but they have left a brother's warm affection still reigning in my breast. "My heart untravel'd, still to thee returns." Rest assured, it has only been from conviction of stronger obligation, that I have torn myself away from opportunities of doing something to promote your own and M's comfort. It matters but little however, what is the good or ill we experience, or where is the place of our wanderings during our pilgrimage here, if we are so happy as hereafter to reach, with others brought thither by our instrumentality, the place of "lasting rest."

I suppose it will interest you to learn some particulars of my new situation. My landlady is a widow woman, a Greek Catholic from Tinos, now enjoying Austrian protection. She takes some credit to her family, because they were once in the train of an ambassador, having accompanied the ladies of Lord Elgin's party to Athens, when he went to gather the marbles of Greece. Since then their nobility have been head

servants to an English merchant in this place, until quite lately they have opened a plain boarding house.

In the morning, by direction of her ladyship, a large dish of coals, previously well burnt in the open air, is sent into my room. This, in a country where there are no chimneys nor fire places, is not an unwelcome article. Sometimes the vessel is earthen, but the more affluent have them of copper. The latter, and perhaps both, are called manghal. When it is placed, as I have seen it at Smyrna, under a low table, upon which a counterpane is spread, they together constitute the tendour. Around this the company collect, with the lamp, and work or books upon the table, (the latter are not often to be met with in these parts,) and gather the corners of the comfortable about them, for the purpose of warmth.

When the manghal is adjusted, a little table makes its appearance, on which is a cup of coffee and (by way of accommodation to my Frank habits,) a cake of bread, and kaimac. This last, obtained by boiling the milk repeatedly, after it has been suffered to cool, is to my taste a good substitute for butter. Indeed, since I have seen the Russian butter lying in the filthy streets of Galata, put up like the Odessa tallow in hogs' hides, I have had no great inclination to taste of butter from any quarter. The coffee, I should have told you, is prepared in a small open cup, and kept hot by being placed on the coals of the manghal.

Shortly after I have taken coffee, my teacher, an Italian Jew, comes and remains with me two or three hours. Collatzione, or lunch, succeeds, when the same little table is ushered in, with a bit of lamb, cold tongue or an egg; a round Dutch cheese, an orange, some almonds or a poor apple.

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