companion and his kind friend overtook our boat, and both came on board, bringing their pipes along. We found the old gentleman very agreeable, and quite ready to join with us in a glass of brandy and water. He very politely insisted on our calling upon him at his residence at the town some distance farther below, and he now took leave, and, having the fastest boat, soon got out of sight. The next day we stopped as he desired, and found horses and servants waiting to carry us to his palace, where we were most hospitably entertained with a sumptuous dinner sufficient for forty guests, consisting of lamb, chickens, fruits and vegetables, confectionary, pipes, &c., served up in the Turkish style. We found ourselves, in fact, in the house of the bey or governor of all this part of the Delta, and shall long remember with pleasure these distinguished civilities from a gentleman of the highest rank in his native land, towards utter strangers, who had no claim upon him, but were deeply indebted to him for rescuing our friend from imminent peril.

On my return to Alexandria, having suffered considerable indisposition while descending the branch of the Nile to that city, I felt no wish to make a long sojourn, as both the Plague and Cholera were prevailing.

After making the usual calls of courtesy upon our consul, and visiting, by appointment at the palace, the viceroy Mohammed Ali, we fortunately found a conveyance to the Levant.

From Alexandria we embarked on board of one of the French steam-ships-of-war and returned to the Island of Syra. On our arrival here, being still under the quarantine flag, we could not land without being sent to the lazaretto, and therefore were immediately trans

ferred to another steam-ship, and thence proceeded to Smyrna.

The sail from Syra to Smyrna is very beautiful. We passed a great number of the islands of the Archipelago, and were most of the time in sight of land. We saw the Island of Samos, so celebrated for its fertility and its delicious wine of classic fame, and in later years for the terrific slaughter of its inhabitants by their ruthless oppressors and invaders the Turks.

EEE

ASIA MINOR.

THE approach to the coast of Asia Minor is bold and imposing. We landed at Smyrna after a voyage of two days, and put up at a very comfortable hotel. The city is situated on the declivity of a hill, with a spacious and beautiful bay in front, furnishing a capital harbour, and therefore a favourite rendezvous, as is familiarly known, for ships of war of all nations. The wharves are well constructed and convenient for all the purposes of commerce. Here, also, are some warehouses, and a considerable appearance of the bustle of commerce. There is nothing grand or striking in the aspect of the city. It is divided into two quarters, one occupied by the Turks and the other by the Franks, which latter are of all Christian denominations, but consisting chiefly of Greeks and Armenians. These two portions of the city, though both under the same pachalic, appear to very distinct.

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We must not omit to return our sincere thanks for the kindness with which we were received upon our arrival and afterward by our countrymen who are settled here as missionaries. They came down to welcome us to Asia Minor, and pressed us earnestly to stay at their houses, which, however, we declined, deeming that it would be intruding too much upon these much-esteemed friends, whose means in their pious vocation must be limited, to billet ourselves upon their generous hospitality.

The most interesting objects that we found were the Turkish cemeteries in the environs of the city. The tall, graceful, and melancholy cypress are here planted

among the white marble tombs in thick groves, resembling, at a distance, an evergreen forest of extreme and imposing beauty, again vividly recalling the graphic poetry of Byron :

"Within the place of thousand tombs

That shine beneath; while dark around
The sad but living cypress glooms,

And withers not, though branch and leaf
Are stamp'd with an eternal grief."

One point of interest to which our attention was directed by one of our American missionaries, who kindly accompanied us to the spot, was the place believed to have been the site of one of the seven churches of Asia. It is a small enclosure of about an acre, unoccupied, and adjoining to a large Turkish cemetery, and contains a small ruin, which is thought to have been the altar of the Christian edifice. We were told that such was the prejudice of the Turks against this supposed Christian enclosure, that it was a current belief among them that, if their bodies were interred there, they would not rest in peace, but rise again, and take refuge in their own consecrated graveyard.

On the mountain elevation in the rear of the city, which commands a most extended view of the harbour, sea, and distant islands, there are some remains of ancient ruins; one of which is stated to have been a temple dedicated to Esculapius, from the foundation of which we professionally supplied ourselves, as in duty bound, with a specimen.

Having been furnished with a letter of introduction from the Turkish ambassador at Paris to his friend the Governor of Smyrna, we were politely conducted by our vice-consul, accompanied by his janizary as interpreter, to the Castle. Here we were courteously received by his excellency, who treated us with pipes and coffee. He

kindly offered his services, and made inquiries touching our own country, and was particularly desirous to know whether we permitted polygamy, expressing great astonishment that we should deem one wife a fair allowance for each individual. This subject seemed to interest him much more than anything relating to the commercial importance or political condition of the American people.

The missionaries told us that they had established Christian schools, but had to abandon them; for such was the Mohammedan antipathy to any innovation of this kind, that even the Armenians themselves, though professing Christianity, joined with the deluded Turks in suppressing them.

I attended Christian Protestant service in the chapel of one of the foreign consuls, and was delighted to hear a sermon from my countryman Mr. Riggs, the missionary from Argos, in Greece. His text was from the Gospel of St. John, and the discourse, though in modern Greek and extemporaneous, was delivered with remarkable fluency and eloquence, the congregation consisting of some fifty of the Greek residents of Smyrna.

While at Smyrna we went to see worship in the church of the Armenians, who claim to be the legitimate descendants of the primitive Christians. These people have their own quarter, and are numerous and wealthy, of fine persons and great dignity of deportment, and wear a costume of their own, of which the huge cap is most striking. The women are extremely beautiful and fair, coming as they do from a region not far from the famed Circassia, the cradle, as it is deemed, of female loveliness. We never, in fact, saw so much female beauty in any city of the East as is found here in every class of its mixed population. The services of