DS
51
IC-NRLF
DOCUMENTS
DEPT.
M71
er* K net
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OP
CALIFORNIA
KEPORT
S M
DOCUMENTS DhPAxTMENT
JUN 28 1355
,wv
LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWt'ODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
1856.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
REPORT.
Geographical Description
Political History
Population, Turk
Greek
Jewish
Armenian
Roman Catholic
Protestant -
Languages
Climate
Medical Notes -
Commerce
- 5- 15
- 15- 20
- 20- 28
- 28- 42
- 42- 43
- 44- 46
- 46- 48
- 48
- 49- 54
- 54- 57
- 57- 73
- 73- 87
APPENDIX.
Table of Exports - 89
Thermometrical Register - ... 90-102
Commercial Miscellanea :
A. Wages and Prices for 1854, 1855 - 103
B. Fig boxes - 104
C. History of Aidin - 104-106
D. Wine and Raki - 106-107
E. Sources for Information on Commerce, with Spe-
cimens - 107-110
Specimens from Greek Newspaper - 111-119
Botanical Memoir ..... 119-123
To the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for War*
MY LORD,
I HAVE the honour to submit herewith to your
Lordship a Report on Smyrna, prepared by me in
compliance with your Lordship's request, with the
assistance of the Medical Officers composing the Civil
Staff of the late Hospital at that Station.
I have the honour to be
Your Lordship's obedient Servant,
GEORGE! ROLLESTON.
L
Nov. 1, 1856.
087
A2
REPORT ON SMYRNA.
GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.
UNLIKE Constantinople, and unlike Sebastopol, General view.
Smyrna has no undulations in its surface which
can cover a single house, either from the sea breeze
or the guns of a vessel of war. Its houses are either
ranged like the seats in an amphitheatre along the
sides of a semicircular line of hills, or on the slopes
and levels between those hills and the water edge.
It has few open places or squares, and these are
mostly planted with the sombre spike-like cypress,
telling of graves beneath, but also obviating the
glare and heat which would otherwise in this climate
render an open space, surrounded by stone or brick
buildings, quite insupportable in the summer heats.
The narrowness of the streets, and the downward
sloping and converging roofs, whatever disadvan-
tages they may cause, and however they may impede
traffic, have at least the merit of preventing the re-
flection of heat, and securing a constant undercurrent
of cool air. The bazaars, which are simply narrow
streets of shops, with an awning or tiling stretched
from the roof of one side to that of the other, pre-
serve an equable and agreeable temperature in the
very hottest weather.
The town cannot in fairness be spoken of as dirty ;
it possesses numberless open as well as numberless
covered gutters, but the draught of water through
them is rapid, and it is rare for the senses to be
offended by foul smells or by the sight of putrescent
matters. The water is brought in covered aqueducts
from springs at some distance from the town, and at
a considerable elevation in the hills, and thus freedom
from organic impurities and rapidity of flow is at once
provided for.
6
Particular
description.
Triangle
formed by the
town.
Malarious
region.
The town of Smyrna, when seen at a distance from
the deck of a vessel entering the bay, appears to be
built partly upon a strip of level and partly upon
sloping ground lying between the sea and a hilly
background, partly to be creeping up and along the
sides of these very hills.
On a nearer view it is seen that at the southern
extremity of the town, a little to the right of a large
red building, lately the British barracks, a bar of
hills of moderate elevation abuts upon the water
edge at a point easily distinguishable by the pre-
sence of a round tower. This point may be con-
sidered as the apex of a triangle, one side of which
is formed by the seaboard and the other by the hill
range, while the base may be well represented by
the Meles which flows close under the abrupt termi-
nation of the line of hill. The hill side of this
triangle, Mount Pagus, runs south-east ; its length
may be estimated at one mile and a half; its altitude
increases gradually from the round tower imme-
diately overhanging the water edge at the apex
of the triangle, where it is about 223 feet, to its
other extremity, where it reaches 608 feet in height.
This last point is marked by the Castle, at present
a ruin of considerable size, though from the com-
paratively recent epoch (A.D. 1225) of its construc-
tion, of no great antiquarian interest. The hill
range here breaks off abruptly, presenting a pre-
cipitous face towards the Meles, which flows round
its base and begins here to form the base of the
triangle. The world-wide fame of the Meles is not
due to its depth or commercial importance ; in
summer it forms but a series of pools connected by-
small ankle-deep sheets of running water, and it is
due to the absence of the protecting hill barrier, not
to any inconvenience occasioned by the presence of
the stream, that the town does not extend across
further northwards. It has been found that houses
built so far out in the plain, which stretches for
seven miles beyond the Meles, as to lie outside the
shelter, or, as one might say, beyond the shadow of
Mount Pagus, are all but uninhabitable from malaria.
A house was lately built upon a knoll a little to the
right of the Meles, and about 100 feet above the level
of the stream ; the prospect was beautiful, the drain-
age easy, and in every other respect the site appeared
advantageous. But it was exposed to the full draught
of air which rushes down the narrow gorge beyond
and beneath Mount Pagus, through which winds the
Meles, and so unhealthy has it proved itself that in
spite of the great expense he had incurred in build-
ing a large house there the owner has been obliged
to leave it uninhabited. In their proper place the
sanitary conditions of the several localities will be
considered, they have been alluded to here because
they have so powerfully influenced the geographical
distribution of the town. It is sufficient here to say
that the obstacle opposed to the further outgrowth
of the town in this direction has been found as im-
passable though it be invisible as that created on the
one side by the sea and on the other by the moun-
tains. The Meles flows down to the sea through a
succession of gardens and vineyards, enclosed, most
of them, by high mud walls, and save when swollen
in the rainy season, it percolates its way through the
sand and gravel into the bay at a spot about equi-
distant from its most inland extremity on the right
hand, and from a point called "the Point" on the
left, where the seaward boundary of Smyrna com-
mences. This side of the triangle is the longest of
the three, being about two miles and a half in length ;
the excellent Admiralty maps, however, obviate the
necessity of giving a detailed description of it ; it Seaward
possesses several excellent piers and quays, and ships aspect
of such draught as H.M.S. " Terrible " may often be
seen within 100 yards of the land. But there are no
docks, wet or dry, no yards for shipbuilding, nor even
any cranes to be found along the whole length of the
seaboard of this the most important emporium of the
Turkish empire.
Having thus given a sketch of the immediate boun- Quarters of the
daries of the town, we next proceed to describe the town *
town itself. The different nations have different
quarters of the town allotted to them ; there is a
Turk, an Armenian, a Greek, a Jewish, and an
European quarter. On a bird's-eye view, these quar-
8
Turkish
quarter.
The " long
shore " houses.
ters map themselves out unmistakeably to the spec-
tator. The Turkish quarter is recognizable by the
uniform dinginess of its roofs, which contrast by their
dull ensemble with the tall white and elegant
minaret which rises out so frequently from the midst
of their sombre mass side by side with the tapering
cypress ; the Armenian quarter contrasts with the
other quarters surrounding it by the whiteness of its
walls and houses ; and the Frank quarter is unmis-
takeably pointed out by the numerous flagstaffs of its
several consulates. The Turkish quarter begins at
the south-eastern extremity of the town, and stretches
along the bank of hills forming its south-eastern
boundary. The Turks have built their houses tier
after tier up the hill side, until in some places they
seem to be placed as it were on shelves ranged
along the face of a perpendicular embankment. They
seem to have tacitly recognized by their choice
of locality their unfitness for maritime pursuits ;
they have clung to the hill side, and relinquished the
water edge to more energetic and enterprising races.
Most of the Turkish houses have an open gallery on
their upper story, into which their several upper
rooms open. It is generally supported upon arches
decorated with painting and inscriptions, and con-
stitutes a characteristic feature in the Turkish do-
mestic architecture. The streets in this quarter are
narrow, overhung by projecting windows and con-
verging roofs ; they have often an open gutter
running down their centre, and a raised causeway on
either side paved in the same way as the street itself.
The excessive steepness of the streets in this quarter
renders the absence of covered drains less injurious to
the inhabitants than one might have supposed.
Along the water edge the same character of build-
ing prevails as is usual everywhere in similar situa-
tions. As we proceed from the large barracks in a
north-westerly direction, we pass by the Turkish
custom-house and a battery, which has been lately
rebuilt, and has twenty-four embrasures ; further on
we find the ruined walls of the castle, once occupied
by the Knights of Rhodes (see page 19), now in-
habited by an entirely Turkish population within,
9
and having a Turkish guard-house in one of its outer
angles. Passing on through a vegetable, and then
through a fish, market, we come upon a second, the
European, custom-house, in which imports are re-
ceived ; and after three quarters of a mile of marine
store shops and drinking bouses, the esplanade opens
upon us, where the British and several other consular
agencies are situated. Parallel to this portion of the
water edge, and about 200 yards from that line,
runs the Frank street ; the street containing most of Frank Street.
the shops, and, as its name would imply, most of the
dwelling-houses of the Europeans. This street, with
the space between itself and the sea, constitutes the
Frank quarter.
Still following the water line we come, at the end
of this handsome esplanade, upon a block of ill-built
closely aggregated houses, a fragment of the Greek
quarter, interposed between two portions of the
European. Its streets are mere alleys ; the houses
are either the dwelling houses of the " long shore "
Greek boatmen, or drinking houses of an almost
exclusively Greek character, as the pictures on the
walls show. It contains a second fish market and
vegetable market ; and part of the neighbourhood is
appropriated to a colony of Maltese, chiefly boatmen.
Along this part of the shore we may observe several
wooden piers running out ten or twelve yards into
the sea.
After this we come a second time upon well-built
European houses. A long handsome but ill-paved
street leads us parallel to the water's edge, and for a
considerable distance, the limit of which is marked by
the French hospital and a Turkish guard-house, the
houses on either side are of a superior character, both
as regards external appearance and internal comfort.
Here are the French, Austrian, Prussian, Portuguese,
and Greek consulates. As the street runs further
north the character of its houses deteriorates, and
before it terminates, and with it the town, at " the
Point," a spot marked by a windmill some way short
of the embouchure of the Meles, it loses most of its
pleasing features. There is at this the northern, as
at the southern, extremity of the town, a Turkish
10
The Armenian
quarter.
The Greek
quarter.
barrack. It is capable of holding 115 men. Besides
the windmill there is at the farthest extremity of
the promontory, on the water edge, a large steam
corn mill.
The town reaches no further in this direction, but
a creek runs up inland for about a mile and a half,
and on the Smyrna side of it there is an establish-
ment for the repairing of ships ; whilst opposite we
see, at some distance inland, the village of Bournabat,
where many of Europeans live in the summer time.
Returning back along the same route we find the
Greek quarter on our left, between the street just
described and the Mount Pagus, forming, in fact, a
considerable portion of the base of the triangle, and
stretching from north to south for nearly a mile and
a half. The Armenian quarter also abuts upon the
base of .the triangle, and lies between the Greek
quarter seawards and the Turkish towards the land
for about three quarters of a mile, so that advancing
from " the Point " inland south-east to the Castle
Hill, we pass first through the Greek, next through
the Armenian, and lastly through the Turkish
quarter. At the south-west end of the Armenian
quarter stands their large new church, which forms a
striking object from all points. This portion of the
town suffered very considerably from a fire in 1845,
and when it was rebuilt after that event considerable
attention was paid to the widening of the streets and
other improvements. Though traces of the fire are
to be recognized even now in the ruins of many
houses, yet on the whole the quarter presents a pleas-
ing and creditable appearance ; the drainage is good,
and in respect of cleanliness, it may well compare
with any save an English town. The streets strike
the attention by their great regularity and straight-
ness, and the houses by the large size of their doors
and windows. These are conditions rarely to be
seen in an Asiatic town, and, though realized in the
quarter allotted to an Asiatic race, show clearly that
foreign models were followed in the reconstruction of
this part of Smyrna.
The Greek quarter lies between the Armenian
quarter, towards the land, and the Frank street
and its northward continuation, looking seawards.
The pavement in the Greek, as in the other quarters,
differs from that in the Turkish, by possessing no
causeway ; as in the Turkish quarter, stones of all
sizes are placed promiscuously in all parts of the
roadway, but no attempt is made at any distinction
in the Greek quarter between the middle and the
sides of the street. A covered drain runs under the
middle of most of the streets, and a stream of water
rushes through it with considerable rapidity and
volume. The roofing of these drains is often allowed
to fall in, and it is surprising for how long a period
the dangerous hole thus formed is allowed to
remain unrepaired. In many parts of this quarter,
however, especially in those towards its northern
boundary, we find in place of a covered stream of
sharply-flowing water, a sluggish broad uncovered
drain, as offensive to the senses of the by-passer as
deleterious to the health and vigour of those who
live upon its banks. It is remarkable that many of
the houses in the Greek quarter are one storied only;
but it would be erroneous to suppose that houses of
this description were occupied universally by mem-
bers of the poorer classes. Many of these one-
storied houses are built round a marble-floored court,
which is generally of oblong form, with a fountain in
the centre, and surrounded by a corridor, and they
possess internal arrangements corresponding fully
with the appearance of ease and comfort their ex-
terior presents. The appearance of the whole quarter
speaks of a general state of well-being and comfort
amongst the restless stirring population it contains ;
the principal defects (besides those already men-
tioned) are the tortuosity of its streets, and the lack
of uniformity in size and structure in the houses
composing them. The Romaic population, though
possessing this quarter to the almost entire exclusion
of other races, is also to be found occupying patches
of ground in the very centre of the quarters allotted
to other nationalities. We have already mentioned
one instance of this, where a block of Greek houses
is wedged in between two portions of the Frank
town along the seaboard. On the opposite boundary
12
of the town, we find an exactly analogous arrange-
ment. High up on the hill side, which we have
described as girdled by the Turkish quarter, we find
a colony of Greeks clustered round their church of
St. John, and thus breaking into what would other-
wise be a continuous belt of Turkish houses.
The Jewish The Jewish quarter interdigitates with the Turkish,
quarter. Armenian, and Greek at a point marked by the large
Armenian church already mentioned, and within a
few yards of that building the peculiar features,
buildings, and dresses of these four races may be
found and studied in complete distinctness. The
Jews occupy a considerable area, which is bounded
on the west by the Greeks, and on the east by the
Turks ; whilst the southern extremity of their quarter
stretches some way up the hill side, and is entirely
surrounded by Mussulman habitations. To the
passing traveller this quarter is the least pleasing of
all, and a more close examination will only confirm
the impressions made by first appearances. Its
characteristics are those presented by overcrowding
and poverty, filth in the roadway, discomfort in the
houses, and cachectic appearance in the inhabitants.
Surrounding The lower hills in the immediate vicinity of
k P Smyrna are rocky, and to a considerable extent
uncultivated. Patches, however, of various sizes,
varying from an acre to an acre and a half, are every
here and there redeemed from waste, and bear corn,
wheat and barley, crops ; and the olive grows
where nothing else does, braving the heat with its
polished leaves, and supplying itself with moisture
in the midst of aridity. Long horizontal bands of
green, of which the large-leafed fig forms a consider-
able part, may be observed girdling these hills,
telling of the watercourse below. The water runs
in a channel formed of stones strongly fastened
together, and covered internally with cement. It is
supplied from the mountain springs, some of which
are perennial, and are, so long as the higher moun-
tains are covered with wood to the extent they are
at present, likely to remain so. Some of these
aqueducts run a very long course, and speak of a
time when a wealthier and stronger government than
13
the present ruled in Asia Minor. The arches on
which they cross and recross the valleys are, in
several instances, works of considerable magnificence.
They contain a large volume of water, six inches deep
by eighteen inches broad, with a very rapid flow.
They subserve three principal purposes. They (i)
turn numerous corn mills, (the windmill, the inven-
tion of Asia Minor, is not common nearer than Vour-
lah, but the commonest kind of all is the mill turned
by horses, &c.); they furnish (ii) water for irriga-
tion ; and lastly, they are (iii) the chief and best
source of water the town itself, with its numerous
fountains, possesses.
The loftier hills, which are at a somewhat greater Mountains,
distance from the town, and range from 2,800 to
3,500 feet in height, are, in most cases, covered with
vegetation to their very summit. This is an im-
portant fact, as it both indicates the character of the
climate, which indeed it also goes some way to con-
stitute, and the supply of water which the country
enjoys. The trees which clothe these mountains are
not calculated for shipbuilding purposes, as the large
trees are principally pine and fir; and the oaks,
which are even more numerous, are almost entirely
of the dwarf species. Both kinds of wood, however,
are extensively used for charcoal, of which the
Levant possesses an unlimited supply, and the pine
and fir furnish rafters for house building ; whilst the
Quercus infectoria and Quercus segilops produce
galls and valonea, all of them products of great local
or general interest.
The several plains within a few hours' journey of The Plains.
Smyrna, and that which borders the city itself,
present every variety in the degrees to which culti-
vation is carried. In some places we meet with large
blocks of cultivated ground, the vineyard and fig
garden alternating with the corn field, each and all
enclosed with a stone or mud wall, and a ditch : bor-
dering upon them we may find an equally extensive
space of ground wholly waste and untilled, yet differ-
ing in no naturally conferred condition from its more
productive neighbours. The valleys of the Cayster
and its tributaries, the " pinguia prata Caystri," are at
14
present, owing possibly to their distance from the pro-
tection of any large Turkish town, and their consequent
exposure to the depredations of robbers, who are to
be found in any quantity in the islands lying close off
the coast, in an almost entirely uncultivated state. A
rich alluvial loam, of from four to six feet in thickness,
bears nothing on its surface but the vitex agnus castus,
and feeds nothing but a few sheep and multitudes of
the ferae naturae. This, however, is not the case with
the valleys of the Hermus and Maeander, for a sketch
of the latter of which, see Appendix, p. 105. An
Englishman has within the last few years taken into
his hands a large quantity of ground, under the
classic ridge of the Tmolus, which separates the plain
of Sedikioi and Boudja from that of the Cayster ; and
the rich green of his thickly standing crops contrasts
pleasingly with the sun-burnt aspect of the surround-
ing untilled grass land.
TheGuiphand The town is built at the bottom of a gulph thirty-
Bay - six miles long, the navigation through which is com-
paratively easy, and does not require the services of
a pilot. There is a wide passage and deep water for
the whole distance save at one point. This spot is
marked by the point and Castle Sanjac on the south
side of the bay, about five miles distant from the town.
Towards this point, on the south side, there runs out
a long spit from the northern side and the embouchure
of the Hermus, and the clear interval between the two
Shoal at en- is little more than half a mile. It is not uncommon
Bay * to see steamers and other vessels stuck fast upon this
shoal, which is however free from rock, as being in
great measure the deposit of the Hermus. During
our residence in Smyrna this disaster never befel an
English vessel. The increase of the shoal is not so
considerable as to affect more than very remotely the
future prospects of the port. It is as well to state
See pages is that the name of the castle on this point is Sanjac, and
not St. James' (St. Jacques) nor St. John's, as some
of the best English maps have, somewhat amusingly,
put it down.
The name of the point is, like the castle upon it,
of Turkish origin, and signifies Flag Point, Sanjac
Bournou ; but though the Turkish flag is, as the name
15
implies, very commonly flying on this point, and
though extensive barracks are contained within the
enceinte of its enormously thick walls, it is un tenanted,
save by one or two men, so malarious is its situation.
Mount Sipylus (3,205 feet in height) and the Two
Brothers (2,920 feet), on the south of the straits, stand
opposite to each other, like the portals of a large gate-
way. From these two points a horseshoe of mountain
sweeps round and encloses Smyrna, and a maritime
plain, of varying breadth and of almost unvarying
fertility, within a wall of hills, in most places of less
elevation than the two points at either end of the
semicircle.
POLITICAL HISTORY.
We possess historical records of the western coast sketch of early
of Asia Minor for a period of about 3,000years. During histor y-
this period we meet with several epochs of great
material prosperity, but with one only of political
independence and free institutions. At the date B.C.
1000, we find the whole of the western coast of Asia
Minor, and the islands immediately adjacent, occupied
by Greek colonies, and we have reason to believe that
they maintained an independent existence for the 500
years following.
The Cyclopian walls, still to be seen in this country, Era of Greek
testify to the existence of the kindred Pclasgic race, s > 50
who were in possession of the soil previously to the
Greek immigration ; but we have no information as
to their modes of life or government. The 500 years
of independence, from 1064 B.C. to 560 B.C., the era
of Croesus, are marked by the names of Homer and
Thales, of Sappho and Anaxagoras, and the language
they spoke has ever since maintained its ground in the
country in which they flourished. The trade and
commerce of Asia Minor was of great importance even
at this early period ; the wool manufactures (Milesia
vellera), and the luxurious habits of the Ionian
merchants (iwv^ rp^), are subjects of constant
allusion in the classical authors. Croesus, the King
of Lydia, made (B.C. 560) the whole of the Greek
16
Ruin under
Croesus.
Eevival under
Alexander.
colonies in Asia Minor his tributaries, realizing thus
an object at which his dynasty had been ineffectually
aiming for 150 years, and inaugurating for the Asiatic
Greek ages of unvarying political subordination under
various political masters. It seems that jealousy and
want of union amongst themselves was the cause of
the subjugation of the Greeks of B.C. 560, as of the
Greeks of 1453 A.D. Theognis, the aristocratic exile
of Megara, alluding to the fall of these independent
Republics, has the following lines :
xoCi Mayvrjraj
Kai ]Ejaupvav. Theognis, 1104.
For some reason unknown to us, Smyrna was treated
with unusual severity, the city was razed to the ground
and was not rebuilt till the time of Alexander the
Great. Hence it is that, save a passing notice in
Herodotus, who mentions the transfer of Smyrna from
the ^Eolian to the Ionian federation, we read nothing
about its history in the writings of the great Greek
authors.
Alexander, however, seeing how advantageous a
site for a large city was to be found on the shores of
the Gulph of Smyrna, collected together such Greeks
as still claimed to be Smyrniotes, though their city had
lain waste for 200 years, and founded it anew at a
distance of about two miles from the ruins of the
ancient town.
The site of the ancient town is marked at present
by a paper mill belonging to the Turkish government,
and lies considerably to the right of the Meles, whose
situation is identified by the words of the oracle which
was obtained to sanction the removal, and which bid
the Greeks "cross the sacred Meles, and dwell on
Mount Pagus." Under the successors of Alexander,
Smyrna enjoyed, as we learn from inscriptions on coins
and passing notices in contemporary writers, a pre-
eminence amongst the cities of Asia, and a high degree
of material prosperity. The same remarks will apply
to the ages of Roman supremacy, during which Smyrna
was celebrated for its schools of science and medicine,
for its magnificent buildings and general opulence. It
suffered several times during the epoch of the two
17
empires from earthquakes, which it is said have in-
variably, in ancient as in modern times, taken place
in the month of June. An earthquake, which threw
down a large portion of the whole town in 1 77 A.D.,
gave Marcus Aurelius an occasion for the display of
that munificence which the Roman government so em P ire8 -
often displayed, and which not improbably contri-
buted somewhat towards inducing the conquered
Greeks to adopt the name, Pco^a^, though not the
language, of their Italian masters.
Smyrna was one of the seven churches of Asia to
which St. John addressed his warnings, and in the
later days of Leon the Wise, it was placed in the
position of metropolis to six other bishoprics.
In the year 1084 A.D. began that series of struggles
between the Greek and the Turk which, after lasting
335 years, ended in the final establishment of the
Turkish supremacy under Sultan Mahomet I., in the
year 1419. A Turkish pirate, Tsachas, at the head ^ c k k lsh hordes
of a considerable horde of his countrymen, established
himself in this part of Asia Minor in the year 1084
A.D., and held his ground against all the forces of the
Greek empire for about thirteen years. Though
driven out in the year 1097 by John, the brother-in-
law of the Emperor Alexius Commenus, he again
obtained possession of Smyrna, and, after being ex-
pelled from it a second time, he seems at last to have
perished by treachery on the part of Alexius and his
kinsman, Asian, the Turkish Sultan.
Alexius and his immediate successors, taught by
experience, fortified Smyrna and the other towns
more immediately exposed by their vicinity to the
seaboard, (at that time entirely Greek,) to the attacks
of the Turk, who was then, it would appear, more
competent than at present to maritime enterprise.
Whilst Constantinople was in the hands of the
Latins, A.D. 1202-1261, Smyrna formed part of the
Greek Empire of Nice. Under the heroic Theo-
dore Lascaris I. and the statesmanlike John Ducas
Vataces (Bara-r^c) Asia Minor appears to have
enjoyed a season of prosperity and repose, a period
of calm and lull preceding the tempest of rapine
18
and destruction which the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries brought with them.
It was in the thirteenth century that the castle,
whose ruins still overlook the Town of Smyrna, and
the Palace at Nymphi, the favourite residence of
John Vataces, were built, each of which, by their
parallel and horizontal rows of flat tiling interposed
between stone masonry, shows, did we know it from
no other sources, the comparatively recent epoch of
its erection. [We may observe, that a totally dif-
ferent style of building is observable in the castle
opposite the mouth of the Hermus at the entrance of
the bay. This fort is of Turkish construction, and
was erected at the times of the Venetian wars,
A.D. 1656.]
Era of Turkish In the fourteenth century Asia Minor was parcelled
out by different Turkish chieftains into separate
principalities, which maintained an independent ex-
istence as such until the days of Bajazet, A.D. 1400.
The whole of the maritime country from Rhodes to
Scutari came at this time finally into the hands of
the Turks. A band of Catalans were invited by
the Greek Emperor Andronicus, A.D. 1303, to lend
their aid towards averting the catastrophe, but the
Greeks have left it on record, that they found the
friendship of the Catalans more hurtful than the
enmity of the Turks. In 1313 Aidin, one of the
Seepages Turkish emirs, possessed himself of Tralles and
Smyrna, and his name is still borne by the former of
these two places in one of the fairest valleys in the
world. After a reign of twelve years Aidin trans-
mitted the government of his principality to his son
Held by Omar. But whilst Omar was absent with his fleet
Rhodes! on an expedition in aid of Cantacuzene into the sea of
Marmora, the Knights of Rhodes made a descent
upon Smyrna and seized the castle on the water's
edge, from which all the attempts made by the Turks
to dislodge them were ineffectual for a period of
fifty-seven years. When we consider that this build-
ing is completely commanded by the fort on Mount
Pagus, which was in the hands of the Turks, and
that it is scarcely elevated at all above the level of
the sea, which also was from time to time in the
19
power of the enemy, and that enemy under the
orders of such Princes as Amurath I., the organiser
of the janissaries, and Bajazet, the fortifier of Galli-
poli, we are compelled, even after making all allow-
ance for the difference between the artillery of the
fourteenth and fifteenth, and that of the nineteenth
centuries, to pay no scanty praise to that band of
heroes who held such a post for more than half a
century.
The Knights of Rhodes, after a fourteen days'
seige, A.D. 1402, fell, as their old antagonists the
Turks had fallen, under the destroying sword of
Tamerlane, who is said to have erected at Smyrna, as
elsewhere, a hideous monument of his triumph in the
shape of a pyramid of human skulls. Though the
Turkish empire might have been thought wounded
to death on the field of Angora, owing to the
divisions of Western Europe and the imbecility of
the Eastern empire, its deadly wound was healed,
and in 1424, little more than twenty years after that Final cession to
event, we find the Turks in final possession of Smyrna.
With the exception of a threatening demonstration
on the part of a Venetian fleet in A.D. 1694, and a few
outbreaks on that of the Romaic population at periods
of great political excitement, Smyrna has remained
exempt from the scourge of war from the times of
Amurath II., A.D. 1424, down to those of Abdul
Medjid. But though unscathed by war for the last
400 years, Smyrna has within that period suffered
severely on two occasions from earthquakes. In
1688 little was left standing in the city, save the
castle on Mount Pagus ; all the archives and public
records were destroyed : and in 1778 the earthquake
was accompanied by a fire, which proved itself most
destructive. From this latter scourge the city suf-
fered considerably so recently as the year 1845.
It is obvious from this short sketch that no con-
clusion can be drawn from the present condition of a
town which has suffered so much from the destroying
influence of the elements and the more desolating
fury of man, as to the appearance it presented in its
several eras of happiness and prosperity. But from
the medals and other antiquities which, Dr. Chandler
B 2
Turks A.D.
1424.
20
says, Smyrna has contributed in greater abundance
than any other Greek city, we are justified in infer-
ring that its ancient importance as a commercial
emporium and seat of government was not inferior
to that which it at present holds.
The advantages of its position have enabled it to
rise again and again from its ashes, and nothing can
speak so strongly for its admirable situation as its
repeated recovery from calamities which were suffi-
cient to destroy finally and for ever its neighbours
and rivals Clazomense and Ephesus.*
POPULATION.
The population of Smyrna may be estimated as
amounting to 150,000 souls. Such was the result
come to by the last census, which was taken in 1849,
and no material change either for increase or decrease
has since been effected in the whole mass of the
population. Nearly 100,000 of the inhabitants, i.e.
two-thirds, are either Greeks or Turks, whose num-
bers were till lately all but equal, though now the
numerical superiority is with the Greeks.
The rest of the population is made up by Arme-
nians, Jews, Roman Catholics, generally of European
extraction, and European settlers. There are few
other towns in the world with a fixed and resident
population consisting of so many distinct and dis-
tinguishable elements.
Turkish.
The Turks. The dominant race numbers about 45,000 souls,
this at least was their number when the last census
was taken ; but poverty and the conscription for the
war have since then acted as a check upon the
increase of the poorer classes, and the richer classes
have suffered a diminution in their numbers, owing
to their practice of procuring abortion, a habit to
* Our authorities for the political history of Smyrna have been
(i.) (Economus: Atmxr^eSjo? Ar^j/3>] Trstn %fj,ugvYj$. Malta
1831. (ii.) The several historians to whom he refers, (iii.) Gib-
bon's Roman Empire, chapters 59, 61, 62, 64.
21
which the poorer classes are likewise addicted. The
rich Turks form but a very small portion of the
whole nation, and the sources of their wealth are few.
The rich man is either a government employe or a
landed proprietor ; the Turk of the present day seems
in most cases incompetent either to successful manu-
facture or speculation.
The morality in vogue among Turks in the first of Turks as offi '
these lines of life has given rise to the proverb com-
mon in the East, u Aocrs TOV Toupxov p^^ara xai TvQXcuve"
" Bribe the Turk, and blind him."
It is more pleasing to contemplate the other prin- Turks as ex-
cipal source of Turkish wealth, the export of raw por
produce, for which branch of commerce the country
is so well fitted, that neither the export duties of the
government nor the extortion of its officials have
been able materially to diminish it. The staple
products are grain (Tsw^ara in the Greek returns),
fruits (oTToocaj), wool (ftaAAia), and drugs. Details
upon these subjects are given elsewhere in this Report,
under the head of Commerce, see pp. 73-87, and
Appendix, p. 89- Such Turkish capital as is invested Turks in trad^
in trade we find flowing principally in the following
channels : the manufacture of saddlery and horse
trappings, and clothing for domestic use exclusively
and of Asiatic pattern ; of camel bells, horse shoes
and nails, and a few of the coarser productions of
hardware, such as locks, chains, &c. and the drums
for packing figs. All these trades serve to employ
the poorer Turkish population, but are of compara-
tively little importance to foreign nations, and in this
point of view they differ from the carpet trade, a
branch of commerce as yet entirely in Turkish hands.
The upper class Turks have to a great extent Cress,
adopted European costumes, though they still retain
the fez as a mark of their nationality. The lower
orders still wear the turban and the loose breeches,
almost as large and flowing as a petticoat, fastened
just below the knee. This dress sets off to great
advantage the sturdy proportions so commonly to be
met with among the Turkish labouring classes, and it
contributes also not a little to give dignity to the
exterior of their priests and moollahs. The Euro-
22
Manners and
habits.
Wages.
Labour, chiefly
agricultural.
peanised Turk seldom appears to advantage in his
new dress, though he is diligent in striving to copy
his model as exactly as possible. He has, however,
borrowed as little of real value from the European
civilization which is now in full life around him, as
he has done from that whose ruins are to be seen at
every turn in the country his sword won for him.
The Turk has unfortunately adopted from the
western nations the habit of drunkenness, the only
sensual indulgence expressly discountenanced by his
religion, and it is somewhat strange that this, a vice
especially of colder climates and of more lively races,
should to some extent have superseded here the
practice of opium eating, a habit more congenial to
the dreamy temperaments and burning sky of Asia.
The leisure time of the upper classes is not employed
in active sports or exercise ; they either dream it
away by the aid of their chibouque, or spend it in
lounging walks and unprofitable visits. The working
Turk spends his evenings at houses of entertainment
closely analogous to the continental cafe, where
coffee and tobacco furnish him with a solace within
easy reach of the poorest.
His wages have varied from 7 to 8 gr., I4d. to l6d.
per diem, in 1853, to 12 gr., 2s. per diem, in 1856;
and bread has varied at the same periods from Id.
to l^d. 9 If d per lb., and meat from 4d. to 6d. per
Ib. Fish and vegetables of all kinds are so exceed-
ingly cheap here as only to be estimated by the para,
a coin equal to one-fifth of a farthing in value, and
they are in this country most important articles of
diet. A comparison of these several prices would
lead one to infer, what an inspection would show, the
existence of a well-nourished poor population.
It is in agricultural labour of one sort or other
almost exclusively that the poor Turk is employed ;
he is scarcely ever set to perform any operation more
complex than that of picking and sorting the raw pro-
duce which more skilled labourers will one day elabo-
rate. We will here, however, enumerate the exceptions
to this rule, the instances, that is, in which the Turk
appears as a manufacturer, however unimportant they
may appear.
23
Many of the poor Turks get their living by the Also manu-
manufacture of the circular drums so familiar to us
as fig boxes. For further particulars, see under
" Commerce," p. 104, in Appendix.
There are in Smyrna many Turks employed as nail And of nans
and lock manufacturers. The general order of things and locks *
seems to be here reversed. Bar iron and pig iron are
exported from England, and made up into nails and
horseshoes in Asia Minor. The means at the dis-
posal of the Turk for working up the raw material
are of the very simplest description ; such an appa-
ratus as would be thought inadequate by a roadside
blacksmith in England, a pair of bellows, a few bricks,
an anvil, and a charcoal fire. These forges, such as
they are, are not massed together as we find them
in Constantinople, but are scattered about in the
Turkish quarter, and are generally placed in the
yard of a private dwelling-house. A tolerably good
lock, of rough construction but of considerable
strength, from one of these forges may be bought
for 15 piastres = 2s. 6d.
Thirdly, the porterage of Smyrna is almost entirely And town em-
performed by Turks. As this is an employment for P
which no talent and no capital, save that of a strong
body, is required, one would expect to find an excess
of candidates for it, and a minimum of remuneration ;
and, were the porters not protected by their posses-
sion of a monopoly, and being formed into a guild,
such undoubtedly would be the case. As it is the
Smyrna porters pay heavy taxes to the Government,
and in return have the monopoly of the conveyance
of goods from the sea shore secured to them. They
are divided into sections, and each of these is organised
under one head, who receives a certain share of the
profits, and manages the payment of their taxes to
Government. There are 3,000 porters in Smyrna,
most, if not all of them, Turks, who come from the
interior to Smyrna at the age of from eighteen to
twenty, and continue here till they have accumulated
a considerable sum of money, after which they with-
draw again to their homes. Iconium is the place
whence most of them come. They have fixed rates
of charges (4 piastres anywhere within the town for
one bale of goods), and they do not generally make
24
Gravestones
worked by
Greeks
Turkish
women.
As manufac-
turers.
See Commerce,
p. 85.
Religion and
education.
any attempt at extorting more than this. The loads
they carry are enormous, as much as 300 Ibs. being
frequently placed upon one of them ; and their physi-
cal development is indicative of their great strength,
great labour, and temperate life.
We may note in passing, the apparently merely
curious but yet not altogether insignificant fact, that
the gravestones of the Turks, which are not unfre-
quently covered with inscriptions in their somewhat
complex caligraphy, and consequently demand some
skill in their workmanship, are entirely made by
Greeks.
The same account may be given of the female part
of the Turkish population in Smyrna as in other
cities of the empire. Infanticide and prostitution are
rare, but the Turkish woman, with a view of retain-
ing her hold on her husband's affections, very com-
monly procures the abortion of her unborn child.
A larger proportion of Turkish women than is
generally supposed possess the accomplishments of
reading and writing, but beyond this degree their
education has not advanced.
The Turkish women make linen and silken textures
of various degrees of fineness for the use of their own
households, and within their own houses, but the
manufacture of the Turkey carpet and the richly
embroidered and flowery praying carpet is also almost
entirely carried on by female hands. For the con-
struction of these fabrics, and also of others intended
for display by the Oriental, and purchased as curio-
sities by the European, no other machinery than the
very simplest is employed.
The Turkish empire is in idea a theocracy, or
perhaps we should rather say a prophetocracy, and in
practice we find that their religious sentiments and
beliefs exercise a most decided and tangible influence
over the most trivial as well as the most important
actions of Mussulmen.
Religious and educational institutions, more or less
closely connected in most countries, are in the Turkish
mutually independent, and as if by logical sequence
no education is thought necessary to be provided
publicly for the Turkish woman. Their schools are
schools for boys only. These institutions are attached
25
to the mosques, of which there are eighteen in
Smyrna, and which are all more or less richly endowed.
The fees for instruction are very small and the scholars
are of the lower and middle classes ; the richer Turks
providing themselves with private instructors. The
Imaums are the teachers in the Turkish schools, the
Koran and the writings of the commentators upon it
are their class books; and, difficult though their
language be both to read and write, a very large
proportion of the poorer Turks can do both. So
much of arithmetic is taught as is necessary for the
simple business transactions of the Mussulman popu-
lation. The cheapness of these schools and the
absence of any manufacture where children's labour
might be turned to account, explains the compara-
tively wide diffusion of this somewhat scanty educa-
tion. Few of the Turkish officials in Smyrna could
speak any Western language, one only, Ali Effendi,
who held the post of Sanitary Commissioner, could
both speak French fluently, and English enough for
the common purposes of life. The proportion of
wealthy Turks who have received an education in
Paris, is much smaller than that of the corresponding
class of Greeks. Lastly, there is no Turkish news-
paper in Smyrna.
The priests know little beyond the dogmas of their Priests,
religion, and the influence they possess is trifling,
though their wealth is not inconsiderable when esti-
mated by a Turkish standard. Certain revenues
designed for the relief of the poor and indigent are
attached to the mosques, and of these the priests are
the dispensers, but they cannot be said to take any
active interest in the objects of this benevolence.
Such attempts as have been made in Smyrna conversion,
towards converting Mahomedans have met with no
success. A mission was founded in the place by
the Church Missionary Society of Great Britain,
twenty-four years ago ; but at that time a law was in
force which assigned the penalty of death to any
Mussulman who forsook the faith of his forefathers,
and this circumstance co-operated powerfully, with
others, towards deterring any one from taking such
a step. Books, however, and tracts in the Turkish
language have been distributed amongst the Turks,
26
Government of
the Turks.
Pasha and
Council.
Tribunals, cri-
minal.
but the most successful field of labour has been found
by the missionary to be among the Christian popula-
tion.
The consideration of the government of the country
will naturally fall under the head of the Turkish
population, as that population is the dominant or ruling
race, and, till lately, occupied that position almost to
the entire exclusion of all others. What follows,
however, was written previously to the promulgation
of the Hatti Scheriff of February 1856.
The government of Smyrna is vested in a pasha
and his council. For the office of pasha in this, the
second city of the Turkish empire, a man of some
note has generally been selected, and the present
pasha has occupied posts of importance at the courts
of Western Europe. Within the last twelve years
Smyrna has had no less than six pashas, so short is
generally their tenure of office, a fact at which we
should not wonder when we think that they often
have to contend at once with intrigue from without
on the part of the representatives of some European
power, and from within on the part of their private
enemies, to whom their own misconduct has not
unfrequently given a handle.
The council associated with the pasha for the
administration of justice in civil and criminal cases,
consists of a cadi, the chief of the police, and the
representatives of the several communities of Greeks,
Armenians, Jews, and Roman Catholic Rayas. The
final decision rests with the pasha, who has not, how-
ever, the power of life and death. In every instance
where a sentence of death is passed it is forwarded to
Constantinople for the Sultan's approval, and before
it is carried into execution it is necessary that the
signature of the chief priest be also affixed to it.
These formalities, and especially the latter of them,
have frequently tended to defeat the ends of justice ;
their existence has opened a door for the practice of
bribery and the procuring of delay in behalf of
notorious criminals, though it may have occasionally
prevented the perpetration of a judicial murder. Most
of the cases brought before this tribunal are petty,
and we may remark that there are no female prisoners
to be seen in their prisons.
There is another council for mercantile cases. This Mercantile,
council awards the punishments in cases of fraudulent
bankruptcy and other varieties of dishonest dealing.
The punishment consists in imprisonment for a longer
or shorter period, and it is to be remarked that after
the expiration of the term of his sentence the debtor
is still held to be liable for the amount of the debt he
has incurred.
Imprisonment is the punishment awarded to every Punishments,
variety of crime, except to such cases as, by their
agrant character, or by their affecting some indivi-
dual under European protection, compel the authorities
to inflict capital punishment.
Criminals condemned to death are decapitated, and
this punishment is, if possible, inflicted near the place
where the offence was committed. If the offender be
a Greek it is sometimes found necessary to execute
him by night for fear of an outbreak on the part of
his countrymen.
There are two places for the imprisonment of Prisons,
criminals, exclusive of those attached to the several
consulates for the confinement of offenders under
their protection. One, the Turkish, is in the pasha's
residence, and was formerly the only establishment
of the kind in existence in Smyrna. It consists of
three or four small rooms, and is used for the confine-
ment of offenders before they are tried, for the punish-
ment of debtors, and of petty criminals. There is no
arrangement apparently for separating criminals guilty
of one order of crime from those guilty of another, but
it is seen that the richer offenders generally contrive
to obtain either complete privacy or the company of
men of their own rank in life. The second prison is
on a more extensive scale, and can contain 100 prison-
ers. It was formerly a khan, and when the want of
increased prison accommodation made itself felt, the
strong doors and walls of that kind of building made
its conversion to that use easy and obvious; most of See Commerce,
the prisoners here are homicides of one sort or another, r
and by nationality Greeks.
In some cases the sentence of death has been Punishments,
awarded, but has been commuted, as the Turkish law
allows for a five years' imprisonment on the payment
of a certain sum of money to the murdered man's
28
Greeks.
Numbers.
Identity with
old Greek
race.
Three argu-
ments.
family or friends. Political offenders are also con-
fined here, and we saw one large and tolerably com-
fortable room allotted to three Mussulmen, wearing
however heavy chains, who had organized a rising of
some thousand men at Aidin, in the interior. A
certain ration of bread is allowed each prisoner from
the Government, and, with the exception of spirits,
they are permitted to purchase anything they please.
The poorer prisoners provide themselves with bags,
which they let down from their windows to receive
such charity as the- passers by may bestow upon
them. Sentences are awarded and carried into exe-
cution in a manner that leaves much to be desired.
As regards the carrying of a sentence into execution,
it is often found that a prisoner who has wealthy
friends has disappeared in an unaccountable manner,
and has resumed his old practices in a new field.
And it is impossible wholly to discredit the stories in
every one's mouth, which go to show that money
has nearly as great an influence with witnesses and
judges previously, as with the jailors subsequently
to the passing of a sentence.
Greek.
At least one-third of the inhabitants of Smyrna
are Greeks by blood, language, and religion ; their
numbers may be estimated as amounting to 50,000,
thus exceeding slightly those of the Turkish popu-
lation ; and the events which have occurred within
the last two years will be found to have increased
their relative majority. Several considerations in-
duce us to consider the Greek of Smyrna as a
genuine representative and descendant of the ancient
Hellene. First, the creations of ancient Greek art
are strikingly reproduced in the living Greek. The
characteristic bearing and expression of the old
models are constantly brought before our minds as
we meet the modern Greek in the streets. A most
striking illustration of our meaning is furnished by a
comparison of the Ulysses of the ancient artists with
the seafaring Greek of the present day. But not
only do we trace a correspondence between the tout
ensemble of the sculptured marble and the general
expression of the living individual, but we also
29
observe a close resemblance in the details of limb and
feature in the two subjects of comparison. It is
sufficient to specify the lips, nose, eyes, hair, and
forehead as points of coincidence.
Secondly, Romaic has always been the language
of the Asiatic Greek, even when Albanian was spoken
in Athens, and ^uo-a >j EAX^ lo-xXa/S&uSrj.
Thirdly, The Greek of modern Hellas will allow
that his race has suffered less from the intermixture
of foreign blood in Asia Minor than in Greece Proper
itself. We append his own words :
" Kara TOV Mscraiwva xai jw,5T7rera r) EAAr,vj>t^ (pvXYj ipuAap$y]
jtxaAAov a^iKTOs Iv rrj Mxp#cna xaj ra vrjcroij >j sv n=Ao7rovvr;(7w.
From a work published at Syra, 1855, entitled
nveAA>]v<V, p. 138.
Of the 50,000 Smyrniote Greeks, the great majority Baya, and pro-
are subjects of the Porte, and are now to be governed *
according to the provisions laid down by the Hatti
Scheriffof 1856. A few are Greek subjects, and are
governed by Greek law ; whilst from 2,000 to 3,000
are British subjects, and are under the jurisdiction of
the British consul, and are governed by Ionian law.
The Smyrniote Greek has regular features of the Appearance.
classical model, a stature above middle height, and
an expression of vivacity and restlessness in his coun-
tenance contrasting strongly with the acquiescent
somnolence of the Asiatic races surrounding him.
The upper classes have universally adopted the
European dress, but the labouring population have
a costume peculiar to themselves, they wear large
and very loose breeches of blue calico fastening
below the knee, and serving thus as a means for
supporting the stocking. The fustanella, or multi-
fold petticoat of the Albanian is not worn by the
Anatolian Greek, though it is becoming the national
dress of the Hellenic. A Guernsey shirt and sailors
blue jacket, with shoes and stockings, sometimes
complete their dress. But the Greek who is a
little above the very poorest class, wears generally
a white shirt, and over it a braided waistcoat in addi-
tion to the jacket. All Greeks who have not adopted
* In the Middle Ages and subsequently, the Greek race kept
itself more free from intermixture with other races in Asia Minor
and the islands than in the Peloponnesus.
30
Greek mer-
chants.
Commercial
character of
Greeks.
the European costume were a distinctive fez. This
fez is taller than that worn by the Turks, and more
nearly resembles what is known in works of ancient
art as the Phrygian bonnet, but it differs from it too,
in not being pointed at the extremity, and in having
a long silken tassel appended. The colour of the
fez itself is red, and to obtain this colour cochineal
is largely imported from England and from Greece.
As a whole, this dress is both sensible and be-
coming.
In every occupation and profession the Greek is
to be found. There are Greek merchants, Greek
lawyers, Greek doctors, each in the very highest
walks of his calling.
The business of exporting and importing goods to
and from Europe is becoming more and more mono-
polised by the Greek merchants day by day. They
are compelled by the conditions of the insurance
companies to employ European bottoms and sailors
to transport their freight, and they have a line of
English steamers in their employment, several of
them reaching a tonnage of 1,200 tons, and num-
bering already five or six vessels named after the
several countries of ancient Hellas, the " Arcadia,"
the " Laconia," &c. It is in great measure their
local knowledge and connexions which enable them
to compete with merchants of other nations at so
great an advantage in this particular branch of busi-
ness. There are many instances to be pointed out
in Smyrna of Greek merchants who have raised
themselves by their own exertions and industry from
a very poor condition to one of opulence, and on
the other hand it is said that their very wealthiest
merchants are in the habit of furthering their own
interests by methods which, though not positively
dishonest, are yet such as none but the pettiest
tradesman of another race would condescend to em-
ploy. The charge, however, of positive dishonesty
is one very frequently brought against the Greek mer-
chant, and to a certain extent our own investigations
and experience have satisfied us of the truth of it.
It is not a little remarkable that in the rules for
the election of a managing committee for the Greek
College, a special proviso exists declaring the ineligi-
31
bility of fraudulent bankrupts for the office. That
such a rule should be necessary shows two things :
I. The frequency of the offence.
II. The scanty amount of public reprobation
awarded to it.
The Greek physicians and lawyers receive their Greek phy-
professional education in the schools of continental
Europe, and especially in those of Paris and Athens.
We have found the younger Greek members of the
medical profession in Smyrna quite on a level with
the theory and practice of the present day, and
though no restriction or regulation exists as to the
indispensability to the practitioner of a diploma from
some respectable source, considerable regard is paid
by the public to the possession of proper qualifica-
tions. The largest income made by any practi-
tioner in Smyrna is made by a Greek physician, and
amounts to 1,500^ per annum. The fee for each
visit is 15 piastres = 2s. 6d., but we believe it is
usual for the Smyrniote practitioner to make several
visits where one would be held amply sufficient in
Europe. As a standard of comparison, we may men-
tion that the head master (Aeu0uvnj$) of the large
school in Smyrna in which the Greek professional
man receives his non-professional education has a
salary of 2,000 (grosia) piastres per month, i.e., a
little under 200 /. per annum.
The Greek is to be found in all the employments Trades and
of humble life, whether as a small tradesman, artisan,
boatman, or day labourer. The profits of the small
tradesman cannot easily be estimated, but in several
instances we have found the master of a shop of very
humble pretensions to be the owner and occupier of
a house in some other part of the town, the rent of
which in Smyrna would have been 35 /. to 40/. per
annum. The wages paid to day labourers during the
time that we were in Smyrna varied from 8 piastres =
16</., up to 12 piastres = 2s. per diem. Previously
to the war 7 piastres = I4d., was the amount usually
paid. The condition of the labouring population
Was at this time one of well-being, as the price of
bread was 2 piastres per oke = 4d. for 2^1bs., and
a whole sheep might be purchased for 80 piastres,
32
Mental state of
poor.
i.e., about 13s. Indeed, squalid visages and ragged
clothes are seldom, if ever, to be seen among the
Greek population.
As regards the intellectual condition of the lower
class Greek, he is to be considered as intelligent and
tolerably well informed ; as regards his moral cha-
racter, he is distinguished by his desire to better his
condition and rise in the world, while, on the other
hand, his aspirations are frequently counteracted by
his own turbulence and volatility. Drunkenness
prevails to a considerable extent amongst this class
of the population ; and this vice is encouraged by
the great cheapness of intoxicating drinks, wine
ranging from 4 to 5 piastres per oke, i.e., 8d. to lOd.
for as much as will fill two English quart bottles, and
raki, a strong spirit, selling at from Is. to I4d. for
the same quantity. Much time is spent in drinking
and smoking in cafes by the lower orders ; and
though these establishments are closed comparatively
early in the evening, they are, while open, invariably
crowded. Their walls are almost invariably hung
thickly with prints of scenes and heroes of the Greek
war of independence ; and we may here pass by an easy
transition to the consideration of that enmity to every-
thing Turkish which is so universally found in all
classes of Greeks, and so deeply imbedded in each in-
dividual heart as to be rightly viewed as constituting
apart of the moral nature of the entire race. The
passing traveller in Turkey cannot fail to become ac-
quainted with the existence of this bitter feeling, and
from what he sees of the easy going, uninterfering
regime of the Turks, he is often puzzled how to ac-
count for it. Much of this hatred is to be ascribed
to the comparatively recent occurrences of the war
of independence, when the vilest passions and the
vilest characters had freedom and abundant oppor-
tunity for the perpetration of every kind of cruelty,
but much also is 'due to other causes.
Every one who has formed even a passing acquaint-
ance with a Greek will have had several stories of
ii. Extortion on wrong and extortion which he has suffered at the
Turk - hands of the Turk related to him. Should this
acquaintance ripen into confidence, the Greek will
Hatred to Turk
three causes.
i. Reminis-
cences of War
of Independ-
ence.
communicate how the Turk has been induced in
many instances to commute a system of irregular
and occasional exaction for one of organized and
regular receiving of bribes. This plan was carried
out to perfection, and on the grand scale, in Chios
previous to the massacre. At the present time, when
the eyes of Europe are turned towards Turkey and
along the seaboard, where the protection or mediation
of an European consul is easily procurable, instances
of extortion are not now so exceedingly common as
they are said to be, but a day's journey into the
interior will still furnish the inquirer with numerous
and well-authenticated cases.
But there is a third cause, besides these two, which * Personal
has operated more powerfully than both of them
combined to imbue the whole Greek nature with the
principle of hatred to the Turk. This cause is the
insolence of the Turk in the daily transactions of
common life, and his proneness to inflict personal
outrage. Much exaggeration would naturally find
place in the relation of cases of this kind, but the
general truth of the assertion is unassailable. A
Greek in the distinctive dress of his race could
never enter the Turkish quarter of the town in which
he lived without running great risk of suffering per-
sonal violence ; and even in other parts of the town
it was not unusual, until the time of the occupation
of Turkey by the Allies, for a Greek to be saluted
with the appellation " Giaour," and a blow at the
same instant from an uneducated fanatical Turk ;
and to find on appealing for redress to one of the
higher class of the same race that none was to be
had. In numberless other ways the Turk has been
wont to remind the Raya of his subordinate position
by methods which, while they envenomed and alien-
ated the feelings of his subject for ever, served to
gratify his own splenetic impulse only for an instant.
Distinctions and restrictions as to dress and other
externals seem trifling and easy to bear only to those
who are not subjected to them. The existence of
this evil, as well as of the other evil of oppression
and extortion, is recognized and condemned in the
Decree of February 18, 1856, by which the Turk
34
Intensity of
hatred to
Turks.
Dislike of
Eoman Ca-
tholics.
Russian sym-
pathies.
has publicly declared, what was already widely
known, that when left to himself neither justice
induces him to respect the rights nor policy the
feelings of his subjects.
But whatever the causes which may have en-
gendered it, there exists in the Greek towards the
Turk a feeling of hatred and bitterness, the very
physical expression of which on the countenance
of its possessor it is painful to contemplate. It is
common alike to young and old, to both sexes, and
all ranks.
A strong feeling of dislike and distrust exists
between the Greek and the Roman Catholic popu-
lation, which is fostered by the priests of either
persuasion, and embittered by the difference of the
two religious systems. The Greeks accuse the
Roman Catholics of having joined with the Turks in
the barbarous massacre of Chios ; and, whether this
be true or false, there is no doubt that on numerous
occasions the Roman Catholic population has some-
what ostentatiously put itself in opposition to the in-
terests of the Greek. At the present moment the
Greek dislike for Rome is not wholly unmingled with
fear, as great exertions are being made throughout the
Levant at the present juncture by Roman Catholic
emissaries of several orders, who are acting under
the sanction and with the patronage of the French
Government, and have at all events succeeded in
causing great suspicion to attach itself to the in-
tentions of what the Greeks call y $1X08^x0; woAmx^.
See p. 47.
The attachment of the Greek to the Russian
interest has been somewhat exaggerated. It has
at all times been pronounced rather on its negative
than on its positive side ; it has been rather a com-
munity of enmity to the Turk than a complete
union of feelings and interests, the "idem nolle"
without the " idem velle " necessary to make up a
" firma amicitia."
The upper class Greek, who is not much in-
fluenced by the priests, looked to Russia with the
hope that by her means the Turkish Empire would
be brought to an end ; but he always felt and ex-
35
pressed a firm determination never to live under
such a system of despotism as the Czar's. The
lower class Greek, on the other hand, is considerably
under the influence of the priest, and these indivi-
duals again are firmly attached to Russia through
fear and jealousy of the rival Catholic Church, and
have, in consequence, instilled into their flock attach-
ment to their co-religionists (fy^^rxw) as one of
their first duties. The Greeks, however, whatever
aspirations they made for the success of the Russian
arms while the event was yet doubtful, had always a
shrewd suspicion that under another form of govern-
ment they might be forced to curb somewhat their
vaporing and volatile tempers ; and, when free from
the maddening influence of fanaticism and raid, they
were not slow to confess the distrust they felt for their
future friends.
The better educated Greeks are in the habit of Feeling toward*
expressing great admiration for the political insti- the En g lish -
tutions of England, with the working of which, travel
in England has familiarized many of them. Amongst
all classes the English have a reputation for truth-
fulness and straightforward dealing, and though
slow to follow the example, the Greek is not slow
to respect the character. An act of brigandage on
the part of a Greek band had for its object, in June
1855, an English medical practitioner, resident per-
manently in Smyrna. Though the matter seemed
to wear another aspect at the time, several reasons
conspire to make us believe that an Englishman was
selected then principally because it was thought that
under the circumstances he would fetch a better
ransom than an individual of any other nation.
Fanatical and political reasons may have exercised
influence over the making of the selection ; but it is
well known that the same band had been in the
habit of pillaging persons of every variety of faith
and politics indiscriminately.
To a certain extent, the political aspirations of the Political aspi-
Greek are at one with those of the Roman Catholic rations -
and the Armenian ; all alike feel the evils of living
under a weak government, and all alike desire a
government capable of enforcing order, and ensuring
c 2
36
justice and security to its subjects. So that this end
be attained the Roman Catholic and Armenian are
to a great extent careless under whose government
it be brought about. It is not so with the Greek.
An element of nationality enters into all his calcula-
tions. In his day dream of the future he reverts to
the past, and sighs for the days when the Turk
reigned in the inland city of Iconium, and the whole
of the seaboard of the Archipelago and Asia Minor
belonged to the Greek emperor in Byzantium The
daily increasing monied and numerical majority of his
race in the seaport towns of the Levant makes his
hopes appear not wholly chimerical, but it is to be
feared that his political education is not yet suffi-
ciently advanced to allow of his assuming and retain-
ing such a position to his own credit and the lasting
advantage of the general commonwealth of nations.
The Greeks in Smyrna have for the management
and support of their own institutions, such as their
schools, hospitals, &c., formed themselves into a
municipal body called the T^MKIKYI xoivonj?, the
Greek community, to the common fund of which
every Greek is obliged to contribute according to his
means.
Education. No educational institution in Smyrna bears the
The Greek name of university (navsTnerr^iov). The aim of its large
school (called Ewayyexix^ <TX Q ^-) is expressly stated
in its own programme to be the preparation of its
pupils for the university. But a view of the curri-
culum of study pursued at the Greek college in
Smyrna will show, that in communicating liberal as
opposed to special, general as opposed to professional
instruction, it more nearly approaches our notion of
university than the universities of Athens and Syra
themselves, whose especial aim it is to qualify men
for the exercise of the three learned professions.
From this programme, as given on the next page,
we see that though no attempt is made at commu-
nicating the special knowledge, or at giving the
special preparation necessary for the practice of any
Course of study one profession, the course of study here prescribed
at the college. . r . ~ , , , J n ,., r , ,
contains every one of the branches of a liberal educa-
tion mathematics, language, history, and moral and
37
i. Year.
1st Class in
Hellenic
School."
Programme of the Seven Years Curriculum in the " Evangelical School " of
Smyrna.
C i. Practical arithmetic up to fractions, ii. Greek gram-
I mar. Etymology up to irregular verbs, iii. First volume of
I a book called "'Elementary lessons in Greek :" Contents,
<J Grammatical Exercises ; JEsop's Fables ; Sayings of the
j Wise Men. iv. Ancient history in epitome, v. Sacred
history of Old Testament. vi. Exercises written.
[_vii. Writing, viii. Drawing.
i. Practical arithmetic to the end. ii. Greek grammar,
etymology, irregular verbs. Derivation and compound
words, iii. Second volume of " Elementary lessons :"
Contents, Plutarch's Lives, Xenophon's Hellenics, and Thu-
cydides. iv. Epitome of Mediaeval history, v. Political
geography, vi. New Testament history, vii. Exercises,
viii. Writing, ix. Drawing.
C i. Practical geometry, ii. Greek grammar. Syntax.
I iii. Third volume of " Elementary lessons in Greek :"
Contents, Xenophon's Memorabilia ; Plato's Crito ; certain
^ passages from his other dialogues ; Plutarch's Ethics.
iv. Elements of French, v. Political geography to the end.
vi. Epitome of modern history. vii. Grecian history.
viii. Sacred instruction, ix. Exercises, x. Drawing.
i. Theoretical arithmetic, ii. Greek syntax. Construc-
tion and idioms, iii. Isocrates, with the speeches of Lysias
and Demosthenes, especially the Philippics and Olynthiacs,
with reading aloud, iv. French, v. Natural history of
man. vi. Mathematical and physical geography, vii. An-
cient history not epitomised, viii. Sacred instruction up
to end. ix. Exercises, x. Latin.
ii. Year.
2nd Class in
" Hellenic
School."
iii. Year.
3rd Class in
" Hellenic
School."
iv. Year.
1st Class in the
" Gymnasium."
v. Year.
" Gymnasium."
vi. Year.
Lower
6th Class in
" Gymnasium."
vii. Year.
Upper
6th Class in
" Gymnasium."
i. Conclusion of arithmetic and algebra, ii. Syntax-
second part. iii. Ancient Greek. Demosthenes De
Corona. Speeches of Thucydides. Muses of Herodotus,
2nd Class in the ^ with reading aloud. Specialties of Ionic dialect, iv. Com-
position, v. French, vi. Physics, vii. History of Middle
Ages not in epitome, viii. Church history, ix. Exercises.
x. Latin.
i. Algebra to end, and geometry, ii. Metrical instruc-
tion, as in heroics, &c. iii. Ancient Greek : Homer's Iliad
and Odyssey; Theocritus, Idylls and Epigrams, with viva
voce reading. Specialties of Doric dialect, iv. Composi-
tion, v. French, vi. Psychology, vii. Roman history,
viii. Ecclesiastical history, ix. Exercises, x. Latin.
C i. Geometry up to end. ii. Metrical instruction : Iambic
1 metre, &c. iii. Ancient Greek tragedies of ,/Eschylus,
I Sophocles, and Euripides ; one or two odes of Pindar ;
remains of Alcaeus, Sappho : reading aloud. Specialties
of the JEolic dialect, iv. French, v. Modern history in
extenso. vi. Epitome of logic, vii. *O>jyr)T/?c;fj rf Hponai-
viii. Christian ethics, ix. Exercises, x. Latin.
38
physical science. The course extends over seven
years, and no pupil is admitted until he can read and
write correctly from dictation, and work sums in the
first four rules of arithmetic. The school has two
divisions : the upper division is called the " Gymna-
sium," and is intended for pupils in the last four
years of their course ; the lower is called the " Hellenic
School," and corresponds with the first three years of
study. The whole school collectively is called the
" Evangelical School " of Smyrna. With the excep-
tion of a registration fee of two francs for the lower
and four for the upper school, the education is
gratuitous. The institution is supported partly by
the endowments it possesses in the shape of houses
and landed property, partly by an annual allowance
from the above-mentioned common fund of the Greek
community. The head master (Ateufluvrrjc) receives a
salary of 2,000 piastres per month, i.e. nearly 200/.
per annum. The two masters next in rank to him
are required to possess certificates, from the Gymnasia
in the kingdom of Greece, of having passed through
the entire course of study there and the final exami-
nations. In all there are seven masters, and a general
rule forbids them to take any of the scholars as their
private pupils ; the number of pupils is upwards of
250. There is a good library in connexion with the
school, which is provided with all the Greek news-
papers and periodicals, and is at all times open to the
stranger either to inspect or use. Considerable pro-
minence is given, as a reference to the programme
will show, to the study of the ancient Greek writers,
and this, in combination with other causes, is rapidly
bringing back the spoken language to the purity of
the ancient standard. The best modern editions of
the old authors are used in the school, and a con-
siderable demand exists for them, as the booksellers'
shops will show. It is right to add that owing to the
general interest felt for and the eagerness to obtain
education prevalent among the Greek population,
this institution is in a creditable state of efficiency,
and may bear a comparison with analogous establish-
ments in other countries. It is under the protection of
the British Government, and Her Britannic Majesty's
**.*
2
consul is the ultimate referee in all disputes which may
arise.
Within the same walls as the Greek college and other schools
the richly endowed church of St. Photeina, with
hich all these institutions are connected, there are
veral other schools of more humble pretensions.
There is a girls' school and two infants' schools, all
of which are in good working order. In all there are
within the precincts upwards of 1,000 scholars of
one age or another receiving gratuitous instruction.
There is an infant school for boys attached to the
church of St. John, in which there are 150 pupils of
the age of from 5 to 12. The education here also is
gratuitous, and the revenues of the school are fur-
nished from those of the church of St. Photeina. The
black-board and chalk is in use there as elsewhere
pretty universally in Greek schools. The 'EAA>JVIXOV
(r^oAstov attached to the church of St. John was shut up
when we visited the place ; the necessity for it having
been superseded by the Evangelical school. The
firls' school in the precincts of St. John's Church had
'om 72 to 100 pupils at the times of our visits ;
they were mostly under the age of 14. The mistress
received 300 piastres per month, 20/. per annum, from
the revenues of St. Photeina.
There is another school for boys within the walls
of the Greek hospital. All these schools are open to
all classes. Many of the daughters of the richer
Greeks go to a school kept by some Prussian lay
sisters, whose instructions are of great value, and
who educate many of the upper classes of the various
nations in Smyrna. As a general rule the Greek
lady is tolerably well informed, and can converse
with spirit and intelligence upon many topics, but
almost invariably she is animated and interesting when
the prospects or past history of her nation are made
the subject of discussion.
Though many of the villagers can neither read
nor write, it is rare to find a Greek born in Smyrna
destitute of these accomplishments.
It is common to see an announcement in the Greek
newspapers, to the effect that such and -such a Greek
merchant or lady resident in London, Marseilles, or
40
Greek news-
papers.
Newspapers.
Manchester, has left or presented so many thousand
pounds to this or that school. The Greek of the
present day emulates the munificence so largely dis-
played towards educational institutions by the Turk
in his early days of greatness.
Of the educational development of the middle class
of any population, the character of their favourite
journals may be taken as a tolerably good indication.
Of the four newspapers published in Smyrna, three
are Greek, and one French. Of the three Greek,
one, the " Amalthea," is a journal of considerable
pretensions ; the other two, the " Star of the East "
and the " Prometheus," the latter only recently set on
foot, are inferior in size, execution, and respectability.
They are all weekly papers, but the " Amalthea "
generally publishes a supplement on some interme-
diate day, giving any fresh intelligence which may
have arrived. It is of the same size as most of the
Parisian daily papers, and as literary compositions and
as political essays, its leaders are much more nearly on
a level with those of the French papers than these
are with those of their contemporaries in London.
The first page is generally nearly entirely filled with
leading articles alone. The paper devotes a large
portion of its space to long extracts from the different
European journals to which we frequently find the
titles, 'O Xpovos, or 6 c Eco9<vo 5 - Ta^u^o//^, for the English ;
6 Myjvurcop, Ol* >j 'E<prj/Jt,=p$ TMV ^t/^rrja-f^v, for the French ;
and rj "Apxros and >j AveafT>j<r/a B=Ayj*>;, for the Belgian
newspapers. It has its own correspondents in the
Levantine towns, but for other news it depends upon
foreign journals. It always furnishes a very complete
summary of the news of the week, and in this, as in
every other particular, is far superior to any other
paper published in Turkey. Every number of the
" Amalthea " contains the commercial intelligence of
the week, and also advertisements of certain English
quack medicines ; considerable, though not entire,
liberty of the press is allowed. The price of the
paper varies from 2 piastres (4J.) without, to 3 pias-
tres (6</.) with a supplement. We have given
extracts from this paper in the Appendix, p. 111-119,
which will at once illustrate the character of the
41
journal, and afford information on several topics of
interest in the East.
We shall estimate still higher the intellectual Books.
activity of the Smyrniote Greek, if we take into our
consideration the number of Greek books which are
imported into Smyrna from Syra and Athens, as well
as those which are printed in Smyrna itself. Of this
latter class many are volumes of original poems or
plays, or translations from the French or other
novelists ; the former furnishes us with specimens of
books of every class, and on every subject. There
are several founts of Greek type in Smyrna, and
amongst them there is one which may vie for clear-
ness and beauty with the founts of Leipsic, Zurich,
or Oxford.
There is a large club belonging to the Greek com- Greek club.
munity, which is called the Greek casino, or rpuixixy
but which exactly corresponds in purpose and
intenton to the English " club." It has a fine suite
of rooms, and is much frequented throughout the
winter months.
There are six Greek churches in Smyrna, and an Churches.
archbishop and bishop. The priests have consider- Hierarchy.
able influence over the lower classes, who are tolerably
scrupulous in the performance of what they hold to
be their religious duties. The Greek hierarchy does
much to foster the feelings of dislike which their flock
entertains towards the Turk and the Roman Catholic,
but their influence does not extend to the better edu-
cated portion of the population, nor their exertions
to any attempt at really elevating the religious feel-
ings of the lower orders. There are many scandalous
instances of immorality to be found amongst the
Greek clergy, and as a body it is exceedingly illiterate
and ignorant.
The Greek calendar contains a great number of Saints' days.
saints' days, and all of them are kept as holidays.
As their calendar does not correspond with that of
the Roman Catholics, who also have many feast days,
and observe them as such, suspension of business,
more or less complete, for the purposes of recreation,
is more common in Smyrna than perhaps in any other
town in the world.
42
Their churches, as buildings, have an unimposing
exterior, but their interior is covered with offerings
and resplendent with gold and silver gilding. They
contain numerous pictures of the Trinity, of the
Virgin and the Saints, especially St. George ; but
no images nor any musical instruments.
A considerable number of Greeks belong to the
Roman Catholic, but scarcely any to the Protestant
Church.
Jewish.
Numbers. There is a numerous colony of Jews in Smyrna, as
many, it is not improbable, though uncertain, as
1 7,000 ; and, owing to the comparative liberty and
immunity from oppression which they here enjoy,
their numbers are rapidly increasing. The Smyrniote
Jew is easily distinguishable from the other races
with which he is here intermingled, his personal
appearance being most marked, though it is different
from that with which we are familiar in his brethren
Appearance. m England. He is generally tall, almost always fair-
haired, with light and frequently blue eyes, a straight
Expression. nose, and an effeminately white skin. The expres-
sion in his countenance, though not suggestive of
oppression, yet denotes acquiescence in subordina-
tion ; he seems to have bowed his shoulder to bear,
and his mind to the adoption of slavish thoughts and
artifices. Jews are to be seen in every town in the
Mediterranean, and it is worthy of remark, that though
they differ very much in physical development, as their
Polish, Italian, or Spanish origin would lead us to
anticipate, their physiognomical expression is every-
where the same. The Jew in Jerusalem is a Polish
Jew ; he is short of stature, and wears long curls of
black hair, forming thus a very complete contrast to
the Smyrniote Jew ; yet so truly identical is the ex-
pression on the countenances of the two representa-
tives of the race, that a stranger, familiar only with
the Smyrniote variety, would on entering Jerusalem
instantly recognize the nationality of the first Jew he
met. The same remarks may be applied to the cases
of the Jews of Egypt and Morocco. The identity
extends, however, deeper than the expression of coun-
43
Ot(
fail
*.
tenance ; the moral character and hygienic condition character.
of the Jew is the same in all the different parts of the
Levant. The vilest trades and the filthiest portions
of each town are always in the hands of Jews. They
as prone to deceit and fraud as the most deceitful
f other nations, but they lack their enterprise and
il of attaining their success. There are in Smyrna Poverty.
few wealthy Jews ; the rich Jews are not very rich,
whilst the poor are very poor. The condition of the
poorer Jews in Smyrna is more abject than that of
the poor of any other nationality residing here ; their
wellings are more crowded, their streets more dirty,
,nd their diet worse. Yet in Smyrna considerable
indemnities have been secured to the Jew by certain
firmans granted him when he was driven out of Spain
by the persecution of the Inquisition. He is not
molested by the Turk, and is on the same footing, as
regards taxation, with the dominant race. But what-
ever insults the Greek receives at the hand of the
Turk are transmitted by him to the Jew, and at
seasons of religious excitement, such as the Greek
Easter, it is unsafe for a Jew to be seen near the
Greek quarter.
Their means for education are small ; they possess Educational
here a few wretched schools, and it is our experience deficienc 3 r *
that the proportion of Turkish women who can read
and write is larger than that of the Jewish. Their
wants in this respect are so great throughout the
Levant as to have attracted the attention of their
wealthier brethren in Europe, and within the present
year, 1856, we have met with Jewish agents travelling
with the view of inspecting and reporting upon the
condition of their schools in the East.
They speak among themselves a mixture of Turkish
and Spanish. Many, however, of the Jews act as
brokers to the English merchant vessels which enter
this port, and they speak English more fluently and
with a better accent than any other race of foreigners
in the Levant.
They have not adopted European costumes to any
great extent, and they possess here absolutely no
political consideration or influence.
44
Resemblance to
the Jews.
Unlike them in
other points.
Appearance.
Numbers.
Merchants.
See pp. 30 and
86.
Armenian.
The Armenian nation resembles the Jewish in
several particulars. Both nations have for ages
acquiesced in political subordination to a variety of
masters ; both are almost always found employed as
merchants, bankers, or tradesmen ; botrl are scattered
throughout a large portion of the globe in pursuit of
these callings ; and, lastly, both have alike obtained
a character for chicanery and unfair dealing while
thus employed.
In the East the Armenian contrasts with the
Jewish nation by its greater material prosperity
and mercantile importance, by its adoption of Euro-
pean costumes and manners, and by its physical
peculiarities.
In external appearance, the Armenian more nearly
resembles the European races than any other Asiatic
people does, and occasionally it is difficult even for a
practised eye to distinguish an Armenian of the upper
classes from a Greek in the same rank of life. The
Armenian face is slightly more oval than the Greek,
and the nose is elevated somewhat beyond the line of
the frontal bone, and is not unfrequently arched.
The development of their limbs, hands, feet, and lips,
agrees with the European type.
There are in Smyrna 10,000 Armenians, who have
been settled here for 250 years ; the greater part are
Turkish subjects, but there are amongst them a few
Russians. In Smyrna there are very few poor
Armenians, and as a general rule they are well edu-
cated and intelligent. The quarter of the town in
which they live contrasts favourably with most of the
others by the cleanliness and straightness of its
streets, the whiteness of its houses, and the large size
of its doors and windows.
Mercantile enterprize, both as regards exports and
imports, distinguishes the Armenian race, and in con-
junction with Greek merchants, they employ a con-
siderable number of English steam ships, which make
up what is called " the Greek line," and ply between
Liverpool, Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria.
45
Banking also is a branch of commerce very commonly
carried on by Armenians, and those thus occupied
are frequently amongst the richest subjects of the
Turkish empire.
The political sympathies of many of the Arme- Sympathy "with
nians are with Russia, in whose territories the head Russla -
of their church, and a large proportion of their
fellow countrymen reside. But it is to be observed,
this predilection is not founded on any aspirations
after political independence, but merely on a natural
preference of security and ease to the reverse state of
things. In origin, therefore, at least, the Armenian's
liking for Russia contrasts strongly with the Greek's.
The Armenians, however, particularly distinguished
themselves by the rejoicings they made on the occa-
sion of the illuminations after the taking of Sebas-
topol, and though they have a well-earned character
for deceitfulness, it is difficult to disbelieve them
they say, that they love best the nation which
rill best secure them from insult in social, and
injustice in commercial dealings. Their wishes are
not patriotic, but self-interested ; they desire merely
a change of masters, a civilized in the place of a
barbarous one, a strong in the place of a weak
government.
A very rancorous feeling exists between the ni-feeiing to
Armenian and the Greek populations, springing, so far Greeks -
as we have observed, from commercial jealousies, and
not from religious antipathy. We have found in
places such as Magnesia, where the Armenian is far
outnumbered by the Greek race, that the Armenian
will often disown his nationality before a stranger,
and strive to pass himself off as a Greek or Roman
Catholic Raya. Though this is a common occurrence
in the interior, it never came under our observation
in Smyrna or any other seaport town, where the
Armenians form generally an important fraction of
the moneyed world.
The great mass of Armenians here belong to Church and
their own national church ; there are, however, a few education -
Roman Catholics among them, and the missionaries
of the Protestant churches have been more successful
with this than with any other nationality in Smyrna.
46
The Armenian church has an archbishop in Smyrna,
and they have nearly completed the building of a
large church, which forms a conspicuous object even
amongst the numerous mosques of the town. As a
body they are well educated. They have several
schools in Smyrna, and a college in which the modern
languages and other branches of a liberal education
are taught gratis. They have printing presses in
many of the chief towns of Europe, though not in
Smyrna, and their maps and books possess every
typographical excellence. They have recently
established a school for girls, in addition to their
previously existing boys' schools.
Numbers.
Political in-
fluence.
French support
lent to Catholic
institutions.
Roman Catholic.
There are in Smyrna from 7,000 to 8,000 Roman
Catholics ; some are Rayahs, but a large pro-
portion enjoy the protection of some one of the
European consuls. There are few of them in the
labouring class. Most of the shops in the Frank
street belong to Roman Catholics, either themselves
emigrants, or, what is more common, the descendants
of emigrants from France and Italy. Many, also, of
the chief mercantile houses in Smyrna belong to
members of the same class. Theypossess considerable
political influence, as assiduous attention is paid to
their interests by the representatives of the two great
Catholic powers. Considerable sums of money are
contributed by the French Government towards the
support of the numerous Roman Catholic schools
here. It is owing to this that the French language
has become so much more generally spoken here
within the last two years, but, though a Smyrniote
Catholic will generally address a stranger in French,
he much more commonly, not only in business, but
also within his own family, makes use of the Romaic
language. Besides their large Propaganda College,
the Catholics possess several other schools where the
education is gratuitous, and all forms of faith are
admitted. The teachers are French monks, and on
festival days the French flag is hoisted over most of
these institutions.
47
The monks of Syria and Palestine are, it may be
remarked, on the contrary, generally Italians. The
general scope and aim of the Catholic seminaries and Object aimedat,
religious establishments in the East may be illustrated
y the following notice of one of their institutions in
Alexandria, which we quote from a handbook to the
coasts of the Mediterranean issued at a steam-boat
office :
" Les Soeurs de la Charite, ces dignes filles de Saint
Vincent de Paul, possedent a Alexandrie une maison
de leur ordre ; elles elevent gratuitement une grande
quantite de jeunes filles indigenes, auxquelles outre
les travaux de leur sexe, elles apprennent d aimer la
France en leur en enseignant le langage. La
devouees comme partout, elles ont cree un hopital,
dans lequel elles admettent sans distinction de
religion tout etre soufFrant ; c'est un veritable
apostolat qu'elles exercent, et la France est peutelre
appelee un jour d recueillir le fruit de leur devou-
The conduct of the Roman Catholic priests con- Romish priests
trasts favourably with that of the Greek, both as and churches.
regards the discharge of his duties and his own
private morality. There are several Roman Catholic
churches in Smyrna, and two of them are conspi-
uous and striking edifices.
The poorer class of Catholics do not possess so Poor,
fine a physical development as the Greeks, and the
upper classes copy as closely as they can Parisian
costumes and manners. It is rare for a Catholic
to intermarry with a Greek family, and the priests
employ all the means in their power to prevent such
unions from taking place.
The Levantine Casino is a club of similar character
to the Greek, and its members are principally
Catholics.
There are two or three hotels in Smyrna kept by Hotels and
Catholics. At one of them the daily charge was Lod s in s s -
two Spanish pillar dollars (colonnatas), i.e. a little
over 9s. The town is also sufficiently Europeanized
to possess several boarding houses, one of which at
least contrasts favourably with the hotels both in
charges and comfort.
48
Furnished apartments are also to be got both in
the Frank and Greek quarters, and for these the
English paid sums varying from I/, to 21. 10s. per
month.
In these points Smyrna contrasts with most towns
in Turkey, but she differs from every other in having
every house in every street numbered.
Protestant.
Wealth of Pro- The number of Protestants in Smyrna is about
2,000. Many of them are English, but some are
Dutch, and some Americans. To this class many
of the wealthiest commercial houses in Smyrna be-
long. The greater number of the Protestant popula-
tion are of European birth, and all are under the
protection of the British, or Dutch, or American
consulates. Like the Roman Catholics, the Protes-
tant races have chapels and hospitals in connexion
with the several consulates, but as there are few
poor amongst them, the hospitals are chiefly devoted
to the use of the mercantile marines of the different
nations.
Club. A club, the European Casino, is in great measure
supported by this, as the Levantine by the other sec-
Country houses, tion of European settlers. The richer merchants of
all the nationalities in Smyrna have country houses
in the villages in its neighbourhood, but a larger
proportion of them belongs, perhaps, to the members
of the Protestant races than of any others. The
villages of Bournabat and Boudja are the principal
centres for the summer residences of the Smyrna
merchants, but some are also to be found at Sedikioi.
The merchants come into the town eveiy morning
from these places throughout the summer months
and return in the evening. The arrangements in
these summer residences are copied exactly from
the models furnished by houses built for analogous
purposes in Europe.
49
LANGUAGES.
Turkish is spoken by a large proportion of the Turkish.^
inhabitants of Smyrna ; the Turks, who by themselves
form nearly one-third of the entire population, speak
it, with few exceptions, even amongst the highest
classes, almost exclusively ; and a knowledge of, and
familiarity with, the language, is generally possessed
by every business man of the other races.
For commercial purposes the Italian and French French and
languages are much employed ; but the use of I
French is becoming more, and that of Italian less
general. The "Lloyd Smyrneen " appears three
days a week, but the " Nunzio Commerciale " only
three times a month. See Appendix, p. 107-
There are many families in Smyrna who have
immigrated from the coasts of the Adriatic, and to
whom Italian is consequently the most familiar
tongue ; but we never met with any Smyrniote who
could speak Italian and Italian only, although it is
easy to find either a Frenchman or a Greek or a
Turk, who speak nothing but their own native dia-
lects. This will illustrate the relative preponderance
of the several languages. The use of French is be-
coming more general, owing in great measure to
the numerous Roman Catholic schools under the
patronage of the French Government in which French
is taught gratuitously. It is to be remarked that
though an European will almost invariably find him-
self addressed in French whenever he enters a shop
in Smyrna, the shopman, even though he be a Roman
Catholic, and only one generation removed from a
native born Frenchman, will give all his orders to
his assistants in Romaic. The same thing is con-
stantly to be observed in Roman Catholic families ;
though to the European visitor French is spoken,
the affairs of daily life are all carried on by means of
Greek.
English is spoken by a considerable number of the English not
merchants of all nationalities, but by very few of the
lower orders. There is in Smyrna no school for the poor.
poorer classes in which English is taught. There is
D
Eelation of
Romaic to
ancient Greek.
The languages
as written.
an institution of this kind in Jerusalem supported by
voluntary contributions, and small as the population
of that city is, it contains a more numerous native
population speaking English than Smyrna, which is
about fifteen times larger. There are, however, a,
considerable number of Jews who hang about the
bazaars and act as brokers to the English merchant
ships, who speak English with a fair accent and pos-
sess a vocabulary quite sufficient for all common
purposes.
Amongst themselves the Jews speak a corrupt
mixture of Spanish and Turkish.
The Armenian language is spoken by very few
who do not belong to that nationality.
It will be useful to the great mass of educated
Englishmen to know in what way their somewhat
toilsomely acquired knowledge of ancient Greek
may help them towards speaking, writing, and under-
standing the modern Romaic. An acquaintance with
a language spoken along nearly the whole extent
of the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts by an
enterprising mercantile nation will be seen at once
to be a valuable accomplishment, and by no one can
it be acquired at a less cost of time and trouble than
by the Englishman of average education.
Closely related as Italian is to the ancient Latin
language, Romaic is much more nearly identical
with the ancient Greek. The inflexions of the
modern Greek are the same, with a few exceptions, as
those of the ancient; the accents are the same ; and
there is no doubt in our minds that Greek as spoken
by the educated Athenian of 430 B.C. would at
once be understood by the upper classes of the
modern Romaic population.
As regards the languages as written, we may take
the official translation of the late Hatti Houmayoum,
of February 1856, as an authoritative document and
standard for the comparison of the two. Now the
whole of this document is perfectly intelligible to
the scholar who is moderately familiar with ancient
Greek, and the differences as seen from his point of
view are merely the few following :
i. For the old word ou, oux, oux="not," we use in
51
modern Greek the word 0ev, shortened from ouSev, but,
whilst employing ouSsv thus, with a force somewhat
different from its ancient usage, we substitute a fresh
word, xaveis, xa^ufa, xavlv, for it in its pristine employ-
ment as = " none."
ii. The word va, from the ancient <W, is employed
nearly as extensively as the conjunction "that" in
English, more extensively therefore than *m in the
old Greek, which = " that " when denoting a purpose,
and to a certain extent coinciding in use with the
infinitive as employed in that language.
iii. The use of auxiliary verbs in the futures and
perfects where we have inflexions in the old language:
*X M yp4>** y 'y a( P*j I have written ; 0e'xsi x>j^>j=r
XYJ^O-STM. It is in this combination almost exclusively
that the old infinitive survives ; the dual number has
wholly vanished, and in the Hatti ScherifF, as in
common conversation, no trace of a dative case is to
be found.
iv. Lastly, the following words and combinations
of words which we find in this official translation are
from one reason or another alien to the ancient
Greek idiom :
(,) pi with an accusative, as=" with," like
with a genitive in the old language, ps TW
c-uvfyopjv = ' with the concurrence."
(|3.) TTO with an accusative instead of a genitive.
This is not universal, though general ; we
find ano Yipepotf el$ rj/xlpav in the Hatti Scheriff,
as Well as a?ro T>/V xu/3=pv>j"nxrjv yX(i(r<rav.
(7.) The word axo'pj= u encore," <tyjxaviQv==" fir-
man," xAa<n$ = " class," x^xu&o=" codify."
The differences between the two varieties of the
Greek language will seem to be very few when they
are referred to this standard for comparison ; -but that
it is a fair standard, and authoritative at least in this
point of view, will be clear when we consider,.
1st. Its length. 2nd. That it was written expressly
for the Greeks and read aloud publicly to them in all
parts of the Turkish empire, and that no other trans-
lation than this, the official one, was allowed to be
published.
D 2
52
There are, however, a few other points of contrast
between the Greek and the Romaic as written, which
we cannot illustrate from this document.
(.) The constant use of diminutive forms in modern
Greek :" 4/ovwov " = "bread;" " T yp/ov"= "cheese."
A modern Greek grammarian, while noticing this
peculiarity, quaintly enough connects it with the
diminution of political influence under which his race
has so long suffered.
(/3. ) A slavish following of western turns of thought
Borrowing and expression, as well as of western words. Everyone
western idioms, w yj gee t k at ^^ ag ex p ress } n g the results and the
working of the PRINTING machine, is a more vivid and
better word for the thing than wiso-r^ta, the PRESSING
machine, where we have merely its mechanical struc-
ture brought before us. Yet, save among the better
educated Greeks, the latter word is used by prefer-
ence. In numberless instances where the western
languages employ to express a certain idea a phrase
infinitely less apt than that furnished by the old Greek,
the modern Greeks have chosen to follow the inferior
and foreign idiom, so that, in reading the Romaic, one
is often reminded of the unidiomatic literal translations
which the schoolboy makes with the aid of a lexicon.
In cases, again, where the western languages have
only one word to express several different ideas or
different modifications of one idea, whilst the ancient
Greeks had separate words corresponding to each
variation in the thought, the modern Greeks have
frequently chosen one of these words and widened its
application until it has become co-extensive and equally
inaccurate with the western expression. rwp/$a>, in
modern Greek, is used as equivalent both to yvp%oo and
c-rptpco in ancient Greek ; the modern Greek thus copy-
ing the western nations in having only one word to
express the several meanings of the word " turn."
Romaic as written has borrowed fewer words than
Western words. Romaic as spoken from the foreign languages. These
words are borrowed from the Latin, the Italian, and
the Turkish principally, but the better educated
writers make day by day less use of them, and, under
the influence of the purist reaction (xaflapio-jao? 7%
at present at work, they will shortly become
53
obsolete. We give the following instances :-
= " house," from the Latin hospitium ; a&upict. =
"avaries," injuries, from the French ; <rsipiav%a> "to
go into the country," from the Turkish.
Romaic as spoken may be compared with the ancient Romaic as
Greek either as spoken in ancient Greece or as pro- spohen '
nounced and read "in the modern fashion introduced
by Erasmus. To guide us as to the ancient pronun- Ancient Greek
ciation of ancient Greek, we have : { Greece"^
(i.) The writings of Greek grammarians, who,
however, seldom refer to any other language than
their own.
(ii.) The alliterations and imitations of unchange-
able sounds to be found commonly in Aristophanes,
and also scattered through other writers, as, e.g., the
oracle given, Thucyd. ii. cap. 54. for 01 and .
(iii.) The adaptation of Greek words into other
languages, and vice versa, as, e.g., the transformation
of the Greek Aufllvt*]? into Effendi.
Such an investigation would be misplaced here, but
we have said enough to indicate the line of research
which will lead to the conclusion, probable also on
geographical and historical grounds, that the language
spoken by the ancient Greeks was pronounced much
in the same way as that spoken by their descendants
inhabiting the same countries.
But leaving a comparison where we may be thought Romaic as
to be explaining obscurum per obscurius, we will ^^ ka
state the differences between the Greek pronounced pronounced^
by the English scholar and the Greek uttered by England.
the modern Greek himself. There are practically no
diphthongs in Romaic, and deference to the accents,
and not to quantity, regulates the pronunciation of
each single word.
In a Greek letter written by one of the ill-edu-
cated, no diphthong (save ou=" oo" in " good") will
ever be found; w="af" or " av," and eu="ef" or
"ev," see above (iii.), and the rest being pronounced
as in French, will be found represented by or I or r.
Taking bad spelling a second time as an index to
pronunciation, we can show from it the predominance
that considerations of accent have over considerations
of quantity. The half-educated Greek spells yp>jTe,
54
the second person plural of the subjunctive, in the
same way as yp<p=Tc of the indicative, and he pro-
nounces both words as we pronounce the latter of the
two. And it is not very easy to catch the difference
between the two words, even when uttered by a well-
educated Greek, as it lies in an almost imperceptible
dwelling upon and lengthening out of the second
syllable. The rules of accentuation are the same for
a Romaic as for the ancient Greek, and a thorough
acquaintance with accents, and a pronunciation
strictly in accordance with them, will enable any
Greek scholar who knows the modern force of the
letters of the alphabet, to make himself understood
by any Greek of the upper classes, and to understand
their replies to him. The same would not be the
case were he to address himself to one of the lowest
classes ; but the reasons for this would be analogous
to the reasons which prevent the upper classes of the
south of England from understanding the dialect of
the Yorkshire miner; and it would not be because
the two extremes of society used a radically different
language. In two classes of words only is there any
deviation from the ancient system of accentuation to
be observed, and this deviation is confined to the
uneducated; the aorist active is occasionally pro-
nounced by the poorer Greeks as it is pronounced by
the English schoolboy ; " e7ra.x>jo-"= a I sold," is pro-
nounced as if it were written I^K^OL ; and the same
is the case with nouns like a\tfsia and euyeWa ; they
are occasionally pronounced as though they were
written aAvj^/a and ^ysvWa, and belonged to the same
class of nouns as SoyXs/a and
CLIMATE.
Smyrna lies in lat. N.38 25' 36", long. E. 27 6' 45".
Conditions more forcibly affecting its climate are
furnished by the character of the mountains surround-
ing it, and the extent of cultivated soil and of forest
land in its immediate neighbourhood.
55
There are no mountains in the neighbourhood of Mountains not
Smyrna like those which run along the whole of the mmoca PP*
southern coast of Asia Minor, and preserve on their
summits a covering of eternal snow.
The highest peak within two days' journey of
Smyrna does not attain a height of 3,500 feet, and
it is seldom, even in winter, covered with snow for
more than two days together.
Immunity from those sudden alternations to snow-
chilled mountain winds from blazing heat, which are
so common and so injurious, not only in the parts of
Asia Minor just mentioned, but in places like Florence
and Montpellier in southern Europe, is in conse-
quence enjoyed in Smyrna.
The valleys in this part of Asia Minor are very cultivation,
generally cultivated and covered with verdure during wide *
the spring, autumn, and winter months, though con-
siderably burnt up and parched from the middle of
June to the end of August. But at all times the
eye finds abundance of vegetation to rest upon in
the green foliage of the fig and pomegranate, and
the glaucous leaves of the olive, the cultivation of
which contributes, though in a less degree than that
of corn crops, to the opening and breaking up of
the soil.
Extensive sheets of wood land are to be seen in Abundant
the vicinity of Smyrna, either stretching along the WOO<L
sides or clothing the summits of the mountains. This
condition, however, is common to the greater part of
Asia Minor, in spite of the extensive use made of
charcoal, and it is a most important co-efficient in
the constitution of climate.
The hot season in Smyrna commences with the Hot season.
month of June, and begins to lose its intensity
towards the end of August. At this time the ther-
mometer will often indicate a heat of from 80 Fahr.
to 90 Fahr. in the shade, whilst on the other hand,
we have often found it a difficulty, within the period
from the middle of January to the middle of March,
to keep up a constant temperature of 60 Fahr. in a
sick room day and night. In the open air the thin
ice formed during the night generally thawed before
10 A.M., and the thermometer never indicated so low
56
Thermometric
register in
Appendices,
pp. 90-102.
The Inbat.
a temperature as 32 for the whole period of the
twenty-four hours.
A thermometrical register will be found in the
Appendix pp. 90-102, extending from March 6, 1855,
to August 20. In it the winter months January and
February are not included, and the lowest tempera-
ture it records is 53^, March 17, 1855. As the
mention of ice already made would lead one to infer,
a much lower temperature than this is not unusual,
and we have seen the thermometer remain nearly
stationary at 45 for some days together, even at
milder times. The greatest variation which this
register records for any one day is one of 6f,
March 25, 8 A.M., from 60| to 67^ at 2.30 P.M.
The same amount of variation is recorded for the
succeeding day also, from 63^ at 8 A.M. to 70 at
4.45 P.M. The month of April is remarkable for the
small amount of variation in the amounts recorded
for each day, whilst the temperature of the whole
month varies from 55^, the lowest, to 65, the
highest temperature. Rapid changes of temperature,
as may be seen from the notices of the weather
appended to the several records, foretell at Smyrna
as elsewhere the coming of a storm ; 70 is recorded
from March 26th, but does not occur again until
May the 6th, when we find 73^ recorded ; 80 occurs
only once in the month of May, and that on the last
day of the month, where we find 82|, and though
not attained on any day between June 5 and 15, it is
a common number for the rest of that month. 90
we find on the following days; July 13,
July 24, 90; July 25, 90^; July 26, 91
August 4, 90f .
The heat of the season appears to culminate about
the second week in August, and the heat of each
day between 4.0 and 5.0 P.M.
The sea, which in all places and in so many ways
influences climate, especially favours that of Smyrna
by the breeze here called the Inbat, which springs up
every afternoon during the hot season. So soon as
the heat of the sun has had time to produce the
difference, which by the laws of heat it does, in favour
of the atmosphere covering the land, the cooler and
57
denser sea breeze rushes in upon the hotter and
more rarified land air, bearing with it freshness and
moisture. This breeze is popularly called " The
Doctor of Smyrna," so universally are its vivifying
powers recognized. In the hot weather it is very
seldom that a day passes in which the Inbat fails,
and this great regularity is to be ascribed possibly to
the peculiar disposition of the mountains around the
gulph, which, standing on either side the bay's
entrance like two great portals, sweep away and
enclose in a semicircular wall the town, the mari-
time plain, and the inland expanse of the bay itself.
The land breeze, on the other hand, blows frequently
in the night time, and is a dry shrivelling wind. It
further resembles the bise of Southern France by the
quarter, the north, from which it blows.
Whilst on the subject of climate, we may take Abundance of
occasion to say that, though snow is never to be
seen covering the tops of the mountains in the hot
weather, it nevertheless can be preserved there in
pits properly covered over and protected from the
external air by layers of brushwood, &c. A large
store of snow is compressed and hardened in these
pits during the winter, and throughout the summer
it is sold in Smyrna at a price which puts it within
the reach of the poorest ; 1 piastre per oke = 2^ Ibs.,
for 2rf.
ice in summer.
MEDICAL NOTES.
Whatever prejudices may exist as to the health!- Prejudices
ness of Smyrna, a residence in it for more than a a 9 ainst Smyrna
twelvemonth enables us to speak of it as a place
favourable to the preservation of the mental and
bodily vigour of the European immigrant and his
descendants, and as possessing an indigenous popu-
lation as well conditioned as regards both longevity
and physical development as any other town of equal
size. It cannot be said that any one season of the
year is especially unhealthy, nor that this country is
obnoxious to the influences of special disease not to
be found elsewhere in the Levant/
58
The plague now The plague has not made its appearance here
t* tingany ~ since the year 1836-1837, and it is believed not to
exist at present in any part of the world. It may
not unreasonably be hoped that this fearful scourge
will never again be met with ; for in all the cases of its
visitation it seems to have pursued the course of
those specific poisons which propagate themselves by
contact, which spread rapidly under favourable con-
ditions, but which are not generated sporadically by
malaria, miasma, nor decomposing organisms ; which,
in one word, are incapable of spontaneous generation.
There is no doubt in our minds that this disease,
when devastating this part of the world, spread itself
from person to person by corporeal contact only, and
not by any gaseous exhalation from sources of
infection. For,
Contagious at (i.) Those Europeans who shut themselves up in
Smyrna not their own houses, and maintained a strict quarantine,
invariably escaped the pest. And we have been
told that during the whole visitation of 1836 and
1837 only three Europeans fell victims to the plague,
(ii.) Those whose avocations led them to the town,
which at that time was almost deserted, so long as
they avoided actually touching a compromised per-
son, even though they came within a few feet of a
man dying of the disease, still enjoyed an entire
immunity from it.
(iii.) The Turks and Jews who neglected all these
precautions suffered out of all proportion more than
the Franks. This is the more remarkable when we
find that no such comparative immunity was enjoyed
by the Franks in the several visitations of cholera.
(iv.) The oil-carriers, whose skins are thoroughly
imbued with oil, and consequently less apt to imbibe
poisons, were, though Turks, and as such fatalisti-
cally negligent, exempted from the disease. A
similar observation has been made in Egypt as to
the cases of soap-boilers and chimney-sweepers,
whose exemption would be ascribed to the same
causes as that of the oil-carriers. We may remark
that the history given in books of the plague in
Egypt differs in several particulars from the account
we gathered on the spot of the plague in Smyrna.
pe
(v.) Though we ourselves have had no experience
of the disease, we are acquainted with many persons
well competent to form an opinion on the matter,
who, coming to this country with the prejudices of
non-contagionists, have seen reason to adopt the
opposite tenets, and to hold that, however impotent
against other pests, quarantine regulations were of
real use while such a disease as the plague existed.
It has been observed that the epidemics of plague in
Smyrna always ceased before a certain day in June,
thus illustrating the general law (to which, however,
exceptions are to be found) that a sustained tempera-
ture of a certain height is incompatible with the exis-
tence of diseases communicable from person to
rson.
Typhus is not indigenous in Smyrna. It was
unknown to the resident practitioners until imported
hither from the Crimea, and w r hen imported it did
not spread beyond the walls of the British hospital.
We have, however, seen reason to believe that that
peculiar form of typhus fever which is called " ty-
phoid," and is common in England, commoner in
France, and commonest perhaps of all fevers in
camps, may be generated here under an accumu-
lation of conditions favourable to its birth.
These conditions are those furnished by decompos-
ing animal matters, especially night soil ; and, in this
part of the world, are occasionally coupled with and
intensified by malarious or terrestrial influences. We
do not hold this form of fever to be as easily com-
municable from person to person as its twin brother
typhus is, and it contrasts with the same disease by
its tendency to assume something of a remittent type,
by its longer duration, by a peculiar rash, and by its
superinducing special local lesion. It lasts as a fever
for three weeks, that is to say, while on the one hand
it is rare to observe any decided amelioration before
that time has elapsed, on the other it is not uncommon
to observe cases in which the patient sinks under the
influence of the fever as opposed to the influence of
its complications, even in the very last days of that
space of time. And standing distinct in this particu-
lar from typhus, it is easily distinguishable in the
Continued fever.
Typhoid not
60
same point of view from the other form of continued
fever met with in this country, which is known as the
bilious or the Mediterranean fever, and which often
runs a fatal course within the short space of from four
to five days. Of this form of fever as, though not
remittent in form, yet arising from malarious influ-
ences, we shall treat of under that head. A large
per-centage of the deaths which occurred among the
soldiers of the British Swiss Legion, whilst stationed
at Smyrna, was due to " typhoid fever." This fever
principally affected men of the battalion which came
out in the steam transport " Ripon," which had been
for a considerable time employed, without intermis-
sion, as a troop ship, and which was, whatever the
attention paid to cleanliness, somewhat overcrowded.
Smallpox, Sfc. The exanthems, small pox, measles, and scarlet
fever, are to be met with in Smyrna. Their character
is, generally speaking, milder than that they bear in
England.
An epidemic of small pox has occurred this winter
in Smyrna, the wide spread of which would lead one
to infer that vaccination, though pretty general, had
not been so extensively carried out as it ought to have
been. No great mortality, however, was caused by
the disease amongst the inhabitants of Smyrna ; we
were told that three only had died in the Greek
hospital, which is the largest in the town, and which
had had a very large number of admissions. Out of
the many cases of small pox which occurred among
the soldiers of the British Swiss Legion, only one
death took place.
Malarious The diseases peculiar to this country are dependent
diseases. upon malarious influences, and are not communicable
from person to person. They vary in intensity from
the intermittent up to that form of bilious fever which
resembles the yellow fever of the West Indies in some
points, and wears an entirely continued form.
Locality. Places especially amenable to the influence of
malaria are found to be the beds of streams, ravines,
and situations exposed to land, and covered from sea
breezes. But the most malarious of all localities are
those where the sea has retired from the coast, and
left in the place of shallow water a block of flat marshy
wi
T
tl
I
61
,nd interposed between itself and a mountainous
background. Such conditions are found to exist at
Ephesus, where it is said that no European can sleep
without contracting a fever; at Mersina, the seaport of
"arsus, and Alexandretta, the seaport of Aleppo,
whose reputation is, and deservedly, much worse than
even that of Ephesus. By comparing the histories of
the endemics in these three places, Ephesus, Mersina,
nd Alexandretta (Scanderoon), we shall be able to
ihow that the one effective condition for the genera-
tion of malarious fever is not abundant vegetation,
is not heat, is not marshy soil, nor any one season of
the year, but marshy ground in the process ofdesicca- Efficient cause.
tion under the influence of solar heat. At Ephesus,
he worst season of the year is the spring and autumn ;
at Mersina and Alexandretta, the months of July and
August. At these two latter places, no one who
can possibly avoid it, remains in the town for these
two months, but retires, either inland to the moun-
tains, or crosses to the island of Cyprus. This com-
parison eliminates from our consideration the condition
of the season of the year; and mere heat, Ephesus being
as hot in July and August as either of the two others,
and the condition of vegetation are likewise put out
of the consideration, Ephesus being remarkably desti-
tute of vegetation, and the other two pi aces remarkably
rich in it. Mersina and Alexandretta, being under the
snow-clad Taurus, have till the very middle of summer
a plentiful supply of water from the thawing of the
snow ; towards the end of May 1 856, May 22-23, we why is the un-
found the streams in those localities to possess the health y season
strength, volume, and muddiness of the Alpine torrent; "*
Ephesus, on the other hand, has no such store of
moisture to have recourse to, as her stock of winter and
early spring rain evaporates under the rays of the
returning sun, and. in consequence, she becomes un-
healthy earlier in the year than they do. These three
places, then, are differently conditioned, at the time of
their producing one common effect, as to vegetation,
season of the year, and temperature ; and the one con-
dition common to all three is the existence in them
of marshy ground nearly or quite exhausted of its
62
Parts of Smyrna
Geography,
pp. 9 and ,0.
San Demetri
na S ae
healthy.
So St. Anne.
moisture by solar heat. The following story will serve
to illustrate our meaning:
At Tripoli in Syria, May 24th, 1856, we were
cautioned by the Consul of a considerable European
State, to avoid the mulberries which were just then
ripening. His reason was not that they caused
diarrhoea, or any other such disease, but that they
produced the pernicious fever, and that the experience
of every inhabitant showed that they did so at that
time of the year. Logically viewed, this was an
instance of that commonest of fallacies, " Post hoc,
ergo propter hoc ;" scientifically interpreted, the popu-
lar saying contains, as most popular sayings do, a
certain amount of truth, and should be thus read.
The sun has just got power enough to ripen the
mulberries ; the marshy ground will be now just on
the point of complete drying, and malaria, conse-
quently, just in the prime of its strength.
The part of Smyrna which is especially liable to
malarious disease is that part which lies between
" The Point" and the Caravan Bridge at the Northern
Mount Pagus, which forms, in fact, the base of the
triangle made up by the town, and comprehends
the two region s known as San Demetri and San
Catherjna> '
This we might have been led to expect, as this
P art of Smyrna n 'es lower than any other, and is
occasionally covered with water for a considerable
extent of its surface, which is subsequently dried up
by the sun's rays. The valley, however, through
which the Meles flows as it winds under Mount Pagus,
and before it reaches the Caravan Bridge, is more
unhealthy than any part of Smyrna. There are only
a few houses scattered here and there along its banks
in this part of its course, and a residence in one of
them, either in the spring or autumn, is nearly certain
to superinduce an attack of fever.
The men whose business it is to tend the leech
ponds in this, the valley of St. Anne, are almost all
of them obliged to be constantl} 7 on the spot day and
night, and at all seasons of the year, to protect that
valuable property from thieves, and they are in con-
63
14
sequence almost without an exception sufferers from
country fever. The valley of St. Anne being a ver-
dant and picturesque ravine, is at first sight as different
as possible from such localities as Ephesus or Mersina,
but a little consideration shows us that one common
property exists in all these nests of malaria. The
generalization made by the sufferers from ravine-
bred fevers is, that fever and vegetation go together.
This one is constantly told in such places. It admits
of being explained in the same way as the equally
empirical observation we have recorded as made to
us at Tripoli. The Castle of Sanjac at the entrance So Castle
of the bay is so thoroughly malarious, that the j
Turkish Government have found it necessary to leave
its fine barracks wholly unoccupied. It is built on a
bar of gravel which lies between the sea on one
aspect, and the alternately advancing and retreating
edge of a marsh on the other, and it is therefore con-
stantly exposed to the full action of the products of
desiccating marshy ground.
The times of the year at which the malarious Malarious
fevers are most prevalent and powerful in Smyrna, times '
are the end of the summer and the autumn ; the
spring fevers possess a milder character. Exposure
in the open air during the hours of sleep to the land
breeze which generally blows then, is a very common
occasion for the development of the disease. People
sleeping on a ground floor are observed to suffer from
the fevers in a much greater ratio than those whose
sleeping apartments are raised above the level of the
ground. At Alexandretta, the inhabitants sleep in
wooden cages elevated on poles to a height of from
10 to 12 feet above the earth.
The badly nourished and clothed portion of the Subjects of
population suffer to a greater proportional extent attack -
from these as from most other diseases. In some of
the guardhouses in the interior specimens of the most
thorough malarious cachexia are to be found. The
cavasses are wretchedly paid and fed, and at the
same time are exposed in all seasons and in all locali-
ties. They bear every mark of confirmed anaemia
and persistent imperfection in hgematopoiesis. They
have oedematous legs, cardiac murmurs, and that
64
peculiar dead-leaf yellow stain in certain parts of
the skin which is invariably associated with spleen
disease.
i. intermittents. The intcrmittents of this country are controllable
by quinine even in their most intense form ; but it is
to be regretted that the great expense attending the
use of this medicine in the large doses it is found
necessary to give in malarious disorders, makes the
poor, who need it most, least able to avail them-
selves of it. A decoction of olive leaves (jij to
Oij of water, to be boiled down to Oj), has been
found to possess febrifuge properties of a certain
value, and this remedy is in Asia Minor within
reach of the poorest. All the vegetable bitters
possess a certain efficacy in diseases of this class ;
even centaury and cascarilla have been employed
with some advantage in such cases. But it is by
virtue of a certain chemical principle which it con-
tains, the alkaloid quina, that the cinchona bark
exercises its special control over malarious disorders,
and of this the other vegetable bitters are destitute,
and are, in consequence, to be regarded, not in the
Remedies. light of specifics, but merely in that of palliatives to
the disease, arid adjuvants to the vis medicatrix
naturae. It has been supposed, or perhaps we should
rather say, it has been hoped, that a chemical sub-
stance analogous to quinine may be discovered in
the leaves and bark of the olive tree, but as yet no
decisive evidence has been brought forward on this
point. The doses in which quinine is given by
the practitioners of the country are gr. iv. gr. vi.
every hour for four or five hours, or occasionally
in 9j. doses. They have informed us that they
do not give quinine until they see a well-marked
intermission, and that they are confident of the wis-
dom of their practice in giving such large quantities
of the remedy from repeated experience of the utter
inefficiency of smaller doses.
Pernicious There is one variety of intermittent sometimes seen
as an epidemic, especially after the rains of autumn,
but also to be met with in the spring and summer,
which bears the name of pernicious fever. In it there
are three several accesses, the first and second com-
paratively mild, but the third of such intensity as
frequently to cause death either in the cold or hot
stage of the fit. If, however, the patient be got under
the influence of quinine while in the intermissions, we
are told that he generally escapes with his life.
The remittent is produced by the same causes which
produce the intermitent when operating less, or a
continued fever when operating more forcibly, and
standing midway between the two, they both not
unfrequently verge into it. Persons of all ages are
liable to its attacks, but whilst middle aged persons
are most liable, it is observed' here, as also elsewhere,
that infantile ailments are very prone to take on a
remittent type. The several races living together in
Smyrna are found to suffer from it in the same pro-
portion, and the rich only suffer less from its influence
than the poor in so far as they are less exposed within
its sphere of action. Cases of remittent fever occur
at all periods of the year, but are most common in the
spring and autumn. We are informed by the resident
medical practitioners that they do not employ quinine
to combat this form of fever when existing in full
vigour as such, and in this point our own views are in
complete accordance with theirs.
The line of treatment which we think to be at once
justifiable on rational grounds, and confirmed as bene-
ficial by actual experience, is the following: The
general inflammatory symptoms and the special local
determinations are to be combated by depletory or
evacuatory measures, and when this object is attained,
and an alleviation of the symptoms amounting to an
intermission observed, then we may make use of qui-
nine to neutralize the special malarious poison which
has produced the evil. But quinine is worse than
useless until the constitutional disturbance and the
local determinations met with in the remittent fever
have been reduced to comparative tranquillity. We
have reason to think that the condition of the nerve
centres in the early stages of the remittent is such as
to contra-indicate the use of quinine, even were the
absorbing surface of the bowels in a fit state for taking
up that medicine into the system. An intermittent
fever is not generally complicated with special local
Remittents.
Remedies.
66
Complications.
Continued fever
of malarious
origin.
Called yellow
fever, but not
identical.
i. Liability to
dysentery after
fever.
lesion until the disease is of some standing, but in the
remittent fever, where a much larger quantity of
malarious poison may be supposed to be working
within the system, complications of one kind or
another are generally to be met with early in the
course of the disease. Of these the most common is
liver congestion and jaundice, and the Mediterranean
remittent has, in consequence, got the name of" bilious
remittent." The irritability of stomach so often to be
met with in this fever points to a similar condition of
that organ also. The more serious cases of remittent
fever are prone to assume a continued form, especially
those which are complicated with jaundice. Cases of
this kind are sometimes called by the same name as
the more virulent and more widely diffused fever of
the West Indies, and it is the absence (which is not
universal) of the black vomit and other results of
hsemorrhagic action in a system where the blood
is disorganized which principally distinguishes the
yellow fever of the Mediterranean from that of the
New World. The greatest number of cases of this
kind which have occurred in one year in Smyrna is
sixty, and in this point, that of the number of its
victims, it contrasts strongly with its namesake.
It occurs in the autumn, and seems to be produced
by malarious influences, exasperated into peculiar
malignancy by heat and other external conditions,
and favoured by the previous operation of debilitating
causes upon the subject they attack. Some of the
resident medical practitioners hold this form of fever
to be identical with the yellow fever of America, and
to have been imported hither in American ships.
They support their position by the assertion that this
particular form of fever was unknown here till within
the last thirty years, since which period the American
trade has come into being here; we doubt alike
premises and conclusion.
There are two points of interest to be remarked
upon as to the period of convalescence from these
diseases. On recovery from any one of these several
species of malarious fever, the patient is especially
liable to attacks of dysentery, to which his imprudent
indulgence of the calls of an appetite the more
vigorous after a lengthened period of dormancy often
.contributes not a little.
It is often remarked that an eruption breaks out ii. Herpes laii-
round the lips (herpes labialis) of a patient who has a ^'
just recovered from a malarious fever. This pheno-
menon is observed at the close of other than malarious
disorders, but never after typhus or any other fever
than those of malarious origin.
We may here remark that we have observed a ten- Abuse ofqui-
dency, not only in the practitioners who may be nme '
permanently resident in a malarious country, but also
in those who may be temporarily stationed in such
districts, to make use of quinine as if it were a panacea,
and a remedy which may be safely employed in cases
whose exact nature is for the moment obscure ; as if
all disease occurring in a malarious country owned
invariably a malarious origin. And besides the evil
produced by the indiscriminate use of the drug, we
would also notice the mischief which his faith in a
specific often brings about, by causing the practitioner
to be neglectful as to the carrying out of two most
important indications, viz., strictness in diet and
removal from the malarious locality.
Lastly, it is a matter of vulgar remark here, as in Drunkards -
most other countries, that the habitual drunkard, c $l a
whatever other diseases he may bring upon himself,
at all events escapes malarious fevers, even in spots
the most notorious for the constancy and virulence of
their pernicious influence.
It is the popular belief that the regions of the Lung diseases.
Mediterranean enjoy an almost total immunity from
lung diseases ; and that it is much to the advantage of
a phthisical subject from Northern Europe to change
his residence for one in the sunny countries bordering
this sea. The first of these propositions is the exact
converse of the truth, and the same remark may be
made with but a slight modification of the second.
To deal with the latter of the two propositions 1. The Mediter-
first. Some patients in whom consumption has been JBJJJST
detected, while yet in an early stage, may have for consumptive
received benefit from a sojourn in the Mediterranean pai
countries, because, by such a course, they have
secured to themselves the co-operation of the three
E 2
68
most powerful coadjutors which nature can have in
her efforts at restoration, constant change of air,
constant diversion by change of scene, and freedom
from mental anxiety. On the other hand, we have
on several occasions found that "the summer heats,"
as it was once expressed to us at Smyrna, " drive on
phthisis furiously ;" and it is our invariable experience
that regulation of the patient's diet, which is to a
considerable extent efficient elsewhere towards check-
ing the disease, at all events in its outset, is carried
out with greater difficulty and subject to more fre-
quent interruption from a variety of causes here than
in England. To the scientific and statistical world
this has been long known, and therefore needs no
further comment ; but the real merits of the former
of the two propositions have not been so clearly set
forth as those of the latter.
ii. phthisis com- It is true there are no trades in the Levant at all
mon m natives. ana ] O g OUS i n their effects upon the pulmonary system
to those which in England produce the grinder's rot
or the stonecutter's asthma.
But the statistics given in books, written by men
with many years' experience of the East, such as
" Die Krankheiten des Orients," by Dr.Pruner, agree
with our limited observations in stating that the pro-
portion of consumptive disease is as large among the
indigenous population of this as of any part of the
world. We have met with several cases in which
the power this mysterious diathesis has of tainting a
whole generation has been as well illustrated in
Smyrna as it could have been by a family brought up
in hardship and privation, cold, damp, and hunger, by
parents themselves affected with the complaint, either
in France or England. A single family has furnished
us with examples of pulmonary phthisis in one brother,
strumous ophthalmia in another, scrofulous cervical
glands in one sister, and tabes mesenterica in another.
Scrofulous diseases in the bones is likewise very
common amongst the natives of this region. We
may remark that a very short experience of the
diseases of the East is sufficient to show that there at
all events consumption and ague may co-exist at one
time in the same individual. It is a noteworthy fact
69
at scrofula is especially common amongst the Ar-
menian Roman Catholics, who are a small body of
pie, and intermarry much among themselves. The
ews, who live poorly, likewise suffer considerably
un this class of diseases.
Pneumonia and pleurisy are neither of them un- Pneumonia and
common, yet the climate of Smyrna is not so well P leuris y-
calculated to produce these affections as many other
places in the Mediterranean which enjoy most unde-
servedly a much higher reputation for salubrity.
The invalid in Smyrna is not exposed to those
sudden transitions from excessive heat to excessive
cold which are so common in other places, where,
leaving the blazing heat of an open promenade, you
may turn all at once to meet an icy blast rushing
down from some snow-capped mountain.
Cancer is an exceedingly rare disease in this part Cancer.
of the world.
Diseases of the heart are not uncommon ; and we Heart disease.
have met with many cases of functional disturbance
of the organ in a certain class of Turkish officials,
who are in a daily habit of over exciting themselves
with raki.
Dyspepsia is a common affection both amongst the Dyspepsia.
Turkish and Jewish populations. Both are much
given to the use, or rather the abuse, of sweetmeats
and oil, to the exclusion often of almost every other
article of food. And in certain Greek monasteries,
where animal food is not allowed to be eaten, almost
every inmate will have a series of dyspeptic symptoms
to relate to any passing traveller whom he may sup-
pose to be a physician.
Bowel complaints are not so common as might be Bowel com-
expected, considering that for three months in the pa
year fruit of one kind or another is very largely con-
sumed by all classes.
The cholera in its visitation favoured no class or Cholera.
nationality more than another, and in no respect, so
far as we could learn from report, very few cases
indeed having occurred during the year 1855-1856,
the period of our residence in Smyrna, did this dis-
ease assume a different character from that which
it has manifested elsewhere.
70
The stress of the Mediterranean remittent falls
occasionally upon the stomach, and under these cir-
cumstances it assumes the name of gastric fever. It
lasts often from fourteen to twenty-one days.
Diarrhoea. The diarrhoea to which Europeans are so frequently
subject on their first arrival in the east is produced
in different cases by different causes, and requires
different treatment.
(i.) It may arise from a congested state of theportal
system, and in this case it will yield to the influence
of mild mercurials, followed by gentle purgatives.
(ii.) It may arise from a relaxed state of the mucous
membrane of the intestines, which should be remedied
either by desiccating remedies, such as the aromatic
chalk mixtures, &c., or in severer cases by astrin-
gents, such as are tannin, catechu, or the ferri
carbonas saccharata.
(iii.) It does arise more frequently perhaps than
from all the other causes combined, from the irri-
tation produced by the retention in the intestines of
faecal matter, which is due to the comparative atony
often supervening in a hot season, and which is
almost invariably removed by castor oil and opium.
Diarrhoea may be due to tubercular, dysenteric,
or malarious disease, but without taking these
varieties into consideration, since they are to be
appropriately treated by reference to the special
disease of which they are but a part, it will be
obvious that the diarrhoea of congestion, of relaxa-
tion, and of irritation, are three entirely different dis-
eases in their origin and in their therapeutics, and that
the remedies for the one kind will, if applied in a
case of either of the others, tend only to aggravate
the evil.
The reason why removal from one climate to
another is so generally productive of diarrhoea may
be in great measure, that under such circumstances
the relations previously existing between the functions
of the skin and the intestinal mucous membrane are
disturbed, and the disease is the consequence of the
loss of equilibrium. This principle is closely con-
nected with the rationale of a great part of the suc-
cessful treatment of dysentery.
71
eas
far
Circumcision does not appear to have conferred Syphilis.
upon those who have submitted to that rite any
immunity from the liability to contract syphilitic dis-
ease, which, though not so rife as in Egypt, is yet
from uncommon in Anatolia.
Uterine diseases are common, and especially uterine.
among the Jewish population, but amenorrhcea,
dysmenorrhoaa, and menorrhagia are widely diffused
amongst all the nationalities.
Eye diseases of every variety are to be met with Eye.
in Smyrna. The effects of two forms of ophthalmic
affections strike the attention even of the passing
and unprofessional observer by their frequency ;
entropium, ectropiurn, and trichiasis, the sequelae of
neglected ophthalmia, and the almost equally obvious
products of old strumous eye disease. Diseases of
the lachrymal sac are also common here.
Each nationality in Smyrna has provided itself with
its own hospital. The Turkish hospital (Hopital de
la Ville) is capable of accommodating from 90 to 100 Hospital*.
patients. It was employed in 1855 as a barrack for Turkish.
Turkish soldiers ; subsequently it was given over to
the English medical staff as quarters ; and, lastly, it
was again employed as an hospital for the British
Swiss Legion, when that force occupied as barracks
the building which had previously been the British
General Hospital.
Besides this building, the Turks have a military
hospital, containing sixty beds, somewhat too closely
packed, and a quarantine establishment, capable of
accommodating a very much larger number of men.
Quarters for from 300 to 400 British soldiers were
found there at different periods in 1855 and 1856.
The Greeks have a large building which goes by Greek.
the name of the Greek Hospital. But besides 150
beds for cases of disease, this institution provides
accommodation of one kind or another for about 100
lunaucs and idiots, as well as for a small number of
aged and helpless individuals of both sexes.
On the several occasions of our visiting this insti-
tution, we found always three beds where two should
have barely been allowed, and we never saw any
attempt made at isolating infectious diseases. This
72
was the case even in an epidemic of small-pox in the
winter of 1855 and 1856, which of course propagated
itself to all within its reach who were capable of
receiving it. We were assured, however, that the
mortality from beginning to end from this epidemic
had been very slight, and only amounted to three
deaths. We observed that the old-fashioned practice
of smearing the face with blue ointment was still con-
tinued in the case of small-pox patients. The phar-
macopoeia employed, and the language used for
prescriptions, was, though in a Greek hospital, Italian.
The parts of the building devoted to the reception
of cases of mental disease are a disgrace to a civilized
community, and it is as disgusting to remember as it
is useless to describe their condition.
The poor-house part of the institution is in a more
tolerable state, but leaves much to desire in the way
of cleanliness and increased accommodation.
The expenditure of the whole institution amounts
to 3,000/. per annum ; of this 600/. is annually
defrayed from the endowments it possesses, and the
deficiency is contributed from the common fund of
Seep. SG. the Tpotixtxi) Koivo'-nj?. To the institution are attached
one surgeon and one physician, and one resident
medical officer. The patients with mental diseases
are only occasionally inspected. The others are
visited daily at 8 A.M.
Armenian HOS- The Armenian Hospital partakes rather of the
character of a poor-house or refuge for the aged and
destitute than of that of a hospital properly so called.
As might have been expected from the comparatively
small numbers and easy circumstances of that mer-
cantile community, this institution was very nearly
empty when we visited it. It had from 20 to 30
inmates, but could accommodate from 100 to 120.
Jewish. The Jewish hospital is a quadrangular one-storied
building ; its rooms are mere cabins opening into a
corridor; they have wooden floors, but are totally
destitute of every other means and appliance ; they
have no beds and hardly any utensils for any purpose.
The patient lies in his own rugs on a mat upon the
. floor, frequently without even a water bottle, with or
without companions as it may chance. The same
73
description will apply to the two Turkish hospitals at
Magnesia, both that for insane and that for sick
patients.
The English, Dutch, and French hospitals, are
each supported by their several governments, and
are devoted to the reception of the subjects of the
Power, who are generally sailors from the ships which
have arrived in the port.
COMMERCE.
It is to the excellence of her port that Smyrna Advantages of
owes her repeated recovery from disasters which were the Port '
sufficient to destroy for ever many of her neighbours
not so advantageously situated. There is deep water
along the whole length of the city, and ships can
anchor close to the quays and custom houses. Unlike
Alexandria and most of the other Levantine harbours,
the harbour of Smyrna is secure from sudden squalls,
and is of such extent that almost any conceivable
number of vessels may lie in it at one time and in
perfect safety. And secondly, it is the most con-
venient " scala" or shipping port for the three great
valleys of the Hermus (Magnesia), the Cayster
(Ephesus), and Maeander (Aidin), and is connected
by camel roads with all the principal towns of the
whole continent. Doubly favoured thus in its
geographical condition, Smyrna has been enabled to
flourish, in spite of bad governments and desolating
wars, and is and will in all likelihood continue an im-
portant centre for exportation. No ships, however,
are built at Smyrna, and her harbour does not pos-
sess a single dock of any description, though such a
convenience might, from the nature of the shore, be
provided at a comparatively trifling cost.
Every article of export, whether of raw produce, of Tax on Ex-
which nature the great mass of export is, or manu- portSt
factured goods, as silk or carpets, pays duty to the
enormous extent of 22 per cent. This monstrous
and impolitic tax is thus raised, 10 per cent, is paid
as excise by all produce on the spot where it is pro-
74
duced ; 9 per cent, further is paid on all goods on
their being deposited in the custom house, and 3 per
cent, more on being shipped.
On imports. The country whose exports can bear up against
such taxation as this must possess great facilities for
production. The taxes borne by imports are, how-
ever, much more moderate, and amount in all only
to 5 per cent., 3 of which is paid by the custom
house and 2 by the retailer, and there are no differen-
tial duties.
Catalogue By reference to the resume of exports and imports
(on the next page) for 1855, it will be seen that
England both exports and imports more than any
other country ; that Austria, and the German and
Swiss States, come next to her in these points, as also
in the number and tonnage of their shipping at this
port ; that, not considering the Turkish ports, France
and the United States come next ; and, fifth in rank,
Holland, whose commerce here is but the shadow of
what it was.
figs. Figs are exported in larger quantity for America
than for English consumption, but those intended for
the English market are of a finer quality. A con-
siderable quantity of the figs intended for America
are shipped on board the Liverpool line of steamers
for England, and are subsequently transhipped at that
port. The certainty and expedition of this route to
America has begun to cause a diminution in the
number of clippers employed in the fruit trade between
America and Asia Minor.
Opium. Opium was exported to "America in a somewhat
larger quantity than to England, 278 cases, value
3,000,010 piastres, having gone to America, 267
cases, value 2,882,265 piastres, having gone to
England. A considerable quantity of opium is ex-
ported to China and the East Indies by the overland
route; in the year 1854 as much as 724 cases.
Carpets. England takes more than two-thirds of the carpets
manufactured in Anatolia. These carpets are made
in the interior, and by the aid of very simple ma-
chinery, manual labour entering largely into the
. means employed. Women and children work the
carpets ; the dyeing is done by men. Orders are
75
COMMERCE OF SMYRNA FOR THE YEAR 1855.
The million of piastres = 8,000/.
The pound sterling = 129 to 130 piastres.
In the year 1855 goods were imported into Piastres.
Smyrna of the value of - 257,004,700
In the same year goods were exported from
Smyrna of the value of - 284,957,026
The whole value of exports and imports - 541,058,726
Piastres.
Piastres.
The imports were from
Exports to
England - - in value
80,105,328
83,447,620
England.
Austria, Germany.
Austria, Germany,
Switzerland -
55,654,130
26,990,440
Switzerland.
France - -
31,912,790
26,430,750
France.
United States -
19,434,550
24,895,520
United States
Holland -
10,520,140
2,604,780
Holland.
Piedmont -
999,550
2,888,350
Piedmont.
Tuscany -
Malta
Different places -
2,406,260
1,903,120
5,448,140
767,700
4,960,980
8,636,660
Tuscany.
Malta.
Different places.
Turkish ports -
48,617,800
105,330,120
Turkish ports.
Total imports -
257,004,700
284,057,020
Total exports.
The English imports were coals, linen, iron, indigo, stuffs, hard-
ware, other goods as manufactured hemp.
French. Coffee, fezes, hats, nails, woollens, watches, precious
stones, wrought hides, warm stuffs, paper, salted fish, hard-
ware, silks.
Austrian. Woodware, coffee, hemp, woollens, warm stuffs from
Switzerland, paper, hardware.
United States. Woven goods, coffee, flour, salted fish, hardware,
rum, brandy, sugar, tobacco.
The goods exported from Smyrna were figs, raisins, madder,
valonea, galls, gums, opium, hides, leeches, silk, and carpets.
From the more detailed tables given in the Appendix for Details from
the commerce of the year 1854, we extract this list : Appendix,
pp. 89.
1854.
Piastres.
Piastres.
Export of
Madder - total value
Valonea -
18,497,970
17,512,270
18,133,270
15,300,850
= value to England alone
Figs -
13,225,100
5,421,800
Raisins -
17,943,350
5,330,000
Opium - ,,
13,271,510
2,882,265
Sponges -
4,313,500
3,436,000
Carpets -
3,844,600
2,300,000
Sorted gums
3,139,700
1,093,500
"
The articles in this list are the principal articles of export to
England. It will be observed, that nearly the whole of the
madder and valonea exported went to England alone. The pick-
ing, sorting, and packing of these two articles of trade occupies
a large number of hands in Smyrna.
76
given by an agent, and it is generally necessary for
him, on account of the poverty of the workers, to
advance a considerable sum of money to enable them
to purchase materials. As much as two-thirds of
the entire value of the carpet is thus advanced, some-
times, previous to its completion. In some of the
villages where this branch of industry is carried on
the work-people can make carpets of one pattern
only, but there are other villages in which numerous
patterns are worked. As regards the dyeing of the
carpet, the red colour in the Turkey carpet is gene-
rally, and ought to be always, produced by madder.
Logwood is also employed, and cochineal, but where
the latter dye is made use of the colour of the carpet
is apt to fade. Blue comes from the indigo, and the
yellow from the yellow Persian berries. By a refer-
ence to the tables of exports it will be seen that
carpets, silk, paper, and spun cotton are the only
manufactured articles the list contains ; and though
the silk manufactures cannot be said to be in a
declining condition, the carpet manufacture is the
only one which has made some advances within the
last few years. At the present time the carpet manu-
facture of f Anatolia is competing successfully with
that of Persia.
Stft. Much of the silk exported from Smyrna is brought
from Brusa and other places, at a distance of some
days' journey into the interior ; but much has been
within the last few years manufactured in Smyrna
itself, in an extensive establishment, said, indeed, to
be one of the largest of the kind in the world, the
result of the enterprise of a French merchant of
Lyons.
Com Trade. In the year 1 854 the value of the corn exported to
European and Turkish ports was as much in value
as 4,563,850 piastres ; and nearly half as much as
this quantity was consumed in the making of biscuit
for the allied armies. Barley to the value of 162,050
piastres was exported to England alone within the
same year. Owing to these circumstances the price
of provisions rose 60 per 100 as compared with the
average prices of the preceding years. Considerable
quantities of corn were shipped for England in the
early part of the year 1855, but towards the end of
the summer of that year, the exportation of corn
was prohibited, save to Turkish ports ; and this
branch of trade, in consequence, fell into abeyance
until the proclamation of peace, since which time it
has again been resumed. The French Government
had a biscuit bakery constantly at work in Smyrna
so long as the war lasted.
We may remark, that though the export of hares', Fur Trade,
foxes', goats', and lambs' skins is considerable from
this pott, none of the finer furs are native to the
country, and that most of the fur which is so largely
worn by the Orientals as to be almost a distinctive
article of their dress, is imported from America.
The history of coffee here is an analogous one. It Coffee.
is universally drunk by the poorest Anatolian, often
almost to the exclusion of any other beverage. It is
yet an exotic ; consumed in the wildest and remotest
districts of Asia Minor, it is produced in the West
Indies.
The total amount of olive oil exported from a
country most favourable to the growth, and covered
with multitudes of the trees, was, in 1854, only 1,718
quintals, value 452,600 piastres ; of this none went
either to England or France. The latter country,
indeed, imports oil into Asia Minor for culinary pur-
poses, the exotic product, by a most complete inver-
sion of the natural order of things, thus superseding
the native in its own country. The difficulties of the
transport affect injuriously the quality of the oil, by
necessitating the salting of the olive, and thus intro-
ducing impurities into the oil. Enterprise would find*
a field in this as well as in the opium and grape and
wine trades of this country.
Drugs.
Note de Drogues du Levant.
Opium, l re qualite, un morceau
2nde
3 me
?> }>
Salep, l re
PIASTRES.
200
2 nde
Carried forward 215
78
PIASTRES.
Brought forward - 215
Mastic 95
Lotor - -"
Amadou ----
Grains Jaunes
Radix Saponaria - - - - ^ 40
Thus Encens, Egypt.
Latron Soda
Gomme Sandraque (Caramanie) -J
Gomme Adraganth (sic) en feuilles, -\
l re qualite - - - I 4 ,
Idem, 2 nde qualite - (
Idem, naturelle, non travaillee - J
Galle, noir - o
vert V 10
blanche - - - -J
394 -i = i()8
Brokerage - 58 . 50 j piastres.
452.50
We have here given a list of the drugs which were
to be found in the drug market of Smyrna in the
spring of 1856. We have given this list in the shape
of the bill unaltered, as presented to us by the broker
(" fieo-mjr," "courtier") we employed, for large speci-
mens of all these drugs, and for his own labour in
purchasing them, as such a document may be of
service to any one who wishes to make a similar col-
lection on the same spot. This list is by no means
co-extensive with the number of drugs to be found in
the markets of Smyrna, still less with the multitude
whose traditional commercial source is there. Having
repeatedly surveyed the market, we directed no speci-
mens to be taken of the drugs imported by sea, such
as the sulphate of iron and the sal ammoniac from
England, the senna from Egypt, or the gum benzoin,
of such as the ruddle and other native products,
which, though indigenous and plentiful, were of no
pharmaceutical importance. We were not able to
procure any specimens of the foetid gum resins,
ammoniacum, assafoetida, &c., which, though not pro-
duced in Anatolia, yet pass through it from Central
Asia, scammony was scarce at that season of the year,
and the liquid ^torax was not to be had in Smyrna.
79
There is no opium grown within several days' Opium.
journey of Smyrna. It is incorrect, as we found by
inquiry on the spot, to say that it is grown near
Magnesia. We were assured when there that the
opium country was a long way further inland, and
the same answer was given to our inquiries when at
Aidin, a whole day's journey further from Smyrna
than Magnesia. Nor did we at either place observe
any of the plants growing. The name of the place
usually assigned as the source of opium by the dealers
is Kara Hissar, which is also sometimes called " Afium
Cara Hissar," or " Opium Cara Hissar." It is packed
in hampers of matting, which again are packed within
coarse haircloth, and it is thus transported on camels
from the place of growth. Whatever adulterations
it is subjected to, it undergoes previously to its arrival
in Smyrna ; when it arrives there it is unpacked in
the presence of an authorized person, and the process
of sorting commences. The opium is in cakelike
masses, seldom weighing more than 2 Ib. ; each mass
is enveloped in a dry leaf, and covered thickly with
the adherent achaenia of some species of dock. Lump
after lump is handed to the assayer, whose process is
more rough and empirical than any process in the How tested.
world which is exercised on objects of such value.
He seizes each lump as it is handed to him, and
plunges a knife into its substance ; then, according to
the odour evolved, to the appearance of its fracture,
to the presence or absence of cretaceous, gummy, or
amylaceous impurities, he tosses the lump, after one
instant's examination, into one or other of three heaps,
the first, second, and third qualities. The same
process is repeated upon the rest of the lumps, and
from beginning to end the knife is never wiped ; and
thus the test of smell, the most valuable criterion
furnished in the whole process, is rendered wholly
nugatory. It is obvious that the decisions passed
after such an examination as this must often be quite
other than the value, i.e. the per-centage of morphia
in each piece would warrant.
Scammony is produced in great quantities and in the
immediate neighbourhood of Smyrna. It is obtained
from the Convolvulus Scammonia, as it grows wild on
80
the hills, its root is cut off in a slanting direction, so
that the juice gravitates as it exudes into a shell placed
beneath to receive it. This drug was exported to
England in 1854, to the extent in quantity of 2,4Q5
okes, and in value of 776,500 piastres'. We believe
that at present the difference between pure virgin and
unadulterated scammony is well known andappreciated
in England. We have been told by an English mer-
chant in Smyrna that, upon first commencing business
there, he collected, as anyone easily might, two boxes
of the gummy resinous exudation as pure as it could
possibly be, i. e. with the admixture of no other im-
purities than those which might happen to attach to
the gum in the course of exudation. These boxes he
sent to one of the largest drug depots in the United
Kingdom, and they were then returned to him as not
coming up to their standard of purity. He then added
to the two cases of pure scammony an equal quantity
of various other substances, other gums, as guiacum,
chalk, sand, &c., the sweepings in fact of a druggist's
shop ; and he avers that his four cases of adulterated
scammony were received as genuine by the very same
persons who had rejected his two cases when free from
all impurities. For the entire truth of this story we
are not ready to vouch, but it is abundantly certain
that nothing of even analogous import could happen
at present.
Salep is little if at all imported into England at
present ; it has been superseded there by arrowroot,
sago, and other such farinaceous articles in one direc-
tion, and by tea, coffee, &c. in another of the appli-
cations to which it was put. On the Continent it is
still much used. In Smyrna itself there is a large
consumption of it, and, when properly prepared, it is
as palatable, nutritious, and unirritating as any article
of the same class. Its use is not confined to the invalid,
though it forms an admirable article of diet for many
cases, and especially for those of bowel complaints,
but it is also extensively used as an article of daily
food. It is brought to Smyrna by camel caravans, and
is said to be grown in the table land of Central Asia.
Gum mastic. Great use is made in the Levant of mastic, and it is
much employed by the western dentist and varnisher.
81
is the drug seen first and most frequently in the
markets of Smyrna as it is produced in Chios, of which
Smyrna is for a large portion of the year made prac-
tically the port, by the arrangements of the steam-
packet companies. Chewing mastic is one of the
methods by which the Turks of both sexes strive to
escape from the ennui of bodily and mental inaction,
and, by its property of becoming ductile and tenacious
when masticated, this otherwise brittle and transparent
gum is admirably fitted for the purpose. From time
immemorial it has been used as a dinner pill in Eng-
land, and it is the distinctive ingredient in the spiri-
tuous drink raki, so largely used and abused in
Anatolia, which is euphemistically called " mastica."
Amadou, when steeped in nitre, is used as tinder. Amadou.
but the flint and steel is rapidly falling into disuse,
being superseded, except in the opinion and employ-
ment of the caravan drivers, by the lucifer matches
which are abundantly imported from Austria. The
giant boletus, from which it is manufactured, is indi-
genous in the neighbourhood.
The Lotor, contained in the list, is a substance not Lotor.
unlike coarse canella, and it possesses strongly
astringent properties. But we were unable to obtain
in Smyrna any history of its origin or employment,
and a high authority to whom we have had recourse
in England was equally in the dark with ourselves.
Storax and Saponaria are exclusively sent to storax and
Austria. The Grains jaunes de Perse are to be ^ST
found in the English market, but are exclusively p. ni.
employed as dyeing substances. Leeches are reared Leeches.
in ponds just outside the town, and are brought
thither in leather bags from the interior for the most
part, though some are bred upon the spot. Con-
siderable difficulties beset this species of enterprise,
but we were informed by the owner, M. Moraitini,
an intelligent and courteous Greek merchant under
Austrian protection, that at length, by a constant
attention to the changing and purity of the water
in the several ponds, and to the supply of proper
food, he had succeeded in making his speculation
answer. The leech is exceedingly susceptible of
cold, and it is necessary to provide a thick bedding
of mosses and water weeds to cover the bottom of
82
the ponds into which it is put. France and Austria
took more leeches than England, whose demand for
this article, M. Moraitini informed us, had somewhat
decreased of late. This fact may be explained by the
feeling which now exists in England pretty generally,
that too free a use has been and may be frequently
made of this article of the Materia Medica. Leeches
of a smaller size, and therefore lower price, were
required for the English market than by his customers
of other nations. They are sold on the spot by
weight, 500 gr. the oke,*4/. for 2 Ib.
Orpiment. There is much orpiment to be found in the
bazaars. It is said to come from Persia, and in
combination with caustic lime it forms a depilatory
powder much used by the Mussulman population.
There are three subjects in connexion with the
exports of Anatolia which yet remain to be noticed.
They are, the methods for conveyance of goods from
the interior to the towns on the seaboard, the places
for stowing away goods, and the shipping which
carries them to foreign lands, i.e., the roads, the
khans and warehouses, and the commercial marine.
i. Roads. The Turkish empire cannot be said to possess any
roads or ever to have made any, or even attempted
to preserve such as it found ready to its hand. Its
internal communications are tracks formed by the
passing traffic, uninterrupted where spared by the
mountain torrent, impassable occasionally when this
has not been the case, either covered with loose
stones of all sizes and shapes, or consisting of deep
and yielding sand. But it is not to be supposed
that this has always been the case in a country once
possessed by those greatest of road-makers, the
Romans. In the very heart of the country, while
toiling along a narrow, broken, and often dangerous
path, it is not uncommon for the traveller to come
upon a considerable stretch of broad stone-paved
road, which, like the legible fragments here and
there to be met with in a half destroyed manuscript,
makes one feel the more bitterly the loss entailed
upon us by the carelessness of man and the ravages
of the elements. The roads of all mountainous
countries are liable to be destroyed in places by
the heavy and sudden downfalls of rain incidental
83
to such localities ; but besides this cause, another has
conspired even more effectually throughout Anatolia
to effect the destruction of its roads, viz., the practice
the Turk has of providing himself with hewn stone
for his own private purposes from whatever source
he can with least trouble to himself and regardless
of all other considerations.
The camel is the principal beast of burden em- Camels.
ployed in the transport of goods throughout Asia
Minor. The use of mules, asses, and horses is,
though not uncommon, yet much less widely dif-
fused. Wheel carriages are entirely unknown, and
with the roads in their present condition, they could
not be made use of. It is not unusual to meet a
string of as many as sixty or seventy camels all
heavily laden ; the whole procession under the care
of two or three men, and preceded almost invariably,
possibly to secure an equable rate of progress, by a
boy on a donkey, holding in one hand his own bridle,
and in the other the halter of the leading camel.
Three miles an hour is the usual rate of the camel
caravan. It is not common to see a camel without a
load, even when in a caravan bound inland. The
superstitious reverence which the Turk pays to some
of the lower animals, as, i.e. the stork, has been
interpreted by the passing observer as an exem-
plification of the character for kindness and humanity
to the brute creation which writers have been pleased
to attribute to that race. We have no hesitation in
saying that the Turk is to his beast a hard and bad
master, and that the unfortunate animal possessed by
him suffers as much as one possessed by one of the
lower orders in any other nation, not only from
habitual neglect, but from sudden outbursts of bru-
tality. It is a common thing to see a raw upon a
camel's back of six inches in diameter, and other
wounds elsewhere from the. friction of girths, &c. ;
and, as might be expected, it is also exceedingly
common to see a dead or dying camel lying by the
roadside surrounded by dogs.
The warehouses in which exports are stored pre- ii. Warehouses,
vious to being shipped do not differ in any impor- and
tant particular from similar establishments elsewhere.
F 2
84
As buildings, they are generally long and lofty
arcades, with small windows let in at a considerable
height above the ground, and strong iron-plated doors,
which are regularly locked and barred at sundown.
The khan, as being an institution peculiar to the
east, and one possessing several points for commen-
dation, deserves a more lengthy description. The
architectural idea expressed in the khan seems, like
several other typical forms of eastern architecture, to
have been transplanted into European soil in the
middle ages, and to have served as a model for col-
legiate buildings. Both classes of building are
quadrangular, and both have one, or at most two
points of entry capable of being closed by strong
doors. The fountain in the centre, and the encir-
cling corridor, go further to complete the resemblance,
but the eastern building has seldom if ever more than
two stories, and the corridor runs round the upper
as well as the lower of them. All round each of the
corridors are small rooms with very strong doors,
small windows, and a raised dais to spread the tra-
vellers' carpets and other sleeping apparatus upon,
and generally for the upper story lofty dome-shaped
roofs, whose external appearance reminds one, strangely
enough, of the manufactories in England where sub-
limation is carried on. The ground floor range is
seldom employed as a sleeping place, though fre-
quently as offices for the sale, and generally as
depositories for the keeping of goods. Any traveller
can enter this building, and on paying a trifling sum
(45 piastres per month) can occupy one of these
small and strong rooms, the key of which is handed
over to him. From the moment of his entering the
khan to the moment of his leaving it, his own
expenses are within his own control, and he is as
independent as if he were still in his own dwelling in
the country. Coffee he can procure from the cafejee,
who occupies a small room looking into the archway
of the entrance, and analogous in position and other
respects to the porter's lodge of the European col-
lege. Bread, meat, and charcoal for firing, he must
purchase for himself without the walls, but stabling,
straw, and barley for his beasts of burden are pro-
85
vided for them within the khan. Within the four
walls of his room the merchant from the interior has
his goods, if they are in small compass, placed with
him, and all the functions of his public and private
life alike will be carried on within the same area. If
his goods are bulky, the lower story has generally
ample room for stowage.
Merchants resident in the towns often make u^e of Khans used as
the rooms in a khan as offices, whither they repair ^ ces '
during the day for the transaction of business. The
Persian merchants have an entire khan appropriated
to their exclusive use, and their representative or
consul has within its precincts a court for deciding all
disputes that may arise between its occupants.
Some of these buildings are occupied by resident Khans used as
artisans, the poorer ones living entirely in the khans, shcps '
the richer taking the room as a cheaply-rented shop.
One khan is entirely occupied by shoemakers, the
aggregation of dealers in the same wares serving here
as in the bazaars to keep all parties informed as to
the passing value of any article for the time being, in
default of any more refined method of attaining the
same end.
Lines of steamers of the three nations Austria, m. steamers.
France, and England call regularly at Smyrna, and
it is seldom that a less number than two or three
steamers is to be seen in the harbour at any one
time. Every merchant steamer carrying either the
Austrian or the French flag which came into Smyrna
during our sojourn there of more than a year was
with the exception of an occasional French transport,
either in the Austrian Lloyd or the Messageries
Imperiales Company. Both these companies are French and
richly endowed by their respective governments, and Austriait -
the latter of the two has for some time carried the Eng-
lish mails, but, as a rule, their boats are ill-appointed
and unpunctual, and they are small, brig-rigged, and
propelled by paddles in the immense majority of
cases. Each of these companies sends two boats to
Smyrna every week one from Constantinople and
one from the West ; and fortnightly each company
has a line running to Alexandria, the boats of which
call here also. Though these steam companies aim
86
especially at securing passenger traffic, they neverthe-
less afford considerable facilities for shipping cargo,
and goods of all kinds are weekly exported and
imported by their agency.
English. There are several lines of steam-ships between
Smyrna and Liverpool, but no mail is carried by any
of the English ships. These ships are all, without
exception, propelled by the screw ; the majority are
barque and a few ship rigged. Their average tonnage
is much larger than that of the other two lines, and
they direct their attention to the securing of good
freights rather than passengers, who, though well pro-
vided for in other respects, might be inconvenienced
in these boats by the long stay which their waiting
for cargo sometimes entails upon them in Smyrna
and Alexandria. The Liverpool ships generally go to
Constantinople first, and having discharged cargo
there, they return to Smyrna. If they succeed in get-
ting a full cargo there they return direct to Eng-
land; but if not, they go round by Alexandria.
Besides the English lines belonging to English houses,
there is also, as already mentioned, a line of English
steam-ships in the employ of a company of Greek
and Armenian merchants. Though there is no
regular line of steam communication between Smyrna
and London, yet this means of intercourse between
the two places does exist, and about once every
month a steamer sails direct for London.
Sailing ships. This profuse supply of steam ships has begun to
affect the interests of sailing vessels engaged in the
Smyrna trade. A good average passage for a sailing
vessel, when favoured by the wind, from England to
Smyrna, may be estimated at thirty days ; it is not
unfrequently done in less time ; and we have heard
of an instance in which a ship arrived in Smyrna in
twenty-one days after leaving Cardiff. But these are
all voyages performed under favourable conditions, and
these favourable conditions are very frequently want-
ing. The Liverpool steamers will, under the most
unfavourable circumstances, reach Liverpool within
seventeen days from the date of their leaving Smyrna.
It is obvious that sailing vessels must compete with
great disadvantage with these steamers, in all cases
87
where certainty and expedition are required ; and in
the fruit trade it is said that steam will at no distant
period enjoy almost a monopoly in freights. The
merchant in America finds it answer his purpose
better in many cases to have his cargo of figs shipped
in a steamer at Smyrna for Liverpool, and subse-
quently trans-shipped at the latter port, than to have
them brought direct without any trans-shipment in a
sailing ship from Smyrna to America. The same
causes will operate still more powerfully upon the
European fruit ships. In fact, the peculiarities of the
Mediterranean navigation seem to require steam more
than most other seas. The Mediterranean possesses
no trade winds, and is, on the contrary, especially
liable to sudden changes and dead calms. Schooners
and brigs were the favourite class of vessels employed
in the Smyrna fruit trade, but within the last few
years a somewhat higher style of vessel has been
introduced for this purpose.
The tonnage of English steamers which entered Ush ship ~
the port of Smyrna was :
In 1854, 31,580. The number was 52.
In 1855, 46,868.
The tonnage of English sailing vessels which entered
the port of Smyrna was :
In 1854, 28,923. The number was 118.
In 1855, 28,611.
The commerce of Smyrna represented the sum in
piastres :
In 1854 of 136,191,140 piastres.
In 1855 of 257,001,700 piastres.
The increase in the commerce is accompanied by a
proportionate increase in the tonnage of the principal
carrying marine ; and from the amount of tonnage
that marine possesses in these parts, it will be seen
that, though the " Levant Company " and " Smyrna
Fleet " are now, as names, merely historical and of the
past, the realities they represented are in as vigorous
an existence as ever.
88
In conclusion, I must make full acknowledgments
to J. W. Hulke, Esq., of King's College, and to
Messrs. Wilkinson, Eddowes, and Atkinson, late my
colleagues at Smyrna. They collected much infor-
mation upon several of the subjects treated of in this
report, and most liberally placed it at my disposal.
Though they are not to be held responsible for any
statement which this report may contain, they are
well entitled to share in any credit which may accrue
to it.
Lastly, it is due to myself to say, that I am as well
acquainted as any one else can be with the numerous
shortcomings and deficiencies of this report, and that,
though some might, many also could not have been
supplied by greater diligence on my part.
GEORGE ROLLESTON,. M.B.,M.A.,
. Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and late
Assistant Physician to the British Civil
Hospital at Smyrna.
APPENDIX.
TABLE OF EXPORTS FROM SMYRNA FOR 1854.
Piastres.
Madder Roots |
Almonds
Quantity, total - - Quintals 72,628
Quantity, to England - 71,225
Quantity, total - 250
Value, total - 18,497,970
Value to England 18,133,270
Value, total - 114,980
Quantity, total - - Kilos 94,301
Value, total - 4,563,850
Corn - - -[
Quantity, to England - 23,290
Value, to U. K. - 861,800
Bronze -
Quantity, total - Quintals 77
Value, total - 36,300
Quantity, total 36,230
Value, total - 3,157,580
Rags - -{
Quantity to England - 2,110
Value to England 145,700
Yellow "Wax
Quantity, total 2,175
Value, total - 1,998,820
Cocoons
Quantity, total - - 517.
Value, total - 1,118,600
Cottons, raw
Quantity, total - 870
Value, total - 219,340
Cottons, spun, Anatolia
Chrcmate of Iron
Quantity, total - - 626
All for England, from Izmid 11,808
Value, total - 268,650
Value - - 416,400
Old Copper
Quantity, total - - 1,248
Value, total - 685,908
Quantity, total - 44,950
Value, total - 2,257,250
Emery - - -|
Quantity to England - 38,360
Value to England 1,926,250
Sponges - |
Otto of Roses - - {
Quantity, total Bags and Cases 2,817
Quantity to England 1,715
Quantity, total - 32,500
Quantity to England 18,300
Value, total - 4,313,400
Value to England 3,436,000
Value, total - 552,600
Value to England 290,000
t
Quantity, total - - Quintals 53,060
Value, total - 13,225,100
Pigs - -(
Quantity to England - 18,070
Value to England 5,421,000
Olive Oil
Quantity, total - - 1,718
Value, total - 452,600
Dried Pruits [
Quantity, total - - 2,223
Quantity to England 940
Value, total - 446,500
Value to England 235,000
<
Quantity, total - . - 10,131
Value, total - 4,168,970
Galls - - -|
Quantity to England 1,571
Value to England 643,810
Sorted Gums - - j
Quantity, total - - 2,863
Quantity to England - 998
Value, total - 3,139,700
Value to England 1,093,500
Dried Vegetables
Maize -
Quantity, total - - Kilos 21,944
Quantity, total - - 22,471
Value, total - 627,520
Value, total - 573,010
Quantity, total - - 6,395
Value, total - 774,540
Nuts - -|
Quantity to England - 5,311
Value to England 677,510
c
Quantity, total - - Cases 1,538
Value, total - 13,271,510
Opium -j
Quantity to England - 267
Quantity, total - - Kilos 162,050
Value to England 2,882,265
Value, total - 3,060,230
Barley - - -i
Quantity to England 52,450
Value to England 162,050
Bones - -|
Paper from Smyrna -
Quantity, total - - 13,020
Quantity to England - 12,640
Quantity, total - Bales and Cases 808
Value, total - 186,370
Value to England 177,860
Value, total - 843,700
Dry Ox Hides -
Quantity, total - - Quintals 3,738
Value, total - 956,980
Lambs and Goats'Hides
Quantity, total - - Bales 887
Quantity to England - 830
Value, total - 1,015,500
Value to England 949,500
("
Quantity, total 98,670
Value, total - 9,404,250
r Red - - ^
Quantity to England - 41,060
Value, total - 3,895,000
K*. Black {
Quantity, total 98,056
Quantity to England - ,, 8,900
Value, total - 4,906,000
Value to England 445,000
Quantity, total 13,014
Value, total - 3,573,000
1. Sultanas - \
Quantity to England 3,600
Value to England 990,000
Hare Skins
Quantity, total - - Bales 383
Value, total - 1,046,100
Radix Saponaria
Quantity, total - - Quintals 137
Value, total - 45,910
Salep
Quantity, total 137
Value, total - 91,300
Leeches - - -|
Quantity, total - - Okes 1,502
Quantity to England 5
Value, total - 1,384,150
Value to England 4,750
Scammony - - 1
Quantity, total 3,270
Quantity to England - 2,495
Value, total - 997,050
Value to England 776,500
Silk
Quantity, total - - Quintals 483
Value, total - 2,806,700
Storax -
Quantity, total - 139
Value total - 76,450
Carpets, Anatolia - (
Quantity, total 1,048
Quantity to England - 596
Value, total - 3,844,600
Value to E ngland 2,300,000
Valonea - - j
Quantity, total - 243.999
Quantity to England - 218,674
Value, total - 17,512,270
Value to England 15,350,850
Box Wood - [
Quantity, total 26,826
Quantity to England - 12,785
Value, total - 858,110
Value to E ngl and 436,350
90
THERMOMETEICAL REGISTER.
March 6 -
March 7
{
f'
5 P.M.
7.15A.M.
12.45 P.M.
5.15 P.M.
7.30A.M.
12.45P.M.
5.45 P.M.
March 12
7.30A.M.
6.45 P.M.
9.15 P.M.
7.30A.M.
12
5.15
7.30A.M.
--{
-{
{7.30A.M.
12.45 P.M.
5.45P.M.
March 14 - 7.30A.M.
March 15 - 11. P.M.
March 16
March 18 -
March 19 -
March 20 -
March 22 -
March 23
March 24
]\Jarch25
March 26
4.0 P.M.
f 8.0 A.M.
-<> 1.0 P.M.
UO.O P.M.
f 8.0 A.M.
~\ 2.30P.M.
I. 8.30P.M.
r 8.0 A.M.
J 11.0 A.M.
] 4.45P.M.
L S.SOp.M.
Degrees.
60
58 ^ Forenoon sunny ; wind and
60 > rain in afternoon, with thun-
60 J der and lightning.
59 "^
~~ I Stormy, thunder and lightning,
~q t and rain till late.
^g c Lightning and thunder in morn-
^Y < ing ; rain till afternoon ; rain
L in night.
> Fine day ; no rain.
I Rain with gusts of wind in
\ afternoon ; thunder and rain
61
58i
58i
58- )
, 2 > at night, with much wind.
59 ^
I Rain, much wind, and heavy
/
59 }
60 J-Rain.
59 J
58 Heavy rain in the night.
55 Heavy rain all day.
55J- "1 Forenoon sunny ; afternoon
54 / one or two heavy showers.
55 2 | Fine clear day.
- Fine day.
- Fine day.
- Fine day.
58 Fine day.
/TO -
I., > Fine weather.
D 1 J
g4 I The warmest day yet ; fine all
62 / da y-
60-^ i
grj I Very hot; no rain for some
65 4 J days ; sundown 6.0 P.M.
63jh
69 (Hot; no rain; sirocco for last
^0 f
68 )
two days.
91
Degrees.
March 27 8.0 A.M. 65 No rain ; hot.
March 28 -{^**
fiftl >Hot ; no rain.
f 8.0 A.M.
I 12 30 P M
March 29 < o'/ir
>V. 9.30P.M.
40 -\
fi7
^ >Hot ; no wind ; no rain,
bo (
66 J
r 6.45A.M.
1 9.0 A.M.
Ci 30 -< 10.30A.M.
I 6.0 P.M.
( 10.50P.M.
65 ^
65
654 f No wind nor rain.
65
641 J
r 9.0 A.M.
10.20A.M.
March 31 -J g'Jj)
63 4 j
66 I xr j
P fii >No wind, no rain.
5.30 P.M.
.8.20 P.M.
66 2 I
64 )
r 8.0 A.M.
A ! , J H.30A.M.
"S 3.30P.M.
I 5.45P.M.
>No rain, cooliner wind.
60^ |
{8.0 A.M.
11.0 A.M.
3.10P.M.
6.0 P.M.
10.25P.M.
60 \
64 J >No rain.
64
631 I
r 6.30A.M.
A ., J 7.55A.M.
April 3 -1 2.55P.M.
I 7.30P.M.
60 -\
63 (Cloudy morning ; rain in
64 [ shower.
621 J
slight
April 4 - 7.45A.M.
62 No rain.
{1.0 P.M.
6.0 P.M.
8.10P.M.
64
61
61
{8.0 A.M.
11.15A.M.
2.0 P.M.
6.0 P.M.
8.30P.M.
61
63
64
641
631
f 6.0 A.M.
A 'I T J 7.15A.M.
April 7 -^ x pM
I 6.0 P.M.
63
63
66
65
A -i o r 7 o A.M.
Aiml 8 - < , , ^
r Cloudy in morning ; rain in
64-lJ afternoon; lightning and
63 ) thunder and heavy rain at
night.
92
Degrees.
{7.15A.M.
63 N
8.30A.M.
611
April 9
11.0 JL.M.
12.45P.M.
63 ^ Heavy rain and thunder, and
63^ | intervals of sunshine.
3.45P.M.
64"
11.30P.M.
61 J
f 7. 45A.M.
62 -v
12.30P.M.
63 J
April 10
3.0 P.M.
63 > Heavy rain and wind.
6.15P.M.
6U
8.30P.M.
61 J
April 11
6.30A.M.
601 Heavy rain.
r 9.30A.M.
60^
April 12
J 11.30A.M.
) 2.30P.M.
QQ J>Very heavy rain and wind.
I 6.0 P.M.
58 J
r 7.30A.M.
57 -|
April 13
-1 12.30P.M.
L 5.0 P.M.
561 Y Cloudy.
55| J
April 14
C 7-10A.M.
-{ 1.40P.M.
I 4.30P.M.
57 ^
60 > Sunshine, gentle breeze.
621 J
April 15
/12.0
I 6.20P.M.
$} Sunny.
r 7.15A.M.
581
April 16
J 12.0
] 3 . 30 P.M.
59"
60
L 9.40 P.M.
58
r 7.30 A.M.
58
April 17
J 1.0 P.M.
~\ 4.45P.M.
59^
60
1 10. 15 P.M.
58
April 18
f 8.0 A.M.
-\ 12.0
I 7.0 P.M.
584
591
59
C 8.30 A.M.
581
April 19
-^ 1.0 P.M.
60-1
UO.O P.M.
58j
April 20
r 6.45A.M..
112.0
571
59
r 7.15A.M.
57
April 21
J 12.0
m \ 7.0 P.M.
59
61
UO.dOp.ic.
60
April 22
r 7.30A.M.
J 2.0 P.M.
'\ 7.0 P.M.
1 10.0 P.M.
59
611
611
93
Degrees.
April 23
{6.30A.M.
8.0 A.M.
1.20P.M.
9.15P.M.
591
60
611
{7.0 A.M.
59|
9.0 A.M.
60}
April 24
10.45A.M.
60
2.0 P.M.
61
6.30P.M.
601
(- 7.10A.M.
ef
April 25
J 10.30A.M.
") 1.0 P.M.
61
62
I 3.40P.M.
63
April 26
{7 . 30 A.M.
12.30P.M.
5.15 P.M.
60
62 2
r 8.20A.M.
61
April 27
J 11.15A.M.
"S 1.0 P.M.
61
61
I 6.45 P.M.
60
April 28
r 8.0 A.M.
J 1.0 P.M.
"\ 6.10P.M.
Lii.o P.M.
601
591
60
57
April 29
r 7.45A.M.
I 1.30P.M.
59
601
April 30
r 9.0 A.M.
-1 2.30P.M.
Lll.O P.M.
61 ^|
62 >Hot, sunny.
61 J
May 1
r 8.20A.M.
-1 1.15P.M.
111. 30 P.M.
651 VHot, sunny.
61 J
r 8.0 A.M.
62 -)
May 2
J 1.30P.M.
) 5.15P.M.
63 1 Cloudy and showery, rain and
63^- i wind.
111. 30P.M.
63" J
May 3
r 7 45 A.M.
"112. 35 P.M.
631 } Bright sunny day.
May 4
r 10.30A.M.
-/ 7.0 P.M.
111. 30 P.M.
64 "i
6 g ^ Sunny clear day and moonlight
65 J ni ht -
May 5
(- 8.0 A.M.
J 12.30P.M.
") 5.30P.M.
111. 30 P.M.
66 ^
68 (
69 >Sunnyday.
68 J
{7.30A.M.
67
11.30A.M.
701
May 6
12.30P.M.
71
3.0 P.M.
73J
10.30P.M.
69
94
Degrees.
C 8.0 A.M.
691
May 7
J 10.20A.M.
"S 7.0 P.M.
701
721
Ul.O P.M.
70
May 8
/ 7.30A.M.
"1 1.0 P.M.
691
73
May 9
{10.0 A.M.
12.0
6.20P.M.
70
69|
May 10
r 8.0 A.M.
J 12.0
~\ 3.30P.M.
I 6.0 P.M.
68
67|
68
68
May 11
{1.0 A.M.
7.30A.M.
12.30P.M.
67 ]
67 > Rainy.
68 J
May 12
r 7.40A.M.
I 3.15 P.M.
67
691
May 13
/ 8.30A.M.
I 1.30P.M.
68
70
May 14
{8.25A.M.
1.5 P.M.
7.0 P.M.
69|
May 15
r 8.0 A.M.
112. 30 P.M.
69
71
May 16
-
May 17
r 8.0 A.M.
1 12. 30 P.M.
701
72
{7.30A.M.
72
May 18
1.0 P.M.
4.30P.M.
8
7.30P.M.
74
10.5 P.M.
73
C 6.30A.M.
92
May 19
J 10.30A.M.
} 12.45P.M.
I 8.0 P.M.
731
70
fll. 10A.M.
701
May 20
-} 1.0 P.M.
I 4.0 P.M.
72
931
May 21
-
{7.30A.M.
71 ^
May 22
12.0
3.30P.M.
5.0 P.M.
72 1
lo_a (Cherries ripe.
74! f Report.
6.40P.M.
73 4 J
May 23
r 7.0 A.M.
-< 3.15P.M.
I 5.25P.M,
71
74
See page 50,
[ay 24
.
ay 25
May 26
ay 27
May 28
May 29 -
May 30
May 31
June 1
Degrees.
( 8.10A.M.
701
<J 12.45P.M.
I 5.15P.M.
73
f 9.0 A.M.
1 1.0 P.M.
I 5.0 P.M.
72
73
75
f 8.30A.M.
<^ 12.0
I 3.0 P.M.
73
73
74|
{7.0 A.M.
73
11.0 A.M.
73
12.0
731
1.0 P.M.
74
2.40P.M.
75
>. 10. 15 P.M.
74
{7.30A.M.
73|
11.30A.M.
12.0
74|
3.0 P.M.
77-J
5 . 30 P.M.
77i
8.0 P.M.
76 2
10.15P.M.
75
f 6.45AM.
74
) 10.30A.M. *
74
\ 11.45A.M.
751
I 3.30P.M.
791
{7.30A.M.
74
8.45A.M.
74|
11.0 A.M.
751
12.45P.M.
98
3.0 P.M.
794
6.0 P.M.
9.50P.M.
76J
C 7.30A.M.
76J
9.55A.M.
77
11.5 A.M.
12.50P.M.
801
3.20P.M.
821
5.0 P.M.
824-
_ 5.45 P.M.
81
" 6.30A.M.
771
9.20A.M.
78|
10.25A.M.
12.30P.M.
8lJ
2.0 P.M.
81f
2.30P.M.
82
5.0 P.M.
82|
9.45P.M.
804
96
June 2 -
June 3 -
June 4
June 5
June 6
June 7
June 8
June 9
Juno 10
June 11 -
Degrees
!7.0 A.M.
781
8.45A.M.
78|
12.0
81
1.0 P.M.
81J
2.45P.M.
82
5.0 P.M.
82
(7.15A.M.
79
8.40A.M.
79
10.0 A.M.
80
11.0 A.M.
81
12.10P.M.
814
2.25P.M.
81}
7.15 A.M.
791
f 3.15P.M.
I 4.45P.M.
82
82
(5.15A.M.
77
7.30A.M.
10.50A.M.
1.0 P.M.
76
781
79
2.20P.M.
79*
. 5.5 P.M.
" 7.30A.M.
77 1
9.45A.M.
761'
10. SO A.M.
76J
12.0
77
1.0 P.M.
77 ,'
2 . 30 P.M.
78 i
5.0 P.M.
1,11.0 P.M.
74|J
f 8.15A.M.
74
1 10.0 A.M.
74
1.0 P.M.
73|
; 2.15P.M.
74
4.45 P.M.
731
7.0 P.M.
7^2"
111. 30 P.M.
73i
f" 7.45A.M.
731
9.15A.M.
10.40A.M.
72^
; 2.30P.M.
j 3.45P.M.
7.0 P.M.
LIO.O P.M.
74?
74|
73
73
,-8.0 A.M.
71
10.5 A.M.
72
) 2.30P.M.
73 i
\ 4.30P.M.
^t>
6.30P.M.
74i
UO.O P.M.
74
A short hurricane, with thifnder
and lightning.
97
June 12 -
June 13
June 14
June 15
June 16
June 17
June 18 -
June 19 -
June 20 -
June 21
June 22
Degrees.
( 8.0 A.M.
73
1 2.50P.M.
75
S 5.30P.M.
75J
L 7 . 45 P.M.
74J
J8.0 A.M.
74i
9.50A.M.
75 4
11.15A.M.
77
12.50P.M.
79
3.20P.M.
80
4.50P.M.
791
9.15P.M.
77i
!S.O A.M.
76
12.0 A.M.
83J
1.0 P.M.
851
2.30P.M.
861
10.0 P.M.
79"
(9.30A.M.
76
11.0 A.M.
79
3.0 P.M.
831
6.45 P.M.
82
10.30P.M.
79
f 1.0 P.M.
I 4.20P.M.
82
85
S9.0 A.M.
80
12.15P.M.
821
1.0 P.M.
84
2 . 30 P.M.
851
3.45P.M.
851
10.30P.M.
82
r 7.0 A.M.
11.0 A.M.
) 1.0 P.M.
941
82
84
1 3.0 P.M.
f 5.30P.M.
v. 10.15P.M.
851
85
80
r 9 . 45 A.M.
80
12.15P.M.
801
1.0 P.M.
81
4.45 P.M.
83
6.45P.M.
81
1 11. 30 P.M.
78
r 9.0 A.M.
79
10.0 A.M.
79
11.15A.M.
79
1.0 P.M.
81}
5.15P.M.
84i
9.0 P.M.
80-
J2.30P.M.
77
G
98
Degrees.
r 8.45A.M.
791
1
June 23 -J
10.0 A.M.
1.0 P.M.
82 2
1
^ 9.45P.M.
821
17.0 A.M.
79
11.0 A.M.
82
12.0 A.M.
84
3.45P.M.
861
9.0 P.M.
83
I 7. 45A.M.
781
10.20A.M.
791
1.0 P.M.
81
6.0 P.M.
824
7.30P.M.
801
June 26 -
r 9.50A.M.
75
1
June 27 -<
1.0 P.M.
4.30P.M.
76
c. 6.30P.M.
751
[10.45A.M.
75
1.0 P.M.
76
2.30P.M.
76
4.20P.M.
771
9.0 P.M.
76
* i
- 7.30A.M.
751
1
9.45A.M.
76
June 29 -<
10.45A.M.
76
1.0 P.M.
79
1
ai.o P.M.
75
r 7.30A.M.
74
9.0 A.M.
741
10.30A.M.
75|
12.0
77
June 30 - -
1.0 P.M.
781
2.30P.M.
79|
3.30P.M.
80
.
5.15P.M.
79
_1 1.20 P.M.
75
--11. A.M.
76
i
July 1 -<
1.5 P.M.
3.10P.M.
78}
80
1
96
July 2 -<;
r 9.30A.M.
1.0 A.M.
2 . 30 P.M.
k. 4.45P.M.
761
80
81}
83
[7.30A.M.
76
1.0 P.M.
79
3.30P.M.
81
4.45P.M.
80}
10.30P.M.
78$
99
Degrees.
July 4 - 9.20A.M.
79
" 0.0 A.M.
79
11.30A.M.
80
July 5 -<
1.0 P.M.
4 . 5 P.M.
81
83}
5.30P.M.
83
_ 9.40P.M.
80}
" 9.0 A.M.
79
10.45A.M.
1.0 P.M.
801
82}
July 6 -<
2.30P.M.
83
4.0 P.M.
851
5.15P.M.
841
10.0 P.M.
July 7
.Tnlv R
July 9
July 11
July 12 -
9.0 A.M.
80
12.10P.M.
82
1.0 P.M.
824-
' 2.15P.M.
84
3.45P.M.
83}
.10.0 P.M.
81
f 5.0 P.M.
82
1 10. 45 P.M.
80}
" 7.45A.M.
79J
9.45A.M.
79|
11.0 A.M.
80^-
2.40P.M.
84
5.45P.M.
831
9.10P.M.
83
_ 9.0 P.M.
81
f 7.45A.M.
80
1 1.0 P.M.
831
I 10.0 P.M.
82
Ln.o P.M.
82
7.30A.M.
81
9.45A.M.
81}
1.0 P.M.
841
3 . 30 P.M.
87
4.40P.M.
87
6 . 45 P.M.
86
9.10P.M.
851
,11.30P.M.
84|
" 7.45A.M.
82}
9.15A.M.
831
1.0 P.M.
87
3.30P.M.
89
4.25P.M.
89
9.0 P.M.
86
10.0 P.M.
85J
100
Degrees.
f 9.45A.M.
86
11.10A.M.
881
July 13
j 1.0 P.M.
} 2 . 30 P.M.
891
901
5.30P.M.
L! 1.10 P.M.
89i
851
r 7.45A.M.
85 >|
July 14
J 10.30A.M.
'\ 11.30A.M.
86f f
1 12. 45 P.M.
87iJ
r 9.15A.M.
81 >v
July 15
J 12.0
"] 5.45P.M.
83 I
831 f
1 10. 30 P.M.
79iJ
f 8.30A.M.
79|l
1 10.30A.M.
80f
July 16
-<; i.o P.M.
82 y
| 4.30P.M.
Lii.o P.M.
84 1
80 J
July 17
/ 6.45A.M.
"1 1.0 P.M.
8?}
July 18
-
July 19
-
July 20
f 9.30A.M.
-J 2.0 P.M.
1 10. 30 P.M.
83
871
841
r 7.45A.M.
July 21
J 2.0 P.M.
] 3 . 30 P.M.
I 4.0 P.M.
m
July 22
{9 . 45 A.M.
11.0 A.M.
12.20P.M.
83
84
851
{10.25A.M.
83
11.30A.M.
85
July 23
1.0 P.M.
4.0 P.M.
861
88
6 . 30 P.M.
871
10.15P.M.
85
{7.30A.M.
84
2.30P.M.
88}
July 24
3.30P.M.
90
4.45P.M.
891
11.30P.M.
87~
f 9.20A.M.
891
11.25A.M.
89^
July 25
-<J 1.0 P.M.
89^
3.0 P.M.
90 r
L 4.45P.M.
89}
51 I Excessively stormy night, with
north wind.
I
83 (^Excessively stormy night again,
with north wind-
North wind.
101
Degrees.
11.20A.M. 891
July 26
-^ 12.45P.M.
891
L 3.25P.M.
91|
July 27
-
July 28
r 9.0 A.M.
-J 2.40P.M.
L 6.0 P.M.
85 -)
88 > Strong Inbat.
861 J
flO.O A.M.
841
1 12.50P.M.
851 |
tly 29
-<; 2.30P.M.
86| ^Inbat.
4.15P.M.
87
L 8.0 P.M.
85 J
r 7.45A.M.
83 -N
July 30
J 1.0 P.M.
~\ 4.30P.M.
gg| Unbat.
L 9.40P.M.
84 4 J
July 31
("12.30P.M.
"1 3.30P.M.
8 g I Inbat.
{7.30A.M.
82 -\
August 1
1.30P.M.
3.0 P.M.
85 (
851 r
8.50P.M.
83 )
August 2
r 1.15 P.M.
~t 5.30P.M.
ggf | North land breeze.
August 3
- North land breeze.
f 8.0 A.M.
11.0 A.M.
86 "1
87
August 4
J 12.30P.M.
~\ 2.45P.M.
88 I North wind from land, replaced
90f f by Inbat in the afternoon.
| 5.20P.M.
9011
L 9.10P.M.
88 iJ
; 8. 15 A.M.
86 1
9.45A.M.
86 I
August 5
11.20A.M.
1.15 P.M.
11* >Inbat.
| 3.25P.M.
L 5.0 P.M.
89| |
88 J
r 7.30A.M.
84 %
August 6
J 9.50A.M.
"\ 1.15P.M.
841 1
851 r
L 3.0 P.M.
August 7
- 12.0 P.M.
841
August 8
3.20P.M.
861 North wind.
August 9
{8.15A.M.
1.0 P.M.
3.15P.M.
84 ^1
851 V Inbat.
87" J
flO.O A.M.
83^
August 10
J 10.49A.M.
m \ 2.30P.M.
84 I
86 f lnbat -
L 3.30P.M.
86 J
102
8.45A.M.
August
f .A.M.
a J;
I 2.30P.M.
7.45A.M.
9.30A.M.
August 12 -<( 12.45 A.M.
| 3.20P.M.
L 5.0 P.M.
{10.25 A.M.
1.0 P.
4. 10 P.
P.M.
P.M.
August
r
15 -<
I
lO.O A.M.
1.0 P.M.
9.0 P.M.
AugnstlS
{
12.0 A.M.
1
I 5.30P.M.
August 1 9 -<J
flO.O A.M.
12.0 A.M.
1.0 P.M.
1 3.25P.M.
L 4.0 P.M.
August 20 -
2.40P.M.
Inbat.
84 ^
87 Vlnbat.
83
84
84
10.0 A.M. 84
11.30A.M. 84
August 16 -<( 1.0 P.M. 85
2.30P.M.
3.45P.M. 8
{10.50A.M.
1 . 15 P.M.
2.20P.M.
4.0 P.M.
wind.
North wind.
103
COMMERCIAL MISCELLANEA.
A. Wages and Prices in 1854-5-6.
)uring the war the demand both for labour and pro-
isions was very much increased. The price of corn alone
60 per 100, and other articles of food in Hke proportion.
r ery many of the labouring population went to the Crimea
to seek their fortunes in one line or another, and besides
this the numbers of hands employed in Smyrna by the
British Government contributed also to raise the scale of
wages. In consequence, the rate of payments both for
labour and provisions was much higher during the last two
years than is usual in Anatolia. At Sedikioi, a village
seven miles from Smyrna, and a place from which a great
quantity of figs and grapes are brought into the town daily
during the season, a labourer received 12 piastres (2s.) for
his day's work in the year 1854-5. Previously, the rate
per diem had been 7 piastres (Is. 2c.) At the close of the
year 1855 the prices at Sedikioi ranged as follows :
Piastres. Piastres.
Bread of good quality 2 per oke = 2 Jib. Price of, 1854, 1J
A sheep - - 80
A lamb - - 40-50
A goat - - 50-70
A kid - - 30-40
Best beef - 8 per oke =3 piastres (6d) per Ib.
A yoke of oxen to plough with, 1,000 piastres (81)
Close to Smyrna, at the leech ponds in the Valley of St.
Anne (see page 60), we found the wages of some Abyssinian
blacks to be 8 piastres per diem, and the salary paid the
Turk who acted as overlooker, and lived day and night on
the spot, was 250 piastres per month 24. per annum. It
is obvious that with such prices as these the condition of
the labouring population will be one of tolerable comfort, so
far as the procuring the principal necessaries of life goes ;
and every one may observe a general appearance of health
and strength in the physical development of the labouring
classes, whether his eye rest on the sturdy, round-limbed
and short-jointed Turk, or the lithe, elegant, yet active and
sinewy form of the Greek. Women are employed in out-of-
door labour of the lighter kinds, such as weeding of vine-
yards, &c., but not to the extent so painful to witness in
Syria and Egypt.
104
B. Fig Boxes, Round and Square.
Pig drums. Economy of labour is consulted, though economy of stow-
age is not, by the construction of a circular box. The cir-
cular form is thus attained : the piece which is to be of this
form is of some pine wood ; this, when in the plane condi-
tion, and not very exactly cut or squared, is placed before
a chip and shaving fire, and warmed through and through,
and it thus acquires some degree of pliancy and ductility.
For the second part of the operation the following machine
is employed : a bar of iron set all round with cogs is made
to revolve by a hand crank, and there is at about the dis-
tance of the thickness of the fig-box board a stout frame-
work of wood just below this iron bar ; into the interval
thus formed the warmed wood is introduced ; it is gradually
pulled forwards by the cogs of the revolving bar, which, as
it were, knead it into pliancy, and destroy any tendency to
brittlen ess, and when it has passed through it has gained a
circular contour, and lost all its resiliency. By this method
a drum is made in a very short time.
Square boxes. The square boxes are some of them made by Greeks, and
these are of an inferior kind. The best square boxes come
from Germany, and are destined by the exporters to con-
tain a peculiar quality of fig. The shape of the fig box
depends upon the orders of the exporter, and therefore it is
incorrect to ascribe the persistence of the round shape to
the obstinate and irrational preference for that which is old,
simply because it is old, which the Turk really does show
in so many instances.
C. Valley of the Mceander. Toivn of Aidin, ancient
Tralles.
The Englishman, on looking down over the vast green and
smiling valley of the Meander thinks, that in no other
country except his own has he seen so large a space with so
few uncultivated, unproductive spots. The valley and the
town of Aidin are almost exclusively Turk ; and after the
many comparisons which have been drawn in this report to
the disadvantage of the Turk, it is only fair to say that the
state of cultivation here leaves little to be desired. Favoured
highly by nature, man's labour has ably availed itself here
of the advantages it has found ready to its hand. The
whole valley is surrounded by lofty wooded mountains ; it
is intersected with streams, and irrigation is extensively
carried out. Hedges of the English type are very generally
to be found, and enclosures of one sort or other are
universal.
105
3
Historical
Notice.
It is the boast of the inhabitants that they have a harvest Produce,
for every month of the year, and by reckoning in of calves,
lambs, and kids, the number is easily made out ; the nine
other great and staple products are valonea, madder, wheat,
barley, maize, tobacco, grapes, figs, olives. Throughout the
war a considerable number of horned cattle, averaging
about 100 per week, were exported from Smyrna to the
order of the French Commissariat in the East. As there
is no great quantity of grass land close to Smyrna, the
depots for these cattle were formed at some distance from
the place of embarkation, and many hundreds might be
n grazing in the valleys of the Meander and its
ibutaries.
Within the valley itself there are tolerable roads, but its
communication with the rest of the country is carried on
by means of as bad roads as can be conceived.
Aidin, the ancient Tralles, was, under the Roman empire,
a Greek town of considerable note. Anthemius, the archi-
tect of Santa Sophia, was a native of this place, and the
remains of ancient buildings are very conspicuous there at
the present day. The three greafe arches of the palace form
an object visible at 20 miles distance, and on a nearer in-
spection tolerably perfect .remains of a theatre are still to
be seen. We found the marble remains in a rapid process
of transformation into headstones for Jewish graves, and
we saw several columns being scooped out into the form of
stone drinking troughs.
The immediate neighbourhood was the scene of a great
victory gained by Conrad III., A.D. 1147, in the time of the
second Crusade, over the Turks, who, by the perfidy of
Manuel Comnenus, the Greek emperor, had been enabled
to prepare a surprise for the Latin army.
In the 14th century Tralles was seized upon by Aidin, a
Turkish emir, at the head of a numerous horde, and its
name was changed in honour of its conqueror. Aidin seized
upon Smyrna at the same time, and held and handed down
to his son a considerable and independent principality. At
this time a large portion of Asia Minor was parcelled out
into small kingdoms of this kind under Turkish emirs,
who maintained an independent existence till the days of
Bajazet and Mahomet II.
At the present moment the Valley of Aidin contains a Present con-
large population, principally Turks, who have within the dltlon -
last few months taken occasion to show their dislike for
their new reform bill by an outbreak against the Christian
population. The Christians of this part of Asia Minor
being in a small numerical minority, at a distance from the
sea coast, and in consequence, from, effective protection on
Turkish con-
quest, A.D.
1313.
Turks and
Christians,
Character of
town.
106
the part of the European powers, and surrounded by a
fanatical Mussulman population, are very constantly sub-
ject to insult and injustice at their hands. The stories of
this kind, though possibly somewhat exaggerated, are yet
too general not to contain some considerable foundation of
truth.
It is a principal seat of government, and the Bey, who
is at present a most intelligent and courteous Arab, has
several towns subordinated to him.
The Turkish character of Aidin is strongly marked by
the large flocks of storks and vultures, which, secure of being
unmolested in the centre of a Mussulman population, are
nearly as tame as if domesticated.
The town is remarkable for the extent of ground it is
spread over, and when looked down upon from the top of
the hill under which it lies, and upon which the ancient
city once stood, its roofs contrast in two points with those
of most Turkish towns, viz., 1st, by their excellent state of
repair ; 2nd, by the wide interval of garden and orchard
by which they are separated from each other. The popula-
tion may be estimated at from 40,000 to 50,000, of whom
the immense majority are Turks.
There are two barracks in different parts of the town,
both unoccupied, May 1856, and in some respects suffering
from neglect. There is a large expanse of table land above
the town, amounting to from 2,000 to 3,000 acres, covered
for one-third of its extent with olive groves, but in the
rest smooth grassy downs.
D. Wine and Raid manufactured in Anatolia.
Wine. Much wine is manufactured in Anatolia, and it is chiefly
owing to the total want of care exercised in selecting the
grapes and sorting the vines, that with its fine, equable, and
reliable climate it does not export wine much more largely.
A considerable quantity, however, was exported to Odessa
and other Kussian ports previous to the war ; the great mass
is made by Greeks, and a very great number of these manu-
factories are to be found clustered together within a short
distance of the great Greek church of St. Photeina. The
better sorts of this wine, both white and red, but especially
the former of the two, though not made to last more than
five or six years, were preferred by many of the English
stationed at Smyrna, 1855-56, to the wines of France,
Sicily, and other parts of the Mediterranean, though these
wines, as being largely imported, and paying scarcely any
107
duty, were exceedingly cheap, and country wine of one
sort or other is the common drink in the houses of the
richest families in the town, whether European or of other
races.
We were informed by M. Moraitini that wine intended Price.
for an ordinary dinner wine cost him in the gross 50 paras
(2Jd) the oke l^cL per quart, without reckoning any
charges for transfer to casks, &c., and that wine of this
quality and from this source was retailed in Russia at
5 piastres the oke 'i.e., 5d. the quart.
There are numerous distilleries for raki in Smyrna. This R a ki.
spirit is distilled off the dried carpels and stalks of an
umbelliferous plant resembling anise, and called yAuxavio-ov,
and subsequently as much of the gum mastic is added as
the spirit will dissolve. It is a favourite drink with the
Greek, and, being colourless, with the Turkish population,
and its great cheapness favours much the habit of drunk-
enness.
Its price ranges from 6 to 7 piastres the oke 6d. to Id.
for nearly a quart, English wine measure.
E. Sources for Information upon Commerce of Smyrna.
There are three returns published in Smyrna periodically,
all of which we have consulted.
1. A return is printed quarterly at the office of the Austrian
Lloyd Company for an association of the Smyrna
merchants, giving lists of exports and imports of the
ships which have entered arid cleared from the port,
&c. A certain number only of these returns are
printed, corresponding with the number of subscribers,
and hence we are unable to affix a specimen of this as
of the two other similar documents.
2. The " Nunzio Commerciale," a return appearing three
times a month, in Italian, giving a resume of exports
and imports, of the value of monies, &c., but not of
shipping. We affix a specimen.
3. The " Lloyd Smyrne'en" was issued daily, but now
appears only three days a week. Besides its other
information, it gives the names of the captains of the
vessels, which enable any one to see how few ships
under the Turkish nag are commanded by Turks, the
immense majority of their captains, as of their ships,
having Greek names as well as Greek crews. Of this
also we affix specimens.
7 Anno.
108
Smirne, 1 Marzo 1856.
N 141
II presente foglio
sorte regolarmente
tre volte al mese
giorno di Sabbato.
NUNZIO COMMERCIALE.
Si Abonnano alia
Tipog. T. 31arco
pulo.
TUTTI QUELLI ARTICOLI CHE HANNO M. SIGNIFICA MANGA, C. CALMA,
S. V. SENZA VENDITA, S. SOSTENUTI.
IMPORTAZIONE.
Pesi
Piastre
Anno
IMPORTAZIONE.
Pesi
Piastre
Anne
Aceiajo Xo. O
cant.
1G5
170
S
Ferro ingl. in tavole di 1 a 13
_
120
c
OO .
170
175
S
.ingl. in verghe 6 grossezze .
_
78
80
c
Argentovivo
oka
38
40
C
Fil di Ferro assortito
oka
4
}
Arsenico bianco e giallo .
cant.
130
140
C
d'Ottone Xo. 12, 36
_
15
c
Bande stagnate ...
casse
430
435
S
d'Oro di Russia
. .
dram
360
e
Biacca di Ilotterdara .
cant.
Garofali .
. .
oka
9
s
di Genova .
casse
170
200
m
Gram di Tarsus
. .
kilo
m
Buttirro di Kussia .
oka
m
di Alepo
,
_
Teneri
m
Berrette rosse ossia (fes) .
c
Indaco d'Olanda .
. .
oka
85
100
c
in casse di Bengale
90
100
c
Di Vienna uso
22
28
c
Pelli maschi d'Andrianopoli .
pa jo
Leon Adutt Xo.l2a3
doz.
22
28
c
Campegio .
.
cant
55
60
c
Semo
c
Bosso
. .
40
45
c
Carta tre capelli assortiti .
risma
27
37
c
Mandorle dolci .
,
oka
9
I
s
Treluno
70
75
c
Xoce moscate
. .
__
55
CO
c
Straccia battuta e mercantile
10
i
11
c
180
190
Cocciniglia bianca ...
oka
45
C5
c
Pimento .
.
oka
9
10
Morrellona .
_
m
Palini di Trieste assort, uso inglese
sacho
39
c
Caffe di Moka le o/o
_
m
Pepe
.
oka
9
sv
di America TR li per sacco .
_
750
JOO
c
Rum . .
.
gallo
13
13
J c
Cassia lignea
oka
22
24
c
Riso di Europa
.
kilo
40
41
e
Caviale nero . .
_
m
di Damieta .
.
37
38
S
Rosso . .
_
m
di Rosseto
. .
35
36
S
Cuoja di Francia .
oka
22
23
s
Salamoniaco d'Indie
.
oka
8
8 ,
" s
Cotoni filati .
_
Inglese
.
Water 12 a 20
13
i
13
!
Stagno in verghe .
.
cant.
880
890
s
16 a 21
_
14
i
14
J
Vitriolo inglese
. .
45
50
c
20 a 30
15
i
15
1
di Trieste .
.
_
m
Chiodi di Carintia assortiti
Verde rame di Francia .
oka
18
di Canal a 70 Tratte
210
Vitelli di Francia .
.
doz
500
550
s
di Schizze di 9, 12,el8
250
200
Zatrano
.
oka
40
45
C
di 30 e 40
baril.
246
270
Zenzero
.
cant
200
220
c
TJso Trieste di Litre 3, 4,5, G, 7, 8
cant.
Zolfo in canoli fine
.
_
70
c
10,1410,20,26,30
120
25
Zuccheri di Avana 1 e 2 qual
_
m
Faro di Olanda
oka
4
4
i
c
pesto di Anversa
_
m
Farina di America
baril.
270
c
in panni inglese
.
_
m
Ferro di Russia in lame .
cant.
m
di Americ
i . .
295
305
1
inglese in lame assortiti .
73
75
c
di Olanda 1 e 2 qual .
70
280
s
VEXDITE DELLA SETTIMAXA.
Oppio coffee 2 P. 115
Zucheri diOlhmda can.
CAMBJ.
MONETE. in beslik.
L. Turque P. 108 -J
Alix/.ari bid. 1000 298 } 310
L. Inglese 118 -
Caffe sac.
Londra 11 7 J
Cecchini nuovi 21 J
Valonealngl. cant. 2000 70
id. Trieste
Setta Pajambol sac.
Rum gal.
Marsiglia 185} 186
Trieste 454 458
Livorno
Olland i
., vechi 27 -
MRhmudie 92 -
Luigi di oro 98 -
Pol Imperials 95 J
Lana lavata cant. 250 600 505
id. brutta 2UOO 258
Costantinopoli caime 12} 13 o/o
Colonati 27 -
Rcgine 24 J-
Gallu Mussur cant. 60 390
f
Bavaresi j>3 ;*
Cera gialla cant. 150 1020 1045
Oreo kilo
Londra
Dubloni 392 -
Pezzi di 5 franchi 23 5
Pelletoni 2 qual i til tzechi 1000 20
Grano tii Anatolia kilo
MarsiKlia .
Trieste
,, di 5 drachmi 20 J
Carbovaiitzi 18 I
Grana gialla sac. 1P>2 6 7|
Ollanda .
Filik tzeki COO 55 J
Costantinopoli .
109
ESPORTAZIONE.
Pesi
Piastre
Anno
ESPORTAZIONE.
Pesi
Piastre.
Anno
Alizari Bakir
cant
305
300
8
Lana Lavata
cant
500
C
Kayagikl > .
302
303
a
bianca d' Angora ossia filik 2
oke
55
55
1
s
Ghiordes 1 ! .
_
a
Noccioli
g
t
cant
m
Demirgik ] .
298
a
Noce
.
.
oka
1
J
sv
Tarabolus J
8
Oppio
.
. .
dram
114
115
c
Asfori di Persia] .
oka
13
Olio di Me* lino e Adramiti fro. a
cant
280
285
8
Alume ....
cant
90
100
di Anatolia
.
.
270
310
C
Cotoni Soubugia .
m
di Rosa
.
.
mle
20
C
Cassaba uso
320
330
8
Orzo
.
.
kilo
24
20
8V
Cbircagatzl
m
Pelo di Gambelo avoro
inglese 2
oke
44
45
s
Baindir .
m
Olandese
_
m
Axar
m
Biggio e rosso .
39
40
8
Kinick
m
Peletoni rossi e neri
_
29
30
8
Cera Gialla naturale
1
030
040
s
Pelle di Lepre 100 pelle 1 qualita .
C
Ceci ....
kilo
40
45
8
' m
2e3 .
C
Seme dicanape
19
20
8
Pelli salate secchi
t
oka
7
}
8
6
Filati bianchi No. 10 a 11
oka
m
Radice Saponaria
.
.
_
1
}
C
detto Cantar . .
m
Rame Vecchio
.
.
_
18
m
Fave I
kilo
24
28
8
Seme d'Amst. 1 qualita 1
_
m
Faggioli
43
44
s
2 qualita
_
m
Fighi sechi 1 e 2 qualita .
cant
m
di Lino
_
3
c
Elemo
m
di Giorjolina
kilo
55
56
c
Grano di Ussach 1 qual.T
kilo
56
58
c
Comino
,
oka
2 qual. |.
-
48
50
c
Seta di Brussa
. oka .
_
m
Grauone J
20
22
c
Pajambol
.
_
m
,, piccolo biaaco
16
17
c
Sapone di Canea in casse . .
cant
190
195
sv
Grana di Persia
oka
7
I
8
di Candia
,
_
200
sv
Mezza
m
di Metelino in casse 1 qual.
180
185
8V
Gala di Aleppo nera
cant
m
in sacchi
.
.
_
m
Verde
m
Tapetti grandi
.
.
pik
31
32
c
Bianca
m
piccoli di Persia . .
_
30
45
c
Jerli nera
410
c
diKulIa .
luno
100
1000
c
Verde .
220
c
di Ghiordhes
pik
40
c
Bianca .
200
210
c
Valonea uso Trieste
cant
a
Zinchir .
170
c
2 qualital
_
Gomma'Dragande fiore .
oka
25
gv
uso Ing. 1 qualita | franco
72
s
Naturale
15
SV
2 qualita
a
G7
s
Commune
11
8V
mercantile
Ibordo
8
Verrnicelle
cant
22
SV
Camatina'
.
C
Arabica naturale .
300
:50
C
Uva Sultanina Jerli '
oka
m
Giala .
oka
100
m
id Vurla
cant
c
Salep
10
12
c
id. sieltaZuplu
_
c
Scamonea .
200
400
a
Naturale
__
c
' Sandraca .
10
12
Cesme
m
Mastice .
100
200
8
De Nera
_
m
Incenso lagrime .
cant
210
220
C
Sultana Caraburnu
_
c
Assortito . .
-
180
190
C
Eleme
id.
_
c
Lana sucida. brutta
258
8
Jerli rossa
_
c
Seconda qualita
m
id. nera
__
c
Nera Griggia
m
Beghlerge J
_
c
Sue. Brutta .
m
Nera Thira Baindir .
70
75
sv
NOLLI DIVERSI.
Commestibili 3} 4i
Grani oliosi
100 braccia di Livor 86
100 di Berlino .. <i<; 4
INGHILTERA.
TRIESTE.
100
di Vienna .. 113
Alizari S. 50 la ton.
Valonea 40
Cotoni L.
Lane 90
Frutta 100
Frutta ilcant C. 35 40
Valonea 50 55
Lana 120
Commestib
Cera ,. 60
RAGUAGLIO DEI PESI.
1} dr. fa un moscale ossia nn xai di Vien.
180 fano un Rottolo e 100 Hot. un Cant.
400 fano una oka e 45 oke un cantaro.
Grana giala S. 50
Comestibili 5 il quar.
AMERICA.
NOLLI DI RUSSIA.
Taganrok Frutta cant. P. m
Odessa id. m
58 kilogr. di Parigi
125 Libre di Londra
166 di Livorno
Frutta L. 5} 6 la tunel.
Grano Comma
180
di Genova ;,
Lana S. Jim
130
di ^Vlarsi^lia
OLANDA.
RAGUAGLIO DELLE MISURE.
100
Fundi di Vienna,
Frutta lasta F, 58 10 o/o
Lana cant. ,,
MARSIGLIA.:
Cotoni franchi
Lana 3i 4
Metre di Francia pichi 1 45i/o
delBrabante 1
Arsin di Russia 1 J
La yarda Inglese 1
2| pal di Genova ; 1
58} di Ollanda
3} Put di Russia ,.
1 kilo di Grano 22 24}
1 di Rizo 10
1 di Giorgiolina 16} 17.'
110
2 ANNEE.
SMYRNE, 17 NOVEMBRE 1855.
N 387.
LE LLOYD SMYRNEEN.
Feuille Maritime et Commerciale.
LE LLOYD SMYRNEEN parait le Mardi, le
Jeudi, et le Samedi de chaque semaine, il an-
nonce les Arrivees et les Departs de tout espece
de navire meme des plus petits, la qualite et
quantitc de leur chargement, les Batimens sous
Charge, le Cours des Monnaies, ainsi que les
Changes de Smyrne et de Constantinople, etc.
Le prix de 1'Abonnement est de 36 Piastres
du G.-S. par trimestre, payables d'avance. On
s'abonne a 1'imprimerie de MM. DAVERONI ET
SOUGIOLLI, Quartier Franc, N 98, local G.
Amic, Magasin N 3.
ARRIVEES.
Du 15 Novembre.
SATALIE, en 10 jours, goel. ott.Polixeni, cap. N. Pasvani,
de 25 ton. avec 900 k. ble, a 1'adr. de M. Peurdi.
LIGNE de SYRIE, bateau a vapeur des Mes. Imp. Leoni-
das, cap. Keraval, avec march, div. groups et passag.
ALEXANDRIE, bat. a vapeur du Lloyd autr. Austria
cap. Demattei. avec march, diverges groups et passagers.
MARSEILLE, bateau a vapeur des Mes. Imp. Carmel,
cap. Saflrey, avec march, div. groups et passagers.
Dul6.
CONSTANTINOPLE, en 6 jours, brick sarde Due Fra-
telli, cap. H. P. Jarvino, de 160 ton. sur lest, a 1'adr. de
M. D. Parodi.
CONSTANTINOPLE, en 4 jours, brick autr. Vago, cap.
F. Sutora, de 235 ton. sur lest, a ordre.
CONSTANTINOPLE, en 8 jours, brick sarde Rosa, cap.
B. Montobio, de 114 ton. avec 238 b. tabac, 1180 k. bid. 264 id
mais et 39 sacs id a 1'adr. de M. A.,Iossif.
METELIN, en 4 jours, tzer. ott. du cap. C. Saltapalanga,
avec 350 k. ble, a 1'adresse de M. Amira.
TENEUOS, en 6 jours, tzer. ott. du cap. G. Michali, avec
14000 ocques charbon.
CONSTANTINOPLE, en 15 jours, bomb. ott. Arghino
cap. Nicolas Sotiri, de 38 ton, avec 1000 pieces peaux, 20 b.
chiffons et 27 id laines.
SALONIQUE, en 10 jours, goel. ott. A. Gheorghios, cap.
S..Christodhoulo, de 50 ton. avec 6500 pieces bois de construc-
tion.
DIKILI, tzer. ott. du cap. Hassan, avec 1000 pieces bois
de construction.
AIVALI, en 4 jours, tzer. ott. du cap. N. Triandafllo, avec
140 quint, valonee, ajTadr. de M. Hadji Elia.
DARDANELLES, en 2 jours, goel. hell. Panaghia, cap.
N. G. Manoli, de 33 ton. sur lest.
DARDANELLES, en 2 jours, goel. hell. A. Athanassis,
cap. D. Stamati, de 42 ton. sur lest.
STANCHIO, tzer. ott. du cap. Ali Hassan, avec 8000
citrons.
MARSEILLE, en 39 jours, brick hell. Evanghelistra,
cap. Andreas Marco, de 148 ton. sur lest, a ordre.
TENEDOS, en 7 jours, bomb. ott. Munissi Bahri. cap.
Oeini Etem, de 113 ton. avec 1100 quint, valonee a 1'adr. de
M. Balassanoglu.
Du 17.
CONSTANTINOPLE, bat. a vap. du Lloyd autr. Adria,
cap. Benich, avec march, div. groups et passagers.
CONSTANTINOPLE, bat. a vap. des M. Imp. Caire, cap.
de Sommer, avec march, div. groups et passagers.
Arrivdes par les bateaux de Cabotage : de Ourlac, 686 sacs
raisin, de Carabournou, 30 id. id.
DEPARTS.
Du 15 Novembre.
CONSTANTINOPLE, brick hell. A. Nicolaos, cap. A.
Petroyani, avec 1000 sacs biscuits.
SATALIE, goel. franc. Jean-d'Acre, cap. Bonot, allant
prendre un chargement de graine ole"agineuse pour Mar-
seille.
ECHELLE-NEUVE,trois-mats franc. Trois-So2urs,cap.
J. Pailloux, allant prendre un chargement de graine oleagi-
neuse pour Marseille.
SCODRA, goel. ott. Stella Diana, cap. Veli Mehemet, avec
raisin, figues et galles.
SALONIQUE, goel. ott. Eftichia, cap. I. Dhimitri, avec
500 k. sesame, 3 bar. cire, 150 quint, flgues, 100 id. fer, et 132
pieces marbres.
CONSTANTINOPLE, bat. a vap. des M. Imp. Carmel,
ap. Saffrey, avec march, diverges groups et passagers.
Du 16.
LONDRES, trois-mats aheliceangl. Arcadia, cap.Corbeth,
avec 2077 sacs valonee, 1532 quint, id. 570 b. alizaris, 100 id.
-chiffons, 93 sacs galles, 2039 bustes eultanine, 837 c. raisin
rouge, 3244 bustes figues, 1929 boites id, 21 skelettes id. 18 c.
fruits, 6c. gommes, 2 id. opium, 6 boites scamone'e et 2b.
peaux.
BOSTON, bark amer. Speedwell, cap. E. H. Hews, avec
537 b. laines, 14 id . tabac et 10 c. opium.
TCHAM- ALTI, brick ott. Bahri Human Teki Hane", cap.
Halil Hamet, allant prendre un chargement du sel pour
Consple.
ALEXANDRIE, troU-mats hanov. Rapid, cap. Pike, sur
lest.
CONSTANTINOPLE, bat. a vap. du Lloyd autr. Austria,
cap. Demattei, avec march, div. groups et pass.
CONSTANTINOPLE, bomb. ott. A. Nicolas, cap. D.
Perlorenzo, avec 450 k. haricot, 440 id feves, 108 quint, raisin
noir et 25 id miel.
SALONIQUE, brick ott. Possidhon, cap. G. Pupuri, avec
600 b. peaux, 1300 pieces id. 260 sacs hene, 203 id. tumbeki,
18 id. cafe, 49 id. girofle et 70 id. encens.
CONSTANTINOPLE, scho. angl. Zephyr, cap. Kelso,
avec paille.
CONSTANTINOPLE, bat. a vap. des M. Imp. Leonidas,
cap. Keraval, avec march, div. groups et passag.
TCHESME, tzer. ott. du cap. Mehemet, avec 250 quint,
fer. 13 collis tabac et 18 id. manufactures.
TCHESME, tzer. ott. du cap. Belali, avec 40 k. orge.
TENEDOS, tzer. ott. du cap. Mehemet, avec 10 colis
manufactures.
CH^
Londres
Paris
Marseille
Vienne
Trieste
Livourne
Livre Turque
LNGES
14
DE CONSTANTINOPLE.
NOVEMBBE 1855.
3/m 145
.. 230
<Z99
d K3
d230J
.. 516
.. 516
.. 199
CHANGES DE SMYRNE. 17 NOVEMBKE.
(En livres turques a piastres 108.)
Londres 115J d 116
Marseille
Trieste ..
Constantinople Ca'imte . .
183 d 183i
400 d 406
m a 21 p. o/o
COURS DES MONNAIES.
(En livres turques a piastres 108.)
Livre Sterling . .
Louis d'or
Ptice de 5 francs
Paul Imperial
Carbovantz
Pitce de 5 drachmes
Ducats de Venise
de Hongrie
de Holland*
Quadruple d'Espag
Piastre forte d'JEsp,
Tallari de la Seine
Zvantzic
Bavarois
Livre Turque
Mahmoudid
Piece de 20 pic
Agio sur les JBeshliks
117
93-
'
'8
23-
94
\rnes
20
KJ*
21
rie
OD
55
nde
54
pagne
392
Espagne
27
line
24f -
23? -
. . .
108
. . . *
90 91
tres ancie:ine .
25J
nouveau
hliks . .
21J
11 p- 0/0
Ill
SPECIMENS FROM THE GREEK NEWSPAPER.
We here affix some specimens of the articles contained in
the Greek Journal published in Smyrna. One of them will
be observed to bear the title Mlgo? Ejtwrogixo'v. An article of
this name appears weekly, and contains all the current com-
mercial intelligence. The other extracts give useful infor-
mation on other points, and all serve to illustrate the
character of the paper in question.
MEPO2 EMFIOPIKON.
Ala TO.C, TTPQTs^slg eograj rou Hac^a, oA ra sT)j rrjj elcrayooyyjj Commercial
si$ aSgaveiav. Mo'vov oil ^oi^a^sn; avsn/t^>j<rav coj ex T>j intelligence,
rwv xa) l7rcoA)j0>jo~av a|U,e^<xvxa TT^OJ yg. 320 xai
i ITTI TrgocrSox/a TT^OJ yg. 280.
A4>IONIA. 'Emo^yjo-av oX/ya TT^OJ yg. 116.
PIZAPIA. Mwax/gia yg. 302-303 ft6 oX/yaj wgatgei s .
FPANAI. M*xgai Trgafsjj eyevav TT^O^ y^. 6-6 20.
BAAANIAIA. EI ? aSgavsiav. Tijx^ yg. 60-70.
KHPIA. Ka^^o-^sva yg. 950.
2ITHPA. 'ExTreo-fteva. ^Troj yg. 25-32' xg<0ij 14-12'
a 50-110.
2TNAAAAFMATA
Ms 'Odcoju-av<xj A/gaj Trgof 108.
AONAINOT ...... 118
MA22AAIA2 ...... 186
464467.
EMHOP1ON THS TPAHEZOTNTO^
KATA TO 1855.
Ta aTr<a o(T xara TO 1854 e7rgv^y))<rav elj T^V auf>j(r<v TOU
ou T^J Teair5?oOvTOj, Si^oxs<rav xai 81' oXow TOU STOW^ 1855.
v \ \ * ~ t\ > \
KaTa TO TO TOUTO xTe7rXsyo"v sjj TYJV
.- EeturnofCom-
merceofTre-
Disond for 1855.
xeva.
'AyyXixa
FaAAixa
45
2
47
28
8
36
2
2
2
2
2
2
36
4
40
73
50
6
129
73
15
34
122
112
'H 6A<x>) /a TWV el<rot^QevTcav xara TO STO$ roDro avs/3>) el
gnrou 60 exaro^au^ja <ygocna;v, cwv.
A/' auVT<axwv aTftOTrAo/wv Tre^/Troy 180,000,000 y
ayyAixav 135,000,000
aOffT^jaxttV TfAo/av 480,000
2,160,000
IAA>JV<XV 2,470,000
8,000,000
12,000,000
EMHOPION THS AMI^OT S
Return of Com- Avj/xoo-jsyou-sy eVraySa TttvaiKct TOV e&Trogiov T^C 'Aft.iO'OU (^
merceofSam- rJ/oCvroc) xard TO sroj 1855. 'O w/vaf ouroj elva; a
soun for 1855. ''/5>\~p/ not
<7VV:TCK.^f}Y) STTt TYj 6aO~Sl pS^OilMV 7T Arj^O^O^<COV.
Kara TO 1855 Iroj eysivs TroXv |U,syaA^T=^ov s^ogiov y xaTa TO
1854, $|OTI xai >) eJcraywyi) xa rj
/c TOU
7r^>o^ TO
TWV 65;v Ssv eTTirgsTtsi TXyV Td%elctv xat
v TCUV ^rouftfva>y TrgxypciTcHuv. Xa^ic ojaajc sij TX/V
svvy]aaT;v, TO SCTCOTS^JXOV exjv^r^ 07ra;<7ouv. OI
i sAaoov ex TWV psgwv Tourcav jasyaAvjv ro<TOT)jTa
xal TO etiroiov TOVTO >'5:A=
15,000 ?wa.
Twv u^ao-jU,aTcov lrsgtff(rOTeg6i sio-^fivjo-av xTa TO 1855 ? xaTa TO
1854* 7ravT 8s sTrcyArj^crav &<a TO'JJ g^j Ao /r youj' -TT^WTOV SioVt ol
l YjUTTogovv, xafio Aa^oWsc ^gYjpoiTa ex T^J 7rcoA>j0"ea> TOJV y=v-
ctvTcov bsvTegw 85 exa^trav 700 Sju,ara sij T^V i/Airo^xJjv
v TOU ZiAs. Ata TauTa xa* 8<a T^V 7raoouo"/y TroAAciov
TOV
' E ^ a y co y TJ.
27,867 go's? Af/aj y ? . 8,362,800
31,094 vgofaTet 2,238,768
3J547 alysj xa agvia 255,384
1,897 T^nroi 1,709,100
]96 WIOVQI 70,560
1,000 xafMjXoi 11,440,000
4,605 XVT^ TT i v / y o 5 * 221,040
1,735 gooTwgov 916,080
4,480 av^axs; 161,280
6,000 xoAa pa>pj 108,000
687,758 O-ITO; 33,012,384
88 ; 612 aguGoa-iTOs Xeuxoj 2,126,904
113
400 X/TPIVOJ
512,000 KM
50,162 xavra^ia aAsupov
20,772 }> ^ogro^ xa a%U
22,324
65,100
5,892 /SaAAa* v^>oi(r^otTOi xat
48,000
21,504,204
4,414,568
1,096,592
650,400
1,562,400
5,656,520
4,176,000
62,880
12,512,330
725,040
1,426,000
375,480
11,995,200
1,718,400
E 1 <r a y
T g T cr i a
29,000 xavra^a
1,048
16,043
1,007
8,500
894
24,990 /SaAAat
179
44 xicwna
5,312 xavraoja
665
418
596
622
3,623
16,769
330
7,784
215
715
4,595
To; 1855 eIcr^A5ov ei TOV AjW,sW 'Aj,t(7oD 446 TrAoTa, wv 56
a (45 arjoiox/vrjTa xai 11 icrTiox/yijra), 42 ^yaAAixa (23 ar-
xa) 19 f<mox/vr]Ta), 169 ay^Aixa (70 ar/AOx/v^ra xa
99 *o"T<oxiv>]Ta), 150 o0cojw,av*xa (18 arjaox/yyjra xai 132 io~ro-
x/vrjra), 25 o~^S<xa (2 aTjW/oxwjra xa< 23 iimoxivrjTa), 5 ve7ro-
Aravixa (2 ar^ox/y>]Ta xai 3 <Vnox/vjTa)j xai 2
xai
TnJAiva ayysTa, xrA.
To oXov y<>. 119,887,714
21,120
1,912,320
635,900
50,160
1,072,808
1,126,800
1,079,116
16,095,560
67,200
470,400
387,000
256,400
2,203,600
To oAov ?> 25,578,184
H
114
"Leader" on
Eastern ques-
tion, Jan. 24,
1856.
"Warlike tone
of English
Press.
The " Times.'
*' oA/ycov rr t v xara.vTa(nv rcuv
Tr)V TT^O TOOV Trctoo&ofcow ayyAicov l cuv 6 xo'crjaoj vea? criiveAa/3ev
lATr/Saj. 'H xaTa(7Ta(rjc aurrj slvai a<oo~y]|&/;TOc xai <a T' aAAa
xal jW,aAjo~Ta xa0' oVov a<popa rijv o^ayccyyjv TOL) ayyAtxou TyVoy.
f/ OA>) rj erratic aurou ^rov ecrp^aTcoj TroAejOuxcoTaTyj. Ms ap*/x,a-
viov ^Aeja/jta xaT~o~xo'7Ty = <ryjU,7racrav TX/V paJO"(7<xrjv eTri/cpxreixv ctTro
TrsptxTWV 5W$ Trsparcov, ava^Twv ra jU-aAAov euTrpoVira xa
jCtffo>j aurrj;* a7rrjc/OjU, T 7raAa< xa) vsa TrAoTa xai (rrpaTs
rrjj 5Aao-(7oxpaTOpo^ 'AyyA/aj, x) ctvstpsps Tracraj raj
oVac >j ayyAix^ etJ^vt'a TrapsG'xsua^s *a TJJV Trpocrs^ xara
exdrparc/av, TJ^V xpiVi^ov* ti^e5=<xvyV <f TCU
xal vauap^oy; T^ <iv^poi^ioi$ TTOU xa) TTO;; w^siAov v
xuipiwg T>JV ^Q^spav Apxrov* ore 85 QihavQpcoTro; TI$
crujx/3ouA=you(ra va
sjxovoov, o Xpovof eAsy
TTJV 8ia<popav eij eryvoSov Iv ^ r; 'Paxrcr/a eA= e(raj TTCCVTO-
Sia T^J rj/^ou ritJv uTTOTsAcov xa
va pv
aAAa Travrore
Aev
fisAo/xsv i
aWf,
xat
The " Morning
Post."
ayvooyvTej T* a7raiTi, xai
yyyrj<7cov
yjj EypcoTnjj." 'Ex TWV Aoycov
oySgjj fiSyyaTO va eixao~>j OTI lyy<op/v ij TJJV elpiijvyjv
AA 7Tpio~TaTixa rjcrav oyp^ T^TTOV 7r/<po/3a.
'H rip;o"<7/a V ^EArjcrc va TrapaBc^flrj aTroAyTcoj xa va y
p/rj Iv HeTpoyTro'Ajt Taj TrpOTacrejj TOU xo'arjToj 'EcrT=p^a^yj* 6 Ss
OpcoVvo? Tap^ySpOftoc, TO opyavov Toy TrpcoflyTroypyoy TW j
'AyyA/ac Aop^ou rTaAjaspaToov, ftr; 7ro"Tya;v OT< ^ *PJO~(7/a ScAsi
TrapaSgp^^ Taj 7rpoTo-j X/vaj, aAA* yTroOsVwv OTI 7raAv fifiAf*
aya/3aA=< T^V xpicriv TWV Trpay^aTwy Sja |5aSioyp'yiaJV, yTrgSs/xvygy
coj <^0|Srpaj Topyovaj Taf vauTxao" xa* <7TpaTia)T*xaj yvajU,ij Trjj
Aycrscoc, xai jU<aA<o~Ta yj7riA=i civwc TJJV Upwcrcriav, Aya)v OT*
gyxoAa)T5pa T>]J Trpoj Tr)v Mocrp^av <vai r^ Trpoj TO BgpoATvov ayoycra
<^ayepa TCO 6Tpw TCOV Siajxap^o^svcoy jU-spwv. EJc TayTa a7TxpJVTOj
TpoTiov Tiva. TO opyavov Toy TrpawuTroypyoD Trj Hpwo~o~/aj OTI >j
T^r / "
llpcoo-o-ia, e
Attitude ot
Sweden and
Denmark.
va Trgp^povijar;, xa* OT< oA)j
o-up,<Z>wvoL><ra pera Tr}$
7ipo$ Taj aa~ei$ TOU 'AvaToAixoy ^r y Tr;/xaTOj, etvaj
r /y,o~'y oAa*j SuvajO-scriv slj T>JV aTroxaTacTTacriV T
8*xa/cov xat jCteTp/wv.
'H ^oyrjbYa elp^s o-yvo/j(,oAoy)i(7 Trpoj Taj SyTixaj Ayva/Xij
, TTJV OTro/av xoivcoj I3jcop>jo~av a>j /Sfibaiov
ep) o~y/jt.jaap^/aj xai 7n/x,a^<aj xaTa T^
lxcrTpaT/av, xa) oA/ycv |x=Ta TayTa ayrjyyc'A\TO OTI xa< y; Aav/a
115
aurrj e\/U(T>j u<rTepov, xa* a>f Trpoj T>JV
xai a> 7rpo T jU-sAXovra /SouAeujxara at)i%* aXAa Sev
aju,<*/3oAa or* a TIJV |,Ta<rTa<nv rrjj Auvajotecoj rauryjj xare/3aA
AOVTO TroAAai
TRANSLATION OF SPECIMENS FROM GREEK NEWSPAPER,
" THE AMALTHEA/' PUBLISHED AT SMYRNA.
i. Commercial Intelligence.
COMMERCIAL PART.
n
account of the nearness of the Easter holidays little
business is being transacted in any of our various kinds of
imports. In sugars alone, on account of the shortness of the
supply, is a rise of prices to be noted, and American sugars
went off at pi. 320 and French at 280 on account.
Exports.
Opium. A few sales were effected at pias. 116.
Madders. At 302-303, with little doing.
Grains (Dye). A little business transacted at 6-6, 20
piastres.
Valonia. Inactivity. Prices, piastres 60-70.
Waxes. Purified. Pias. 950.
Cereals. A fall. Wheat, pias. 25-32. Barley, U-12.
Flour, 50-110.
Exchange of Smyrna.
With the Turkish pound at 108 piastres.
London ...... 118.
Marseilles ...... 186.
Trieste ...... 464467.
ii. Return of Commerce of Trelisondfor 1855.
The influence of the causes which contributed in the year
1854? to augment the commerce of Trebisond continued to
to operate throughout the year 1855 also.
In this year 1855, the entries inwards at Trebisond
^^
Steamers. Bailing vessels Sailing vessels , p }
with cargo. without cargo.
Austrian .45 2 47
English. .28 8 36
French 2 2
Greek 2 2
Norwegian .02 2
Turk . . 36 4 40
73 50 6
The outward bound 73 15 34 122
116
The total value of the imports of this year amounted to
about 600 millions of piastres of which :
Austrian steamers imported about 180,000,000 paistres value.
English 135,000,000
Austrian sailing vessels 480,000
English 2,460,000
Greek 2,470,000
Norwegian 8,000,000
Turk 12,000,000
iii. Return of Commerce of Sams oun for 1855.
We here publish a return of the commerce of Samsoun
fbr t"he 1855. This return is trustworthy, as it was compiled
from sources of undoubted authority.
In the year 1855 much more business was transacted than
in 1854, so much so that the amount of exports and imports
was doubled. Speaking generally, the movements of the
market were active, and would have been more so, had the
means of communication with the interior been on a better
footing. Unfortunately, the dangerous state of the roads
does not allow of a speedy and regular transport of goods as
required. Thanks, however, to the excessive prices offered for
cereals, one was enabled to act upon the resources of the inte-
rior to a certain extent. The allied armies drew from these
parts a large quantity of beeves and other horned cattle, and
this branch of commerce would have received a great develop-
ment if the epidemic had not broken out and destroyed above
15,000 head of cattle.
More woven stuffs were imported in 1855 than in 1854,
and the whole quantity was disposed of owing to the opera-
tion of the following causes : First, the abundance of money
circulating among the natives who received it in exchange
for the sale of their produce. Secondly, the destruction of
700 bales of stuffs by a fire at the commercial meeting at
Zile. By these causes and by the presence of many buyers,
prices were kept up.
Here follows the table of exports and imports :
Exports.
27,867 beeves value in piastres 8,362,800
31,094 sheep 2,238,768
3,547 goats and lambs 255,384
1,897 horses 1,709,100
196 mules 70,560
1,000 camels 11,440,000
4,605 quintals of iriviyoup 221,040
1,735 butter 916,080
4,480 coals 161,280
117
6,000 kilos, of oats
687,758 corn
88,612 white wheat
400 red wheat
512,000 barley
50,162 quintals of flour
20,772 hay and straw
22,324 fs/3/0ia
65,100 charcoal
5,892 bales, stuff, &c.
29,000 quintals of biscuit
1,048 ' ^Tracrroup/xa
16,043 plates of un wrought copper
1,007 chests of wrought copper
8,504 quintals of rice
894 suet
24,990 bales of tobacco
179 silk
value in piastres
108,000
33,012,384
2,126,904
48,000
21,504,204
4,414,568
1,096,592
650,400
1,562,400
5,656,520
4,176,000
62,880
12,512,330
725,040
1,426,000
375,480
11,995,200
1,718,404
Total in piastres, 119,887,714
Imports
value in piastres
44 chests of steel
5,312 quintals coffee
665 chests of paper
418 iron ware
596 bales of hides (leather?)
622 thread
3,623 quintals of iron
16,769 bales of woven stuffs, &c.
330 quintals of pepper
7,784 chests of soap
215 earthenware vessels, &c.
715 bales of canvas
4,595 quintals of sugar
Total in piastres 25,378,184
In 1855 there entered inwards at the Port of Samsoun,
449 vessels ; viz.
Steamers.
21,120
1,912,320
635,900
50,163
1,072,808
1,126,800
1,079,116
16,095,360
67,200
470,400
387,000
256,400
2,203,600
English
Turk -
Austrian
French
Sardinian -
Neapolitan -
Tuscan
- 70
- 18
- 45
- 23
- 2
- 55
- 2
ig Vessels.
Total.
99
169
132
150
11
56
19
42
23
25
3
5
2
Total 449
118
Warlike tone
of English
press.
" The Times.'
" The Morning
Post."
iv. " Leader " on " Eastern Question" Jan. 24, 1856.
Let us take a short review of the condition of affairs
which prevailed previously to the announcement of the
unexpected intelligence from which the world has drawn
fresh hopes. This condition was a remarkable one on many
accounts, and especially so with reference to the tone and
position assumed by the English press.
Its whole bearing was to the last degree warlike. With
the angry eye of an assailant, it surveyed the whole
Russian empire from one end of the earth to the other,
searching out its more accessible and vulnerable points. It
kept reckoning over and over again the old and new
ships and armies of maritime England, and recounting
all the marvellous inventions which English ingenuity
was preparing for the approaching, the decisive, campaign
against Russia ; it pointed out to the Generals and Admirals
of the allied forces where and how they were to inflict the
fatal stroke on the formidable power of the north. But
when any voice was heard to recommend in the interests
of humanity that an end should be put to the great
struggle by means of a Congress of the Powers, " The
Times " said with warmth, " Rather than refer the decision
of our differences to a Congress in which Russia will be
all-powerful by means of the votes of her retainers and
hirelings, we choose that the sword decide between us ; it
is, it is true, an undiscriminating, but it is ever an impar-
tial judge. We did not draw it without knowing what
sacrifices it would demand, and we will not sheathe it
without surer guarantees than such as the wisdom or sin-
cerity of a Congress of European Princes can furnish."
Certainly from language such as this no one could conjecture
that we were on the eve of a peace ; and, besides these,
there were other circumstances complicating the affair,
which wore an equally threatening aspect.
Prussia would not accept and support in St. Petersburg!!
absolutely and without condition the propositions of Count
Esterhazy, and " The Morning Post/' the organ of the Prime
Minister of England, Lord Palmerston, not believing that
Russia would accept those propositions, but supposing that
she would again defer the settlement of the matter by her
intrigues, held up in terrorem the naval and military forces
of the Western Powers, and particularly threw out some
threatening hints to Prussia, saying, that that power might
one day learn that the road to Berlin was easier than that
to Moscow, if it did not at last determine to range itself
openly with one or other of the contending parties. The
of the Prussian Prime Minister made some sort of
119
reply to this, saying, that Prussia remained true to the
principles she had already once proclaimed, and that she
had, in support of them, such a military force in readiness
to take the field as no power could afford to despise ; and
that the whole of Germany, not excepting Austria, was
agreed with Prussia as to the basis of the Eastern question,
and was ready to co-operate with all its forces towards the
re-establishment of peace on a just and equitable basis.
Sweden had concluded the celebrated treaty with the Attitude of
Western Powers, which was commonly regarded as a
rtain forerunner of another treaty for an offensive and de-
nsive alliance, to be made in anticipation of the coming
campaign ; and, shortly after this, it was announced, that
Denmark proposed following Sweden's example. The truth
of this announcement was subsequently denied, both with
reference to the present views and future intentions of
Denmark ; but there is no doubt that much exertion had
been used to bring over this power to the side of the allies.
BOTANICAL NOTES.*
1 . Since the general distribution of plants is as greatly
affected by the character of the soil as by climate, light,
heat, moisture, and other physical agents, it should be stated
that the neighbourhood of Smyrna is characterized by three
principal geological formations, viz. : 1, porphyritic rock ;
2, limestone ; 3, alluvial deposit. There are, however, not
wanting examples of volcanic formations, and especially of
a coarse conglomerate rock.
2. The higher ranges of hills which surround the Bay of
Smyrna, and bound the fertile plains to the eastward, are
all of limestone, a hard gritty limestone, containing organic
remains sparingly. These hills, with their characteristic
outline, form the principal feature in the landscape of the
country.
3. But here and there, especially on the south side of the
bay, the porphyry crops out, and takes an important part
both in the geology and botany of the district. At the
back of the city, to the S.S.E., and bearing part of the city
on its foot, rises " Mount Pagus" to some 600 feet. This is
a bold rocky height, almost isolated from the other hills,
but sending out two great spurs to the west and south.
The external characters as well as the vegetation of this
tract of igneous rock contrast strongly with those of the
limestone.
* Communicated by Edward Atkinson, Esq., late assistant
surgeon to tlie Hospital at Smyrna.
120
4. The alluvial soil of the plains would not require
special notice were we speaking of the geology of the dis-
trict alone ; but when regarded in connexion with its
vegetation, it of course acquires a right to be considered
par excellence. There are several extensive plains in the
vicinity ; of these the two principal are those of Boudjah
and Hadjilar. The former is elevated on a table of lime-
stone hills, has but a shallow soil, which partakes much of
the character of the rock, and its flora is determined accord-
ingly. The latter is scarcely above the level of the sea, and
seems to have been formed by the deposit of rivers, though
there is now no stream traversing it of sufficient size to add
materially to its present extent. It is covered with a deep
and rich soil, whose produce is luxuriant in the extreme.
5. To attribute to each part of a district where the nature
of the soil chanced to differ an entirely distinct flora, would
undoubtedly be incorrect, but it is very true (and nowhere
more strikingly than here) that those plants and shrubs
which have the most decided elective property (if I may use
the expression) almost invariably form the most prominent
objects that meet the eye, and so characterize the spot at
the first glance.
6. The granite or porphyry tract is much less clothed
with shrubs than the limestone, and seldom produces any
but a few stunted bushes of cratsegus oxycantha, pyrus
communis, amygdalus communis (wild almond), and other
rosaceous plants.
In June and July, however, when almost all around is
either fading or already destroyed by the voracious locusts,
the shadier nooks of these rocks shelter the bright green of
a beautiful asclepiad (schubertia multiflora}, whose sweet-
scented flowers are well protected by their poisonous quality.
This formation, however, though lacking plants of larger
growth, is in no want of floral beauty. The delightful
spring, which commences about the 15th of March, and lasts
till the end of May, clothes the hill sides with hundreds of
brilliant flowers among which the scarlet and blue ane-
mones of our gardens, and some half dozen species of scilla,
are the most conspicuous.
7. The flora of the limestone tract is much more varied
and striking. In the lower parts of the hills, and in the
valleys, there is abundance of evergreen oak (quercus ilex),
and several members of the N.O. anacardiacese or terebinth
family e. g., the pistacia terebinthus (yielding the famous
Chian turpentine), the P. lentiscus, which, under favourable
circumstances, yields the mastic of commerce. [The only
place where it is now cultivated for this purpose is in a
small part of the Isle of Scio. Numbers of similar localities
121
might perhaps be made available in the different islands of
the Archipelago.] The Rhus cotinus also grows here to a
height of eighteen or twenty feet. The barer parts of the
hills have large tracts of low brushwood formed of the ilex,
P. lentiscus, poterium spinosum, and other thorny or
aromatic shrubs. Lavender, origanum, and many other
dwarf woody herbs of the mint tribe are common. On
the higher plains the wild olive, the myrtle, and the stone
pine predominate while the still higher uplands and
ridges are clad with a perfect thicket of arbutus unedo, A.
andrachne quercus infectoria several ericee, &c. The
course of the mountain streams is always indicated by a
fringe of oleanders, as the salt marshes on the south side
of the bay are invariably bordered by the feathery tama-
risk. As might have been expected, the limestone district
abounds in orchids and ophryds, some of which aie exceed-
ingly singular. The high plains, too, are remarkable for
their composite plants.
8. The flora of the alluvial plains is of course far more
extensive, and embraces representatives of many more
natural orders than the other two together. The hedges
that bound the green lanes are composed chiefly of myrtle,
yellow jasmine, laburnum, and ilex, overrun with clematis
and honeysuckle. Here and there occur fine bushes of the
paliurus australis or Christ's thorn, or else the rose-coloured
masses of the circsea judaica or Judas tree. These plains
abound chiefly in leguminous and solanaceous plants. To
which I may add cruciferse and labiatse.
The umbelliferous plants of this district are not numerous,
though perhaps the frequency of some few species might
mislead a superficial observer as to the number of species.
The commonest of all is the Smyrnium olusatrum, which
probably takes its name from the city. It overruns all
the cemeteries, and seems to thrive best in the cypress
shade.
The momordica elaterium, or squirting cucumber, is a
weed everywhere, but especially on the rocky hill used as a
burial ground by the Jews.
9. As to timber, there is scarcely any but pine grown in
the country, all other is imported from the Black Sea or
elsewhere. There are, however, some large plane trees to
be found in the neighbourhood, but not sufficient for build-
ing purposes. There is no forest, properly so called, in the
district.
Native walnut and olive wood are used for cabinet-making,
and the saplings of lemon, cherry, bay, apricot, hazel, jasmine,
and wild-rose, are all used for the manufacture of pipe stems
staple article of produce. Cypresses afford the tallest
I
122
timber of any grown in the country ; but these do not appear
to be ever planted out of the cemeteries, where they some-
times attain a height of 120 feet, with a girth of 8 or 10 feet
or more. I have, nevertheless, seen them occasionally felled
and turned to account. In some places a tall poplar is cul-
tivated for scaffolding poles, but they do not reach a great
height near Smyrna.
10. In almost all countries there are some wild plants
used as common food by the lower classes. So here the
people eat the malva sylvestris, sinapis arvensis, taraxacum,
and cichorium, &c. &c. But their greatest delicacy is a dish
of the young shoots of tamus communis (the black briony)^
which they eat boiled, very much after the fashion of aspa-
ragus. The young plant of papaver dubium is also eaten,
uncooked, as a salad, and I have been told by several people
that in the winter the Greeks of Smyrna boil and eat as a
luxury the corms of the muscari glutinosum (a grape hya-
cinth). Besides these the Turks, but more especially the
Greeks, use a variety of seeds, roots, and leaves for food ;
parched maize is a common article of diet among the poor
Jews. I have tried, but without success, to discover from
what species of orchids the salep of commerce is derived. It
is brought from some miles inland, and may, therefore, belong
to a plant I never met with. The leaves of Smyrnium
olusatrum (alexanders) are stewed and eaten commonly, and
the seeds are also used in condiments. The most ordinary
vegetables which the Smyrna market supplies, are all of the
solanaceous family [e. g., tomatoes (lycopersicum esculentum),
brinjols (solanum melongena), capsicums], or of the cucur-
bitaceous order, as all manner of gourds, pumpkins, and
melons. The potato is not much cultivated near Smyrna,
but is very largely imported.
1 ] . Medicinally there are many plants made use of, and
indeed the people are, like all Orientals, most faithful
herbalists ; but little comparatively can be known of their
system, so long as the herb-doctors' craft is in vogue and
their secrets therefore worth keeping. A few herbs, how-
ever, I learned the use of. The marrubium vulgare, for
instance, (the horehound,) is in great requisition for diarrhoea,
and the plantago coronopus or buckshorn plantain for
haemorrhoids ; Thalictrum vulgare (rue) for melancholia, or
to avert an evil omen ; and aristolochia longa for uterine
diseases and infantile convulsions. The vitex-castus was
said formerly by Forskahl to be used in Smyrna for colic ;
but though that aromatic shrub is exceedingly common
there, I could not learn that it was a remedy in general
use. This vitex is especially frequent on the plains of
123
Bondjah, Sedikioi, and the R. Cayster, and sometimes
assumes the importance of a tree.
12. Among the many medicinal plants indigenous to this
locality may be enumerated, momordica elaterium, cotyle-
don umbilicus, carum carui, coriandrum sativum, sambucus
nigra, anthemis nobilis, olea Europsea, erythrea centaurium,
convolvulus scammonia, inula Helenium, valeriana officinalis,
mentha viridis, &c. ; origanum, marrubium, lavandula, &c. ;
ruta (thalictrum) graveolens, scilla maritima, laurus nobilis,
pistacia terebinthus, and P. lentiscus ; foeniculum offic.,
amygdalus comm., solanum dulcamara, and datura stramo-
nium.
All the gum scammony exported from Smyrna, its only
habitat as far as we are concerned, is collected from wild
plants, which grow in thickets and hedge bottoms. There
seems no sufficient reason why the cultivation of this ex-
ceedingly costly drug should not be successful elsewhere ; it
needs shade, support, a dryish light sandy soil, pure air,
and little interference. But surely this would be worth an
attempt, considering its present value. The mandragora
officinalis or mandrake is said to be found near Smyrna,
and is the subject there, as elsewhere, of all the old super-
stitions.
The sesamum orientale or sesame and the capparis spinosa
or caper plant are both worthy of notice as common plants
in the vicinity.
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