that
the camp of the Pasha was not far distant, it was in my power to assure
them that they would be better off in a day or two.[21] All the way to
their boat, and on my return to ours, I observed some hundreds of bodies
of men and animals that had perished in the late engagement and during
the pursuit, and the stench which filled the air was almost intolerable.
The country, covered with an abundance of grain almost matured,
was abandoned; the water-wheels stood still, and the cisterns were
frequently infected by a bloody and putrefying carcass.

7th of Rebi. Passed the last night on board the boat, near the mountain
already mentioned in the day before yesterday's journal. Two Greeks on
board of our boat reported last evening, that they had heard menacing
cries from the mountain. The people on board of the boat supposed that
some of the brigands had returned to their haunt and meditated an attack
on our boat by night. We were accordingly on the watch till morning,
without, however, being molested. This morning, about two hours after
sunrise, these same Greeks reported that they had seen fifteen or
sixteen of the robbers in a body, and armed. They also told the Mogrebin
soldiers in the other boats, which had now come up with ours, that these
men had probably massacred one of the soldiers attached to me and two of
my servants, as they had not been seen since morning. I accordingly
set out, in company with twenty soldiers, in pursuit of the supposed
assassins. We had not proceeded far when we met the persons supposed
killed, on their way to our boat, safe and sound. They had seen no
armed men, though they came from the direction that the Greeks said the
robbers had taken. I therefore returned to the boat, reflecting upon
the old proverb, "A Greek and a liar." The Mogrebin soldiers were not,
however, convinced of the falsehood of the report, and pursued their way
to the mountain; they found no robbers there, but repaid themselves for
the trouble they had taken, by taking possession of a young and
pretty girl, which they carried to their boat as a lawful prize. After
proceeding a few miles by the aid of the cordel, we put to land at
sunset, near a village on the left bank of the river. We found here
the ruins of a Christian church, built in the style of the lower Greek
empire, of which one column, of red granite, of no great height, was
standing, (it bore on its chapiter a cross and a star,) and was all that
stood on its bas