ommendation to the consular agent. A second string was added
to our bow by a worthy Armenian of Smyrna. He kindly assisted our
intention by a letter to a compatriot of his at Magnesia, of whom the
least that we could expect was, that he would receive us to the
fellowship of trencher and hearth; that is, should we present our
introduction, for, in the first instance, our purpose was to seek the
man of office.

We had some debate concerning the propriety of our going ostensibly
armed--no doubt, however, concerning the advisability of our actually
being armed. In those desolate tracts, where you may ride pretty well
all day and meet no wayfarer, except some lone camel-driver, riding at
the head of his long string of animals, it is impossible to say what
contingencies may be your hap. It is, to say the least, a locality where
thieves might have things pretty much their own way; for the
guard-houses, scattered throughout the routes, are far from being within
hail of each other, and far from possessing the control of the road
mid-way. Nay, they are themselves tenanted by men so fierce by nature,
and so imperfectly disciplined, that some people might fear the guards
more than the robbers. They are not detachments of the regular forces,
but men taken chiefly from the Xebeques, whose manners and dress are
sufficiently distinct from those of the ordinary Turks. Each of these
detachments is placed under the control of an Agah; and on the personal
character of this officer depends the security of the district. The
prescribed discipline is necessarily strict, for any admitted relaxation
would soon lead to confusion. Especially is it enjoined that all
spirituous liquors be absolutely excluded from the guard-houses--and a
neglect of this law by the Agah is never forgiven. When intoxicated,
they are said to rage like demons, respecting no person or
thing--utterly rejecting all semblance of discipline. It will be long
before I forget the apprehensions connected with even faint symptoms in
them of approach to such a state. A party of us, with ladies among our
numbers, had halted for night at a guard-house. The spot was of the
rarest beauty--the evening such as breathes only in Ionia; cities and
men were removed out of sight and thought; and, full of poetry and
peace--the pleasing sadness we had caught on the hallowed ground of
the mighty Ephesus,--we resigned ourselves to the influence of the
moment. What was that sound of revelry that b