While lying near Zituni, Captain Yorke received news of a pirate named Macri Georgio, who two days before had plundered a schooner, and was apparently at large in two boats with sixty armed ruffians in the Gulf of Salonica. He immediately set sail for Cape Palliouri, anchored his brig by lantern light just round that point on September 11, and at moonrise led an expedition of five boats with sixty men and three days' provisions in search of the pirate. There followed many interviews with the Agas of different districts, who gave him much conflicting evidence about the doings of Macri Georgio, but with no result, and the _Alligator_ was finally brought to an anchor at Salonica, where he prosecuted further inquiries. Salonica, which to-day promises to become a bone of contention among some of the Powers of Europe, he found 'a clean town, containing about 70,000 inhabitants. The walls are in the Turkish style of fortification and without a ditch; the city stands on an inclined plain gently sloping to the sea, the sea wall is flanked by two towers at either end. The surrounding country is plain with mountains rising at the back.' He already noticed a great change in the attitude of the Turks, owing to the long struggle they had sustained with the Greeks and with Russia during the late war. 'As it is, the empire is weakened, and the Turks know not what to make of it. They say the Sultan is a Giaour. The Turks, too, seem to have lost all their former pride, the lower orders are afraid, and the upper classes are quite disaffected. The change has been most wonderful, nor is it quite possible to reconcile to oneself how it has been brought about. The Koran is no longer the law of the land, and therefore you can hardly say they are any longer Turks. In Salonica this day, an independent Greek was seen beating an armed Turk in the streets.'