"Eight months after the publication of my 'Tour in the Levant,' there appeared in the London Magazine, and subsequently in most of the newspapers, a letter from the late Lord Byron to Mr. Murray. "I naturally felt anxious at the time to meet a charge of error brought against me in so direct a manner: but I thought, and friends whom I consulted at the time thought with me, that I had better wait for a more favourable opportunity than that afforded by the newspapers of vindicating my opinion, which even so distinguished an authority as the letter of Lord Byron left unshaken, and which, I will venture to add, remains unshaken still. "I must ever deplore that I resisted my first impulse to reply immediately. The hand of Death has snatched Lord Byron from his kingdom of literature and poetry, and I can only guard myself from the illiberal imputation of attacking the mighty dead, whose living talent I should have trembled to encounter, by scrupulously confining myself to such facts and illustrations as are strictly necessary to save me from the charges of error, misrepresentation, and presumptuousness, of which every writer must wish to prove himself undeserving. "Lord Byron began by stating, 'The _tide_ was _not_ in our favour,' and added, 'neither I nor any person on board the frigate had any notion of a difference of the current on the Asiatic side; I never heard of it till this moment.' His Lordship had probably forgotten that Strabo distinctly describes the difference in the following words;-- [Greek: 'Dio kai eupetesteron ek tes Sestou diairousi parallaxamenoi mikron epi ton tes Herous purgon, kakeithen aphientes ta ploia sumprattontos tou rhou pros ten peraiosin: Tois d' ex Abudou peraioumenois parallakteon estin eis tanantia, okto pou stadious epi purgon tina kat' antikru tes Sestou, epeita diairein plagion, kai me teleos echousin enantion ton rhoun.'--] Ideoque _facilius a Sesto, trajiciunt_ paululum deflexa navigatione ad Herus turrim, atque inde _navigia dimittentes adjuvante etiam fluxu trajectum_. Qui ab Abydo trajiciunt, in contrarium flectunt partem ad octo stadia ad turrim quandam e regione Sesti: hinc _oblique_ trajiciunt, non _prorsus_ contrario fluxu.'[1] [Footnote 1: "Strabo, book xiii. Oxford Edition."] "Here it is clearly asserted, that the current assists the crossing from Sestos, and the words [Greek: 'aphientes ta ploia']--'_navigia dimittentes_,'--'_letting the vessels go of themselves_,' prove how considerable the assistance of the current was; while the words [Greek: 'plagion']--'_oblique_,' and '[Greek: teleos],'--'_prorsus_,' show distinctly that those who crossed from Abydos were obliged to do so in an _oblique_ direction, or they would have the current _entirely_ against them.