We advanced from hence five hours towards the east to the Castle of Helke or Herke, conquered by Mohammed I. with considerable loss of men. It is a nice small castle, of immense stones, built on the seashore, on a cliff between two vallies. Its gate opens to the north and has no houses within. The district belongs to the sanjak of Koja Ilí. At the end of eight hours journey along the seashore, we arrived at Isnikmíd (Nicomedia), which has been already minutely described in our former journey. After a day’s rest we again started and came, at the end of six hours march, to Sabánja, called so from Sabánjí Koja, who first cleared the thick woods here by the plough. In Súleimán’s time it was cultivated, and Sárí Rostem Páshá founded a khán here with one hundred and seventy fireplaces, a pleasant mosque and bath covered with lead, and about one thousand houses faced with brick built by Koja Sinán. The administrator of these endowments of Rostem Páshá, is at the same time the first public officer of the place. Besides its white cherries, it is renowned for its white bread, Súmún, which is baked in a shop underneath the bath, and which keeps its flavour and does not become mouldy for the space of six days. It has often been sent by couriers to the Sháh of Persia, has arrived fresh, and obtained general approbation. Its good qualities are due to the water. _Praise of the Lake of Sabánja._ Its circumference is twenty miles, and seventy-six villages adorn its shores. The people who drink of its water are of ruddy complexion, and the products of the land are abundant; there are no vineyards, but a great number of gardens. On the borders of the lake there are melons and water-melons of such a size that two make an ass-load. On the lake are from seventy to eighty kaiks and boats, which are employed in the passage from village to village, and for the transport of wood. There are a great number of most delicious fish. Its depth is twenty fathoms, the water is clear and brilliant, and excellent for washing without soap. It is this water which gives a whiteness resembling cotton to the bread Súmúní. On the east side of the lake, at two hours distance, passes the river Sakaria, which disembogues into the Black Sea in the province of Koja Ilí at the place called Irva; it would require but little spirit of enterprise to unite the lake with the sea, by means of this river, a branch of which goes down to the salt-marshes of Nicomedia. As early as the reign of Mohammed III. a great number of workmen were employed in establishing a communication between the gulf of Nicomedia and the lake of Sabánja, but the undertaking was given up at the request of the inhabitants. If the Sakaria were united with this lake, and the lake with the gulf of Nicomedia, this town would be quite an inland port; the timber and wood might be brought down to Bolí, and it would cost no more than five aspers the quintal. God make it easy!