both at Satalia and here at Aleppo, the more prudent amongst them adopt measures of precaution against the plague. I am told that at Smyrna also they have followed the Franks’ example). On the evening of the 23d, having sold for his private account all the merchandize he had on board, the Tripoline, accompanied by several Turks, made his re-appearance along side our ship, and demanded forthwith to be taken on board. A very ridiculous scene then took place. The captain required that he should undress and wash himself in the sea, and that his clothes should undergo a similar operation; the Moor, on his side, insisted on washing only part of his clothes and his body; and all his Turkish friends were of the same opinion; (an aged Musselman thinks it a great shame to expose his body naked except in the bath.) The contention lasted upwards of half an hour: it being now dark he was at last prevailed upon to jump into the sea, but nothing could persuade him to allow his clothes to be washed, for fear of having them spoiled; they were afterwards suspended at the rigging of the foremast, that the air might purify them, and he recovered them after a three days quarantine. Our captain thought he had now done his duty. He told me that upon his return to Malta he should think himself justified in taking the usual oath, that he had had no communication with any infected place; and instead of a three months quarantine, which the ship ought properly to undergo, he will only have to perform a quarantine of forty days, like all other ships which come from healthy parts of the Levant. We left Satalia the same evening. Satalia is governed by a Pasha: the greater half of the population consists of Greeks, who have got almost all the commerce into their hands. Till three or four years ago there was a French Consul resident in the town; in consequence of an avanie practised upon a merchant under his protection he left it, and no European power has since appointed a Consul at this place. The export trade consists chiefly in corn, oil, and cotton. The country boats trade to Cyprus and the coast of Syria. The Arabs of Damiat and Alexandria bring rice, Mocha coffee, and sugar; those who were then lying in the harbour purchased from us with great eagerness some coarse English pocket handkerchiefs.