After we had left Satalia, we sailed for three days along the coast of Caramania, and kept our course constantly ten leagues distant from the shore. The chain of snowy mountains seems to continue in a direction parallel with the shore. At the foot of these mountains I observed every evening thunder clouds and lightning; during our stay in the port of Satalia we were twice refreshed by heavy showers, though it was now the season when it very seldom rains in other parts of the Levant. I suppose that the vicinity of the snowy mountains, which rapidly condense the copious vapours arising from the heated earth, give rise to these clouds. On the 26th, late at night, we anchored in the roads of Mersin, a collection of villages so called, situated to the west of Tarsus, about fourteen miles distant from it. The next morning some of us went with the Tripoline on shore, where we found a party of about twenty Turkmans, encamped under and around a single tent; they were selling grain, with which the buyers loaded several camels. After a short parley the chief of the party led us to his village, about two miles distant. We remained there the whole day in the chief’s house, couched upon carpets, which were spread upon a terrace sheltered from the sun by the shade of two large mulberry trees. We returned to our ship in the evening; and spent the next four days in the same manner with these hospitable people. An Aga is at the head of this Turkman tribe; he commands about twenty-five villages, over each of which he appoints a chief to collect the revenue, which is equally divided between the Chief and the Aga. Many of these chiefs are Greeks, who by their long residence with the Turkmans have completely adopted their manners. Their dress is the same, excepting the red cap, which the Greeks do not wear; and but for that mark it would be impossible for a stranger to distinguish them from their masters. The Turkmans are continually moving about on horseback from one village to another; they are tolerably well mounted and well armed, each with a gun, two pistols, a poignard, and a sabre. They never go but armed, but it seems to be chiefly from ostentation, for they live at peace with the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages, have nothing to fear from straggling Arab tribes, and have no opportunity of attacking travellers or caravans, which never pass this way. They occupy the whole plain, which extends in length from Cape Bajarre to beyond Tarsus; its breadth extends from the sea to the lowest ridge of the mountains of Caramania, and varies from four to five or ten miles. This plain, at least as much as I saw of it in my way to Tarsus, is for the greater part sown with barley and wheat; where it is left uncultivated, numerous herds of buffaloes and fine cattle feed upon the wild grass. Wild capers grow in great abundance. I found in several rivulets small tortoises, and amongst the ruins of deserted houses we got here and there sight of a zerboa. The