Tarsous lies on the plain about two miles and a half from the mountains. At the entrance to it is a hillock about a quarter of a mile long, which commands the town; it was included in the ancient walls, which were then strengthened by a moat into which the river was turned. It is now dry, and the present town has nothing but a slight wall round it. We passed over the old moat and through an ancient gate of Roman work. It had three arches, but only one of them is standing, and the wall it formed the passage through and every other antiquity in the town has been destroyed and used up for building materials. Nothing could exceed the surprise of the inhabitants at our appearance. They had never seen Europeans, and they crowded about us in such numbers that we could with difficulty move. We went to visit the aga and were detained, sitting among the servants an hour and a half before we could obtain an audience. The aga, they said, was engaged. At last we remonstrated and got up to go; when, to our surprise and indignation, we saw the aga sitting in a room by himself smoking his pipe and quite unoccupied. We would have passed the door had they not pressed us in, so angry were we. He was sitting on a sofa in a long white Arab cloak in a room that was neater and handsomer than it is usual to see in these countries. He made a slight motion on our coming in, but spoke not a word, nor did he deign to answer 'Yhary' when we conveyed to him the compliments of the captain. A Turk who sat by his side with our firman in his hands now addressed a Turk who was with us with an affectation of great indignation. He wanted to know what could be the meaning of four hundred men, when only eight men were mentioned in the firman--together with a number of other insolent questions, from which I gathered that he suspected us of being travelling merchants. Fortunately, as these remarks were not addressed to us, we were not bound to make any reply, for if we had we were by this time in such a state of impatience with their insolent barbarity that it would hardly have been a conciliatory one. As soon as we could get away, we mounted our horses again, and through a thick and insulting rabble went out of the town and homewards without delay. An old Turk of the aga's people, who had been one of the chief of our tormentors, saw us off for some distance. To him I had the satisfaction of giving a piece of my mind, and when we came within sight of the ship gave him an invitation on board that he might see how we treated strangers. The old rascal went home very much abashed and awestruck. We arrived on board late, and well wetted by coming through the violent surf. The ship was two more days off the great plain of Tarsous, moving slowly in a thick haze, and on the 16th arrived off Cape Karadash.