Travels in Southern Europe and the Levant, 1810-1817: The Journal of C. R. Cockerell, R.A.Cockerell, C. R. (Charles Robert)
History
Travels in Southern Europe and the Levant, 1810-1817: The Journal of C. R. Cockerell, R.A.
Cockerell, C. R. (Charles Robert)
Cockerell, C. R. (Charles Robert), 1788-1863; Europe -- Description and travel; Middle East -- Description and travel
When I got back to Smyrna I was fortunate enough to make the
acquaintance of Captain F. Beaufort, R.N.,[37] of H.M. frigate
_Frederiksteen_. He is an accomplished antiquarian, a taste he has been
able to cultivate in these countries, as he has been employed for some
time in charting the coasts hereabouts.
I have suffered not a little from the changeableness of my companions:
Mr. North first, in giving up the whole voyage to Egypt when we were
halfway there, because of the weather; then Douglas, in suddenly at Scio
taking it into his head to go home to England because he was
disappointed of the voyage to Egypt; and now, finally, Foster has fallen
in love and refuses to make with me the tour of the Seven Churches, as
he promised, because he cannot tear himself away from his lady love.
The difficulty mentioned before about the raiding pasha has been
settled. The moslem of this place have conciliated him with a gift of
20,000 piastres, and he is to retire to his own pashalik of Kauna. So I
only await my horses and janissary to set off alone.
_March 1st._--I started in a boat for the scala of Menimen, where the
horses were waiting for me to take me to Menimen on the Hermus. As my
janissary got drunk overnight, I had to wait next morning till seven
before I could start, and in consequence did not get so far as I
intended, and had to sleep in a small cafané, on the site, as I take it,
of the ancient Cumé. We slept six in a small space, the divan, with a
large fire, while the three or four horses were in the space beyond.
Greeks steal when they get a chance, but Turks as a rule may be trusted;
and though Dimitri and I were so tired that we left my arms, silver cup
and spoons, &c, lying about all night, nobody touched them. In the
morning I walked over the site of Cumé. There were large remains of the
wall nine or ten feet thick, and I found the torso of a white marble
statue five feet six inches long, of a very beautiful style. The head,
arms, and legs had been broken off by the aga of the place because he
thought he should find gold inside. It is not far from here to Pergamo,
but it took us unusually long because the water was out in all the low
ground, and one had to keep to the causeways. These are made mostly of
stones taken from ruined cities, in which one saw bits of architraves,
friezes, and so on. Getting off the causeway in one place, I was very
nearly bogged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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