This day having first visited Mr. _Schrever_ (then ill of the plague, of which he died two days after) in a small boat of the countrey, in company with Mr. Goodfellow and Mr. Evans, I made a tour up the Thracian _Bosphorus_. This chanel we may conceive to begin from the point of _Scutari_ on one side, and that of _Tophana_ on the other; from whence in a winding figure, graced on each side with _seraglios_ of the chief courtiers of this empire, and on the marine with almost continued villages, as also two castles in the narrowest part, it extends about eighteen or twenty miles, as far as the antient rocky isles of the _Symplegades_, which seem to open and shut, as one advances to them in the _Bosphorus_[75]. The largest of them is situated on the European shore, and till lately bore an antient Corinthian pillar, to which a vulgar error has given the name of _Pompey’s column_. It was erected not on a regular basis of its own, but upon an antient heathen altar, that now only remains; the shaft and capital of the pillar, which have lately fallen, being yet visible in four pieces among the cliffs of the rock. On the aforesaid remaining altar may be read this inscription in large Roman letters. DIVO CAESARI AUGVSTO L. CL. ANNIDIVS L. F. CLAV. FRONTO[76] Returning from this pillar we stept on the adjoining shore, to see the large and lofty lantern there erected for the direction of mariners at the entrance of this difficult strait. About four miles from hence, in returning thro the chanel, we go ashore on the European side to visit a famous convent of Greek priests, by the name of _Mauromolos_, seated in the cliff of an hill, and enjoying a beautiful church, adorned with many rich pieces of religious furniture; as books bound in covers of massy silver; an ἁγία πύλη, or _sacred curtain_[77], wrought both richly and artfully in silk and golden figures; and a set of painting not of the vulgar sort, but regular and proportionable, the most curious of which was done in Muscovy. These fathers are exempted from their _harách_, on account of a present of excellent fair cherries, once presented to the _Grand Signior_. Over a fountain, that serves the convent with water, they have this device, not more proper for the place, than ingenious for the contrivance, in making the same words read forwards or backwards: ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ[78] I was this day a witness of the strong current flowing towards the _Propontis_ from the _Euxine_ sea, as I had before observed it to force into the _Mediterranean_ from the ocean. Both which are taken notice of by _Lucan_: _Quaque fretum torrens Maeotidos egerit undas_ _Pontus, et Herculeis aufertur gloria metis,_ _Oceanumque negat solas admittere Gades[79]._ April xxvi.