village or town we passed on our journey. This evening being the commencement of Ramadan, we were disturbed nearly the whole of the night by the howling and whirling of a set of Dervishes who were performing their evolutions in a large mosque close by our lodgings.

Oct. 5th.-Left Ladik at seven A. M. For three hours our road lay over the hills, where we met with two foot-guards placed there for the protection of travellers. Whether true or false, they endeavoured to persuade us that banditti had been seen that very morning lurking in the wood, which made it requisite that they should accompany us beyond the hills. Until one P. M., when we entered the fertile valley of Amasia, our route lay over an interesting tract of country with an extensive wild of sand on our right. Hitherto we had seen but one village since leaving Ladik, situated about two miles out of the road, in the direction of the sands. On entering the valley of Amasia, we crossed the smaller branch of the Kizzil Semak, which joins the main stream sixty miles further east. The valley is well cultivated, abounding in mulberry and other fruit trees, especially the apple, which is reckoned superior to any in Asia Minor. We journeyed as it were by a continued garden, well watered by artificial streams, until we came in sight of the town, situated for the most part on the eastern bank of the river, with high hills on either side, through which flowed the same branch of the ancient Iris which we had forded three hours before. The bed of the river near the town averages sixty yards in breadth, and is crossed by three tolerable bridges, two of wood, and one of stone; the latter built entirely from the remains of the ancient Amasia, of which many inconsiderable relics may still be seen scattered about the streets, but none worthy of particular notice. The barren mountains on the other side of the river rise to the height of 300 feet, and form a rampart round the whole extent of the town, which is of an oblong form, the houses for the most part reaching to the water's edge. On a projecting part of the mountain are the ruins of an extensive castle, some say of Greek, others of Genoese origin; from which at sunset, we heard the sound of fife and drum announcing to the few soldiers garrisoned in a small barrack, partly of modern structure, that the hour of feasting after fasting had arrived. The sides of the mountain, which rises almost perpendicularly from the river's bank, contain many sepulchral grots of difficult access, which now serve the purpose of sheepcotes. A person who had resided some time at Amasia informed me that there were several Greek inscriptions over the entrance of the grots, a circumstance which determines their origin almost to a certainty.

Amasia is within the Pashalic of Siras, and may be reckoned one of the best towns in this district. It is governed by a Mutsellim or governor appointed by the Pasha of Siras, which office is at present filled by one of his sons. There are here two large and well-built mosques, besides many smaller ones, the bulk of the population being Moslem. The Armenians at Amasia number 500 families, with three churches, under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tocat. The person who fills that See at present is a deposed patriarch. There are but fifteen Greek families in the town, (not of the Greek nation, but members of the Holy Eastern Church, in which sense I use the term throughout my narrative,) with a church and priest, but I understood there were three villages in the vicinity inhabited exclusively by them. They are reckoned within the diocese of the Bishop of Sinope.

The Mutsellim appointed our quarters in a house annexed to one of the Armenian churches, where we were very comfortably lodged for the night. In one of the lower rooms was a school where upwards of sixty lads were assembled. On the master's table I observed a number of books and pamphlets in Armenian and Armeno-Turkish, from the press of the American Independent Missionaries at Smyrna. Among them were copies of the New Testament, portions of the Holy Scripture, bound up separately, besides a number of religious tracts. On inquiry, I found that three boxes of these books had lately been sent by one of the Missionaries at Constantinople to Mons. Krug, a Swiss mercantile agent, and the only European in Amasia, who, it appears, had undertaken the task of distributing them, I asked the master whether the books had been received with the sanction of their Bishop, or if the Bishop knew that they were used in the school. He answered both queries in the negative, and stated that they had only lately arrived. The master's idea was, as it was also the idea of two or three Armenian priests who called upon me, that the books contained the teaching of the English Church; and it was some time before I could make them understand, that although the English and Americans used one language, not only were the nations distinct, but that those who had sent the books to be distributed among them were schismatics from the English Church. I felt here, again, as I had often felt before, how little our Holy Church is known in these parts, and was grieved to think, that whilst the Independent dissenters, perhaps unconscious of the fact themselves, are giving the Christians of the East the idea that they are members of our Communion, and thereby spreading abroad for us the savour of no good name among the Churches, we, ourselves, are doing so little to undeceive them, or to make ourselves known as a branch of that one Catholic and Apostolic Church,

which all orthodox Christians believe as a necessary article. of their creed.

In the evening I had a visit from Mons. Krug, who came accompanied by Yacoob Nooh Agloo, a young papal Armenian, and the son of a rich Bagdad merchant, who is residing here for the purpose of trade. I received much courtesy and kindness from both these gentlemen, which was the more to be appreciated, being offered to a perfect stranger. Our conversation soon turned on Church matters, in which both appeared a little interested. The young Armenian I found to be prepossessed against the English Church, because, as he said, they denied the efficacy of the sacraments; had no Bishops, and, consequently, no holy orders; paid no reverence to saints, despised pictures, and even the emblem of the cross; had no festivals, nor feasts; and several other doctrines and customs he enumerated, as being held or denied by our Church, which no more applied than it did to his own communion. But I perceived, at once, that he was unwittingly confounding us with the dissenters, some of whose books, printed in Smyrna, he had read, and that he had no idea of any other English Church than that which he had himself described. Fortunately, he understood modern Greek tolerably well, and taking out the only copy of our Common Prayer Book in that language I had brought with me from Constantinople-one of the last editions printed by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge-I succeeded, in some measure, in persuading him of the existence of a Church in England, with doctrines, discipline, and rites different from those he had attributed to us. The young man was very intelligent, and it pleased me to witness his joy as he read several passages, which I pointed out to him from the Liturgy. Fortunately, Mons. Krug was not a bigoted Lutheran, and appeared surprised, as well as interested, while we discussed these matters connected with the Church. Such was the anxiety of the young Armenian to have possession of the Greek copy of our Prayer Book, that I presented it to him, although it was the only one I had. How glad I should have been on this occasion, to have had a few copies of our Prayer Book in Armenian! With God's blessing, they might have been distributed here to the advantage of the Church and the confusion of her adversaries.

This interview lasted until nearly midnight; but our kind visitors did not suffer us to depart on the morrow without sending us a token of their remembrance in a present of excellent apples, and several loaves of Frank bread-the latter, quite a luxury to a traveller in these parts. In the course of our conversation they informed me, that an American Independent

NO. XXXVII.

Missionary and his wife had passed through Amasia three days before our arrival, on their way to Mosul. I had heard of this gentleman's arrival at Constantinople, and understood that he was going out to reinforce their Mission among the Nestorians in Kurdistan. The principal product of Amasia is silk, of which 600 bales are annually exported beyond the sea.

Oct. 6th-Left Amasia at seven A.M. and continued our journey for two hours at some distance from the river, through a cultivated valley well grown over with fruit-trees, especially the mulberry. At about one hour's ride from the town, at some distance to the right, our attention was directed by one of the muleteers to a small ruined building, beneath which he said was a spring of limpid water, believed by the Greeks to have burst forth miraculously when the corpse of St. John Chrysostom was placed upon the spot as it was being borne in triumph to Constantinople from Comana Pontica, the place of the saint's exile and death. After leaving the valley, our route took a more easterly direction, and lay principally over uncultivated plains, bounded by low hills, sometimes barren, and sometimes scantily covered with furze.

At one P. M. we put up at the Mohammedan village of Ina Bazaar (Needle Bazaar), containing about thirty mud huts and a small mosque. We saw but two villages on our journey today, both several miles distant from the road. At Ina Bazaar we were lodged in the travellers' "konagh," which the kahya, or head of the principal villages, is obliged to provide for the accommodation of persons travelling on government business, or furnished with a firman from the sultan. In this instance the konagh consisted of a small open room of three walls and a roof, and another of still smaller dimensions, which we shared with our horses and mules.

Oct. 7th.-Left Ina Bazaar at a quarter past six A. M., and travelled through an uncultivated district, over a tolerably level road between two hills partially covered with wood. In three hours we reached a durbend, or guard-house, where we rested until our baggage came up. These durbends are stationed by the pashas of the different provinces, in such parts of the road as are considered unsafe. The number of men posted in each averages from six to ten, according to the danger feared from an irruption of the Curds, or other banditti infesting the district. The durbends are in general but very indifferent hovels, built for the most part of logs of wood cut from the neighbouring hills. The guards are irregular soldiers, of whom every provincial pasha keeps a large number at his command; they receive arms and clothing from the Government, but very little pay; for the latter they depend chiefly on the presents which

they exact from private caravans and travellers who may require their services, and very frequently when they do not. Their business is to keep the road as free as may be from marauders, and to escort persons or caravans on service for the Govern

ment.

Half an hour after leaving the durbend, our road lay for some time along the bed of the Gooroo Soo, a tributary of the Iris, now dry, but in spring a stream thirty yards wide, and from four to five feet deep. At half-past ten we came to a branch of the Iris known anciently as the Scytax, which runs through the plain in which the large village of Turchal is situated. Turchal contains upwards of 500 families, almost all Moslems, with two mud mosques and a bath. The river flows two miles in front of the village, but a small rivulet runs near by, which serves to irrigate the fields in the interior by means of wheels similar to those I saw on the Iris at Amasia, and turned by the stream itself. Behind the village is a ruined castle on a hill, apparently of modern date, though it is not improbable that the foundation is ancient, as Turchal seems to occupy the site of the ancient Sebastopolis.

Oct. 8th.-Left Turchal at half-past three A.M., and travelled with our baggage, so that we did not enter Tocat, the ancient Berioz, until a quarter past one P. M. The road lay for the most part over an extensive plain, or valley land, between two ranges of hills. Those to the right were high, and tolerably clothed with wood; those to the left barren, and only cultivated near the base, and at long intervals, where an occasional village, or cluster of huts, was seen surrounded by a little verdure. At some miles to the right flowed the river, near which more villages were visible, and the soil appeared in a better state of cultivation; on the direct road, we did not pass a solitary dwelling. Three miles before entering Tocat, the pleasant fruit-gardens begin, for which this town is so much celebrated. The town itself occupies two narrow valleys, the greater number of houses being crowded together into an angular form on the sides of three hills, which almost encircle them, and bound the vallies in three opposite directions. The hills to the north and south are rather barren; on the brow of the latter is a ruined castle, commanding the city beneath and a vast extent of country round. The mount on the south-east is well cultivated to the summit. The town is well supplied with water from the river (the same branch of the Kizzil Irmak which flows by Amasia), and fruit grows abundantly in the vineyards and gardens which fill up environs. The grapes and pears of Tocat are considered superior to any in this part of the country; but, on account of some adverse property supposed to exist in the atmosphere, the

the