Crossing a promontory which makes out from the mountains, we came upon the renowned plain of Issus, where Darius lost his kingdom to Alexander.  On a low cliff overhanging the sea, there are the remains of a single tower of gray stone.  The people in Scanderoon call it “Jonah’s Pillar,” and say that it marks the spot where the Ninevite was cast ashore by the whale. [This makes three places on the Syrian coast where Jonah was vomited forth.] The plain of Issus is from two to three miles long, but not more than half a mile wide, It is traversed by a little river, supposed to be the Pinarus, which comes down through a tremendous cleft in the Akma Dagh.  The ground seems too small for the battle-field of such armies as were engaged on the occasion.  It is bounded on the north by a low hill, separating it from the plain of Baias, and it is possible that Alexander may have made choice of this position, leaving the unwieldy forces of Darius to attack him from the plain.  His advantage would be greater, on account of the long, narrow form of the ground, which would prevent him from being engaged with more than a small portion of the Persian army, at one time.  The plain is now roseate with blooming oleanders, but almost entirely uncultivated.  About midway there are the remains of an ancient quay jutting into the sea.

Soon after leaving the field of Issus, we reached the town of Baias, which is pleasantly situated on the shore, at the mouth of a river whose course through the plain is marked with rows of tall poplar trees.  The walls of the town, and the white dome and minaret of its mosque, rose dazzlingly against the dark blue of the sea, and the purple stretch of the mountains of Karamania.  A single palm lifted its crest in the foreground.  We dismounted for breakfast under the shade of an old bridge which crosses the river.  It was a charming spot, the banks above and below being overhung with oleander, white rose, honeysuckle and clematis.  The two guardsmen finished the remaining half of our Turcoman cheese, and almost exhausted our supply of bread.  I gave one of them a cigar, which he was at a loss how to smoke, until our muleteer showed him.

Baias was celebrated fifty years ago, as the residence of the robber chief, Kutchuk Ali, who, for a long time, braved the authority of the Porte itself.  He was in the habit of levying a yearly tribute on the caravan to Mecca, and the better to enforce his claims, often suspended two or three of his captives at the gates of the town, a day or two before the caravan arrived.  Several expeditions were sent against him, but he always succeeded in bribing the commanders, who, on their return to Constantinople, made such representations that Kutchuk Ali, instead of being punished, received one dignity after another, until finally he attained the rank of a Pasha of two tails.  This emboldened him to commit enormities too great to be overlooked, and in 1812 Baias was taken, and the atrocious nest of land-pirates broken up.