In Constantinople we had both met with the same fate.  He had been, like myself, unable to obtain any certain intelligence, either at his consul’s or from the inhabitants, as to the feasibility of a journey to Jerusalem, and so he was going to seek further information at Beyrout.  We arranged that we would perform the journey from Beyrout to Jerusalem in company,—­if, indeed, we found it possible to penetrate among the savage tribes of Druses and Maronites.  So now I no longer stood unprotected in the wide world.  I had found a companion as far as Jerusalem, the goal of my journey, which I could now hope to reach.

I was well satisfied with the arrangements on board.  I had made up my mind, though not without sundry misgivings, to take a second-class berth; and on entering the steamer of the Austrian Lloyd, I discovered to my surprise how much may be effected by order and good management.  Here the men and the women were separately lodged, wash-hand basins were not wanting, we fared well, and could not be cheated when we paid for our board, as the accounts were managed by the first mate:  on the remaining steamers belonging to this company I found the arrangements equally good.

Crossing the Sea of Marmora, we passed the “Seven Towers,” leaving the Prince’s Islands behind us on the left.

Early on the following day,

May 18th,

we reached the little town of Galipoli, situate on an eminence near the Hellespont.  A few fragments of ruins in the last stage of dilapidation cause us to think of the ages that have fled, as we speed rapidly on.  We waited here a quarter of an hour to increase the motley assemblage on deck by some new arrivals.

For the next 20 miles, as far as Sed Bahe, the sea is confined within such narrow bounds, that one could almost fancy it was a channel dug to unite the Sea of Marmora with the Archipelago.  It is very appropriately called the Strait of the Dardanelles.  On the left we have always the mainland of Asia, and on the right a tongue of land belonging to Europe, and terminating at Sed Bahe.  The shores on both sides are desert and bare.  It is a great contrast to former times, a contrast which every educated traveller must feel as he travels hither from the Bosphorus.  What stirring scenes were once enacted here!  Of what deeds of daring, chronicled in history, were not these regions the scene!  Every moment brought us nearer to the classic ground.  Alas, that we were not permitted to land on any of the Greek Islands, past which we flew so closely!  I was obliged, perforce, to content myself with thinking of the past, of the history of ancient Greece, without viewing the sites where the great deeds had been done.

The two castles of the Dardanelles, Tschenekalesi and Kilidil Bahar, that on the Asiatic shore looking like a ruin, while its European neighbour wore the appearance of a fortress, let us steam past unchallenged.  And how shall I describe the emotions I felt as we approached the plains of Troy?