“I must ever deplore that I resisted my first impulse to reply immediately.  The hand of Death has snatched Lord Byron from his kingdom of literature and poetry, and I can only guard myself from the illiberal imputation of attacking the mighty dead, whose living talent I should have trembled to encounter, by scrupulously confining myself to such facts and illustrations as are strictly necessary to save me from the charges of error, misrepresentation, and presumptuousness, of which every writer must wish to prove himself undeserving.

“Lord Byron began by stating, ‘The tide was not in our favour,’ and added, ’neither I nor any person on board the frigate had any notion of a difference of the current on the Asiatic side; I never heard of it till this moment.’  His Lordship had probably forgotten that Strabo distinctly describes the difference in the following words;—­

[Greek:  ’Dio kai eupetesteron ek tes Sestou diairousi parallaxamenoi mikron epi ton tes Herous purgon, kakeithen aphientes ta ploia sumprattontos tou rhou pros ten peraiosin:  Tois d’ ex Abudou peraioumenois parallakteon estin eis tanantia, okto pou stadious epi purgon tina kat’ antikru tes Sestou, epeita diairein plagion, kai me teleos echousin enantion ton rhoun.’—­] Ideoque facilius a Sesto, trajiciunt paululum deflexa navigatione ad Herus turrim, atque inde navigia dimittentes adjuvante etiam fluxu trajectum.  Qui ab Abydo trajiciunt, in contrarium flectunt partem ad octo stadia ad turrim quandam e regione Sesti:  hinc oblique trajiciunt, non prorsus contrario fluxu.’[1]

[Footnote 1:  “Strabo, book xiii.  Oxford Edition.”]

“Here it is clearly asserted, that the current assists the crossing from Sestos, and the words [Greek:  ’aphientes ta ploia’]—­’navigia dimittentes,’—­’letting the vessels go of themselves,’ prove how considerable the assistance of the current was; while the words [Greek:  ‘plagion’]—­’oblique,’ and ‘[Greek:  teleos],’—­’prorsus,’ show distinctly that those who crossed from Abydos were obliged to do so in an oblique direction, or they would have the current entirely against them.

“From this ancient authority, which, I own, appears to me unanswerable, let us turn to the moderns.  Baron de Tott, who, having been for some time resident on the spot, employed as an engineer in the construction of batteries, must be supposed well cognisant of the subject, has expressed himself as follows:—­

“’La surabondance des eaux que la Mer Noire recoit, et qu’elle ne peut evaporer, versee dans la Mediterranee par le Bosphore de Thrace et La Propontide, forme aux Dardanelles des courans si violens, que souvent les batimens, toutes voiles dehors, out peine a les vaincre.  Les pilotes doivent encore observer, lorsque le vent suffit, de diriger leur route de maniere a presenter le moins de resistance possible a l’effort des eaux.  On sent que cette etude a pour base la direction des courans, qui, renvoyes d’une points a l’autre, forment des obstacles a la navigation, et feroient courir les plus grands risques si l’on negligeoit ces connoissances hydrographiques.’—­Memoires de TOTT, 3^{_me_} Partie.