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- Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) was a British socialite and traveler. This work is a collection of memoirs describing her travels throughout the Middle East where over a period of two years she, along with a party that included Charles Maryon (1783-1877), ventured through many different parts of the Mediterranean Near East. -
(pg. 48) On the 3rd of November, at eleven in the morning, we landed at Ponte Grande, where we dined, and arrived, at about eleven at night, at Topkhana, one of the principal stairs of the harbor of Constantinople, on the side towards Pera.
(pg. 58) A house was hired for six months at five hundred piasters per month, in the village of Therapia , on the Bosphorus, ten miles from Constantinople.
(pg. 73) To avoid the heat, I set off at midnight, on the first of May, in an open four oared barge with an awning, accompanied by Aly, a janissary, and my servant: and, although the distance to Mudania, the landing-place nearest Brusa, is sixty or eighty miles, the watermen rowed it within twelve hours, including the time for allowing me to go on shore to breakfast, at a point of land at the entrance of the bay of Mudania.
(pg. 74) I landed at Mudania, a village nearly at the bottom of a gulf of the same name, about mid-day; and, as I had a firman, or order, to be civilly treated by all persons whom it might concern, I escaped the exactions of the custom-house officer, who sat cross-legged on a bench near the beach to examine the baggage of persons landing. Taking post-horses and a guide, I arrived in the dusk of the evening at Brusa. The distance might be about eighteen miles, through a country so fertile and so rich that I at once felt what was meant by the luxuriance of Asiatic scenery.
I had a letter of introduction to M. Arles, a French merchant established at Brusa, whose traffic consisted in raw silk for France, in skins for furriers at Constantinople, and in embroidered silks; and he received me in a very hospitable manner.
(pg. 85) On the 1st of July, 1811, we quitted Brusa, after passing two most agreeable months there. The same evening we embarked at Mudania, and on the close of the second day reached Bebec.
(pg. 95) "We sailed from Constantinople on the 23rd of October, 1811. On quitting the Bosphorus, we encountered a contrary wind, which compelled us to take refuge among the Prince's Islands, where we remained weather-bound five or six days. At last a north wind set in, and carried us, in a short time, through the Dardanelles, to the Island of Scio, where strong gales again detained us, but not unpleasantly, for ten days."
(pg. 96) "The wind now becoming fair, we unmoored, andwere carried, without any accident, as far as Rhodes, where we stopped but a few hours to take in water and fresh bread ; we then sailed, little imagining we should so soon return thither. It was on Saturday night, the 23rd November, that we quitted the island. We ran for two days under a press of sail, and must have made half our way to Alexandria, when the sky became lowering, and a southerly wind obliged us to beat to windward the whole of the 25th of November. In the evening, the gale having increased, we wore ship. On the 27th, the ship sprang a leak, and the cry of all hands to the pump immediately showed that some danger impended...the pilot directed the
ship's course towards Rhodes.
(pg. 98) Things wore this unpromising appearance when, about three o'clock, the south-west point of the island of Rhodes was discovered on our weather bow. The pilot immediately put the ship's head as direct to it as the wind would permit.
(pg. 101) At last the stern touched, and a wave, that filled her from head to stern, at once overwhelmed us. Close to where we landed there was a small wind-mill, where we accommodated Lady Hester and her maid in the best manner we could...The miller was despatched to his village, which was near at hand, to bring down conveyances to carry us to a place of shelter. At daylight he returned, and with him several peasants with mules and asses, which we mounted, and reached in a short time a hamlet.
On the following morning, mounted on a mule and with a peasant for my guide, I set off for the town, which I reached on the second day in the evening.
(pg. 104) "In the midst of my preparations for Lady Hester's reception, I was alarmed by the arrival of a peasant in the night with a letter, by which my immediate attendance was required at Lindo, on the east side of the island, where Lady Hester, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, had fallen ill of a fever. A long day's journey through a country still more beautiful than that which I had passed on the western side brought me to Lindo. Her Ladyship grew better after a few days' repose, and I then found leisure to perambulate the environs of the town".
(pg. 108) As soon as Lady Hester was well enough to resume her journey, we left Lindo for the town of Rhodes. We slept one night at a village called Archangelo, and arrived at Rhodes on the second evening.
(pg. 112) On the 22nd of December, 1811, I crossed from Rhodes in an open boat for the coast of Caramania, accompanied by Mustafa, the chaüsh, and Etienne, servant to Mr. Pearce, whose capacity as a linguist induced Lady Hester to request his master to spare him to serve me as dragoman on the road. We entered the bay of Marmora about midnight, and soon afterwards landed at a small town of the same name.
(pg. 113) We departed a quarter of an hour before the dawn...Soon after noon we saw the minarets of mosques at a distance, and in a short time arrived at Oolah, a large village, but with mean houses...in three hours, we reached the town of Moolah, and at sunset the village of Aharkui, where we were to stop for the night.
(pg. 115) During this morning's journey, after descending a mountain which brought us into a most beautiful valley, terminated on the left by a deep bay of the sea, we came, on a sudden, at a turn that led us from the valley to the ascent of the mountain on the opposite side of it, to a small ancient temple hewn out of the rock...At a place called Capu Tash, or stone gate, we took horses for Guzel Issar, and, as night overtook us, came to the banks of a broad river.
At length, through the obscurity of the night, we saw innumerable lights... they marked the site of Guzel Issar. ...In half an hour we came to the bank of a broad and rapid river, the Meander...Proceeding again along other causeways similar to those we had passed, we at last reached dry ground.
(pg. 118-121) On resuming our journey, we again entered among the mountains; and, continuing to ascend...Night soon overtook us, and about half an hour after sunset the barking of dogs gave us notice that we were near the suburbs of Smyrna. We reached the city gate, now shut, which was opened for a trifling consideration.
(pg. 124) ...the 17th of January, when, having everything in readiness, I found out a captain of a Greek saccolava or sloop, bound for Egypt, took him, for greater security, to Mr, Werry''s, and having agreed, in the presence of the consul, for my passage and my private accommodation in the small cabin, at the price of one hundred piasters, I, to the great astonishment of Mustafa, embarked the effects and ourselves the same day, and by evening we were on our passage to Rhodes. We anchored that night under Yenghy Kalés, the castle that defends the entrance of Smyrna Bay.
(pg. 128) On the 28th the weather set in fine. We weighed anchor, and, quitting our snug little port with a fine and favourable breeze, we were not long before we saw Rhodes, which we entered at sunset.
(pg. 134) On the 11th we sailed again with a fair wind for Alexandria. On the 13th, before sunset, we made Pompey's Pillar, which serves as a landmark to mariners; and, standing off for the night, we entered the west harbour of Alexandria about nine on the following morning.
Mapped by Petra Creamer, Version 1 (February 2017)