Part 1 (2/2)
We dise day commenced our land journey The country between this port and Erzerooh it pass the caravan routes connecting Persia with the Black Sea, the great lines of intercourse and commerce between Europe and central Asia The roads usually frequented are three in number The summer, or upper, road is the shortest, but isvery lofty mountains, is closed after the snows commence; it is called _Tcharler_, from its fine upland pastures, on which the horses are usually fed when caravans take this route The es over the upper, and is rarely followed bya considerable detour by Gumish Khaneh, or the Silver Mines The three unite at the town of Baiburt, h an active and daily increasing trade is carried on by these roads, no means whatever have until recently been taken to improve them They consist ofto the season of the year The bridges have been long permitted to fall into decay, and commerce is frequently stopped for days by the swollen torrent or fordless stream This has been one of the orously co the present reign
Since my visit to Trebizond a road for carts has been commenced, which is to lead from that port to the Persian frontiers; but it will, probably, like other undertakings of the kind be abandoned long before completed, or if ever completed will be permitted at once to fall to ruin from the want of common repair And yet the Persian trade is one of the chief sources of revenue of the Turkish empire, and unless conveniences are afforded for its prosecution, will speedily pass into other hands The southern shores of the Black Sea, twelve years ago rarely visited by a foreign vessel, are now coasted by stea to three companies, which touch nearly weekly at the principal ports; and there is coh for more The want of proper harbors is a considerable drawback in the navigation of a sea so unstable and dangerous as the Euxine Trebizond has a mere roadstead, and froreat commercial port, which, like many other places, it has become rather from its hereditary claims as the representative of a city once faes The only harbour on the southern coast is that of Batoun, nor is there any retreat for vessels on the Circassian shores This place is therefore probably destined to become the emporium of trade, both from its safe and spacious port, and from the facility it affords of internal coia, and Ar the whole of this singularly bold and beautiful coast, the mountains rise in lofty peaks, and are wooded with trees of enor an unlimited supply of timber for commerce or war Innuh deep and rocky ravines The es and hamlets, chiefly inhabited by a hardy and industrious race of Greeks In spring the choicest flowers perfuantic trees In summer the richest pastures enamel the uplands, and the inhabitants of the coasts drive their flocks and herds to the higher regions of the hills
Our journey to Erzeroom was performed without incident A heavy and uninterrupted rain for two days tried the patience and temper of those who for the first time encountered the difficulties and incidents of Eastern travel The only place of any interest, passed during our ride, was a ser, with the ruins of three early Christian churches, or baptisteries These re to an order of architecture peculiar to the most eastern districts of Asia Minor and to the ruins of ancient Armenian cities, on the borders of Turkey and Persia There arequestions connected with this Armenian architecture which will deserve elucidation From it was probably derived much that passed into the Gothic, whilst the Tatar conquerors of Asia Minor adopted it, as will be hereafter seen, for their ant both in its decorations, its proportions, and the general arrangee be studied by the modern architect Indeed, Asia Minor contains a mine of similar materials unexplored and almost unknown
We reached Erzeroom on the 8th, and were entle, well, and honorably sustained our influence in this part of Turkey, and as the first to open an important field for our commerce in Asia Minor With him I visited the commander-in-chief of the Turkish forces in Anatolia, who had recently returned froainst the wild mountain tribes of central Armenia Reshi+d Pasha, known as the ”_Guzlu_,” or the ”Wearer of Spectacles,” enjoyed the advantages of an European education, and had already distinguished hie of the French language he united a taste for European literature, which, during his numerous expeditions into districts unknown to western travellers, had led hiraphical features, and to ion of their inhabitants His last exploit had been the subjugation of the tribes inhabiting the Dudjook Mountains, to the south-west of Erzerooave h curious and interesting, is not perhaps to be strictly relied on, but a district hitherto inaccessible may possibly contain the remains of ancient races, monuments of antiquity, and natural productions of sufficient importance to merit the attention of the traveller in Asia Minor
The city of Erzeroo in importance, and is almost solely supported by the Persian transit trade It would be nearly deserted if that traffic were to be thrown into a new channel by the construction of the direct road fros of any interest, with the exception of a few ruins of monuments of early Mussulnified with the nalected h which lay our road fro to merit more than a casual mention Our route by the lake of Wan, Bitlis, and Jezirah was nearly a direct one It had been but recently opened to caravans The haunts of the last of the Kurdish rebels were on the shores of this lake
After the fall of the most powerful of their chiefs, Beder Khan Bey, they had one by one been subdued and carried away into captivity Only a few months had, however, elapsed since the Beys of Bitlis, who had longest resisted the Turkish aruished for the time in Kurdistan
Our caravan consisted of my own party, with the addition of a muleteer and his two assistants, natives of Bitlis, who furnished me with seventeen horses and mules from Erzeroom to Mosul The first day's ride, as is customary in the East, where friends accoates, and where the preparations for a journey are so nu cannot well be remembered, scarcely exceeded nine e of Guli, whose owner, one Shahan Bey, had been apprised of my intended visit He had rendered his newly-built house as comfortable as hisus with an excellent supper, passed the evening with me Descended from an ancient family of Dereh-Beys, he had inherited the hospitality and polished manners of a class now almost extinct, in consequence of the policy pursued by the Turkish sultans, Mahreat families and men of middle rank, ere more or less independent, and to consolidate and centralize the vast Ottoard these old Turkish lords as inexorable tyrants--robber chiefs, who lived on the plunder of travellers and of their subjects That there were many who answered to this description cannot be denied; but they were, I believe, exceptions Ah and noble feeling It has been frequently my lot to find a representative of this nearly extinct class in some remote and almost unknown spot in Asia Minor or Albania I have been received with affectionate warha in his spacious ht with the re beard, white as snow, falling low on his breast; hishis benevolent yet areneration; his hall open to all couest neither asked fro his hands with hi with reverence before him, rather his children than his servants; his revenues spent in raising fountains[1] on the wayside for the weary traveller, or in building caravanserais on the dreary plain; not only professing, but practising all the duties and virtues enjoined by the Koran, which are Christian duties and virtues too; in his manners, his appearance, his hospitality, and his faithfulness, a perfectaway, and I feel grateful in being able to testify, with a few others, to its existence once, against prejudice, intolerance, and so-called reforh not an old man, was a very favorable specimen of the class I have described He was truly, in the noble and expressive phraseology of the East, an ”Ojiak Zadeh,” ”a child of the hearth,” a gentlehistan, and his father, a pasha, had distinguished himself in the ith Russia He entertained me with anihbouring chiefs; and steadily refused to allow any recompense to himself or his servants for his hospitality
Fro nearly east and west, by a pass called Ali-Baba, or Ala-Baba, enjoying from the summit an extensive view of the plain of Pasvin, once one of the most thickly peopled and best cultivated districts in Armenia The Christian inhabitants were partly induced by promises of land and protection, and partly coia after the end of the last ith Turkey By si the Russian territories was almost stripped of its most industrious Armenian population To the south of us rose the snow-capped mountains of the Bin-Ghiul, or the ”Thousand Lakes,”
in which the Araxes and several confluents of the Euphrates have their source We descended froes, thinly scattered over the low hills, were deserted by their inhabitants, who, at this season of the year, pitch their tents and seek pasture for their flocks in the uplands
Next day we continued our journey areat and lesser bustard Innun that villages were near; but, like those we had passed the day before, they had been deserted for the _yilaks_, or sues are still such as they hen Xenophon traversed Arround; thethat of a well, but spacious below: there was an entrance dug for the cattle, but the inhabitants descended by ladders In these houses were goats, sheep, cows, and foith their young”[2] The low hovels, e of man, poultry, and cattle, cannot be seen from any distance, and they are purposely built away froovern troops It is not uncommon for a traveller to receive the first inti his horse's fore feet down a chi his place unexpectedly in the fah the roof Nu by reen their course to the Arras, or Araxes We crossed that river about mid-day by a ford not more than three feet deep, but the bed of the strea, is co the afternoon we crossed the western spur of the Tiektab Mountains, a high and bold range with three well defined peaks, which had been visible from the summit of the Ala-Baba pass Froh, a nificent conical peak, covered with eternal snow, and rising abruptly from the plain to the north of Lake Wan It is a conspicuous and beautiful object fro country We descended into the wide and fertile plain of Hinnis The toas just visible in the distance, but we left it to the right, and halted for the night in the large Are of Kosli, after a ride of uesthouse (a house reserved for travellers, and supported by joint contributions), with great hospitality by one Misrab Agha, a Turk, to whoed as Spahilik or hts, had now far the low houses, and heaps of dry dung, piled up in every open space for winter fuel, collecting fowls, curds, bread, and barley, abusing at the same time the _tanzimat_, which compelled such exalted travellers as ourselves, he said, ”to pay for the provisions we condescended to accept” The inhabitants were not, however, backward in furnishi+ng us with all anted, and the flourish of Misrab Agha's stick was only the remains of an old habit I invited hi himself contributed a tender lamb roasted whole towards our entertainuished either by their dress or by their general appearance from the Kurds They seemed prosperous and were on the best tere stands at the foot of the hills forh which flows a branch of the Murad Su, or Lower Euphrates We forded this river near the ruins of a bridge at Kara Kupri The plain is generally well cultivated, the principal produce being corn and hees, which are thickly scattered over it, have the appearance of extreme wretchedness, and, with their low houses and heaps of dried manure piled upon the roofs and in the open spaces around, look hills than human habitations The Kurds and Armenian Christians, both hardy and industrious races, are pretty equally divided in numbers, and live sociably in the same filth and h thethe top of the pass we had an interrupted view of the Subhan Dagh Froht, it rose abruptly before us This ed h the plain, the peasants driving the oxen over the corn on the threshi+ng-floor, and the groups of Kurdish horsearments, formed one of those scenes of Eastern travel which leave an indelible i back in after years indescribable feelings of pleasure and repose
We crossed the principal branch of the Euphrates soon after leaving Karagol Although the river is fordable at this ti it is nearly athe entire plain into one great , as we advanced, ame in such abundance and such variety in one spot; the water swarround with herons and snipe, and the stubble with bustards and cranes After the rains the lower road is ied tothe foot of the hills
We were not sorry to escape the fever-breeding swamp andus from the lake of Gula Shailu I stopped for a few minutes at an Ar the plain The bishop was at his breakfast, his fare frugal and episcopal enough, consisting of nothing more than boiled beans and sour milk He insisted that I should partake of his repast, and I did so, in a sh to ad the dishes, into which I dipped norant, like the rest of his class, gruovernment
After a pleasant ride of five hours we reached a deep clear lake, embedded in the mountains, two or three pelicans, ”swan and shadow double,” andon its blue waters Piron, the village where we halted for the night, stands at the further end of the Gula Shailu, and is inhabited by Kurds of the tribe of Hasananlu, and by Arood fellowshi+p a-heaps Ophthalst them, and the doctor was soon surrounded by a crowd of the blind and diseased claers said that a Persian, professing to be a Hakih the place some time before, and had offered to cure all bad eyes on payreed to, he gave his patients a pohich left the sore eyes as they were, and destroyed the good ones He then went his way: ”And with theKurd, whose appearance certainly threw considerable doubt on the assertion; ”but what can one do in these days of accursed Tanzimat (reforer lake of nazik, by a range of low hills about six e of Khers, built on its western extremity, in about two hours and a half, and found the chief, surrounded by the principal inhabitants, seated on a raised platfor a beard of spotless white to confire, and had never seen an European before the day of h his blear eyes until he had fully satisfied his curiosity; then spoke conteentleh exterior, was hospitable after his fashi+on, and would not suffer us to depart until we had eaten of every delicacy the village could afford
Leaving the nazik Gul, we entered an undulating country traversed by very deep ravines, mere channels cut into the sandstone by es are built at the bottoardens, sheltered by perpendicular rocks and watered by running streams They are undiscovered until the traveller reaches the very edge of the precipice, when a pleasant and cheerful scene opens suddenly beneath his feet He would have believed the upper country a mere desert had he not spied here and there in the distance a peasant slowly driving his plough through the rich soil The inhabitants of this district are hbours They carry the produce of their harvest not on the backs of animals, as in most parts of Asia Minor, but in carts entirelyused even in the wheels, which are ingeniously built of walnut, oak, and kara agatch (literally, black tree--? thorn), the stronger woods being used for rough spokes let into the nave The plough also differs froeneral use in Asia To the share are attached two parallel boards, about four feet long and a foot broad, which separate the soil and leave a deep and well defined furrow
We rode for two or three hours on these uplands, until, suddenly reaching the edge of a ravine, a beautiful prospect of a lake, woodland, and mountain opened before us
CHAPTER II
THE LAKE OF WAN--AKHLAT-TATAR TOMBS--ANCIENT REMAINS--A DERVISH--A FRIEND--THE MUDIR--ARMENIAN REMAINS--AN ARMENIAN CONVENT AND BISHOP--JOURNEY TO BITLIS--NIMROUD DAGH--BITLIS--JOURNEY TO KHERZAN--YEZIDI VILLAGE