INTRODUCTION.       xii

It is situated in a gorge between two rocks, on the lower of which stands a castle; which, being commanded by the opposite height where the enemy threw up fortifications, under whose cover the maintained an incessant fire upon the town and the fort, the gallant little garrison, seeing their stronghold crumble about them, were compelled to yield. their resolute resistance is, however, still testified by the scores of balls which are embedded in the bank of the river, and along the shore.

Hence, until the Danube empties itself into the Black Sea, and even beyond that point, the whole shore is one continuous marsh scattered over with lakes, of which the most considerable is that of Rasséin; while, far as the eye can reach, the same great flat, formed by the plains of Bessarabia, to the north of the river, blends with the horizon.

The forts of Matschin, Isatchi, and Toultcha, near the mouths of the Danube, are rather outposts than fortresses; the two great strongholds of Ismaïl and Brahilof, on the opposite shore, having been as already stated, wrested from the Turks by the enforced Treaty of Adrianople; a most important loss to that power, as, during all the preceding wars, they had universally served to arrest invasion, and had sustained the most obstinate sieges. At Ismaïl, in 1790, Souvarof lost 15,000 men, and massacred 30,000 souls, without distinction of age or sex; while Brahilof has records of gallant endurance and suffering to boast, of little less mark.

Below Toultcha the Danube forms a delta, and throws itself into the Black Sea by three great embouchures - those of Kilia, Souliné (or Sunné-Baghatzi), and St. George; the second being the only one navigable for vessels of heavy tonnage, and belonging, by virtue of the same treaty, to Russia; by which the Czar commands the commerce and navigation of the mightiest river-way in Europe.

Of the Bosphorus, the object of ambition to the Autocrat, there remains nothing for me to say beyond what may be gathered from the admirable sketches of Mr. Bartlett, and the verbal descriptions appended to them. GOD be thanked that social progression is enabling the lawful lords of the soil to estimate at their true value the natural advantages by which they are surrounded; and to hold out a hope that the blessings of Christianity may not be long disregarded by a people whose moral virtues and intuitive charity have already raised them above the level of so questionable and idolatrous a creed as that of the so-called Greek Orthodox Church.

Wyndham-place, Bryanstone-square