Page:Lands of the Saracen 1859.djvu/322

CHAPTER XXV.

 

BROUSA AND THE SEA OF MARMORA.

 

The City of Brousa — Return to Civilization — Storm — The Kalputcha Hammam — A Hot Bath — A Foretaste of Paradise — The Streets and Bazaars of Brousa — The Mosque — The Tombs of the Ottoman Sultans — Disappearance of the Katurgees — We start for Moudania — The Sea of Marmora — Moudania — Passport Difficulties — A Greek Caïque — Breakfast with the Fishermen — A Torrid Voyage — The Princes' Islands — Prinkipo — Distant View of Constantinople — We enter the Golden Horn.

 

"And we glode fast o'er a pellucid plain
Of waters, azure with the noontide ray.
Ethereal mountains shone around — a fane
Stood in the midst, beyond green isles which lay
On the blue, sunny deep, resplendent far away."

Shelley.

 

Constantinople, Monday, July 12, 1852.

Before entering Brousa, we passed the whole length of the town, which is built on the side of Olympus, and on three bluffs or spurs which project from it. The situation is more picturesque than that of Damascus, and from the remarkable number of its white domes and minarets, shooting upward from the groves of chestnut, walnut, and cypress-trees, the city is even more beautiful. There are large mosques on all the most prominent points, and, near the centre of the city, the ruins of an ancient castle, built upon a crag. The place, as we rode along, presented a shifting diorama of delightful views. The hotel is at the extreme western end of the city, not far from its