Minor, and of the remains of antiquity;” with 20 plans, views, &c., published by Captain Beaufort, in 1817. The following extracts will shew the nature of the service which he had been selected to perform, as also the style of his work:–
“The name of Karamania is commonly applied, by Europeans, to that mountainous tract of country which forms the southern shore of Asia-Minor; but, however convenient such a gencral appellation may be, as a geographical distinction, it is neither used by the present inhabitants, uor is it recognized at the seat of government. A kingdom of that name, or rather Karamun-ily, did indeed once exist; it comprised the ancient provinces of Lycia, Pamphylia, and the two Cilicias, with parts of Caria and Phrygia; and was so called from Karaman, the chieftain by whom it was founded. But, after various struggles with the growing power of the Turks during the course of two centuries, it was finally subverted by Bajazet the Second; and tiic inland town of Karaman affords, at this day, the only remaining vestige of the name.
“The names and boundaries of the ancient provinces above-mentioned are also entirely obliterated; and the limits, even of the present states, cannot be ascertained with any precision. Sheltered from all effectual control of the Porte by the great barrier of Mount Taurus, the half-independent and turbulent Pashas, amongst whom they are parcelled, are engaged in constant petty hostilities with each other, so that their respective frontiers change with the issue of every skirmish.
“Groaning under that worst kind of despotism, this unfortunate country has been a continued scene of anarchy, rapine, and contention; her former cities are deserted, – her fertile valleys untilled, – and her rivers and harbours idle. Perhaps nothing can present a more striking picture of the pervading sloth and misery, than the hardly credible fact, that, on this extensive line of coast, which stretches along a sea abounding ia fish, the inhabitants do not possess a single boat.
“The allurements to visit a country in such a state of civil degradation are certainly small, when contrasted with the risk of venturing among those jealous and discordant tribes. Nevertheless, it does appear somewhat strange, that, while the modern spirit of discovery had explored the moat remote extremities of the globe, and while the political convulsions of Europe had forced the enterprising traveller into other continents, this portion of the Mediterranean shores should have remained undescribed, and almost unknown. For, beside its tempting proximity to the borders of Europe, and its easiness of access, this once flourishing region seems to possess eminent claims to attention:– it was colonized by that redundant population of antient Greece, which had gradually spread over the rest of Asia-Minor, and which had every where introduced the same splendid conceptions, the same superiority in the arts, that had immortalized the parent country:– it was once the seat of learning and riches, and the theatre of