MY DEAR FRIEND,

To gain some little knowledge of the interior country, and, at the same time, to pay a compliment to St. Paul, we took a journey by land to Ephesus, the inhabitants of which, you may remember, were honoured with an Epistle from him, and with having his son Timothy for a Bishop. It is barely forty miles from hence; but the Turks never going beyond a foot pace in travelling, we made it a journey of two days. We had six horses for ourselves, and as many for our guides, janizary, and servants. We were obliged to carry all our provisions with us, even bread. Water we found in abundance; and such is the attention of the Turks to this valuable article of life, that we came to several excellent fountains when there was nothing like an habitation to be seen. The greater part of the road is execrably bad; and the country, though in general fertile, is too thinly peopled to be much cultivated.

The few inhabitants we saw in the second day's journey were wretchedly poor. You recollect that this is the freezing month of January, and that the winter here, though short, is, for a few weeks, much more severe than one would expect in so southern a latitude.

Our road led us by a fountain, where, in this cold weather, some women were washing. None of them were completely clothed; and one poor girl had, for her only covering, a piece of an old blanket, with two holes torn in the upper end of it, through which, instead of sleeves, she put her arms. It was too small to cover her chest, too short to reach below her waist; and it was with difficulty that, by holding the lower corners in her two hands, she made them meet.

A young female, in an attire so little adapted to the tenderness of her sex, and to the inclemency of the season, moved one's very soul. I do not know that I touched the reins, and yet my horse stopt with his head towards her. My eye involuntarily fixed itself upon her; and, to the latest moment of my life, I shall never forget her figure. She is above the middle size, and her limbs did not seem formed for so exposed a situation. The sun had tanned her face; but her skin was smooth, and naturally delicate, and her features of that mould, that, had she been born to a more happy lot, she might have been reckoned a perfect beauty.

It was impossible to behold such an object without emotion. My horse now advanced to her feet, and my friend approached her at the same moment. Each searched his pockets, and presented the little silver they contained. No hand could be spared to receive it. In our anxiety to relieve her distress, we had forgot the trial to which we had exposed her modesty. The blushing maid stood motionless; but, encouraged by the sympathy and charity marked in our approach, she ventured to raise her head.--Her eyes were turned towards us.--The tear of gratitude was swelling in them.--She gave but one glance.--Her face was instantly reverted to the ground.--She could not speak.

Such unexpected modesty, in so exposed a situation, filled me with astonishment and veneration. How much did I wish to take her in my arms, and, by a kiss of affection, to express the sympathy I bore in her distress. How did I execrate the parsimony that had prevented my having about me all the money I possessed.--How earnestly did I wish to remove her to a more sheltered fate, where her beauty and her modesty might be better known and admired.

Led away by these inclinations, I was preparing to alight. The timid virgin drew back. By signs of respect, she again raised her eyes. Charity was so forcibly petitioning in them, that the money which her figure at first sight drew from my pocket, now dropt at her feet. The reins fell from my hand. My horse inclined to the road. I would with joy have turned him back; but I recollected my inability to relieve her.--I am only a Soldier of Fortune, and subsist but by the bounty of my Sovereign: a bounty which, though much superior to what my humble services entitle me to expect, is, alas! too insufficient to support the appearance required from an Officer, and often compels the military Philanthrope to suppress every charitable emotion.

The road being but little frequented, the caravansera, or public inn, we stopped at the first night of our journey, was nothing but a large hovel, one end of which was appropriated to travellers, and the other, without any partition, to their cattle: but we were fortunate enough to be accommodated with a Greek hut, where, with the assistance of a good fire, we passed a tolerable night.

At Ephesus we were not so lucky. We were obliged to sleep promiscuously among the Turks, one or other of whom was smoking all night long. I observed that they eat very little, but that, after every nap, they took a pipe, and a sip of coffee: I say, a sip; for the Turkish cups are scarce bigger than a walnut shell; but of these they drink an amazing number, and their coffee is always exceedingly strong.

We were heartily rejoiced when we returned to our old Greek hut on the road, but, to our great disappointment, found it possessed by a Turk. Luckily, he expressed a great desire to taste our beer; and we seized this opportunity to get rid of him, by desiring our janizary to invite him to partake of a bottle of it at the caravansera. A janizary's invitation is only a civil command; but we did not choose to make use of his authority until we could give the Turk a satisfactory compensation. Mahomet forbade the use of wine; but his followers do not conceive themselves to be prohibited the use of other fermented liquors. In general, they are very fond of porter and beer of all kinds, drinking as much of it as they can get; and some of them, indeed, are not very scrupulous about wine.

After the Turk was gone, not dreaming of the danger that was hanging over us, we slept very comfortably for some hours; but, before day-light, we were roused by flakes of fire falling upon our bodies from the roof. No water being at hand, the whole hut was soon in a blaze, and, in a few minutes, burnt to the ground.

This unlucky accident was occasioned by our own fire, which heated the mud flue that served as a chimney, to such a degree, that it communicated to the thatched roof, which was half burnt through before we awoke. Very fortunately, none of us had taken off our clothes; for we carried no bedding, and nothing of the kind was to be got.

The Turks in the Caravansera remained quiet spectators of this catastrophe. At the moment when we found that all our efforts to extinguish the flames were ineffectual, my eye turning towards the Mussulmen, found them smoking, and seemingly quite unconcerned.

Determined not to be outdone by them in coolness, I seated myself in the middle of them, and, being provided with the materials, instantly began shaving myself, to their no small astonishment, and the equal delight of the boys of our party, who have turned this anecdote into a pleasant story, which is my only reason for mentioning it.

You of course recollect that the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was one of the wonders of the world, was destroyed on the very day that Alexander was born, " A. A. C. 356" by a sacrilegious wretch, to render himself remembered by posterity. We found many ruins, and among the rest, a superb pile quite overturned, which we concluded was the remains of this celebrated temple. The columns were all broken. The most entire piece was forty-two feet in length, and eighteen in circumference. This and the rest of the columns, were every one hewn out of single blocks of marble; but notwithstanding the immense size and value of these materials several antiquarians will not allow them to have belonged to the real Temple of Diana.

It is not my purpose to dispute with these learned gentlemen, I shall only observe, that none of them have made the columns of this Temple more than sixty feet high.

According to Palladio's measurement of the pillars to the portico of the celebrated Rotunda at Rome, which has universally been accepted as a proper standard, the height of the Corinthian column is twenty modules.

A circumference of eighteen feet gives a module of three feet, and in common arithmetic, twenty of these give sixty. On these proportions then, the fragment I mention formed a column of the exact height handed down to us of those of the Temple of Diana.

But people who wish to diminish the consequence of the pile I am mentioning, may say that Palladio's proportions are liable to exceptions, which I will readily admit, that I may ask, whether it is possible, by any proportions, to make a column less than sixty feet high of a base and capital, in addition to a shaft, a fragment of which is forty-two feet in length?

If either of the positions I take up be admitted, those antiquarians who will not allow this magnificent pile of ruins to have belonged to the Temple of Diana, must at least confess, that these superb fragments must have formed an edifice equal to it, both in size and grandeur.

We also saw the remains of St. John's Church, now converted into a Turkish Mosque. Part of the aqueduct, and many other vestiges of the once noble city of Ephesus, are still to be seen. But in lieu of the Blessed Virgin, St. Paul, St. John, Kings, Princes, and Heroes, who rendered it so famous, both in sacred and profane history, its inhabitants are now reduced to a few miserable peasants.

We met no manner of interruption on the road, notwithstanding this is a time when the Government, naturally weak, is obliged to suffer a kind of licentiousness, in order to keep the rabble in good humour, and to complete the new levies.

Never was there a more popular war than the present. The Turks, from every part of this immense Empire, are preparing to join the grand army. The suspicions against the Emperor of Germany increase every day; but from the zeal and spirit with which every Mussulman enters into the cause, one is almost led to imagine, that the Ottomans will make a tolerable stand against the powerful enemies by which they will be attacked.

It is fortunate for the Porte, that at this crisis her Ministers are avowedly the best that ever governed Turkey. The Grand Vizir is young and vigorous, and a pupil of the celebrated Hassan, now Captain Bashaw, or Lord High Admiral, who is just returned from Egypt crowned with victory. He had been sent there with the fleet, and an army also under his command, to subdue the rebel Beys, in which, notwithstanding the intrigues of the Russians, he happily succeeded, and, by additional proofs of courage and address, has added fresh laurels to his former fame.

The Vice-Admiral, who commanded at Constantinople in his absence, was sent to destroy six Russian men of war, which being dismasted in the storm that had obliged Captain Teesdale to give himself up to the Turks, had anchored on the coast of the Black Sea, and seemed to promise an easy conquest. But, to the great disappointment of the Porte, they had time to refit and get off; and as their escaping was said to be owing to want of exertion in the Turkish Vice-Admiral, he was banished immediately after his return to Constantinople, and afterwards brought back and beheaded.

The Captain Bashaw is equipping the fleet with all possible dispatch, and will sail early in the spring, with a force that will compel the Russian squadron on the Black Sea to act on the defensive, unless their fleet from the Baltic is permitted to enter the Mediterranean, and make a diversion to the southward. But as this would be entirely depriving the Porte of every prospect of opposing, with any success, the machinations of her enemies, England certainly can never permit so decisive a step to be taken in favor of the ambitious, and to us, destructive views of the two Imperial Courts.

The Reis Effendi, or Principal Secretary of State, is said to possess sufficient abilities to fill that office in any country in Europe. The following anecdote of him, will give you an idea of his opinion of France and England. The spirited conduct of our Court during the late disturbances in Holland, reflects the greatest honor on the King and his Ministers; and it is said, that Sir Robert Ainslie, our Ambassador at the Porte, with his usual patriotic attention to the honor and interest of his country, drew up a short narrative of that important business, and delivered it to the Porte.

At an audience afterwards given to Sir Robert, the Turkish Ministry congratulated his Excellency on the distinguished success of his Court, and the Reis Effendi, I am told, made these observations, "You have acted with all your usual courage--but with more than your usual wisdom. You have carried your point without bloodshed, and have left the French to fight among themselves."

The last sentence occasioned some surprise; but by what I learn from the French officers who are just arrived, a violent convulsion in France is not far distant, and the Reis Effendi bids fair to prove by it, his profound knowledge of the interior state of that kingdom, a knowledge which Turkish Ministers are not generally expected to possess, at least of nations that are not their immediate neighbours.

An army of observation is forming on the Banks of the Danube, to watch the motions of the Germans, whose hostile declaration is hourly expected. The Baron de Herbert has given himself great airs in the Divan, and threatened vengeance on the Porte, for daring to attack the ally of the Emperor, his master. The Turks treated these threats with the contempt such impertinence deserved; but at the same time, with great gravity and wisdom, they informed the Baron, that they were aware of the power of the Emperor, and would be sorry to see it exerted against them; but still that, trusting to the equity of Europe, they were determined to risk this unequal conflict, rather than submit to those incessant encroachments, which, by daily weakening the Porte, and increasing the power of the two Imperial Courts, must end, if unopposed, in the total subversion of the Ottoman Empire.

The Emperor seems convinced that threats will not avail, and even at this late season, daily accounts arrive of the march of his troops towards the frontiers.

Constant skirmishes are happening between the Turks and the Russians on the borders of the Crimea; and since my last letter, the Porte have received information of the capture of twelve hundred Russians, and of the Island of Taman being taken by the Tartars of Kuban. The possession of this island is of great consequence to the Turks, since it forms the east side of the straits of Wosphor Zabach, which connect the Black Sea with the sea of Azof.

To balance this success, the French, and other enemies of the Porte, give out that a General Sekell, with a corps of Russians, has routed a detachment of these same Tartars, in the vicinity of Mount Caucasus. The season, however, is too far advanced for any thing decisive to be done.

In April the Grand Vizir will take the field in earnest; but in the mean while the Moscovite troops are gathering towards Turkey, on the banks of the Dnieper, the Bog, and the Dniester; and if the Emperor engages the attention of the Ottoman grand army, the Russian Generals will begin the ensuing campaign with the siege of Oczakow, and the invasion of Moldavia. Prince Potemkin will direct the former, Count Romanzow the latter; and unless some other power interferes, it is not difficult to foresee, that the Imperial Courts will soon accomplish all their ambitious schemes against this brave, but unenlightened people.