at daylight next morning we could just discern cyprus sinking behind us in the horizon. the day had all the charm with which the poets have invested this region; the sea was of the traditional indigo blue,—of which the blue grotto of capri is only a cheap imitation. no land was in sight, after we lost cyprus, but the spirit of the ancient romance lay upon the waters, and we were soothed with the delights of an idle existence. as good a world as can be made with a perfect sea and a perfect sky and delicious atmosphere we had.
through this summer calm voyages our great steamer, a world in itself, an exhibition, a fair, a f阾e, a camp-meeting, cut loose from the earth and set afloat. there are not less than eight hundred pilgrims on board, people known as first-class and second-class stowed in every nook and corner. forward of the first cabin, the deck of the long vessel is packed with human beings, two deep and sometimes crossed, a crowd which it is almost impossible to penetrate. we look down into the hold upon a mass of bags and bundles and russians heaped indiscriminately together,—and it is very difficult to distinguish a russian woman from a bundle of old clothes, when she is in repose. these people travel with their bedding, their babies, and their cooking utensils, and make a home wherever they sit down.
the forward passengers have overflowed their limits and extend back upon our portion of the deck, occupying all one side of it to the stern, leaving the so-called privileged class only a narrow promenade on the starboard side. these intruders are, however, rather first-class second-class. parties of them are camped down in small squares, which become at once miniature seraglios. one square is occupied by wealthy moslems from damascus, and in another is a stately person who is rumored to be the prince of damascus. these turbaned and silk-clad orientals have spread their bright rugs and cushions, and lounge here all day and sleep here at night; some of them entertain themselves with chess, but the most of them only smoke and talk little. why should they talk? has not enough already been said in the world? at intervals during the day, ascertaining, i do not know how, the direction of mecca, these grave men arise, spread their prayer-carpets, and begin in unison their kneelings and prostrations, servants and masters together, but the servants behind their masters. next to them, fenced off by benches, is a harem square, occupied by veiled women, perhaps the wives of these moslems and perhaps "some others." all the deck is a study of brilliant costume.
a little later the oriental prince turns out to be only a turkish pasha, who has a state-room below for himself, and another for his harem; but in another compartment of our flower-bed of a deck is a merchant-prince of damascus, whose gorgeousness would impose upon people more sophisticated than we.
"he no prince; merchant like me," explains achmed, "and very rich, god be merciful."
"but why don't you travel about like that, achmed, and make a fine display?"
"for why? anybody say mohammed achmed any more respect? what for i show my rich? take my advice. when i am dragoman, i am servant; and dress [here a comico-sarcastic glance at his plain but handsome dragoman apparel] not in monkey shine, like selim—you remember him—at jaffa, fierce like a bedawee. i make business. when i am by my house, that is another thing."
the pasha has rooms below, and these contiguous squares on deck are occupied, the one by his suite and the other by their ladies and slaves, all veiled and presumably beautiful, lolling on the cushions in the ennui that appears to be their normal condition. one of them is puffing a cigarette under her white veil at the risk of a conflagration. one of the slaves, with an olive complexion and dark eyes, is very pretty, and rather likes to casually leave her face uncovered for the benefit of the infidels who are about; that her feet and legs are bare she cares still less. this harem is, however, encroached upon by greek women, who sprawl about with more freedom, and regard the world without the hindrance of a veil. if they are not handsome, they are at least not self-conscious, as you would think women would be in baggy silk trousers and embroidered jackets.
in the afternoon we came in sight of the ancient coasts of pamphylia and lycia and a lovely range of what we took to be the karamanian mountains, snow-covered and half hid in clouds, all remote and dim to our vision as the historical pageant of assyrian, persian, and roman armies on these shores is to our memory. eastward on that rugged coast we know is cilicia and the tarsus of paul and haroun al raschid. the sunset on the lycian mountains was glorious; the foot by the water was veiled in golden mist; the sea sank from indigo to purple, and when the light waves broke flecks of rose or blood flowed on the surface.
after dark, and before we were abreast of old xanthus, we descried the famous natural light which is almost as mysterious to the moderns as it was to the ancients. the handbook says of it: "about two miles from the coast, through a fertile plain, and then ascending a woody glen, the traveller arrives at the zanar, or volcanic flame, which issues perpetually from the mountain." pliny says: "mount chimaera, near phaselis, emits an unceasing flame that burns day and night." captain beaufort observed it from the ship during the night as a small but steady light among the hills. we at first mistook it for a lighthouse. but it was too high above the water for that, and the flame was too large; it was rather a smoky radiance than a point of light, and yet it had a dull red centre and a duller luminous surrounding. we regarded with curiosity and some awe a flame that had been burning for over twenty centuries, and perhaps was alight before the signal-fires were kindled to announce the fall of troy,—nature's own pharos to the ancient mariners who were without compass on these treacherous seas.
otherwise, this classic coast is dark, extinguished is the fire on the altar of apollo at patera, silent is the winter oracle of this god, and desolate is the once luxurious metropolis of lycia. even xanthus, the capital, a name disused by the present inhabitants, has little to show of greek culture or persian possession, and one must seek the fragments of its antique art in the british museum.
coming on deck the next morning at the fresh hour of sunrise, i found we were at rhodes. we lay just off the semicircular harbor, which is clasped by walls—partly shaken down by earthquakes—which have noble round towers at each embracing end. rhodes is, from the sea, one of the most picturesque cities in the mediterranean, although it has little remains of that ancient splendor which caused strabo to prefer it to rome or alexandria. the harbor wall, which is flanked on each side by stout and round stone windmills, extends up the hill, and, becoming double, surrounds the old town; these massive fortifications of the knights of st. john have withstood the onsets of enemies and the tremors of the earth, and, with the ancient moat, excite the curiosity of this so-called peaceful age of iron-clads and monster cannon. the city ascends the slope of the hill and passes beyond the wall. outside and on the right towards the sea are a picturesque group of a couple of dozen stone windmills, and some minarets and a church-tower or two. higher up the hill is sprinkled a little foliage, a few mulberry-trees, and an isolated palm or two; and, beyond, the island is only a mass of broken, bold, rocky mountains. of its forty-five miles of length, running southwesterly from the little point on which the city stands, we can see but little.
whether or not rhodes emerged from the sea at the command of apollo, the greeks expressed by this tradition of its origin their appreciation of its gracious climate, fertile soil, and exquisite scenery. from remote antiquity it had fame as a seat of arts and letters, and of a vigorous maritime power, and the romance of its early centuries was equalled if not surpassed when it became the residence of the knights of st. john. i believe that the first impress of its civilization was given by the phoenicians; it was the home of the dorian race before the time of the trojan war, and its three cities were members of the dorian hexapolis; it was in fact a flourishing maritime confederacy, strong enough to send colonies to the distant italian coast, and sybaris and parthenope (modern naples) perpetuated the luxurious refinement of their founders. the city of rhodes itself was founded about four hundred years before christ, and the splendor of its palaces, its statues and paintings, gave it a pre-eminence among the most magnificent cities of the ancient world. if the earth of this island could be made to yield its buried treasures as cyprus has, we should doubtless have new proofs of the influence of asiatic civilization upon the greeks, and be able to trace in the early doric arts and customs the superior civilization of the phoenicians, and of the masters of the latter, in science and art, the egyptians.
naturally, every traveller who enters the harbor of rhodes hopes to see the site of one of the seven wonders of the world, the colossus. he is free to place it on either mole at the entrance of the harbor, but he comprehends at once that a statue which was only one hundred and five feet high could never have extended its legs across the port. the fame of this colossal bronze statue of the sun is disproportioned to the period of its existence; it stood only fifty-six years after its erection, being shaken down by an earthquake in the year 224 b.c., and encumbering the ground with its fragments till the advent of the moslem conquerors.
when we landed, the town was not yet awake, except the boatmen and the coffee-houses by the landing-stairs. the greek boatman, whom we accepted as our guide, made an unsuccessful excursion for bread, finding only a black uneatable mixture, sprinkled with aromatic seeds; but we sat under the shelter of an old sycamore in a lovely place by the shore, and sipped our coffee, and saw the sun coming over lycia, and shining on the old towers and walls of the knights.
passing from the quay through a highly ornamented gothic gateway, we ascended the famous historic street, still called the street of the knights, the massive houses of which have withstood the shocks of earthquakes and the devastation of saracenic and turkish occupation. at this hour the street was as deserted as it was three centuries and a half ago, when the knights sorrowfully sailed out of the harbor in search of a new home. their four months' defence of the city., against the overwhelming force of suleiman the magnificent, added a new lustre to their valor, and extorted the admiration of the victor and the most honorable terms of surrender. with them departed the prosperity of rhodes. this street, of whose palaces we have heard so much, is not imposing; it is not wide, its solid stone houses are only two stories high, and their fronts are now disfigured by cheap arab balconies, but the fa鏰des are gray with age. all along are remains of carved windows. gothic sculptured doorways, and shields and coats of arms, crosses and armorial legends, are set in the walls, partially defaced by time and accident; for the moslems, apparently inheriting the respect of suleiman for the knights, have spared the mementos of their faith and prowess. i saw no inscriptions that are intact, but made out upon one shield the words voluntas mei est. the carving is all beautiful.
we went through the silent streets, waking only echoes of the past, out to the ruins of the once elegant church of st. john, which was shaken down by a powder-explosion some thirty years ago, and utterly flattened by an earthquake some years afterwards. outside the ramparts we met, and saluted frith the freedom of travellers, a gorgeous turk who was taking the morning air, and whom our guide in bated breath said was the governor. in this part of the town is the mosque of suleiman; in the portal are two lovely marble columns, rich with age; the lintels are exquisitely carved with flowers, arms, casques, musical instruments, the crossed sword and the torch, and the mandolin, perhaps the emblem of some troubadour knight. wherever we went we found bits of old carving, remains of columns, sections of battlemented roofs. the town is saturated with the old knights. near the mosque is a foundation of charity, a public kitchen, at which the poor were fed or were free to come and cook their food; it is in decay now, and the rooks were sailing about its old round-topped chimneys.
there are no hellenic remains in the city, and the only remembrance of that past which we searched for was the antique coin, which has upon one side the head of medusa and upon the other the rose (rhoda) which gave the town its name. the town was quiet; but in pursuit of this coin in the jews' quarter we started up swarms of traders, were sent from isaac to jacob, and invaded dark shops and private houses where jewish women and children were just beginning to complain of the morning light. our guide was a jolly greek, who was willing to awaken the whole town in search of a silver coin. the traders, when we had routed them out, had little to show in the way of antiquities. perhaps the best representative of the modern manufactures of rhodes is the wooden shoe, which is in form like the damascus clog, but is inlaid with more taste. the people whom we encountered in our morning walk were greeks or jews.
the morning atmosphere was delicious, and we could well believe that the climate of rhodes is the finest in the mediterranean, and also that it is the least exciting of cities.
"is it always so peaceful here?" we asked the guide.
"nothing, if you please," said he, "has happened here since the powder-explosion, nothing in the least."
"and is the town as healthy as they say?"
"nobody dies."
the town is certainly clean, if it is in decay. in one street we found a row of mulberry-trees down the centre, but they were half decayed, like the street. i shall always think of rhodes as a silent city,—except in the jews' quarter, where the hope of selling an old coin set the whole hive humming,—and i suspect that is its normal condition.