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17 UN DfiBAT ł LE3 MENTAUTES COLLErCTIVE3 607

In my next letter I will tell you morę of Constantinople & its Environs than I possibly can at present as I have not been able to walk into the Town but once sińce I came which was the 3^d or 4^th Day & was so hot that it increased my Fever much. — Fires are freąuent & dreadful here the Houses being all of Wood—Since I arrived have been two which have consumed above 2000 Houses. — Near Adrianople the Roads have been much infested by Banditti We saw no less than nine Bodies impaled which is performed by running a Stake up them behind & along the back Bonę to the Head. — This is freąuently performed whilst the Man is alive & he will live a day or two in this State sometimes. Most of them however had been beheaded first. This the Turks perform at one Stroke with a Sabre. — The Stakes were not much larger than a Hedge Stake & some of them had been brolcen off by the Ground & the Bodies were lying absolutely in the Road which afforded a sight entirely new & very dis-gusting as they had not been long executed. — The Number of Dogs is so great here that you see five & twenty togetlier lying in the Streets where they move for nobody. They have no Owners & are often very fierce at Night as you pass — Eagles & Yultures are always over the Town We fear that we shall be preventod visiting all the Isles in the Archipelago as the French liave some Frigates off Smyrna & treat the English so inhumanly that it is eertain Death to be taken by them as we hear they have already put to Death the whole crew of a Sloop they took in these Seas — We are to go to Troy as soon as I can get out but shall return hither. — Tell Kate to play much. — We shall eontrive to get to Athens if possible & make some stay there. — The Road along shore by Salonicki is so infested by Banditti that they say it is not safe to go. They are better than Frenchmen. Love to all Adieu & believe me yours most affectly R. S. — [Robert Stockdale]

August 9^th I am much better to day [having been?] * out some Hours in a Boat & am much refreshed. — I have been to the opposite [Point?]* where Chalcedonia formerly stood but at present there is morelą a Yil-lage.— I spent a few Hours [walking?]* for the first time this Morning. Dr. Sibthorpe [sic] is here & seems a very good sort of a Man — I like hini much.—

The Thermometer here is always between 85 & 91

As to the Turkish Ladies One knows but little about them. They almost never stir out & when they do are so muffled up that you see nothing but their Eyes. — The Husbands are little morę known going very seldom nto Society.

Fandle Wilbraham to Mrs. Wilbraham Bootle, Constantinople, 7 August

1794- (The Baker Wilbraham Papers, Rode Hall, Cheshire).

No.10

Ąly dearest Madam,

Although my silence has been extremely long, yet I trust you will not impute it to negligence but to the real cause, which was that as you

♦ Wo rds missing from the original letter.