consuming, it was supposed, about 13,000 houses. Immediately after followed the fire of Casim Pasha, on the other side of the Peninsula, on the harbour. This communicated with the ships at the Arsenal, and a large man-of-war floated in flames to the Fanal, and nearly set fire to Constantinople. On this occasion about 6,000 houses were burned, and the fire was attributed to the Greeks, whose intention, they said, was to destroy the Turkish fleet, and which was very nearly effected. The next fire occurred in Galata, on the side of Tophana, which consumed all the houses within the moles, at that end of the town. This was immediately succeeded by another, which was accompanied by a remarkable phenomenon. There stands in the town a lofty building called the Tower of Galata. In this was kept a large drum, which a sentinel, on the look-out from the top, used to beat as a signal of alarm, whenever he saw a fire. On this occasion no drum was beat; but several persons saw the point of the spire illumed by a bright flame, which was the first intimation they had of the existence of a fire somewhere below. It frequently happens that the flame bursts out in places very remote from the burning houses. The Turks attribute this to red-hot nails, which they say spirt out from the burning wood, and sticking in some inflammable substance, which they happen to light on, communicate the fire at a considerable distance. In the present instance, the houses on fire could not be seen from the tower which they set in a blaze. What the former fire here had spared, was now consumed, so that all Galata, with the exception of a few houses, had been reduced to ashes, and still exhibits large gaps, which never have been filled up.

Hitherto the district, properly called Pera, on the summit of the hill, had escaped, and there was a general feeling of security, that its stone houses would resist the fire which destroyed those of wood; but the time was now come when that delusion was to be at an end. On the 2nd of August, 1831, a gentleman, looking into the English palace garden, at about ten o'clock in the morning, saw some dry grass smoking, and on pointing it out to the people, they ran to extinguish it with the greatest anxiety, and then informed him, that there was a fire somewhere, which had set the grass smoking by the adhesion of a red-hot nail. He immediately went in search of the fire, and found a few houses in flames at a place called Sakiz Aghatz, in a deep valley between the Great Burying Ground, and the village of S. Demetri. The situation of the place was so remote, and the fire at the time so trifling, that he thought there could be no possible danger to the town; but he was probably struck by the distance to which fire may be communicated. The palace garden, in which the grass was on fire, stood on the summit, of a hill, more than half a mile from the burning houses.

The wind which prevailed was that which periodically returns at this time of the year. There is a species of solanum, much used in soups, called patlinjam, and by an odd coincidence, when this first appears in the market, the wind sets in; it is, therefore, called patlinjam melktem. It comes very strong from the N. E. and continues for three weeks or a month, drying up every substance capable of combustion, and rendering it highly inflammable, and then spread

ing the flames the moment they begin. The interval between the fire and the palace was a steep hill, which presented a face of wooden houses, almost like a pile of dry timber. Against this the flame was driven, and it ascended with incredible activity. Several persons who stood on the brow of the hill over the fire, seeing it travelling so fast towards Pera, where they lived, now hastened home; but on their return, the streets were so obstructed by crowds hurrying away with their effects, that they were delayed, and they found the fire had travelled as fast as they did, and was actually at the walls of the English palace garden, and entering the Pera Street as soon as themselves.

It was generally supposed that the English palace, insulated in the middle of an open area, could not be reached by the fire; but in a short time the flames spread all round; the houses on all sides of the garden wall were in a blaze, and the whole area of the large garden was canopied by sheets of flame and smoke. Several persons had brought their furniture and effects there, as to a place of security; but the air became so heated, and loaded with fiery particles, that every thing laid there began to burn. The trees now took fire, and the wind, which had never ceased, suddenly increased to a furious gale, and drove the whole column of flame full against the deserted building. The noise it made was like the roaring of a vast furnace, and it seemed to envelope the whole palace. In a few minutes after, it was observed to smoke violently; flames then burst out of the windows, and in about twenty minutes the roof fell in, and nothing remained of this fine edifice and all it contained, but scorched walls and smoking ashes.

From hence the fire took the direction of Pera, consuming every thing before it with irresistible and incredible force; the fireproof stone houses opposed no more delay to it than the wooden sheds. All the residences of the French, Dutch, Sardinian, Russian, and Prussian Ambassadors, and the merchants' houses, were prostrated before it, and in about six hours all the palaces of the European missions were destroyed, except the Austrian and Swedish, which were out of the direct line of the fire. The latter had been burnt before, and little remained of it but the gate-house; the former had belonged to the Venetian, and seemed to bear a charmed existence. It has stood almost since the time of the Crusades, and the fires seem to turn aside from it as if they knew it to be incombustible. The fire continued to extend through different directions, particularly down Casim Pasha till eight or nine in the evening, when the wind subsided, and its progress was stopped, after extending over an area about three miles in circumference, and consuming all that part of the peninsula that former fires had spared. The next morning presented a dismal spectacle. The people, driven from their houses, had no place of retreat but the burying-ground: here they were seen in thousands stretched on the earth, with no covering but the sky, and no bed but the graves. The Sultan immediately directed that barracks and other large edifices should be appropriated for their shelter, and he distributed among them 100,000 piastres. A return was made to him of the number burnt out, and they amounted to 80,000. As the population was very dense, and averaged at least

eight persons to a house, it is supposed that 10,000 houses were destroyed, if the return of the persons be correct.

PLAN OF PERA, SHOWING THE EXTENT OF THE FIRE

ON THE SECOND OF AUGUST 1831.

But the circumstance which marks this fire above all others is the loss of property. On all former occasions the strong stone houses had escaped; and a person who had one interposed between the direction of the fire and his wooden edifice, thought himself secure under such a shield. Hence it was, that when the fire began no one who occupied a stone house thought of removing his effects. There were, besides, attached to each of them, in general, a fire-proof vaulted magazine, below the foundation, and whenever from any extraordinary alarm, the inhabitants left the house above, they placed all their pro

perty in this magazine below, and retired. But such was the intensity of this fire, that neither iron nor stone walls could oppose, and all the property laid up in places of security was destroyed. A M. Calatro, one of the Dragomen of the English mission, had a magazine of this kind, to which he descended by seventeen stone steps. Here he deposited all the effects not only of himself but of his brother dragomen. The next day he found the iron trap-door melted, and every thing in his vault reduced to ashes, leaving to the whole corps nothing but the Benichas or long gowns they happened to have on their backs. It so happened also, that the families of all the Ambassadors were at Therapea or Buyukdere for the summer, and no one remained in the palaces to remove any of the property, which was all destroyed.

The only house that effectually resisted the fire was the British Chancery. It has an arched cell, of brick and stone alternately, with iron windows, which the people in the office hastily plastered up with mud, when the fire came on them, and then they ran off. The next day it was standing, but as it was red hot, they were afraid all the papers within were calcined like the MSS. of Herculaneum. For several days they were afraid to open the doors, lest the air rushing in, as had been the case in several instances, should inflame the highly combustible materials within; but at length they did so, and found all safe. Next door to the Chancery, was a very large and strong house, which the pious founder placed under a guardianship which he thought more effectual than Greek arches and iron shutters. He set over the door, on a marble tablet, the following inscription:-MARIÆ

ET IOSEPHO PROTECTORIBUS HANC DOMUM ET OMNIA SUA CREDIDIT

FREDERICUS CHIRICHO. A.D. 1708. Notwithstanding this prudent precaution, the house was burned to the ground, leaving nothing standing but part of the front wall with the marble tablet.

So complete has been the obliteration of all that marked the former streets of Pera, and so sudden has been the change, that people cannot find their way through them. It is not like a fire in England, where the roofs fall in and leave the walls standing, to mark the direction of the street: here every thing is prostrate, and the open space presents no more direction than a rugged common. An Englishman, who had not been long at Pera, left for Odessa on business, and returned in little more than a week. When arrived at Tophana, he took his bag in his hand and proceeded up to Josepinas Locouda, off Pera Street, where he lodged. He heard nothing of the fire, and, when he came to where he thought his inn ought to stand, he found nothing but an open space, encumbered with heaps of rubbish. He thought he had wandered into some other district, and returned to Galata, to a friend's house, where he first learned the catastrophe, and that nothing remained of his inn or the street in which it had stood.

You will ask, are there no firemen or engines in a place where there is such an awful loss of life and property almost every year? I answer, that there is a numerous corps of Trombadgis, the most active and efficient firemen in the world. They are naked to the waist, and wear on their heads inverted copper basins as their only protection; you see them in the streets rushing to the fires with their engines, and, in intrepidity, skill, and muscular vigour, they are unequalled. I one day saw a number of them on a burning wall, direct

ing their pipes against a house they were determined to save; and, while they played on the fire, another set below were wholly employed in playing on them, to keep them cool and wet in the midst of the flames. If these fellows were under proper regulations, they would be the most efficient body in the world, but they have no law but their own will and cupidity. They sit idly on their engines before the burning houses, with their naked arms folded on their breasts, and the tubes of their implements decorated with flowers; and, if no one offers them money, they will continue there inactively in the midst of the fire. I one day saw a man who was exceedingly anxious about his property, earnestly entreat them to play upon his house, that was just opposite. They continued insensible and inflexible, till one of them whispered in the man's ear; his whisper was returned; they immediately started and with a fierce and frightful energy, rushed into the fire and soon subdued it. The man had promised them 10,000 piastres. It is supposed that, if similar offers had been made by the respective missions, all the palaces would have been saved; but there was no one in Pera to make the offer, and the Trombadgis did not, and would not, expend a spoonful of water to put them out. Indeed it is generally considered that the Turks were really well pleased at this conflagration of the Franks' property. They did not seem disposed to give the slightest aid to extinguish it. The Seraskier and the Galata Effendi, as official persons, were riding tranquilly about. They entered the English palace gardens, quietly looked on the fire, and walked out again. They went into several Frank houses in Pera Street, where they sat smoking and drinking coffee till the fire drove them out, and no entreaty of the owners could induce them to direct the Trombadgis to exercise their engines. It is rather remarkable that most of the fires which happen here, occur in the daytime, and occur from smoking morning pipes-the contents of which the Turks often throw out on a dry mat, and leave it to itself. From this circumstance it happens, that comparatively few lives are lost. In this present conflagration, which consumed the residences of 80,000 people, but twelve lost their lives, and half of them were killed by the falling in of walls after the fire had burnt down. But the daylight cannot protect property. There are a number of Greeks and Ionians, who have been klepts and pirates during the revolutionary war, and this being over, they have come to exercise their vocation in Pera under another form: robberies were very frequent before the fire, and during its continuance, and after, the most extensive depredations were carried on by these fellows. A law exists in Turkey, that any man caught in the act of plundering during a fire, is thrown into the burning house from whence he took the property; and, on a former occasion, I actually knew that it was practised; but now these fellows evaded this: under the pretence of being hummals, or porters, they took up the effects brought out of a house, to carry them to a place of security, and the proprietor never saw them again. This was carried to such an extent, that the next day orders were given to stop every person in the street with any property, and, in case of suspicion, to bring it to certain houses appointed for the purpose. A friend of mine lost his trunk, and, having heard that one of these depots was the Tersana, he went there to look after it here he saw displayed five or six hundred trunks, and,