aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

370 ABOUND THE WOELD.
and imposing position, its domes, its minarets, its sheltering
groves of cypress, its Hlls in the distance, now crimsoning
into the sear of autumn, and the blue waters that lie at the
feet of these Moslem splendors. The Golden Horn is all
that pen painters have pictured it. The Sea of Marmora is
deep and beautiful. Hardly a ripple danced upon its surface
during our passage over its crystal depths. What a magnificent
harbor it would make, with Constantinople for the
central capital of Europe, Asia, and Africa !
How rich in historic association is this city crowned with
mosques ! Belisarius sailed from here into Africa, and along
the Italian coast, while Justinian in 553 was erecting the
present St. Sophia. On the opposite Asian shore, at Scutari,
the Persians, after their conquests in Egypt and Syria, sat
for a dozen years threatening the city. Here Tartars, Turks,
and Croats first planted their unwelcome footsteps in Europe,
inspiring the beginning of those fearful crusades. The first
passed through Constantinople in 1097, Alexis reigning.
About the year 1200, Baldwin conquered the city ; and in
the fourteenth century the Ottomans in Asia Minor laid the
foundations of the empire that now extends so far into Europe.
In 1453 Mohammed II. entered this Christian city in
great triumph, and transformed it as if by magic into a
Moslem capital. It is said by the historian, that, entering
the gates, he steered straight for St. Sophia, to discover the
priests who were hiding in the cathedral. They having
escaped by a subterranean passage, he hacked off the head
of the brazen serpent Avith his sword, to manifest his hate of
images, and all forms of idolatry.
WALKS IN THE CITY.
How true of this great cosmopolitan city of a million souls
or more, that " distance lends enchantment to the view " !
On the deck of the ship in the harbor, the gigantic tower at
Pera, the flotilla upon the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus with
its suburban villages, the palaces of the sultan, the archi-