Payas. Ap 14. Dearest Mother. The hot weather has come with a rush. When I got back from Seleucia [Samandag (Alevisik, Seleucia Pieria)] - in blazing weather - I stayed a day at Antioch [Antakya (Hatay)] in order to see a collection of antiquities in the house of a rich Pasha. He had a MS of the Psalms in Armenian which he showed me and of which I photographed a page or two for the benefit of Mr Yates Thompson - you might tell him if you see him. I will describe it to him later. He had also some beautiful little bits of Greek bronze which I photographed for Reinach. The good little Mr Orr dined with me one night. I was really quite sorry to say Bye bye to him - you see I have fallen into his forms of speech! Yesterday I rode down to Alexandretta [Iskenderun (Alexandria ad Issum)], a long day and furiously hot. We were on the Roman Road most of the day, crossing the great Pass of Bailan [Bellen] where were the Syrian Gates of the Ancients. It was from this pass that Alexander hurried back to meet the army of Darius at Issus - I have been following the line of his march today and am now camped on the edge of the Plain of Issus. While I was waiting for my camp to come in at Alexandretta I went to see Mr Lorrimer who is the manager of this section of the Liquorice Trust - Mr Orr's chief. He and his wife made me welcome and gave me an excellent tea. He knew Grandpapa's name and was most civil. He and his wife are two of the kindest people in the world, h-less, but dears nevertheless, and they live in a charming garden full of flowers by the edge of the sea. I breakfasted with them this morning and had an interesting talk with him as to the methods of doing business in this country. They are curious. He is a staunch Free Trader and received with acclamation the proposition that no sane man etc. Father would have liked talking to him, on other grounds. He is a shrewd man. So we rode a short march along the coast and pitched tents by a little Arab castle at the edge of the sea. It's been remarkably hot all day. Payàs consists of a great khan and a mosque of good Arab work but all in ruins and a castle - not my castle, I am a quarter of an hour from the town - which is a prison. I tried to get permission to visit the castle, but it was refused on the ground that the prisoners were all sentenced to terms of from 100 to 200 years (I should not think it made much difference to them which) and were therefore very savage and might probably attack me if I went in. Of all miserable human beings I should say that Turkish prisoners on a life sentence were the most miserable. They are given just enough bread to keep them from dying of starvation and they have absolutely nothing to do but to fight one another and to try and escape. Both these pursuits they follow freely. It's quite dreadful to think of such unmitigated wretchedness so near my delicous camp by the sea. The plain is very narrow here and fine great mountains rise steeply up from it. My impression is that the battle must have been fought just about here for the books say that Darius had not room to deploy his cavalry and that would apply to this place, but not to the wide plain further north which the maps call Issus. I never tell you of the difficulties of camp organization because I think they may be tedious. They are however many, especially now that half my servants talk only Turkish. But today a really singular thing has happened. The head muleteer from whom I hired all the baggage horses from Aleppo [Halab], has simply not turned up. I haven't the least idea what has become of him - the others suggest that he has either been murdered or imprisoned! He went down into the bazaar after we left Alexandretta and has not been seen since. Fortunately I have the animals and the luggage - I've paid in advance for the animals nearly up to Konia [Konya (Iconium)]. I shall go on whether he turns up or not and let him retrieve his beasts from Konia as best he may. I don't regret him at all; he is the most incompetent old donkey I ever came across and he treats his subordinates so badly that they leave us at every stage, which is an insufferable nuisance as I have to teach the new men their work - in fragmentary Turkish. The good Mikhail is rather gloomy this evening but I fancy we shall pull through.

Ap 15. [15 April 1905] It rained floods in the night and continued to do so until 11 this morning. The tents were soaked, the water ran in under the tent walls and I was obliged to retire onto my bed which was the only dry place. Thunder and lightning and all complete. In the middle of it all the good old Kaimakam trotted down to invite me to his house, but I did not go as I should have got wet through on the way. When the rain stopped we had to let our tents dry and by that time it was too late to start and I was obliged very reluctantly to resign myself to a day in camp. In the course of the morning Fàris, the missing muleteer, turned up. He had in fact been detained by difficulties with a creditor. How he got off I don't know - not by paying I'll be bound - but the incident has had the worst effect on the discipline of the camp for he reappeared so overflowing with joy, and I was so much excited and amused that I received him like a sort of prodigal - father (he's 60 if he's a day) and his shortcomings are all forgiven for the moment. The good old Kaimakam sent me a present of 6 oranges and 2 small bottles of Russian beer to console me for my enforced stay!

Ap 17. [17 April 1905] Oh but I've had a wiry 2 days! What it's like to travel in a roadless and bridgeless country after and during heavy, not to say torrential, rains you can't imagine. We started off yesterday in pouring rain, the path was under water, the rivers roaring floods. In the middle of the day we came to a village buried in lovely gardens, the air heavy with the smell of lemon flowers - and here the heavens opened and it rained as I hope I may never see it rain again. We had stopped at the house of a Turk to buy a hen and he invited me in till the rain stopped and I took the opportunity to lunch. Meantime a furious roaring stream which we had succeeded in fording, brought the baggage animals to a stand and while we, unknowing, went gaily on, they made a detour of near 2 hours to find a bridge. So we rode across the plain of Issus, past the great mound which is said to mark the battlefield - but for reasons given above I do not believe this tradition - past the corner of the Mediterranean and over a wide plain strewn with ruins as of a great town. And at 4 we came to a mass of ruins called Geuzenne [Erzin] where I had arranged to camp. Except for a wonderful acqueduct [sic] from the hills, the ruins proved rather disappointing. They were buried in deep rank wet grass and nettles; I made out a theatre, what I suppose was a church and what Murray says was a gymnasium, but thery were none of them of much interest. Besides I was chiefly engaged in watching for the baggage horses, for I was tired and wet and hungry and bad weather travelling is exhausting to the mind and to the body. It was 7.30 before they arrived and we pitched camp in a downpour amid the mutual recriminations of all the servants who had had a hard time too and vented their displeasure on each other. There was nothing for it but to hold one's tongue and do the work oneself, and having seen that the horses were fed, I went to bed supperless because no one would own that it was his duty to light the fire! It was miserable, I must say, and this morning was just as bad. All the ropes were like iron after the rain and the tents weighed tons and as I splashed about in the deep grass (for I had to watch and encourage every finger's turn of the work) I thought I was a real idiot to go travelling in tents. Then the march - fortunately a short one - through the floods of yesterday's rain. It was very interesting historically for we were going through the Amanian Gates, through which many armies had passed in and out of Cilicia. I was determined not to lose touch with my baggage animals today - when we came to a wide deep river I waited for them and rode backwards and forwards twice through the floods to help them over. When they saw me riding in and out gaily (the water was above my boots I may mention) they took courage and plunged through. And now I hope our troubles are over. We are camped at a place called Osmaniyeh [Osmaniye], in most lovely country and the sun has come out and our tents are drying and our tempers mending. I think if the rain had lasted another day I should have died of despair - and of fatigue. I'm really in Asia Minor - a most exciting thought. And I have to talk Turkish, there's nothing else for it. I've just been entertaining (in more senses than one) the Kaimakam in that tongue. I make a preposterous mess of it, but it has to be done and I hope in a week or so I shall begin to scrub along. The chief difficulty now is that though I can put a few questions I can rarely understand the answers! You know there are moments when being a woman increases ones difficulties. What my servants needed last night was a good beating and that's what they would have got if I had been a man - I seldom remember being in such a state of suppressed rage! - but as it is I have to hold my tongue and get round them by wiles. However as long as one gets through it doesn't matter. One of the people who came to see me here is a Syrian bimbashi, a Damascene. He talked a little French and he subsequently sent me his card with the following delightful sentences written on it: Mademoiselle Miss je suis charmant de faire votre connaicence je späre de bon Dieu de vous garder de tout mauvais et de tout mal.

Ap 19. [19 April 1905] The chief interest of this journey is that I find myself talking nothing but Turkish. It's the greatest lark. I've learnt piles today. I started off this morning with a soldier who could speak nothing else and I had to make the best of it. It was a lovely shining morning and this country is beyond comparison beautiful. We cantered across a wide delicious plain set round with the great snows of Taurus [Toros Daglari] and the Giour Dagh - it was an hour after dawn, more heavenly than words can say. Then we came to a deep river across which we went in a ferry boat. I lent a hand to some shepherds who were trying to get a herd of goats onto the ferry - I hope it counts as a virtue to help obstinate goats into a ferry; it's extremely difficult any way. A charming gentleman called Mustafa had attached himself to my party and rode with me all day. So we came to a place called Budrum, which is Hierapolis Castabala, and here I spent 3 hours. It lies among wonderful crags, the acropolis perched up on top of a great rock and Bellow it a fine theatre, thermae, a street of columns and 2 very early churches. These last I photographed with great care and measured, Mustapha holding the end of the tape. By the time I had finished it was near midday and I eat my lunch at a little village near by, where they gave me the most excellent milk and curds, for which they would not let me pay. And so we rode on for 5 hours through charming country to Kars Bazaar [Kadirli] which lies under Taurus and here I have camped. I paid a visit to the Kaimakam and was further invited to drink tea with some notables who were sitting in the street outside the cafÇ. There was no one to interpret so I had to do my own talking. I must say they are very clever at understanding. And now I must study the Turkish participles - there are some 30 of them and I don't handle them with any skill.

Ap 20 [20 April 1905] Anavarza. Yesterday morning I found there were lots of inscriptions to be copied at Kars [Kadirli] and a church to be photographed, so what with one thing and another it was pretty late before I got off. The mules had gone on ahead - we had to make an immense detour to the north, under the hills, to avoid floods and get to bridges, the rivers being all unfordable. The mules being for once far ahead, missed their way and hove up on the wrong side of Anavarza ..... with an unfordable stream before them - wir konnten beisamen nicht kommen[?]: das Wasser war viel zu tief, like the Kînigskinder. We were certain something had gone wrong since we did not overtake them, but after some indecision I determined to ride on, and following the line of an immense aqueduct, we splashed through the wet plain at sunset into Anavarza. The castle stands on an huge mass of rock, 2 miles long, which rises like a great island from the sea of plain - it's really a sea at this moment for it is all under water. The rock is some 300 ft high and in places quite perpendicular; the castle runs all along the top of it and the top is in some places a knife edge, dropping absolutely sheer on either side with just room for a single fortification wall to connect fort with fort. At the western foot of this splendid acropolis lies the city with a double wall of turrets round it buttressed up against the cliff. It was a Greek strong place, a treasury of Alexander's, then Roman, then the capital of the Armenian kingdom - and now a mass of ruin deeply overgrown with grass. But the great cliff with its crown[?] of towers is beyond description splendid. So I rode in through the northern gateway of the town not having the faintest idea where I was going to sleep or eat. By good fortune there was a guardhouse in the middle of the ruins with a couple of Turkish soldiers in it who supplied me with milk and sour curds. On these and some native bread I dined; then I spread my cloak on the floor of a little empty room and slept till 6 this morning, in spite of innumerable mosquitoes. It wasn't really nice however. Roughing it in this weather is more difficult than in the cold. After the long hot day one longs incredibly for one's evening bath and change of clothes. I was most thankful when at 10 this morning the baggage turned up and I shall take great care not to run any risk of its going astray again. I have spent the whole day exploring and photographing and I am going to have another day here in order to have a shot at measuring and planning 3 churches, an extremely difficult business because they are very much ruined and very deeply buried in grass. I must see what can be done, but I fear little without digging. I climbed up to the fort this morning by a chariot road cut in the rock and edged with rock hewn sarcophagi. About half way along the ridge I found I could go no further for the crest falls sheer on either side and the bridge that led from one tower to another is broken. So I was obliged to turn back and the great vultures sat on the top of the keep and mocked at me.

Fri. 21. [21 April 1905] Remembering the heat of yesterday I got up at dawn and at 6 o'clock started out to grapple with my churches. The whole plain, my tents included, lay under a thick white mist, but the sun was shining on the castle rock and as I climbed up I saw the great white peaks of Taurus [Toros Daglari] all glittering. It was most beautiful. I took my soldier with me and taught him to hold the measuring tape. He soon understood what I wanted and measured away at doors and windows like one to the manner born. After 5 hours very hard work I found I had arrived at results more interesting than I had expected. In a word, the churches here are not of the Syrian type, which they ought by rights to be, but of the Central Asia Minor type, and I think that will surprise Strzgowski [i.e. Strzygowski] not a little. One very delightful thing happened. One of the biggest of the churches is raized [sic] to the ground - nothing but the traces of the foundations remains. I looked round about for any scraps of carving that might give an indication of the style of decoration and found, after much search, one and one only - and it was dated! It was a big stone which from the shape and the mouldings I know to have been at the spring of two arches of the windows of the apse and the date was carved in beautiful raised Greek letters between the 2 arch mouldings - "the year 511." I don't know if they used the Christian era here, but it must be pretty close to it anyway, for that's about the date one would have expected. Wasn't it a great piece of luck! Two things I dislike in Anavarz, the mosquitoes and the snakes. The mosquitoes have been the more hostile of the two; the snakes always bustle away in a great hurry and I have made no experiments as to what their bite would be like. There are quantities of them among the ruins. They are about 3 ft long - I wonder if they are poisonous. - Rira bien qui rira le dernier: I have had the laugh of the vultures. After tea I rode round the rock and on the eastern side I met a shepherd boy. So we tied my horse to a stone and the shepherd and I climbed together up the only path which leads to the castle keep. It was rocky enough in all conscience and it wound cheerfully in and out of precipices and led us at last to a little hole in the wall through which we climbed to the highest tower. Like all ruined castles it is more beautiful from without than from within, but the position is glorious and worth climbing for, the walls built on the edge of a straight drop of a couple of hundred feet or more, the great plain all round and the ring of snows beyond. We dislodged the vultures who were sitting in rows on the castle top - they left a horrid smell behind them - and in a small deep window I found a nest with 2 evil looking brown eggs in it. It is not often that one finds vultures' nests. I have fallen a hopeless victim to the Turk; he is the most charming of mortals and some day when I have a little more of his language, we shall be very intimate friends, I foresee. It's blazing hot weather; the wild hollyhocks are out and today I saw the first fat red pomegranate bud. That means summer.

Sat 22. [22 April 1905] I shall not soon forget the Cilician plain. The heat of it is surprising and as I told you passim it is most of it under water. We plunged today for ten hours through mud and swamp and sluggish waters and at last we have come out onto a rather higher bit of country on which the barley is all standing in the ear. In a month everything will be burnt up and all the people will have fled to the hills. I don't wonder Anavarza had such a fine necropolis - all the inhabitants must have died off regularly every summer from marsh fever, mosquitoes and snakes. In the blazing middle of the day we came to two very small trees outside a village and I sat down in the shade of them to lunch. No sooner was my coming observed than one of the inhabitants appeared with a large tray of fried eggs, curds and bread for me and my servants. It was pure hospitality - I might give no tips, I could only thank my host sincerely and eat heartily. But though they are the most delightful of acquaintances they are the worst of servants. They will take every amount of trouble for you for nothing, but once you hire them to work, not a hand's turn will they do. At the hands of Turkish muleteers I suffer tortures. They get into camp and when they have unloaded the mules they sit down on one of the packs and light a cigarette with an air of impartial and wholly unconcerned benevolence. I've gone to the length of dislodging them with the lash of my crop freely applied. It makes no difference, they stroll on to the next pack and take up a position there, smiling cheerfully the while.

Sun 23. [23 April 1905] Adana [(Seyhan, Ataniya)]. I rode in here early this morning leaving camp at 3 AM to avoid the heat. There was a moon and a high road and the going was far pleasanter than by day. At dawn I came to the little town of Missis [Misis], which is the Greek Mopsuesta, a squalid little place which not even the beauty of an April dawn could redeem. But it stands on the wide Jehan Chai [Ceyhan] and there is a beautiful bridge, which was of Roman foundations, for the great Roman road to Syria came through this way, and beyond was the city wall and the vestiges of a splendid gateway standing in the corn fields. I got in to Adana about 10 - there is absolutely nothing of any interest in the town which has no merits of any kind whatever. I went to the house of the vice Consul, a very amiable Greek, and he directed me to the best hotel, which is by no means bad and has a delightful big balcony hanging over the Jihan Chai. And there I found - Mr Lloyd, Hugo's little friend. I didn't know him but he introduced himself to me and told me he had seen Father in C'ple [Istanbul (Constantinople)] and I think him charming. He is going to Konia [Konya (Iconium)] by the direct route and I am going round about to see some ruins on the coast so we shall not meet again, but we spent the day together and talked and talked about our travels and dined together and sat on the balcony after dinner. It really was nice to find an intelligent human being of one's own kind, for the other inhabitants of the hotel are strange Greeks and Turks and parties in turbans and Circassians with rows of cartridges set in their brown frock coats - oh the oddest world! It doesn't surprise me when I am in tents and part of it, but when I come into an hotel - put on civilized clothes, my surroundings astonish me at times. In the afternoon I called on the Vali, an obliging Kurd who promised me all facilities for my journey and gave me a little bronze lion, Greek, I think. I have sent on my camp and tomorrow I am actually going to Tarsus by train! Mr Lloyd comes too and we spend the day together.

Mon 24. [24 April 1905] We carried out our programme with immense enjoyment. The railway journey, which took an hour and a half was quite an excitement to both of us - I haven't been by train since I left Marseilles [Marseille]. We had a delightful conversation with the stationmaster before we started. He talked English and told us, among other things, that there were no works of art on the line, only one bridge. We were so busy talking on the journey that we forgot to notice even that work of art. Tarsus is nothing of a place, beautifully situated at the gates of the hills. Mr Lloyd and I rather enjoyed ourselves however and we finished the day by a dinner party together in my tent at which Mikhail distinguished himself in the matter of cooking. I have taken on from Mr Lloyd one of his servants whom he does not want any longer. His name is Fattur [i.e. Fattuh] and he is to be general director of the transport and spare hand all round. I think I am wise in taking him for he seems very capable and has an excellent character from Mr Lloyd and my transport arrangements have not been going well for the last fortnight. Fattur speaks Arabic and Turkish.

Tues 25. [25 April 1905] I am going to Mersina [Mersin (Iáel)] by train today and from there I shall set out along the coast, where there are lots of interesting things to see, as far as Selefke [Silifke (Seleucia)] and so straight up through the hills to Konia [Konya (Iconium)]. I shall see how long it takes me to get there, but I shall certainly be later than I intended and I think it is quite possible that I may break up my camp there and come straight up to C'ple [Istanbul (Constantinople)] by train and so home. I shall telegraph to you from Konia saying what I intend to do. I shall stay a day or two there anyhow, so please write to me at the Pera Palace, or better still to c/o Cook, and I will also reclaim any letters that may be at Smyrna [Izmir] so please continue to write there till you get my telegram from Konia.
You know the more I think about MaBell the more distressed I am. Not only for the falling through of all our good plans and arrangements but for her miserable disappointment, poor little dear. It's terrible to think of that nightmare always hanging over her. Will you give her my love and tell her she has been much in my mind. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude