The miserable coffee-shop where I was staying, and where nothing save thick, muddy coffee could be obtained, was filled day and night with filthy, lounging Turks. The impressment of young Greeks was going on, and the mothers and sisters were assembled before the governor's house, weeping and lamenting the fate of their sons and brothers. As I passed by repeatedly, I said unto them, ' Weep not; ' but my sympathy was impotent. Oh, how unlike His who could dry the mourner's tear!

" At length, on the third day, the governor, not being able to seize any more, put them all, forty in number, into a small craft of the country to send them to Constantinople. There were, besides, two criminals, who had been taken up for counterfeiting money, and who were expecting nothing less than the gallows. Several Armenians and Turks, similarly situated with myself, also took passage. And, not knowing when there might be another opportunity for leaving the place, I thought best to take passage with them, although I feared, on the one hand, that the plague might break out among us, and, on the other, that the prisoners might mutiny, kill the guard, take possession of the boat, and carry me I knew not whither. We were in all sixty souls, crowded close together. But I secured a place for myself in the aftermost part by the tiller, where, although I had not sufficient room to stretch myself, I was in some measure isolated.

Female relatives rushed

" I was on board when those who had been impressed were brought from the prison. They were pinioned and chained two together. Their mothers and other female relatives rushed to the water's edge to give them the last embrace. Their cries rent the air. One mother fainted away; another tore the flesh with her teeth from off her own arm; another threw herself into the sea, and was pulled out by the soldiers. Some of the prisoners, too, sobbed and wept like children, and some danced and sung, while the tears were still streaming down their cheeks.

As I sat there, I literally ' groaned in the spirit and was troubled.' I was 'pained at my very heart.' I tried to speak some word of comfort, but my voice faltered, and I wept freely. At last I was able to say to the young men, Fear not. Put your trust in God. Commit all your ways to Him. Cast all your cares upon Him. In all the kingdoms of this world there is more or less of oppression and wrong and suffering; but in the kingdom of Christ there is none. Let us all belong to His blessed kingdom, and we shall be happy for ever.'

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