St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1876-09-15
A Week in the Troad.
BY c. A. SAVAGE.

To spend some vacation in .sp,lIo,in,
over the Plains of Troy NV wish ba,
a' last been gratitied to my hearts con.
tent and | will now plunge the rowek
INTO my foaming steed to go over IN,
ground once more for your benefit as
well as my own.
1t was Tuesday, April Is, that we
set out from Roberts College. Const,p.
tihople, with bag and blanket bound
Tor the city of Priam. BY "we," YOU
must know that mean my old stand
by Hez. Mr.. Trivier the French mas
Ter, and one of the Senior Class. a
Protestant Armenian by the name OF
MInassian, besides myself. Hez and
mad already provided ourselves with
''teskerehs' from the Porte giving us
permission to travel in the Troad, and
after making several goodbye calls we
left the c"llege about noon. We took
the precaution to take along some
blankets with lis, us we were not ut all
sure of finding beds to our liking, but
Tor food we ran our chances, taking
only some tea and sugar which Mrs.
Washburn kindly gave us with spirit
lamp to boil 1t by. Reaching town by
calque we took two other precautions
against any foes that might attack us
on the journey and purchased two re-
NolNers for about 81 each, and Il pound
of flea powder. We did not intend to
fire the tiea-pow at bligandS, but in
case of stem necessity boldly deter
mined to draw our revolvers ON tieas.
We met at Minassian's fathers store
III Galata, but at an hour before the
steamer was to start Mr.. Trivier, who
had been rushing around at the last
minute after his teskereh, had not APP
peiied. He came soon however, and
with HIM came Il gentleman whom
saw at glance to he AN American. and
whom Le introduced To me lis Mr.. DYER,
|. ). Consul AT Odessa. knew at once
that lie WAS the gentleman to whom
-
int oduction to me, and whom had
been expecting tor some time to see.
lie Is one of those ''hale fellows, well
met, and ai once proposed to him
to go to Troy with lis. He seemed
quite inclined to do So, and would |
think if he had had time to 60 to his
hat. 4
couragcment that he would ovcrtakc
us next day 10y the French steamer. |
may here state, however, that before
the French steamer left he had fallen
into the snares of the young ladies at
the Home and- we didn't see him ut
the Troad.
But to return,-we purchased our
tickets, second class, for twenty-five
francs each, and hired IL boatman to
take us on board the TrinacIia steam
ship, "Peloro." Have ever introduced
Ia you any of those peculiar characters
who lie in wait for unwary travellers to
convey them to and from steamers
y
offices where people buy their tickets.
and whenever !; steamer comes into the
han Dor, dozens of them Chamber over
the gunwale before the quarantine flag
Is down and attack You with "Barca
volcte. signiore ?" or "Noulcz- z-volIs un
bateau ccst IN tres bon. Monsieur :"
1
English us they usually will, it is WANT
boat e" shore - They all have the
same characteristic, and one needs to
know how to manage them. 40 ano
diSce OmHeS.
lez made the bargain this time. for
Il chcrcck (6t piasters) to take our party
with the bargain but when We reached
the vessel and had our goods all slowed
away in our cabin, he demanded Il
chereck apiece for the four. insisting
that that was what we promised. He
was determined to have it too, and
threw down the silver piece we gave
him as if it were an insult. We polite |
ly informed him it was all we had
promised and was all he should receive.
vowed to 90 along with us if we did |
not pay him. We did not care if he
went clear to Egypt and coolly shut the
door i'll his face. Soon the steward |
came and asked why we did not pay
our boatman. We told him how the
case stood and he smiled and went
away. The boatman still made good
deal of row and soon the steward
came again telling us we had better
pay him some more and let him go. Az
we were determined not to he bullied.
however, | quietly slipped IA chcrek
into the stewards hand telling him to
send the fellow away. He understood
the motion and we weIe troubled no
more, though | venture to say that the
rascally hoatman never saw Il para of
the money. We left the harbor about
$50 and after IA comfortable dinner
went to bed.
In the morning we We're in the Helles-
pont, not far from where Leander used
to swim across to meet the faiI Hero
and where Xerxes built his bridge of
boats to transport his army into Greece.
was able to locate the places better
than in any preceding voyage and
found the bluff where probably Xerxes