rigate to go away in, if necessary; and he preferred that vessel
for the purpose, as he felt a strong personal friendship and regard
towards both captain and officers. This communication, which was highly
complimentary to my friends, as well as particularly satisfactory to
myself, decided me at once, and, on returning home, I announced to my
gay warm-hearted companions on board the Actaeon that the painful moment
of separation was at hand. The blow was not unexpected, yet some of us
would rather it had been deferred. The next morning I started for Pera,
and bargained with the directors of the steam-boat for my own and my
friend's passage to Malta.

[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE MOSQUES.] _Thursday, 20th._--This being the day
fixed for the American charge d'affaires' visit to the mosques, at nine
o'clock our party sallied forth, and, on arriving opposite the Seraglio
Gate, we bought slippers, took our pipes, and squatted in the shade,
under the wide-spreading roof of the beautiful fountain in the centre of
the square.

St. Sophia was built by Justinian on the ruins of a church of the same
name, already twice destroyed; and part of the dome was a third time
overthrown by an earthquake. Splendid and various were the treasures it
once contained; but these have been long since removed by the
desecration and sacrilege of the Latin and the Moslem; and nothing of
that description is now left to astonish the pilgrim of either creed,
who approaches this sacred temple. Justinian gloried that he had erected
a place of worship which far surpassed the work of Solomon; and on
dedicating it the second time, after the restoration of the dome, he was
nearly maddened by joy. What would have been his feelings, could he have
foreseen the day when the conquering Latin should defile its altar, and
the infidel Turk convert it into a temple for the worshippers of his
prophet, after being consecrated to the pure religion of Christianity
for a period of nine hundred years! St. Sophia is thus equally an object
of veneration to the Christian and the Musulman.

On the arrival of our American friends, we mustered in a large party
before the bronze gates of the church, where we were all for a few
moments busily engaged in taking off our boots and putting on the
slippers we had purchased. This done, we proceeded into the interior of
the edifice, with which I confess myself greatly disappointed; as the
_tout ensemble_ displays no magnificence, and the impre