e see
many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas
leave no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the
surface of this hill was much lower than it is now.

It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
taken place 700 B.C.

_III.--Homeric Legends Verified_

_Pergamus of Troy, August_ 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill where
I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick, which
obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a
depth of 46-1/2 feet.

This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely
covered it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and
imposing, for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain
of Troy, but of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and
Samothrace. There is not a more sublime situation in the whole area of
the plain of Troy than this.

In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that
the lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and
burnt alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a
vase, this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in
the pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all
corpses were burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found
great numbers. The bones were always burnt to ashes.

_Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872._ In stopping the excavations for
this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently
thank God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but
that none of us has been seriously hurt.

As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
soil, i