Beaufort, Francis: Karamania, or a brief description of the south coast of Asia-Minor and of the remains of antiquity: with plans, views, &c. ; collected during a survey of that coast, under the orders of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, in the years 1811 & 1812 (London, 1817)

PREFACE. V

Groaning under that worst kind of
despotism, this unfortunate country has
been a continued scene of anarchy, ra-
pine, and contention; her former cities
are deserted,—her fertile valleys untilled,
—and her rivers and harbours idle.
Perhaps nothing can present a more
striking picture of the pervading sloth
and misery, than the hardly credible
fact, that, on this extensive line of coast,
which stretches along a sea abounding
in fish, the inhabitants do not possess a
single boat.

The allurements to visit a country in
such a state of civil degradation are cer-
tainly small, when contrasted with the
nsk of venturing among those jealous
and discordant tribes. Nevertheless, it
does appear somewhat strange, that,
while the modern spirit of discovery had
explored the most remote extremities of