DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4615#0106
104 MODERN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT EPHESUS.
the brigands from the neighbouring heights, and a day
was arranged by them for my capture. It so happened,
most fortunately for me, that on that day Mrs. Wood
telegraphed to me from Smyrna, asking me to meet the
train at Ayasalouk and accompany her to Aidin. I did
so, and was therefore absent in the afternoon, when three
out of eight brigands who had been lying in wait for me
in one of my trial trenches, capable of concealing them,
advanced to a hole where one of my men was at work,
and looking down, asked, ' Where is Chelebch ?' The
workman, looking up and seeing three suspicious-looking
strangers, at once suspected their design, and cunningly
answered, ' He has gone to Constantinople ;' on which
they asked,' How long will he be away?' The man replied,
' Perhaps a month.' The brigands then left, and on my
return to Ayasalouk that evening my cavass, groom, and
one or two of my workmen met me on the platform, and
congratulated me on my escape. The next day, not-
withstanding the warning, several petty officers from a
British man-of-war accompanied Mrs. Wood and myself
round the ruins, but I afterwards took the necessary
precaution of adding three more cavasses to my body-
guard, and I armed myself with pistol and dagger. A
week or two thus passed. Thus prepared, I ventured to
visit the works daily, which were then going on in opening
up the peri bolus wall at the angle of which the inscrip-
tions were found ; and only on one other occasion, to my
knowledge, did I have a narrow escape. One day I was
inspecting the work, and went down into a deep trench
to examine more minutely the inscriptions, and to copy
them. While in the trench I found my revolver and belt
veiy warm and oppressive; I relieved myself of them, and
the brigands from the neighbouring heights, and a day
was arranged by them for my capture. It so happened,
most fortunately for me, that on that day Mrs. Wood
telegraphed to me from Smyrna, asking me to meet the
train at Ayasalouk and accompany her to Aidin. I did
so, and was therefore absent in the afternoon, when three
out of eight brigands who had been lying in wait for me
in one of my trial trenches, capable of concealing them,
advanced to a hole where one of my men was at work,
and looking down, asked, ' Where is Chelebch ?' The
workman, looking up and seeing three suspicious-looking
strangers, at once suspected their design, and cunningly
answered, ' He has gone to Constantinople ;' on which
they asked,' How long will he be away?' The man replied,
' Perhaps a month.' The brigands then left, and on my
return to Ayasalouk that evening my cavass, groom, and
one or two of my workmen met me on the platform, and
congratulated me on my escape. The next day, not-
withstanding the warning, several petty officers from a
British man-of-war accompanied Mrs. Wood and myself
round the ruins, but I afterwards took the necessary
precaution of adding three more cavasses to my body-
guard, and I armed myself with pistol and dagger. A
week or two thus passed. Thus prepared, I ventured to
visit the works daily, which were then going on in opening
up the peri bolus wall at the angle of which the inscrip-
tions were found ; and only on one other occasion, to my
knowledge, did I have a narrow escape. One day I was
inspecting the work, and went down into a deep trench
to examine more minutely the inscriptions, and to copy
them. While in the trench I found my revolver and belt
veiy warm and oppressive; I relieved myself of them, and