A curious incident at the close of the late Russo-Turkish war is worth relating, with reference to Schiltberger’s version of the value set upon the Greek prisoners. The Porte having entertained the idea of raising the taxation, the Armenians determined upon opposing the measure with vigour, and they accordingly destroyed the house of the Turkish Mudjir; after which, the Armenian women planted onions and garlic over the ruins—an act that is looked upon as a sign of the greatest contempt.—(_The Times_, September 26th, 1878.)
(1.) “Sant Masicia.”—This is the ancient Amastris, now called Amasserah. The architecture of its walls of defence bears witness to Genoese occupation, the earliest date of which is not known. In 1346, Amastris was included in the empire of the Palæologi, after having belonged to Nicæa, but it is certain that the Genoese were in possession previous to 1398 (Heyd, _d. Ital. Handelscolon_, etc., in the _Zeitschrift f. d. gesammte Staatswissenschaft_, xviii, 712), at which date they had a consul there. Clavijo calls Amastris, visited by him a few years later, a Genoese town, where he saw many remains of ancient splendour.
After being for a long time a dependency of the Central Administration at Caffa, Samastris, by a decree of 1449, became subject to that of Pera to which it had previously belonged, but had been detached “propter inopiam et imbecilitatem loci ipsius Pere” (_Zap. Odess. Obstschest._, v, 810). Under these circumstances it is very probable that the Genoese were at Samastris at a still earlier period than that indicated by Heyd. According to Hammer (_Hist. de l’E. O._, iii, 69), this city fell into the hands of the Turks in the campaign of 1461, together with Sinope and Trebizond.—BRUUN.
(2.) “one hundred are quite of brass.”—Schiltberger is scarcely to be charged with exaggeration, if we consider what Manuel Chrysoloras has said of these walls. “I cannot conceive the walls of Constantinople, in regard to their extent and circuit, to have been inferior to those of Babylon. The towers are without number; the proportions and height of any one tower sufficed to astonish the beholder, and their construction and the large flights of steps excited universal admiration.”