Charles Duncan

A Campaign with the Turks in Asia Charles Duncan

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1855 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. ANNI, THE CITY OF KUINS. Should any of my readers have anticipated from the title of this chapter a romantic incident, of which some fair maiden adorning the sweet and gentle name of " Annie" is to be the heroine, they will be grievously disappointed. Anni, to be brief, is the most wondrous spot in Armenia. It is, in fact, a city of the dead. High and massive walls, of a former age, surround an immense space where stand the ruins of the town, from the midst of which tower churches and palaces, nearly in perfect preservation; but totally uninhabited. When first I was asked if I had seen Anni, I must in all sincerity admit, that my thoughts and longings at once wandered back to old England, the land of the "Annies;" and for at least six hours, I was very miserable and homesick. In a distant land, the most insignificant object often strangely affects one, if it be at all connected with recollections of home or past reminiscences. I remember once seeing a band of Svrian bashi-bazooks, who bad dismounted and were crowding round a little bush with noisy and eager joy. This plant had reminded them of some similar shrub which grew in their distant and sultry homes, and thus they rudely gave vent to their inward sentiments of delight. I must confess, to my shame, that I had never heard of the city of Anni; but in this respect, I shall find myself, probably, in excellent and numerous company. On the same principle that misery makes us acquainted with strange bedfellows, the war with Russia has wonderfully increased our geographical acquirements. How few of us knew, or cared, about Erzeroum, Kars, Kertch, or Caffa, to say nothing of Bomarsund and that hard-spelling town Petropaulowski, before necessity had cast these places daily before our eyes. The war ...