Old Trapezus was a colony founded in the seventh century B.C. by Greeks of Sinope, and the town, which thus has illustrious antecedents, has in the course of thousands of years passed through the most various fortunes, tossed to and fro among peoples and princes who sprang up, flourished, and vanished from the stage. In the time of Hadrian there was no town on the Pontus Euxinus which could rival it in size, and Trebizond has also been the capital of an empire. Before the Russians conquered the Caucasus and laid the Trans-Caucasian railway between Batum and Baku, Trebizond was the terminus of the most important line of communication between Persia and the West, but in our days, owing to Russian competition, like the trade-route through Erzerum, has declined. Still the Tarabuzun of the Turks, the Trabysos of the Greeks, the Trébisonde of the French, the Trebisonda of the Italians, the Trapezunt of the Germans, Trabezon, Trabizum, Tirabson, or whatever else it is called, this town of the Princess of Trebizond, is even now the seat of a Governor-General, and is considered the most important commercial town in Asiatic Turkey after Smyrna. Amidst this densely packed mosaic of wooden houses rises an old fortress on a point, and still a number of churches remind one of Christian times, which after the Turkish conquest were converted into mosques. There are several modern churches, American and Catholic missionaries, and a convent with a girls' school. The population is said to number 6o,000,—Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Lazes, and foreigners,—but this figure is probably too large. France, Persia, Russia, England, America, and Austria maintain consuls in the town. During the disturbed state of the Caucasus, and especially in consequence of the railway strike, Trebizond was rejoicing in a temporary prosperity, for the goods which could not be unloaded at Batum were mostly transported through Trebizond and Erzerum. But even in ordinary circumstances cotton goods and other manufactures, cloths, wool, tea, silver, velvet, etc., are imported into Persia, and from Persia mats, shawls, silk, raisins, etc., are brought.
When I went home in the dusk to the Hôtel de Suisse,
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