My dear Mother, —... I can now tell you more about our proceedings, which in a military point of view have not as yet been of much importance. Regiments are constantly arriving here in all sorts of steamers, both Government and private company's; our own Brigade is, however, not yet complete, my battalion not having arrived; the Szmoomwhich brings her having broken down at Gibraltar, she will not be here under seventeen or eighteen days' passage. We took only half, viz. nine, but then we came in a private steamer. The climate here is quite perfection just at present, but I should not like to pass a summer here: there is no country, not a tree to be seen, except the locust tree, which is in every respect like the ilex, and what little green there happens to be from new vegetation is almost entirely hid from the eye by the numerous stone walls which enclose the tiny little fields. The general lay of the island is slightly undulating, hilly you can hardly call it, and its appearance is like a mass of loose stones and rock, studded here and there with the locust trees, but very thickly covered with villages.... When we are to go farther on Heaven only knows. — Your affectionate son,
Fredk. Stephenson.
To his Brother y William Henry Stephenson
My dear William, — I have been in daily hopes for the last three weeks of being able to write and say we are off to-morrow, but here we are still, though all the rest of the force, except two companies of the 49th, have been at GallipoU some days, and the Rifles with Sir G. Brown ^ more than a week; however. Lord Raglan is expected here Monday night, and on the following day I really do think we shall be off. You know in England so much more of what is going on than we do here, that I hardly know what to tell you about, for all our news relating to Turkey comes to us "from you. The peninsula to the north-west of the Dardanelles is, as I suppose you know, to be fortified about ID miles north of Gallipoli to serve as a left base to our operations, and to protect the passage of the Dardanelles; our right base will be Constantinople, I believe, and in order to protect that as well as the Bosphorus, a fortified line will be thrown up some 30 or 40 miles in front of the capital. The extent of this line as chosen by Sir J. Burgoyne * will be nearly 30 miles, but along its front are several small lakes, marshy ground, etc., impassable to an enemy, so that the actual extent to be defended will not exceed 9 miles. The whole of the force has gone to Gallipoli, but I cannot help thinking that our Brigade will go to Constantinople. Lord Stratford ^ sent last week to Sir W. Reid ^ to dispatch troops immediately to Constantinople; our Brigade were the only troops left here undisposed of, but he could not send us, as he had only the day before received orders from England to send on all the troops but ourselves — this is why I think we shall be sent on there when Lord Raglan arrives. I hope we may. Ella,' who returned from there a week ago, says that all the Greeks are being driven from the town, and later accounts say that fears of a disturbance are entertained at the anticipated enfranchisement of the Christians. These circumstances, together with the presence of great numbers of irregular troops in the town who came out from Asia when the Sultan made his appeal to all true believers at the commencement of hostilities, and who are now committing all sorts of excesses; all these
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