Page:Troja by Heinrich Schliemann.djvu/64

wretch like him is an unmitigated plague in archæological pursuits.

In August I made a direct application to the Chancellor of the German Empire, Prince Otto von Bismarck, who kindly took the matter in hand, at once gave new instructions to his Embassy at Constantinople, and obtained for me, in September, permission to take new plans, provided these were limited to my works below the level of the ground and no measurements were made above ground. The permission thus limited was of course useless. Further long delays and disappointments would probably have been in store for me, had it not been for the lucky circumstance that, in the beginning of November, my honoured friend Herr von Radowitz was appointed ambassador of the German Empire at Constantinople, who is one of the most excellent diplomatists Germany has ever had; he is besides animated by the holy fire of science, and has unbounded energy. Having addressed himself on my behalf direct to H. M. the Sultan, he at once obtained an iradé which permitted me to make the plans. I now fulfil a most agreeable duty in thanking His Excellency publicly and most cordially for the immense service he has rendered me, without which I could probably never have brought my work to a close.

I therefore again dispatched Dr. Dörpfeld to Troy on the 18th of November; but, being pressed for time, he only made the Plan VII. of the Acropolis of the Second City. It was not till April 1883 that I was able to send to Troy the surveyor, Mr. J. Ritter Wolff, who made the Plan VIII. of the whole city of Ilium.

To return to the order of our proceedings. We had a south wind for only the first three days in March; afterwards until the end of April, and therefore for fifty-eight days uninterruptedly, we had a strong north wind,^[1] in-