12 April 1810, Thursday entry

(…) Went on shore with Captain Bathurst and Lord Byron. Town [blot] in ruins from Russians, but still a shop or two, and some parts rebuilding. Once must have been a considerable capital for such an island, having a castle surrounded with a moat. Saw an [ ] piece of Granite brought from Alexandria of Troas.
A crowd of Turks on shore belonging to several small ships, detained in the little harbour by the southerly wind, surrounded and listened to Lord Byron.
Captain Bathurst and I walked, and where treated to coffee by the principal Turk of the place, at the deal shop of a miserable-looking Greek, who had called himself "English Consul", and who had been sent in a boat to signior Tarragona, Jew and British Vice-Consul at the Dardanelles, to advise him of our approach. Here one of the Turks said, "When the English came here in wartime, they asked us only for a draught of water - but the Russians, they burnt our town and took everything, as you see."

Diary of John Cam Hobhouse