Travels in the Morea, Albania and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, comprehending a general description of those countries ... and an historical and geographical description of the ancient Epirus. ... Translated from the French by A. Plumptre, etc

Front matter

I A'//// ■ />//''// TRAVEL S IN THE MOREA, ALBANIA, AND OTHER PAKTS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. £-r*7r&Bd~bll JSsV7T& . J{nr fff Tfcr font of G Jœmmw, m^^fr^,)^ <JmJ r/ < • jt/iœcfend ThbUdied hy Bssnn Alburn i^cnJmt. Street Jpr€^fa6i^ . TRAVELS IN THE MOREA, ALBANIA, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, COMPREHENDING A GENERAJL DESCRIPTION OF THOSE COUNTRIES ; THEIR PRODUCTIONS; THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND COMMERCE OF THE INHABITANTS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND PRESENT STATE OF GREECE : AND AN HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT EPIRUS. BY P.C. POUQUEVILLE, M.D. MEMBER OF THE COMMISSION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, &C. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY ANNE PLUMPTRE. ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN, ENGLISH AND FOREIGN PUBLIC LIBRARY, CONDUIT STREET, HANOVER SQUARE? AND SOLD BY GEORGE GOLDIE, EDINBURGH ; AND JOHN CUMMING, DUBLIN. 1813. Richard Taylor ami Co, Printers, Sl,oe- Lane, London.

Preface

and

Introduction

. J. he present situation of modern Greece is little known to other countries. By Monsieur Choiseul Gouffier, in his Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, we have been made tolerabljwell acquainted with its antiquities ; while Monsieur Felix Beaujour has given us a very com plete idea of its commerce. From Messieurs Tournefort and Olivier we have no information, excepting with regard to the islands ; and the accounts given by most other travellers are very incomplete and in correct. Forced into the country by the chances of war, and placed in a situation which enabled me to examine some of the most interesting parts of Greece *, it appeared to me that in submitting to the public * It appears somewhat extraordinary that so excellent, so amiable, so candid a writer as Mon sieur de Chateaubriand, and above all, one who had taken so much pains to investigate the merits of various authors who had preceded him in writing upon modern Greece, should fall into so great an error as he has done with regard to the present work.

Or if he has understood rightly the means of information furnished to Dr. Pouqueville, it is scarcely less extraordinary, that in men tioning his Travels he should express himself with so little clearness and precision, as to lead others into the supposition that the doctor wrote merely on hearsay evidence, not from his own know ledge of the places he mentions. " The best guide," he says, " for the Morea would certainly be Monsieur Pouqueville, if he could have seen all the places he describes, but unfortunately he was a prisoner at Tripolitza." It is very true that Dr. Pouqueville was carried there as a prisoner ; but we find that during a stay of several months he had, through the indulgence of the pasha, -perfect liberty to go about the country ; a liberty of which he availed himself to visit in person all the most celebrated parts : what he writes, therefore, concerning the Morea is really from his own knowledge and observation.

The sole objection which Monsieur de Chateaubriand finds to the work being thus obviated, it may be hoped that the testimony in its favour given by such a man will sufficiently justify a translator in submitting an English version of it to the public. With regard to the part that concerns Albania, though Dr. Pouqueville does not appear there in the character of an eye-witness of what he records, yet his information is drawn from those who were upon the spot, and confided the notes they had made to his care, expressly that he might arrange them for publication. — Translator. VI

PREFACE.

. the details I collected with regard to the Morea and Albania, a work would be offered carrying with it, at least, the recommendation of treating upon many subjects entirely new. To these I have added various particulars relating to Constantinople, on which no writer upon that capital has hitherto touched : and, finally, I have traced several itineraries over different parts of the Turkish empire, which 1 trust will be found both new, and by no means devoid of interest. That the reader may, however, be better enabled to form his own judgement of the means of information afforded me, and of my in dustry in, and capacity for, availing myself of them, I will in few words relate the circumstances which gave occasion to the voyage that led to my becoming a captive in the Morea. I left France in quality of a physician attached to the Commission ef Arts and Sciences, destined to accompany the French army ofthe East upon their Egyptian expedition.

The entire loss of my health, soon after my arrival in Egypt, obliged me to relinquish my situation there, and 1 obtained permission to return to Italy. I embarked in consequence on board a tartane of Leghorn, with Monsieur Bessieres, a member of the same Commision with myself; Monsieur Poitevin, a colonel of the corps de ginie, then just beginning to recover from a long illness which had brought him to the brink ofthe grave ; Mon sieur Charbonnel, a colonel of artillery ; Monsieur Fornier, a com missary of war; Monsieur Beauvais, an adjutant commandant; Mon sieur Girard, a member of the Commission; Messieurs Joie and Bou vier, officers of the navy ; Monsieur Guerini, a barefooted Carmelite, and a member ofthe Inquisition at Malta ; and one of the guides of general Bonaparte, by name Matthew.

Some servants and an Egyp tian cabonas * completed the list of passengers. < olonel Charbonnel had been afflicted with a violent ophthalmia pod an obstinate dysentery, which could not be subdued ; yet derous ot not abandoning his profession, he received from the ge- * A cahonas ia a sort cf pioneer, or courier, in the service of the beys of EgypU.

PREFACE.

. neral-in-chief an order to repair to Malta, where he was to serve when recovered. He was therefore to have quitted us at Messina, and thence to have proceeded to Malta ; but our ill stars, or rather the ignorance and obstinacy of our mariners, frustrated all our plans in the manner that will be seen. Separated from Messieurs Bessieres and Charbonnel, with the former of whom 1 was united in the strongest ties of friendship, the sequel will show how I have been enabled, by the assistance of their notes, to make the reader more acquainted with Albania, a country the very name of which was, till very recently, scarcely known among the polished nations of Europe. In what concerns the Morea and Constantinople, I have dwelt little upon circumstances relating to myself alone; I have sacrificed my journal, and the history of many little adventures that occurred in the course of my rambles, to objects which appeared to me of much greater importance.

If I should be accused of mingling imagery too liberally with my descriptions, I must entreat the reader to recollect that I was travelling over the classic spots which inspired the great poets of antiquity; and that I wished to paint the manners of the Arcadians in all their genuine simplicity and naivete. In speaking of Constantinople, 1 have endeavoured to avoid repeating things that have been mentioned by many other travellers ; but I trust that in the accounts given of the Imperial castle of the Seven Towers, and of the gardens and harem of the Grand Signor, I am offering details wholly new *. Such is the fruit of my labours during a captivity of three jrears. That they were to me years of vexation and turmoil, that my views and my wishes were often crossed, will be easily believed. Yet if my work should be favourably received, if the objects to which 1 have aspired in compiling it should be accomplished, I shall never regret the sufferings I underwent, or the dangers to which I was often ex posed in obtaining my information. * Dr. Clarke's Travels, in which an account of the Grand Signor's gardens and harem is given, had not appeared when the original of the present work was published. — Translator. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Departure from Egypt. — Capture by a Barbary corsair. — Carried to the Morea. — Description of the coast of that peninsula from Castel-Tornese to Navarin. — Arrival at Navarin. — Audience ofthe bey. — Topography of Navarin. — Description of the town and its environs 1

Chapter II

Departure from Navarin. — Itinerary to Andreossa. — Canton of Calamatte. — Insults received by us ost entering Andreossa. — Departure from that town. — The Hermæum or defile of Mount Ithome. — Leuctra. — Leondari. — Sources of the Eurotas. — Passage of Mount Boreas. — Sources of the Alpheus. — Arrival at Tripolitza 11

Chapter III

Audience ofthe pasha at Tripolitza. — Description of his palace. — The guards. — Details concerning our stay in the palace. — Departure from it.--Lodg;ng at the house of Constantine the Greek. — Severity of the winter. — Rencontre with two French soldiers. — Visits. — Various details 25

Chapter IV

Ancient and modern division of Peloponnesus or the Morea. — Topography of Tripolitza. — Arrival of Achmet pasha. — His entrance into the town. — The audience he granted us. — Extraordinary punishment of an Imam 34

Chapter V

VaUey of Tripolitza. — Route to Mantinea. — Topography of that town, of Ami, and of St. George. Route from Mantinea to Calavrita. — Idea of that country, and its productions. — Robbers of Mount Pholoe. — Route from Calavrita to Patras. — Mount Olenos or Vodi. — Description of Patras. Itinerary to Vostitza or Egium 4*1

Chapter VI

Arcadia. — Route from Tripolitza to Caritena. — Digression concerning Sinano or Megalopolis. — Route from Caritena to Olympia, now Miraka. — Description of tbe valley of Dimizana. — Topography of Olympia 56

Chapter VII

Description of Castel-Tornese to Tripolitza. — Itinerary of the French garrison of Zante from Castel- Tornese to Tripolitza.— The route pursued by them on quitting that town, through Argos, Corinth, and over Mount Geranien to Thebes. — Their arrival and imprisonment at Constantinople . . ?Q

Chapter VIII

Laconia. — Route from Tripolitza to Lacedæmon. — Ruins of Sparta. — Description of Mistra and its environs. — Character of its inhabitants. — Course of the Vasilipotamos. — Gulf of Kolokythia or Laconia CONTENTS. IX

Chapter IX

Country of Maina. — The Mainotti. — Election of the beys, with tbe names of those who have governed since 1777- — Various particulars. — The country abounding wiih ruins. — The Cacovouniotes. — Cape Tenarus or Matapan. — Chapel of Saint Mark. — I'allantium. — Ruins of Tegea 101

Chapter X

Administration of the province. — Its division into cantons or villaietis, into archbishoprics and bishoprics. — Its taxes. — Military state of the countiy 118

Chapter XI

Character of the Morean Greeks. — The Greek women. — Superstition of these people. — Their honorary titles. — Pride of the Greeks in their ancient monuments. — Education of their children. — Amusements of the young people. — Music and songs of the Greeks 125

Chapter XVIII

Continuation of our stay in the Morea. — Extraordinary meteor. — Expedition ofthe garrison of Nauplia to Tripolitza. — Apostasy of a Zantiote soldier. — Sickness and death ofthe defter-kiaya. — Departure from Tripolitza. — Route from that place to Lerna. — Strata Halilbey. — Aglacambos. — The lake' of Lerna. — Argos. — Mycene. — Nemea 208 b CONTENTS. X

Chapter XIX

Nauplia di Romania. — Introduction to Cassan-bey. — Civilities shown by Doctor Siccini — Mount Palamide, and the foriiiicaiions upon it — Departure from Nauplia. — The island of Spezzia. — Hydra. — Psara — Passage of the Dardanelles. — Arrival at Constantinople ..... 225

Chapter XX

First view of Constantinople. — The prisoners sent to the castle of the Seven Towers. — They meet uiih several of their countrymen. — Sketch of the fate of Messieurs Beauvais and Girard, two of the prisoners confined there ............ 240

Chapter XXI

Account of the Imperial castle of the Seven Towers. — Ils history. — Interior administration of it. — Its topography. — Second ciicumvallation, or outward inclosure of the Seven Towers . . 250

Chapter XXII

The bagnio at Constantinople, and the treatment of the French prisoners and others confined (here. — Melancholy fate of a young Greek. — More particulars respecting the prisoners in the Seven Towers. — Dogmas of the Turks. — Death of Adjutant-general Rose. — Visit ofthe Istambol Effendi 265

Chapter XXIII

State of the seasons at Constantinople. — Beauty of its situation. — Sketch ofthe interior ofthe town. — Tbe bezestein. — The market for female slaves. — Account ofthe family of Selim the Third. — The titles placed at the head of his firmans. — Some account of Isaac-bey .... 276

Chapter. XXIV

Costume of the different inhabitants of Constantinople. — Sumptuary laws. — Trades carried on by different nations. — Recreations of the Turks. — The Yamakis. — Privileged drunkards. — Fires. — Cookery. — Coffee-houses. — Theriakis. — Suleyman Yeyen, a man who could take corrosive sublimate . 287

Chapter XXV

Arrival of a Russian fleet at Constantinople, and subsequent events. — The author's release from the Seven Towers. — Festival of the birth of Mahomet. — Suburb of Pera. — Tbe field of the dead. — Dolma Bakche. — Boiouk-deyre. — Forest of Belgrade. — Armenian wedding. — Turkish wedding 300

Chapter XXVI

The Court at Constantinople. — Offices of the ministers. — Ideas of the Turks respecting Plato. — The Turkish navy. — The academy for drawing and engraving. — Illness of Monsieur Beauchamp, an astronomer imprisoned at Fanaraki. — Some account of this gentleman. — Description of Fanaraki. — The island of Cyanea. — Islands of the Princes. — Tchinguenets or Bohemians . . . 312

Chapter XXVII

Description of the sultan's gardens, and of the summer harem ...... 324

Chapter XXVIII

Departure from Constantinople. — Nagara. — Course from thence to the bay of Mametta, or Hamet, on the African coast. — Stay at Porto-Conte in Sardinia. — Arrival in the road of Hyeres. — News of peace with England. — Debarkation at the lazaretto at Marseilles CONTENTS. XI

Chapter XXIX

Observations introductory to a detail ofthe sufferings of Messieurs Charbonnel, Poitevin, aud Bessieres during their captivity in Albania ; with a description of that country, anciently known under the name of Epirus 342

Chapter XXX

Commencement ofthe adventures of Messieurs Charbonnel, Poitevin, and Bessieres. — Massacre ofthe French and Greeks at Prevesa, by Ali-pasha — Jealousy entertained of the Russians by Ali. — Situation of the French prisoners in Al i's camp ........ 34()

Chapter XXXI

Topography of Butrinto. — Portrait of Ali-pasha and his sons. — Sketch of his army, of its discipline, and ofthe manners of the Albanian soldiers. — Departure of Monsieur Charbonnel for Agio-Saranta, and ofthe other prisoners for Janina. — Their itinerary to that town by Delvino, Delvinachi, and Dzidza. — Description of Agio-Saranta and the country round ...... 357

Chapter XXXII

The Elysian Fields. — Topography of Janina. — The lake Acherusia. — The Cocytus or subterranean river. — The river Acheron — The hamlet of Bonila, with the school of artillery and the pasha's gardens there. — Visit of tbe French officers to the monastery of the prophet Elias. — Province of Sagori. — Forest of Dodona. — Return of the French officers to Janina. — Journey of Monsieur Bessieres with the pasha to the northern parts of Albania ...... 367

Chapter XXXIII

Extent of the pashalik of Ali. — His revenues. — His troops. — His influence in Romelia. — Further particulars respecting the school of artillery at Bonila. — Tragical end of the corsair Orouchs. — War between Ali and the pasha of Delvino. — Monsieur Guerini turns Mussulman. — The pasha dismisses Monsieur Bouvier to France. — Route from Janina to Larissa. — Productions of Upper Albania 379

Chapter XXXIV

Eastern part ofthe pashalik of Ali. — Itinerary from Janina to Larissa. — Upper Albania. — The Chimariots. — Western Albania. — Description ot the coast from Butrinto to Prevesa. — The mountains of Souli. -—Wars ofthe Souliotes with Ali. — Southern part of Albania. — Trade of the gulf of Arta. — Earthquakes. — Phænomena on this coast. — Forests of Manina. — Villages bordering the Achelous. — Isles of the Eschinades 386

Chapter XXXV

Customs and manners of the Albanians. — Climate and state of the seasons. — Qualities of the different. waters.— The diseases most common in the country. — Physicians and surgeons.— State of commerce 402

Chapter XXXVI

, Plan concerted and executed by the French officers to escape from Albania. — Their arrival at Corfu. — Anger of Ali-pasha upon the occasion. — Treacherous conduct of the Turks. — The prisoners are lodged in the citadel of Corfu. — Their escape from it, and concealment in the island — Arrest of several of the Corfians. — The French surrender themselves ; they are reconducted to the citadel, and at length given up to the Turks .413 CONTENTS.

Chapter XXXVII

Departure ofthe French officers from Corfu. — The islands of Cerigo and Lesbos. — Gallipoli. — Arrival at Constantinople. — They are sent to the French house of detention at Pera. — Their release, with permission to return to Fiance, is procured by the English and Russian ambassadors . . 421

Chapter Xxxviii

Departure ofthe French officers from Constantinople. — Itinerary of their journey over land to Ragusa. — Ponte Piccolo, and Ponte Grande, with their lakes. — Tbe ancient wall from the Black Sea to the Propontis —Adrianople — They enter Bulgaria. — Philippopolis. — Mount Rhodope. — Mount Scomius. — Mount Orbelus. — Arrival at the foot of Prisrendi ........ 427

Chapter XXXIX

The travellers pass Mount Prisrendi — Some of them are affected dangerously by the cold. — The town of Prisrendi — Desert between that place and Scutari — The valley of the Drino. — Arrival at Scutari and description of the town. — The lake of Labeatis or Iscoudar. — Dissertation on the mountains, valleys, and rivers of Greece 436

Chapter XL

Departure of the French officers from Scutari — Antivari. — Dulcigno. — The Montenegrins. — The Mouths ofthe Cattaro. — Arrival at Ragusa — The officers are put into quarantine. — Description of Ragusa. — Sketch of its government and commerce — Departure of the French officers, and their arrival at Ancona 450

Appendix

459 LIST OE PLATES. 1. View of the Town and Port of Navarin .... To face the title. 2. The Map Page 1 3. Summer Encampment of the Morean Shepherds 176 4. View of the Town of Hydra, in the Island of Hydra .... 233 5. View of the Castle of the Seven Towers at Constantinople . . 260 6. The Field of the Dead 305 7. Tlie Meadow of Boioukdeyre 309 8. An Albanian Soldier. — A Reis of Barbary 359 In the Map the different routes are thus marked : The author's, from Navarin to Constantinople, by a single line, thus That of Messieurs Beauvais and Girard, from Patras to Constantinople, That of Monsieur Charbonnel, &c. from Constantinople to Ragusa, fitjifit/irii Jf.it/ L,*iHi:i, hi/ //miy t'olhiirtt . (orniitii Strtrt . l*ndm . ALBANIA, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

Chapter I

Departure from Egypt. — Capture by a Barbary corsair. — Carried to the Morea.— Description of the coast of that peninsula from Castel Tornese to Navarin. — Arrival at Navarin. — Audience, of the Bey. — Topography of Navarin.— Description of the town and its environs. IT was on the sixth of November 1798 that I embarked on board a tartane of Leghorn, called La Madonna di Monte-Negro, in company with the gentlemen mentioned in the Introduction. We sailed from the new port of Alexandria at seven in the evening, the weather being stormy, and were fortunate enough to escape the English, Turkish, and Russian fleets by which it was blockaded. On the morrow at sunrise the shores of Libya appeared only under the form of a dark line in the horizon, and soon after we lost sight of them entirely. The wind blew tempestuously, and the sea ran high: this continued till the tenth, when we arrived within sight of the island of Candia.

Here a profound calm came on, accompanied with stifling heats, so that ten days elapsed before we could proceed on our route. Alas! why did we arraign Heaven for being thus adverse to our wishes ? They were heard in the end but too soon. On the twenty-fourth our sailors, instead of making for the light-house of Messina as they pretended, ran us to the gulf of Squilacea on the coast of Calabria; and notwithstanding that the sun, which appeared about noon, showed B them the summits of the Appenines, they continued obstinately to direct their course the same way. The night between the twentyfifth and twenty-sixth proved the destruction of all our hopes, and the commencement of our misfor tunes. We had been descried in the evening by a Barbary corsair from Tripoli without our having perceived him, and a calm which prevented our proceeding gave him an opportunity of bearing down upon us with his oars.

Free from any suspicion of danger, we were reposing in perfect tranquillity. Half the night was past; the moon then at the full illumined the coast of Cala bria, and a profound silence reigned in our frail bark, when on a sudden the sailors who were on guard upon deck perceived the corsair approaching. They softly awoke their comrades, and in concert with a Provencal pilot hoisted out the boat, only interrupting our sleep to render us the witnesses of their desertion. We could have detained them; but the boat being too small to contain us all, we suffered the rascals to depart, resigning ourselves patiently to our fate. The corsair fired upon us immediately; and as we could not answer, being destitute of arms, it advanced, still continuing its fire. The cries of the crew, the noise of the fire-arms, the clashing of the swords drawn for boarding us, increased every moment as they approached.

We had hoisted our colours and held out signals of peace, when the corsair having reached us the people sprung upon our deck. Their audacity only increased when they found not a man among us with arms, but all wearing an aspect of peace and submission. Man}-* of us were struck down and cruelly beaten by them; we were completely plundered in an instant, and at length put in chains. Hitherto the Barbaresques had supposed us Neapolitans, a people who seem formed for their prey ; but as soon as the captain discovered us to be French, he affected a very different behaviour. Those who had been ironed were released, and he made many protestations of friendship and kindness: these we knew perfectly well how to appreciate. He promised to restore every thing that had been taken from us, and swore a thousand times by his own head that we should be conducted in safety to Corfu.

As to the tartane which had been abandoned by its crew, and in which he found an old Tuscan flag, he adjudged it to himself and sent it to sea, having first put on board a prize-master with ten of his own sailors: for ourselves, we were ordered on board his ship. His people soon began to break open our trunks, and to take possession of whatever they chose among our effects ; while it would have been utterly in vain for any one of us to utter a word of remonstrance against their depredations. When day came on, the captain, who was a Dulcignote*, by name Orouchs, permitted me, as well as Messieurs Fortifies and Joie, and the guide Matthew, to return to the tartane and seek for some better clothes, our own having been torn to pieces. We were then to rejoin him, and proceed, as he said, immediately to the place of our destination.

But scarcely were we on board the prize when one of the pirates at the mast-head announced a vessel in the horizon, and in fact we soon perceived a frigate in full sail directing its course towards us. The reis Orouchs immediately hailed the officer who commanded the tartane, and ordered him to sail away directly for Tripoli. This order was like a thunder-stroke to us, as it separated us entirely from our friends: but we had no power of resistance. In about ten minutes after, the frigate fired at us to bring us to; but the captain refused, and immediately hoisted the French flag. This trick, in saving himself, completed our ruin. The frigate, which appeared to be a Neapolitan, bore away, continuing to give chase to the corsair. We had no reason to congratulate ourselves upon the auspices under which the night following our capture commenced.

Our captors had become suspicious; we on our side observed them with close attention, we were even meditating some daring stroke, when we were hurried below deck and shut up under the hatches. Notwithstanding this they seemed still to consider themselves as far from secure, and kept a vigilant guard all night lest they should be surprised by us. It was not without reason, I must confess, that they were thus cautious, since though we were reduced nearly to the impossibility of executing any decisive blow, we did not the less discuss different plans for extricating ourselves from our perilous situation : they were, however, of necessity no sooner formed than rejected. We resolved to abide by the only one at all practicable, totally deprived as we were of arms, and this was to endeavour to win the reis over to our interests.

By means of the lingua Franca we could make ourselves understood by him, and we were not without hopes that he might be induced to listen to us, as he owed his liberty to General Bonaparte : the latter had released him with many other Mussulmans from captivity when he took possession of Malta. The reis besides knew the French well, having accompanied our army into Egypt as * An inhabitant of Dulcigno, the ancient Olcinium, a town in Turkish Albania, situated upon the little river Boi'ana, six leagues west of Antivari, and eight leagues from Scutari. Its inhabitants are almost all pirates, some serving under the flag of Barbary, others setting up for themselves and infesting the Adriatic. They have a cast of countenance which strongly denotes treachery and cruelty. B servant to General Dumas: from thence he had escaped through the intervention ofthe bey of Bengaze*, and was thus enabled to resume his ancient occupation.

As the reis was ignorant of our being at war with the Ottoman Porte, we gave him to understand that it would be more for his interest to land us on the island of Zante, from which we could not he far distant, than to carry us to Tripoli. We added, that for so doing he would be liberally rewarded by the French com mandant, and that he need not fear our reclaiming any thing from him, since the corsair had carried away the greatest part of our effects. We insinuated to him besides, that he might there get rid of his crew, sell the tartane to great advantage, relinquish the perilous trade he was now following, which had already thrown him once into captivity, and live in future at his ease wherever he might choose. These ideas seemed grateful to him, and the wind, which forbade our making the coast of Africa, decided him to follow our counsel.

After a short conversation, therefore, with his crew, the direction of the vessel was changed, and he steered for Zante. On the morrow, being the 2Sth of November, we perceived early in the morning the shores of this delicious island, which seemed to us a haven of security. All our sails were set, and we were on the point of gaining the land, when suddenly the crew of the reis, alarmed at the danger they must run sup posing hostilities to exist, revolted and veered about, exclaiming that they were betrayed. We were like people thunderstruck; our flattering hopes were ina moment dispersed, and our fate seemed, from this disappointment, even more cruel than before. All we could obtain was, to be conducted to the Morea ; it was the country of our pilot, and he said he Was perfectly acquainted with its ports.

The night came on with a very heavy sea, and our sails were torn by the impetuosity of the wind. In the morning we were upon the coasts of the Morea below Cape Tornese, opposite the mouth of the little river Peneus. Here we were detained the whole day by a dead calm. Our crew employed themselves in repairing the sails, in disputing about the division of our spoils, and in burning some manuscripts which I had carefully preserved. On our side we collected from among the sand, which served as ballast to our vessel, a few scattered morsels of biscuit, since none remained on board either for the Turks or our selves. A little rice and about half a barrel of water formed the whole stock for our sustenance. * This bey was then at Alexandria. Bengaze is a town in the gulf of Sydra, upon the coast of Africa, anciently called the Syrts.

From the point where we were now detained by the calm, Mount Pholoe, known at present by the name of Dimizana, was to be distinguished by two lofty pyramids which crown its majestic summit. I saw it for the first time, and my imagination immediately transported me into the valleys of Elis, and upon its amphitheatres, whither the people resorted to be spectators of the Olympic games. The shore near us was somewhat elevated, and covered with wood, forming an arch over the sea which its angry waves could not reach. Upon the left, to the north-west, we saw Gastouni, situated a good league inland, at a little distance from the right bank of the Igliako, the ancient Peneus. The minarets of this town were confounded with the white rocks which crown the shore; these rocks render a little port in the neighbourhood very difficult of access.