A Residence at Constantinople: During a Period Including the Commencement, Progress, and ...

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CHAPTER I. Page

Turkey of greater curiosity and interest than most other Places, why — Embark in the Suite of an Embassy to the Sublime Porte — Dangerous Passage to the Cambrian Frigate — ^Alarm for the Safety of our Boat in passing the Needles — ^Education of young Midshipmen — ^Amiable Trait of Lady Strang^ord — ^Man overboard— Arrival at Gibraltar- General Don — Carteia, ancient Town of Phoenicians — Irish Customs and Opinions — St. Roque — Spanish Characteristics — General 0*Donuel — Magnificent Battery — St. Michael's Cave — ^Trait of Spanish Heroism — Dangerous state of the Rock — Monkeys — ^Vultures— Di' luvial Remains— Notice of the Fortress • • 1

Chapter II

Currents setting into both ends of the Mediterranean — Pillars of Hercules — ^Fable of Atlas — Contrast between the Atlantic and Mediterranean-^ Beautiful Meteoric Phenomenon — ^Accuracy of Virgil — Malta — Fort Ricasoli — ^Pirates — Singular Story of Mutineers — St. Elmo — Barbarous Conduct of Turks — Retaliation of Christians — Palace of the Knights — ^Library — Church of St« John — Cave of St. Paul — Controversy about the Island he visited— Giant's Tower, at Gozo— Hageira tal gernal — ^Account of the Fungus Melitensis — Notices of Malta — Fortifications — Capers — Granaries — Pestilential Diseases — ^Dense Population— Ecclesiaotics — Penitents — Cemetery — Circulating Coins 27

Chapter III

Singularities of Malta — Magnificence of ^tna — Conversation between distant Ships — Anecdote of a Shark — ^Aspect of Corfu — Why compared to a Shield' — Furnished America with an Argument for Revolution — ^CUssical Names restored— Free Constitution — Gardens of Alcinous-— Judas Iscariot — Jews persecuted — Christianity first introduced —Legend of St. Spiridion — Jovian's Temple— Recent Discovery- Great Age of Trees — Society at Corfu — ^Turkish Fleet in a Gal^- Santa Maura — Zante — Extinct Volcano — ^Pitchy Wells — Earthquake —Extraordinary Hail-stones— Rupture of a Mountain— Inundation- Awful State of the Island— Sir P. Ross 69

VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. Page

Shores of the Morea — Present State of Cerigo, the Island of Venus and Helen — Modern Treatment of Turtle-doves — Gate of the Arches — Pirates— Carabusa — Cape Malsea — Aspect of the Cyclades — Milo, volcanic Island — Discovery of a new Venus — ^Beautiful Amphitheatre —Conjecture as to the Time of its erection — Dreary Appearance of the Country — Dress and Manners of the Ladies>— Singular Notions of Beauty — Noble Act of Meliote Women — Singular City — Queen Caroline — ^gina and Salamis— Present Employment of their Heroes — Piraeus — First Impressions of a Turk — Ambassador's Entry into Athens — Unostentatious appearance of Lady Strangford — Company at Consul's — ** Maid of Athens"— Lord Elgin's Dilapidations unjustly calumniated — Compensation highly acceptable to the Turks — ^Temple of Theseus — Revolting Employment of Modem Greeks . 105

Chapter V

Lantern of Demosthenes — Present occupant — ^Temple of the Winds — Use to which it is applied^Mean Edifice, but conveys important information — Keramikos — Exhumation of ancient tombstones — Modern Greek Cemetery — ^Emblems on Monuments — ^Plain of Marathon —Tradition of Pausanias — Interesting remains — Penthelic Quarries — Mount Hymettus — Attic Bees — Plant on which they feed — ^Theatric representation — Departure from Athens — Some early particulani of the insurrection — First Attack on the Town, by whom, and how — Barba-

' rities of the Greeks — Respectable Families fly — Maid of Athens and her Sisters escape to Corfu — Reception there — Greeks receive an unexpected Supply of Arms — Their habitual terror of the Turks — Fate of Pietro Ravalaki — Athenians retire to Salamis on the approach of the Enemy, as in the Persian War — Barbarous Retaliation of the Turks — They again retreat, and leave the Acropolis to its fate— Sufferings of the Garrison — Surrender — Massacre of Prisoners — ^By whom perpetrated — Humane Sympathy of the Athenians — ^Preservation of the Parthenon and Temple of Thesens • . . 128

Chapter VI

Ports of Athens — Cape Colouna — ^Falconer's Shipwreck — Kranae of Hom^fr-^Cydades — Classical reconections— Land at Paros — Guide—

CONTENTS. Vii

•

Page Veined Marble of Nausa— Statuary remnants at Parechia — Convent of Caloyers-— Inns of the Islands — Quarries — Singular Sculpture — Lychnttes Marble — Arundelian Records — Female admitted by the Monks — Singular exclusion — Consul in a Greek Island— Passage to Antiparos — Grotto — Supposition of Tournefort — ^Strange Inscription of French Ambassador— Comfortlras Houses— Mycotf6 — Consul's Wife — Preponderance of Female Populatiou^Ancient prejudice — Levity of Women not immoral — ^Painting in Chapel — Naxia— Celebration of Games • • ... . 146

Chapter VII

Lord Charles Mnrray-^Afflieting state — ^Exertions for the Greeks- Death and Character — MS. Journal kept by a Naxiote details the Revolution in the Islands — Remains of Russian Fortifications at Paros — Cause of Greek attachment — Views of Russians — Abandon their Allies — Extermination of the Greeks resolved on— How averted — Hopes of Greeks revive — ^Form Societies fur Improvement — Operation too slow~^Creation of the Hetairia — Application of Scripture and Ancient Prophecies— Rapid and Secret Progress— Standard of Revolt raised on Confines of Russia — Revolution commenced at Naxia by an atrocious act— Raftopolo, Russian Consul — Calumnies against the British Nation and Ambassador— Ionian Subjects active Agents- Greek Bishop convokes the People — Revolution proclaimed — Turkish Prisoners landed— Cruelty of Greeks— >EIumauity of Latins — Deadly animosity between the Churches — Declaration of a Caloyer of Paros — Appearance of Turkish Fleet — Arrival of French Ships of War — Removal of siuviving Prisoners^Influence of Demetrius Ypsilantes in the Islands — Regular system adopted — National Flag appointed — Barbarity of Pirates — Formation of National Fleet — Revival of ancient Greek Fire — ^Terrific effidct on Turks— Heroines — Bobeliua — Modena Mavioyena— Achievement at Mycon6 .172

CHAPTER VIIL

Perils of these seas not exaggerated by the Ancients— Drsfgoman waiting for the Ambassador — ^Promontory of Sigseum — Celebrated Marble — Plains of Troy — ^Place described by Homer — Accidental resemblance of objects impossible^Wild Dogs — Beautiful but desolate shore of the llellespont^Dardauelles— Enormous Cannon— 'Impressions on Lord

Till CONTENTS.

Page Duckworth*! Fleet — Strange efibds of one Ball— Abydos— Bemabu of Xerzes's Bridg^e— Serpents of Laocoon-*-Lampeacu9— -GalUpoU — Pbjrsician to the Prince— Menage of a Jew— Janiisary and Firman- Wall of Miltiades — ^Entertainment at a Turkish Village— Alarming commencement -— Agreeable conclusion — Magnificent branches of Mount Rhodope — Bodosto — Immense Khans — ^Plains of Thrace colder than Mountains — Desolation outside the Walls of Constantinople- Inside still more dismal • • • • • 204

Chapter IX

Peninsula of Pera — Galata— British Palace— Garden— Chapel — Population and Society of Pera — ^Turkish Cemeteries^-Golden Horn— View of Constantinople — ^Palace Janissaries — Caiqne»—Fanal— Greek Patriarchate — Cathedral — ^Printing-Office — ^Patriarch — Balata— Jews- Turkish Women — ^Notions of Female Propriety— Terms of Reproach — Dog^s — How they live— Why esteemed by Turks — Character- Intolerable Nuisance — Sulamanie — ^Teriake Tcharkisi — De Tott*s account of Opium«£aters— Present State— Lunatic Asylum— Fearful Maniac — Gentle Minstrel— Turkish test of Sanity — Severe Treatment successful — accords with National Character — Santa Sophia — ^Turkish Crescent— Mosque of Achmet — ^Number of Minarets — Seven Towers — District of Tpsomothia — Greek Biirade— Armenian Quart«^— Triple Church — General View of the Interior of the City— Manners of the People • • • • • • .229

Chapter X

Bosphorus— Why esteemed by Turks— Tophana—Hadge^->Colour of Houses— Fate of a Jew^Fondukli — Beshiktash- Memory of Jason —Sultan's Kiosk— Beautiful Villages— Currents— Beybec— Turkish mystery — Narrow Strait— Passage of Darius — Castles— Present use — Shoals of Fish — ^Porpoises— Flights of Birds — Striking phenomenon — Balta Limen — Phonea — ^Therapia — ^Record of Medea — Buyukder^ —Noble Valley— Enormous Platanus— Delightful Village— Mouth of Euzine — Symplegades — Origin of Fable — ^Pompey's Pillar— Cyi^ nean Rock— Basaltic Promontory— Alexandrian Laurel— Decrease of Euzine — ^Historic Evidence^^Cause of it — ^Volcanic rupture of Boephorus — ^Inundations— Awful impressions of place— Remains of Castles — Jouchi Daghi— Amycus killed by Argonauts— IVirkish Tradition of

CONTENTS, IX

Pag« Usha ben noon — Sing;alar inscription in Mosque — Hunker Iskeli — Paper Manufacture— Sultan Selim's Sister —- Kandeli — Stavros — Scutari — Bourgorloo— 'Immense Cemetery— Plain of Pilgrims^-Printing.Office— Cotton Factoiy— Tower of Leander • • 268

Chapter XI

News of the Oreek Insnrrection^Fint Effects in the Capital — ^Events in the Provinces — ^Ypsilantes and Suzso — Oreek Proclamation- Turkish Reply — ^Arming of Turkish Populace — Excesses Useless Guard — ^Assassination of a Greek — Executions in Constantinople— Morousi, Dragoman of the Porte — Insults to Franks — Attack on Shipping — ^Pastoral Address of Greek Patriarch— Anathema against Suszoy Ypsilantes, and their Adherents — Hatta Sherif of Sultan- Levy of IVoops — Singtdar Assassination of an Armenian — Alarm on Easter £?e— -Execution of P&triarch and his Bishops — Wanton Insults to his Body — ^Miraculous Discoveiy and Burial — Life and Character — Cause of his Death — St. George's Day — Dismal State of the Capital — Destruction of Greek Churches — Attack on Printing- OflBce— Execution of a Man in a Frank Dress — Representation of Foreign Ministers — Characters — Baron Strogonoff— Extreme agitation — Retires to Buyukder^—- Sails for Russia— Progress of Insurrection — Great Alarm — ^Fugitives in British Palace— Greek Artist • 299

CHAPTER XIL

News from Patras — Charge against the British Consul- Execution in a Market— Trophies of Lips and Ears— Anecdotes of Sultan — ^Mustapha Bairactar — ^Death of Selim — Elevation of Mahmood — First acts of his reign — Death of his Brother and Females of his Seraglio- Energetic Charader^Regard for Morals and Decorum— Ambassador's Audience with Grand Vizir — with Sultan-^Train of Persons — Ominous Colour— Nice Etiquette— Rude Manners — ^Babi Hummayoun — ^Taraphanay— Great Platanus — ^Public Executioners— Running for Pilaff— Divan — Sultan's Gallery — Capitan Pasha— Visir— Law-suit-— Payment of Troops-— Sultan's Letter — Dinner in Divan— Pelisses — ^Entrance to Harem — Reception-room and Throne — Sultan — Audience — Terror of Dragoman — Reason for holding Strangers in the Sultan's presence • • • • 334

CONTENTS.

Chapter XII

Outrages of Yamaks — Ceremony of the Baklava — Cruel Superstition — Case of Danesi — Russian Memorial — Rejected by Sultan — Departure of Baron Strogonofi^ — Repair of Greek Churches — State of Therapia — Bishop of Derkon — Greek Fugitives seekrefuge — Painful position — Escape of Greeks — Discontented Janissaries — Turkish Fleet — Impressment resisted by Caiquegees — How manned — Proceed to Galaxidi — ^Return, how celebrated— -Greek Prizes and Standards — Festivities at European Palaces — ^Afflicting state of Gh^ek Families- Helena Mavroeordato— ^reek Libraries. • •

Page

Chapter XIII

Death of All Pasha — Approximation of Turks to Popular Representation — Persian War — Causes of it — ^Effects at Constantinople — ^Turkish notions of Plague — Prospect of War with Russia — Island of Sciu — Character of its Inhabitants — High state of Prosperity — Establishment of College — Intelligence of Natives — Insurrection atSamos — Landing at Scio— Indisposition of the People to join in it — ^News of the Event arrives at Constantinople — Turkish Fleet [sets sail — How manned-* Character of Kara Ali, the Capitan Pasha — Arrives at Scio — Offers an Amnesty — Rejected by the Samiotes, who leave the Island — ^Turks land — Indiscriminate Massacre — Horrible Atrocities — Example set by Capitan Pasha — Utter Devastation of the Island — Greek Fire-shiiJS — Sudden Destruction of Capitan Pasha and his Ship . . 394

PLATES, &c.— VOL. I.

Portrait of Author • • to face Title-page

Giant's Tower— Gozo • •

Fungus Rock — Gozo . • ,

TowRofZante • • • .

. 100

Ancient Sculpture, Paros . ■

• 153

Altar on Cyauean Rock (woodcut)

. 233

Plan of the Courts of the Seraglio •

. 349

Insurgent Flags (woodcut) . ,

. 386

Map of the Bosphoius • to face the last page

Preface

During my first residence in Turkey I was in the habit of detailing to friends at home, at their special request, the various passing events of that very interesting period, and just at the time they occurred. The ptirtiality of my correspondents attached more importance to my communications than they merited — they preserved my letters with a view which I never had in contemplation when they were written, and on my return they requested me to revise and publish them. I did so with such as were connected with an event in which the public were much interested — the advance of the Russians to Constantinople, as I had then just passed over the ground through which they were preparing to march.

It was my intention to have followed this with the remainder ; but the want of some materials I had left behind me, and other reasons not necessary to detail, interfered to prevent me. In the

XU PREFACE.

mean time, professional duty led me to other countries ; and it was not till after a lapse of some years that I again returned to Constantinople. This delay, however, gave me an opportunity of seeing the East under different aspects ; its quiescent state before the revolutionary struggle began — the agitation which ensued during its progress — and the alterations which took place when it was finally past. These were opportunities which as far as I know, have not been enjoyed by any other writer.

In looking over the mass of information I had collected and written, I found that much of it had been anticipated in the publications of more competent travellers ; much appeared to have become obsolete, and much had been already published in various ways by myself. In making a selection from what remained, I endeavoured to use what was not liable to those objections, retaining only as much more as was required to preserve the continuity of events.

It was my first intention to publish my letters just as they were written, having only made the necessary omissions. This epistolary form, however, was considered objectionable as having fallen into disuse, and I threw them into another, but so that the narrative is a mere transcript of my correspondence, with some additions. This will account for the

• • •

, PREFACE. xm

apparent inconsistency of my opinions on men and things. First impressions were frequently corrected by subsequent experience; and I have not hesitated to acknowledge changes of sentiment,^ as the rapid succession of events developed to me new views, and gave new features to the actors. The Greek revolution and the character of the Sultan appeared to me under very diflferent aspects, indeed, on my first going to the East, and my last departure from it.

The circumstances I have detailed are such as I have been eye-witness to myself, or such as I have heard from others who were so ; or, if not, had the best means of information. My informants were either born or had long resided in the country, and who, I have reason to think, could not be deceived themselves, and would not willingly deceive me. Yet I am aware that some facts that I mention may be considered as of doubtful authority. The number of janissaries destroyed has been reduced by the Turks themselves to seven or eight hundred. I have stated them as amounting altogether, by death or exile, to twenty thousand. The number of females put to death at the accession of the present Sultan has been said not to exceed three or four, and those only who were pregnant ; my account states them as nearly the whole of the former Sultan's female establishment. My information on these xiv PREFACE.

and other subjects was derived from sources which I thought competent authority.

The practice of destroying all those who might have a contingent claim to the crown, or preventing their existence, is a usage of extreme antiquity in the East, and remains unchanged to the present day ; it even extends to the male offspring of a Sultan's sister or cousin, if married to a subject. Cantemir says*, Mahomet III. strangled twenty-two of his brothers, whom he had invited to his coronation ; and Knolles adds, that " at once to rid himself of the feare of all competitors (the greatest torment of the mightie), he the same day (as is reported) caused ten of his father's wives and concubines, such as by whom any issue was to be feared, to be all drowned in the sea t«'' That the present Sultan, in the precarious state in which he found himself, should suffer those about him to have recourse to this horrid but precautionary policy of his ancestors, was not improbable ; and I have stated it on the same authority that justified Knolles : — *' as is reported."

It may be thought, perhaps, that I have dwelt too long on dismal details, and described horrors with too much minuteness and repetition ; but they were set down on the spot, and while the impres-

* Book III. chap. 7. t Knolles' Gen. Hist, of the Turks, p. 1056.

PREFACE. XV

sion was recent on my mind, and they form the contents of the letters to my various correspondents, which I have merely transcribed.

I have but one word to add on the manner in which the work is executed. •It is no aflfectation in me to say, it was undertaken with reluctance and completed with pain. The time for its appearance, I thought, had passed, and I laboured under severe indisposition, from a constitution broken down, not more by time than by climate in various countries. I was living, too, at a distance from the press and so had a limited control over any errors. I am aware [that these things cannot excuse defects to the public, but I owe it to myself to account for them.

NARRATIVE

OF A

RESIDENCE AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

Chapter I

Turkey of greater curiosity and interest than most other Places, why— Embark in the Suite of an Embassy to the Sublime Forte — Dangerous Patsage to the Cambrian Frigate — Alarm for the Safety of our Boat in passing the Needles — Education of young Midshipmen-^ Amiable Trait of Lady Strangford— Man overboard^Arrival at Gibraltar — General Don^Carteia, ancient Town of Phoenicians— Irish Customs and Opinions — St. Roque — Spanish Characteristics — General O'Donnel — Magnificent Battery — St. Michael's Cave— Trait of Spanish Heroism — Danger^ ous state of the Rock— J^onkeyi — ^VuUurei— Diluvial Remains — Notice of the Fortress.

Yon think that^ as I am going to a foreign country^ my lot is enviable in being cast in the East^ where not only sacred lore hallows the remains of remote antiquity^ but classic recollections endear each object^ and give to distant regions all that exquisite interest which we feel in revisiting the scenes of our youth, and the companions of our school-boy days. This is very true ; but I confess I feel a stiU greater interest from another and very opposite cause. '' The Turk/* that bitter and stubborn enemy to every thing which we hold sacred or learned, is, to me, a more remarkable object of contemplation than either Jew or Greek, because so much more remote in his usages, feelings, and modes of thinking, from any thing we have been accustomed to contemplate. I longed to see Hunker the Manslayer,

B who is still allowed^ as a recreation, to kill fifty of his subjects a day peremptorily, and as n)any men as he can show cause for ; who permits his rajas, of his great bounty, to wear their heads for another year when they pay the capitation tax ; who suffers the representatives of his brother sovereigns to be dragged into his presence only when his slaves have fed, clothed, and washed them till they are fit to be seen ; who proscribes, as impious, every book but the Koran, and inhibits the use of any language but the Turkish ; and who puts to death, with unsparing ferocity, every audacious man who presumes to enlighten the venerable ignorance of his subjects. That such a people actually existed in Europe at the present day we always thought one of the most curious and scarcely credible facts of modem history ; and to contemplate closely their extraordinary character, without any apprehension for my own head, was a privilege I often longed to enjoy. This, by the kindness of Fortune, has been now conferred upon me ; and you, my friend, shall have the full benefit of my observations.

On the 9th of November, 1820, I embarked on board the Cambrian frigate. Captain Hamilton, in the suite of his Excellency Lord Strangford, as chaplain to the British embassy then proceeding to the Ottoman Porte. The vessel lay at a considerable distance from the shore, and it blew a very heavy gale from the N.E. We had Lady Strangford, Mrs. Hamilton, and her sii5ter> with the female attendants, in the barge, and encountered a rough and really a dangerous passage to the ship. A boat, filled with people from the Isle of Wight, swamped not far from us, and every soul perished, but of this we were not apprized till long after. In about an hour we were under weigh, and passing the Needles, where it was necessary to put the pilot on shore as soon as we had cleared the shoals. For this purpose a boat was manned^ and the command given to Lord G. Powlett, a young midshipman. The ship lay to for his return, but after waiting a considerable time longer than usual, we began to be alarmed. The sea ran very high, and it was the first expedition, I believe, where this young lad, who was very gentle and diffident, had any rough duty to perform. Lanterns were hoisted in the shrouds, and blue Ughts burnt on the bowsprit, without effect. It was then found necessary to fire minute-guns as his direction, but the boat did not appear, and it was the general opinion she had gone down. At length, after several hours of intense anxiety, our lost people came alongside, having had a perilous struggle in the dark against wind and tide, and in a sea where a larger vessel could hardly live.

This was the first circumstance that struck me in the life of a young sea-officer of the British navy. The lad, educated in all the tenderness of maternal care, had now, for the first time, perhaps, been from his mother's side, and his turn of duty was a hazardous service, which his mother would have shuddered to contemplate. It is in such a school, where the smallest attention is not paid to age or rank, that all acquire that skill and hardihood which have raised the naval character of the country to its present eminence. There were on board twenty young gentlemen of the first families as midshipmen, whom the fame of our embassy had attracted, and the greater number of them were even younger than Powlett. This gave occasion to Lady Strangford to exercise one of those amiable traits of character which distinguished her. When we had fairly entered the Atlantic, the sea became blue, and this colour was the signal for salt beef and hard biscuit for the ship's company. On this occasion one of the lads incidentally mentioned that he longed to be on shore to get a bit of soft bread, so she invited him and others, in succession, to breakfast with her, and treated the poor boys till we arrived at Gibraltar with this luxury, which was baked on board every day for the ambassador's table.

The ship's equipment was new and stiff; the bulkheads set up in our cabins were so little pliable, that when she laboured they creaked incessantly with a noise so loud and harsh, that we could not hear one another speak at dinner ; but this was a trifling inconvenience compared with what occurred above decks. The rigging was so rigid, that it was always unmanageable, and accidents were continually happening to the men, who were jammed and bruised among the unyielding cordage. Sometimes more serious disasters occurred. One evening as we approached the Straits, the moon shone out from a sky glittering with stars, her light occasionally interrupted by a dense cloud driven across her surface, and again appearing more brilliant, and revealing the eminences of the distant coast as we rapidly passed it. While contemplating this scene with Lord and Lady Strangford, and endeavouring to make out the headlands of St. Vincent's and Trafalgar, rendered interesting to us by such splendid recollections, a hat was dashed upon the deck where we sat, and a sudden sound accompanied it, as if something had struck the boat which hung in the davits on the larboard side : presently an alarm was ^ven that a man was overboard. The whole crew were instantly in motion. The vessel was going before the wind at the rate of ten knots, but she was stopped and put about in almost as short a time as a mail-coach. The two boats in the davits were lowered into the water with their crews, the one headed by a lieutenant, and the other by the gunner ; and before the captain could come on deck from below, they had rowed to some distance from the ship in search of the man.

It was now found that his name was William Orr, a native of Edinburgh. He was captain of the mizen-top, had got jammed in the yard-arm, and in endeavouring to extricate himself, had fallen over the futtock-shrouds, and was seen by a midshipman to strike against the boat in his descent, when his hat was dashed upon deck, and his body into the water. As it was almost certain that the poor man was killed by the concussion before he reached the sea, and consequently that he had immediately sunk, a longer search was considered as fruitless, so the captain hailed the boats to return, and in about half an hour all were again on board and on duty, and the ship was pursuing her course. He was an active young man, well disposed and well liked, but was considered as doomed to this fate. Three weeks before he had a narrow escape from the fall of a beam, and was but a few days from the surgeon's hands. This circumstance was duly noticed on board, and accorded with the impressions of fatalism so common among sailors. All I conversed with said, that the first accident was sent as a warning of the fate that awaited him. A short time after, a similar circumstance occurred, but with a more favourable result. While writing in my cabin, I heard a great noise on deck, with a sound of more than usual confusion. My servant hastily opened the door, and informed me that a man was overboard. I ran up, and saw him swimming on a plank at some distance astern, and the boat pulling towards him. He too had got entangled in the stiff cordage, and had fallen from the bowsprit shrouds : the ship went directly over him, and as he rose behind, a messmate had thrown him a spar, which he caught ; he was a good swimmer, and had left the spar when he saw the boat approaching, and swam to meet it.. He hapfpened to be one of its b NARRATIVE OF A

crew, so when he was taken on board he resumed his seat and his oar as if nothing had happened. When alongside, some one asked him from the deck how he got on ? ^^ Why," said he, turning a quid, " I had a pleasant swim, but — I have lost a shoe."

It is impossible not to admire the energy and humanity, as well as the skill and sagacity, displayed on these occasions. The life of a common sailor, when so many seem to be carelessly sacrificed in action, would not appear to be at any time an object of much attention on board a ship; and among so many, and at such an hour as when the first accident happened, I supposed that a dozen might have fallen overboard and not be missed or cared for ; but in this human hive, where men swarmed like bees, the fate and person of the individual were instantly known, and the energies of the whole crew were as speedily and eagerly exerted for a common sailor as if he were an admiral. In the second in- "^ stance, the man was overboard, the great machine stopped, the plank thrown out, the boat let down and manned, the sailor received on board and at his duty, and the vessel again on her way, in less than fifteen minutes !

As it blew all this time a stiff gale, and the frigate was going nearly before the wind, the motion was so unsteady that all the landsmen on board were extremely sick. This exceedingly -painful sensation, the cause of which physicians now say is not in the stomach, but in the head, is one of the opprobria medicorum for which they have discovered nothing to prevent or even alleviate. Shakspeare, who was " out o' nights" on his deer-stealing excursions, and knew what bad weather was, calls ^^ the seasons' difference" ^^the penalty of Adam." If he ever were at sea, he would assuredly have called sea-sickness " the penalty of Noah," which, Uke that of Adam, was entailed on all his posterity.