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The monotonous songs of some Greek boatmen, and the loud croaking of the frogs, still heard in every direction, were the only sounds that disturbed the deep silence and tranquillity of the spot. There was not the slightest ripple on the water, nor the sound of one single murmuring wave breaking upon the beach.

My thoughts wandered back to those distant times when the victorious fleets of Athens assembled in the port, and the exulting crowds from the city above came down to these now silent shores, to welcome the returning victors, to wreathe their brows with the laurel branch, and to conduct them in triumph to return thanks and to sacrifice to the gods in the noble Athenian temples; when they crowded to see Alcibiades disembark from his three-banked galley on his return from Persia*;-and when the Athenian population of men, women, and children fled from their native homes, and abandoned their native city, to take refuge on board the fleet from the invading hordes of Xerxes.

I was startled by a Greek, who suddenly made his appearance with a long pipe in his hand; he

*His cùm obviàm universa civitas in Piræeum descendisset, tanta fuit omnium expectatio visendi Alcibiadis, ut ad ejus triremem vulgus conflueret.-CORN. NEP.

made me a civil salutation, and accosted me in good Italian. "You belong to a party, Signore, of three gentlemen, I believe, who are seeking for a vessel to take them to Syra?" I informed him, "I did." He then acquainted me, that he was the proprietor of a Goletta, which was to sail on the following evening, and would make a bargain with me if we could agree upon terms.

As we wished if possible to get away in the morning, I told him I could enter into no agreement at present. The courteous gentleman then sat down on a large stone, offered me his pipe to smoke and gave me the pleasing intelligence that it was reported that the plague had broken out in Smyrna. We talked about Greece and its government; its young king, and the Bavarian troops; and I found my companion pipe in with the universal note of discontent." We are in a sad condition," said he; "and I don't think there is much chance of better times. King Otho is much too young. The Greeks ought to have chosen a king of mature age, who knew the wants of the people, and the measures that ought to have been pursued. The Regency have plunged the country into debt; they have brought over thousands of Bavarians, who ought to have stopped in their own land; they quarrel among one another, and occupy their

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time about things which are fit only to amuse children; they turn loose our bands of Greek soldiers, who used to be paid by the old government, without giving them any means of providing for themselves; they goad them into the commission of crime, and then we are distracted with long and solemn trials, disputes, and quarrels, and the public mind is kept in a state of ferment and excitement. We are," says he, "more heavily taxed than we used to be under the Turks; to be sure the money is not so directly carried away out of the country as it was then, but I don't see that the money that they spend does any good-it goes into the hands of a few merchants, and never stops long in the land. Ah," says he, "the Greeks have been long inured to calamity, and hardened against injustice; but❞—and I could see his face brighten up-"but we will have a day of reckoning yet! I mean no harm to the king, Signore; only to the Bavarians who insult us. They trample upon us; they are strong in numbers at present, but the hate against them is gradually increasing, and on the first war in Europe-the first disturbance on our frontier, if we can get a few Turks or Albanians to lend us a helping hand, we will rid the country of the devouring locusts!"

I asked him what he thought was the amount

of the Greek population under King Otho's rule. He replied, "Very, very small; the population of London would more than double the whole of ours. We had hundreds and thousands killed during the long Turkish war-men, women, and children; and I don't believe that in all the land under our new king, there is more than half a million, if there is that."

A light, white mist, gradually rising from the neighbouring marshes, and gathering along the surface of the water, warned me to escape its noxious influence by returning home. The fearful intermittent fever floats along on its white ous bosom, and death follows in its rear.

vapour

The fine plain stretching from Piræus to Athens, which might be tilled and made to yield an abundant produce, now sends only from its dreary swamps the noisome pestilential fog, to sleep within whose poisonous influence is almost certain destruction. During July and August the Athens fever rages at its height, and the journey of many an English traveller has been cut short by it. It generally breaks out immediately after quitting the spot where the individual has imbibed the contagion.

Our accommodation for the night was most wretched; we were obliged to sleep either upon

the earthen floor of a miserable house, or upon a large shutter, which was laid on some loose bricks. During the whole night I was kept awake by the croaking of the frogs in the marsh, whose noise would not be credited, except by those who have passed a night in spring at this spot.

May 9th. When the early rays of the sun had dispersed the white unwholesome mists which extended their damp wreaths along the low winding shore, I sallied out, took a boat, rowed out of the harbour, and bathed close to some ruined fragments of the antient Athenian walls which once fortified the entrance of the Piræus port, many of whose disjointed masses were seen buried under the clear waves. As the weather was perfectly calm, with every prospect of its continuance, I hired the open boat in which we bathed to take our party on to Syra, it being the cleanest in the place, furnished with a mast and sails, and capable of holding several individuals without any great discomfort.

About ten o'clock, under a dazzling sun and unclouded sky, we left Piræus harbour; a light favourable breeze had sprung up, which carried us slowly away from the classic land of Greece. A brilliant light was shed over the landscape; the distant wavy mountains, the rocky headlands, the Athenian Acropolis, the long line of coast, and