arranged, reflects the highest credit upon the individuals who superintend, and the nations who support it.

The American Missionary told me, that there was a striking difference between those young persons who had returned to the island, having received an education in England, and those who had been educated in France; the former being generally good Christians, the latter infidels. The inhabitants of the island are mostly either bigoted and superstitious or infidels.

There is a public library, containing some hundreds of volumes in different languages, open to any one who chooses to walk in from nine o'clock in the morning until one, and from three to five. I found it a most delightful acquisition, when tired with my rambles, during the heat of the day. It is a disgrace to our country, which prides itself upon the intelligence and knowledge diffused among all classes of society, that England should be so far behind continental nations in the establishment of public libraries, which are to be met with in every small town in France, Italy, and Sicily. Any stranger may enter, call for the most valuable works, sit down, read, and make extracts, without a question being asked or any hindrance given him.

May 14th.The weather has completely changed. The cloudless sky, hot sun, and dead calm, have given place to a strong westerly breeze, dark driving clouds, and a heavy sea, which have unfortunately prevented our excursion to the islands of Paros and Antiparos, about twenty miles distant. Two of our friends, lately returned, describe the Grotto of Antiparos, with its crystal chambers and stalactite columns, as most glittering and gorgeous, and the Parian marble quarries as particularly interesting.

CHAPTER V.

DELOS.-DELIAN DAMSELS.-SCIO.-DEVASTATION.TURK

ISH MASSACRE.-GULPH OF SMYRNA.-SMYRNA.-BAZAARS. -GREEK FETE.-CARAVANS.-HUSSEIN BEY.-GREEK LADIES.-ORIENTAL SCENERY AND IMPRESSIONS.

Μέλπετε ὦ παίδες Εκάεργον καὶ Εκλεγαν.
Sing, O boys, Apollo and Diana.

MAY 14th. In the afternoon we went on board a fine Austrian merchant brig from Trieste, bound to Scio and Smyrna. Several Greek vessels were getting under weigh at the same time;--they were crowded with passengers, dirty objects, huddled together and drenched with spray.

Towards evening, we arrived off the island of Myconos, and the smaller islands of Delos and Rhene. The antient inhabitants of the first, according to Strabo, were remarkable for becoming bald at an early age, and thence called, by way of contempt, the bald heads of Myconos.

VOL. I.

K

The latter island is interesting to us from its association with mythological and classical history. We saw mount Cynthus, celebrated as the fabulous birth-place of Apollo and Diana; but the ruins of Apollo's temple, founded by Cecrops, now no longer exist, except in shapeless masses, and the joyous throngs of Ionians no longer frequent the Delian festivals.

Thucydides quotes a hymn to Apollo and Diana, alluding to those festive assemblies, which he has ascribed to Homer.

Ενθα τοι έλκεχίτωνες Ιάονες ηγερέθονται
Αὐτοὶς σὺν παίδεσσι καὶ αίδοίης αλόχοισιν
Οι δέ σε πυγμαχίη τε καὶ όρχηθμω καὶ ἀοιδῆ

Μυησάμενοι τέρπουσιν ὅταν στήσωνται άγωνα, &c.

These, with some following verses, have been thus translated.

Here, oft in flowing robes the Ionians throng,
And greet the god with festive dance and song
Illustrious youths, and dames of matchless grace,
Who well might seem of more than mortal race,
While stored with wealth their floating vessels ride
In splendid triumph o'er the briny tide.

Here too, the Delian damsels often sing,

Thy praise, Apollo, Heaven's far darting king
And in the long resounding chorus join,
Latona's charms, and Dian's powers divine,
With dames for beauty famed in days of old,
And chiefs in council wise and combat bold.

Friday, May 15th.-Coming on deck, I found a fine breeze blowing, and the vessel entering the straits of Scio, under a crowd of canvass, studsails and royals. On our right extended the blue mountainous coast of Asia Minor, and on our left the beautiful island once called, and justly, "The flower of the Levant."

In about an hour we arrived off the town; but three-fourths of the structures, which at a distance appear to be houses embowered in woods, are only bare walls and miserable ruins-melancholy remnants of the ravages of the Turks. The Plain of Scio extends partly along the coast, and partly between two ridges of mountains; it presents a continued succession of gardens, and groves of orange and lemon trees, which in many places are so thickly planted that it is impossible to pass between the trunks. Tall dark cypresses taper above these, and with groves of the fig, the olive, and the mulberry, form a striking feature in the landscape. When the wind blows off the island, the perfume of the orange blossoms is borne completely across the straits to the opposite coast of Asia Minor.

The celebrated Pianura, or Plain, is bounded to the north by a chain of mountains, anciently called Pelinæus; its wine was much esteemed by the Romans, and until of late, by the Greeks. It