Zante--Earthquakes--Patras--The Marquis of Sligo joins Lady
Hester’s party--Corinth--Visit of the Bey’s harým to Lady
Hester--Indiscreet curiosity--Women of the East--Isthmus of
Corinth--Kencri--The Piræus.
A British ship of war is at all times a noble and interesting
spectacle, but, in the Mediterranean, she becomes a beautiful one
also. For a week together the sea was scarcely rougher than the bosom
of a lake; and the white dresses and straw hats of the sailors, the
cleanness of the decks, and the awning over our heads, combined with
the serenity of the weather, gave to our voyage the appearance of a
party of pleasure.
The view was truly enchanting, when, doubling the north-east point of
the island of Zante, we of a sudden discovered the bay and surrounding
country. At the foot of mountains which are seen on the right hand,
stand the white houses of the chief town, extending for a mile and
a half. Immediately behind, and elevated above them, olive-trees,
cypresses, and vineyards, meet the eye as it ascends: and the picture
is crowned by the castle which commands the town beneath it. From the
bottom of the bay a fertile plain extends four or five miles inland,
bounded in the distance by blue hills. On the left, a high mountain,
the ancient Etatus, corresponding with that on the opposite shore,
rises conically from its promontory, and, like the other, exhibits
at different heights white villas, olive woods, vineyards, and arid
patches of soil, left apparently neglected, or else inaccessible to the
plough of the husbandman.
Captain Brisbane went on shore the same evening; and the next morning
Mr. Foresti, the English consul, and an aide-de-camp from Major-General
Oswald, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Ionian Islands, came on
board: soon after which we landed, and residences were assigned to
us in the town. The civility and attention of Lady Hester’s host
may be judged of from the fact that, every morning, as soon as she
was visible, he waited on her, in full dress, to inquire if the
arrangements of the house, from day to day, were such as she approved.
When seen from the castle, from which almost the whole circuit of
the island can be taken in at one view, its features were not less
delightful than those I have before described. Hence it has obtained
the name of “the Golden Island,” “the Flower of the Levant,” &c. It
is composed of two chains of mountains to the north and south, with a
spacious vale between them. Looking down upon this vale, instead of
meadows of herbage and fields of corn, is beheld a luxuriant garden of
all the productions of warm climates. It is here that the currants grow
which are in such request in England. It was the vintage time at our
arrival, and I saw the process of drying them. The vines which produce
them grow no higher than gooseberry-bushes, and are not sticked. The
currants, when gathered, are spread in the open fields, on spots
smoothed for the purpose, near the vines, where they lie in square
layers about an inch thick, until they become shrivelled and blackened
by the sun, and assume the appearance which they have when they reach
us, a change which is effected in a few days. They are shovelled up
into sacks, and deposited in roomy places called seraglios, where
they are kept for about three years, and are then fit for exportation
and use. Undried, these grapes are about as large again as an English
currant, and in taste exceedingly luscious. They are exclusively the
production of this island, with the exception of those grown in the
Morea. Currants, with dried olives and olive oil, are the staple
commodities of Zante.
The fertility of this happy spot seemed inexhaustible, if a judgment
might be formed from the cheapness of its productions. Half a dozen
lemons cost only a halfpenny, and grapes, peaches, and other fruits
were to be had almost for plucking. Turkeys were sold at one shilling
each: geese, poultry, &c., in proportion. The wines of the island,
like those of Cephalonia, seemed to us to have little flavour: and it
is said that, to make them keep, the skins, jars, or casks in which
they are put, are smeared over with rosin. This is the case also up the
Archipelago; and custom alone can reconcile a stranger to the taste,
which at length becomes just tolerable.
Of the native Zanteots such as I saw may be described in a few words.
The women paint their faces excessively, particularly with white round
the mouth: they take great pride in long hair, and make the greatest
possible display of it. Among the higher classes, the unmarried females
are kept much shut up in rooms with blinds to the windows, and are
often betrothed without being seen by their future husbands. Among the
lower and middle orders there must be a greater freedom of conduct,
since many young creatures of considerable beauty were pointed out
to me as having attached themselves to English officers without the
sanction of the Church; whilst assassination, which formerly followed
almost inevitably an illicit connection, if discovered, from the hand
of some of the relatives of the female, was now rarely heard of.
Zante was, at this time, garrisoned by the 35th regiment of infantry:
it is a defensible place, owing to the strong castle above the town.
There was an Albanian regiment quartered in it, under the command
of Major (afterwards General) Church. Zante is proverbial for the
frequency of earthquakes. The Zanteots declare that they experience
them every week; we were there a fortnight and felt none. But the
fissures in the walls of almost every house bore sufficient testimony
to the severity of one which shook the island at the end of July; in
consequence of which some of the inhabitants were so much alarmed that
they slept for some time in tents, and many of the English officers
were among the number. It happened just after midnight. Those who spoke
of it to me described it as beginning somewhat like the trembling
that agitates a house in London when a carriage passes it rapidly.
The shocks lasted for half a minute, and were repeated several times.
Wine glasses danced off the table on which they were standing, and
the houses and walls seemed almost to reel: yet, when all was over,
nothing was to be seen but here and there a ceiling peeled off, and
irregular cracks through the stone walls. Many ludicrous situations
arose from the terror in which persons left their beds; as few had time
or inclination to stop to put on their clothes before they ran out into
the streets.
Captain Brisbane made no stay at Zante, but sailed to rejoin his
squadron. General Oswald displayed much courtesy in his attentions to
Lady Hester during the fortnight she was on the island; and, when she
thought proper to depart, he furnished her with a government transport,
in which we left Zante for Patras on the 23rd of August. A felucca
was hired to accompany us, into which it was proposed to disembark
at Patras, in case (which was probable) the Turkish governor of the
castle at the entrance of the Gulf of Lepanto should refuse admission
to an English vessel. We landed at Patras on the following evening. Mr.
Strani, the English consul, gave us a most hospitable reception in his
own house.
A valley, about a mile in width, runs from the shore of the Gulf of
Lepanto to a chain of mountains. The valley is covered with vineyards
and olive-trees: and, at the verge of it, near the foot of the hills,
stands Patras, the ancient Patra. The houses, built of mud, are
despicable without and comfortless within. Here and there I observed
a mosque. Melancholy indeed was the change from the fine streets of
La Valetta to the mud habitations of Patras! Still I felt that I was
in Greece, and the language and appearance of the inhabitants had
something magical in it. My bosom beat with emotion as I now trod, for
the first time, the soil of a people, in studying whose language and
habits the chief part of fifteen years of my early life had been--I
still think wisely--expended.
Mr. B. and myself, having some leisure here, resolved to try the hot
bath. We were exceedingly overpowered by the heat, and experienced the
feelings common I believe to all those who enter a _hamám_ for
the first time, namely, a sense of suffocation so great as to alarm
ourselves and the bather. But those who overcome this first impression
never fail to like the process better on each succeeding experiment.
We found at Patras an English woman married to a Greek sailor, and
through her means her husband recommended himself to Lady Hester’s
notice as a servant, and he was hired to accompany us to Athens.
Our two German servants had a quarrel when at this place, and sallied
forth to fight with sabres. François had served in the Austrian,
French, and English armies. As they were exceedingly vociferous, many
persons assembled as spectators, and prevented their coming to blows.
The Marquis of Sligo had been cruizing some months in the Mediterranean
Sea, in his yacht, a commodious vessel of considerable burden. He
was at this time on a visit to Veli, pasha of the Morea, who resided
at Tripolizza;[8] but no sooner did he hear of Lady Hester’s arrival
at Zante, than he remanded his vessel to Malta, and hastened towards
Patras to meet her. Mr. B. had written to him from Patras, and the
letter found him at Corinth; where he took a boat, and arrived on the
evening of the 27th, just as we were on the point of embarking in a
felucca for Corinth, and he immediately joined Lady Hester’s party. We
set sail by night; and, passing the spot where once stood a temple of
Neptune, we entered the Gulf of Lepanto or of Corinth. We proceeded up
the gulf, landing to take our meals; for here the delightful bowers,
formed by nature of myrtle, oleander, laurel, arbutus, and other
shrubs, invite one to live in the open air. By night we slept on deck;
the cabin, with a tilted awning toward the stem, being reserved for her
ladyship, who suffered much from the heat.
We arrived at Corinth on the 7th of September. It blew so fresh on our
reaching the landing-place, that we had much difficulty in getting
on shore. Corinth is at some little distance from the strand. Here
we made a stay of three days. The weather was so hot that Lord Sligo
and myself suspended our beds in an arbour formed by vines, and there
slept. Corinth is a miserable town, and has not much to interest the
traveller in actual remains of edifices, although its desolate and
altered state appeals very forcibly to his recollections. A fragment
only of one Doric temple remains, affording no specimen of that order
of architecture which derives its name from the city. One might
question the existence even of a city of such celebrity, if there were
not here and there some traces and fragments of buildings, which just
satisfy doubt but not curiosity. Corinth is surrounded by marshes,
which render it most unwholesome; and the plague was said to depopulate
it frequently. I paid a visit to the son of the bey, or governor: he
received me very civilly, gave me a pipe and coffee, and permitted me
to view his apartments: he begged some Peruvian bark of me, which he
seemed to hold in great estimation.
The bey himself, an elderly man, sent his harým, consisting of his wife
and about a dozen young females, her slaves, to visit Lady Hester. Lord
Sligo, Mr. B., and myself, were sitting with her ladyship at the time;
but it was intimated to us by the interpreter, that women could not
enter whilst men were present. On an occasion so tempting, none but
the over-fastidious will blame us for resolving to hide ourselves in
an adjoining room, and obtain, through the crevices of the wainscot, a
sight of these beauties of Corinth: for we naturally supposed that a
man whose will was law throughout the province would have selected only
beautiful females as the companions of his leisure hours.
As soon as we had retired, the ladies were introduced, and by the
engaging manner with which Lady Hester welcomed them, they became in a
few moments quite familiar with her. They unveiled their faces, threw
off their ferigees,[9] and placed themselves on the sofa, in attitudes
apparently negligent, although of studied grace, as best fitting
to display their figures, their jewels, and the long tresses that
contrasted with the dazzling clearness (for I will not say whiteness)
of their complexions. The conversation was carried on by signs and
gestures; and, naturally inquisitive as females in all countries are on
matters of dress, they began to examine Lady Hester’s, and to compare
it with their own. Unconscious that the eyes of men were watching
them, their naked feet, and sometimes their bosoms, Βαθυκολπαι, from
the nature of a Turkish dress, were exposed. At length we relieved
Lady Hester from the unpleasant situation in which she found herself
unintentionally placed, both on our part and hers, by a half smothered
laugh, which acted like an electric shock on the Moslem ladies; for,
resuming their veils and ferigees in dismay, they suppressed their
gaiety at once, and made earnest signs to know what the noise was.
Our position was critical: for so surely as we had been discovered
would the bey have endeavoured to do us some mischief. Her ladyship
saw by their seriousness how much they were offended; she persisted in
affirming it was nothing, and succeeded in pacifying them; but they
very soon afterwards went away, and no doubt agreed that it would be
best to hush up their suspicions, lest the bey’s jealousy might be
excited to their own detriment.
I will here anticipate the course of my narrative, and put down a
few observations about Turkish women, which are the result of seven
years’ residence among them; observations, too, made under advantageous
circumstances, from the frequent occasion I had to pay visits to
harýms, in my capacity of physician.
A female in the Levant generally arrives at puberty about the age
of twelve years, and is seldom married later than fifteen; often at
twelve or thirteen, or even earlier. It is a mistake to suppose that
Mahometans consider what the French call _embonpoint_ as an
essential quality of beauty: their taste I believe to be the same with
that of men of other nations, who have given the matter a thought; and
rounded limbs and a plumpness which conceals the bones, are with them,
and I conceive elsewhere, the requisites for a perfect form.
From the fortieth day after birth, when the mother makes her appearance
abroad, children in the East are carried to the bath, and continue,
weekly, to frequent it for the rest of their lives. This custom, it
is supposed, enervates their frames, renders the muscles flaccid, and
prematurely brings on old age: but I differ entirely from those who
assert this; convinced as I am that a woman of thirty-five in the East
is in as good preservation as a woman of the same period of life in
England or France. To say nothing of the antient Greeks and Romans,
from whom we have the finest models of female beauty, and who made as
frequent use of the bath as Turks now-a-days do, I would assert that
travellers have been deceived by appearances; and, forgetting for the
moment that no artificial means are used in the East to conceal the
wearing effects of child-bearing, and the natural decay of the female
frame, they have imagined that they saw no where the same graceful form
which distinguishes their own fair countrywomen, without considering
how far that form may be owing to artificial means and expedients. On
this point I will only make one other observation, namely, that I have
seen a native lady of Damascus, the mother of seven children, whom I
had considered in her own country as already shapeless, display, on her
arrival in London, by the aid of a mantuamaker, a shape which was the
envy of one sex and the admiration of the other.
It is for softness of skin and inodorous sweetness that the women of
the East are without rivals. Depilation is used to its utmost extent;
and the strigil and frequent ablutions give their bodies as much purity
as is consistent with human nature. Does it not imply a commendable
cleanliness of person, when an eastern coquette would think no more of
winding off a skein of silk on her toes than on her hands, and has no
idea that it is possible for the latter to be less agreeable to the
touch or any other sense than the former?
The Turkish women stain their hair (if not naturally black or dark
brown) with henna powder, made by pulverising the dried leaf of a
shrub[10] which imparts a golden brown or auburn colour. But the
unprejudiced eye will see nothing more unnatural in this than in the
white powder formerly so much used in England and France for the same
purpose. One cannot say so much for the straitness which they give to
their hair, studiously shunning ringlets and curls; and there seem to
be no examples of it in antiquity. Of the custom which they have of
giving a black rim to the eyelids I speak confidently in commendation;
for no eyes are so brilliant as those which Nature has so set; examples
of which, though rare, are not wanting among us.
The Turks, in their notions of grace, exclude all angular lines. Hence
their women seldom walk or sit stiffly upright. The sofa is their
throne, and the drooping-headed flower,[11] not the straight reed, is
their model.
I now return to the course of my narrative. On the Isthmus of Corinth,
towards the Ægean Sea, there is a small port, called Kenkri; there,
a two-masted vessel, rigged like a bombard, was hired to convey
us to Athens; and, on the evening of the fourth day, we embarked.
Kenkri is eight miles from Corinth; and, as we crossed the Isthmus on
post-horses, I shall describe the nature of our cavalcade. Persons of
consideration, when travelling in Turkey, procure from the Pasha of
the province, or the nearest governor, an order, by which post-horses
are to be furnished to them--I believe gratis, if the order were
complied with to the letter. Such an order as this the Marquis of
Sligo had obtained at Tripolizza. The horses are used indifferently
for riding or for luggage, and each person is provided with his own
saddle. Lord Sligo had with him a Tartar, two Albanians (presented to
him by Veli Pasha) superbly dressed in the costume of their country,
with silver-stocked pistols and silver-hilted yatagans; a dragoman, or
interpreter; a Turkish cook; an artist, to paint views and costumes;
besides three English servants in livery, and one out of livery. These,
with himself, made up eleven persons. Lady Hester and Mr. B., with
their retinue, made up eleven more; forming a cavalcade with myself and
servant, of twenty-five persons, all the males of which were armed with
a sabre and pistols.
In this manner we crossed the Isthmus, and, embarking, lay all night
in the harbour. Kenkri (the ancient Cenchræa) has little left of its
pristine splendour. There were a few broken columns lying about, and
part of the pier of the harbour still remained. At daybreak on the 12th
of September, we weighed anchor. The wind was fair, the day delightful,
and by twelve o’clock we were at the entrance of the Piræus.
The master of the vessel was a man of fine stature, of noble mien, and
of a prepossessing countenance. From beneath his red skull-cap, his
curling hair behind formed a bush, somewhat like a bishop’s wig; for
the Greeks of certain districts shave the forehead and crown, and leave
the hair behind of its natural length. He had with him a son, about
twelve years old, whom Lady Hester would have taken to attend upon her,
could the captain have been induced to part with him.
The fame of Lord Byron’s exploit in swimming across the Hellespont,
from Sestos to Abydos, in imitation of Leander, had already reached us,
and, just as we were passing the molehead, we saw a man jump from it
into the sea, whom Lord Sligo recognized to be Lord Byron himself, and,
haling him, bade him hasten to dress and to come and join us.
Just before arriving at the Piræus is Caluri, formerly the island of
Salamis, close to which the fleet of Xerxes was beaten by the Greeks.
It seemed that in the strait between Salamis and another island called
Psyttalia, where the battle raged the fiercest, there would be scarcely
room for a seventy-four gun ship to wear; hence we may infer the small
size of the ships of those days, and the Piræus, which contained the
whole Athenian fleet, is hardly more spacious than the two harbours of
Ramsgate. Its entrance is exceedingly narrow, but having, I was told, a
depth of six or seven fathoms.
We sailed in, and anchored before a mean building at the bottom of
the port, which served as a custom-house. There happened to be on the
strand about a dozen horses, which had brought down part of the freight
of a polacca lying at the quay to load. These were forcibly seized by
our Tartar, and, laden with our baggage, sent off to the town, which is
six miles inland. Lord Sligo himself set off on one of the horses of
Lord Byron, who had now joined us, to send down conveyances for Lady
Hester and the rest of us.
While we were waiting on the shore, we had leisure to survey what was
around us. The country immediately adjoining the port seemed bare and
without verdure. Some remains of the quays, which once bordered the
Piræus, lay scattered at the water’s edge, and a few ill-constructed
boats, made fast by rush hawsers, showed how low the navy of Athens had
declined. There were some Turkish women sitting on the bank, covered
in every part excepting their eyes, who immediately walked away when
we attempted to approach them. We were ignorant of the customs of the
country, and Mr. B. made signs to them to stop, which excited greatly
the anger of some Turks who were standing near us.
The horses arrived in about two hours. As we quitted the Piræus, the
aspect of the country became more pleasing. Gentle slopes and hills,
rising and sinking with a pleasing wavy line, gave a tranquillity and
repose to the scenery which few can understand who have not felt it in
those countries.
While musing on the goodly prospect around me, on temples and
demi-gods, on the Parthenon and Socrates, the cool Ilyssus and the
shades of Academus, my reflections were interrupted by the loud smack
of a whip, applied by Aly the Tartar to the back of a poor Greek,
accompanied by a louder oath, which at once dissipated my vision, and
brought me back to the reality of things around me.