Athens--Residence there--Accommodations--Researches of Lord
Sligo--Embarkation for Constantinople--Sunium--Temple of
Minerva--Zea--The Hellespont--Greek Sailors in a gale of
wind--Erakli--Constantinople.
It was evening before we entered Athens. Preparations had been made
for our coming, and a house was cleared of its tenants expressly for
Lady Hester. Mr. B. and myself were lodged in a house which Lord Sligo
had occupied some time previous to our reaching Greece. It had been
tenanted by other English travellers, and the owners, who let it, were
so far acquainted with Englishmen’s wants, as to have procured some
chairs and a table, furniture then seldom found in a room in Turkey.
I employed the first day in making my apartment tidy. I found my
bed-room to be a whitewashed chamber, having an unglazed window, with
a shutter, which excluded light and let in the wind. There were large
crevices in the floor, through which the dust and rubbish were swept,
not by a long-handled broom, for I never saw one throughout Turkey, but
by a hand-broom. Upon these materials my servant had to go to work
to make me a chamber. A mat was spread upon the floor, as being the
coolest covering to the gaping chinks; my camp-bed was laid on boards,
supported by two trestles; a piece of white linen formed a curtain to
the window, and, my musquito net being suspended upon cross pieces of
twine, I found myself almost as comfortable as if I had been lying
upon an English fourpost bedstead. Lord Sligo and Mr. B., who seemed
to despise luxuries in proportion as they had the means of enjoying
them, made their beds on the floor, and all the servants slept in the
open air. But, in this climate, to sleep under the cope of heaven is
no cause of complaint; for, during the voyage from Patras to Corinth,
all of us, as said above, excepting Lady Hester, lay on deck. It was
now six months since I had seen a drop of rain, and, I might almost
say a cloud; indeed, the serenity and dryness of the weather had been
such, that prayers (we were told) had been offered up at Athens by the
Christians for rain, accompanied by the novel expedient of penning a
flock of sheep in the porch of the church, whose plaintive bleatings,
it was supposed, would give greater effect to the petitions of the
people, and move the pity of Heaven.
The house occupied by Lady Hester was spacious and handsome, having a
courtyard, a bath, and other requisites for comfort and quiet. None of
the windows of the house had casements, and, to ensure greater warmth,
it was necessary to nail up some of them with old carpets, mats, &c.
Her ladyship was a great contriver of comfort, and I have often
known her transform a naked room, with holes in the walls, floors,
and doors, into a snug apartment. The janissary sat at her gate, on a
raised wooden couch, something like a kitchen table with a railed back
to it, which is generally to be seen at the doorways of most great
persons in European Turkey, and upon which the master of the house will
often place himself, to smoke his pipe, and to breathe the morning and
evening air. The janissary acted as porter and guard.
I observed one morning that Aly, this janissary, had his feet swathed
in old rags: on inquiring what was the matter, he pretended that they
were covered on account of the cold; but I learned in the course of the
day that he had been bastinadoed on the soles at the governor’s, for
riotous behaviour at a tavern.
It was many days before we were settled, and very many more before
we had surveyed the numerous beauties of architecture and statuary
which are yet left in this celebrated city. Our time passed most
delightfully. The mornings were spent in examining the remains of
ancient edifices, in rides, and in excursions into the environs;
the evenings in the society of a few clever artists, who, enamoured
of the spot, seemed wedded to it for the rest of their days. Of
these, M. Lusieri and M. Fauvel are very generally known by their
drawings. Fauvel was living in a small house on the site of the
ancient _agora_. There were likewise many English and some other
foreigners at this time at Athens. Among the English I may name Lord
Plymouth, Messieurs Gordon, Hunt, and Haygarth. Two British merchants,
Mr. John Galt,[12] and Mr. Struthers, passed through the place on their
way to Constantinople. Of foreigners, there were gentlemen who have
since distinguished themselves in their respective careers.
I had not been a day in Athens before I was beset with the sick,
maimed, halt, and blind, importuning me for advice and medicine. St.
Paul had not more patients than I, but how different our means of cure!
I, however, did what I could for all, and obtained admission to several
Turkish and Greek houses in my professional capacity.
Lord Sligo had, on a previous visit to Athens, carried on several
excavations among the ruins, and he renewed them on his return thither.
One of those was on the Theban road, about two hundred yards from the
city wall, where he employed a dozen men; another was on the side
of the Acropolis; others were in other parts, and all were attended
with some success. His researches brought to light several tombs.
He found, at different times, some beautiful vases, gold ornaments,
lacrymatories, lamps, and other objects, generally buried with the
ancient Greeks. He bought, likewise, many bas-reliefs, coins, and other
antiquities, all of which now compose part of his valuable cabinet at
Westport Place, in Ireland.
An English gentleman named Watson, coming from Janina, fell ill on his
way, and died just as he reached Athens. He was buried in the Temple
of Theseus; and, as there was no memorial to testify where his body
lay and his death was yet recent and the circumstances known, Lord
Sligo, to whom they were told, with that sympathy for the misfortunes
of others which was so natural to him, immediately took the necessary
steps for placing a marble slab with an epitaph over his grave. But no
slab could be found fitting for the purpose, and there were no workmen
in all Athens capable of cutting the inscription.
Lord Sligo and Mr. B. made an excursion to Delphos, but, on account of
my professional avocations, I could not accompany them any farther than
Thebes, whence I returned the following day, with a guide only, over
unfrequented mountains.
Lord Byron made one of the small society which collected every evening
at Lady Hester’s: he had been the college friend of Lord Sligo and
Mr. B. It was strange enough, however, that on the third or fourth
day after our arrival, he alleged pressing business at Patras, in the
Morea, and left us, but returned some days before our departure from
Athens, when I saw him frequently. Lady Hester’s opinion of him has
appeared in another publication. What struck me as singular in his
behaviour was his mode of entering a room; he would wheel round from
chair to chair, until he reached the one where he proposed sitting, as
if anxious to conceal his lameness as much as possible. He consulted
me for the indisposition of a young Greek, about whom he seemed much
interested.
After having remained at Athens one month and four days, we were
informed that a Greek polacca, a ship of nearly two hundred tons
burden, was about to sail from the Piræus to Constantinople, with a
cargo of wheat, part of the revenue of the Kislar Aga, to whom Athens
belongs as a fief. As an opportunity like this might not very speedily
offer again, it was resolved, now that we had seen whatever the place
contained worthy of curiosity, to take our passage in her, which was
agreed for at five hundred piasters, a sum equal to £25. The cabin,
after having been whitewashed to kill the vermin, was set apart for
Lady Hester; the servants occupied the hold, which was full of wheat,
to within two feet and a half of the deck; and Lord S., Mr. B., and
myself, slept in the open air, although the nights were beginning to be
cold.
We embarked on the 16th of October, and, on the first day, sailed down
the gulf of Ægina. The wind freshened so much as to induce the captain
to cast anchor under the promontory of Sunium, where Theseus dedicated
a temple to Minerva. The promontory is called by European mariners
Capo de’ Colonni. We lay here the whole of the 17th, the storm still
continuing, and we landed to see the ruins of the temple, the columns
of which still attract the admiration of the traveller.
In a little nook at the foot of the promontory lay a small Greek boat,
bound from Athens to Zea. She was hauled up on the shore, and the crew,
with a passenger or two, were sitting round a fire in a cave in the
rock. One was a female, and I recognized in her a very pretty-faced
woman, whom I had seen in the cell of a holy friar in Athens, when, on
one occasion, I had paid him a visit in the evening, somewhat after
the accustomed hour. Around the temple, and covering the adjacent
mountains, was a forest of stunted firs; and, in the wantonness of
idlers, which sometimes leads to a great deal of mischief, we threw
some firebrands among the brushwood, with the intention of setting
fire to the forest, and of scaring the wolves, which were said to be
very numerous hereabouts; but, fortunately, the rain that had fallen
prevented the conflagration.
We quitted the promontory on the 18th, and in a few hours reached
Zea, and entered the port to pass the night. The servants, from some
trifling cause, had quarrelled with the crew; and matters had become so
serious, that we slept on our arms, we being only sixteen in number,
and they twenty. There are no bounds to the restlessness and cupidity
of Greeks. In the present instance, whilst, on the one hand, the crew
were cheating and robbing the servants, the captain, on the other, was
scheming and contriving how he could obtain more passengers, in spite
of the agreement he had made with us.
On the 19th, in the morning, no fewer than twenty persons came
alongside, whom he wished to take on board; but we threatened to quit
the vessel, and not to pay him anything--which menace had the desired
effect, and they returned to the shore.
Those islands of the Cyclades which we saw had a barren appearance,
exhibiting neither verdure nor trees. Zea is of the number. The town
stands on the top of a conical mountain, which occupies the centre of
the island. I landed, and procured a mule, which carried me up to it. I
was entertained with coffee, preserves, and a pipe, at the house of Mr.
Pangolo, the British agent, and I procured a few coins from some of the
inhabitants.
On the 22nd we quitted Zea, and passed Negropont and Mytelene. The
weather was unusually fine. Dolphins gambolled round our prow, and
light airs filled our cotton sails. On the 24th we were abreast of the
Troad, and entered the Hellespont at twelve o’clock.
When we had passed the two castles which guard the entrance, lovely
indeed were the prospects that opened upon us, in each of the two
quarters of the world! On the side of Europe the scenery was bolder
than on the opposite; but the softness of the Asiatic shore was too
attractive to lose by the comparison, and its warm and languishing
features accorded with the enervating character which we imagine to
be so fatal to the energies of its natives. As we advanced, every spot
on each side of us revived the recollections of some classic story. It
was here that Xerxes lashed the waves--it was there that Leander braved
them: now we looked for the corpse of the too adventurous lover; and
now we thought we saw the eddies writhing under the scourge of the vain
and baffled despot. We saw, also, where the battle of Ægos Potamos was
fought.
On the 24th, in the evening, passing Gallipoli, we entered the sea of
Marmora. On the 25th, we were becalmed within three miles of the island
that gives its name to the sea.
At night the wind blew strongly, and our situation by degrees became
extremely perilous. My cot was slung athwart the deck from the
mizen-mast to the quarter-railing, which, landsman-like, (in spite of
the representation of the Greek captain) I had fancied to be the best
way; when, after having been a short time in bed, the heeling of the
vessel became so great that I was constantly thrown to the foot of
my cot, and was, at last, compelled to get out and dress myself, as
the sailors wanted all the facility which could be afforded them for
working the ship.
As the wind increased, the utmost noise and confusion prevailed among
the crew. Instead of doing their duty, they set about collecting
money from us, which they tied in a handkerchief, and fastened to
the tiller, making a vow to St. George that they would dedicate it
to his shrine if we reached some port in safety. The wind was south,
and we ran before it towards Erakli, a port on the N.W. shore of the
Gulf of Rhodosto. We reached it in safety; but the specimen we had had
of the incapacity of the captain and his crew induced Lady Hester to
disembark. A house was provided for us on shore, and we, and all the
baggage, were transferred to it.
There are many things revolting to a European when he first travels
in the East, and nothing more so than the filth of the natives. This,
perhaps, is more manifest in the Christians than in the Turks; for the
former are not compelled, as the Mahometans are, by their religion,
to wash themselves frequently; and one observes in them habits of
uncleanliness which are quite disgusting. Thus, our captain, besides
appearing to us to be no mariner, had the itch in its worst stage; and
his men daily assisted each other, on the deck in the sunshine, in
keeping under the stock of vermin attached to each. They were observed
never to have shifted themselves during the whole voyage; and, to
protect ourselves from the results of their filthiness, we were obliged
peremptorily to forbid any one coming on the quarter-deck, except to
steer and haul.
Erakli, the ancient Heraclea, is now a ruined village, but exceedingly
pretty in its situation on a promontory that projects into the bay. We
were lodged in a Greek monastery. The same evening Lord Sligo and Mr.
B. set off, on post-horses, for Constantinople. During the five days
we remained there, I had excellent shooting at divers and teal, which
abounded in the port.
On the 2nd of November, Lord Sligo and Mr. B. returned, accompanied
by a Turkish officer, who was sent to conduct Lady Hester to
Constantinople: he bore a firmán or mandate, that all proper facilities
were to be afforded her for the completion of her voyage. As the roads
were said to be infested with deserters from the army, who plundered
and murdered travellers, it was thought best to continue our course
by sea, more especially as we were now so near its termination. We
therefore embarked in two open boats, which had come for that purpose
from Constantinople. These galleys are as clean, as trim, and as richly
gilded, as a nobleman’s barge on the Thames: they are elevated at the
stern and the stem, and sharp at both ends.
On the 3rd of November, at eleven in the morning, we landed at Ponte
Grande, where we dined, and arrived, at about eleven at night, at
Topkhana, one of the principal stairs of the harbour of Constantinople,
on the side towards Pera. A sedan-chair was sent down for Lady Hester,
and the rest of the party walked up; whilst the luggage was carried on
the backs of porters, who seemed to be very powerful men. We ascended
a very steep street, where scores of dogs, like so many Cerberuses,
poked their ugly heads out of dark corners, and stunned us with their
incessant barking. A huge lantern was carried before us, there being no
lamps in use; and in this manner we reached Pera.
A house had been hastily prepared for Lady Hester, and Lord Sligo
gave me a room in his lodgings at one Madam Onophrio’s, who kept an
apothecary’s shop. Everything appeared to us inconvenient and dirty;
and, what was most uncomfortable of all, the principal part of our
luggage, from the frequent changes in our plans, had been sent to
Smyrna.