seats, and without further ceremony began to smoke their pipes. After a few minutes' silence, and mutual gazing, the captain of the thieves opened the discourse, and told us he came first to pay his respects to the Milordoi, and then to offer his services, and that of several hundred Taxixagi,1 or brave fellows, he had under his com'mand, who would follow us any where we might choose to lead them; being at that moment idle and unemployed, having lately plundered the Turks on the opposite coast, and having brought away every thing that was of any value. We expressed all due acknowledgments for the kind offers of the captain, which we however begged to decline.

These thieves are Albanian Christians, who long exercised their predatory talents in the territory of the Pasha of Joannina; but owing to the vigilance of his police, have been obliged to take refuge in the neighbouring islands, where they have found an asylum under the protection of the Septinsular republic. They profess only to pillage Mohamedans, against whom they wage an eternal and religious warfare, in imitation of more powerful crusaders; they even condescend to rob on the seas, and Ithaca was the deposit of their plunder. Captain Jano, their leader, is an Acarnanian, and has a brother, also captain of another band, and as great a thief as himself.

It is necessary to explain, that no shame or disgrace is attached to the name of thief, or to the profession of robbing, in Greece, when it is done in a grand style, and with plenty of desperate fellows, who plunder openly on the highways, take prisoners whom

1 This word is nearly equivalent to the Delhi of the Turks, and is given to those who are supposed to be more than usually brave, and answers to the stulté temerarius of the Latius.

2 Some defend the Albanian character from the general imputation of wickedness and ferocity; but Phranza accuses them of being profligate and rapacious, and capable of every excess, b. 3. c. 23. After the death of Scanderbeg, many Albanian communities, rather than submit to the Mohamedan yoke, emigrated to the kingdom of Naples, particularly to Calabria and Sicily. There are now in that state, about sixty villages, forming a population of more than 60,000 Albanian inhabitants.

they ransom, lay villages under contribution, and set the government at defiance. When they are pursued by a superior force, they escape to the islands, and sharpen their weapons for future depredations.

Considering Captain Jano as no common thief, and wishing to be well with him, we returned his visit, and were received with cordial civility, and complimented with richly-ornamented pipes, coffee in golden cups, and the finest rosolios, the produce of his predatory harvests, which were handed round to us by inferior thieves. On our admiring the richness and magnificence of his attire, he permitted my artist to take his portrait, and sent his dress and arms to our house, that we might have leisure to draw them with accuracy and detail.

However irreconcileable Captain Jano's system of warfare may appear to our feelings, and to our notions of right and wrong, we know that in the early ages of Greece,1 a similar system was followed by whole nations, who lived by pillage, piracy, and massacre. Thucydides tells us, that in his time it was practised by the Locri Ozolai, the Ætolians, the Acarnanians, and Epirotes; and that it was reckoned a glorious thing to plunder unfortified cities, and scattered villages. Polybius3 mentions nearly the same thing of the Etolians.

The neighbouring island of Cephallenia is a place of considerable commerce, population, and riches: its circuit is near one hundred and twenty miles, and it contains about 60,000 inhabitants. It is surprising that Strabo gives only three hundred stadia, and Pliny5 forty-four miles to the circumference of this island. Both the geographer, and the natural historian are full of similar mistakes. According to Strabo, it was once called Samos, or Same; a name afterwards given to a division, and city of the island.

i

See Justin, b. 43. c. 3. Latrocinio maris, quod illis temporibus gloriæ habebatur. 1 B. 1. c. 5, 6.

3 B. 4. p. 331.

• B. 10. p.

456.

Nat. Hist. b. 4. c. 12.

Homer,1 in mentioning the twenty-four suitors of Same, means of the whole island. Pliny makes Cephallenia and Same two different islands; and says that the former was once named Melæna.

Thucydides calls it Tetrapolis, from its four cities, Same,* Pronos,3 Kranion, and Pale. According to Strabo, there was a fifth which was built by Caius Antonius, uncle of Marcus Antonius. I conceive that Same was situated on a rocky peninsula, now called Andi-Samo, in the canal opposite the ruins of Aitos in Ithaca, and a short distance south of the village still called Same, and mistaken for an island by Pliny. There are many examples of peninsulas being called islands, by ancient authors.

The inhabitants of this city were named Σapaio: while those of Samos, on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, were called Lauío.

Same was a strong place, and sustained a siege of four months before it was taken by the consul Marcus Fulvius Nobilior; after this, the whole island submitted to the Romans. Hadrian gave it to the Athenians.8

There are several remains of the walls of Kranion, which are the second style of Cyclopian construction similar to those of Ithaca.

There are also some remains at the village of Taphios, on the western side of the island; which was no doubt, the Taphos mentioned by Stephanus.

The remains of three other cities are also distinguishable. According to Meletius, Lixouri stands on the site of Pale. The Venetians1o took the island in 1224; from whom it was taken by the Turks in 1479, and retaken in 1499.

The principal ports are, Pilaro, Samo, Biscardo, Asso, Aterra, Poro, and the magnificent bay of Argostoli.11

The chief capes are, Pilaro, Guiscardo, Giria, and Siděro; the

11 For the names of the villages in Cephallenia, see the Appendix.

two latter facing Sicily: Korogra, opposite Cape Skināro, in Zakunthos; Scala, opposite Eleia; Capro, opposite Cape Araxos ; and Alexandrio, opposite the Point of Ithaca, called Cape St. John.

The produce of Cephallenia is the same as that of the other Ionian islands, but the quantity more abundant. They have a great many ships, and good mariners, and their commerce is very considerable. There are a few rocky islets on the coast, opposite Cape Skinaro, but of no interest in ancient or modern history,

CHAPTER III.

Beginning of my second Tour. Sail from Messina. Coast of Calabria. First view of Greece. Arrival at the island of Zakunthos, population, villages, manufactures, produce, bituminous springs. Corruption of names by the Italians, Dimensions of the island. Panorama from Mount Elatos. Departure from Zakunthos. Eleian coast. Arrival at Mesaloggion. Extortions of Aly, Pasha of Joannina. Produce and commerce of Mesaloggion. Ruins of an ancient city in the vicinity. River Acheloos, Echinades, Taphiai, Telcboiai, Doulichion. River Evenos,

IN In my first Tour to Greece, I went from Ithaca to Patra; and by Phocis and Boeotia, to Athens; and from thence to the islands of the Archipelago, the coast of Troy, and Constantinople. I set off on my second Tour from Sicily; and as I examined the country in greater detail, I shall now proceed to give an account of my second journey, which unites in this place with my first.

On the 1st of February, 1805, I quitted Messina, with my artist Signor Pomardi, in a Greek merchant ship called the Saint Speridion, laden with stock-fish, macaroni, chairs, and other merchandize, bought at low prices in Italy, and sold at a considerable profit in the Levant. We had on board, besides the captain and fifteen sailors, the proprietor of the cargo, and two Greeks of Joannina, the modern capital of Epiros, and residence of Aly Pasha.

With a strong wind at N. E. we soon cleared the straits of Messina, passed a few miles from Reggio, and had a fine view of Ætna, and the rocks of Tauromenium, the Tauromenitanæ rupes of the ancients.1

1 Juvenal, Sat. 5. v. 93.