has unfortunately acquired the name of Arkadia. It is situated near the sea shore, but has nothing that deserves the name of a port. Pitching our tent among the trees, we ascended to the town, and called on Joannes Ambrociades, governor of the district, a man of intelligence and cultivated manners, ready to give all the information we asked. The extraordinary commissioner of the province of Upper Messenia being absent, his department had been divided into two minor provinces, or districts, the northern including this town of Arkadia, and the southern embracing the fortresses of Navarino, Mothone and Corone. Before the revolution, the northern district contained between 3,000 and 4,000 families. Out of these, owing to the vicinity of the enemy, the unusual proportion of about 2,500 persons perished during the war. Formerly there were 900 families in the town, of which 650 were Turkish. Now there are about 270 families, and 108 of these are deprived of their male head. The town was wholly burnt, but numerous walls of houses are standing, and many of them may be repaired without great expense. The governor stated, what our own observations confirmed, that the province is almost entirely uncultivated. This he attributed to the want of working cattle.

The coast from Arkadia to the harbor of Navarino is bordered by a plain not of great width, except along the southern side of the mountains already mentioned, where it is bounded only by the eastern horizon. On the road to Philiatra are immense quantities of the arbutus. The lentiscus also, one of the most common shrubs of the peninsula, is very abundant. Marine shells exist in the limestone near the surface of the ground, but the soil in most respects resembles that of the plains above Lala. Philiatra is a large village of 200 or 300 families. The ruins of its straggling, clay-built houses are embowered in trees. The traveller knows its site by a tall cypress, which shoots up a dark column above the soft green of

(x) I write it Arkadia, to distinguish this town from the province of the

same name.

the olive. An hour from Philiatra is its harbor, scarcely large enough for two vessels, called by the singular name of Agia Kyriake. Not a house is near. Here is a

small stream, and half an hour beyond we crossed another. Still a league further, the island of Prote lies on one hand, and the considerable village of Gargaliana on the other upon a hill. Then we passed through a cluster of vineyards, some of which, possibly for want of owners, were grown over with grass and fern.

The fortress of Navarino is visible immediately on rising from the low ground around the fountain, where we spent the sultry hours of noon. After having wit

nessed so much of the reckless desolation which marked the progress of Ibrahim Pasha in the Peloponnesus, I confess that I had pleasurable emotions on first beholding the theatre of an event apparently so necessary to the cause of humanity and of Greece, as the battle of Navarino. There the bloody waves of his ambition were rolled back on his own head, and the voice of the Almighty was heard, "Hitherto thou shalt come, but no farther." Greece then rose from the dust;-and no more may she lie there again, except in humble, grateful submission to her Deliverer, the God of Heaven.

Ancient and modern history conspires to give an interest to Navarino; but, excepting its fine harbor and an alluvial tract at the head of this harbor which is susceptible of cultivation, there is very little interest in the surrounding scenery. All the hills and mountains on the south and east have a bleak and sterile aspect. The celebrated island of Sphacteria on the west, where Athens and Sparta contended earnestly in war, is without inhabitant, cultivation, or water. The promontory just north of this, where Pylos, the venerable Nestor's capital, is supposed to have stood, is recommended to notice only by its ancient fame. Neocastron (as the

(y) Holy Sabbath. (z) It occurred Oct. 20th, 1827. (a) Paliocastron, or the Old Castle, is on the promontory where Pylos is supposed to have stood-anciently called Coryphasium.

Greeks generally call the walled town of Navarino,b) stands on the east side of the entrance to the harbor. It was a Turkish town, and was sacked by the Greeks in August 1821 with great slaughter. Ibrahim retook it in May 1825, and surrendered it to the French in October 1828. The French general found its houses nothing but a heap of infectious ruins. We found the fortress still occupied by the French troops, who were repairing some of its batteries. The few Greeks in the place live in a village of about 100 temporary wooden houses, chiefly shops, northeast of the castle. We

found the heat exceedingly oppressive; the air seemed deleterious; and, after almost unavailing endeavors to refit for the remainder of our tour, we set out for Mothone, Monday afternoon June 22d. We entered Navarino on Friday the 19th.

The distance from Navarino to Mothone is little more than six miles, and between these two places, east of mount St. Nicholas, is the only carriage road we saw in Greece. It was made by the French army for their own accommodation. The groves of olive, mulberry, and cypress trees, and the Turkish villas and villages, which cheered the approaches of former travellers to Mothone, have all been swept away by the desolating tide of war. The large Greek village also, that formerly existed north of the walled town, has been nearly all destroyed, with its gardens of oranges, lemons and pomegranates. Mavros, the governor of the district whom we saw at Corone, assured us that of olive trees alone, at least 150,000 were cut down by the Egyptians in the vicinity of Mothone. The soil is good, and water is obtained anywhere a few feet below the surface. The city, still retaining its ancient name in the dialect of the country, stands on a point of land projecting towards the island of Sapienza. It is strongly fortified, and underwent little change in the war, as it remained

(b) The Greeks also apply to Neocastron, the name of NaCapivos. (c) Howe's Greek Revolution, p. 52.

(d) Report of the Marquis de Maison.

in the hands of the Turks until taken by the French in October 1828. The head quarters of the French army were there at the time of our visit. The Greek inhabitants do not exceed 500.

The other walled town of Upper Messenia, called Corone, is near the southwestern termination of the Messenian gulf. Much of the country between Mothone and this place is broken into uninteresting hills. Only one of the few fertile spots, before descending to the plain of Corone, is cultivated, and the little village which stood there is deserted. The cultivable part of the plain of Corone is perhaps three miles wide and eight in length. Its soil is rather arid and coarse, but adapted to the olive. A considerable olive grove still remains in the vicinity of Corone, though the stumps and fallen trunks blackened with fire are frequent. Farther north, for more than a league, only now and then a solitary tree is standing where was a continuous forest till the destroyer came. The Egyptian army, as we were credibly informed, cut and burned down not less than 300,000 trees. A number of ruined villages are scattered over this plain. In all the district of Corone containing 4,000 inhabitants, there were said not to be 30 yoke of oxen.

In the city we were allowed to occupy one of the public offices, in an edifice that once belonged to a Turkish bey, and was ornamented with painted ceilings and stained glass. The police officer of the place, and the governor already mentioned, repeated the usual attentions. The town contains 600 inhabitants. Its history during the war is the same with that of Mothone.

CHAPTER V.

THE PELOPONNESUS.

Province of LoWER MESSENIA--Arable ground bordering on the gulf--NisiRiver Pamisus and its plain---Mane---Calamata---Villages and fruit trees on the east side of the valley of Messenia---Fountain of the Pamisus--- MessenePlain of Steny clerus---Defile of Derbenia---Again enter ARCADIA---Delightful change of air---Leontari---Plain of Megalopolis and other objects seen from the castle of Leontari---Enter the province of LACONIA---Sabbath at the Fountain of the Eurotas---Villages and cultivated plain--Manner of treating the mulberry trees and silkworm---Superstition of the evil eye---Laconian rose Plain of Sparta---Splendid scenery around Mistras---Mistras ---Greek antipathy against the Jews---Lacedæmon---View from the castle of Mistras— Produce of the plain-- Sparta--Sclabo Chori---Middle regions of the Taygetus— District of Bardounia--Marathonesi---Population and products of ManeHelos---Cross the Malaic peninsula-- Monembasia---End of the tour and remarks upon it---Extent of the desolations occasioned by the war---Extent of agriculture Trees and shrubs-Wild animals.

WHILE I remained at Corone to make certain inquiries of the bishop of the province, and afterwards proceeded by water to Calamata, Mr. Smith took the route by land round the head of the gulf. Where the high

Licomeda descends to the shore near the northwest corner of the gulf, he supposed himself to enter the province of LOWER MESSENIA. Beyond the mountain the shore recedes from the range of hills on the left, making room for a narrow, alluvial plain, which, together with the declivity of the hill, is under partial cultivation. On this plain are some fragments of ancient brick buildings. Four or five streams cross it in rapid succession, and up the banks of these extend as many branches of the plain, generally planted with maize. Here mount Ithome stands out in full view at no great distance northward. A higher tract, a league in extent, between the last of these streams and Nisi, is covered with vineyards interspersed with olive and fig-trees, but sadly neglected. The same neglect is apparent in the gardens around Nisi. This town, before the revolution,