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VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

restricting that privilege to three sects of Christians. We heard their Rabbi preach on the feast of Purim. He afterwards received us very civilly at his house, and provided us with letters of introduction to his Jewish friends in Larissa and Salonica.

The only printing establishment in the Ionian Islands is at Corfu, and belongs to the government. There are ten presses of various sizes. Several important works have been issued from this establishment, and among them versions of the New Testament in the Albanian and Jewish-Spanish languages. Both of these were printed under the superintendence of Mr. Lowndes, and at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Since my return to this country, Mr. Leeves, Agent of the Bible Society, has gone to reside at Corfu, for the purpose of printing a version of the Old Testament in the modern Greek, made, I believe, originally from the Septuagint, but intended to be conformed to the Hebrew. He is assisted by Mr. Lowndes, and has been so much favored as to secure the aid, also, of Bambas and Typaldos, the professors of divinity already known to the reader. Two versions of the New Testament in modern Greek, both of which are susceptible of considerable improvement, were in a course of distribution while we were in Greece.

m

Mr. Lowndes once made application to the government for permission to establish a printing press of his own on one of the islands, but was refused. "

(1) That for the Jews, was made at Constantinople, under the superintendence of Mr. Leeves.

(m) Before the Moscow edition of the Septuagint was published, there were very few copies of that version of the Old Testament among the Greek clergy, but many have since been sold to those of the Ionian Islands. The Greeks regard the Septuagint with more veneration than they do the original Hebrew, but will be less strenuous for the Apocryphal books han the Papists are, and will receive the Old Testament without those books. This I assert on the authority of a gentleman intimately acquainted with the Ionian Greeks.

(n) The Constitution of the Seven Islands contains the following article in relation to the Press. "There shall be a general printing office in the United States of the Ionian Islands which shall be established at the permanent seat of the government, and the press shall be placed under the immediate direction of the Senate, and of his Excellency the Lord High

A custom fell under our observation while in Corfu, that serves to illustrate the manners of the people. It is that of promenading in masked dresses during the carnival. We arrived after carnival had properly ended, the people having relinquished the use of meat the Sunday before. But Lent had not commenced, as cheese and eggs were allowed during the following week. The maskers were now more numerous than at any time before. Nearly 200 might be seen on the public walks in front of our lodgings, every afternoon when the weather was good, habited chiefly in the female dress, though all were not females. Few of the costumes were strikingly fantastic, we saw none that were immodest, and the law defends the maskers from insult, and prevents them from insulting others. The following Sabbath was terribly profaned. Maskers were seen on horseback and in phaetons, the dresses became more grotesque, marshal music was brought in to animate the scene, and a comical, impious cavalcade was repeatedly followed round the esplanade by a laughing, shouting mob. Could anything be more painful to the feelings of a Christian, than to be assured that the leaders in this buffoonry were men who had been born and educated in one of the most enlightened and Christian countries in the world?

It may be added, that we obtained our interpreter at Corfu. He was a native of Ithaca, had been some time connected with the Ionian University, and was nearly as fluent in the Italian and English languages, as he was in his own. We found him amiable, honest, intelligent, naturally somewhat heedless, but always obliging. With respect to the Greek church it may be said, that he was less observant of the fasts, than of the

Commissioner of his Majesty the Sovereign Protector, and under the immediate inspection of the Secretary of the Senate for the general department; nor can any other press be established in these states, except with the previous license of the Senate, and the sanction of the Lord High Commissioner."

(o) The feast, or season of rejoicing, before Lent, which is the longest of the fasts.

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INTERPRETER FOR THE TOUR.

feasts, and often argued with our boatmen and muleteers on the absurdity of denominating that a fast, which consisted merely in substituting one kind of food for another. The regard he saw us have for veracity in our intercourse with men, struck him forcibly, and he often mentioned the fact by way of caution to our muleteers. He also learned that Protestants make the Scriptures their only rule of religious faith and practice; and at the end of his engagement with us he evidently had a more favorable impression of Protestanism, than at the beginning. But I fear his heart was never seriously affected.

CHAPTER VIII.

IONIAN ISLANDS.

From Corfu to Santa Maura-Historical associations-Island of Pazo--Island of Santa Maura-Amaxichi-Remarks upon the island-Cefalonia-Argostoli-Lixuri-Ruins of Cranium-Convent of St. Andrew and female boarding school-Cross the island-Pilaro-Samos-Remarks on the island and its inhabitants-Treatment received from the Greek clergy of Argostoli and cause of it-Intercourse with laymen-Island of Ithaca-Physical character-Bathi -Fountain of Arethusa-Social intercourse-Bishop of Ithaca-Castle of Ulysses-Detention-Police regulations-Chief occupation of the IthaciansIsland of Zante-city-condition of females-Remarks on the island.

On Friday morning, March 20th, we left Corfu in the government steamboat that plies regularly between Corfu and Zante, touching at the different islands on the route. The day was charmingly serene. The voyage, too, was over waters and in view of shores full of historical interest. Here was fought the first naval battle on record. Here Augustus and Antony contended for the empire of the world. Just above the waves on the left, was the rock of Parga covered with white houses, where expired almost the last remnant of Grecian liberty. Beyond stood the mountains of Suli, and among them a solitary peak shooting above the rest and clad in snow, beneath which the brave but hapless Suliotes once lived.

At PAXO we only exchanged mails, without landing, and of course had no opportunity to examine the island. It appeared to be covered with olive trees.

The sun was setting when we cast anchor in the little harbor of Amaxichi, the chief town of SANTA MAURA; but as the evening was lighted by the moon, we went on shore, and spent a couple of hours in the streets. The town is unwalled, and contains about 5,000 souls. Owing to the shallows in the vicinity, it is one of the

186

ISLANDS OF SANTA MAURA AND CEFALONIA.

most unhealthy places in the islands. In 1825 it suffered terribly by an earthquake, and the inhabitants, since that event, have had the precaution to build most of their houses of one story, and to strengthen the walls by cross-bars of wood. Coffee-shops are numerous, in which coffee is sold in very small cups, and rakia in glasses still more diminutive. The raki was most in demand, yet no one appeared to be intoxicated. Cardplaying was to be seen in almost every shop.

Santa Maura is a mass of mountains about thirty miles long and twelve broad, separated from the continent by a narrow channel, which history attributes (as has already been intimated) to the enterprise of the Corinthians. Oil and wine are the chief productions. Here was the seat of a rebellion a few years since, from which the government took occasion to disarm the inhabitants of all the islands. Since that time robberies and assassinations have been few, and tranquillity, if not contentment, has pervaded the islands.

The boat got under way at two in the morning, and at day-light we were opposite the promontory on the south of the island, called "Sappho's Leap," where that unhappy woman is supposed to have thrown herself into the sea. Ithaca was now in sight eastward—

"the barren spot,

"Where sad Penelope o'erlook'd the wave."

By ten o'clock we had swept round the western shore of CEFALONIA, and entered the bay of Lixuri, which penetrates the island from the southwest. The town of Lixuri lies on the western shore, and when opposite that, the harbor of Argostoli opens to the southeast between two ridges. No harbor can be better protected from the sea. Beneath the ridge on the right lies the town of Argostoli, the capital of the island; more modern in its appearance than Lixuri, but not quite as large.

(a) An intoxicating liquor.

(b) Neither contains 6,000 inhabitants. In the island are 140 villages.

b