Σ

The Spetsiots are a fine, hardy, and intelligent race of men. Mr. Wilson pronounces them and their neighbours the Hydriots and Psarriots to be of Illyrian descent. Their joy at the arrival of the first instalment of the Greek loan was unbounded. An old lady, a fellow passenger of the author, said to him, "so you've sent us some money from England." "Yes," replied the latter, "is it not generous in my countrymen ?" Why, it may be," she drily replied; " but I've no doubt you will expect much more than you lend us." We believe, "expect" must be our motto in this instance; this reminds us of the phrase which is so common in the mouths of the Spaniards when reminded of their obligations to England. "It was your interest, or you would not have interfered." It is dif ficult to get an acknowledgment of our claims to a people's gratitude, when that acknowledgment must be based on the humiliation of their national pride, and how predominant is the latter feeling among the Greeks may be gathered from the following anecdote :

"Standing one morning by the side of an open case of these books, I saw a man come up, about forty years old, with a very good-natured face. This individual was accompanied by a number of boys. I soon found that my visitor was a schoolmaster, and the lads were his pupils, or as the word parai is rendered in the New Testament, disciples; for there it is spoken of the pupils of the adorable teacher of christianity. Well, the worthy dominie of Spetsia laid his hand on one of my books, and the following dialogue passed between us.

• Teacher.—'What book is this?'
"Missionary.-The New Testament.'
That book I don't like.'

"T.

“ M.— Why?—it is a good book.'

"T.

And yet, you must know, I don't exactly like it.'

"M. But why, my friend?'

" T.- Why!—for a very good reason.' As he said this he goodnaturedly smiled, and I smiled too, for I fancied it was all badinage. Yet I could not imagine what the worthy man was driving at. The dialogue went on.

"M.-Pray say why you object to the New Testament?'

"T.- Did not St. Paul write it?'

"M.-' He wrote part of it.'

T.- Well; that's quite enough: you must know that St. Paul libels

my countrymen, and I'm mortally offended at him.'

M. But how is that?'

T.— Why, I'm not a native of this island; I'm a Cretan.' "M.-' Well!'

"T.-St. Paul has mortally offended me, ioxardánios, because he boldly declares that the Cretans are always liars !'

"M. He cites one of your own poets, Menander.'

"T.—'Well, after all, I don't care for if St. Paul says the Cretans are liars, David declares all men are liars; so we're no worse than others.'

"After this he called all his disciples; told which book to purchase; and after each of them had bought two or three, the worthy Cretan thus addressed them. Now, boys, go up and kiss the hand of this stranger, for bringing us these nice books from England.' As a kiss is not a sign of servility, but of gratitude, I permitted them to kiss my hand. Once when I told this anecdote to a London auditory, I remarked that in idea I was disposed to transfer that kiss to the hands of British philanthropists, since I was but the almoner of their bounty-so indeed I felt it, and do so still; and may our dear brethren in the British churches have all the honour; or rather let us give God the glory, for we are sinners.'

Pointing to one of his pupils, as fine a youth as ever I beheld, about sixteen, my Cretan friend said: Dost thou see this youth ?' Yes,' said I, gazing on the fine form and elegant costume of the youth. Well, I am sorry to say he's a thief!'- I hope not.'- - He is indeed.'-' How is that?' Bah!' replied this facetious Cretan;' can't you understand me?-the lad's a Spartan, and does not that mean a thief?' There was a general laugh at my simplicity.

"After this interesting interview, the master and pupils left me to other visitors. Till after an awful change of scenes, I never expect to behold them again. Farewell, ye good-natured islanders; farewell till then, and may our meeting be happy."

The next anecdote is so characteristic of Mr. Wilson's style, that we cannot refrain from giving it :

"One day while in Spetsia, a fine young Spartan youth came to buy my books. Little did I imagine, on first perusing the history of Lacedemon, that divine Providence had destined to me the high honour of giving into the very hands of her sons the lifeconferring light of revelation. This dear youth bought of me a New Testament, a Spelling-book, the Pilgrim's Progress, and a small treatise on Redemption. As I gazed on the boy, and ejaculated heaven's blessing upon him and his hardy race, I thought, well; it requires no aid from fancy or memory, to pronounce you a youth of an elastic and independent mind.' Ah! how little did Lycurgus divine, that his distant posterity were to read the production of a poor persecuted English tinker! And as little did Bunyan forebode, that the Pilgrim would put on the Greek costume, and, traversing the snowy mountains and sunny vales of the classic land, guide her children into the narrow road!

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The same day, I think it was, I had a visit from another, a very celebrated Spartan, who had accompanied one of the Greek vavax, or admirals, in all his victorious cruises against the Moslem fleet. Are you a Spartan?' said I.-I am, sir.' Then give me your hand.' The brave palicari placed his hand in mine. I most heartily shook it, and felt that I almost revered this child of hoary Lacedemon. Reader! if you own a heart, you will forgive my enthusiasm. After my cordial shake of the Spartan's hand, a priest who accompanied him said, 'Brother, kiss his hand.' He readily obeyed the priest, and as he kissed my hand, a young captain present, smiling, said, That Lacedemonian is a thief!' How easy to get a bad name! and how hard to shake it off!"

Again,

"To pray for our enemies,' is, I have other reason to fear, a duty, little understood by the bulk of the Greek nation. I recollect one Sabbathday in Malta, I was instructing a class of little Greek boys, all about fourteen years of age. I think they were learning the Parent's Guide,' chiefly a translation of Watt's First Catechism.' This part of christian docrine came up, when the young rogues, one and all, most stoutly insisted that to pray for enemies is not a duty! A philippic of Demosthenes against the Macedonian could hardly have exhibited a more testy opposition."

The fruits of our missionary's sojourn in the island of Spetsia were the distribution of 204 testaments, 80 copies of the Pilgrim's Progress, 85 Spelling Books, and about 150 small books of various kinds for all these he received about 20. sterling. We must not forget to add that, besides this, he gave the name of Themistocles, whom he styles a legislator, to the son of his kind host Santos. The state of his feelings on the Sabbath day, shocked as he was by the lax morality of the Greeks around him, is thus pathetically described ::

"When alone, I felt myself a solitary wanderer in a far away isle of the Grecian seas. On such occasions, I generally turned to singing; and on this I sang, with that indescribable sort of melancholy felicity, experienced by sensitive minds in similar circumstances, away from the green pastures of the sanctuary, those sweet lines of Addison.

"When in the sultry glebe I faint,

Or on the thirsty mountain pant;
To fertile vales and dewy meads,
My weary, wandering steps He leads;
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.
"Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious, lonely wilds I stray,
Thy presence shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,

With sudden greens, and herbage crowned,
And streams shall murmur all around."

From Spetsia he proceeded to Hydra; and in the course of the voyage made the very important discovery that our word shallow is derived from yanó, which is pronounced yallo, and is a corruption of aiyands. Here he was the guest of the celebrated Admiral Miaulis. This hero was in his sixtieth year, of aldermanic contour, and corresponding good temper. His proper name was Vokos; Miaulis he derived from the vessel he commanded, literally the Mewler. This brave and truly patriotic Greek could not read. His bon mots were as constant as his pipe, and this was

seldom out of his mouth. The untameable ferocity of his wild countrymen, the Hydriots, not unfrequently roused the wrathful indignation of the veteran. "We must have an iron cage," he one day exclaimed, when some deed of more than common barbarity had been perpetrated. "Aye, farther," observed his son, "but take heed that you are not the first to be made acquainted with its wholesome restraint:" this verbum sap. was sufficient. Unquestionably those islanders are ruthless and unrelenting. They hate all Franks, and can with difficulty restrain themselves from venting their contempt upon any luckless wight whose nether extremities are cased in the close-fitting trousers or breeches of northern climes.

Tight-breeched Franks, and Frank devils, are the epithets which salute his ears, accompanied perhaps by the waving of a yatigan. Yet, Mr. Wilson says he would have no objection to live amongst them if it were necessary, i. e. upon compulsion.

On the 21st of January, 1824, he took his departure to Syra, the ancient Scyros. We have seen that it was the will of Providence that he should re-enact many of the adventures of St. Paul; we have now to congratulate him on his narrow escape from enact*ing that of Jonah :

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Scarcely had we cleared the port, when the tempest burst on us with all its fury; and this too in the gently laving Egean.' Homer describes it better than Mr. North, the stormy sea;' in fact, all seas are stormy, and for sudden squalls, I suppose Greece is the very region. As our creaking and labouring sloop soon became the plaything of Neptune, we all held on above, or crept below. The wind roared appallingly. The billowy main was lashed to foam and fury. We soon saw it had been vain to attempt Syra, which lay about eighty miles distant, in the wind's eye; and our captain prudently put about, and bore up for the island of Poros, about twenty miles north of our course.

"Now and then a tremendous squall of snow, and sleet, and hail, with sudden gusts of wind, almost confounded us; for our vessel seemed many a time to be on the point of capsizing. At length, after about seven hours' anxious sailing, we happily rounded the promontory of Sylleum, passed Calauria, and made the port or rather roadstead of Poros.

I

Poros is the ancient Hiera, and seems to me to derive its actual name from pw to pass; for, as the island lies close by the Morea, the anchorage is, in fact, but a passage, which is the proper import of Poros. was informed that the inhabitants of this island were about 5,000; but just prior to my visit, an endemic had swept a large portion of them into the tomb.

"Next morning the sky looked bright, and we once more weighed for Syra, to be once more disappointed. The Italians • say, one flower does not form the spring,' and a bright sky is not always the companion of a calm. The most fearful storm I think I ever read of, is described by General Burns, and foamed beneath as fair a heaven as ever smiled on the sunlit gardens of Italy. Fair as the Grecian sky was this day, I have

seldom gone through a more exhausting tempest. For twenty anxious hours I never tasted food, and though I have buffeted many a long seastorm, I think I never, for the time being, felt a greater sinking of spirits. The wind whistled appallingly through the ship's rattlings. Dismay was silently enthroned on several countenances. The billows rose fearfully high. One tremendous wave, I single out even yet, and remember it after years have glided by, as to all appearance, destined to shut us out for ever from the light of day. We watched its approach in silent suspense. It rolled on in majestic grandeur, lifting its tall, white, boiling crest high over the reeling vessel. Each seized a firm hold of some part of the ship's timbers or cordage. The wave that overwhelmed Lisbon could hardly seem more portentous in its approach. At length, with the roar of a hundred lions, with the violence of a foaming cataract, and with the shock of a falling Alp, the remorseless mountain of waters broke upon us, and almost lifted the keel of our creaking sloop fairly out of the sea.

Yet, it rather rolled under than over us, and as we saw the billow on the leeward side of our gallant little ship, more hearts than one, I believe, looked up a thankful thought to him, who rules the wide-spread deep,' Humanly speaking, I attribute our escape to the self-possession of one man on board. Just before the billow struck us, he leapt from his hold, and in a moment let go one of the sheets, which eased the sloop at the very moment of peril.

"I think it was in this stage of our voyage, that this same man— a person of very gentlemanly manners, engaged, I believe, in commerce; but the very man, as he told me, who stabbed one of the Turkish admirals, only a little before, in a sea-fight-gravely proposed the question, Who is the sinner? Now I did not at all like this question. Jonah, near these waters, had been cast overboard, as the sinner who occasioned the storm; and I was among a number of superstitious men, where life had of late been very cheap. I was also of another nation, another faith, and was distributing among them the holiest of books, which fact they might deem the very sin that brought the tempest. I own I felt on thorns, and to set them on a just scent, I replied very seriously, We are all sinners-Finding it impossible to stand on our course, the captain was glad at length to put about, and we made the island of Zeà, just before sun-down. Zeà is the ancient Keos or Ceos, the birthplace of the celebrated painter Apelles. I was glad to land, and extremely happy to creep into a small cabin by the sea-side, where a number of drunken Greeks, who kept singing and shouting, for a long time prevented me from sleeping. In their hilarity, under the influence of a spirit called rhakee, and wine, these soldiers took obvious pleasure in vociferating again and again, We are Hellenes,' a name of which all Greeks are greatly proud."

Scarcely has our good missionary escaped the fate of Jonah when he has the ill-luck to be robbed. At Zeà, he fell in with a soldier of fortune from the republic of San Marino, of very gentlemanly manners and dashing deportment. The Signor Giuseppe, compassionating the trouble he was obviously taking in transporting from place to place the proceeds of his book sales, kindly