ambition, and favour their selfish views, than to the benefit of the country. Thus was turned into poison that remedy, which, skillfully administered, might have cured the complicated evils under which the country laboured.

No sooner did the news of Lord Byron's death reach Salona, than letters were despatched by Colonel Stanhope to Mr. Trelawney; who when he had perused them, sailed instantly for Zante (May 6th), where he was directed to apprise those, to whom the Loan had been addressed, not to deliver any portion of it to the Greek government, before it had given a statement of the most pressing wants of the state and the actual force of the army, with guarantees to ensure the payment. Odysseus wrote to them in the same sense, and indeed no measure could be more conformable to the wishes of the factions.

Colocotrone, Petrobey, &c. sent also agents to Zante, who protested against the delivery of the Loan to the existing government. Had they not been so powerfully operated upon by avarice, the capitani might, by dedicating only a small portion of their wealth to the payment of their soldiers, have commanded the majority of the population, capable of bearing arms, and in a few days completely destroyed the government. But not one of them would make the slightest sacrifice! This narrow-minded policy, which had hitherto proved so great an obstacle to the establishment of the constitution, became, in this instance, its only safeguard; for no sooner was the money remitted into the hands of the authorities in administration, than its attraction proved so powerful that the chiefs were abandoned even by their most zealous followers; and several of the capitani themselves rallied around the standard of government.

Mr. Trelawney occupies so romantic a place in

the annals of Modern Greece, his adventures in the Cavern of Odysseus, the black assassination, attempted by Fenton and Whitcombe, whom he had admitted to his friendship, the generous manner in which he spared the life of the latter and set him at liberty, having made some noise in England, the reader will not be sorry to see a slight sketch of this gentleman's person and character. Though somewhat below the full-grown stature, he was altogether a very handsome man, possessed of great strength and surprising agility. Nature had given him a highly romantic countenance; his wild, haughty, unquiet, scintillating dark eye denoted his disposition to bold and extraordinary undertakings. In his manners and opinions he seemed to have taken Anastasius for his model; and, to judge from his lofty language, he had a mint of phrases as rich as Don Adriano de Armado; and he entertained for his heroes a veneration as deep as that of Don Quixote himself for all the giant-killers and liberators of imprisoned virgins who had preceded him. Born of a respectable Cornish family, he embarked when young as a midshipman; but finding that the strictness of naval discipline did not allow much room for indulging romantic dispositions, he quitted the ship on its arrival in the East Indies, and soon after joined the buccaneers, who then infested those seas. Among them he passed his happiest days, meeting continually with the most extraordinary adventures, and hair-breadth escapes. He might have yet continued to enjoy a life so congenial to his disposition, had not his companions sought to kill him during a dispute about prize-money. He satisfied his vengeance; but seeing himself closely pursued, the terror he felt was so great that, he did not stop in his flight till he found himself in the country of the Wachabees. The exploits, which followed, though

not new were marvellous; the quality atoning for the quantity.

At length, in a fit of nostalgia, he determined on returning home, the place of his birth appearing to him then dearer than the three Arabias. His native air soon cured him of this intermittent paroxysm, for he found Cornishmen a tame set of persons. Growing weary of home, he passed over to Italy, where more room was afforded to indulge his oriental habits. He formed there an acquaintance with Lord Byron, who derived no little pleasure from the company of so singular a character. He invited him to accompany him into Spain; but hearing of the disasters, the constitutional party had sustained, he proposed going to Greece. Arrived at Cephalonia, Trelawney discovered that Lord Byron was not romantic enough to be his companion; and he started in consequence for Peloponnesus; where having roamed in vain in quest of a hero, he passed over to Athens. There he met with Odysseus; and so powerful is the invisible force of sympathy, that, although they could not understand each other's language, they became in an instant, intimate friends.

According to Trelawney, Odysseus was the personification of the beau ideal of every manly perfection, mental and bodily. He swore by him, and imitated him in the minutest actions. His dress, gait, air and address were not only perfectly similar, but he piqued himself even in being as dirty; having as much vermin, and letting them loose from his fingers in the same dignified manner as if sparing a conquered enemy. This ridiculous spirit of imitation was in other respects very useful to him; for it enabled him to endure the privations and hardships, inseparable from the Greek mode of warfare, with as much apparent indifference as his prototype; sleeping on

the bare earth with a stone for a pillow, and, in one word, sustaining a total want of every bodily comfort. All this, however, was only when distant from Athens. On his return thither he found ample compensation for the toils of war, in the enjoyments of a numerous harem. The courage which distinguished him in Negropont acquired him the esteem of his friend, and of the palichari. He so rapidly and completely moulded himself to their manners, as to be generally taken for a Roumeliot. This, with his generosity, gained him their affection; and his severity ensured him their obedience. With similar qualities Trelawney would, most certainly, have risen into notice, had not fortune turned against the friend, to whose destinies he had linked his own. Whatever his faults, however, and the blame, which his conduct in embracing the party of a rebel and traitor to his country, may draw upon him, every European, who knew him in Greece, cannot but praise the generous qualities of his heart, and acknowledge him to have been a most entertaining companion: and though owing, no doubt, to his prolonged stay in oriental countries, his imagination got the better of his veracity; or, as Lord Byron observed of him," he could not, even to save his life, tell the truth;" his narrations were so interesting, that whether true or untrue one could not but listen to them, with as much pleasure as to the wonders of an Arabian tale.

CHAPTER XVII.

Turkish expedition against Ipsara-Character of the IpsariotsUnhealthy climate of Mesolonghi-The author's illnessKindness of Lord Charles Murray-Character of the Greek peasantry―Their oppression by the capitani.

A FEW days after Trelawney's departure, information arrived, that Colonel Stanhope was on his way to Zante, and that Ipsara, threatened by the Turkish fleet, had sent despatches to government, urgently imploring the assistance of their brother islanders. Of all Greek islanders, the Ipsariots were the most barbarous. Ever dreaded as pirates, they arose into notice only after the revolution. Their prosperity rose on the misfortunes of Chio and Aivali, of which they were the principal authors. After the destruction of the greater part of the population of that island, they refused giving up the vessels belonging to its wealthy merchants, and which they were in the habit of navigating. Not satisfied with this, they plundered every inhabitant of the above unfortunate places, who sought shelter on their island, or demanded exorbitant sums to transport them to some place of safety. How many, who could not satisfy their avidity, were left to fall preys to Turkish cruelty! Let me not be accused of exaggeration. Ask the hundreds of females, who were sold in the bazaars of Smyrna and Constantinople. Ask the destitute Chiots, wandering in the Morea from place to place, from island to island. Ask the Chiot merchants, who had time to fly to