did not accept it themselves but with trembling; and they would have been undone, had it been perceived by my impetuous companion. These poor friars pitied me very sincerely for being, as it were, in his hands; and they were at a loss to conceive how I did not also become the victim of his passionate and violent disposition.

Convents are very numerous in Greece; they are sanctua ries consecrated to ignorance, superstition, and most frequently to sloth. To the monks is given the name of caloyers; from kalos, good, and from geros, old man, good old man. We are very far, however, from seeing among them none but old men, or even men of a certain age. It is not uncommon to meet with young boys, of from ten to twelve years old, clothed in the habit, which consists of a plain, long, black gown, confined by a girdle. The variety of the regulations, the medley of the dresses, which strike the traveller, in the different classes of friars spread over the surface of the countries submitted to the Latin church, are not to be remarked among the Greeks; there exists but one order, that of St. Basil; and the monks, subjected to the same rule, also wear the same dress.

These friars are very dirty, and, we may add, very ugly, from the habit which they contract of neglecting their exterior, and of neither taking care of their beard nor their hair. Nor are they more to be admired as to interior qualities. Hypocrisy, haughty, and gross ignorance, meanness, and treachery, form their character; uninformed as they are, they wish to be reckoned, in the eyes of the people, to possess great knowledge, and to enjoy a reputation for sanctity, which may procure them respect and attention.

"When we are to speak of the harbours which are in the hands of the Turks, we are forced to repeat incessantly, and to describe, for each of them, the same negligence, the same barbarous apathy, which coolly suffer to fall into decay those great basins which nature and art had formed, in order to promote commerce and public prosperity. At Canea no precaution, no police, no mean of repair and preservation is there employed; the process of cleansing a port, by means of lighters, is unknown; ships throw overboard, with impunity,

every thing that embarrasses them, and not unfrequently a part of their ballast. The bottom rises, and is covered by foreign bodies, dangerous for the cables; the basin is choked up; it can scarcely admit vessels of two hundred tons burden; the arsenal, and the fine docks for ship-building, which the Venetians had constructed there, are falling into ruins, and are no longer in a condition to be made use of."

From La Culate,' says Sonnini, to Canea, the landing place, the distance is reckoned a league: the plain which leads thither is fertile and agreeable, and the traveller feels a pleasure in crossing fields adorned with the riches of culture, or enamelled with flowers which grow there spontaneously. But, on approaching the town, a disgusting spectacle suddenly changes the pleasurable sensations which had been produced by these smiling pictures. The soul is harrowed up, the senses are painfully affected, at the sight of the huts which line the road. These are the asylums of persons of both sexes, eaten up by that horrible and contagious disease of the skin which still exercises its ravages in some parts of the East, and which the crusades had introduced into Europe, where we have succeeded in getting rid of it.

"The leprosy still infects one of the finest countries of the East. This disorder was anciently known to the Greeks, who called it lepra, and the Jews were very subject to its ravages. It still acts with some degree of virulence on the inhabitants of the island of Candia: the Turks and Greeks are alike afflicted by it, and it attacks the rich as well as the poor. I make this remark, because Savary has affirmed that persons in affluence were not subject to the leprosy. He, doubtless, did not recollect that, when we were together at Canea, the son of an opulent aga, still young, and a very handsome man, was a victim to this loathsome disorder.

'Lepers are obliged to quit the town, and dwell in a hut, where they are prohibited from all communication with healthful persons. They there live on the produce of a small garden adjoining to their cottage, on poultry which they rear, and on the alms of passengers. No sooner do they perceive any one, than they advance in order to implore pity; and their approach VOL. IV. 2 A

causes the most violent disgust. Their face as well as their body, is swelled by reddish and scaly blotches, and eroded by pustules; their aspect is hideous, and one hastens to throw them some money, in order to get away from them. Hatred to Europeans has taken such deep root in the heart of Mussulmans, that unfortunate Turks confined in the enclosure intended for lepers, insulted us all, at the same time asking charity of us. How frequently have I not heard myself thus addressed: 66 Pray, infidel, dog, give me a parat !”

'Who would imagine that Love should also establish his throne in the midst of so horrible and disgusting an association? Intimate connexions are contracted between the wretches of which it is composed; the sharpness of their humours provokes their passion, or, to speak more correctly, their brutality; its effects are excessive; they are under no restraint: separated from the rest of mankind, they disdain every sort of reserve. In the open day, they are seen indulging in their voluptuous transports; and they cease not to lavish on each other these horrible caresses, till the moment when, sinking under the disorder which overwhelms them, they drop to pieces, decom-posed by long and complete putrefraction.

"By the side of this melancholy heap of men in prey, while yet living, to a general corruption, is exhibited, from time to time, another spectacle which causes no less horror. It is on the edge of this same road, which leads to the only gate that Canea has on the land side, that criminals, who have undergone the terrible punishment of empalement, are exposed. They are ranged on each side of the road; and in this dreadful rank are seen men whose body is longitudinally transpierced by a stake, some dead, others expiring; some smoking their pipe, with as much sang-froid as if they were sitting on cushions, railing at the Europeans, and living, as long as twenty-four hours, in the most excruciating torments.

Under a sky which the father of physic considered as the restorer of the health of mankind, the human species must naturally have partaken of so happy an influence. This, in fact, is what strikes the observer, as soon as he lands in the island of Candia. The Turks, whose race is already so hand

some, have there acquired a taller stature, muscles more prominent and more strongly marked, broader chest and shoulders, all the proportions which constitute beauty and strength, together with an imposing step and carriage; but, through all these advantages, which we could not but wish to admire, the sternness of their countenance gives to their majestic exterior a formidable impression. This sort of brilliant acquisition, which the Turks have made in Candia, though generally among them is not so with the Greeks of that island. Of a stature less tall, a corpulence less prominent, a step less solemn, a make less robust, but more graceful, this people appear to have degenerated under a climate which is natural to them, and in which they are abandoned to slavery, which alike degrades both the form of the body and that of the mind. And this same disparity in the exterior attributes of the Turk and the Greek is also met with among the women of those two nations. The Turkish women are there handsomer than in the other parts of the East; whereas the female Greeks have, generally speaking, fewer charms, than they possess in several other countries. This fact is worthy of attention; it does not appear easy to assign its cause. How happens it that a temperature so favourable to the fine and vigorous constitution of foreigners has not, or at least appears not to have, any influence on that of the natives? The heavy yoke of cruel slavery may probably, as I have just said, with regard to the men, lessen the effect of a happy climate; but this impression cannot operate with so much activity on the person of the women, who, nevertheless, seem to have lost many more of their allurements."'

Our author dilates with great pleasure on the charms of nature in this famous island, the birth-place of Jupiter. He then proceeds to describe the ancient town of Candia, which is built on the spot which was occupied by the ancient city of Heraclea, is situated in a beautiful plain, intersected by sloping hills, which share its fertility. It is the Khandak of the Arabs; a word derived from candax, which, according to some of the learned, signifies entrenchment. It is evident from the buildings in this town, that it is not the work of the Turks;

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straight streets, regular squares, houses substantially com structed--every thing announces that it owes its existence to the Venetians; but every thing announces, at the same time, both the frightful ravages of war and the slower havock of want. Here are still to be seen ruins, the remains of the memorable siege which it sustained, for twenty-three years, against the Ottoman forces. The loss of its commerce has changed its flourishing situation into an unhappy state, and has considerably reduced the number of its inhabitants, who, for the most part, have removed to Canea, together with the foreign merchants.

It is nevertheless, still the seat of the general government of the island. The pacha, sent thither by the court of Constantinople, is a pacha with three tails; but, proud of his dignity and of his power, he contents himself with commanding a militia frequently ungovernable: entirely occupied by his private fortune, he thinks only of extending it by exactions, and concerns himself little to re-establish, repair, or procure a few advantages for a country, to which he is a scourge, like the government from which he derives his authority.

Near Candia, are lying in the dust the ruins of Cnossus, an ancient town, where Minos held his court, and the abode of the most warlike people of the island of Crete. A small lage, Cnossou, would recall to mind the site of the ancienttown, were it not discoverable, in a manner no less certain than afflicting, from the rubbish which covers it, and a great part of which has served for the buildings of modern Candia.

Having completed his view of Candia, M. Sonnini embarked in a small vessel, which, after a tedious passage, cast anchor in the roadstoad of Argentiera. Here' says he 'I found a Maltese felucca, forming a part of an armament which had sailed from Malta, and was commanded by a Frenchman named Coral. The crew of this felucca consisted only of fourteen hands. Of all privateer's men, this captain was certainly the greatest knave. He was a Sclavonian, extraordinarily brave, but still a greater drunkard, and at the same time a plunderer extremely dreaded. He had long fol lowed this trade, and long been known in the Archipela