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a spacious staircase to the upper inhabited apartments. The best house is that of the late Pacha, which is now the residence of Prince Mavrocordato.

Trade seems totally destroyed at Napoli: before 1821, it was the depôt of all the produce of Greece, and carried on a most extensive commerce in sponges, silk, oil, wax, and wines; it now possesses merely a little traffic in the importation of the necessaries of life. The shops, like those of Tripolizza, are crowded with arms and wearing apparel, and the inhabitants all carry either the Frank or Albanian armed costume. The climate is bad, and the place has been frequently ravaged by the plague, which, in one instance, towards the latter end of the last century, reduced the population from 8 to 2000.

The unusual filth of the streets, and its situation, at the foot of a steep hill, which prevents the air from having full play to carry the effluvia arising from it, together with the habitual dirty habits of an overstocked population, constantly attracted round the seat of government, subject it to almost continual epidemic fevers, which, both in the last winter and at this moment, have committed dreadful ravages. climate is, in fact, at all times, thick and unhealthy, and far inferior to that of Athens, or of many of the towns in the interior of the Morea.—(Emerson, vol. i. p. 84).

Its

The Journalist, under April 10, presents us with a picture of Napoli on Easter Sunday.

10th April, (Sunday.)-To-day being the festival of Easter, Napoli presented a novel appearance, viz. a clean one. This feast, as the most important in the Greek church, is observed with particular rejoicings and respect. Lent having ceased, the ovens were crowded with the preparations for banqueting. Yesterday, every street was reeking with the blood of lambs and goats; and to-day, every house was fragrant with odours of pies and baked meats. All the inhabitants, in festival array, were hurrying along to pay their visits and receive their congratulations: every one, as he met his friend, saluted him with a kiss on each side of his face, and repeated the words Χριστος ανεστη, "Christ is risen." The day was spent in rejoicings in every quarter, the guns were fired from the batteries, and every moment the echoes of the Palamede were replying to the incessant reports of the pistols and tophaics of the soldiery. On these occasions the Greeks (whether from laziness to extract the ball, or for the purpose of making a louder report, I know not) always discharged their arms with a bullet: frequent accidents are the consequence. To-day one poor fellow was shot dead in his window, and a second severely wounded by one of these random shots. In the evening a grand ceremony took place in the Square: all the members of the Government, after attending divine service in the church of St. George, met opposite the residence of the executive body; the legislative, as being the most numerous, took their places in a line, and the executive passing along them from right to left, kissing commenced with great vigour, the latter body embracing the former with all fervour and affection. Amongst such an intriguing, factious senate as the Greek legislation, it requires little calculation to divine that the greater portion of these salutations were Judas's kisses.-(Emerson, vol. i. p. 98.)

Again.-April 11th.

This evening as we walked out of the Palamede gate, the plain to the east of the town presented a lively and interesting spectacle. The fineness of the day, together with the continuance of the festival, had induced crowds of the inhabitants to stroll round the walls and the plain; numbers of beautifully dressed females were assembled in groups on the grass, listening to the guitar and the flute; bands of horsemen, mounted on beautiful Arabians, were sweeping over the plain, hurling the djereed, and at the same time managing their spirited little steeds with astonishing skill, wheeling round at the sharpest angle, and reining up at the shortest point in the midst of their utmost velocity. In every quarter, bands of musicians were surrounded by troops of dancers, performing their spiritless Romaica, and enlivening its whirling dullness by the rapid discharge of their pistols; whilst groups of children, in fancy dresses and crowned with flowers, were sporting round their delighted parents. No one, to have witnessed this scene, could have supposed himself in the midst of a country suffering under the horrors of war, nor surrounded by hundreds of families, scarce one of whom could congratulate itself on not having lost a friend or a brother in the fray.—(Emerson, vol. i. p. 102.)

Shortly after, we have a very characteristic account of the reception of a part of the loan. All agree that it is impossible to make a Greek understand the nature of a loan.

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To-day, the Lively, from London, came to anchor in the bay, having on board 20,000l. of the former, and 40,0001. of the new loan; accompanied by Count Pecchio and Count Gamba, agents of Messrs. Ricardo, the contractors. Arrivals of this kind infuse the liveliest joy into the hearts of the Greeks, the greater part of whom do not rightly comprehend the meaning of a loan," but very simply conclude that it is some European method of making a present. Immediately on its arrival, the usual discharge of pistols commenced; and the following evening it was brought into the town, whilst the band of the regular regiment in the square, were playing "God save the King," and the crowd accompanied it with shouts of Zero Pewpytε-" Long live King George."-(Emerson, vol. i. p. 108.)

In May, Mr. Emerson left Napoli for the neighbouring island of Hydra. The Hydriots are of Albanian race, had grown rich by commerce, and previous to the Revolution, the Turkish yoke had been merely nominal. They paid a considerable tribute. To them chiefly Greece is indebted for a navy, and they are, on the whole, the most respectable of the Greeks. Savage ferocity is, however, a feature of their character, as of the rest of their countrymen, as the following anecdote will testify :

(Hydra,) June 25th.-I bave this day been witness to a scene of slaughter in Hydra, which must ever remain a stain upon the character of its inhabitants; and at the recollection of which, I yet shudder with involuntary horror.

I had made an agreement with the owner of a caïque, which was to sail for Napoli di Romania in the evening: and accordingly, at four o'clock, I walked down to the Marino, and had my portmanteau stowed on board the boat, which was to get under weigh almost immediately. In the mean time, I sat down with Mr. Masson, Carnaris, and a few Hydriots, on the balcony of a coffee-house, to await the arrival of the Karavikyrios. Whilst here, a brig arrived from the fleet, and entered the harbour with a fair wind. It brought the disastrous intelligence, that the ship of Captain Athanasius Kreisi (son to the old gentleman mentioned before) had been blown up, a few days before, in the midst of the fleet at Vathico, and himself, his brother, and sixty seamen destroyed. It appeared, from the evidence of one of the sailors who escaped with life, that the captain was that day to have had a few other commanders of the fleet at dinner; and, in the hurry of preparation, had struck a refractory Turkish slave, who had been for some time on board. The wretch immediately went below, and, in his thirst for vengeance, set fire to the powder magazine, and blew up himself, his captain, and shipmates.

There is, perhaps, no spot in the world, where the ties of blood and clanship have more closely united the inhabitants, than at Hydra: and the sensation produced by this event may be readily conceived, when it is considered that every individual thus destroyed was connected with almost the whole population, by birth, marriage, or the bonds of friendship; and that, as the officers and crew of every ship are almost invariably related to each other, in a nearer or more remote degree, a whole family, and that one of the most distinguished, was thus, at a blow, eradicated from the midst of the community.

The news spread instantly from end to end of the Marino; and seemed to produce an extraordinary sensation. In a few moments, from the balcony where I sat, my attention was attracted by the unusual commotion of the crowd below, which now consisted of four or five thousand. They kept rushing backward and forward, but always tending towards the door of a monastery close by me; one apartment of which served for the office of the Marino, and another for the prison, in which were confined a large number of Turkish captives. I asked a Hydriot, who sat beside me, what was the meaning of the commotion in the crowd? He replied, with little emotion, "perhaps going to kill a Turk." His words were scarcely uttered, when the door of the monastery, not twenty paces from me, was burst open, and a crowd rushed out, forcing before them a young Turk, of extremely fine appearance; tall, athletic, and well-formed. But I shall never forget the expression of his countenance at this awful moment. He was driven out almost naked, with the exception of a pair of trowsers; his hands held behind his back; his head thrust forward; and a hell of horror seemed depicted in his face. He made but one step over the threshold, when a hundred ataghans were planted in his body. He staggered forward, and fell, a shapeless mass of blood and bowels, surrounded by a crowd of his enraged executioners, each eager to smear his knife with the blood of his victim. By this time, another wretch was dragged forward, and shared the same fate; another, and another followed, whilst I

was obliged to remain a horrified spectator of the massacre; as the defenceless wretches were butchered almost at the foot of the stairs by which I must have descended, in order to make my escape. Each was, in turn, driven beyond the door, and got a short run through the crowd, and fell piecemeal, till, at length, his carcase lost all form of humanity, beneath the knives of his enemies. Some few died bravely, never attempting to escape, but falling on the spot, where they received the first thrust of the ataghans; other weaker wretches made an effort to reach the sea, through the crowd, but sunk down beneath a thousand stabs, screaming for mercy, and covering their faces with their gory hands.

In the mean time, I had got within the café, and closed the door and windows; within were a few of the young Primates, who were sinking with shame and horror for the actions of their countrymen, and the noble Canaris was lying on a bench drowned in tears. Here I remained for some time; till, taking advantage of a momentary pause in the scene below, I rushed down stairs, and escaped by a bye path to my lodgings. During the whole course of the evening, the work of slaughter continued; after butchering every inmate of the prison, they brought out every slave from the houses, and from on board the ships in the harbour, and put all to death on the shore. During the course of the evening, upwards of two hundred wretches were thus sacrificed to the fury of the mob; and at length, wearied with blood, they dragged them down to the beach, and stowing their carcases in boats, carried them round to the other side of the island, and flung them into the sea, where numbers were floating some days after, when Captain Spencer passed with the Naiad. During the continuance of all this scene, which lasted for many hours, no attempt was made by the Primates to check the fury of the crowd. Perhaps they were aware of their inability; but it is little to their honour that they did not at least make an effort. Some days after, on speaking of this transaction, they merely said it was a disgraceful occurrence, and they were sorry it had happened; but that, in fact, they had no means of keeping prisoners of war; thus indirectly admitting the justice of the deed, nor even attempting to excuse their own non-interference. With the lower orders, there never appeared any symptom of remorse. Those who had been the perpetrators of the deed, were never censured ; nor was any investigation made of the affair; on the contrary, they walked about the streets as much applauded and as highly esteemed, as if they had achieved some meritorious services; whilst those who had not participated in the murder, spoke of it with complacency, and even approval. Some few of the sons of the Primates were the only part of the population who seemed aware of the enormity of the deed; and, whilst they condemned the conduct of their countrymen, they lamented deeply that such an example of applauded murder should be set to their children.—(Emerson, vol. i. p. 244.)

Most important information is to be found in Mr. Emerson's Journal with respect to the navy, along with which he appears to have remained some time. The naval victories of the Greeks have been excessively exaggerated; any thing like a general engagement is wholly out of the question. The execution that has been done, has been solely effected by the fire-ships, which, partly from Greek dexterity and bravery, and chiefly from Turkish awkwardness, have done a considerable quantity of mischief. In the navy, it will be seen, there is no subordination whatever; the captain is the relation and not the commander of the crew. The admiral is little more than a nominal chief about whom the captains collect. When he may be meditating some important expedition, the captains perhaps are designing a visit to their homes, and the admiral rises in the morning and finds that a third of his navy has gone off in the night, and perhaps the remainder express no inclination to change their station.

There the affair is dropped.

Of these brulots and their captains, at the very name of which the Turks tremble and sheer off, a very good description is to be found in the following passage:—

It was late in the evening before a monk from one of the neighbouring monasteries arrived to bless the ship; but this ceremony once performed, all was in readiness, and at sun-set we sailed from Hydra. The captain was a young men, called Theodoracki,

The

nephew to the admiral, who has been employed as a brulottier almost ever since the commencement of the war; and on several occasions, especially at Mytelene and Candia, has conducted himself with distinguished bravery. The ship in which I sailed was an old Ipsariot, of two hundred and sixty or three hundred tons, and was purchased by the Government for forty thousand piastres, or about 8004., whilst the fitting out and stowing her with combustibles, could not cost less than 8001. more. This, however, is one of the largest and most expensive which has yet been made; the generality being no more than two-thirds the size, and of proportionate cost. vessels usually employed for this service, are old ships purchased by the Government. Their construction, as fireships, is very simple; nothing more being wanted than active combustion. For this purpose, the ribs, hold, and sides of the vessel, after being well tarred, are lined with dried furze, dipped in pitch and lees of oil, and sprinkled with sulphur; a number of hatchways are then cut along the deck, and under each is placed a small barrel of gunpowder; so that at the moment of conflagration each throws off its respective hatch, and giving ample vent to the flames, prevents the deck being too soon destroyed by the explosion.

A train which passes through every part of the ship, and communicates with every barrel, running round the deck and passing out at the steerage window, completes the preparation below; whilst above, every rope and yard is well covered with tar, so as speedily to convey the flames to the sails; and at the extremity of each yard-arm is attached a wickered hook, which being once entangled with the enemy's rigging, renders escape after coming in contact, almost a matter of impossibility. The train, to prevent accidents, is never laid till the moment of using it; when all being placed in order, and the wind favourable, with every possible sail set, so as to increase the flames, she bears down upon the enemy's line, whilst the crew, usually twenty-five or thirty in number, have no other defence than crouching behind the after-bulwarks. When close upon the destined ship, all hands descend by the stern, into a launch fitted out for the purpose, with high gunwales and a pair of small swivels; and, at the moment of contact, the train is fired off by the captain, and every hatch being thrown off, the flames burst forth, at the same instant, from stem to stern; and ascending by the tarred ropes and sails, soon communicate with the rigging of the enemy's vessel, who have never yet, in one instance, been able to extricate themselves. In fact, such is the terror with which they have inspired the Turks, that they seldom make the slightest resistance. On the distant approach of the fireship, they maintain, for some minutes, an incessant random cannonade; but, at length, long before she comes in contact, precipitate themselves into the sea, and attempt to reach the other vessels, scarcely one remaining to the last moment to attempt to save the devoted ship. Sometimes, however, armed boats are sent off from the other vessels of the fleet, but they have never yet been able either to prevent the approach of the fireship, or seize on the crew whilst making their escape; and though fireships are in other countries considered a forlorn hope, such is the stupidity and terror of the Turks, that it is rarely that one of the brulottiers is wounded, and very seldom, indeed, that any lose their lives. The service, however, from the imminent risk to which it is exposed, is rewarded with higher pay than the ordinary seamen; and on every occasion of their each brulottier receives an additional premium of a hundred or a hundred and fifty piastres.

success,

rest.

To the captains, likewise, rewards have been frequently offered, but been as often refused; as they replied, that they should think it a disgrace to accept a recompense for doing their duty to their country. The number of those brave fellows is from twenty-five to thirty, and though many have nobly distinguished themselves, the widely spreading laurels of one have unfortunately overshadowed the honours of the It is needless to say, that this individual is Constantine Canaris. There are, however, many others whose fame has not extended so far, though their actions have been equally daring and successful: amongst those is Captain Pepino, the companion of Canaris in his famous exploit of burning the vessel of the Capitan Pacha at Scio, and the man who, with Georgio Potili, and Alexander Dimama, achieved the late successful enterprize at Modon. Of the remainder, Georgio Capa Antoine, Anastasius Calloganni, Demetrius Raphaella, and John Mondrosa, have shown the most undaunted bravery in the various actions at Tenedos, Mytelene, Samos, Scio, Cos, and Candia, and are rewarded by the most lavish praises of their countrymen, who have celebrated their names in the popular songs of the island.--(Emerson, vol. i. p. 167.) The number of vessels at present employed in the Greek navy does not exceed sixty-five; of these forty are Hydriots, sixteen belong to Spezzia, and the remainder are the remnants of the Ipsariot

squadron. Of the vessels of war, about six or seven carry three masts, and are of three or four hundred tons burden: the remainder are all brigs and single-masted schooners, of from one hundred to two hundred tons; the greatest number of guns carried by any vessel is eighteen, and the weightiest are a few eighteen pounders. The entire Greek fleet is the property of individuals: the sailors are paid, and the vessels hired by the government. The captains are generally

the owners or their near relatives.

Concerning the interior economy of the Greek navy, Mr. Emerson supplies us with some sensible paragraphs.

Yet

After the surprising exploits and well-earned fame of the Greek fleet, it may perhaps appear strange to assert, that those actions have been accomplished solely by the brulottiers, with the assistance of not more than twelve or fourteen ships out of all the fleet, and that the remaining forty-five or fifty have rendered no other service to the cause of their country, than by their show adding to the apparent force of her navy, and tending to augment the terror of the enemy by a display of numbers. such is actually the fact, and one which the powerless arm of Government has, as yet, been unable to remedy. This circumstance arises from the ships being all private property, and whilst the few brave fellows, who hesitate at nothing to accomplish their object, boldly face the most powerful force of the enemy, others, less ambitious of honour, and more wary, content themselves with hanging aloof, and discharging a few harmless cannon beyond the range of the enemy's shot; urging, as an ostensible reason, the folly of risking more lives than are necessary for the protection of their brulottiers; or, if more closely pushed, making no scruple to declare that they do not wish to have their own small ships exposed to the heavy fire of the Turkish frigates, when neither their own means, nor the allowance of the Government, are adequate to repair the damages they might sustain. Thus deprived by vanity or selfishness of the greater bulk of his fleet, Miaulis, with about half a dozen faithful and subordinate followers, to aid the noble fellows who work the fireships, and who have never yet shrunk from their duty, has achieved every action which has tended to advance the liberty of Greece, and to bring its struggle towards a conclusion.

But it is not amongst the captains alone that those deplorable feelings have been productive of unfortunate results: imitating the example of their commanders, and well aware of the inefficiency of the Government to inflict punishment for disobedience, the crews invariably manifest the same spirit of turbulence and insubordination. Proud of their newly acquired liberty, and impatient of any restraint, they will not listen to the name of subjection or obedience to orders; and the circumstance of every crew being composed of different descendants and relatives of the same family and name, and commanded by a person who is nearly connected by blood or marriage with almost every seaman on board, gives the captain an unwillingness to proceed to extremities, which must only tend to irritate the feelings of his family; and, unsupported by the measures of an efficient government, be finally productive of no other consequences than further disobedience and more widely spread discontent. In consequence of this, it is not the will of the admiral, or the wishes of the captains, but the consent of each crew, that must be obtained, previous to entering upon any important measure. If it meets their views of advantage or expediency, there is little difficulty in its completion; otherwise, there is no power to enforce its execution. However, as all parties are well aware of the extent of their respective influence, open quarrels are never heard of. If the admiral's orders are agreeable to the captain, and his measures appear advisable to the crew, all goes on well; if not, and it should happen that the demand is negatived, the affair drops, and some new movement is adopted, without dispute or recrimination.

In the domestic economy of each ship there is consequently a great deal of confusion and irregularity. No man on board has any regular quarters or post assigned him; on the issuing of an order from the captain it is repeated by every mouth from end to end of the ship, and all crowd with eagerness to be the first to perform the most trifling service. This is of course productive of extreme bustle and confusion, especially in the eyes and ears of a stranger, and frequently occasioned me no little alarm; as from the shouts and trampling over head I have often deemed the ship in danger, but on hurrying upon deck found it was merely some trivial duty, about which all were contending, such as setting a studding-sail, or hoisting up the jolly-boat. The only regular duty on board seems to be the discipline at dinner-hour. The

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