tnemselves. 2dly. Because posthumous gifts, now allowed, could not then be admitted. 3dly. Because the act of giving possession during life being a thing of public notoriety, would leave little room for legal chicanery; so that the trade and craft of fabricating wills, now so very flourishing, would then be done away. The strife-stirrers, the forgers and false swearers, the wakeels-the attornies, the pundits, in short, the whole tribe of those who live on the abuses of the law, might then exclaim with Othello

"Farewell! our occupation 's gone."

THE SAILOR'S DREAM.

THE watch was set, and all aloft

Was trim and fair,-the wind was free,
The stars were beaming mild and soft
As wooing the too fickle sea.
The deepest silence reigned around,
All, save the rippling wave, was still,
Which, curling o'er the vast profound,
Gave earnest of its mighty will.
Secure, the hardy tar resigned

To welcome sleep his heavy eyes;
Nor was the slumbering boy behind,
To seize a moment from surprise.
With watchful gaze and steady hand
The steersman tracked the silent deep,
And Edwin held his brief command-
All else were sunk in stillest sleep.
If spirits rule our destinies,

Or sympathies have magic power
O'er mortal mysteries, there lies

Strange influence in such an hour.
Uncertain forms in thought had chased,
And still in turn had been pursued
O'er Edwin's mind, as slow he paced
The deck in meditative mood.

His first-last thought-to her was given,
His Anna who, at parting prayed-
"From dangers, oh! preserve him, heaven!"
And her heart's secret thus betrayed!

Sudden, came floating on the wind,

In accents sweet, her tender prayer-
Nor stayed the lightning's flash behind!
And thund'ring peal on peal was there!

Yet, 'mid the elemental strife,

And crash from mast by lightning riven,
These accents stayed his ebbing life-

"From danger, oh! preserve him, heaven !"

UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS OF A TRAVELLER IN THE EAST.

No. VIII.

Voyage through the Straits of Scio, and by Lesbos, or Mytelene, to the Bay of Smyrna.

On the evening of the eleventh of August we entered the Straits of Scio. Towards sun-set, the rocky hills that towered above the shores were covered with a light grey tint, which contrasted beautifully with the strong shades of the cliffs and precipices below. Mid-way towards the base of the mountains were fertile grounds, exhibiting a rich profusion of verdure, and the valley that skirted the edge of the sea was covered with charming retreats, embosomed amid the dark foliage of luxuriant vineyards and orange groves. It would be impossible to convey an accurate idea of the pleasure with which I surveyed this rich and classic scene. It surpassed all that I had expected or conceived, and charmed and delighted every sense.

From the entrance of the Straits, we had a view of the bay between Samos and Cape Coulbe, just round which is the antient Teios, now called Bodrun, the city walls of which were four miles in circuit, although they now lie in ruins. Independent of its celebrity in history, it is rendered sacred by the birth of Anacreon. It once contained a superb temple of Bacchus, the work of the architect Hermogenes, though Dallaway describes it in 1795 as being a vast heap, overgrown with olive and vine trees, in a flat enclosure, thickly planted. "Amidst the pile," says he, "sections of Ionic pillars, fluted, and a capital, with the volutes and ivy leaf of superior delicacy, caught our attention; there are, indeed, many proofs of its extent and magnificence, but its dilapidation was of so remote an era, that they are mostly broken and decayed."

apostrophizes it:

See the sad types of festal pleasure flown,
Dim flowering olives dew the Teian fane;
And canker'd vines, around each pillar'd stone
Aspiring, its Ionic base distain:

Yes! hoar Anacreon! where thy joyous train

Their ruby cups to thrilling music quaff'd,
Thy sacred plant obtrudes an idle chain,

To clasp, poor parasite, the dripping shaft;

Polwhele thus

And green oblivion glooms where Love and Bacchus laugh'd.
GRECIAN PROSPECTS.

Being on deck at sun-rise on the following morning, I had an opportunity of observing the surrounding scenery of the island of Scio, and the coast of Asia Minor, under all the varied hues and shades which it presents at different altitudes of the sun, and found them all rich and beautiful. We had advanced farther up the Straits during

the night, and possessed a more extended view, both of the opposite shores and of the island itself, while the light winds and slow progress of our vessel prolonged our enjoyment of the view.

In examining the few historical records that a confined marine library afforded, I found the erudite and entertaining Dallaway had concentrated all the testimonies of antient authors respecting the former state of Scio, and, having visited the island himself, had profited by so favourable an opportunity to give a sketch of its more modern condition, which he has executed so ably as to furnish a sufficient excuse for transcribing the most material parts.

The antient Chios, or Scio, (according to this authority,) retains more of its former prosperity than any island in the Egean Sea. The fertility and beauty which they discovered, invited the Ionian states to establish a colony more than a thousand years before Christ, which soon attained to a degree of political consequence as the allies or subjects of the continental cities of Greece. A fleet constantly prepared for action, and the maritime genius of the people, gave them the command of the Ægean Sea. Historians record very frequent changes in their subjection or alliances, the result sometimes of necessity, but more frequently of choice. Their most antient friends were the Spartans, whom they deserted for the Athenians, but during the Peloponnessian war they again revolted to the Lacedemonians. After a failure in the first attack by Chares, the Athenians indulged the resentment of conquerors, and levelled the new walls of their city with the ground.

The kings of Pergamus, Eumenes, and Attalus, appear to have become possessed of Chios either by conquest or by cession; and the Chians, as allies of the Roman people in the battle of the Romans with the Galatians under Cneius Marleius Vulso, were rewarded by a declaration of their freedom, with the protection of their former

masters.

Upon the extinction of the Attalian kings, they were attached to the Roman territory, and, when the empire was divided, they remained subject, until the reign of Manuel Comnenus. In the partition of the Eastern empire in 1204, by the French and Venetians, Chios was allotted to the Byzantine throne, and afterwards granted to the Genoese, by Michael Paleologus, in remuneration of assistance against the Latins.

In the reign of Amurat, or Morad the third, in 1575, it was treacherously taken by Piali Pasha, after having been held by the Genoese nearly two centuries and a half.

After a calamitous siege in 1594, the city and island were regained by the Venetians, who were betrayed by the Greeks during the inveterate quarrel with those of the Latin church, but their possesion was of short duration, for, in 1696, Mezzomorto, the African renegade, a celebrated Admiral, invested the island with success, and it was again added to the Ottoman empire, with whom it at present remains.

The island is computed, as nearly as the extreme irregularity of

the coast will admit of ascertaining, to be about 130 miles in circumference. It is intersected by mountains of volcanic shape and structure, distinguished by the antients as the Phanæan and Pellanæan; the latter is in the district of Arrisia, famed for the produce of wine, so much esteemed at Rome in its most luxurious days, for its cost and exquisite flavour. Pliny relates that Greek wine was prohibited in Rome, A. U. C. 675, by a sumptuary law; and Varra says, that Lucius Lucullus, when young, did not remember it to have been served more than once at the most costly feasts. Upon his return from Asia, he brought with him a thousand gallons. C. Censius, the prætor, had Chian wine first given to him by a physician, as a cordial. Cæsar, in one of his triumphal suppers, distributed about a hundred gallons, which was considered as an instance of extreme profuseness, nor was it until the seventh century after the building of that city, that it became common in the houses of the most affluent. "We tasted some of it," says Dallaway, "which did not disparage its antient fame." It has a flavour similar to that of Monte Fiascone, and is called, by way of excellence, the wine of Homer.

The honour of giving birth to that divine bard is claimed by the Chians with honourable avidity, and they are allowed to have urged a greater number of circumstances than their competitors, in support of their claim. A family of his descendants were called Homeridæ ; and, as if the art of poesy were hereditary, they produced Parthenius, of no trivial name amongst poets. Leo Allatius cites many authors to prove Homer a native of this island, and upon more accumulated evidence decides on that circumstance as a fact. But his own confession may be more satisfactory in his hymn to Apollo; for his inhabiting Chios may convey a certain degree of proof that he was born there. Ion, an elegiac and tragic poet of the age of Eschylus and Sophocles, was also a native of Chios.

Venus was the divinity to whom the highest honours were paid in this island; her temple was uncommonly splendid, and the females devoted to her service not less beautiful than numerous. The educa tion of the sex was equally hardy with that of the young men, and, in the public gymnastic exercises they contended with each other unincumbered by dress. Notwithstanding this exhibition of rigid discipline, the natives were addicted to the most effeminate luxuries; and it is said, to their eternal reproach, that they were the first in Greece who used slaves. The Epicurean philosophy was very successfully recommended by Metrodus, and enforced by the example of his practice. His definition of happiness is succinct and plausible→→→ "a sound constitution, and a security of its continuance."

Whatever might have been the remains of antient architecture, no traces are now to be discovered; all have yielded to time, or more probably to the more effectual destruction of misguided zeal or appropriation.

The city of Chios appears to have been at the most distant period of considerable extent and beauty. Modern Scio, as it is now called, is esteemed the handsomest town in the Archipelago, and from its

Italian masters has derived much of the European accommodation. In beating to windward we stood within half a mile of it, from which distance it presented a fine appearance, more particularly the southern part of the town, in which are several Turkish mosques, whose circular domes, and slender minarets, just discernible above the deep woods with which they were surrounded, gave an air of novelty to the scene. The port is extensive, but has neither deep water nor good shelter, being formed by a low mole, and a rock, on which are two lights.

The population of Greeks is computed at above 150,000, while that of the Turks does not complete a fortieth part. Yet such is their want of vigour and unanimity, and their habitual terror of the Turkish name, that they patiently bear their burdens, while the Greeks of the other islands evince so strong a desire to avenge their wrongs on their oppressors. It is true that the vicinity of Scio to the Turkish territory, and the presence of a Turkish garrison, may make it prudent to conceal desires which, for want of a leader, they cannot safely accomplish. This numerous population is maintained by the produce of the soil, and by the manufacture of silk and cotton stuffs.

Almost the whole of those parts of the island in which cultivation is at all practicable is said to be like a garden. Among the chief of their productions are those of corn, wine and fruits, gum-mastic, silk, and honey, which last is found in great quantities in the rocks on the south side of the island, and may vie with that of Hybla or Hymettus.

In recounting those bounties of nature, the singular beauty of the female inhabitants must not be omitted. "As we walked through the town," says Dallaway, "on a Sunday evening, the streets were filled with women, dancing, or sitting at their doors in groupes, dressed in the fashion of the island, which is scrupulously confined to the natives. The girls have most brilliant complexions, with features regular and delicate, but one style of countenance prevails. When without a veil, the head is covered by a close coif, confining the hair, excepting a few locks round their face, which are curled, and bathed in perfumed oil. The ringlets, which are so elegantly disposed round the sweet countenances of these fair Chiotes, are such as Milton describes by ' hyacinthine locks,' crisped and curled like the blossoms of that flower; and although no dress more unbecoming than that which envelopes their shapes could have been imagined, yet their faces make ample amends, with eyes varying with infinite expression from softness to vivacity. All the arts of antient Greece have declined in an extreme proportion, nor should we wonder that if the superiority of beauty be unimpaired, the art of adorning the person be almost lost. Yet the air of the veil, the ceinture, and the sandals, afford us occasionally some slight glimpse of that exquisite grace which pervades the drapery of antient sculpture."-Dallaway's Constantinople.

About a mile from the town is a cave denominated "Homer's School," conjectured by some to have been a fane of Cybele, and, by others, the oracular theatre of the Erythrean Sibyl.