Panagia. On a rocky eminence was the ruin of a pharos erected, we were told, by a corsair, for the benefit of signals, and to facilitate his entering in the dark.

Geræstus, the southern promontory of Euboea toward Attica, was reckoned ten miles from Andros, and thirty-nine from the island Cea. Between it and Caphareus was a city named Carystus, and near it a quarry, with a temple of the marble Apollo, from which they crossed to Alæ of Araphen in Attica. The columns cut there were much esteemed and celebrated for their beauty. It produced also a stone, the amianthus, which, when combed, was woven into towels. Plutarch relates, that some fibres only, or narrow threads, of this substance were discovered in his time; but that towels made of it, with nets and cawls used by women for their hair, were then extant, and, when soiled, were thrown into a fire, by which they were rendered white and clean, as by washing. We sailed by the town, which retains its ancient name, in the morning. It stands at some distance from the shore; the houses rising on the bare slope of a rocky hill. The inhabitants have a very bad character. The lofty summits of Oche, the mountain above it, were covered with white clouds.

In the evening we were again forced into a port or creek; but we had now gained the European continent, and were arrived in Attica. We moored to a rock, on which was a ruined chapel of the Panagia. This being Saturday, our mariners, about sunset, bore thither labdanum to be used as incense, with coals of fire, and performed their customary devotions.

CHAP. II.

SET SAIL OF HYDRE-WE PASS THE ISLAND HELENE-IN THE PORT OF SUNIUM-OF THE TOWN-THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA SUNIAS-HYDRIOTE VESSELS.

EARLY in the morning we steered with a favourable breeze toward Sunium, a promontory of Attica, fronting the islands called Cyclades and the Ægean sea; distant three hundred stadia, or thirty-seven miles and a half, from the southernmost promontory of Euboea, named Leuce, or White. The sun arose burnishing the silver deep, skirted by the Attic and Peloponnesian coasts. We had capes, mountains, and islands in view; and among the latter, the Hydriotes soon discovered their native rock, which they beheld, though bare and producing nothing, with the same partiality of affection, as if it were adorned with the golden fruits and perfumed by the aromatic gales of Scio; pointing it out, and expatiating on the liberty they possessed there.

Hydre, or Hydrea, is on the coast of the Peloponnesus, and has been mentioned as lying in the way from Scyllæum to Hermione b. The inhabitants are maintained wholly by the sea, to which the males are bred from their childhood. They now possessed, as we were told, above an hundred and twenty boats of various sizes, some better armed for defence than several English vessels frequenting the Archipelago.

b Sailing from Scyllæum to Hermione was Point Bucephala, then the islands Haliusa, Pityusa, and Aristeras; then the cape called Acra, then the island Tricrana, then a mountain projecting into the sea, named Buporthmos, before which was the island Aperopia, and near it Hydrea. Pausanias, p. 77.

They are accounted the best sailors in the Levant, boldly navigating in rough weather, and venturing to sea at night, if in danger of being intercepted by an enemy or by pirates. They pay to the grand signior two purses yearly, as caratch or tribute-money; which sum, with expenses, fees, and presents, amounting nearly to two more, is assessed, at the rate of three piasters a house. The captain-pasha sends a galeote from Paros with officers, who receive it, and are entertained by a papas or Greek priest at the monastery by the seaside, below the town. No Turk resides among them, and they enjoy the use of bells to their churches, without control; a privilege on which they enlarge, as if alike pregnant with profit and delight.

We now approached cape Sunium, which is steep, abrupt, and rocky. On it is the ruin of the temple of Minerva Sunias, overlooking from its lofty situation the subject deep, and visible from afar. We often lost, and recovered again, the view of this beautiful object; sailing on a wide canal, between Attica and Macronisi, or Long Island. This was called anciently Helene, because, it was said, Helen had landed on it in her way to Lacedæmon, after Troy was taken. It ranges, like Euboea, before the continent, and belonged to the Athenians; but was of little value, being rough and desert. It was reckoned about sixty stadia, or seven miles and a half, long; five miles from Sunium, and as many from Cea, which lies beyond it.

The waves, on our arrival near the promontory, broke gently, with a hollow murmur, at the foot of

c This island has been mistaken for the Cranae of Homer. Vid. Strab. p. 398. Cellar. p. 830.

the rock beneath the temple. At the entrance of the shining gulf was a little fleet of Hydriote vessels, eight in number, coming out with white triangular sails. We anchored within the cape in the port of Sunium, near three hours before mid-day ; and landing, ascended to the ruin. Meanwhile our sailors, except two or three who accompanied us, stripped to their drawers to bathe, all of them swimming and diving remarkably well; some running about on the sharp rocks with naked feet, as if void of feeling; and some examining the bottom of the clear water for the echinus, or sea-urchin, a species of shell-fish common on this coast, full of prickles like a chesnut, and now in perfection, the moon being nearly at the full.

Sunium was one of the demi or borough towns of Attica, belonging to the tribe named Attalis. It was fortified by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian ward, as a secure port for vessels with provisions. The site, which has been long deserted, is overrun with bushes of mastic, low cedars, and evergreens. The wall may be traced, running along the brow from near the temple, which it enclosed, down to the port. The masonry was of the species termed pseudisodomum. The steep precipices and hanging rocks were a sufficient defence toward the mouth of the gulf. Some other fragments of solid wall remain, but nearly level with the ground. At the edge, near the port, the rock is shelving, and resembles the cinder of a coal. There is a round well, and farther off, at the mountain-foot, was a pond, the water fresh, but hard, and of a dark colour.

d 4th Olymp. 91. Before Christ, 411.

The temple of Minerva Sunias was of white marblee, and probably erected in the same happy period with the great temple of Minerva, called the Parthenon, in the acropolis at Athens, or in the time of Pericles, it having like proportions, though far inferior in magnitude. The order is Doric, and it appears to have been a fabric of exquisite beauty. It had six columns in front. Nine columns were standing on the south-west side in the year 1676, and five on the opposite, with two antæ or pilasters at the south end, and part of the pronaos. The number is now twelve, besides two in front and 1 one of the antæ; the other lying in a heap, having been recently thrown down, as we were informed, by the famous Jaffier Bey, then captain of a Turkish galeote, to get at the metal uniting the stones. The ruin of the pronaos is much diminished. The columns next to the sea are scaled and damaged, owing to their aspect. We searched diligently for inscriptions, but without success, except finding on the wall of the temple many modern names, with the following memorial in Greek, cut in rude and barbarous characters, but with some labour: Onesimus remembered his sister Chreste. The old name Sunium is disused, and the cape distinguished by its columns, Capo Colonni.

The Hydriote fleet, which had sailed out of the

e Streaked with a dove-colour, and appears to be the same as the ancient quarries in the neighbourhood of a place called Marmora in Negripont, opposite Attica, a little northward of the cape of Geræstus. R.

f Revett has erased the word west.

8 East. R.

h front and] front of the pronaos and. R.